Djibouti Begins U.S.$600 Million Rail to Link Ethiopia, South Sudan

by Nesru Jemal
20 September 2013

The Djibouti Government on Thursday said that its rail project under construction would facilitate business activities and improve revenue for countries in the East African region.

The rail project is being undertaken by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) at a cost of 600 million dollars and financed by the China EXIM Bank.

Djibouti's Transport Minister, Moussa Ahmed, had on Tuesday inaugurated a committee to supervise the project expected to be completed within two years.

Ahmed, who is attending the Joint Rail Commission meeting in Addis Ababa told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday that the railway line "will facilitate access to different markets in the region and will also link Djibouti to South Sudan through Ethiopia."

Meanwhile Ethiopia's Transport Minister, Workneh Gebeyehu said that the new railway line would change the socio-economic conditions of the two countries as well as generate jobs for youths.

Workneh appealed to the project handlers and the government of Djibouti to ensure its completion within the time frame for the speedy realization of its economic benefits to the countries.

The Ethiopian Government is also undertaking a similar project handled by the Chinese company linking Addis Ababa with Djibouti. The Ethiopian project is also expected to be completed within the next two years, the Ethiopian transport minister said.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309201162.html.

Brunei's sultan announces strict Islamic penalties

October 23, 2013

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) — A new criminal law that could include penalties like amputation for theft and stoning for adultery will be enforced for Muslims in Brunei in six months, its ruling sultan announced.

Brunei's Shariah Islamic court had previously handled mainly family-related disputes. The sultan has been hoping to implement the new law for years to bolster the influence of Islam in the tiny, oil-rich monarchy on Southeast Asia's Borneo island.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said the Shariah Penal Code should be regarded as a form of "special guidance" from God and would be "part of the great history" of Brunei. "By the grace of Allah, with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to Allah is therefore being fulfilled," the sultan said at a legal conference in Brunei's capital.

The law would apply only to Muslims, who comprise about two-thirds of the population of nearly 420,000 people. The others follow mainly Buddhist, Christianity and indigenous beliefs. Brunei's Mufti Awang Abdul Aziz, the country's top Islamic scholar, told Tuesday's conference that the Shariah law "guarantees justice for everyone and safeguards their well-being."

"Let us not just look at the hand-cutting or the stoning or the caning per se, but let us also look at the conditions governing them," Awang said. "It is not indiscriminate cutting or stoning or caning. There are conditions and there are methods that are just and fair."

Under secular laws, Brunei already prescribes caning as a penalty for crimes including immigration offenses, for which convicts can be flogged with a rattan cane. Awang said there should be no concerns that foreign travelers might end up avoiding Brunei after the law is implemented.

"Please listen to our answer. Sir, do all potential tourists to Brunei plan to steal? If they do not, then what do they need to fear," he said. "Believe me when I say that with our Shariah criminal law, everyone, including tourists, will receive proper protection."

The implementation of Shariah criminal law is not expected to face vocal opposition in Brunei, which has long been known for conservative policies such as banning the public sale of liquor. Sultan Hassanal, who has reigned since 1967, is Brunei's head of state with full executive authority. Public criticism of his policies is extremely rare in Brunei.

Associated Press writer Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Bosnia begins holding 1st postwar census

October 01, 2013

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia began holding its first post-war census Tuesday, a sensitive exercise expected to reveal the effects of ethnic expulsions during the 1990s conflict and also impact the country's power-sharing system.

Over the next two weeks, officials will be knocking on people's doors and asking them to answer around 70 questions. Preliminary results are expected in January. In the last census in 1991, Bosnia had 4.4 million people, of whom 43.5 percent were Muslims, 31.2 percent Serbs and 17.4 percent Croats and a small percentage of others. After separating from the then-Yugoslavia in 1992, the group known as Muslims were labeled Bosniaks.

The various groups all lived mixed throughout Bosnia but ethnic expulsions and killings during the 1992-95 war created ethnic exclusive territories, divided the country into almost autonomous ethnic regions and sent an estimated million people permanently abroad.

The country's power-sharing system, imposed by a 1995 peace agreement, gives each of the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia a share of power based on the size of their populations according to the 1991 census.

Changes in the size of the ethnic groups in the past two decades could influence their share of power in the future.

Bangladesh sentences 2 men to death for war crimes

November 03, 2013

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh on Sunday sentenced to death two Bangladeshis now living abroad for crimes against humanity during the country's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, who lives in Britain, and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who lives in New York, were found guilty by a three-judge panel of abducting and murdering 18 people in December 1971, including nine university teachers, six journalists and three physicians.

The two were tried in absentia after they refused to return to Bangladesh to face trial. Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the 1971 war.

The two men were members of Jamaat-e-Islami during the war. The Islamic party is an ally of the country's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, a rival of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina formed the special tribunal in 2010 to try war crimes suspects. A Supreme Court ruling last month that upheld the conviction and death sentence of a senior member of Jamaat-e-Islami, Abdul Quader Mollah, triggered deadly clashes and a nationwide general strike.

Thousands protest elections in Azerbaijan

October 12, 2013

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Thousands gathered in the capital of Azerbaijan on Saturday to protest the re-election of President Ilham Aliyev in a vote widely criticized by international election monitors.

The protesters in Baku demanded that the election be nullified and that Aliyev resign. Aliyev succeeded his father to the presidency of this small oil-rich nation in 2003, extending decades of dynastic rule.

Leading the march was Jamil Hasanli, the historian who ran as the main opposition candidate but snagged less than 6 percent of the vote to Aliyev's 85 percent. Police estimated that there were 1,500 at the rally, whereas the opposition put the number between 8,000 and 10,000. The protest was significantly smaller than in previous presidential elections in 2003 and 2008, when at least three to four times as many people gathered to contest the results.

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called the Wednesday vote flawed. The day before, the Central Election Commission released the results of the vote on a smartphone app, showing Aliyev comfortably in the lead.

"This government must go and it will go," said Hasanli. He criticized Azerbaijani election officials, saying "they will all receive their punishment." Booming oil prices and a growing economy have allowed Aliyev to cement his control over the country, particularly after the tumultuous collapse of the Soviet Union, when Azerbaijan plunged into war with neighboring Armenia.

Years of relentless government crackdowns and bitter infighting has also weakened the opposition, which found it hard to mount a challenge to Aliyev in the latest vote. Hasanli was forwarded as a candidate at the last minute after the opposition's first choice was unable to register because he had Russian citizenship, and many observers said his campaign was poorly planned and lacked energy.

Azerbaijan announces election winner, before vote

October 10, 2013

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Something funny happened the day before Azerbaijan's presidential election: The election commission announced the winner.

On Tuesday, a day before the voting began, the smartphone app of the Central Election Commission released results showing President Ilham Aliyev, whose family has been at the helm of the Caspian Sea nation for four decades, winning 73 percent of the vote.

On Wednesday, the commission said Aliyev had won 85 percent of the vote. His closest contender, Jamil Hasanli, trailed with 6 percent, it said. The commission apologized for the early result on Thursday, saying it was only a test at one polling station conducted by the software developer. It expressed "deep regret" for the "misunderstanding."

International monitors said Thursday that the vote that kept the dynasty in power was marred by violations.

Early results show Azerbaijan president keeps seat

October 09, 2013

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan's president won a third five-year term by a landslide in Wednesday's election, according to preliminary results, extending decades of dynastic rule in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation allied with the West.

