Erdogan: IOC cut ties to Muslim world in rejecting Istanbul

Monday 9 September 2013
REUTERS

ANKARA: The choice of Tokyo instead of Istanbul to host the 2020 Olympic Games was unfair and meant the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was turning its back on the Muslim world; Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Monday.

Tokyo beat Istanbul by 60 votes to 36 in a head-to-head vote by IOC members in Buenos Aires on Saturday, giving the Japanese capital the Games for the second time. Madrid had been eliminated in a first round of voting.

“Both Tokyo and Madrid have hosted the games before; Istanbul hasn’t. It hasn’t been fair,” Erdogan was quoted as saying in Turkish media. “In a way, they are cutting ties with the 1.5-billion-people Muslim world."

Civil unrest, the unstable political situation on the country’s doorstep and a wave of high-profile athletics doping cases are seen as the chief culprits for the IOC’s decision to overlook Turkey, which has a predominantly Muslim population, again after Istanbul failed in bids to land the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Games.

While the unrest in neighboring Syria was seen by some as counting against the bid, others felt a heavy-handed police crackdown during recent anti-government protests also damaged Turkey’s image.

Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Games, had an estimated non-Games budget of around $4.4 billion for 2020 plus $3.4 billion for the actual event.

Istanbul’s proposal had a total cost of $19 billion, making it more ambitious but also risky given the country’s lack of experience in staging major sports events.

Another worry for Istanbul has been the wave of doping cases which have resulted in the Turkish Athletics Federation banning dozens of athletes for drugs violations, most recently double European 100m hurdles champion Nevin Yanit.

Turkey’s Sports Minister Suat Kilic said doping was not an issue peculiar to Turkey while Erdogan said the country was taking steps to fight it.

“We have said ‘zero tolerance against doping’ and have started our work,” Erdogan said.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/news/464032.

Turkish ships support Egypt's pro-democracy movement

Sunday, 01 September 2013

Turkish-flagged ships in Istanbul harbor have been involved in a unique demonstration in support of Egypt's pro-democracy movement. Crews on board a number of ships projected images of the young martyr Asma Al-Beltaji onto the building housing the Egyptian Consulate in the city in condemnation of the military coup in July.

Seventeen-year-old Miss Al-Beltaji was the daughter of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Al-Beltaji. She was shot and killed by coup forces in Rabaa Al-Adawiyya Square last month and has become a symbol of the anti-coup protests along with the four-fingered symbol of freedom used in the demonstrations. This was also projected onto the consulate alongside Asma's picture as part of the ships' protest.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/7165-turkish-ships-support-egypts-pro-democracy-movement.

Albania refuses to accept Syria's chemical weapons

November 15, 2013

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — The mission to destroy Syria's poison gas stockpile was dealt a serious blow Friday when Albania refused to host the destruction, but the global chemical weapons watchdog said it is still confident it can eradicate the arsenal outside Syria by the middle of next year.

The surprise refusal by the small and impoverished Balkan country left open the question of where the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons would send Syria's estimated 1,300-ton arsenal, which includes mustard gas and sarin.

"I can't name a country at this point, but obviously there are options and there are ways in which this can be accomplished," senior OPCW official Malik Ellahi said at the organization's headquarters at The Hague, Netherlands.

Syria has said it wants the weapons destroyed outside the country, which is in the throes of civil war. Albania had been considered the strongest hope, and few diplomats expected the NATO country of 2.8 million people to reject what Prime Minister Edi Rama said had been a direct request from the U.S.

But the plan was unpopular in Albania, and young protesters had camped outside Rama's office to oppose it, fearing it would be a health and environmental hazard. Chemical weapons have to be incinerated at extremely high temperatures or neutralized using other chemicals — both costly, risky and time-consuming operations that require specialized machinery.

In a televised address from the capital of Tirana, Rama said that it was "impossible for Albania to take part in this operation" — an announcement that brought a loud cheer from some of the 2,000 protesters.

Rama said he rejected the request because other countries, which he did not identify, were not prepared to be a part of the operation. The OPCW's Ellahi said: "It was a sovereign decision that Albania has taken."

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jan Psaki said the decision would not hurt U.S.-Albanian relations. "We appreciate Albania looking seriously at hosting the destruction of chemical weapons," she said. "The international community continues to discuss the most effective and expeditious means for eliminating Syria's chemical weapons program in the safest manner possible."

Albania is one of only three nations that have declared a chemical weapons stockpile to the OPCW and destroyed it. The U.S. and Russia have also declared stockpiles but have not yet completed their destruction.

Tirana has been an avid supporter of Washington since the U.S. and NATO intervened with airstrikes in 1999 to stop a crackdown by Serb forces on rebel ethnic Albanians in neighboring Kosovo. "Without the United States, Albanians would never have been free and independent in two countries that they are today," Rama said in an apologetic speech.

But the relationship was not enough to convince the hundreds of protesters. "We don't have the infrastructure here to deal with the chemical weapons. We can't deal with our own stuff, let alone Syrian weapons," said 19-year-old architecture student Maria Pesha, among the protesters camped out overnight outside Rama's office. "We have no duty to obey anyone on this, NATO or the U.S."

Albania has had problems with ammunition storage in the past. In 2008, an explosion at an ammunition dump at Gerdec near Tirana killed 26 people, wounded 300 others and destroyed or damaged 5,500 houses. Investigators said it was caused by a burning cigarette in a factory where some 1,400 tons of explosives, mostly obsolete artillery shells, were stored for disposal.

Wherever it happens, the destruction of Syria's weapons will be overseen by experts from the OPCW, which won the Nobel Peace Prize this year for its efforts to eradicate poison gas around the world. Just getting Syria's weapons out of the war-torn country will be a major challenge.

Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch diplomat running the joint U.N.-OPCW mission in Syria, said her team is working "in an active war zone, in an extreme security situation with serious implications for the safety" of all personnel.

Norway has offered a cargo ship and naval frigate to help transport the chemicals. The disarmament operation started more than a month ago with inspections. Machinery used to mix chemicals and fill empty munitions was smashed, ending the Syrian government's capability to make new weapons.

The disarmament mission stems from a deadly Aug. 21 attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus in which the United Nations determined that sarin was used. Hundreds of people were killed. The U.S. and Western allies accuse Syria's government of responsibility, while Damascus blames the rebels.

Syria's conflict, now in its third year, has killed more than 120,000 people, according to activists. It started as an uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule but later turned into a civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists on the ground, said Friday that a government airstrike the previous night in northern Syria killed a senior rebel figure and wounded two commanders and the spokesman of the Tawhid Brigade, the main rebel outfit in Aleppo province.

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

New Albanian PM vows less reliance on remittances

September 11, 2013

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania's new Socialist prime minister is promising to make his country less reliant on remittances from migrant workers by creating 300,000 jobs at home.

Prime Minister Edi Rama formally presented his policies Wednesday to parliament at the start of a two-day debate to confirm nominations for his 20-member cabinet. The 49-year-old Socialist leader will be formally sworn in later this month.

Rama warned that Albania's economy is in troubled waters, and said he would seek advice from the International Monetary Fund. "We shall talk closely with the IMF ... to understand how deep the crisis is and get advice and help on how to respond to the threat of its explosion," Rama said.

The former communist country has relied for decades on money sent home by hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in Italy and neighboring Greece, which have been significantly reduced in recent years. Growth in Albania has slowed since those two countries were hit by the financial crisis.

Albania has a population of just over 3 million and up to 1 million other Albanians are estimated to be working abroad. Rama won a landslide election victory in June, defeating conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha on pledges of fighting widespread corruption and bringing the NATO member closer to its goal of joining the European Union.

"Albania is our homeland while Europe is our future," Rama said. His new government will be formed in alliance with a junior partner, the Socialist Movement for Integration Party of Ilir Meta, a 44-year-old former prime minister.

Rama, a former mayor of the capital Tirana, rose to prominence with a popular campaign to brightly decorate the facades of austere Communist-era apartment blocks. His new Cabinet is filled political newcomers and includes six women — an unprecedented step in Albania.

Unemployment currently stands at 12.8 percent. But the Socialists argue the jobless rate is hugely underreported because many rural residents are typically not counted. Rama's new government is promising to transform the economy "from one based on remittances, international aid with soft loans, privatization income, self-employment in agriculture, small retails shops, and construction ... to one based on production," according to the government program.

It promises to ease taxes on medium-sized businesses and reform the revenue system, abandoning a 10 percent flat tax on personal income in favor of a scaled framework. Albania remains one of Europe's poorest countries, with a minimum wage salary of 21,000 leks ($210; €150) per month.

Afghan election season off to a messy start

November 20, 2013

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — With Afghanistan's next presidential election just five months away, authorities say they are facing a possible repeat of the abuses that have discredited the country's efforts to build a democracy.

They say they have no idea how many voters are really on the rolls because multiple registrations have resulted in nearly twice as many registered voters as eligible ones, said Noor Mohammed Noor, spokesman for the Independent Election Commission.

The registration cards have no expiry date, there is no database to track them, and they are good for any election, he said. Nader Nadery, head of the nonpartisan Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, said it is too early to charge fraud, but "there is a lot of smoke out there . . . the level of suspicion is high."

