Toll from China quake hits 94, with 1,000 injured

July 23, 2013

BEIJING (AP) — Rescuers with shovels and sniffer dogs chipped away at collapsed hillsides Tuesday as the death toll rose to 94 from a strong earthquake in a farming region of northwest China.

Just one person was listed as missing and 1,001 as injured in Monday morning's quake near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province. About 123,000 people were affected by the quake, with 31,600 moved to temporary shelters, the provincial earthquake administration said on its website. Almost 2,000 homes were completely destroyed, and about 22,500 damaged, the administration said.

The quake toppled brick walls and telephone lines, shattered mud-and-tile-roofed houses and sent cascades of dirt and rock down hillsides, blocking roads and slowing rescue efforts by crews trying to reach remote areas.

Hospitals set up aid stations in parking lots to accommodate the injured, while hundreds of paramilitary People's Armed Police fanned out to search for victims in the region of terraced farmland where the quake struck about 1,200 kilometers (760 miles) west of Beijing.

Min county in Dingxi's rural south accounted for almost all the deaths and the worst damage. Urban areas where buildings are more solid were spared major damage, unlike the traditional mud and brick homes in the countryside.

Tremors were felt in the provincial capital of Lanzhou 177 kilometers (110 miles) north, and as far away as Xi'an, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east. The government's earthquake monitoring center said the quake was magnitude-6.6, while the U.S. Geological Survey said it was 5.9. Measurements can often vary, especially if different monitoring equipment is used.

The Chinese Red Cross said it was shipping 200 tents, 1,000 sets of household items, and 2,000 jackets to the area. Other supplies were being shipped in by the army and paramilitary police, which dispatched around 6,000 personnel and two helicopters to aid in rescue efforts.

But heavy rain is expected later in the week, raising the need for shelter and increasing the chance of further landslides. Gansu, with a population of 26 million, is one of China's more lightly populated provinces, although the New Jersey-sized area of Dingxi has a greater concentration of farms in rolling hills terraced for crops and fruit trees. Dingxi has a population of about 2.7 million.

China's worst earthquake in recent years was a 7.9-magnitude temblor that struck the southwestern province of Sichuan in 2008, leaving 90,000 people dead or missing.

William, Kate, show off their royal newborn son

July 24, 2013

LONDON (AP) — Prince William and his wife Kate presented their newborn son to the world for the first time Tuesday, drawing whoops and wild applause from well-wishers as they revealed the new face of the British monarchy — though not, yet, his name.

"We're still working on a name. So we'll have that as soon as we can," William told scores of reporters gathered outside St. Mary's Hospital as he cradled the child. The young family's debut public appearance was the moment the world's media had been waiting for, but the royal couple showed no sign of stress in the face of dozens of flashing cameras. Instead the couple, both 31, laughed and joked with reporters as they took turns holding their baby son, who appeared to doze through it all.

"He's got her looks, thankfully," William said, referring to his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, as the newborn prince squirmed in his arms and poked a tiny hand out of his swaddling blanket, almost like a little royal wave.

"He's got a good pair of lungs on him, that's for sure," William added with a grin. "He's a big boy. He's quite heavy." The infant is third in line to become monarch one day, after his grandfather, Prince Charles, and William.

But for now, the media and the public were focused on getting all the details of new parenthood they could from the couple: How they feel, what the baby looks like, and even who changed the diapers. Kate, wearing a simple baby blue dress, said William had already had a go at changing the first one.

"He's very good at it," she said. Asked how she felt, she said: "It's very emotional. It's such a special time. I think any parent will know what this feeling feels like." And William poked fun at his own lack of hair when he responded with a wink to a reporter's question about the baby's locks: "He's got way more than me, thank God."

It was a much more relaxed scene than the one when Princess Diana and Prince Charles carried their newborn son, William, out to pose for photographs on the same hospital steps in 1982. Charles, wearing a dark suit, tie and boutonniere, spoke awkwardly to reporters. By contrast, William, dressed in jeans and a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, joked with the assembled media and addressed some by name. At his side, Kate waved and smiled broadly, the blue sapphire engagement ring that had been Diana's on her finger.

The photographs snapped Tuesday are likely to be reprinted for decades as the baby grows into adulthood and his role as a future king, and onlookers were elated to witness the historic moment. "William gave us a wave as they drove away, so it was perfect. Days like this really bring the country together," said Katie Allan, 26, from Bristol, England.