An opposition challenger quickly cried foul, protesting what he described as widespread vote-rigging and questioning the legitimacy of the vote. With 72 percent of precincts counted, Ilham Aliyev was leading the field with nearly 85 percent of the vote, said the Central Election Commission chief, Mazahir Panahov.

The main opposition candidate, historian Jamil Hasanli, had about 5 percent of the vote, followed by eight other contenders. Full preliminary results are expected Thursday. Exit polls have earlier shown similar figures, prompting Aliyev's campaign chief, Ali Ahmadov, to quickly claim victory. "Ilham Aliyev has unconditional support of the population," Ahmadov said.

In a statement after the election, Hasanli condemned what he called "total falsification and rude trampling on the people's rights." "Already now the legitimacy of the election can be called into question," he said.

Earlier in the day, Hasanli said that his supporters registered cases of ballot stuffing at a number of polling stations. "Regrettably, many government officials are involved in falsification, becoming accomplices of a grave crime," he said.

The Central Election Commission chief insisted that the vote was clean. International election monitors are to issue their report Thursday. International rights groups have accused Aliyev of pressuring and harassing government critics, leaving them little chance to campaign. The government, however, loosened restrictions ahead of the ballot, withdrawing its longtime ban on rallies in the center of the capital.

Aliyev has ruled the ex-Soviet nation of 9 million since 2003, succeeding his father, Geidar Aliyev, who had been at the helm for most of the previous three decades, first as Azerbaijan's Communist Party boss during the Soviet times, then as its president.

The younger Aliyev has presented himself as a guarantor of stability, an image with broad appeal in a nation where painful memories are still fresh of the years of turmoil that accompanied the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

A six-year war with neighboring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh left ethnic Armenian forces in control of Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring areas in Azerbaijan and turned 1 million Azerbaijanis into refugees.

The Azerbaijani leader has shown little tolerance for dissent and extended his rule through elections criticized by Western observers. At the same time, he has firmly allied the Shiite Muslim nation with the West, helping to secure its energy and security interests and to offset Russia's influence in the strategic Caspian region.

Under Aliyev, Azerbaijan has basked in oil riches that have more than tripled its GDP and helped bolster his popularity. The State Oil Fund that accumulates oil revenues held $34 billion at the start of the year.

After hearing the exit poll data, hundreds of Aliyev's supporters carrying national flags and pictures of the president took to the streets, some dancing to popular music. Motorists and bikers drove around the city, waving Azerbaijani flags and honking horns.

"We all are very happy and think that Azerbaijan in the coming five years will continue to prosper and will become the best country in the world," Baku resident Samira Kulieva said.

__ Sophiko Megrelidze contributed to this report.

Polls open in presidential vote in Azerbaijan

October 09, 2013

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Polls have opened in the presidential election in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

Polls opened at 0300 GMT on Wednesday in the presidential race dominated by incumbent Ilham Aliyev, whose low-key campaign for a third term reflected his confidence that he will roll over the main opposition challenger and eight fringe candidates.

Under Aliyev, the nation of 9 million has basked in oil riches that have more than tripled its gross domestic product. Aliyev inherited the presidency from his father, Geidar Aliyev, who had ruled Azerbaijan first as the Communist Party boss and then as a post-Soviet president for the greater part of three decades.

International rights groups have accused Aliyev of pressuring and harassing government critics, leaving them little breathing space to campaign.

Azerbaijan's president set for easy re-election

October 08, 2013

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Oil-rich Azerbaijan is booming and the wealth is trickling down to its poorest people. It all means that its president doesn't even need to clamp down too hard to ensure he extends a decades-long dynastic rule in elections this week.

Ilham Aliyev appears to be so certain of his popularity that his government has magnanimously eased tight restrictions on the opposition and allowed it to freely convene for rallies in the center of the capital — only to see the events draw tepid crowds of a few thousand. Aliyev hasn't even really bothered to campaign for Wednesday's election, confident that the cult of personality that has sprung up around him is sincere.

Aliyev looks and sounds like a Western statesman — sporting immaculately tailored suits and speaking fluent English — but he has in the past shown little tolerance for dissent and extended his rule through elections criticized by Western observers. At the same time, he has firmly allied the Shia Muslim nation with the West, helping secure its energy and security interests and offset Russia's influence in the strategic Caspian region.

That strategy has translated into fabulous wealth. Under Aliyev, the nation of 9 million has basked in oil riches that have more than tripled its gross domestic product and transformed the once-gritty capital, Baku, into a shining modern city. The State Oil Fund that accumulates oil revenues held $34 billion as of the start of the year.

With his political foes weakened by years of relentless government pressure and bitter infighting, Aliyev is all but certain to roll over the main opposition challenger and eight fringe candidates on Wednesday.

Ali Ahmadov, the executive secretary of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party, said the president doesn't need to campaign because his frequent trips across the country have brought him close to the people. "There is no need for the head of state to engage in propaganda during the election campaign," Ahmadov said.

Aliyev's glamorous wife Mehriban, who sits in parliament and heads a charity, has helped his popularity. "She has drawn the sympathy of many, including some of those who are in opposition," said Elkhan Shahinoglu, an independent political analyst.

Aliyev inherited the presidency from his father, Geidar Aliyev, who had ruled Azerbaijan first as the Communist Party boss and then as a post-Soviet president for the greater part of three decades. The son has presented himself as a guarantor of stability, an image that appeals to many in Azerbaijan, where painful memories are still fresh of the turmoil that accompanied the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Soon after the elder Aliyev lost his job in a shakeup of the Communist elite launched by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Azerbaijan plunged into an armed conflict with neighboring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The six-year war left ethnic Armenian forces in control of Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring areas in Azerbaijan and turned 1 million Azerbaijanis into refugees.

Amid public anger over military defeats, Azerbaijan's first president, Ayaz Mutalibov, stepped down and fled the country in 1992. His successor, Abulfaz Elchibey, was ousted the following year in a rebellion that paved way for Geidar Aliyev's triumphant return to power.

Aliyev senior fully dominated the political scene, and just a few months before his death secured his son's victory in an October 2003 presidential election that drew Western observer criticism over massive violations and triggered violent clashes between protesters and police.

Initially dismissed by critics as a playboy unfit for governing, Ilham Aliyev quickly consolidated his power and stifled dissent. He was re-elected by a landslide in a 2008 vote boycotted by major opposition parties and again criticized by Western observers. He then rammed through a constitutional referendum that scrapped presidential term limits.

International rights groups have accused him of pressuring and harassing government critics. Human Rights Watch said in a report last month that the clampdown on freedom of expression and assembly had intensified in the months preceding the vote. The government, however, loosened the reins ahead of the ballot, withdrawing its long-held ban on rallies in the center of the capital.

While leaving little breathing space for his domestic foes, Aliyev has expanded energy and security ties with the West, becoming an indispensable regional partner for the United States and the European Union.

BP, ExxonMobil and other Western oil giants have invested billions of dollars to tap Azerbaijan's oil riches. An oil pipeline backed by the U.S. and the European Union to pump Azerbaijani crude via Georgia to Turkey, bypassing Russia, went into operation in 2005, a pivotal element in a Western strategy to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian energy resources.

