Thousands heading to opposition rally in Pakistan

August 15, 2014

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Thousands of Pakistani opposition supporters were on the road for a second day Friday, heading in two separate convoys to the capital, Islamabad, for a massive rally meant to pressure the country's prime minister to resign over allegations of rigging last year's parliamentary elections.

The convoys, which started out on Thursday morning from the city of Lahore, were in response to calls by two very different opposition figures: Imran Khan, the famous cricketer-turned-politician, and firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri who commands a strong following through his network of mosques and religious schools in Pakistan.

Both have challenged the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who came to power in 2013 in the first democratic transfer of power in a country which has seen three coups since gaining independence in 1947.

They demand new elections under the supervision of a neutral government, but Sharif's aides say the demand is unconstitutional. Khan also wants a new election commission chief appointed before the vote is held, while Qadri says electoral reforms are necessary.

The opposition march comes at a time when Pakistan's military is fighting militants in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region, which has been a base for militants accused of launching attacks in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. The military has killed over 500 militants there since launching the June 15 operation.

The government has criticized Khan and Qadri, saying the country needs unity — not turmoil and dissent — at a time when the armed forces are fighting militants who have killed thousands of people in recent years. Authorities have also said there have been intelligence reports about possible attacks on the convoys or the opposition rally, which is expected to start Friday evening in Islamabad.

After 20 hours on the road, the slow-moving convoys had covered about half of the distance of 300 kilometers (187 miles) toward the capital. "Listen, Nawaz Sharif, I am coming to Islamabad to seek your resignation," a boisterous Khan told followers from atop his truck as it passed through the city of Gujranwala, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) away from Islamabad.

In Gujranwala, dozens of Sharif supporters pelted Khan's truck with shoes and stones but he was unharmed, his aides said. Pakistani TV showed supporters and Khan and Sharif throwing stones at each other in the city.

Earlier, Khan said he was hoping to lead a march of one million people in the Pakistani capital later in the day. Qadri also said he expected one million people to join him in Islamabad, a city of 1.7 million residents according to a 2012 census.

Ahead of the rally, thousands of riot police and special units were deployed across Islamabad. Authorities also blocked many roads in the capital with shipping containers. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday apologized for the city's paralysis, insisting the measures were for the residents' own safety and warning the demonstrators they would be dealt with "an iron hand" if they try to disrupt law and order.

Sharif criticized his opponents for pursuing "negative politics" and promised to safeguard democratic institutions. Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 180 million people, has largely been ruled by military dictators since it was carved out of India in 1947.

Sharif has also been the victim of a military coup. His elected government was ousted in 1999 by then army chief Pervez Musharraf. The army still wields much influence over life in Pakistan, which has seen frequent attacks by militants and insurgents of various backgrounds and agendas.

Late Thursday, attackers tried to storm two air bases in the southwestern city of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, sparking a gunbattle that killed 10 militants, the police said.

Police chief Muhammad Amlish said seven security personnel were also wounded in the attack. He said the attackers used guns and grenades as they tried to enter the Smungli and Khalid military bases on a sprawling complex next to the city's airport. Initial police reports had said only two attackers were involved.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but nationalists groups have for years waged a low-insurgency in Baluchistan to pressure the government for a fairer share of local resources.

Associated Press Writer Abdul Sattar from Quetta contributed to this report.

Thousands on the road in Pakistan opposition rally

August 14, 2014

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Thousands of Pakistani opposition supporters on Thursday joined a large convoy headed to the capital, Islamabad, for a key rally to demand the ouster of the prime minister over allegations of vote fraud.

The rally is seen as the strongest challenge yet to the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, just a year after he took office in the first democratic transfer of power in a country long plagued by military coups.

The protesters set out on Thursday morning from the city of Lahore in cars, trucks and buses, while others walked or drove motorcycles as they embarked on the 300 kilometer (187 mile) journey to Islamabad. Initially 5,000 protesters were on the march, but the number steadily increased. The convoy was moving so slow that it could cover only a distance of five kilometers in seven hours.

The convoy is led by Imran Khan, famous cricketer-turned-politician who heads the Tehrik-e-Insaf party, the third-largest in parliament. The demonstration was called to coincide with Pakistan's Independence Day.

"I am going to Islamabad to seek resignation from Nawaz Sharif," Khan told supporters in a speech Thursday evening. "Get ready to win the match," said Khan, who is revered in Pakistan for leading the national team that won the 1992 cricket World Cup.