The couple re-entered the hospital to place the child in a car seat before re-emerging to get into a black Range Rover. With William at the wheel, they drove away. Palace officials said they will head to an apartment in Kensington Palace and spend the night there.

The birth marks a new chapter for William and Kate, who had enjoyed a quiet life away from the public eye in Anglesey, Wales, since their wedding in April 2011. The couple had been living in a small Welsh cottage while William — known as Flight Lieutenant Wales — completed his term as a search-and-rescue pilot.

Now that they are a family, they are moving to a much larger apartment in Kensington Palace in central London, where William spent most of his childhood and where it will be much more difficult to keep a low profile and avoid the press.

Earlier Tuesday, William's father, Charles, and his wife, Camilla, as well as Michael and Carole Middleton — Kate's parents — visited the young family at the hospital. Charles called the baby "marvelous," while a beaming Carole Middleton described the infant as "absolutely beautiful."

It was not immediately clear when Queen Elizabeth II would meet the newborn heir. The queen was hosting a reception at Buckingham Palace Tuesday evening, and was due to leave for an annual holiday in Scotland in the coming days.

Meanwhile, much of Britain and parts of the Commonwealth were celebrating the birth of a future monarch. News that Kate gave birth to the 8 pound, 6 ounce (3.8 kilogram) boy on Monday was greeted with shrieks of joy and applause by hundreds of Britons and tourists gathered outside the hospital's private Lindo Wing and the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Revelers staged impromptu parties, and large crowds crushed against the palace gates to try to catch a glimpse — and a photograph — of the golden easel placed there to formally announce the birth. Hundreds were still lining up outside the palace gates Tuesday to get near the ornate easel.

In London, gun salutes were fired, celebratory lights came on, and bells chimed at Westminster Abbey, where William and Kate wed in a lavish ceremony that drew millions of television viewers worldwide.

The baby is just a day old — and may not be named for days or even weeks — but he already has a building dedicated to him. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said an enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo would be named after the prince as part of a gift from Australia. The government will also donate $9,300 on the young prince's behalf toward a research project at the zoo to save the endangered bilby, a rabbit-like marsupial whose numbers are dwindling in the wild.

British media joined in the celebration, with many newspapers printing souvenir editions. "It's a Boy!" was splashed across many front pages, while Britain's top-selling The Sun newspaper temporarily changed its name to "The Son" in honor of the tiny monarch-in-waiting.

"His First Royal Wave" read the headline on the Times front page that accompanied a photo of the newborn, his tiny fist poking out from the white blanket he was swaddled in. The birth is the latest driver of a surge in popularity for Britain's monarchy, whose members have evolved, over several decades of social and technological change, from distant figures to characters in a well-loved national soap opera.

"I think this baby is hugely significant for the future of the monarchy," said Kate's biographer, Claudia Joseph. For some, though, it was all a bit much. The wry front page on British satirical magazine "Private Eye" — which simply read "Woman Has Baby" — summed up the indifference some felt about the news.

"It's a baby, nothing else," said Tom Ashton, a 42-year-old exterminator on his way to work. "It's not going to mean anything to my life."

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless, Raphael Satter, Gregory Katz, Paisley Dodds, Maria Cheng and James Brooks in London, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, and Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Australia, contributed to this report.

Solomons peacekeeping force pulls back after 10 years

By Neil Sands | AFP News

The largest military operation in the Pacific since World War II wound up in the Solomon Islands on Wednesday after a decade working to end deep-seated ethnic violence in the poverty-stricken nation.

The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) deployed in a fanfare of publicity in 2003 after a desperate appeal from Honiara for international assistance.

Since then, it has adopted a low-key approach to bringing stability to the nation of about 600,000 people, which lies 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Australia.

At a ceremony in the capital on Wednesday RAMSI marked the 10th anniversary of the mission and the end of its military phase, with future operations concentrating on policing and governance.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo said the real test for the nation was only now starting.

"I still remember vividly that there was a time in our lives when there was no hope," he told the ceremony.

"Ten short years ago, many people lived in fear, desperation and destitution.

"The real test is what we do when RAMSI leaves, whether we can hold together as a nation, or we crumble once again into individual microcosms that cannot work together."

Jenny Hayward-Jones, a Melanesia expert at Sydney-based foreign affairs think tank The Lowy Institute, told AFP the mission had been a success, "certainly in terms of restoring law and order".

"However, there's still not the level of trust from the Solomons population in their police that should have been achieved in 10 years," she said.

When RAMSI was formed, the Solomons government was at the mercy of warlords, ethnic militants and a corrupt police force, with virtually no control outside the capital Honiara.

