Syrian parliament approves new election law

March 13, 2014

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's state TV says the parliament has unanimously approved a new election law allowing multiple candidates for president, opening doors to other potential candidates besides President Bashar Assad.

The vote comes nearly four months before Assad's seven-year term as president officially expires. Syrian officials say the presidential elections will be held on time and Assad has suggested he would run again.

The bill adopted Thursday says only candidates who lived in Syria for 10 years prior to nomination can run. The TV didn't say how many lawmakers voted for the bill. Syria has been ruled by the Baath party since it seized power in a 1963 coup.

Past presidential elections under Assad and his late father, Hafez Assad, were de-facto referendums with one of the Assads being the sole candidate.

Ottoman history flows back into Gaza

04 Jun 2014

Turkish government pays to restore centuries-old public fountain after learning of its link to the Ottoman Empire.

Gaza - To many Palestinians in Gaza City, it just looked like a hole in an abandoned wall, surrounded by splatters of concrete and spray paint.

In fact, this was all that remained of a public fountain dating back to the 16th century. This month, restoration work on the al-Rifa'yia fountain was completed, and cold, purified water once again runs from its taps.

The Turkish government offered to pay for the renovation after learning the fountain was linked to Sultan Abd al-Hamid II, the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, said Mohammed Mourtaga, director of the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) in Gaza. After discussions with the Hamas-run tourism ministry, TIKA paid about $30,000 to restore the fountain, Mourtaga told Al Jazeera.

"This will be the second time that it is revamped and the third time water is coming out from it," Deputy Tourism Minister Mohammed Khela told Al Jazeera.

As Gaza was a commerce hub and a route linking Asia and Africa during the Ottoman Empire, the al-Rifa'yia fountain was built around 1570 to provide people and traders with water. The water came from a nearby well, Khela said.

The fountain was repaired in 1900 during the era of al-Hamid II, but fell back into disuse during World War I. Although the Ottomans built three other fountains in Gaza, al-Rifa’yia is the only one that remains standing. It overlooks a vibrant street in the old district of Gaza City.

The renovated fountain now rests atop a short staircase, with three water taps. The structure has been restored to its original beige color, and the Arabic carvings are once again legible.

"We have restored it to its normal scenes," worker Mohammed Nabhan told Al Jazeera. "This is going to be a great project that anybody passing by can stop to drink cold water."

Contractor Emad al-Bayya said the rehabilitation process was difficult "because the place was abandoned and neglected for a very long time". He told Al Jazeera that a French archaeologist was supposed to be in Gaza to oversee the restoration process, but he could not come due to restrictions on access and movement. These restrictions also limited the flow of construction materials, "but we managed to complete the project with the minimum amount of cement and other materials".

TIKA, which has been funding the construction of a hospital and the digging of wells in Gaza, is also in discussions with the ruling Hamas movement to open a museum for Islamic manuscripts from the Ottoman era, Mourtaga said. Khela said Turkey also offered to pay for the renovation of a number of Turkish baths, mosques and other sites dating back to the Ottoman era.

"This is mainly to protect the Palestinian heritage and to emphasize the depth of Palestine's connection to the Islamic culture that flourished during the Ottoman state," Khela said. "This also strengthens the Palestinian-Turkish relations."

Jawdat al-Khoudary, an antiques collector who owns a private museum in Gaza, criticized the Palestinian government for failing to prioritize archaeological sites in Gaza.

"This is a neglected sector for the governments," he told Al Jazeera, citing tens of sites that need to be rehabilitated or preserved, including the minaret of the al-Omari great mosque in Gaza City, built in the seventh century.

Khela said his ministry often tries to protect the remnants of churches, temples and graves by providing guards, but the ministry lacks funds for expensive rehabilitation projects. The restoration of the al-Rifa'yia fountain was a bright spot, al-Khoudary added.

"This is a symbolic rehabilitation of a simple site," he said, "but it is great to see people interested in renovating it."

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/ottoman-history-flows-back-into-gaza-201451272838753893.html.

Gaza's Hamas government says ready to step aside

May 27, 2014

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The government installed by the Islamic militant group Hamas after its takeover of the Gaza Strip seven years ago said it held its last meeting Tuesday and is ready to hand "full responsibility" to a Palestinian unity government.

Tuesday's Cabinet statement was the latest sign that rival factions Hamas and Fatah are close to a deal on a unity government that is to end a crippling political rift and prepare for elections in 2015.

The longstanding conflict between the opponents peaked in 2007, when the Islamic militant Hamas drove the Fatah movement of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas out of Gaza, leaving his forces confined to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Since then, both sides have run separate governments in their respective territories on the opposite ends of Israel. Abbas seeks both the West Bank and Gaza as parts of a future Palestinian state, and the internal rift is a major impediment to any potential peace deal.

Repeated reconciliation attempts have failed, but the rivals appear more flexible this time because both are struggling with crises. Hamas faces severe money problems and has been unable to cover the government payroll because of a tightening border blockade of Gaza by neighboring Egypt over the past year. Israel continues to enforce its border blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007.

Abbas, meanwhile, needs a new political strategy after the latest attempt to negotiate the terms of Palestinian statehood with Israel collapsed in April. Abbas is skeptical about reaching a deal with Israel's hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In April, reconciliation efforts resumed. Negotiators said Tuesday they are close to agreement on the new Cabinet lineup. A formal announcement is expected as early as Thursday. Meanwhile, the Hamas Cabinet said it held its 343rd and final weekly meeting Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister Ziad al-Zaza said the government "is ready to hand over its full responsibilities to the unity government," the statement said.

Court acquits radical cleric of conspiracy

Jun 26, 2014
Reuters

AMMAN — The State Security Court on Thursday acquitted radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, who was extradited from Britain last year, of charges of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism.

But authorities will continue to detain the preacher because of separate charges related to a plot to attack tourists during New Year celebrations in Jordan in 2000.

“The court announces the acquittal of the defendant for lack of evidence,” said Ahmad Qatarneh, the judge presiding over the three-man tribunal.

Abu Qatada, sitting on a bench in an enclosed iron dock, smiled and looked relaxed during the half-hour court session. Dressed in brown prison fatigues, he was flanked by black-clad security officers.

Members of his family cried out of joy when the verdict was read and his wife and her relatives burst into tears.

“Thanks and praise to God!” they shouted.

Abu Qatada had previously been sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to life imprisonment for conspiracy to carry out Al Qaeda-style attacks against US and other targets inside Jordan.

Thursday’s session was a retrial in which the prosecution had argued Abu Qatada was a mentor to militant cells in Jordan while he was in Britain, providing spiritual and material support to a campaign of violence during the late 1990s.

But the court quashed the conspiracy charges and postponed another hearing on the New Year plot charges until September 7.

Abu Qatada’s defense lawyer Ghazi Thunaibat said he hoped the second trial would bring a similar sentence.

“My client has spent too long in prison unfairly and we hope the next verdict will finally end his plight and allow him to resume a normal life with his family,” he told Reuters.

Disputed confession

In December, Thunaibat called for his client’s release, saying his rights had been violated by the presence of the military judge in court and reliance on hearings of evidence extracted under torture from other defendants.

Despite the acquittal, the court upheld a confession which had convicted Abu Qatada in absentia in the earlier trial. The defense said the confession had been extracted under torture.

European and British courts used the confession to delay his deportation until he agreed to return to Jordan for a retrial.

“Human Rights Watch is troubled by the verdict that made it permissible to include allegations of a confession made under coercion that was held in doubt by British courts and the European Court of Human Rights,” said Adam Coogle, a Human Rights Watch researcher who attended the session.

Abu Qatada’s return to Jordan was made possible by an extradition treaty adopted by Jordan and Britain that satisfied the concerns of British judges about the use of evidence obtained through torture.

Linked by a Spanish judge to the late Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Abu Qatada has been in and out of jail in Britain since 2001. He was extradited to Jordan in July last year.

Jordanian security officials and experts on Islamist radical groups say Abu Qatada’s ideological writings have influenced many youths involved with Al Qaeda.

“This is a man who the British courts have deemed a risk to national security. He is not coming back,” British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman told reporters on Thursday.

“He will not be granted permission to enter the UK, end of story. He was deported on an indefinite deportation order.”

Abu Qatada has used some hearings to lend support to global Al Qaeda chief Ayman Zawahiri in a row with a splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which took control of swathes of land in Iraq this month and is in Syria.

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/court-acquits-radical-cleric-of-conspiracy.

Refugees of 44 nationalities currently residing in Jordan should not be ignored — UNHCR

Jun 21, 2014
by Gaelle Sundelin

AMMAN — World Refugee Day is not a day to celebrate but a day to “pay tribute” to both refugees and the Jordanians hosting them and raise awareness, UNHCR staff said as they marked the occasion on Thursday in their Khalda headquarters in the capital.

The event, which gathered UN agencies and NGO representatives, alongside ambassadors and other officials, was an occasion to display artwork, music and poetry created and performed by refugees themselves.

“We know refugees as a big number but when you look at these hopes and dreams they have, it reminds you that there are individuals behind these numbers just like anyone else,” Hannah Rose Thomas, a UNHCR intern who developed the arts projects, told The Jordan Times at the ceremony.

