Sunnis close Iraqi capital mosques in protest

November 23, 2013

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Sunni religious leaders said Saturday they closed the sect's mosques in Baghdad indefinitely to protest attacks targeting clerics and worshipers, highlighting the country's deepening sectarian rift. The closures came as violence across the country killed 12 people Saturday.

Sheik Mustafa al-Bayati, a member of a council of senior Sunni scholars that issue religious edicts, said the decision taken Thursday came into effect Saturday. He said mosques would reopen Sunday. Many mosques appeared to comply. In Baghdad's Sunni northern district of Azamiya, a banner at the closed gate of the hallowed Abu Hanifa mosque read: "The mosque is closed until further notice because of the targeting of imams, preachers and worshipers."

The mosque closures were "prompted by the systematic targeting of and injustice against Sunni clerics, mosques and worshipers," al-Bayati told The Associated Press. "Today, it is not forbidden to shed Sunni blood. ... For 11 months we have been saying peacefully that we are facing injustice but the government closes its ears."

He didn't accuse any group of being behind the attacks, but said "the weakness of the security forces is exploited by (Shiite) militias." Sunnis previously have closed mosques as a protest tactic in the southern province of Basra in September and in the northeastern province of Diyala earlier this month. The mosques later reopened after local authorities and tribal leaders promised to offer protection.

In a statement issued late Saturday, the members of the Sunni council said they wanted the government to establish security units formed by locals to protect mosques. The statement also demanded the government open an immediate investigation over the recent killings of Sunni clerics and that it release all detained Sunni clerics.

Al-Bayati said a panel of clerics and government officials would discuss the demands in the coming days. Sunnis dominated the government of Iraq for much of its modern history. They believe that the majority-Shiite government that came into power after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion treats them like second-class citizens.

Sunni discontent mounted after a bloody April raid by security forces on a protest camp in northern Iraq. Violence has spiked since, claiming at least 5,500 lives, according to the United Nations figures.

The bloodiest attacks, including waves of coordinated car bombs claimed by al-Qaida's local branch, have targeted mainly Shiites. However, Sunnis also have been killed in apparent reprisals. On Friday, bombs targeted two Sunni mosques in Baghdad, killing four. Last week, gunmen killed a Sunni cleric as he left a mosque in western Baghdad, police said.

Violence continued Saturday across Iraq. In the northern town of Tuz Khormato, a suicide bomber set off his explosive belt near a line of people waiting to buy bread from a baker, Mayor Shalal Abdool said. A second bomber drove an explosive-laden car into the crowd that gathered after the first explosion, Abdool said. The two attacks killed 10 people and wounded 35, he said.

Tuz Khormato is about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad. Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint in the northern town of Tal Afar, killing a police officer and a civilian and wounding 10, police and hospital officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Iraq Shiite Jaish al-Mukhtar sends 'warning message' to Saudi Arabia

2013-11-21

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi Shiite group claimed Thursday it had fired six mortar rounds that hit a remote area of northeastern Saudi Arabia a day earlier as a warning to the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

Wathiq al-Battat, head of the pro-Iranian Shiite group Jaish al-Mukhtar, said by telephone from Baghdad that the attack was "a warning strike" to Saudi Arabia over its stance towards Shiites.

"We did not mean for our missile to reach a residential area because we value people's blood," said Battat. "But next time, if Saudi Arabia continues the same course, we will go farther, little by little."

Diplomats and Iraqi security officials routinely say they do not believe Jaish al-Mukhtar to be a capable militia and do not regard Battat as a credible figure.

But the incident comes amid regional turmoil fueled by the Syrian conflict.

Riyadh backs the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is strongly supported by predominantly Shiite Iran and Shiite militias in Iraq and Lebanon.

Earlier Thursday, Saudi state news agency SPA quoted border guard General Mohammed al-Ghamidi as saying six mortar rounds hit Wednesday "in an uninhabited area near Al-Awja border crossing... in Hafr al-Batin in Eastern Province, and no damage was caused."

Residents said Saudi warplanes were flying over the area early on Thursday and Ghamidi said Saudi authorities were in "direct contact" with their neighbors to identify the source of the shelling and to prevent a repetition.

Okaz newspaper's website said the mortar fire came "from the Iraqi side of the border."

Ghamidi added that his men had entered Hafr al-Batin, "an oil-rich area and vital to the Saudis."

Hafr al-Batin, which also borders Kuwait, was a command headquarters for US forces during the 1991 Gulf War, which expelled Iraqi occupation forces from the emirate.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=62788.

Iraq agrees with Turkey to warm chilled ties

2013-11-10

BAGHDAD - Officials from Iraq and Turkey have pledged to end the diplomatic tensions plaguing the two neighbors.

In a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Sunday the tension “has ended and we have started a new page.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu landed in Baghdad on Sunday for a slew of meetings with top Iraqi officials as the two neighbors seek a "fresh start" to chilled ties.

Relations between Ankara and Baghdad, which had been on the upswing as recently as 2011, fell off as the two countries clashed over the war in Syria, Turkey's ties with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, and sharp words between their prime ministers.

But the two sides have made moves in recent weeks towards a gradual rapprochement, with Turkish officials pegging Davutoglu's visit as focused on promoting a "fresh start", as well as concentrating on the violence in their common neighbor Syria.

The two-day visit, which follows a similar trip by Zebari last month, includes talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Zebari, as well as several other officials and political leaders in Baghdad and the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

"They are going to discuss a fresh start to relations," a Turkish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They will mostly discuss bilateral issues, what is happening in the region, and Syria."

Ties between Iraq and Turkey had been rapidly improving in the run-up to the Syrian conflict, with multiple visits to Baghdad by both Davutoglu and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But disagreements over how to deal with Syria -- Turkey has backed opposition groups, while Iraq has insisted it is neutral despite claims it is implicitly backing the Syrian regime -- were followed by Ankara's decision in early 2012 to give refuge to former Iraqi vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, convicted in absentia of organizing death squads.

