Syrian troops capture village near Lebanon border

March 19, 2014

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian troops pressed an offensive near the Lebanese border on Wednesday, capturing a village from rebels whose forces appear to be collapsing along a key central front, state media and activists said.

Ras al-Ayyn was the latest area in the Qalamoun region to fall to government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters. On Sunday, they captured Yabroud, a town that had served for months as a main rebel logistics hub.

"It was a fast and crushing operation," an unidentified Syrian army officer in Ras Al-Ayn said on state television. "The operation will continue day and night until all terrorists are wiped out," he said, referring to the rebels. A brigadier general, also unidentified, told the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV that "tens" of rebels were killed in the village.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops captured the village after fighting several rebel factions — including the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front — for two days. For months, Syrian troops have been on the offensive in the mountainous Qalamoun region, aiming to cut rebel supply lines crossing the porous Lebanese border.

Also Wednesday, Syria criticized Washington for ordering the closure of its diplomatic and consular missions in the United States, requiring all personnel who are not legal U.S. residents to leave the country.

"This American move reveals the real goals of America's policies against Syria and the interests of Syrian citizens," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement about Tuesday's decision. "It forms another step of the American support to terrorism and to shedding blood in Syria."

The American order should not affect Syria's mission at the United Nations, although the State Department earlier this month already imposed restrictions limiting its ambassador to New York. The Syrian Foreign Ministry described the American order as an "arbitrary act" that it said came in violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations.

Syria's uprising, which began with largely peaceful protests against the rule of President Bashar Assad in March 2011, has evolved into a civil war that has killed more than 140,000 people. Damascus says it is facing a Western conspiracy because of its support for groups opposed to the United States and Israel in the region.

Earlier in the day, Lebanese security officials said Lebanese government troops dismantled roadblocks and reopened a key road to a predominantly Sunni town near the Syrian border. The officials said the road leading to the town of Arsal reopened Wednesday morning and that reinforcements were sent to secure the area. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters otherwise.

The development comes after days of high tension in the area, where Shiite Hezbollah gunmen and local residents had blocked off the road to the Sunni town of Arsal. The Shiites blamed the townspeople and Syrian rebels who fled to Arsal for recent rocket fire on their villages and a car bombing that killed three people. The standoff prompted angry Sunnis to close off roads elsewhere around Lebanon on Tuesday.

Also Wednesday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two rockets fell in the Qaa area, causing damage but no casualties. Meanwhile, the Netherlands-based chemical weapons watchdog said more than 45 percent of raw materials for Syria's poison gas and nerve agent program slated for destruction outside the country have been shipped out.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced Wednesday that two shipments were loaded onto cargo ships in recent days at Latakia port. Syria has missed several deadlines on a timetable agreed last year to eradicate its chemical weapons by June 30, but the government recently pledged to remove all chemicals by the end of April.

The chemicals will eventually be transferred to a U.S. ship, the MV Cape Ray, which has been fitted with equipment to neutralize hundreds of tons of the most toxic chemicals under supervision by OPCW experts.

Associated Press writers Mike Corder in the Hague and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Syrian army ousts rebels from border stronghold

March 16, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — With rebels fleeing into neighboring Lebanon, Syrian government troops and Hezbollah fighters captured a strategic town near the frontier Sunday, ousting opposition fighters from their last stronghold in the vital border area.

Yabroud was a major smuggling hub for the rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad. The town's fall is the latest in a string of strategic gains by Assad's forces that have consolidated authority in the past months in Syria's major cities, including the capital, Damascus.

Militants from Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah have been instrumental to Assad's success on the battlefield, and support from the Iranian-backed fighters appears to have tipped the balance into the government's favor in Yabroud. However, the fact opposition fighters fled into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is a major force, suggests the conflict could bleed further into Syria's neighbor. The civil war already has ignited polarizing sectarian tensions between Lebanon's Sunnis and Shiites.

"It's a good day for Assad," said Fawaz A. Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. "He has not only survived the past three years, but his army is intact and on a rebound, with his allies Hezbollah firmly behind him."

However, Gerges warned the fall of Yabroud will reverberate in neighboring Lebanon, "pouring gasoline on sectarian divisions and likely bring more violence" into the country. Outgunned by Assad's army and Hezbollah, rebels abandoned their positions on the hills surrounding Yabroud overnight Sunday, collapsing the fighter ranks inside the town and allowing government forces to move in from the east shortly after dawn, a spokesman for the rebel coalition and the Syrian army said.

Yabroud was an important supply line for rebels into Lebanon. The town overlooks an important cross-country highway from Damascus to the central city of Homs. "There's no doubt Yabroud had big strategic importance," said Capt. Islam Alloush, a spokesman of the Islamic Front, a rebel coalition who had fought in Yabroud but were now streaming into Lebanon. The biggest immediate loss, Alloush said, would be that rebels now had no way of supplying fighters outside of Damascus, where Syrian forces have surrounded a series of opposition-held areas, denying them food, power and clean water.

Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij hailed the army's latest triumph while inspecting troops in Yabroud on Sunday. "We are moving from one victory to another," al-Freij said in comments carried by state news agency SANA. He said the army troops are now "chasing terrorists and gangs, and soon, all their hideouts will be destroyed." Syrian officials routinely refer to rebels as terrorists.

The fall of Yabroud immediately emboldened government forces to attack nearby rebel-held towns, pressing forward in what has been nearly a yearlong advance against opposition fighters. Government warplanes chased the fleeing rebels into Lebanon, state media said, firing two rockets in the outskirts of the border town of Arsal, a logistical base for the Syrian rebels. The surrounding fields and hills have serve as shelter for tens of thousands of refugees.

Syrian helicopters dropped bombs on villages outside Yabroud, said the deputy mayor of Arsal, Ahmad Fliti, and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The bombing killed at least six people, including two children, in the nearby village of Muarat, they said.

Syrian aircraft also fired at least four rockets near Arsal's barren hills targeting rebels, Lebanon's state-run news agency reported. The NNA said Lebanese soldiers also detained fleeing rebels who tried enter the country with their weapons, and opened fire on a vehicle whose driver did not stop at an army checkpoint.

The sectarian tones of Syria's war have triggered violence in Lebanon, which shares a similar patchwork of minorities. The chaotic mix of rebels fighting Assad forces are overwhelmingly Sunni, while Syria's minorities, including Christians, Shiites and Alawites, largely have sided with the government or remained neutral. Assad himself is part of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

In Beirut, Hezbollah supporters celebrated Yabroud's fall with celebratory gunfire in Shiite-dominated areas. Youths on motorbikes waving Hezbollah's yellow flag noisily roared through the city's upscale central district.

Near the Syrian border, however, an extremist Sunni group in Syria, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, claimed responsibility for firing rockets at a Shiite-dominated town near Arsal, local media reported.

One man was killed in the town of Nabi Sheet, while other rockets landed in the nearby town of Labweh on Saturday, the NNA said. In retaliation, Shiite gunmen surrounded Arsal, resident Mohammed Ezzidine said. He said the gunmen prevented dozens of people from entering the town.

