DDMA Headline Animator

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Swiss vote to grant new powers to intelligence services

September 25, 2016

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss voters granted new powers Sunday to the country's intelligence services, allowing them to track internet activity, snoop on email and tap phones to better fight spies, criminal hackers and violent extremists.

A majority of 65.5 percent voted for the new law in the national referendum, Swiss media reported. Under it, the Federal Intelligence Service and other authorities will be allowed to tap phones, infiltrate email and deploy hidden cameras and microphones to monitor suspects who are deemed a clear threat — but only if authorized by the federal administrative tribunal and oversight counselors.

Until now, Swiss authorities had been barred from using anything more than publicly available information or tips from foreign officials when monitoring threats inside the country. Proponents said the law was needed to help Switzerland catch up with other countries that have stronger legal arsenals to counter cyber-crime or extremist attacks. Opponents say it will deplete civil liberties, do little to truly impede terrorism and chip away at Switzerland's long-vaunted neutrality.

Poland's lawmakers open debate on divisive anti-abortion law

September 22, 2016

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's lawmakers on Thursday opened a divisive debate on changing the restrictive anti-abortion law, among Europe's toughest, in this predominantly Catholic nation. The 10-month-old conservative government considers the current law to be too liberal. The policy of Prime Minister Beata Szydlo's government focuses on various forms of support for large families in order to boost the country's sagging birth rate.

The lower house discussed two opposing drafts proposed by civic groups. One, from Stop Abortion group and supported by the government, calls for a total ban on abortions. The other one, backed by the opposition, is seeking to allow abortions through the 12th week of pregnancy, like in many European Union nations. The lawmakers will decide Friday whether to send the drafts for fine-tuning in special commissions.

The house is dominated by the ruling Law and Justice party whose members declare attachment to the Catholic Church and to its insistence that human life has to be protected from conception until natural death. Observers say the government is bowing to the expectations of many Church leaders, whose support helped the party win elections last year.

Hundreds of activists from both sides of the abortion debate picketed in front of parliament. The anti-abortion group, some with small children in pushchairs, prayed aloud, while pro-abortion rights activists were clad in black to signify mourning over the restrictions in the availability of abortion.

Under 1993 legislation, abortion is currently allowed in Poland if the woman's life or health is endangered, the pregnancy results from rape or incest or the fetus is irreparably damaged. The law was criticized by both sides. Opponents of abortion said the law allows for termination of pregnancies when the fetus is diagnosed with Down syndrome. Those seeking liberalization said the law leads to about 100,000 illegal abortions each year.

Amnesty International critical of Hungary's asylum system

September 27, 2016

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Asylum seekers are being mistreated in Hungary and its asylum system is "blatantly designed" to deter refugees from seeking protection there, rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday.

Amnesty's findings in its "Stranded Hope" report echoed similar research released in past weeks by other groups like Human Rights Watch and which have been rejected by the Hungarian government. Amnesty was also critical of Hungary's efforts — since new rules went into effect on July 5 — to "push back" to Serbia asylum seekers detained up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border. Several people interviewed by Amnesty claimed that they have been beaten, kicked and chased by dogs during their forced returns.

"Appalling treatment and labyrinthine asylum procedures are a cynical ploy to deter asylum seekers from Hungary's ever more militarized borders," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Director for Europe. "Against the backdrop of a toxic referendum campaign, poisonous anti-refugee rhetoric is reaching fever pitch."

Hungary will hold a government-sponsored referendum on Sunday meant to build political support against any future European Union plans to resettle refugees among member states. The government's ubiquitous billboard and media campaign has been accused of fomenting xenophobia and anti-migrant prejudices.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said earlier that allegations about police beatings of migrants were "sheer lies" and that all reports of abuse had been investigated. Kovacs also said that changes to Hungary's asylum system, including the closure of reception centers and less integration assistance, were needed "because migrants very consciously misuse the existing system."

Hungary's decision to process only up to 15 asylum claims per day at each of two "transit zones" on the Serbian border has stranded hundreds of asylum seekers on the Serbian side of the razor-wire border fence which Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered to be built last year.

Amnesty also called on European leaders to "robustly challenge Hungary's breaches of EU law" to avoid its practices from spreading to other European countries.

Lucky few leave Greece under refugee relocation plan

September 26, 2016

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The bus winding its way through the pre-dawn darkness of Athens' empty streets marks the end of months of danger, hardship and uncertainty. After surviving war, smugglers and perilous sea crossings, its 31 passengers are finally about to start new lives in Europe.

The 27 Syrians and four Iraqis, all families with children, are heading to the airport for a flight to Madrid. With muted but palpable joy, they snap family photos of their last few minutes in the Greek capital and bid tearful farewells to friends who have to stay behind — some of the more than 60,000 refugees and migrants trapped in Greece.

The group is among the very few accepted by a European country as part of a sputtering relocation program designed to relieve pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and hoping for better lives in the European Union. But European countries have come under fire for dragging their heels, accepting people at a far slower rate than promised.

The program should have seen 66,400 people from Greece relocated across the EU over two years from Sept. 16 last year, but to date just over 4,130 people have been resettled. Last week, rights group Amnesty International slammed Europe for failing to live up to its commitments, saying only 6 percent of promised relocations had actually taken place. At this rate, it said, it would take 18 years for European countries to fulfill their pledges.

In the check-in zone at Athens airport on Monday, Sumeya Akdrou, her husband Fadi Ehmood and their three young boys, aged 8, 5 and 1 ½, wait for the flight that will mark the end of their desperate odyssey that began in January in the besieged Syrian city of Deir el-Zour.

Their eldest son, Eyad, suffers from a congenital heart problem and is losing his sight in one eye as a result of an accident he had as a baby. The doctor in Deir el-Zour said there was no way he could perform the necessary surgery there, and the Islamic State group controlling their area of the city wouldn't allow the family to seek medical care elsewhere.

With bombs raining down and brutal executions on the streets becoming routine, they decided to flee. "We had to leave, because to stay was to die," said Akdrou, a 30-year-old English teacher, while cradling her sleeping 1 ½-year-old.

Under the cover of darkness they sneaked out of the city, only to be stopped and turned back. Undeterred, they tried again. They sold their car to raise enough money to pay smugglers. The second time they made it and walked about 300 kilometers (185 miles) to the city of Aleppo. "We could only walk at night, and it was January. It was very cold," Akdrou said.

From there, they made their way north across the border into Turkey, where they waited for 20 days for seas calm enough to allow the brief but dangerous crossing to a Greek island. They landed on Kos, where Akdrou said the people treated them kindly, and three days later arrived in Athens.

They tried to get to Greece's northern border with Macedonia but by then Balkan countries were gradually shutting their borders to refugees. Instead, the family found itself initially in a refugee camp in northern Greece for a few months, and later in a hotel in the country's northern city of Thessaloniki because of their son's medical condition.

They applied for relocation, and eventually were told they had been accepted by Spain. Their joy and relief is clear. "It is the end of suffering after six months," says a smiling Akdrou. They hope their son will finally have access to medical care. In the chaos and confusion on the crossing from Turkey, Eyad lost the glasses he needs to keep his eye condition from deteriorating. Without them, his mother said, he loses a bit more of his sight in his right eye each day.

"They will allow the children to go to school there. We can learn Spanish," said Akdrou. "We will try to make a life." Thousands of other refugees stuck in Greece, who have fled war and are entitled to international protection, were meant to do the same. But despite the promises, places have been few and far between.

"If from our part, as Europe, we don't honor our commitments, if we don't implement a difficult agreement, then we will once again be faced by major deadlocks," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said over the weekend after an EU summit on the refugee crisis.

