Polish lawmakers get military training for 'troubled times'

May 12, 2015

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Dozens of Polish lawmakers traded in their suits and political bargaining for fatigues and military exercises on Tuesday, a mainly symbolic act as Poles grow nervous about the conflict next door in Ukraine and Russia's involvement in it.

The parliamentarians were answering a call from Parliament Speaker Radek Sikorski, who announced in March that the training would be held due to the "troubled times" that have come which "may require a readiness to defend the country."

"It's a very good way of increasing the morale of our army and of the populace," lawmaker John Godson said when he returned to Warsaw after the full day of training. "It was great and I would like more training."

He was the first of nearly 50 lawmakers to sign up for the exercises. Though largely symbolic, the exercises were also practical and serious, Godson said, holding up a bandaged finger to stress his point. He said he got a splinter in his finger on an obstacle course.

The lawmakers, most of whom have never served in the military, practiced shooting weapons at a firing range, throwing fake grenades, crawling across the ground and learning elements of self-defense. They wore military-issued camouflage uniforms which they now get to keep.

Another lawmaker who took part, Maciej Mroczek, said he didn't believe there will be war, but said it was important for him to test his self-defense skills and show support for the country's military.

"We want to send the message to young people that the armed forces protect us and are useful," Mroczek said.

Shock result in Polish vote could signal larger power shift

May 12, 2015

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — President Bronislaw Komorowski lost the first round of the country's presidential election to a previously unknown 42-year-old member of the European Parliament, in what is being called the biggest shock in Polish politics in years.

The defeat for the communist-era dissident, who has long polled as one of the nation's most trusted leaders, is a sign that parliamentary elections this fall could be unpredictable. It could even signal a possible return to power for Law and Justice, the right-wing group backing Sunday's winning presidential candidate Andrzej Duda.

A runoff in two weeks will decide the final outcome. In the first round, Komorowski took 33.8 percent of the votes compared to 34.8 percent for Duda, according to official results released early Tuesday. In all there were 11 candidates.

The result is undeniably a defeat for Komorowski, a center-right leader who earlier this year was expected to easily win far above 50 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff altogether. When Law and Justice ran the government once before, from 2005-2007, Poland clashed repeatedly with officials in Brussels and ties with ally Germany grew strained. The party has also been extremely critical of Russia. Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the death of his twin brother, the late President Lech Kaczynski, in a 2010 plane crash. No evidence has emerged to back up his theory.

Adam Michnik, editor of the influential daily Gazeta Wyborcza, wrote of what he called the "suspicion and fear" that reigned in Poland at the time, when the government fought corruption and the influence of former communists in ways that many Poles felt amounted to excessive state intrusion.

Another commentator, Pawel Wronski, called Sunday's apparent results "the biggest surprise in Polish politics in the last years." Komorowski's poor showing reflects growing dissatisfaction with the way the country is going under Civic Platform, a business friendly party which has been in power since 2007. The party was founded by the former prime minister, Donald Tusk, now head of the European Council. Commentators say Komorowski has suffered from being closely identified with the party and not opposing its more unpopular proposals, such as raising the retirement age.

The strong showing in the presidential race for Pawel Kukiz, a former punk rock musician with an anti-establishment message, was another sign that Poles are disgruntled. Kukiz came third with 20.8 percent of the vote after campaigning for Poland to introduce single-member constituencies like in Britain to replace the current party list system, part of a larger message that the system is rotten.

Kukiz argues that choosing individual candidates rather than parties in electing lawmakers to parliament will be more transparent and give voters more influence. The final outcome will depend a lot on where those protest votes go in the runoff, to be held May 24.

Already on Monday Komorowski signaled a desire to fight for the Kukiz voters, announcing plans for a referendum on single-mandate constituencies. He said the referendum would also include propositions on ending the funding of political parties from tax money and the protection of taxpayers in disputes with state financial authorities.

To the outside world, it might seem strange that Poles would feel frustrated given that the country has one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. But many Poles, especially those in the countryside, are not enjoying higher wages, job security or other economic benefits that seem to be going only to certain groups.

The most striking example of the malaise is the more than 2 million Poles who have emigrated since Poland joined the EU in 2004 seeking economic opportunities in Britain and elsewhere. Surveys show that many more want to join them. Kukiz has called the exodus an "extermination" of the Polish people.

Other problems include a flawed public health system and a dysfunctional bureaucracy. Sunday's voting was a catastrophe for the left. The two left-wing candidates together only took a projected 4 percent.

In reaction, several academics announced Monday that they are forming their own left-wing group ahead of fall elections, warning in an open letter that Poland is facing "the threat of total domination of public and political life by right-wing circles, including those on the extreme right."

Protesting Macedonians demand government's resignation

May 18, 2015

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Tens of thousands of protesters gathered Sunday in the center of the Macedonian capital to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

Zoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democrats and the keynote speaker in the rally, claimed that more than 100,000 attended the incident-free rally. "More than 100,000 citizens were here today and we got support from different ethnic groups of our country. This could not possibly have been organized by only one party," Zaev told The Associated Press. He said the rally was "a strong message to our government and to the prime minister to submit their resignations."

