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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Germany car giants to open Algeria plants

2011-10-06

German carmaker Daimler and engine manufacturers Deutz and MTU are set to open production facilities in Algeria, Ansamed reported on Wednesday (October 5th). The car companies signed partnership agreements with Algerian state enterprises for the new plants. The manufacturers will launch a utility-vehicle factory in Tiaret and an engine production plant in Oued Hamimime.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/10/06/newsbrief-04.

Arab Group calls for permanent representation in the Security Council

Friday, 14 March 2014

The permanent representative of Kuwait to the United Nations, Mansour Al-Otaibi, has revealed that the Arab Group is calling for securing permanent representation in the United Nations Security Council.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Al-Otaibi said during the intergovernmental negotiations on Thursday night about Security Council reforms that the multiplicity of Arab issues considered by the Security Council reflects the importance of having permanent Arab representation to ensure the delivery of Arab views during the Security Council's deliberations on a continuous basis, so as to enhance its working methods.

Al-Otaibi pointed out that the Security Council aims to secure regional representation for all geographical groups, and that the Arab Group represents nearly 350 million people and has a membership of 22 countries, which is equivalent to 12 per cent of the United Nations general membership.

The Kuwaiti official also stressed that the Arab Group is keen to contribute actively in the Security Council's discussions in order to reach solutions that enhance the Security Council's democratic transparency and its working methods.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/10306-arab-group-calls-for-permanent-representation-in-the-security-council.

Social challenges as Saudis draw throne's future

April 11, 2014

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — While Saudi Arabia's royals work out the succession of the throne behind closed doors, a few voices are raising the most sensitive matter of all in the kingdom, questioning the ruling Al Saud family's claim to absolute power and its unchecked rights to the country's oil wealth.

At least 10 Saudis in the past weeks have posted video statements on YouTube sharply criticizing the royal family and demanding change. At least three of those who appeared in videos have since been arrested, along with seven others connected to the videos, security officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

It is impossible to know how widespread the sentiments expressed in the videos are among the Saudi public. But the flurry of postings by Saudis is almost unheard-of and startling, given that public criticism of the king is strictly prohibited. It underlines the challenge that Saudi Arabia's rulers have themselves recognized — that they must address the growing needs of the country's youth, along with demands for transparency, reform and greater public participation in government.

At the same time, the royal family is facing an equally critical question: How to pass the throne to the next generation of Al Saud. Since Abdulaziz Al Saud founded the kingdom in the 1930s, the throne has been passed down among his sons, of whom he had several dozen by multiple wives. The succession from brother to brother has been relatively smooth for decades. But the time is approaching when the family must decide which brother's son will get the throne next, potentially putting the monarchy into one particular branch at the expense of the others.

King Abdullah, on the throne for nearly a decade, is almost 90 and recently appeared in public with an oxygen tube. His half-brother Prince Salman, in his late 70s, is the crown prince, the designated successor. Abdullah has already outlived two other half-brothers who held the crown prince post.

Two weeks ago, the kingdom took the unusual step of officially declaring the next in line after Salman, naming Prince Muqrin, who at 68 is the youngest of Abdulaziz's sons. Muqrin, a close aide of Abdullah, was chosen as a transitional figure toward the eventual handing of the torch to the next generation, said Joseph Kechichian, author of several books on the kingdom, including "Succession in Saudi Arabia."

That handover is potentially divisive given the stakes. Analysts say there are more than a dozen princes among Abdulaziz's grandsons from the various branches who could qualify for the throne after Muqrin.

The next monarch will inherit a country where half of the population of 20 million people is under the age of 25, in need of jobs, housing and education. The world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia is fabulously wealthy, but there are deep disparities in wealth and unemployment is growing among the young. The population is expected to mushroom to 45 million people by 2050.

Royals are showing that they are aware of the challenge. This week, Muqrin attended a conference unveiling a state-backed report on the minimum income families need to earn to cover their basic needs. At the conference, he criticized the country's banks for making giant earnings while doing little to help society.

"They're like a saw, they cut on the way in and cut on the way out," he said. "Their contribution is small in comparison to how much they benefit from the citizens and state." Last month, the governor of Mecca, Prince Mishaal, one of King Abdullah's sons, said in an economic forum that there must be greater youth participation in planning and development.

The string of videos emerged on YouTube just after Muqrin's appointment was announced. In each, a person talks to a camera, some speaking before a blank background, others in non-descript rooms. In most, the speaker holds up his or her national identity card with the speaker's name and other information, a bold act of defiance to show they are not seeking anonymity. Two of the videos are by women, all wearing all-enveloping black robes and veils over their faces. Most of the speakers are in their 20s or 30s, though some are as old as their 50s. They are from different provinces of Saudi Arabia.