They have accused each other of inciting sectarian tensions and, at various stages, summoned each other's ambassadors in tit-for-tat maneuvers.

Baghdad has also slammed mooted energy deals between Ankara and the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

"This marks a resumption of normal relations, and an end to tensions," Maliki's spokesman Ali al-Mussawi said before Davutoglu's arrival. "We hope relations will return to their normal state."

"The two countries have joint interests, history and challenges," he continued.

"Warm relations do not mean agreeing on all regional issues ... On those that we have differences, we will talk about them and solve them through dialogue."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=62493.

Islamist's party to boycott Egypt vote on charter

January 13, 2014

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian party led by a prominent Islamist says it will boycott the referendum on the country's draft constitution after several of its members were arrested for campaigning against the charter.

Monday's statement by the Strong Egypt party of Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh came on the eve of the voting on the amended charter. The two-day referendum offers the country's interim, military-backed government its first electoral test since the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in a coup last July.

Morsi's Brotherhood, which has since been branded as a terrorist group, has called for a boycott of the vote as well. The charter is an overhaul of an Islamist-backed constitution adopted in December 2012 under Morsi. While decreasing the role of Islamic Shariah in legislation, the charter consolidates the military's powers.

Chinese police take away outspoken Uighur activist

January 17, 2014

BEIJING (AP) — Police have taken away an outspoken scholar of China's Turkic Uighur ethnic minority and raided his home, seizing computers, cellphones and even his students' thesis manuscripts, his wife said Thursday.

About 30 police officers raided economics professor Ilham Tohti's home in Beijing in a six-hour operation Wednesday afternoon after taking away the academic, his wife Guzaili Nu'er said in a phone interview.

It was the most serious of recent actions by Chinese authorities in apparent retaliation against the scholar, who is arguably the most famous mainland-based critic of the ruling Communist Party's restrictive policies in Xinjiang in western China.

China has tightened control over the restive region, which has been rocked by a series of riots and attacks on police and other symbols of Chinese power over the past year. State media reported earlier this month that President Xi Jinping has ordered authorities to refocus their efforts on "maintaining social stability" in Xinjiang.

Guzaili Nu'er said that Ilham Tohti and his two sons were at home while she was at work when police arrived. She rushed home but her husband had already been taken away. Beijing police did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing that Ilham Tohti "is suspected of violating the law and committing a crime" and that police have placed him under criminal detention.

Calls to the scholar's mobile phone failed to connect. The overseas-based website he runs, Uighurbiz.net, was also down. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that the United States was deeply concerned about the reports that Ilham Tohti had been taken away, and called on the Chinese authorities to account for his whereabouts.

The statement said the detention "appears to be part of a disturbing pattern of arrests and detentions of public interest lawyers, Internet activists, journalists, religious leaders and others who peacefully challenge official Chinese policies and actions."

Ilham Tohti has been barred from traveling and placed under house arrest numerous times in the wake of deadly ethnic rioting in the capital of the Uighur ethnic homeland of Xinjiang in 2009 that sparked a nationwide crackdown on Uighur activists.

He has not joined calls for Xinjiang's independence but his outspokenness on problems with China's ethnic policies has made him a target of security forces. He has criticized the authoritarian government's heavy-handed handling of recent unrest, saying China's stifling security presence, widespread discrimination and restrictions on religious and social practices have fanned ethnic discord in Xinjiang.

"The Uighur people have become outsiders in the development of their own homeland and survival," Ilham Tohti wrote in a post on his mobile social media account Wednesday morning. "It is here that the people's anger begins to grow. Uighur people need an avenue to express their aspirations and protect their rights."

The scholar's wife said she feared the authorities meant to take stronger measures against him this time. Although he has been taken away for questioning before, she said, he usually returns late at night.

"This time it's different. They sent so many security officers, including police from Xinjiang, Beijing and the nearby police station. This time it is more serious," she said. Guzaili Nu'er said police seized four computers, several mobile phones and Ilham Tohti's students' thesis papers, and refused to answer her questions about where he had been taken to, or why. On Thursday afternoon, two men in plainclothes were stationed in the hallway outside the apartment and they tried to block reporters from entering the apartment.

Atilamu, 22, who was one of two undergraduate students of Ilham Tohti's at the apartment Thursday, said that police took them away for several hours of questioning Wednesday before releasing them near midnight, and that their cellphones, computers and class notes also were seized. The students said they knew of at least about a half-dozen other Uighur students who were similarly questioned.

Associated Press reporter Isolda Morillo contributed to this report.

Bangladesh frees opposition leader Khaleda Zia

Sun Jan 12, 2014

The Bangladeshi government has allowed the country’s main opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia to leave her home after about two weeks.

The chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was put under house arrest last month after the ruling Awami League led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a violence-plagued parliamentary election.

On Saturday, Khaleda, who is also the head of the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance, left her home for a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Lee Jung at her office in Dhaka.

The government deployed security forces around the two-time prime minister’s residence on December 25.

Activists and opposition members in Bangladesh have gone into hiding amid a sweeping wave of arrests by security forces following the January 5 election that was boycotted by the BNP. The election was marred by violence and led to more than a dozen deaths.

The ruling party ended up as the winner of the vote that followed months of political unrest and protests against the government of Hasina.

Hundreds of members of the BNP have concealed themselves due to what they call harassment by authorities.

According to Human Rights Watch, "Many opposition leaders and activists have gone into hiding."

The New York-based group also criticized Bangladesh for conducting arbitrary arrests of opposition members before and after the election.

