Migrants claim violence while pushed back from Croatia

September 01, 2017

SID, Serbia (AP) — Hamid Barekzai desperately tried to cross into Croatia 17 times in one year. He says he was beaten and humiliated during most of his attempts, but the Afghan migrant isn't about to give up on his goal of getting deeper into Europe.

International rights groups say there is enough evidence that Croatian police for months have been forcing migrants and asylum-seekers back across the border to neighboring Serbia, in some cases using violence, taking their money and breaking their cellphones, without giving them an opportunity to file claims for protection.

Croatian officials have denied the groups' claims, but refugees interviewed by The Associated Press last week described how they were forced back. Croatian police didn't respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

"I tried to enter Croatia 17 times. Out of 17 times, they beat me nine times and they took everything from me," Barekzai, the 24-year-old from Afghanistan, said at a crowded refugee center in Serbia only a few kilometers (miles) from the Croatian border where people sleep in tents often visited by rats at nighttime.

"We will not stay here. We will go. If they beat, if they kill, anything they do, we will go, we will not stay. What should we do here? Here, there is no future," said Barekzai, who said he has a degree in medicine.

A huge wave of refugees on the so-called Balkan route subsided after Hungary and other countries along the route closed their borders to migrants in March 2016. That left thousands stranded in Serbia, including women and children, who sometimes had to sleep out in the open, exposed to the extreme weather.

With Hungary's right-wing government sealing off its border with Serbia with a double razor-wire fence, the stranded migrants have no choice but try to enter the European Union via Croatia in an attempt to reach Germany, Sweden or other more prosperous central and northern European countries.

Germany took in the bulk of over a million asylum-seekers in 2015 and 2016, in stark contrast to Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or other central or eastern European states which refuse to host migrants under the EU's programs to allocate 160,000 people stranded in Greece, Italy and the Balkans.

Many EU states, including Croatia, have dragged their feet and only about 18,000 people have been moved under the plan that expires in September. One of the arguments is that allowing entry would jeopardize Europe's security, although most recent attacks in Europe have been linked to home-grown extremists.

In its report, Human Rights Watch said the violence and summary return of asylum-seekers from Croatia without consideration of their protection needs is contrary to EU asylum laws, the bloc's charter on fundamental rights, and the international Refugee Convention.

"The fact that this type of flagrant abuse of migrants and asylum-seekers is allowed to go on at EU's borders is completely unacceptable and flies in the face of EU and international law," said Lydia Gall, Balkans and Eastern Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The stranded migrants interviewed by the AP in Serbia described their dangerous journeys across the border. "Yesterday I came back from Croatia. They (police) beat us and took 900 euros and he (a policeman) took our phones and broke them. After that, he slapped me and he behaved very badly with us," said Haider Zaman Khan from Pakistan.

Abdul Jabbar from Afghanistan said he tried to cross into Croatia three times and was beaten once. "The second time I went with my friend. We paid taxi to Zagreb 200 euros," he said. Instead of taking them about 300 kilometers (190 miles) to the Croatian capital, he said the taxi driver took them straight to a nearby police station.

"The police beat us, they broke our mobiles and sent us back to the border," he said. Serbian officials and doctors in the Adasevci refugee camp said that migrants regularly return from Croatia with bruises and sometimes broken limbs.

On the Serbian side of the border, hundreds of migrants — who refuse to be registered by local authorities because of fears they would be deported — sleep out in the open in cornfields, forests and an abandoned, roofless printing factory littered with garbage and toxic waste.

The only aid this group has comes from young activists from Spain and Germany, who provide them with food and water. "There are now around 150-200 people here without any legal status, trying to cross the border again and again," said Max Buttner of the German Rigardu non-governmental organization, which put makeshift showers inside the factory where mostly young men shaved or had a haircut as Arab folk songs blared from a transistor radio.

"It started a few months ago when they stared coming back from the border with injuries," Buttner said. "They were beaten by the police often with sticks." Rigardu has documented numerous cases of purported violence by Croatian police after migrants got caught while crossing the border from Serbia on cargo trains or on foot through thick forest.

In one case, a 17-year-old Algerian boy was thrown to the ground, hit with batons and kicked in his head until "he lost his consciousness completely," the volunteer group's report said. "This morning, a group came back from Zagreb. So, even when they make it to Zagreb or (further west) to Slovenia, people are deporting them back to Serbia because it is outside of the EU," Buttner said.

As he spoke, a Libyan man came limping into the factory and started bandaging his swollen ankle which he said he sustained from a baton hit by a Croatian policeman. A small crowd gathered around Ahmed Ali who said he's just back from what migrants call "the game" — an attempt to outplay the Croatian border police, like in a computer game.

"They won today, but tomorrow is another game," he said.

US seizes control of Russian posts in San Fran, DC, NY

September 03, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States seized control Saturday of three Russian diplomatic posts in the U.S. after confirming the Russians had complied with the Trump administration's order to get out within two days, officials said.

As the Kremlin cried foul, accusing Washington of bullying tactics, the U.S. disputed Moscow's claims that American officials had threatened to "break down the entrance door" to one of the facilities, and that the FBI was "clearing the premises." Not true, said a senior State Department official, adding that U.S. officials had joined Russian Embassy personnel for walkthroughs of the three buildings.

"These inspections were carried out to secure and protect the facilities and to confirm the Russian government had vacated the premises," the official said in a statement emailed Saturday to reporters by the State Department on condition the official not be named.

Russia has been incensed by the move to shutter Russia's consulate in San Francisco and trade offices in Washington and New York, actions the U.S. took in retaliation for Moscow's decision last month to force the U.S. to cut its diplomatic personnel in Russia to 455. Moscow has accused the U.S. of violating international law by shuttering the facilities, a charge the U.S. disputes.

On Saturday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Moscow, Anthony Godfrey, to deliver a formal protest note calling the purported trade office search an "unprecedented aggressive action."

The Foreign Ministry also posted video on Facebook that it said showed FBI agents inspecting the consulate general building in San Francisco. In the video, a man in a tie knocks on several numbered doors and enters what appears to be apartment units, taking a quick glance inside before declaring everything in order.

There was no additional comment from the U.S. about whether the FBI was involved in the inspections. The State Department declined to answer additional questions about whether the premises might be searched for intelligence-gathering purposes now that the Russians have left.

On Saturday night, lights shined brightly on several floors of the consulate in San Francisco and some windows were wide open. A day earlier, black smoke was seen billowing from the chimney at the consulate as the Russians rushed to meet the Saturday deadline, and workers could be seen hauling boxes out of the stately building.

The U.S. did appear to bow to one Russian complaint — that they were given a mere 48 hours to vacate homes used by diplomats and their families. Softening the original order, the U.S. said it had made "separate arrangements" to give families "sufficient time" to pack their belongings and vacate apartments on the consulate grounds.

The U.S. wouldn't disclose how long the Russians would have to move out of the residential part of the consulate, other than to say that Moscow had been informed of the new deadline. In the meantime, the State Department will control all access to the properties, along with the responsibility for securing and maintaining them, the official said.

