It was the first time Russia has used the territory of another nation, apart from Syria itself, to launch such strikes since the Kremlin launched a bombing campaign to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in September last year.
The Iranian deployment will boost Russia’s image as a central player in the Middle East and allow the Russian air force to cut flight times and increase bombing payloads.
The head of Iran’s National Security Council was quoted by state news agency IRNA as saying Tehran and Moscow were now sharing facilities.
Both countries back Assad. Russia, after a delay, has supplied Iran with its S-300 missile air defence system, evidence of a growing partnership that has helped turn the tide in Syria’s civil war and is testing U.S. influence in the Middle East.
Relations between Tehran and Moscow have grown warmer since Iran reached agreement last year with global powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of U.N., EU and U.S.financial sanctions.
President Vladimir Putin visited in November and the two countries regularly discuss military planning for Syria. Iran has provided ground forces that work with local allies while Russia provides air power.
The United States said it was still assessing the extent of Russian-Iranian cooperation but described the new development as « unfortunate ».
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States was looking into whether the move violated UN Security Council resolution 2231, which prohibits the supply, sale and transfer of combat aircraft to Iran.
« It’s unfortunate but not surprising, » Toner told reporters.
« It speaks to a continuation of a pattern we’ve seen of Russia continuing to carry out air strikes, now with Iran’s direct assistance, … that predominantly target moderate Syrian opposition forces. » He said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone on Tuesday to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who raised the issue.
Kerry is trying to reach agreement with Russia on military cooperation in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. Toner said those talks continued despite stepped up Russian-Iranian cooperation.
TARGET: ALEPPO Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday Iraq, which lies between Iran and Syria, had granted Russia permission to use its air space, on the condition the planes use corridors along Iraq’s borders and refrain from flying over Iraqi cities.
Abadi told a press conference the same permission has been given to air forces of a separate U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State flying to Syria from Kuwait.
Russia also gave advance notice to the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, complying with the terms of a safety agreement meant to avoid an accidental clash in the skies, said U.S. Army Colonel Christopher Garver, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S-led coalition.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Russian bombers were believed to have returned to Russia.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its bombers had taken off on Tuesday from the Hamadan air base in north-west Iran. It said the strikes targeted Islamic State as well as militants previously known as the Nusra Front in the Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al Zour provinces.
It said its Iranian-based bombers had been escorted by fighter jets based at Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria’s Latakia Province.
« As a result of the strikes five large arms depots were destroyed … a militant training camp … three command and control points … and a significant number of militants, » the ministry said in a statement.
The destroyed facilities had been used to support militants in the Aleppo area, it said, where battle has intensified in recent weeks for control of the divided city, which had some 2 million people before the war.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said heavy air strikes on Tuesday hit many targets in and around Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria, killing dozens.
The Russian Defence Ministry says it strives to avoid civilian casualties.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war, is divided into rebel and government-held zones. The government aims to capture full control, which would be its biggest victory of the five-year conflict.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in rebel areas, facing potential siege if the government closes the corridor linking it with the outside.
Russian media reported that Russia had also requested and received permission to use Iran and Iraq as a route to fire cruise missiles from its Caspian Sea fleet into Syria, as it has done in the past. Russia has built up its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean and the Caspian as part of what it says are planned military exercises.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s state-backed Rossiya 24 channel broadcast uncaptioned images of at least three Russian Tupolev-22M3 bombers and a Russian military transport plane inside Iran. It said the Iranian deployment would allow the Russian air force to cut flight times by 60 percent. The Tupolev-22M3 bombers, which had conducted strikes on Syria from bases in southern Russia, were too large to be accommodated at Russia’s own air base inside Syria, Russian media reported.
Russia says Lavrov and Kerry discussed Syria deal on phone Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday discussed by phone how to implement a Russian-U.S. deal on coordinating action in Syria and securing a ceasefire, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It said the phone call had taken place at Washington’s initiative and was focused on the situation in Aleppo and on discussing how best to implement the deal which Moscow said had been reached during a visit by Kerry to Moscow in July.
Kerry said after those marathon talks last month that Washington and Moscow had reached a common understanding on the steps now needed to get Syria’s troubled peace process back on track.
Russian news agencies on Monday quoted Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying that Russia and the United States were close to starting joint military action against militants in Syria’s Aleppo.
Five years into a Syrian civil war that has killed thousands and forced millions to flee their homes, Russia and the United States are the most influential outside players in the conflict, but the objectives they are pursuing diverge. Russia backs Assad and is giving military help to his campaign against rebel fighters, while the United States believes the Syrian leader has to go and is supporting some of the rebel groups who are fighting to unseat him.
U.N. chief warns of unprecedented ‘catastrophe’ in Syria’s Aleppo United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Tuesday of an unprecedented « humanitarian catastrophe » in Syria’s Aleppo and urged Russia and the United States to quickly reach a deal on a ceasefire in the city and elsewhere in the country.
Fighting for control of Aleppo, split between its government-held west and rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, has intensified in recent weeks causing hundreds of deaths and depriving many civilians of power, water and vital supplies.
« In Aleppo we risk seeing a humanitarian catastrophe unprecedented in the over five years of bloodshed and suffering in the Syrian conflict, » Ban told the U.N. Security Council in his latest monthly report on aid access, seen by Reuters.
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 neighboring countries and from the skies by Russian air strikes.
« The fight for territory and resources is being undertaken through indiscriminate attacks on residential areas, including through the use of barrel bombs, killing hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, » Ban said in the U.N. report.
« All parties to the conflict are failing to uphold their obligation to protect civilians, » he said.
Ban reiterated a U.N. call for at least a 48-hour humanitarian pause in fighting in Aleppo for aid deliveries and also pushed Moscow and Washington to rapidly reach a deal on a ceasefire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday discussed securing a ceasefire, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russia used Iran as a base from which to launch air strikes against Syrian militants for the first time on Tuesday. The Russian Defence Ministry said it takes great care to avoid civilian casualties in its air strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said heavy air strikes on Tuesday had hit many targets in and around Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria, killing dozens. The United States had been targeting Islamic State militants in Syria with air strikes for nearly two years.
Libyan forces say advancing toward recapture of Sirte from Islamic State Libyan forces said on Tuesday they had taken one of the last districts in central Sirte held by Islamic State militants, battling snipers and car bombs in their campaign to recapture the entire city.
Forces aligned with Libya’s U.N.-backed government in Tripoli are three months into a campaign to oust Islamic State from their former North African stronghold and have encircled the militants in a shrinking section of the city centre.
Since Aug. 1, their progress has been aided by U.S. air strikes on Islamic State vehicles, weapons and fighting positions. The U.S. Africa Command said it had carried out a total of 48 strikes as of Sunday.
The Libyan forces are composed mainly of brigades from the western city of Misrata. After they secured key sites south of central Sirte last week, fighting shifted into neighbourhood Number 2, which the brigades said they had now captured.
« On Tuesday morning clashes erupted … that led successfully to the recapture of neighbourhood Number 2 with the cooperation of a tank unit to confront Islamic State snipers, » said Rida Issa, a spokesman.
« The neighbourhood is now completely under control of our forces, » he said, adding that his side had also made incursions into neighbourhood Number 1, situated in the heart of Sirte, the hometown of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The Misrata-led forces had faced four vehicle-borne bombs, two of which they had destroyed on the ground before they could reach their targets, Issa said.
« One unfortunately exploded near our forces but there are no casualty figures, and the fourth one was bombed by a warplane.
We do not know whether it was U.S. air strike or our air defence. » The government-backed forces have been carrying out their own, regular air strikes over the Mediterranean coastal city with a fleet of ageing fighter jets.
At least eight combatants from those forces had been killed and more than 80 wounded in Tuesday’s clashes, according to Akram Gliwan, a spokesman at Misrata’s central hospital. Some were hit by the car bomb, others by snipers and land mines, Gliwan said.
Islamic State seized control of Sirte last year, turning it into a base for Libyan and foreign jihadists and extending its control over about 250 km (155 miles) of Libya’s Mediterranean coastline. But it has struggled to win broad support or retain territory in Libya, and losing Sirte will be a major setback for the ultra hardline Islamist group, which has already lost ground to U.S.-backed military campaigns in Iraq and Syria.Almost all Sirte’s estimated population of 80,000 fled as Islamic State imposed its rule on the city or during the fighting of the past three months.
Civil war costs Yemen $14 bln in damage and economic losses – report The cost from damage to infrastructure and economic losses in Yemen’s civil war is more than $14 billion so far, according to a confidential report seen by Reuters that highlights the effort needed to rebuild the country, where more than half the population is suffering from malnutrition.
« The conflict has so far resulted in damage costs (still partial and incomplete) of almost $7 billion and economic losses (in nominal terms) of over $7.3 billion in relation to production and service delivery, » said the May 6 joint report by the World Bank, United Nations, Islamic Development Bank and European Union.
The internationally recognised Yemeni government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi is battling the Iran-allied Houthis in a bitter civil conflict, and is also facing the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militant group.
The 16-month civil war has killed more than 6,500 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe in a country with a per capita gross domestic product the World Bank last estimated at only $1,097 in 2013.
The Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment report is an internal working document that is not being publicly released.
« These preliminary findings are not only partial, but also evolving » because the conflict is ongoing, the report said. The assessment, it said, was conducted between late 2015 and early this year.
A survey by Yemen’s education ministry cited by the report showed that of 1,671 schools in 20 governorates which suffered damage, 287 need major reconstruction, 544 were serving as shelters for internally displaced persons, and 33 were occupied by armed groups. Based on a sample of 143 schools, the estimated cost of the damage was $269 million.
Citing the Ministry of Public Health and Population, the report said 900 of 3,652 facilities providing vaccination services were not operating in early 2016, leaving 2.6 million children under 15 at risk of contracting measles.
HEALTH SYSTEM In Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, the public health system has nearly collapsed, with half the public hospitals damaged or inaccessible.
« There has been a surge in civilian morbidity and mortality as an indirect consequence of the conflict, » the report said.
The report could assess residential damage only in the cities of Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and Zinjibar, and data collection was cut off in Oct. 2015 — only about seven months into the conflict. That data alone found an estimated $3.6 billion in damage.