With foreign troops set to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of next year, a credible April 6 election would do much to validate the West's efforts over 12 years to foster democracy in the country.

The 2009 election, which gave President Hamid Karzai a second term, was severely marred by allegations of fraud. Suspicions ran from ballot-box-stuffing and bogus registration cards to men from deeply conservative areas turning up at polling stations with handfuls of registration cards to vote on behalf of female relatives, arguing that custom forbade the women to appear in public.

Constitutionally limited to two terms, Karzai is not in the running. But Noor said he worries the glut of registration cards could taint the April 6 poll, while Andrew Wilder of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a federally funded conflict-resolution body, said ballot-stuffing was an even bigger threat.

Holding an election in a country still reeling from 30 years of conflict and struggling to strengthen weak and often corrupt institutions is a herculean task, say experts and candidates. Taliban threats cast a further damper.

"Poor security in parts of the country will make it difficult and dangerous for candidates to campaign, and for voters to go to the polls and vote on election day," said Wilder. "Poor security, as we saw in the 2009 elections, also makes it difficult for observers and party agents to monitor elections, and provides a great opportunity for ballot-box-stuffing."

While past Taliban warnings have failed to disrupt elections, the insurgents are again threatening to kill candidates, election workers and voters, and there are fears that the approaching departure of foreign troops will sharpen the Taliban's appetite for violence.

The threats to the fragile democratic process are reflected in the election commission's Kabul headquarters, surrounded by anti-blast walls, barbed wire and phalanx of security forces in an otherwise ordinary district of the capital.

Speaking to The Associated Press in his office here, spokesman Noor says: "This is the reality of this country. We are conducting elections in a difficult situation, with poor security, but we must conduct elections.

"It is the only way for our country to succeed." He said he wished the old registration cards had been thrown out and new ones prepared for this election. Instead, the commission is working on "a badly laid foundation" of an accumulation of cards issued over the course of four presidential and parliamentary elections since 2004, plus a fifth just concluded for next April's poll.

Also, there are no voter lists, meaning no way of checking eligibility on election day. Instead, anyone can show up at any of the 22,000 polling stations with a card and vote. A credible election would do much for the West's efforts to foster democracy in Afghanistan after the allegations of fraud leveled by Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's 2009 challenger. He refused to participate in a second round of voting because he said he didn't believe it would be fair.

This time he's one of the front-runners in a field of 11, including Qayyum Karzai, brother of the outgoing president who insists he urged him not to run. On Wednesday, the Independent Election Commission announced an eleventh presidential candidate, a man who was originally disqualified but won his appeal. Five other disqualified hopefuls were unsuccessful in their appeals. A lottery next week would decide the order that names appear on the ballot papers, the commission said.

Mahmoud Saikal, a member of Abdullah's party, said "we do have a little bit of time to develop an anti-fraud plan." Voter turnout must be pushed well above the estimated 2009 turnout of less than 30 percent to reduce the impact of ballot box stuffing on the election results, he said, and there should be curbs on proxy voting by men for women. "My preference would be for the women of Afghanistan to come out."

Saikal also said he hoped for "some courageous monitors who have the guts to go to the remote areas."

Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghanistan disqualifies 16 from presidential race

October 22, 2013

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top contenders for Afghanistan's 2014 presidential elections all survived a preliminary disqualification round on Tuesday that eliminated 16 minor candidates for not meeting requirements, officials said.

Independent Elections Commission chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said the disqualified candidates have 20 days to raise any objections to the commission. He added that 10 of the 26 candidates who registered by the Oct. 6 deadline made the cut.

Most of the eliminated candidates were barred because of improper documents and other violations, including dual nationalities and lack of university degrees, but the favorites all easily qualified for the vote.

Candidates had to declare tickets that included two vice presidents, and have at least 100,000 signatures that included ones from all 34 of Afghanistan's provinces. "There are different reasons (for the disqualifications). Some of them had problems with documents, education levels, the number of registration signatures," Nuristani said. "They now have 20 days to criticize and complain."

All the candidates have tried to shape tickets that draw support from across an ethnically fractious political scene marked by patronage and alliances among the elite, including warlords and tribal elders who can marshal votes from their communities. The population of 31 million is roughly 42 percent Pashtun, 27 percent Tajik, 9 percent Hazara, and 9 percent Uzbek along with other, smaller factions. The Taliban are predominantly Pashtun.

The April 5 vote could determine the future course of Afghanistan and the level of foreign involvement here after 12 years of war. President Hamid Karzai is not entitled to run for a third consecutive term in elections, but is expected to back at least one of the candidates — his former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, despite the fact that his businessman brother Qayyum Karzai is also running for president. Both men are Pashtun.

Both men qualified for next year's vote. Other top contenders who remain in the running include former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who was the runner up to President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 elections and dropped out just ahead of a runoff vote following allegations of massive fraud in the first round.

Another is Ashraf Ghani, a Pashtun former finance minister who oversaw the transition of security from foreign forces to the Afghan army and police. Ghani ran and lost in the 2009 elections. Two former Afghan warlords who are sharing a ticket, one for president, the other for vice president, also qualified. They are Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, an influential Pashtun lawmaker and religious scholar, who is running for president along with former energy and water minister Ismail Khan, a Tajik.

Rahim Wardak, a longtime defense minister, also made the cut.

Patrick Quinn contributed to this report from Kabul.

Afghan presidential candidates finish registration

October 06, 2013

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A slew of political heavyweights, along with the Afghan president's brother and a number of former warlords, will take part in next year's elections for the country's top office in a critical vote that that could determine the future course of the country and the level of foreign involvement in Afghanistan after 12 years of war.

The candidacies ended weeks of speculation over who will aspire to replace President Hamid Karzai, who has essentially run the country since the Oct. 7, 2001 invasion that ousted the Taliban. Karzai is not entitled to run for a third consecutive term in the April 5 elections, but is expected to back at least one of the candidates — his former Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul, despite the fact that his businessman brother Qayyum Karzai is also running for president.

The contenders are a mix of Afghanistan's past and current power players, including some warlords with a tainted history, a couple of technocrats and some complete political outsiders. All, however, come from Afghan elite that has to one degree or another shaped the country over the past 12 years.

By the end of the day and after a mad scramble by candidates and hundreds of supporters and heavily armed bodyguards, about 20 presidential candidates had registered for the first independent vote organized by Afghanistan without direct foreign assistance.

The registration came on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the invasion, which led to an insurgency that shows no signs of abatement and a war that has become largely forgotten in the United States and among its coalition allies, despite continued casualties suffered by their forces on the ground.

A bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, military and Afghan officials said, and they became the latest casualties in the conflict. The U.S.-led international military coalition had earlier said four of its service members were killed in the south, and a military official confirmed all were Americans killed by an "improvised explosive device." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Their deaths bring the toll among foreign forces to 132 this year, of which 102 are from the United States. At least 2,146 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count. They are part of a total of nearly 3,390 coalition forces that have died during the conflict.

The attack came as Afghan security forces take over the brunt of the fighting after the coalition handed over security responsibilities for the country earlier this summer. This year, an average of least 100 Afghan soldiers and police has died each week.

The insurgency has tried to take advantage of the withdrawal of foreign forces to regain territory around the country. There are currently about 87,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan, including around 52,000 Americans. That number is expected to be halved by February, with U.S. numbers going down to about 31,000.

The April 5 vote will help determine the success or failure of all those years of U.S.-led military and political intervention in the country. All the candidates have tried to shape tickets that attempt to unify an ethnically fractious political scene marked by patronage and alliances among the elite — a group that includes warlords and tribal elders who can marshal votes among the country's various ethnic groups. The population of 31 million is roughly 42 percent Pashtun, 27 percent Tajik, 9 percent Hazara, and 9 percent Uzbek along with other, smaller factions. The Taliban are predominantly Pashtun.

Candidates declare tickets that include two vice presidents and will be reviewed by the Independent Electoral Commission before final approval on Nov. 11. To run, candidates must have at least 100,000 signatures from all 34 of Afghanistan's provinces.

Billions of dollars in funds pledged to Afghanistan are tied to the government's holding transparent and credible elections, a challenge in a country rife with patronage and corruption and a resilient Taliban insurgency. The Taliban have asked people not to vote and do not recognize the election process.

Top contenders include former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who was the runner up to President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 elections and dropped out just ahead of a runoff vote following allegations of massive fraud in the first round.

Ashraf Ghani, a Pashtun former finance minister who oversaw the transition of security from foreign forces to the Afghan army and police. He weighed in with support from two of Afghanistan's ethnic groups. His choices for vice president are Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former warlord who is thought to control the majority of the Uzbek vote and Sarwar Danish, a former justice minister who has the support of former Hazara warlord and vice president Mohammad Karim Khalili. Ghani ran and lost in the 2009 elections.

Two former Afghan warlords are sharing a ticket, one for president, the other for vice president. They are Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, an influential Pashtun lawmaker and religious scholar, who is running for president along with former energy and water minister Ismail Khan, a Tajik.

Rassoul, a Pashtun, is running with Ahmad Zia Massoud, the brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance commander killed in an al-Qaida suicide bombing two days before Sept. 11, 2001. Habiba Sarabi, a Hazara who was governor of Bamyan province and is one of five women vice presidential candidates, fills out the ticket.