About 8,000 refugees in Greece have been approved for the relocation program but are still waiting for a spot, Tsipras said. Meanwhile, the financially strapped country struggles to care for the tens of thousands stuck in the country, and has faced criticism from rights groups for the conditions in some of its hastily built refugee camps.

So far, France has received the lion's share of people being relocated, taking in 1,581 from Greece and another 231 from Italy. It has promised to resettle 17,000. "France, Spain, the Netherlands and in some way Portugal are in the top places" of countries accepting relocations, said Christine Nikolaidou of the Greek office of the International Organization for Migration. "From there on, for sure the targets of the program and the numbers they had said a year ago are not being fulfilled at this time."

For those accepted for resettlement, the IOM organizes basic language and country orientation courses and pre-departure medical checks, and pays the cost of the tickets on commercial flights. Once someone is cleared for relocation, it takes 2 ½ weeks at most to complete procedures, Nikolaidou said.

Akdrou and her family don't know exactly where in Spain they will be resettled, if they will be able to get their son the surgery he needs, or if they will be able to find jobs. But finally, they have hope for a new life.

"First, we will finish a language course," the teacher said. "It's the most important thing, to be able to communicate with other people."

Tumult to tranquility: Migrant family finds peace in Germany

September 29, 2016

ELZACH, Germany (AP) — They fled Iraq just ahead of an Islamic State group onslaught in which thousands of their fellow Yazidis were enslaved or slaughtered. Months as refugees on the fringes of Turkish society, a nearly fatal trip across the Aegean and a long trek through the Balkans and Austria north to Germany came next.

Now, there finally is calm for the six members of the Qasu family, tranquility they only could dream of during their year-long odyssey. Bessi Qasu, husband Samir, daughters Delphine and Dunia and sons Dilshad and Dildar share a small apartment in the serene town of Elzach, nestled in the rolling hills of the Black Forest in southwestern Germany.

"Not so long ago we were between life and death, but now we are a family in a home in a safe and great country," says Samir, 46, who ran a convenience store before his family fled in August 2014 as IS fighters closed in on the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq.

Germany opened its borders to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers like the Qasus last year. As they have settled around the country, it has led to friction at times with local residents, particularly in the eastern regions of the country.

But members of the Qasu family say they have felt none of that. "Nobody discriminates against us. We don't feel different. Even my German friends tell me that now 'You're a German,'" 18-year-old Dilshad says.

His father adds that they have done their best to fit in. "We are their guests, and we have to respect their culture and traditions," Samir says. To that end, Samir and Bessi are taking daily "integration" classes to learn the German language and culture, after which they hope to find jobs. Dunia, 14, attends a local secondary school and Dildar, 11, is in elementary school and plays on the local youth soccer team. Dilshad and Delphine, 19, are waiting to start classes at the end of September.

When the family arrived in Germany on Dec. 9, they lived in a temporary facility in Heidelberg. They resettled in Elzach after about three months. Now granted asylum, they have been given a two-room apartment that is paid for by Germany along with the cost of utilities. In addition, they receive about 1,900 euros ($2,125) a month for food and other necessities, which they say is more than enough.

At least twice a day, they spread a big blanket on the floor of their apartment and eat meals while joking, discussing their progress learning German and talking about the future that once seemed so grim.

"I am happy to see my children safe and in schools, and a bright future waiting them," Bessi says. Samir says he talks about the old days with an Iraqi neighbor, but the children rarely mention their previous life or the journey that led them to Elzach.

"Please, let's not bring up these tough memories," Delphine says. Delphine hopes to eventually become a doctor, while Dildar nurses dreams of playing professional soccer. Like many young teenagers, Dunia isn't quite sure. She'd like to be a famous artist and is hedging her bets, learning both how to dance and to play the keyboard.

Dilshad just wants to bring in wages to provide for his family, helping his parents like they have helped him. "Now I know I will have a good future," the young man says. "The only future for us in Iraq was death."

Muhammed Muheisen, the Associated Press' chief photographer for the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, followed the Qasu family from Greece to Germany on Dec. 3-10, and returned on Sept. 13, 2016 to document how they settled down in Germany. David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.

A Syrian refugee balances life in Germany with chaos at home

September 26, 2016

SAARBRUECKEN, Germany (AP) — At the intersection, Mohammed al-Haj waited patiently for the "green man." No cars were coming, no policemen watching. Back home in Syria, he wouldn't hesitate. But here in Germany, it's the law, you only cross when the walk light is green.

"I don't want to get into the habit of not waiting for him," said the 27-year-old Mohammed. "I felt from the first day, that this is a country of law and order." This is one world Mohammed lives in, guided by rules, where he says he knows his rights and his responsibilities. It's a world where he can plan for the future, after arriving a year ago among hundreds of thousands of refugees.

But at the same time, Mohammed is living in a second world: The hell of Syria. First thing every morning, he checks on the Internet and social media for the latest in the constant stream of grim news. He can't stop, even though he feels helpless, following day by day the destruction of his home city, Aleppo.

"Syria is like a nightmare that travels with me wherever I go," he said. "I could just be sitting here doing nothing and suddenly learn that someone I know has died." The Associated Press followed Mohammed in the summer of 2015 as he made the arduous trek from Turkey to Germany. In August, the AP revisited him in the German city of Saarbruecken.

He shares a Spartan two-bedroom apartment with three other Syrian men. There's little furniture, and none of them have beds. A blackboard hangs on a wall, and one of his housemates has drawn on it a map of Syria topped by the flag of Syria's opposition.

Mohammed receives a monthly government stipend of 370 euros ($400), and his rent, utility bills and language school are paid for. He's grateful for it — he says Germany "opened its door for me and gave me everything I have."

Still, the money is barely enough. He rarely eats out, sits at a cafe or goes to a movie. He has one pair of jeans and one pair of shoes. He can't visit Syrian friends settled elsewhere in Germany because public transport is too expensive for him.

It's a similar situation for many others. In 2015, at least 477,000 refugees — more than 160,000 of them Syrians — applied for asylum status, and another 310,000 have applied so far this year. Five days a week, Mohammed attends German classes. He often walks the 25-minute route to the language institute to save the tram fare. After four months of studies, he can now converse reasonably well in German.

As he spoke to the AP one weekend evening in Saarbruecken, two German men walked by, stark naked. Mohammed was unfazed. There's a group of anarchists in town who sometimes walk around nude, he explained.

There are things he has had to get used to. You don't take off your shoes entering a German's home, like you do in Syria. You don't just drop by unexpected. And he never calls a German after 10 p.m. It's all a world apart from Syria.

The war has scattered Mohammed's family, as it has for many Syrians. One sister lives in the Turkish city of Killis, another in Izmir and a third in Lebanon. His parents live in Izmir with a brother, and his other brother is stuck in Syria, driving a taxi.

Mohammed is the farthest away, unable to reach the rest of his family. All he has are calls. After every one, he said, "my heart aches." Every few days, Mohammed talks on WhatsApp to his parents in Turkey.

In almost every sentence, they say "inshallah" — "God willing" — or "al-hamdulillah" — "thanks be to God." The generic Arabic phrases are a cushion, letting parents and child avoid burdening each other with their hardships, trying to keep each from worrying about the other.

In July, Mohammed learned of the latest of his friends to die. He woke up in the morning, checked Facebook and saw that Tareq al-Bayanooni, a rebel commander, had been killed by an air strike outside Aleppo.