The Syrian war also has exacerbated tensions in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, which date back to Lebanon's own 1975-1990 civil war. Two impoverished neighborhoods there belonging to rival sects have had dozens of clashes. The fighting has left 12 people dead in Tripoli since Thursday, the NNA said. The agency said the latest fatality from the fighting was a soldier.

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

Syria conflict has 3rd anniversary amid offensive

March 15, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops advanced in a major rebel-held town near the Lebanese border amid heavy bombardment from warplanes, artillery and tanks as the country's bloody conflict marked its third anniversary Saturday, state media and activists said.

The conflict, which began amid Arab Spring protests across the region, started off as protests that turned into an armed insurgency and eventually became a full-blown civil war that activists say has killed more than 140,000 people and has seen 2 million people flee the country. Peace talks between the government of President Bashar Assad and Syria's divided opposition haven't found a diplomatic solution to the crisis, which has seen sectarian violence rise as Islamic extremists entered the fight.

The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, vowed in a statement Saturday marking the conflict's third anniversary "to bring down the Assad regime that is the main source of the Syrian people's suffering." The coalition's chief Ahmad al-Jarba attacked Assad's main backer Iran, as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Shiite fighters who came from Iraq to fight with government forces. He urged countries backing the opposition "to commit to their promises of giving sophisticated weapons" to rebels.

"We are fighting a brutal war and facing enemies who have no values or morals such as the gangs of (Hezbollah leader Sheik) Hassan Nasrallah ... mercenaries of hypocrisy coming from Iraq all the way to the head of the snake in Tehran," al-Jarba said in a speech in Istanbul. "Oh Syrians: Our revolution will be victorious and the chemical terrorist regime will go. The battle is not long because we have passed the most difficult part."

State media in Syria did not mention the anniversary. In Beirut, international aid agencies said that every statistic tracking the lives of Syrian children has worsened as the conflict grinds on, warning an entire generation of is at risk.

Suggesting how badly Syria has unraveled, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said an estimated 2.3 million children last year were in need of shelter, food, health care, education or psychological help for the trauma they suffered. That number has nearly doubled to 5.5 million children this year, he said.

"Every one of those numbers has a face. Every one of those numbers is a child who has lost a future, or whose future is at risk," said Lake, who called Saturday "a sad and infuriating anniversary." The aid groups said little has been done despite a U.N. Security Council resolution last month calling on Syria's warring sides to allow aid deliveries.

"I think we have to be honest. The situation in Syria is getting worse, not better, and it hasn't got better since the security council resolution," said Justin Forsyth of Save the Children. "More people have been killed, more people have fled. In terms of on the ground, changing lives, saving children, we are not even close to getting impact."

On Saturday, Syrian state television said troops advanced in the town of Yabroud, near Syria's border with Lebanon, and now control of much of the area between the two countries. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian air force conducted at least 15 air raids on the town as heavy clashes raged on the town's outskirts. It said at least five opposition fighters were killed fighting government forces backed by Hezbollah members.

Yabroud is the last major rebel-held town in the mountainous Qalamoun region, where Assad's forces have been waging an offensive for months to try to sever rebel supply lines across the porous border.

Hezbollah officials say many of the car bombs that exploded in the group's strongholds in Lebanon over the past months were made in Yabroud. Hezbollah openly joined Syria's civil war last year, fighting along Assad's forces and tipping the battle in its favor in areas close to Lebanon.

Lebanese broadcasters Al-Mayadeen and Hezbollah's Al-Manar aired live footage from outside Yabroud showing bombs landing over the city. Al-Manar showed footage of dead men, some of them bearded. It also showed Syrian troops shooting and firing rocket-propelled-grenades at rebels in the area.

One of the Syrian commanders in the area told Al-Mayadeen that troops advanced "hundreds of meters (yards) inside Yabroud." He added that troops captured the nearby Saint Maroun Hill that overlooks Yabroud.

"We will cut supply lines with neighboring countries and the fighters will be besieged in specific areas then wiped out," the officer, who did not give his name, said. An opposition activist in the area who goes by the name Amer al-Qalamouni denied that troops advanced into Yabroud, saying instead they attacked southeastern parts of the town.

Earlier in the day, the Observatory and Qalamouni said the Yabroud fighting killed a Kuwaiti commander of the al-Qaida-linked Nursa Front late Friday. Al-Qalamouni and the Observatory said al-Kuwaiti was a key mediator for the release of a dozen nuns earlier this week who were held by rebels.

Also Saturday, Lebanon's state-run National News agency said two rockets, apparently fired by Syrian rebels, struck the Lebanese border villages of Nabi Othman and Labweh, killing one person and wounding two. Syrian rebels have been shelling Lebanese border villages where Hezbollah enjoys wide support.

Syria shuts embassies in Kuwait, Saudi

2014-03-13

DAMASCUS - Syria has decided to close its embassies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia because they have refused to accept the accreditations of its envoys, diplomats posted in Damascus said on Wednesday.

"Syria's embassies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are to close because these countries have been refusing to accredit the diplomats sent by Damascus since the start of the crisis," one of the sources said.

The Arab monarchies of the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have supported the three-year-old armed revolt in Syria and called for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=64808.

Clashes break out during Palestinian funeral

July 04, 2014

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police clashed with rock-throwing Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem on Friday as thousands mourned at the funeral for an Arab teen who Palestinians say was killed by Israeli extremists in a revenge attack.

Palestinian militants, meanwhile, fired rockets and mortars from the Gaza Strip into Israel, and the Jewish state later carried out several airstrikes on what it described as "Hamas terror targets" in Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Also, the Israeli military said its troops opened fire after spotting two Palestinians planting explosives near the Gaza border fence. An ambulance carried the body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, wrapped in a Palestinian flag and traditional headscarf, to a mosque in the east Jerusalem neighborhood where he lived. Then mourners carried the open casket through the crowd to a cemetery.

During the procession, scores of masked Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli police on duty nearby, and they responded with stun grenades, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. He said more than 2,000 people attended the funeral.

Rosenfeld said police also clashed with hundreds of Palestinian protesters in other neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city, which has been rocked by violence since Abu Khdeir's burned body was found Wednesday in a forest after he was seized near his home.

At least 13 Israeli officers were injured by rock-throwers, with six taken to the hospital, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. The Red Crescent said about 30 Palestinians were hurt by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces. Dozens of others were treated for tear gas inhalation.

Police had beefed up security in and around Jerusalem as the funeral coincided with the first Friday prayer services of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Tensions have been high since three Israeli teenagers, including one with U.S. citizenship, were abducted in the West Bank on June 12, sparking a huge manhunt that ended with the gruesome discovery of their bodies early this week.

Israel has blamed Hamas for the abduction and murder of the teens and launched a crackdown on the Islamic militant group in the West Bank, drawing rocket attacks out of Gaza and Israeli airstrikes in a near-daily cycle of retaliation.

Hamas, which has abducted Israelis in the past, praised the kidnapping of the teenagers but did not take responsibility for it. Palestinians immediately accused Israeli extremists of killing Abu Khdeir in revenge for the deaths of the Israeli teens. Israeli police said they have not yet determined who killed the boy or why.