Since April 2014, the artist said she had been working together with refugees to paint three colorful tents around the themes of hopes, dreams and memories, where they could express themselves freely and regain self-confidence.

From filling front pages of magazines and newspapers for the past two years to becoming colorful expressions of refugees’ identity, the infamous UNHCR tents were also an occasion for the guests to concretely grasp the limited living space many refugees live in.

“We wanted to convey the impact of war on families and the displacement, and fragmented lives being pieced back together again, so we used tents because they are a powerful symbol of displacement... and decided to turn them into pieces of beauty,” said Thomas, who studied art in London.

Within each tent, creative projects by the Norwegian Refugee Council, the International Relief and Development and Relief International were displayed, such as clothes and bags made out of unusable UNHCR tents or letters from refugee children calling on the world not to forget them.

“I love doing creative projects involving arts, dance, music... that enables [people] to convey messages to the world in an unusual way, and here we used the canvas of the tent as the medium for that,” said Frauke Riller, UNHCR external relations officer and focal point for World Refugee Day.

Noting that participating in the artistic experience has helped her combat some of her own prejudices, Riller pointed out that showing the artistic skills of refugees is a way to help people overcome their prejudice about refugees being mere aid recipients with little skills and education.

“The project reflects what the refugees have to say... especially the ‘hope’ tent shows their feelings, aspirations and questions, and we realize they are the same as any other [people] living anywhere in the world,” she said.

Despite sharing common dreams with the rest of the world, there is a deepening divide among refugees themselves in terms of attention paid and services granted to the different nationalities of displaced people in Jordan.

Iraqis, Sudanese and Somalis are among the 44 nationalities of refugees in the Kingdom, according to UNHCR Representative to Jordan Andrew Harper.

These refugees suffer from a decrease or absence of budgets earmarked to support them, leaving them in severe impoverishment, Harper warned.

“It is very easy with the Syrian crisis being in the limelight to forget that there are [other nationalities]... they are in dire straits and increasingly so,” Riller said.

While the art was realized by Syrian refugees, the event also brought together Iraqi oud player Waseem Somari and guitarist Ali Khalid as well as Sudanese poet Amal Mohamed, thereby shedding light on these often overlooked communities.

Mohamed, who arrived in Jordan eight months ago, read a piece of hers entitled “Feelings of a refugee woman”, where she not only expressed the hardship she is facing as a refugee, but also conveyed her gratitude to her host country.

“Despite all that, we shall not lose hope as Jordan, our second home and loving cradle, has bestowed great generosity upon us,” Mohamed said in the poem.

Although World Refugee Day was an occasion to recognize and salute Jordan’s generosity in welcoming refugees from various crisis areas, the worsening situation in neighboring Iraq does not bode well, and a new refugee influx could be expected, according to the UNHCR.

“Unfortunately, the situation in the region is becoming increasingly unstable... and, if anything, we need to be prepared to accept more people coming from Syria but also from Iraq,” Harper said in his welcoming address, calling upon the international community to increase support to Jordan.

According to UNHCR figures, there are almost 1.3 million refugees and asylum seekers from all nationalities in Jordan, a figure projected to increase by 100,000 by the end of 2014.

World Refugee Day, first celebrated in 2001, is observed around the world on June 20.

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/refugees-of-44-nationalities-currently-residing--in-jordan-should-not-be-ignored----unhcr.

Mauritania expected to re-elect Aziz as president

June 21, 2014

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — Mauritanians voted Saturday to choose their next president, but the incumbent seems certain to retain power because of a boycott by major opposition parties.

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who assumed power in a coup in 2008 and won elections a year later, has been a staunch ally of the West in facing the growing terror threat in West Africa. The National Forum for Democracy and Unity, a coalition of main opposition parties, decided to exclude themselves from the contest when the election date was chosen without their input. They complained that Aziz's control of state institutions would ensure his victory and described the vote as "grotesque theater."

Security forces guarded polling stations as voters cast their ballots amid mixed turnout. But in the capital city's poorer outskirts, which are Aziz strongholds, long lines formed. In some areas, so many people were still in line when polling stations were supposed to close that voting was extended.

Aziz faces four candidates, one of whom is the descendant of slaves. Provisional results are expected overnight and official results Monday. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff vote will be held July 5.

Aziz is from the country's ethnic Arab elite that long has dominated the ruling class, but his policies have made him popular among the poor black majority. "The important thing is to keep the state strong where citizens can freely express themselves and vote freely," said Mariam Mint Abdallah, a shopkeeper who was voting in an area north of the capital where Aziz himself voted Saturday.

The next president will face huge challenges. Insecurity is growing in the Sahel, a band of countries including Mauritania south of the Sahara Desert. Islamic militants roam in its vast ungoverned spaces. Mauritania's neighbor Mali was overrun by al-Qaida-linked fighters in 2012, until a French-led intervention pushed them back.

But the economy may pose an even greater hurdle. Mauritania is one of the world's poorest countries featuring great economic inequality with Arabs on top, blacks on the bottom. Even though illegal, slavery persists.

"There are not going to be a big fixes to Mauritania's democratic process any time soon. And the much bigger challenges are those of economic growth, employment and youth employment," said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Rebels agree to abide by cease-fire in Ukraine

June 23, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine agreed Monday to respect a cease-fire declared by the Ukrainian president, raising hopes for an end to months of fighting that have killed hundreds and ravaged the country's industrial heartland.

The announcement came as the Russian and U.S. presidents traded demands over the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin urged direct talks between the government and the rebels. President Barack Obama warned Putin that Moscow will face additional costs if it does not help ease the crisis.

The insurgents' pledge to respect the cease-fire came on the first day of talks between a former Ukrainian president, the Russian ambassador, European officials and the eastern separatists who have declared independence. While the government side was nominally not represented, ex-President Leonid Kuchma attended the discussions at the request of the sitting president.

The negotiations were launched in line with President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan, which started Friday with a weeklong unilateral cease-fire in the fighting that has killed more than 350 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Alexander Borodai, one of the rebel leaders who took part in Monday's talks in Donetsk, said rebels would respect Poroshenko's cease-fire, which lasts through 0700 GMT (2 a.m. EDT) Friday. The insurgents had previously demanded the Ukrainian military withdraw its troops from the east as a condition for any talks, so Borodai's statement represented a softened stance that raised expectations that the cease-fire could hold. Even before the insurgents made their pledge, the government said that there had been no fighting in the east since Monday morning.

Since the cease-fire was declared Friday, the Ukrainian government has accused the rebels of firing at government positions, while insurgents blamed Ukrainian forces for failing to honor the promise to halt hostilities. Poroshenko has said government troops will fire back if attacked.

The rebels, who have declared regions on border with Russia independent and fought government troops for two months, also promised to release observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who have been held hostage.

"This will be one of the steps that will improve the mutual understanding of both sides," said Alexei Karyakin, a representative of the insurgents in the Luhansk region. In Moscow, the Kremlin said Putin underlined in his conversation with Obama that to normalize the situation in eastern Ukraine, it's necessary to "effectively end fighting and start direct talks between the conflicting parties."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama urged Putin to use his personal influence with the separatists to promote peace and stability in Ukraine, stop backing the insurgents and halt the flow of arms across the border. Earnest said that while the U.S. believes a diplomatic solution to the crisis is still possible, "Russia will face additional costs if we do not see concrete actions to de-escalate the situation."

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting the rebellion in the east by sending troops and weapons across the border. Moscow has denied that and insisted that Russian citizens who joined the insurgents were volunteers.

Poroshenko's office said Monday that he has offered Russia a chance to send its own observers to join the OSCE mission in Ukraine to see that government troops were observing the cease-fire. Monday's talks involved Ukraine's ex-President Leonid Kuchma, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine and an envoy from the OSCE. Poroshenko has ruled out talks with those he calls "terrorists," so inviting Kuchma to mediate offered a way to conduct talks without the government's formal engagement.

Kuchma, who served as president from 1994 to 2005, comes from the east and is an astute political player respected by both sides. His ex-chief of staff, Viktor Medvedchuk, has lived in Russia and reportedly has close ties to Putin, was also at the talks.

If both sides observe the cease-fire, "then a normal peace process could start," Kuchma told reporters after Monday's talks. Poroshenko's deputy chief of staff, Valeryi Chalyi, said in televised remarks that Monday's talks were a "move in the right direction."

Russian Ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, voiced hope that the talks would ensure a "lasting truce" and the "launch of an inclusive negotiation process." Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine's declaration of a cease-fire and urged both sides to negotiate a compromise, which, he said, must guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine.

Putin clearly intends to maintain pressure on the Ukrainian government in Kiev to give the country's eastern industrial regions more powers, which would allow them to keep close ties with Russia and serve the Kremlin's main goal of preventing Ukraine from joining NATO.

But the Russian leader also wants to avoid more crippling sanctions from the U.S. and particularly from the European Union, whose leaders will meet Friday in Brussels, and therefore needs to be seen as cooperating with efforts to de-escalate the conflict.

Isachenkov reported from Moscow.

Poland's PM stands by ministers in leaked tapes

June 23, 2014

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's prime minister defied expectations Monday that he would dismiss officials whose compromising conversations were caught on tape in a government scandal the foreign minister says was orchestrated by organized crime.