It felt, he said, like a stab in the heart. "But I did not cry. Honestly, I have run out of tears." Al-Bayanooni was the fifth of his childhood friends to be killed, guys he played with in his neighborhood streets as a kid. From his broader friends and acquaintances, he guesses 20 to 25 have died — the ones he knows about, anyway.

At the time, it looked like the opposition-held part of Mohammed's home city of Aleppo was on the verge of being crushed. Mohammed kept going back to his telephone to follow the news. His studies suffered. "I was feeling down, I lost my concentration," he said.

Making it even harder, he felt he couldn't call friends or relatives still in Aleppo. "How can I be in the safety of Germany so far away from home and call someone in Aleppo to ask how they are doing?" he said. "I will only get 'Thanks be to God' and nothing else. He gives that answer because he could die five minutes later."

Mohammed's housemates tease him over how closely he follows the war. He understands, they're fed up with war. Mohammed also wants to move on with his German life. He aims to enroll at a German university by the fall of 2017. Plan B is to enroll in a vocational training program as a quicker way of gaining employment. When he gets a job, he will pay taxes — perhaps 30 or 35 percent of his income — and he says that will repay the money he is now getting from the government.

For now, his entire future hangs on learning German. If he doesn't pass an exam in October, he'll have to repeat, delaying everything. "Germany needs a great deal of patience," he said. "My journey is long, and without patience I will not complete it."

Building a life in Germany, a Syrian watches war at home

September 26, 2016

SAARBRUECKEN, Germany (AP) — At the intersection, Mohammed al-Haj waited patiently for the "green man." It seemed a bit silly: No cars were coming, no policemen watching. Back home in Syria, he wouldn't hesitate.

But here in Germany, it's the law, you only cross when the walk light is green. "I don't want to get into the habit of not waiting for him," said the 27-year-old Mohammed. "We must all respect German customs and traditions."

This is one world Mohammed lives in, one guided by rules, where he says he knows his rights and his responsibilities. It's a world where he can be ambitious and plan for the future, even as he tries to negotiate his place in a country where he arrived a year ago among hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to Western Europe.

"I felt from the first day, that this is a country of law and order," he said. But at the same time, Mohammed is living in a second world: The hell of Syria. First thing every morning, he checks on the internet and social media for the latest in the constant stream of grim news and carnage. He is immersed in its chaos, where any moment can mean death, families are dispersed, and everyone struggles for the most basic needs. He can't stop, even though he feels helpless, following day by day the destruction of his home city, Aleppo, as Syrian government forces besiege its rebel-held neighborhoods.

"Syria is like a nightmare that travels with me wherever I go," he said. "I could just be sitting here doing nothing and suddenly learn that someone I know has died." The Associated Press followed Mohammed in the summer of 2015 as he made the arduous trek from Turkey, where he had lived with his family since fleeing Syria, across the sea to Greece, then through the Balkans to Germany.

In August, the AP revisited him in the German city of Saarbruecken. Over the past year, Europe has been deeply shaken by the flood of refugees. Governments are struggling with how to absorb the newcomers. In a backlash, right-wing nationalist parties have gained ground. A string of terror attacks has further stoked xenophobia and distrust of the refugees.

For Mohammed, those storms seemed distant. Instead, he has been focused on building his future, while still absorbed in the turmoil of his homeland. __ During Mohammed's trek across Europe last year, the young man had to be quick-thinking, always on the alert for any opening to get to the next stage of his journey, through bureaucracy, hostile border guards and rough weather. It suited his get-it-done nature.

Now he has to rely on patience and the slow, frustrating work of waiting to reach his goals. He shares a Spartan two-bedroom apartment with three other Syrian men he met in the camp where they were housed when they first arrived in Germany.

There's little furniture, and what there is was mainly given to them by German friends and acquaintances. In the living room, there's only two armchairs and a coffee table. None of them have beds. Mohammed sleeps on a mattress on the floor in a small room he shares with one of the others. His clothes are hung on the wall. No wardrobe.

In the kitchen are hot plates, a small oven and a refrigerator. On the table sits what is likely to be found at any Syrian home: Olive oil, olives, thyme and pita bread. A blackboard hangs on the wall, and one of his housemates has drawn a map of Syria topped by the flag of Syria's opposition.

Mohammed receives a monthly government stipend of 370 euros ($400), and his rent, utility bills and language school are paid for. He's grateful for it — he says Germany "opened its door for me and gave me everything I have."

Still, the money is barely enough. He rarely eats out, sits at a cafe or goes to a movie. He has one pair of jeans and one pair of shoes. He shops at discount stores. He can't visit Syrian friends who have been settled elsewhere in Germany because public transport is too expensive for him.

It's a similar situation for many of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants who have flowed into Germany. In 2015, at least 477,000 refugees — more than 160,000 of them Syrians — applied for asylum status, and another 310,000 have applied so far this year.

The country is struggling to absorb them into the economy. So far, around 33,000 refugees found jobs since early 2015, mostly in menial labor or as cleaners and security guards. Mohammed's focus now is on learning German. He can't get a decent job without a certificate in the language, and his main ambition of entering university would be out of the question.

Five days a week, he attends his German classes in the morning. He often walks the 25-minute route to the language institute to save the tram fare. He takes a flask of home-made coffee to avoid buying it at cafes.

After four months of studies, he has reached level three out of six and can now converse reasonably well in German. German is tough, he said. Other refugees give up on learning it and just take unskilled jobs or even try to leave Germany for an Arab nation.

"But those who are thinking along these lines came here without a goal in mind," he said. "I must be patient."

In July, Mohammed learned of the latest of his friends to die.

He woke up in the morning, checked Facebook and saw that Tareq al-Bayanooni, a rebel commander, had been killed by an air strike outside Aleppo.

It felt, he said, like a stab in the heart.

"But I did not cry. Honestly, I have run out of tears."

Al-Bayanooni was the fifth of his childhood friends to be killed, guys he played with in his neighborhood streets as a kid. From his broader friends and acquaintances, he guesses 20 to 25 have died — the ones he knows about, anyway.

Mohammed had lived his entire life in Aleppo, once Syria's largest and most diverse city. In the early days of the war, he'd served as a volunteer at an Aleppo hospital, where the AP first met him in 2012.

By June and July this year, it looked like the opposition in Aleppo was on the verge of being crushed. Troops and militias loyal to President Bashar Assad cut off all roads into rebel enclaves.

Mohammed was watching every moment.

All those living in the opposition areas — some 300,000 people — "are my family," he said. He feared they would meet the same fate as those in other towns besieged by Syrian forces — like Daraya, outside Damascus, where residents were reduced to eating grass.

He kept going back to his telephone to follow the news. His studies suffered. "I was feeling down, I lost my concentration ... I was worried people would starve," he said.

Making it even harder, he felt he couldn't call friends or relatives still in Aleppo.

"How can I be in the safety of Germany so far away from home and call someone in Aleppo to ask how they are doing?" he said. "I will only get 'Thanks be to God' and nothing else. He gives that answer because he could die five minutes later. "

Then in early August, rebel fighters outside broke through the blockade.

"It was such a joy," Mohammed said. "The power of faith is what triumphed."

It didn't last. In the weeks since, hundreds have been killed in Aleppo in continued bombardment of rebel-held neighborhoods.

Mohammed's housemates tease him over how closely he follows the war. He understands, he explains, they're fed up with war.

"We, as a people, have been destroyed and disabled," he said. "Every one of us is enduring a calamity of some sort...In Germany, when a child trips, our humanity compels us to reach out and lend a helping hand. So you can imagine what it's like for a Syrian father to see his own child ripped to bits by bombs."