The government of the tiny, landlocked Balkan nation of about 2 million people is reeling from a massive, long-running wiretap scandal and a shootout a week ago between police and ethnic Albanian gunmen that left 18 dead in a border town. In a region with a long and bloody history of ethnic conflicts and political instability, the developments have caused consternation both domestically and abroad.

The great majority of the protesters in Skopje departed Sunday night, but hundreds of opposition supporters have put up tents outside the government building, intending to stay for days. "Freedom and democracy have no price for us. No price. And we will not stop until we see this dictator resigning," said opposition supporter Mirjana Janov.

The crowd outside the government building in Skopje chanted "goodbye Gruevski" and "resignations, resignations," and a poster was held aloft showing Gruevski behind prison bars. "We have come for our future. I am sending a clear message: Gruevski, don't procrastinate. leave!" Zaev told the crowd. Former diplomats, human rights activists and journalists also spoke.

Majority ethnic Macedonians and minority ethnic Albanians mingled together in the crowd. "I am here to say goodbye to Nikola. I want this government to leave immediately because people have suffered for too long under his regime", said Blagica Nikolova, 52, who was in the crowd.

Mirjana Najceska, a human rights activist, said the protest was about freedom: "the same freedom that my father took up arms to fight fascists for when he was 17 and who has come again here today now that he is 90."

Zaev is demanding the formation of a caretaker government that will organize new elections. In January, Zaev began releasing a cache of wiretapped conversations, and claimed that Gruevski was behind the mass wiretapping of more than 20,000 Macedonians. The conversations are claimed to reveal corruption at the highest levels of government, including mismanagement of funds, spurious criminal prosecutions of opponents and even attempted cover-ups of killings.

Zaev said those conversations were leaked to him by "patriots" in the domestic intelligence service. Gruevski, who has won successive elections since 2006, angrily rejects the accusations. He accuses Zaev of participating in a coup plot backed by unnamed foreign spy agencies.

Richard Howitt, a British MEP and former European Parliament rapporteur for Macedonia's EU accession, said in a written statement that he hoped his presence with other international representatives would help promote calm, following last week's events where anti-government protests turned violent and the deadly attack in Kumanovo.

"Current events must not allow a return to inter-ethnic violence in a country which we see as our partner, now and in the future," Howitt said. The government says it's doing what it can. Three government officials who were among Gruevski's closest aides — the interior and transport ministers, Gordana Jankuloska and Mile Janakieski, and intelligence chief Saso Mijalkov, a relative of Gruevski — resigned last week, saying they did so to calm the situation. The three were the voices most heard on the recordings.

Zaev said the resignations aren't enough. "There is nothing that Nikola Gruevski can do except to leave this (government) building behind us," Zaev said. He also called for the resignation of Macedonia's chief prosecutor, new leadership for the national TV broadcaster, and the formation of a caretaker government to organize free and fair elections.

Zaev told the AP that he will meet Gruevski on Monday, adding that he hopes that "through dialogue Gruevski will be persuaded to submit his resignation." Zaev and Gruevski have been invited by the European Parliament for talks to resolve the crisis on Tuesday in Strasbourg.

A pro-government protest has been called for Monday evening in front of the Macedonian parliament building, less than 1 kilometer (3,000 feet) from the government building. The government hopes it will be at least as massive as Sunday's opposition rally.

Police say they will put many officers on the ground to ensure attendees in the two rallies do not come in contact.

Crimean police detain Tatars commemorating mass deportation

May 18, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Police in the capital of Russia-annexed Crimea have detained demonstrators trying to take part in an unauthorized motorcade to observe the anniversary of the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars.

Tatars, a Turkic ethnic group, ruled the Black Sea peninsula from the 15th century until Russian conquest in the 18th century. In May 1944, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin accused the Tatars of collaborating with German forces and ordered their deportation, many to Central Asia.

Tatars commemorate the deportation on May 18. This year's events in Simferopol were much smaller than those before Russia's March 2014 annexation of Crimea, which most Tatars opposed. Crimea's chief of inter-ethnic affairs, Zaur Smirnov, said Monday about 100 motorcade participants were blocked and the men among them were taken to a police station to be interrogated.

Colombia rebels cancel unilateral cease-fire after army raid

May 22, 2015

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's largest rebel group on Friday called off a unilateral cease-fire in reaction to a military raid on a guerrilla camp that killed 26 of its fighters, further straining negotiations to end the country's half-century-old conflict.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said in a statement Friday that it felt obliged to end the five-month-old truce aimed at facilitating the peace talks because of the constant pursuit of its fighters by the military.

The Thursday attack on the guerrilla camp in Cauca province, which President Juan Manuel Santos called a major blow against the FARC, appears to have been in retaliation for the rebels' own stealth raid last month, also in Cauca, on an army patrol. Ten soldiers were killed in that attack, which led Santos to scrap his own confidence-building gesture: a ban on launching air raids against guerrilla camps.

The FARC commander known by his alias Pastor Alape, one of the group's chief envoys to peace talks taking place in Cuba, denounced the attack on Twitter as a "treacherous and degrading act" carried out in the dead of night

Meanwhile Santos urged the FARC to accelerate negotiations if it wants to prevent further bloodshed. Speaking alongside the visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, he said the armed forces are ready to combat any new FARC offensive.