In the future, Azerbaijan would be a necessary conduit for any prospective pipelines under the Caspian to carry energy resources from Central Asian nations to Western markets. Azerbaijan has further strengthened its relations with the West by contributing troops to the U.S.-led missions in Afghanistan and Iraq and serving as a key supply route for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Azerbaijan's ties with neighboring Iran, which has a sizable ethnic Azeri community, have grown strained in recent years as Tehran has become vexed by Azerbaijan's growing security cooperation with the United States and Israel. Last year, the Azerbaijani security agency arrested dozens of people allegedly hired by Iran to carry out terrorist attacks against the U.S. and Israeli embassies as well as Western-linked groups and companies.

While Aliyev's foes have compared him to autocratic rulers ousted by the Arab Spring uprisings and warned that he could face a similar fate, experts see few parallels between the former Soviet Union and the developments in the Middle East.

"These are different societies at different levels of development," said Irina Zvyagelskaya, a leading expert with Moscow's Institute of Oriental Studies. "What happened in the Arab world can't serve as a model for the ex-Soviet lands."

The opposition's hopes of challenging Aliyev suffered a humiliating setback when election officials refused to register its original candidate on the grounds that he had dual Russian and Azerbaijani citizenship, something explicitly banned by the constitution.

As windfall oil revenues have filtered down to Azerbaijan's poorest, the opposition has found it hard to assail the government's economic policies, and the main opposition candidate, historian Jamil Hasanli, focused on government corruption and social inequality.

Gyulnara Samedova, a 47-year-old housewife who watched the debates, said nobody in her family was impressed by any of the challengers. "All we heard were mutual accusations and insults, nothing like a program for the country's development," she said. "We will vote for stability."

__ Isachenkov reported from Moscow.

Syrian opposition splintered ahead of peace talks

December 02, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Within minutes of opening a Twitter account this past week, the leader of Syria's main Western-backed opposition group received an onslaught of criticism.

"Welcome to Twitter Mr. Western Puppet," one comment to Ahmad al-Jarba read. Others called him a Saudi stooge and scorned the opposition's perceived ineffectiveness. The comments reflect the deep disillusionment and distrust that many Syrians have come to feel toward the Syrian National Coalition, Syria's main opposition group in exile. They also underline the predicament of who will represent the Syrian opposition at an upcoming peace conference in Geneva marking the first face-to-face meeting between Syria's warring sides.

The Geneva talks have raised the possibility of a negotiated end to a conflict activists say has killed more than 120,000 people. But with a fractured opposition, many have little hope for strong negotiations with emissaries of President Bashar Assad.

"Each of them represents himself and maybe his wife," said an anti-government activist in the central Homs province, who uses the pseudonym Abul Hoda. "Nobody here pays any attention to what they say."

The Syrian National Coalition is seen by many as a disparate group of out-of-touch exiles with inflated egos and non-Syrian allegiances. Syrians often deride it as the "five-star-hotel opposition" for spending more time meeting in luxury hotels than being on the ground in Syria.

Damascus-based opposition groups call members of the coalition traitors for demanding U.S. military airstrikes against Syria following a chemical weapons attack in August that killed hundreds. But groups known as the "internal opposition" are themselves seen as aging and submissive to Assad's government, incapable of playing an effective opposition role for fear of arrest.

More importantly, the rebel factions that hold the real power on the ground won't go to Geneva. Some of the most powerful Islamic brigades have distanced themselves from the coalition. Meanwhile, rebels are losing ground to a crushing government military offensive.

"Given the lack of unity amongst the opposition, the West and regional allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia will struggle to establish a representative negotiation partner that is willing to engage with the Syrian government," said Torbjorn Soltvedt, a senior analyst at the British risk analysis firm Maplecroft.

He added that negotiations likely will prove futile until there is a significant shift in the balance of power on the ground. "As such, the Syrian conflict is still likely to be decided on the battlefield," he said.

The Syrian foreign ministry said this week that it will send a high-level delegation to the talks with clear directives from Assad. Although it hasn't said who will be going, Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem is expected to head the delegation.

It is much less clear who from the opposition side will be at the talks. Their deep splits will make it extremely difficult to select a unified opposition delegation. Western leaders have made clear they expect the coalition to be the chief negotiator on the opposition side at the conference, set for Jan. 22. The group has called on others to participate in a delegation under its command.

"The coalition will form the whole opposition delegation and it will lead this delegation. This is not up for discussion," senior coalition member Ahmad Ramadan said. "The coalition is the only side responsible for that."

The U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said that the coalition will play a very important role in forming the delegation. "But I have always said that the delegation has to be credible and representative, as representative as possible," he said in Geneva last month.

Hassan Abdul-Azim, a veteran opposition figure in Syria who leads the Syria-based National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, said his group was ready to go to Geneva with a unified delegation made up of internal and external opposition group. But he said the coalition rejected the idea because it considers itself the only legitimate representative.

Many smaller opposition groups, including Kurdish parties, have not decided whether they will go and who will represent them. The coalition has said it will meet in Istanbul in mid-December to discuss the makeup of the delegation. But members of the group itself are split on the whole concept of a peace conference. Some of its senior members insist that Assad should step down and stand trial before any talks.

"In Europe, a train crash leads to government resignation. What about destroying half of Syria, displacing half its people and the killing and maiming of a million people?" asked opposition figure Kamal Labwani. "I am totally opposed to the Geneva conference."

Many believe the talks — if they go ahead — will be pointless, particularly now that Assad's forces have the upper hand in the fighting on the ground. The talks aim to establish a transitional government that would take over the country. But the opposition insists Assad must step aside, as the government says that's out of the question.

Gen. Salim Idris, the commander of the coalition's military wing known as the Free Syrian Army, said his faction will not take part in the talks and will not stop fighting until Assad is brought down by force. Meanwhile, frustration in the opposition remains clear, as it does in Twitter messages mocking Jarba's username "PresidentJarba."

"I find it disturbing you are calling yourself president already," one read. Another read: "100,000 Syrians martyrs and you ... still issue 'warnings.' No wonder ... Assad is still standing."

Associated Press writer Zeina Karam contributed to this report.

Facing protests, Ukraine leader again courts EU

December 02, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Facing huge anti-government demonstrations after spurning a deal with the European Union, Ukraine's embattled president sought Monday to quell public anger by moving to renew talks with Brussels.

The opposition, meanwhile, scrambled to secure enough votes in parliament to oust the Cabinet and try to force an early presidential election, in the biggest unrest in the country since the 2004 Orange Revolution.

President Viktor Yanukovych struggled to reaffirm his grip on power as thousands of demonstrators besieged government buildings in Kiev, his party suffered defections and three cities in the west of the country openly defied the central government.

The protests were sparked by Yanukovych's decision to ditch the political association and free trade pact with the EU, followed by the violent dispersal of a small peaceful rally in Kiev over the weekend.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who strongly opposed the EU deal, denounced the opposition protests in Kiev as "pogroms." On Monday, Yanukovych called European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and asked to renew negotiations on signing the association agreement. He also said in an interview with Ukraine's main television channels that he remains committed to European integration, but would like to negotiate better terms for the fragile Ukrainian economy.

Yanukovych urged the opposition for calm and dialogue with the government. But his call fell flat with opposition leaders who were hoping to summon enough parliamentary votes Tuesday to oust the Cabinet led by Yanukovych's loyal supporter, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, and force an early presidential vote.