On a rare day out, Mohammed and a friend went to have lunch in the historic center of Saarlouis, just north of Saarbruecken. But as soon as they sat at a restaurant, the German waiter started removing the cutlery, wine glasses and plates from the table, all with a not-too-subtle air of hostility.

Lunch is over, and it's break time for the servers, he told them brusquely.

"He could have told us that in a more friendly way," Mohammed said, as he and his friend got up to look for another place to eat. "He could have said, 'We're sorry, but we're closed now,' and told us when they will reopen."

Was he rude because they're Arabs?

Mohammed shrugs it off. "The waiter may have been tired or stressed out. Maybe he had a problem," he said. "Anyway, you cannot judge an entire people by the behavior of just one individual."

He said he has yet to come face to face with xenophobes and racists. "I know they exist, but I just have not come across one of them," he said.

"Swear to God, I find the Germans to be beautiful people, they are always smiling and laughing. They are worthy of respect."

He thinks back to his time living in Turkey. The Turks, he said, treat Arabs in a racist way. "They look down on us."

"In Turkey, when they don't understand you, they start to yell and scream," he said. But if he speaks in broken German to a German, they use sign language and "try to help as much they can."

As he spoke to the AP one weekend evening in Saarbruecken, two German men walked by, stark naked.

Mohammed was unfazed. There's a group of anarchists in town who sometimes walk around nude, he explained.

"They live to drink, smoke pot and listen to music," he said.

There are things he has had to get used to. You don't take off your shoes entering a German's home, like you do in Syria. You don't just drop by unexpected. And he never calls a German after 10 p.m. "There is a great deal of respect for privacy," he said.

But with the sense of law and order, he said he feels equal to Germans. The police, he said, treat people "with respect, not like in the Arab world where they insult and beat you."

Two of Mohammed's housemates, Mohammed Zalt and Mazen al-Ali, said their German friends advised them not to leave home for a day or two after a mass sexual assault on women in Cologne last New Year's eve. But Mohammed said he didn't change his routine. His first concern is always whether the attackers are Syrians. "When I learn that they were not, I am relieved."

"In fact, I fear for my life here like everyone else," he said. "I fear a street explosion from a terror attack will hurt me."

Every few days, Mohammed talks on WhatsApp to his parents in Turkey.

In almost every sentence, they say "inshallah" — "God willing" — or "al-hamdulillah" — "thanks be to God." They're generic Arabic phrases that reassure while being diplomatically vague. They're a cushion, letting parents and child avoid burdening each other with their hardships, trying to keep each from worrying about the other.

"When will you come home? I've made makdous for you," Mohammed's 55-year-old mother said, referring to a popular Syrian dish of pickled eggplants stuffed with nuts, topped with yoghurt.

She was joking. She knows very well that her son can't get to Turkey for the time being.

"I'll come home soon, inshallah," Mohammed told her.

She told him that she and his 65-year-old father had just come from the market and that they hauled 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of tomatoes up the six flights to their apartment. They'll dry the tomatoes in the sun to use in winter, when they're more expensive.

That alarmed Mohammed. "Why are you carrying 10 kilos of tomatoes?" he gently reproached his father.

Ever since his parents moved to a new apartment in Izmir on the sixth floor with no elevator, he worries. His father jokes every time he brings it up that it's a good workout for him.

"It's torture every time he says this to me," Mohammed said.

In every call too, his mother repeats the same prayer for Mohammed, "May God grant you success." His father's advice: "Look after yourself. Spend your time with good people and stay away from those who are bad."

The war has scattered Mohammed's family, as it has for many Syrians.

One sister lives in the Turkish city of Killis, near the border with Syria. The oldest of her four children, a 16-year-old boy, is now the family's sole breadwinner.

Another sister lives in Izmir, and a third in Lebanon.

His parents moved from Killis to Izmir to live with one of Mohammed's two brothers. He works 12 hours a day, six days a week in a metal shop. The job pays $600 a month, barely enough to support his wife, three children and parents.

Mohammed's other brother is stuck in Syria, driving a taxi.

And Mohammed is the farthest away, unable to reach the rest of his family. All he has are the calls.

After every one, he said, "my heart aches."

Mohammed is still planning. When his house mates move on, he'll ask the landlord to get German tenants so he'll have no choice but to speak German. "I'll be fluent in just about a year," he predicted.

He aims to enroll at a German university by the fall of 2017 for a degree in mass media or languages — German and English. Plan B is to enroll in a vocational training program as a quicker way of gaining employment.

"When my German is perfect and I have a job, I will be just like any other German. I will be paying taxes, perhaps 30 or 35 percent of my income, and that would be the repayment of the money I am getting from the government now."

He'll also be able to move ahead in his personal life. He hasn't thought about dating since he arrived in Germany. He feels he has nothing to offer yet, and he doesn't want to just meet a woman on the street.

At university, he said, he can get to know a woman. He imagines he'll date someone poor like him.

"Our poverty will be sweet. We will discuss issues, share experiences and read each other's mind," he said. "It's nice to be poor and then slowly earn more and more money."

A year ago, he said he would only marry a Syrian or a German woman of Arab origin, but now he says he's more flexible.

"She can be a Muslim or a Christian," he says. Before marriage, he says, they would work out issues like how the children would be raised and what his wife would wear in public.

"She will also have to tell me what I need to change myself."

For now, his entire future hangs on learning German. His final exam for the third level of his course is in October. If he doesn't pass that, he'll have to repeat, delaying everything.

"Germany needs a great deal of patience," he said. "My journey is long, and without patience I will not complete it."

Germany: Small-town clash exposes tense mood toward migrants

September 22, 2016

BAUTZEN, Germany (AP) — Standing on a hillside near this ancient town in eastern Germany, Firas al-Habbal winces as he explains why he doesn't go "there" anymore. "There" is the center of Bautzen with its cobblestone streets, centuries-old churches and cozy cafes. In particular, it's the town square where residents recently clashed with a group of young refugees in a burst of violence that made headlines around the world, sparking days of anti-migrant protests by both far-right groups and locals.

"Over the past two years, I personally didn't have a single case where I felt people hated me or foreigners," said al-Habbal, who came to Germany in 2014 as part of the first big wave of refugees from Syria. "Life was great."

Since last week's violence, however, the 24-year-old is afraid of going into town lest anyone mistake him for one of the migrants involved in the trouble. "Now I'm really scared," he said. "The last week was very, very tense."

Police said the violence began when one refugee threw a bottle at a group of locals. Authorities reacted by imposing a curfew and an alcohol ban on the migrants, to the consternation of left-wing activists who blamed the fighting on neo-Nazi thugs.

While such incidents are rare and most of those who have sought asylum in Germany in recent years have caused little or no problem, violence of the kind seen in Bautzen stokes anti-migrant feelings among the wider population and is driving voters into the arms of nationalist parties such as Alternative for Germany. The party swept into five state parliaments this year, boosted by anger over a string of thefts and sexual assaults by foreigners in Cologne at New Year's and two bloody attacks carried out by migrants in July.

The situation is particularly frustrating for people like Peter Rausch, one of many Germans who have worked hard to help integrate the hundreds of thousands of newcomers seeking safety and a better life in Europe.

Rausch manages a hotel on the outskirts of Bautzen that was converted into a home for 300 asylum-seekers. A native of Germany's Black Forest who moved to the city 14 years ago, he has an outsider's eye for far-right activities to which locals are sometimes oblivious.

A fire at another refugee shelter and the booing of Germany's president by a neo-Nazi mob in the city earlier this year were clear signs of the trouble to come, he said. Yet Rausch has harsh words, too, for those who automatically defend all migrants and blame far-right extremists for the violence.