Karzai's brother is also running with Wahidullah Shahrani, an Uzbek who was minister of mines, and Abrahim Qasimi, who was a Hazara member of parliament.

Germany hands over military base to Afghans

October 06, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Germany handed Afghanistan's security forces control Sunday of a key military base in the country's northern province of Kunduz, where German troops spent almost a decade as part of the international effort to combat Taliban insurgents.

The handover is part of the gradual pullout of Western forces due to be completed by the end of next year. The Kunduz base, which lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Kabul, shaped the German armed forces "like hardly any other place," German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said according to prepared remarks. Nowhere else since World War II have more German soldiers died in combat.

"(We) built, fought, cried and consoled, killed and fell here," de Maiziere was quoted as saying. Some 20,000 German troops were deployed in Kunduz during a 10-year operation, and 20 of Germany's 35 combat deaths in Afghanistan occurred in the province. Another 17 died of noncombat injuries, including seven who were killed in a 2002 helicopter crash in Kabul.

For many Germans, the base is synonymous with a 2009 NATO airstrike ordered by German forces that killed 91 Afghans and wounded 11, most of them civilians. De Maiziere made an indirect reference to the incident, which caused a political furor and the resignation of several senior German officials at the time.

"Kunduz was also the place where grave decisions were made, had to be made," he said. "It is a place where there were many deaths — on all sides. Let us today remember all of these deaths together." Germany, the third-largest international troop contributor in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain, plans to reduce its force levels in the country from 4,000 to about 800 by 2015. Those remaining will be stationed in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, responsible largely for training and support of Afghan troops.

The U.S. is expected to keep about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan as a residual force after 2014, but no final decision has been made.

Afghan politician defects to Taliban

September 20, 2013

A former Afghan senator and district governor has defected to the Taliban in the northern province of Sar-e-Pol, officials have told the BBC.

Qazi Abdul Hai served as a senator between 2004 and 2008 and was later made a district governor in Sar-e-Pol.

Correspondents say he is thought to be the highest-ranking civilian official to have joined the Taliban.

The move comes as foreign combat forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014 and ahead of elections next year.

Hai is believed to have defected to the Taliban along with two of his bodyguards on Tuesday.

As a tribal elder and former senator and official, Qazi Abdul Hai has some influence locally. But he doesn’t have a big following and it is unlikely that it would dramatically increase Taliban strength in the area. Nevertheless, this defection is symbolically significant.

Low-level defections to the Taliban, mostly by Afghan policemen, have happened in several parts of the country. But this is the first time a former official and politician of this status has defected.

But there is also a significant propaganda element for the Taliban. They have been promoting this as a success of their integration program and say that he switched sides after “realizing the reality” and “seeing the truth”.

Source: The Punch.
Link: http://www.punchng.com/news/world/afghan-politician-defects-to-taliban/.

Wide-open Afghan presidential race kicks off

September 17, 2013

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's presidential race kicked off Monday as election authorities began accepting the nominations of would-be candidates, the start of a wide-open race whose winner will oversee the final phases of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops amid a relentless Taliban insurgency.

The first day of registration drew ... no one. No major candidates are expected to submit their nominations until closer to the Oct. 6 deadline, part of a waiting game to see how the field shapes up. The election, set for April 5, will determine who succeeds incumbent President Hamid Karzai, who has in some form or shape led Afghanistan since the Taliban government was ousted in the American-led invasion in 2001. Karzai, who will have served two five-year terms, is barred from running for a third.

Candidates have until Oct. 6 to submit their names and meet election requirements, including depositing a fee of 1 million Afghanis ($18,000) and proving they have the backing of 100,000 people. At least 20 people have picked up information packages about running for president in recent days, but there were no submissions on Monday, said Sareer Ahmad Barmak, an election commissioner.

There are no clear favorites in the race, but speculation in recent days has focused on Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul. Rassoul is a former national security adviser with a medical degree who has tended to stay out of the limelight and could end up being a consensus candidate among some of the many political factions in this nation of 31 million.

Other potential candidates include: Abdullah Abdullah, an opposition leader who lost to Karzai in 2009; Ashraf Ghani, a well-known academic and former finance minister with a reputation as a technocrat who also lost the last election; Hanif Atmar, a former interior minister who has grown critical of Karzai; and Farooq Wardak, the education minister who has been involved in efforts to pursue peace talks with Taliban insurgents.

Some speculation also has focused on Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, an influential lawmaker with a long history as a jihadist and allegations of past links to Arab militants including Osama bin Laden. He would likely be the most controversial candidate, at least among Afghanistan's foreign allies.

Afghanistan is a desperately poor, ethnically fractious country whose economy relies heavily on foreign assistance. Its politics are marked by patronage and alliances among the elite - a demographic that includes warlords and tribal elders who can marshal votes.

But those alliances are very fluid, and so-called political coalitions that have been set up in recent months have quickly experienced fissures. Even within ethnic groups - the population is roughly 42 percent Pashtun, 27 percent Tajik, 9 percent Hazara, and 9 percent Uzbek along with other, smaller factions - there are divisions that make it difficult to predict who will line up with whom.

Karzai, who has been accused of being unwilling to crack down on the pervasive corruption in his government, has said he would not endorse a candidate, but his presence is expected to loom large during the campaign.

Also looming are the Taliban, the militant Islamists who ruled the country from 1996-2001 before being overthrown by America after refusing to hand over bin Laden, whose al-Qaida terrorist network staged the Sept. 11 attacks. The Taliban insurgency has strengthened in recent years and seems primed to wreak more havoc as U.S.-led foreign troops finish withdrawing in late 2014, leaving Afghan troops fully in charge.

Whether the election can be held safely is a major concern, as is whether it can be held without fraud. The 2009 elections were marred by allegations of vote-rigging against Karzai's camp. Thomas Ruttig, an expert with the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said there are already warning signs about how the vote will go April 5, including reports of "many more voter cards in circulation than voters in Afghanistan" and failures to make progress in peace talks with the Taliban.

At this stage, "one has to be doubtful about how reliable these elections will be," he said.

Afghans mark killing of northern rebel leader

September 09, 2013

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghans on Monday honored a rebel leader who was slain two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and whose fellow fighters helped the U.S. overthrow the Taliban government.

The annual commemoration marks the anniversary of the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a legendary ethnic Tajik commander of the Northern Alliance. He remains widely admired in this country for his resistance to Soviet rule as well as to the Taliban, whose harsh interpretation of Islam made life unbearable for numerous Afghans in the late 1990s.

Massoud was killed on Sept. 9, 2001, by al-Qaida suicide bombers posing as journalists, an assassination suspected of being linked to the later attacks on the United States. His once beleaguered forces routed the Taliban with the support of U.S. air power in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Monday, Afghans held memorial events honoring Massoud and his picture was plastered on even more buildings than normal. Officials also placed wreaths at a monument in Kabul dedicated to him. Among those who honored Massoud were other well-known Afghan militia leaders. The forces of many Afghan warlords, including those of Massoud, were accused of committing atrocities, including during the Afghan civil war in the early 1990s before the Taliban seized the government.

Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf — a white-bearded commander alleged to have supported Arab fighters who flocked to Afghanistan to resist the Soviets in the 1980s — took the stage in one major ceremony. He blasted the Taliban as "servants of foreigners."

The Taliban "are committing crimes against humanity, against Islam and against Afghanistan," said Sayyaf, who also is a rumored presidential candidate. "They are not Afghans." The Taliban have stepped up their activity in recent months as U.S.-led foreign troops have reduced their presence in Afghanistan, and the anniversary of Massoud's death is always a sensitive day for security.

According to Javed Faisal, spokesman for the Kandahar province governor, two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms tried to stage an attack in the southern province's Panjwai district around 11 a.m. Monday. Police shot the pair dead, Faisal said.

Associated Press Writer Mirwais Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar.

Dubai chosen to host 2020 world expo

November 27, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Fireworks erupted in Dubai after the tiny Gulf emirate won the right to host the 2020 World Expo, becoming the first Middle Eastern city to organize the event in its more than 150-year history.

Dubai bested competing bids from Izmir, Turkey; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Yekaterinburg, Russia, after three rounds of voting by delegates of the 168-nation Bureau International des Expositions in Paris.

In line with its reputation for over-the-top glitz, Dubai lit the world's tallest tower with glimmering lights. The skies around the Burj Khalifa, which towers at 2,717 feet, erupted with fireworks. The logo of its bid for the 2020 expo was plastered on police cars, convenience store bags, storefronts, taxis, receipts, government buildings and even on a flag on Mount Kilimanjaro.

A spending spree was already underway even before officials announced the host city. Dubai estimates a successful Expo 2020 bid will generate $23 billion between 2015 and 2021, or 24 percent of the city's gross domestic product. They say total financing for the 6-month-long event will cost $8.4 billion.

In a statement after the vote, Dubai ruler and U.A.E. vice president Sheikh Mohammed bin Rahid promised to "astonish the world" in 2020. "Dubai Expo2020 will breathe new life into the ancient role of the Middle East as a melting pot for cultures and creativity," he said.

