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Saturday, January 3, 2015

Iraqi general warns of military woes in fighting extremists

January 02, 2015

BAGHDAD (AP) — Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi had 225 fighters, a single Abrams tank, a pair of mortars, two artillery pieces and about 40 armored Humvees when he set out to retake a strategic city in northern Iraq captured by Islamic State militants over the summer.

It took 30 days as his force made an agonizingly slow journey for 40 kilometers (25 miles) through roadside bombs and suicide car attacks, then successfully laid siege to the oil refinery city of Beiji. The campaign earned al-Saadi the biggest battlefield victory by Iraqi forces since Islamic State fighters swept over most of northern and western Iraq in a summer blitz, prompting the collapse of the military.

Yet al-Saadi is deeply pessimistic. In a two-hour interview with The Associated Press, he said Iraq's military lacks weapons, equipment and battle-ready troops and complained that U.S. air support was erratic. Both the military and the government remain riddled with corruption, he said. Most of the senior generals serving when the military fell apart had skills "more suited to World War II," he said.

"If things don't get better," warned the general, "the country could end up divided" between its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish populations. The extremists are beatable when confronted with a proper force, he said. But he worries that the military's multiple woes prevent it from doing so. Already, there is a danger the jihadis could retake Beiji, he said.

A Baghdad-born Shiite with family roots in southern Iraq, al-Saadi complained of "excesses" by some of the Shiite volunteers who joined the fight against the Sunni militants and on whom the military has come to rely.

"I am a military man, and they don't respect the rules by which we operate," he said. Volunteers, for example, looted homes in government-controlled areas around the Sunni city of Tikrit and tried to intimidate army officers, he said. During his march toward Beiji, some of the volunteers whom he deployed as a rear guard left their posts.

The government and its media consistently praise the volunteers' role in the war against the Sunni militants. The U.S.-trained al-Saadi, who is second-in-command of the army's elite counterterrorism forces, spoke at his office in one of Saddam Hussein's Baghdad palaces. The chain-smoking general wore a baseball cap and green sweater — the same outfit he wears on the front lines, without helmet or body armor or indications of his rank. In the Beiji campaign, he was wounded by shrapnel in his arm and dangerously close to his eye, on top of wounds he suffered last summer in the western province of Anbar.

On his office walls hung photos of himself with former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Saadi said he had a close relationship with al-Maliki during his eight years in office. But the Shiite leader, he said, bears the "moral responsibility" for the debacle against the Islamic State group.

Al-Maliki stepped down in August, replaced by Haider al-Abadi, who has sought to draw Sunni support against the militants. According to al-Saadi, al-Abadi has largely left the military to run the war against the Islamic State as it sees fit. Al-Abadi has also shaken up the military, pushing aside dozens of corrupt or inefficient officers. He has also stopped payments of millions of dollars in salaries disbursed to thousands of nonexistent troops, or "ghost soldiers."

Al-Saadi is the head of military operations in Salahuddin province, where Beiji is located, and his troops were stationed in a base outside Tikrit. The Islamic State group holds Tikrit itself and most of the surrounding ground.

A veteran of Iraq's 1980-88 war against Shiite Iran, al-Saadi said he turned down offers of help from Iranian military advisers in retaking Beiji. Iran has been closely helping Iraq's government in the fight against the extremists.

"If I had accepted help from non-Iraqis, the history books will say the victory was not ours, the Iraqis," he said. He had troubles from the outset with top military leaders in Baghdad who wanted Beiji retaken quickly.

"I told them I can reach Beiji from Tikrit in three days, but I will lose many of my men," he said. "(I) told them I will do it my way and get Beiji back. They were unhappy, but they had no choice." Setting out from Tikrit in mid-October, al-Saadi advanced slowly, abandoning the main road he knew to be infested with roadside bombs. Instead, he and his men went by foot through the desert parallel to the road.

Each day, they walked several kilometers, stopped and built a sand barrier on the main road to fend off suicide car bombers, while engineers would clear roadside bombs. Once the road was cleared, the Humvees and lone tank would proceed up to the barrier where they would wait until another stretch of the road was cleared, he said.

The top brass in Baghdad called him repeatedly on his cell phone to complain he was moving too slowly. "I told them again and again that I need to move cautiously to protect my men," he said — though he added that al-Abadi called him to express support.

It took three weeks to reach Beiji, fighting the whole way, then another week to take the town. All in all, more than two dozen suicide car bombs were hurled at them. He said logistical bottlenecks in the military left him with only one earth-mover to construct sand barriers, which broke down often or had its tires shot out by snipers.

He blames one of its breakdowns for the death of police Lt. Gen. Faisal Malik al-Zamel during the fight in Beiji. With no sand barrier, a suicide attacker in an explosives-packed truck — its tires and windshield protected by plates of armor — struck while al-Zamel stood in the open speaking on his telephone on Nov. 7.

