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Thursday, April 30, 2015

Egyptian police shout: 'Down with military rule'

Thursday, 16 April 2015

In a unique incident a quarrel between a police officer and an army pilot over a parking ticket turned into clashes between members of Shebin El-Koum police force and the Egyptian armed forces.

The incident began when an army pilot refused to provide his driving licence to the policeman who arrested him and took him to the police station where he was assaulted by the police.

Following the assault, the pilot informed the military command of the incident which dispatched army troops stationed at Shebin stadium in armored vehicles to free their colleague.

The army surrounded the town's police station demanding the police officer's arrest however, dozens of police officers refused to hand over their colleague.

Witnesses said the policemen shouted anti-military slogans as the army surrounded the police station, including: "Down with military rule".

Similar incidents occurred in recent months between the army and the police who compete over spreading their rule in the street.

Menoufia governor Hisham Abdul-Baset said officials from the municipality have been trying to reconcile differences and prevent any further escalations.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/18091-egyptian-police-shout-down-with-military-rule.

Turkey rebukes newly-elected Turkish Cypriot leader

April 27, 2015

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's president on Monday rebuked the newly elected leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state for suggesting that Turkey should deal with northern Cyprus as an equal.

Mustafa Akinci, who has pledged to focus his energy on achieving an accord reunifying Cyprus, was elected president on Sunday. He says he favors a relationship "between brothers" with Turkey — not one where the "motherland" dictates terms.

In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey finances northern Cyprus' budget, has made sacrifices for it, and will continue to consider it as its "child." "Do his ears hear what comes out of his mouth?" Erdogan asked.

Akinci, who was being interviewed live on CNN-Turk television as Erdogan spoke, responded: "Does Turkey not want to see the child grow?" He then cut the interview short, saying he had to take a telephone call from Erdogan.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece. Akinci's election has revived hopes for the reunification talks next month, but any deal would require cooperation from Turkey.

Earlier, Erdogan issued a message congratulating Akinci on his victory but also warning that Turkey would not accept an approach for a solution for Cyprus "that would come at any cost."

THE LAST GREAT CALIPH: ABDÜLHAMID II

by Firas Alkhateeb
6 April, 2013

Throughout Islamic history, one of the uniting aspects of the Muslim world was the caliphate. After the death of Prophet Muhammad, his close companion, Abu Bakr, was elected as the first khalifah, or caliph, of the Muslim community. His job as leader combined political power over the Muslim state as well as spiritual guidance for Muslims. It became a hereditary position, occupied at first by the Umayyad family, and later by the Abbasids. In 1517, the caliphate was transferred to the Ottoman family, who ruled the largest and most powerful empire in the world in the 1500s.

For centuries, the Ottoman sultans did not place much emphasis on their role as caliphs. It was an official title that was called in to use when needed, but was mostly neglected. During the decline of the empire in the 1800s, however, a sultan came to power that would decide to revive the importance and power of the caliphate. Abdülhamid II was determined to reverse the retreat of the Ottoman state, and decided that the best way to do it was through the revival of Islam throughout the Muslim world and pan-Islamic unity, centered on the idea of a strong caliphate. While Abdülhamid’s 33-year reign did not stop the inevitable fall of the empire, he managed to give the Ottomans a final period of relative strength in the face of European encroachment and colonialism, with Islam being the central focus of his empire.

Islamic Reform

Throughout the 1800s, the Ottoman government had been trying desperately to slow the decline of the empire. Beginning with Mahmud II and throughout the reigns of Abdülmecid and Abdülaziz, attempts at reforming the empire were at the forefront of the government agenda. These Tanzimat (reorganization) reforms attempted to rebuild the Ottoman state along liberal, European lines. Islam (and religion in general) was given a back seat in public life, as secular ideas began to influence laws and government practices.

These reforms proved to do nothing to reverse the decline of the empire. If anything, the increased emphasis on non-Islamic identities of Ottoman subjects just further promoted the nationalistic aims of the Ottoman Empire’s numerous subjects, which created further disunity in the empire. During the Tanzimat Era, the Ottoman provinces of Serbia, Greece, Wallachia, Modova, Abkhazia, Bulgaria, and Algeria were all lost to European encroachment or nationalism.

Abdülhamid decided to take a radically different approach. Because of the loss of European territory that had occurred just before and in the first few years of his reign, the empire was now overwhelmingly Muslim. Throughout Ottoman history, Christians had been a major part of the population, at some times being about 80% of the population. Throughout the 1800s, however, the Ottoman Empire was losing Christian-majority lands in Europe, and was getting a net influx of Muslim immigrants coming into the empire. With about 3/4th of his empire Muslim, Abdülhamid decided to emphasize Islam as the dominant uniting factor among his subjects.

The rest of Europe was experiencing powerful nationalistic movements in the 1800s. Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism were examples of uniting factors for people who spoke the same languages and had similar cultures. The Ottoman empire had always been multi-cultural. Turks, Arabs, Albanians, Bosnians, Kurds, Armenians, and many others made up the empire. Abdülhamid attempted to make Pan-Islamism a uniting factor for Muslims, both inside and outside of the empire’s borders.

To show his role as supreme leader of Muslims worldwide, Abdülhamid placed much emphasis on the holy sites of Makkah and Madinah. In the 1800s, a building program commenced in the holy cities, with hospitals, barracks, and infrastructure being built in the Hejaz to aid in the yearly gathering of Muslims in Makkah – the Hajj. The Ka’aba itself and the Masjid al-Haram that surrounded it were also renovated with a modern water system that helped reduce the severity of floods.

In 1900, Abdülhamid commenced the beginning of the Hejaz Railway. It began in Istanbul and traveled through Syria, Palestine, and the Arabian desert, ending in Madinah. The goal of the railway was to better connect the holy sites with the political authority of Istanbul, as well as make the pilgrimage easier. To show his emphasis on the protection of Makkah and Madinah, Abdülhamid decided that the gauge (width of the rails) of the Hejaz Railway should be slightly smaller than standard European ones. His reasoning for this was that if Istanbul were to ever fall to European imperialists, he wanted to make sure they could not use the Hejaz Railway with European trains to easily invade Makkah and Madinah.

Non-Ottoman Muslims

Throughout Ottoman history, there have been examples of the sultans helping Muslim communities outside their borders whenever the opportunity arose and the Ottoman state was capable. For example, in the 1500s, the Ottoman navy was a key force in the Indian Ocean, aiding local Muslims fighting Portuguese colonialism as far away as India and Indonesia. Abdülhamid considered it his duty to do the same in the 1800s, especially since large populations of Muslims in Africa and Asia were under European imperial control.

Delegations were sent to African Muslim kingdoms such as Zanzibar, giving gifts from Abdülhamid and asking them to acknowledge the caliph as their protector against European imperialism. Similar delegations were sent to Muslims living within Russian and Chinese borders.

In 1901, Abdülhamid sent one of his advisors, Enver Pasha, along with numerous Islamic scholars, to China. When they arrived in Shanghai, they were warmly greeted by the Chinese authorities, and especially so by the local Chinese Muslims, who had lived in China for centuries. Abdülhamid later helped establish a Muslim university in Beijing, called the Peking (Beijing) Hamidiye University. Even as far away as China, Abdülhamid wanted to create a sense of belonging and unity among Muslims, centered on the caliphate.

Abdülhamid’s efforts resulted in the caliph of the Muslim world being acknowledged in Friday prayers from small towns throughout Africa to the major Muslim communities of India and China.

The Issue of Palestine

In the late 1800s, a potent nationalist movement was forming among European Jews: Zionism. Zionist ideology called for a Jewish state to be established in their ancient homeland, Palestine. Although European Jews were dispersed throughout Europe, the unique financial and political power of numerous Jewish families was able to make Zionism a major force in the late 1800s.

Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, personally requested from Abdülhamid II special permission to settle in Palestine, in exchange for 150 million pounds of gold, which could have helped the Ottomans repay their enormous debts. Herzl’s aims were not to settle there and live under Ottoman authority, he clearly wanted to establish a Jewish state carved out of Muslim lands (as of course happened in 1948). Abdülhamid realized that his role as caliph required him to protect the sanctity and sovereignty of Muslim land, so he responded to Herzl with the following:

™Even if you gave me as much gold as the entire world, let alone the 150 million English pounds in gold, I would not accept this at all. I have served the Islamic milla [nation] and the Ummah of Muhammad for more than thirty years, and never did I blacken the pages of the Muslims- my fathers and ancestors, the Ottoman sultans and caliphs. And so I will never accept what you ask of me.

He further prevented the purchase of tracts of land within Palestine by Zionist organizations, ensuring that their attempts at establishing a foothold there were futile. Ultimately, the Zionists were allowed to purchase land and settle in Palestine after the reign of Abdülhamid II, when the Young Turk movement was in charge of the Ottoman Empire.

Legacy

Abdülhamid II was the last of the Ottoman sultans who had any real power. He was overthrown in 1909 by a group known as the Young Turks. They were Western-educated liberal secularists who vehemently disagreed with the Islamic direction that Abdülhamid took the empire in from 1876 to 1909. After his overthrow, his brother Mehmed Reshad was chosen as sultan by the Young Turks, but he effectively had no power, and the empire was run by an oligarchy of three ministers in the Young Turk government.