The first video to appear, by a young man who identified himself as Abdulaziz al-Doussari, appears to have inspired the others. In his 30-second video, he says he makes the equivalent of $500 a month — though he doesn't specify his job — and says he's fed up with being unable to afford a car, a home or marriage.

"Brother, give us some of the oil wealth you and your sons play with," he blurts out, addressing the king. "Here, here's my name," he adds, holding his ID card to the camera. "Give us some of what's rightfully ours." The video has been viewed more than 1.8 million times.

Al-Dossari is among those subsequently arrested, the security officials said. In the past, public voices critical of Al Saud rule have been Islamic extremists — al-Qaida, for example, calls for the monarchy's toppling — or minority Saudi Shiites protesting for equal treatment. The security officials, however, gave no indication they believed either group was behind the videos. Instead, they accused regional rival Iran but gave no further details.

The speakers in the videos don't express allegiance to any political movement. Some accuse the royal family of corruption, others demand an accounting of its wealth and how much it receives from state coffers. Some do not refer to the kingdom as Saudi Arabia — named after the Al Saud. Instead, they call it the "land of the two holy mosques," referring to the Prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina and the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

In his video, Majed el-Asmiri calls for judicial independence, freedom of speech and the dissolution of the intelligence body Prince Muqrin once headed. "It is obvious ... that the people of the land of the two holy mosques suffer in every way with regards to decisions about public finances and property," he said.

Average Saudis have limited voice in governance. Most senior positions go to the thousands of members of the Al Saud family. A royally appointed Shura Council is the closest thing to a parliament, drawing members from the main tribes and other sectors of society, but it only can advise the king and government.

The ultimate question of who is king lies solely in the royal family's hands. Any internal disputes over succession are kept strictly private, and royals have always rallied almost unanimously over the final choice, conscious that unity is in their interest.

Several years ago, King Abdullah tried to formalize the process by creating a 34-member Allegiance Council comprised of senior male members to decide questions of succession. Its meetings are held in total secrecy.

Former U.S. Ambassador to neighboring Bahrain, Adam Ereli, says the main issue facing any future king will be "accountability". "Obviously, the new generation is going to have different views on issues of reform and what needs to be done," Ereli said. "I think the rulers of Saudi Arabia recognize they've got to be responsive."

Saudi Crown Prince Salman begins state visit to China

Thursday, 13 Mar, 2014

London and Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has begun a state visit to China, the latest leg of an Asian tour that has included visits to Pakistan, Japan and India. The visit is expected to include high-level talks on economic, cultural and military cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China.

The Saudi Ambassador to Beijing, Yahya Al-Zaid, told Asharq Al-Awsat that a series of visits exchanged between Riyadh and Beijing has served to strengthen bilateral relations, with Crown Prince Salman’s visit to China this week only serving to further strengthen ties.

He affirmed that economic exchange between Saudi Arabia and China stood at 73 billion US dollars in 2013, while the number of Saudi students studying at Chinese universities has increased to more than 1,300.

He said: “These two numbers emphasize the importance of relations between Riyadh and Beijing.”

“Crown Prince Salman’s visit is very important, and takes place at a time when the world is witnessing political change, most prominently in terms of economic alliances. The timing of the Crown Prince’s visit is important and will serve to strengthen bilateral cooperation, particularly in terms of the economy, which remains the basis of Saudi–Chinese relations,” he added.

Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Beijing also highlighted the tourism and education sectors, praising the number of Saudi students studying in China and adding that “there may also be developments in the area of tourism exchange as well.”

The Chinese Ambassador to Riyadh, Li Chengwen, also hailed the timing of Crown Prince Salman’s visit to Beijing, saying it would strengthen strategic ties between the two countries.

In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, he described bilateral ties between Saudi Arabia and China as “strategic” and “friendly,” highlighting Beijing’s role in the Arab world.

He said: “Saudi–Chinese relations have witnessed ongoing development and growth over the past years, reaching the level of strategic partnership,” adding, “The important visit being paid by Saudi Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz will raise this to the highest level, and this serves the interests of the two brotherly peoples.”

“We in China take pride in this deep friendship between our two peoples, and the people of China have a great affection for the people of Saudi Arabia, based on mutual respect towards one another,” Chengwen added.

Saudi Crown Prince Salman is expected to meet Premier Li Keqiang, Defense Minister Chang Wanquan and other senior Chinese officials during his visit.

Last month, the Crown Prince visited Pakistan, Japan, India and the Maldives as part of a tour of Asia, discussing strengthening Saudi ties to the region.