Delegates voted behind closed doors over three rounds to choose the winner, with Sao Paolo and Izmir eliminated in the second round. Sao Paulo had proposed a renewable energy tower to convert solar energy into the electricity needed for the event and a new economic, tourism and education hub with hotels, schools, and shopping malls.

Izmir, an Aegean coastal city formerly known as Smyrna, had pushed global health and environmental issues for its bid and had chosen award-winning architect Zaha Hadid to design the park for the exposition.

Russia treated its bid to hold the expo as a state priority not unlike its bids to host the Winter Games and the World Cup. Organizers of the pitch for the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg were planning to build 103 pavilions for the expo and accommodation for exhibition participants, later to be converted into a residential area.

The announcement comes just days before the Dec. 2 U.A.E. national day, which celebrates the young nation's 42 years of unity and independence from the British Protectorate. The official Twitter account for Dubai's world expo bid wrote after the announcement that the win "will help unlock the vast potential of this region" and that it is the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East.

"The UAE is proud to have been selected to host #Expo2020 in #Dubai under the theme 'Connecting Minds, Creating the Future'," said Dubai authorities on their official expo bid account. While the World's Fair no longer holds the popularity of other global events like the Olympics or World Cup, it remains a chance for millions from around the world to discuss and see the business of the future.

Last year Yeosu, South Korea, hosted the 2012 world expo. The next one is scheduled to take place in Milan in 2015.

Associated Press reporter Aya Batrawy in Dubai contributed to this report.

Dubai to construct 'frame'

By Justin Salhani
Nov. 25, 2013

Nov. 23 (UPI) --Dubai's municipality announced last week that it would erect an icon to be called the 'frame'.

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, said: “We have opened tenders and will be giving the assignment to the apt contractor according to our plan.”

“We expect it will be a bridge between the past and future of Dubai and may become a name attached to Dubai like Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab,” he said.

The frame will be a large frame-like structure, similar to St. Louis' arc but square, that frames old Dubai through one end and new Dubai through the other. The ground floor will be home to a gallery of Dubai's history.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/Blog/2013/11/25/Dubai-to-construct-frame/5991385380151/.

Heavy rain reaches Dubai forcing airshow to close early

2013-11-21

DUBAI - Heavy rains and flooding forced the annual airshow in Dubai to close early on its last day Thursday while schools in the desert Gulf state were ordered shut.

"The Dubai Airshow is closed for now, we advise people to refrain from traveling to the site," organizers said in an emailed statement.

Participants and visitors to the airshow that kicked off on Sunday posted on social networks pictures and videos of flooded exhibition halls.

No announcements of new deals had been expected Thursday as most manufacturers had on Wednesday given final figures of contracts sealed during the event.

As the turbulent weather swept across Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates ministry of education ordered public and private schools shut to ensure "students' safety," according to a statement carried by the official WAM news agency.

Local media reported several accidents that brought traffic to a near-halt in several areas of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Local media had reported Sunday that one man was killed when floods swept through a valley in the northern Ras al-Khaimah emirate.

Flash floods sparked by torrential rain have hit other Gulf neighbors, some of which normally experience such low precipitation that religious leaders often organize special prayers for rain.

In Saudi Arabia, seven people were killed in three days of rain, the kingdom's civil defense authority said on Wednesday, adding that five others were missing.

Meanwhile in Kuwait, civil defense authorities announced two people were killed as the amount of rainfall reached 100 millimeters (3.9 inches) in two days -- Monday and Tuesday -- equal to the average annual rainfall in the emirate.

Heavy rains have also been reported in Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=62778.

Egypt row: UAE recalls Tunisia envoy

AFP
Sunday 29 September 2013

DUBAI: The UAE has recalled its ambassador from Tunisia to protest calls by the Tunisian president for the liberation of Egypt’s deposed head of state, reports said Saturday.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki had called on the UAE-backed new rulers in Cairo to free Muhammad Mursi, in a speech this week at the UN General Assembly.

The UAE, where dozens of Brotherhood supporters have been jailed for plotting to overthrow the regime, had welcomed Mursi’s overthrow and, following his ouster, pledged financial aid to Egypt’s new rulers.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/news/466167.

UAE uses former Palestinian official to create Turkish 'Tamarod' movement

Saturday, 07 September 2013

An informed source in Palestine has claimed that former Fatah leader Mohamed Dahlan, who is currently a senior government adviser in the UAE, has visited Turkey and met opposition groups. The close aide to Dahlan said that the visit was planned by UAE Crown Prince Shaikh Mohamed bin Zayed and that the ex-Fatah official entered Turkey using a false passport.

It is claimed that Dahlan met young Turkish and Kurdish activists who oppose the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the aim of establishing a Tamarod-style opposition movement in Turkey. The ultimate intention, it is believed, is to complete the overthrow of Islamist movements in the region by toppling Hamas in Gaza and Erdogan's government in Turkey. The UAE backed the military coup which overthrew the Islamist government of Dr Mohamed Morsi in Egypt.

Turkey has opposed the coup since the beginning in a stance which has angered Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The government in Ankara is being targeted to be overthrown.

The UAE canceled investment projects worth $12 billion in Turkey as a result of Erdogan's opposition to the coup in Egypt. According to media source Asrar Arabia, it is not unusual for UAE government actions to lead to business losses for companies in the emirates.

Dahlan is a former prominent official in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the secularist Fatah movement. As a result of his internal conflict with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as his failure to undermine the Hamas government in Gaza, he was dismissed from the authority and Fatah and now lives in the UAE.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/7266-uae-uses-former-palestinian-official-to-create-turkish-tamarod-movement.

Qatar: Iran nuke deal step for stability in region

November 25, 2013

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Qatar is the latest Gulf Arab state to welcome the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, calling it a step toward greater stability in the region.

The Gulf's main political power, Saudi Arabia, has previously expressed unease about U.S. outreach to Iran. The dialogue helped pushed along efforts by Washington and others to strike a deal with Iran seeking to ease Western concerns that Tehran could move toward nuclear weapons.

Saudi officials have withheld public comment on the first-step deal signed on Sunday in Geneva, but smaller Gulf partners have backed the accord. Qatar's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the deal is an "important step toward safeguarding peace and stability in the region."

Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have issued similar statements.

Flash floods claim 15 lives

JEDDAH: MD AL-SULAMI
Tuesday 19 November 2013

At least 15 people have died and eight others are reported missing in flash floods caused by heavy rains in Riyadh and other parts of the Kingdom in the last 24 hours.

The Civil Defense Department said Monday that it had received more than 7,000 calls for help from different regions following rains. “We have rescued over 800 stranded people, while 450 vehicles have been pulled out from flooded areas,” it said in a statement. The department has urged the public to be cautious following weather forecasts for more rains in the next three days.

Col. Saeed Sarhan, the department's spokesman in Makkah, said the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment has forecast the formation of thunderclouds over the southern Makkah region, Qunfuda and Al-Laith, as well as Makkah and Taif.

Deaths resulting from rain-related accidents were reported across the Kingdom, sources said.

Civil Defense officers found the body of a missing Filipino worker in the Northern Border Province on Monday. He was reported missing after his truck fell in deep waters on a damaged road. Three workers including two Filipinos and an Arab who were traveling with him, survived.

“They suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital for treatment,” said Maj. Abdul Rahman Al-Ahmari, deputy spokesman of Civil Defense in the region. Flash floods had washed away the entire road surface and the ground had also caved in before the truck attempted to cross it, eyewitnesses said. The Civil Defense received a report of four missing workers on Monday morning, he said. “There were light to heavy rains in many parts of the Makkah region, including Meesan and Adham,” Sarhan said, adding that his department had not received any emergency calls for help during rains.

The Civil Defense said efforts were under way to find the eight missing people who were washed away in flash floods. The department rescued 121 citizens and residents in Riyadh on Monday, including eight families.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/news/479821.

Saudi Arabia demands permanent Security Council seat for Arabs

2013-11-09

NEW YORK - Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador Abdallah al-Muallimi to the United Nations demanded a permanent seat for Arabs at the Security Council, saying the UN body has failed tackle Middle East issues.

Muallimi criticized the Security Council as “crippled” by the veto power, which only five countries hold. He said a “just international representation” is needed.

Saudi Arabia rejected last month to take a traditional Arab seat in the Security Council in protest at the body's failure to end the Syria war and act on other Middle East issues.

The Security Council is dominated by its five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - which have veto power over its decisions.

To ensure diversity, the council's 10 elected members are made up of three from Africa, two from Asia-Pacific, one from Eastern Europe, two from the Latin American and Caribbean group, and two from the Western European and others group. Five are chosen each year to serve two-year terms.

Arab states are split between the Asia-Pacific and African regional blocs and there is an unofficial deal that at least one Arab nation is always represented on the Security Council.

Saudi Arabia was the Arab candidate from the Asia-Pacific bloc. Kuwait had put its hand up to be the next Arab candidate from the group and to run for the 2018-2019 term on the Security Council, which has led some diplomats to speculate that the Gulf U.S. ally could be a capable replacement.

Arab countries have been trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to take up the Security Council seat.