The closures on both U.S. coasts mark perhaps the most drastic diplomatic measure by the United States against Russia since 1986, near the end of the Cold War, when the nuclear-armed powers expelled dozens of each other's diplomats.

And it comes amid some of the broadest strains in their relationship ever since. The two countries have clashed over the wars in Ukraine and Syria, but most significantly over American allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to boost President Donald Trump's chances of victory. Investigations continue into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow.

AP writer Garance Burke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

US takes another look at providing lethal weapons to Ukraine

August 14, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republic's conflict.

The deliberations put pressure on President Donald Trump, who's fighting perceptions he is soft on the Kremlin amid investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election.

The proposal, endorsed by the Pentagon and the State Department, reflects his administration's growing frustration with Russian intransigence on Ukraine and a broader deterioration in U.S.-Russian ties. The tensions were seen most recently in Russian leader Vladimir Putin's order for America to eliminate more than half its diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Awaiting Trump and his closest advisers is an authorization to provide Ukraine with anti-tank and potentially anti-aircraft capabilities, according to U.S. officials familiar with the plan. It's not dramatically different from proposals rejected by President Barack Obama, who feared an influx of U.S. weapons could worsen the violence responsible for more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine since 2014 and create the possibility of American arms killing Russian soldiers. Such a scenario could theoretically put the nuclear-armed nations closer to direct conflict.

While Obama was still in office, Trump's campaign also rejected the idea of arming Ukraine, preventing it from being included in the Republican platform. Now, however, it's under discussion by Trump's senior national security aides, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk about the matter publicly. While there is no deadline for a decision and one is not expected imminently, the debate is going on as U.S. and Russian diplomats prepare to meet as early as this coming week to explore ways to pacify eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have fought the central government for three years.

"The Russians have indicated some willingness to begin to talk with us about a way forward on Ukraine," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after seeing his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, last week in the Philippines.

Tillerson noted his recent appointment of a special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who will coordinate with Russia and European countries to give "full visibility to all the parties that we're not trying to cut some kind of a deal on the side that excludes their interests in any way."

Russia hawks in the U.S. and uneasy American allies have feared such a prospect since Trump took office after a campaign in which he questioned NATO's viability and repeatedly expressed his wish for a new U.S.-Russian partnership. At one point, two years after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, Trump even challenged the notion that the Russians would "go into Ukraine."

Volker has proposed a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Putin ally Vladislav Surkov, before the end of the month. Lavrov said after his talks with Tillerson that the meeting would be in Moscow. U.S. officials say no venue has been determined, with the neutral venues of Geneva or Vienna also in play.

Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who is known as a Russia hawk, supports arming Ukraine. Such action, he says, would boost the U.S. negotiating position in the east and offer Kiev the means to defend itself against any future aggression. Unsurprisingly, Russia opposes such assistance and warns of consequences.

"I hear these arguments that it's somehow provocative to Russia or that it's going to embolden Ukraine to attack. These are just flat out wrong," Volker told an interviewer last month as he visited Europe on his first trip in his new post. He argued that arming Ukraine would help rather than hurt efforts to stop Russia from threatening or interfering in its neighbor's territory.

All proposals in recent years have focused on arms that are deemed "defensive" in nature and none would appear to give Ukraine any strategic edge over Russia's vastly superior military forces. "We have not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled out the option to do so," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Aug. 3. "That's an option that remains on the table."

A White House official would not comment on internal administration deliberations but noted that since the crisis began in 2014, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with support equipment for its forces and training and advice to further defense reforms.

Some U.S. officials say the idea is gaining currency because of Washington's impatience with Russia and its start-and-stop implementation of a 2015 agreement designed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Minsk Accords were agreed to by Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia with the goal of enforcing a cease-fire in the east and introducing political reforms to give the area more political autonomy.

While the Obama administration allowed Europe to take the lead on the Minsk process, Volker has been empowered to make the U.S. a player in the effort. The objective now is to change Russia's strategic thinking, one official said, and providing defensive weapons to Ukraine would be one way to do that.

Kenya election official stopped from flying to US

August 16, 2017

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A top Kenyan electoral official, among those who oversaw this country's disputed presidential election, has been stopped from traveling to the U.S., Kenyan officials said Wednesday.

At least 24 people have died in protests opposing President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election although international observers saying the official results, which show Kenyatta trounced veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga with more than 1 million votes, are credible.

Electoral commissioner Roselyn Akombe was stopped by security agents from boarding a flight to New York late Tuesday, said the officials who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals. Her luggage was offloaded and she was told to seek clearance to travel from the director of immigration, said the officials. Akombe, who is a dual U.S. and Kenya citizen, was not given any reason why she stopped from boarding her flight, said officials.

The electoral commission later said Akombe who was to be traveling to the U.S. for an official meeting was delayed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by officials who have since apologized. She was to board a connecting flight to the U.S. Wednesday morning more than 10 hours later, said the officials.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has rejected the official results of the presidential election which show he lost to incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta. Odinga claims that the vote was rigged.

2 killed in Kenya protests after president wins 2nd term

August 12, 2017

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan police shot and killed two people during riots by opposition supporters after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in elections overshadowed by fraud allegations, authorities said Saturday.

The deaths occurred on the outskirts of Kisumu, a city where opposition leader Raila Odinga has strong support, according to Leonard Katana, a regional police commander. Another five people were injured by gunfire in Kisumu, Katana said.

Also Saturday, Kenyan police opened fire to disperse opposition protesters who blocked roads and set up burning barricades in a slum in Nairobi, the capital. Associated Press photographers saw police charging demonstrators and firing live rounds and tear gas in the Mathare area, as well as similar scenes in Kibera, another Nairobi slum.

Protesters, some with rocks or sticks, ran for cover as they came under fire in Kibera. It was not known how many people were arrested by police in anti-riot gear. Most of the country of 45 million people was calm the day after the election commission announced that Kenyatta, whose father was Kenya's first president after independence from British colonial rule, had won a second, five-year term. In a victory speech, Kenyatta said he was extending a "hand of friendship" to the opposition, which alleged that the election commission's database had been hacked and results were manipulated against Odinga.

Kenyatta won with a decisive 54 percent of the vote to nearly 45 percent for Odinga, but the bitter dispute over the integrity of the election process tempered what many Kenyans had hoped would be a celebration of democracy in a regional power known for its economic promise and long-term stability.

The unrest also exposed divisions in a society where poverty and corruption at top levels of government have angered large numbers of Kenyans, including those who have been protesting in the slums and see Odinga as a voice for their grievances.

Adding to the rift is ethnic loyalty. Kenyatta is widely seen as the representative of the Kikuyu people, the country's largest ethnic group, while Odinga is associated with the Luo group, which has never produced a head of state.

But reconciliation efforts, the introduction of a progressive constitution in 2010 and an intense security operation during the recent election period have helped to ward off the kind of ethnic violence after the 2007 election in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Odinga ran unsuccessfully in that election; he also lost the 2013 vote to Kenyatta and took allegations of vote-tampering to Kenya's highest court, which rejected his case.