Sharif's ruling party has rejected Imran's demand, saying the elected democratic government would complete its term, which ends in 2018. Thousands of policemen were deployed across Islamabad and along the convoy's route while the capital's entry points were blocked since earlier this week with large shipping containers.

"We are taking measures to secure the capital from any violence," said police official Jamil Hashmi. Earlier, the convoy got off to a colorful start in Lahore, with protesters dancing to the beat of the drums and singing patriotic songs. Many women had the green and white of the Pakistani national flag painted on their cheeks, along with the red and green of Khan's party.

Also on the march Thursday was Tahir-ul-Qadri, a Pakistani cleric who is also a Canadian national and who commands a loyal following of thousands through his network of mosques and religious schools in Pakistan. He left Lahore with thousands of his followers and was expected to join Khan's rally on the road or in Islamabad.

Both the cleric and Khan demand Sharif's government step down and new elections be held. Khan alleges last year's vote was invalid due to widespread rigging by government supporters. There was also concern that, once in Islamabad, the rally could descend into violence.

"We are out on the streets to do our struggle for a change in the system," said one of the protesters, Mohammad Faheem. Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 180 million people, has largely been ruled by military dictators since it was carved out of India in 1947.

Sharif, himself overthrown in the 1999 coup that brought former army chief Pervez Musharraf to power, has met regularly with top advisers ahead of the rally. The government has also invoked a rarely-used article in the constitution allowing the military to step in to maintain law and order if needed.

Speaking at an Independence Day ceremony in southwestern Pakistan, Sharif criticized the opposition rally, calling it "negative politics." Sharif said Khan would be better advised to "work to alleviate poverty and improve law and order" in Pakistan.

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed, Asif Shahzad and Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Ukraine parliament approves new government

December 02, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's parliament approved the formation of a new government Tuesday, bringing an end to weeks of behind-the-scenes political wrangling following an October election that ushered in a group of pro-Western parties.

The new Cabinet has come together as government troops and Russian-backed separatist forces agreed on a tentative cease-fire in one war-stricken region along the Russian border. That may provide much-needed breathing space to a national leadership that will have to work fast to keep the anemic economy from collapse.

With the backing of parliament now secured, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, 40, will continue in a position he has occupied since February. Five political blocs, including Yatsenyuk's Popular Front party, last month formed a parliamentary coalition that has vowed to enact an agenda of drastic economic and political reform.

Yatsenyuk said the country is exhausted and drained by war, Russian military aggression and political conflict. "The country needs radical changes and reforms," he told parliament before the Cabinet vote.

Tasks to be completed by the incoming government before year's end include bringing in laws to give more budget-raising powers to local authorities and reducing the number of taxes, Yatsenyuk said. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden welcomed the formation of the new government.

"Today's announcement on the formation of a new government sets the stage for the difficult but necessary process of implementing reforms and delivering results," he said in a statement. "The United States will support Ukraine's new government to stabilize its economy, strengthen democratic institutions, and fight corruption."

New Cabinet ministers include several figures who received Ukrainian citizenship by presidential decree, including Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, an American with experience working for the U.S. State Department.

Many of the ministers in the Cabinet retain their posts, including the foreign, defense and interior ministers. The incoming government has vowed to root out corruption and re-orient Ukraine toward Europe. President Petro Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk have both said they eventually want to see Ukraine join the European Union and NATO.

Approval of the Cabinet had been expected to sail through parliament. The vote was marred by some last-minute controversy, however, when a group of deputies demanded that ministers be approved on an individual basis. After hours of debate, the Cabinet was approved in the proposed form.

The creation of an Information Ministry, which is intended by the government to counter what it says is a campaign of anti-Ukrainian disinformation by Russian state media, has also been greeted with ample criticism.

International media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders says the new ministry would undermine independence of the media in Ukraine. Russian state media routinely casts the conflict as one between an extremist nationalist leadership in Kiev and a minority of Russian speakers in the east fighting for its rights and traditions.

Some respite in the conflict is expected later this week if a truce deal between the Ukrainian government and rebels in the Luhansk region comes into effect. Cease-fire deals have been reached before in eastern Ukraine, only to be swiftly violated.

