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Monday, November 24, 2014

Spasm of violence in Kashmir worst in years

October 09, 2014

DHAMALA HAKIMWALA, Pakistan (AP) — Iram Shazadi was making breakfast for her family when bullets started whizzing through her dusty Pakistani village just a half-kilometer (quarter-mile) from the Indian-controlled area of disputed Kashmir.

Then a mortar shell fired by Indian forces slammed into her home, killing her two young sons and her husband's mother in the worst spasm of violence in the tense Himalayan region in years. So far, 19 people — 11 on the Pakistani side, eight on the Indian — have died over the past week. Dozens have been injured, and tens of thousands have fled their homes.

"I lost my whole world," Shazadi said Wednesday while recovering from injuries at a military hospital. She sat crying next to her 6-year-old son, who narrowly escaped the blast. Although minor skirmishes in the tense, rocky region are common, the fierce trading of mortar shells and gunfire that began Sunday night marks the most serious violation of a 2003 cease-fire accord brokered between India and Pakistan. Adding to the sense of shock was that the fighting erupted during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which families normally celebrate with roast goat and parties.

The clashes — which both India and Pakistan blame the other for starting — come even though both governments say they want to improve ties and even resolve the conflict. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Pakistan's leader, Nawaz Sharif, to attend his inauguration in May, saying he wanted to engage the archrival more assertively.

But relations remain fragile, even hostile. India in August abruptly canceled talks with Pakistan after its ambassador met with Kashmiri separatist leaders. The mostly Muslim region, divided into zones controlled by India and Pakistan, and even a chunk by China, has seen fighting off and on for decades. Pakistan and India have fought two wars over the mountainous territory.

Modi, a strident Hindu nationalist, seems intent on showing he represents a new, more forceful India. "Pakistan has taken too long to understand that there is a change in the government in India. They are getting to learn it in a hard way," said Jitendra Singh, a top official in Modi's office.

For Pakistan, the fighting draws international attention to itself and Kashmir, while also reassuring the many Kashmiris opposed to Indian rule that it continues to support their desire for either full independence or a merger with Pakistan. The Indian-controlled part of Kashmir is to hold elections before December, and Kashmir's status is a hot-button issue with voters.

"The needless macho-ism on the part of either India or Pakistan is not going to help the situation," said former Indian security official Rana Banerji. Pakistan may feel that "it can create enough trouble to bring India to the table. It suits Pakistan to raise the issue of trouble in Kashmir at international fora — to signal that Kashmir remains a flashpoint between the two nuclear-powered countries."

Pakistani analysts suggested India was trying to punish Pakistan for highlighting the dispute and initiating contacts with Kashmiri leaders. "They will not hesitate to punish us if we tried to resolve the issue of Kashmir through international help or if we tried to establish contacts with the Kashmir leadership," said defense analyst Talat Masood in Islamabad.

Officials on both sides said they were unnerved by the fact that this week's violence was mainly occurring along the more heavily populated 200-kilometer (125-mile) border between Pakistan's Punjab province and the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

That lower-altitude frontier, guarded by paramilitary border forces, is lined on both sides by agricultural fields and ancient villages that have been there long before Pakistan and India gained independence in 1947 and began wrangling over Kashmir.

Pakistan's Sharif planned a National Security Committee meeting for Friday, while India held a high-level security meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday. India frequently accuses Pakistan of sparking skirmishes to create a distraction or to provide cover fire for separatist militants trying to infiltrate into Indian-controlled Kashmir — an accusation top army officials repeated Thursday. Pakistan denies providing cover, arms or training for militants, saying it gives only moral and diplomatic support to separatist groups who have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan.

"Prime Minister Modi and his government are trapped in their own rhetoric that they are going to be tough and uncompromising with Pakistan," said Prof. Noor Mohammed Baba, a political science professor at Kashmir University, in Srinigar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. "Pakistan obviously will also not compromise and surrender."

India's Defense Minister Arun Jaitley accused Pakistan of starting the onslaught as a way to grab international attention, and ruled out any chance of holding talks with Pakistan until the fighting stops.

"Pakistan has to stop this unprovoked firing and shelling if it wants peace," he said. "It's an effort to precipitate tension both at the domestic and international level." Panicked villagers on both sides said they were fed up with the seemingly endless cycle of violence.

Newly married Pakistani villager Baila Mustafa lay wounded alongside her injured husband in the hospital. "Please allow us to live with peace," she said.

Hussain reported from Srinagar, India. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, and Ashok Sharma and Katy Daigle in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Tunisia polls give ex-regime figure the edge

November 23, 2014

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A veteran politician from the previous regime that ran on a platform of restoring the prestige of the state took the lead in Tunisia's first free and fair presidential election Sunday, according to exit polls. But there will still likely be a runoff next month.