"From the day the conversation in Havana started I've been clear," Santos, a former defense minister, said in televised remarks earlier Friday. "Operations by our armed forces against the insurgents will not be detained, they won't be detained. Nobody should fool themselves."

Santos said that the army seized a stockpile of weapons during the raid, including 37 assault rifles and a M60 machine gun. The rebels apparently belonged to the same commando unit that in November raided a police post on Gorgona Island, a destination frequented by European adventure tourists.

While the FARC negotiators' declaration of a unilateral truce in December pleasantly surprised many Colombians, it was never fully honored by the estimated 7,000 fighters on the battlefield, many of whom are isolated and on the ropes after more than a decade-long, U.S.-backed offensive.

But the FARC's cease-fire, which was always contingent on its troops not being attacked, was viewed by many as a sign that a deal was close and the conflict winding down. The FARC said that to provide more oxygen for talks it is imperative that a bilateral cease-fire be declared as soon as possible. That is an option Santos has rejected outright up to now, leading many Colombians to question how progress toward a deal can be sustained. In two years of talks, both sides have already reached preliminary agreements on three areas — political participation for ex-rebels, agricultural reform and ways to combat drug-trafficking — as well as a deal to jointly remove land mines.

"You can't discuss peace in Havana while in Colombia making war," said Carlos Lozano, editor of a Communist Party-run newspaper and sometime mediator between the rebels and the government. "That's what is generating instability in this process."

Colombia bids farewell to victims of deadly flooding

May 22, 2015

SALGAR, Colombia (AP) — Thousands of mourners poured into the streets Thursday to bid farewell to dozens of the victims of a deadly mudslide that ravaged this coffee-growing town nestled deep in the Andes

Church bells rang out as a caravan of funeral coaches arrived from Medellin, three hours away, carrying the bodies of the first 33 of 84 people killed in Monday's flash flood. A military band played Taps as soldiers positioned the caskets in front of the town's main church, where Bishop Cesar Balbin read a letter of condolences sent by Pope Francis. Several high-ranking military officers attended but President Juan Manuel Santos, who visited Salgar in the aftermath of the tragedy, stayed behind in Bogota to welcome Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Mourners, many of them wailing and grasping at caskets, had to be held back by police trying to prevent the crowds from entering the town's cemetery. One woman fainted. The above-ground vaults had been prepared for the burials by gravedigger John Edison Londono, who had worked around the clock since the mudslide.

The frenzied pace was an emotional as well as a professional response to tragedy. By stoically losing himself in his work, Londono postponed grieving for 15 of his own relatives who were among the at least 84 dead.

"It's very sad, sad, sad," Londono told The Associated Press. "But you need to be on your feet, ready to fight, to help bury all of our compatriots." None of those buried Thursday were among the relatives lost by Londono.

The flash flood triggered by heavy rains was Colombia's deadliest natural disaster since 1999. An unknown number of people remained missing, but authorities said the chances of finding anyone alive buried under the mud were nil.

Authorities have turned their attention to providing shelter and assistance to the more than 500 people affected by the tragedy. The goal is to rebuild, but Londono said that might prove difficult, because many longtime residents are ready to leave out of fear of another disaster.

Coffee plantations that had been standing for a century were wiped out. Entire neighborhoods were converted into grey moonscapes. The body of at least one victim was carried by the raging current more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) downriver.

Londono said the town cemetery could not handle the demands. Although there are 101 above-ground concrete vaults available for burials, he said many of them had been overtaken by mold and moisture and needed to be cleaned out.

Ghanaians protest power cuts; hope govt will listen

17 May 2015 Sunday

Thousands of people, including celebrities, on Saturday staged a march in Ghanaian capital Accra against repeated electrical power cuts across the country.

The march, which included a candlelight vigil, was organized by several Ghanaian celebrities.

Carrying candles and lanterns, march participants walked for almost two hours.

Some participants also carried fire pots and other objects to demonstrate their anger at repeated power outages in the country's houses and workplaces.

March participants included students; business owners; teachers, and politicians.

"The people of Ghana deserve to have electricity in their homes," D-Black, a Ghanaian musician, told Anadolu Agency during the event.

"We pay our tax and our bills," he added.

He said the government always failed to honor its promises when it came to supplying Ghanaians with electrical power.

He said he and other march participants were out to speak for Ghanaians whose voice could not be heard.

"I hope we will have explanation from the government as to why this is happening," D-Black said.

Loud music, which characterized protests in Ghana's streets, could not be played on Saturday because of a ban in respect for Ga people, one of Ghana's ethnic groups.

The Ga Traditional Council had earlier called on march organizers to postpone Saturday's event until the ban is lifted next month.

"I am a student and I need to study for my exams, but I don't have electricity to do so," Kwame Ahenkora, a march participant, said.

He even called on the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, to leave.

Another march participant was Kwame Karikari, a university professor, who said electricity cuts had a negative impact on his work.

"I can't do power point presentations or any technology in my class" he said.

"I can't use my computer as I would want to," he added, noting that power outages sometimes forced him to cancel out his classes.

