Iraq official: 500 killed, 8,000 fled as Ramadi fell to IS

May 18, 2015

DOHUK, Iraq (AP) — A spokesman for the governor of Iraq's Anbar province said Monday that about 500 people — both civilians and Iraqi soldiers — are estimated to have been killed over the past few days as the city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State group.

The estimates follow a shocking defeat as Islamic State seized control of the Anbar provincial capital on Sunday, sending Iraqi forces fleeing in a major loss despite the support of U.S.-led airstrikes targeting the extremists.

Bodies, some burned, littered the streets as local officials reported the militants carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians. Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers gripping onto their sides.

"We do not have an accurate count yet," said the spokesman, Muhannad Haimour. "We estimate that 500 people have been killed, both civilians and military, and approximately 8,000 have fled the city." The estimates are for the past three days, since Friday, when the battle for the city reached its final stages. The 8,000 figure is in addition to the enormous exodus in April, Haimour said, when the U.N. said as many as 114,000 residents fled from Ramadi and surrounding villages at the height of the violence.

Local officials have said that IS carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians. With defeat looming, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had ordered security forces not to abandon their posts across Anbar province, apparently fearing the extremists could capture the entire desert region that saw intense fighting after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.

Earlier Sunday, al-Abadi ordered Shiite militias to prepare to go into the Sunni-dominated province, ignoring U.S. concerns their presence could spark sectarian bloodshed. By late Sunday, a large number of Shiite militiamen had arrived at a military base near Ramadi, apparently to participate in a possible counter-offensive, said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he remained confident about the fight against the Islamic State group, despite the setbacks like the loss of Ramadi. Kerry, traveling through South Korea, said that he's long said the fight against the militant group would be a long one, and that it would be tough in the Anbar province of western Iraq where Iraqi security forces are not built up.

Sunday's retreat recalled the collapse of Iraqi security forces last summer in the face of the Islamic State group's blitz into Iraq that saw it capture a third of the country, where it has declared a caliphate, or Islamic State. It also calls into question the Obama administration's hopes of relying solely on airstrikes to support the Iraqi forces in expelling the extremists.

"We welcome any group, including Shiite militias, to come and help us in liberating the city from the militants. What happened today is a big loss caused by lack of good planning by the military," a Sunni tribal leader, Naeem al-Gauoud, told The Associated Press.

He said many tribal fighters died trying to defend the city, and bodies, some charred, were strewn in the streets, while others had been thrown in the Euphrates River. The final IS push to take Ramadi began early Sunday with four nearly simultaneous bombings that targeted police officers defending the Malaab district in southern Ramadi, a pocket of the city still under Iraqi government control, killing at least 10 police and wounding 15, officials said. Among the dead was Col. Muthana al-Jabri, the chief of the Malaab police station. Later, three suicide bombers drove their explosive-laden cars into the gate of the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province, killing at least five soldiers and wounding 12, the officials said.

The extremists later seized Malaab after government forces withdrew, with the militants saying they controlled the military headquarters. A police officer who was stationed at the headquarters said retreating Iraqi forces left behind about 30 army vehicles and weapons that included artillery and assault rifles. He said some two dozen police officers went missing during the fighting. The officer and the other officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

On a militant website frequented by Islamic State members, a message from the group claimed its fighters held the 8th Brigade army base, as well as tanks and missile launchers left behind by fleeing soldiers. The message could not be independently verified by the AP, but it was similar to others released by the group and was spread online by known supporters of the extremists.

Last week, the militants swept through Ramadi, seizing the main government headquarters and other key parts of the city. It marked a major setback for the Iraqi government's efforts to drive IS out of areas the group seized last year. Previous estimates suggested the Islamic State group held at least 65 percent of the vast Anbar province.

Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters have made gains against the Islamic State group, including capturing the northern city of Tikrit. But progress has been slow in Anbar, a Sunni province where anger at the Shiite-led government runs deep and where U.S. forces struggled for years to beat back a potent insurgency. American soldiers fought some of their bloodiest battles since Vietnam on the streets of Ramadi and Fallujah.

Contested Iraqi city of Ramadi falls to Islamic State group

May 18, 2015

BAGHDAD (AP) — The contested city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State group on Sunday, as Iraqi forces abandoned their weapons and armored vehicles to flee the provincial capital in a major loss despite intensified U.S.-led airstrikes.

Bodies, some burned, littered the streets as local officials reported the militants carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians. Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers gripping onto their sides.

"Ramadi has fallen," said Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the governor of Anbar province. "The city was completely taken. ... The military is fleeing." With defeat looming, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security forces not to abandon their posts across Anbar province, apparently fearing the extremists could capture the entire desert region that saw intense fighting after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.

Sunday's retreat recalled the collapse of Iraqi security forces last summer in the face of the Islamic State group's blitz into Iraq that saw it capture a third of the country, where it has declared a caliphate, or Islamic State. It also calls into question the Obama administration's hopes of relying solely on airstrikes to support the Iraqi forces in expelling the extremists.

Earlier Sunday, al-Abadi ordered Shiite militias to prepare to go into the Sunni-dominated province, ignoring U.S. concerns their presence could spark sectarian bloodshed. By late Sunday, a large number of Shiite militiamen had arrived at a military base near Ramadi, apparently to participate in a possible counter-offensive, said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout.

"We welcome any group, including Shiite militias, to come and help us in liberating the city from the militants. What happened today is a big loss caused by lack of good planning by the military," a Sunni tribal leader, Naeem al-Gauoud, told the Associated Press.

He said many tribal fighters died trying to defend the city, and bodies, some charred, were strewn in the streets, while others had been thrown in the Euphrates River. Ramadi mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisi said that more than 250 civilians and security forces were killed over the past two days, including dozens of police and other government supporters shot dead in the streets or their homes, along with their wives, children and other family members.

The U.S.-led coalition said Sunday it conducted seven airstrikes in Ramadi in the last 24 hours. "It is a fluid and contested battlefield," said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. "We are supporting (the Iraqis) with air power."

The final push by the extremists began early Sunday with four nearly simultaneous bombings that targeted police officers defending the Malaab district in southern Ramadi, a pocket of the city still under Iraqi government control, killing at least 10 police and wounding 15, authorities said. Among the dead was Col. Muthana al-Jabri, the chief of the Malaab police station, they said.

Later, three suicide bombers drove their explosive-laden cars into the gate of the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province, killing at least five soldiers and wounding 12, authorities said.

Fierce clashes erupted between security forces and Islamic State militants following the attacks, and the extremists later seized Malaab after government forces withdrew, with the militants saying they controlled the military headquarters.

A police officer who was stationed at the headquarters said retreating Iraqi forces left behind about 30 army vehicles and weapons that included artillery and assault rifles. He said some two dozen police officers went missing during the fighting.

The officer and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to talk to journalists. On a militant website frequented by Islamic State members, a message from the group claimed its fighters held the 8th Brigade army base, as well as tanks and missile launchers left behind by fleeing soldiers. The message could not be independently verified by the AP, but it was similar to others released by the group and was spread online by known supporters of the extremists.

Last week, the militants swept through Ramadi, seizing the main government headquarters and other key parts of the city. It marked a major setback for the Iraqi government's efforts to drive the militants out of areas they seized last year. Previous estimates suggested the Islamic State group held at least 65 percent of the vast Anbar province.

On Friday, with Ramadi on the brink of collapse, the U.S. military command downplayed IS gains there, describing them as fleeting. "We've seen similar attacks in Ramadi over the last several months which the (Iraqi security forces) have been able to repel," said Marine Brig. Gen. Thomas D. Weidley, chief of staff for the campaign fighting the militants, adding that the U.S. was confident the Iraqi government will be able to take back the terrain it lost in Ramadi.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he remained confident about the fight against the Islamic State group, despite the setbacks like the loss of Ramadi. Kerry, traveling through South Korea, said that he's long said the fight against the militant group would be a long one, and that it would be tough in the Anbar province of western Iraq where Iraqi security forces are not built up.

Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters have made gains against the Islamic State group, including capturing the northern city of Tikrit. But progress has been slow in Anbar, a Sunni province where anger at the Shiite-led government runs deep and where U.S. forces struggled for years to beat back a potent insurgency. American soldiers fought some of their bloodiest battles since Vietnam on the streets of Ramadi and Fallujah.

U.S. troops were able to improve security in the province starting in 2006 when powerful tribes and former militants turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, a precursor to the Islamic State group, and allied with the Americans.

But the so-called Sunni Awakening movement waned in the years after U.S. troops withdrew at the end of 2011, with the fighters complaining of neglect and distrust from the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef and Jon Gambrell in Cairo, Vivian Salama in Baghdad and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

Iraq sends troops to Ramadi, largely held by Islamic State

May 16, 2015

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's military has dispatched reinforcements to help its battered forces in Ramadi, a city now largely held by the Islamic State group after its militants swept across it the day before, an Iraqi military spokesman said Saturday.

The spokesman of the Joint Operations Command, Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim, told Iraqi state television that the U.S.-led coalition was supporting Iraqi troops with "painful" airstrikes since late Friday.

Ibrahim didn't give details on the ongoing battles, but described the situation on the ground as "positive" and vowed that the Islamic State group would be pushed out of the city "in the coming hours."