"We need to change the system. There must be a complete reloading of the leadership," world boxing champion turned opposition leader Vitali Klitschko told reporters. It was unclear whether the opposition could muster the 226 votes it needs in the 450-seat parliament to oust Azarov and his Cabinet.

The opposition controls about 170 seats, but independents hold 35 more and the governing Party of Regions was shedding support. At least three of its lawmakers quit in protest and one of them, Inna Bohoslovska, previously a vocal government supporter, called on other legislators to leave the party. A top Agriculture Ministry official also resigned Monday.

Oleksandr Yefremov, head of the Party of Regions faction in parliament, said lawmakers would discuss the situation Tuesday morning and might then put a no-confidence motion up for a vote. But he argued that there were no grounds to dismiss the government because of the protests, which have centered on Kiev's main Independence Square, popularly referred to as Maidan.

"Our goal is to make sure that the people on Maidan calm down," Yefremov said. Opinion surveys conducted before the protests showed about 45 percent of Ukrainians supporting closer integration with the EU, with a third or less favoring closer ties with Russia. But the protests, and the police violence, appear to have unleashed anger against the government and tipped the balance more strongly in favor of integration with the EU.

Azarov criticized the opposition for blockading the government buildings and said the actions have the makings of a coup. Putin, speaking Monday on a visit to Armenia, called the demonstrations an attempt by the opposition to destabilize the government.

"The events in Ukraine look more like pogroms than a revolution," he said. Officials in the western cities of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil announced they were going on strike and called on their residents to turn out for protests. Lviv's mayor warned that police in his city would take off their uniforms and defend the city if the central government sent reinforcements. Scores of protesters from Lviv and elsewhere in western Ukraine have headed to Kiev by train and car to take part in the rallies.

"Yanukovych is now fighting for his political survival, and time is no longer on his side," said Tim Ash, an emerging markets analyst with Standard Bank in London. The opposition also was getting support from Ukraine's main television channels, which are owned by the country's wealthiest businessmen. Instead of largely toeing the government line, the channels have begun to give a greater platform to the protesters.

In Kiev, thousands continued rallying on Independence Square, which was turned into a giant tent camp cordoned off by barricades made of metal bars and wooden planks. Hundreds of others held ground inside Kiev city hall, where some protesters slept on the floor, while others lined up to receive hot tea, sandwiches and other food brought in by Kiev residents. Other volunteers sorted through piles of donated warm clothes and medicines.

"You can also fight for freedom and independence by giving out sandwiches," said Yulia Zhiber, a 21-year-old philology student from Kiev. Protests have been held daily in Kiev since Yanukovych's Cabinet announced on Nov. 21 that it was ditching the EU agreement in favor of closer ties with Russia.

Yanukovych was also reluctant to liberate his top rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose imprisonment the EU called political revenge and whose freedom it set as a condition for signing the deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman reaffirmed the willingness of Berlin and Brussels to sign the association agreement, saying the protests clearly showed that Ukrainians want the EU deal. "For the German government, these demonstrations send a very clear message," he said. "It has to be hoped that ... Yanukovych will hear this message."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at a conference in Lima, Peru, appealed "to all parties to act with restraint" and "avoid any further violence." In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also called for calm.

"We continue to stress there is no room for violence in a country that aspires to a democratic future," she said.

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Raf Casert in Brussels, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Cara Anna at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Kiev protesters gather at parliament

December 03, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday opened a high-tension session in which the opposition aims to put forward a vote of no-confidence in the government in the wake of both the president's shelving an agreement with the European Union and police violence against demonstrators protesting that decision.

Inside the parliament, opposition members shouted "shame" and "revolution" as pro-government lawmakers spoke, while opposition speakers drew boos and jeers. Outside the building, thousands of demonstrators gathered, calling for the government's dismissal.

"Shame to your president and shame to your government," spat out Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a lawmaker with the Fatherland party, the largest opposition grouping. After members of the various factions speak, the parliament will consider whether to put an opposition-backed no-confidence motion to a vote. If it does come to a vote, it is unclear if the opposition has enough support to pass it. Several lawmakers from the governing party have defected.

President Viktor Yanukovych's recent decision to shelve the long-anticipated agreement to deepen economic and political ties with the EU and to seek closer cooperation with Russia instead brought thousands of protesters to the streets. After police brutally swept aside a protest gathering early Saturday, anger spiked and some 300,000 protesters came out on Sunday.

The protests are the largest since the weeks of mass demonstrations in 2004, called the Orange Revolution, which also were directed against Yanukovych as the nominal winner of a fraud-plagued presidential election. Those protests forced a revote, which Yanukovych lost; he narrowly won the office in 2010, beating Orange Revolution icon Yulia Tymoshenko.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who strongly opposed the EU deal, has denounced the opposition protests in Kiev as "pogroms." On Monday, Yanukovych called European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and asked to renew negotiations on signing the association agreement. He also said in an interview with Ukraine's main television channels that he remains committed to European integration, but would like to negotiate better terms for the fragile Ukrainian economy.

Yanukovych urged the opposition for calm and dialogue with the government. But his call fell flat with opposition leaders who were hoping to summon enough parliamentary votes Tuesday to oust the cabinet led by Yanukovych's loyal supporter, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, and force an early presidential vote.

It was unclear whether the opposition could muster the 226 votes it needs in the 450-seat parliament. The opposition controls about 170 seats, but independents hold 35 more and the governing Party of Regions was shedding support. At least three of its lawmakers quit in protest and one of them, Inna Bohoslovska, previously a vocal government supporter, called on other legislators to leave the party. A top Agriculture Ministry official also resigned Monday.

Opinion surveys conducted before the protests showed about 45 percent of Ukrainians support closer integration with the EU, with a third or less favoring closer ties with Russia. But the protests, and the police violence, appear to have unleashed anger against the government and tipped the balance more strongly in favor of integration with the EU.

The opposition also was getting support from Ukraine's main television channels, which are owned by the country's wealthiest businessmen. Instead of largely toeing the government line, the channels have begun to give a greater platform to the protesters.

Demonstrators on Tuesday continued blocking the Cabinet of Ministers building, while thousands were rallying on Independence Square, which was turned into a giant tent camp cordoned off by barricades made of metal bars and wooden planks. Hundreds of others held ground inside Kiev city hall, where some protesters slept on the floor, while others lined up to receive hot tea, sandwiches and other food brought in by Kiev residents. Other volunteers sorted through piles of donated warm clothes and medicines.

Ukraine: Protesters besiege government building

December 02, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of Ukrainian protesters on Monday blocked entrances to the government building and called for the ouster of the prime minister and his cabinet, as anger at the president's decision to ditch a deal for closer ties with the European Union gripped other parts of the country and threatened his rule.

The besieging of the building follows a huge rally in the capital by hundreds of thousands Ukrainians on Sunday. The rally was mostly peaceful, until a group of protesters tried to storm President Viktor Yanukovych's office. After hours of scuffles, police chased protesters away with tear gas and truncheons.

It was a violent police action against protesters early Saturday that galvanized the latest round of protests whose aim is to bring down the president and his government. At least three lawmakers of the governing Party of Regions have quit in protest, and the opposition wants to oust the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov during a confidence vote in Parliament on Tuesday. But the opposition, which now controls some 170 seats, would need 226 votes in the 450-seat Parliament to oust the government.