“Kuwait forms part of the efforts currently being carried out to convince Saudi Arabia to reverse its decision,” Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled al-Jarrallah told state news agency KUNA on Thursday.

Muallimi called on Friday for “profound and comprehensive” reform of the UN Security Council that includes expanding its membership and “abandoning the veto system or restricting its use.”

“The Security Council has failed to address the situation in the Palestinian and Arab occupied territories, an issue under consideration by the council for more than six decades,” Al-Muallimi told a General Assembly debate on Security Council reform.

“The Syrian crisis continues, with a regime bent on suppressing the will of its people by brutal force, killing and displacing millions of people under the watch and sight of a council paralyzed by the abuse of the veto system,” he said.

Syrian ally Russia, backed by China, has vetoed three council resolutions since October 2011 that would have condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and threatened it with sanctions.

Saudi Arabia has warned of a shift away from the United States in part over what it sees as Washington's failure to take action against Assad and its policies on Iran.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Monday and praised the US alliance with Saudi Arabia as strategic and enduring, but strains in the nearly 70-year-old relationship were apparent.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=62482.

UN: Syria refugee children working, missing school

November 29, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — The United Nations refugee agency says a growing number of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and Jordan are missing out on education and fast becoming primary providers for their families.

More than two million Syrians fled their homes because of the country's raging conflict and sought shelter abroad. A report by the UNHCR released Friday said at least half of the refugees — 1.1 million — are children. Of those, some 75 percent are under the age of 12.

With the war in its third year, refugee families lacking resources are increasingly relying on children as primary providers. The U.N. said children as young as seven work long hours of manual labor in fields, farms and shops for little pay, sometimes under dangerous or exploitative conditions.

Syrians fleeing war face hardship in Balkans

November 24, 2013

HARMANLI, Bulgaria (AP) — Idris Hassan, his wife and their three children fled the carnage of the Syrian war, hoping to find peace and safety in western Europe. Instead, they are stuck in an overcrowded Bulgarian refugee camp — living in a freezing tent without enough food or running water.

Thousands of Syrian and other refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, who make a dangerous journey from their war-ravaged countries, often end up in crammed settlements in the Balkans after being blocked at the borders of wealthy Western European nations.

"We left our country to look for a peaceful, better place to live, where we could give our children proper education," Hassan, 44, said sitting by a fire outside his tent in the Harmanli camp in southern Bulgaria. "But now we see that Bulgaria is a poor country which struggles to provide food for its own people."

Aid officials say that the humanitarian situation is particularly alarming in Bulgaria, which has faced massive influx of migrants that far outnumbers its capacities. Bulgaria, one of the EU's newest and poorest members, borders Turkey — a Muslim nation that has become a magnet for Syrians fleeing the war.

"It is very important that all European countries keep their borders open, accept Syrian refugees and provide them with adequate assistance," said Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

After visiting a refugee camp in Sofia on Friday, Guterres pledged support for Bulgaria in its efforts to provide adequate protection and assistance to Syrian refugees, saying the agency will send a technical assistance team this week to Bulgaria.

Human Rights groups are also expressing alarm. "It is appalling that people seeking refuge in the European Union are being trapped in limbo in such awful conditions with winter rapidly approaching," said Barbora Cernusakova, an EU team researcher at Amnesty International.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, warned of "appalling conditions in reception centers and a disastrous lack of medical assistance." The group said that "hundreds of people find their only option is to sleep outside in unheated tents, while others crowd together in disused school classrooms because the reception centers are unable to cope with such a number of people."

Sometimes, they have just one toilet for fifty people, while entire families do not receive enough food to eat, the group said in a statement. Hassan is living through such conditions. "I have only one request: to be moved to a house or a caravan," said Hassan, a Kurdish pharmacist. "Soon, there will be snow and it will be impossible to live (in the tent) with the children."

Hassan hopes that his family's immigration documents will be processed quickly by Bulgarian authorities so they can move on to a wealthier EU country. Fellow refugees in the camp have threatened a hunger strike to protest appalling living conditions.

"Most of us have relatives, parents in other countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland," Hassan said. "We want to leave immediately, to live like all honorable people." About 10,000 migrants, mostly from Syria but also from Afghanistan and Iraq, have arrived in Bulgaria from Turkey since January, generally using hidden routes to cross the border illegally. The influx has overstretched the country's aid system — which, according to officials, can only accommodate about 5,000 people.

Thousands more refugees have sought to reach western Europe through Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro or Serbia. Entire families have been on the road for months, taken across borders by human smugglers, who pack them into trucks or boats or lead them on foot. The migrants often travel without documents and are vulnerable to being robbed of belongings and savings, which they need to pay the smugglers.

Last week in Greece, twelve people believed to be Syrian, including four young children and their father, drowned after the speedboat they were hoping to use to smuggle them to Italy capsized. Another 15 people survived the accident near the western island of Lefkada.

In Bulgaria, protests erupted in a refugee camp in a suburb of the capital Sofia, when Kahtan al Omar, a 35-year-old migrant, from Syria died of a heart attack a week after he arrived with his wife and three children. His wife said her husband had complained of chest pains, but received no aid and the ambulance arrived an hour after he died.

The Sofia camp is located in an old, vacant school, where people are jammed in run-down classrooms, with just a few toilets and showers, and no proper place to prepare food. The rooms are divided by sheets that barely provide a modicum of privacy.

People in the camp rely mostly on donations distributed by the Red Cross. Most are waiting for Bulgarian authorities to issue documents that will formally identify them as Syrians, which would help them seek asylum elsewhere in the EU.

The procedure takes time, officials said. "We understand that they want their documents to be immediately processed, but we have respective laws and regulations that we are following," said Nikolay Chirpanliev, the head of Bulgaria's government-run refugee agency.

The refugee influx also burdens neighboring Serbia, a Balkan country that borders EU member states Hungary and Croatia — making it a transit point for migrants. A Serbian asylum center in the central village of Bogovadja is full — and hundreds of migrants sleep outside. Those kept out are granted just one meal a day. Migrants say that asylum-seekers who manage to reach the EU are often deported back to Serbia, Macedonia, Greece or Bulgaria — where they wait a while and try again.

In an effort to stem the tide, authorities in Bulgaria are preparing to build a 3-meter- (10-foot-) high fence along the border with Turkey that is expected to be ready by February. "Today access to Europe has become virtually impossible for refugees, including Syrians fleeing the horrors of the war," said Ioanna Kotsioni, the head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in Bulgaria.

"Walls are being built in Greece, and soon in Bulgaria, forcing the most desperate to seek ever more dangerous routes."

Gec and Dusan Stojanovic reported from Belgrade, Serbia. Elena Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece.

Islamists expected to win seats in Mauritania vote

November 24, 2013

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — A previously banned Islamist party that promotes Shariah law is poised to win seats in Mauritania's parliament following the weekend election, analysts said Sunday.

Election officials in Mauritania began releasing a few early results from Saturday's legislative and municipal races. It was the first time legislative polls were held since President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz took power in a coup in 2008. Opposition parties largely refused to participate because of concerns the vote would not be credible.

One likely consequence is that the Islamist Tawassoul party will win legislative seats for the first time, said Mohamed Ould Mokhtar, professor of political science at the University of Nouakchott. The party was banned until 2007.

The election commission said Saturday that turnout was at 60 percent and that results were expected by the middle of this week.

Libyan officials: Clashes in Benghazi kill 5

November 25, 2013

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan officials say clashes in the eastern city of Benghazi have killed five people and wounded 17.

Hospital spokeswoman Fadya al-Barghathi says the city's al-Jalaa hospital received the bodies of four soldiers and one civilian. She says 17 wounded, including 13 soldiers, were admitted for treatment.

A security official says clashes erupted early Monday between armed citizens and members of the dissolved Ansar al-Shariah, an Islamic militant group. The fighting prompted the army's special forces to step in to quell the violence.

Sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed mainly in the city's Raas Obeida district and surrounding areas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Mohammed Abu Sneina of Benghazi's local council warned it would take stern measures against whoever disturbs the city's peace and security.

Police forcefully break up demonstration in Kiev

November 30, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Police in the Ukrainian capital broke up a large anti-government demonstration in the city center before dawn Saturday, swinging truncheons and injuring many.

The riot police used tear gas when they dispersed the crowd of about 400 protesters who were demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrators said. Some at Independence Square were seen bleeding from their heads and arms.

The crowd was the remains of a Friday night rally that attracted some 10,000 people protesting Yanukovych's decision not to sign a long-anticipated association agreement with the European Union. It was not clear why police took action when they did. But speakers at the rally had called for another large gathering on Sunday, raising the prospect of a wave of protests extending into a second week.

"It was horrible. We were holding a peaceful demonstration and they attacked us," said Lada Tromada. "They threw us away like garbage." Police moved in on the demonstration at about 4:30 a.m., said one of its organizers, Sergei Milnichenko.

There was no immediate information on how many demonstrators were injured or whether there were any arrests. Protests had been held in Kiev over the past week since Yanukovych backed away from the EU agreement. It was to have been signed Friday at an EU summit in the capital of Lithuania, and the passing of that date sparked an especially large turnout of protesters.