Three more people held the office of caliph after Abdülhamid II: Mehmed V, Mehmed VI, and Abdülmecid II, none of which had any power. In 1924, the caliphate was abolished by the new Turkish parliament and Abdülmecid and the rest of the Ottoman family were forced into exile. As such, Abdülhamid II was the last of the caliphs to have had any power over the Muslim world. The tradition of a strong, in charge caliph that commenced with Abu Bakr in 632 was upheld by Abdülhamid in the late 1800s before finally being overthrown by liberal elements within the empire.

Abdülhamid II died in Istanbul in 1918, and was buried in a mausoleum along with Sultans Mahmud II and Abdülaziz near Sultanahmet Square.

Source: Lost Islamic History.
Link: http://lostislamichistory.com/the-last-great-caliph-abdulhamid-ii/.

Near Syrian border, wounded fighters and civilians recover

April 30, 2015

KILIS, Turkey (AP) — Sitting up in bed, 16-year-old Anas Baroudi lifts up an orange blanket to show where his left foot used to be, before he lost it almost three years ago in Syria's civil war.

"It's not painful," the Syrian teenager says quietly as he covers the leg again. Lying in the next bed is Hassan, 26, a rebel fighter who lost his right eye and mobility in his right leg when a tank shell struck close to him on the front lines of Aleppo.

They both tease 23-year-old Khaled Qatrib, another Syrian war amputee who is sharing their room, about being a "Facebook addict," with a smartphone seemingly attached to his hand. The mood is relatively upbeat among the young Syrian men, their lives forever scarred by war, at the Dar Al-Salameh center for recovery and physiotherapy in the Turkish border town of Kilis.

The men follow the news from their homeland on TV and via social media, and encourage each other as they wait for the day when they can return to Syria, once they get their prosthetics and adjust to their new lives.

"This is a temporary home where Syria's many wounded people who have nowhere else to go can stay until they recover," said Yasser Abu Ammar, a Syrian physician. The center is one of several in the border area that were established to help deal with the massive number of wounded streaming in from the war next door.

Syria's conflict, which entered its fifth year last month, has killed more than 220,000 people and wounded close to a million. An untold number of those — there's no reliable estimate — suffered traumatic injuries that have left them physically disabled. Turkey, a major supporter of the rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, has served as a staging area for the fighters and is also the place where many come to rest and recover.

The two-story building in Kilis is less than an hour's drive from Syria's contested northern city of Aleppo and had been receiving a steady stream of people with traumatic injuries asking to stay. The number dropped sharply last month, when Turkey closed the crossing with Syria as a security precaution.

At the center, only a kilometer (half mile) away from the border crossing, patients share the pain of displacement and loss. Baroudi was wounded in the leg by a drive-by shooting in mid-2012 as he was taking part in a demonstration against Assad in in the central city of Homs.

"When I came to, there was still shooting everywhere, so I crawled a long way to safety, dragging my wounded leg with me," he said. His leg developed gangrene and his foot was amputated at a nearby hospital. He moved from one location to another across Syria's rebel territory until his brother and friends brought him to Kilis last month.

Baroudi is now waiting to be fitted with a prosthetic, which he hopes will be ready in the next few weeks. His parents are trapped in the Homs neighborhood of Waar, which has been besieged by government forces for two years, and he plans to go stay with his brother in Istanbul.

One day, he would like to resume school, to become a lawyer. "I want to defend people," he said timidly. The others in the room chuckle at the teenager's ambition. Hassan, who fought with an Islamic rebel group in Aleppo, said the only thing he wants to do is return to the front lines, even though he has lost an eye and a leg.

"Maybe I cannot fight anymore, but I still want to do something to serve the jihad and the mujahedeen," he said of the "holy war" against Assad.

Kazakhstan's longtime leader secures crushing election win

April 27, 2015

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) — Preliminary results of weekend nationwide polls in Kazakhstan show the long-ruling president confirming his incumbency with 97.7 percent of the vote amid a record turnout, election officials said Monday.

A crushing victory for 74-year-old Nursultan Nazarbavev was widely expected from the moment Sunday's snap elections were announced. Nazarbayev faced only two nominal rivals, and state media have for years nurtured an increasingly extravagant cult of personality devoted to him.

Authorities in the oil-rich Central Asian nation have said they hope the election will serve as a confirmation of legitimacy in uncertain times. Kazakhstan is facing a slowdown in economic growth amid falling oil prices and recession in neighboring Russia.

The Central Elections Commission said turnout was a record 95 percent. The high turnout came despite what international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe described as a "hardly visible" campaign. Voter turnout is typically high in authoritarian states in Central Asia — the result of habit carried over from Soviet times and massive marshaling exercises by state officials.

Nazarbayev's victory over his two nominal rivals, a trade union official and a communist politician, has been seen as all but a formality since the elections were announced. The communist candidate, Turgun Syzdykov, ran on a platform that included supporting Nazarbayev.

Speaking to supporters Sunday night, as local exit poll data showed him securing his election win, Nazarbayev hailed the scale of the turnout. "Without such mass public confidence, it would be difficult to work on completing the difficult tasks at hand," he said. "The record turnout showed the unity of the people of Kazakhstan and their desire to live in a stable state."

Earlier Sunday, Nazarbayev said he would after his re-election pursue creation of a constitutional reform commission to boost the economy and promote political development, greater transparency and openness. Kazakhstan currently has a dismal international reputation for corruption and political and media freedoms.

Authorities are looking with anxiety at the unrest that has gripped Ukraine. The political turmoil that led to the toppling of a Russia-friendly leader there in 2014 sent ripples of alarm throughout authoritarian regions of the former Soviet Union. Kazakhstan has watched with dismay the war that ensued there as ethnic Russians were goaded by Moscow into mounting an armed insurrection.

Kazakhstan has its own substantial Russian minority and worries about the potential for such a large ethnic group to pursue a separatist agenda similar to that seen in eastern Ukraine.

Christianity and the Muslim Conquest of Iberia


by Firas Alkhateeb
9 March, 2013

Few wars in Islamic history have been as decisive or as influential as the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the 710s. A small Muslim army arrived on the southern shores of Iberia in the year 711 and by 720, almost the entire peninsula was under Muslim control. Some people like to frame this conquest as one of imperialistic and aggressive Muslims conquering and subjecting a Christian populace with terror and force.

The truth, however, is far from that. It is a very complex conflict that cannot be easily framed in “Islam vs. Christianity” or “East vs. West” terms. The story of the Muslim invasion of Spain is one of justice, freedom, and religious toleration. Understanding the truth behind the Muslim invasion of Iberia is critical to understanding the subsequent history of religious pluralism seen throughout the history of Muslim Spain – al-Andalus.

Christian Unitarians

To fully understand the conflict, we must go back hundreds of years before the birth of Prophet Muhammad in 570. We must understand a vital split within the Christian community in the years after the Prophet Jesus (‘Isa).

While today almost all Christians believe in a concept called the Trinity, this was not always the case. The Trinity is a belief that God has three parts – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is depicted as being the Son of God, and thus part of God himself. This belief began to emerge during the time of Paul, a missionary who introduced the idea to make Christianity more popular among the polytheistic Roman Empire in the 40s-60s AD.

This new innovation in beliefs was highly disturbing to many who followed Jesus’s true message of monotheism and devotion to God. There soon emerged two groups in the early Christian Church – those who accepted Jesus as the Son of God (the Trinitarians), and those who simply accepted him as a prophet (the Unitarians).

To the Roman government, the distinction between the two groups was not important. Both the Trinitarians and the Unitarians were oppressed in the early decades of the AD era. That all changed in the late 200s and early 300s, AD. During this time, a Unitarian preacher, Arius, began to accumulate a large following among people in North Africa. He preached the Oneness of God, and the fact that Jesus was a prophet of God, not His son. As such, he was fiercely opposed by the proponents of the Trinity, who attacked and tried to marginalize him as a crazed madman. Despite their opposition, his beliefs took hold in his native Libya, and across North Africa.

At this time, the Roman Emperor was a man by the name of Constantine. He is best remembered for his transformation of the declining Roman Empire. He moved the capital to Constantinople (modern Istanbul), and managed to defeat some of the barbarian tribes that had been attacking Rome from the north.

When Constantine moved to Constantinople (which he named after himself), he became aware of the Trinitarian Christian Church, which informed him that if he converted to Christianity, he could have all of his previous sins forgiven. Having done so, he realized he could use the Christian Church to strengthen himself politically. As such, he began to promote the Trinitarian view of Christianity, and violently oppress Unitarians, such as Arius. During this time, the Council of Nicaea was convened in 325. The purpose was to settle at last whether or not Jesus was the son of God.

Naturally, the conclusion of the Council was that Jesus was a part of God and His son, and anyone who denies this is to be excommunicated from the Christian Church. The Unitarians, who were by now a strong majority of the population in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, were thus officially banned and forced to practice their beliefs in hiding. Constantine even ordered that all Unitarian documents be burned and Arius himself be exiled.

The Entrance of Islam into Spain

This oppression of Unitarians continued into the 600s, when a new force, Islam, became known in the Arabian Peninsula. When Muslim armies began to appear on the edges of the Roman Empire, the Unitarians of North Africa realized they shared much in common with this new religion. Both believed in the Oneness of God. Both believed Jesus was a prophet. Both believed that the official Trinitarian stance of the Church was an innovation that should be opposed. As such, they realized Islam was simply the conclusion of the original teachings of Jesus, and most of North Africa converted to Islam within the 600s.