Azarov's spokesman Vitaly Lukyanenko on Monday said the government was not planning to impose a state of emergency. He would not say whether the prime minister and his ministers were able to enter the Cabinet building, according to the Interfax news agency. Lukyanenko did not pick up the phone when The Associated Press tried to reach him.

In parts of western Ukraine, where most speak Ukrainian and lean toward the EU, some local officials seem to be in open revolt. The mayor of Lviv called on the people there to protest and warned that police would take off their uniforms and defend the city if the central government sends reinforcements. Scores of protesters from Lviv and elsewhere in western Ukraine headed to Kiev by train and cars to take part in the rallies.

"Yanukovych is — both, as president and as a politician — done," said Andreas Umland, assistant professor of European studies at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. In Kiev, thousands returned to Independence Square, where several hundred core protesters had spent the night in a tent camp. Hundreds of others were holding ground inside the Kiev city hall and a labor union building, where they had barricaded themselves Sunday.

"Our goal is to oust the authorities through strikes," said Serhiy Korchinsky, 35, an engineer from Lviv who spent the night in the protest camp. "The government will be paralyzed until Yanukovych and Azarov resign."

Protests have been held daily in Kiev since Yanukovych backed away from an agreement that would have established free trade and deepened political cooperation between Ukraine and the EU. He justified the decision by saying that Ukraine couldn't afford to break trade ties with Russia.

Anti-gov't mass rally in Ukraine turns violent

December 01, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A protest by about 300,000 Ukrainians angered by their government's decision to freeze integration with the West turned violent Sunday, when a group of demonstrators besieged the president's office and police drove them back with truncheons, tear gas and flash grenades. Dozens of people were injured.

The mass rally in central Kiev defied a government ban on protests on Independence Square, in the biggest show of anger over President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign a political and economic agreement with the European Union.

The protesters also were infuriated by the violent dispersal of a small, opposition rally two nights before. While opposition leaders called for a nationwide strike and prolonged peaceful street protests to demand that the government resign, several thousand people broke away and marched to Yanukovych's nearby office.

A few hundred of them, wearing masks, threw rocks and other objects at police and attempted to break through the police lines with a front loader. After several hours of clashes, riot police used force to push them back.

Dozens of people with what appeared to be head injuries were taken away by ambulance. Several journalists, including some beaten by police, were injured in the clashes. Opposition leaders denounced the clashes as a provocation aimed at discrediting the peaceful demonstration and charged that the people who incited the storming of the presidential office were government-hired thugs.

Several opposition leaders, including world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, walked over to Yanukovych's office to urge protesters to return to Independence Square. Order appeared to have been restored by Sunday night, with rows of riot police standing guard behind metal fences.

Some protesters then headed to Yanukovych's residence outside Kiev, but their cars were stopped by police. Speaking before the vast crowds on Independence Square from the roof of a bus, the opposition leaders demanded that Yanukovych and his government resign.

"Our plan is clear: It's not a demonstration, it's not a reaction. It's a revolution," said Yuriy Lutsenko, a former interior minister who is now an opposition leader. Chants of "revolution" resounded across a sea of yellow and blue Ukrainian and EU flags on the square, where the government had prohibited rallies starting Sunday. Thousands of protesters remained late into the evening and some were preparing to spend the night on the square.

The demonstration was by far the largest since the protests began more than a week ago and it carried echoes of the 2004 Orange Revolution, when tens of thousands came to the square nightly for weeks and set up a tent camp along the main street leading to the square.

The opposition leaders urged Ukrainians from all over the country to join the protests in the capital. "Our future is being decided here in Kiev," Klitschko said. Ukrainian lawmakers meet Monday for consultations and planned to hold a parliament session Tuesday. The opposition is hoping to muster enough votes to oust Prime Minister Mykola Azarov's Cabinet after several lawmakers quit Yanukovych's Party of Regions in protest.

The U.S. Embassy issued a joint statement from U.S. and EU ambassadors encouraging Ukrainians to resolve their differences peacefully and urging "all stakeholders in the political process to establish immediate dialogue to facilitate a mutually acceptable resolution to the current discord."

Protests have been held daily in Kiev since Yanukovych backed away from an agreement that would have established free trade and deepened political cooperation between Ukraine and the EU. He justified the decision by saying that Ukraine couldn't afford to break trade ties with Russia.

The EU agreement was to have been signed Friday and since then the protests have gained strength. "We are furious," said 62-year-old retired businessman Mykola Sapronov, who was among the protesters Sunday. "The leaders must resign. We want Europe and freedom."

As the demonstrators approached Independence Square and swept away metal barriers from around a large Christmas tree set up in the center, all police left the square. About a dozen people then climbed the tree to hang EU and Ukrainian flags from its branches.

Several hundred demonstrators never made it to the square. Along the way they burst into the Kiev city administration building and occupied it, in defiance of police, who tried unsuccessfully to drive them away by using tear gas.

The EU agreement had been eagerly anticipated by Ukrainians who want their country of 45 million people to break out of Moscow's orbit. Opinion surveys in recent months showed about 45 percent of Ukrainians supporting closer integration with the EU and a third or less favoring closer ties with Russia.

Moscow tried to block the deal with the EU by banning some Ukrainian 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.

Yanukovych was traveling to China for a state visit this week. Afterward, the president planned to visit Russia and reach agreement on normalizing trade relations, Azarov said Sunday. For Yanukovych, memories of the Orange Revolution are still raw.

Those protests forced the annulment of a fraud-tainted presidential election in which he was shown to have won the most votes. A rerun of the election was ordered, and he 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 has 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, who comes up for re-election in early 2015.

Ukraine: Tens of thousands march through Kiev

December 01, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — More than 100,000 demonstrators chased away police to rally in the center of Ukraine's capital on Sunday, defying a government ban on protests on Independence Square, in the biggest show of anger over the president's refusal to sign an agreement with the European Union.

Thousands of demonstrators tried to storm the nearby presidential administration building, but were driven back by riot police using tear gas and flash grenades, which produce a loud bang but are not intended to cause injury. The standoff continued, with more demonstrators arriving.

The protest was led by prominent opposition politicians, who demanded that President Viktor Yanukovych and his government resign. They also called for a nationwide strike and for tents to be set up to allow demonstrators to remain on the square around the clock.

"Our plan is clear: It's not a demonstration, it's not a reaction. It's a revolution," said Yuriy Lutsenko, speaking from the top of a bus. Chants of "revolution" resounded across a sea of yellow and blue Ukrainian and EU flags on the square, where the government had prohibited rallies starting Sunday.

The crowd was by far the largest since the protests began more than a week ago. Many of the demonstrators had traveled to Kiev from western Ukraine, where pro-EU sentiment is particularly strong. "We are furious," said Mykola Sapronov, a 62-year-old retired businessman. "The leaders must resign. We want Europe and freedom."

Protests have been held daily in Kiev since Yanukovych backed away from an agreement that would have established free trade and deepened political cooperation between Ukraine and the EU. He justified the decision by saying that Ukraine could not afford to break trade ties with Russia.

The EU agreement was to have been signed Friday and since then the protests have gained strength. Sunday's demonstration also was energized by anger over the violent dispersal of several hundred protesters at Independence Square early Saturday. Some of the protesters were left bleeding from their heads after riot police beat them with truncheons.

"They want to take our freedom away from us," said Nina Moskalik, 25. "They beat people, they spill blood. This is why we have to come out." Yanukovych late Saturday condemned the use of force and promised to punish those responsible.