"His men shouted for him to get back inside his armored vehicle but he didn't act fast enough," said al-Saadi, who was at the scene. Al-Saadi was also left skeptical that the Americans are serious in helping Iraq defeat the extremists with the coalition air campaign.

"Sometimes, they would carry out airstrikes that I never asked for, and at other times I begged them for a single airstrike and they never did it," citing logistical issues or orders from higher up, he said. "I don't think they trust Iraq's government or military."

Also, al-Saadi's only means of communication with Baghdad was a mobile phone and whenever it had no signal he could not call in airstrikes. In the end, his strategy paid off. Beiji was recaptured in mid-November, and the entire campaign cost 12 lives and about 30 injured among his troops. On the other side, he estimates his forces killed around 1,500 Islamic State fighters.

Brig-Gen. Ayad al-Leheibi, of the police's Rapid Deployment Force, echoed that estimate and confirmed most of the details in al-Saadi's account. Al-Leheibi and about 120 of his men fought alongside al-Saadi in the Beiji campaign.

Now al-Saadi worries the victory is in danger of being reversed. Already Islamic State militants are back on the outskirts of Beiji, and he said the men left to hold the city are too few. One unit of reinforcements was attacked on the way to Beiji and quickly retreated, he said. A second one, 50-man strong, made it to the city but came under night attack by militants.

"There was so much confusion and panic, they started shooting at each other in the dark," he said. "We lost 10 men, nearly as many as we lost in the entire campaign."

Iraq's birds of mercy take flight from din of war

January 02, 2015

SAEBERAN, Iraq (AP) — Khalil Ibrahim watches from his tent as the orange light of dusk is darkened by a flock of European starlings arriving on their annual migration to northern Iraq. He prepares to trigger his nets as they circle the field, but at the last minute a child throws a stone in the distance and the birds vanish over the dimly lit horizon.

He and other trappers capture the starlings during their two-month migration and sell them in the bazaar of nearby Irbil. Some will buy the birds to eat them as a delicacy, but most will pay for their freedom as an act of mercy believed to bring good luck. This year, however, the trappers say war has driven many of the skittish birds away.

"The sound you heard now, compared to gunfire, was quiet, but what about bombs or explosions?" fellow trapper Khalas Tasin says after he and Ibrahim gather up their empty nets. "They will flee from the entire area. They are scared of noise and explosions so if they hear anything they will fly away."

The front line in the war between the Islamic State extremist group and the Kurdish forces defending northern Iraq is less than 30 miles (50 kilometers) away, and warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition circle overhead. There are no firm statistics on the number of birds here, but trappers whose families have been catching them for generations say the flocks have thinned.

"Every year at least 3,000 to 4,000, sometimes up to 7,000 or 8,000 birds can be caught if you are in a good spot in the two-month season" Ibrahim says. "This year, in my opinion, if I can catch 2,000 to 3,000 I'll be lucky" he said.

Every afternoon from December through February, the trappers bury their nets in fallow winter fields on the outskirts of the Kurdish regional capital, Irbil, careful to conceal the ropes under the rust-colored soil. They sprinkle a mix of sesame seeds and grain over the traps and then sit in nearby tents waiting for the birds to take the bait.

If successful, they will send the caged birds to market, where they fetch around 85 cents apiece. A single customer might buy 200 birds just to set them free in an act of clemency. These days, families stop to admire the birds — whose black feathers are mottled white and lit with traces of green, purple, and red — but no one is buying them.

"Because of the situation and the lack of money people are freeing fewer birds," says bird-seller Mohammed Jamil, 20. The diversion of a few thousand starlings is hardly the most devastating consequence of a war that has claimed thousands of human lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. And the idea of holding birds for ransom might strike outsiders as a bit absurd.

But when passer-by Anwar Waleed sees the caged starlings, he feels moved to perform a small act of kindness. "It is like someone held prisoner, held captive and you are coming to free them. Those poor birds. The feeling comes from my heart," the 65-year-old says after purchasing five starlings.

"They could have chicks," he adds. And then one by one, he lifts them up, opens his hands and watches them spiral away into the sky.

Iraq suffers its deadliest year since 2007

2015-01-01

BAGHDAD - Violence in Iraq killed more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014, government figures showed Thursday, making it the deadliest year since sectarian bloodshed in 2007.

Figures compiled by the health, interior and defense ministries put the death toll at 15,538, compared with 17,956 killed in 2007, during the height of Sunni-Shiite sectarian killings.

The toll was also more than double the 6,522 people killed in 2013.

The year got off to a bloody start, with the government losing control of parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi and all of Fallujah -- just a short drive from Baghdad -- to anti-government fighters.

The violence was sparked by the demolition of the country's main Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp near Ramadi in late 2013.

It spread to Fallujah, and security forces later withdrew from areas of both cities, leaving them open for capture.