The cost to reconstruct damaged energy facilities in the four cities was an estimated $139 million, most going to repairing damaged or destroyed power plants.
A shaky cease-fire between the government and the Houthis, who practice a variant of Shi’ite Islam, took effect in April and brought some respite from the war, which started when the rebels pushed the government into exile in March 2015. Peace talks broke down earlier this month, though, and Saudi-led air strikes on the Houthis who control the capital Sanaa have resumed.
The report said that immediate attention must be focused on restoring import financing, particularly for food and fuel, which is caught in a conflict between the Saudi-backed government and the central bank in rebel-controlled Sanaa.
The government asked international financial institutions to cut off the bank, alleging that it was misusing state funds. The bank, which provides foreign exchange for imports, has denied the allegations.
« As long as the conflict is ongoing, it’s key to keep going the basic imports needed to avoid a humanitarian crisis. That is a very critical issue right now, » the IMF’s Yemen Mission Chief Albert Jaeger told Reuters. « The best the international community and donors can do is to find a way to get the government and the central bank to cooperate to get at least the humanitarian side of things going. » Air strikes by Saudi-led forces in Yemen that hit a school and a hospital are being investigated by a body set up by the coalition to look into civilian casualties, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Ten children were killed when their school in Saada province was bombed on Saturday, and 14 people were killed by a strike on a hospital in neighbouring Hajjah province on Monday.
Houthi shelling kills seven in Saudi Arabia, nine Yemenis die in air strike Shells fired by Yemen’s Houthi group killed seven civilians in southern Saudi Arabia, Saudi state television reported, while an air strike by an Arab coalition destroyed a house east of the Yemeni capital killing nine family members, residents said.
Saudi Ekhbariyah television said projectiles fired by the Iran-allied Houthis landed at an industrial area in the southern city of Najran, close to the Yemeni border, in one of the deadliest attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s foes during more than a year of war, the Houthis are Yemen’s dominant political force and are fighting against Saudi-backed loyalists of the country’s exiled government in the Nehm district, where the strike occurred.
A spokesman for the coalition did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
It said four Saudi citizens and three expatriate workers died. A resident said the projectile landed some 500 metres (yards) from a local power station, causing panic in the city.
« Najran is sad this evening, » the resident, who asked not to be identified told Reuters.
Earlier in the day, residents in Nehm area, east of Sanaa, said a plane from the Saudi-led alliance struck the home of a local leader of Yemen’s armed Houthi group while he was out, killing his father and eight members of the family.
Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March 2015 to restore President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi to power and fight off the Iran-allied Houthis.
The conflict has killed at over 6,500 people and unleashed a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said an air strike on Monday hit one of its hospitals northwestern Hajja province and killed 11 people and wounded several others. The charity said in a statement on Tuesday that three of those who were wounded had died, raising the death toll to 14. UNICEF said a school was bombed on Saturday in neighbouring Saada province, killing ten children mostly between the ages of six and eight. Coalition spokesman General Ahmed al-Asseri said the bombing had targeted a centre used by the Houthi militias as a training camp.
Body set up by Saudi-led forces probes hits on Yemen school, hospital Air strikes by Saudi-led forces in Yemen that hit a school and a hospital are being investigated by a body set up by the coalition to look into civilian casualties, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Ten children, mostly between the age of six and eight, were killed when their school in northern Yemen’s Saada province was bombed on Saturday, and 14 people were killed by a strike on a hospital run by Doctors without Borders in neighbouring Hajjah province on Monday.
« Immediately, and as soon as the announcement from Doctors without Borders and from his excellency the U.N.
secretary-general reached us, the team began its investigation as part of its responsibility and without waiting for instructions from anyone, » Mansour Ahmed al-Mansour told Reuters.
Mansour is a Bahraini judge who serves as a legal advisor to the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) which was set up in May by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman following an international outcry about the rising number of civilian casualties.
« We are collecting initial information and are in communication with the concerned parties to provide us with information available to them, » Mansour said.
A further nine civilians were killed by a coalition air strike on Tuesday on the home of a local leader of the armed Houthi group which Saudi Arabia and its allies have been fighting since March 2015 to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.
The coalition says it does not target civilians and accuses the Houthis, who seized much of northern Yemen in a series of military advances since 2014, of placing military targets in civilian areas.
Mansour said the JIAT, comprising military and legal experts, including experts in international law from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar among other states, had powers to conduct thorough and transparent checks and issue its results without any outside intervention.
Earlier this month, the JIAT issued recommendations on eight previous incidents, including suggesting compensation be paid in one case and for the coalition to make sure it communicate warnings to international organisations operating in an area that was being targeted.
« The aim is to reach conclusions for the public opinion, and recommendations that the coalition may follow, » Mansour said in an interview.
« If there are shortfalls, we help reach lessons to be learned and avoid repetition of this shortfall. » Investigators check aerial and satellite photographs, video footage and other evidence provided by non-governmental bodies and the United Nations, Mansour said. He acknowledged that the team was restricted in its ability to conduct field investigations in areas under Houthi control and urged Yemenis to stay away from military targets and not to allow the Houthis to use their houses or property for military operations.
UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it received 15 Guantanamo inmates The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday it has received 15 detainees from Guantanamo Bay for humanitarian reasons.
U.S. officials said on Monday that 12 Yemeni and three Afghan inmates from the Guantanamo prison were transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the single largest transfer of Guantanamo detainees during President Barack Obama’s administration.
The UAE ministry said in a statement published on the state news agency website that, following negotiations between its officials and U.S. officials over recent months, the Gulf state had agreed to receive the detainees for « humanitarian reasons. » « The UAE hopes that this step, with its humanitarian appeal, would help these individuals and their families through the rehabilitation programme launched in November 2015. » The UAE has accepted released prisoners twice before – one UAE citizen repatriated in 2008 and five Yemenis resettled last year.
West Bank youth killed in clash with Israeli troops-Palestinians A Palestinian youth was killed on Tuesday and dozens of protesters were injured during clashes with Israeli troops at the Fawwar refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The dead youth was named Mohammed abu Hashhash, according to Hebron hospital official Walid Zaloum, who said abu Hashhash was killed by a bullet that entered through his back and struck above his heart. The Palestinian health ministry said he was 17 years old.
An Israeli army statement said troops entered Fawwar to search for suspects and weapons and were attacked by local youths who threw concrete blocks, rocks and home-made explosives at them.
Soldiers responded with small-calibre live fire and rubber bullets and tear gas.
« Riots erupted and dozens of Palestinians hurled (home made explosives), blocks and rocks at the forces … (they) responded with riot dispersal means and fired 0.22 calibre bullets towards main instigators, » an army spokeswoman said.
Abu Hashhash is the first Palestinian fatality this month in a confrontation with Israeli forces. Violence that has included Palestinian stabbings, shootings, rock throwing and car rammings against Israelis have largely tapered off in recent months.
Since October, Palestinians, many of them acting alone and with rudimentary weapons, have killed at least 33 Israelis and two visiting Americans. At least 207 Palestinians have been killed, 140 of whom Israel said were assailants. Others died during clashes and protests.
Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory that Palestinians seek for an independent state. Most countries view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this. Israel says incitement in the Palestinian media and personal problems at home have been important factors that have spurred assailants, often teenagers, to launch attacks.
Turkish police raid retail chain’s offices in post-coup crackdown Turkish police searched the offices of a nationwide retail chain and a healthcare and technology company on Tuesday, arresting dozens of people in some of the biggest raids on private businesses since last month’s failed coup.
More than 35,000 people have been detained in a massive purge since the July 15 attempted putsch, when a group of rogue soldiers commandeered tanks, warplanes and helicopters in an attempt to overthrow the government.
Around half of those detained have been placed under formal arrest and tens of thousands more have been suspended in the military, police and civil service. The breadth of the probe has worried the West, which fears President Tayyip Erdogan is using it to quash dissent.
Private businesses have also been targeted in what the government describes as a crackdown on followers of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric based in self-imposed exile in the United States, who is blamed by Turkey for the coup.
Police targeted discount supermarket chain A101 and healthcare and technology group Akfa Holdings, on suspicion they gave financial support to Gulen’s network, state-run Anadolu Agency said.
Gulen denies involvement in the coup. Washington says it will extradite him to Turkey only if presented with firm evidence. Turkey’s foreign minister spoke to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday about Gulen’s extradition, foreign ministry sources said. Kerry is due to visit Turkey this month.
A101, which operates thousands of stores across Turkey, said financial crimes police searched its Istanbul headquarters for six hours on Tuesday morning. It had cooperated with police and its businesses continued to operate, the company said.
A101 said it had no « corporate, financial or trade links » to any illegal group, although it acknowledged that now-defunct Islamic lender Bank Asya had once been a shareholder. The bank was founded by Gulen’s followers and later seized by regulators, and is now being wound down.
Private news agency Dogan said police detained A101’s chairman, Turgut Aydin, at his home in the eastern Black Sea province of Trabzon. Aydin and his family are also majority owners of the Memorial hospitals group. Some 36,000 people work for his companies.
Anadolu said 50 people were detained in the separate raid at Akfa, including the company’s chairman. No one was immediately available for comment at Akfa.
COURTHOUSE RAIDS Police also searched offices at the main courthouse on the Asian side of Istanbul, according to a courthouse employee, a day after major raids on three courthouses on the European side of the city, which sits on the strait dividing the continents.
« Police are currently in the courthouse. They came in with a list of names. The names were of those who were ordered to be taken into custody, and they are searching the building, » the employee told Reuters, declining to be identified.
Police had detention warrants for 83 people at the court, Anadolu reported. A day earlier police detained at least 136 court staff in the raids on courts on the European side of the city.
Erdogan accuses Gulen of harnessing an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to infiltrate state institutions and build a « parallel structure » that aimed to take over the country.
Before the failed coup, in which more than 240 people were killed, the authorities had already seized Bank Asya, taken over or closed several media companies and detained businessmen on allegations of funding the cleric’s movement.
In a speech to his ruling AK Party deputies in parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim sought to calm public concerns about the purge.