Reporting by Fatah Al-Rahman Youssef from Riyadh and Adwan Al-Ahmari from London.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.
Link: http://www.aawsat.net/2014/03/article55329967.

KSA, Kuwait nab Brotherhood members

Thu Mar 13, 2014

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have arrested two members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood at Cairo’s request, Egypt's top prosecutor has said.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement on Wednesday that the two men were arrested after Egypt’s interim government put an international arrest warrant on them for “inciting violence” in the city of Port Said in 2013.

“The office of the public prosecutor has received a notification of the arrest of Akram al-Shaer by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the accused Mohamed al-Qabouti by the state of Kuwait,” the statement said.

Al-Shaer was head of the health committee in parliament during ousted Mohamed Morsi's presidency.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have reportedly pumped billions of dollars into Egypt since the army ousted Egypt’s first democratically-elected president last July and suspended the country’s constitution and dissolved the parliament.

Egypt declared the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist” group late last year and accused its members of being responsible for a deadly bomb attack on a police headquarters building in the Delta Nile city of Mansoura in December 2013.

The Brotherhood, however, condemned the attack and denied involvement in the incident.

Last week, Riyadh followed Egypt’s suit to declare the 86-year-old group a terrorist organization.

Anti-government demonstrations have continued unabated across Egypt since Morsi's ouster despite a heavy-handed crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.

Human Rights Watch has denounced Egypt’s interim government for blacklisting the Brotherhood, saying the move “appears to be aimed at expanding the crackdown on peaceful Brotherhood activities and imposing harsh sanctions on its supporters.”

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/354459.html.

Bahrain court gives life sentence to 13 protesters

Sun Mar 30, 2014

A court in Bahrain has sentenced 13 pro-democracy protesters including several teenagers to life in prison, as the Al Khalifa regime steps up its crackdown on dissent.

The court issued the verdicts on Sunday after convicting the defendants of allegedly attempting to kill a policeman and participating in an anti-regime protest outside the capital city of Manama in March 2012.

Mohammad Al-Tajir, a lawyer for the convicted Bahrainis, said another person was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the same case. He added that the defense plans to appeal.

On March 26, another court in Bahrain handed jail terms of up to 10 years to 29 anti-regime protesters.

The prosecution accused the men of being behind an attack with petrol bombs and iron rods on a police center in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, in April 2012. A policeman was wounded in the incident.

The defendants, however, dismissed the accusations, insisting that they were tortured and their confessions were obtained under duress.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

Scores of Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds injured and jailed by the regime forces since the uprising broke out.

Last month, Amnesty International denounced the “relentless repression” of anti-regime protesters in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom, blaming Bahraini security forces for their repeated use of “excessive force to quash anti-government protests.”

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/30/356600/bahrain-sentence-13-protesters-to-life/.

Spain rejects Catalonia independence referendum

Mon Mar 31, 2014

Spain's deputy prime minister says Madrid cannot allow the autonomous community of Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence, calling such a vote illegal.

At a pro-government rally in Barcelona on Sunday, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said that the government would not let that part of the population decide the question of national sovereignty for others.

Santamaria noted that Madrid was ready for dialogue with Catalonia on various issues, as long as it is in line with the constitution.

If Catalonia quits Spain, it will no longer be a European Union member and may have to leave the eurozone altogether, she emphasized.

Catalonia's President Artur Mas has vowed to hold the referendum on secession from Spain on November 9.

Mas says Catalonia should have its own government within the European Union, but Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismisses the idea as unconstitutional.

A declaration of self-determination was unanimously adopted by the region’s parliament in January 2013, which gave Catalans the right to break away from the rest of the country.

However, on March 25, Spain's Constitutional Court partially struck down a sovereignty claim approved by Catalan lawmakers in the northeastern region.

In recent years, massive rallies have been held to claim the self-determination right for the region.

More than one million Catalans took to the streets across Spain in September last year and joined hands to form a 400-kilometer (250-mile) human chain in a major drive for independence from Spain.

Polls indicate that about half of 7.5 million inhabitants of Catalonia, which has its own language and cultural traditions, want to break away from Spain.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/31/356622/spain-rejects-catalonia-referendum/.

Hundreds of migrants try to enter Spanish enclave

March 28, 2014

MADRID (AP) — Some 800 African migrants tried to climb barbed-wire fences to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Friday, Spanish officials said. Most were turned back by security forces from both sides.

A statement from the Interior Ministry's office in Melilla said the migrants attempted to scale the fences several times early Friday and at least 10 managed to get across. The ministry said Moroccan forces kept back more than 1,000 who made similar attempts Thursday.