Donald Tusk said he will not be dictated by the people who were behind these "criminal" actions and will not punish his ministers for using bad language. He spoke a day after the magazine Wprost released a transcript of a leaked conversation in which Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says Poland's alliance with the U.S. is worthless and harmful for the eastern European country. Last week Wprost also released a transcript of a compromising conversation between the interior minister and the head of Poland's national bank.

Sikorski asserted Monday that organized crime is behind the secret recordings. "The government was attacked by an organized crime group," Sikorski said in Luxembourg as he arrived for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers. "We don't yet know who stands behind it; we are not certain yet. But it is being checked and I hope the justice system determines the identities of the group members and, above all, of the masterminds."

He offered no proof for his statement. Critics have demanded that Tusk's center-right government resign since the conversations of top leaders started being leaked more than a week ago. Eavesdropping is a crime under Polish law. The magazine says the recordings came from a "businessman" who did not do the taping and they were made in the private VIP rooms of Warsaw restaurants.

In the transcript released by Wprost, Sikorski used vulgar terms while telling former finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, the Polish-U.S. alliance is not helping Poland. "The Polish-American alliance isn't worth anything. It is even harmful because it gives Poland a false sense of security," Sikorski said. "(We are) suckers, total suckers."

Sikorski also said the alliance with the U.S. could alienate two key neighbors of Poland: Russia and Germany. Earlier, Wprost released a conversation between Central Bank head Marek Belka and Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz where they discussed how the bank could help the governing party win re-election in 2015, a seeming violation of the bank's independence.

Associated Press writer Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this report.

Report: Polish minister calls US ties worthless

June 22, 2014

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish magazine said Sunday it has obtained recordings of a private conversation in which the foreign minister says Poland's strong alliance with the U.S. was worthless and "even harmful because it creates a false sense of security."

In a short transcript of the conversation, a person identified as Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski also allegedly criticized Poles as naive in a conversation with a former finance minister — in the latest recorded revelation from magazine Wprost to rattle Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government.

The Foreign Ministry declined comment, but did not deny that Sikorski made the remarks. Government spokeswoman Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska said officials would only comment after the recording is published in full.

Wprost has only provided a transcript of excerpts of the conversation, which it said was recorded in the spring. The magazine has said the sound files will be published on Monday or Tuesday. Using vulgar language and expletives, Sikorski argued that the Polish-U.S. alliance could alienate two key neighbors of Poland, Russia and Germany.

"The Polish-American alliance isn't worth anything. It is even harmful because it creates a false sense of security for Poland," the person said. "(We are) suckers, total suckers. The problem in Poland is that we have shallow pride and low self-esteem."

While the alleged Sikorski comments do not reveal any illegal actions, if confirmed, they would likely put Poland's top diplomat on the defensive. The prime minister's office said Tusk was likely to address the issue Monday.

Wprost already last week set off a political storm with the release of a recording of a conversation between central bank head Marek Belka and Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz. In the recording, the two discussed how the bank could help the governing party win re-election in 2015, an apparent violation of the bank's independence. Critics responded by calling on Tusk's government to resign.

Sikorski has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and has strongly criticized Russian actions in neighboring Ukraine this year. In the past he was a strong supporter of the United States. But he has become more critical of Washington in recent years, especially after President Barack Obama's attempted "reset" of ties with Russia in 2009 and the subsequent scaling-down of the U.S. missile defense plan for Poland and other parts of eastern Europe. Amid recent violence in Ukraine, Sikorski has been calling for a substantial U.S. troop presence on Polish soil.

He has also been widely mentioned as a possible successor to Catherine Ashton as the EU's foreign policy chief. Poland officially put him forward as a candidate last month. "The publishing of the tapes poses a threat to the social and political order of the state," sociologist Henryk Domanski said on TVN24 news channel. "This will have repercussions for Sikorski and for his international career, but on the other hand, Sikorski is known in the world for his strong, extreme statements."

Wprost has not revealed the source of the recordings, other than to say that they were obtained from a businessman who did not make them. In Poland, secretly recording a conversation is a crime. Some Poles wonder whether Russia might have a hand in the revelations, on the argument that the Kremlin benefits from a destabilized Poland.

While the source of the recording remains unclear, political analyst Rafal Chwedoruk said he believed that the case was about political fighting and "internal games" — with international implications.

"But if indeed foreign intelligence was involved, that involvement would be so deeply hidden that we would not be able to track it down for years," he told The Associated Press.

Kosovo police disperse protesters in tense north

June 23, 2014

MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo police fired tear gas and used batons Sunday to disperse hundreds of ethnic Albanians upset because minority Serbs had reinforced a barricade in the center of the city of Mitrovica.

At least seven police officers were injured and five cars set ablaze by protesters, police spokesman Avni Zahiti said. Protesters had tried to break through police lines to reach the main bridge over the river that divides the city between the southern ethnic Albanian district and the predominantly Serb north.

"There was an attempt by the protesters to pass the police cordon placed here on the bridge," Zahiti said. "The police were forced to use means at their disposal to manage a crowd that turned violent." He said protesters were throwing bricks and rocks at the police.

The local police then called for assistance from the NATO-led peacekeeping force to contain the crowd, said Lt. Col. John Cogbill of Richmond, Virginia, and U.S. armored vehicles blocked access to the bridge. The alliance leads a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

U.S. soldiers supported by German police in riot gear from the European Union's rule of law mission then cordoned off the bridge. The violence comes just days after Serbs reinforced an earthen barrier set up to block ethnic Albanians from crossing the bridge. Kosovo leaders quickly condemned the Serbs for a move seen as an attempt to deepen the division of Kosovo along ethnic lines.

Minority Serbs in the region have often clashed with the NATO peacekeepers, accusing them of supporting Kosovo's 2008 secession from Serbia. But Sunday's flare up was the first in more than four years in which ethnic Albanians rioted in Mitrovica.

Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian government and Serbia are engaged in EU-led talks to overcome their differences. But despite some progress the two sides remain far apart. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. The U.S. and the majority of the 28 EU countries recognize the new state, but Serbia rejects Kosovo's independence, as do many Serbs now living in Kosovo.

The NATO peacekeeping force came to Kosovo in 1999 after a three-month alliance bombing campaign pushed out Serb forces from the predominantly ethnic Albanian province.

'Game of Thrones' puts Northern Ireland on the map

June 22, 2014

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Giants, dragons and vengeful queens have for generations populated Northern Ireland's folk tales. Now, such creatures are visiting the land in a different version — on the sets for the hit TV show "Game of Thrones." But rather than spells and destruction, they're bringing an economic boost to this British province still healing from its past of political violence.

Fans of the HBO fantasy drama would recognize here the landscapes from the fictional land of Westeros — the castle of Winterfell, the seaside cliffs of the Iron Isles and the King's Road leading to the north. About 75 percent of the show is filmed in Northern Ireland, both in natural settings and in the Titanic Studios in Belfast.

Since the pilot episode began filming in 2009, attracted by the local government's financial incentives, the show's presence has helped foster a film industry that is catching the eye of other Hollywood productions. And Northern Ireland is taking advantage of the attention by promoting the filming locations as tourist destinations.

The latest — and perhaps most illustrious — visitor is Queen Elizabeth II, who will tour the studio sets on Monday. But thousands have already been visiting from across the globe. Cara and Tom Collins from Springdale, Arkansas, were in Ballintoy Harbour recently to see the rocky coastal setting used in the show for the 'Iron Isles,' a kingdom of rugged sailors.

"You can just close your eyes and picture everybody there," said Tom. The season four finale of "Game of Thrones" last week was watched by 7.09 million viewers in the United States according to prime-time viewership numbers complied by the Nielson Co. That makes it HBO's most-watched program since "The Sopranos" in 2007.

But the numbers are likely higher since TV audience habits have changed since 2007 and "Game of Thrones" has fans globally who watch on local networks and via DVD or streaming services. For Northern Ireland's tourism industry, that represents a huge pool of potential visitors. The province hopes to use the show's popularity to increase the number of tourists to over 2 million annually by 2016, from 1.8 million in 2013 — more than the region's population of just 1.8 million.

Coach operators have created "Game of Thrones" tours, for which demand hit a record as the show reached its season finale this month. "They are using some of our most iconic scenery in 'Game of Thrones' which is excellent," said Arlene Foster, minister for enterprise, trade and investment.

Beyond tourism, the direct employment of local workers has been very important for the local economy, she said. At the end of series four, HBO is estimated to have spent about 87.6 million pounds ($149.11 million) in the local economy making the show. The benefits are likely much higher when including other factors, such as the knock-on benefits from higher employment.

"This is a sector that we think has the potential to really grow" said Foster. "Around the HBO facility and studios will grow a skills base that others can use." Holywood — pronounced the same as California's 'Hollywood' — is a small seaside town near Belfast that may lack the glamour of Beverly Hills, but is gaining a movie-making reputation of its own. Yellow Moon, a production facility based there, has enjoyed strong growth and doubled its workforce by being involved with "Game of Thrones."

"HBO were a big catalyst in changing perceptions of what could be done in Northern Ireland. As the Americans say, it was a game changer," said Managing Director Greg Darby. Five years ago, 80 percent of Yellow Moon's work was for local broadcasters, and just 20 percent for productions based in the U.K. or further afield. Now, 70 percent of their work is commissioned outside Northern Ireland.