Recalling its failed legal challenge in 2013, the opposition has said it will not go to court again. Its top leaders have, so far, refrained from publicly calling for mass protests. Catholic leaders on Saturday appealed for calm and asked security forces to exercise caution during protests.

"We appeal to them to restrain themselves from using excessive force in handling crowds," said John Oballa Owaa, vice chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops. "No life should be lost because of an election."

The bishop said any dispute over the election should be resolved peacefully and by "legal norms as provided in the constitution."

Associated Press journalists Ben Curtis and Jerome Delay in Nairobi contributed.

1 million South Sudan refugees now in Uganda, UN says

August 17, 2017

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The number of South Sudanese refugees sheltering in Uganda has reached 1 million, the United Nations said Thursday, a grim milestone for what has become the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis.

Ugandan officials say they are overwhelmed by the flow of people fleeing South Sudan's civil war and the U.N. refugee agency urges the international community to donate more for humanitarian assistance.

An average of 1,800 South Sudanese citizens have been arriving daily in Uganda over the past 12 months, the UNHCR said in a statement. Another one million or more South Sudanese are sheltering in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Congo and Central African Republic.

The number of people fleeing jumped after deadly fighting again erupted in South Sudan's capital, Juba, in July 2016. "Recent arrivals continue to speak of barbaric violence, with armed groups reportedly burning down houses with civilians inside, people being killed in front of family members, sexual assaults of women and girls and kidnapping of boys for forced conscription," the statement said.

"With refugees still arriving in their thousands, the amount of aid we are able to deliver is increasingly falling short." A fundraising summit hosted by Uganda in June raised only a fraction of the $2 billion that Ugandan officials have said is needed to sufficiently look after the refugees and the communities hosting them.

Most of the refugees are women and children fleeing violence, often along ethnic lines, since the world's newest country erupted into violence in December 2013. Ugandan refugee officials have repeatedly warned the influx is straining the country's ability to be generous to the refugees, who often are given small plots of land for building temporary shelters and planting crops when they arrive.

The largest of the settlements hosting refugees from South Sudan, Bidi Bidi, is roughly 230 square kilometers (88.8 sq. miles). The World Food Program cut food rations for some refugees amid funding shortages in June.

The U.N. says at least $674 million is needed to support South Sudanese refugees in Uganda this year, although only a fifth of that amount has been received. The money is needed to provide basic services, including stocking clinics with medicines and putting up schools. Aid agencies say classroom sizes in the few available schools often exceed 200 pupils, and other children have dropped out because the nearest schools are located miles away.

"The funding shortfall in Uganda is now significantly impacting the abilities to deliver life-saving aid and key basic services," the UNHCR statement said. Fighting persists in parts of South Sudan despite multiple cease-fire agreements. Rebel forces said Tuesday they had reclaimed their stronghold of Pagak in the northeast, less than a week after being pushed out by government forces.

Both sides have committed serious rights violations, including murder and rape, against civilians, according to U.N. investigators.

18 killed in attack on restaurant in Burkina Faso capital

August 14, 2017

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours Monday. Gunfire could be heard almost seven hours after the attack began. In addition to those killed, eight others were wounded, Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told journalists. Two of the attackers were also killed, he said.

The victims came from several different nationalities, he said. At least one of the dead was French and another was Turkish. Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near Aziz Istanbul, an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another cafe that left 30 people dead.

Three or four assailants arrived at the restaurant on motorcycles and then began shooting randomly at the crowds dining Sunday evening, said police Capt. Guy Ye. Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

In the 2016 attack the attackers were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for those killings along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

The northern border region is now the home of a local preacher, Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who radicalized and has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks against troops and civilians. His association, Ansarul Islam, is now considered a terrorist group by Burkina Faso's government.

Angola's ruling party claims victory in election: Report

August 24, 2017

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Angola's ruling party said Thursday it won a majority in the country's election with five million votes counted so far, opening the way for the defense minister to succeed President Jose Eduardo dos Santos after his 38-year rule, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.

The MPLA party concluded it had won Wednesday's election after reviewing data relayed by its delegates from polling stations nationwide, said Joao Martins, a senior official at the party's headquarters in Luanda, the capital. Martins said Defense Minister Joao Lourenco would therefore succeed dos Santos, who took power in 1979, according to Lusa.

The report came as the main opposition UNITA party alleged that police fired shots and made arrests near some polling stations as people voted in Huambo city. Election officials, however, said the vote went smoothly despite minor problems and delays.

Angola's election commission has not released any results of the vote. About 9.3 million Angolans were registered to vote for the 220-member National Assembly; the winning party then selects the president.

Lourenco, 63, is a former governor who fought in the war against Portuguese colonial rule as well as the long civil war that ended in 2002. Lourenco has pledged to fight graft and is seen as a symbol of stability and even incremental change. Oil-rich Angola is beset by widespread poverty, corruption and human rights concerns, though some analysts believe new leadership could open the way to more accountability.

Critics, however, point to entrenched patronage networks benefiting an elite that includes Isabel dos Santos, the president's daughter and head of the state oil company Sonangol, and Jose Filomeno dos Santos, a son in charge of the country's sovereign wealth fund.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos, 74, is expected to remain ruling party leader, though there are concerns about his health since he received medical treatment in Spain this year. Angolan rights activists have alleged that the ruling MPLA party unfairly used state machinery ahead of Wednesday's election, noting that most media coverage focused on the MPLA campaign. Opposition parties have said there were irregularities ahead of the voting.

Election observers from other African countries monitored the vote, but the European Union did not send a full-fledged observer mission because it said the Angolan government wanted to impose restrictions, including limited access to polling stations around the country.

US WWII vet returns Japanese flag to fallen soldier's family

August 15, 2017

HIGASHISHIRAKAWA, Japan (AP) — The former U.S. Marine knew the calligraphy-covered flag he took from a fallen Japanese soldier 73 years ago was more than a keepsake of World War II. When Marvin Strombo finally handed the flag back to Sadao Yasue's younger brother and sisters Tuesday, he understood what it really meant to them.

Tatsuya Yasue buried his face into the flag and smelled it, then he held Strombo's hands and kissed them. His elder sister Sayoko Furuta, sitting in her wheelchair, covered her face with both hands and wept silently as Tatsuya placed the flag on her lap.

The flag is a treasure that will fill a deep void for Yasue's family. The flag Strombo handed to Yasue's siblings is the first trace of their brother. The Japanese authorities only gave them a wooden box containing a few rocks, a substitution for the remains that have never been found.

The flag's white background is filled with signatures of 180 friends and neighbors in this tea-growing mountain village of Higashishirakawa, wishing Yasue's safe return. "Good luck forever at the battlefield," a message on it reads. Looking at the names and their handwriting, Tatsuya Yasue clearly recalls their faces and friendship with his brother.

"The flag will be our treasure," Tatsuya Yasue, a younger brother of the fallen soldier, told the Associated Press at his 400-year-old house. The 89-year-old farmer says the return of the flag brings closure. "It's like the war has finally ended and my brother can come out of the limbo."