Thousands of sub-Saharan migrants seeking a better life in Europe are living illegally in Morocco, hoping they can enter Melilla or Spain's other north African coastal enclave, Ceuta, and later make it to the mainland.

Morocco and Spain have stepped up vigilance since Feb. 6 when 15 migrants drowned trying to enter Ceuta. Those that cross into the enclaves are normally given lodging in centers while authorities, obliged by law, try to identify and repatriate them. Many come without documentation so they cannot be identified and are eventually let go but ordered to leave the country.

Spain anti-austerity protesters clash with police

March 22, 2014

MADRID (AP) — Spanish police and protesters clashed during an anti-austerity demonstration that drew tens of thousands of people to central Madrid on Saturday. Police said in a statement that six officers were injured and 12 people were arrested.

As a final speech was being given, some protesters attempted to break through a police barrier and make their way toward the nearby headquarters of the governing conservative Popular Party. Riot police then charged the protesters, who hurled bottles and other objects, and beat them back with batons.

One police vehicle and a bank were damaged by protesters. It wasn't immediately clear how many protesters were injured, and if anybody was seriously hurt on either side. Protesters say Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government has eroded Spain's much-valued public health and education systems, while saddling Spaniards with sky-high unemployment and more debt.

Six columns of protesters — each from a different region of Spain — had arrived at the outskirts of the city early Saturday before heading for Colon square, carrying banners bearing the slogan "Marching for Dignity."

By late afternoon, Madrid's principal boulevard, Paseo del Prado, was packed with people chanting against government's austerity policies and the cuts they have entailed. "I don't want corruption, government cuts and unemployment," said office worker Susana Roldan, 24. "What I want is a secure future in Spain."

Rajoy's conservative government has a large parliamentary majority, enabling it to push through waves of austerity-driven, unpopular tax hikes and government program cutbacks since taking office in 2011, in a bid to reduce Spain's budget deficit.

Spain's economy began to crumble in 2008 with the collapse of its bloated real-estate sector. It emerged from a two-year recession late last year as investor confidence returned and the country's borrowing costs dropped from perilously high levels in 2012 to pre-crisis rates this year. But unemployment is still cripplingly high at 26 percent, leading many to seek work oversees.

The protest includes trade unions, civil servants and organizations representing people evicted from their homes for not being able to make mortgage payments after losing their jobs. One woman carried a banner saying, "My daughter can't be here because she's had to emigrate."

North Korea vows crushing response to US hostility

Wed Apr 2, 2014

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un warns that the situation on the Korean peninsula is “very grave” as tensions mount between the two Koreas.

The North’s official KCNA news agency said on Wednesday that Kim made the remarks in a meeting with the country’s senior military officials a day earlier.

“The current situation is very grave," said the North Korean leader, criticizing the United States and South Korea for the recent tensions.

Kim also said at the meeting that Washington and Seoul had gone ahead with their joint military drills in the region despite Pyongyang’s conciliatory gestures.

"The United States and other hostile forces, ignoring our magnanimity and goodwill, are viciously stepping up their maneuvers in order to annihilate our republic politically, isolate it economically and crush it militarily," he said.

He pointed out that North Korea’s military and people will not tolerate the "US policy of hostility" and will "crush it thoroughly.”

Tensions have recently been on the rise between the two Koreas as Pyongyang accuses its southern neighbor and Washington of "rehearsing for an invasion."

Pyongyang has recently launched rockets and ballistic missiles and has also threatened to conduct a new nuclear test.

On Tuesday, the two Koreas traded fire across their disputed Yellow Sea maritime border. A South Korean Ministry of Defense spokesman said Seoul counter-fired over the Northern Limit Line. A similar incident took place on Monday.

The Yellow Sea area has been the scene of deadly clashes in the past.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/02/356858/n-korea-vows-crushing-response-to-us/.

Ukraine bares teeth against eastern uprising

April 16, 2014

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — In the first Ukrainian military action against a pro-Russian uprising in the east, government forces repelled an attack Tuesday by about 30 gunmen at an airport, beginning what the president called an "anti-terrorist operation" to try to restore authority over the restive region.

The central government has so far been unable to rein in the insurgents, who it says are being stirred up by paid operatives from Russia and have seized numerous government facilities in at least nine eastern cities to press their demands for broader autonomy and closer ties with Russia. Complicating the political landscape, many local security forces have switched to their side.

The clashes Tuesday came at Kramatorsk airport, just south of the city of Slovyansk, which has come under the increasing control of the pro-Russian gunmen who seized it last weekend. The precise sequence of events was mired in confusion amid contradictory official claims.

