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Monday, December 15, 2014

Journalists, police are detained in Turkish raids

December 14, 2014

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Police conducted raids in a dozen Turkish cities Sunday, detaining at least 24 people — including journalists, TV producers and police — known to be close to a movement led by a U.S.-based moderate Islamic cleric who is a strong critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It was the latest crackdown on cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement, which the government has accused of orchestrating an plot to try to bring it down. The government says the group's followers were behind corruption allegations that last year that forced four Cabinet ministers to resign.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies the accusations. During a speech on Saturday, Erdogan vowed to "bring down the network of treachery and make it pay." EU foreign affair chief Federica Mogherini and Johannes Hahn, commissioner for European enlargement negotiations, said the raids "are incompatible with the freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy." They suggested the issue could reflect on Turkey's bid to join the European Union.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman issued a written statement of concern. "As Turkey's friend and ally, we urge the Turkish authorities to ensure their actions do not violate these core values and Turkey's own democratic foundations," she said.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said a court issued a warrant to arrest 32 people connected to the movement, and that 24 of them were detained in raids in Istanbul and other cities across Turkey on Sunday. They included Ekrem Dumanli, the chief editor of Zaman newspaper, who was taken into custody at his paper's Istanbul headquarters, which was broadcast live on television.

Those with arrest warrants included Hidayet Karaca, the chief executive of Samanyolu television, as well producers of two of its TV shows. Both Zaman and Samanyolu are affiliated with the movement. Anadolu said those detained are suspected of "using intimidation and threats" to try to wrest control of state power. The state-run news agency said some of the police officers detained are suspected of fabricating crimes and evidence while investigating an organization close to the al-Qaida terror network back in 2010.

Hundreds of supporters gathered outside Zaman's headquarters to protest the detention of Dumanli and other suspects, shouting: "Free press cannot be silenced." Turkey's journalism associations also denounced the raids targeting journalists, while Human Rights Watch said the detentions look "like another attempt to crack down on critical media."

Several police officers believed to be close Gulen's movement were arrested earlier this year for alleged illegal wiretaps and other charges. The government has said it wants Gulen extradited to Turkey from the United States. Many see his moderate movement as an alternative to the more radical interpretations of Islam.

Defiant Afghan president condemns terror attacks

December 14, 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Defying insurgents, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday condemned the wave of militant attacks striking his country ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops, vowing: "We will never surrender."

In a televised speech, Ghani called on all religious, political and social leaders to condemn the violence. At one point, he even shouted: "Enough! No more!" "This is unacceptable, it is un-Islamic, it is inhuman," he said, referring the death of a university student in an attack targeting parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai and the suicide bombing of a volleyball tournament that killed about 50 people last month.

Ghani's words come just two weeks ahead of the withdrawal of most international combat troops, 13 years after the U.S.-led invasion following the Sept. 11 terror attacks removed the Taliban from power.

Ahead of the pullout, Taliban insurgents have launched a series of high-profile attacks across the country, including those targeting foreigners in the capital, Kabul. On Saturday alone, insurgents killed at least 19 people, including 12 clearing land mines in the country's south and a senior official of the country's Supreme Court shot dead outside his home in Kabul.

Ghani has made few public remarks about the violence that has intensified since he took office in September, though regularly visits victims of attacks in the hospital and at their homes. In his speech Sunday, Ghani offered no specifics about his plans to combat the surging insurgents. His administration has embarked on a top-to-bottom review of the country's military and security strategy, promising to remove provincial governors and other security officials. His foreign policy aims to pressure Pakistan into halting cross-border attacks by the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

The uptick in Taliban attacks comes after Ghani signed a bilateral security agreement with Washington and a status of forces agreement with NATO that his predecessor Hamid Karzai declined to sign. U.S. President Barack Obama also has approved an expanded combat mission authorizing American troops to engage Taliban insurgents — not just al-Qaida — and to provide air support when needed.

Hamas stages military rally to mark anniversary

December 14, 2014

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Islamic militant group Hamas displayed rockets and other heavy weapons Sunday during a rally marking the 27th anniversary of its founding.

It also launched a drone that prompted Israel to scramble fighter jets in a precautionary measure, the Israeli military said. Several thousand people attended the show of force in Gaza City, a lower turnout than in previous Hamas anniversary rallies.

The group's leaders watched from a stage, including former Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who brandished an assault rifle and flashed a V-for-victory sign. Sunday's march came three-and-a-half months after the end of a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas. It was the third and bloodiest round of fighting between the two since late 2008, with some 2,200 people killed on the Palestinian side and 72 on the Israeli side.

Despite claims of victory by both Israel and Hamas, the fighting failed to resolve underlying conflicts that contributed to the summer war. Israel says it launched the operation in response to nonstop Hamas rocket fire. Hamas said it was fighting to lift an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade first imposed on Gaza after the Islamic militant group violently seized the territory from forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.