Yanukovych abruptly changed course for integration with the EU last week when his government announced it was suspending preparations for signing the agreement. The move angered many in Ukraine, where nearly half of the population of around 45 million favors closer ties with the EU.

Yanukovych argued that Ukraine can't afford to sacrifice trade with Russia, which regards Ukraine as historically part of its orbit and has tried to block the deal by banning some of Ukraine's imports and threatening more trade sanctions. A 2009 dispute between Kiev and Moscow on gas prices resulted in a three-week cutoff of gas to Ukraine.

Saturday's harsh action was in contrast to the mass protests of the 2004 Orange Revolution, when tens of thousands came to the square nightly for weeks and set up a vast tent camp on the main street leading to the square.

Those protests forced the annulment of a fraud-tainted presidential election in which Yanukovych was shown with the most votes. A rerun of the election was ordered and Yanukovych lost to Western-leaning reformist Viktor Yushchenko.

Yanukovych was elected president five years later, narrowly defeating then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leading figure of the Orange Revolution. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2011 for abuse of office, a case that the West widely criticized as political revenge. The EU had set Tymoshenko's release, or at least her freedom to go to Germany for treatment of a severe back problem, as a key criterion for signing the association pact with Ukraine.

The prospect of freeing his archenemy was deeply unattractive to Yanukovych.

Honduran candidate calls for protest, vote recount

November 30, 2013

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Opposition candidate Xiomara Castro announced Friday that she won't recognize the result of Honduras' presidential election because of alleged voter fraud and called on her supporters to protest the win by the ruling party candidate.

Castro, whose husband Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a 2009 coup, told a news conference that she would demand a vote-by-vote recount of Sunday's balloting, which she described as "a disgusting monstrosity that has robbed me of the presidency."

Honduras' electoral court declared conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez the winner. The court says he received 36.5 percent of the votes compared to 28.8 percent for Castro, with 93 percent of the votes counted. Six other candidates shared the remaining votes.

Claiming her campaign had "innumerable examples" of voting irregularities, Castro said "we are not going to accept the results released by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and we will not recognize the legitimacy of the government that is the product of this shameful assault."

Castro, 54, presented what she described as evidence of fraud and provided a document detailing alleged irregularities. She called on her supporters to hold massive and peaceful street protests against the result.

Castro led for months in the polls until Hernandez, 45, erased her lead by presenting himself as the law and order candidate in an impoverished country with the world's highest homicide rate and much of the cocaine traveling from South America to the U.S.

The European Union and the Organization of American States observer missions have released reports calling Honduras' election process transparent despite some irregularities. The electoral court has acknowledged that there were delays in the vote count because 20 percent of the vote tallies from the polling stations couldn't be fed into the scanner and needed to be counted by hand. Former President Zelaya said Wednesday that the fraud occurred in that 20 percent.

But Jose Antonio de Gabriel, deputy head of the European Union's team of election observers, said the irregular votes came from all over the country and not from areas that heavily favored Castro. The U.S. State Department issued a statement after the election congratulating "the people of Honduras for their strong participation" in the vote.

"We note that Organization of American States and European Union electoral observation mission reports reflect a transparent process," it said earlier in the week. Castro's campaign was considered an attempt at a political comeback by Zelaya, whose ouster left Honduras politically unstable. Poverty and violence have worsened over the last four years under outgoing President Porfirio Lobo.

Several thousand in Haiti march in 2 protests

November 30, 2013

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Several thousand Haitians marched in parallel protests on Friday in the Caribbean nation's capital.

One group was protesting what its members saw as political interference by the U.S. and carried a banner that asked President Barack Obama to stop supporting Haitian President Michel Martelly. That protest reached a peak of a few thousand people but shrank to about 1,000 as it approached the U.S. Embassy.

Riot police blocked the area with barricades. Protesters responded by taking a back route to reach the embassy compound where they met police with tear gas. The demonstrators set fire to discarded tires and broke the windows of homes and cars with rocks.

Police officers were seen taking four demonstrators into custody following the disturbance. A police spokesman couldn't be reached for comment to see if they had actually been arrested. A second group of about 600 people led by opposition leader Maryse Narcisse placed a flower Friday morning in a school yard to mark the anniversary of an election day massacre 26 years ago.

Some of the protesters displayed banners supporting former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Lavalas Family party, which Narcisse leads. Haiti has seen a spike in protests in recent months, with a few of them turning violent.

Demonstrators have objected to the rising cost of living, government waste and corruption, and the long delay of legislative and local elections. Aristide's political party has said it wants to run in the elections for which there's still no date.

Thai protesters padlock state-run offices

November 30, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Anti-government protesters in Thailand have placed symbolic padlocks on the doors of several state-run offices, continuing a week-long campaign to paralyze the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra.

Authorities, meanwhile, continued their hands-off approach to the protesters Saturday in an effort to avoid violence in the country's increasingly tense political conflict. The opposition-led protesters have urged followers to ratchet up a campaign that has so far included seizing the Finance Ministry, turning out power at police headquarters and camping out at a sprawling government office complex.

Saturday's marches started off at the headquarters of two state telecommunications agencies, TOT and CAT Telecom, where protesters padlocked the front doors. Protesters say they will seize key government offices Sunday, including several ministries and the prime minister's office.

Protests continue in Kiev over freezing of EU deal

November 26, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Several thousand Ukrainian students have ditched classes and joined protests in the center of Kiev against the government's abrupt move to freeze integration with the West and tilt toward Moscow.

Kiev announced last week that it was halting preparations for the signing of a political and trade agreement with the 28-member bloc, after Russia imposed trade restrictions and threatened more to come.

Tuesday's march by up to 3,000 students from Kiev universities followed a huge demonstration on Sunday, the biggest since the 2004 Orange Revolution. Round-the-clock protests are meant to pressure President Viktor Yanukovych to change his mind and sign a trade and political agreement at a summit on Friday.

The government blamed its decision on the EU's refusal to provide financial aid to the struggling Ukrainian economy.

Barcelona-Paris bullet train starts up on Dec. 15

November 27, 2013

MADRID (AP) — The leaders of Spain and France have announced that a new high-speed rail link between their countries will be inaugurated on Dec. 15.

Speaking in Madrid, Spain's Mariano Rajoy and France's Francois Hollande hailed the new bullet train service as a sign of closer ties between the two nations. The trip between Barcelona and Paris will take just over six hours. It will eliminate the border hassle travelers currently face of changing trains, and is an alternative to an overnight train trip lasting 11 hours.

Rajoy and Hollande on Wednesday also discussed European issues such as a banking union and high youth unemployment. Hollande urged the European Central Bank to find ways to ease tight credit hurting small and medium size businesses in Spain and France.

10,000 protesters demand Ukraine sign EU pact

November 28, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — About 10,000 demonstrators in Ukraine's capital on Thursday demanded the signing of an association agreement with the European Union even though the country's president has shelved plans for it.

Nightly protests have taken place since President Viktor Yanukovych said last week that he wouldn't sign the pact at an EU summit on Friday in Vilnius, Lithuania. Some of the protesters have kept up a round-the-clock presence in tent camps.

Yanukovych's government says Ukraine can't afford to sacrifice trade with Russia for closer ties to the EU. But demonstrators said that's short-term thinking that denies the long-term advantages of closer integration with Europe.

A 21-year-old protester, Dmitry Sayenko, said "If Ukraine doesn't use the chance to become part of Europe, I'm leaving the country." Many Ukrainians resent Russia's centuries of political control of Ukraine and the pressure it has exerted since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The EU wants to pry away Ukraine from Russia's orbit, while Moscow aims to get Kiev to join a union that would rival the European bloc. "Russia has shown that it remains an imperialist country that is pulling Ukraine into the Soviet past, and Yanukovych is helping with this," said protester Vladimir Mikolaychuk, a 50-year-old businessman.

The EU summit, which Yanukovych is attending, continues Friday, but officials appeared to have little hope that Yanukovych could be persuaded to sign. If the summit concludes without signing the agreement, the protests could grow larger and more vehement. The mass protests of 2004 known as the Orange Revolution forced the rerun of a fraudulent presidential election in which Yanukovych was credited with the most votes. His opponent Viktor Yushchenko won the revote, but Yanukovych gained the presidency in 2010 and is wary of a possible repeat of huge protests.

Ukrainian protesters demand release of Tymoshenko

November 27, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of people demonstrated in central Kiev for a fifth straight day on Wednesday to protest the Ukrainian government's decision not to sign an agreement with the European Union but to restore ties with Russia instead.

About 5,000 people were on Independence Square, listening to music and singing, several hours before the evening's demonstration was scheduled to start. Tuesday night's protests drew an estimated 7,000 people.

Earlier Wednesday, a couple of thousand demonstrators rallied outside the Ukrainian government building to call for the release of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The EU had made the release of Tymoshenko, the political rival of President Viktor Yanukovych, a condition for signing the political and trade agreement at a summit that begins Thursday in Vilnius, Lithuania. Yanukovych still plans to attend the EU summit.

The freeing of Tymoshenko "would be a sign, a symbol, that Ukraine is truly ready for change and is ready to become part of Europe," Igor Nesterovich, 42, who had come to the capital from the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk to take part in the protests.