On Friday, the militants swept through Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, launching a coordinated offensive included three near-simultaneous suicide car bombs. The militants seized the main government headquarters and other key parts of the city.

Local officials said dozens of security forces and civilians were killed, mainly the families of the troops, including 10 police officers and some 30 tribal fighters allied with Iraqi forces. In a sign of how the latest advance is worrying Washington, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Friday, promising the delivery of heavy weapons, including AT-4 shoulder-held rockets to counter suicide car bombs, according to a U.S. Embassy statement.

The statement said both leaders agreed on the "importance and urgency of mobilizing tribal fighters working in coordination with Iraqi security forces to counter ISIL and to ensure unity of effort among all of Iraq's communities," using a different acronym for the group.

Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters have made gains against the Islamic State group, including capturing the northern city of Tikrit. But progress has been slow in Anbar, a vast Sunni province where anger at the Shiite-led government runs deep and where U.S. forces struggled for years to beat back a potent insurgency. American soldiers fought some of their bloodiest battles since Vietnam on the streets of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Thousands flee as IS group advances on Iraq's Ramadi

April 16, 2015

BAGHDAD (AP) — More than 2,000 families have fled the Iraqi city of Ramadi with little more than the clothes on their backs, officials said Thursday, as the Islamic State group closed in on the capital of western Anbar province, clashing with Iraqi troops and turning it into a ghost town.

The extremist group, which has controlled the nearby city of Fallujah for more than a year, captured three villages on Ramadi's eastern outskirts on Wednesday. The advance is widely seen as a counteroffensive after the Islamic State group lost the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, earlier this month.

Hundreds of U.S. troops are training Iraqi forces at a military base west of Ramadi, but a U.S. military official said the fighting had no impact on the U.S. soldiers there, and that there were no plans to withdraw them.

The fleeing Ramadi residents were settling in the southern and western suburbs of Baghdad, and tents, food and other aid were being sent to them, said Sattar Nowruz, an official of the Ministry of Migration and the Displaced.

The ministry was assessing the situation with the provincial government in order "to provide the displaced people, who are undergoing difficult conditions, with better services and help," Nowruz said.

Sporadic clashes were still underway Thursday, according to security officials in Ramadi. Government forces control the city center, while the IS group has had a presence in the suburbs and outskirts for months. They described Ramadi as a ghost town, with empty streets and closed shops.

Video obtained by The Associated Press showed plumes of thick, black smoke billowing above the city as fighter jets pounded militant targets. On the city outskirts, displaced residents frantically tried to make their way out amid the heavy bombardment.

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeted the IS group in Sjariyah, Albu-Ghanim and Soufiya, the three villages the extremists captured Wednesday, the officials added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.

Anbar's deputy governor, Faleh al-Issawi, described the situation in Ramadi as "catastrophic" and urged the central government to send in reinforcements. "We urge the Baghdad government to supply us immediately with troops and weapons in order to help us prevent the city from falling into the hands of the IS group," he told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said access to the city was limited but humanitarian workers were trying to verify the reports of fleeing residents. Prior to the current bout of fighting, some 400,000 Iraqis were already displaced, including 60,000 in Ramadi district, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Al-Bayan, the Islamic State group's English-language radio station, claimed IS fighters had seized control of at least six areas and most of a seventh to the east of Ramadi since Wednesday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites.

American troops fought some of their bloodiest battles in Anbar during the eight-year U.S. intervention, when Fallujah and Ramadi were strongholds of al-Qaida in Iraq, a precursor to the IS group. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to the militants, in January 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was visiting Washington on Wednesday, made no mention of the events in Ramadi. Instead he spoke optimistically about recruiting Sunni tribal fighters to battle the extremists, saying about 5,000 such fighters in Anbar had signed up and received light weapons.

The IS-run Al-Bayan station also reported that an attempt by Iraqi troops to advance on the Beiji oil refinery in Salahuddin province, about 250 kilometers (115 miles) north of Baghdad, was pushed back and that fighters "positioned themselves in multiple parts of the refinery after taking control of most of it," according to SITE.

Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the fighting around Beiji. On Monday, Oil Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said that Iraqi forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, had repelled an IS attack on Beiji over the weekend.

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press that there were no plans to evacuate U.S. troops from the Ain al-Asad air base, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of Ramadi — and stressed that the current fighting around Ramadi had no impact on the base. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Since January, hundreds of U.S. forces have been training Iraqi troops at the base.

Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Vivian Salama in Baghdad and Cara Anna in New York contributed to this report.

Shia militias refuse to stop looting in Tikrit

Monday, 06 April 2015

Iraqi security sources have said that the Shia militias in Tikrit have refused to stop mass looting and killings in the city recaptured from ISIS a couple of days ago, Jordan's Al-Sabeel newspaper reported on Sunday. It was said earlier that Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi had sent his forces to the city to end the looting, killing and destruction of houses and shops.

However, claim the sources, these particular militias refused to leave the city along with the "Popular Crowd" militia, which withdrew from the city on Saturday and handed over responsibility for security to the federal police.

Several international media reports allege that the Shia militias have carried out mass executions and widespread looting and destruction of property in Tikrit since it was recaptured last week. As many as 76 people were summarily executed by the militias, it is claimed; their bodies were dragged through the streets.

According to the Wall Street Journal, one Tikrit resident, Waleed Omar, fled the city during the fighting earlier this month. "This looting issue is 100 per cent true," he said, "and it means new suffering for the people of Tikrit." ISIS displaced people in Tikrit after committing horrible crimes against them, he added, and now the militias are looting and burning their homes.

The head of the provincial council of Salahuddin province, Ahmed Al-Kareem, told reporters, "Tikrit is chaotic and things are out of control. The police forces and officials there are helpless to stop the militias."

Both Al-Kareem and the governor of Salahuddin left Tikrit, the provincial capital, on Friday night, in protest at the failure of the Iraqi government to curb looting and murder. "Houses and shops were burnt after they stole everything," Al-Kareem told Reuters. Pointing out that hundreds of buildings have been set on fire, he said: "Our city was burnt down in front of our eyes. We cannot control what is going on."

Meanwhile, Deputy Iraqi Prime Minister Salim Al-Jabbour said that the deterioration of the situation in Diyala province, north-east of Baghdad, ended after an agreement with the head of Al-Sadri militias, in addition to other parties to the political process. Before this agreement, Shia militias were also engaged there in mass looting, property destruction and killing after recapturing the area from ISIS.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/17895-shia-militias-refuse-to-stop-looting-in-tikrit.

Iraq's Tikrit, free of the Islamic State, is a city in ruins

April 04, 2015

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — In Iraq's Tikrit, liberation from the Islamic State group comes at a heavy price, both in loss of life and in the sheer devastation the militants leave in their wake.

Much of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and once a bustling city north of Baghdad, now lies in ruins. Islamic State extremists captured it during a blitz last June that also seized large chunks of northern and western Iraq, along with a huge swath of land in neighboring Syria.

After a nearly 10-month Islamic State occupation, it took Iraqi forces and their allies, including Iranian-backed Shiite militias, a month of ferocious street battles to win the city back. They declared victory in Tikrit on Wednesday, and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes also helped turn the tide in the final weeks of the battle.

Today, the houses that still stand are pocked with bullet holes and Tikrit's streets are lined with potholes where mortars slammed down. The provincial headquarters in the downtown — now adorned with Shiite militia flags in place of the Islamic State group's black banner — is burned from fire and damaged from heavy fighting.

On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned that the military will start arresting and prosecuting those who loot abandoned Tikrit properties. He also urged security forces to quickly ensure that normalcy is restored so that Tikrit's residents, most of whom fled the Islamic State onslaught, can return home.

The looting was first reported within hours of the military victory but authorities have refrained from blaming anyone. A number of human rights organizations have accused the Shiite militias of carrying out revenge attacks on Sunnis in newly-recaptured towns, or destroying their homes so they can never return.

Some Shiite militias have set up checkpoints on the southern approaches of Tikrit, and stop passing cars to check for looted goods. A satellite image of Tikrit, released in February by the United nations, showed that at least 536 buildings in the city have been affected by the fighting. Of those, at least 137 were completely destroyed and 241 were severely damaged. The Iraqi offensive to recapture Tikrit also exacerbated previous damage, particularly in the city's southern neighborhoods where clashes were the most intense.

So much about life in Tikrit under the Islamic State group's rule remains unknown. On the city's outskirts, near Camp Speicher — a base once used by American forces — blood stains are splattered on a wall, next to a window offering a picturesque view of the Tigris River.

Government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists, say a mass grave was found on the camp's grounds with bodies of up to 1,700 Iraqi soldiers killed by the extremists in Tikrit and northern Iraq last June.

In the heart of the city, Iraqi policemen are out in full force, along with explosives experts working to clear remaining roadside bombs and booby traps left behind by the militants. Evidence of the damage caused by the bombs is everywhere — charred military vehicles and remains of cars bombs have yet to be collected from the city streets.

But elsewhere, there is little law and order, and the Shiite militias roam Tikrit streets freely, spray-painting their graffiti and slogans on buildings and homes. Much remains to be done before Tikrit residents, most of whom are Sunnis, can return. Services such as power and water are yet to be restored.

The government says police and local Sunni tribes eventually will be empowered to maintain law and order in Tikrit, and the militias are expected to leave. But that is still off in the future.