Addressing the crowd, Ghanaian actor, Yvonne Nelson, expressed hopes that the government would listen.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/159258/ghanaians-protest-power-cuts-hope-govt-will-listen.

Ethiopians vote in 1st election without former strongman

May 24, 2015

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopians started voting Sunday in national and regional elections in which the ruling party is expected to maintain its iron-clad grip on power.

More than 36 million voters were registered to vote in this East African nation of about 90 million people. Some opposition groups threatened to boycott the vote, saying their members are being harassed and detained — charges the government denies.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, a former university professor-turned-politician, has been leading the country since the death in 2012 of strongman Meles Zenawi, who built the ruling coalition into a powerful political organization. These are Ethiopia's first elections since Zenawi's death. Desalegn is expected to remain in power.

In 2010, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, won 99.6 percent of all parliamentary seats. Only one opposition lawmaker won a seat in an election that watchdog groups said was marred by intimidation and the harassment of opposition activists.

Human Rights Watch called that victory "the culmination of the government's five-year strategy of systematically closing down space for political dissent and independent criticism." Those allegations have persisted in this year's election. The government has denied the charges, instead accusing the opposition — and neighboring arch-foe Eritrea — of plotting to disrupt the vote.

"We remain vigilant and confident that the general election will be peaceful, free and fair, notwithstanding destabilization attempts that may be tried by Eritrea or its local emissaries, which we will respond to with stern measures," Desalegn said Thursday.

There were long lines of voters early Sunday inside Addis Ababa University's main campus in the capital. Bewend Mathios, a native of southern Ethiopia who studies law at the university, said he had made an "informed decision" based on what the parties had said in media debates as well as leaflets distributed to students.

But some Addis Ababa residents complained about the ruling party's apparent domination. "Almost all of the election observers who were present at the polling stations were the ruling party's sympathizers," said Eyob Mesafint, a lawyer in Addis Ababa who supports the opposition. "We all know the hardships that opposition party members came through. They were not able to introduce their programs to their constituents as much as they could."

More than 45,000 polling stations will be open with nearly 250,000 election observers assigned to monitor them. The National Election Board of Ethiopia said provisional results are expected in a week but final results won't be released before June 22.

Ethiopia is a federal parliamentary republic and the party or coalition that wins the most seats in the 547-seat parliament will form the next government. All parliament seats are being voted on Sunday, as well as local offices.

This story has been corrected to show that Ethiopia has more than 36 million registered voters, not more than 38 million.

Joyful Burundi refugees leave disease-stricken camp

May 23, 2015

LAKE TANGANYIKA, Tanzania (AP) — Hundreds of women, many with children strapped on their backs alongside their few belongings, sing melodious tunes expressing their joy as their small boats approach the ferry M.V. Liemba.

"We are thanking God for leaving Burundi. Now we are in Tanzania we are safe," the women sing in Kirundi, Burundi's official language, after they boarded the ferry. They are among a group of about 600 Burundi refugees evacuated by the U.N. refugee agency Saturday from a makeshift refugee camp at the fishing village of Kagunga, Tanzania.

The small town has hosted thousands of refugees crossing over from Burundi and now has been hit by a cholera outbreak. The refugees are being taken to Kigoma where they will be bused further inland to Nyarugusu, a camp with better facilities, said Celine Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N refugee agency.

Tens of thousands of Burundians are escaping political turmoil triggered by President Pierre Nkurinziza's bid for a third term in office in the June 26 elections. Burundi recently experienced a civil war from 1993 to 2003 which killed at least 250,000 people.

Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, has had four weeks of street protests in which 20 have died and 431 injured. The protests started after it was announced that Nkurunziza will run for another term, which many say is against the constitution.

The protests boiled over last week when a section of the army attempted a coup, which was crushed in 48 hours. Fearing more political violence, more than 100,000 Burundians fled the country. Thousands poured into the improvised Tanzanian refugee camp and 31 people died from a cholera outbreak. Twenty-nine of the dead are Burundi refugees in Kagunga, which has been the hardest hit by the disease, said the U.N. spokeswoman Schmitt. An initial assessment of the outbreak shows it was likely caused by a lack of clean water, over-crowding of the camps and lack of toilets, she said.

"They are eating on the floor, sleeping on the floor and there were no latrines," she said. "Our first priority was to move the refugees from Kagunga. At the same time it was important to improve access to clean water and latrines."

At least 1,500 to 2,000 refugees are being moved from Kagunga every day by four ferry trips along Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma, she said. Among the singing women was Mvumilivu Odeta, 27, who says she is a refugee for a second time in her life. Orphaned at two when her parents were killed in the civil war, Odeta said cannot remember anything about the first time she escaped to Tanzania.

Odeta's first name, Mvumilivu, means, a person who can persevere, in Swahili, and now she has escaped Burundi's current turmoil with her 16-month-old son. "I am singing because I am thankful that we are alive," she said.

Burundi army soldier killed in unrest, says officer

May 20, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — A Burundi army officer says police killed a soldier who was trying act as a buffer between police and protesters, who are demonstrating against the president's bid for a third term in office.