The new Muslim empire, which was run by the Umayyad Dynasty from 661-750, stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the borders of India in the east, less than 100 years after the death of Prophet Muhammad ?. Stories of the justice and equity that the Muslims ruled with quickly spread beyond the Muslim borders, particularly into the Iberian Peninsula.

In the early 700s, Iberia was controlled by a Visigothic king, Roderic, who was seen as a tyrant by his people. He continued the Roman policy of the Trinity, and attempted to impose his beliefs on the populace, which was mostly Unitarian. Muslim historians, such as Ibn Khaldun, tell the legend of an Iberian nobleman based in North Africa, Julian, who went to one of the Muslim military leaders in North Africa, Tariq ibn Ziyad, and asked for help overthrowing Roderic. In addition to being an oppressive tyrant, Roderic had kidnapped and raped Julian’s daughter.

Thus, in 711, Tariq led an army of a few thousand to the southern shore of the Iberian Peninsula. After a few minor skirmishes, he met the bulk of Roderic’s army at the Battle of Guadalete on July 19, 711. The result was a decisive victory for Tariq, and the death of Roderic. With the Visigothic threat gone, the Muslim armies were able to conquer the rest of the peninsula within the next 7 years.

Unitarians and Muslims

The story described above of how the Muslims managed to conquer Spain seems very simplistic highly unlikely. An army of a few thousand can hardly hope to conquer and entire country of 582,000 km2 in just 7 years. However, taking into account the Unitarian presence, it makes much more sense.

When the Muslims arrived in Iberia in 711, the Unitarians were very happy to help their brothers in monotheism against the oppressive Trinitarian government. For this reason, after the main battle against Roderic, most of the cities and towns of Spain opened their doors to Tariq without a fight. The Muslims offered a just legal system, freedom to practice religion, and the removal of oppressive and unjust taxes. It is no wonder that Tariq’s army was able to conquer the entire peninsula with a small army in a few years.

The Muslim conquest of Spain should not be seen as a foreign conquest and subjugation of a native population. Instead, it is an uprising of Unitarian Christians (aided by Muslims) against an oppressive Trinitarian government. The Muslim armies were specifically invited into Spain to remove oppression and establish justice, which they managed to do with the support of the locals. With such a just and moral reign, the Muslims won over hundreds of thousands of converts to Islam. Of course, the similarity in beliefs between the Muslims and Unitarians also contributed greatly the conversion of Iberia’s population to Islam. Within 200-300 years of the initial invasion, over 80% of Spain’s population was Muslim, numbering over 5 million people, most of them people originally from Spain whose ancestors had converted, not immigrants.

Source: Lost Islamic History.
Link: http://lostislamichistory.com/christianity-and-the-muslim-conquest-of-spain/.

China now has more vineyard land than France

April 28, 2015

PARIS (AP) — China now boasts more land dedicated to wine-making vineyards than France as it tries to satisfy a rapid rise in local demand.

China's vineyards grew to 800,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) last year, putting it behind No. 1 grower Spain but ahead of France. Because its production is less effective than more established wine-making countries, China's output is only the seventh-biggest, according to figures released Monday by the Paris-based International Organization of Vine and Wine.

France took over the title of top producer from Italy last year, with 46.7 million hectoliters, or 6.2 billion bottles. EU countries have intentionally reduced vineyards in recent years to make them more efficient and improve quality.

By contrast, China's harvest is expected to yield 11.2 million hectoliters. The bulk of that is destined for consumers in China, whose 1.4 billion people knocked back 15.8 million hectoliters (2.1 billion bottles) of wine last year.

The taste for wine has grown rapidly in China over the last 15 years, more than local production can keep up with. Added to the status carried by foreign wines, China has become the world's sixth-largest wine importer, on par with Russia.

According to London-based wine and spirits research firm IWSR China is the world's fourth-largest consumer of red wine, and the fifth-largest consumer overall. Sparkling wines are also quickly gaining popularity in the country but remain a niche market, with around 13 million bottles drunk in 2013.

The United States remained the world's biggest wine consumer last year, at 30.7 million hectoliters (4.1 billion bottles). Wine sales worldwide grew 2.6 percent last year in volume, for an overall value of 26 billion euros.

Polish border guards refuse entry for 10 Russian bikers

April 27, 2015

TERESPOL, Poland (AP) — Polish border guards on Monday blocked 10 nationalistic Russian bikers loyal to President Vladimir Putin from entering Poland as part of a ride to commemorate the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany 70 years ago.

The bikers — who have stirred controversy with their support for Russia's annexation of Crimea — approached the Polish border from Belarus on Monday morning and spent about three hours being questioned and searched by the Polish border guards before they were turned back.

"These people will not cross into Poland," Dariusz Sienicki, a spokesman for the regional border guards said. The incident comes amid deep tensions between the West and Russia over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Poland, which was under Moscow's control for most of the past two and a half centuries, has been one of the most outspoken European voices in favor of sanctions on Russia.

The bikers, members of a group called the Night Wolves, had wanted to travel across Eastern Europe to honor the Red Army soldiers who died as they and Western Allies defeated Hitler's Germany, visiting their graves and other war sites. Their aim was to arrive in Berlin to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II on May 9.

"I'm very disappointed. This is lawlessness," said Vitaly Kuznetsov, a black-clad 44-year old biker and businessman from Moscow who was being turned back. "But we are certainly not going to give up the idea of celebrating May 9 in Berlin. Our goal is Berlin."

The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation from Polish authorities and condemned the actions, which it said bore witness to "a readiness for opportunistic reasons to rewrite history and in essence blaspheme the feats of those who saved Poland and the world from fascism."

It noted that "the border crossing was demonstratively strengthened by soldiers, as if they wanted to create the impression that the small group of Russian citizens going to Europe with the most noble aims present a 'threat" to the Polish state."

Polish authorities had said Friday that they would not let the bikers enter the country. They insisted the move was not political, but Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and other leaders have described the bikers' plans as a "provocation."

The leaders have not explained why they see the bikers as provocative. Polish activists who also oppose their entry into the country say they object to the bikers' strong support for the Russian annexation of Crimea and alleged support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

"This is not a normal bike club. They are tools in the hand of Vladimir Putin to make propaganda," said Tomasz Czuwara, spokesman for the Open Dialog Foundation, a Polish group that supports Ukraine. The German government has also expressed unease at the bikers and said they would not be welcome.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said that Germany had decided to revoke the Schengen visas of a small number of people after the government concluded that "there are some people we believe to be in the leadership of the Night Wolves who we do not believe are pursuing a legitimate aim with their actions in Germany."

Some 15 black leather-clad bikers had approached the border crossing between Brest, Belarus, and Terespol, Poland, on Monday morning. Five did not have visas and said they were just there to see their colleagues off.

One of the bikers, Andrei Bobrovsky said they were "thoroughly searched, to the last sock." Alexander Zaldostanov, leader of the Night Wolves, said they will make the run to Berlin anyway. "Other people who won't say they are Night Wolves will take this route and accomplish this mission that we were planning to do for the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory," he said on LifeNews, a Russian TV channel.

Not all Poles fear the Night Wolves. The head of a Polish bikers' group, Wiktor Wegrzyn, called the Polish opposition to the bikers "anti-Russia hysteria." After the Russian bikers were denied entry, about 100 Polish bikers on the Polish side of the border honked their horns and flashed their lights in protest.

They had gathered earlier Monday hoping to escort the Russians through Poland. Instead, some of them later drove to Warsaw and stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in place of the Russians. The Russian bikers left Russia on Saturday and on Sunday they paid homage in Russia at a memorial to Polish prisoners of war killed in the Katyn massacres by the Soviet Union during World War II.

Vanessa Gera and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Jim Heintz in Moscow, Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus, David Rising in Berlin, and Sergei Grits in Brest, Belarus, contributed to this report.

Greece likely to leave Euro zone in 12 mnths

28 April 2015 Tuesday

Around half of investors expect Greece to leave the euro zone within the next 12 months, a survey by German research group Sentix showed on Tuesday.

Sentix's euro zone breakup index for Greece shot up to 48.3 percent in April from 35.5 percent in March, suggesting one in two investors is skeptical about pledges to keep Athens in the single currency bloc.

"European politicians' promises to pursue the scenario of Greece keeping the euro are not taken at face value by about half of all investors," Sentix said in a statement.

Greece is weeks away from running out of cash, but talks with its European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders on more aid have been deadlocked over reform measures including pension cuts and labor market liberalization that Greece must implement.

"In 2012 (European Central Bank President) Mario Draghi calmed down investors with his ultimate commitment to the euro. But is his pledge still valid for Greece today?" Sentix said.

The breakup index for the euro zone as a whole climbed to 49.0 percent in April from 36.8 percent in March, driven by the increase in expectations that Athens would quit the bloc.

That put it at about the same level as during the peak of the euro zone debt crisis in 2012.

However, Sentix's index measuring the risk of contagion fell to a record low of 26.1 percent, meaning that investors do not generally expect the Greek debt crisis to spread to other parts of the euro zone.

The breakup survey covered 1,023 investors conducted April 23-25. It measures the percentage of investors that expect the euro zone to break up.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/158449/greece-likely-to-leave-euro-zone-in-12-mnths.

New Munich museum to explore city's past as Nazi birthplace

April 29, 2015

MUNICH (AP) — The German city of Munich is opening a new museum dedicated to exploring its past as the birthplace of the Nazi movement.

The Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism charts the rise of the Nazi party from its founding in the Bavarian capital in 1920, a year before Adolf Hitler became its leader.

German Culture Minister Monika Gruetters praised the city Wednesday for tackling what she called "the long repressed confrontation with the special role Munich played." Gruetters noted that Germany's effort to examine its past — which encompassed World War II and the murder of millions the Nazis considered unworthy of life — is getting harder by the year because the number of witnesses is dwindling.

The museum opens to the public on Thursday.

William and Kate mark 4th anniversary waiting for 2nd child

April 29, 2015

LONDON (AP) — Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge Wednesday marked their fourth wedding anniversary while waiting for the birth of their second child.

The former Kate Middleton is expected to give birth in the coming days. Palace officials have said she is due in late April without providing further details. Parking restrictions outside the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital where she is expected to give birth were extended for five more days Wednesday as the media and royal fans gather.

Officials had initially imposed the restrictions until April 30 but have now reserved them until May 5. They said the parking ban could be extended past that date if Kate has not given birth. William and Kate planned a low-key anniversary celebration at Kensington Palace unless she was required to go to the hospital.

Their first child, Prince George, was born at the Lindo Wing in 2013. The couple say they do not know the gender of the baby. British bookmakers say the public is betting this infant will be a girl. Under new laws governing succession, the new baby will be fourth in line for the British throne regardless of its sex behind Prince Charles, William, and George.

The prospect of a royal birth has brought international news media and royal enthusiasts to the hospital steps. They were briefly entertained by a lookalike couple dressed up as Charles and his wife Camilla.

Firebrand, survivor face off in UK's wildest election race

April 27, 2015

BRADFORD, England (AP) — Naz Shah is running for Parliament, but she is hardly a typical British politician. She grew up in poverty in a Pakistani-immigrant family, fled a teenage forced marriage and campaigned to free her mother, imprisoned for murder after poisoning an abusive partner.

Her rival, George Galloway, is a Scottish left-wing firebrand who has denounced U.S. senators, saluted Saddam Hussein and once appeared on a reality-TV show pretending to be a cat. Anyone who thinks Britain's election is dull hasn't been to Bradford West, the campaign's wildest race, where debate ranges from local schools and services to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and high-flown rhetoric collides with character attacks.

Caught in the middle are residents of one of Britain's poorest areas, who desperately want a representative who will create jobs and revive a downtown dominated by vacant buildings and discount stores.

"Our city center is ruined," said car salesman Wahid Ali. "People used to come from all over to shop in Bradford. Now they run." Bradford, 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of London, has had more ups and downs than the nearby Yorkshire Dales. The city is studded with the chimneys of 19th-century textile mills, fine civic buildings funded by Victorian-era manufacturing wealth — and crumbling structures left behind when industry declined and money ran short.

In the 20th century, the city's factories drew immigrants from South Asia — chiefly from Pakistan — who have made Bradford famous for its Asian restaurants, shops and bakeries. Almost a quarter of Bradford's population has roots in the Subcontinent, and in Bradford West it's even more.

Like many working-class communities, Bradford was long a Labor Party stronghold. Clan-based politics imported from Pakistan helped deliver solid bloc votes for approved Labor candidates. That changed in 2012 when Galloway — a former Labor lawmaker who was expelled from the party for encouraging British soldiers not to fight in Iraq — won a special election with a campaign that attracted strong support from women, young voters and the Muslim community.

With typical bravado, Galloway branded his victory the "Bradford Spring." That 2012 result can be seen as an early warning sign of the fracturing of British politics — a dominant factor in this election. The big Labor and Conservative parties — which both hope to win power on May 7 — are losing votes to anti-establishment upstarts, including Scottish nationalists and the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party.

"Working-class people have become disillusioned with Labor," said Jason Smith, UKIP candidate in the neighboring seat of Bradford South. "In Bradford West, they're looking towards George Galloway. In Bradford South, they're looking towards UKIP."

Galloway is nationally famous, and brings a dose of political celebrity to Bradford. Posters of his face are plastered across town, and he drives around in an open-topped double-decker bus decorated in the green and red of his Respect Party, blasting rap music.

Some of the big campaign issues here are the same as in the rest of Britain — the economy, housing, health care — but the race has a unique local flavor. Galloway, 60, paints himself as the champion of the city's Muslim communities. He talks about local education, unemployment and his efforts to build a new shopping mall — but also about how he defied Israeli authorities and delivered aid to blockaded Gaza.

Labour hopes Galloway has met his match in Bradford-born Shah, who began her campaign by telling her remarkable life story in an article for a local newspaper. Shah, 41, described how her father abandoned the family in poverty when she was 6, how she was sent to Pakistan at 12, was married against her will at 15. And how she was left to care for her young siblings after her mother was jailed for murder.

Shah eventually left her husband, campaigned with women's groups to get her mother's sentence reduced, and built a career working for charities and Britain's health service. She said she was running for office because "if I've learnt anything, I have learnt that through compassion we can change the world."

It didn't take long for the race to turn nasty. Galloway accused Shah of exaggerating her personal story. From Pakistan, he obtained a copy of her marriage certificate that he says shows Shah was 16, not 15, when she married. He called her account a "slander" on the Pakistani community.

Shah says she had two wedding certificates — one at 15 and one drawn up when she was 16, old enough for the union to be recognized in Britain. Others say her age hardly matters: A forced marriage is a forced marriage.

Labor has accused Galloway of breaking election law with his personal attacks, and police are investigating alleged smears of Shah on a website — though not one run by Galloway or his party. Galloway denies resorting to dirty tricks.

"If you make your life story your election platform," he said, "you have to make sure you get your life story right." Shah, in turn, has called Galloway an "absentee MP" — echoing critics who call him a showman, too busy with his media career to spend much time in his constituency or in Parliament. He has regular TV shows on Russia Today and Iran-backed Press TV, and for years hosted a national talk-radio program.

Millions in Britain also know him for his 2006 appearance on "Celebrity Big Brother," in which he performed interpretive dance and lapped imaginary milk while pretending to be a cat. "I did support him last time, support him for the values that he has — but what he's done for Bradford I've got no idea," said Zahid Parvez, who runs a large bakery making naan bread, cakes and Asian sweets.

Galloway dismisses claims of absenteeism as "Labor propaganda." "That's coming from the people who told you that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," he said. Iraq often comes up in conversations with Galloway, who has attracted controversy over his links to the late dictator Saddam Hussein. In 2005, he angrily denounced U.S. senators while appearing before a Washington committee that accused his political organization of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.N. oil-for-food allocations from Saddam.

During a visit to Iraq in 1994, Galloway was filmed telling Saddam, "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability." The word that comes up most often in discussions about Galloway in Bradford is "divisive."

"We're a really diverse city, and we want someone who celebrates that and brings those communities together, not someone that runs a campaign that's about guarding one community," said Matthew Halliday, owner of the Bradford Brewery brew-pub, who recently had a Twitter spat with Galloway.

Bookmakers say Galloway is the narrow favorite to win, but there are signs some of his 2012 supporters are returning to Labor. Shah said recently that voters should reject Galloway because "Bradford deserves better."

"We do not need a one-man Messiah to tell us how to come and fix up Bradford," she said. "We as a community have our own solutions."

Two passenger trains collide in South Africa

28 April 2015 Tuesday

At least one person was killed and several others injured after two commuter trains collided on Tuesday in South Africa's biggest city Johannesburg, train operator Metrorail and emergency services said.

Both trains were travelling from the capital Pretoria when one hit the other from behind, Metrorail spokeswoman Lillian Mofokeng told Talk Radio 702.

"We just do not know how it happened. We will be investigating that. There is an indication that people have been injured," she said.

Emergency service provider ER24 said in a statement the driver of one of the trains died on the scene and about 240 other people sustained injuries.

Paramedics were still attending to passengers and the number of injured people could rise, ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring told.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/158438/two-passenger-trains-collide-in-south-africa.

Burundi has 3rd day of protests against president

April 28, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Burundi's anti-government street demonstrations continued for a third day Tuesday as residents protest President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.

A heavy security presence prevented groups of angry protesters from reaching the center of the capital. Police watched as demonstrators in the suburbs of Bujumbura, the capital, burned tires and erected barricades in the streets. Some threw stones at the police.

In clashes the police have been shooting bullets, tear gas and water cannon, according to Human Rights Watch, which said in a statement late Monday that at least two people had been killed and several others wounded. The Burundi Red Cross said, however, that it has confirmed six deaths.

Burundian police on Monday arrested Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, a leading human rights activist and government critic, and also shut down an independent radio broadcaster, said Human Rights Watch. The ruling party denounced the anti-government protests in Bujumbura as "nothing short of rebellion," in a statement Monday.

Opposition leader Agathon Rwasa on Tuesday condemned the police for acting like the militia of the ruling party and said the street protests would continue until Nkurunziza respects the constitution. Nkurunziza first came to power in 2005 after being voted in by lawmakers. He then ran unopposed and was re-elected in 2010. His critics say another term for him is unconstitutional.

Presidential elections are scheduled for June 26 and tensions have been rising since January, with thousands of people fleeing to neighboring countries. More than 20,000 Burundians have gone to Rwanda and at least 4,000 more are in Congo, said the U.N.

The number of Burundians crossing into Rwanda rose sharply over the weekend, with more than 5,000 refugees entering Rwanda in two days, said Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman in Geneva for the U.N. refugee agency.