More than 800 land in Indonesia, Thailand in growing crisis

May 15, 2015

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — More than 800 migrants have landed on the shores of Indonesia and Thailand after being adrift at sea for weeks, authorities said Friday. They are among the few who have successfully sneaked past a wall of resistance mounted by Southeast Asian countries who have made it clear the boat people are not welcome.

Several thousand refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar — fleeing either poverty or persecution — are believed to be adrift on boats in the Andaman Sea in what has become a spiraling humanitarian crisis. In recent days, about 2,000 landed in Malaysia and Indonesia, but both countries then said they could not accept any more.

Fishermen, however, towed two boats to Indonesia's eastern Aceh province early Friday — one with nearly 700 people and another carrying 47, police said. The larger boat was on the verge of sinking when fishermen brought it to the fishing village of Langsa, according to Lt. Col Sunarya, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. He said everyone aboard was weak from hunger and dehydrated.

"Some of the people told police they were abandoned at sea for days and Malaysian authorities had already turned their boat away," Sunarya said. About 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Langsa, fishermen rescued the smaller boat carrying 47 Rohingya migrants, also dehydrated and hungry, said Aceh Tamiang police chief Dicky Sandoni. They were brought to a beach at Kuala Seruway village in Aceh's Tamiang district.

Separately, the Thai navy found 106 people, mostly men but including 15 women and two children, on a small island off the coast of Phang Nga province, an area known for its world-class scuba diving. "It's not clear how they ended up on the island," said Prayoon Rattanasenee, the Phang Nga provincial governor. The group said they were Rohingya migrants from Myanmar. "We are in the process of identifying if they were victims of human trafficking."

The plight of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya has worsened recently and in the last three years more than 120,000 members of the Muslim minority, who are intensely persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have boarded ships to flee to other countries, paying huge sums to human traffickers.

But faced with a regional crackdown on human trafficking, some captains and smugglers have abandoned their ships, leaving an estimated 6,000 refugees to fend for themselves, according to aid workers and human rights groups.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "alarmed by reports that some countries may be refusing entry to boats carrying refugees and migrants," according to a statement from his office Thursday. It said Ban urged governments in the region to "facilitate timely disembarkation and keep their borders and ports open in order to help the vulnerable people who are in need."

But the message from leaders of Southeast Asia on Thursday indicated that was not in the cards. "What do you expect us to do?" asked Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jafaar. "We have been very nice to the people who broke into our border. We have treated them humanely, but they cannot be flooding our shores like this."

"We have to send the right message," he said, "that they are not welcome here." Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said his country couldn't afford to host the refugees. "If we take them all in, then anyone who wants to come will come freely," he said. "Where will the budget come from?"

He had no suggestions as to where they should go, saying: "No one wants them." Denied citizenship by national law, Myanmar's Rohingya are effectively stateless. They have limited access to education or adequate health care and cannot move around freely. They have been attacked by the military and chased from their homes and land by extremist Buddhist mobs in a country that regards them as illegal settlers.

Cyprus leaders look to open 2 more crossings across divide

May 28, 2015

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The leaders of Cyprus' rival Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities on Thursday agreed to open two more crossing points across the island's north-south divide as reunification negotiations ramped up.

United Nations envoy Espen Barth Eide made the announcement after Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots Mustafa Akinci met for the second time after peace talks resumed this month following an eight-month pause.

Eide said the leaders agreed to look at opening more crossing points, as well as to implement other trust-building steps including interconnecting separate electricity grids and mobile telephone networks.

Cyprus was divided along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup aiming to unite the tiny east Mediterranean island with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared an independent state in the island's northern third, but it's recognized only by Turkey which keeps more than 35,000 troops there. Although Cyprus is a European Union member, only the internationally recognized south enjoys full benefits.

There are currently seven crossing points across the 180-kilometer (120-mile) U.N.-controlled buffer zone. The first opened 11 years ago after nearly three decades of the two sides' almost complete isolation from one another. The leaders didn't specify when the two new crossing points, in the island's northwest and southeast, would open.

The trust-building steps aim to inject more momentum into the talks and win over skeptics by underscoring the leaders' commitment to solving the decades-old problem. Anastasiades said the leaders are focused on delivering a swift peace accord that lives up to the expectations of Greek and Turkish Cypriots and "ensures that this state will fully comply with the European norms of other (EU) member states."

The leaders for the first time made a joint appeal for any information assisting a UN-facilitated search for some 2,000 Greek and Turkish Cypriots who disappeared during inter-communal violence in the 1960s and the 1974 invasion. The appeal came with a promise that any information will be kept strictly confidential.

The leaders also agreed to put together a committee on gender equality aiming to gather "the perspectives of both women and men" on a peace deal.

Croatian dilemma: Oil in the Adriatic, or tourism

May 28, 2015

MEDULIN, Croatia (AP) — Peter Fries has been coming to Croatia for years after falling in love with its pristine coastline, fresh seafood, mellow wine and friendly hosts.

With Croatia announcing it will allow oil drilling in the Adriatic sea, the 60-year-old German businessman is having second thoughts about his loyalty to this Mediterranean tourist haven known for glorious sunsets over sparkling seas and white pebble beaches shadowed by thick pine forests.

That picture-perfect image, he fears, could soon change with the construction of giant offshore oil rigs on the horizon. "This is a high-risk problem," Fries said in a warm breeze that stirred the sea's mirrored surface. "No one wants to swim or dive in a sea with pipelines, oil platforms and tankers."

Despite surging opposition to pumping crude in the waters of one of Europe's fastest-growing summer travel destinations, the Croatian government is determined to boost the state's poor finances by offering several exploration licenses to foreign energy companies.

The decision has deeply split the European Union's newest member state of some 4.3 million, a country still scarred by the 1990s Balkans wars and where the untouched beauty of the Adriatic is a matter of national pride.

Opponents warn that besides damaging the spectacular scenery, offshore drilling represents a grave environmental hazard, raising the risk of oil spills that could wreck tourism — the country's main source of income.

Supporters say pumping oil could bring billions of dollars to Croatia's troubled economy, which has been in recession for years. They add that drilling could ultimately help Europe reduce its reliance on Russian energy imports.

"This is an existential matter that will bring a better life to Croatian citizens," Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak told The Associated Press. The latest opinion polls indicate that 45 percent of Croats are against Adriatic oil drilling, while 40 percent are for it — with those in favor living mostly inland and far from the coast.

"The Adriatic is like a jewel that should not be touched," said Ivo Lorencin whose main income is renting rooms in a quiet bay in the northern Adriatic during the three-month summer peak season. "If the sea is destroyed, we all are destroyed."

Croatia's Adriatic tourism industry was already devastated once — during the war for independence from former Yugoslavia. The stunning medieval walled town of Dubrovnik was severely damaged by shelling, and broadcasts of warfare beamed around the world kept tourists away years after the conflict subsided.

Tourist numbers of about 11 million a year returned to pre-war levels in 2012, only after widespread rebuilding and a worldwide media campaign under the slogan: "The Mediterranean as it once was." The government believes that Croatia's strategic position between Europe's east and west could turn the country into a regional energy powerhouse, like Norway in the North Sea.

"Croatia will then become an energy exporter which will bring security of supplies to the region," Vrdoljak said. He said that environmental risks would be minimal because the latest EU safety standards would be applied, and most of the new offshore platforms would not be visible from the main coast.

"All studies say that the (oil) production is a lesser environmental risk than transportation by tankers that we now use to import oil," he said, adding that there was no need for a popular referendum demanded by the opposition, and hinted at by the country's prime minister.

The initial exploration, which will determine the quantities and profitability of oil production in the Adriatic, is set to start in June and last for five years before commercial pumping eventually begins.

There is little doubt that there are oil and gas reserves in the area. In neighboring Italy, dozens of offshore platforms currently operate, some syphoning crude. There are also 18 rigs on the Croatian side of the Adriatic that extract only gas, which is considered a much smaller environmental risk than oil.

Croatia's Greens are unimpressed by government's safety pledges. They have started a petition campaign entitled "Say NO to oil in the Adriatic, say YES to sustainable growth." "The risks are very high," said Mirela Holy, the leader of ORaH, a small Green party that started the campaign. "Alternatives are renewable energies, especially in the Adriatic, such as solar energy, windmills and small hydro power stations."

Opponents also say Croatia's tourist revenue of about 7.5 billion euros ($8.4 billion) a year far exceeds the potential financial benefits of oil exploration, estimated by the government at euros 160 million ($180 million) a year in licenses given to oil companies.

"In case of an accident, this (tourist revenue) will be completely destroyed," said Monica Frassoni, co-chair of the European Green Party, attending an environmental conference in Croatia's capital, Zagreb. "So, why the risk?"

Muhammadu Buhari takes over Nigeria in crisis

May 29, 2015

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Muhammadu Buhari takes over a nation in crisis Friday with an Islamic uprising that has made 1.5 million people homeless and coffers emptied by massive corruption.

Similar crises confronted him when he ruled briefly as a military dictator in the 1980s. The 72-year-old says a similar prescription more judiciously imposed by a "born-again democrat" can heal the woes of Africa's biggest nation, economy and oil producer.