Captain Dismas Nduwamungu told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the soldier was part of a group of army troops trying to stop the police from firing at protesters who were throwing stones. He said the soldier was hit in the chest and died. Nduwamungu says another soldier was wounded in the leg.

The weeks of unrest in Bujumbura, the capital, boiled over last week when an army general announced a coup which was crushed within 48 hours by army forces loyal to President Pierre Nkurunziza. The army has remained largely neutral in the street battles between the police and protesters.

Masses of Burundi refugees show up in Tanzania

May 19, 2015

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Cholera and severe diarrhea have broken out among tens of thousands of refugees from Burundi who are jammed into a village in Tanzania on the edge of Lake Tanganyika, with the Burundians overwhelming the health infrastructure and sanitation facilities, aid agencies said Tuesday.

Between 500 and 2,000 people are arriving daily in the tiny fishing village of Kagunga, the World Health Organization said. The refugees have abandoned their country because of fears of political violence in the run-up to June elections, in which their president is seeking a third term. His candidacy has triggered demonstrations for three weeks in Burundi's capital and amid the chaos, some military officer launched a coup last week, which failed within two days.

Kagunga's original population of 11,382 has increased to over 90,000 since April, WHO said in a statement. There is not enough safe water for drinking. With Kagunga surrounded by mountains, the refugees must wait to board a 100-year-old ship and make the three-hour trip to the port of Kigoma, the International Rescue Committee said. The ship is transporting 600 passengers twice daily, leaving those who remain behind in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, the aid group said.

The IRC said it is providing medical care in Kagunga, on the boat and at a transit camp in Kigoma. After making it to Kigoma, around 16,000 refugees have moved on to Nyarugusu refugee camp, a journey of up to four hours by road.

Cases of acute diarrhea and cholera have been confirmed, according to WHO. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office reported on Sunday that at least seven Burundian refugees had died of severe diarrhea.

Demonstrators in Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, say they will continue to protest until President Pierre Nkurunziza steps down at the end of his second term. Burundi's Constitution states a president can be popularly elected to a five-year terms, renewable once. Nkurunziza maintains he can run for a third term because parliament elected him for his first one. Opponents say a third term violates the Constitution and peace accords that ended a civil war.

Burundi army thrust into new role in quelling protests

May 18, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Burundi's army was deployed on Monday for the first time to quell street protests, putting the military into a precarious position amid persistent demonstrations against the president's bid for a third term.

Confronting hundreds of demonstrators, two groups of soldiers almost opened fire on each other as the result of a dispute on whether to use lethal force against the protesters, sharply illustrating the military's difficult position.

In an apparent effort to assert greater control over the military, President Pierre Nkurunziza fired his defense minister, Pontien Gaciyubenge, who earlier this month had said the army would play a neutral role in the street protests and respect the Constitution, comments seen as critical of the president. Nkurunziza also replaced International Affairs Minister Laurent Kavakure and Trade Minister Marie Nizigiyimana, said presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho.

The protests began more than three weeks ago after the ruling party named Nkurunziza as its candidate in June elections. Police tried to crush the demonstrations at the cost of at least 15 lives. Burundi's situation grew even more volatile last week when a general announced a coup, which collapsed within two days when loyalist troops overwhelmed the rebel faction. Since Nkurunziza returned to the presidential palace over the weekend, the demonstrations have continued and the army appears to have inherited the role of putting down the street protests.

In Bujumbura's Musaga neighborhood, armed soldiers on Monday faced off with hundreds of angry protesters who called for Nkurunziza to reverse his decision to seek another term in office, which many say is unconstitutional.

An Associated Press reporter in Musaga, where protesters put up barricades of burning tires, saw two soldiers fire into a crowd of protesters, who had repeatedly shouted, "Shoot us." No casualties were seen.

"The military is shooting at us, you have seen for yourselves," said protester Alfred Nsengumukiza. "They came here pushing and shoving us and also doing the same to journalists, then they opened fire."

The soldiers who fired the shots were then ordered to leave the front line, sparking a rift between troops who opposed shooting at protesters and those who supported such action. Amid the standoff, the group opposed to firing at protesters cocked their guns and threatened to shoot their colleagues if they fired into the crowd.

No police were seen in the volatile areas of Musaga and Cibitoke, a sign that the army, which previously had acted as a buffer between angry protesters and the police, has now taken over operations against demonstrators. The soldiers are armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Many of the demonstrators in Citiboke said their protests should not be linked to the coup calling the coup plotters "opportunists." "We just want Nkurunziza to respect the constitution and leave office. In the years he has been in power he has done nothing for us," said Bertland Nkurunziza.

Seventeen security officials, including five generals, accused in the attempted coup were charged Saturday with attempting to destabilize public institutions, said lawyers of some of the suspects. Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare, the former intelligence chief who announced the coup on Wednesday, remains at large.

Nkurunziza, who was in Tanzania for a summit to discuss his nation's troubles when the coup attempt was announced, made his first public appearance in Bujumbura on Sunday. The U.S. government has raised concern over reports of retaliatory attacks in the aftermath of the attempted coup. It has urged Nkurunziza to condemn and stop the alleged use of violence by the police and the ruling party's youth militias against those who participate in street protests.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke cited cases of retaliatory violence against coup plotters and supporters in Burundi. He said any individuals charged with involvement must be treated according to the law and their rights must be respected. And "peaceful protesters should not be equated with people who participated in an attempted seizure of power."