That was a harbinger of events of June, when the Islamic State group spearheaded a major jihadist offensive, sweeping security forces aside.

The militants overran Iraq's second city Mosul and then drove south toward Baghdad, raising fears the capital itself would be attacked.

They were eventually stopped short, but seized swathes of five provinces north and west of the capital.

A renewed IS push in the north in August drove Kurdish forces back towards the capital of their autonomous region, helping to spark a US-led campaign of air strikes against the jihadists.

That effort has since been expanded to training Iraqi forces aimed at readying them as quickly as possible to join the fight against IS.

Iraqi soldiers and police, Kurdish forces, Shiite militias and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in regaining some ground from IS.

But large parts of the country, including three major cities, remain outside Baghdad's control.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=69503.

Lebanon first post-war PM dies age 80

2015-01-01

TRIPOLI - Omar Karame, Lebanon's first post-war prime minister and a staunch ally of the Syrian government, has died at the age of 80, his family announced on Thursday.

"With great sadness... the Karame family announces the death of the great Omar Abdel Hamid Karame," they said in a statement.

Family sources said Karame had died of stomach cancer.

His health had been deteriorating for the past two years, and he was admitted to hospital a month ago, falling into a coma a few days before his death.

Karame came from a Lebanese Sunni political dynasty -- his father was one of the architects of Lebanon's independence in 1943 -- and served as prime minister twice.

But both his terms ended with him resigning under public pressure.

His first term began in 1990, and was marked by the huge challenges of rebuilding the country after its 15-year civil war.

He stepped down in May 1992 after massive protests against rising living costs caused by the collapse of the Lebanese pound against the dollar.

He was succeeded by Rafik Hariri, a billionaire who orchestrated massive reconstruction projects throughout Lebanon.

Karame's second term began in 2004, but he was forced to resign the following year after the assassination of Hariri.

Hariri's death provoked a political firestorm in Lebanon, including accusations that Syria's government was involved in the murder.

Karame was a longtime ally of the Syrian regime and was accused of subservience to President Bashar al-Assad.

He was educated in Cairo, and was married with four children, including son Faisal, a former minister.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=69499.

Ex-Greek premier to form new party ahead of poll

January 02, 2015

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The former Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, revealed plans Friday to create a new political party — a development that further complicates the landscape in Greece ahead of a snap general election later this month.

Papandreou, 62, announced the plan on his website, ahead of the Jan. 25 vote which is widely expected to see the anti-bailout Syriza party do well. Further details are expected Saturday after documents are filed to a high court.

Syriza has made great strides in Greece in recent years as it has taken many votes away from Pasok, the center-left party that Papandreou led back to government in 2009 and was in power during the height of the country's crippling financial crisis. Despite falling back sharply in 2012 elections, Pasok is currently a junior partner in the conservative-led government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Papandreou ignored public appeals not to split Pasok, the party created by his father in 1974 and which governed Greece for much of the time since. Pasok's descent is evident in its current opinion poll rating of around 5 percent.

"We are saddened by the immoral and irrational action taken by Mr. Papandreou, who has made a calculating attempt to divide Pasok a few days before the election," Pasok said in a statement. The new party is likely to target those voters who have abandoned Pasok. Polls point to Syriza having to find coalition partners if it is to govern.

Syriza spokesman Panos Skourletis slammed Papandreou for being responsible for the crippling austerity measures that have been imposed on Greece in return for rescue money from its partners in the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund.

"There can be no form of cooperation with those who destroyed the country," he told private Vima FM radio.

Greece heads for early election, stoking financial concerns

December 29, 2014

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's government was forced on Monday to call early national elections, stoking financial concerns as investors worry the main opposition party will win — and want to renege on the country's bailout deal.

The Athens stock market closed 3.9 percent lower, recovering from an earlier 11.3 percent plunge on news of the election, which was triggered by parliament's failure to elect a new Greek president. Investors fear the left-wing opposition Syriza party, which has a narrow but steady lead in opinion polls, might act on popular resentment at six years of government austerity by seeking to overhaul the international bailout deal.

At the height of the eurozone crisis in 2010-2012, Greece's financial turmoil risked breaking up the currency union, an event which would have shaken the global economy. The risks today are not as great, analysts say. For one, little of Greece's debt is held by private investors around the world, but mainly its bailout creditors, the International Monetary Fund and other eurozone countries.

Also, the European Union and European Central Bank now have programs meant to stabilize markets and support confidence in eurozone markets. "Due to the policy advances made, the safeguards that have been put in place, and the ECB's stated public commitment to doing whatever is necessary to keep the eurozone together, events in Greece now pose much less of a threat to the eurozone" than a few years ago, IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said in a note.

However, should a new government seek changes to the deal, Greece's access to credit would be delayed just as its bailout loans are coming to an end. Greece still cannot finance itself independently on bond markets, so it faces the danger of a default that could hurt the finances of fellow European countries.