Beji Caid Essebsi, 87, replicated the success of his Nida Tunis (Tunisia's Call) party in last month's legislative elections by taking 47 percent of the vote, with outgoing interim president Moncef Marzouki following with 27 percent, according to one polling company. Other polls gave similar figures, indicating that the two men will go head to head in a second round set for Dec. 28.

Marzouki's staffers contested the polls, maintaining their candidate had the plurality. Official results are expected in the coming days. The electoral commission said 60 percent of the 5.3 million registered voters participated.

The vote appeared to be a choice between fears over security and the freedoms brought by their revolution, with Essebsi representing the stability of the old ways and Marzouki the fervor of the revolution.

The North African country's transition has remained on track in sharp contrast to the upheavals brought by the Arab Spring elsewhere in the region, including the brutal military coup in Egypt and the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Tunisians for the vote, calling the country's transition "an inspiration to all those in the region and around the world." It hasn't been easy for Tunisia, however, and the nearly four years since the revolution have been marked by social unrest, terrorist attacks and high inflation that has voters punishing the moderate Islamists that first came to power.

"The thing I'm worried most about for the future is terrorism. Right now, we don't know who's coming into the country, and this is a problem," said Amira Judei, 21, who voted in the southern city of Kasserine, near the border with Algeria and a point of terrorist attacks. Voting hours in the rural regions along the border were reduced because of security fears.

But Judei insisted that "the most important priority is unemployment." Tunisia's revolution began in areas such as Kasserine in the impoverished south, and the country's 15 percent unemployment rate nearly doubles when it comes to young people.

Out of the nearly two dozen candidates for the presidency, Essebsi clearly captured people's yearning for a return to stability after the disorder of the last few years. "He is a veteran politician with experience that can ensure security and stability," said Mouldi Cherni, a driver living in Tunis' Carthage suburb who voted for Essebsi. "The people are tired, life has grown expensive and Tunisians don't even have enough to make an ojja," the local omelet favored by the poor.

The strikes, social unrest and occasional political assassinations have kept away foreign investment and the economy foundered after the revolution as an Islamist-led coalition government struggled with the country's problems.

In Kasserine, Deputy Mayor Ridha Abassi said his constituents had once voted Islamist but chose Essebsi's Nida Tunis party in last month's parliamentary elections — a choice that seems to have been replicated for the presidential contests.

Many of these people voted in 2011 for the Islamist Ennahda Party government "and the result was terrorism and abuse of power," Abassi said at a cafe near the city's busy bus station. "Even though they know Nida Tunis has a large number of old regime followers in it, they are voting for them to break the power of Ennahda."

The Ennahda Party stepped down at the start of the year in favor of a government of technocrats, and chose not to run a presidential candidate, though many of its members are believed to back Marzouki.

There are fears that Essebsi has authoritarian tendencies and that his domination of the parliament and the presidency could bring back the old one-party state. Chakib Romdhani — a 31-year-old filmmaker who participated in Tunisia's 2011 uprising but had never voted before — described how he was torn between the possibility of a new dictatorship and the unrest of Marzouki's years.

"I feel a great fear from those of the old regime becoming more and more powerful," he said as he went to vote in Tunis. "I have another fear that comes from the experience of the three-year presidency of Marzouki and the country slowly falling apart."

In Tunisia, while the main power resides with the prime minister, the presidency does have some responsibilities for defense and foreign affairs. The polls placed Hama Hammami of the left-wing Popular Front coalition in third place with just 10 percent of the vote, followed by millionaire populist Slim Riahi.

Kimball reported from Kasserine.

37 homes collapse, dozens injured in Japan quake

November 23, 2014

TOKYO (AP) — Helicopter surveys on Sunday showed more extensive damage than earlier thought from an overnight earthquake in the mountainous area of central Japan that hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics.

At least 37 homes were destroyed in two villages, and 39 people were injured across the region, including seven seriously, mostly with broken bones, officials said. The magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday west of Nagano city at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The agency revised the magnitude from a preliminary 6.8 while the U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.2. Since the quake occurred inland, there was no possibility of a tsunami.

Ryo Nishino, a restaurant owner in Hakuba, a ski resort village west of Nagano, told Japanese broadcaster NHK that he had "never experienced a quake that shook so hard. The sideways shaking was enormous." He said he was in the restaurant's wine cellar when the quake struck, and that nothing broke there.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the affected areas. All of Japan's nuclear plants are offline following a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami in 2011 that sent three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into meltdown. Fukushima is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of where Saturday's earthquake occurred.

The hardest-hit area appeared to be Hakuba, which hosted events in the 1998 games. At least 30 homes were destroyed, and 17 people injured, the Nagano prefecture government said. Another seven homes were lost in Otari, a nearby village to the north. Non-residential buildings were also destroyed, with officials still assessing the extent.