The commander of the Ukrainian operation, Gen. Vasyl Krutov, speaking outside Kramatorsk airport, said his men managed to thwart an attack by fighters in green military uniforms without insignia who tried to storm the facility in the late afternoon. An Associated Press reporter and camera crew heard rounds of gunfire at the time.

After the armed standoff, hundreds of local people surrounded the airport in response to rumors that government troops were planning to launch a military operation on the city of Kramatorsk itself. Some in the crowd attempted to enter the military facility, prompting Ukrainian troops to fire bursts of warning shots.

In an attempt to defuse the situation, Gen. Krutov came out to speak to the angry protesters but was attacked by them. After a tussle in which his hat was knocked to the ground, he managed to take refuge in the airport.

There were conflicting reports of casualties. Yury Zhadobin, coordinator of a pro-Russian defense force, said two people were slightly injured and were taken to a hospital. Russian media, without sourcing, claimed anywhere from four to 11 casualties at the airport. Ukraine's government said there were no casualties, adding that Ukrainian forces took an unspecified number of militiamen prisoner.

While Krutov spoke of repelling an attack, the new government in Kiev declared that its forces had recaptured the airport from militiamen. "I just got a call from the Donetsk region: Ukrainian special forces have liberated the airport in the city of Kramatorsk from terrorists," acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told parliament.

"I'm convinced that there will not be any terrorists left soon in Donetsk and other regions and they will find themselves in the dock — this is where they belong." Hours earlier, Turchynov had announced the start of what what he called "an anti-terrorist operation" against the pro-Russian insurgents.

He gave few details, saying only that it would be conducted in a "responsible and balanced" manner in order to "defend the citizens of Ukraine, to stop terror, stop crime and stop attempts to tear our country into pieces."

In Washington, the Obama administration gave its tacit support to the Ukrainian military action. While the use of force "is not a preferred option," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "the Ukrainian government has a responsibility to provide law and order. And these provocations in eastern Ukraine are creating a situation in which the government has to respond."

Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing the Ukrainian military operation, saying it was "criminal to fight with your own people as they speak out for their legal rights." The ministry called on Russia's "international partners" to condemn the new Ukrainian government's actions.

What was clear is that the area bordering Russia is getting increasingly armed and unstable. Russia has tens of thousands of troops stationed along its border with Ukraine, raising fears that Moscow might use the instability in the predominantly Russian-speaking east as a pretext for an invasion.

Earlier Tuesday, at least 14 armored personnel carriers flying Ukrainian flags, helicopters and military trucks were seen some 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Solvyansk, along with at least seven busloads of government troops in black military fatigues.

"We are awaiting the order to move on Slovyansk," said one soldier, who gave only his first name, Taras. Two of the helicopters loaded with troops were later seen flying toward Slovyansk and witnesses said they delivered several dozen troops at the Kramatorsk military airfield.

Tuesday's events were viewed entirely differently by Ukraine and Russia. "We have to tell the Ukrainians the truth: The Russian Federation is waging a real war against Ukraine in the east, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in particular," Ukraine's ex-prime minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko said.

She called on the West to "recognize Russia's aggression against eastern Ukraine as a war." Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema also accused Russia of sending its troops to Ukraine, saying Kiev has "evidence that those people occupying Slovyansk and Kramatorsk right now are servicemen of the Russian 45th Airborne Regiment."

Ukraine's security services identified one of the leaders of the pro-Russian operation in Slovyansk as a Russian foreign intelligence agent, Igor Strelkov, who it said had also coordinated Russian seizures of military facilities in Crimea.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, dismissed the claims as absurd. The Kremlin has strongly warned the Kiev government that if it uses military force it could prompt Russia to walk out of an international conference on Ukraine in Geneva on Thursday.

"You can't send in tanks and at the same time hold talks. The use of force would sabotage the opportunity offered by the four-party negotiations in Geneva," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Leonard reported from Donetsk. Maria Danilova and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Kiev, Lynn Berry and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Julie Pace in Washington, and Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.

German company starts gas deliveries to Ukraine

April 15, 2014

BERLIN (AP) — German utility company RWE said Tuesday it has started sending natural gas to Ukraine, a move that could support the country if Russia acts on its threat to cut off supplies because of a massive debt for past deliveries.

The reverse-flow deliveries from Germany via Poland are largely symbolic for the moment, but could be ramped up to provide about a fifth of the country's gas needs. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine owes Russia $35.4 billion for gas — about 20 times more than Moscow had previously asked for. He said Russia may ask for Ukraine to start paying for gas in advance or face a shut-off.