Prof. Hendrik Vos, a Europe expert at Ghent University, said the prospect of Greece being forced out of the eurozone appears unlikely. "It is not in the interest of Greece itself and Syriza, too, is not asking for this," he said. "The other member states don't want it either. ... The uncertainty that comes with kicking a country out and not really knowing how, where it will all end — those same arguments still apply today."

The IMF said Monday a current review of Greece's bailout program — upon which depends the payment of the next batch of rescue loans — will resume only after the new government is in place. It said Athens faces no immediate financing needs, however. The review has been stalled for months due to disagreements on new spending cuts.

Greek conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said national elections, the fourth in six fraught years of financial crisis, will be held "at the soonest possible date" — Sunday, Jan. 25, 18 months early.

"The country has no time to waste," Samaras said in a televised address after the presidential vote. "The people must learn the truth about how easy it is to relapse into the deepest and most dramatic crisis."

In Monday's presidential vote, his coalition's candidate for the post, 73-year-old former European commissioner Stavros Dimas, garnered 168 out of 300 possible votes— short of the 180 needed to win. It was the third and final round of voting. According to the constitution, the vote's failure means parliament has to be dissolved within 10 days.

Syriza has pledged to roll back some of the reforms Greece implemented to qualify for 240 billion euros in rescue funds. But it has recently softened its rhetoric about unilaterally pulling out of the bailout deal.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said Monday's vote marked a "historic day for Greek democracy." "Today Mr. Samaras' government, which for two and a half years plundered our society and had already decided and committed to take new (austerity) measures, belongs to the past," Tsipras said. "With the will of our people, in a few days, the austerity agreements will also belong to the past."

Speaking later at a party gathering in Athens, Tsipras pledged that, if elected, he would guarantee "without footnotes or asterisks" all deposits in Greek banks — despite past comments by other Syriza officials suggesting that large private bank accounts could be used to fund welfare spending.

Amid chants of "The time of the Left has come," Tsipras also voiced confidence that European officials appear prepared to deal with a new Greek government. But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned that Greece "has no alternative" to the hard reforms it has undertaken.

"If Greece takes a different path it will become difficult," he said, commenting on Monday's developments. "New elections change nothing about the agreements that the Greek government has entered into. Any new government must stick to the contractual agreements of its predecessors."

Greece lost market confidence and nearly went bankrupt in 2010, after years of profligate spending, dodging public sector reforms and hiding the extent of its bloated public finances. The bailouts kept the country afloat, but drastic belt-tightening demanded by the EU and IMF hammered incomes and living conditions, sending unemployment to a post-World War II high. Ensuing resentment fuelled support for anti-austerity parties, from Syriza — whose pre-crisis support was under 5 percent — to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.

Samaras, 63, presided over a historic coalition that united his conservative party with their historic socialist rivals to hammer out further draconian spending cuts that balanced the budget after decades and led to a modest economic recovery this year.

Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Frank Jordans in Berlin, and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

Cologne Cathedral to turn out the lights in protest at anti-Muslim march

02 January 2015 Friday

One of Germany's most famous landmarks, Cologne Cathedral, will be plunged into darkness on Monday evening in protest at a march by a growing grass-roots anti-Muslim movement through the western German city, cathedral authorities said.

The rise of the group, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA), has shaken Germany's political establishment, prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel to say in her New Year address that its leaders were racists full of hatred and citizens should beware being used.

PEGIDA's last weekly rally in the eastern city of Dresden attracted some 17,000 people, and the movement plans further marches in other cities, including through the center of Cologne on Monday night with a rally by the cathedral.

"PEGIDA is made up of an astonishingly broad mix of people, ranging from those in the middle of society to racists and the extreme right-wing," Cathedral Dean Norbert Feldhoff told Reuters.

"By switching off the floodlighting we want to make those on the march stop and think. It is a challenge: consider who you are marching alongside."

Dresden's famous Semperoper opera house also extinguished its lights in protest during the last PEGIDA march in the city.

An opinion poll on Thursday found one German in eight would join an anti-Muslim march if PEGIDA organised one in their home town. Many people are concerned about the numbers of asylum seekers entering Germany, which surged to about 200,000 in 2014, four times the number in 2012. Net immigration has also hit a two-decade high.

Anti-immigration parties, capitalizing on voters' disenchantment with economic austerity, have surged in popularity in a number of European countries, including France, Britain,Sweden and the Netherlands.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/152099/cologne-cathedral-to-turn-out-the-lights-in-protest-at-anti-muslim-march.

French defense minister visits Niger military base

02 January 2015 Friday

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday paid a visit to Madama, a region in the northernmost part of Niger on the border with Libya and the site of a French military base.

Le Drian should have started a visit to Niamey, the capital and the largest city in Niger, on Friday, but he paid a surprise visit to the military base in Madama.

At the base, which is still being established, the French minister met with around 100 French military personnel.