"While in some cases the government has acted appropriately to stop violence by some opposition forces, this spate of arrests is part of a pattern of weakening critics, limiting dissent and consolidating [the] ruling party power," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/01/12/345102/bangladesh-frees-opposition-leader/.

Bahrain opposition, future king hold rare meeting

January 15, 2014

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — The future king of Bahrain met with top Shiite opposition leaders on Wednesday for the first time in nearly three years, the last time being shortly after Arab Spring protests broke out in the Gulf Arab nation.

The meeting also comes just one week after reconciliation talks were suspended. Bahrain's state television broadcast images of Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa meeting with members of the country's Shiite opposition, including its main al-Wefaq bloc.

Al -Wefaq and four other opposition groups released a joint statement after the face-to-face with the crown prince saying that they hoped the meeting would result in concrete steps. "The opposition believes any positive outcomes from this meeting will depend on the coming steps toward real power sharing," it said.

The opposition groups said the meeting, which took place at the crown prince's palace upon his invitation, focused on parameters for reconciliation talks that aim to produce "a new political agreement" for a permanent solution leading to "equality and transition to a democratic monarchy."

The tiny island nation of Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, is ruled by a Sunni monarchy. The country's majority Shiites began protesting in early 2011 to seek greater political rights from the country's rulers. More than 65 people have died in the unrest, but rights groups and others place the death toll higher.

The two sides have not held high-level talks since neighboring Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia, sent troops to Bahrain to help quell the Shiite-led uprising. Repeated rounds of political talks have failed to significantly close the rifts between the two sides and the opposition is demanding amnesty for what they claim are more than 3,000 political prisoners held in Bahraini prisons. The most recent reconciliation talks were suspended after the head of al-Wefaq was banned from traveling abroad, forcing the government to call off the dialogue.

The government released a statement to journalists saying the meeting explored means of overcoming the challenges faced by attempts at dialogue recently. It said participants agreed to embark on a new phase of dialogue.

Al-Wefaq spokesman Abdul Jalil Khalil, who also attended Wednesday's talks with the crown prince, told The Associated Press that his group was very direct and clear with their demands in the meeting. "We said Bahrain needs complete citizenship, meaning full rights... political and civil rights," he said, adding that they also want a member of the ruling family to take part in reconciliation talks and not just government officials.

"It is not clear until now how far the government is willing to go with the opposition, but today's meeting is considered a positive step," Khalil said.

Syria allows aid into 2 contested areas

January 16, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government allowed supplies to enter two contested front-line areas near the capital, a relief official said Thursday. Activists said the death toll from two weeks of infighting in the north between rebel forces and an al-Qaida-linked group climbed to more than 1,000 people.

The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Khaled Iriqsousi, told The Associated Press that enough supplies to feed 10,000 people for a month entered the Damascus suburbs of al-Ghezlaniya and Jdaidet al-Shibani on Thursday. The areas are east and west of the capital of a region known as Ghouta.

The government's decision to permit the supplies to enter appeared to be a goodwill gesture on its part as well as an attempt to present itself as a responsible partner ahead of a peace conference scheduled to open next week in Switzerland. It was not clear whether the move was part of arrangement agreed to by Damascus and the main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, to allow humanitarian aid into some blocked-off areas.

That agreement was announced in Paris by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who together are working to ease the bloody strife that has engulfed Syria since an uprising there began nearly three years ago. A peace conference is scheduled to be held in Switzerland next week.

Earlier Thursday, United Nations Resident Coordinator Tareq al-Kurdi said U.N. organizations operating in Syria would start delivering urgent humanitarian aid to al-Ghezlaniya and Jdaidet al-Shibani. Iriqsousi said 30 trucks carrying 2,000 boxes of food entered the two areas without incident. He said each box is about 40 kilograms (88 pounds) and includes items like rice, lentils, baby formula, blankets and detergents.

"This is the first time we have reached this area. It is considered one of the entrances of Ghouta," Iriqsousi said by telephone from Syria. "We hope that this will be the beginning for wider supply efforts."

One of the areas hardest hit by food shortages in Syria is the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, where residents say 46 people have died since October of starvation, illnesses exacerbated by hunger or because they couldn't obtain medical aid.

Iriqsousi said three recent attempts to enter the camp did not succeed. "We tried from all roads and the response was bullets," he said, suggesting that profiteers might be responsible since they are benefiting from high food prices.

Also Thursday, an activist group said that two weeks of fighting between an al-Qaida-linked group and other rebel forces in Syria has killed more than 1,000 people. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around Syria, said that the fighting in northern and eastern parts of the country killed 1,069 since the clashes began Jan. 3.

The fighting pitting the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other groups is the most serious among rebel forces since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. The Observatory said that the dead included 130 civilians — including 21 who were "executed" by "Islamic State" members.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that over the past two weeks her office has received reports of "a succession of mass executions of civilians and fighters who were no longer participating in hostilities in Aleppo, Idlib and Raqqa by hard-line armed opposition groups in Syria, in particular by the" Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

She warned that such executions violate international humanitarian law, and the numbers of such violations are thought to be alarmingly high. The Observatory reported heavy clashes between the "Islamic State" and other opposition groups in the northwestern town of Saraqeb where the Islamic group have been advancing for the past two days.

Mamdouh Jaloul, a Syrian activist from the northwestern province of Idlib who is currently in Turkey, said the town is witnessing "fierce street battles." He said many of the town's residents fled over the past two months as a result of intense government air raids, adding that the latest clash forced the few who stayed to flee to safer areas.

The Observatory said Islamic fighters advanced in the town from the northern and eastern sides and that there were casualties on both sides.

Hunger, death in besieged Damascus area

January 14, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — Children, the elderly and others displaced by Syria's civil war are starving to death in a besieged camp where women brave sniper fire to forage for food just minutes from the relative prosperity of Damascus.