At least three people were wounded in an overnight attack in the outskirts of the capital which witnesses blamed on the ruling party's youth wing. Jafeh Hakizimana, said he was hacked with machetes by a group from the ruling party's youth wing, known as the, Imbonerakure, who came to his village looking for opposition supporters. Hakizimana said his brother was among the attackers.

"He did not do anything to help me and went on to beat others," Hakizimana said. Fearing political violence, more than 105,000 Burundians have fled to neighboring countries recently, according to the U.N.

Associated Press reporters Gerard Nzohabona contributed to this report, Andrew Njuguna and Jerome Delay contributed to this report.

Burundi: 5 generals arrested for plotting failed coup

May 16, 2015

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — A top Burundi official says that five generals have been arrested for plotting a failed coup attempt against President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said Saturday that three army generals and two police generals were arrested Friday. He said three lower-ranking officers and eight soldiers were also arrested. The coup attempt came as Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in office has triggered turmoil in this central African nation. After weeks of street protests against Nkurunziza's efforts to stay in power, a general announced the coup on Wednesday. Nkurunziza was in Tanzania attending an emergency regional summit to discuss Burundi's crisis when the attempted coup started but soldiers loyal to the president stopped the rebellion.

Officials said Friday that Nkurunziza had returned to the capital though he hasn't been seen in public.

Year-old Thai coup imposes superficial calm but little else

May 24, 2015

BANGKOK (AP) — Shortly after seizing power in a coup that followed months of debilitating street protests, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha vowed to end Thailand's decade of political upheaval once and for all. In his words, "to bring everything out in the open and fix it."

A year later, the military can boast that it has restored stability and kept this Southeast Asian nation calm. But the bitter societal fissures that helped trigger the putsch are still simmering below the surface, unresolved.

"Our differences have just been pushed under the rug by a junta that prohibits freedom of expression," said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. "Nothing has been done to address the root causes of Thailand's deep divide."

What is happening now is the imposition of peace by force, Sunai said. "There's no guarantee that whenever the junta lets go of their iron grip, the country will not to fall back into conflict," he added.

On Friday, the anniversary of the takeover, police quashed a small, peaceful demonstration in Bangkok, triggering scuffles as those who took part were dragged away. At least 37 students were detained before being released Saturday after 11 hours of questioning. Seven others who staged a similar protest in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen were also freed.

Speaking to reporters the same day, Prayuth acknowledged that seizing power "was wrong." But he nevertheless defended the overthrow of Yingluck Shinawatra's government, saying "we cannot fix the past, but we can build for the future."

The problem, critics argue, is that the junta may be sowing the seeds of more conflict by building that future on its own terms — with reform committees, a rubber-stamp legislature and no input from the party it toppled, Pheu Thai, whose supporters likely still represent a majority of the electorate.

The latest point of contention, a constitutional draft released in April, has been criticized even by groups who supported the putsch. If approved, the charter would significantly weaken the power of political parties, shifting it to unelected agencies like a proposed "National Moral Assembly" that would be empowered to investigate politicians for offenses as minor as "impolite" speech — ultimately initiating the path to their removal.

The charter's drafters say such reforms are designed to check abuse by corrupt politicians, a problem acknowledged by all sides. But Pheu Thai officials say the real aim is to prevent their party from governing effectively if it wins again.

"Nobody knows how these agencies would be made accountable themselves," said Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former premier who was among those who called for Yingluck to resign as prime minister before the coup. Speaking of the junta, he added: "They should be more concerned with making elected governments more accountable, rather than making them weaker."

Last week, the military government announced it would subject the draft charter to a referendum. But "if you vote yes, you end up with a Frankenstein constitution that undercuts liberal democracy," said Sunai of Human Rights Watch. "If you vote no, they'll have to go back to the drawing board, and Prayuth will just stay in power longer."

The junta has spoken of holding nationwide elections in late 2016, but no date has been set and some believe it could govern for years. "The big picture for now is, we're still in a lockdown ... there's still a huge question mark over the future," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

The junta has not been helped by Thailand's sputtering economy, which has largely remained flat since the coup, with exports and investment down. Thitinan said generals "were not meant to govern Thailand, (and) some have lost their way. They're not used to accountability, or being in the public eye, being asked questions."

And they do not tolerate dissent. According to iLaw, a nonprofit group that monitors legal cases, at least 751 people have been summoned by the junta for what the military calls "attitude adjustments." Before Friday, at least 428 had been arrested, 166 for expressing opinions perceived as critical; many were supporters of the ousted government, as well as students, writers and academics. Some have fled into exile.

The junta argues that it is working to create the foundation for a stable democracy, and that while it does, liberties and freedom of speech that could sow division must be curtailed. "We need an environment that is conducive to dialogue, where people can speak to one another," said Maj. Gen. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a junta spokesman.

"We're not saying that they would not have any freedom at all in future, we're not saying that this country will be in this environment forever," he said. "We're trying to create ... understanding." Yingluck's former education minister, Chaturon Chaisang, who is facing 14 years in prison for not reporting to a junta summons after the coup and then criticizing the takeover, disagreed.