Yasue last saw his older brother alive the day before he left for the South Pacific in 1943. Tatsuya and two siblings had a small send-off picnic for the oldest brother outside his military unit over sushi and Japanese sweet mochi, which became their last meal together. At the end of the meeting, his brother lowered his voice, asking Tetsuya to take good care of their parents, as he would be sent to the Pacific islands, harsh battlegrounds where chances of survival were low.

A year later, the wooden box containing the stones arrived. Months after the war ended, the authorities told Yasue his brother died somewhere in the Marianas on July 18, 1944, at age 25. "That's all we were told about my brother, and we could only imagine what might have happened," he said. Yasue and his relatives wondered Sadao might have died at sea off Saipan. About 20 years ago, Yasue visited Saipan with his younger brother, imagining what their older brother might have gone through.

The only person who can provide some of those answers, Strombo, said he found Yasue's body on the outskirts of Garapan when he got lost and ended up near the Japanese frontline. He told Yasue's siblings that their brother likely died of a concussion from a mortar round. He told them that Sadao was lying on his left, peacefully as if he was sleeping, not in pain.

At least the flag and his story suggest Yasue died on the ground, which raises hopes of retrieving his remains. The remains of nearly half of 2.4 million Japanese war-dead overseas have yet to be found 72 years after the World War II ended. It's a pressing issue as the bereaved families reach old age and memories fade.

Allied troops frequently took the flags from the bodies of their enemies as souvenirs. But to the Japanese bereaved families, they have a much deeper meaning, especially those, like Yasue, who never learned how their loved ones died and never received remains. Japanese government has requested auction sites to stop trading wartime signed flags.

Strombo had the flag hung in a glass-fronted gun cabinet in his home in Montana for years, a topic of conversation for visitors. He was in the battles of Saipan, Tarawa and Tinian, which chipped away at Japan's control of islands in the Pacific and paved the way for U.S. victory.

In 2012, he was connected to an Oregon-based nonprofit Obon Society that helps U.S. veterans and their descendants return Japanese flags to the families of fallen soldiers. The group's research traced it to the tea-growing village of 2,300 people in central Japan by analyzing family names.

China's Xi looks to party congress to cement authority

August 16, 2017

BEIJING (AP) — China's leaders have been holding an annual unofficial retreat at a beach resort ahead of a key fall Communist Party congress at which President Xi Jinping will launch his second five-year term as party chief and move to cement his status as China's most powerful leader in decades.

Xi has been shoring up his authority and sidelining rivals, leaving him primed to install allies in top positions and press his agenda of tightened state control and muscular diplomacy. That appears to include a push to insert his thoughts on theoretical matters into the party constitution and further cultivate a burgeoning cult of personality.

Xi's moves have also fueled speculation that he may be eyeing a third term as party chief, breaking with the two-term limit roughly established by his predecessors.

China, India soldiers hurl stones at 1 another in Kashmir

August 16, 2017

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Indian and Chinese soldiers yelled and hurled stones at one another high in the Himalayas in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Indian officials said Wednesday, potentially escalating tensions between two nations already engaged in a lengthy border standoff elsewhere.

The Chinese soldiers hurled stones while attempting to enter Ladakh region near Pangong Lake on Tuesday but were confronted by Indian soldiers, said a top police officer. The officer said Indian soldiers retaliated but neither side used guns.

China did not comment directly on the reported incident, but called on India to comply with earlier agreements and help maintain peace and stability along the border. An Indian intelligence officer said the confrontation occurred after Indian soldiers intercepted a Chinese patrol that veered into Indian-held territory after apparently it lost its way due to bad weather.

The officer said that soon the soldiers began shouting at each other and later threw stones. He said some soldiers from both sides received minor injuries. After nearly 30 minutes of facing off, the two sides retreated to their positions, he said.

An Indian military officer said the skirmish was brief but violent and for the first time stones were used. All the officers spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Soldiers from the two countries are already locked in a bitter but non-violent standoff in Doklam, an area disputed between China and India's ally Bhutan, where New Delhi sent its soldiers in June to stop China from constructing a strategic road.

China demands that Indian troops withdraw unilaterally from the Doklam standoff before any talks can be held, while New Delhi says each side should stand down. China and India fought a border war in 1962 and much of their frontier remains unsettled despite several rounds of official-level talks.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Chinese troops sought to avoid confrontations and said India should "make tangible efforts to maintain the peace and stability of the border areas between the two countries."

"I have no knowledge of the details you mentioned, but what I can tell you is that Chinese border troops have always been committed to maintaining the peace and tranquility of the China-India border areas," Hua told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference.

The website of New Delhi-based English weekly India Today quoted a report by the Indian military intelligence, which said the use of stones was unprecedented and appeared intended to heighten tension without using lethal weapons. The report said the worst that has happened earlier was an isolated slap or pushing between soldiers from the two sides.

India's worries over Chinese repeated border crossings into Kashmir's Ladakh region have seen a massive Indian army buildup in the cold desert in recent years. The disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed India, Pakistan and China. The part held by China is contiguous to Tibet.

Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.

Thai court to issue arrest warrant after ex-PM doesn't show

August 25, 2017

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's Supreme Court said it will issue an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra after she failed to show Friday for a contentious trial verdict in which she could face a 10-year prison term for alleged negligence in overseeing a money-losing rice subsidy program.

A judge read out a statement saying that Yingluck's lawyers had informed the court she could not attend because of an earache. But the judge said the court did not believe the excuse because no official medical verification was provided, and the court would issue a warrant for her arrest as a result.

Yingluck's whereabouts were not immediately known, fueling speculation that she might have fled the country. There was no evidence, however, that she had left Thailand. A verdict had been expected to be delivered within hours in the case, which the court postponed until Sept. 27. Yingluck has pleaded innocent, and decries the charges against her as politically motivated. If convicted, she has the right to appeal.

The trial is the latest chapter in a decade-long struggle by the nation's elite minority to crush the powerful political machine founded by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 coup. Thaksin, who has lived in Dubai since fleeing a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated, has studiously avoided commenting on his sister's case, apparently to avoid imperiling it.

Thaksin is a highly polarizing figure here, and his overthrow triggered years of upheaval and division that has pitted a poor, rural majority in the north that supports the Shinawatras against royalists, the military and their urban backers.

When Yingluck's government proposed an amnesty in 2013 that could have absolved her brother and allowed him to return without being arrested, street protests erupted that eventually led to her government's demise in a 2014 military coup.

The junta that seized control of Thailand has clamped down harshly since then, suppressing all dissent and banning political gatherings of more than five people. The long-awaited decision on Yingluck's fate has rekindled tensions in the divided nation, but the military remains firmly in charge.

Fearing potential unrest, authorities tried to deter people from turning out Friday by threatening legal action against anyone planning to help transport Yingluck supporters. Yingluck also posted a message on her Facebook page urging followers to stay away, saying she worried about their safety.

Thousands of people turned up outside the Bangkok court house anyway, though, along with thousands of police who erected barricades around the court. Prawit Pongkunnut, a 55-year-old rice farmer from the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, said he came with 10 other farmers to show solidarity with Yingluck.