"On the one hand, there's rich ground for right-wing violence and resentment. On the other hand, we've got a few do-gooders who are wandering around the place with such rose-colored glasses that they're making the same mistakes as the right," he said.

"It should be possible to say there are a few asylum-seekers, a few kids or youths, who need to be caught and disciplined," said Rausch, acknowledging that two of the migrant troublemakers lived at his hotel. "It's not about putting them in jail or cuffs. But I think our democracy and state of law has ways to discipline these kids, just as it has ways to discipline German youths."

Back in the town, a crowd gathered Sunday on Kornmarkt Square, which was the setting for last week's violence. It's the day when stores are closed and low-hanging clouds threatened to burst open at any moment, but scores of people had come to hear far-right activists rail against migrants and the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom they hold responsible for the surge of asylum-seekers to Germany over the past year.

Engelbert Merz, a local businessman, is angry at what he considers to be a soft attitude toward criminal foreigners. "Put these boys on a boat and send them back where they came from, because they're not worthy of staying in this country since they aren't abiding by the law," says Merz.

His dim view of migrants doesn't stop at the troublemakers, though. Merz believes Germany should be helping those closer to home before taking in refugees from Africa or the Middle East. "We have 24 million jobless young people in Europe but no money to pay for German lessons in those countries," he says. "We've got enough problems of our own."

Such talk worries Sven Scheidemantel, a local politician and chairman of a pro-refugee group, Welcome to Bautzen. "There's a siege-like mood in the city," he says, warily watching the protest from a distance.

Scheidemantel says the problems in Bautzen won't be solved unless the authorities acknowledge that far-right extremists are exploiting a fairly minor incident involving a handful of refugees to make this city of 40,000 a symbol for failed integration.

"The problem we have is that we always ask where the criminals are from. That shouldn't be so. Criminals are criminals, wherever they're from," Scheidemantel said. Firas Al-Habbal agrees. Having learned to speak German and worked as a translator for the past two years, he is hoping to soon start training to become a medical technician.

"There are a few of my fellow Syrians, one has to be honest and not ignore this, who didn't behave themselves. And this was the result," he said of the clashes. "What I'm sad about is that these few bad people are sullying the image of all refugees in Bautzen."

Al-Habbal thinks the troublemakers should be split up and distributed across the country. "Then we've solved the problem. Because this is dangerous for us too. I don't want to have to leave Bautzen." On Wednesday, a 72-year-old Algerian-born man with German citizenship was knocked to the ground in the city by two youths who shouted "Foreigners out!" before running away. The victim had been living in Germany for four decades, police said Thursday.

Three-way coalition likely in Berlin after state elections

September 19, 2016

BERLIN (AP) — A three-way coalition of Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party seems likely in Berlin, after Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party endured a set-back in state elections in the German capital, official results showed Monday.

While the Social Democrats (SPD) and Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDU) emerged from the Berlin election as the two strongest parties, both lost support to parties further to the left and right, meaning they won't be able to continue a coalition government.

The SPD received 21.6 percent, dropping 6.7 points, while the CDU received 17.6 percent, down 5.7 points. The anti-capitalist Left Party, a descendant of the former East German communists, gained 3.9 points to 15.6 percent; the Green Party received 15.2 percent, down by 2.4 percentage points.

The nationalist anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, easily entered its 10th state parliament with 14.2 percent of the vote. The election also saw the Pirate Party voted out of state parliament, and the pro-business Free Democratic Party winning 6.7 percent of the vote — enough to bring it back into parliament.

Voter participation rose to 66.9 percent from 60.2 percent in the last election, and the three-year-old AfD drew a lot of its support from new voters, though it was also able to attract supporters from the SPD, the CDU and other parties.

The vote comes two weeks after Merkel's CDU was beaten into third place in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by the AfD, following a campaign in which the chancellor's decision to open Germany's borders to migrants last year featured prominently. Sunday's showing — her party's worst ever in the capital — will keep up the pressure on the chancellor a year ahead of general elections.

However, it was largely local issues that drove the vote in the city of 3.5 million. Among other things, disillusionment is high over the capital's notoriously inefficient bureaucracy and issues such as years of delays in opening its new airport.

Political analyst Hans Joachim Funke told The Associated Press that Sunday's result "weakens the Berlin CDU tremendously, but it doesn't weaken the position of the government, the grand coalition, on a federal level."

Nationally, Merkel's CDU is in a so-called grand coalition with its Bavaria-only sister-party CSU and the Social Democrats. Merkel is widely expected to seek a fourth term in next year's election, though she still hasn't declared her hand. Three more state elections take place next spring.

Merkel's party loses support in Berlin state election

September 18, 2016

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel's party endured a second setback in a state election in two weeks on Sunday, as many voters turned to the left and right in Berlin, according to projections based on exit polls.

The Social Democrats (SPD) and Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDU) emerged from the Berlin state election as the strongest two parties, but both lost enough support that they won't be able to continue a coalition government, the projections show.

The SPD won 21.6 percent of the vote, dropping 6.7 percent, while the CDU won 17.5 percent, down 5.8 percent, ARD public television reported. At the same time, the anti-capitalist Left Party, a descendant of the former East German communists, gained 4 percent to 15.7 percent overall and new nationalist anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, known as the AfD, easily entered its 10th state parliament with 14.1 percent of the vote.

Voter participation was up to 66.6 percent from 60.2 percent in the last election, and the AfD drew a lot of its support from new voters, though it was also able to attract supporters from both the SPD and CDU and other parties.

The vote comes two weeks after Merkel's CDU was beaten into third place in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by the AfD, in which the chancellor's decision to open Germany's borders to migrants last year featured prominently. Sunday's showing — her party's worst ever in the capital — will keep up the pressure on the chancellor a year ahead of national elections.

However, it was largely local issues that drove the vote in the city of 3.5 million. Among other things, disillusionment is high over the capital's notoriously inefficient bureaucracy and issues such as years of delays in opening its new airport.

Peter Tauber, the Christian Democrats' general secretary, blamed Social Democratic Mayor Michael Mueller for turning voters against the two governing parties, saying "the fish stinks from the head." Mueller, however, said after the results that "We have achieved our goal."

"We are the strongest political party and we have a mandate to form a government," he said. With the AfD's strong showing, national party co-chairman Joerg Meuthen said his party was strongly positioned for next year's national elections.

"We are firmly convinced that we will end next year with a double-digit result," he said. Sigmar Gabriel, the national head of the Social Democrats, which govern in a coalition with Merkel's Christian Democrats, said "we don't find it good" that the AfD will now be represented in the city-state of Berlin's parliament.

"But almost 90 percent of voters did not vote for them, and that's also important," he said. Without enough support for the governing SPD-CDU "grand coalition" to continue and with five parties with very similar strengths, a three-way coalition will almost certainly form the next government. The most likely is a combination of the SPD, Greens, which won 15.1 percent, and Left party.

Such a configuration "is not a good perspective for Berlin," Tauber said on Twitter. The vote saw the Pirate party voted out of state parliament, and the pro-business Free Democratic Party winning 6.7 percent of the vote — enough to bring it back in to parliament.

Hollande honors Algerians who fought for French colonizers

September 25, 2016

PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande has acknowledged the state's culpability in abandoning Algerians who fought alongside French colonial forces in Algeria's war for independence — and were then massacred as traitors after the French retreat in 1962.

Tens of thousands of the fighters, known as harkis, were killed after the French withdrawal, and those made it to France were placed in camps. Their descendants have long sought official recognition that the harkis were unjustly treated.