Madama is the second military base to be established by France in Niger. In early 2013, France established an air force base in Niamey following French military intervention in northern Mali.

The base contains drones used by the French army for surveillance purposes in the African Sahel region.

During his visit to Niger in July of last year, French President François Hollande said French troops based in Niger would not military intervene in Libya.

The French Defense Minister is expected to meet with Niger's President Issoufou Mahamadou on Friday before the French official pays a visit to the French base in Niamey.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/152067/french-defense-minister-visits-niger-military-base.

Croatia presidency to be decided in runoff

December 28, 2014

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — The liberal incumbent and a conservative rival are heading for a showdown in a runoff presidential election in Croatia, according to the preliminary count of the Sunday poll, held amid severe economic woes in EU's newest member.

Current President Ivo Josipovic, who is backed by the center-left government, held a slight lead with 38.5 percent over opposition candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarevic at around 37.1 percent, early results released by the election authorities showed. Two other candidates were far behind.

Since no one took more than half of the votes, a runoff will be held in two weeks. "We have won the first round, and we will win in the second," Josipovic said. Grabar-Kitarevic told supporters that "Croatia has shown it wants change. This is just the beginning!"

The presidency in Croatia is a largely ceremonial post, but the vote is seen as a test for the center-left government which faces criticism over an ailing economy more than one year after the country joined the European Union.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said Josipovic "was carrying a heavy burden of the government, which is doing a tough job in a tough time." Croatia has one of the weakest economies in the bloc, with unemployment at nearly 20 percent and a six-year recession.

Voters, who braved a blizzard to cast ballots early Sunday, said issues such as unemployment and the fight against corruption would be decisive. Nearly 3.8 million voters were eligible and turnout was around 36 percent.

Josipovic, a soft-spoken composer and law expert, is bidding for a second term at the post that is considered influential although the government largely runs the country. Grabar-Kitarovic is a former foreign minister and an ex-assistant to the NATO secretary general. A strong showing for Grabar-Kitarovic would give her Croatian Democratic Union a major boost ahead of parliamentary elections due in about a year.

Almir Alic contributed.

Thousands to protest mosque attacks in Sweden

02 January 2015 Friday

Thousands of people across Sweden are preparing to protest against a series of arson attacks on mosques in the country.

More than 6,000 people are expected to join three separate protests on Friday in Sweden’s largest cities -- Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo -- according to the organizers' Facebook page.

The organizers said in a statement on their Facebook page: “Swedish Muslims testify about how racism in general and Islamophobia in particular is growing stronger in Sweden.

“Hate crimes against individuals and assembly premises are occurring more often and we [believe] that religious freedom is under threat in Sweden.”

The demonstrations come days after three mosques were attacked by arsonists in Eskilstuna, Eslov and Uppsala.

'Attack on freedom'

About 40 different groups are scheduled to take part in the protests including Sweden's Muslim Council and the Swedish United Nations Association.

Swedish Culture Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke is also set to attend.

A mosque in the eastern city of Uppsala was set on fire on New Year’s Eve, making it the third arson attack on a mosque in Sweden since Dec. 25 when a blaze was started at a mosque in the southeast town of Eskilstuna, injuring five people.

A mosque was also attacked in the southern town of Eslov on Dec. 29. No one was injured.

Expo, a Swedish foundation raising awareness on racism and xenophobia, said at least 12 attacks had taken place on mosques across the country in 2014.

Swedish officials have condemned the attacks as “foul” and “an attack on religious freedom in the country.”

The series of attacks occurred amid tense debate on immigration and the rise of the far-right party, the Sweden Democrats.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/152107/thousands-to-protest-mosque-attacks-in-sweden.

Ghost town: As Lithuania joins euro, concern over emigration

December 31, 2014

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — When Antanas Zubavicius turns the light on in his run-down house, it's the only light for miles. He is the last man in Dumbliuneliai, a once busy farmers' village in Lithuania that has gradually been abandoned as its residents emigrated in search of better jobs.

"I'm not going anywhere. This is my land," the 60-year-old says, waving at the abandoned, shuttered houses around him. "When I am gone this village is gone too." As Lithuania prepares to adopt the euro on Jan. 1, it is hoping that membership in the European Union's official currency will bring a rise in investment and trade. But the Baltic country's increasing integration with richer European countries is also having a pernicious side-effect: a wave of emigration that is emptying towns and causing worker shortages.

Emigration has been on the rise since 2004, when this country of 3 million people joined the EU, whose membership guarantees freedom of movement. During the 2008-2011 financial crisis, more than 80,000 people — almost 3 percent of the population — left every year, mainly to Germany, Britain and other richer economies to earn salaries many times higher. Experts forecast that trend to continue, or even increase.

In the field of construction, business owners complain it is impossible to keep hold of workers, even with massive annual wage increases of 10 to 20 percent. The problem is not confined to rural villages. Most shopping malls, restaurants and businesses in once busy urban areas are increasingly short of labor.