He said it targeted only be those who maintained links to Gulen after Dec. 17, 2013 – the date when police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to the cleric launched a corruption probe into Erdogan and his inner circle. That event triggered a public rift between Erdogan and Gulen, who had previously been allies.
« Millions of our innocent citizens can relax. If you did not consciously support FETO after Dec. 17, you should not be worried, » Yildirim said, using the acronym for « Gulenist Terror Group », as Ankara refers to Gulen’s movement. « After Dec. 17 there is no excuse ».
The government is also planning to shut down the TIB telecommunications regulator and transfer its powers to its parent, an umbrella regulatory body, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said this week.
The TIB has previously been targeted in the government crackdown against Gulen. In January 2015, police detained 23 of its employees in an investigation into allegations of illegal wiretapping targeting Erdogan and other top officials.
The government also plans further dismissals in the foreign and interior ministries, as well as the coastguard and military, Kurtulmus said.
Turkey faces « difficult path » to EU visa-free travel- German minister Turkey faces a long and arduous path to obtaining visa-free travel within the European Union, and immediate prospects are not bright, Germany’s European affairs minister said on Tuesday.
Michael Roth told Reuters that it was clear from the start that a migrant deal struck between the EU and Turkey required completion of 72 criteria before Turks could be granted visa-free travel.
« Turkey faces a very long and difficult path. The criteria must be fulfilled, and it doesn’t look good at the moment, » Roth said. « As long as the 72 criteria have not been fulfilled – and a few are still open – there cannot be visa liberalisation. » At the same time, Roth said it was important to keep open channels of communication with Turkey, which would remain an important partner given the refugee crisis, and because of the presence of over 3 million people in Germany of Turkish descent.
Finance Minster Wolfgang Schaeuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, said it was important to continue working with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to ensure his help in dealing with a flood of refugees from countries like Syria and Iraq.
« I absolutely don’t like what Erdogan is doing, but I don’t agree that … we should end cooperation with him, » Schaeuble told an event in the northern German city of Rostock on Tuesday evening. « It is in our own interest to keep working together. » Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had warned on Monday that Turkey could walk away from its promise to stem the flow of illegal migrants to Europe if the EU failed to grant Turks visa-free travel to the bloc in October.
Tensions between Ankara and the West have been aggravated by the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15. Turkey is incensed by what it sees as an insensitive response from Western allies to the failed putsch, in which 240 people were killed.
Roth, a member of the centre-left Social Democrat junior partners in Merkel’s ruling coalition, said Germany would continue to raise its concerns about Erdogan’s detention of more than 35,000 people in a crackdown on suspected putschists.
Shortly after Roth spoke, German broadcaster ARD published part of a confidential government report which it said marked the first official assessment linking Erdogan’s government to support for Islamist and terrorist groups.
« The many expressions of solidarity and support actions by the ruling AKP and President Erdogan for the Egyptian MB (Muslim Brotherhood), Hamas and groups of armed Islamist opposition in Syria emphasise their ideological affinity with the (broader) Muslim Brotherhood, » ARD cited the government report as saying.
Egypt has designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation. The group says it rejects violence. The European Union and the United States have blacklisted Hamas as a terrorist group.
The report said Turkey had become « the central hub for Islamist groups in the Middle East region as a result of the gradually Islamicised domestic and foreign policy of Ankara since 2011, » ARD reported.
Germany’s leftist Linke party said the report – which came in response to its parliamentary query – required a radical shift in Germany’s approach towards Ankara.
« The German government cannot publicly designate the godfather of terrorism Erdogan as a partner, while internally warning about Turkey as a hub for terrorism, » said Sevim Dagdalen, a lawmaker and member of the Linke party.
The German government released part of its response to the party, but declined comment on the secret portion. Even members of Merkel’s Christian Democrats raised concerns about the report, which the interior ministry said it had not cleared with the foreign ministry due to a « office mistake. » Roderich Kiesewetter, a conservative lawmaker and member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said the assessment was « extremely concerning, » but cutting off ties with Turkey would only strengthen radical elements there, the Handelsblatt newspaper.
Putin hints at war in Ukraine but may be seeking diplomatic edge Ukraine says it thinks Vladimir Putin is planning a new invasion, and it’s not hard to see why: the Russian leader has built up troops on its border and resumed the hostile rhetoric that preceded his annexation of Crimea two years ago.
But despite appearances, some experts say Putin is more likely seeking advantage through diplomacy than on the battlefield, at least this time around.
« It’s about sanctions, » Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a Moscow-based foreign policy think tank close to the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Reuters.
« It looks like a way of increasing pressure on Western participants of the Minsk peace process, » he said of a peace deal set up for eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have battled against government forces.
For two years, Russia has been under U.S. and EU sanctions over its annexation of Crimea and support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine. European leaders say the sanctions cannot be lifted unless the Minsk peace deal is implemented, but for now it looks moribund, with fighting occasionally flaring and both sides blaming each other for failing to implement truce terms.
This week, tension escalated dramatically after Putin threatened to take unspecified counter-measures against Ukraine to retaliate for what his spies say was a plot to bomb targets across contested Crimea. Putin said two Russian servicemen were killed in a clash with Ukrainian saboteurs sent to Crimea.
Kiev says the incident never happened, and was concocted to create a phoney pretext for a new invasion. The United States and European Union also say there is no evidence it took place.
Whether the plot is real or imagined, Moscow has cranked up its military activity in Crimea at the same time as holding a series of what it says are pre-planned war games and missile deployments in the area.
Putin, who is expected to visit Crimea later this week in a show of support, convened his Security Council and cancelled the next round of international talks meant to turn the shaky ceasefire in eastern Ukraine into a lasting peace.
But his response – deliberately refocusing international attention back on eastern Ukraine and the lack of progress in implementing a peace deal there – suggests Putin is trying to milk the latest Crimean crisis as part of a diplomatic power play he hopes will eventually kill Western sanctions.
TALKS RUN INTO SAND European talks between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany meant to ensure the peace deal’s implementation have so far run into the sand. And talks between Victoria Nuland, U.S. assistant secretary of state, and Vladislav Surkov, a Russian presidential aide, have not generated a breakthrough either.
In the meantime, pro-Kremlin separatists continue to control two self-declared republics in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, where low-level fighting with Ukrainian government forces continues, sometimes flaring up in a big way, despite the ceasefire.
Under the deal, Kiev committed to grant Donbass special status, to pardon separatist fighters, and to organise elections. But in a country ripped apart by more than two years of war that has lost control of giant chunks of territory, following through on such pledges is politically toxic.
Kiev justifies its slowness to act by accusing Russia of failing to meet its own obligations: continuing to stir conflict in the east, and failing to give back control of Ukraine’s eastern border.
Kortunov said the aim of Putin’s latest sabre rattling is to persuade Ukraine’s Western allies « to exert influence on Kiev to get it to fulfil its side of the bargain ».
Ultimately, Putin wants the world to forgive and forget Russia’s Crimean annexation and for the conflict in the east to freeze, leaving a pro-Russian stronghold inside Ukraine, outside of Kiev’s control.
It is a long-term settlement that Kiev would never officially accept. Meanwhile, as long as the peace deal is stalled, the sanctions remain in place, with the EU’s preconditions to lift them growing no closer.
« Russia is intensely frustrated by the lack of movement on the February 2015 Minsk agreement, and has sought to put the onus for the lack of progress on Ukraine, » Paul Quinn-Judge, a senior adviser at International Crisis Group, wrote in a commentary.
« The agreement…is highly disadvantageous for Ukraine. Some key clauses, such as according the entities special status, would be politically explosive, perhaps politically fatal, for President Petro Poroshenko. He has accordingly chosen to delay as much as possible. Moscow is turning up the heat. » With Russia’s reserve fund set to run out next year and Moscow’s access to Western credit markets still closed because of the sanctions, for Russia the clock is ticking.
By flexing his military muscles, Putin is sending a signal to the West that his patience is wearing thin and that he may resort to other options if Kiev can’t be made to play ball.
One of those, the daily Vedomosti newspaper reported earlier this week citing a source close to the separatist leadership, might be to stop restraining separatist forces, effectively allowing a full-scale conflict in eastern Ukraine to resume.
« For now, Russia’s leadership is using the story about Crimean saboteurs as an ultimatum to its Western partners in the (Ukrainian) negotiations, » wrote Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Moscow Carnegie Center. « (It is saying:) You said yourselves that there is no military solution to the Crimea and Donbass problems, so broker a peaceful settlement. If you can’t even do that, Russia reserves the right to take its own next step. »
Iran says it has detained a dual national linked to British intelligence Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested a dual national last week in Tehran linked to Britain’s intelligence service, the latest in a string of arrests of dual nationals over the past year.
« The accused was working in an economic sector related to Iran, » Tehran prosecutor general Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
Dolatabadi did not identify the accused person or the second nationality.
Britain said it was trying to find out more about the arrest.
« We are seeking information following the reported detention of a dual Iranian-British national in Iran, » the Foreign Office said in a statement.
The Iranian prosecutor said the arrest was part of a crackdown against what officials have portrayed as « Western infiltration ».
Iran’s potential opening up to the West after last year’s nuclear deal has alarmed Iranian hardliners.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least six other dual-nationality citizens, or expatriates, upon their return to visit Iran in the last year, the highest number of Iranians with dual-nationality detained in recent years to have been acknowledged.
The government has confirmed most of the detentions, without giving details of any charges.
The government does not recognise dual nationality, which prevents relevant Western embassies seeing individuals who have been detained.
In a telephone conversation last week, British Prime Minister Theresa May raised concerns with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani over the detention of some dual British-Iranian nationals.
Radical UK Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary guilty of inviting support for IS Anjem Choudary, Britain’s most high-profile Islamist preacher whose followers have been linked to numerous plots across the world, has been found guilty of inviting support for Islamic State.
Choudary, 49, was convicted at London’s Old Bailey court of using online lectures and messages to encourage support for the banned group which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Notorious in Britain where the tabloids denounce him as a hate preacher, he is also well-known abroad, making regular TV appearances in the wake of attacks by Islamist militants to blame Western foreign policy for targeting Muslims.