Those who oppose Nkurunziza running for a third term include members of his own party, lawmakers, the clergy, student groups and civic organizations. Many of those fleeing to Rwanda allege violence by the ruling party's youth wing, known as Imbonerakure.

Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.

Russia Launches Quietest Submarine in the World

Zachary Keck
April 29, 2015

Russia has launched what it claims to be the “quietest submarine in the world.”

This week, Admiralty Shipyards—a Russian defense company— held a ceremonial launching for its newest Varshavyanka-class diesel-electric submarines. Dubbed the Krasnodar, the vessel is the fourth of a planned six upgraded Kilo-class subs Russia is constructing under Project 636.3.

According to the company’s website, the commander of Russia's Navy, Viktor Chirkov, attended the ceremony, which was held in St. Petersburg on Saturday.

Previously, Russian state media outlets have said that the Varshavyanka-class are the “quietest in the world, and so was dubbed ‘black hole’ by NATO.”

The submarines pack a powerful punch, and are intended primarily for anti-shipping and anti-submarine warfare. “Armed with 18 torpedoes and eight surface-to-air Club missiles, Project 636.3 submarines are mainly intended for anti-shipping and anti-submarine missions in relatively shallow waters. They have an extended combat range and can strike surface, underwater and land targets,” Russia Today previously reported. The torpedoes are launched out of six 533-mm bays, which automatically reload every 15 seconds.

Fifty-two sailors are needed to operate the subs, which displace 3,100 tons and can maintain continuous patrol for 45 days, according to Naval-Technology.

Construction of the lead vessel of the class, the Novorossiysk, began back in August 2010. It was launched in November 2013. In November 2011, Moscow began building the second Varshavyanka-class submarine, dubbed the Rostov-on-Don. That was launched in June of last year.

At the ceremony on Saturday, Admiral Chirkov said that these first two Varshavyanka-class diesel-electric submarines are currently undergoing deep water trials in the Arctic Sea, but that both would enter into permanent service for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet by the end of the year.

Eventually, all six of the Varshavyanka-class subs will enter service with the Black Sea Fleet. The Black Sea Fleet’s main force is stationed out of Sevastopol, Crimea. However, Russian media outlets have indicated that these six subs’ home base will be the port of Novorossiysk, Russia.

After years of neglect, Russia has embarked on an ambitious submarine-building program as part of its larger military modernization. As Defense News reported earlier this year, “Four different kinds of submarines are under construction and more are coming.”

Perhaps most notably among these is the new Borei-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), which Russian state media outlets have claimed are the “the planet’s most advanced nuclear deterrence tool.” The Borei-class SSBNs, which will form the backbone of the sea leg of Russia’s nuclear triad, are 170 meters long and 13.5 meters wide. They are armed with 16 Bulava Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile, which have a range of over 9,000 kilometers.

Another one of Russia’s new submarines are the Yasen-class nuclear-attack submarines. The lead vessel from this class, the Severodvinsk, finally became operational last year. Rear Adm. Dave Johnson, the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) program executive officer (PEO) for submarines, was reportedly so impressed with the lead vessel from the Yasen-class that he had a model of it built.

“We’ll be facing tough potential opponents. One only has to look at the Severodvinsk, Russia’s version of a [nuclear guided missile submarine] (SSGN). I am so impressed with this ship that I had Carderock build a model from unclassified data,” Johnson said, USNI News reported.

Source: National Interest.
Link: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russia-launches-quietest-submarine-the-world-12765.

Tent cities thin out in Nepal capital but residents on edge

April 30, 2015

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Under a steady morning drizzle, hundreds of people lined up Thursday in Kathmandu hoping to board free government-provided buses to rural parts of the quake-hit country as food aid began to reach remote villages near the epicenter.

Tens of thousands of people have left the capital since Monday to check on relatives in rural areas or simply to get away from the aftershocks that have rattled the city since Saturday's magnitude-7.8 quake. The disaster killed more than 5,500 people and rendered thousands more homeless.

"I have to get home. It has already been so many days," said Shanti Kumari, with her 7-year-old daughter, who was desperate to check on relatives in her home village in eastern Nepal. "I want to get at least a night of peace."

Five days after the quake, tent cities in Kathmandu had thinned out, as overnight rainfall persuaded many people to return to their homes, even if they were damaged by the quake. The streets of the capital were slick with rain Thursday morning, the potholes were filled with water.

While residents remained on edge, life in the capital was slowly returning to the way it had been before the quake. Small snack shops were open. At a leather goods shop, a merchant brushed dust from a jacket on display. A man laid out carpets and rugs beneath an awning at a handicrafts store. Foreigners stood in line at a cellphone store.

"It's getting back to normal, but we're still feeling aftershocks. It still doesn't feel safe," said Prabhu Dutta, a 27-year-old banker from Kathmandu. He said he felt four aftershocks in the morning, including one that rattled the sliding glass doors of the bookshelf in his bedroom —"My morning wakeup notice," he said.

Dutta has been sleeping in his home, which has some cracks in the wall, for two nights, but the dozens of small aftershocks that he has felt since Saturday's huge quake make him uneasy. "I am worried about whether they will continue for a long time or whether it will calm down."

He said some people are returning to work, including at his bank, "but we can't concentrate. We roam around the office. We only have one topic of conversation: the earthquake." Many people in Kathmandu are going to the country fearing that a big aftershock is coming, he said. "They are afraid; everyone is afraid because the earthquakes haven't stopped fully."

On Wednesday, helicopters finally brought food, temporary shelter and other aid to villages northwest of Kathmandu in the mountainous Gorkha District near the epicenter. Entire clusters of homes there were reduced to piles of stone and splintered wood. Women greeted the delivery with repeated cries of "We are hungry!"

While the death toll in the village of Gumda was low — only five people were killed and 20 were injured among 1,300 residents — most had lost their homes and desperately needed temporary shelter, along with the 40-kilogram (90-pound) sacks of rice that were delivered Wednesday.

Meanwhile, at least 210 foreign trekkers and residents stranded in the Langtang area north of Kathmandu had been rescued, government administrator Gautam Rimal said. The area, which borders Tibet, is popular with tourists.

President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and discussed U.S. military and civilian efforts already underway to help Nepal, the White House said. The U.N. World Food Program warned that it will take time for food and other supplies to reach more remote communities that have been cut off by landslides.

"More helicopters, more personnel and certainly more relief supplies, including medical teams, shelter, tents, water and sanitation and food, are obviously needed," said the program's Geoff Pinnock, who was coordinating the flights.

Police said the official death toll in Nepal had reached 5,489 as of late Wednesday. That figure did not include the 19 people killed at Mount Everest — five foreign climbers and 14 Nepalese Sherpa guides — when the quake unleashed an avalanche at base camp.

Dutta, the banker, said that while many of Kathmandu's cement and concrete buildings survived with only minor damage, many of the older buildings, ones made of tile or wood or bricks, have been leveled.

"Things have to return to normal, but it will take time," he said. "No one is ready to do the work needed to recover because of the closeness of the deaths. There is still shock."

Associated Press writer Katy Daigle reported from Gumda, Nepal.

'We are hungry:' Aid reaches epicenter, Nepal toll tops 5000

April 29, 2015

GUMDA, Nepal (AP) — Hands pressed together in supplication, the Nepalese women pleaded for food, shelter and anything else the helicopter might have brought on an in-and-out run Wednesday to this smashed mountain village near the epicenter of last weekend's mammoth earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people.

Unlike in Nepal's capital, where most buildings were spared complete collapse, the tiny hamlets clinging to the remote mountainsides of Gorkha District have been ravaged. Entire clusters of homes were reduced to piles of stone and splintered wood. Orange plastic tarps used for shelter now dot the cliff sides and terraced rice paddies carved into the land.

"We are hungry," cried a woman who gave her name only as Deumaya, gesturing toward her stomach and opening her mouth to emphasize her desperation. Another woman, Ramayana, her eyes hollow and haunted, repeated the plea: "Hungry! We are hungry!"

But food is not the only necessity in short supply out here beyond the reaches of paved roads, electricity poles and other benefits of the modern world. These days, even water is scarce. Communication is a challenge. And modern medical care is a luxury many have never received.

Gumda is one of a handful of villages identified as the worst hit by Saturday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake, from which it will almost certainly take years to recover. As in many villages, though, the death toll in Gumda was far lower than feared, since many villagers were working outdoors when the quake struck at midday. Of Gumda's 1,300 people, five were killed in the quake and 20 more were injured.

As the helicopter landed Wednesday with 40-kilogram (90-pound) sacks of rice, wind and rain whipped across the crest of the mountain. Seeing the conditions, the U.N. World Food Program's Geoff Pinnock shouted over the roar of the propellers, "the next shipment has to be plastic sheets. These people need shelter more than they need food."

About 200 villagers huddled under a few umbrellas and plastic tarps as they waited to receive the aid, some with runny noses and chattering teeth. With the erratic Himalayan weather, aid workers are worried about keeping people warm, fed and safe.

"More helicopters, more personnel and certainly more relief supplies including medical teams, shelter, tents, water and sanitation and food are obviously needed," said Pinnock, who was coordinating the aid relief flights.

With 8 million Nepalese affected by the earthquake, including 1.4 million needing immediate food assistance, Pinnock said the relief effort would stretch on for months. "It doesn't happen overnight," he said.