More than 200 people had been killed and tens of thousands left homeless as gangs from rival islands terrorized local populations, with Australia's then-prime minister John Howard warning the situation posed a risk to regional stability.

"A failed state in our region, on our doorstep, will jeopardize our own security. The best thing we can do is to take remedial action and take it now," Howard said at the time as the situation looked set to spiral out of control.

The answer was RAMSI, a peacekeeping force led by Australia with support from New Zealand and 13 other nations from the Pacific Islands Forum.

Its troops landed near Honiara on July 24, 2003, at Red Beach, symbolically selecting the site where US Marines stormed ashore in 1942 to launch the bloody Guadalcanal campaign against the Japanese.

Unsure of the reception the militias planned, they had shoot-to-kill clearance if engaged in a firefight.

However, resistance never materialized and within a few months most warlords had been arrested and their followers disarmed.

There have been isolated outbreaks of unrest since, including riots after elections in 2006, but New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said the situation had stabilized.

Hayward-Jones said RAMSI had acted as a "quasi government" in the Solomons since then and was keen to have the administration in Honiara take responsibility for the country again.

"This 10th anniversary ceremony is sending a message that the Solomons is ready to stand on its own two feet again," she said.

Islamic and secular laws clash in Nigeria's Senate

July 23, 2013

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Many Nigerians are enraged, wondering how a senator notorious for marrying a 14-year-old girl can use Shariah law as an excuse to filibuster a constitutional amendment that has sparked a debate on the age of consent for girls.

Since the country's secular and Islamic laws clashed in the upper house of Parliament last week, concerned citizens are using petitions, protests and social networks to demand the Senate revisit the issue.

"Every Nigerian should bow his or her head in shame because instead of crushing the head of the lustful beast that seeks to fornicate with our children, to steal their virtues and to destroy their future, what the Senate did the other day was to compromise with and cater for the filthy appetites and godless fantasies of a bunch of child molesters and sexual predators," Femi Fani-Kayode, a traditional chief and former Cabinet minister, fumed in a letter to The Vanguard newspaper Monday.

The vote was on an amendment to set the age when Nigerians can renounce their citizenship, but it has wider implications because it suggests when a girl is old enough to be married. Currently, the constitution says only that a person must be of "full age" to renounce citizenship. The Senate had voted to approve an amendment to set the age at 18, to bring the clause in line with other laws setting the age of consent for marriage and voting.

But, after the vote was counted and against Senate rules and procedures, Sen. Sani Ahmed Yerima opposed the age limit, saying it goes against Islamic law. "By Islamic law any woman that is married, she is of age, so if you now say she is not of age then it means that you are going against Islamic law," declared Yerima.

In the second vote forced by Yerima, several Muslim senators who had voted "yes" to set the age at 18, changed their minds, and the amendment did not get the two-thirds majority needed to pass, according to Sen. Tenyi Abaribe, the Senate spokesman.

So now, a Nigerian male must be 18 to renounce his citizenship but a girl married at 14, like one of Yerima's wives, can do it at a much younger age. The vote applied only to citizenship, Abaribe emphasized.

Nigerians are seeing it as a confrontation with other laws that dictate a girl should not marry until she is 18 and, coming from a man known for marrying children, as a gateway challenge to those laws.

"The government needs to stick with the age of consent being 18 and to work with communities in recognizing that a child is a child," said Iheoma Obibi of the Nigerian Feminist Forum. Her forum has lodged a protest along with the Gender and Constitutional Reform Network, and other groups including advocates using the Twitter hash tag #ChildNOTBride.

Nobody knows quite how many thousands of girls are forced into marriage here — some say more than 50 percent of girls in the Muslim north — often sold for a bride price in mainly poor and rural communities.

Yerima is infamous for his marriage to a 14-year-old Egyptian girl in 2010, when he was 49. He had divorced a 17-year-old whom he married when she was 15, to comply with Islamic law that allows a maximum of four wives at a time.

Then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rebuked Yerima for "child slavery," and the State Department's 2012 report on human rights complained that Nigerian authorities did nothing to prosecute Yerima.

In a public outcry at the time, activists demanded that prosecutors investigate and Yerima be forced out of Parliament. Instead, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons questioned Yerima but said it lacked evidence to charge him. It said Yerima had paid $100,000 for the young bride, the daughter of his Egyptian driver.

The government agency recommended the justice minister and attorney general investigate Yerima for violating Nigeria's 2003 Child Rights Act. "But nothing was done, he has got away with it," said women's right activist Obibi.