"'Game of Thrones' are directly or indirectly responsible for 80 percent of the people that we have taken on in the last three years, because if they didn't come we wouldn't have the other work," said Darby.

Scott Ferguson's story illustrates what "Game of Thrones" means for young creative people in Northern Ireland. He dreamt of being a film editor, but his first experience in the industry failed to lead to more work, so he took a job in a bank. Then five years ago a government training scheme lead to a placement at Yellow Moon and he is now a colorist on the show, adding mood and tone to the images in post-production, and on his way to becoming an expert in his field.

Ferguson is confident that people like him will no longer need to emigrate to seek work in film and TV, now that Northern Ireland's reputation as a production hub is growing. "We have world class facilities, and we now have a world class crew. We have a shooting crew and we have a post crew who have worked on the biggest, most watched, most successful TV show that has been around for a while," he said.

Statistics can't do justice to the "Game of Thrones" effect on Northern Ireland's economy, said economist Graham Brownlow, from Queens University Belfast. He says the show is helping to improve the province's international image, which for decades had become synonymous with political violence and economic stagnation.

"The real benefits that Northern Ireland secures are the things that are most difficult to measure" he explained. "By creating a critical mass for film and TV productions it creates a good image for Northern Ireland, which stimulates further production in Northern Ireland, which improves the image of Northern Ireland," Brownlow said.

That 'critical mass' now includes 'Dracula Untold', a Universal Pictures movie with an October 2014 release date and Ridley Scott's new 'Halo' feature, which is also expected to be released before the end of the year.

These and other features will need best boys, wardrobe assistants, carpenters, camera operators and colorists and Northern Ireland's new local talent pool will be only too happy to oblige.

C African Republic at risk of genocide, says group

June 24, 2014

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — In the early hours of Monday morning, a Christian militia swept down on the village of Ardo-Djobi near Bambari in the Central African Republic killing 18 Muslims of the Fulani ethnicity. Just a few days earlier, Muslim gunmen had attacked Christians in the nearby village of Liwa and killed 21.

The tit-for-tat attacks against rival religious groups in Central African Republic threaten to create the conditions for a genocide reminiscent of Bosnia in the 1990s and requires swift efforts by the government and the international community to stop the violence, said a new report by the International Federation for Human Rights.

The 88-page report details the atrocities committed by both sides in the impoverished country and urged the re-establishment of a legal and penal system to stop the wave of crime and violence and to begin trying those behind the massacres.

"The leaders of the violence and its perpetrators of mass human rights violations are known, we have proof and the government and international community have to take this opportunity and arrest them and end the organized violence," said Florent Geel, the director of the federation's Africa Desk, lamenting the lack of jails or security for judges in the country.

The Central African Republic has been rocked by unrest since March 2013 when a largely Muslim alliance of rebel groups known as the Seleka overthrew President Francois Bozize. More than a million people, nearly a quarter of the population, have been displaced by the violence pitting Muslim rebels against Christian militias known as the anti-Balaka.

"Seleka and anti-Balaka forces mirror one another in the horror of the acts that they have perpetrated in the context of a conflict that has become so vile that more people are killed than injured," warned the report, which was researched with two local human rights organizations between the summer of 2013 and February 2014.

After the Seleka were forced out of the capital and into the northern and eastern parts of the country, enclaves of besieged Muslims civilians were left at the mercy of the anti-Balaka militias, who soon switched their targets from just those allied to the rebels to all Muslims.

The report's investigators discovered that the militias were in many cases led by members of the former government military and organized by politicians close to the deposed president. One militia leader told researchers "they all have to leave or die."

Before the conflict, there were some 800,000 Muslims in Central African Republic and now only about 20,000 remain, scattered around in 16 different enclaves surrounded by hostile militias. It is a situation reminiscent of Bosnia in the 1990s when Serbs attempted to ethnically cleanse Muslim areas, said the report.

There are currently 5,000 African troops and 2,000 French troops in the country which have largely taken over the role of maintaining order, following the disintegration of the government's army. Aside from France, the report said the global community has largely been indifferent to the plight of the country.

The key to halting this cycle of violence is to end the impunity of those behind them through the restoration of the country's justice system, said the report. Despite the installation of President Catherine Samba-Panza after the Seleka was pushed out of the capital, there has been little evidence of a central authority and even the most brazen crimes go unpunished. Militia leaders arrested by international forces are soon at large again, said the report. It recommends the creation of an interim legal system — including building functional jails.

Help may come with a new 12,000-strong U.N. force set to start arriving in September, but even that number may not be enough, said Geel of human rights organization. He said Central African Republic "could become a sanctuary for armed groups, instability and mercenaries so it has to be fixed quickly."

Spain already eyeing Euro 2016 after World Cup

June 24, 2014

CURITIBA, Brazil (AP) — Spain will not have much time to dwell on its unexpectedly short World Cup campaign, as it targets a third-straight European championship.

Spain closed Group B with a 3-0 victory over Australia on Monday, and the team immediately put the focus on France 2016 and beyond. "We've got a new challenge and we need all of your support! To defend the European Championship trophy!" the team's official Twitter feed wrote out on the same day it avoided becoming the first world champion to finish its defense with no points.

Spain's time in Brazil may have been different if it had started with Australia rather than the Netherlands, whose 5-1 walloping not only upset the balance of world football but sent doubts surging through Spain's squad — a sensation it hasn't experienced since the 2006 World Cup, the last time it failed to triumph at a major international tournament. It followed up the defeat to the Dutch with a 2-0 loss against Chile, which it had never lost against since their first meeting in 1950.

How Spain deals with the fallout from what can only be termed a disastrous World Cup — when it finished third in Group B, out of contention — could determine whether it travels to France in two years as a favorite, or as a team in transition.

Coach Vicente del Bosque's contract runs until 2016 but his handling of tactics and personalities exposed some fractions inside the team, and it may prove tough for the 63-year-old former Real Madrid coach to maintain the desire and hunger that was lacking in the squad in Brazil.

Del Bosque stuck with veterans who had won back-to-back European titles and the 2010 World Cup when there was a wealth of young talent pushing to break into the team. "Time will tell if we made a mistake or not," goalkeeper Pepe Reina said. "I hope the team reacts positively (to Brazil) and shows personality again."

The early exit in Brazil may offer a chance to usher in change. Thiago Alcantara was slated to play a prominent role before injury kept him out of Brazil, and the Bayern Munich midfielder should be the nucleus which Del Bosque builds around, much like former coach Luis Aragones did with Xavi Hernandez.

Isco was surprisingly left out of the preliminary squad, but it will be hard for Spain to ignore the Real Madrid playmaker again given how much the team struggled to penetrate opponent's areas and produce goals with its possession game. Madrid also has promising young players in fullback Dani Carvajal and forward Jese Rodriguez pushing for national selection.

The inclusion of naturalized striker Diego Costa did not boost the attack, and the Atletico Madrid striker may be in fight to retain his place against the likes of Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Negredo.

Barcelona's Gerard Deulofeu appears to have caught Del Bosque's eye, while Athletic Bilbao midfielders Ander Herrera and Ander Iturraspe could be in the mix come September when qualifying for Euro 2016 begins.

Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea will challenge captain Iker Casillas, who is these days is the second-string goalie at Real Madrid. The depth of options suggests Spain's era may not be over yet, and the team can absorb the exit of striker David Villa and speculation that Casillas, Xavi and Xabi Alonso could also retire from international play.

"There's been a lot of talk, too much, about things that were not true. The only reason we were eliminated was our play," midfielder Juan Mata said. Spain's reign may be over, but "tiki-taka" is not dead considering what the future could bring.

"We have to take the next step with Euro qualifying now, and whoever is coach knows the future is bright," said Del Bosque, who will make a decision about his future before qualifying begins. "We have to feel confident about the future."

Spain salvages pride with 3-0 win over Australia

June 23, 2014

CURITIBA, Brazil (AP) — Defending champion Spain salvaged some World Cup pride on Monday with a convincing 3-0 victory over Australia in their last match at the tournament.

After losing their previous matches in Group B to the Netherlands and Chile, both teams took to Arena da Baixada in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba knowing they could not advance to the second round.

David Villa, on his 97th and final appearance put Spain ahead in the 36th minute with his record 59th goal, guiding Juanfran Torres' pass into the net with the inside of his right foot. Juanfran had been found by a typically incisive pass by Andres Iniesta.

"We stepped up against Australia and won this match, and I'm happy to have participated in the first goal," said the 32-year-old Villa, who has called time on his international career. "It's sad because we would have liked to have spent more time here, but that's how it is."

Iniesta was at the heart of the second goal too, providing the pass for Fernando Torres to steer the ball past Australia goalkeeper Mat Ryan in the 69th minute. Juan Mata, who replaced an emotional Villa early in the second half, added the third in the 82nd from close range, stroking the ball under Ryan after he was found in space by fellow substitute Cesc Fabregas. David Silva, who also came on late, went close in the 89th but his shot from outside the area went just wide.

Though nothing, in terms of World Cup progress, rested on the game, Spain showed some of the clever passing football that has seen it dominate the game over the past six years — winning Euro 2008, its first World Cup in South Africa in 2010 and then Euro 2012.