About a third of the gas RWE AG will supply to Ukraine originally comes from Russia, said company spokesman Helmut Weintoegl. The rest comes from Norway, Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. RWE Supply & Trading is the first Western European company to begin gas deliveries to Ukraine this year, the Essen-based company said in a statement.

"Further significant volumes could be delivered to Ukraine if various transport restrictions at the Slovakian-Ukrainian border are politically and technically resolved within the next weeks or months," the company said. Talks between senior officials from Slovakia and Ukraine failed to reach an agreement Tuesday, after the two sides couldn't settle on which pipeline to use for the reverse-flow supply.

RWE declined to disclose the exact price it is charging Ukraine, but said the supply wasn't subsidized in any way. "The price is a normal market price," Weintoegl told The Associated Press. "It's currently more attractive for Ukraine than what it pays in its long-term contracts," he added.

Under an agreement signed with Ukraine's state-owned Naftogaz in 2012, RWE could supply up to 10 billion cubic meters (353 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year, it said. This is about one-fifth of Ukraine's gas needs, according to U.S. Department of Energy figures for 2012. RWE previously supplied it with 1 billion cubic meters of gas in 2013.

Analyst Arno Behrens, head of energy at the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said the RWE gas supply "could certainly help alleviate hardships" in the short term, but could not on its own make up for a potential shut-off in Russian gas supplies to Ukraine.

Behrens said German companies can buy gas from Russia at lower prices than what Gazprom is asking from Ukraine, so that RWE could add a transport premium and still offer Ukraine a lower price than Gazprom's.

Recent liberalization of the EU gas market has made it possible for companies to re-sell gas. Behrens said that building out the European gas network by increasing such reverse flow capacity — most pipelines previously only flowed east to west — would be a key factor in reducing customers' dependence on Russia.

AP Business Writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and AP reporter Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.

French minister in Cuba as Europe seeks opening

April 13, 2014

HAVANA (AP) — A French foreign minister visited Cuba for the first time in more than 30 years Saturday, traveling to the communist-run nation at a time when it is seeking to attract more foreign investment and improve ties with the European Union.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he met with President Raul Castro for an hour and half, during which the two men "talked about everything, including human rights." Earlier Fabius met with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez to start the trip, which French officials have said is partly to promote business ties and support French companies that want to do business in Cuba.

"We want to strengthen our ties with South America and particularly with Cuba," Fabius told reporters. "Europe also wants to (strengthen ties) and from that we are going to be able to talk about economic, cultural, political and international issues."

The European Union suspended cooperation with Cuba in 2003 when the island's government jailed 75 dissidents. Dialogue was restored five years later, though it was conditioned on improvements in the human rights situation. In February, the EU's foreign ministers approved talks to negotiate a broad new political agreement with Cuba.

Fabius noted that his visit marked the first time in more than three decades that the chief of French diplomacy had visited the island. He arrived in Havana from Mexico, where he took part in an official visit by President Francois Hollande.

Cuban lawmakers recently approved a law aimed at making the country more attractive to foreign investors, a measure seen as vital for the island's struggling economy. There are currently about 60 French companies present in Cuba.

Fabius also noted that Cuba has a debt with European Union countries and said that talks with Havana on the issue would begin in the coming months.

Peru state a violent 'mini-dictatorship'

April 13, 2014

CHIMBOTE, Peru (AP) — One by one, the senior officials from the capital took the microphone and apologized to an auditorium packed with angry people who had long been living in fear. The officials admitted they had failed to prevent a political murder foretold by its victim. Their integrity was in doubt.

Peru's chief prosecutor, comptroller and the head of Congress' investigations committee, which was now holding a public hearing, had all ignored evidence that Ezequiel Nolasco, now murdered, had thrust in their faces for months.

Having survived a 2010 assassination attempt after he denounced government corruption, Nolasco had repeatedly warned that his home state, Ancash, was run by a criminal syndicate that plundered the treasury, killed people it couldn't buy or intimidate, wiretapped foes and used police as spies and journalists as character assassins.

A lone gunman finished the job on March 14, pumping five bullets into the former construction union leader when he stopped for a beer heading from Lima to this coastal city that is home to nearly half of Ancash's 1.1 million people.

Ancash was living under the ironclad rule of a governor locals compared to U.S. mob legend Al Capone, his political machine allegedly greased by tens of millions in annual mining revenues that had made Ancash Peru's richest state.

"It's a mini-dictatorship," said Christian Salas, the public prosecutor dispatched from Lima to clean things up. He asked to have Gov. Cesar Alvarez jailed while more than 100 corruption cases involving his administration are revived, adding that the local prosecutors' office and courts were "taken over by criminals."