Nigerians are hopeful that Buhari — the only leader believed not to have lined his pockets from the state treasury — can curb the graft that keeps a rich nation impoverished. With Nigeria so broke it's borrowing money to pay government workers, Buhari intends to retrieve ill-gotten gains to fund programs from education for girls to job creation for young people — seeking to address the roots of Boko Haram's northeastern insurgency. Nigerian newspapers are carrying unconfirmed reports that some politicians already have returned millions of dollars, in hopes of currying favor and avoiding scrutiny.

Buhari, the first Nigerian to oust a sitting president at the polls, has a wealth of international goodwill. Some 50 heads of state are expected at Friday's inauguration along with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, looking to mend fences broken under the discredited administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

The inauguration is being held in Abuja at Eagle Square, where a 2010 twin car bombing and grenade attack by oil militants killed 12 people at Independence Day celebrations. Buhari must decide how to deal with the militants who are threatening to renew attacks if he does not continue an amnesty program that has them paid to guard the installations they once attacked.

Jonathan, who allowed Boko Haram's nearly 6-year-old insurgency to flourish unhindered until this year and was seen as uncaring of the suffering it has imposed in the northeast of the country, won acclaim at home and abroad for graciously conceding defeat. There were fears of the kind of electoral violence that killed more than 1,000 people in the mainly Muslim north when Jonathan defeated Buhari in 2011 elections.

"You have changed the course of Nigeria's political history," Buhari told Jonathan when he handed over the report of his administration Thursday. "For that you have earned yourself a place in our history, for stabilizing this system of multiparty democracy and you have earned the respect of not only Nigerians but world leaders."

Political science professor Richard Joseph of Northwestern University said Buhari's victory has hopeful international implications. "The world desperately needs a victory against cultist jihadism. Nigeria (under Buhari) can provide it," he said. "In no other large country, with an almost equal number of Muslims and Christians, is such a process conceivable."

Buhari was a major general when he defeated another homegrown Nigerian Islamic group in the 1980s. Jonathan was forced to accept an international intervention from neighboring countries to curb Boko Haram this year as its uprising spread across Nigeria's borders. His government also hired foreign mercenaries to help train troops even as it halted a U.S. military training program last year.

Buhari has criticized the need for foreign troops in Nigeria, which has Africa's largest standing army, albeit demoralized and under-resourced by some plundering officers. "The answer to defeating Boko Haram begins and ends with Nigeria," he has said.

Burundi urges citizens to donate money to pay for elections

May 28, 2015

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Burundi's government is asking Burundians to donate money to pay for elections as some foreign donors warn of aid cuts if President Pierre Nkurunziza runs for a third term, a presidential spokesman said Wednesday.

Demonstrators were in the streets again Wednesday, holding leafy tree branches as peace symbols, confronting soldiers and demanding that Nkurunziza withdraw from the elections. Gervais Abayeho told The Associated Press that "a political vacuum in this country ... would be worse that a coup d'état," and that elections will happen whether or not Western governments help. He said the government has already set aside money for the June 26 elections but needs Burundians to give more for elections.

The president's effort to extend his stay in power has sparked almost daily street protests in which at least 20 people have been killed and at least 471 injured. An opposition party leader was gunned down on Saturday. The turmoil sparked a failed coup against Nkurunziza by some senior military officers.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council president said after an emergency meeting Wednesday that "the predominant opinion" of members is that Burundi's elections should not take place as scheduled in late June.

Lithuania's U.N. Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, who leads the council this month, said many members pointed to the unrest, tensions and flow of refugees in saying elections are not possible now. The council heard a briefing by U.N. envoy to Burundi, Said Djinnit, who is trying to facilitate talks between the government, opposition parties, and religious organizations. France's U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters the talks haven't resumed.

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete who chairs the East African Community which is holding a summit on May 31 on Burundi. Ban expressed hope that the regional leaders will help chart a way forward to end the political crisis, the U.N. spokesman said.

The controversy over elections led the presidency to call on its official Facebook page on Tuesday for "patriotic citizens" to donate voluntarily for elections. Belgium has already cut funding to Burundi amid the unrest, and Abayeho said France and the Netherlands have also indicated some aid will be suspended if Nkurunziza persists with his controversial bid for a third term.

Burundi, a poor country which exports mostly coffee and depends heavily on foreign aid, experienced an ethnic-based civil war from 1993 to 2003 in which at least 250,000 people died. Nkurunziza came to power in 2005 following the signing of the Arusha accords that ended the civil war, then was re-elected in 2010 unopposed after the opposition boycotted the elections. He maintains he is eligible for a third term because parliament elected him for the first term, and he was not popularly elected.

Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations

Crocodiles born in Sweden to be released in Cuban swamp

May 28, 2015

HAVANA (AP) — Ten young female crocodiles born in Sweden are to be released in their parents' former swampy home in Cuba after being returned to the Caribbean island.

The Skansen Zoo in Stockholm sent the reptiles to Cuba's National Zoo in April to help encourage reproduction of the protected species native to the island. Hiram Fernandez, a veterinarian at the Cuban zoo, says the reptiles will be released soon in Zapata Swamp, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of the capital. Their ranks have been thinned by hunting and diminishing habitat, with few examples of Crocodylus rhombifer still found in Zapata Swamp and Cuba's Isle of Youth.

Fidel Castro in the 1980s gave the crocodiles' parents, named Castro and Hilly, to Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov, who initially took them to Moscow.

Egypt repeating Turkey's 1960 history

17 May 2015 Sunday

Egypt is repeating a disdainful period of history that Turkey itself witnessed 55 years ago, when coup plotters executed an elected leader, Turkish premier said Saturday.

Addressing an election rally in the western Bursa province, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: "A disdainful, painful period that happened in Turkey 55 years ago is now being repeated in Egypt."

Davutoglu was referring to Turkey's 1960 military coup that saw the then Turkish premier, Adnan Menderes, executed.

Menderes was first jailed and then made to stand on trial before being executed along with two ministers, Hasan Polatkan and Fatin Rustu Zorlu, following the 1960 coup.

Davutoglu pledged that no president or prime minister would ever again be sent to the gallows in Turkey.

He also slammed a headline about the Morsi story posted on the Dogan Media Group's news website that allegedly said: "Mursi, president with 52 percent votes, sentenced to death."

The premier asked the meaning of choosing such a headline. "What do they mean? If they mean [to refer to] our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who became president with his 52 percent votes, then they should know that no president or prime minister will be sent to gallows again in these soils," Davutoglu said.

He pledged to protect democracy under any circumstances.

Later, Davutoglu told a Turkish network Saturday that Egypt could not go back to its pre-revolution era.

"No matter how much they want to revive the [Hosni] Mubarak era, it is impossible to go back now," he said, adding: "It is also impossible to make chaos and crisis sustainable."

He accused those who “broke the back of the democracy in Egypt” of being responsible of all sectarian clashes that had now appeared in the Middle East.

"The democracy trend was replaced by sectarian clashes and efforts [were made] to return to old regimes after the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013," the premier said.

"In Yemen, Houthis, Shias and Sunnis fought together for democracy; in Egypt, Muslims and Christians did also and in Libya, it was the same also."

"But the wind suddenly changed after ousting of Morsi," he noted.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/159264/egypt-repeating-turkeys-1960-history.

Gunmen try to kill Libya's recognized prime minister

May 27, 2015

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Gunmen tried to assassinate Libya's internationally recognized prime minister on his way to the airport in the eastern city of Tobruk on Tuesday, a spokesman for his government said.

Arish Said, head of the government's media department, said that Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni's motorcade was attacked and one of his guards was lightly wounded but that there were no fatalities.

"They managed to escape," Said said. Prior to the attack, he said armed men who had been protesting outside a session of the Tobruk government's House of Representatives tried to storm the building, firing shots into the air and demanding al-Thinni be removed from office.

They were "threatening to kill the prime minister and force the House to sack him," Said said. He identified the men as being funded by "corrupted political financiers" linked to powerful Tobruk tribal leaders, without elaborating.

The session was postponed until next week before the attempted assassination. Nearly four years after the ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Libya is consumed by chaos. The country split is between an elected parliament and weak government, and a rival government and parliament in Tripoli set up by the Islamist-linked militias that took control the capital, forcing the government to relocate to the far eastern cities of Tobruk and Bayda.

The turmoil has enabled the rise of an active Islamic State branch, which now controls at least two cities along the country's coastline. Before the assassination attempt, a leader from Tobruk's dominant Obiedi tribe, Faraj Abu Alkhatabia, threatened al-Thanni on private broadcaster Libya Awalan.

"This prime minister must resign, if he doesn't I will smash his head," he said, adding that "either he leaves or we won't let the house of representatives stay in Tobruk." A national security adviser to the Tobruk government, who declined to comment for fear of retribution, linked the threat to powerful Tobruk businessman and oil magnate Hassan Tatanaki, a member of the same tribe who owns the Libya Awalan television station.

"This morning the prime minster spoke with the head of the house of representatives regarding the pressure applied by Libyan tycoon Tatanaki who wishes to be appointed foreign minister." Tatanaki's office could not be immediately reached for comment.

Earlier Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said civilians, including foreign nationals, are trapped in several neighborhoods in Libya's embattled eastern city of Benghazi, urging fighters there to let them depart without conditions.