Speaking Sunday in the Invalides monument that houses Napoleon's tomb, Hollande said, "I recognize the responsibility of French governments in abandoning the harkis, the massacres of those remaining in Algeria and the inhuman conditions for those transferred to France."

"France betrayed its promise, turned its back on families," he said, making the first official recognition of the state's role in abandoning the harkis. The harki contingent included some 200,000 forces who had fought against fellow Algerians in a war seen as one of the darkest chapters in France's modern history.

Only in 1999, under then-President Jacques Chirac, did France officially admit that the eight-year combat that ended 132 years of French rule in Algeria was a war. The true number of Algerians who died in the war and its aftermath is unknown, as many were never identified. The wounds of the country's colonial past remain deep on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea.

In 2002, Chirac inaugurated a memorial near the Eiffel Tower to those who died fighting on the side of France, including harkis. Chirac also began what is now an annual ceremony for the harkis every September.

Other prominent politicians at Sunday's ceremony included Hollande's potential rivals for next year's election, conservative former President Nicolas Sarkozy and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen

French leader vows to shut down 'unacceptable' Calais camp

September 24, 2016

PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande on Saturday confirmed plans to close the squalid Calais migrant camp known as "the Jungle," saying he hopes authorities can relocate as many as 9,000 migrants to reception centers across France in the coming weeks.

Hollande, visiting one of France's 164 migrant reception centers in the central city of Tours, said conditions in the Calais camp are "not acceptable" and "extremely difficult," especially for those who fled war to get there.

The camp has become a symbol of his government's failure to tackle Europe's migrant crisis, and a target of criticism from conservative and far-right rivals seeking to unseat him in France's presidential election next year.

Hollande, who is to visit Calais itself on Monday, insisted that "we cannot have such camps in France." He said his country must show it is "capable of being dignified, humane and responsible." The reception centers will hold 40-50 people for up to four months while authorities study their cases, he said. Migrants who don't seek asylum will be deported.

Half of the Calais camp was dismantled in March but its population has since doubled. Hollande's government has promised to dismantle the Calais camp by the end of the year but has not given a firm timeline.

The plan to relocate the migrants to towns across France has prompted vehement protests from many local conservative and far-right politicians, saying they fear the consequences of having migrants in their towns.

Hollande indirectly criticized that resistance and called for more solidarity, noting that neighboring Germany has taken in 1 million migrants compared to the only 9,000 being relocated from Calais.

Migrants are main target of French presidential candidates

September 21, 2016

PARIS (AP) — Temporary home to thousands of migrants trying to reach Britain, the French city of Calais also turns out to be a major battlefield for presidential candidates who are seizing on fears of immigration in campaigning for spring elections.

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, competing for the conservative primary in November, is visiting Calais on Wednesday, where he's expected to campaign for sending migrants to a processing center in Britain. Sarkozy will not go to the makeshift camp known as the jungle but will instead meet with forces securing the area.

Far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen has made fighting immigration a longstanding combat, and Sarkozy's rivals for the conservative nomination have also visited Calais. President Francois Hollande is considering going to Calais next week.

China, Britain, France sign pact for new UK nuclear plant

September 29, 2016

LONDON (AP) — Officials from China, Britain and France have attended a signing ceremony to mark the final approval for the construction of the new Hinkley Point nuclear power station in southwest England.

The 18 billion-pound ($23 billion) project will be financed by Chinese nuclear power provider CGN and French energy group EDF. It will be Britain's first new nuclear plant in more than two decades. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Chinese Energy Minister Nur Bekri attended Thursday's ceremony.

British Business Secretary Greg Clark said the signing marked a crucial moment in Britain's effort to upgrade its energy supplies. New Prime Minister Theresa May had delayed approval of the project while reviewing its security implications and other matters. The government says future foreign investment in infrastructure projects will face tighter reviews.

Prince William, Kate arrive in Canada with 2 young children

September 25, 2016

VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) — Little Princess Charlotte, Prince George and their parents, Prince William and Kate, arrived in Canada on Saturday for their first official trip overseas as a family of four.

Charlotte nibbled on her finger while being held by Kate as they were greeted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife. A shy George hid behind his dad while holding his hand and looked for his mother who crouched down to comfort him. George later waved for the cameras but looked a little overwhelmed after a long flight.

The eight-day trip marks the first overseas jaunt for 1-year-old Charlotte. Her brother, 3-year-old George, has visited Australia and New Zealand on an official tour. The public will only see the children once at their departure on Oct. 1 and the media will only see the kids a few times during an eight-day visit. The airport welcoming ceremony was closed to the public.

Royal watcher Debbie Burnham expressed disappointment but said she understands considering the distance traveled and all the attention. "It would have been overwhelming for them," she said. "This allows the parents to relax."

Kate wore a blue Jenny Packham dress with a hat by Lock and Co. and a maple leaf broach lent to her by Queen Elizabeth II for the Canada trip. On their first official trip as newlyweds in 2011, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge won raucous cheers and endeared themselves to Canadian crowds. On this visit the royals will visit British Columbia and the Yukon.

The kids did not attend the official welcoming ceremony where several thousand people greeted the royal couple at British Columbia's ornate government buildings in the provincial capital of Victoria. "When we were here last time we were married only three months. The warm welcome that you gave us at that important part of our lives meant a lot to us and we've never forgotten it," William told the crowd. "That is why we are so pleased that George and Charlotte can be with us in Canada this time around, beginning their lifetime of friendship with this wonderful country."

The 44-year-old Trudeau, who also received loud cheers, joked that getting the kids back on the plane could be a challenge after they see Canada's beautiful Pacific Coast. "I know you've visited Canada before. But as any parent who has travelled with children knows, it's a different experience when you bring your whole family with you," Trudeau said. "I want to commend you - and thank you - for introducing our part of the world to Prince George and Princess Charlotte."

The trip is Prince William's second to the province of British Columbia. He accompanied his father, Prince Charles, and his brother Harry in 1998, 11 months after the death of their mother Princess Diana. William recalled being a shy teenager then. Crowds of frenzied teenage girls greeted the princes in Vancouver then, cementing William's status as a teen heartthrob.

Royal watchers were thrilled to meet the couple Saturday. "Oh my god, it was awesome," said Amber Bassett, whose daughter Akaysha, 2, gave the duchess some dahlias. "She asked about my daughter and how old she was and she must be close in age to George. How awesome."

Linda Gunther said it was fine George and Charlotte weren't there. "They're kids. They're little," she said. Far from Victoria's marbled halls and manicured lawns, the royal couple will move to Vancouver on Sunday for a visit to the city's gritty Downtown Eastside, a dozen square blocks of poverty and addiction. They'll have tea with residents at Sheway, a support program for pregnant women and new mothers dealing with addiction and other challenges. William's mother Diana was on hand when Sheway's precursor opened in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1991.

The royals will then visit an immigrant welcome center where they will meet with a newly arrived refugee family from Syria. More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada since Trudeau was elected last fall.

While Australia, Jamaica and Barbados have talked about becoming republics, Canada has shown less interest in replacing Queen Elizabeth II as the figurative head of state. Canadians are somewhat indifferent to the monarchy, but most have great affection for the queen, as well as her grandsons and Kate.

Gillies reported from Toronto.

Savior or disaster? UK's Labor divided on Corbyn victory

September 24, 2016

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Soft-spoken socialist Jeremy Corbyn is the antithesis of Donald Trump. But the British politician — resoundingly re-elected leader of the opposition Labor Party on Saturday — is riding the same wave of anti-centrist sentiment that's propelling the brash U.S. Republican presidential candidate.