« These men have stayed just within the law for many years, but there is no one within the counter terrorism world that has any doubts of the influence that they have had, the hate they have spread and the people that they have encouraged to join terrorist organisations, » said Dean Haydon, head of London police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Prosecutors said that in postings on social media, Choudary and his close associate Mizanur Rahman, 33, had pledged allegiance to the « caliphate » declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said Muslims had a duty to obey or provide support to him.
Both men, who had denied the terrorism charges and claimed the case was politically motivated, were found guilty last month but their convictions could not be reported until Tuesday for legal reasons. They are due to be sentenced in September and could face a jail sentence of up to 10 years each.
Choudary, the former head of the now banned organization al-Muhajiroun, became infamous for praising the men responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the United States and saying he wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.
Despite his often controversial comments and refusal to condemn attacks by Islamists such as the London 2005 bombings, Choudary has always denied any involvement in militant activity and had never been previously charged with any terrorism offence.
Rahman served two years in jail for encouraging followers to kill British and American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq during a protest in 2006.
BREEDING GROUND FOR MILITANTS Al-Muhajiroun has been regarded as a breeding ground for militants since it was founded in the late 1990s by Syrian-born Islamist cleric Omar Bakri, who was banished from Britain in 2005, and was banned under anti-terrorist laws in 2010.
Police said it was suspected of being the driving force behind the London bombings while Michael Adebolajo, one of the men who hacked to death British soldier Lee Rigby on a London street in 2013, had attended protests Choudary had organised.
Last year, the trial of a teenage Muslim convert found guilty of plotting to behead a soldier in London was told he had fallen in with al-Muhajiroun.
The group’s influence is said to extend far beyond Britain.
Those connected to it include Abu Hamza al-Masri, jailed for life in the United States last year for terrorism-related offences.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman who shot and killed a soldier in Canada’s capital and then stormed parliament in 2014, followed Choudary on Twitter, although the preacher told Reuters at the time he had no links to him.
« Over and over again we have seen people on trial for the most serious offences who have attended lectures or speeches given by these men, » Haydon said in a statement.
Both Choudary and Rahman say they abide by a « covenant of security » which forbids Muslims from carrying out attacks in non-Muslim lands where their lives and wellbeing are protected.
« We’re living in a global community and no doubt Muslims around the world who have their eye on what’s happening in Syria and Iraq or want to know about the sharia (law) will come across us at one point or another, » Choudary told Reuters in 2014. « That does not mean that we’re encouraging people to carry out any acts of terrorism. »
NY man in court charged with murdering Muslim cleric, assistant A New York City man appeared in court on Tuesday and denied charges he shot and killed a Muslim cleric and his assistant on a street in the borough of Queens over the weekend.
Oscar Morel, 35, faces up to life in prison without parole if he is convicted of killing Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, in a brazen daylight attack on Saturday that horrified the neighborhood’s Bangladeshi community.
Morel, who was shackled at the hands and feet and wore a tan button-down shirt with black pants, was arraigned at Queens Criminal Court on one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
« It’s the most horrendous and despicable act that can only be described as a cold-blooded and premeditated assassination, » prosecutor Peter McCormack told the court as relatives of the victims looked on.
« The defendant ran up behind both of them and pumped numerous bullets into them striking them both in the head …leaving them lying in the street mortally wounded, » he said.
Authorities said on Tuesday that the suspect’s motive remained unclear, and the possibility it was a hate crime was one theory being explored.
Morel, from the borough of Brooklyn, appeared calm and spoke little during his brief appearance. He agreed that surveillance video showed him at the scene of the murders earlier on Saturday, but denied being the killer.
Judge Karen Gopee set his next court date for Thursday, when an attorney will be assigned to represent him.
Speaking to reporters at the court, Uddin’s brother, Mashuk Uddin, said the families of both victims were devastated.
« Everybody is very upset, » Uddin said, adding that he believes it was a hate crime. « These two people here being killed at one time? What’s the reason? There’s only one reason (and) that’s the hate crime. » Outside court, several relatives of the dead men as well as friends and locals held signs reading « We demand justice. »
SUSPECT CAUGHT ON CAMERA Robert Boyce, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, told a news conference on Monday that surveillance video showed the suspect getting into a black sport utility vehicle after the shootings.
That vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run three miles (5 km) away in Brooklyn shortly afterward. After officers located the SUV, the suspect rammed a detective’s car several times in an attempt to escape, but was arrested, Boyce said.He said the suspect is believed to have worked at a warehouse in Brooklyn.
Citing unnamed police sources, the New York Times, the New York Daily News and other outlets reported on Tuesday that detectives who searched Morel’s basement apartment in Brooklyn found an unlicensed revolver hidden in a wall that authorities believe he used in the execution-style killings.
Police also found clothes in his apartment that matched what the gunman had been wearing, according to the media reports.
Police confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that a .38 caliber Taurus revolver was recovered in connection with the investigation, but did not say where the firearm was found.
Akonjee and Uddin were shot in the head at close range after leaving Saturday prayers at the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens.
Addressing hundreds of mourners at the two men’s funeral on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised the city would bolster the police presence in the neighborhood.
A father of seven, Akonjee emigrated to the United States from Bangladesh several years ago, said Badrul Khan, the founder of the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque. He described the slain imam as a humble man who lived and breathed his religious faith.
« His whole life was his job, praying here, then going home, » Khan said.
German arrested on suspicion of selling gun to Munich shooter, prosecutor says Police on Tuesday arrested an armed 31-year-old German man who boasted during a sting operation that he had supplied the Glock 17 pistol used by a gunman who killed nine people in Munich on July 22, the Frankfurt state prosecutor said in a statement.
Authorities arrested the man, who was not named, in Marburg, about 100 km (65 miles) north of Frankfurt, after contacting him on the so-called « dark net » and posing as buyers for an automatic weapon and another Glock 17 pistol for 8,000 euros ($9,021), it said.
The man’s claims were supported by evidence gathered by the Munich prosecutor’s office and Bavarian state police, the statement said.
« There is the strong suspicion that the 31-year-old man sold the Glock 17 used in the Munich shooting to the 18-year-old German-Iranian shortly before the attacks, » the Bavarian state police said in a separate statement.
The Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said the suspect was identified during unrelated investigations into illegal weapons purchases by a 62-year-old accountant from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and a 17-year-old student from the state of Hesse.
During the course of a subsequent sting operation, the suspect said he had sold the 18-year-old Iranian-German the Glock 17 pistol during a meeting in Marburg on May 20, followed by 350 rounds of ammunition during a second meeting on July 18, according to the statement. The gunman then went on to kill nine people in Munich, then shoot himself.
Evidence gathered from the gunman’s home and various social media messages indicated that he had taken a bus to Marburg from his home in Munich in May to buy the weapon, and again in July to buy the ammunition, the Bavarian police statement said.
It said a 65-person task force investigating the Munich shooting was continuing to review 3,100 tips and pieces of evidence, and had already interviewed 250 witnesses.
To date, there was no new evidence indicating that any other parties were involved in planning or executing the shooting, the Bavarian police said.
« The successful investigation proves once again that there is no complete anonymity on the Internet and no comprehensive protection against prosecution. This is also true for the so-called ‘dark net,' » the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said.
Alexander Badle, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said the 17-year-old student was a German citizen and there was no evidence that he was planning a Munich-style shooting attack, despite the « quite concerning » amount of weapons he had amassed.
Nor was there any evidence thus far of any specific political, religious or ideological motivation for his actions, Badle said. He said the youth was facing charges for violating Germany’s strict weapons laws, but had been released for now. The 62-year-old acccountant had also been released.
Wave of car burning crimes in Sweden moves to poor Stockholm suburb A wave of car burnings across Sweden that has seen more than 2,000 vehicles damaged or destroyed this year, moved on Monday night to the Stockholm suburb of Husby, where mass riots began three years ago and spread across the capital’s poorer suburbs.
Police have arrested only one suspect – a 21-year-old man in the southern city of Malmo whose car contained cans of gasoline – and they are appealing for help nationwide in a country that prides itself on its low levels of crime.
« This crime is very hard to investigate, » Malmo police’s Lars Forstell said. « We don’t see any patterns and we don’t have any suspects. » « We need all the help we can get, » he said.
On Tuesday, the centre-right opposition called on the government to act and the Justice Department told Reuters that an action plan would be presented in the « next couple of days ».
The fires have centred on Stockholm and Malmo – Sweden’s third biggest city, and 2,027 vehicles have been set on fire in total between January and July, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
In August alone, 48 vehicles were set on fire in Malmo and 60 more in June and July. On Monday, 13 cars were set alight in several different parts of the city.
Late on Monday, two cars were set on fire in Stockholm’s Husby and seven cars were set on fire in the southern suburb of Haninge. No arrests have been made.
« We can’t say if it is youngsters or criminals or whatever. We assume little things but we don’t know, » Stockholm police spokesperson Kjell Lindgren said.
The 2013 riots started a debate about social inequality, poverty and immigration in Sweden and Malmo University criminology researcher, Manne Gerell, said it was typically disadvantaged young men who were responsible for the fires. « There are a few major reasons. One that is often mentioned is that these youth or young men, when interviewed, say it is fun or exciting, » he said.
Trump ignored facts with dig at Merkel’s refugee policy – German minister Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ignored the facts with his assertion that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy had resulted in a huge increase in crime, a German minister told Reuters on Tuesday.
Trump said Merkel’s decision to welcome more than a million refugees to Germany was a « disaster » during a campaign rally in Ohio on Monday and said his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton wanted to be like the German leader.
« In short, Hillary Clinton wants to be America’s Angela Merkel and you know what a disaster this massive immigration has been to Germany and the people of Germany, » Trump said. « Crime has risen to levels that no one thought they would ever, ever see. It is a catastrophe. » Statistics compiled by the German Interior Ministry showed the number of crimes reported in 2015 – excluding visa violations and other immigration violations – remained essentially unchanged from the previous year at 5.9 million.
Michael Roth, Germany’s European affairs minister, told Reuters Trump’s statement was incorrect and it was important to correct campaign statements in other countries that were based on « fears, lies and half-truths », given the importance of the U.S. election for the world.