In a statement, the U.S.-based group says militias and army units have surrounded the downtown areas, where several hundred people are reportedly trapped and not allowed to leave. Some of those trapped were Syrians, Palestinians, and Asian and African nationals.

Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said that all forces involved must take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian property, and that the Libyan army and militias must allow civilians safe passage and facilitate access to badly needed aid.

Associated Press writer Brian Rohan contributed to this report from Cairo.

Paris celebrates WWII resistance heroes in Pantheon ceremony

May 26, 2015

PARIS (AP) — Paris authorities are escorting coffins representing four World War II resistance figures through the French capital toward the Pantheon, the resting place of French heroes.

The event Tuesday is part of two days of national ceremonies honoring the two women and two men, meant to symbolize French efforts against extremist violence in the past and today, four months after terrorist attacks left 20 dead in Paris.

Hearses bearing the coffins of Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion, Pierre Brossolette and Jean Zay are weaving through the Left Bank, escorted by guards on horses. French President Hollande will induct them formally into the Pantheon on Wednesday.

The coffins of the two women do not contain their remains but soil from their gravesites, because their families didn't want the bodies themselves moved.

French bill seeks to boost renewable energy, cut nuclear use

May 26, 2015

PARIS (AP) — France's lower house of parliament has approved a bill aimed at boosting renewable energy and reducing the country's reliance on nuclear power, among other environment-friendly measures.

The French government wants to be exemplary this year in environmental matters, since Paris is hosting a U.N.-backed conference in December where 196 countries aim to limit greenhouse gas emissions to fight global warming.

The bill pushed by Ecology Minister Segolene Royal was approved Tuesday by the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, with 308 votes for and 217 against. It will then go to the Senate for further discussions. At the end of the process —probably over summer— the assembly will have the final say.

Among the more significant changes are the following measures:

GAS EMISSIONS

The bill sets a target of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below the 1990 level by 2030, in line with the European Union official target.

NUCLEAR POWER

The bill aims to reduce France's dependency on nuclear power to 50 percent by 2025. Today, France relies more on nuclear power — 75 percent of its energy — than any other nation in the world. At the same time, the new bill fixes the goal of increasing the proportion of renewable energy France uses in power production to reach 40 percent by 2030.

FIGHTING FOOD WASTE

One measure would forbid big supermarkets from destroying unsold food, part of a national campaign against food waste. The bill would require big supermarket chains to donate goods no longer fit for sale to charities or to farms for use as animal feed or compost.

BANNING PLASTIC BAGS

The new law would ban plastic bags in all supermarkets and stores on January 1, 2016.

GREEN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Under this bill, the state, local and city councils would be required to buy at least 50 percent of low emission vehicles when they renew their fleets of buses, starting in 2020.

ENERGY SAVINGS

This measure would force all private owners of houses and apartments to renovate their properties if they consume a high amount of energy, one that exceeds a defined threshold.

Despite challenges, Zimbabwe showcases artists in Venice

May 26, 2015

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Stone and wood carvings displayed by street vendors in Zimbabwe reflect a long tradition of sculpture, and despite economic and other challenges, the country's artists are forging new paths and even have displays at one of the world's most prestigious art fairs.

Zimbabwe has a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale for the third consecutive time, making it an African standout at the Italian event that Raphael Chikukwa, curator of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, describes as "the Olympics of the visual arts."

Chikukwa spoke in Harare last week to The Associated Press after returning from Venice, where the work of three Zimbabwean artists is displayed at the waterfront church of Santa Maria della Pieta. The artists include Chikonzero Chazunguza, who draws inspiration from 18th century local leaders who opposed British colonialists, and Masimba Hwati, who incorporates Twitter, Coca-Cola and other brand logos into his work. The third, Gareth Nyandoro, portrays Harare's street vendors, whose large numbers reflect Zimbabwe's high unemployment.

"Continuity in these international forums is key," Chikukwa said in his gallery office. He praised state support and cited efforts to nurture young artists. The Harare gallery is currently displaying the work of "Born Frees," artists born after Zimbabwe became independent in 1980. There is also an exhibition of portraits of prominent actors, academics, politicians and other local figures. A huge painting shows Robert Mugabe, the 91-year-old president who has ruled since the end of white minority rule.

The gallery opened in 1957 and the first exhibition, titled "From Rembrandt to Picasso," showed original works by European artists. The Venice Biennale, which ends in November, features 89 national pavilions. Other African participants include Angola and South Africa. The fair curator is Nigerian Okwui Enwezor, the first African to hold the post.

Zimbabwe's economic woes have left artists struggling for funding. Chikukwa also contrasted the big crowds at the Biennale's opening week to the lack of strong interest in Zimbabwe for art exhibitions. He remains motivated, however, by his mission to have the artists' work be seen.

"Giving voice to artists, it's a very important element in any society," he said.

Enraged voters reject political status quo in Spain, Poland

May 26, 2015

MADRID (AP) — Reeling from punishment at the polls, Spain's major parties prepared Tuesday for negotiations with anti-establishment newcomer groups while Poland's governing party assessed how to reconnect with voters who ousted the president.

The elections held Sunday in the two countries exposed a common theme: Voters, many of them economically hurting or with friends or relatives who are, were turned off by politicians who snubbed their key concerns.

In Spain, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy raised eyebrows during the campaign by suggesting few Spaniards were talking anymore about the unemployment rate of nearly 24 percent as he stressed Spain's return to economic growth.

His party won the most votes but lost the absolute control it enjoyed in eight of Spain's 13 autonomous regions that function much like U.S. states, and was defeated in its traditional Madrid powerbase.

An anti-eviction activist is on track to become Barcelona's next mayor as the new business-friendly Citizens Party and left-wing We Can Party emerged as king makers for regional and municipal governments across Spain after portraying Rajoy's Popular Party and the main opposition Socialist Party as out of touch.

Rajoy must call general elections by the end of the year, and Popular Party regional leader Juan Vicente Herrera said it was a mistake to trumpet an economic recovery that rings hollow for so many voters.

"There is a recovery and society needs hope, but this recovery is not noticed by many families," said Herrera, who won re-election to lead Spain's Castille and Leon region. In Poland, President Bronislaw Komorowski lost re-election after a lackluster campaign in which he seemed out of touch with the problems of many Poles despite years of economic growth. Komorowski was backed by the ruling pro-market Civic Platform party, whose leaders are now struggling to see how they can avoid defeat in the more important parliamentary elections this fall.

At one point, Komorowski was asked by a young man how his sister can expect to get by and purchase a home when she earns 2,000 zlotys ($525) per month. Komorowski's reply: "Find another (job). Get a loan. Get work."

Since Sunday's balloting, party leaders have decried Komorowski's campaign as too passive, with some distancing themselves from the defeated president. Poland's president has limited powers, but is the head of the armed forces, and can propose and veto legislation.

Komorowski's opponent was Andrzej Duda, a little-known right-wing member of the European Parliament. He won after an energetic campaign focusing heavily on low wages and poor job opportunities. In response, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz on Tuesday announced a tax relief to families with children — an obvious attempt to show greater concern for struggling Poles.

The defeats for the ruling parties in the two countries should serve as a wake-up call for European Union leaders to value political diversity and drum up support for the 28-nation bloc amid rising opposition from euro-skeptics questioning its value on economic and other fronts.

The Spanish and Polish votes drive home "the need to renew our being Europeans if we want to save the project of our founding fathers," said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Gera reported from Warsaw. Associated Press Writer Jorge Sainz contributed to this report from Madrid.

Freedom & Justice Party media statement on the sentencing to death of President Morsi

Saturday, 16 May 2015

Today, May 16th, President Mohammed Morsi, the first ever democratically elected President of Egypt, along with tens of others, were sentenced to death by an Egyptian court following a political show trial on charges of espionage and jailbreak.

This is the second of four separate trials of President Morsi, all of which started last November. The death sentence was handed down as a result of charges supposedly related to allegedly conspiring with various foreign powers in the region.

Speaking in response to the sentence, Amr Darrag, a former Morsi Minister and a co-founder of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said:

"Today will be remembered as one of the darkest days in Egypt's history. Today, the aspirations of millions of Egyptians have been broken and sentenced to death along with their first ever democratically elected President. Since July 2013, the Egyptian society's dreams have turned into living nightmares, worse than ever.

"Today, we are not only grieving the tragic fate of a martyr who had only started to implement the hopes of his fellow citizens, we are mourning the January 25th 2011 Revolution's martyrs who gave their lives so that their dreams of a free society may come true. Did those hundreds of Egyptian civilians die for nothing?

"These latest charges are another deeply disturbing attempt to permanently erase democracy and the democratic process in Egypt.

"In today's judgment, the court relied on lies, hearsay and paranoid conspiracy theories, not evidence. Any impartial legal expert will see that this entire process is profoundly flawed. It is simply a kangaroo court.

"It is becoming very clear that a government sanctioned campaign is underway not only to silence Dr Morsi and his supporters, but to suffocate freedom and democracy in Egypt. These trials symbolize the dark shadow of authoritarianism, that is now cast back over Egypt.

"I firmly believe that this illegitimate government will not achieve its goals and that the Egyptian free conscience will never die. Today, democracy in Egypt bleeds over this scandal but we shall overcome. The strong and dignified behavior of President Morsi throughout this difficult time is an example for all supporters of freedom in Egypt.