With that domination now at an end, the task facing Spain is to manage the transition from an aging squad that has won everything in the game to a new generation of players waiting to take center stage.

"We went out with dignity," Del Bosque said. "These have been six years of which we have been first in the FIFA ranking, a generation of players that have taught others, and have shown themselves," he added. "We bow out with our head high knowing the future of the Spanish team has a good base regardless of who coaches it, with good veterans."

In the early minutes of the match, Australia took the game to the champions, but it wasn't long before Spain asserted control and started dominating possession. "We started bright enough but you have to give credit to them, they are a quality team," Australia coach Ange Postecoglou said. "We looked jaded, tired, and gave away the ball too easily, so it's disappointing."

Australia, which lacked bite up front through the suspension of Tim Cahill, finished with zero points, its worst ever performance in a World Cup. On its 1974 debut, Australia garnered a point. However, the Socceroos were in an extremely tough group and pushed the Netherlands hard during its 3-2 defeat.

For its part, Spain avoided the worst World Cup title defense in history. That label remains with the France team of 2002, which only secured one point in its goal-less campaign in the tournament co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.

"What happened is in the past now," Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso said. "We tried to face our situation in the best manner possible. This is football, though, and we go home sad."

Lineups:

Australia: Mat Ryan, Ryan McGowan, Jason Davidson, Matthew Spiranovic, Alex Wilkinson, Matt McKay, Mile Jedinak, Oliver Bozanic (Mark Bresciano, 72), Tommy Oar (James Troisi, 61), Matthew Leckie, Adam Taggart (Ben Halloran, 46).

Spain: Pepe Reina, Sergio Ramos, Raul Albiol, Jordi Alba, Juanfran Torres, Koke, Xabi Alonso (David Silva, 83), Santi Cazorla (Cesc Fabregas, 68), Andres Iniesta, Fernando Torres, David Villa (Juan Mata, 56).

Paul Logothetis contributed to this report.

US draws, Belgium advances, Algeria wins

June 23, 2014

The goals kept coming at the World Cup Sunday and — unfortunately for the U.S. — the scoring didn't stop until the last 30 seconds of its 2-2 draw with Portugal. Both teams stayed alive, while Belgium advanced and Algeria won its first World Cup game in 32 years.

No teams were eliminated Sunday, but South Korea, Russia and Portugal are on the brink. An already successful World Cup in Brazil reached its midpoint with another thriller, players' shirts soaked through and sticky from the humid, steamy conditions in the Amazon rainforest. The Americans were moments away from clinching advancement out of the "Group of Death," when world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo made an improbable cross for Varela's diving header and equalizer.

Varela's score capped another day of goals. One third of the games — or 11 total — have featured four of more goals. Thirty-two games down, 32 to go. "We've got a great chance in the 'Group of Death,' they say," U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard said. "I think we had one foot in the door. Realistically we've given ourselves every chance to advance. We're optimistic."

The U.S. plays Germany Thursday. The winner wins the group, and a draw advances both teams to the round of 16. Even the loser has a chance, depending on what happens in the Ghana-Portugal game. "Every game now is getting bigger," U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. "Our goal is to go into the next round."

Algeria beat South Korea 4-2 earlier Sunday for its first World Cup win since 1982 and just the third victory by an African team in 10 World Cup games here. The Algerians became the first African team to score four goals in a World Cup match.

Russia's hopes of moving to the knockout stages were diminished by its 1-0 loss to Belgium in Rio de Janeiro. Belgium became the sixth country to qualify for the next stage. The others so far are the Netherlands, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica and Argentina. Cameroon, Bosnia, Australia, Spain and England are definitely out.

"It's spectacular. Everybody has prepared unbelievably well. They are sharp and fit and giving their all," Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal said of the quality of play. "I haven't had that feeling had at previous World Cups. ... People aren't giving it all right up until the final minute — that's why you get these results."

It has certainly been a scoring festival in the land of Carnival. — The goal total for the tournament climbed to 94. In South Africa, the first 32 matches produced 67 goals, seven of them scored by Portugal in just one match against North Korea.

—The first half of the last World Cup included and 10 draws. In Brazil, there have been just six. — Crowds have been big and loud, particularly for Latin American teams, eight of which could qualify for the final 16.

Things haven't been so great for Asian teams. South Korea teeters on the verge of elimination after the loss. Asia is at risk of having no team in the next round. Australia is already sure to be going home, regardless of whether it wins its last match against dethroned champion Spain. Iran, Japan and Korea could follow Australia out the door, even if they win their last matches.

Korea's loss worsened Asian teams' already dismal record to: played eight games, won none, after 11 days of competition.

AP Sports Writers John Leicester, Chris Brummitt and Michael Corder contributed to this report.

PLO to seek membership of international bodies

28/04/2014

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- The Palestine Liberation Organization's central council on Sunday adopted a plan to pursue attempts to join 60 United Nations bodies and international agreements.

The council, under the auspices of president Mahmoud Abbas, "affirms the need for the Palestinian leadership to continue membership of UN agencies and international conventions", the Palestine People's Party secretary general Bassam al-Salhi said in a statement.

The council also said Israel was to blame for failed international and US efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the Middle East conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended faltering peace talks last week after the PLO and Hamas agreed to work together to form a unity government, in an historic move to end years of bitter political rivalry.

The struggling peace talks took a nose dive at the end of March when Israel reneged on a pledge to release two dozen Palestinian prisoners.

Last November the Palestinians cast a UN General Assembly vote for the first time and claimed the moment as a new step in their quest for full recognition by the global body.

Most of the 193 members of the General Assembly applauded Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour as he voted for a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The Palestinians became observer state members of the United Nations a year earlier with an overwhelming vote in favor.

The Palestinian mission cannot vote on UN resolutions but, under UN rules, it and other observers such as the Vatican can vote in elections for judges on international courts.

Israel maintains its position that the Palestinian Authority is not a state and the Palestinian Authority fails to meet the criteria for statehood.

Israel and the United States have lobbied strongly against UN recognition of the Palestinians, arguing that a separate state can only be achieved through direct bilateral negotiations to end the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But the Palestinians have also joined UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, and voted there.

Israel and the United States withdrew funding from UNESCO because it allowed Palestinian membership and subsequently lost their voting rights on the body.

Early this month Abbas signed membership applications for 15 UN agencies and international treaties, beginning with the Fourth Geneva Convention, which defines humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone.

"This is not a move against America, or any other party -- it is our right, and we agreed to suspend it for nine months," he said at the time.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=693413.

Palestinian rivals to try again for unity deal

April 23, 2014

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed Wednesday to form a unity government and hold new elections — a potentially historic step toward mending the rift that has split their people between two sets of rulers for seven years.

Following the announcement of the deal, hundreds of people took to the streets in Gaza to celebrate. Crowds hoisted Palestinian flags and posters. "I hope it will be real this time," said Asma Radwan, a 33-year-old schoolteacher who came with her two young sons. "I came to say 'thank you' to the leaders. But don't disappoint us like the past. Seven years of division is enough."

It remained unclear how the plan would succeed where past attempts have repeatedly failed. It also added new complications to U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Both the U.S. and Israel condemned the agreement.

In an initial response, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned meeting for Wednesday evening between Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators. Israel and the West consider Hamas a terrorist group. Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings over the past two decades.

Abbas "needs to choose between peace with Israel and an agreement with Hamas, a murderous terror organization that calls for the destruction of Israel," Netanyahu said. In a statement, Abbas said "there is no contradiction" between reconciliation and his efforts to reach a "just peace" with Israel. He said Wednesday's deal would help Palestinian negotiators achieve a two-state solution.

Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas' forces in 2007, leaving him with only parts of the West Bank. Both sides have become entrenched in their territories, setting up separate governments and their own security forces.

The division has been a major obstacle to Abbas' goal of establishing an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with east Jerusalem as the capital. Israel captured all three areas in 1967. The split is also seen by many everyday Palestinians as a tragic mistake.

The two sides planned to form an interim government within five weeks. Presidential and parliamentary elections should be held no sooner than six months after the government is formed, said Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government.

Similar agreements have been reached in principle in the past. But they were never implemented due to deep differences and an unwillingness to cede power. Hamas, for instance, employs tens of thousands of civil servants and security forces in Gaza, and it is in no rush to relinquish control to a centralized government led by Abbas. The group has also seen its popularity plummet, making elections risky.

Abbas, meanwhile, could face international isolation and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid if he joins forces with Hamas. International donors withheld aid during a short-lived Palestinian unity government elected in 2006 and 2007, before the Hamas takeover, due to concerns that the money would be diverted to Hamas.

A key test will be whether the sides can agree soon on a caretaker government of apolitical technocrats. Squabbling over the government's composition has derailed past reconciliation attempts. Still, changes in the region have given each side an incentive to try again, even if a full agreement seems unlikely.

Hamas has been weakened since a military coup in neighboring Egypt last July. The coup toppled the Islamist government of President Mohammed Morsi, Hamas' most important ally. Egypt's new military government has cracked down hard on Hamas, closing a system of smuggling tunnels that provided Hamas with a key conduit for weapons and tax revenue. The Egyptian pressure and a longstanding Israeli blockade have plunged Hamas into the worst financial crisis of its rule, making it difficult to pay the salaries of its employees and sinking its public standing.