"We're here to give her moral support because she truly cared and helped us out," Prawit said. The rice subsidies, promised to farmers during the 2011 election, helped Yingluck's party ascend to power. Critics say they were effectively a means of vote-buying, while Yingluck supporters welcomed them.

The rice subsidy plan Yingluck oversaw paid farmers about 50 percent more that they would have made on the world market. The hope was to drive up prices by stockpiling the grain, but other Asian producers filled the void instead, knocking Thailand from its perch as the world's leading rice exporter.

The current government, which is still trying to sell off the rice stockpiles, says Yingluck's administration lost as much as $17 billion because it couldn't export at a price commensurate with what it had paid farmers.

In a separate administrative ruling that froze her bank accounts, Yingluck was held responsible for about $1 billion of those losses — an astounding personal penalty that prosecutors argued Yingluck deserved because she ignored warnings of corruption but continued the program anyway.

Associated Press journalists Grant Peck and Kankanit Wiriyasajja contributed to this report.

Thai ex-PM urges supporters to stay away from court ruling

August 24, 2017

BANGKOK (AP) — Friends and foes alike of former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra are anxiously awaiting a verdict Friday by the Supreme Court on charges she was criminally negligent in implementing a rice subsidy program that is estimated to have cost the government as much as $17 billion and could send her to prison for 10 years.

Thousands of supporters had been expected to appear outside the courthouse to demonstrate their solidarity with Yingluck, but on Thursday she posted a message on her Facebook page urging them not to come. Yingluck said she was worried about their safety in case there is "chaos that could be instigated by a third party, as security officials have always said."

"I want those who wish to support me to listen to the news from home, to avoid risking any unexpected problems that could arise from those who have ill-intentions toward the country and all of us," she wrote, without naming anyone. She also said that security measures would make it impossible to interact face-to-face with supporters.

Thai authorities have earlier threatened legal action against anyone planning to help transport her supporters and announced plans for a massive deployment of security personnel outside the court, adding vague hints of possible violence that spurred scare headlines in local media.

The upcoming verdict is generally seen as a political judgment as much as a criminal one. The case against Yingluck is the latest in a decade-long offensive against the political machine founded and directed by her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and disrespect for the monarchy.

Thaksin, a telecommunications mogul, has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to escape a prison sentence on a conflict of interest conviction. The 2006 coup triggered years of sometimes-violent battles for power between his supporters — mainly the less well-off rural majority who delivered him thumping election victories — and opponents — mainly royalists, members of the urban middle and upper classes, as well as the military, which in 2014 ousted Yingluck's elected government.

Yingluck has appeared calm in the days leading up to the verdict, making merit at Buddhist temples and reportedly praying for a victory in Friday's ruling. However the Supreme Court rules, the junta is likely to lose face, one analyst said.

If the court rules not guilty, "the generals will have egg on their face," said Paul Chambers, a political scientist at Naresuan University in northern Thailand. The military's reasoning for staging the 2014 coup was, in part, to rid the system of corrupt politicians.

If she is found guilty, "then the generals will have to deal with what comes next and that could be a martyr figure," Chambers said. The rice subsidy was a flagship policy that helped Yingluck's party win the 2011 general election. The government paid farmers about 50 percent above what they would have received on the world market, with the intention of driving up prices by warehousing the grain.

Instead, other rice-producing countries captured the market by selling at competitive prices. Vietnam as a result replaced Thailand as the world's leading rice exporter. The military government said Wednesday it expects by next year to finally have sold off the stockpile of 17.8 million tons of rice the subsidy created. It has earned $40 million from the sales but calculates the government lost billions because it couldn't export at a price commensurate with what it had paid farmers.

Yingluck already has been held responsible for about $1 billion of the losses in an administrative ruling that froze her bank accounts. Prosecutors in the criminal negligence trial argued that Yingluck ignored warnings of corruption in the subsidy program.

"I think the designer of the program did not think carefully, did not understand the functioning of the rice market, particularly the world rice market," said Niphon Poapongsakorn from the Thailand Development Research Institute, who gave evidence at the trial.

"What they thought (about) was only the beneficial impact of the program, which is not a surprise because I believe the hidden agenda of the policy was to win a landslide election," he said. Yingluck was ousted as prime minister by a court ruling involving a nepotism case shortly before the coup ejected her government. Since then, she has been formally impeached and banned from political office for five years.

The court cases and possible criminal conviction aside, Yingluck retains great popularity with her base. Millions, like farmer Gaysorn Petcharat, saw their incomes suddenly rise markedly. There was money to buy luxuries and to invest in their farms.

Now Gaysorn's income has dropped sharply. But her loyalty to Yingluck is unwavering. "If you ask any farmer if they like Yingluck, they all like Yingluck because she was willing to help us," she said, pausing from harvesting her field in Chachoengsao province outside Bangkok.

"She did her best for us. All my life I've never sold rice at such a good price as when she was prime minister," she said. Yingluck denies the negligence charges. She told the court she was the victim of a "political game" aimed at crushing the Shinawatra clan, first her brother Thaksin, and now her.

Some analysts agree, and believe the prosecution's approach sets a dangerous precedent. "I think it is clear enough that politics is involved in the Yingluck trial," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"I mean, this is a government that was elected in 2011 by a simple majority and it had a policy platform led by the rice pledging scheme. The scheme led to losses probably, but on the other hand, if we use this benchmark for other governments, then we could have a lot of government leaders in jail," he said.

Russian activist Navalny launches new attack on Putin

August 31, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has launched a new YouTube corruption attack against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Navalny's video showed a lavish villa purportedly owned by a son of Putin's friend that the president had allegedly used. The online video accusing Putin of corruption has been seen at least 2 million times since its release Wednesday.

The video included aerial footage of the seaside mansion surrounded by a large park near Vyborg, close to St. Petersburg. It's the latest in a series of YouTube videos by Navalny exposing alleged ill-gotten assets of senior government officials and Kremlin-friendly tycoons.

Navalny, who rose to prominence with his corruption investigations, has declared his intention to run for president in the March 2018 election. A conviction that he calls politically motivated bars him from running, however.

Putin visiting Hungary, attending World Judo Championships

August 28, 2017

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Hungary for the second time this year on Monday, attending the World Judo Championships being held in Budapest. Putin, who made an official trip to Hungary in February, sat in a VIP box at the Laszlo Papp Budapest Sports Arena with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other officials.

Discussions between the two leaders were expected to center on energy issues, such as Russia's construction of new reactors for Hungary's Soviet-built nuclear power plant and Hungarian imports of natural gas from Russia.

Hungarian opposition parties protested Putin's trip amid concerns that Orban has become too close to the Russian leader. Orban used to be highly critical of Russian influence in the region. Activists from the Together party blew whistles as Putin's motorcade arrived at the arena and held up a banner in the stands reading "We Won't Be A Russian Colony" before police escorted them out of the building.