« I’m sorry that the Republican presidential candidate trumpets out things like that without any factual basis, » Roth said.
« If he had studied the actual situation in Germany, he would know that, while the many refugees who came to Germany and Europe pose a big challenge for us, and everything is still not completely resolved, they have not led to a massive increase in crime rates. » Roth said Germany remained a peaceful country where people treated each other with respect, and efforts continued to integrate the refugees into the broader society and economy.
German authorities identified 12,710 cases of illegal migration – mostly from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq – in the first half of 2016, compared with 128,655 cases in all 2015, Germany’s Funke Mediengruppe reported on Tuesday, quoting the government’s response to a parliamentary query.It said authorities had stopped about 1 million people to check their immigration status in the first half of the year, compared with about 3 million in the full year of 2015.
U.S. seeks Latin American help amid rise in Asian, African migrants Washington is seeking closer coordination with several Latin American countries to tackle a jump in migrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East who it believes are trying to reach the United States from the south on an arduous route by plane, boat and through jungle on foot.U.S. agents deployed to an immigration facility on Mexico’s southern border have vetted the more than 640 migrants from countries outside the Americas who have been detained at the center since October 2015, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents reviewed by Reuters.
The migrants often fly to Brazil, obtain fake passports there, and are smuggled to Panama before heading through Central America to Mexico’s porous southern border, according to transcripts of 14 interviews conducted at the center and other internal briefing documents seen by Reuters.
(Graphic: From Brazil to the north: http://tmsnrt.rs/2b8JIDI) The U.S. agents’ findings come as Mexican immigration data show 6,342 Asian, African and Middle Eastern migrants were apprehended trying to enter Mexico in the first six months of this year. That was up from 4,261 in all of 2015, and 1,831 in 2014.
U.S. border apprehensions point to the same trend. Between October 2015 and May 2016, U.S. agents apprehended 5,350 African and Asian migrants at the U.S. Southwest border. That’s up from 6,126 in all of fiscal year 2015 and 4,172 in all of fiscal year 2014.
U.S. concerns about potential security risks from migrants using the unusual and circuitous southern route have been growing in recent years, following a string of Islamic State-inspired attacks in the West and the surge in Syrian refugees fleeing that country’s civil war.
Five Syrian nationals detained in Honduras last November were part of a wider group of seven Syrians who acquired forged passports in Brazil and then went by land to Argentina on their way north, a U.S. government source familiar with that case said. There was no evidence to suggest the men were militants.
« The reality is that the vast majority of the people that Mexico encounters that are extra-continental will eventually end up on our border, » a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official said.
At the detention camp in Tapachula, near Mexico’s border with Guatemala, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents have been training their Mexican counterparts on interview techniques, and using U.S. criminal databases to investigate detainees, according to internal documents seen by Reuters.
Two to three U.S. agents have been stationed there since at least October, according to the documents and U.S. officials.
Mexican officials have previously acknowledged the presence of U.S. agents at Mexico’s southern border, but few details of the cooperation have been reported.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol began a pilot program for a similar operation in Panama earlier this fiscal year, according to an internal memo sent in May that has not previously been reported. Homeland Security officials told Reuters that Panama requested U.S. training. A spokesman for Panama’s National Migration Service said Panama accepted an offer from the U.S.
embassy for training on subjects like « defense techniques » and « management of persons. » U.S. proponents of the program have pushed for a greater U.S. footprint to build a « comprehensive intelligence picture » of migration patterns across the Colombia-Panama border, according to the memo sent in May.
Panama is leading the effort in Central America to detain illegal migrants, DHS assistant secretary for international affairs Alan Bersin told a House committee in March, but it stymied by lack of detention space and the difficulty of deporting migrants to countries with whom they have no diplomatic ties. As a result, most are released after 30 days.
Bersin acknowledged the rise in migrants from outside the Americas and the potential security threat they pose.
« While many citizens of these countries migrate for economic reasons or because they are fleeing persecution in their home countries, this group may include migrants who are affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, intelligence agencies, and organized criminal syndicates, » Bersin told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
DHS has deployed additional « mentor » teams throughout South and Central America to professionalize immigration authorities and gain intelligence about potentially threatening migrants, said DHS officials, who declined to specify which countries host U.S. agents.
One DHS official said the agency is asking Brazil through diplomatic channels to put a stop to fake passport manufacturing. Brazilian officials did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, a unit of DHS, is « actively working to enhance regional collaboration with border and customs authorities from Mexico all the way down to Argentina, » another DHS official said.
ON FOOT IN THE JUNGLE The apprehension documents from the Tapachula center show how migrants are willing and able to pay thousands of dollars to obtain flights and fake passports and then make grueling journeys on buses, boats and on foot.
It was not clear how many of those apprehended at the center were deported, claimed asylum or simply released.
Several of the 14 migrants — in testimony given from May 18-23 this year — said they paid more than $10,000 to smugglers, walked for days through jungles, and were temporarily detained by various countries before being stopped in Tapachula.
Six of the men — who included Pakistanis, Syrians and Afghans– had obtained fake passports, claiming to be from Israel, Morocco, Belgium or Britain.
Although fake passports provide some security to the migrants and are profitable for smugglers, they are easily identified as fraudulent by immigration authorities in Latin American countries and especially the United States, U.S.
officials said. Most migrants therefore try to enter the United States through smuggling routes.
In Panama, several of the men said they were kept in a migration detention camp for about a month. From Panama, the migrants described traveling in larger groups, sometimes as many as 50 men.
One Pakistani national — whose identity U.S. officials asked not to be revealed because he is still under investigation — told U.S. and Mexican officials that he paid a smuggler in Pakistan $9,000 to be smuggled to Brazil where he received a fake Belgian passport.
In Brazil, he paid $4,000 to a woman to be taken on bus, boat and on foot through across Colombia and into Panama.
He said he was detained in Panama but then released. From there, a smuggler from Lebanon took the man and 35 other migrants of different nationalities to Honduras, where he said he was robbed of all of his belongings.
His family wired him more money from Pakistan and the man was able to pay $40 to be smuggled into Guatemala. He paid $5 to be taken by raft into Mexico. There he got a taxi, which was halted by authorities who took him to the Tapachula center.
SENSITIVE TOPIC FOR MEXICO Accepting U.S. help on immigration issues is politically sensitive for Mexico, said Adam Isacson, a security and border policy analyst at The Washington Office on Latin America, a non-profit human rights advocacy group.
« But the Mexicans have quietly been open to the equipment and training they have received, » he said.
A CBP spokesman said the agency deployed to Tapachula at the Mexican government’s request. Mexico’s immigration agency is the Instituto Nacional de Migracion (INM).
« CBP personnel train INM officers in the collection of biometric information, and review and share biometric information on people of interest, » the spokesman said.
INM declined Reuters’ request for comment and access to the Tapachula facility.
In testimony before the Mexican Senate on Aug. 3, Mexico’s chief immigration officer Ardelio Vargas Fosado said his agency was aware of the influx of migrants from outside the Americas.
But the lack of diplomatic relationships between Mexico and many African countries has made it difficult to deport those apprehended, he said.
Under law, U.S. agents cannot arrest or deport migrants from other countries, but as foreign-based trainers, they can gather intelligence on who may be headed for the U.S. border. Isacson said most of the migrants taking the Latin American path northward are seeking economic opportunity in the United States. But DHS is focused on security risks. »The Tapachula area is along a permeable border. DHS views it as one of the areas where a terrorist group that wants to do harm on U.S. soil would be most likely to come in, » he said.
Brazil summons Uruguay ambassador as Mercosur tensions rise Brazil summoned Uruguay’s ambassador on Tuesday after the neighboring country’s foreign minister accused Brazil of trying to « buy » its vote to block Venezuela from taking the rotating presidency of the Mercosur trade bloc.
In comments to lawmakers last week that were made public on Tuesday, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said his government was « angry » with Brazil’s attempt to prevent Caracas from leading the regional group that also includes Argentina and Paraguay.
Brazil Foreign Minister Jose Serra « came with the intention of blocking the handover (of the presidency) and if that happened they would take us along in trade negotiations, as if they wanted to buy Uruguay’s vote, » Nin Novoa said.
The Brazilian foreign ministry summoned Uruguay’s ambassador in Brasilia, Carlos Amorin Tenconi, to explain Nin Novoa’s comments.
« The Brazilian government received with a profound discontent and surprise the statement from Chancellor Nin Novoa, » Brazil’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The leadership spat in the group has raised tensions and opened ideological fault lines in a region struggling with a drop in commodity prices and political turmoil.
Since Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff was suspended in May, her replacement Michel Temer has moved the country away from leftist allies such as Venezuela and toward traditional allies the United States and Europe.
Argentina and Paraguay, once close allies to Caracas, have also moved to undermine Venezuela as the OPEC nation’s socialist government struggles with economic and political crises.
Venezuela was supposed to assume the rotating presidency of the bloc for six months, but Brazil claims the country has failed to fulfill the requirements to become a full member. Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva supported Venezuela’s former President Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro, who took office when Chavez died in 2013.
Cuba sticks to modest reform plan despite poor results Cuba on Tuesday published policy guidelines for the next five years that signal no new domestic initiatives although it upgraded foreign investment to « fundamental in certain sectors. » The 275-point social and economic plan, coming at a time of weak economic growth and drastically reduced supplies of Venezuelan oil, is extremely similar to one Cuba adopted in 2011, which called for decentralization of its state-run economy, support for some small business, recognition of market forces and the need for more foreign investment.
The reforms in the 20ll plan have, however, yet to be fully implemented because of stiff bureaucratic resistance, President Raul Castro said at a Communist Party Congress in April.
« The struggle between hard-liners and the bureaucrats opposed to meaningful reform, and liberals who see the need for a swift streamlining of the economy and greater freedom, continues, » said John Kirk, an author of many books on Cuba.
« The key question is whether ideological intransigence will trump pragmatism, » he said.
Despite improved relations with the United States and other western countries, there is no sign Cuba is ready to do more than tweak its Soviet-style economy.