Nepalese police said Wednesday the death toll from the quake had reached 5,027. Another 18 were killed on the slopes of Mount Everest, while 61 died in neighboring India, and China's official Xinhua News Agency reported 25 dead in Tibet.

The disaster also injured more than 10,000, police said, and rendered thousands more homeless. The U.N. says the disaster has affected 8.1 million people — more than a fourth of Nepal's population of 27.8 million — and that 1.4 million needed food assistance.

Planes carrying food and other supplies have been steadily arriving at Kathmandu's small airport, but the aid distribution process remains fairly chaotic, with Nepalese officials having difficulty directing the flow of emergency supplies.

About 200 people blocked traffic in the capital Wednesday to protest the slow pace of aid delivery. The protesters faced off with police and there were minor scuffles but no arrests were made. Police arrested dozens of people on suspicion of looting abandoned homes as well as causing panic by spreading rumors of another big quake. Police official Bigyan Raj Sharma said 27 people were detained for stealing.

But in a sign that life was inching back to normal, banks in Kathmandu opened for a few hours Wednesday and stuffed their ATMs with cash, giving people access to money. Thousands of people lined up at bus stations in the capital, hoping to reach their hometowns in rural areas. Some have had little news of family and loved ones since Saturday's quake. Others are scared of staying close to the epicenter, northwest of Kathmandu.

"I am hoping to get on a bus, any bus heading out of Kathmandu. I am too scared to be staying in Kathmandu," said Raja Gurung, who wanted to get to his home in western Nepal. "The house near my rented apartment collapsed. It was horrible. I have not gone indoors in many days. I would rather leave than a live a life of fear in Kathmandu."

In some heartening news, French rescuers freed a man from the ruins of a three-story Kathmandu hotel more than three days after the quake. Rishi Khanal, 27, said he drank his own urine to survive. Khanal had just finished lunch at a hotel on Saturday and had gone up to the second floor when everything suddenly started moving and falling. He was struck by falling masonry and trapped with his foot crushed under rubble.

"I had some hope but by yesterday I'd given up. My nails went all white and my lips cracked ... I was sure no one was coming for me. I was certain I was going to die," he told The Associated Press from his hospital bed on Wednesday.

Khanal said he was surrounded by dead people and a terrible smell. But he kept banging on the rubble all around him and eventually this brought a French rescue team that extracted him after being trapped for 82 hours.

"I am thankful," he said.

Associated Press writers Binaj Gurubacharya, Jerry Harmer and Rishi Lekhi in Kathmandu contributed to this report.

Australia wary of escalating rift after Indonesia executions

April 29, 2015

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia said it would withdraw its ambassador to Indonesia after two Australians were among eight drug traffickers executed by the Southeast Asian country on Wednesday, but was wary of escalating hostilities with its near neighbor despite a public outcry.

The executions by firing squad of the eight men — two Australians, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian — attracted wide international condemnation and intense Australian media coverage. The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said given that Indonesia has asked for clemency for its own nationals facing execution in other countries, "it is incomprehensible why it absolutely refuses to grant clemency for lesser crimes on its own territory."

But there was unexpected joy in the Philippines, where the government won an 11th-hour stay of execution for a Philippine woman also on death row on a drug conviction. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott — whose country has a pivotal but occasionally brittle relationship with Indonesia — reacted swiftly, announcing that Ambassador Paul Grigson would be recalled this week even before the executions of Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, were officially confirmed.

Australia, which has abolished capital punishment, had never before made such a move in retaliation for a citizen's execution. "We respect Indonesia's sovereignty, but we do deplore what's been done and this cannot be simply business as usual," Abbott told reporters.

Outraged Australians, meanwhile, called for a cut in foreign aid to Indonesia, less cooperation between the countries' police forces and a tourist boycott of the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Australia is angry that Sukumaran and Chan were executed despite having ongoing court appeals, and that Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ignored evidence of their rehabilitation during their 10 years in prison before rejecting their clemency applications.

Australia and Indonesia's testy relationship improved a year ago when Indonesian Ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema returned to Canberra six months after he was recalled over accusations that Australians tapped the cellphones of the former Indonesian president, his wife and eight ministers and officials in 2009.

Abbott said Wednesday that Indonesia, a developing country with a population more than 10 times larger than Australia's 24 million people, "will become more important as time goes on" to Australia. "I would say to people: Yes, you are absolutely entitled to be angry, but we've got to be very careful to ensure that we do not allow our anger to make a bad situation worse," Abbott said.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, however, did not rule out reducing Australia's foreign aid to Indonesia. Australia gives about 600 million Australian dollars ($480 million) a year to Indonesia and is the country's biggest donor after Japan.

In January, six convicted drug smugglers, including five from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Nigeria and Malawi, were executed at the same island prison, prompting the Netherlands and Brazil to recall their ambassadors.

Greg Fealy, an Australian National University expert on Indonesian politics, said the Netherlands and Brazil had demonstrated that countries could recall their ambassadors without triggering Indonesian retaliation.

But he said tying aid to the executions would be provocative. "There is a perception among Indonesians that Australia needs Indonesia more than Indonesia needs Australia," he said. Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo dismissed concerns that Indonesia had done lasting damage to international relationships with the executions this year.

"It's just a momentary reaction," Prasetyo told reporters Wednesday. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said in a statement that the execution of a second Brazilian citizen in Indonesia this year "marks a serious event in the relations between the two countries."

Michael Chan, brother of Andrew Chan, who became a Christian pastor during his decade in prison and married an Indonesian woman on Monday, reacted with anger to the executions. "I have just lost a courageous brother to a flawed Indonesian legal system," he tweeted.

In Manila, the stay of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso's execution sparked celebrations in a nation that has agonized in the past over executions and tragedies that befell poor Filipino workers abroad. About a tenth of the Philippines' 100 million people have been forced to leave their homeland in search of jobs and better opportunities.

Outside the Indonesian Embassy in the Philippine capital, about 250 people holding a candlelight vigil broke into applause in the wee hours after learning that Veloso, a 30-year-old mother of two, had escaped death.

Veloso, 30, was arrested in 2010 at the airport in the central Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, where officials discovered about 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of heroin hidden in her luggage. Prasetyo, the attorney general, said Veloso was granted a stay of execution because her alleged boss has been arrested in the Philippines, and the authorities there requested Indonesian assistance in pursuing the case.

Sukumaran and Chan were arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle more than 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin to Australia as part of a group dubbed the Bali Nine.

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jim Gomez, Teresa Cerojano, and Oliver Teves in Manila, Philippines, and Adriana Gomez-Licon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, contributed to this report.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Rebels seize northwest Syrian town as government retaliates

April 25, 2015

BEIRUT (AP) — Hard-line Syrian rebel groups seized a strategic town Saturday in northwestern Syria, sending government troops fleeing after intense clashes that have seen the opposition take nearly all of a crucial province.

The takeover prompted retaliatory government air raids in the town center — as many as 30 airstrikes according to one activist group — that left an unknown number of people killed and wounded. Among those wounded was a TV reporter for an opposition station who entered the town with the rebels.

If they can hold the town of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province, rebel fighters from Islamic factions — including the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front — will have gained in only a few days a gateway to the Mediterranean coast, a refuge of embattled President Bashar Assad, and cut government supply lines from the coast to northern and central Syria. The town is one of the last bastions of Assad's government in the area and fighting around it continued Saturday.

The offensive, which rebels have called the "Battle of Victory," comes less than a month after the provincial capital, also called Idlib, fell to the opposition. Opposition television station Orient News aired images inside the town showing rebel fighters milling in the town's central square, raising their black flag. Meanwhile, fighting continued Saturday in a sprawling agricultural plain south of the town, and activists said rebel fighters were gaining new ground.

A Twitter account affiliated with the Nusra Front posted pictures apparently from inside Jisr al-Shoughour Saturday, calling it "liberated." Other pictures posted on social media showed bodies of government troops piled in the street as rebels sat atop tanks in the town's center.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said the rebels completely controlled Jisr al-Shughour after government troops and allied forces fled south. The group said there were clashes on the outskirts of the town. A video the group posted showed civilians leaving the town accompanied by a number of government troops.

The government conceded its forces had left the town. A military official, quoted by Syrian state media, said government forces redeployed to surrounding villages to avoid civilian casualties after fierce battles with "armed terrorist groups" in Jisr al-Shughour.

Later, state TV said government aircraft targeted a convoy of fighters east of the town. But the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group that tracks the conflict, said the air raids were in the town center. The Observatory counted at least 30 raids in the town and its environs. The LCC said at least six raids were in a square in the town's center. There were no immediate casualty figures.

The Orient News television network, which was airing live coverage of the rebels' takeover, said one of its reporters was injured and its broadcast vehicle destroyed in one of the raids. The reporter, Ammar Dandash, emotionally told the broadcaster that he was returning to Jisr al-Shughour, his hometown, for the first time in years with the rebels. "Today I return to my home after four years of being deprived of it," he said, before he was injured.

Asaad Kanjo, an activist in touch with residents of the town, said most civilians had stayed indoors, fearing government retaliation. The Observatory said members of a government security agency also killed 23 detainees before they withdrew. Pictures shared on social media by the Nusra Front showed bodies of civilians piled in what they said was a local prison, near a hospital where fighters had earlier said government troops were taking cover.

Government fighters had reportedly also carried out a similar mass killing before withdrawing from Idlib city last month. The fight for Jisr al-Shughour began Wednesday and activists have said thousands of fighters took part in the offensive, which first targeted military facilities and checkpoints outside of town.