Yanukovych's government has explained its decision to back away from efforts to integrate with the European Union by saying that Ukraine could not afford to sacrifice trade with Russia. The protesters had been split between two central squares, but on Wednesday afternoon those on Europe Square took down their tents and moved to Independence Square, the center of the 2004 Orange Revolution.

Tymoshenko was the heroine of the peaceful Orange Revolution, which overturned Yanukovych's victory in a rigged presidential election. She narrowly lost to Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election, and the next year was sent to prison in a case widely seen as political retribution.

Protests continue in tense Ukraine capital

November 25, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of angry Ukrainians clashed with riot police outside the government building Monday as protests continued in Kiev over the government's abrupt decision to pause integration with the West and tilt toward Moscow.

Demonstrators called for the government's ouster, and some of them clashed with riot police, throwing traffic cones and other objects at officers wearing gas masks and armed with rubber batons. The opposition said that one protester was injured.

The scuffle follows a protest in the heart of Kiev Sunday that was the biggest since the 2004 Orange Revolution that helped bring a pro-Western government to power. Tens of thousands of people protested against President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to snub a potentially historic deal with the European Union and focus on ties with Moscow, after immense pressure from Russia.

Yanukovych's government suddenly announced last week that it was halting its plans to sign the political association and trade deal with the 28-member EU in order to boost ties with Russia instead, after several years of preparations and firm promises from Yanukovych that he would sign it.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement Monday that the deal remains on the table. They criticized Russia for pressuring its neighbor, arguing that the agreement with Ukraine was conceived as "a win-win where we all stand to gain."

The Ukrainian government argues that the nation's economy would not survive a trade war with Russia, after the Kremlin imposed restrictions on Ukrainian exports and warned Kiev it would raise new trade barriers if it goes ahead with the EU deal

Kiev also blamed the International Monetary Fund for imposing stringent conditions for a bailout loan to aid its struggling economy. Another sticking point was the imprisonment of Yanukovych's main foe, former premier and Orange Revolution heroine Yulia Tymoshenko.

Protests continued overnight, with demonstrators camping out in tents on a central square. Round-the-clock rallies are planned for the rest of the week in a bid to urge Yanukovych to change his mind and sign the agreement at a summit in Lithuania on Friday. But it is unclear how much patience the government will have with the protesters. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov hinted that authorities would not tolerate the kind of 24/7 sit-in that brought Orange Revolution leaders to power in 2004.

Yakunovych's office has not commented on the protests, but his ally Azarov staunchly defended the turn toward Moscow Sunday evening. In an interview with Ukraine's ICTV channel Azarov snubbed the economic aid offered by the EU as "a pittance" and said that Moscow, by contrast, has offered a discount for Russian natural gas imports, which Ukraine has been seeking for several years.

Dozens of protesters were rallying on European Square in downtown Kiev Monday morning, dancing to patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers, hiding from rain under umbrellas and waving Ukrainian and EU flags.

"I have been to Europe and seen how people live there. I want my children and grandchildren to have a normal life," said Halyna Polychuk, 50, a retired store manager who came to Kiev from the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk to join the demonstrations.

Scotland sets out blueprint for independence

November 26, 2013

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — An independent Scotland would continue to use the pound sterling as its currency, remain in the European Union and join the NATO military alliance, Scotland's government said Tuesday.

In the first detailed outline of Scotland's political future as an independent country, First Minister Alex Salmond's administration set out the ways it said the nation would prosper if it left the United Kingdom. In a referendum on Sept. 18, 2014, Scots will be asked whether they want Scotland to become independent.

The document says independence will create a more democratic Scotland and a more prosperous country. Scotland is part of the U.K. but it has had its own Parliament since 1999 and has its own set of laws. The governing Scottish National Party supports independence, while the opposition Labor and Conservative parties both oppose it. Independence day would be on March 24, 2016, if the people of Scotland vote 'yes' to going it alone.

"It will be a decision by the people of Scotland, Scotland's future is in Scotland's hands," Salmond said at the launch of the 670-page document setting out the terms of separation. Political battles in the run-up to the referendum could come down to straightforward pocketbook politics.

The independence movement is strongly opposed by British Prime Minister David Cameron. The British government argues that people living in Scotland would pay an extra £1,000 ($1,600) a year in tax. However, Salmond said that if Scotland had had power of its finances over the past five years, each Scot would have been £2,400 better off.

Salmond called for the historic referendum after his Scottish National Party in 2011 won a one-seat majority in the Scottish Parliament, the devolved assembly in Edinburgh that has powers over health, education and law.

Polls have consistently put support for independence at between 25 percent and 30 percent over the past three years, with support for remaining in the union at between 45 percent and 50 percent. But the number of undecided voters is significant.

The vote is open to all residents of Scotland. While the 'Better Together' campaign in favor of continued union has been criticized for lacking energy, the 'yes' camp has sought to capitalize on Scotland's tricky relationship with England.

In a theatrical nod to history, the March 24 date is also the anniversary of the 1603 Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland. Next year is the 700th anniversary of the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn when a Scottish army led by Robert the Bruce defeated a larger English army near Stirling.

Italy Senate expels 3-time ex-Premier Berlusconi

November 27, 2013

ROME (AP) — Three-time former Premier Silvio Berlusconi was ousted from Parliament on Wednesday after two decades as a lawmaker, defiantly calling it "a day of mourning for democracy" and pledging to continue in politics.

After weeks of maneuvering, appeals and even an attempt to bring down the government, Berlusconi's delay tactics ran their course when the Senate voted to kick him out of the chamber due to a tax fraud conviction.

Ever a populist, the 77-year-old billionaire chose the piazza over the Senate floor, addressing a crowd of cheering supporters outside his Roman palazzo as the vote was under way just a short walk away.

"We are here on a bitter day, a day of mourning for democracy," Berlusconi declared. He said his political enemies — including the judiciary he accuses of mounting a campaign against him — were "toasting" his demise.

"They are actually euphoric," he said. Berlusconi pledged to remain in politics — effectively launching a campaign in which he won't be able to stand for office — noting that other political leaders are not lawmakers.

He cited Beppe Grillo, the former comic and founder of the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement, and Matteo Renzi, the Florence mayor who is a Democratic Party star widely tipped as a future premier candidate.

The Senate vote bars Berlusconi from running or holding office for at least six years under a 2012 law applied to anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison. Berlusconi was sentenced to four years on a tax fraud conviction relating to the purchase of TV rights to U.S. films on his Mediaset network, charges he continues to deny. The sentence was automatically reduced to one year by a general amnesty, which he will serve either under house arrest or doing public service.

In the last election, Berlusconi's now-defunct and splintered People of Freedom Party garnered 7.3 million votes, or 21.5 percent of the vote. Berlusconi's charisma remains compelling to many Italians despite his ongoing judicial woes.

"I think for the time being he still controls a substantial number of voters," said Roberto D'Alimonte, a political analyst at Rome's LUISS University. "He hasn't lost the hardcore voters." But D'Alimonte said to maintain them he will have to "be aggressive, be his usual Berlusconi" and not appear to be weakening, even physically due to age.

Seeking to reinvigorate himself politically, Berlusconi has relaunched the Forza Italia party that catapulted him to power in 1994. On the eve of the Senate vote, he bolted the government and joined the opposition, a move that may ultimately free his hand in a political campaign.

But he also has suffered a defection from his one-time political heir, Angelino Alfano, who split from his mentor earlier this month and formed a new center-right party that remains loyal to Premier Enrico Letta's hybrid government. Alfano's allegiance to the government ensured that it survived a confidence vote early Wednesday to pass the annual budget, despite Berlusconi's switch.

Berlusconi's expulsion makes the government majority "slimmer but more cohesive," said Federico Santi, an analyst with the Eurasia Group. At least for the short-term, Alfano's new party will avoid triggering a crisis to build a party structure and the Democratic Party will remain committed to the government "in light of opposition of among its voters to early elections and fears of electoral stalemate." Meanwhile, Berlusconi still faces other legal problems, including a seven-year prison term and lifetime ban from holding public office for his conviction of paying an underage prostitute for sex at his infamous "bunga bunga" parties and trying to cover it up. He has professed his innocence and plans to appeal.

Colleen Barry reported from Milan. Patricia Thomas contributed to this report.

Merkel, center-left reach deal on new German gov't

November 27, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives agreed Wednesday to form a new government with their traditional center-left rivals, a coalition that will shift Germany leftward but likely mean little change in Berlin's approach to Europe's debt crisis.

Merkel's Union bloc and the Social Democrats signed their deal to form a "grand coalition" of Germany's biggest parties after a 17-hour final round of talks capped weeks of wrangling following Sept. 22 elections.

A potentially tricky hurdle still remains before Merkel can be sworn in for a third term: the Social Democrats are putting the agreement to a ballot of their roughly 470,000 members, some of whom are deeply skeptical about going into government with the chancellor. The result is expected Dec. 14.

"The spirit of this agreement is that we are a grand coalition to master grand tasks for Germany," Merkel told reporters, identifying the main priorities as "solid finances, secure prosperity and social security."