Abbas, on the other hand, has achieved little during nine months of U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel. Those talks are set to expire next Tuesday, though the sides have been searching for a formula to extend the negotiations.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. was "disappointed and troubled" by the Palestinians' announcement. "It is hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist," Psaki said, referring to Hamas.

Palestinian analyst Nasim Zubaidi described Wednesday's agreement as a "marriage of convenience." He said both sides were "forced" into each other's arms, with Abbas hurt by the failure of peace efforts and Hamas' financial struggles.

Even so, he said, it was far from clear whether they would go through with the deal. "Both have signed, but they are using the tactic of 'let's wait and see.' Abbas will wait and see how things will go in the peace talks, and Hamas will see how it goes with their problems in Gaza."

Ultimately, it will be difficult to merge two rival ideologies and two rival security forces into one, Zubaidi said. Wednesday's reconciliation deal is the latest attempt by Abbas to send a message to Israel that he has other alternatives. Abbas has also hinted in recent days that he might dismantle his self-rule government and saddle Israel with the huge financial burden of taking care of more than 4 million Palestinians in occupied lands.

These latest moves may be aimed at building leverage to pressure Israel to agree to favorable terms for continued negotiations. But they could also signal a new approach if the talks really do collapse.

Yet Abbas' decision also risks triggering a tough Israeli response. Hardline Israeli leaders quickly condemned the unity deal, and several called for Netanyahu to halt the peace efforts. Israel's Channel 10 TV said Netanyahu would meet with his Security Cabinet on Thursday to discuss a response. It also said that future meetings between peace negotiators were in doubt.

"The Palestinian Authority has become the biggest terror body in the world," said Naftali Bennett, head of the hardline Jewish Home Party. "Israel needs to be clear," he added. "No talks with murderers."

Adding to the tensions, an Israeli airstrike hit the northern Gaza Strip, missing its target but wounding at least three bystanders, Palestinian officials said. Medical official Ashraf al-Kidreh says the airstrike targeted two men riding a motorcycle, but that the missile missed its target and wounded a 50-year-old man and two daughters.

The Israeli military confirmed the failed airstrike, saying "a hit was not identified." Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel soon afterward, the Israeli military said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Denmark's first mosque opens amid controversy

20 Jun 2014
Simon Hooper

Copenhagen, Denmark - Perched on top of a tall column at a road junction in the Norrebro neighborhood of Copenhagen, an enormous American-style ringed doughnut demands to be noticed.

"De Angelis. Delightfully different DONUTS," reads the sign. Further down the street, a mock lighthouse advertises a self-storage warehouse, vying for attention on the busy skyline with the branded flags of car showrooms and industrial chimneys.

Next to the lighthouse is the latest vertical addition to this mundane urban landscape that is currently stoking controversy in the Danish capital. A slender minaret topped with a small crescent marks the site of Denmark's first purpose-built mosque.

Denmark is home to approximately 226,000 Muslims, many of them the children of migrants who have been arriving since the 1960s. Many of them hope the mosque and the adjoined Islamic cultural centre finally means acceptance after decades of marginalization.

But senior politicians and members of the Danish royal family invited to Thursday's opening ceremony stayed away amid concerns that the organization behind the mosque, the Danish Islamic Council (DIR), promotes a conservative interpretation of Islam.

Foreign funding

Funded by a donation of $27.4m from Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, the former emir of Qatar, critics cite alleged ideological links between the DIR and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile, media coverage on the eve of the opening focused on comments reported by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which provoked Muslim anger worldwide in 2005 by publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, in which Mohamed al-Maimouni, the DIR's main spokesman, described homosexuality as a sickness.  Al-Maimouni told Al Jazeera it was disappointing that politicians had chosen to stay away.

"This is a historic day for Muslims in Denmark and it sends a very negative signal," he said. "We are a part of society and we are proud to be Danish. We have our religious background, but that has nothing to do with being a good citizen and participating positively in this society."

Al-Maimouni said the mosque complex, officially known as the Hamad Bin Khalifa Civilization Center, stood as a symbol of an emerging Danish-Muslim identity.

The buildings marry common elements of traditional Scandinavian and Islamic architecture such as clean lines and simplicity of form, while the mosque's Moorish-inspired interior stonework references Islam's European heritage.

"We always said that we had to have a Danish mosque, and not an Egyptian mosque, or a Qatari mosque, or a Moroccan mosque," said al-Maimouni. "All of the furniture is Danish design."

Conservative anger

Yet for many on the Danish right, the idea of a Danish-Muslim identity remains both a contradiction and a provocation. A protest planned on Thursday outside the mosque by members of Stop Islamisation of Denmark (SIAD), a far-right fringe group, was banned by police on the grounds that it risked inciting unrest.

Reacting to the ban, Anders Gravers Pedersen, the leader of SIAD, compared the group to the Danish resistance fighting against Denmark's Nazi German occupiers during World War II.

But inflammatory anti-Islamic rhetoric also fuels more mainstream debate. Writing in a party newsletter, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, the leader of the far-right Danish People's Party which won more than a quarter of votes to finish first in last month's European elections, described the mosque as a "bridgehead for an extreme version of Islam".

"I do not like the risk of rabid imams preaching on Danish soil," he wrote.

Yildaz Akdogan, a local representative of the Social Democratic Party, said politicians should stand in solidarity with Danish Muslims as well as engaging in dialogue with Muslim groups on issues where they disagreed.

"It is important for politicians to send a signal to all Muslims in Denmark that we do accept Islam and we have freedom of religion in our country," Akdogan told Al Jazeera.

"I would rather have an open mosque on the street where I can see it and visit it, instead of having all sorts of different mosques in basements or back yards where we don't know what is being preached."

But others supportive of Danish Muslims' right to build mosques said there were serious concerns about the project's links to Qatar and the ideology it would promote.

"I voted for the mosque, but I am concerned about the money and the point of view they have on homosexuality and other things," Lars Aslan Rasmussen, another local Social Democrat, told Al Jazeera. "My concern is that they have connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar is known for supporting the most conservative groups in Europe and the Middle East."

Rasmussen also questioned the DIR's claim to speak for a Danish-Muslim identity and said future mosque projects should not be funded by donations from overseas.

"But what is more important is that there should be new ideas in Islam [and] you will have imams who accept homosexuals. It will come, but this mosque is not representing something new and that is a shame."

'Building a bridge'

Speaking at Thursday's ceremony, Ghaith bin Mubarak al Kuwari, Qatar's Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, said the Gulf state was proud of its support for a project it hoped would act as "a bridge to build trust and a beacon to achieve mutual understanding between Denmark and the Muslim world".

DIR spokesman Al-Maimouni said al Thani's donation was a one-off payment and that the center would be used to promote dialogue between different interpretations of Islam and across society in general.

"There were no conditions from the Qatari side and there is no political agenda. There is huge diversity in the Muslim communities here. In the history of Islam the mosque was always an attractive place to solve any kinds of problems in society. It is a platform for everything."

Clarifying his comments on homosexuality, al-Maimouni said the DIR's views were in line with the Koran. "But that does not mean that if people want to come to us we would reject them, absolutely not. We are not judging people because of their sexual background. We have respect for all people whoever they are."

Across the road from the mosque, groups of youths gathered to watch on Thursday morning as arriving dignitaries stepped from their cars onto a red carpet flanked by the Danish and Qatari flags.

Marwan Buahya, a local youth worker, said that as a tough inner city neighborhood, Norrebro faces typical problems associated with immigration and integration.

"It's more difficult being a Muslim in Denmark than it used to be because of all the things happening around the world," Buahya told Al Jazeera. "I hope the people living here will be happy [with the mosque] and I hope that young Muslims will participate and stay away from trouble."

Changing views

Support came from other local community members. "It would be strange to live in a country and be born in a country and not have your own house for your religion, so it's very nice," Hanne Ravn Hermansen, a local artist, told Al Jazeera.

"This was just the most boring street in Copenhagen with all the car showrooms - and that stupid doughnut - and now you'll get people coming here so I think it will do good things for this neighborhood."

Brian Arly Jacobsen, a researcher specializing in Islam in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen, said polls showed public mood was gradually shifting in favor of greater acceptance of the country's Muslim minority.

While surveys in the 1990s had shown strong opposition to the construction of mosques, he said a clear majority of Copenhageners now supported the mosque, and compared the current controversy to the debate over the creation of the country's first Muslim burial ground in 2006.

"Since they actually established the burial ground there has been no debate at all," Jacobsen told Al Jazeera. "If people see that the mosque is not a security threat, or threatening society in general, then it will not be so controversial anymore."

Back across the road from the mosque, Buahya shrugs and laughs when asked what it means to be a Danish Muslim. "Islam is my religion and I am born and raised here, so of course I am Danish. There is no question. I am 35 years old and I don't think it is an issue."

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/06/denmark-first-mosque-opens-amid-controversy-2014620122224383831.html.

Palestinians rally for solidarity with Israel-held prisoners

2014-04-17

RAMALLAH - Palestinians gathered across the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday for rallies of solidarity with Israeli-held prisoners, as peace talks near collapse after Israel refused to free long-serving inmates.

To mark Prisoners Day, thousands were expected to demonstrate in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has his headquarters, and hundreds took part in early rallies in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip late Wednesday.