The dire conditions at the Yarmouk camp are a striking example of the catastrophe unfolding in rebel-held areas blockaded by the Syrian government. U.S. and Russian diplomats said Monday the warring sides are considering opening humanitarian corridors to let in aid and build confidence ahead of an international peace conference on Syria.

Interviews with residents and U.N. officials, as well as photos and videos provided to The Associated Press, reveal an unfolding tragedy in the sprawling camp, where tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and displaced Syrians are trapped under an intensifying yearlong blockade.

Forty-six people have died since October of starvation, illnesses exacerbated by hunger or because they couldn't obtain medical aid, residents said. "There are no more people in Yarmouk, only skeletons with yellow skin," said 27-year-old resident Umm Hassan, the mother of two toddlers.

"Children are crying from hunger. The hospital has no medicine. People are just dying," she told the AP by telephone, adding that her 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son were rapidly losing weight from lack of food.

The dead include Isra al-Masri, an emaciated toddler who passed away on Saturday swaddled in a woolen sweater, her eyes sunken, her skin darkened, her swollen tongue wedged between her lips. The child was filmed minutes before her death, slowly blinking as she was held by an unidentified woman in a video sent to the AP by a 25-year-old resident, Sami Alhamzawi.

"Look at this child! Look at her!" the woman in the video shouts, thrusting the child before the camera. "What did she do to deserve this?" Other deaths suggest the extent of desperation among residents: Teenager Mazen al-Asali hung himself in late December after returning home without food to feed his starving mother. An elderly man was beaten to death by thieves who ransacked his home, looking for food and money.

Deaths have also been reported by opposition groups, activists and the United Nations. Similar casualty figures were reported by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents Syrian casualties through a network of activists on the ground. The U.N. confirmed 15 deaths, but spokesman Chris Gunness said it was impossible to know the real toll because of restricted access.

"There is profound civilian suffering in Yarmouk, with widespread malnutrition and the absence of medical care," Gunness said. "Children are suffering from diseases linked to severe malnutrition." The camp and other blockaded areas pose a stark challenge for Syria's government and the opposition, who agreed to consider opening humanitarian access in the run-up to a peace conference next week in Switzerland that would bring the sides together for the first time.

Speaking in the midst of a two-day series of meetings in Paris, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said they were also pressing for a cease-fire and prisoner exchange between the warring sides.

But hopes appear slim. The U.N. humanitarian chief said last month that an estimated 250,000 people in besieged communities in Syria were beyond the reach of aid. The government has kept outside aid sharply limited. Key humanitarian routes are increasingly cut off by the fighting, and kidnappings of aid workers are on the rise. Both Assad's forces and rebels have used blockades to punish civilians.

Repeated efforts to bring food into Yarmouk have failed. Most recently, on Monday, six trucks loaded with U.N.-donated food to feed 10,000 people had to turn back after gunmen fired on the convoy, resident Alhamzawi said.

Some 160,000 Palestinians once lived in Yarmouk, a strategic prize for rebels and Assad forces for its close proximity to Damascus. They remained mostly neutral when the uprising began against Assad's rule in March 2011.

But clashes erupted between pro- and anti-Assad Palestinian gunmen in December 2012, and most residents fled. The poorest, some 18,000 people, remained behind, according to U.N. estimates, along with tens of thousands of Syrians displaced from rebel-held areas that were seized back by the regime.

Pro-Assad Palestinian factions set up checkpoints around Yarmouk and progressively tightened a blockade of the area. By September, they banned residents from leaving, or food from entering. It also meant residents couldn't reach U.N. aid that was distributed outside the camp. The U.N. stopped operating inside Yarmouk in December, because of the fighting.

As months have passed, Yarmouk's poorest have run out of food, according to residents and the U.N. Families now dissolve spices in water and feed it to their children as soup. Some found animal feed, but residents suffered food poisoning after eating it.

A woman desperate to feed her children sneaked into a field surrounded by Syrian snipers to forage for mallow, a green herb. She was shot in the leg and hand, she said in a video uploaded by activists.

Lying on a bed, the woman's bloodied hand shook as she wept, recounting how her children pleaded for food. She rushed into the field but heard gunfire and fell to the ground, bleeding and wounded. "For some mallow," she wept. "To save us from death."

The videos appear to be genuine and consistent with AP reporting on Yarmouk. Within the camp, misery lives amid fear and defiance. Civilians shrink into their homes at dusk, as armed gunmen roam the streets.

Earlier this week, thieves beat up an elderly resident, who later died in a hospital, Alhamzawi told the AP by telephone. They stole his money — and his food. "It's chaos," he said. Merchants bribe gunmen to sneak in food, but sell it at exorbitant prices. A kilo (2 pounds) of rice costs $50 — about half a month's wage, residents said.

Despite the hardship, parents are still sending their famished children to school, where they are taught by hungry teachers, Umm Hassan said. "Officials said we should stop because the children are dizzy and falling down, but we refused," she said.

In recent months, local truces have partly resolved blockades in other rebel-held areas, with gunmen agreeing to disarm in exchange for allowing in food for residents. The Yarmouk blockade appears to be the harshest yet, and the most intractable. Months of negotiations for rebels to disarm have failed, residents said.

An official of a pro-Assad Palestinian faction imposing the blockade said it wouldn't be lifted until an estimated 3,000 rebels disarmed. "The regime forces won't remove the siege on the camp as long as the militants are staying in it, and the militants won't leave," said the official, Husam Arafat.

In the meantime, Palestinians in the West Bank have been running a campaign to raise awareness of the siege. Protesters gathered outside the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, demanding he find a solution.

"History will curse us if you allow Yarmouk's people to die of hunger," one sign read.

Associated Press reporters Albert Aji in Damascus, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, and Lara Jakes and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.

South African Ambassador to Palestine visits Gaza Strip

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

The South African Ambassador to Palestine Professor M W Makalima has visited the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday where the two discussed issues of mutual interest.