"We solemnly call the international community to be coherent and thus to condemn, react and stop this unlawful regime which purges the opposition, silences the media, brutally crushes any dissent and despises its own people's will. Dr Morsi's sentence is a tragedy. But there is something far larger at stake – the rights of millions of Egyptians to live freely and without fear, and to choose their leaders through the ballot box."

Yehia Hamed, a former Morsi Minister, said: "Dr Morsi is an example of resistance against tyranny in Egypt. This corrupt regime is condemning him to death for no other reason than his refusal to let go of the aspirations and dreams of our young people that were demonstrated so vividly during the 25th January revolution."

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/18661-freedom-a-justice-party-media-statement-on-the-sentencing-to-death-of-president-morsi.

16 dead, scores injured in apartment fire in Azerbaijan

May 19, 2015

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijani officials say 16 people have died and more than 50 have been injured in a fire at an apartment building in Baku, the capital.

The massive fire quickly engulfed 16-story apartment building Tuesday and took hours to contain. Azerbaijan's chief prosecutor, Zakir Garalov, said the bad quality of plastic paneling covering the building contributed to the fire and a criminal probe has been launched to determine the fire's cause.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has taken personal control of the investigation. A similar fire erupted in Baku earlier this month, but there were no injuries.

Turks in US begin voting in Turkey's elections

17 May 2015 Sunday

Turkish citizens in the U.S. began voting at polling stations set up inside the Turkish embassy and consulates Saturday to participate in their country’s general election that officially begins on June 7.

Some 14,000 Turkish citizens are eligible to vote in Washington D.C., while the overall number in the U.S. is about 90,000.

Along with the U.S. capital, Turkish citizens will vote in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston, Miami until May 31, 7 p.m., local time.

Hasan Kocahan, who was the first to vote in Washington D.C., had traveled all the way from Florida, where he was registered as a voter.

"I am happy to be the first in the line," Kocahan said, adding that: "I thought there will be a long queue, but I ended up being first."

Serdar Kilic, Turkey's ambassador to the U.S., called on Turkish citizens to participate in the elections by casting their vote at the nearest polling station.

"We are expecting a high number of participants for the election," Kilic said.

According to Turkey's Supreme Election Board, 112 polling stations would be set up for almost three million Turkish nationals living abroad.

"No one should doubt the security of the votes," Ibrahim Uyar, Washington representative of ruling Justice and Development or AK Party, said.

According to Uyar, the votes at the consulates and embassy would be secured in a room with three different locks; only one key to a unique lock would be given to each of the three party representatives, including AK Party, Republican People's Party (CHP), and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The room's door would open only when all three keys are used together, he added.

Yurter Ozcan, CHP’s U.S. representative, also said that no one should be worried about the security of the votes and called on Turks living in the U.S. to participate in the process.

Voting has also started in the Turkish consulate in New York where more than 34,000 eligible voters are registered in the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Turkey's New York Consul General Ertan Yalcin supervised the process during the early hours of the voting.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/159266/turks-in-us-begin-voting-in-turkeys-elections.

Turkey's Erdogan, at German rally, urges compatriots to vote

May 10, 2015

BERLIN (AP) — Speaking in Germany, Turkey's president has urged his countrymen to preserve their homeland's values and language and to vote in the upcoming Turkish election.

News agency dpa said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a warm welcome Sunday from over 14,000 people in the southwestern German city of Karlsruhe. Germany has a large ethnic Turkish minority, including many Turkish citizens who can vote in the June 7 parliamentary election.

Dpa said Erdogan didn't call directly for votes for his ruling AKP party but said: "No one can ignore you in the world if you vote. Not even those in the EU who held a minute of silence for Armenians can ignore you."

Germany's president has irked Turkey by describing the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.

APNewsBreak: Turkey, Saudi in pact to help anti-Assad rebels

May 08, 2015

ISTANBUL (AP) — Casting aside U.S. concerns about aiding extremist groups, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have converged on an aggressive new strategy to bring down Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The two countries — one a democracy, the other a conservative kingdom — have for years been at odds over how to deal with Assad, their common enemy. But mutual frustration with what they consider American indecision has brought the two together in a strategic alliance that is driving recent rebel gains in northern Syria, and has helped strengthen a new coalition of anti-Assad insurgents, Turkish officials say.

That is provoking concern in the United States, which does not want rebel groups, including the al-Qaida linked Nusra Front, uniting to topple Assad. The Obama administration worries that the revived rebel alliance could potentially put a more dangerous radical Islamist regime in Assad's place, just as the U.S. is focused on bringing down the Islamic State group. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues, said the administration is concerned that the new alliance is helping Nusra gain territory in Syria.

The coordination between Turkey and Saudi Arabia reflects renewed urgency and impatience with the Obama administration's policy in the region. Saudi Arabia previously kept its distance and funding from some anti-Assad Islamist groups at Washington's urging, according to Turkish officials. Saudi Arabia and Turkey also differed about the role of the international Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, in the Syrian opposition. Turkey supports the group, while the Saudi monarchy considers it a threat to its rule at home; that has translated into differences on the ground — until recently.

"The key is that the Saudis are no longer working against the opposition," a Turkish official said. He and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Turkish officials say the Obama administration has disengaged from Syria as it focuses on rapprochement with Iran. While the U.S. administration is focused on degrading the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, they say it has no coherent strategy for ending the rule of Assad, Iran's key ally in the region.

The new Turkish and Saudi push suggests that they view Assad as a bigger threat to the region than groups like Nusra. Turkish officials discount the possibility that Nusra will ever be in a position to hold sway over much of Syria.

Under Turkish and Saudi patronage, the rebel advance has undermined a sense that the Assad government is winning the civil war — and demonstrated how the new alliance can yield immediate results. The pact was sealed in early March when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Riyadh to meet Saudi's recently crowned King Salman. Relations had been tense between Erdogan and the late King Abdullah, in great part over Erdogan's support of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Saudi shift appears to be part of broader proxy war against Iran that includes Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The new partnership adds Saudi money to Turkey's logistical support.

"It's a different world now in Syria, because the Saudi pocketbook has opened and the Americans can't tell them not to do it," said Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "It's quite clear that Salman has prioritized efforts against Iran over those against the Muslim Brotherhood."

The Turkish-Saudi agreement has led to a new joint command center in the northeastern Syrian province of Idlib. There, a coalition of groups — including Nusra and other Islamist brigades such as Ahrar al-Sham that Washington views as extremist — are progressively eroding Assad's front. The rebel coalition also includes more moderate elements of the Free Syrian Army that have received U.S. support in the past.

At the end of March, the alliance — calling itself "Conquest Army" — took the city of Idlib, followed by the strategic town of Jisr al-Shughour and then a government military base. "They have really learned to fight together," the Turkish official said.

Turkish officials say that Turkey provides logistical and intelligence support to some members of the coalition, but has no interaction with Nusra — which it considers a terrorist group. But the difference with IS, the officials say, is that Turkey does not view Nusra as a security threat and therefore does not impede it.

The Turkish official who touted the Conquest Army's ability to fight cohesively said, however, that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have moved to bolster Ahrar al-Sham at Nusra's expense. This strays from the U.S. line that al-Sham is an extremist group, but Turkish officials say they distinguish between international jihadist groups and others with more localized aims. They place al-Sham in the latter category.

Moreover, they hope to use al-Sham's rise to put pressure on Nusra to renounce its ties to al-Qaida and open itself to outside help. Turkish officials say that the U.S. has no strategy for stabilizing Syria. One Turkish official said that the CIA has even lately halted its support for anti-Assad groups in northern Iraq. U.S. trainers are now in Turkey on a train-and-equip program aimed at adding fighters to counter the Islamic State group and bolster moderate forces in Syria, but Turkish officials are skeptical that it will amount to much.

Usama Abu Zeid, a legal adviser to the Free Syrian Army, confirmed that the new coordination between Turkey and Saudi Arabia — as well as Qatar — had facilitated the rebel advance, but said that it not yet led to a new flow of arms. He said rather that the fighters had seized large caches of arms from Syrian government facilities.

So far, Abu Zeid said, the new understanding between the militia groups and their international partners has led to quick success. "We were able to cause a lot of damage and capture more territory from the regime," he said.

But Landis said that it is a dangerous game — especially for Turkey. "The cautionary tale is that every power in the Middle East has tried to harness the power of Islamists to their own ends," he said, noting that Assad's government also backed Islamists in Iraq who later turned their guns on him. "It always seems to blow back."

Albania says could block Macedonia's NATO bid

May 20, 2015

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama warned on Wednesday that his country could block Macedonia's bid to join NATO unless it improves its record on respecting the rights of the country's ethnic Albanian minority.

The tiny republic's accession has already been blocked by neighbor Greece because of a dispute over the republic's name. Rama gave the warning while speaking an anti-terrorism conference in the capital, Tirana.

Relations between to the two Balkan neighbors have further soured following a shootout in northern Macedonia this month between police and suspected ethnic Albanian militants that left eight officers and 10 others dead.

Rama accused Macedonia's government of using the attack to try to tarnish the entire Albanian minority. "Unfortunately the word 'terrorism' and the word 'Albanian' have been combined in a reckless attempt to give terrorism an ethnic label," he said.