The killing of the youngster was widely condemned by Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We don't know yet the motives or the identities of the perpetrators, but we will. We will bring to justice the criminals responsible for this despicable crime, whoever they may be," Netanyahu said Thursday. "Murder, riots, incitement, vigilantism — they have no place in our democracy."

On Friday, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least 14 rockets and mortars at Israel, the military said. It was far fewer rockets than the dozens of barrages reported in previous days, and when Israel did not immediately respond, waiting until late in the day to attack, there was talk that a cease-fire was in the works.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said in Gaza, "There are some contacts and mediations regarding a truce." There was no official comment from Israel regarding a possible truce. In Jerusalem, Abu Khdeir's family set up a large tent outside the home for those seeking to pay condolences. Mourners chanted, "With our soul, with our blood, we would sacrifice anything for you, (Palestine)" and "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great"

Waving a Palestinian flag and with a traditional scarf covering his face at the funeral, Rami, 20, said he came to chant and to mourn his friend Mohammed. He would not give his last name, saying he feared retribution.

"I am happy and sad," he said. "I am happy because he died a martyr, but I am sad because they kidnapped him, killed him and then burned him."

Aid convoy arrives in Gaza

29/6/2014 Sunday

GAZA STRIP (Ma'an) -- The "Miles of Smiles 28" aid convoy arrived in Gaza Strip on Sunday through Rafah crossing, a Palestinian official said.

Alaa al-Din al-Batta, deputy director of the governmental convoy-welcoming committee, told Ma'an that the convoy included 18 people from European and Arab countries.

The convoy will stay in Gaza for 24 hours, and will check on humanitarian projects in the area, al-Batta said.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=708709.

Militant says Jordan not immune

July 04, 2014

MAAN, Jordan (AP) — An al-Qaida linked Jordanian militant leader warned on Friday that the kingdom was "not immune" to the chaos befalling neighboring countries, although he acknowledged that a Sunni extremist group's recent declaration of a caliphate spanning Syria and Iraq was threatening to divide the jihadi movement.

Mohammed al-Shalabi, a senior leader of ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis in Jordan, told The Associated Press that the fighting between rival militant factions in Syria already has already undermined the battle against President Bashar Assad.

Al-Shalabi, who spent 11 years in Jordanian jails on charges including plotting to attack a U.S. military base in the kingdom, said Jordanian Salafis have stopped sending their supporters to join the rebel ranks in Syria, fearing they will end up fighting other Muslims. More than 1,600 Jordanian have fought in Syria and 250 of them have been killed, al-Shalabi said.

Al-Shalabi spoke in a rare interview with a Western media organization at his home on the outskirts of the southern city of Maan, an impoverished area that has seen protests by supporters of the Islamic State group that has seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and announced it has established a long-sought Muslim caliphate.The announcement has been rejected and even derided by many of the rival Islamic rebel factions fighting in Syria.

Al-Shalabi urged Jordan — a U.S. ally that relies heavily on donations from the U.S. and oil-rich Gulf Arabs to keep its fragile economy afloat — to implement Islamic Shariah laws and more balanced economic and social policies.

"Jordan is not immune to what is happening in neighboring countries," he said. Despite facing protests amid the Arab Spring wave of revolutions in the region, King Abdullah has remained in power by promising to speed up reforms he initiated since he ascended to the throne in 1999. Although Jordan's multiparty system was revived in 1991, following a 34-year ban after a 1957 leftist coup attempt, opposition parties have yet to gain real power. They say they are intimidated by tight scrutiny and security crackdowns.

The rapid expansion of the Islamic State group, whose fighters captured the Iraqi side of the border with Jordan last month, is causing new concern in a country already grappling with fallout from the Syrian civil war.

While any imminent cross-border foray is unlikely, the country is jittery and the army has dispatched reinforcements to its 110-mile (180-kilometer) border with Iraq to boost security. Jordan's Interior Minister Hussein al-Majali told lawmakers last week that the kingdom is "surrounded by extremism."

Jordan also has a peace agreement with neighboring Israel, considered by the Jewish state to be vital to its security. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested last week that Israel would have to maintain a long-term military presence in the West Bank to keep jihadis from potentially powering their way to the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Wearing a long white robe and red traditional head cover, al-Shalabi said fighting Israel is a priority for the Salafis."One day Israel will be removed," he said, adding that the closed borders were a problem for now.

Jordan is home to a growing movement of Islamic militancy and ultraconservative Salafis. In Maan, supporters of the Islamic State group have held protests, carrying banners that declared the city the "Fallujah of Jordan," a reference to the Iraqi city that has been a militant hotbed. Gunmen have also attacked the police and set two banks on fire.

AP journalists on Friday saw a black Salafi flag in the main square and another supportive of the Islamic State group hung on the burned facade of Al-Arabi Bank, Jordan's leading bank. Al-Shalabi said he was not for or against the Islamic State group but he was worried it would splinter the global jihadi movement.

"The Muslim clerics said the caliphate shouldn't be declared at the moment for many reasons, because this declaration will create division among jihadi groups in the world," he said. "For example in Chechnya, in the Caucuses, in Afghanistan and Somalia, there are groups that announced that they belong to al-Qaida. These groups will be divided, one hundred percent these groups will be divided between a supporter to the caliphate and a reluctant," al-Shalabi added.

Japan to lift some sanctions on North Korea

July 03, 2014

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took a tentative step toward improved relations with North Korea on Thursday by announcing his government will lift some of its sanctions in response to the North's decision to re-open a probe into the fate of at least a dozen Japanese believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.

Abe said he was satisfied that a North Korean investigation committee has the mandate to carry out a serious investigation into the abductions, though previous deals with the North have fallen through. Japan will continue to abide by U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

"We have determined that an unprecedented framework has been established, where an organization that can make decisions at a national level ... will be at the forefront of the investigations," Abe said. "However, this is only a start. We are determined to do everything we can, with a renewed effort, toward a comprehensive resolution."

Abe's decision is to be formally approved by his Cabinet on Friday, after the committee holds its first meeting. The announcement follows talks between North Korean and Japanese negotiators in Beijing earlier this week.

North Korea's state media put out their first report on the talks shortly after Abe's announcement, saying the North's negotiators briefed their Japanese counterparts on the composition of the committee and how it will work.

"Both sides agreed to take necessary measures in the days ahead, while getting in touch with each other through a diplomatic channel," said the report by the Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has demanded that Japan do more to atone for its past harsh colonization of the Korean Peninsula, when it attempted to suppress Korean culture and forced people to work in Japanese mines and factories.

"For the normalization of relations between our two countries, I think that Japan has to settle the problems of its past," Ro Hyon A, a North Korean citizen, said in Pyongyang. In Seoul, Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said South Korea looks forward to an early resolution of the abduction issue. But he said any steps taken by Japan shouldn't undermine international cooperation on the North Korean nuclear and missile standoffs.

"The government of the Republic of Korea once again stresses that the Japan-North Korea consultations, including on easing Japan's unilateral sanctions on North Korea, should, by all means, be held in a transparent manner and that all the relevant measures by Japan should be taken in a way that does not undermine the coordination among the ROK, the U.S. and Japan on North Korea's nuclear and missile issues," Noh told a regular briefing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing, North Korea's closest ally, hopes the improvement in Japan-North Korea relations resulting from the negotiations will be "conducive to regional peace and stability."