Centralized planning and a state monopoly on the means of production lead off the new guidelines, as they did previous ones. Five years ago the reform plan authorized small business, but forbade « concentration of property »; the new one adds to that « wealth. » The previous document called for a significant reduction in the state’s participation in the sale, distribution and pricing of food in favor of private initiative and market forces, while the new one omits this. In practice the state has once more taken control of distribution and is setting prices.
Economist Andrew Zimbalist, a Cuba expert at Smith College in the United States, said he was not surprised the « new plan is old and if anything appears to be a mild retreat from liberalization of the economy. » He said detente with the United States and the economic crisis in Venezuela made Cuba’s leaders feel more vulnerable.
The government last month announced cuts in fuel and energy and a reduction in imports, citing a lack of hard currency caused by low export earnings and less Venezuelan oil.
« When the revolution senses difficult times, it has always attempted to assert more central control, » said Zimbalist.
The only apparent recognition of the poor economic results of reforms to date is in the section on foreign investment.
Five years ago the plan termed foreign investment complementary to local efforts in some sectors, while the new one states it is « an important source for the country’s development, » and « fundamental in certain sectors. » « The more full-throated endorsement of foreign investment could eventually transform and uplift the Cuban economy, » said Richard Feinberg, author of a new book, « Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy. » « But that will depend on if it is reflected in an accelerated approval by the bureaucracy and an overall improvement in the business climate, » he said.
Kiev struggles in broadcast war against separatists as tensions rise For Ukrainian pensioner Olga Shazhkova, channel-surfing in the front line town of Avdiyivka is a monotonous business.
With the face of Vladimir Putin looming large on her TV screen, she flicks over to the next station with a sigh, only to land on the Russian army’s official channel. Ukrainian government forces control the ground in Avdiyivka, but pro-Moscow rebels just across the front line of a two-year separatist conflict dominate the airways, along with stations beamed in from Russia to the east.
The result is that people on the Kiev-controlled side can end up flooded – whether they like it or not – by news telling Russia’s side of the story, through TV channels that demonise the Ukrainian government and its cause.
« Before the war started, we had all the channels, » Shazhkova said in her living room, which she is scared to leave after 5 pm because of daily shelling in the late afternoon and evening.
« Now it’s just Russian and separatist ones, » said Shazhkova, who remains sympathetic to the Kiev cause. « If you’re called a pig for ten years, you begin to believe it, so we need some (other) information. » Avdiyivka lies at the heart of the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has killed over 9,500 people since early 2014, and just 15 km (nine miles) north of the rebels’ stronghold in the city of Donetsk.
Much of eastern Ukraine’s broadcasting infrastructure is controlled by the rebels or has been destroyed by the fighting.
This has left Ukraine, whose own media typically characterises separatists as ‘Russia-sponsored terrorists’, outgunned in an information war that has played a central role in the crisis.
In its fight for hearts and minds, Kiev is redoubling efforts to improve access to Ukrainian television and radio for the majority in the region who rely on roof-top aerials.
It is a particularly important weapon at a time when a much-violated ceasefire deal is under threat after the deadliest fighting in a year and a fresh political spat between Ukraine and Russia.
Shazhkova said she goes to her neighbour’s house to watch Ukrainian news via satellite, where the signal is uninterrupted but which remains a luxury that few can afford.
The power of TV to sway opinion – and Kiev’s struggle to win favour in separatist areas – was illustrated by a 2015 Ukrainian opinion poll partly funded by the British embassy in Kiev.
It showed 89 percent of respondents said they relied on television for their news. Over 52 percent in Kiev-held areas of eastern Ukraine were found to believe partly or entirely what the survey called ‘Russian propaganda’.
WATCHING THEM, NOT US Such views might help to explain instances when Ukrainians living on the Kiev-controlled side have proved unsympathetic to the Ukrainian cause. In July, for example, around 100 residents of the Kiev-held town of Toretsk blocked a road to prevent the Ukrainian army from moving equipment, according to local police.
« When you go around Avdiyivka, around 70 percent of residents’ aerials are turned towards Donetsk, » Ukrainian soldier Masi Nayyem said, standing in cratered no-man’s land as gunfire crackled in the background.
« They’re watching them, not us. I think this is the main reason why there is a negative attitude towards Ukrainians and especially the army, » he said. « There’s a lot of misinformation. » Scrolling through radio stations in Avdiyivka, Reuters got the clearest signal from a Donetsk-based station called Kometa.
This was airing a satirical news segment about alleged police brutality in Kiev and corruption in the Ukrainian army.
Kiev set up a Ministry of Information Policy in late 2014 to strengthen Ukrainian media strategy.
Continued fighting despite the ceasefire deal struck early last year and signs of escalation in July make it vital for Ukraine to win over war-weary citizens in the east, Deputy Minister for Information Policy Tatiana Popova told Reuters.
The ministry hopes to restore coverage to much of Kiev-controlled northern Donetsk region by October with the reconstruction of a TV tower that fighting reduced to a heap of metal in 2014.
Western backers, including the United States, have donated broadcasting equipment worth 60 million hryvnias ($2.4 million) for this and other projects, but the cash-strapped government in Kiev cannot afford all the construction costs.
« The biggest problem in terms of restoring broadcasting is the financing, » said Popova, adding that the Finance Ministry has repeatedly turned down requests for money to build a new tower to reach rebel-held Donetsk.
Popova and other officials told Reuters that separatists had also been deliberately jamming Ukrainian broadcasts and shooting down smaller antennae rigged up in the districts of Luhansk region that border rebel-controlled territory.
« Of course they will jam us, shoot at our antennae and transmitters, but if we do nothing at all, then we’ll simply lose these people from an ideological perspective as well as the region, » Popova said.
TANNOY OPTION One local official in Luhansk region has taken matters into his own hands, putting up tannoy systems on the outside of administrative buildings. These are blasting out a Ukrainian radio signal received via satellite in several villages where coverage is limited.
Novoaidar district chief Viktor Sergiyenko got his inspiration from World War Two, when the then Soviet Union fought Nazi German invaders. « There are no issues that cannot be resolved and I remembered how this problem was dealt with in 20th century wars. The solution was, if everything else is down, use loudspeakers, » he said.
Luhansk region’s TV station (LOT) is also determined to fight for hearts and minds in separatist territory after its headquarters were seized by rebels in 2014, forcing 50 of its 250 staff to move to a Kiev-held town.
LOT broadcasts news as well as information programmes with which it hopes to interest citizens on both sides. Subjects include how to complete the paperwork needed to cross the front line.
It also airs a competition programme where viewers, including those watching via satellite from separatist-held territory, can phone in to win prizes or cell phone credit if they answer a question on Ukrainian language or culture.
Trump in Milwaukee to address unrest over police shooting U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump visited Milwaukee on Tuesday, days after the city was hit by unrest over the fatal police shooting of a black man, and said initial evidence pointed to the shooting being justified.
Trump, who has been vocal in support of law enforcement during a spate of protests across the country over high-profile police shootings, plans to address the unrest during a speech focused on law-and-order issues on Tuesday night in the Milwaukee suburb of West Bend, Wisconsin.
« It’s law and order. We have to obey the laws or we don’t have a country, » Trump told Fox News. « We have a case where good people are out there trying to get people to sort of calm down and they’re not calming down and we have our police who are doing a phenomenal job. » Violent protests broke out in Milwaukee on Saturday night after the death earlier in the day of Sylville Smith, 23.
Authorities said Smith was stopped for acting suspiciously and then fled, and was shot by police because he was carrying an illegal handgun and refused orders to drop it.
« But the gun was pointed at his (a police officer’s) head supposedly ready to be fired. Who can have a problem with that? That’s what the narrative is, » Trump told Fox News. « Maybe it’s not true. If it is true, people shouldn’t be rioting. » About two dozen peaceful protesters greeted Trump on Tuesday evening outside a Milwaukee theater where he taped a town hall session with Fox News.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump held a roundtable discussion with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and Inspector Edward Bailey. But news media representatives were escorted out and not permitted to hear the discussions. Trump took a brief tour of the county’s war memorial and posed for pictures with veterans.Clarke, who is black and spoke last month at the Republican National Convention, has been blunt in his assessment of the unrest, writing in an opinion piece for The Hill that « it was a collapse of the social order where tribal behavior leads to reacting to circumstances instead of waiting for facts to emerge. »
SECURITY BRIEFING Demonstrations on Saturday night turned violent, when cars and businesses were set ablaze and gunfire ripped through the area of protests. The U.S. Midwestern city was calmer on Monday night after a curfew was put in place for teenagers, and community leaders called for peace.
Police violence against African-Americans has set off intermittent, sometimes violent protests in the past two years, igniting a national debate over race and policing in the United States and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Officials from the Office of Director of National Intelligence are expected to give Trump a briefing on national security issues this week, an adviser to Trump and a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Presidential candidates are entitled to receive a briefing of classified information after they formally secure the nomination, which Trump did last month. Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival for the Nov. 8 election, is also entitled to receive a briefing if she requests one. Democrats have criticized Trump’s positions on foreign policy and national security, as well as of some of his freewheeling remarks. Democratic President Barack Obama has called Trump « unfit » for the presidency and earlier this month warned the Republican candidate that briefing information must be kept secret.
POLL-Clinton leads Trump by 6 points in latest Reuters/Ipsos poll Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has a 6-percentage-point lead over Republican rival Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Tuesday.
Clinton’s support has ranged from 41 percent to 44 percent since late July, and was about 41 percent in the Aug. 11-15 online poll.
Trump’s support has experienced wider shifts ranging from 33 percent to 39 percent while his campaign has endured controversies and distractions in recent weeks. He is favored by about 35 percent of likely voters, according to the most recent poll.
Trump has caused divisions in the Republican Party with his strong anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric, and faced criticism from both parties earlier this month for a days-long feud with the parents of a Muslim American Army captain killed in Iraq. Last week, 70 Republicans, including former members of Congress and Republican National Committee staff, wrote a letter calling for the RNC to stop helping Trump, whose actions they said were « divisive and dangerous. » The number of likely voters who picked neither Clinton nor Trump in the poll was nearly 24 percent.