A few supporters of Momentum, a new party whose recent campaign led Budapest to withdraw its bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, donned Putin masks and wore T-shirts with the slogan "Let's go freedom of speech, let's go Hungarians."

Critics say the nuclear project is rife with corruption risks and increases Hungary's dependency on Moscow. "Putin is looking for colonies in the former Soviet bloc, not allies," political activist Gabor Vago said. "Only Russia benefits from the nuclear deal, which ties Hungary for decades to an obsolete technology."

Russia has loaned Hungary 10 billion euros ($11.9 billion) for the nuclear development plan, an amount expected to cover about 80 percent of the costs.

Small town miles from Moscow sees a political awakening

August 24, 2017

VYKSA, Russia (AP) — Russia's political opposition faces an uphill battle against President Vladimir Putin in next year's election. But it is finding some support sprouting up in unlikely places — the sleepy provincial towns like Vyksa.

In the "Image" hair salon where patrons are greeted by the high-pitched whine of blow dryers, they also are met by a poster promoting the candidacy of Alexei Navalny, Russia's most popular opposition politician. "Navalny 2018: Trust people, don't let Moscow call the shots," it says.

The 41-year-old anti-corruption campaigner currently gets most of his support from intellectuals and youths in the big cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, while Putin draws his 80 percent approval rating from the sleepy provinces and industrial cities across Russia's 11 time zones.

That's why Navalny has planted political seeds in the provinces, opening campaign offices in dozens of cities and town in the vast country. Some of his supporters even have launched grassroots efforts on their own, including in Vyksa.

Home to 53,000 people, Vyksa is so small it isn't even served by trains, let alone airlines. The town, 300 kilometers (about 190 miles) east of Moscow, draws its relative prosperity from the steelworks that makes pipelines for Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom. But Vyksa's businessmen are increasingly worried that Putin's aggressive foreign policy, which has battered the ruble and cut consumer demand, is ruining their livelihoods.

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, Navalny's longshot campaign is populated by trendy, Instagram-loving youths who carry tote bags emblazoned with his name and watch videos on YouTube channels that broadcast his message outside of the monopoly of state-owned television.

In Vyksa, two middle-aged, self-employed men — store owner Vyacheslav Burmistrov and attorney Igor Kakonin — sat in an office next door to the hair salon earlier this month, plotting how to fight a local ban on canvassing for their candidate.

Town officials in July banned canvassing, saying the campaign has not formally begun. Navalny supporters contested the ban in court and lost, and now are waiting to appeal. Navalny himself is barred by law from seeking office until 2021 because of convictions on what he called trumped-up fraud charges. And he faces steep odds in trying to unseat Putin, who in addition to controlling state-run TV enjoys strong support from regional governors and has vast financial resources.

But Navalny, who inspired anti-Putin rallies in 2011-12 and organized protests of official corruption this year, is pushing ahead anyway. He figures he can pressure the Kremlin to allow him to run and is building a network of supporters to secure the 1 million needed signatures.

Like many in Vyksa, the 57-year-old Burmistrov once worked at the steel mill. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the factory was in disarray, Burmistrov began selling bootleg music tapes in a local market to make a living.

Then he opened a hardware store, and another. The two-story Kontinent, with 40 employees, stands on the outskirts of Vyksa, in a neighborhood of log cabins where Burmistrov was born. The decline of the economy and the bite of Western sanctions have taken a toll. Consumer demand crashed in 2014 and Burmistrov had to rent out one of the stores. Sales fell from one laptop a day to six per month, an employee said.

Burmistrov also served six years in the local legislature, where he said he saw how Vyksa sent most of its taxes to Moscow, while town officials did not have the power or money to address local issues.

"I began to realize that change in Russia is possible only from the top," he said. "We need to devolve power so that we could be able to solve our problems locally." He has teamed up with Kakonin, a 49-year-old lawyer, to host Vyksa.Live, a weekly YouTube show modeled on Navalny's broadcast, which typically gets between half a million to 1 million views.

Sitting against a "Navalny 2018" poster, the stern-looking Burmistrov and the jovial Kakonin said their show discusses problems like roads with potholes, dried-up wells and rundown playgrounds. Several times after raising an issue, town officials rushed to fix it, Kakonin said proudly.

Campaigning for Navalny can be dangerous. He has had green dye splashed on his face that damaged his vision in an attack he blamed on a Kremlin supporter. Dozens of Navalny activists have been detained for handing out leaflets; in the southern city of Krasnodar, pro-Kremlin activists have repeatedly ransacked his campaign office; and the campaign coordinator for the Siberian city of Barnaul was stabbed.

For Burmistrov, the prospect of his business failing is scarier. "In 1991, we were all equal, we had nothing to lose," he said of Russia's political upheaval at the time. "Now I have something to lose, but we're doing it anyway, and we stopped being afraid. Businesses started shutting down. I realize that it will only get worse later on if we don't stop this decline."

Navalny's campaign is unprecedented in Russia, where political life has been dormant for nearly two decades since Putin came to power. While he pays campaign staff in the big cities, Navalny mostly relies on unpaid volunteers in places like the gritty coal-mining town of Vorkuta and the picturesque ski resort of Gorno-Altaysk.

Before the campaign ban went into effect in Vyksa, Burmistrov and others handed out leaflets on the street every weekend. Now wary of getting into trouble with the law, Burmistrov and seven other activists, some wearing "Navalny" T-shirts, sat on benches outside the town's main park on a recent evening, leaflets in hand.

Daniil Shytov beamed when asked how he would vote when he turns 18 next year. "Navalny. All of my friends support Navalny," said Shytov, who said they all watched the anti-corruption videos. But many in Vyksa mistrust Navalny, who is portrayed on state TV as a criminal. One story circulated in town that Navalny would close the steel mill. In fact, the factory's exports have been jeopardized by new U.S. sanctions approved earlier this month. European companies working with Gazprom might have to seek waivers from the U.S. government to go ahead with construction and repair projects on the Russian gas pipelines.

"The truth is, if the factory stops, it will stop because of the sanctions. And who brought us the sanctions? Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin)," Burmistrov said. Workers pouring out of the Vyksa Metallurgical Plant at the end of the shift last week were wary about talking politics and had little faith that life would improve.

Crane operator Anastasia Kozarova conceded there is "a grain of truth" in Navalny's reports of widespread government corruption, but she says she will stick with Putin. "I don't see people who are better at politics than him," she said. "I have a lot of issues with him, but he achieved a lot during his presidency."

Meeting at a roadside cafe on the outskirts of Vyksa, some of the Navalny supporters recalled how the town reacted to one of the biggest geopolitical events of their lives — the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev by Communist hard-liners in August 1991 that eventually brought the demise of the Soviet Union.

Nothing happened, they said. No street protests, no Lenin statues toppled or portraits taken down, no political activity. Now, however, they said Vyksa is waking up. "So many people are scared. I used to be scared, but now I just don't give a damn," said 52-year-old cafe owner Alexander Alexeyev, who described how he has had to slash his prices to keep customers.

Alexeyev said he went to the anti-Putin rallies in Moscow in 2012, but was disappointed that more did not join him from Vyksa. "If 50 people had come from Vyksa, 50 from another town and another, it (would have been) a million of us in Moscow," he said.