She pointed to the horrendous statistics that show a high percentage of young girls suffer damage in child birth, with maternity wards in the mainly Muslim north filled with young mothers whose vaginas, uteruses and anal passages have ruptured. According to the U.N. Children's Fund, Nigeria has 2 percent of the world's underage marriages but 10 percent of its victims of vesicovaginal fistula, which leaves the girls incontinent, dripping urine and feces.

Such girls are often divorced and abandoned, left to beg on the streets or turn to prostitution, Obibi said. Dupe Killa, a human resources manager and mother of two girls, started an online petition at #ChildNOTBride after the Senate vote. When the petition was oversubscribed within hours, she decided to take to the streets to get signatures and has won support, including from the country's influential Movement for Islamic Culture and Awareness.

Protesters handed out #ChildNOTBride flyers featuring the silhouette of a girl with pig tails and bows set in a protective red circle. The petition urges the Senate and National Assembly to stop "loopholes within which Nigeria can continue to discriminate against half the population (i.e. females)."

Yerima was instrumental in introducing Shariah law to Nigeria's nine northern states in 2000 and 2001, when he was governor of Zamfara state. Another three states where Muslims form a plurality have since instituted Shariah as a substitute for Western-style family law for Muslims wishing to use it. The other 25 states are governed by secular law.

Shariah is interpreted differently by scholars and laws differ according to a country's history and culture. Fani-Kayode, the former minister, said most Muslim countries have banned child marriage and rape.

Nigeria's population, at 160 million the biggest in Africa, is almost equally divided between a mainly Muslim north and majority Christian south. While the religions coexist peacefully in most of the country, there are frequent and bloody clashes between militant Muslims and Christians in the north. Tens of thousands of been killed over the years, and churches and mosques razed.

Associated Press photographer Sunday Alamba contributed to this report from Lagos.

William and Kate thank hospital for baby care

July 23, 2013

LONDON (AP) — Prince William, Kate and their baby boy were spending their first full day as a family Tuesday inside a London hospital, thanking staff for their care but making well-wishers wait for a first glimpse of the royal heir.

As celebratory lights, gun salutes and other tributes were unleashed in Britain and abroad, William thanked staff at St. Mary's Hospital "for the tremendous care the three of us have received." "We know it has been a very busy period for the hospital and we would like to thank everyone — staff, patients and visitors — for their understanding during this time," he said in a statement.

The couple's Kensington Palace office said Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, had given birth to the 8 pound, 6 ounce (3.8 kilogram) baby boy at 4:24 p.m. Monday, triggering an impromptu party outside Buckingham Palace and in front of the hospital's private Lindo Wing.

The palace said Tuesday that "mother, son and father are all doing well this morning." The new family was expected to remain in the hospital until Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. In the meantime the infant's appearance — and his name — remain a royal mystery.

Tourists and well-wishers flocked to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, lining up outside the gates to take pictures of the golden easel on which, in keeping with royal tradition, the birth announcement was displayed.

"This was a great event — yet again our royal family is bringing everyone together," said 27-year-old David Wills, who took a two-mile detour on his run to work to pass the palace. "I kind of feel as though I am seeing part of history here today."

A band of scarlet-clad guardsman at the palace delighted onlookers with a rendition of the song "Congratulations." Other celebrations Tuesday included gun salutes by royal artillery companies to honor the birth and the ringing of bells at London's Westminster Abbey.

Halfway around the world, royalist group Monarchy New Zealand said it had organized a national light show, with 40 buildings across the islands lit up in blue to commemorate the royal birth, including Sky Tower in Auckland, the airport in Christchurch, and Larnach Castle in the South Island city of Dunedin. A similar lighting ceremony took place in Canada; Peace Tower and Parliament buildings in the capital, Ottawa, were bathed in blue light, as was CN Tower in Toronto.

The baby isn't even a day old — and may not be named for days or even weeks — but he already has a building dedicated to him. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said an enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo would be named after the prince as part of a gift from Australia. The government would donate 10,000 Australian dollars ($9,300) on the young prince's behalf toward a research project at the zoo to save the endangered bilby, a rabbit-like marsupial whose numbers are dwindling in the wild.

British media joined in the celebration, with many newspapers printing souvenir editions. "It's a Boy!" was splashed across many front pages, while Britain's top-selling The Sun newspaper temporarily changed its name to "The Son" in honor of the tiny monarch-in-waiting.