After years of denial, North Korea acknowledged in 2002 that its agents had abducted Japanese citizens to train its spies in the 1970s and '80s and eventually returned five of them. It said others Japan said were abducted had died or never entered the North. Tokyo disputes that and wants an investigation into at least 12 abduction cases.

Even that may not be enough, however. Private organizations say hundreds of Japanese citizens were abducted, and suspect many may still be living in the North. Abe has vowed not to relent until all the abductees are returned or accounted for.

Though Tokyo is as concerned about North Korea's nuclear program as its allies in Washington and Seoul, the abduction issue has for years been an added complication in its relations with the North, creating both anger among the Japanese public and strong calls for an agreement to bring any survivors home.

Although North Korea made a similar agreement in 2008 to investigate, that deal fell through and relations between the countries have been virtually frozen since. In addition to the U.N. sanctions, Japan unilaterally bans port calls by any North Korean-flagged vessels, all trade with North Korea and the entry into Japan of North Korean citizens. Abe's decision will ease travel restrictions, allow port calls for humanitarian purposes and loosen requirements on reporting money transfers to the North.

Japanese officials say the eased sanctions will not give a significant economic boost to North Korea or weaken the impact of international efforts to punish and isolate the North for its nuclear weapons development.

North Korea also is under sanctions based on U.N. resolutions since 2006 that include an arms trade ban, a freeze of North Korean assets, a ban on people exchanges and restrictions on education and training.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo wants the abduction investigation to be wrapped up "within one year." In Beijing, North Korea's negotiators said they will conduct the investigation promptly.

"We were able to open North Korea's door that had been closed for many years, and we are now at a starting line after patient negotiations," Suga said. "This is something that has never happened before. We will watch developments very closely."

Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report. Talmadge is the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief

Japan's Cabinet eases post-WWII limits on military

July 01, 2014

TOKYO (AP) — Since Japan's defeat in World War II, its military has been shackled by restrictions imposed by a victorious U.S. and that, over time, a majority of Japanese adopted as their own. Now, the shackles are being loosened.

Japan's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a reinterpretation of the country's pacifist postwar constitution that will allow the military to help defend allies and others "in a close relationship" with Japan under what is known as "collective self-defense."

Previous governments have said the war-renouncing Article 9 of the constitution limited the use of force to defending Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the shift is needed to protect the lives of the Japanese people in an increasingly severe security environment. Japanese warships would be able to help protect U.S. ships that were defending Japan, he said.

"Peace is not something you expect to be given, but it's something that we must achieve on our own," he said in a televised news conference. The issue has divided Japan, where many worry about China's growing military assertiveness but also support the anti-war clause of the constitution and fret about a possible slide toward the militarism that led to World War II.

About 2,000 people protested outside Abe's office, saying that any change to the constitution should be made through a public referendum, not simply a Cabinet reinterpretation. "For 70 years, Japan has kept its peace with its constitution," said 67-year-old protester Toshio Ban. "What are we to do with that stupid man trying to trample over the precious constitution?"

The move drew sharp criticism from China, and a cautious reaction from South Korea, which was colonized by Japan from 1910 to 1945. "Beijing opposes Japan's act of hyping the China threat," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily briefing. The new policy "raises doubts about Japan's approach to peaceful development."

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said: "The South Korean government views it as a significant revision to the defense and security policy under the postwar peace constitution, and is paying a sharp attention to it."

Written under U.S. direction after World War II, the 1947 constitution says the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation." The article was crafted to prevent a repeat of Japan's invasion and brutal occupation of wide swaths of Asia.

America's position shifted quickly with the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.S. began to see Japan as an ally in the Cold War and pressed its former enemy to rearm. Today, with America's military financially stretched, the U.S. is backing whatever Japan can do to play a larger role in regional security.

The Japanese, though, particularly older generations, have witnessed Japan's success under the constitution, even if the postwar economic miracle has lost some luster in the last two decades. "Most Japanese, over two-thirds, feel that this peace constitution is part of their identity," said Jeff Kingston, head of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan in Tokyo.

The Cabinet decision is hardly the first loosening of the shackles. The constitutional ban has been relaxed several times over the years, starting with the introduction of a "police" force during the Korean War, which became a military dubbed the Self-Defense Force in 1954.

A major turning point came after the 1991 Gulf War, when a wealthy Japan was criticized for contributing money but not "boots on the ground." After hostilities ended, Japan sent mine sweepers to the Gulf as part of U.N. mission, triggering massive protests at home.

A special law passed in 1992 allowed the military to participate in U.N. election monitoring in Cambodia, the first overseas deployment of troops since World War II. Japan enacted a set of laws in 2003 to enable troops to join the U.N. Iraq reconstruction mission. But Japanese soldiers were only allowed to fire in self-defense, and had to be escorted by Dutch, British and Australian troops, something Japanese conservatives saw as an embarrassment.

The government has no immediate plans to change the constitution, which has never been amended. But Abe and subsequent governments will now be empowered to authorize greater military engagement under the new interpretation of the charter.

Opponents worry the new policy could be a step toward eventual participation in joint military actions such as the war in Iraq. Abe said his government stands by its current position of not sending troops to overseas battlefields. An agreement with junior coalition partner New Komeito includes restrictions on when Japan can exercise collective self-defense.

"Japan's status as a peaceful country will not change," Abe said. Buddhist-backed New Komeito initially opposed the change, and Tuesday's Cabinet decision came after weeks of negotiations between the two parties.

Takeshi Iwaya, a lawmaker who chairs a ruling party research commission on security, said Japan has long said it won't repeat the mistakes of World War II, but that is no longer enough to preserve peace.

"Up to now, Japan has said it will never do anything wrong and merely wish for peace," he said in an interview. "What we are trying to do now is to play a more proactive role."

Associated Press journalists Koji Ueda and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo, Didi Tang in Beijing and Jung-yoon Choi in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this story.

HK police arrest 511 after big democracy rally

July 02, 2014

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police arrested more than 500 people who refused to leave a street in the city's financial district Wednesday, a day after tens of thousands of people joined a massive march to demand democracy that's free from China's interference.

The march has become an annual affair held on the anniversary of the day China took over Hong Kong from Britain on June 1, 1997 with the promise to give the city a high degree of autonomy for 50 years. But there is growing unease among its residents — especially the youth — that the Western-style civil liberties they've know all their lives are being eroded as Beijing has increasingly tried to impose its authority over the freewheeling capitalist enclave.

The fears are only going to be heightened following the pre-dawn crackdown by the Hong Kong police, who normally do not have an antagonistic relationship with the people, unlike the security forces in mainland China.

Police said 511 people were arrested for unlawful assembly in the Central business district and preventing police from carrying out their duties. After warnings failed to dislodge them, the police moved in to remove the protesters, who lay down on the street with arms locked, taking them away one by one. The protesters had vowed to stay until 8 a.m., just before the height of rush hour begins, but the police started moving in to evict them at about 3 a.m.