"There's simply no more skilled people left here," says Arvydas Avulis, CEO of Hanner, a leading real estate investor and developer that specializes in high-rise construction. A quick look at wage figures shows why. A manual worker in Lithuania can expect to earn 1.80 euros ($2.20) an hour compared with 4.30 euros ($5.24) in Spain and 8.60 euros ($10.50) in Ireland, according to the EU statistics agency.

In the more skilled sectors like computing, medicine or the services industry, where Lithuania's educational system produces highly qualified graduates, wage differences are even greater. Euro membership is expected to help Lithuania's economy, even though the currency bloc is struggling to grow. Having the same currency as 18 other richer economies will facilitate commerce and reduce investment risks for foreigners. The central bank estimates the government's borrowing rate would drop by almost 1 percentage point, which would filter down to the private sector.

The problem is that Lithuania is the bloc's poorest member and even though its economy is growing at a stronger pace than most EU countries, it has a long way to develop before it can hope to offer wages on a par with other EU states.

Unsurprisingly, most Lithuanians are in favor of joining the euro, as it will cement the country's ties with the West and keep those richer labor markets open to them. In a Nov. 26 survey by Berent Research Baltic, 53 percent of respondents said they back euro membership, up from 47 percent in September. Some 39 were opposed, down from 49 percent. A total of 1,002 people were interviewed for the poll, which had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

Skeptics worry about the euro's recent problems with government debt and economic stagnation. Pranciskus Sliuzas, a journalist and anti-euro activist, describes joining the euro as "one of the most stupid things of all time." He laments the fact that Lithuania is giving up some national powers, such as the ability to determine its interest rates or budget deficit.

For others, such economic arguments are of secondary concern to issues like national security — in particular the fear of an increasingly aggressive Russia. Along with neighbors Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union for almost five decades.

"I think it would be a good thing to get closer to the rest of Europe as the only other option is to become friends with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," said Janina Gailiene, a retired primary school teacher in Vilnius.

For all the potential economic and security benefits, that means business leaders like Avulis will continue to struggle with a shortage of workers as Lithuania's economy integrates further with the West.

One solution businesses are lobbying for is to facilitate immigration from countries that have even lower wages — Ukraine, Belarus and even China. There has been little progress by the government on that front, however.

Sarmite Mikulioniene, sociology professor at Mykolas Romeris University, warns that in time, worker shortages will hurt the economy, threatening the gains made in the first place by joining the EU and euro.

"There will simply be no one left to do simple jobs here in 10 or 15 years," she said.

Uganda: Rebel Gen. under house arrest

January 02, 2015

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A military general who recently returned from exile in Britain has been put under house arrest by soldiers, a Ugandan opposition group said Friday.

The group, Free Uganda, said the arrest of the four-star Gen. David Sejusa was "a cowardly act" by President Yoweri Museveni's regime. Sejusa returned from exile in London in December and on Thursday told journalists that he had turned down Museveni's invitation to meet for reconciliation. He heads a political party opposed to what he says is Museveni's increasingly authoritarian rule.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said the military action is intended to give Sejusa protection. Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo tweeted: "the renegade and bellicose Gen. Sejusa has been put under military confinement by the Uganda People's Defence Forces or UPDF and is safer that way."

Journalists were barred by heavily armed military police from getting close to the scene. The army had previously said Sejusa faces charges of treason, and some of his aides were arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow Museveni's government after he fled the country in April 2013.

At the time, he had written a letter to the domestic spy chief urging him to investigate allegations of a plot to kill high-ranking government officials seen as being opposed to the political rise of Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who runs the country's special forces. Many Ugandans believe Muhoozi is being groomed to succeed his father. Museveni denies it.

Nigeria's Muslims angry after Palestinian statehood vote

02 January 2015 Friday

A leading Islamic group in Nigeria has rebuked President Goodluck Jonathan after the latter reportedly caused the country to abstain from voting in favor of a motion seeking recognition for an independent Palestinian state at the UN Security Council earlier this week.

"We are constrained to liken Nigeria's decision to pitch tent with Israel to President Jonathan's consistent disgust for Islamic norms and values, his unveiled desire to marginalize Muslims in the scheme of things and his unhidden mien for the debilitation of Muslims both locally and internationally," Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) said in a statement on Thursday night.

Nigeria raised eyebrows on Wednesday when it unexpectedly abstained from voting when the Palestinian statehood motion was presented before the 15-member UN Security Council.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said he had called Jonathan and Rwanda's Paul Kagame to help frustrate the Palestinian bid. The motion needed at least nine votes to succeed but only eight nations voted in its favor.

Nigeria's decision has drawn considerable criticism, largely locally, because the abstention meant foreign policy somersaults for a nation with a history of pro-Palestinian decisions. Jonathan's ascension to power has undermined Nigeria-Palestinian relations, with him tilting more in favor of the self-proclaimed Jewish state.