"We won't forget our prisoners -- prisoners first!" read banners in Gaza City as demonstrators set off from mosques across the besieged territory.

The prisoners row caused a new deadlock in US-brokered peace talks at the end of March, just a month ahead of their deadline, when Israel reneged on its commitment to release a fourth and final batch of Palestinian inmates.

The Palestinians retaliated by seeking membership of several international treaties, breaking their own commitment under the talks which US Secretary of State John Kerry launched in July.

"Prisoners Day has extra importance this year," said the Palestinian Prisoners Club head, Abdel Al al-Anani.

"The prisoners issue has become one of global significance, since it is the reason that peace talks have almost collapsed," he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement: "The plight of the prisoners reflects the plight of the Palestinian people as a whole."

A one-day hunger strike was being observed by inmates to mark the annual show of solidarity with the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, Palestinian prisoners affairs minister Issa Qaraqe said.

Around 30 of them have been held being bars since before the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords with Israel, said a Palestinian legal rights NGO, Adalah.

Israel has so far released 78 of the 104 prisoners it pledged to free during nine months of peace talks, most of them imprisoned since before the Oslo accords.

But it refused to free the final batch, using it as a bargaining chip to convince the Palestinians to extend negotiations until the end of the year.

The Palestinians demand their release before any discussion of an extension.

But Islamist group Hamas, which governs Gaza, opposes all negotiations with Israel and regards the Palestinian Authority's meetings with its sworn enemy as "illegitimate."

"We are sending a message to the Palestinian negotiators: forget this farce, the futile negotiations, and come back to the resistance which freed prisoners," a Hamas member said in a speech at Wednesday's rally.

In June 2006, a group of Hamas and other militants snuck into Israel through a cross-border tunnel, seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and took their prisoner back to Gaza the same way.

He was released on October 18, 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

According to Israeli rights group B'Tselem, Israel is holding 4,881 Palestinian prisoners, including 175 in administrative detention where they can be detained without charge for renewable six-month periods.

Of that number, 183 are minors, B'Tselem says.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=65456.

Jordan releases anti-ISIL Salafi leader

17 Jun 2014
Areej Abuqudairi

Amman, Jordan - Jordanian authorities have released Salafi leader Assem Barqawi, better known as Abu Mohammad al-Maqdesi, after having served a five-year prison sentence on allegations of jeopardizing state security and recruiting jihadists to fight in Afghanistan.

His release came as a surprise to some after the escalating war in Syria has presented big security challenges to neighboring Jordan, especially amid an increasing number of Jordanians joining jihadist groups inside the war-torn country.

"We did not expect his release. We thought he would be interrogated and held further," Mohammad Shalabi, better known as Abu Sayyaf, head of the Jordanian Jihadi Salafist Movement told Al Jazeera in a phone interview.

Experts and Salafists, however, say that releasing Maqdesi, who has been very critical of violence committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), serves Jordan's interest as the movement has achieved gains in neighboring Iraq recently and added to Jordan's security woes.

"Maqdesi is a supporter of al-Nusra front, one of the fighting groups in Syria, which unlike ISIL, does not have any ambitions to take over the region," said Hasan Abu Hanya, an expert on jihadist movements.

"He is the mentor and father of our curriculum," Abu Sayyaf told Al Jazeera.

"There is a pressing need for a mentor like him at this time of bloodshed. He is very concerned about the blood of Muslims being shed and their souls and honor," Abu Sayyaf added.

In a recent statement published to his website, Tawheed, the leader condemned ISIL and called it "deviant" and called on jihadists to follow "the right [path] and stop the bloodshed".

According to Abu Hanyah, there are more than 2,000 supporters of ISIL in Jordan - an alarming number for the Jordanian authorities.

"If some 4,000 ISIL members turned Mosul upside down, it is very dangerous for Jordan to have such numbers of supporters, given how violent and experienced the movement is," he said.

Jordanian officials' concern has been exacerbated after Iraq reportedly pulled out its forces from the Jordanian border on Sunday.

During a meeting with parliamentarians dedicated to discussing the challenges following the situation in Iraq, Jordanian Interior Minister Hussein Majali said that Jordan had built-up its military presence near the Iraq border by sending gendarme forces and additional security forces.

Maqdesi arrived at his house in Rusaifa town in northern Jordan, which is home to the Salafist movement, yesterday. He refused to give media interviews, but will soon issue a statement, according to Abu Sayyaf.

His lawyer, Majid Liftawi, believes his client is not guilty of any terror charges.

"It was all because of his political beliefs and writings," he said.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/jordan-releases-anti-isil-salafi-leader-2014617121457552506.html.

Qatar accuses Maliki of triggering Iraq unrest

2014-06-16

DOHA - Qatar's foreign minister has accused Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of triggering the unrest that has swept his country through his policies of "marginalization" of the Sunni Arab minority.

Militants spearheaded by powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and joined by supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, have in the past week overrun a large chunk of northern and north-central Iraq, although their advance has since been slowed by a government counter-offensive.

"This (unrest) is partly a result of negative factors... mainly implementing factional policies, marginalization and exclusion," said Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiyah in comments carried late Sunday by QNA state news agency.

Attiyah was referring to Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, which has mostly been disgruntled since the US-led invasion in 2003, which changed the regime after ousting dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Qatari minister also cited the "forceful dispersement of peaceful rallies," in reference to crackdowns in April 2013 and January this year on Sunni Arab protests that demanded Maliki's ouster.

"This has deepened the divide between the components of the brotherly Iraqi people," QNA cited Attiyah as saying in an address to the G77 summit in Bolivia.

He urged the Iraqi government to take into consideration the "demands of a large part of the population who are only asking for equality and participation, away from sectarian discrimination."

Relations between Doha and Baghdad are strained. Maliki in March accused Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, of supporting terrorism.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=66562.

Kuwait urged to end labor sponsorship system

2014-06-16

KUWAIT CITY - A Kuwaiti human rights organization on Sunday urged the Gulf state to fulfil pledges to abolish the sponsorship system for foreign labor and to end the arbitrary deportation of expatriates.

In a report on human rights in the oil-rich emirate, the Kuwait Society for Human Rights also called for measures to end abuse of thousands of domestic workers and for a final resolution to the plight of more than 100,000 stateless people.

The group said that Kuwait pledged several years ago to end the sponsor system which is likened to slavery and common in Gulf States, but so far nothing has been done.

The current system ties a migrant worker's residency status to an individual employer, or sponsor, without whose consent the worker cannot change jobs.

This gives employers unchecked leverage and control over workers, who remain completely dependent on their sponsor.

A few weeks ago, neighboring Qatar said it was introducing measures to abolish the system.

The Kuwaiti group also called for an end to so-called administrative deportation which allows police to deport foreigners without a court ruling.

However, it noted that the interior ministry has recently regulated the procedure by restricting the right to deport to the ministry's undersecretary.

Some 2.8 million expatriates work in Kuwait compared with 1.25 million nationals. More than 600,000 expatriates are domestic workers.

The society urged the government to pass a special law on domestic workers to stop abuses that it said are tantamount to slavery.

"Domestic helpers are subjected to many abuses, some of which could be called slavery, in addition to torture, humiliation and rape. The society has monitored a large number of such violations," the report said.

On stateless people, known locally as bidoons, the society urged speedy measures to improve their humanitarian and legal as a prelude to "granting them their full rights".

Bidoons claim the right to Kuwaiti citizenship because they or their forefathers lived in the country before the 1959 nationality law.

But the government says a majority of them came from neighboring countries after the discovery of oil, and destroyed their identification papers.

The society said the government should adopt a clear roadmap aimed at resolving the problem in steps.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=66560.

Naples, green and clean, now bike-friendly

June 20, 2014

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Luca Simeone rides his bike along the sunny beachfront of Naples while his little daughter sleeps on the baby seat.

It may sound ordinary, but this simple act is revolutionary. Three years ago Naples' seafront was an urban highway, noisy and smoggy, jammed with car traffic, while smelly trash erupted from garbage bins along streets and alleys. Urban cyclers were regarded as eco-fundamentalists.

Three years later, Naples has a new mayor, clean streets, a wide pedestrian beachfront and a 20-kilometer (12-mile) cycling lane overlooking a beautiful bay. This is the liberated beachfront ("Il lungomare liberato"), as the new mayor, Luigi De Magistris, a former prosecutor and party outsider, calls it.

The liberated beachfront quickly became a paradise for runners, cyclists and also those who love pizza or fish, with the sound of waves as background music and the island of Capri and sleepy Vesuvius volcano framing the view of the bay.

The transformation also allowed Simeone to launch a bike tour business. "A new era has opened for those who love to ride a bicycle in our city," said Simeone. "Today we can say that speaking about sustainable and environment friendly tourism, like our project, is reality and not fantasy anymore."

Bike Tour Napoli offers both an urban route along the city's UNESCO-protected ancient center and a countryside tour, with organic food tasting included. The tours wind through tiny medieval alleys and past baroque churches, around volcanic lakes of the Pozzuoli area, the Vesuvius volcano and the breathtaking Amalfi coast. The most popular route is a ride past art nouveau villas, parks and up Posillipo hill for a view of Naples and its bay.