Some left willingly but others were forcibly removed, taken away by officers on both arms or carried away off the ground. One officer stood behind a protester and put an arm around the man's neck as he and other officers tried to pull his hands free, knocking off the eyeglasses of the demonstrator he was clinging to.

Those arrested were mostly students who had decided to occupy Chater Road after taking part in Tuesday's rally, which police said attracted 98,000 people at its peak. Organizers said 510,000 people turned out, the highest estimates in a decade. Hong Kong researchers put the number at between 154,000 and 172,000.

Whatever the numbers, the march and the vehemence of opposition is certain to raise the alarm in Beijing, which tried to keep the news away from people in mainland China. The Chinese media predictably did not report it, and comments about the protests were deleted from microblogs and other social media. Some users posted comments saying friends' accounts were blocked after they discussed the protests.

A Hong Kong protester, Kennie Chan, lamented that Beijing was less restrained now in exerting its influence over Hong Kong. "In the past, it seemed like they were doing it step by step, but now, it's obvious that they cannot stand Hong Kong people. We are not obedient anymore, and are resisting more and more," said the 30-year-old, who works as a stage manager.

China's Communist leaders have pledged to allow Hong Kong residents to vote for the leader by 2017. However, they've rejected calls to allow the public to name candidates, insisting instead that they be vetted by a Beijing-friendly committee like the one that has hand-picked all leaders since the handover.

Also, three weeks ago, the Chinese government released a so-called white paper that said Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy is not inherent but is authorized by the central government in Beijing. Anger against those moves was on display during the march Tuesday when peaceful crowds carried banners and posters urging democracy. They steady throng of people walked in sweltering heat and occasional rain from Victoria Park, through a broad boulevard lined with skyscrapers to the financial district. Thousands of police kept watch and ordered the city's iconic trolleys to shut down along the boulevard to reduce overcrowding.

"After seeing the white paper's content, we should be worried," said Jeff Kwok, 28, an export firm employee at Victoria Park, where six soccer fields and surrounding areas were jammed with people. Beijing is "trying to tell the Hong Kong people that ... Hong Kong is just one of their regions. They're trying to tell us they have absolute power to rule us."

Kwok complained that Beijing doesn't respect the principle of "one country, two systems" under which Hong Kong is allowed to retain control over much of its own affairs. Ahead of the rally, one group of protesters burned a copy of the white paper outside a ceremony attended by officials to mark the handover.

The protest comes days after nearly 800,000 residents voted in an informal referendum aimed at bolstering support for full democracy. Beijing denounced the referendum as a political farce. Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong's Beijing-backed leader, tried to soothe tensions, saying in a speech that he'll do his "utmost to forge a consensus" on implementing universal suffrage on schedule. But the government later released a statement saying it is unlikely that public nominations will be allowed because it's legally "highly controversial."

Associated Press video journalists Stephanie Ip and Josie Wong contributed to this report.

Ukraine claims victory in rebel stronghold

July 05, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's forces claimed a significant success against pro-Russian insurgents on Saturday, chasing them from a key stronghold in the country's embattled east.

Rebels fleeing from the city of Slovyansk vowed to regroup elsewhere and fight on. President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement that government troops took Slovyansk, a city of about 100,000 that has been a center of the fighting between Kiev's troops and the pro-Russian insurgents, after a night of fighting.

Poroshenko ordered the armed forces to raise the Ukrainian flag over the city, which has been under control of the rebels since early April when they seized the city's administrative and police buildings.

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, said mopping-up operations were continuing. "Slovyansk is under siege. Now an operation is going on to neutralize small groups hiding in buildings where peaceful citizens are living," Lysenko told journalists.

Andrei Purgin of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic told The Associated Press that rebels were evacuating, but claimed the army's campaign had left the city "in ruins." The capture of Slovyansk represented the government's biggest victory since it abandoned a shaky cease-fire this week and launched an offensive against the separatists. Until now, the Ukrainian army had often appeared feckless in the months-long campaign against the rebels. On Thursday Poroshenko shook up his defense team, appointing Ukraine's third defense minister since the former president was ousted in February.

It was not yet clear whether the latest advance has permanently crippled the rebels, many of whom are relocating to other cities. In the city of Donetsk, streets were deserted on Saturday as local officials urged people to stay at home. They said a battle was ongoing near the Donetsk city airport, but did not provide details.

"Militants from Slovyansk and Kramatorsk have arrived in Donetsk," said Maxim Rovinsky, spokesman for the city council. Purgin claimed 150 fighters injured in Slovyansk were in Donetsk for treatment. "More than a hundred militiamen have been killed in the last three days," said Viktor, a 35-year-old Slovyansk native who had a shrapnel wound in his leg. "The mood is very bad. It seems that we've lost this war. And Russia isn't in a hurry to help."

Alexei, a driver and local Slovyansk resident who would not give his last name for fear of reprisal, told the AP by phone that he heard bombing throughout the night. When the bombing stopped in the early morning, he left his house and saw that all the rebel checkpoints were abandoned. He said there was some damage to buildings in the center of the city, but said much of the rest of the city had been left untouched.

A rebel commander who would only give his nom de guerre as Pinochet told the AP that rebels had relocated to the nearby town of Kramatorsk, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Slovyansk. But outside Kramatorsk, an AP reporter saw an abandoned checkpoint and several hundred rebels, armed and in uniform, driving in minibuses in the direction of Donetsk.

Some rebels played down the significance of Ukraine's advances. Pavel Gubarev, the self-described governor of the Donetsk People's Republic, wrote online that the rebels had staged a tactical retreat.

"Kutuzov also retreated, as that was the plan," he wrote, referring to the 19th century general Mikhail Kutuzov who is credited with defeating Napoleon's forces in Russia. "In general, Russians only retreat before a decisively victorious battle."

Others in the rebels' ranks pleaded publicly with Russia to assist the rebels in their cause. In a video posted online late on Friday, Igor Girkin, the self-described "commander in chief of the Donetsk People's Republic," said his men had "lost the will to fight."

"They want to live in Russia," said Girkin, also known by his nom de guerre, Igor Strelkov. "But when they tried to assert this right, Russia doesn't want to help." He said he believed the troops had only "two or three weeks" before they were defeated if Russia did not step in.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was bolstering efforts to deliver medical aid to those in eastern Ukraine, but made no mention of the rebels' defeat in Slovyansk or plans to provide military aid.

Rebel leaders have pleaded with the Kremlin for military assistance in the past, and some prominent Russian nationalists have publicly taunted Putin, accusing him of cowardice. Such criticism could resonate with the broader Russian public, which has been heavily influenced by Russian state television's characterization of the Kiev government as a "fascist junta" that is killing Russian-speakers.

Poroshenko had said Friday he was ready to conduct another round of talks between representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the rebels. But with the rebels reeling from their attack Saturday, it was unclear whether negotiations could take place.

"That possibility still exists," said Purgin. "We don't exclude that the talks could happen in Minsk, because the situation in Donetsk has escalated. Different options are now under discussion."

Laura Mills in Moscow contributed reporting.

Ukraine president appoints new defense officials

July 03, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's president shook up the leadership of his struggling military on Thursday, appointing a new defense minister and top general tasked with stamping out the corruption that has left the country's armed forces faltering before a pro-Russian insurgency.