Beyond the newsstands, the birth of the royal baby was welcome news in a country where polls show the monarchy is as popular as any time in recent history. In the Yorkshire village of Bugthorpe — which Prince Charles was visiting as part of a tour through northern England — the baby was on everyone's lips.

"Morning Granddad," said local resident Robert Barrett, which drew a chuckle from the prince. Back in London, there was a healthy interest in the baby's name, combined with a note of concern for his future.

"I hope the child is given the opportunity to have a normal childhood," said Julie Warren, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher waiting for her grandson outside one of the capital's subway stations. The birth caps a resurgence in popularity for Britain's monarchy, whose members have evolved, over several decades of social and technological change, from distant figures to characters in a well-loved national soap opera.

The institution reached a popular nadir after the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in 1997. Diana had been popular, glamorous and — in the eyes of many — badly treated by the royal "Firm." But the dignified endurance of Queen Elizabeth II — now in her 62nd year on the throne — and the emergence of an attractive young generation that includes William, his soldier-socialite brother Prince Harry and the glamorous, middle-class Kate has been a breath of fresh air for the monarchy.

The baby, born to a prince and a commoner, looks set to help the institution thrive for another generation. "I think this baby is hugely significant for the future of the monarchy," said Kate's biographer, Claudia Joseph. "It is the first future king for 350 years to have such an unusual family tree. Not since Queen Mary II has the offspring of a 'commoner' been an heir to the throne."

That view was echoed by Pippa Rowe, head teacher at the primary school in Kate's home village of Bucklebury, west of London. "The children have been very excited about the birth — fizzing is the word I would use," she said. "It's all the talk in the playground.

"I think this will enable the children to have a real chance to connect with the monarchy. They learn about kings and queens but we are going to have a real live prince with one set of grandparents living down the road."

For some, though, it was all a bit much. "It's a baby, nothing else," said Tom Ashton, a 42-year-old exterminator on his way to work. "It's not going to mean anything to my life."

Associated Press writers Gregory Katz, Paisley Dodds, and Maria Cheng in London, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, and Kristen Gelineau in Sydney contributed to this report.

Egypt: 6 dead in Cairo university clashes

July 23, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Clashes between supporters and opponents of the country's ousted president before dawn on Tuesday near the main campus of Cairo University left six dead, a senior medical official said.

Khaled el-Khateeb, who heads the Health Ministry's emergency and intensive care department, said the six died close to the site of a sit-in by supporters of Mohammed Morsi, ousted by the military on July 3 after a year in office.

The ouster of Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, followed massive street protests by millions of Egyptians demanding that the Islamist president step down. His supporters are calling for his reinstatement and insist they will not join the military-backed political process until then.

The latest clashes capped a day marred by violence in several parts of the country. In the town of Qalioub north of Cairo, three people were killed Monday in clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi. Backers of the two sides also fought near the site of the main sit-in by Morsi supporters in an eastern Cairo district and in the central Tahrir square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled the regime of Morsi's authoritarian predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

More than 80 people were injured on Monday, according to el-Khateeb. Morsi's family denounced the military in a Monday news conference, accusing it of "kidnapping" him, and European diplomats urged that he be released after being held incommunicado for nearly three weeks since his ouster.

The fate of Morsi, who has been held without charge, has become a focus of the political battle between Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and the new military-backed government. The Brotherhood has tried to use his detention to rally the country to its side, hoping to restore its badly damaged popularity. The interim government, in turn, appears in part to be using it to pressure his supporters into backing down from their protests demanding his reinstatement.

So far, however, the outcry over Morsi's detention seems to have gained little traction beyond the president's supporters, without bringing significantly greater numbers to its ongoing rallies around the country.

In a toughly worded statement Monday, the Brotherhood laid out a plan for resolving the crisis that was little changed from what Morsi proposed in his final days in office. It said Morsi must first be reinstated along with the now-dissolved upper house of parliament and the suspended constitution, followed by new parliamentary elections that would start a process for amending the constitution, and then a "national dialogue" could be held.

It denounced those behind Morsi's ouster as "putschists" and accused "coup commanders, with foreign support" of overthrowing "all the hopes in a democratic system." Interim President Adly Mansour repeated calls for reconciliation in a nationally televised speech late Monday. "We ... want to turn a new page in the nation's book," he said. "No contempt, no hatred, no divisions and no collisions." His speech marked the 61st anniversary of a military coup that toppled the monarchy and ushered the start of decades of de facto military rule.