With Sunday's weapons display, Hamas appeared to be sending a message to both Israel and the residents of Gaza that another round of fighting is an option. Hamas also released a video with brief narration purported to be from Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of the group's military wing and the target of repeated Israeli assassination attempts.

Israel tried to kill Deif in an August airstrike on a Gaza City home that killed one of his wives and two of the couple's young children. Deif's fate has remained unclear, though Hamas said at the time that he had survived.

The man in the recording identified as Deif said, "We will return to them (Israelis) with fighters that they cannot fight and will drive them out ... God willing."

Hungarians protest government budget, corruption

December 14, 2014

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Around 2,500 Hungarians protested outside Parliament on Sunday against alleged government corruption, austerity measures and deteriorating social welfare programs.

Protest organizer Zoltan Vajda said the 2015 state budget to be approved by lawmakers Monday was unworthy of Hungary. "The government is a lie," Vajda said. "Their whole system is based on lies and (Prime Minister Viktor) Orban himself is a lie."

Rallies against Orban's government have been held regularly over the past two months, sparked by a failed attempt to tax Internet use, Orban's increasingly close economic ties with Russia and suspected corruption among top officials, including at the national tax office.

"Why are there many thousands of us here on this cold winter night on the third Sunday of Advent instead at home baking cookies?" Vajda asked, to which protesters yelled "So Orban will go away!" People were also upset by government plans to reduce enrollment at universities to increase the number of blue-collar workers and a proposal to greatly expand the system of road tolls.

Laszlo Csabai, wearing a large hat inscribed "St. Orban's Corrupt System," said the 51-year-old prime minister was "trying to interfere in our most personal things" with efforts to prevent most stores from opening on Sundays and plans to introduce drug tests for journalists and politicians.

Initially, mandatory testing was also being considered for children between the ages of 12 and 18, but Orban said they would be carried out only if requested by parents. Orban said testing was needed because drug users could not be counted on in the fight against the alleged "drug mafia" he wants to drive out of Hungary.

Jailed Venezuela opposition leader rattles cage

December 15, 2014

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Locked up and denounced by Venezuela's government as a terrorist, Leopoldo Lopez may be out of sight, but he is not out of mind.

Building-sized posters of the charismatic opposition leader shouting, with his fist pumped into the air, dot wealthy Caracas neighborhoods. The same image can be found stenciled on the walls in the pro-government slums, but below the word "Murderer."

President Nicolas Maduro raises the specter of his foe nearly every night, using his televised addresses to denounce the 43-year-old Harvard graduate who, despite having been jailed since February, has become Venezuela's most popular politician as well as a human-rights icon drawing international pressure on the government.

Accused of inciting violent protests in early 2014, and the threat of a 13-year prison term hanging over him, Lopez is again exhibiting the defiance he used to call opponents of the South American country's socialist government into the streets, but now in a windowless courtroom secured behind four military checkpoints. During his most recent appearance in the ongoing trial, the square-jawed Lopez delivered a rollicking, hour-long speech fit for a political rally.

"I have to tell you, when we get out, we will be even more determined," he told Judge Susana Barreiros. The proceedings have been almost completely closed to the public. In November, The Associated Press had a rare opportunity to witness the trial as a guest of Lopez's family. Cameras were barred, as was any note-taking.

The tall, former triathlete was surprisingly gaunt and a thick beard covered his familiar clean-shaven face. But his powerful voice still filled the fluorescent-lit room, where his wife grew teary-eyed among some two dozen observers in wooden pews.

Lopez denounced the young judge as lacking courage and compared her to a hired assassin. He waved copies of the constitution drafted by the late President Hugo Chavez, and held up a book of the writings of Venezuela's beloved revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar, a distant great uncle of Lopez.

His blue blood political heritage and old-money roots make him a natural champion of the Venezuelan elite. Ivy League-educated and accompanied by his equally photogenic wife, a former TV hostess and champion kite-surfer, Lopez comes off as a Venezuelan version of a Kennedy — albeit a stridently conservative one.

Of the two factions opposing Venezuela's unsteady administration, Lopez represents the more radical extreme. While others such as opposition heavyweight Henrique Capriles were advocating gradual electoral change, Lopez called hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets to demand that Maduro resign only months into his six-year term.

Violence stemming from the protests left more than 40 people dead, including both Maduro supporters and opponents. The government's view is that Lopez pretended to rally ordinary people fed up with crime, inflation and widespread shortages but was actually conniving with students and the United States to overthrow the government.

The unrest fizzled after Lopez was jailed, and chronic infighting between his faction and more moderate leaders has prevented the opposition from taking advantage of growing discontent with the administration over Venezuela's economic free fall.