The town of Jisr al-Shughour was one of the first towns to rise against Assad's regime, but has largely remained under government control despite briefly falling to the rebels in early 2011. The government accused the rebels there of killing over 100 soldiers, a charge they denied.

Activists say the fall of the town is of also of symbolic significance because a military camp on the town's outskirts had been used to target much of Idlib's countryside, leading to many casualties. The Nusra Front and Syrian rebels have controlled the countryside and towns across Idlib province since 2012. After the fall of Idlib, the government moved its offices and staff to Jisr al-Shughour.

Assad has blamed Turkey for the fall of Idlib to Islamic fighters, saying Ankara provided "huge support" — logistical and military — that played the key role in the defeat of his forces. Syria's civil war, now in its fifth year, has killed some 220,000 people, and wounded at least 1 million. At least 4 million Syrians have become refugees in neighboring countries. Nearly double that figure are displaced inside Syria because of the conflict.

Kazakhstan goes to polls as president expected to win

April 26, 2015

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — Voters in Kazakhstan turned out in abundance at polling stations Sunday for a presidential election guaranteed to overwhelmingly reconfirm the incumbent, who has ruled over the former Soviet republic for more than 25 years.

The election is taking place against the backdrop of a slump in economic growth and an air of anxiety over unrest in the nearby countries of Ukraine and Afghanistan. Nursultan Nazarbayev, 74, wrote in an opinion piece before the election that the vote would give the elected president a clear mandate to lead the country through potentially troubled times.

"The upcoming election will strengthen the stability of Kazakhstan. This remains the main condition for the sustainable development of our country and completing the large-scale tasks of modernizing our economy and society," he wrote.

Nazarbayev's victory over his two nominal rivals, a trade union official and a Communist politician, is all but a formality. Polling stations are scheduled to remain open until 8 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).

Out of the several dozen voters questioned outside a polling station at a school in the business capital, Almaty, only two declared their intent to vote for Nazarbayev's rivals and the stability message appeared to have driven home.

"I am voting for Nazarbayev, because I need no changes in my life. I am happy with things as they are under the current authorities," said Daniyar Yerzhanov, 43. "We businessmen don't need the kind of democracy you get in Ukraine. We need stability and predictability."

Riding high on the back of its oil, gas and mineral wealth, Kazakhstan has posted healthy growth figures over the past two decades, with the exception of a notable blip during the global economic crisis in 2008.

However, low oil prices and the recession in neighboring Russia, a large trading partner that has been hit with international sanctions for its role in the unrest in Ukraine, are dampening performance.

All international financial organizations see the country continuing its growth trajectory this year and the next, but at a far less impressive rate than previously. The political unrest that led to the toppling of a Russia-friendly leader in Ukraine in 2014 sent ripples of alarm throughout authoritarian regions of the former Soviet Union. Kazakhstan has watched with dismay the war that ensued there as ethnic Russians were goaded by Moscow into mounting an armed insurrection.

Kazakhstan has its own substantial Russian minority and worries about the potential for such a large ethnic group to pursue a separatist agenda similar to that seen in east Ukraine. Nazarbayev did little campaigning for the election, but he did dwell intensely on rehearsing well-worn refrains on social and ethnic harmony.

The weekend presidential election was preceded Thursday by a congress of the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan, a talking shop devoted to cultivating national unity. At the event, Nazarbayev declared that the authorities would "robustly prevent any form of ethnic radicalism, regardless from where it arises."

Nazarbayev will be almost 80 when the next presidential term comes to a close, and many worry whether his health will hold out. No clear succession plan is in place and with all semblance of political competition having been snuffed out by the authorities, uncertainty is strong.

One fear is that a successor to Nazarbayev could seek to cheaply bolster their mandate by striking a populist nationalist chord. Those worries appeared not to faze voters in Almaty, however. "There are no alternatives to him. And he is taking Kazakhstan along the right path," said government employee Yelena Burlakova, 44. "His age is of no concern. As long as he is breathing, we will vote for him."

With no real alternative candidates on offer, anybody opposing Nazarbayev is left only with the option of not voting at all. "A campaign of brainwashing has taken place over the past quarter century and no alternative can and will be offered," said artist Arman Bektasov, 30. "The people of Kazakhstan have only one choice. What is the point of voting if the outcome has already been decided?"

Italy marks 70th anniversary of anti-Nazi uprising

April 25, 2015

ROME (AP) — Italy on Saturday celebrated the 70th anniversary of a partisan uprising against the Nazis and their Fascist allies near the end of World War II.

President Sergio Mattarella marked Liberation Day by laying a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. The anniversary marks the day in 1945 when the Italian resistance movement proclaimed an insurgency as the Allies were pushing German forces out of the peninsula.

Within days, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who headed a Nazi puppet state in northern Italy, was captured, shot and hung by his feet in a Milan square, along with his mistress. "He was on a train going to Switzerland disguised as a German," recalled George Bria, an Associated Press correspondent who covered the Allied push into Italy. "Plain, ordinary German soldier, with his mistress and some other fascist officials, also disguised. Well, the partisans got wind of this and they captured them."

Bria did not witness the spectacle, but arrived in Milan a few days later and viewed the bodies in a somewhat more dignified setting. "He was in an improvised morgue, on the floor naked with his mistress beside him, naked. Like cords of wood. Just naked on the floor like that," Bria, 99, told AP in a recent interview.

Bria witnessed several historic events between the liberation of Rome in June 1944 and that of the country 10 months later. "After the capture of Rome, it took a long time to get the Germans out of there. They were fighting bitterly to keep us occupied, to keep the troops there so they didn't go over onto the Western front," said Bria.

German forces surrendered in Italy just over a week before signing a total and unconditional surrender to Allied Forces in Europe on May 7, 1945.

Bria was interviewed in Manhattan, New York City, by former AP writer Michael Oreskes.

Mustafa Akinci elected leader of breakaway Turkish Cypriots

April 26, 2015

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Mustafa Akinci, a veteran politician with a strong track record of reaching out to rival Greek Cypriots, was elected Sunday as leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots in ethnically divided Cyprus, pledging to focus his energy on breaking decades of stalemate and achieving an accord reunifying the small island nation.

Akinci handily defeated hard-line incumbent Dervis Eroglu with 60.5 percent of the vote, final official results showed. The turnout was just over 64 percent of about 177,000 registered voters. Akinci is seen as a moderate who can propel forward stalled reunification talks that are expected to resume next month. Akinci rode a wave of discontent with five years of rule by Eroglu, who failed to rally right-wing supporters.

"We achieved change and my policy will be focused on reaching a peace settlement," Akinci told thousands of exuberant supporters at a victory rally. "This country cannot tolerate any more wasted time."

Akinci said that he had already spoken to Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and both men agreed to meet soon. "Anastasiades and I are the same generation ... if we can't solve this now, it will be a tremendous burden on future generations," said Akinci, adding that voters answered those who accused him of being a sell-out to Greek Cypriots.

U.N. envoy Espen Barth Eide congratulated Akinci on his win and "welcomed his commitment to resuming negotiations as soon as possible," the U.N. said in a statement. Eide will return to the island early next month to prepare for the resumption of talks that Anastasiades put on hold following a clash over rights to the island's offshore natural gas reserves.

Anastasiades tweeted late Sunday that Akinci's election win is "a hopeful development for our common homeland," adding that he looks forward to meeting him. Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and maintains more than 30,000 troops in the north. Cyprus is a European Union member, but only the internationally recognized south enjoys benefits.

With his win, Akinci, 67, capped a remarkable comeback after spending years in the political wilderness. He built his political reputation during a 14-year stint as mayor of the Turkish Cypriot half of the capital Nicosia from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. During that time, he collaborated with his Greek Cypriot counterpart on an architectural plan for a future reunified capital that earned international accolades.

Since that time, he has held several government posts, led and helped found left-wing political parties. "Akinci's election was not so much a referendum on a Cyprus peace deal, but rather on Eroglu's failed leadership," said Erol Kaymak, political science professor at East Mediterranean University.

Eroglu's blatant string-pulling coupled with the big political parties' failure to rally supporters amid infighting had soured many voters who opted for a candidate they saw as untainted by scandal, Kaymak said.

Many jaded Turkish Cypriots remain skeptical whether a peace deal is anywhere near following decades of false hopes. But Akinci's election does bode well for the U.N.-brokered peace talks. He supports the island's reunification as a federation, unlike Eroglu's unyielding pursuit for a separate Turkish Cypriot state merging with Greek Cypriots in a looser partnership. Separate Turkish Cypriot statehood rankles with the vast majority of Greek Cypriots who see that as legitimizing an armed land-grab.

Akinci is also willing to discuss practical steps on building confidence between the two sides that would run parallel to negotiations. "We feel that we have gotten rid of the old guard and the status quo. Akinci is our very last hope for a peace deal. If he can't do it, no one can," said 33-year-old Cim Seroydas wearing an olive wreath on her head and clutching a glass of champagne.

A key step is opening up Varosha, a Greek Cypriot suburb of the eastern coastal town of Famagusta that had morphed into a virtual ghost town after being fenced off and kept in the Turkish army's control since the 1974 war.

Varosha would open up under U.N. control in exchange for the opening up of Famagusta port to international traffic and allowing direct flights into the north's main airport. Proponents of the plan have said rebuilding Varosha would be an economic boon to both sides, as rebuilding the suburb would bring in many millions in investments and put thousands to work.