Japanese television footage showed buildings in various states of collapse, some flattened and others leaning to one side, and deep cracks in the roads. A landslide spilled onto a railroad track, forcing service to stop. About 200 people have evacuated to shelters, almost all from Hakuba and Otari.

Shigeharu Fujimori, a Nagano prefecture disaster management official, said it was fortunate there haven't been any deaths reported despite the extent of the damage. All 21 people trapped under collapsed houses were rescued, with two of them injured, the National Police Agency told Japan's Kyodo news agency. Japanese television showed police going house to house Sunday morning, calling out to make sure that inhabitants were accounted for.

"The hardest-hit area was in the mountains and sparsely populated, where neighbors have a close relationship and help each other," Fujimori said. "So I don't think anyone has been forgotten or left isolated."

Shinkansen bullet train service in the region was restored after a short interruption. Chubu Electric Power Co. said 200 homes were still without power on Sunday. The quake was followed by more than 45 aftershocks, and Meteorological Agency official Yohei Hasegawa urged residents to watch out for landslides. The area was struck by a magnitude-6.7 earthquake the day after the huge March 2011 quake.

Monumental mess: Rome's mayor getting thumbs down

November 24, 2014

ROME (AP) — Pigs root through garbage piling up in a working class neighborhood. City buses improvise routes on streets clogged with triple-parked cars. On rainy days, muck-choked sewers make crossing the road a Herculean labor.

Ignazio Marino promised to bring order to Rome's chaos when he was elected mayor in a landslide last year. Instead, critics say the liver transplant surgeon is the affliction not the cure — and are pressuring him to resign.

The biggest challenge Marino faced upon winning office was tackling Rome's notorious traffic gridlock. His first major move? Banning cars on the boulevard flanking the Roman Forum so tourists have a more pleasant stroll, strangling Rome's center even more. The ban enraged residents and shopkeepers, whose streets became bottlenecks of detoured traffic.

Then Marino hiked parking meter fees, an unpopular move among Romans who have abandoned the capital's strike-prone mass transit system in droves. But what has really poisoned the Roman mood is that after enforcing his big idea on parking fees, Marino was himself repeatedly caught in traffic violations with his bright red Fiat Panda — and allowed fines to pile up unpaid.

Ordinary Romans can drive into the historic center only with an annual permit that costs hundreds of euros. Marino this summer drove his Fiat into the heart of Rome after his own permit had expired. Tickets, eight of them, accumulated — as Marino blamed careless aides for failing to renew the permit. Anger only increased when a national TV program caught the Panda parked in a no-parking zone near the Senate.

Even members of Marino's own Democratic Party have begun to give him the thumbs down, worried that he could damage Premier Matteo Renzi, who heads the party. Marino's office turned down interview requests for this story.

"Resign, resign!" Romans hooted recently when Marino stepped into Julius Caesar Hall atop the ancient Capitoline Hill for a city council hearing about the Panda debacle. "Buffoon! Buffoon!" they heckled, some protesters wearing bright red clown noses.

Struggling to be heard, Marino struck a defiant tone: "I read about my resignation," he told the hearing packed with spectators, "and to tell you the truth, I smiled." He scoffed at what he called a "morbid fixation with my car" and vowed that instead of quitting, he would forge ahead with healing Rome after "years of neglect."

Marino revealed during the raucous hearing that he eventually paid the fines, even producing receipts for more than 1,000 euros ($1,250) to prove it. But as the catcalls continue, he struck a more contrite note — apologizing to Romans and pleading: "I hope you stop calling for my resignation."

The people do not appear to be in a forgiving mood. An opinion poll found only 20 percent of Romans support Marino. Perhaps more embarrassing: The person who commissioned the survey was the head of Marino's own local Democratic Party, who then made public what were supposed to be in-house findings.

Recently, Marino was blasted for being slow to visit the working-class neighborhood of Tor Sapienza, which had seen several days and nights of violence by residents opposed to a refugee center. Marino at the time was in London, trying, he later explained, to "put Rome on the world's map." When he did show up days later, locals angrily surrounded him. He sought to defuse tensions by sitting down with neighborhood representatives, but anti-Marino protests have sporadically hit the city outskirts.

"He doesn't really smell the mood of the city," said Franco Pavoncello, a political science professor who is president of John Cabot University in Rome. That may be an understatement; some commentators have nicknamed Marino "the Martian."

To the mayor's dismay, the Panda flap has overshadowed some real accomplishments. This fall he inaugurated several stations in a subway construction project that had been years behind schedule. He also shut down a trash dump that locals, worried about their health, had long wanted closed. The dump is owned by a local businessman with powerful political connections.