Syria opposition hails EU's blacklisting Hezbollah

July 23, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's main Western-backed opposition group on Tuesday welcomed an EU decision to place the military wing of Hezbollah on the bloc's terror list as a "step in the right direction," and called for the Lebanese militant group's leaders to be put on trial for their role in the Syrian civil war.

Hezbollah, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, has sent its fighters to bolster President Bashar Assad's forces in their assault on rebel-held areas in Syria. The group was instrumental in helping government forces seize the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border last month, and its members are believed to be fighting alongside regime forces in the central province of Homs.

The Shiite group's role is highly divisive in Lebanon and has outraged the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting in Syria to topple Assad. The EU's 28 foreign ministers placed Hezbollah's military wing on its terror list on Monday after prolonged diplomatic pressure from the U.S. and Israel, which consider the group a terrorist organization.

Some European countries had pushed for EU action, citing a terrorist attack in Bulgaria's Black Sea resort of Burgas last year that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian. Hezbollah's military wing was accused of involvement, an allegation it denied. In March, a criminal court in Cyprus found a Hezbollah member guilty of helping to plan attacks on Israelis on the Mediterranean island.

But several EU nations have pointed to Hezbollah's involvement in Syria as further reason for the move. The Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition umbrella group, hailed the EU decision but stressed the need for European countries to take "concrete steps that would contribute to stopping the militia's involvement in Syria."

"We call for Hezbollah leaders to be put on trial for the terrorist crimes they committed on Syrian territory," the SNC said in a statement. It did not say where they should face trial, and the prospects of senior Hezbollah figures ever appearing in a courtroom to answer for the Iranian-backed group's role in Syria appear dim.

Iran, meanwhile, said the European Union's decision was "strange" and "uncalculated" and said it serves Israel's interests. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi told a news conference in Tehran Tuesday that the designation won't change Hezbollah's "popular and justice-seeking identity."

In Syria, an al-Qaida-linked group warned civilians to stay off a road linking central Syria with the northern province of Aleppo, declaring it a military zone, as the rebels try to cut one of the regime's main routes for supplying its forces in the north, activists said Tuesday.

The warning comes a day after rebels went on the offensive in Syria's north, seizing three villages in the province where a military stalemate has been in place since last summer. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Aleppo Media Center said that Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, is threatening to target any vehicle using the road starting Wednesday. A copy of the warning was posted online.

The regime uses the route to ferry supplies to its forces in the north because the rebels already have severed the main north-south highway that connects Damascus with the embattled city of Aleppo, where regime forces have battled rebels in vicious street fighting for a year. The desert road was paved and opened by regime forces earlier this year.

The statement, which was stamped with the Nusra Front emblem, said the Syrian military "opened this road to civilian cars and trucks when in fact it is a military road." "There are daily clashes and military operations there. Holy warriors have booby-trapped the road," it said, instructing civilians not to use the road and claiming that the army will be using them as "human shields to cover its movements."

If the rebels succeed in cutting the road, it will be a major blow to the regime, making it more difficult to bring in military reinforcements as well as other supplies to Aleppo province, most of which is under rebel control.

Yemen President pardons Qaeda propagandist

2013-07-23

SANAA - Yemeni authorities on Tuesday released a journalist who had been detained for three years on charges of promoting Al-Qaeda, the state news agency Saba reported.

Investigative journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae was arrested on August 16, 2010 on charges of links to Al-Qaeda and sentenced the following years to five years in prison.

Saba said in a text message he had been freed "after he spent three years in prison for working with Al-Qaeda."

But Shae will remain under house arrest for two years in line with an earlier court ruling, it said.

He was pardoned by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, it added.

Shae was arrested after reporting US involvement in a deadly air raid against Al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, according to rights groups that had been calling for his release.

Last year, Amnesty International said that Shae had alleged US involvement in a December 2009 missile attack on Al-Majalah in Abyan province of southern Yemen, noting the strike killed 41 local residents, mostly women and children, and 14 Al-Qaeda suspects.

Former Yemeni strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh had issued an order for his release in February 2011 but rights groups said it was never carried out due to US pressure.

In January 2011, a special court convicted Shae, 34, of "working in the media for the benefit of Al-Qaeda, taking pictures of security buildings, embassies and foreign interests in Sanaa, and inciting Al-Qaeda to attack them."

Shae was close to slain US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi.

Washington says Awlaqi, killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, was linked to a failed 2009 attack on a US-bound airliner, who was killed on September 30 in an air strike in Yemen.