Kaymak said it's still unclear whether Turkey will throw its full support behind Akinci. The discovery of gas off the island's coast has also raised the stakes in any peace deal, possibly helping to forge new energy-based partnerships in a region wracked by conflict and instability.

Breakaway Turkish Cypriots vote for leader in runoff

April 26, 2015

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Breakaway Turkish Cypriots are voting Sunday for a leader in a runoff that pits moderate Mustafa Akinci against hard-line incumbent Dervis Eroglu.

The poll will determine who Turkish Cypriots will entrust to represent them in delayed talks aimed at reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus. The talks, which have been on hold since October, are expected to resume in May.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece. A Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence is recognized only by Turkey, which maintains more than 30,000 troops in the north. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the internationally recognized south enjoys membership benefits.

In the tight first round last week, Eroglu edged Akinci by a little over a percentage point after losing much support to his former top adviser Kudret Ozersay. Akinci, who is running as an independent, carries momentum into the runoff after clinching the nominal backing of a left-wing party whose own candidate finished third in the first round.

The 67-year-old Akinci supports the island's reunification as a federation. Eroglu, 78, is a staunch proponent of a separate state for Turkish Cypriots that he envisions merging with Greek Cypriots in a looser partnership.

"I believe tomorrow a new era will begin, "Akinci said as he cast his ballot. "No one can prevent change if its time has come." Eroglu said after voting that the election result will make clear the people's will.

Yucer Yuruk, 39, said he's hopeful the election result will boost chances of a peace accord despite decades of dead-ends and false hopes. "If they want, they can solve it in one day," Yuruk said. Hasan Can, 19, said the election could bring about a new leadership voice that Turkish Cypriots seek. But Can, who said he has lived on both sides of the divide, is more cautious about the prospects for a reunification deal amid what he sees as lingering mistrust.

The discovery of gas off the island's coast has raised the stakes in a reunification accord. A deal could ease Turkey's bid to join the EU and allow for tighter security cooperation on NATO's southern flank. It may also help forge new energy-based partnerships in a region racked by conflict and instability.

Togo counts votes as president seeks third term

April 26, 2015

LOME, Togo (AP) — Togo's election officials added up results Sunday after voting in the presidential election that appeared to have a low turnout.

President Faure Gnassingbe is seeking a third term against four opposition challengers. Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 when he succeeded his father, who died after 38 years in office. The family has ruled this West African nation for nearly 50 years.

Some 3.5 million people were registered to vote on Saturday, though the turnout was light in Lome, the capital. Counting at polling stations began after polls closed Saturday at 4 p.m. In Lome, opposition supporters gathered outside several stations, eager to observe the process and ensure no rigging took place.

Several supporters recalled Gnassingbe's first election in 2005, which was marred by serious allegations of fraud. At some polling stations that year, soldiers burst in and made off with ballot boxes.

"We came to follow the counting to expose those thieves that cheat us at every election," said 42-year-old Elise Awoussi. "This year, we'll ensure they'll have a hard time doing that." The leading opposition candidate also said he would be watching the process closely.

"We're keeping a cool head as we await the results, and then we'll see. I ask everyone to stay calm," Jean-Pierre Fabre said. "If the ruling party wants to try a coup, it won't work." The electoral commission officially has six days to announce the results although preliminary results are expected later Sunday.

Nigeria recalls diplomats from South Africa over attacks

April 26, 2015

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria is recalling its top diplomats in South Africa because of "ongoing xenophobia targeting foreigners," according to a government statement.

Seven people have been killed in the attacks in South Africa that began three weeks ago. Property has been destroyed and the violence "created fear and uncertainty in the minds of African migrants," according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

Nigeria's ambassador in Pretoria, South Africa's capital, and the consul general in Johannesburg, the economic hub, will return to Nigeria for consultations, said the statement. The statement, dated Saturday, noted that some South Africans organized peace marches and that President Jacob Zuma condemned the attacks as did Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, whose comments allegedly incited the violence.

Nigerian legislators have called for the South African government to pay damages and a Nigerian rights group has complained to the International Criminal Court. South Africa on Sunday criticized the Nigerian government's action as an "an unfortunate and regrettable step," in a statement issued by the Department of International Cooperation and Cooperation.

The South African government said it and a wide range of civic organizations had been "decisive and unequivocal in condemning and rejecting the attacks on foreign nationals" and that through its "interventions, relative calm and order has been restored."

Separately, in a statement Sunday congratulating South Africa on the April 27 anniversary of its first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Liberia's foreign affairs ministry lamented that South Africa was going through "a difficult period." The statement said President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was praying Zuma would "find the courage and strength" necessary "to lead his people in the right direction in order to overcome this dark chapter."

AP writers Christopher Torchia in Johannesburg and Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia, Liberia, contributed to this report.

Boko Haram retakes NE town from Nigerian army

April 24, 2015

Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have forced hundreds of soldiers to flee Marte, a border town along the shores of Lake Chad, a local official and witnesses said.

"The terrorists, numbering over 2,000, appeared from various directions on Thursday and engaged the soldiers in Kirenowa town and adjoining communities in Marte," said Imamu Habeeb, a local community leader.

"They fought with soldiers over the night and the fight continued today (Friday), forcing hundreds of soldiers to flee," he added from Borno state capital Maiduguri.

Local fighter Shehu Dan Baiwa said the more than 2,000 fighters had been armed with bombs and tanks. "They used the weapons without restraint and succeeded in killing several people," he said.

This is the third time Boko Haram has seized control of Marte in restive Borno state, a key battleground of their six-year insurgency, which has killed more than 13,000 and left 1.5 million homeless.

The city is among several retaken in recent weeks by Nigeria's military, which has launched an offensive against the Islamists as part of a regional operation supported by Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

But Boko Haram have been fighting back, and Nigerian troops were also forced to retreat from Boko Haram's Sambisa Forest stronghold this week after a landmine blast killed one soldier and three vigilantes.

A senior local politician confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that the insurgents had retaken Marte.

"We lost many (people) because some of our people that fled to Chad and Cameroon have return after Nigerian troops recovered the town recently," he added.

A senior military official confirmed the attack on Marte, but refused to say whether Boko Haram had retaken the town, describing the army's retreat as "strategic".

Protests after Burundi leader is nominated for a third term

April 26, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Hundreds of people in Burundi protested in the capital Sunday after the country's ruling party nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term.

There were clashes between protesters and armed police in Bujumbura, the nation's capital. Police fired tear gas to break up crowds and also blocked access to some parts of the city. Watchdog groups and observers had warned of possible unrest if Nkurunziza decided to again. Thousands of Burundians have already fled the country ahead of presidential elections on June 26.

Burundi's constitution stipulates that a president can only serve for two terms, but Nkurunziza's party says he is eligible for another term as popularly elected president because for his first term he was elected by lawmakers.

Critics say this is not a proper interpretation of the law and that he should not get a third term. The U.S. government has criticized the ruling party's decision. "With this decision, Burundi is losing an historic opportunity to strengthen its democracy by establishing a tradition of peaceful democratic transition," the State Department said in a statement.

More than 10,000 Burundians have fled to neighboring Rwanda citing fears of election violence. Many of those in Rwanda say they left because of growing pressure to support Nkurunziza's party, which is known by its initials CNDD-FDD. Others alleged violence by the ruling party's youth wing, known as Imbonerakure, according to the U.N. refugee agency.Hundreds in Burundi are protesting against the ruling party's decision to nominate the president to run for a third term.

Burundi president nominated by ruling party for third term

April 26, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Burundi's ruling party on Saturday nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza to be its candidate for a third term in elections on June 26, a move expected to stoke political tensions.

The party announced Saturday that Nkurunziza had been nominated unanimously and unopposed during a retreat for party leaders. On the streets of Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, armed police were immediately deployed after the announcement.

Burundi's constitution stipulates that a president can only serve for two terms, but Nkurunziza's party says he is eligible for another term as popularly elected president because for his first term he was elected by lawmakers. Critics say this is not a proper interpretation of the law and he should not serve a third term.

Washington decried the move. In a statement, the U.S. State Department said it "deeply regrets the decision." ''With this decision, Burundi is losing an historic opportunity to strengthen its democracy by establishing a tradition of peaceful democratic transition," the statement said.

More than 10,000 Burundians have fled to neighboring Rwanda citing fears of election violence. Many of those in Rwanda say they left because of growing pressure to support Nkurunziza's party, which is known by its initials as CNDD-FDD. Others alleged violent activities by the ruling party's youth wing, known as Imbonerakure, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Recently opposition groups have mounted pressure on Nkurunziza to retire, with some staging street protests against a third term. Police have used force to break up the rallies. Earlier on Saturday before the ruling party announced its decision, opposition leader Agathon Rwasa urged Nkurunziza not to stand for another term, warning that any attempt to stay in power would destabilize the country. Rwasa told an independent radio broadcaster that Burundi is likely to descend into violence if the ruling party and the opposition do not start negotiations.

Nkurunziza came to power in 2005 after a peace process that ended civil war in Burundi, which has a history of ethnic strife. Last week U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said Burundi was "at a crossroads," warning that failure to hold free elections could return Burundi to what he called a "deeply troubled, tragic and horrendously violent past."

Associated Press writers Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, and Edmund Kagire in Kigali, Rwanda, contributed to this report.