As the vast column of demonstrators approached Independence Square on Sunday and swept away metal barriers from around a large Christmas tree set up in the center, all police left the square. About a dozen demonstrators then climbed the tree to hang EU and Ukrainian flags from its branches.

Several hundred demonstrators never made it to the square. Along the way they burst into the Kiev city administration building and occupied it, in defiance of police, who tried unsuccessfully to drive them away by using tear gas.

The EU agreement had been eagerly anticipated by Ukrainians who want their country of 45 million people to break out of Moscow's orbit. Opinion surveys in recent months showed about 45 percent of Ukrainians supporting closer integration with the EU and a third or less favoring closer ties with Russia.

Moscow tried to block the deal with the EU by banning some Ukrainian 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.

Yanukovych was traveling to China for a state visit this week. Afterward, the president planned to visit Russia and reach agreement on normalizing trade relations, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Sunday.

Sunday's demonstration was the largest since 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 has 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, who comes up for re-election in early 2015.

Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report.

Croatians vote against same-sex marriage

December 01, 2013

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A majority of Croatians voted in a referendum Sunday to ban gay marriages in what is a major victory for the Catholic Church-backed conservatives in the European Union's newest nation.

The state electoral commission, citing near complete results, said 65 percent of those who voted answered "yes" to the referendum question: "Do you agree that marriage is matrimony between a man and a woman?" About 34 percent voted against.

The result meant that Croatia's constitution will be amended to ban same-sex marriage. The vote has deeply divided Croatia. Liberal groups have said the referendum's question infringes on basic human rights. The Church-backed groups have gathered 750,000 signatures in its support.

Referendum results signal that right-wing and conservative forces have been gaining strength in Croatia amid the deepening economic crisis and widespread joblessness. The country of 4.4 million, which became EU's 28th member in July, has taken steps to improve gay rights, but issues such as same-sex marriage remain highly sensitive in the staunchly Catholic nation.

The referendum was called by the "In the Name of the Family" conservative group after Croatia's center-left government drafted a law to let gay couples register as "life partners." The Catholic Church leaders have urged their followers to vote "yes" in the referendum. Nearly 90 percent of Croatians are Roman Catholics.

"Marriage is the only union enabling procreation," Croatian Cardinal Josip Bozanic said in his message to the followers. "This is the key difference between a marriage and other unions." Croatia's liberal president, Ivo Josipovic, said he voted against amending the constitution. Josipovic said the referendum result must be respected, but added the government is preparing a law to allow some rights to gays and lesbians living together.

"The referendum result must not be the reason for new divisions," Josipovic said. "We have serious economic and social problems. It's not worth it to focus on such issues." Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said earlier "this is the last referendum that gives a chance to the majority to strip a minority of its rights."

Conservatives have also started gathering signatures for another referendum, demanding a ban of the Cyrillic alphabet in Croatia. The Cyrillic is used in neighboring Serbia and by minority Serbs in Croatia. The nationalists blame the Serbs for atrocities committed by their troops during Croatia's 1991-95 war for independence from the Serb-led Yugoslavia.

The EU hasn't officially commented on the referendum, but has clashed with Croatia over some of its other laws, including an extradition law that has prevented its citizens from being handed over to the bloc's other member states, which Croatia had to amend under pressure from Brussels.

Several hundred gay rights supporters marched in the capital, Zagreb, on Saturday urging a "no" vote. "I will vote against because I think that the referendum is not a festival of democracy, but a festival of oppression against a minority, which fights for its rights and which does not have its rights," Jura Matulic, a university student, said.

Associated Press writers Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.

Israel's new opposition chief meets with Abbas

December 01, 2013

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel's new opposition leader told the Palestinian president Sunday that most Israelis support a peace deal with the Palestinians and that his Labor Party will back any future agreement.

Isaac Herzog met with President Mahmoud Abbas just 10 days after being elected Labor leader, replacing a party chief who had made domestic issues such as economic inequality a chief concern. Sunday's talks at Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank signaled a shift back to Labor's traditional priorities. Two decades ago, the party led Israel into negotiations on the terms of a Palestinian state.

The collapse of the first major attempt to reach a final peace deal in 2000 contributed to Labor's political decline. Since then, the party either served as a junior partner in coalition governments or in the opposition. It's currently in the opposition, with 15 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament.

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed in July, but there has been no sign of progress. With only five more months set aside for talks, tensions are high over Israel's continued settlement building on war-won lands the Palestinians seek for their state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition announced plans for thousands more settlement apartments in recent months, drawing angry Palestinian complaints that Israel is showing bad faith and pre-empting the outcome of talks.

Despite the prevailing pessimism, Herzog said he believes both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are serious about negotiations. "I was very impressed by the willingness of the president (Abbas) to move toward an agreement ... and I will deliver this message to the prime minister (Netanyahu) who I know is also committed to the idea of moving toward an agreement," said Herzog.

Herzog said he believes a "clear majority" of Israelis support a peace deal and that Labor will provide a parliamentary safety net for Netanyahu if he reaches such an agreement. Pro-settler legislators are influential in Netanyahu's coalition and in his own Likud Party and are expected to oppose any deal involving a withdrawal from much of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967. Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip — also captured in 1967 and sought for a Palestinian state — in 2005 but continues to restrict access to the territory.

In other developments Sunday, Gaza's ruling Hamas announced that it has canceled an annual rally marking its founding, saying it is inappropriate to celebrate at a time of growing economic hardship. It was the first time the Islamic militant group has canceled the festivities since seizing Gaza in 2007. Hamas has used the elaborate annual commemoration of its December 1987 founding to demonstrate its control, with large military-style gatherings attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

The decision illustrated just how hard Gaza's economy has been hit since Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, the main foreign patron of Hamas, was ousted in a July military coup. Morsi hails from the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood group, of which Hamas is an offshoot.

The Egyptian military has imposed tough border restrictions, including the destruction of smuggling tunnels that long sustained the Gaza economy and provided a key source of income for Hamas.

Thai protests ease as police lift key barricades

December 03, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Anti-government protesters swarmed into the Thai prime minister's office compound Tuesday as police stood by and watched, allowing them to claim a symbolic victory after three days of bitter clashes.

Hundreds of protesters poured onto the lawn of Government House, waving Thai flags and blowing whistles. After claiming victory with shouts of "Victory belongs to the people!" they left the compound an hour later, and the gates were locked again.

The unexpected reversal of strategy by the government indicated it no longer wants to confront the protesters and is willing to compromise to ease tensions ahead of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 86th birthday on Thursday.

As anti-government protesters celebrated on the Government House lawn, a leader announced through a loudspeaker that Wednesday would be devoted to cleaning up the debris at scattered protest sites to prepare for the king's birthday.

Government officials did not immediately comment on the developments, and it was not clear if the protest movement had ended or if this was merely a lull in the violence that might pick up again after the king's birthday.

"We wanted to come into Government House because it's a symbolic victory. But this is a victory that is not complete," said Direk Worachaisawad, a 45-year-old high school computer science teacher who was on the compound's front lawn.

"It's not over yet. We have to keep fighting," he said. "We won't stop until all the dirt has been swept out of Thailand." The protesters accuse Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of being a proxy for her older brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. They have demanded that her government hand over power to an unelected council that would appoint a new prime minister.

Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 military coup but remains central to Thailand's political crisis, and is a focal point of the protesters' hatred. He is despised by many of the mostly middle-class Bangkok supporters of the opposition Democrat Party for alleged widespread corruption and abuse of political power for his family's benefit.

The street battles, which followed a month of peaceful demonstrations, have hurt Thailand's image and raised concerns that prolonged unrest could damage the tourism industry ahead of the peak holiday season.

Three people have died and more than 230 were injured after clashes erupted Saturday between protesters and police. After resisting the protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets since Saturday, police lounged on sidewalks Tuesday as protesters removed the barriers on a road leading to the prime minister's office and walked through.

Earlier Tuesday, police used cranes to remove concrete slabs and barbed wire barricades on a nearby road leading to the police headquarters after agreeing to let the protesters into the building. It had been widely expected that some kind of an understanding would be reached to allow the protests to pause for the king's birthday on Thursday. The king is highly revered by most Thais and is seen as the sole uniting figure in the country.

Monday marked some of the worst clashes since the protests began last week. Protesters commandeered garbage trucks and bulldozers, and tried to ram concrete barriers at Government House and other offices. Police repelled them by firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, as protesters shot back explosives from homemade rocket launchers.

On Monday night, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban had told his supporters to ramp up the campaign and storm the Bangkok Metropolitan Police Bureau, one of the main buildings they had vowed to seize as part of a campaign to topple Yingluck's government.

The three days of violence occurred mostly near Government House, Parliament and the Metropolitan Police Bureau in the historic quarter of the capital. The area has some of Bangkok's main tourist attractions such as the Grand Palace, Wat Pho temple and the backpacker area of Khao San Road. Most of Bangkok, a city of 10 million, was unaffected by the clashes.

Yingluck told a news conference Monday that she was willing to do anything it takes to end the violent protests, but that the constitution did not allow her to accept Suthep's demand that she hand power to an unelected council.

Yingluck was elected with an overwhelming majority in 2011, and many observers see the protesters' demand as unreasonable if not outlandish. Political instability has plagued Thailand since the military ousted Thaksin, who remains hugely popular among rural voters, in 2006. Two years later, anti-Thaksin protesters occupied Bangkok's two airports for a week after taking over the prime minister's office for three months, and in 2010 pro-Thaksin protesters occupied downtown Bangkok for weeks in a standoff that ended with parts of the city in flames and more than 90 dead.

Tourism and Sports Minister Somsak Pureesrisak told reporters a target of 26.5 million tourists for the year may not be met. Tourism contributes 10 percent to Thailand's $620 billion economy.

Thai protest leader meets PM after street clashes

December 01, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — The leader of Thailand's anti-government protests said unexpectedly that he had met the prime minister Sunday after daylong clashes between his supporters and police but defiantly told her he would accept nothing less than having her elected government step down to be replaced by an appointed council.

Suthep Thaugsuban said the meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was held under the auspices of the military, which says it is neutral in the conflict. His account of defiance drew lusty cheers from his supporters.

Police throughout the day fought off mobs of rock-throwing protesters who tried to battle their way into the government's heavily-fortified headquarters and other offices. Mobs also besieged several television stations, demanding they broadcast the protesters' views and not the government's. Several of the capital's biggest shopping malls closed in the heart of the city due to the unrest.

With skirmishes around Yingluck's office at Government House continuing as darkness fell, the government advised Bangkok residents to stay indoors overnight for their safety. The protests have renewed fears of prolonged instability in one of Southeast Asia's biggest economies. Sunday marked the first time police have used force since demonstrations began in earnest a week ago — a risky strategy that many fear could trigger more bloodshed.

At least three people were killed and 103 injured in skirmishes over the weekend, according to police and the state's emergency medical services. The deaths occurred at a Bangkok stadium where the body of one protester shot in the chest lay face-up on the ground. The death toll was revised from four after the emergency services office said there had been a mix-up in information from hospitals.

Suthep insisted to his supporters that the meeting with Yingluck did not constitute negotiations. The protesters had dubbed Sunday "victory day" but failed to attain their main stated goal of taking over the prime minister's offices, despite engaging in pitched street battles. Yingluck's government has gone to painstaking lengths to avoid using deadly force.

"I only came to tell Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra that right now, people all over Thailand have stood up to show their ownership of Thailand," Suthep said. He told followers it would take another two days for their goal to be reached. He earlier called for all public servants to take Monday off. Last week, protesters tried to disrupt government operations by besieging and occupying parts of several ministries and other government offices.

"If Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra listens to the people's voices and returns the power to the people, we will treat Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra with politeness because we all are good citizens," he said.

Spokesmen for both the prime minister and the army said they were too junior to comment on any meeting. Government spokesman Teerat Ratanasevi said Yingluck was not expected to make a statement Sunday night. She did not appear in public, and her aides said she was in a safe place.

While the talks between the main protagonists suggest a faint possibility of a peaceful settlement, they also underline the traditional powerbroker role of the military, which could tumble the government even without a coup by refusing to let its forces help keep the peace. More than 2,500 military personnel were deployed Sunday in support of police defense efforts.

Political instability has plagued Thailand since the military ousted Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, in a 2006 coup. Two years later, anti-Thaksin demonstrators occupied Bangkok's two airports for a week after taking over the prime minister's office for three months, and in 2010 pro-Thaksin protesters occupied downtown Bangkok for weeks in a standoff that ended with parts of the city in flames and more than 90 dead.

Any further deterioration is likely to scare away investors as well as tourists who come to Thailand by the millions and contribute 10 percent to the $602 billion economy, Southeast Asia's second largest after Indonesia. It is also likely to undermine Thailand's democracy, which had built up in fits and starts interrupted by coups.

The latest unrest began last month after an ill-advised bid by Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai party to push an amnesty law through Parliament that would have allowed the return of her self-exiled brother, who was overthrown after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin lives in Dubai to avoid a two-year jail term for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.

The bill failed to pass the upper house of parliament, emboldening protesters, who drew 100,000 people to a mass rally in Bangkok one week ago. Then, over the past week, they seized the Finance Ministry, camped at a sprawling government office complex, cut power to the national police headquarters and briefly broken into the army headquarters compound to urge the military to support them.

The demonstrators want to replace Yingluck's popularly elected government with an unelected "people's council," but they have been vague about what that means. Because Yingluck's party has overwhelming electoral support from the country's rural majority, which benefited from Thaksin's populist programs, the protesters want to change the country's political system to a less democratic one where the educated and well-connected would have a greater say than directly elected lawmakers.

Some of Sunday's most dramatic scenes played out in front of Government House, where more than 1,000 protesters wearing bandannas and plastic bags over their heads hurled stones, bottles and sticks at police, who fought back with rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas over barricades that separated them. Protesters clipped away at coils of barbed wire that surrounded the compound, pushed over barriers and at one point tried to drag one away with a green rope tied to a truck.

A few kilometers (miles) away, police drove back another crowd of protesters at the city's police headquarters. Until this weekend, the demonstrations were largely peaceful. But Saturday night, rival groups clashed in northeastern Bangkok, where a large pro-government rally was being held in a stadium. Dozens were wounded, and unidentified gunmen were also responsible for the three shooting deaths.

Army commander Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha — who said last week the army would not take sides — urged the police not to use force and also called on protesters to avert violence, according to Lt. Col. Winthai Suvaree, an army spokesman.