Anja Hayek from Germany and Antonio Sorace of Italy recently rode up the hill to enjoy the sunset. "This is the only good way to visit and know Naples," Hayek said. "I found it very nice this year, the bicycle lanes and the pedestrian area by the sea. I found it very beautiful."

Sorace added that "visiting Naples by car is impossible due to the traffic. By car you can't enjoy the alleys and it is difficult to breathe." Naples is planning to extend the cycling lanes into the suburbs.

For Simeone, the success of his tours represents more than just business. It's also a way to stop the brain drain. Youth unemployment in Naples is 50 percent. Migration abroad or to the industrialized north is the norm as talented young people leave to find work. The local mafia syndicate Camorra has long taken advantage of the lack of jobs to gain recruits for illegal businesses.

But the green revolution gives hope to those like Simeone who want to erase the image of Naples as a city of garbage and pollution. "We bet on a revolution of transportation," explained De Magistris from his office overlooking the port and a new metro construction site. He recalled his parents trying to squash a childhood love of cycling, saying, "Stop this passion, because in Naples you can't ride a bicycle in the streets."

Now, more locals are using bike lanes, pedestrian areas have been improved, and some 2.4 million visitors are staying in Naples hotels each year, with the numbers growing. The expansion of the metro system will add to the environmental improvements for this city of 1 million (4 million in the metro area). The metro also connects riders to art. At the Toledo station, a ride down the escalators reveals works of bright blue representing the sea. "Oh, it is very beautiful. It is like plunging into the sea," said Pierre Bonini, a tourist from Paris, at the bottom of the escalator.

But pure blue water is not just an art motif. Thanks to improved wastewater management, pollution has been reduced and vast stretches of the coast have been reclaimed. Neapolitans and tourists now swim again in the bay. And young kayak enthusiasts have launched Kayak Napoli. A few motorboat tours had previously been offered, but they were not allowed —a s the kayaks are — to enter the marine park of la Gaiola and the Trentaremi bay, which contains submerged ruins of ancient Roman villas.

Giovanni Brun, founder of Kayak Napoli, brings guests to see the submerged archaeological sites and other beautiful coastal spots. His full moon tour offers a sunset paddle with a return as the moon reflects on the waters of the bay. The trip includes one other special moment: An aperitif of white wine on a secluded beach.

Religious Greeks protest planned gay pride parade

June 20, 2014

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Some 300 members of Greek Orthodox religious groups have gathered outside a church in central Thessaloniki to protest the planned staging of a gay pride parade in the northern port city.

Protesters displayed banners reading "No to the promotion of perversion" and "We should be proud of high values and not of ephemeral depravity," as riot police screened off a few dozen gay and lesbian onlookers.

Thessaloniki's conservative church officials strongly oppose plans for the city's third annual gay pride parade on Saturday. On Wednesday, religious protesters held all-night prayers against the planned parade, which the city's Christian Orthodox bishop, Anthimos, described as a "perversion."

Friday's protest ended peacefully.

Spain's new King Felipe aims to inspire his people

June 19, 2014

MADRID (AP) — Taking the Spanish throne on Thursday, King Felipe VI sought to inspire his beleaguered countrymen amid troubled economic times and lift patriotic spirits a day after the national team's humbling exit from the World Cup.

"We are a great nation. Let us believe and trust in ourselves," Felipe said at his swearing-in ceremony. Felipe, 46, became monarch after his father Juan Carlos announced his surprise decision to abdicate. The 76-year-old said he was stepping aside after a four-decade reign so younger royal blood could energize the country.

Felipe, and Spain, face plenty of problems. The country is struggling to shrug off a double-dip recession and drive down its 26 percent jobless rate. Scandals have tarnished the royal family and fueled campaigns to abolish the monarchy, while influential groups in some Spanish regions continue to push hard for independence.

Appearing self-assured in a dark military dress uniform, Felipe sought to draw a line under Spain's recent past, promising "a reinvigorated monarchy for new times." Felipe made clear that he intends to restore public trust in the monarchy.

"Today, more than ever, the people rightly demand our public lives be guided by ... moral and ethical principles," he told lawmakers, who shouted "Viva el Rey (Long live the king)!" Saying he felt the suffering of those whose living standards were hurt by the economic crisis, Felipe urged Spaniards to shun resignation and unleash their ambitions. He said finding jobs for the unemployed was "a priority for society and the government."

In an oblique reference to separatist groups, Felipe insisted, "We all have our place in this diverse Spain." He ended his speech by saying "thank you" in three regional Spanish languages — Catalan, Basque and Galician — where independence movements are strongest.

Thousands of people lined the streets of Madrid streets as Felipe and Queen Letizia drove from parliament to the royal palace in an open-topped Rolls-Royce, waving to the crowds. The royal couple's daughters, Princesses Leonor, 8, and Sofia, 7, accompanied them for most of the day.

Authorities prohibited a demonstration by groups seeking to abolish the monarchy. The cheering crowds and pageantry provided a welcome distraction as Spaniards reeled from the embarrassment of the national team's shock defeat by Chile in the World Cup, which ended Spanish hopes of winning a second consecutive title.

Felipe's inaugural speech came at a ceremony in the country's parliament, where the 18th-century Spanish crown and 17th-century scepter were on display. Later, a reception for 2,000 guests at the royal place featured finger foods instead of an elaborate banquet, a deliberately modest touch that acknowledged the financial hardships being endured by many Spaniards.

Juan Carlos, who for most of his reign was held in high esteem for helping steer Spain from a military dictatorship to democracy, drew fierce criticism when he went on a luxurious elephant-hunting safari in Africa two years ago while many Spaniards were losing their jobs.

In another scandal, Juan Carlos' youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, testified this year in the fraud and money-laundering case engulfing her husband, Inaki Urdangarin.

Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal.

Artur Mas: Catalonia's unlikely revolutionary

June 16, 2014

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Artur Mas doesn't seem like a political revolutionary. He wears sober, expensive suits and has shunned fiery speeches during his three-decade career as a risk-averse, pro-business civil servant.

Yet Mas is the architect of a daring attempt to carve out a new European country by achieving independence for Catalonia, a wealthy region of northeastern Spain, including the city of Barcelona, that is fiercely proud of its language and distinct cultural traditions.

If Catalonia's regional president wins backing in a planned Nov. 9 local referendum on whether to secede, his success will not only fuel the independence cause in the nearby Basque country, it will also encourage other separatist-minded regions across the continent, such as Belgium's Dutch speakers. In Britain, Scotland will vote on its own proposal for independence in September.

Mas says his path was set in June 2010, just months before he took power, when the Spanish constitutional court struck down key parts of a groundbreaking law that would have granted Catalonia more autonomy and would have recognized it as a nation within Spain. That legal setback after decades of political struggle only made Catalans more determined to distance themselves from the national government in Madrid, Mas said.

"There was a change of mindset," he told The Associated Press in an interview. "Many people in Catalonia said, 'if we continue in the same way as the last 30 years we won't get anything, we will go backward instead of forward.' Four years have passed and the movement has kept growing."

In 2012, more than 1 million Catalans demanding an independence ballot took to Barcelona's streets in the largest nationalist rally since the 1970s. The Spanish government says it won't let Catalonia break away. Parliament in April overwhelmingly rejected Catalonia's petition to hold the referendum, and the government says the independence vote is impossible under the Constitution. If Mas goes ahead with the ballot, as he says he will, the government can go to court to stop it. But Mas' message to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is that the vote will help ease political tensions.

"If the Spanish government and institutions don't let us vote, the relationship between Catalonia and Spain will become even more frayed," Mas said. With unofficial talks with the Madrid government going nowhere, Mas said he hoped Spain's new monarch, Felipe VI, who will be proclaimed king on Thursday, will help mediate the conflict.

"A new head of state, a new king of Spain, is always a new scenario," said Mas. "I hope I will have the opportunity to be in touch and talk to (him) and try to convince him." Polls show that while a strong majority of Catalonia's 7.5 million residents want to hold the ballot as an expression of self-determination, only around half of them are in favor of severing ties.

Mas believes a win for the "yes" vote in Scotland on Sept. 18 could boost Catalonia's independence bid. "If in Scotland the 'yes' vote wins then the main advantage for Catalonia will be that the negotiation between Scotland and the United Kingdom and the European Union will give us a very direct sign" on how a new European state could fit into the EU, Mas said.

The 58-year-old Mas was born into Barcelona's industrial bourgeoisie. Like others of his generation, he was prohibited from studying in the Catalan language — which is spoken in tandem with Spanish in the bilingual region — during General Francisco Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship.

Mas said that when he was young his family, like many in the region, was comfortable with a dual identity of feeling both Catalan and Spanish, but they "changed their mentality and they became more Catalan than Spanish, and with the passage of time only Catalan."

Fluent in French and English, Mas insists one of his goals is to earn wider international recognition for the political situation of a region best known for its Barcelona football team, the flamboyant creations of Salvador Dali and Antoni Gaudi, and as a leading tourism destination.

If the courts block the November vote, Mas may be forced to put his job on the line and call early regional elections. That could endanger his leadership role in the movement, with many pro-independence voters ignoring his party in favor of another, that has a more extreme and longer-standing pledge to break centuries-old ties with the rest of Spain.

"He put all his eggs in the basket of the political process," said Ferran Requejo, professor of political science at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University. "There is no question, if the process fails, Mas fails with it."