The ambassador thanked the prime minister for his message of solidarity with the South African people following the death of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela. Professor Makalima said that his visit was to express South Africa's solidarity with Gaza Strip against the challenges it endures; particularly the Israeli siege and stressed that his country would continue to follow Mandela's supportive approach towards the Palestinian people. Maklima quoted the late South African leader who said "our freedom is not complete until Palestine and its people are free. South Africa is fully engaged towards achieving this."

Meanwhile Mr Haniyeh briefed the South African diplomat about the political developments in the Palestinian arena, mainly Palestinian national reconciliation, the results of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and the future of the Palestinian issue and explained to him the difficult conditions experienced by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip due to the siege. Mr Haniyeh also thanked the South African government for its supportive positions of the Palestinian people.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/9240-south-african-ambassador-to-palestine-visits-gaza-strip.

Algerian election set, where are the candidates?

January 17, 2014

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria on Friday formally set its next presidential election for April 17, but three months before what could be one of the most important votes in the country's history, no one is sure who is running.

The elections could offer a rare chance for change and new personalities in a country long dominated by aging military figures. Ailing three-term President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, however, hasn't made clear whether he will run again. Even if the 76-year-old steps aside for a new generation, he or his military and government cohorts could have a huge influence in naming his successor.

The uncertainty before the April vote comes at a pivotal time for the country, as it faces economic turmoil, endless protests and a revival of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African branch of the terror network that grew out of the Algerian radical Islamist movement.

Algeria has always been run by the generation that fought in the 1958-1962 war for independence against France. Once the world's youngest foreign minister in the 1960s, Bouteflika took the presidency in 1999, and has dominated the country in the 15 years since.

The lack of clarity on whether he is running has kept other possible contenders from announcing their candidacies as the time for campaigning slips away. And the longer he waits, the less time they will have.

"It's the first time since the establishment of political pluralism in Algeria that the candidates ... aren't known on the eve of the convocation of the electoral body," said Mohammed Saidj, a political analyst at University of Algiers.

Bouteflika's own political party, the National Salvation Front, insists he will run for a fourth term, but there are creeping suspicions that he is just not up for it. After he had a stroke in April, he spent four months convalescing in Paris and has appeared only sporadically on television, always seated and barely audible when he speaks. He returned Thursday after four days in a French hospital for a check-up amid rumors that he is unlikely to survive another five-year term.

"Algeria needs today a president who possesses all his mental and physical faculties to deal with the national and regional context," Abderrazzak Mukri, the leader of the Islamist opposition alliance, told The Associated Press. "Those pushing him to run are irresponsible and only see their own interests and not those of the nation."

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb had been soundly beaten by Bouteflika. Now it has been reborn as a Saharan organization active in Algeria's deep south and in the little-governed areas of Mali, Niger and Libya.

In January 2013, al-Qaida linked militants stormed an Algerian natural gas plant near the Libyan border and took hostages. They were dislodged after three days by the military, but 39 foreign hostages died.

There has also been internal turmoil in this vast country of 37 million, with constant small demonstrations demanding more jobs, better services or bigger state handouts. Algeria's oil and gas production, which furnishes some 70 percent of budget revenue and 98 percent of the export earnings, has been dropping for years. Efforts to open up new areas of exploration have been limited by the political paralysis in the country.

Though officially a multiparty democracy with regular elections, Algeria's powerful president dominates politics in constant negotiation with a shadowy group of army and intelligence generals working behind the scenes.

If Bouteflika were to run, he would undoubtedly win, with the support of two pro-government parties and the machinery of the state. If he doesn't, that would open up the field to a new generation of political leaders and a degree of uncertainty in a country that clings to stability after a 1990s civil war with Islamist insurgents killed 200,000 people.

"His entourage knows he is in no state to be a candidate," said analyst Rachid Tlemcani, who described talk of Bouteflika running again as a "bad joke." ''But it continues to perpetuate the confusion to prevent the real candidates from emerging."

The most prominent of such challengers is Ali Benflis, a former prime minister and former head of the powerful FLN governing party. He has set up campaign committees in several provinces, but refrained from announcing his candidacy. His aides now say he will officially enter the race on Sunday.

Another former prime minister, Ahmed Benbitour, announced his candidacy weeks ago but lacks strong support. A few others declared they will contest the election, but they are not taken very seriously.

The clear beneficiary of the whole wait-and-see policy has been the prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, who has crisscrossed the country in a series of high-profile trips to inaugurate government projects.

An affable politician, he hadn't been taken seriously until he began to take on more and more of Bouteflika's powers as the president's condition deteriorated. "If Bouteflika is not thinking of standing again, he will certainly want to influence the final choice of his successor," said Hugh Roberts, a long-time expert on North African politics at Tufts University. "It is striking that functions normally performed by the president have been taken over by Sellal in recent months."

Any delay in announcing Sellal's candidacy could be due to behind-the-scenes negotiations with the military to gain his acceptance, as well as immunity for Bouteflika and his associates if the president resigns.

With one exception, all previous Algerian presidents have left office either through a coup or by dying. Despite his frailty and age, it is also important not to count out the possibility that Bouteflika might cling to power, especially since he is in the process of reorganizing the country's intelligence service, known as the DRS, in an effort to ease its grip on the state.

That would also mean that Algeria would avoid major changes. An oil state like Algeria largely exists to distribute its massive oil revenues, according to William Lawrence, a senior fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy, and likes to maintain the status quo rather than explore new leadership or hold competitive elections.

"Bouteflika extending means we're delaying this scenario," Lawrence said. The establishment "is very conservative, like a corporate board."

Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco.

Ukrainian leader signs anti-protest bills

January 17, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's president on Friday ignored sharp Western criticism and approved controversial anti-protest legislation aimed at quashing anti-government demonstrations, which have rocked Kiev for nearly two months.