Greek premier: Deeper austerity demand rejected

December 02, 2014

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's conservative government rejected demands by rescue lenders for deeper austerity measures, the prime minister said late Tuesday, describing calls for further cuts as "catastrophic" for the country's chances for recovery.

Antonis Samaras' remarks signaled failure so far to reach agreement with bailout lenders before parliament begins debating the 2015 budget Wednesday that includes targets which other Eurozone countries have openly disputed.

"No one can accept this irrational and unjustifiable pressure," Samaras told a financial conference in Athens. "No one has the right to behave toward us as they did two and a half or four years ago when things were falling apart ... To reduce pensions or increase the price of medicines, that would be catastrophic."

The government is locked in negotiations with the "troika" of the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund over a new round of cuts demanded in exchange for final eurozone loan installments under the bailout program.

Samaras' coalition government insists that its huge national debt is sustainable — despite reaching roughly 175 percent of gross domestic product — and that it will repay 240 billion euros ($300 billion) in bailout loans.

But Greece is seeking to ease draconian international oversight of its finances with a transition to a so-called precautionary credit line next year. The conservative are trailing the anti-bailout Syriza party in opinion polls before a parliamentary vote in February for the country's new president. That vote that could produce a stalemate and force a snap general election.

Earlier Tuesday, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras insisted he would demand a reduction in the country's bailout debts if his party comes to power. "We demand the immediate end of austerity, an agreement for a haircut of the debt, and a significant cut in the annual cost of servicing the debt," Tsipras said.

He claimed the government had already caved in to demands by creditors to impose the harsh new measures — with a new round of pension cuts and sales tax hikes — in what he described as a "2.5 billion euro ($3.1 billion) U-turn."

French vote urges recognition of Palestinian state

December 02, 2014

PARIS (AP) — France's lower house of Parliament voted Tuesday to urge the government to recognize a Palestinian state, in the hope that it would speed up peace efforts after decades of conflict.

The 339-151 vote is non-binding, but it's a symbolic boost for the Palestinians, amid growing support in Europe for two states. The measure asks the government "to recognize the state of Palestine in view of reaching a definitive settlement to the conflict."

France's Socialist government supports a Palestinian state, but has said it's too early for recognition. France, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, wants peace talks to restart first.

Israel is committed to establishing a Palestinian state under a peace agreement, but says such resolutions encourage the Palestinians to avoid negotiations. "We believe that such a decision will only radicalize the positions of the Palestinians and will send the wrong message to the leaders and people in this region," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said. The only way to peace, he said, is direct negotiations.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the French initiative was a "courageous and encouraging step." The militant Hamas group ruling Gaza opposes negotiations with "the occupation" (Israel), the organization's spokesman, Ami Abu Zuhri, said. However, he told The Associated Press that Hamas views such European gestures as demonstrations of "the world's recognition of the Palestinians' right in gaining their national rights."

Washington reacted to the vote by saying Palestinian statehood can only come "through direct negotiations between the parties that resolve the final status issues," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

On Oct. 30, Sweden's government became the first Western European nation in the EU to recognize Palestinian statehood. Lawmakers in Britain, Spain and Ireland have approved non-binding motions urging recognition.

Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, Fares Akram in Gaza City, and Matthew Lee in Washington, contributed to this report.

Indians mark 30th anniversary of Bhopal disaster

December 03, 2014

BHOPAL, India (AP) — Indians marked the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas leak tragedy Wednesday with protests demanding harsher punishments for those responsible and more compensation for the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster.

On the morning of Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide leaked about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the air of Bhopal, quickly killing about 4,000 people. Lingering effects of the poison raised the death toll to about 15,000 over the next few years, according to government estimates.

In all, at least 500,000 people were affected, the Indian government says. Thirty years later, activists say thousands of children are born with brain damage, missing palates and twisted limbs because of their parents' exposure to the gas or water contaminated by it.

The disaster remains an open wound in India, where many consider Union Carbide's $470 million settlement with the Indian government an insult. Ram Pyari, a Bhopal victim, said the tragedy haunts his life.

"Everything was destroyed," he said Tuesday during an evening vigil. "And my sons and my daughter-in-law died, my leg was amputated. I have to drag myself. These killers did not heed anything. Why are they not brought to court? Why are they not hanged?"

Union Carbide is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Co. Dow says it has no liability however because it bought the company responsible for the plant more than a decade after the cases had been settled.