President Petro Poroshenko denounced the "complete collapse" of the government's ability to supply the armed forces in a sometimes angry speech in parliament. He won approval for his choice of Valery Heletey as defense minister, replacing Mikhailo Koval. Lt. Gen. Viktor Muzhenko was appointed chief of the military's general staff.

"Today the revival of the army is starting from the scratch, the army which is capable of fighting and winning," Poroshenko said in parliament. "I have witnessed that during meetings with soldiers and officers while visiting the zone of anti-terrorist operations — the army which knows how to and is able to defend its people and country. "

Kiev has struggled to re-assert control over the country's industrial east, where fighting between government troops and pro-Russia separatists has claimed more than 400 lives since April. The army has been unable to prevent rebels from occasionally cruising the countryside in armored vehicles or to dislodge them from the occupied town of Slovyansk.

Heletey is a former senior Interior Ministry official who headed the government service that protects top officials. Poroshenko also appointed Yury Kosyuk, an agriculture magnate and one of Ukraine's richest men, to oversee defense issues in the presidential administration, and promised to "purge the army of thieves and grafters." Accusations of corruption have been rife as Kiev's operation against the rebels continues.

At one point, Poroshenko was interrupted by a woman in the hall shouting that the Ukrainian army was killing children. After a moment's pause he answered forcefully that "we will not tolerate any attempt to humiliate and dishonor our army," winning loud applause from the deputies.

Ukraine's UNIAN news agency identified the woman as a deputy from a party with support among Russian speakers. This could not immediately be confirmed. Poroshenko's forceful words contrasted with his emphasis on starting a peace process voiced in his inaugural address June 7. He declared a unilateral cease-fire for 10 days in hopes rebels would lay down their arms and join talks. But the cease-fire was repeatedly violated and ultimately expired.

Rebels in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where more Russian speakers live, have declared independence and occupied government buildings. The insurrection started after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from office by a protest movement among people wanting closer ties with the European Union instead of Russia. Russia called Yanukovych's ouster a coup by radical nationalists and seized Ukraine's Russian-speaking Crimea region. Ukraine says Russia is backing the insurgency.

Poroshenko was elected in a special election May 25 to replace Yanukovych. Diplomatic efforts for the peace process resumed Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, emphasizing the need for a lasting cease-fire, the Kremlin said. Diplomats from the four countries have urged new peace talks starting no later than Saturday aiming at a cease-fire by both sides. Hollande said he and Merkel pressed Russia to use its influence to bring the separatists to negotiations.

Merkel and Hollande were to speak later Wednesday with Poroshenko.

Greece faces power cuts as unions plan strikes

July 02, 2014

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities warned Wednesday of possible power cuts at the heart of the summer tourist season as electric utility workers head for protracted strikes against government plans to break off and sell part of the country's dominant power producer.

Public Power Corporation unions have vowed to launch rolling 48-hour walkouts Thursday. They argue that electricity supply is a vital commodity that should stay under state control. The conservative-led government insists it will carry out the sale — which was demanded by the recession-plagued country's international creditors. It is threatening to force strikers back to work with a mobilization order.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said he would not bow to "fanatic populists" seeking to stop his privatization program. Since 2010, Greece has survived on international bailouts granted on condition that it implements tough austerity measures and sells off state property.

The PPC sale involves carving out a new subsidiary that would account for about 30 percent of the utility's power output, and selling it to private investors. Greece has also committed to privatize a 17 percent stake in PPC, in which it currently holds 51 percent.

The government says the deal, which requires parliamentary approval, will improve competition and lead to lower power prices. Development Minister Nikos Dendias appealed to PPC unions, saying potential blackouts would harm struggling businesses and tourism — a key earner expected to help ease the economy this year out of a brutal six-year recession that saw unemployment hit a record 28 percent.

The country's power network operator said it might have to introduce power cuts if the strike goes ahead. Opposition parties back unionists' concerns, and the main opposition Syriza radical left coalition called Wednesday for a referendum on the sale.

Parliament is expected to vote on it next week. Samaras' coalition has a slender majority of two in the 300-seat House.

Unemployment protest hits French theater festival

July 04, 2014

AVIGNON, France (AP) — One of Europe's premier theater festivals is canceling some shows as French workers protest changes to their offseason unemployment benefits.

The director of the Festival d'Avignon, Olivier Py, told journalists in Avignon that two plays scheduled to run on Friday's opening night have been cancelled. The CGT union announced a strike but it's unclear how many workers are taking part.

Hundreds of seasonal theater workers and other artistic workers have demonstrated in recent weeks against a plan by France's indebted government to streamline and reduce the unemployment benefits they receive in the offseason. The dispute threatens to disrupt arts festivals across the country this summer.

The Festival d'Avignon in Provence is a three-week smorgasbord of theater, dance and eclectic performances that draws visitors from around the world.

Swedish Prince Carl Philip engaged to former model

June 27, 2014

HELSINKI (AP) — The Swedish Royal Court has announced the engagement of Prince Carl Philip to Sofia Hellqvist, a former glamour model and reality TV participant.

The court said Friday that the wedding date hasn't been decided but was to take place during summer next year. The two started dating in 2010 and have lived together on the Stockholm island Djurgarden since 2011.

The 35-year-old prince is the second oldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, and is third in line to the throne. Sofia used to pose in lightly clad attire in magazines and once participated in the Swedish reality TV show "Paradise Hotel," but has changed her image in recent years. She is now involved in aid work and runs a charity organization.

Netanyahu calls for Jordan support, Kurdish independence

30/6/2014 Monday

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the international community on Sunday to support Jordan in the fight against "Islamic extremism" and to back the independence of Iraq's Kurds.

"We need to support efforts by the international community to strengthen Jordan and support the aspirations of the Kurds for independence," Netanyahu said in a speech to the Institute of National Security Studies think-tank in Tel Aviv.

"I think it's our common interest to make sure that a moderate, stable regime like (Jordan) is able to defend itself."

His remarks follow reports in Israeli media that officials in Tel Aviv fear Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants may extend their control to areas of Jordan after seizing parts of Iraq in recent weeks.

In Syria, ISIL's fighters already control large swathes of territory in Deir Ezzor near the Iraq border, Raqa in the north, as well as parts of neighboring Aleppo province.

In Iraq, they have spearheaded a lightning offensive, capturing sizable territories in the north and west of the conflict-torn country.

Netanyahu also called for independence for Iraq's Kurdistan region, where Kurdish peshmerga security forces have mobilized in an unprecedented deployment to fight against ISIL.

The premier voiced concern over "the powerful wave triggered by ISIL, which could reach Jordan in a very short time."

He added: "We must be able to stop the terrorism and fundamentalism that can reach us from the east at the Jordan line and not in the suburbs of Tel Aviv."

US Secretary of State John Kerry hosted talks with Gulf allies and Jordan last week, emphasizing the Hashemite kingdom's key role in helping to stem the regional gains of ISIL, who had earlier seized control of a Jordanian border crossing in Iraq.

ISIL on Sunday declared it had established a "caliphate", or Islamist state, straddling Iraq and Syria. The jihadists said the state would spread from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala in eastern Iraq, ordering Muslims in those areas to pay allegiance to the group.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=708774.