At this point in 2012, President Barack Obama was ahead of Republican nominee Mitt Romney by nearly the same margin, favored by 46 percent of likely voters to Romney’s 41 percent, with about 13 percent picking neither candidate.
Obama and Romney swapped the lead in the poll several times through the summer and early fall before the president took and held the lead in late October.
In a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll that gave respondents the option to choose from Clinton, Trump, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Clinton also led Trump by 6 percentage points.
Of the alternative party candidates, Johnson came in third with 8 percentage points. Stein had about 2 percentage points. The Aug. 11-15 polls surveyed a sample of 1,132 and 1,131 likely voters, respectively, and had a credibility interval of 3 percentage points.
FOREX-Dollar bounces modestly after slide, uncertain Fed outlook limits rise The dollar edged off 7-week lows against the yen and euro on Wednesday following hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials, but scepticism about the Fed’s willingness to tighten policy limited the bounce.
The dollar nudged up 0.2 percent to 100.530 yen after falling to 99.550 overnight, its lowest since June 24, when post-Brexit referendum turmoil had boosted the safe-haven yen.
Comments by Japan’s top currency diplomat Masatsugu Asakawa, who said he will respond if there are excessive currency moves, had a limited impact on the pair.The euro was steady at $1.1279 following an overnight rise to $1.1323, its highest since June 24.
The greenback was on the defensive since late last week as downbeat U.S. indicators dented prospects of a near-term Fed rate hike.
It gained some reprieve on hawkish views expressed by Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, who said two hikes in 2016 was a possibility, and on New York Fed President William Dudley saying the central bank could possibly raise rates as soon as September.
« Hawkish views from Fed officials can prompt short covering in the dollar, but they are not sufficient enough to kick off an uptrend, » said Junichi Ishikawa, forex analyst at IG Securities in Tokyo.
« This is because the markets now expect only one or two rate hikes this year, when at the end of 2015 they had expected up to four, » added Ishikawa, who sees negative economic developments in Europe and Britain in the wake of Brexit weighing on the Fed’s decisions and cancelling out any lift from positive U.S.
indicators.
Uncertainty over Japanese monetary policy was also seen supporting the yen. The BOJ, which underwhelmed the markets in July with what many investors deemed were token easing steps, will conduct a comprehensive policy review in September.
« Policy uncertainty has been weighing on Japanese bonds for a while and now the currency market seems to be taking notice as well, » said Makoto Noji, a senior strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.
Analysts say Japan’s debt m,arket has been unsettled by speculation that the BOJ would choose against taking interest rates deeper into negative territory or increasing its bond buying.
The dollar index was little changed at 94.822 after losing 0.8 percent on Tuesday, when it touched a 7-week trough of 94.426.
Currency markets will seek fresh direction from comments expected from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and the release of the Fed’s July policy meeting minutes later in the session.
Having struck near 31-year lows earlier in the week, sterling traded almost unchanged at $1.3041 following a 1.3 percent rise overnight due to slightly higher than expected U.K. inflation data.
Investors will look to the British employment data due later in the session to see if the pound can solidify its position.
The Canadian dollar rose against the broadly weaker greenback. The loonie fetched C$1.2860 per dollar after touching a 7-week high of C$1.2798 on Tuesday, helped by crude oil’s advanced to 1-month highs.The Australian dollar slipped 0.1 percent to $0.7686 and the New Zealand dollar was flat at $0.7275 .
GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks step back from 1-year high after Fed rate talks Asian shares stepped back from a one-year high on Wednesday after the influential New York Federal Reserve Bank president said the Fed could raise interest rates as soon as September, prompting investors to pause after rallies in recent weeks.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.05 percent while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.4 percent, paring some of Tuesday’s sharp losses.
Wall Street shares also retreated from record highs, with the S&P 500 losing 0.55 percent.New York Fed President William Dudley said that as the U.S.
labour market tightens and as evidence of rising wages builds, « we’re edging closer towards the point in time where it will be appropriate I think to raise interest rates further. » Comments from Dudley, a permanent voter on policy and a close ally of Fed Chair Janet Yellen, also included an unusual warning on low bond yields and were seen as more hawkish than a cautious message last month.
Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart, seen as centrist, concurred saying he did not rule out a September hike – something markets have almost completely priced out.
« Clearly the Fed seems to think the market’s pricing of a September rate hike is too low. Today’s minutes of the Fed’s July policy meeting could be more hawkish than market expectations, » said Tomoaki Shishido, fixed income strategist at Nomura Securities.
Yet markets still only half believe their comments, remembering that the Fed ended up keeping rates on hold in June even after Fed officials talked up the possibility of rate hike in preceding weeks.
Yields on two-year notes briefly touched a near three-week high of 0.758 percent but failed to reach the July peak of 0.778 percent and were last at 0.750 percent.
Fed funds rate futures are pricing in a 50 percent chance of a rate hike by December, a small increase from below 50 percent earlier this week.
Dudley’s comments also pulled the dollar from seven-week lows hit just after tame U.S. inflation data.
U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in July from the previous month, following two straight monthly increases of 0.2 percent.
The dollar’s index against a basket of six major currencies plunged to 94.426 its lowest level since late June before paring some of losses to stand at 94.844, still down 0.9 percent on the week.
The euro rose to as high as $1.1323 on Tuesday and last fetched $1.1275, maintaining its 0.9 percent gains the previous day.
The dollar hovered at 100.31 yen after having fallen to as low as 99.55, coming within sight of its 2 1/2 year trough of 99.00 set on June 24 after the Brexit vote.
« As the world economy is slowing down, many countries now need a cheaper currency to support share prices. The U.S. wants a cheaper dollar and so does China, leaving the yen taking the brunt, » said Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.
The British pound recovered further from Monday’s five-week low against the dollar and rising from three-year lows against the euro after UK inflation was stronger than expected.
The data was the first in a run of July economic data that should show some of the initial impact of the Brexit vote on the economy. The pound stood at $1.3037, holding on to its 1.3 percent gains on Tuesday. Against the euro, it strengthened to 86.51 pence per euro after having hit a three-year low of 87.245 pence on Tuesday.The pound is bracing for U.K. jobless data later in the day.
U.S. inflation tame despite economy gaining momentum U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in July but a rise in industrial output and home building suggested a pickup in economic activity that could allow the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year.
Tuesday’s economic reports came as influential New York Fed President William Dudley said the U.S. central bank could raise interest rates next month, citing a tightening labor market that he said was starting to spur faster wage growth.
« The strong housing starts and industrial output performance will bolster the Fed confidence that growth momentum has rebounded, potentially supporting the bias for a near-term hike, » said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York. « Nevertheless, with inflation continuing to miss to the downside, the case for caution remains strong. » July’s unchanged reading in the Consumer Price Index followed two straight monthly increases of 0.2 percent, while in the 12 months through July, the CPI rose 0.8 percent after increasing 1.0 percent in June.
The so-called core CPI, which strips out the volatile food and energy prices, edged up 0.1 percent in July after rising 0.2 percent in each of the previous three months. The year-on-year core CPI increased 2.2 percent in July after advancing 2.3 percent in June.
The Fed has a 2.0 percent inflation target and tracks an alternative inflation measure which has been stuck at 1.6 percent since March.
NY FED RAISES POSSIBILITY OF SEPT RATE RISE The New York Fed’s Dudley told Fox Business television on Tuesday that « it’s possible » for the Fed to hike rates at its Sept. 20-21 policy meeting. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart also told reporters that he was not ruling out a move next month.
The Fed raised its benchmark overnight interest rate last December for the first time in nearly a decade.
Fed officials view the labor market as either at or near full employment. Following Dudley’s remarks, financial markets were placing a 58.9 percent probability of a rate increase at the Fed’s December policy meeting, up from 46.7 percent late on Monday, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. A September rate hike has been virtually priced out.
The weak inflation data, however, pushed the U.S. dollar lower against major currencies. U.S. stock prices slipped from record highs on Dudley’s comments. Yields on U.S.
government debt rose.
SUBDUED INFLATION SEEN TEMPORARY With rents and healthcare costs continuing to rise, some economists do not expect July’s moderation in underlying inflation to be sustained. Medical care costs climbed 0.5 percent last month, adding to June’s 0.2 percent gain.
There were also increases in the costs of hospital services, doctor visits and prescription medicine. Rents increased by 0.3 percent.
But Americans got some relief from gasoline prices, which dropped 4.7 percent last month, the first decline since February.
The cost of food consumed at home fell for a third straight month, with prices for meat, eggs, dairy and cereals declining.
Prices for new motor vehicles rose for the first time since February, while the cost of apparel was unchanged.
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION UP In a separate report on Tuesday, the Fed said U.S.
industrial production shot up 0.7 percent last month after rising 0.4 percent in June.
Production was boosted by a 0.5 percent jump in manufacturing output, the largest gain since July 2015.
Despite benign inflation, economic growth is picking up after output averaged 1.0 percent in the first half of the year.
Warmer-than-usual weather boosted utilities production by 2.1 percent. Mining output increased 0.7 percent as oil and gas drilling surged 4.9 percent, suggesting the energy-related drag on business spending was easing.
« Overall, these factors suggest the outlook for the U.S.
industrial sector has improved modestly and support our expectation of healthier economic growth in the second half of 2016, » said Jesse Hurwitz, an economist at Barclays in New York.
In a third report, the Commerce Department said housing starts increased 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.2 million units in July, the highest level since February.
Last month’s increase in groundbreaking activity supports the view that investment in residential construction will rebound after slumping in the second quarter for the first time in more than two years.
Following the industrial production and housing starts data, the Atlanta Fed raised its third-quarter GDP growth estimate by one-tenth of a percentage point to a 3.6 percent annual rate.
The firming housing market is boosting home improvement retailers such as Home Depot Inc. The company on Tuesday raised its full-year earnings forecast after reporting a 6.6 percent rise in quarterly sales.
Groundbreaking on single-family homes, the largest segment of the market, rose 0.5 percent to a 770,000-unit pace in July, also the highest level since February.Housing starts for the volatile multi-family segment increased 5.0 percent to a 441,000-unit pace. Groundbreaking on multi-family housing projects with five units or more jumped to the highest level since September 2015.