Viktor Yanukovych also fired his long-time chief of staff, Serhiy Lyovochkin, who was seen as a more liberal counterweight to some of the hawkish members of his inner circles. Yanukovych signed into law a series of bills passed Thursday by his loyalists dominating parliament, despite fistfights and noisy objections from the opposition. The laws significantly curb the right to protest, free speech and the activity of non-governmental organizations.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Washington Friday that "the legislation that was rammed through the Rada (parliament) without transparency and accountability violates all the norms of the OSCE and the EU."

"We believe deeply that the people of Ukraine want to affiliate and want to be associated with Europe and they want to turn in that direction," he said. "And the steps that were taken yesterday are anti-democratic. They're wrong. They are taking from the people of Ukraine their choice and their opportunity for the future."

Kerry added that "this kind of anti-democratic maneuver is extremely disturbing and should be a concern to every nation that wants to see the people of Ukraine be able to not only express their wish, but see it executed through the political process."

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also said she is "deeply concerned" by the legislation and called on Yanukovych to revise it. Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told reporters in Berlin the decision would "inevitably have consequences for the cooperation with the European Union." He didn't give further specifics.

The demonstrations were sparked by Yanukovych's decision to shelve a long-discussed economic and political treaty with the European Union. Instead, Yanukovych chose to focus on improving ties with Russia and received a pledge of a $15 billion bailout loan from the Kremlin to aid the troubled Ukrainian economy. The protests swelled to hundreds of thousands after police violently dispersed several rallies.

EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele, who has worked for years to get Ukraine to sign the EU treaty, voiced his disappointment Friday. "I'm shocked," Fuele told Ukraine's Interfax news agency. "It is deeply disappointing to see such a turn from the European path of Ukraine."

Opposition leaders dubbed Thursday's legislation as unconstitutional and called for a big rally Sunday to protest the move.

AP reporters Matthew Pennington in Washington, Frank Jordans in Berlin and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.

Palace: Queen's granddaughter Zara has baby girl

January 17, 2014

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughter Zara Phillips has given birth to a baby girl, Buckingham Palace said Friday. The child is 16th in line to the British throne.

The baby was born at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in western England and weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces (3.5 kilograms). The palace said her name would be released "in due course." This is the first child for Phillips and her husband, rugby player Mike Tindall, and a fourth great-grandchild for the queen. The palace said Tindall was present at the birth.

In a statement, the palace said the queen, her husband Prince Philip and the baby's grandparents "are delighted with the news." The 32-year-old Phillips, an equestrian who won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics, is the daughter of the queen's daughter Princess Anne and Capt. Mark Phillips.

The queen's other great-grandchildren are 6-month-old Prince George, son of Prince William and his wife Catherine; and the two daughters of Zara's brother Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn.

Uganda's president opposes tough new anti-gay bill

January 17, 2014

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's president opposes an anti-gay bill passed by lawmakers that calls for life imprisonment for gays, even as he characterizes homosexuals as "abnormal" people who should be rehabilitated, according to excerpts of his letter to the speaker of parliament.

President Yoweri Museveni's opposition to the bill comes despite pressure from evangelicals as well from lawmakers from his own party. But Frank Mugisha, a prominent Ugandan gay activist, said gays are not celebrating the president's words that were published Friday in Kampala's Daily Monitor newspaper, noting that his characterization of gays "creates more hatred" of them.

In his letter to parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga, written days after lawmakers passed the bill by acclamation in December, Museveni called for the bill to be revised and wondered what to do "with an abnormal person? Do we kill him/her? Do we imprison him/her? Or we do contain him/her?"

Museveni has previously warned of serious consequences for Uganda's foreign relations if a bill proposing severe punishment for gays is passed. Some European countries have threatened to cut development assistance to Uganda if the bill becomes law.

Nicholas Opiyo, a Ugandan lawyer and independent political analyst, said Museveni is simply trying to "spread the blame" for a bill that is "unstoppable." Under the country's constitution, the bill will become law if parliament approves it with a two-thirds majority, which the lawmakers might now do even without any revisions.

"Museveni will say that 'I tried my best and the members of parliament have refused,' " he said. "He's looking for where to place the blame." Ugandan anti-gay activists accuse Western homosexuals of "recruiting" impoverished Ugandan children, and Museveni addressed this concern in his letter.

"We should legislate harshly against those people with money, from within and from without, who take advantage of the desperation of our youth to lure them into these abnormal and deviant behaviors," Museveni wrote, adding that he would support a life sentence for those who "lure normal youth" into homosexual acts.

Museveni called for improving the economy so that the youth have better jobs and are better positioned to reject offers of money for sex with Western homosexuals. Sarah Kagingo, a spokeswoman for the presidency, confirmed that Museveni wrote the letter and said he genuinely believes "the way forward is rehabilitation" for gays.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law that criminalizes acts "against the order of nature." Museveni's rejection of the bill comes as some African countries are toughening anti-gay laws. In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan on Jan. 7 signed a law making it illegal for gay people to even hold a meeting. The Nigerian law criminalizes gay marriage, homosexual clubs, associations and organizations, with penalties of up to 14 years in jail.

The original bill in Uganda, first introduced in 2009, proposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts. That provision was later removed amid international pressure. A committee of lawmakers later recommended life imprisonment as the maximum penalty, reasoning in its report that "the death sentence, if executed, does not make the offender feel the punishment for his actions."

The legislation that Museveni wants revised set life imprisonment as the penalty for gay sex involving an HIV-infected person, acts with minors and the disabled, as well as repeated sex offenses among consenting adults.