At her conservatives' insistence, the new government is pledging not to raise taxes and to stop running up new debts during its four-year term. The Social Democrats secured key demands such as the introduction of a mandatory national minimum wage, which Germany is unusual among rich industrial powers in lacking. The 8.50-euro ($11.50) hourly minimum is to be introduced in 2015, though exceptions will be possible for the first two years.

Both sides secured potentially expensive changes to the pension system. The center-left wanted to allow some workers to retire early on full pensions, and the conservatives sought higher pensions for mothers who stayed home rather than working.

In a change championed by the Social Democrats, people born in Germany who also hold a passport from a non-European Union country will no longer have to choose one citizenship — something that will apply largely to the children of Turkish immigrants.

"For them, it will be a great signal that we're saying, 'you belong to us and we don't want to build artificial obstacles,'" Social Democrat leader Sigmar Gabriel said. Merkel has pushed other European countries to get their budgets in order during the continent's debt crisis and objected to pooling Germany's debt with that of weaker countries.

On Wednesday, she made clear she was sticking to that line, declaring that "solid finances mean, for our common Europe, placing value on having not a debt union but a stability union." The Social Democrats have voted in the past for Merkel's crisis policies but, before the election, advocated a European debt-redemption fund. They dropped that demand; the coalition deal makes clear that the new government opposes pooling debt or pooling bank countries' deposit insurance funds.

Merkel's Union bloc finished first in the Sept. 22 elections but her partners in Germany's center-right government of the past four years, the pro-business Free Democrats, lost all their seats in parliament. Her conservatives, meanwhile, fell short of a majority to govern alone.

That left her reaching across the aisle for a new coalition partner, leading to lengthy negotiations with the Social Democrats, who were her junior partners in her first term from 2005 to 2009. The "grand coalition," while popular among voters, is disliked by party activists — and the Social Democrats suffered a heavy electoral defeat in 2009 after governing with Merkel. The party finished a distant second in this year's vote, and Gabriel will have to work hard to bring members on board.

"The coalition agreement is one for ... ordinary and hard-working people," he said. "A lot of things are set out here that should improve Germany's economic but also social development." The parties won't determine who gets what job in the new government until the Social Democrats have completed their membership ballot.

In the meantime, Merkel's second-term government remains in office on a caretaker basis.

France to send 1,000 troops to C. African Republic

November 26, 2013

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — France promised Tuesday to send 1,000 troops to Central African Republic amid warnings about the potential for genocide in the near-anarchic former French colony.

Whether the French forces will save lives largely depends on how far the foreign soldiers venture outside the capital, Bangui, to the lawless provinces where mostly Muslim rebels have been attacking Christian villages, and Christian militias have recently launched retaliatory attacks.

The French move comes less than a week after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned "the country is on the verge of genocide" and marks the second time this year that France has sent troops to a former colony in Africa.

In January, thousands of French soldiers launched an offensive to free northern Mali's major towns from the control of al-Qaida-linked militants. After that success, the French military is stepping up its efforts in Central African Republic, a lawless country in the heart of the continent.

No other country is expected to take action if France, the former colonial power, doesn't get involved, said Francois Heisbourg, a French analyst at the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank in Paris.

"We are a prisoner of history and geography: This is our neighborhood, and yes, we have troops in the area for historical reasons," Heisbourg said. "And given the humanitarian situation and the political pressure, there is no way we can avoid doing this."

However, it is not clear how much can be accomplished by 1,000 French troops in a country of 4.6 million people where many roads have not been repaved since independence in 1960. An international presence is needed given the limited capacity of Central African Republic's own security forces, said Christian Mukosa, a researcher with the Africa division of Amnesty International.

"It's really very important that the French don't stay only in Bangui, but go to Bouca and other hot spots where currently there are serious human rights abuses and where populations are at risk," he said.

In the northwest town of Bouca, nun Angelina Santaguiliana said she lives in fear of a rebel attack on her Catholic mission. Already some 2,400 people have sought refuge there in the past week, crowding the floors of the church at night and taking shelter under trees on the mission's yard.

"If the French come to help with disarmament in our region, it will be a good thing, but if there is fighting it would make things worse," she said by telephone Tuesday, with the sounds of children wailing in the background.

More than 35,000 other people have sought refuge at another Catholic mission in Bossangoa, according to church officials there. Central African Republic's current chaos started late last year when a number of rebel groups joined forces to form the coalition known as Seleka. In March the rebels overthrew the president of a decade and installed their leader in power. But rebel leader-turned-president Michel Djotodia now exerts little control over the renegade fighters in the provinces, most of whom are Muslim and who are accused of committing killings, torture and rape, and forcibly recruiting child soldiers.

France has warned for months about the deteriorating security in Central African Republic, and its pledge follows warnings from the U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide who called the crisis in the country "one of the worst human rights and humanitarian crises of our time."

The conflict's toll is difficult to determine as the most vicious attacks have taken place in remote villages. About 1 in 10 people have been displaced from their homes, according to international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.

Details only trickle in when survivors make their way to safety and the insecurity in the region makes it impossible for aid groups to determine how many have died. And many of the rebels accused of committing atrocities have been integrated into the national army, rendering the country's security forces unable to combat the cycle of violence.

Reports of killings of civilians and looting emerged in Bangui soon after the rebel invasion in March. The crisis deepened several months later when the rebels began targeting the area of Bossangoa, the home region of ousted President Francois Bozize and many of his perceived supporters. Some villages have been completely decimated with homes burned to the ground. The Christian self-defense militias that emerged are also accused of attacking Muslim civilians, many of whom have suffered under the Seleka rebellion already.

In one attack documented by Human Rights Watch, fearful residents only came out of their houses when a local official reassured them it was safe to talk to the Seleka rebels. Five of those who did venture out were then tied together and grouped under a tree. The fighters shot them one by one, Human Rights Watch said. When one victim did not die, his throat was slit.

A French defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the mission, has said its mandate would authorize troops to end such massacres and restore order throughout the country. France already has about 420 soldiers in the country, though they are based in the capital of Bangui and primarily provide security at the city's airport. A regional peacekeeping mission also has helped patrol the capital and has a presence in a limited number of communities across the north.

A plan to transform that regional effort into one led by the African Union went into effect in August, but not all of the expected 3,000 troops are yet on the ground. The stepped up French deployment is envisioned as a "bridging force" until an African force is fully operational and France would take a backup role.

French diplomats also circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution calling for additional support for the African Union-led mission. A copy obtained by The Associated Press indicates that they plan to deploy an African Union-led force in the Central African Republic for an initial period of six months to protect civilians and restore security.

The draft would also authorize French forces, for a temporary period, "to take all necessary measures" to support the African Union-led mission. The French draft would also impose an embargo on all types of arms and ammunition to the Central African Republic, and a travel ban on individuals who undermine peace.

France, a former colonial power in West Africa, has a greater military presence in the region than any other Western country, with thousands of troops in countries including Senegal, Chad, Ivory Coast and Gabon.

At the height of this year's operation in Mali, France had about 4,000 troops whose mission was to dislodge rebels and al-Qaida-linked militants who were advancing on the capital last winter. About 2,800 French soldiers are still there.

Le Drian dismissed any comparisons between the Mali and CAR missions. "In Mali there was an attack of jihadists, terrorists who wanted to transform Mali into a terrorist state. This is a collapse of a country with a potential for religious clashes," he said. "France has international responsibilities, is a permanent member of the Security Council, has history with Central African Republic, and the United Nations is asking us to do it."

Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Latvian prime minister resigns in wake of tragedy

November 27, 2013

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvia's prime minister resigned Wednesday in the wake of supermarket collapse that killed 54 people and provoked outrage among the Baltic country's citizens.

Valdis Dombrovskis' unexpected announcement, which automatically triggers the fall of the entire center-right government, followed his meeting with President Andris Berzins. "Considering the ... tragedy and all the related circumstances, the country needs a government that has a majority support in parliament and can solve the situation that has arisen in the country," Dombrovskis told journalists after meeting the president.

Police have opened a criminal investigation into the cause of last week's tragedy. Possible explanations for the disaster include a flawed design, substandard construction materials, and corruption. Some people have suggested that the abolition of a construction authority by Dombrovskis' budget-slashing government weakened oversight.

Many Latvians have expressed deep skepticism that the guilty parties will be bear criminal liability and have gone so far as to demand that foreign engineers be invited to help the investigation. Dombrovskis, the country's longest-serving prime minister, denied that he was pressured by the president and said that he had been mulling such a move since last week's collapse of the Maxima supermarket, the worst disaster since Latvia declared its independence from Soviet Union in 1991.

Dombrovskis told journalists that country needed a new, broad-based coalition that would enjoy the trust of Latvia's 100-seat parliament. President Berzins will appoint a new candidate based on who could form a coalition that will receive the necessary majority approval by parliament.

Dombrovskis came to power in 2009 as Latvia's economy was sinking into a deep recession and was charged with leading harsh budget cuts and tax increases while at the same time implementing tough structural reforms demanded by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund.

Dombrovskis was re-appointed twice as prime minister since then, and is widely credited with preventing the small Baltic nation from going bankrupt. Latvia's economy has returned to growth and was the fastest-growing in the European Union over the past two years.

On Jan. 1, Latvia will become the 18th member of the euro area.