Israel allows 1,500 Jordanians to work in Eilat

29/6/2014 Sunday

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- The Israeli government Sunday authorized 1,500 more Jordanians to come and work in its Red Sea resort of Eilat to combat a labor shortage, the tourism ministry said.

It said the decision was taken because of the "serious crisis" caused by not enough hotel workers.

The Jordanians would enter Israel to work and go back across the border to Jordan at night once their shift was finished, the ministry said in a statement.

"I am persuaded that this decision will reinforce peace between Israel and Jordan, and help reduce high unemployment in southern Jordan," it quoted Tourism Minister Uzi Landau as saying.

Ministry figures show that some 300 Jordanians currently work in and around the resort, which has about 12,000 hotel rooms.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, becoming the second Arab state to do so after Egypt in 1979.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=708728.

Sri Lanka accused of turning blind eye to violence

July 05, 2014

ALUTHGAMA, Sri Lanka (AP) — The attackers stormed in close to midnight, tearing through town with gasoline bombs and clubs before carting away piles of cash and jewelry they stole from Muslim families in this tiny corner of Sri Lanka.

The onslaught incited by the Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Power Force, a hard-line group that has gained thousands of followers in recent years, killed at least two Muslims and injured dozens more last month in the worst religious violence Sri Lanka has seen in decades.

Now, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government is under fire, accused of failing to protect Sri Lanka's tiny Muslim minority and allowing radical Buddhists spewing illegal hate speech to operate with impunity for years.

Critics of Rajapaksa's government say it has turned a blind eye to the violence as a way to shore up its core constituency — the Sinhalese Buddhist population — which makes up about 75 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people.

"At the root of the failure of the government to check the violence is electoral politics," said Jehan Perera, head of the National Peace Council, a local peace activist group in Sri Lanka. "If the Sinhalese voters feel insecure for any reason they will tend to vote for the present government, which is seen as strong and pro-Sinhalese."

But the most recent violence has drawn rare — and harsh — criticism from inside Sri Lanka, with the media, moderate Buddhists and even the justice minister slamming Rajapaksa's seeming unwillingness to safeguard Muslims.

Foreign embassies and the U.N. also demanded action. The United States canceled a five-year, multiple-entry visa held by the BBS's general secretary, according to the group's chief executive, Dilanta Vithanage.

Facing a growing backlash, the government in recent days has tried to deflate the crisis, although critics say the moves are too little, too late. The defense ministry called an unusual press conference on July 2 — nearly three weeks after the bloodshed — to distance itself from the Bodu Bala Sena and to address allegations that Sri Lanka's powerful defense secretary and the president's brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was quietly supporting the group's cause.

But the military spokesman, Brig. Ruwan Wanigasooriya, was careful not to criticize the group, either. "I am not condemning the BBS," he said. "What I am saying is it is wrong to say that the secretary of defense is supporting the BBS."

The same day, police interrogated the group's general secretary, the Rev. Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, for five hours before releasing him without charge. It was the first time Gnanasara had ever been questioned by police for his hate speech even though it has been widely acknowledged and circulated in videos online for years. He was once questioned for disrupting a press conference convened by a moderate monk at odds with the BBS, but he wasn't prosecuted.

Just hours before the latest violence, video clips showed him inciting crowds in Buddhist rallies that passed through Muslim areas like Aluthgama and Beruwala. "Yes, we are racists!" Gnanasara shouted. "Yes, we are religious extremists!"

He also warned "marakkalayas" — a derogatory term for Muslims — not to lay a hand on any Sinhalese. "If you marakkalayas try to mess with us, if you want to test our strength, we are ready for that. Don't mess with us — if you do, the second action will be doom for the shops in places like Aluthgama and Beruwala."

That evening, the mob attacked Aluthgama, Beruwala and nearby Darga Nagar, three towns with a large Muslim presence. In the wake of the raid, Gnanasara acknowledged that his supporters were behind the violence, saying the attackers were angry over an assault on a Buddhist monk. Muslims deny attacking the monk.

"When people heard it they went out of control," Gnanasara said at the time. "This is natural because the people were under a lot of pressure." Previous attacks by the BBS have gone unpunished and hard-line monks, for the most part, have acted without fear of any legal repercussions.

Sri Lanka is still deeply scarred by its 1983-2009 civil war between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and ethnic Tamil rebels, who are largely Hindu. During the war, Buddhist-Muslim violence was relatively rare.

But the monks leading Bodu Bala Sena have amassed a significant following in recent years, drawing thousands of followers. At raucous rallies, radical monks encourage violence against minorities and implore Sri Lankans to preserve the purity of the Buddhist majority.

Muslims are a particular target. Members of the Bodu Bala Sena claim Muslims are out to recruit children and marry Buddhist women. They say Muslims are trying to take over the country by increasing their birthrate and secretly sterilizing Buddhists.

Even as the country has seen rising instances of hate speech against Muslims and attacks on Muslim-owned businesses, there have been few attacks on people. The June 15 violence changed all that. "They hit us with gasoline bombs and stones," said Mohamed Namaz, a 17-year-old Muslim who rushed into the streets of Aluthgama after a call came over the mosque loudspeaker, warning that an armed Buddhist mob was closing in on the town.

"Then we heard shots being fired but we took them for firecrackers. I was trying to hold a friend who was shot and I was also hit," said Namaz, who still has the bullet lodged in his thigh. The initial toll from the violence was three Muslims killed, but authorities subsequently lowered it to two. Many of the injuries were critical; two people had legs amputated, according to A.R.M. Badhiuddeen, a local council member.

Many Muslims feel they are being victimized because of their visibility in the economy — a role they have played for more than 1,000 years since Arab traders brought Islam to Sri Lanka and allied with the Sinhalese against Spanish and Dutch colonial forces.

Today, they control at least half of small businesses and hold near-monopolies in the textile and gem trades. Sinhalese comprise about 74 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people, and the Tamil community accounts for about 18 percent. Most of the rest are Muslims.

The violence has raised fears that Sri Lanka could soon see echoes of Myanmar, where Buddhist monks helped incite violence in 2012 and 2013 in which Buddhist mobs slaughtered Rohingya Muslims. Still, many Sri Lankans and human rights workers are alarmed, saying the monks are creating communal divisions and giving Buddhism a bad name.

But Perera, of the National Peace Council, cautions that for now, the BBS have relatively limited power. "In reality this is the violence of a few, to which the government is turning a blind eye," he said. "It is the availability of impunity that drives the violent elements to more violence."

Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report.

Buddhist violence in Myanmar leaves 2 dead

July 03, 2014

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Buddhist mobs on motorbikes drove through Myanmar's historic city of Mandalay in a second night of attacks on minority Muslims that left two people dead, 14 injured and raised fears of wider violence, officials said Thursday.

In response to the violence, authorities imposed a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, which was announced by cars mounted with loudspeakers cruising the tense city, according to residents contacted by phone. The dead included a Muslim man, who residents said was on his way to a mosque before dawn Thursday when he was attacked by the mob and left dead in the street. The second victim was a Buddhist man, whose cause of death was under investigation, said a police officer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

"More than 100 motorbikes drove through the city (Wednesday) night throwing stones at mosques and shouting abuses and singing the national anthem to taunt the Muslim people," said Win Mya Mya, a Muslim resident and senior member of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy.