On Friday, a local judge barred Alvarez, his top press aide and four journalists from leaving the country for four months while they are investigated for conspiracy and embezzlement. Corruption-impregnated personal fiefdoms aren't rare in Latin American democracies, but political scientists say Ancash is extraordinary in its sheer scope and brutality.

"This guy went too far," said Edward Gibson, a Northwestern University professor who calls the phenomenon "subnational authoritarianism." Steven Levitsky of Harvard University said, "I don't know of any cases where there has been this much violence," save perhaps in southern Mexico.

It took Alvarez a few years after he first won election in 2006 to silence most rivals and allegedly purchase the near complete loyalty of local news media. Contract murders, meanwhile, became rampant, accounting for two in five of the state's more than 100 killings last year — none of them solved, the country's interior minister told Congress this month.

In Nolasco's case, Alvarez induced judges to suppress evidence that one of his top allies organized the 2010 attempt on the ex-union leader's life, the slain man had alleged. Nolasco took two bullets, while his 24-year-old stepson perished trying to save him.

Nolasco, then a state lawmaker, had accused Alvarez of plans to skim tens of millions from public works project and was forced out of the leadership of the local construction union. His daughter Fiorela, 20, said in an interview at the family home that further retribution followed the attempt on Nolasco's life.

"A bunch of gunmen took over the construction union's headquarters — and armed police helped out," she said as newly assigned police bodyguards from Lima stood by, occasionally peering out onto the unlit, unpaved street.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press after announcing he would not run for a third term in October elections, Alvarez denied any responsibility for Nolasco's murder or any other crime. "People look at me like I'm a murderer. But who is the loser here? The only loser with Mr. Nolasco's death is me," Alvarez said.

"I've lost everything," he added as bodyguards in street clothes, one with a battered pistol in his waistband, stood outside his modest home. "If people keep getting killed, I'm going to be blamed," said Alvarez. He suggested a political rival could be "orchestrating everything here."

For his part, Salas is focusing on the clandestine former command post called "La Centralita" from which Alvarez allegedly ran a shadow underground state, with nearly $1 million a month in bribes doled out.

Four prosecutors who tried to search "La Centralita" in 2012 weren't just fired. They were accused of abuse of authority by the man who was elected Peru's chief prosecutor on Wednesday, Carlos Ramos, when he headed the office's internal discipline unit.

Ramos' predecessor, Jose Pelaez, shelved a probe into the governor's finances last year, saying Alvarez did not own a single piece of property. "I've always lived austerely," Alvarez told the AP. He said doesn't even own his home. His in-laws do.

Nolasco's lone political ally in Lima, highlands congressman Modesto Julca, clamored last July for a state of emergency to be called in Ancash. He counted nearly a dozen political murders — including that of a mayor, a former mayor, a prosecutor, a journalist and the key witness in the Nolasco case.

"I told each and every minister, 'Listen, people are getting death threats. People are getting killed,'" he said. "But nobody paid any attention." That month, a 9-year-old boy handed local anti-corruption prosecutor Nancy Moreno a manila envelope with a bullet inside. "Knock it off," the accompanying note read. "Nobody touches me."

One of a handful of public officials who has refused to bow to Alvarez, Moreno has been a prisoner in her own home ever since. Constantly accompanied by bodyguards, she has been advised not to spend more than an hour in any one place.

"She takes pills so she can sleep," said her husband, Ismael Garcia. Moreno's fearlessness has won her admiration, and she was celebrated with chants of "Nancy! Nancy!" at Monday's congressional hearing, which was held a block from the harbor where Chimbote's fishing fleet anchors.

She sat in the auditorium with the very congressional committee that voted in July not to investigate Alvarez. The Rev. Luis Palmino, former mayor of the highlands town of Yungay, was among the more than 130 witnesses who told the panel of contract murders, judges obstructing justice, police thuggery and local media submission.

Thugs beat him and broke some teeth in 2010, he said, and three gunmen later tried to kill him. He's since gone into hiding. "I am constantly on the move," he said. "I am followed and my phone is tapped."

Palomino didn't go to police, he said, because the local police chief was in Alvarez's pocket. Like others, he had been emboldened to speak after the media spectacle unleashed by Nolasco's murder. "My father always said, 'The day I die, the mafia falls,'" Fiorela Nolasco told the AP.

The president of the local economists association, Luis Luna, said the toll from all the corruption has been devastating. Ancash has only just $5 million in its treasury after an orgy of public works spending that included phantom and unfinished projects.