The bill was highly popular among lawmakers and evangelical pastors who say a tough new law will deter Western homosexuals they accuse of "recruiting" Ugandan children to become gay. But Ugandan gays say the country's political and religious leaders were influenced by American evangelicals who wanted to spread their anti-gay campaign in Africa. A Ugandan gay rights group in March 2012 sued Scott Lively, a Massachusetts evangelical, under the Alien Tort Statute that allows non-citizens to file suit in the United States if there is an alleged violation of international law. A U.S. federal judge ruled in August that the case could proceed, saying systematic persecution on the basis of sexual orientation violates international norms.

Explosion hits Bangkok protesters, killing 1

January 18, 2014

BANGKOK (AP) — A grenade thrown into a crowd of marching anti-government demonstrators in Thailand's capital killed one man and wounded dozens of people, an ominous development that raises tensions in the country's political crisis and the specter of more bloodshed to come.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban was in the procession Friday but was not wounded when the explosive device was thrown toward a truck driven by demonstrators that was several dozen meters (yards) ahead of him, spokesman Akanat Promphan said.

Bangkok's emergency services center said 36 people were injured in the blast, most not seriously. One of the wounded, who had been hit in the chest by shrapnel and suffered massive blood loss, died early Saturday, the center said.

Protesters vowed to continue their marches in the city over the weekend despite the violence. Most of the vast capital is calm, though many countries have warned visiting nationals to exercise caution.

Thailand has been wracked by repeated bouts of unrest since the military ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 amid charges of corruption and alleged disrespect for the monarchy. The crisis boiled over again late last year after the ruling party attempted to push through an amnesty bill that would have allowed Thaksin to return from self-imposed exile.

Anti-government demonstrators seeking to oust Thaksin's sister, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, occupied parts of several major streets and overpasses in Bangkok this week, blocking them off with walls of sandbags, tires and steel barricades.

The protests, which are also aimed at derailing Feb. 2 elections that Yingluck called in a bid to defuse the crisis, have been peaceful. But assaults have been reported nightly, including shooting attacks at protest venues and small explosives hurled at the homes of top protest supporters. It is unclear who is behind them.

Yingluck urged the police to quickly make arrests in the attack, saying she opposed any use of force and was concerned the situation in the capital was becoming more chaotic. Prolonged violence, even on a small scale, increases the risk of a military coup, which would benefit the protest movement. Thailand's army has staged about a dozen successful coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932. Since the latest wave of protests started in November, at least nine people have been killed and more than 480 have been injured.

Suthep, speaking Friday at one of the protest sites, accused the government of being behind the grenade attack. "Let me tell you, brothers and sisters: There's no need to suspect anyone else. It is solely the government that is doing this," he said. "No one else would do this. They thought it up, they planned it, and they acted on it."

The government has generally gone out of its way to avoid violent clashes with the demonstrators. The authorities temporarily ceded the premises of the city police and other offices to the aggressive crowds, though on other occasions police used tear gas and rubber bullets to keep them at bay.

Police said the grenade Friday was hurled from the direction of one of several nearby abandoned buildings. Witnesses said panicked people began running away after the blast, while some helped carry victims with blood dripping from their arms and legs. A damaged pickup truck sat idle, its front tires flat and gasoline from a ruptured tank spilling across the road near splotches of blood.

The buildings were quickly searched by protesters armed with wooden sticks. Soldiers and a police explosive ordnance disposal team combed the area, finding five walkie-talkies, several knives, rifle parts and a pair of flashlights.

The violence comes as pressure mounts against Yingluck to resign. She is facing new legal troubles after the National Anti-Corruption Commission announced late Thursday that it had found grounds to investigate allegations that she was criminally negligent in her handling of what the government had described as a deal to export surplus rice to China. The commission has already determined that there are grounds to press charges against Yingluck's former commerce minister and more than a dozen other officials.

If found guilty, Yingluck would be forced out of office. Yingluck's supporters fear the move is part of a legal push by opponents to oust her. After her brother Thaksin was toppled in 2006, court rulings forced two other pro-Thaksin heads of government from power.

The rice pledging scheme, providing subsidies to farmers, is one of several populist policies the ruling Pheu Thai party campaigned on before winning the 2011 vote that brought Yingluck to office. Yingluck's opponents, largely from the south and urban middle and upper classes, say she is carrying on the practices of her billionaire brother by using the family fortune and state funds to influence voters and cement her grip on power.

She has widespread support among Thailand's poor majority in the countryside because of the populist policies carried out by her brother, who lives abroad to avoid being imprisoned on a corruption conviction.

Despite the pressures, Yingluck has said repeatedly that the Feb. 2 parliamentary election will go ahead. Her opponents don't want an election because they know that her rural supporters would almost certainly give her victory. Instead, they are calling for an unelected "people's council" to replace the government and amend laws to fight corruption in politics.

Associated Press writers Jinda Wedel, Grant Peck and Papitchaya Boonngok contributed to this report.

Thai prime minister struggles to stay in power

January 18, 2014

BANGKOK (AP) — From inside her "war room" in a temporary office at the Defense Ministry, Thailand's beleaguered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is watching television feeds of flag-waving protesters trying to bring down her government.

The demonstrators have taken over key pockets of central Bangkok, blocking off their territory with sandbag walls guarded by supporters. They refuse to negotiate, and they're trampling campaign billboards bearing Yingluck's image amid increasing doubt that the election she called for next month can be held.

Yingluck can't order a police crackdown for fear of triggering a military coup. And she is now facing a serious legal threat: The country's anti-corruption commission has announced that it will probe her handling of a controversial rice policy, an investigation that could force her from office if it is successful.

What's the best way to deal with it all? "Keep calm. And stay cool," Yingluck said, flashing a brief smile as she rode an elevator at the Defense Ministry this past week, headed for a meeting to monitor the crisis and discuss strategy with top advisers.