Most of the protesters are middle-class Bangkok residents who have been part of the anti-Thaksin movement for several years and people brought in from the opposition Democrat Party strongholds in the southern provinces.

Associated Press writers Todd Pitman, Grant Peck, Jocelyn Gecker, Papitchaya Boonngok, Yves Dam Van, and Raul Gallego Abellan contributed to this report.

Police battle Bangkok protesters as crisis deepens

December 01, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Police in Thailand fought off mobs of rock-throwing protesters armed with petrol bombs who tried to battle their way into the government's heavily-fortified headquarters Sunday, as gunshots rang out in Bangkok and the prime minister fled a police complex during the sharpest escalation yet of the country's latest crisis.

The protests, aimed at toppling Yingluck Shinawatra's administration, have renewed fears of prolonged instability in one of Southeast Asia's biggest economies. Sunday marked the first time police have used force since demonstrations began in earnest a week ago — a risky strategy that many fear could trigger more bloodshed.

At least four people have been killed and 103 injured in skirmishes so far, according to police and the state's emergency medical services. The deaths occurred at a Bangkok stadium where shooting was heard Sunday for the second day and the body of one protester shot in the chest lay face-up on the ground.

The unrest forced several of the capital's biggest and glitziest shopping malls to close in the heart of the city and snarled traffic. Mobs also besieged several television stations, demanding they broadcast the protesters' views and not the government's.

With skirmishes around Yingluck's office at Government House continuing as darkness fell, the government advised Bangkok residents to stay indoors overnight for their safety. Yingluck spent the morning in meetings at a Bangkok police complex but evacuated to an undisclosed location and canceled an interview with reporters after more than a hundred protesters attempted to break into the compound, according to her secretary, Wim Rungwattanajinda.

Several demonstrators interviewed by The Associated Press, however, were unaware Yingluck was inside. Those who made it a few steps into the vast complex stayed only a few minutes, and Wim said they did not get anywhere near the heavily protected building where Yingluck was located.

"We want Yingluck to get out of power! She must go!" said Sothorn Kerdkaew, an agriculture student with a Thai flag who was standing outside the police complex. Political instability has plagued Thailand since the military ousted Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, in a 2006 coup. Two years later, anti-Thaksin demonstrators occupied Bangkok's two airports for a week after taking over the prime minister's office for three months, and in 2010 pro-Thaksin protesters occupied downtown Bangkok for weeks in a standoff that ended with parts of the city in flames and more than 90 dead.

Any further deterioration is likely to scare away investors as well as tourists who come to Thailand by the millions and contribute 10 percent to the $602 billion economy, Southeast Asia's second largest after Indonesia. It is also likely to undermine Thailand's democracy, which had built up in fits and starts interrupted by coups.

The latest unrest began last month after an ill-advised bid by Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai party to push an amnesty law through Parliament that would have allowed the return of her self-exiled brother, who was overthrown after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin lives in Dubai to avoid a two-year jail term for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.

The bill failed to pass the upper house of parliament, emboldening protesters, who drew 100,000 people to a mass rally in Bangkok one week ago. Then, over the past week, they seized the Finance Ministry, camped at a sprawling government office complex, cut power to the national police headquarters and briefly broken into the army headquarters compound to urge the military to support them.

The demonstrators, who accuse Yingluck of being her brother's puppet, are a minority who mainly support the opposition Democrat Party. They want to replace Yingluck's popularly elected government with an unelected "people's council," but they have been vague about what that means.

Some of Sunday's most dramatic scenes played out in front of Government House, where more than 1,000 protesters wearing bandanas and plastic bags over their heads hurled stones, bottles and sticks at police, who fought back with rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas over barricades that separated them. Protesters clipped away at coils of barbed wire that surrounded the compound, pushed over barriers and at one point tried to drag one way with a green rope tied to a truck.

One Associated Press cameraman filming the mayhem was hit in the hand by a rock and the leg by a rubber bullet. A few kilometers (miles) away, police drove back another crowd of protesters at the city's police headquarters.

"We're all brothers and sisters," police shouted through a loudspeaker before firing tear gas. "Please don't try to come in!" Until this weekend, the demonstrations have largely been peaceful. But tensions rose Saturday night after rival groups clashed in a northeastern Bangkok neighborhood where a large pro-government rally was being held in a stadium. Dozens were wounded, and unidentified gunmen also shot and killed four people.

Pro-government supporters left the stadium Sunday, but gunshots were fired in the same area. It was not clear who was responsible or targeted, said police Col. Narongrit Promsawat. Wutthisak Larpcharoensap, the rector of nearby Ramkhamhaeng University, said at least some of shots were fired toward the school.

Yingluck's government, weary of past bloodshed, has gone to painstaking lengths to avoid using force. But they appeared to have drawn a red line at Government House, and on Sunday fought back for the first time, both there and at the headquarters of Bangkok city police.

Army commander Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha — who said last week the army would not take sides — urged the police not to use force and also called on protesters to avert violence, according to Lt. Col. Winthai Suvaree, an army spokesman.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban had earlier vowed that Sunday would mark the end of the campaign with protesters declaring a "victory day." But in a televised statement late in the day, he called on protesters to press on.

"We would like to demand that the government and the police ... return the power to the people," Suthep said, in a news conference from an occupied government complex that houses key offices including the Constitutional Court.

Several local carriers aired the statement after coming under threat by mobs whose leaders said they would force them off air if they didn't cooperate. Most of the protesters are middle-class Bangkok residents who have been part of the anti-Thaksin movement for several years and people brought in from the Democrat Party strongholds in the southern provinces.

Because Yingluck's party has overwhelming electoral support from the country's rural majority, which benefited from Thaksin's populist programs, the protesters want to change the country's political system to a less democratic one where the educated and well-connected would have a greater say than directly elected lawmakers.

Associated Press writers Grant Peck, Jocelyn Gecker, Papitchaya Boonngok, Yves Dam Van, and Raul Gallego Abellan contributed to this report.

Iran envoy meets Kuwaiti emir in latest outreach

December 01, 2013

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Iran's top diplomat met with Kuwait's ruler Sunday on his first visit to the Western-allied Gulf state since Iran's moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in August.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif conveyed a message from Rouhani on ways to improve relations between the two countries during his meeting in Kuwait with emir Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, according to a report carried by the official Kuwait News Agency.

Iran's new government has promised to build closer ties with nearby Arab countries. The Islamic Republic has a tense relationship with Gulf Arab states, particularly regional rival Saudi Arabia. Tehran last month agreed with world powers in Geneva to freeze parts of its nuclear program in return for an easing of Western sanctions. The West and its allies fear the program could be used to build an atomic bomb, although Iran says it is only for peaceful purposes.

Zarif told reporters in Kuwait the nuclear deal illustrates Iran's good intentions and said the world is witnessing an easing of the mistrust between Iran and the West, according to an account of his remarks published by the Kuwaiti news agency.

Seeking to the ease concerns of Iran's Arab neighbors, Zarif was quoted as saying the deal is not "at the expense of any country in the region." Zarif was scheduled to head to Oman, which maintains friendly ties with both Iran and Western powers, after leaving Kuwait, according to Iran's official IRNA news agency.

The United Arab Emirates' foreign minister visited Tehran last week. The Western-allied Arab Gulf state differs with Iran over several issues, including Tehran's control over Persian Gulf islands, but it was one of the first regional countries to welcome last month's nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.