Among the latter is Chimbote's $11 million sports coliseum. Construction was halted more than two years ago for reasons that have not been explained to Moreno's satisfaction. The project is now a solitary wasteland of partially poured concrete and rusting rebar, rising spindly out of the sand like a sickly Stonehenge.

Franklin Briceno in Lima contributed to this report.

Chile leader to relocate Valparaiso fire victims

April 16, 2014

VALPARAISO, Chile (AP) — President Michelle Bachelet vowed Tuesday to reconstruct this once-beautiful port city according to a master plan that would prevent many of the 12,500 victims of devastating wildfires from rebuilding on hills that cannot be protected from disasters.

The fires that started Saturday and leaped from hilltop to densely populated hilltop may take 20 days to extinguish, Chile's forestry agency said. While Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said authorities hope to have them fully controlled by Wednesday, every stiff wind threatened to lift burning embers, putting more neighborhoods at risk.

By Tuesday night, the fires had consumed 2,900 homes and killed 15 people while injuring hundreds more, he said. "We think this is a tremendous tragedy, but ... it is also a tremendous opportunity to do things right," Bachelet said in an interview with El Diario de Cooperativa. "What we're looking at in terms of reconstruction is how to rebuild in a more orderly manner, better and more worthy" of Valparaiso's status as a World Heritage City.

UNESCO granted the city that honor in large part because of its unique architecture, laid out on narrow, curving streets that climb hills so steep that many people commute by climbing stairways or riding cable cars. Brightly painted, improvised wooden houses hug forested hills and ravines, which form a natural amphitheater around Chile's second-largest port.

While the city is often blanketed by fog from the Pacific Ocean, it has been plagued throughout history by wildfires that can spread quickly when the wind blows out to sea. Indigenous Changos who lived there before the Spanish conquest called the area "Alimapu," which means "land destroyed by fire," said Orion Aramayo, an urban planning expert at Valparaiso's Catholic University.

While fire victims include middle-class families, thousands more lived in primitive conditions, sharing structures built on tiny ledges of land carved into the hills. Many of these homes were built illegally, lacking water and sewer connections, with improper foundations on dangerous slopes and no way for emergency vehicles to reach them in a crisis.

With so many houses reduced to rubble and 4.2 square miles (1,090 hectares) of the compact city's forests turned to ash, Chileans debated about whether bulldozers might help solve longstanding problems.

Urban planners called for safer structures, wider streets and better infrastructure. Some cultural representatives expressed concerns that new construction could endanger the city's rich character. And thousands of fire victims returned to their home sites on the hills, squatting amid charred rubble on denuded slopes that could turn to landslides in the next rain.

Many experts blame the Chilean state for decades of uncontrolled growth. "The government is responsible for having allowed homes to be built in dangerous areas, and somehow it has to show these people that they're in a place where their lives are at risk," said architecture professor Jonas Figueroa at the University of Santiago.

Valparaiso Mayor Jorge Castro bemoaned the city's disorderly development Sunday, saying that "we are too vulnerable as a city: We have been the builders and architects of our own dangers." By Monday, he was acknowledging that many people would rebuild in the same vulnerable spots.

Bachelet, however, appeared firm in Tuesday's interview. "Protecting the people comes first. And second, relocating them," she said, suggesting that the state will expropriate land if it has to. "Honestly, I believe we have to do something more. It's not enough to reinstall houses or support families. We have to do something more substantive."

Just 34 days after taking office a second time, Bachelet is confronting twin disasters. Two earthquakes in northern Chile left 2,635 homes uninhabitable, and 5,000 more with lesser damage. She said the reconstruction will likely occupy her entire four-year term.

Housing Minister Paulina Saball avoided saying openly where the evacuees would go. She suggested that camps for evacuees would have to be built elsewhere to house people who had been illegally squatting on unstable land.

"They want to keep living here. The people don't want to leave," said Nancy Ortega, a social worker who has spent decades assisting about 100 families in Cuesta Colorada, a neighborhood on the Ramaditas hilltop that was mostly destroyed.

Many people were already leaving the city's overflowing shelters and retaking their ruins. Hundreds of volunteers helped, climbing through the wreckage with bottles of water and shovels. "We're going to rebuild right here. Where else would we go?" said Carolina Ovando, 22, who lost the humble home where she had lived with three small children.

All of Valparaiso remained under military rule Tuesday. About 5,000 firefighters, police, forest rangers, soldiers, sailors and civil defense workers joined the fight against the wildfires, which the forestry agency said could take 20 days to fully extinguish. More than 20 helicopters and airplanes flew overhead, dropping water on the smoldering ruins.