Shae, who was employed by Saba, said in July 2010 that security agents had kidnapped and beaten him.

An expert on terrorism, Shae is considered one of Yemen's most knowledgeable journalists on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- the network's local affiliate.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=60306.

Iraq: Al-Qaida claims prison raids

July 23, 2013

BAGHDAD (AP) — Al-Qaida's arm in Iraq has claimed responsibility for deadly raids on prisons on the outskirts of Baghdad this week that set free hundreds of prisoners, including some of its followers.

The statement issued in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was posted on an online jihadist forum Tuesday. The group dubbed the prison assault operation that began late Sunday "Conquering the Tyrants," and says it involved 12 car bombs and help from prisoners who had managed to obtain weapons on the inside.

It claims to have freed hundreds of prisoners, including more than 500 mujahideen, or holy fighters. Iraqi officials have said the raids killed dozens and set free more than 500 inmates.

Syria rebels seize strategic regime bastion in Aleppo

2013-07-22

BEIRUT - Syria's rebels on Monday seized the strategic town of Khan al-Assal, a regime bastion in the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

They also took two villages located southeast of Aleppo, as they advanced towards cutting off the army's supply route to Syria's second city.

Khan al-Assal was the last regime bastion in the west of Aleppo province, which lies on the Turkish border, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The town lies on a road linking the province to the western part of Aleppo city where rebels have stepped up their bids to break a year-long stalemate and take control of areas still in regime hands.

Large swathes of northern and eastern Syria are in rebel control, while much of central and southern Syria is squarely held by regime forces.

"Opposition fighters have taken control of the town of Khan al-Assal, which is strategically located in the west of Aleppo province," said the Britain-based Observatory.

The rebel Ninth Division, which is deployed in the western part of Aleppo city, also announced it had captured Khan al-Assal in an online video.

"We the leadership of the Ninth Division announce that the town of Khan al-Assal has been completely liberated," a rebel commander said in a video posted on YouTube.

The Observatory said clashes also raged on the southern outskirts of Khan al-Assal.

The rebels had tried for several months to advance on Khan al-Assal.

The town's biggest battle took place in March, when the rebels took control of the police academy and temporarily seized several other positions.

The eight-day battle killed 200 rebels and government forces.

Both sides also traded accusations that chemical weapons were used in Khan al-Assal and killed around 30 people, according to toll released in March by the Observatory and the regime.

The rebels also seized on Monday the villages of Obeida and Hajireh southeast of Aleppo city, the Observatory said.

The takeover comes amid a rebel attempt to cut off the army's main supply route linking Hama in central Syria to Aleppo in the north.

Meanwhile in Damascus, the loyalist air force staged two strikes against the eastern district of Jobar, home to sizeable pockets of resistance to the army, the Observatory said.

It also reported violence in southern Damascus and said the entrance to the Yarmuk Palestinian camp had been closed, a day after an army assault on rebel positions in the district.

Monday's violence comes a day after at least 232 people were killed across Syria, said the Observatory, adding the toll was one of the highest in the 28-month conflict.

Some 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's war since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011, according to Observatory figures.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=60275.

Syrian Kurds score more victories in ongoing battle against Jihadists

2013-07-23

BEIRUT - Syrian Kurds made rapid advances in the north of the country Tuesday, expelling jihadists from several villages, as a gulf of mistrust between Arabs and Kurds grew, a watchdog and activists said.

Tuesday's fighting hit several villages including Yabseh, Kandal and Jalbeh, which lie in the northern province of Raqa on Syria's border with Turkey and are home to a mixture of ethnic and religious communities, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It also reported that the Kurds expelled the jihadists from Kur Hassu, Atwan, Sarej and Khirbet Alu villages in the same area, which lies near the majority Kurdish town of Cobany.

In Hasake to the east, Kurdish-jihadist fighting went into the seventh consecutive day in the Jal Agha area and other villages in the majority Kurdish province, the Observatory added.

The latest battles come a week after fighters loyal to the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) expelled the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) from the strategic Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain in Hasake province.

Ever since, fighting has spread from Hasakeh in northeastern Syria to several hotspots in Raqa province in the north.

At least 70, most of them jihadists, have been killed in eight consecutive days of Kurdish-jihadist fighting, said the Observatory.

"What we are seeing is the spreading of fighting between Kurds and jihadists westwards, across areas that are home to both Arab and Kurdish communities," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Though the fighting is between jihadists and organized Kurdish forces, there is "a growing gulf between Kurdish and Arab residents of these areas," Abdel Rahman said.