There has been no "attempt to address the reconciliation process at all," he said. "There has never been any discussion (with us) from people in charge on what the roots of the problem are." The coup was the culmination of a political schism laid bare after another putsch in 2006 that deposed billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother. The struggle, in broad terms, pits a majority rural poor in the north and northeast who benefited from the Shinawatra's populist policies against an urban-based elite in Bangkok and the south that is worried over its steady loss of power at the polls.

The conflict has spurred crippling protests. In 2010, one mass demonstration ended with scores dead and parts of central Bangkok in flames. In 2014, a rival group of protesters seized ministries and all but shut down Yingluck's government amid a wave of increasing violence that killed dozens of people and wounded more than 800 before the army intervened.

Shinawatra supporters say the junta and its allies are now following through on one of their main goals: to dismantle the Shinawatra's political machine and ensure that the parties it has led can never dominate politics again.

In March, Thailand's anti-corruption body recommended that 250 former lawmakers, most of them Pheu Thai members, be barred from seeking office on charges of misuse of power. This month, the Supreme Court began hearings against Yingluck for alleged dereliction of duty in overseeing a government rice subsidy scheme that lost billions of dollars.

Yingluck, who is free after posting bail that was set at nearly $1 million, faces 10 years in prison if found guilty. Her supporters argue that the case is politically motivated — evidence, they say, of a biased justice system.

By contrast, criminal charges have been dropped against former lawmaker Suthep Thaugsuban, who led the protests that paved the way for last year's coup. Suthep's supporters had brazenly seized government ministries, attacked the prime minister's office with homemade rockets and disrupted an election Yingluck called in a failed bid to defuse the crisis. No one has been tried for those offenses.

Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone and video journalist Papitchaya Boonngok contributed to this report.

Putin signs Russian law to shut 'undesirable' organizations

May 24, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law Saturday giving prosecutors the power to declare foreign and international organizations "undesirable" in Russia and shut them down.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned the measure as part of an "ongoing draconian crackdown which is squeezing the life out of civil society." The law is part of a Kremlin campaign to stifle dissent that intensified after Putin began his third term in 2012. His return to the presidency had been accompanied by mass street protests that Putin accused the United States of fomenting. Russian suspicions of Western intentions have been further heightened because of tensions over Russia's role in the conflict in Ukraine.

The new Russian law allows prosecutors to declare an organization undesirable if it presents a threat to Russia's constitutional order, its defenses or its security. Laws passed in recent years already have led to increased pressure on Russian non-governmental organizations, particularly those that receive foreign funding. Rights activists fear the new law could be used to extend the crackdown to Russian branches of international groups and the Russian activists who work with them.

In a statement, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said the United States is "deeply troubled" by the new law, calling it "a further example of the Russian government's growing crackdown on independent voices and intentional steps to isolate the Russian people from the world."

Failed launches cast shadow over Russian space program

May 21, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Back-to-back rocket launch failures have dealt Russia one of the heaviest blows to its space industry since the Soviet collapse — with national pride and billions of dollars at stake.

The setbacks threaten to erode Russia's leading position in the multibillion global launch market, in which it commands an estimated 40 percent share, and dent President Vladimir Putin's efforts to boost the country's global prestige.

The competition for lucrative commercial satellite contracts is intensifying, with American, European, Chinese and Indian companies all eager to expand their share. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin warned this week that Russia could soon lose its chunk if the problems aren't fixed quickly.

Government officials and experts agree that the latest booster rocket failures are rooted in a steady decline of production standards and poor oversight at state-controlled rocket builders, but opinions vary on how the problems might be solved.

Highlighting space industry woes, the workers building the new Vostochny space launch pad in the far eastern Amur region went on hunger strike last month and appealed directly to Putin, complaining that they have gone unpaid for months. The head of a state-controlled construction company and three subcontractors have been arrested in the case.

The Kremlin has offered yet another plan for the reorganization of the industry, which has seen numerous shake-ups in recent years. A presidential bill that received preliminary approval by the lower house this week pulls all the nation's space assets together in one giant state-controlled commercial corporation.

In a speech to lawmakers, Rogozin cast the proposed reform as essential for establishing tight control over money flows, cutting production costs and uprooting corruption. He admitted that U.S. space industries are now nine times more efficient than Russia's space industry.

Critics say, however, that other giant state corporations created during Putin's 15-year rule, as part of his efforts to concentrate lucrative economic assets in state hands, have not exactly been success stories. They say these state conglomerates suffer from mismanagement and inefficiency and are dogged by corruption.

Rogozin said that a recent investigation into the activities of the Khrunichev company, the manufacturer of the heavy-lift Proton booster rocket, revealed numerous instances of fraud, abuse of office and falsification of documents, resulting in economic damage of 9 billion rubles (more than $180 million).

"With such degradation in the leadership, a high accident rate isn't a surprise," Rogozin said. The latest Proton rocket launched over the weekend developed a problem in its third-stage engine eight minutes into the flight, resulting in the loss of a Mexican communications satellite.