In his City Hall speech, Marino linked his unpopularity to his willingness to take on special interests and fight corruption. Romans also play a role in their city's mess. They have a habit of dumping large items like old mattresses and broken TVs by the curb, instead of calling the municipal sanitation service for free pickup.

Belgian strike paralyzes Antwerp port

November 24, 2014

BRUSSELS (AP) — Trade unions have opened a month of intermittent strike action by paralyzing the port of Antwerp and slowing train traffic through much of Belgium.

Monday's protest action targeted measures by the nation's business-friendly government to cut into employees' income, extend working time and restrict social services. On their first of three Mondays of regional strikes, the unions targeted Antwerp, with Europe's second biggest port, and made sure no ships could enter of leave the docks. Port workers have been particularly angered by measures to extend the start of pensions by two years.

Port worker Frank Verhulst complained it would force them to work until the age of 67. "But it is a very hard job here," he said. Labor action is to culminate in a nationwide strike on Dec. 15.

Israeli Cabinet moves to define Israel as Jewish

November 23, 2014

JERUSALEM (AP) — In a move likely to further inflame tensions with Israel's Arab citizens, the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved a bill to legally define the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

The decision, which set off a stormy debate that could bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's brittle coalition government, followed weeks of deadly Arab-Jewish violence and was denounced by critics as damaging to the country's democratic character and poorly timed at such a combustible moment.

It now heads toward a full parliamentary vote on Wednesday. Israel has always defined itself as the "Jewish state" — a term that was contained in the country's declaration of independence in 1948. The new law seeks to codify that status as a "Basic Law," Israel's de facto constitution.

While many critics derided the measure as unnecessary, Netanyahu told his Cabinet the bill is a response to Israel's Arab critics both inside and outside Israel who question the country's right to exist.

Netanyahu has long demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland as a condition of any peace deal. Both the Palestinians and their Arab Israeli brethren say such acceptance would harm the rights of Israel's more than 1.5 million Arab citizens.

The bill calls not only for recognizing Israel's Jewish character but for institutionalizing Jewish law as an inspiration for legislation and dropping Arabic as an official language. Netanyahu insisted that Israel would be both Jewish and democratic.

"There are those who would like the democratic to prevail over the Jewish and there are those who would like the Jewish to prevail over the democratic," he said. "And in the principles of the law that I will submit today both of these values are equal and both must be considered to the same degree."

Israel is in the midst of its worst sustained bout of violence in nearly a decade. Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the past month, including five people who were killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue last week.

Jewish nationalists in Netanyahu's coalition had pushed hard for the bill. The two centrist parties in the Cabinet, Yesh Atid and Hatnua, provided the only opposition in the 14-6 vote. Finance Minister Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, called it a "terrible" piece of legislation meant to appease hard-liners ahead of primaries in Netanyahu's hawkish Likud Party.

Health Minister Yael German, another Yesh Atid member, said the party would support a law only if it emphasized Israel's Jewish and democratic nature equally. "This bill does not preserve that value. It will be a mark of shame for the parliament to pass such a law," she said.

A vote against the bill in parliament by the party could break up the coalition and even trigger new elections. Yesh Atid is the second-largest faction in parliament and could rob Netanyahu of his majority.

In a statement, Israel's attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, said he had serious doubts about the legality of the bill's language because it impinges on Israel's democratic character. The measure could still be delayed or watered down before it is put to a vote in parliament.

Ahmad Tibi, a leading Arab lawmaker, denounced the bill as an attack on Arab natives of the country and called on the world to offer them protection. Dov Khenin, leader of the mixed Jewish-Arab Hadash party, accused Netanyahu of "pouring fuel into the bonfire of hate."

Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of the population, have long complained of discrimination and second-class status. Last week, the mayor of the southern city of Ashkelon sparked an uproar by banning Arab construction laborers from working in Israeli preschools on security grounds. The mayor, Itamar Shimoni, reversed his decision on Sunday but said the children would be moved to other locations while construction proceeded.

Though citizens of Israel, the country's Arabs often identify with Palestinians in the West Bank, and their loyalty to the state if often questioned by Jews. On Sunday, Israel's Shin Bet security service said it arrested a 22-year-old Israeli Arab who had returned from Syria after trying to join the Islamic State extremist group. Israel believes that several dozen Arabs have left the country to join IS in Syria.

The deadly unrest in recent weeks has centered on Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, a hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims. Israeli restrictions on Muslim access to the site, which Israel says are a necessary security measure, have heightened tensions.

The spate of attacks has left many people on both sides on edge. Early Sunday, a Palestinian family in the West Bank said its home had been torched in an attack blamed on Jewish settlers. The fire damaged one room, and Hebrew slogans were scrawled on the house.

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army shot and killed a 32-year-old man who approached the border with Israel. Palestinians said the man had been hunting birds, a hobby common among Palestinians.