"The battle is morphing from a fight between the YPG and the jihadists to a struggle between Kurds and Arabs as a whole."

Prior to the outbreak of the 2011 revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, the Kurds suffered for decades from marginalization and oppression at the hands of the Syrian regime.

When the revolt erupted, one of the first measures taken by Assad was to grant the Syrian nationality to Kurds who had up until then been deprived of this right.

Then, starting mid-2012, Assad's forces withdrew from Kurdish regions which now are run by local Kurdish councils.

The Kurds, who represent about 15 percent of the Syrian population, have since walked a fine line, trying to avoid antagonizing either the regime or the rebels.

But as abuses by jihadist groups in areas that have fallen out of Assad's control mounted, the Kurds announced they would seek a temporary autonomous state and establish a constitution.

The speedy developments have brought to the surface a deep-seated mistrust that has been heightened by the Syrian opposition's failure to adequately represent Kurdish groups, activists say.

"There hasn't been real trust at the political level since the start" of the revolt, Syrian Kurdish activist Havidar said via the Internet.

"We (Kurds) all stood by the revolution but unfortunately the Syrian opposition... has played games with the Kurds... and marginalized them," Havidar said.

As a consequence, "there is a very obvious divide now" between Kurds and Arabs, he said.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=60293.

Turkish protesters suffer defeat after victory: Court ruling casts new doubt on park's future

2013-07-22

ISTANBUL - A Turkish court on Monday overturned a judgment suspending the redevelopment of Istanbul's Gezi Park, the issue that sparked huge anti-government protests last month.

The regional administrative court reversed a May 31 decision by an Istanbul court to halt redevelopment work at the park, press agency Dogan reported.

But it is unclear whether the decision means work will resume at the park, because another Istanbul court ruled in June in a separate case that there should be no redevelopment because of a lack of public consultation.

Protesters said they were confident the controversial plans to raze the park and reconstruct an Ottoman-era military barracks on the site would not go forward.

"This order is unlawful. You can't even hammer a nail in the park because... (of the) Istanbul First Administration Court decision on the suspension of all construction efforts in the area," said lawyer Can Atalay, a noted opponent of the proposed development.

"This removal has no judicial effect. You need a construction plan to construct something in the first place. That plan is cancelled now," Atalay told news website Bianet.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government backs the redevelopment of the park.

Turkish police on May 31 violently dispersed hundreds of ecological activists who had gathered to protest the destruction of the park's 600 trees.

Anger over the authorities' heavy-handed response erupted into nationwide protests against the government and Erdogan, who many protesters accused of turning authoritarian and seeking to "Islamize" Turkish society.

According to police estimates, some 2.5 million people took to the streets in nearly 80 cities for three weeks to demand his resignation.

Five people were killed and more than 8,000 injured in the civil unrest.

Erdogan said on June 14 that his government will respect the courts' final decision on the park.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=60279.

Yemen President pardons Qaeda propagandist

2013-07-23

SANAA - Yemeni authorities on Tuesday released a journalist who had been detained for three years on charges of promoting Al-Qaeda, the state news agency Saba reported.

Investigative journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae was arrested on August 16, 2010 on charges of links to Al-Qaeda and sentenced the following years to five years in prison.

Saba said in a text message he had been freed "after he spent three years in prison for working with Al-Qaeda."

But Shae will remain under house arrest for two years in line with an earlier court ruling, it said.

He was pardoned by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, it added.

Shae was arrested after reporting US involvement in a deadly air raid against Al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, according to rights groups that had been calling for his release.

Last year, Amnesty International said that Shae had alleged US involvement in a December 2009 missile attack on Al-Majalah in Abyan province of southern Yemen, noting the strike killed 41 local residents, mostly women and children, and 14 Al-Qaeda suspects.

Former Yemeni strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh had issued an order for his release in February 2011 but rights groups said it was never carried out due to US pressure.

In January 2011, a special court convicted Shae, 34, of "working in the media for the benefit of Al-Qaeda, taking pictures of security buildings, embassies and foreign interests in Sanaa, and inciting Al-Qaeda to attack them."

Shae was close to slain US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi.

Washington says Awlaqi, killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, was linked to a failed 2009 attack on a US-bound airliner, who was killed on September 30 in an air strike in Yemen.

Shae, who was employed by Saba, said in July 2010 that security agents had kidnapped and beaten him.

An expert on terrorism, Shae is considered one of Yemen's most knowledgeable journalists on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- the network's local affiliate.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=60306.