Thailand has been plagued by sometimes bloody bouts of unrest ever since then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — Yingluck's older brother — was overthrown by the army in 2006 amid charges of corruption and alleged disrespect for the monarchy. The coup touched off a societal schism that in broad terms pits the majority rural poor, who back the Shinawatras, against an urban-based elite establishment that draws support from the army and staunch royalists who see Yingluck's family as a corrupt threat to their power.

The struggle has taken place against what analysts also see as a battle for control over a crucial transition period when the country's 86-year-old monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, passes from the scene. But for much of it, Yingluck had stayed out of the spotlight.

Just three years ago, she was largely unknown — the director of a family real estate business, a political neophyte with no experience in government. Today, she is in the political fight of her life — a besieged prime minister who cannot use her own office and whose government has been displaced to myriad backup offices across Bangkok because demonstrators have surrounded her ministries.

"We've had to adapt the way that we work. I have ordered every ministry to adapt," Yingluck said Thursday. "It's like we are working by remote." Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban — who is wanted by police on charges of insurrection — brazenly vowed to "capture" Yingluck and her Cabinet this past week. The threat is not taken seriously, but Yingluck takes no risks.

"I don't go to anywhere deemed dangerous," she said, responding to a question about her safety. Since Monday, anti-government demonstrators have tried to keep up the pressure by marching across Bangkok, and seizing parts of the city. The protests have been peaceful, but violence has occurred nearly every night, with shooting attacks at protest venues and small explosives hurled at the homes of top protest supporters, including the city's governor, a political rival of Yingluck's.

On Friday, a grenade was hurled at marching demonstrators, killing one man and wounding dozens of people. Suthep, who was in the procession but was not wounded, quickly blamed the government. Yingluck urged the police to quickly make arrests, saying she opposed the use of force and was concerned that the situation was becoming increasingly chaotic.

Since assuming the premiership after 2011 elections, Yingluck has struggled to overcome allegations that she is her brother's puppet. The Pheu Thai party's landslide victory came largely thanks to Thaksin. The campaign slogan — "Thaksin Thinks, Pheu Thai Acts" — made the party's political mechanics blatantly clear.

Yingluck's opponents say she is carrying on the practices of her billionaire brother by using the family fortune and state funds to influence voters and cement her grip on power. But she has widespread support among Thailand's poor majority because of the populist policies that have brought them things like virtually free health care.

During her first two years in office, Yingluck walked a careful tightrope with the army and her political rivals, managing an unspoken truce that kept the nation calm. But the last few months have badly shaken her grip on power. Critics say she brought much of it on herself with a badly misjudged attempt to rehabilitate Thaksin in a general amnesty bill that triggered widespread opposition. Thaksin, now living in Dubai, has lived overseas since 2008 to avoid a jail sentence on corruption charges that he says were politically motivated.

Yingluck's economic competence has also come under attack, particularly over a disastrous rice pledging scheme that has cost the government billions of dollars, left it with massive amounts of unsold rice and drawn criticism from the International Monetary Fund. On Thursday, Thailand's anti-corruption commission announced that it would investigate her role in it, saying she may have been criminally negligent.

A separate corruption case now under scrutiny could also see Yingluck's party thrown out of office and its members barred from politics. Although clashes between police and protesters have occurred, Yingluck has mostly taken a soft approach to dealing with the latest unrest, ordering security forces to avert violence. It is a strategy that risks making her appear weak, but one she must pursue because she does not want to give the army any reason to intervene.

Last month, Yingluck dissolved the lower house of Parliament and called Feb. 2 elections to ease tensions. But Suthep is demanding reform before any vote is held. The protesters want to install a non-elected council of "good people" to take power, while Yingluck says the constitution bars her from stepping down as caretaker prime minister and allows no legal means to delay the ballot.

The result is deadlock, with no clear way out. "She's not done a bad job, given that she has responded to everything that has been thrown at her," said Chris Baker, a political economist who has co-authored several books about Thaksin. "I don't think there's very much she can do in terms of negotiation at the moment."

The tone of the protest movement has become venomous in recent weeks. The Thai tradition of politeness has been cast aside, and Yingluck's femininity, an asset at the start of her term, has been used against her in crude tirades from the protest stage.

The strain has been evident, and Yingluck has occasionally teared up in public, once asking: "Do you not want me to set foot on Thai soil anymore?" On Friday, a confident Yingluck said she was doing her best.

"I don't know what happened to democracy in Thailand," she told reporters. "But we have to keep (our) democracy. That's why we have to ... have elections as soon as possible."

AP journalists Raul Gallego, Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul, Jerry Harmer and Thanyarat Doksone contributed to this report.

104-degree temperatures spur bushfires in southern Australia

Jan. 17, 2014

MELBOURNE, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Sweltering heat fueled deadly bushfires as they spread across parts of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales Friday, fire authorities said.

Hundreds of firefighters battled more than 100 wildfires across southern Australia as temperatures pushed above 40 degrees C (104 degrees F), the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

A 41,000-hectare bushfire in Victoria's Grampians national park raised concern for firefighters by causing a nearly 7 1/2-mile convection column that produced thunderstorms and lightning.

Officials confirmed a woman died in the Grampians fire and at least two homes were destroyed in South Australia northeast of Adelaide.

Fire officials said they believe a dozen of the 68 fires in Victoria were deliberately set.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said detectives were investigating the suspected arsons.

"There are people out there at the moment that are deliberating lighting fires," he said.

Weather forecasters said a change in winds will bring gusts of 50 mph to 75 mph to the Grampians Friday.

Incident controller John Hanes told ABC strong winds are a concern for firefighters near the convection column that has spread embers and caused flare-ups over huge distances.

"The wind change will actually make that collapse, which will cause some erratic fire behavior for about an hour or so," Hanes said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/01/17/104-degree-temperatures-spur-bushfires-in-southern-Australia/UPI-88341389961645/.