He and others blamed police for failing to control the Buddhist mobs. Mandalay region chief minister Ye Myint told media that four people were arrested. He did not reveal the identities or religion of the victims or those detained for fear it might inflame the situation.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation, has been grappling with violence since 2012 that has left up to 280 people dead and another 140,000 homeless, most of them Muslims attacked by Buddhist extremists. Most of the violence has taken place in western Rakhine state.

The government has faced international criticism for failing to act strongly to stop the violence, which in Rakhine state reportedly occurred in several cases as security forces looked on. So far, the government has not commented on the Mandalay attacks.

The latest outbreak that started Tuesday night was a first in Mandalay, in central Myanmar, the second-largest city and an important economic hub and center of Buddhist culture and learning where Muslims and Buddhists have traditionally lived peacefully together.

In a radio address Thursday, President Thein Sein raised the country's need for stability as it transitions to democracy from a half-century of military rule — but did not mention Mandalay specifically.

"For reforms to be successful, I would like to urge all to avoid instigation and behavior that incites hatred in our fellow citizens," Thein Sein said. In addition to the curfew, officials also banned meetings of more than five people, said Mandalay resident Khin Maung Latt.

Some residents expressed relief that a curfew was imposed, because violence has flared at night. Sein Than, a Muslim resident, said it should have been initiated earlier in the week. He said that he felt insecure and vulnerable, and that a non-Muslim neighbor offered to shelter his family. With the curfew in place, he said he could stay at his own home.

This week's violence followed rumors that the Muslim owner of a teashop had raped a Buddhist woman, said Khin Maung Oo, secretary of the city's Myanmar Muslim Youth Religious Convention Center. Police have not officially confirmed the rape allegation, but said they were tipped off that the teashop might be attacked and told the owner to close early.

Authorities deployed hundreds of police after a crowd of more than 300 Buddhists marched to the teashop, singing the national anthem. Police fired rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowd. Rioters threw stones at a mosque, causing minor damage to its exterior and front doors, and others ransacked a few Muslim-owned shops. Several cars were set on fire or had windows shattered by stones and bricks.

At least four people suffered minor injuries on Tuesday, mostly from stones thrown by the mob or from rubber bullets fired by police, authorities said. Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people.

UN chief 'adopts' lion cub in Kenya

June 28, 2014

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon capped off a week of high-level U.N. discussions on the environment by "adopting" a 6-month-old lion cub Saturday

The young lioness, which was found abandoned in Nairobi National Park, will be raised by the Nairobi Animal Orphanage. Ban named the cub Tumaini, which means "hope" in Kenya's language of Kiswahili, after his "hope that all people around the world will be able to live harmoniously with nature."

"I sincerely hope this lion will grow healthy, strong and even fierce," Ban said, drawing parallels with his hopes for the environment after this week's first U.N. Environment Assembly. The assembly was the highest-level U.N. body ever convened on the environment. More than 1,200 participants from 193 member states spent the week in Nairobi, where the U.N. Environment Program is headquartered. Ban said he hopes to see U.N. member states adopt a climate change deal during formal talks in Lima in December.

International environmental crime and terrorism ranked high on the assembly's agenda. Illegal timber and products of wildlife crime — such as elephant ivory and rhino horn — are smuggled through the same routes as illegal weapons. The Somali militant group al-Shabab makes tens of millions of dollars a year from the illegal charcoal trade. The Lord's Resistance Army, which U.S. forces are helping fight across central Africa, trade in elephant ivory.

Ban warned that popular discontent and criminal activity within countries could spawn international terrorism. He urged world leaders to address terrorism comprehensively, beginning within their countries' own borders.

"United Nations, through its global counterterrorism strategy, is trying to provide necessary assistance and work with African countries," Ban said. "The political leaders should always have inclusive dialogue and inclusive policies embracing all different groups of people. That is one fundamental principle which I have been looking to the world leaders to practice."

Citing Boko Haram's kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April, Ban also said no country should have to handle counterterrorism efforts alone. A U.N. special envoy has met twice with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to offer a support package to the country.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta met with Ban Saturday morning to discuss how to strengthen Kenya's security forces. The leaders also discussed security issues in Somalia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ban's new lion cub is not the first exotic pet he's received as head of the U.N. In 2009 Mongolia presented Ban with a rare horse named Enkhtaivan, or "Peace," and in 2008 South Sudanese President Salva Kiir gave Ban a white bull named Ban Ki Moo.

Alarm, ridicule for declaration of Islamic state

By Sinan Salaheddin and Zeina Karam
30/6/2014 Monday

BAGHDAD (AP) — The audacious declaration of the establishment of a new Islamic state made by the al-Qaida breakaway group that has overrun much of northern Syria and neighboring Iraq sparked celebrations in the group's Syrian stronghold but was condemned by rival rebels and authorities in Baghdad and Damascus.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant unilaterally announced the creation of a new Islamic caliphate — a state governed by Shariah law — in an audio recording released late Sunday. The group proclaimed its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the caliph of its new state, and demanded that Muslims everywhere pledge allegiance to him.

Through brute force and meticulous planning, the Sunni extremist group — which said it was changing its name to just the Islamic State, dropping the mention of Iraq and the Levant — has carved out a large chunk of territory that has effectively erased the border between Iraq and Syria and laid the foundations of its proto-state. Along the way, it has battled Syrian rebels, Kurdish militias and the Syrian and Iraqi militaries.

Following the group's announcement, Islamic State fighters in their northern Syrian stronghold of Raqqa paraded through the city to celebrate. Some of the revelers wore traditional robes and waved the group's black flags in a central square, while others zoomed around in pick-up trucks against a thundering backdrop of celebratory gunfire. Video of the celebrations was posted online, and activists in the city confirmed the details.

The announcement was greeted with condemnation and even ridicule elsewhere in Syria, including from rival Islamist rebel groups who have been fighting the Islamic State since January across northern and eastern Syria.

"The gangs of al-Baghdadi are living in a fantasy world. They're delusional. They want to establish a state but they don't have the elements for it," said Abdel-Rahman al-Shami, a spokesman for the Army of Islam, an Islamist rebel group. "You cannot establish a state through looting, sabotage and bombing."

Speaking over Skype from Eastern Ghouta, near the capital Damascus, al-Shami described the declaration as "psychological warfare" which he predicted will turn people against the Islamic State.

In Iraq, where the government has launched a counteroffensive to try to claw back some of the territory lost to the Islamic State in recent weeks, the declaration is viewed through the prism of the country's rising sectarian tensions.

"This is a project that was well-planned to rupture the society and to spread chaos and damage," said Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni lawmaker. "This is not to the benefit of the Iraqi people, but instead it will increase the differences and splits."

The Islamic State has seized upon widespread grievances among Iraq's Sunni minority and opposition to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government to help fuel its blitz through northern and western Iraq. Its offensive has prompted Shiite militias to reconstitute themselves, deepening fears of a return to the sectarian bloodletting that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

Karam reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas, Sameer N. Yacoub and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.