Both are political outsiders who have unsettled their parties and energized their large fan bases, but whose ability to win power remains unproven. To supporters like Carel Buxton, a retired school principal from London, the 67-year-old longtime leftist Corbyn is "authentic."

"People in this country are sick to death of well-spoken, booted-and-suited slimy politicians," she said. But to detractors like John McTernan, a former senior adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Corbyn "is nothing other than a complete and utter disaster for the Labor Party."

Last year Corbyn, a long-time back-bench lawmaker, was the shock choice of party members to head Labor, which has lost two successive general elections to the Conservatives. He has strong support among local activists, but many Labor legislators believe his left-wing views are out of step with public opinion, and tried to unseat him.

It didn't work. After a months-long leadership battle, Corbyn won almost 62 percent of the more than 500,000 votes cast by Labor members and supporters. His challenger, Welsh lawmaker Owen Smith, got 38 percent in a result announced Saturday at the party's conference in Liverpool, northwest England.

Corbyn's margin of victory is larger than a year ago, but he heads a party that's deeply divided about whether it values political principles over gaining power. Accepting his victory to a standing ovation from delegates, Corbyn pledged to work for unity.

"We have much more in common than that which divides us," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, let's wipe that slate clean from today and get on with the work we've got to do as a party." Like Bernie Sanders, who shares some of Corbyn's outlook, or Trump — who definitely doesn't — Corbyn is a sign of how the political center ground has eroded.

Corbyn spent more than 30 years as a Labor lawmaker, never holding a senior role and best known for his frequent rebellions against the center-left party's leadership. When he ran for leader, few expected him to win. But he was propelled to victory by thousands of new members who joined Labor to back him.

For Corbyn supporters, it was a chance to repudiate the centrist "new Labor" vision of Blair, who won three British elections starting in 1997 but became too cozy with big business for some tastes and took Britain into the unpopular U.S.-led Iraq War.

Labor lost power in 2010 to Conservative-led governments that have overseen years of public spending cuts. Corbyn harkens back to Labor's working-class socialist roots with promises to build hundreds of thousands of government-backed homes, raise wages for the poor and taxes for the rich, abolish university tuition fees and get rid of Britain's nuclear weapons.

Tens of thousands more new members have flocked to Labor since Corbyn was elected, making it Britain's largest party. He draws big crowds to rallies and meetings, and his supporters are a formidable force on social media.

His followers — dubbed Corbynistas — see Labor as a mass movement for social justice, similar to Spain's Podemos, rather than simply a machine for winning elections. "Politics is changing," said Emma Hamblett, a Labor conference delegate from Romford, near London. "It's becoming more people-powered (rather) than just the elite at the top. We're having a voice. It's generating a lot of excitement, especially among the young."

But most Labor lawmakers and a chunk of party members despair of ever regaining power while Corbyn is in charge. They argue that his policies are too narrowly left-wing to win over undecided voters. And they fear a return to Labor's civil war of the 1980s, when party leaders battled to eject hard-left factions and some members split to form the Social Democratic Party.

Although he enthuses crowds at rallies, Corbyn is a lackluster performer in Parliament. He gave only muted support to the European Union during this year's referendum campaign on whether Britain should leave the 28-nation bloc, a factor some think contributed to the "leave" victory that will change the country's future forever.

There's also frustration among Corbyn's opponents that he is not providing strong political opposition at an uncertain time, as Britain negotiates its exit from the EU. After the June 23 EU referendum, more than 170 of Labor's 230 MPs declared no-confidence in Corbyn, but he refused to resign, sparking a leadership challenge from the little-known Smith. The contest was nasty, fraught with online name-calling and allegations that the leadership of the strongly pro-Palestinian Corbyn has fostered anti-Semitic abuse in the party.

Corbyn called Saturday for an end to "intimidation and abuse." "It's not my way, and it's not the Labor way," he said. Despite the calls for unity, Labor members continue to trade blame for the party's woes. Pro- and anti-Corbyn forces are tussling for control of the party executive and battling over who chooses the members of Labor's top team in Parliament.

Lawmaker Diane Abbott, a Corbyn ally, urged dissenting lawmakers to "settle down and unite behind the leader." John Spellar, a long-serving Labor lawmaker who backed Smith, said the century-old party would find a more moderate path again, eventually.

"This country needs a sensible progressive party, and it will get one back," he said. "It's just a question of time."

William, Kate bring young prince, princess on Canada trip

September 23, 2016

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadians were thrilled when Prince William and Kate traveled across the country as newlyweds five years ago. Now, they will see the couple's young children, Charlotte and George, as they travel overseas for the first time as a family of four.

The trip to Canada starting Saturday marks the first official overseas jaunt for 1-year-old Princess Charlotte. Her older brother Prince George, 3, is an old hand at royal travel, having already visited Australia and New Zealand on an official tour.

While the children will only be seen a few times during an eight-day visit, Canadians are excited about seeing them. "That brings an extra level of excitement to the visit," Victoria Monarchist League of Canada member Bruce Hallsor said.

As newlyweds for their first official trip as a couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge won raucous cheers and endeared themselves to Canadian crowds with a skillful mix of royal pomp and playful informality. On this visit the royals will visit British Columbia and the Yukon after accepting an invitation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who will host them this weekend along with his wife Sophie.

While Australia, Jamaica and Barbados have talked about becoming republics, there is less debate in Canada about replacing Queen Elizabeth II as the figurative head of state. Canadians are somewhat indifferent to the monarchy, but most have great affection for the queen, whose silhouette marks their coins, as well as her grandsons and Kate.

The trip is Prince William's second to the Pacific Coast province of British Columbia. He accompanied his father, Prince Charles, and his brother Harry in 1998, 11 months after the death of their mother Princess Diana.

Crowds of frenzied teenage girls greeted the princes in Vancouver, cementing William's status as a teen heartthrob. Eighteen years later, William arrives with a wife and family. The children will be with their parents as they are welcomed to Canada at British Columbia's ornate government buildings in the provincial capital of Victoria. But the children will stay behind in Victoria while their parents travel.

Far from Victoria's marbled halls and manicured lawns, the royal couple will move to Vancouver on Sunday for a visit to the city's gritty Downtown Eastside, a dozen square blocks of poverty and addiction. They'll have tea with residents at Sheway, a support program for pregnant women and new mothers dealing with addiction and other challenges. William's mother Diana was on hand when Sheway's precursor opened in Glasgow, Scotland in 1991.

"I'm certain that's something that's present in William's mind," Hallsor said. Sheway client Kelly Hamilton said excitement at the center is growing in anticipation of the royal visit. "If I were picked (to have tea), I'd be very nervous, she said. "I wouldn't want to discuss my past addiction with the prince."

Hamilton said she hopes the visit will raise awareness of the center's work. The royals will then visit an immigrant welcome center where they will meet with a newly arrived refugee family from Syria. More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada since Trudeau was elected last fall.

On Monday, the royal couple head by floatplane to the isolated coastal aboriginal community of Bella Bella. There, William will visit the now-protected, 24,711-square-mile (64,000-square-kilometer) Great Bear Rainforest. On Wednesday they'll visit the Yukon and Thursday the royals will be back in Victoria for a children's tea party with military families.

Gillies reported from Toronto.

Boris Johnson: UK will trigger EU exit talks in early 2017

September 22, 2016

LONDON (AP) — Britain's exit talks with the European Union will likely start in early 2017, and could take less than the allotted two years, Britain's foreign secretary said Thursday. His comments came after the president of the European Parliament urged Britain to make an early start on the talks, saying it's important to finish negotiations before European elections scheduled for mid-2019.