MURIC said Nigeria's abstention from backing the Palestinian struggle reneges on its history of backing the global cause for justice and fairness as epitomized in its leading the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa.

"MURIC is astounded by this conservative shift in Nigeria's foreign policy. It is on record that Nigeria has always been in the forefront of Africa's struggle for freedom, justice and equal rights," the group said in its statement signed by its director Ishaq Akintola.

"Nigeria has always been known for its principled stand on international issues. This great African country confronted the apartheid regime of South Africa until it collapsed. We did the same in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe and Angola.

"The basis has always been the promotion of fundamental human rights on the international scene. On what basis has Nigeria supported Israel this time around?"

Nigerian presidential spokesman Reuben Abati has not responded to Anadolu Agency's request for comment on the country's decision to abstain and the accusations already leveled against Jonathan.

Nigeria's Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) also accused the government of betraying the Nigerian people after abstaining from voting in favor of a motion seeking recognition for an independent Palestinian state at the UN Security Council earlier this week.

"By this development, we felt that Nigeria government had betrayed the people of Nigeria and created serious problems for the nation’s foreign policies," NSCIA Secretary-General Ishaq Oloyeda said in a statement.

"It was indeed a slap on the faces of all the freedom fighters," he added.

Nigeria unexpectedly abstained from voting when the Palestinian statehood motion was presented before the 15-member UN Security Council on Tuesday.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/152068/nigerias-muslims-angry-after-palestinian-statehood-vote.

Gambia president accuses 'terrorist groups' of coup attempt

January 01, 2015

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Soldiers loyal to Gambian President Yahya Jammeh went house-to-house in search of opponents Thursday after the longtime leader blamed "terrorist groups" for staging a coup attempt earlier this week.

Jammeh, who was out of the country at the time of Tuesday's attack but has since returned to Banjul, the capital, alleged that the coup plotters had received backing from some foreign countries. "I live for the Gambia and I will die fighting for the truth. No human being can do anything to me, my government or the Gambia," Jammeh said. "It was not a coup. It was an attack by dissidents based in the US, Germany and United Kingdom."

After hours of fighting, forces loyal to Jammeh's regime succeeded in getting the upper hand, killing five insurgents. It was not immediately known how many casualties were suffered by the national military.

"We are all gripped by fear," said one Banjul resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Gambia is a small sliver of a country surrounded by Senegal where human rights activists say Jammeh has long targeted political opponents, journalists, and gays and lesbians.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for "a transparent investigation" into Tuesday's events that respects human rights, due process and the rule of law, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said. Jammeh is one of Africa's most vocal anti-gay leaders and has previously threatened to behead sexual minorities found in his country. The U.S. government recently removed Gambia from a trade agreement in response to human rights abuses, including a law signed in October that imposes life imprisonment for some homosexual acts.

Jammeh also drew swift condemnation from activists in 2007 after he insisted that HIV-positive patients stop taking their antiretroviral medications, claiming he could cure them with an herbal body rub and bananas.

Israel's Netanyahu wins Likud party primary

January 01, 2015

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the backing of his hard-line Likud party in its primary and will lead it into general elections this March, Israeli media reported Thursday.

With about 20 percent of the ballots cast Wednesday counted, Israeli media said Netanyahu had won the support of about 75 percent of electors, giving him an unassailable lead over challenger Danny Danon, a former deputy defense minister.

Some 100,000 Likud members were eligible to vote in the poll. Netanyahu was the heavily favored candidate in the vote. Early opinion polls ahead of the March 17 general elections show Netanyahu's Likud party in a neck-and-neck race with a joint list headed by Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog and former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni of the Hatnuah party.

Netanyahu has been Israeli prime minister since 2009, taking a hard-line in Israel's relations with the Palestinians. He has cultivated members of his right-wing coalition through supporting contentious legislation that would enshrine into law Israel's status as a Jewish state.

But he has so far drawn a line with the right at efforts to change the status at a disputed Jerusalem holy site by allowing Jews to pray there, fearing that such a change would solidify anti-Israeli opinion in the Islamic world and undermine the country's relations with the United States and Europe.

Early returns in the Likud primary suggest that one major backer of the change in the status quo at the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Nobel Sanctuary, did not win enough support to gain a chance to return to parliament, while another supporter of that change did.

Protesters detained after rally near Moscow's Red Square

December 31, 2014

MOSCOW (AP) — 18 protesters, including members of the punk provocateur band Pussy Riot, have been detained in Moscow after spending the night near the Red Square.

Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina said on Twitter that she and other protesters who stayed the night near the famous Moscow landmark were detained by police early Wednesday. Activists at the OVD Info group said 18 people were taken to a nearby police station.

A few thousand people rallied outside the Red Square on Tuesday in the boldest anti-government demonstration in years to protest against the court conviction of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his brother. Police allowed the protesters to stay for about two hours before dispersing the crowd.