Russian flight attendant sues airline for discrimination

August 21, 2017

LOBNYA, Russia (AP) — "Old, fat and ugly" is what Yevgeniya Magurina jokingly calls a group of flight attendants of Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot who she claims have been sidelined in an apparent drive to make the cabin crew younger and more physically attractive. She is one of just two women who have taken one of the world's largest airlines to court for that.

A Moscow court is due to rule on Tuesday in Magurina's lawsuit against Aeroflot in which she maintains she was taken off the sought-after long-haul international flights because of her looks. The flight attendant's claim, which triggered a wave of support as well condemnation, has put the spotlight on how women in modern Russia are still often judged by their physical appearance.

The first warning shot rang for Magurina last summer when the 42-year old went to pick up a new uniform and discovered that Aeroflot no longer stocks any above Russian size 48 (U.S. size 10). Magurina, who says size 48 fits her on the hips but not on the breast, used to order a larger size and get it tailored. Then, all flight attendants were ordered to be weighed and photographed as part of a contest to staff a special business class crew. Several months later, Magurina, who had typically worked as senior attendant, arrived at the Sheremetyevo airport for her flight only to see she was assigned a junior role: "You scan your pass, the names of the crew light up and you see your position. No one has even told me."

Magurina, one of Aeroflot's 7,000 cabin crew staff, says about 600 flight attendants, mostly women, have been put on a list that she jokingly calls the "old, fat and ugly" and have been re-assigned for less prestigious flights. Like others, Magurina was taken off the long-haul international flights and put on the lower-paid domestic ones:

"No one cares about professionalism — you have to be young, slim and pretty," says Magurina who lives in the suburb of Lobnya near the airport, home to thousands of Aeroflot staff. Local courts in April dismissed Magurina's lawsuit as well as a similar claim by another flight attendant, Irina Ierusalimskaya. The Moscow City Court is expected to rule on Magurina's appeal on Tuesday.

Aeroflot in recent years has undertaken to transform itself from a drab post-Soviet airline to something that can rival the world's best airlines on comfort and efficiency. Its most recent efforts included a five-year partnership deal with FC Manchester United and enlisting well-known chefs to create menus for its business class passengers.

But there has been controversy, too. An online forum of flight attendants in 2010 published what appeared to be a mock-up of a calendar with a nude woman wearing a flight attendant's red hat and white gloves and posing by an Aeroflot plane and inside the cabin. The company promptly denied that it had commissioned the shoot and said it would investigate how a photographer and a model were allowed to get inside the plane.

The airline that posted 38.8 billion rubles ($650 million) in net profit last year has recently been rated four out of five stars by the Skytrax consultancy and has entered the world's top 20 airlines by the number of passengers carried.

Aeroflot has dismissed Magurina and Ierusalimskaya's lawsuits as "a routine employee vs. employer dispute that has been deliberately inflated to the scale of a public campaign aimed at tarnishing the airline's reputation," according to Vladimir Alexandrov, the company's deputy CEO for legal matters.

When asked whether the company has stopped stocking XL uniforms for female cabin crew staff, Alexandrov told the Associated Press that Aeroflot does not disclose its "internal rules and regulations" He added, however, that the cabin crew's job is "physically and psychologically demanding."

The two women's court battle with Russia's biggest airline has attracted a wave support from some and condemnation from others. At a news conference in April, a member of Aeroflot's public council argued it was "quite acceptable to pay for good looks."

"Aeroflot is a premium airline, and the staff's looks is definitely one of the things the clients pay for," Pavel Danilin, himself an overweight man, said. Aeroflot told the AP members of its public council do not speak on the company's behalf.

Often the one to voice a common but unpalatable public opinion, Ksenia Sobchak, a socialite turned prominent journalist, said that she understands why Aeroflot would not want to get rid of older and less physically attractive women.

"If you build a beautiful company, you have the right to demand that your staff look good," Sobchak said on the Dozhd television channel after the April ruling. "Why would you become a flight attendant if your butt is this big?"

Yulia Zakharova, a Moscow-based clinical psychologist, said the public reaction to the trial shows that Russia is still a largely patriarchal society despite the decades of Communist slogans of gender equality.

"New values are seeping in slowly but the patriarchy is still very much alive," Zakharova said. In Soviet times "women were 'equal' in a sense that she was to 'go and get a job' but then she would come home and make dinner. These expectations are still there."

The fact that the female flight attendants are reportedly expected to stay well below size L while men are allowed wear XL shows how underprivileged women are in Russia. "Society judges women with the eyes of a young man," Zakharova said.

Migurina, who keeps two sets of size 48 Aeroflot uniform in her closet, says she is upset that her decade of work as a flight attendant and seven years with Aeroflot has been cancelled out by a few inches.

"Right now there's a policy that a flight attendant has to be sexually attractive," she says. "But our role onboard is different: it's to ensure safety, not to be an object of sexual desire. This is wrong and hurtful."

Iranian president threatens to restart nuclear program

August 15, 2017

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president issued a direct threat to the West on Tuesday, claiming his country is capable of restarting its nuclear program within hours — and quickly bringing it to even more advanced levels than in 2015, when Iran signed the nuclear deal with world powers.

Hassan Rouhani's remarks to lawmakers follow the Iranian parliament's move earlier this week to increase spending on the country's ballistic missile program and the foreign operations of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

The bill — and Rouhani's comments — are seen as a direct response to the new U.S. legislation earlier this month that imposed mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The U.S. legislation also applies terrorism sanctions to the Revolutionary Guard and enforces an existing arms embargo.

If Washington continues with "threats and sanctions" against Iran, Rouhani said in parliament on Tuesday, Tehran could easily restart the nuclear program. "In an hour and a day, Iran could return to a more advanced (nuclear) level than at the beginning of the negotiations" that preceded the 2015 deal, Rouhani said.

He did not elaborate. The landmark agreement between Iran and world powers two years ago capped Iran's uranium enrichment levels in return for the lifting of international sanctions. It was not immediately clear what Rouhani was referring to — and whether he meant Iran could restart centrifuges enriching uranium to higher and more dangerous levels.

He also offered no evidence Iran's capability to rapidly restart higher enrichment, though Iran still has its stock of centrifuges. Those devices now churn out uranium to low levels that can range from use as reactor fuel and for medical and research purposes, but could produce the much higher levels needed for a nuclear weapon.

Iran long has insisted its atomic program is for peaceful purposes despite Western fears of it being used to make weapons. However in December, Rouhani ordered up plans on building nuclear-powered ships, something that appears to be allowed under the nuclear deal.

Rouhani's remarks were likely an attempt to appease hard-liners at home who have demanded a tougher stand against the United States. But they are also expected to ratchet up tensions further with the Trump administration.

Iran has said the new U.S. sanctions amount to a "hostile" breach of the 2015 nuclear deal. "The U.S. has shown that it is neither a good partner nor a trustable negotiator," Rouhani added. "Those who are trying to go back to the language of threats and sanctions are prisoners of their past hallucinations. They deprive themselves of the advantages of peace."