Britain voted in a June referendum to leave the EU, but has not yet invoked the article of the EU treaty that would trigger negotiations. Once it does, there is a two-year timeline laid out for talks.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she won't initiate the discussions before the end of the year. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson gave the British government's most specific time frame yet, saying he expected talks to be triggered in the "early part of next year."

Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Johnson told Sky News that negotiations could take less than the allotted time. "I don't think we will actually necessarily need to spend a full two years, but let's see how we go," he said.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said before meeting May at 10 Downing St. on Thursday that he "understands that the British government wants to take its time." But he added that it wouldn't be good for Britain or the EU if the British voted for members of the EU parliament while negotiations to leave the bloc were in progress, Germany's dpa news agency reported.

Schulz, a member of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, leads the 28-nation EU's legislative assembly.

Cyprus president: No peace deal with Turkish military rights

September 30, 2016

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — An insistence by breakaway Turkish Cypriots to cede Turkey the right to militarily intervene under a hoped-for deal reunifying the ethnically divided island of Cyprus is "excessive and unjustified," the island's president said Friday.

President Nicos Anastasiades said in a televised address marking Cyprus' 56th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule that no modern state within the European Union has any need for third-country security guarantees.

Any negotiated settlement to the island's 42 years of ethnic division must eliminate any dependence on third countries, Anastasiades said. The president said while he acknowledges Turkish Cypriot mistrust of Greek Cypriots, he would not "satisfy unjustified concerns" at the expense of "existing and legitimate" Greek Cypriot fears.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup aimed at union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence, and it keeps more than 35,000 troops in the breakaway north. Cyprus is an EU member, but only the internationally recognized south enjoys full member benefits.

Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci are locked in complex negotiations to reach a peace accord by the end of the year. Both leaders have said progress has been made in shaping a federated Cyprus, but key differences remain.

The thorniest issues are how to deal with property abandoned during the Turkish invasion and how much territory each side will administer. Greek and Turkish Cypriots will vote on any deal in simultaneous but separate referendums.

Syrian monitor: Russian airstrikes killed 9,300 in past year

September 30, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian opposition monitoring group that tracks Syria's civil war says a year of Russian airstrikes have killed more than 9,000 people in the war-torn country. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Friday the dead include civilians and fighters, among them militants from the Islamic State group and an al-Qaida-linked faction.

On Sept. 30 last year, Russia began an air campaign backing forces of the Syrian President Bashar Assad and turning the balance of power in his favor. Opposition activists have blamed Russia for the recent air campaign against rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo that has killed more than 200 civilians in the past two weeks and demolished buildings.

The Observatory says that the airstrikes have killed 9,364 people over the past year.

Russia fighting in Syria for a year, still at odds with US

September 30, 2016

WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after Russia waded into the war in Syria, aiming to flex its national security muscles and prop up beleaguered Syrian President Bashar Assad, Moscow appears no closer to one of its military goals: getting the U.S. to coordinate combat operations in the civil war. And prospects of a diplomatic resolution seem dim.

The yearlong offensive of airstrikes and ground combat in Syria, however, has showcased some of Moscow's newer military capabilities and underscored President Vladimir Putin's willingness to go to war to protect an ally — particularly one that hosts a critical Russian base on the Mediterranean Sea. More broadly, it put Russia at the center of the conflict, providing an opening for diplomatic cooperation between the U.S. and Russia to end the civil war. But it also further complicated the U.S.-led campaign to wipe out Islamic State militants who found a haven amid the chaos.

The diplomacy was collapsing this week with the U.S. threatening to end all Syria-related cooperation unless the bombardment of Aleppo stopped. Russia responded that the U.S. was encouraging extremist attacks on Russian assets.

Russia has demanded that the U.S separate the anti-Assad rebels it has supported from al-Qaida-linked militant groups, who often intermingle. But the U.S. has been unable to do so, and instead has said it remains focused on defeating the Islamic State group.

The bickering and diplomatic stalemates have threatened to compound other U.S.-Russian issues, such as economic sanctions or the annexation of Crimea. As members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday demanded to know the Obama administration's "Plan B" for Syria, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out the administration's view.

"The leverage (the U.S. has) is the consequences for Russia of being stuck in a quagmire that is going to have a number of profoundly negative effects," Blinken said, adding that Russia will be seen throughout the world as complicit with Assad as well as with Hezbollah and Iran "in the slaughter of Sunni Muslims," Syria's largest religious group.

Under blistering criticism from senators, Blinken said the administration was "actively considering other options" for how to end the bloodshed. Syria's civil war has cost 500,000 lives and created the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

A year ago, worried about its naval base on Syria's coast and determined to shore up Assad, Moscow began to build up its military in Syria, sending in aircraft, fighter jets and troops. Against the backdrop of an early failed U.S. program to train moderate Syrian forces, Putin began launching airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30, 2015. Moscow insisted it was targeting Islamic State extremists. But in the ensuing months, Russian airstrikes pounded rebel strongholds and civilians, largely in areas where there is no Islamic State presence. According to military officials and humanitarian groups on the ground, the Russians have bombed hospitals, schools and, recently, a U.S. aid convoy, killing throngs of innocent civilians either deliberately or inadvertently, because of their use of powerful but imprecise "dumb" bombs.

Concerned about safety in the increasingly crowded skies over Syria, the U.S. set up a communications link with Russia to de-conflict the airspace and reduce the risk of collisions. That minor cooperation will continue even as other cooperation is ruled out.

According to U.S. officials familiar with the discussions, the Russians made it clear to the Pentagon from the start that a key long-term goal was joint military coordination with the U.S. — a move military officials and others stridently opposed.

Russian leaders, said one senior U.S. official, had a singular focus during the talks with defense officials and that was to be able to project themselves as military allies with the United States. The official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Putin had several objectives entering into Syria. One was to demonstrate Russia is a global power," said Evelyn Farkas, former U.S. deputy assistant defense secretary and now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

But last week the negotiations to set up a joint military implementation center collapsed, and it became clear that Russia was not going to make good on its publicly stated effort to control Assad or force the government to abide by the cease-fire.

"I think this has proven to be tougher than the Russians expected," said Derek Chollet, a former assistant defense secretary for international affairs and now a senior adviser at the German Marshall Fund. "I see no evidence that Russia's intervention in Syria is increasing its diplomatic or political influence" around the world.

"In fact, if anything, what I've heard from Europeans is that the intervention in Syria last year was so shocking in its brutality that it quashed any sort of momentum there was to lift sanction against Russia in Ukraine," he said.

Meanwhile, the fighting, according to experts, has revealed an array of technological and strategic weaknesses within Russia's military and its command structure, including its lack of precision targeting, a cumbersome decision-making process and, at times, limited real-time awareness about what is going on at the battlefield.

The U.S.-led coaltion has also had its share of mishaps on the battlefield, including an airstrike that mistakenly hit dozens of Syrian soldiers just as the cease-fire began earlier this month — plunging the talks into turmoil.

Russian's military campaign in Syria, however, did allow Moscow to showcase in combat for the first time its long-range cruise missiles, launched from the air and from the sea. Farkas and others say that in the wake of the collapse of the cease-fire and the resumption of all-out war, time is not on Russia's side.

"The Russians need to be thinking more carefully, that the Pottery Barn rules apply," said Farkas, referring to the often-quoted "you break it, you bought it" slogan. "Russia now has lead responsibility for rebuilding Syria."

Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.