Macedonia, in one of its deepest political crises since gaining independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, has a sizeable ethnic Albanian minority which has been decisive in forming governing coalitions. Albania became a NATO member in 2009.

Syrian insurgents seize last military base in Idlib province

May 19, 2015

BEIRUT (AP) — Insurgents in Syria captured the last military base and several small villages in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, marking the latest collapse of government troops in the region now almost entirely in opposition hands, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said factions — including al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, and the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham — captured Mastoumeh base after days of fighting. It said government forces left the base and withdrew to the nearby town of Ariha.

The Local Coordination Committees said the Islamic militants targeted the government forces as they were retreating, heading toward Ariha. In an implicit acknowledgement of defeat, state-run Syrian TV said army units in Mastoumeh base were moving to reinforce defenses in Ariha further south. Ariha is one of the last government holdouts to remain in Idlib.

Government troops withdrew from the provincial capital of Idlib after it fell to opposition fighters in March, followed by the strategic town of Jisr al-Shughour and Qarmeed military base days later. The Idlib offensive is being led by a unified command known as Jaysh al-Fateh, or Conquest Army, and aided by a new strategic alliance between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to strengthen insurgents fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Assad recently acknowledged what he said were recent military "setbacks," in the war against insurgents trying to topple him, promising a comeback by his troops in northern Syria. His forces are also engaged in heavy fighting with Islamic State group militants trying to advance toward government-held areas in the central town of Palmyra, an ancient heritage site.

Meanwhile, Assad received support on Tuesday from his top ally, Iran. State-run news agency SANA said Iran is extending a credit line to make up for market needs and reported that the two countries have signed several agreements in the fields of electricity, industry, oil and investment.

The new credit was announced during a visit to Damascus by Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran is believed to have supplied his government with billions of dollars since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. Tehran extended a $1 billion credit line to Syria to help support the local currency in June 2013.

The new credit — it was not clear how much — comes as the Syrian pound's depreciation has accelerated. Velayati, who met with Assad on Tuesday, promised continued Iranian support for Syria with everything necessary to boost the Syrian people's "resistance in defending their homeland and confronting terrorism" and its sponsors. Assad's government refers to those trying to topple him as "terrorists."

Freedom Flotilla III arrives in Germany en route to France

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza said the group's Marianne ship which left Sweden last week arrived in Germany's Kehl port on Sunday en route to the French port of Brest.

A member of the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, Khamis Kart, said in a statement yesterday that the ship was received by a large gathering of activists and Palestinians living in Germany and members of the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza as well as representatives of the Palestinian assembly in Germany.

The campaign continues its meeting with the Freedom Flotilla III team in the Greek capital Athens where the two are expected to hold a press conference on Tuesday.

Deputy President of the Palestinians Assembly in Germany, Fadi Al-Tayesh, who joined the crowds who welcomed the ship, said people cheered for the ship and called for freedom for Palestine and condemned the Israeli siege on Gaza.

The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza has launched an international campaign to mobilize support and advocacy politically and diplomatically for the Freedom Flotilla III which included a number of meetings with European parliamentarians and parties' advisers.

The campaign confirmed during these meetings on the need to press Israel to immediately lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The first Freedom Flotilla was led by Turkish Mavi Marmara ship which set off towards the besieged Gaza Strip in May 2010 before Israeli forces attacked it in international waters killing ten activists and injuring others.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/18721-freedom-flotilla-iii-arrives-in-germany-en-route-to-france.

Turkey's head of Religious Affairs vows to rebuild all destroyed mosques in Gaza

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Israel has violated human rights of Palestinians and used internationally banned weapons against civilians in Gaza, Turkey's head of religious affairs said Sunday.

Mehmet Gormez, president of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs, made the remarks during his first trip to the Gaza Strip Sunday. Gormez is in the coastal enclave on the invitation of Palestinian Minister of Religious Affairs Yusuf Ismail al-Sheikh.

Referring to Israeli government's eight-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, Gormez said that the people of Gaza had free minds and free hearts despite the daily horrors they faced.

He said that the Israeli army had used internationally banned weapons in its anti-Palestinian deadly operations in the Gaza Strip. "Israel used internationally banned weapons and violated religious and human rights [of Palestinians]. Israel must be prosecuted," he added.

During his visit, Gormez vowed to support the rebuilding of all the mosques destroyed during Operation 'Protective Edge'.

Gormez also met with Ismail Haniyeh, deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau, in Gaza. Haniyeh praised Turkey's assistance to Palestinians, which he said was an indication of the "reliable and sacred" bond between the two sides.

"Gaza in particular and Palestine in general praises Turkey's support in all domains...We will never forget the Turkish That blood was spilled on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla in a bid to break the siege on the Gaza Strip" the senior Hamas leader said.

On July 8, 2014, Israel launched its "Operation Protective Edge" offensive in the Gaza Strip that left more than 2,000 people, most of them civilians, dead. The Israeli bombardment had also left around 11,855 housing units destroyed or severely damaged, and at least 425,000 people were displaced, according to an August 2014 UN report.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/18723-turkeys-head-of-religious-affairs-vows-to-rebuild-all-destroyed-mosques-in-gaza.

Tajikistan closes eastern region to tourists

16 May 2015 Saturday

Tajikistan has closed its eastern border to tourists as a result of fighting in the Badakhshan province.

In a statement to Asia Reports, Rezo Nazarzoda, the deputy head of the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism Affairs under the Government of Tajikistan, said that entry of foreign citizens to Gorno Badakhshan has been temporarily suspended because of uneasy situation in Afghanistan’s districts bordering the region.

The Gorno Badakshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) makes up roughly 45 percent of Tajikistan’s territory, but is home to only 3 percent of the population. Nazarzoda said that 80 percent of Tajikistan’s tourists come to visit the province specifically to see the breathtaking Pamir Mountains. The Pamir Highway that traverses the mountains is one of the highest roads in the world, an ancient piece of the Silk Road, and modern GBAO’s only real supply line.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/159235/tajikistan-closes-eastern-region-to-tourists.

Local elections in Spain test upstart parties' voter appeal

May 24, 2015

MADRID (AP) — Local elections in much of Spain could see two upstart parties end nearly four decades of dominance by the conservative Popular Party and the center-left Socialists.

At stake in Sunday's vote are 8,100 town halls as well as parliament seats in 13 of Spain's 17 regions. Opinion polls indicate voters are fed up with Spain's economic downturn and the corruption scandals that have rocked the ruling Popular Party and the opposition Socialists, which have alternated in power.

That dissatisfaction has opened the door to the centrist, pro-business Citizens party and the left-wing We Can party — both relative newcomers that began operating on a national scale only last year. Polling booths open at 9 a.m. and close 11 hours later, with final results expected by midnight.

Ukrainian lawmakers suspend military cooperation with Russia

May 21, 2015

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's parliament on Thursday voted to suspend military cooperation with Russia in a long-anticipated move signaling a further break in relations between the once-close partners.

Kiev also produced what it claimed was fresh confirmation of involvement by Russian intelligence in sowing unrest in breakaway eastern regions, saying it is evidence of continued Russian plans to destabilize Ukraine.

The five cooperation agreements scrapped by the Verkhovna Rada include one giving the Russian military transit rights to reach Moldova, whose territory is partly controlled by a Moscow-supported separatist government.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine plummeted after the overthrow in February 2014 of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Kiev also accuses Moscow of arming and staffing separatist insurgencies in eastern Ukraine.

Russia staunchly denies it is involved with the armed separatist insurgency in Ukraine. In turning away from Russia, Ukraine has increasingly reached out for assistance to NATO, an organization the current government hopes the country will eventually join.

Russia has about 1,500 troops stationed in Trans-Dniester, a landlocked separatist strip of Moldova that borders Ukraine. Rescinding the transit rights for those troops creates a logistical problem for Russia and no solution was immediately apparent.

"As it now stands, we have to think about it, find a way. We shouldn't toss away Trans-Dniester and Moldova," said Vladimir Komoedov, chairman of the defense committee of the lower house of the Russian parliament, according to the Interfax news agency.

But he said Russia wouldn't consider retaliatory measures for the time being. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the decision by Ukraine's parliament isn't expected to affect the implementation of the Minsk cease-fire agreement for eastern Ukraine.

Also Thursday, Ukraine unveiled what it said was new evidence showing that Russian foreign intelligence services have played a decisive role in provoking unrest in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. Two Russian citizens captured there over the past week were active officers with Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, Ukrainian Security Service counterintelligence chief Vitaliy Naida said at a press conference.

The service published the names and pictures of 12 other people it said served in the same unit as the captured men. Naida said the unit ran sabotage operations, planned ambushes for Ukrainian troops, set mines and laid bombs targeting the civilian population.

Russia has confirmed the two paraded on television by Ukrainian authorities are Russian citizens and that they were formerly in the military, but says they are no longer in active service and went to Ukraine as volunteers.

In video statements posted by the Ukrainian Security Service, the men say they were taking part in a reconnaissance operation in the Luhansk region Saturday when they were fired on, wounded and captured. Both say they were members of an army brigade based in the Russian city of Togliatti and had been deployed in Ukraine for more than a month.