The Proton has been the main cash cow for the Russian space industries since the Soviet collapse, capable of lifting 20 metric tons of payload to high geostationary orbits. Experts warn that the accident, which follows a series of other Proton failures in recent years, may discourage potential clients.

"Any such accident derails the launch schedule, and customers don't like it," said Igor Marinin, the editor of Novosti Kosmonavtiki space magazine. "The longer the delay, the bigger the number of unhappy customers."

The Proton setback is particularly worrisome as it comes in the footsteps of the failure of the second main type of Russian booster rocket, the Soyuz, which also suffered a breakdown in its third stage after its launch on April 28. An unmanned Progress cargo ship it was carrying was stranded in low orbit and soon fell to Earth over the Pacific, depriving a six-person crew at the International Space Station of its scheduled portion of supplies.

While the crew at the space outpost won't experience any shortages as current stockpiles will last for months, the Soyuz launch failure has prompted Russia to delay both the scheduled landing of some of the station's crew and the launch of their successors.

Space officials now need to make sure that the Soyuz rocket, used to launch both the manned Soyuz spacecraft and the Progress cargo ships, is safe to put the next crew in orbit. The next crew launch atop the Soyuz was pushed back from late May to late July, to be preceded by an unmanned Progress launch in early July.

If the Soyuz problem persists, it may pose a serious challenge to the International Space Station program, which has relied entirely on the Soyuz spacecraft for ferrying crews after the grounding of the U.S. shuttle fleet.

The successive launch failures mark a rare case in which both main booster rockets used by the Russian space program are out of service at the same time pending crash probes. The two rockets have been the workhorses of the Soviet and then Russian space industries for five decades. Work on building their replacement has dragged on slowly for about 20 years, and the new booster, the Angara, was successfully launched for the first time in December.

A government panel has traced the latest Soyuz failure to a leak from propellant tanks in its third stage, but it has yet to determine the reason for that. It's not clear yet what happened to the Proton.

The Proton's latest failure was its seventh launch accident in 4 1/2 years. While the cause of Saturday's setback hasn't been determined, the previous accidents have been triggered by manufacturing flaws and human error.

The series of failed launches has prompted the Kremlin to continuously reshuffle the industry's top brass. The Roscosmos space agency has seen four directors in as many years, but the failures continue.

Amid tensions with the West over Ukraine, some even suggested that the failures could have been caused by sabotage. Most observers agree, however, that the likely root is space builders' plunging quality standards.

"It's a personnel problem above all," said Konstantin Kreidenko, a former space official who is now editor of Glonass Vestnik, a space magazine. "It could be a wrong cable connection, or use of bad fuel or some filter getting clogged. They need to check the entire chain and introduce stringent quality controls."

In one example, a dramatic Proton crash in July 2013 shown live on national television was traced to an ill-qualified worker rudely violating assembly instructions and placing orientation sensors upside down with the help of a hammer.

Kreidenko said the current quality management is a far cry from Soviet times, when "instructions were observed like military regulations." "In the Soviet Union," he said, "people were losing jobs and suffering heart attacks for far smaller blunders."

Russian captured in eastern Ukraine says he is fine

May 19, 2015

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Representatives of Amnesty International and the OSCE have visited the two captured fighters whom Ukraine claims are Russian soldiers in a Kiev hospital.

Russia denies that the men, who were wounded and captured Saturday in rebellious eastern Ukraine, are members of its armed forces. But Ukraine's security service on Tuesday posted videos of both men saying they were active-duty servicemen.

During the visit to the hospital by the international representatives, one of the men, Capt. Yevgeny Yerofeyev said "to my relatives, I want to say that everything is fine with me. I'm alive and well."

Ukraine and Western countries assert that Russia is sending soldiers and equipment to bolster the separatist rebels. Ukraine says the capture of the two men is definitive proof of Russia's participation in the war.

Cambodia deports fugitive Russian tycoon

May 17, 2015

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia deported a fugitive Russian tycoon Sunday who was living illegally in the Southeast Asian country after he was accused of embezzling $175 million in his homeland.

Accompanied by Russian authorities, Sergei Polonsky was put on a flight to Moscow via Vietnam early Sunday morning, said immigration official Ouk Hey Sela. Polonsky was arrested Friday in the southern Cambodian coastal town of Sihanoukville, where authorities said he had been living for two years with an expired visa.

The real estate tycoon was charged in Russia in June 2013 with embezzling more than 5.7 billion rubles ($175 million) from 80 property investors. Cambodian police had first arrested him in November 2013 after he was added to Interpol's "red list" of top fugitives, but released him on bail a few months later based on a preliminary ruling against his extradition.

In April 2014, Cambodia's highest court ruled that Polonsky could not be sent back to Russia because the two countries had no extradition treaty. After that ruling, he told reporters that he was innocent of the embezzlement charges and that the case against him was an attempt to gain control of his holdings.

Polonsky first came to public attention in Cambodia in 2012, when he allegedly attacked the crew of a boat after a dispute erupted during a New Year's Eve outing. He was jailed for more than three months on assault charges before reaching an out-of-court settlement. He went to Israel and later returned to Cambodia.

Ouk Hey Sela said Polonksy would not be allowed to return to Cambodia.