But Rouhani also tempered his own threat, adding that Iran seeks to remain loyal to its commitments under the nuclear deal, which opened a "path of cooperation and confidence-building" with the world.

"The deal was a model of the victory of peace and diplomacy over war and unilateralism," said Rouhani. "It was Iran's preference, but it was not and will not remain Iran's only option."

Judge sends Indian guru to jail for 10 years for rape

August 28, 2017

ROHTAK, India (AP) — A judge on Monday sentenced a popular and flamboyant Indian spiritual guru to 10 years in prison on charges of raping two female followers. The sentence was pronounced amid intense security at a prison in the northern town of Rohtak where the guru, who calls himself Dr. Saint Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim Insan, has been held since his conviction Friday.

The conviction sparked violent protests by the guru's followers that left at least 38 people dead and hundreds injured. Ahead of the sentencing announcement, train and bus services to Rohtak were suspended to prevent the guru's supporters from gathering in the town, located in Haryana state. A curfew was also imposed in Rohtak.

Local police said several layers of security were in place around the prison and that government troops had permission to use firearms if any violence erupted. All cars entering the town were being searched.

The guru has denied raping the two followers, in a case that stems from charges filed in 2002. Few details were immediately available following the sentencing, but the guru's lawyers can appeal the verdict to a higher court. The rape charges were investigated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation, and a special CBI court convicted and sentenced the guru.

The minimum sentence for the charges was seven years and the maximum was life in prison. The bling-loving leader is fond of red leather jackets, bejeweled hats, bicep-baring T-shirts — and cinema. He has started a film franchise in which he stars as the "Messenger of God," or MSG, with divine powers to save the world. In his most recent film, he plays a secret agent armed with a twirled moustache and an assortment of swords to fight aliens and UFOs.

Security was high Monday across Haryana and the neighboring state of Punjab, with schools and offices shut in many places. A curfew was also in place in Sirsa town, where the sprawling main headquarters of the guru's Sacha Sauda sect are located. Since Saturday, police have been asking followers to leave the ashram compound, and around 20,000 people left.

Local police spokesman Surjeet Singh said some people were still inside the compound, but that it was impossible to know how many. He said about 4,000 government troops, including army and paramilitary soldiers, were patrolling the tiny town and the area outside the ashram.

When the guru was found guilty on Friday, tens of thousands of his enraged followers set fire to government buildings, vandalized bus stations and government vehicles, and attacked police and TV journalists in Panchkula, where the verdict was announced.

The sect claims to have about 50 million followers and campaigns for vegetarianism and against drug addiction. It also organizes blood-donation and tree-planting drives. Religious sects like the Dera Sacha Sauda have huge followings in India. These sects and their leaders inspire intense devotion among their believers and also wield considerable political clout. Many maintain private militias for their protection.

The rape conviction isn't the guru's only brush with the law. He is awaiting trial on a murder charge over the death of a journalist, and is also under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation over allegations of forcing several male followers to undergo castrations to bring them closer to God. He has denied the accusations.

Naqvi reported from New Delhi.

Large fire burns for 2nd day, threatens homes near Athens

August 14, 2017

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A large wildfire north of Athens is threatening homes as it sweeps through pine forest for a second day, uncontained due to high winds. Fire Service officials two planes and five helicopters are fighting the blaze at Varnava, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the Greek capital, while a main road in the area is closed to traffic to give fire trucks better access.

The fire burned out of control for a second day Monday after damaging at least 20 homes the previous day and forcing the evacuation of holiday campsites used in the area for children's vacations. No one was hurt, and Fire Service spokeswoman Brigade Manager Stavroula Maliri described all the evacuations as precautionary.

Wildfires rage on untamed in Greece, Portugal and Corsica

August 13, 2017

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hot and dry weather stoked another round of wildfires burning across southern Europe on Sunday as firefighters in Greece, Portugal and the French island of Corsica struggled to corral the flames.

Greek authorities voiced suspicions that at least some of the several dozen fires that broke out on both the mainland and the island of Zakynthos over the weekend were started deliberately. Over 4,000 firefighters were battling more than 250 wildfires in Portugal, which requested assistance from other European Union nations.

On Corsica, fires that have raged since Thursday forced the evacuation of 1,000 people, authorities said. The latest blaze in Greece started Sunday afternoon in a pine forest and had damaged as many as 20 houses by night in a town north of the capital. Kalamos, a town some 44 kilometers (27 miles) north of Athens, is a favorite vacation spot for Athenians.

Authorities said they have shut down a large portion of the local road network as the blaze expanded in several directions, including toward Athens. They also evacuated two children's campgrounds. Portugal Civil Protection Agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said the country set an annual single-day record for new fires on Saturday, when 268 separate fires started. That surpassed the previous year-to-date high mark of 220 fires reached Friday.

While the weather isn't helping, nature was responsible for igniting a minority of the blazes, Gaspar said. "We know that more than 90 percent of the fires have a human cause, whether intentional of from negligence. Both are crimes," she said.

Authorities believe a series of fires raging on several fronts on the western Greek island of Zakynthos were started deliberately. The country's fire service said there were "well-founded suspicions of foul play" after five fires broke out late Saturday and early Sunday, followed by another three later on Sunday morning.

Greek Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis, who is also the local member of parliament, said of the multiple blazes while visiting the island: "This is planned." The fire service said 10 of the 12 fires burning on Zakynthos were still unchecked, with high winds making it difficult to control the flames.

A total of 53 wildfires broke out in Greece on Saturday and several more did on Sunday, including on the island of Kefalonia, next to Zakynthos. Authorities said the multiple blazes had stretched firefighting capabilities to the limit. Firefighting planes and helicopters cannot fly at night, adding another degree of difficulty. In Zakynthos, authorities were monitoring the progress of the flames with a small camera-equipped drone, which provides information to firefighters on the ground, the fire service said.

Trouble controlling flames and forecasts calling for more hot and dry days ahead prompted Portugal's government to ask other countries in Europe for help, Minister of Internal Administration Constanca Urbano de Sousa said.

Portugal has been especially hard hit by wildfires, including one that killed 64 people in June, during a summer marked by high temperatures and a lack of rain. Wildfires in Portugal this year have accounted for more than one-third of the burned forest in the entire 28-country European Union.

The EU's Emergency Management Service said the amount of forestland blackened in Portugal as of Aug. 5 was about five times larger than the average recorded in the country between 2008 and 2016. In southern France, fierce flames have ravaged some 2,100 hectares (5,190 acres) of land since Thursday — with 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) burned in Corsica alone.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said there have been no casualties from the fires thanks to the efforts by 1,200 firefighters and the air teams that carried out 300 water drops in 24 hours. While the mainland fires were tamed over the weekend, the Corsica blazes were ongoing and still required "major means," Collomb said.

Firefighters continued to fight wildfires in the Corsican towns of Manso and the hilly Pietracorbara. Northern Corsica Prefect Gerard Gavory said over 1,000 thousand residents and tourists have been evacuated.