Ukraine open to hosting missile-defense system

May 20, 2015

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is open to considering proposals to place a ballistic missile-defense system on its territory to ward off the risk of attacks from Russia, a senior Ukrainian defense official said Wednesday. So far no one has offered.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the head of Ukraine's National Security Council, told Ukrinform news agency in an interview that Russia has become an increased threat since annexing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and increasing its military presence there.

Russian news agencies cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Wednesday that the deployment of a missile-defense system in Ukraine would force Russia to adopt countermeasures. Ukraine has repeatedly raised alarms about what it sees as Russia's aggressive military posture. It says Moscow has actively supplied separatists in east Ukraine with arms and manpower and that it routinely bolsters offensive capabilities in western Russia.

President Petro Poroshenko's government is concerned that Russia is making concerted efforts to move its nuclear capabilities to Crimea, which was absorbed by Moscow in 2014 following a referendum almost universally rejected by the international community.

"That the annexation of Crimea has significantly increased Russia's military capabilities and changed its balance of military power in the Black Sea and Mediterranean is understood by all our partners," Turchynov said. "But nobody goes beyond issuing statements and expressing deep concern."

"Ten Iskander-M tactical missile systems have already been delivered to the peninsula near the village of Shcholkine and Krasnoperekopsk," Turchynov told Ukrinform. Russian Defense Ministry officials have also said they will deploy long-range, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers to Crimea.

Turchynov suggested that the West should consider improving its own security by barring Russian warships from passing through the Bosporus Strait — the narrow stretch that divides Turkey between its European and Asian parts and links the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

NATO's U.S.-led missile-defense plans envisage deploying elements of the missile shield around Europe for what it says would be defense against Iran. Moscow sees this as a threat to its nuclear deterrent.

Unrest in eastern Ukraine has diminished markedly since a cease-fire was agreed between government and Russian-backed separatist forces in February, but skirmishes continue daily. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Wednesday that three government troops had been killed in action over the previous day.

Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kiev with Slovakian counterpart Andrej Kiska that Russia has between 4,000 and 14,000 soldiers stationed in Ukraine at any given time. "This is not just Ukrainian information. This is intelligence from NATO countries and other sources," Poroshenko said.

Ukrainian authorities this week showed off two men they say are Russian soldiers who were captured while on active duty in the rebellious east. In video statements posted by the Ukrainian Security Service, the men say they were taking part in a reconnaissance operation in the Luhansk region Saturday when they were fired on, wounded and captured. Both say they were members of an army brigade based in the Russian city of Togliatti and had been deployed in Ukraine for more than a month.

Ukraine erases communist reminders as it tries to ditch past

May 12, 2015

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A hulking steel statue of a victorious female warrior bearing aloft sword and shield looms in dour majesty over the Ukrainian capital. The Motherland Monument's shield bears the Communist hammer-and-sickle, but maybe not for much longer.

Ukraine's leaders are eager to be seen as reinventing the nation. And erasing all visible reminders of the communist past, they say, is an important step toward that goal. "Elimination of communism has to happen in people's heads and consciousness," said Kiev deputy mayor Oleksiy Reznikov. "Symbolism irritates some people and creates a certain aura that we need to get rid of."

Parliament opened the way last month by backing a package of laws that included a loosely formulated ban on communist, as well as Nazi, imagery and ideology. The provisions, which still require approval from President Petro Poroshenko, will make it illegal to show symbols from the Soviet era, such as the logo of Communist Party, or play Soviet-era anthems. It will also become an offense to deny the criminal nature of the Soviet regime.

Taking down all the communist symbols will take time, money and a fair dose of acrobatics, especially in the case of objects like the 100-meter (330-foot) tall Motherland Monument. "We will find alpinist patriots, like the famous ones who painted a star at the top of a Moscow hotel the blue-and-yellow (of the Ukrainian flag)," Reznikov said. "We will ask for help from brave guys like that to get this work done."

Eager Ukrainian nationalists have for the past year been racing ahead of the authorities by pulling down dozens of statues of Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionary and founder of the Soviet Union. The sight has typically been greeted with a mixture of glee, indifference or, among mostly older people, dismay.

The thrust of what has been dubbed de-communization has sharply divided views. Supporters argue it has been long in the waiting and will set the stage for Ukraine to leave its history behind. "I would have got rid of it all years ago. It simply doesn't reflect the mood of the Ukrainian people," said Kiev resident Vasiliy Babkov. "We have to build up that which is truly in the blood of Ukrainians."

But others, like Halyna Coynash, a journalist and member of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, said some measures risk reverting to the censorship of the communist era. She sees particular danger in a measure that forbids any positive assessment of the Soviet era.

"They have ended up with a law that seriously endangers freedom of speech," Coynash said. Dismantling Soviet emblems and renaming streets named in honor of figures known to have been part of the Soviet Union's machine of repression has garnered a wide approval. But misgivings abound.

"Saying that people cannot themselves wear a red star or even have a hammer-and-sickle on their clothing," Coynash said, "is really quite absurd." Repeated violations could result in prison sentences lasting several years, also a source of anxiety.

"Imprisonment for up to five years for any display of Nazi or communist symbols is manifestly and undeniably in breach of international human rights standards," Volodymyr Yavorsky, an expert with Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, wrote in an article analyzing the laws.

The campaign against the anti-communist laws has been joined by the several dozen signatories to a letter to Poroshenko pleading with him to reject the bill, which sailed through parliament with little debate.

"However noble the intent, the wholesale condemnation of the entire Soviet period as one of occupation of Ukraine will have unjust and incongruous consequences," said the letter, which was signed by dozens of international and Ukrainian historians.

The letter argues that the legislation is so loose as to possibly punish anybody writing approvingly of any policies implemented over 74 years of Communist rule. "Anyone calling attention to the development of Ukrainian culture and language in the 1920s could find himself or herself condemned," the letter said.

One especially thorny provision makes it illegal to justify historical instances of repression of Ukrainian independence movements in the 20th century. Those include the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists headed by WWII-era insurgent leader Stepan Bandera, who briefly allied himself with the Nazis. Efforts by Bandera-led forces to carve out an independent territory for Ukraine led them to perpetrate hideous atrocities against Soviets, Poles and Jews alike.

Bandera's name is tantamount to a curse word among many ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine's east, where government troops have since last year been battling Moscow-backed separatists in a war that has already claimed more than 6,000 lives.

And Russia has warned darkly of more trouble for Ukraine should the anti-communism measures go ahead. "Attempts by Kiev to distort the country's past and to disregard the achievements made in Russian and Soviet periods will only lead to a deep split in society," the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a statement in April. "Doing that by imposing nationalist ideologies will only further cast into doubt the prospects of Ukraine's statehood."

Vatican recognizes state of Palestine in new treaty

May 13, 2015

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty finalized Wednesday, immediately sparking Israeli ire and accusations that the move hurt peace prospects.

The treaty, which concerns the activities of the Catholic Church in Palestinian territory, is both deeply symbolic and makes explicit that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic recognition from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.

The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state and had referred to the Palestine state since. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state, giving the Vatican's former signs of recognition an unambiguous confirmation in a formal, bilateral treaty.

"Yes, it's a recognition that the state exists," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was "disappointed." "This move does not promote the peace process and distances the Palestinian leadership from returning to direct and bilateral negotiations," the ministry said in a text message.

The United States and Israel oppose recognition, arguing that it undermines U.S.-led efforts to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian deal on the terms of Palestinian statehood. Most countries in Western Europe have held off on recognition, but some have hinted that their position could change if peace efforts remain deadlocked.

The treaty was finalized days before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visits Pope Francis at the Vatican. Abbas is heading to Rome to attend Francis' canonization Sunday of two new saints from the Holy Land.

"This is a very important recognition as the Vatican has a very important political status that stems from its spiritual status," said Abbas' senior aide, Nabil Shaath. "We expect more EU countries to follow."

The Vatican has been referring unofficially to the state of Palestine since 2012. During Pope Francis' 2014 visit to the Holy Land, the Vatican's official program referred to Abbas as the president of the "state of Palestine."

The Vatican's foreign minister, Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, acknowledged the change in status, but said the shift was simply in line with the Holy See's position. The Holy See clearly tried to underplay the development, suggesting that its 2012 press statement welcoming the U.N. vote constituted its first official recognition. Nowhere in that statement does the Vatican say it recognizes the state of Palestine, and the Holy See couldn't vote for the U.N. resolution because it doesn't have voting rights at the General Assembly.

The Vatican's efforts to downplay the move seemed justified given the swift condemnation of the development by Israeli groups: The American Jewish Committee said it was "counterproductive to all who seek true peace between Israel and the Palestinians." The Anti-Defamation League said it was "premature."

"We appreciate that the Vatican's basic intention is to promote Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, but believe that this diplomatic recognition will be unhelpful to that end," the ADL's Abraham Foxman said.

The 2012 U.N. vote recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state, made up of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians celebrated the vote as a milestone in their quest for international recognition. Most countries in Africa, Asia and South America have individually recognized Palestine. In Western Europe, Sweden took the step last year, while several parliaments have approved non-binding motions urging recognition.

This isn't the first time that the Vatican under Francis has taken diplomatic moves knowing that it would please some quarters and ruffle feathers elsewhere: Just last month, he referred to the slaughter of Armenians by Turkish Ottomans a century ago as a "genocide," prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador.

AP writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank contributed.