OVD Info said over 200 people were also arrested on Tuesday although many have been released.

Conviction of Putin foe sets off protest in Moscow

December 30, 2014

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin's chief political foe was convicted along with his brother on Tuesday in a fraud case widely seen as a vendetta by the Kremlin, triggering one of Russia's boldest anti-government demonstrations in years.

Police allowed a few thousand protesters to gather just outside Red Square for about two hours — a show of relative restraint for Russian authorities, who have little tolerance for dissent — before moving in to break up the unsanctioned rally by pushing the demonstrators toward subway entrances.

The rally came hours after anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny was found guilty of what activists said were trumped-up charges and given a suspended sentence of 3½ years. His younger brother was sent to prison, a move that drew comparisons to the Stalin-era practice of punishing family members of enemies of the state.

The 38-year old Navalny, a lawyer and popular blogger, rose to prominence with his investigations of official corruption and played a leading role in organizing anti-Putin demonstrations in Moscow in 2011 and 2012 that drew hundreds of thousands.

Navalny, who has been under house arrest since February, violated its terms to attend the rally and was rounded up by police as he approached the site. He later tweeted that police drove him home and blocked him from leaving his apartment.

The protesters, who gathered on the Manezh Square outside the Kremlin, chanted: "We are the power!" and "Russia without Putin!" Some shouted slogans of support for Ukraine, which saw its Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia in March and has faced a pro-Russia insurgency in the east.

Scuffles erupted between the protesters and pro-Putin activists shouting, "Those who don't like Russia should go to the United States!" — the chants reflecting the Kremlin's depiction of opposition supporters as Western stooges.

The Russian authorities usually move quickly to break up opposition protests, and the unusual delay this time may reflect Kremlin concerns about fueling public anger amid the country's economic woes. The ruble has lost about half its value this year, and the economy is heading into recession under the combined weight of Western sanctions and slumping oil prices.

Police said they detained about 100 protesters, while activists claimed up to 250 were rounded up. Russian law requires demonstrators to get official clearance for rallies. Violators can face prison sentences and heavy fines.

Tuesday's verdict was not scheduled to come down until next month, but the court session was abruptly moved up to the day before New Year's Eve, the main holiday in Russia, in what was widely seen as an attempt to head off protests. Russia's main state-controlled TV stations all but avoided the story.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said the U.S. government was troubled by the verdict, which "appears to be another example of the Russian government's growing crackdown on independent voices."

European Union spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the charges hadn't been substantiated and the verdict "appeared to be politically motivated." Navalny and his brother Oleg were convicted of cheating a French cosmetics company and given the same 3½-year sentence, but only Navalny's was suspended. The court also fined each man 500,000 rubles (about $8,800) and ordered them to pay a total of about 4 million rubles ($77,000) in damages.

Oleg Navalny, the father of two small children and a former executive of the state-owned postal service, has never played a role in the Russian opposition movement. Alexei Navalny and his supporters portrayed the brother's prison sentence as a means of punishing Navalny himself.

"Aren't you ashamed of what you're doing? You want to punish me even harder?" Alexei Navalny shouted at Judge Yelena Korobchenko. He entered the metal cage that his brother was put into after the verdict and appeared to hold back tears.

"This is the most disgusting and vile of all possible verdicts," Alexei Navalny said outside court. "The government isn't just trying to jail its political opponents — we're used to it; we're aware that they're doing it — but this time they're destroying and torturing the families of the people who oppose them."

Independent Moscow-based political analyst Masha Lipman said the verdict is a message to the entire Russian opposition: "All of you guys are at our mercy." Lipman said it was clear the Kremlin had decided not to make a martyr out of Navalny, with the aim being "not to consolidate the opposition, but to demoralize and intimidate it."

The suspended sentence could be converted into a prison term at any time if Navalny breaks the law. His lawyer Vadim Kobzev said he will remain under house arrest until all appeals by either side are exhausted, which could take months.

The trial seemed to be full of inconsistencies. Prosecutors insisted that the brothers forced the Yves Rocher company "into disadvantageous contracts" and defrauded it of 26 million rubles (about $440,000).

An Yves Rocher executive submitted a complaint to investigators, but its representatives insisted throughout the trial that there was never any damage. Also, the French executive who wrote the complaint left Russia shortly afterward and never attended the hearings.

Navalny was found guilty of embezzlement in a different case in 2013 and sentenced to prison but was released the next day after thousands protested near the Kremlin. He finished a strong second in Moscow's mayoral election later that year.

Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky who spent 10 years behind bars before he was pardoned last year, dismissed Tuesday's verdict as Putin's revenge for Navalny's activism, adding that "Putin and his entourage are capable of vile tricks, deception, forgery and manipulation."

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the verdict sends a message "to expect a harsher crackdown in 2015."

Jim Heintz, Kate de Pury and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.