With ample time for reflection, Lopez doesn't appear to have become any more eager for compromise. Unity isn't a goal in and of itself, he told AP in an interview outside the courtroom doors. And his political martyrdom has had an upside. Lopez's personal brand is booming. For years, the former mayor of Chacao, a wealthy Caracas suburb, was seen as arrogant and overly-ambitious, if effective. He now consistently polls among the most popular politicians in the country, with his favorability approaching 50 percent, while Maduro's has slid below 30 percent, according to surveys released in recent months by a leading national pollster, Datanalisis.

Previously unknown beyond Venezuela, human rights groups now consider Lopez Latin America's most prominent political prisoner. U.S. President Barack Obama and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights have called for his release. Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the 100 most important global thinkers this year, and the Harvard Kennedy School awarded him its alumni achievement award in absentia.

When Lopez will leave his cell remains a question. The defense considers the federal trial to be a circus, with Maduro bent on keeping Lopez behind bars. Judge Barreiros has denied all but one of the defense's 63 proposed witnesses, while allowing the prosecution to call more than 100.

So why put on such a strenuous show for a judge whose hands may be tied? "This is our only opening, limited as it is," Lopez told the AP. Defense attorney Juan Carlos Gutierrez said they hope the trial will keep international attention on Lopez and bring pressure on the administration. "We know Lopez's liberty depends on Maduro, and not a judge," he said.

The chief prosecutor's office did not respond to requests for comment. The court has met only a handful of times in six months, often convening as night falls. Before each hearing, soldiers with riot shields and submachine guns close the streets around the courthouse. Only family members and, sometimes, international observers and others on their guest lists are allowed through. AP is the first international news outlet to have made it into the courtroom.

As the restrictions tighten around Lopez, he is rattling his cage more fervently. He's begun staging a daily protest, banging on his prison bars at dusk. Lopez has refused to end the defiance, even though it's meant his visitors are restricted to only his two young children and the noise is heard only within the prison walls.

His wife, Lilian Tintori, said that when he surrendered to authorities in February, the family thought his detention would be brief. She told their 5-year-old daughter that Lopez was just on a business trip. Asked why they didn't flee when the charges were levied against her husband, Tintori pointed to one word tattooed on her wrist: Venezuela.

Her husband has a matching one on his ankle, she said. "Someone has to stay and fight." On a recent visit to the prison, Tintori caught sight of her husband from a distance, making out his long figure waving from his prison bars. He was keeping his balance by clinging to the window bars, giving him the appearance of a man just hanging on. "Hello, beautiful!" he called out.

A piercing police siren made any additional words impossible. Lopez gave a final fist pump through his bars before vanishing from view.

Haiti PM resigns amid political discontent

December 14, 2014

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe announced early Sunday that he was resigning along with several ministers in the wake of violent anti-government protests and a commission's call for him to step down.

In a speech that was delayed past midnight, Lamothe said he was leaving "with a sense of accomplishment," adding: "This country has undergone a deep and dynamic transformation and a real change in benefit of its people."

President Michel Martelly said earlier he accepted the findings of the commission that had recommended Lamothe's replacement. Martelly appointed Lamothe as prime minister in 2012, and some political analysts believe Lamothe might seek the presidency in upcoming elections.

Lamothe's resignation complicates the current political situation because nominations for a new prime minister require approval from Parliament and it is unclear whether someone would be nominated before Parliament is dissolves in January, said Michael Deibert, author of "Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti."

He noted that Lamothe was Martelly's third nomination for prime minister during a drawn-out selection process. "Without a functioning Parliament and without a prime minister, I'm afraid it could be a tumultuous time in January," Deibert said in a telephone interview from Cap-Haitien.

He warned that political instability would undermine confidence in the government and the confidence that the international community has in Haiti in terms of investment. "That's not an image that Haiti wants to project to the world," Deibert said.

Haiti's capital has endured a growing number of violent demonstrations in recent weeks during which protesters have demanded the holding of elections that were expected in 2011 and the resignations of Lamothe as well as Martelly.

On Saturday, one man was found dead in a protest in Port-Au-Prince during clashes with police who fired tear gas. It was not immediately clear how the man died, but he was shot at least once in the wrist. Demonstrations also spread to other towns, including Gonaives and Cap-Haitien.

The unrest followed a demonstration Friday in which U.N. peacekeeping troops opened fire on a crowd that marched through Port-au-Prince, set tires on fire and skirmished with troops and police. Martelly's administration blamed the delay in holding elections on six opposition senators who contend legislation that would authorize the vote unfairly favors the government.

The commission set up to break the impasse recommended that Lamothe resign, along with the head of the Supreme Court and current members of Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council. It also called for the release of several "political prisoners."

Martelly said he would meet Monday with government officials to discuss the commission's report. Administration officials have insisted the government wants to hold the elections. The terms of 10 senators expire in mid-January and Parliament will be dissolved, meaning Martelly would rule by decree.

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.