China warns Australia on investment following blocked Ausgrid deal The Chinese embassy has warned that Australia’s rejection of bids by two Chinese companies in the A$10 billion ($7.7 billion)sale of its biggest energy grid showed « clear protectionist tendencies » and would have a « serious impact on the enthusiasm » of Chinese investors.
« The Chinese government is highly concerned about the statement by the Australian Treasurer on his preliminary decision to block the sale … on national security grounds, » the embassy said in a statement to The Australian newspaper.
Treasurer Scott Morrison announced last week that he had neither State Grid Corp of China nor Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, the preferred bidders, would be allowed to seal a deal.
Morrison declined to provide further detail on the government’s objections beyond citing national security concerns.
The Chinese embassy noted that the decision was the second time this year the government has rejected bids for Australian assets by Chinese interests, referring to a bid by a China-led consortium to buy cattle company Kidman & Co.
Morrison rejected the A$371 million offer from a group headed by Hunan Dakang as also not in the national interest despite the bid with partners Shanghai CRED Real Estate Stock Co Ltd and local company Australian Rural Capital Ltd (ARC.AX) being revised after a preliminary rejection.
Australia’s decision to reject the Ausgrid underscores the country’s changing political climate since a handful of protectionist senators took power in elections last month. 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. « The Australian side stated on many occasions that it welcomes Chinese business investment, but made decisions just to the contrary, » the embassy said in its statement. « The Chinese side hopes that the Australian government will make efforts to create a fairer, better and more transparent trade and investment environment for Chinese enterprises. » It added the handling of both the Ausgrid and Kidman deals « would have serious impact on the enthusiasm of Chinese firms which want to come and invest in Australia. » ($1 = 1.2992 Australian dollars)
Stigma « killing » South Africans living with HIV Tania has to shout to be heard over music blasting out of a brothel in downtown Durban, South Africa, where dozens of sex workers slouch in chairs under the red glow of the bar or lean against walls as they wait for clients.
Dressed in a tight top and trousers, the 42-year-old looks younger than her age. Sex work is illegal in South Africa but the trade thrives, drawing women from as far away as Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique and Botswana to work alongside Tania.
Cracking jokes and quick to laugh, Tania said working in a brothel was safer than selling sex on the streets. But even so, the men can be aggressive. Condoms can burst, and when they do, sex workers are often reluctant to seek healthcare.
« Some of them are scared of going to the nurse for testing. They discriminate: ‘There is that prostitute’. And that name in public, it hurts, » said Tania, who declined to give her real name fearing reprisals.
In a report published in 2015, researchers found that the HIV prevalence rate among sex workers, one of the most at risk groups, and their clients in Durban was 53 percent – far higher than the national adult HIV prevalence rate of 19.2 percent.
Yet stigma is still one of the biggest obstacles to ending the AIDS epidemic three decades after it began, experts say.
In South Africa, sex workers speak of nurses that laughed at them, dismissed or shamed them for coming to a health clinic, even in a country with the highest number of people living with HIV – 7 million – and the largest number of people accessing anti-retroviral treatment – 3.5 million.
Deputy director of UNAIDS Dr Luis Loures, who saw his first AIDS case in 1981, said medical advances in creating lifesaving drugs to treat HIV were « a historical achievement for humanity ».
« But when I see how much we progress as societies, in terms of achievements in discrimination, I feel we are still in the 1980s, » Loures told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, referring to the start of the epidemic.
« Having health systems that discriminate against gay men, sex workers and other key populations (means that) AIDS is coming back, in a very selective way, » he said.
« WAKE UP THE WORLD » Sixteen years after South Africa first hosted the International AIDS Conference, the biggest gathering of its kind returned to Durban last month.
Some of the same campaigners who marched with President Nelson Mandela to break the silence around AIDS in 2000 were back. This time they were voicing alarm over unequal access to HIV treatment.
« People with HIV are mostly poor, they’re mostly marginalised, » said leading activist Mark Heywood from South Africa’s Section 27 rights group.
« They die in their homes, they die in hospitals, » Heywood said as he marched to « wake up the world again » to the AIDS epidemic, which killed some 180,000 people in South Africa last year.
South Africa had 380,000 new HIV infections in 2015, accounting for nearly 40 percent of new HIV infections in eastern and southern Africa, according to U.N. agency UNAIDS.
International AIDS funding fell for the first time in five years to $7.5 billion in 2015 from $8.6 billion in 2014. Only 17 million of the world’s 36.7 million HIV-positive people having access to anti-retroviral treatment, UNAIDS says.
Rights activist Nana Gleeson said in neighbouring Botswana, health worker prejudice against those on the margins of society like prisoners, foreigners and transgender people was widespread.
« It’s actually stigma that’s killing people. It creates an opportunity for people to then not give people access to treatment or whatever they need, » she said.
Oscar-winning South African actress Charlize Theron, who runs a HIV charity, has blamed racism, sexism and homophobia for fuelling the epidemic.
« We value some lives more than others, » Theron told the opening ceremony of the AIDS conference.
« We value men more than women, straight love more than gay love, white skin more than black skin, the rich, more than the poor and adults more than adolescents, » she said.
CRIMINALISATION Even as some 18,000 people attended this year’s AIDS conference, a few kilometres (miles) away, staff at a centre for Durban’s poor and homeless noticed that its regulars were not coming to the clinic for checkups.
« We know the police are regularly told to clear them away, » said the manager of the Denis Hurley Centre, Raymond Perrier.
« Almost half of the people we see in our clinic are refugees, because they tell us they don’t feel welcome in government clinics, » he added.
Human rights activists say the criminalisation of sex workers makes them more vulnerable with women working the streets reporting frequent arrest for carrying condoms, attacks and detention by the police.
Sex worker and activist Janet sees many sex workers who have given up seeking treatment and are rapidly deteriorating.
« Their skin is peeling off and it’s like maize-meal when they scratch it, » she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Since June, Janet, who like Tania is HIV-positive, has been persuading women who are still negative to start taking Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily pill that can cut the risk of getting HIV by up to 90 percent. But the drugs will only work if people have access to them, UNAIDS’ Loures said. »The only way to face things like discrimination is through activism. There is no drug that will fix that, » he said.
Italy’s tourist jewel feels strain of fame Hiking the coastal path that links the medieval fishing villages of Italy’s Cinque Terre on its northwest coast is a stop-start affair these days. Nestled between azure expanses of sea and dry-stone terraced mountains that cascade into the Mediterranean, the rocky way is barely a foot (30 centimetres) wide in places.
And as visitors arrive in ever greater numbers to see why this corner of the Riviera features on so many travel bucket lists, pedestrian traffic jams made the going slow on a sweltering August morning.
But Chinese student Hardy Yang has no complaints on the crowded path between Monterosso and Vernazza, two of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre.
« Words fail me, it is so amazing, » the 18-year-old told AFP as he and his family, from Yunnan province, took a breather. « Are there too many people? No. You know, in China, everywhere you go there are so many people. (For us) there are few people here. »
A surge in the number of Chinese visitors is only one of the reasons that the Cinque Terre, a UNESCO world heritage site that is home to some 5,000 people, attracted 2.5 million tourists last year.
And with instability and security concerns placing countries like Tunisia and Turkey off limits for many holiday operators, the total is set to be 20 percent higher in 2016, according to Vittorio Alessandro, president of the Cinque Terre National Park.
– No barriers, for now –
Other iconic Italian settings, like Venice, Florence and the celebrity hangout of Capri, are feeling similar strains, triggering debate about the possibility of capping access.
« The relationship between visitors and residents is in danger of becoming a conflictual one, » Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro recently warned.
Brugnaro is spearheading a campaign for local authorities responsible for the most saturated sites to be given special powers to limit access – a measure Italy’s centre-left government is considering.
Alessandro made waves earlier this year when he unveiled plans to monitor the numbers of people entering the 43 square kilometres (17 square miles) of the Cinque Terre. Ticket prices to access the coastal paths were raised to 7.50 euros ($8.40) per day and visitors are now made to pay higher rail ticket prices than locals.
The initiative sparked headlines about the spectre of quotas leading to tourists being turned away at road barriers or denied access to the trains that ferry the hordes to quayside lunches of ‘spaghetti alle vongole’ (spaghetti with clams).
To date, nobody has been turned away. Alessandro says the objective is only to reduce the numbers at peak times to more manageable levels.
« We don’t have gates, we don’t have barriers, the park is open, the stations are open, » Alessandro told AFP TV.
« But this is a small and fragile territory and, yes, influxes have to be rationalised.
« This landscape can only be preserved by people living in it, otherwise it becomes nothing more than a cinema set. »
Efforts so far have been focused on expanding train services to spread the flow of arriving and departing visitors more evenly.
Train operator TrenItalia kicks back some of its increased revenue to the National Park, which uses it to maintain the walking paths and the terraces which shaped the region’s celebrated landscape.
– Asians extend season –
Alessandro says the system is working well with this year’s increased numbers generating fewer incidents of painfully log-jammed village streets or dangerous overcrowding on train station platforms.
But, he says, challenges remain, particularly in dealing with cruise ship crowds. It’s like « organising a party at your house with no idea of how many people are going to turn up, » he said.
« Sustainable tourism is something that benefits the area, the host and the visitor. But a tourism that is so quick and frantic leaves nothing to the territory. »
Chiara Gasparini, a native of the region who guides walking groups, says most locals have benefited from the Cinque Terre’s fame, highlighting how the new interest from Asia had helped extend the season into the traditionally quiet months of January and February.
« Obviously it depends who you talk to, » she said. « But there are many people who work in tourism and it is thanks to tourism that people have the opportunity to stay and work in their homeland. »
French visitor Camilla Leconte has seen the region transformed in the 30 years she has been visiting.
« For good or bad? I really don’t know. I said to someone in Vernazza, ‘There are really a lot of people here,’ and she replied: ‘There are never enough’.
« I suppose charging for the hiking paths is a way also of limiting numbers because the price is not insignificant. »But limiting things by money also raises questions. Does that mean those who can afford can come, those who can’t, can’t? »
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff