German nationalist, Muslim convert: Politician is both

February 01, 2018

POTSDAM, Germany (AP) — Arthur Wagner has been many things in life: a child in the Soviet Union, a migrant in Germany, a devout Christian, an alcoholic, a truck driver and a committed member of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party. Earlier this month, Wagner surprised his party colleagues by announcing that he'd converted to Islam.

The news raised eyebrows because Alternative for Germany takes a hard-line stance toward Islam: the party's official position is that the religion has no place in Germany. Wagner, who now goes by the first name Ahmad, disagrees but doesn't want to leave the party.

"I will always be faithful to AfD," he told a roomful of reporters late Wednesday, referring to the party by its German acronym. Most Muslims are concerned about the rise of AfD, which came third in last year's national elections after campaigning heavily against Islam and immigration. Aiman Mazyek, head of the Central Council of Muslims, has accused the party of harboring "Islam haters and racists" in its ranks.

Last week AfD's firebrand leader in the eastern state of Thuringia, Bjoern Hoecke, was caught on camera telling supporters that when the party takes power it would ensure that what he referred to as the "three Ms" of Islam — the Prophet Muhammad, the muezzins' call to prayer and mosque minarets — "stop at the Bosphorus."

"I don't know what he's been smoking," Wagner, a long-time party member, said of Hoecke. The jolly 48-year-old, who until recently had a relatively low profile as a member of AfD's board in the state of Brandenburg, said that rather than drawing battle lines, he wants to build bridges.

Speaking in Brandenburg's capital Potsdam, just outside Berlin, Wagner dismissed the suggestion that he was engaged in an improbable stunt. "I'm deadly serious," he insisted. "I see my task as creating consensus between German Islam and conservative Germans."

Asked why he converted to Islam last year, Wagner is vague and refers to a years-long interest fed by a visit to Ufa, a center of Islamic theology in Russia. Wagner has also said he became alienated from the German Protestant Church because of its support for gay pride marches. "That made me mad," he told Berlin's Tagesspiegel daily. "There were children present. It's not right for children to see such things."

It wasn't immediately clear how AfD would react to Wagner's efforts to reach out to Muslims, his belief that "the 21st century is the century of Islam" and his plan to train as an imam in Russia. For now, the party's local chapter has insisted that he's not being pushed out for what they consider a "personal decision." Still, its regional leader, Andreas Kalbitz, restated the party's view that Islam "poses a great threat to the state, to our society and our values."

Wagner has already stepped down from two party posts and expects further headwind from members who feel uncomfortable with a Muslim convert in their midst. Already, Wagner feels he's part of something bigger — "my Ummah" as he calls it — the worldwide community of 1.8 billion Muslims.

"I don't have to prove myself to anyone," he said. "I'm just going my way."

Corsican nationalists protest ahead of French leader's visit

February 03, 2018

CORSICA, France (AP) — Corsica's nationalist leaders are demonstrating along with unions and students ahead of a visit next week by French President Emmanuel Macron. The newly elected leaders on the French Mediterranean island hope that Saturday's march will spur on fresh talks with the French government about demands including equal status for the Corsican language and the release of Corsican prisoners held in mainland prisons.

In December, Corsican nationalists swept the election for a new regional assembly, crushing Macron's young centrist movement and traditional parties. The nationalists want more autonomy from Paris but unlike some in Spain's nearby Catalonia, they aren't seeking full independence — yet.

They also want protections for locals buying real estate on the destination that the French refer to as the "Island of Beauty," which is famed as Napoleon's birthplace.

Floods peak in Paris as France sees worst rains in 50 years

January 30, 2018

PARIS (AP) — Floodwaters peaked in Paris on Monday and were threatening towns downstream as the rain-engorged Seine River winds through Normandy toward the English Channel. Rivers swollen by France's heaviest rains in 50 years have engulfed romantic quays in Paris, swallowed up gardens and roads, halted riverboat cruises — and raised concerns about climate change.

The Meteo France weather service said January has seen nearly double normal rainfall nationwide, and the rains in the past two months are the highest measured for the period in 50 years. "I'm amazed. I've come to Paris since 1965, most years, and I've never seen the Seine as high," said Terry Friberg, visiting from Boston. "I love Paris with all my heart but I'm very worried about the level of the river."

Flood monitoring agency Vigicrues said the water levels in Paris hit a maximum height of 5.84 meters (19 feet, 2 inches) on the Austerlitz scale early Monday. That's below initial fears last week, and well below record levels of 8.62 meters in 1910, but still several meters above normal levels of about 1.5 meters on the Austerlitz scale.

And the waters are expected to stay unusually high for days or weeks. That's bad news for tourists hoping to cruise past Paris sites on the famed "bateaux mouches" riverboats, or visit the bottom floor of the Louvre Museum, closed since last week as a precaution. Riverside train stations along the line that serves Versailles are also closed, and will remain that way for several more days.

Water laps the underside of historic bridges, and treetops and lampposts poke out of the brown, swirling Seine. South African tourist Michael Jelatis, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral on an island in central Paris, was among many people linking the floods to global warming, blamed for increasing instances of extreme weather.

"Around the world we're all aware that things like this, unusual weather, are happening. I mean back home we are in a serious drought at the moment as well," he told The Associated Press. Overall, Paris is better prepared than when it was last hit by heavy flooding in 2016, and Parisians have largely taken disruptions in stride this time.

Other towns on the surging Seine have seen it much worse. The floods have caused damage in 242 towns along the river and tributaries already and more warnings are in place as the high waters move downstream.

In Lagny-sur-Marne south of Paris, Serge Pinon now has to walk on a makeshift footbridge to reach his home and its flooded surroundings. His basement is submerged in water, as are the plants he was trying to grow in a backyard greenhouse tent. He lost a freezer, a refrigerator, a washing machine and dryer to flood waters.

"We're up to the maximum, maximum and now we're just waiting for it to go down," he said. "This year the flood has risen more rapidly than usual. Here it usually rises in a regular fashion and we have the time to see it coming we can save things. But this time it rose too quickly."

Elsewhere in the town, street signs stick out of the water and a lonely boat floats in the Marne River, once accessible from the riverbank but now unreachable on foot. Mayor Jean-Paul Michel said that residents are used to seasonal floods, but this one is exceptionally long-lasting, now in its third week. "So it goes on and on, and we think it's going to carry on for (another) long week before the flood starts subsiding," he said.

AP journalist Angela Charlton contributed to this report.

UK lawmakers agree to leave Parliament for years of repairs

January 31, 2018

LONDON (AP) — This is not a metaphor: Britain's Parliament is a mess. The 19th-century building is crumbling, leaky, infested with vermin and riddled with asbestos. After years of dithering, lawmakers voted Wednesday to move out of the building to allow several years of major repairs. The plan will cost billions, but experts say the alternative could be catastrophic.

"This debate arguably should have taken place about 40 years ago," House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom told lawmakers, adding that the building "is in dire need of repair." Legislators voted to back a call for lawmakers and staff to leave the building by the mid-2020s — a plan known as a "full decant" of Parliament. It's estimated the repairs will take six years and cost about 3.5 billion pounds ($5 billion).

The decision came after warnings about the risks of delaying. "It might be an exaggeration to say that Parliament is a death trap," Conservative lawmaker Damian Green said. "But it's not a wild exaggeration."

Experts have issued increasingly urgent warnings about the state of the neo-Gothic Parliament building, one of London's most famous landmarks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Reports have sounded alarm bells about leaky roofs, temperamental steam heating, antiquated plumbing, crumbling stonework and ventilation shafts clogged with old pipes, wires and asbestos.

Wednesday's vote backed a 2016 report commissioned by parliamentary authorities which said the building is at risk of a flood or fire that could leave it uninhabitable. The issue still has to be considered by the House of Lords, Parliament's upper chamber.

Caroline Shenton, former director of the parliamentary archives and author of "The Day Parliament Burned Down," said that without major repair work, Britain could lose "the most iconic, famous building in the country."

"It could just simply be a utilities failure that brings the whole thing to a halt — the electricity goes, the water stops working, the loos stop flushing," she said. "But something more catastrophic could happen."

David Leakey, who retired last year as Parliament's head of security, has said that without major work Parliament could be "another Grenfell Tower" — the London high-rise that burned down last year, killing 70 people.

Despite the warnings, lawmakers had put off making a decision for several years. Some worried the public will resent the expense. Traditionalists are reluctant to leave the historic Commons and Lords chambers, the subsidized bars and restaurants and the riverside terrace with its magnificent view across the Thames.

Some modernizers think a permanent move to a new building — perhaps even one outside London — would make politicians less out of touch with the people they serve. Scottish National Party lawmaker Pete Wishart urged his colleagues to "make this beautiful building a tourist attraction ... and let's design and create a Parliament for the 21st century."

Shenton said she hoped today's lawmakers would remember history. The current Parliament building, designed by architect Charles Barry, was built after fire destroyed its predecessor in 1834. Shenton said authorities had debated what to do about their aging building for years before the 1834 blaze.

"Nobody could make a decision," she said. "In the end, the decision was made for them."

Cyprus president re-elected, defeats same opponent again

February 04, 2018

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades vowed to push on with attempts to reunify the ethnically divided island nation and to improve the economic fortunes of its people after he was re-elected by a wide margin Sunday.

Anastasiades defeated left-leaning independent challenger Stavros Malas in a runoff election. Anastasiades received 56 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Malas, in the final returns. Malas telephoned Anastasiades to concede defeat about an hour after polls closed, when half of the ballots had been counted and Malas trailed badly.

Speaking to supporters, Malas said he told Anastasiades to "take care of our Cyprus." It's the second consecutive time that Anastasiades, 71, a conservative veteran politician, won a head-to-head contest with Malas, 50, for the presidency.

"Tomorrow, a new day, a new era dawns, where people demand cooperation from all of us," Anastasiades told throngs of jubilant supporters at his campaign headquarters. Malas campaigned as the candidate who would bring change to a tired political system that short-changes ordinary Cypriots, who have seen salaries and benefits slashed in the wake of the national economy's near-meltdown.

But voters appeared to heed the incumbent's campaign message, which blamed the left-wing economic policies of previous administrations for bringing Cyprus close to bankruptcy. Malas also struggled to separate himself from the party that supported him, the communist-rooted AKEL. Anastasiades accused AKEL of crushing the economy during the presidency of former leader Demetris Christofias.

"I know that the result has disappointed you, but we must respect it, and above all else for all of us to recognize that this was a worthy battle that neither begins nor ends with an election," Malas told his backers.

Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and keeps more than 35,000 troops in the north.

Voters remain skeptical about whether a reunification deal can be reached any time soon. The latest round of talks at a Swiss resort in July collapsed amid finger-pointing about who was responsible for the failure.

To buoy public hopes, Anastasiades said he would reach out to Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci to try and resuscitate their negotiations. "I call on all Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to understand the current state of affairs can be a solution to the Cyprus problem," he said.

Anastasiades repeated that he would seek a peace deal that doesn't include Turkey's demands for a permanent troop presence and the right to intervene militarily in a federated Cyprus. One of the president's first orders of business will be to oversee ongoing exploratory drilling for gas off the island's southern coast — an enterprise that could help the economy but also complicate efforts to heal Cyprus' ethnic divide.

Italian energy company ENI is currently drilling an exploratory well and Cypriot Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said indications of another find are "very encouraging." The hydrocarbon search undergirds alliances Cyprus has forged with Egypt and Israel, which have located their own sizeable offshore gas reserves.

The exploration has raised the ire of Turkey, which has characterized the work as an attempt to cheat Turkish Cypriots. Results showed that 74 percent of eligible voters cast ballots Sunday, slightly more than the first round of voting last week, but 7 percent less than in the 2013 election.

Anastasiades has said a second term would be his last.

Finland's president skates to overwhelming re-election win

January 28, 2018

HELSINKI (AP) — Finnish President Sauli Niinisto crushed his competition with a landslide election victory Sunday that saw him receiving more than five times as much voter support than his closest challenger.

With all ballots counted, Niinisto had 62.7 percent of the vote, while his leading rival, Pekka Haavisto of the Greens, had 12.4 percent. Haavisto, the runner-up in the 2012 election, conceded the race long before the vote-count was completed, telling Finnish national broadcaster Niinisto "is the republic's new president with this result."

None of the other six candidates received more than 7 percent of the vote. Niinisto, 69, a former finance minister and parliament speaker, has been a highly popular president since he took office in 2012. He needed a majority to prevent a runoff and to win re-election outright.

He ran as an independent with no association to the conservative National Coalition Party that he earlier chaired. Finland's president designs the blueprint for the country's foreign and security policy together with the government. As head of state, the president is the key foreign policy player, particularly on issues outside the European Union.

The president also acts as the supreme commander of military forces and can veto legislation. To most Finns, the president's key task is to assure friendly ties with both neighboring Russia, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (833-mile) border with Finland, and the West, particularly the United States.

Judged by his vast popularity, Niinisto seemingly handled the balancing act well. Finland joined the EU in 1995, but doesn't belong to NATO. Recent polls predicted Niinisto would get between 58 and 63 percent of the vote and Haavisto of the Greens would garner some 14 percent.

US issues 'Putin list' of Russian politicians, oligarchs

January 30, 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration late Monday released a long-awaited list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 "oligarchs" who have flourished during the reign of President Vladimir Putin, fulfilling a demand by Congress that the U.S. punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

Yet the administration paired that move with a surprising announcement that it had decided not to punish anybody — for now — under new sanctions retaliating for the election-meddling. Some U.S. lawmakers accused President Donald Trump of giving Russia a free pass, fueling further questions about whether the president is unwilling to confront America's Cold War foe.

Known informally as the "Putin list," the seven-page unclassified document is a who's who of politically connected Russians in the country's elite class. The idea, as envisioned by Congress, is to name-and-shame those believed to be benefiting from Putin's tenure just as the United States works to isolate his government diplomatically and economically.

Being on the list doesn't trigger any U.S. sanctions on the individuals, although more than a dozen are already targeted under earlier sanctions. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is among the 114 senior political figures in Russia's government who made the list, along with 42 of Putin's aides, Cabinet ministers such as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and top officials in Russia's leading spy agencies, the FSB and GRU. The CEOs of major state-owned companies, including energy giant Rosneft and Sberbank, are also on the list.

So are 96 wealthy Russians deemed "oligarchs" by the Treasury Department, which said each is believed to have assets totaling $1 billion or more. Some are the most famous of wealthy Russians, among them tycoons Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Prokhorov, who challenged Putin in the 2012 election. Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a figure in the Russia investigation over his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is included.

The Trump administration had until Monday to issue the list under a law passed last year. After declining to answer questions about it throughout the day Monday, the Treasury Department released it with little fanfare 12 minutes before midnight.

Even more names, including those of less-senior politicians or businesspeople worth less than $1 billion, are on a classified version of the list being provided to Congress, officials said. Drawing on U.S. intelligence, Treasury also finalized a list of at least partially state-owned companies in Russia, but that list, too, was classified and sent only to Congress.

There was no immediate comment early Tuesday from the Kremlin or the Russian Embassy in Washington. In the works for months, the list has induced fear among rich Russians who are concerned that it could lead to U.S. sanctions or to being informally blacklisted in the global financial system. It triggered a fierce lobbying campaign, with Russia hawks in Congress pushing the administration to include certain names and lobbyists hired by Russian businessmen urging the administration to keep their clients off.

The list's release was likely to at least partially diffuse the disappointment from some lawmakers that Trump's administration opted against targeting anyone with new Russia sanctions that took effect Monday.

Under the same law that authorized the "Putin list," the government was required to slap sanctions on anyone doing "significant" business with people linked to Russia's defense and intelligence agencies, using a blacklist the U.S. released in October. But the administration decided it didn't need to penalize anyone, even though several countries have had multibillion-dollar arms deals with Russia in the works.

State Department officials said the threat of sanctions had been deterrent enough, and that "sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed." "We estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. She did not provide evidence or cite any examples.

Companies or foreign governments that had been doing business with blacklisted Russian entities had been given a three-month grace period to extricate themselves from transactions, starting in October when the blacklist was published and ending Monday. But only those engaged in "significant transactions" are to be punished, and the United States has never defined that term or given a dollar figure. That ambiguity has made it impossible for the public to know exactly what is and isn't permissible.

Late last year, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said one reason the U.S. was proceeding cautiously was that major U.S. allies have much at stake. Turkey, a NATO ally, has a deal to buy the S-400, Russia's most advanced air defense missile system. And key security partner Saudi Arabia recently struck an array of deals with Moscow, including contracts for weapons. It was unclear whether either country had since abandoned those deals to avoid running afoul of the U.S. sanctions.

New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lambasted the move to punish no one, saying he was "fed up" and that Trump's administration had chosen to "let Russia off the hook yet again." He dismissed the State Department's claim that "the mere threat of sanctions" would stop Moscow from further meddling in America's elections.

"How do you deter an attack that happened two years ago, and another that's already underway?" Engel said. "It just doesn't make sense."

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

Thousands gather in Kenya for opposition 'swearing in' event

January 30, 2018

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's government cut transmission of three TV channels airing live broadcasts of the "inaguration" of opposition leader Raila Odinga as alternative president Tuesday in front of thousands, after months of deadly election turmoil.

The attorney general has warned that such a protest act challenging the official president amounts to treason. The Kenya Editor's Guild said in a statement Monday that President Uhuru Kenyatta "expressly threatened to shut down and revoke the licenses of any media house" that aired live broadcasts of the opposition's event.

A huge crowd of Odinga's supporters gathered Tuesday at Nairobi's main park to attend the event. Police were withdrawn without explanation at Uhuru Park. A heavy police presence remains in the capital city's slums, which are opposition strongholds.

Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, who is Odinga's deputy, said his police security had been withdrawn ahead of the protest event. The U.S. has advised Odinga against the so-called inauguration, as Kenya, East Africa's economic hub, tries to move beyond months of deadly election turmoil. Police had vowed to block opposition supporters from attending the event leading to fears of more civilian deaths. Dozens of Kenyans have died in anti-government protests in recent months.

Rights advocates accuse Kenyatta of veering toward dictatorship and accuse his administration of continuously violating Kenya's constitutionally guaranteed freedoms including those of assembly and expression.

Odinga claims he won the presidential election despite the electoral commission's official declaration that Kenyatta was the victor. The Supreme Court nullified Kenyatta's August win after Odinga challenged it, claiming that hackers infiltrated the electoral commission's computer system and changed results in favor of Kenyatta.

In the ruling, the first time a court had overturned a presidential election in Africa, the court cited irregularities and illegalities. It also said it ruled against Kenyatta because the commission refused to open its computer system for court scrutiny to dispel Odinga's claims.

The court ruled the results from the August election were "null and void" and ordered a fresh vote in October which Kenyatta won after Odinga boycotted, citing a lack of electoral reforms. On Friday, Kenya's opposition released what it called "authentic" election results showing Odinga won the August vote, but it refused to say how it obtained the information from the electoral commission's computer servers.

Kenya's electoral commission has called those results "fake." Between the two elections the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has said at least 92 people were killed and dozens of others were sexually assaulted. Most were opposition supporters who went on the streets to protest Kenyatta's re-election.

Workers try to shore up tilted buildings after Taiwan quake

February 08, 2018

HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Workers placed steel beams to stabilize a dangerously tilted building while rescuers on the other side try to pull survivors from their residences Thursday morning, more than a day after a deadly quake shook Taiwan's east coast.

The Yunmen Tsuiti building was one of several damaged by late Tuesday's magnitude-6.4 quake. At least four midsized buildings in worst-hit Hualien county leaned at sharp angles, their lowest floors crushed into mangled heaps of concrete, glass, iron and other debris. Firefighters climbed ladders hoisted against windows to reach residents inside apartments.

The National Fire Agency reported Thursday that death toll had risen to 10 people. More than 260 people were injured and 58 were unaccounted for. At least three of the dead were tourists from the mainland, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said nine Japanese were among the injured. Six mainland Chinese were also injured, the Chinese Communist Party-run People's Daily reported. President Tsai Ing-wen reassured the public every effort would be made to rescue survivors. On her Facebook page, Tsai said she "ordered search and rescue workers not to give up on any opportunity to save people, while keeping their own safety in mind."

At the Yunmen Tsuiti building, clothes and other personal items were visible on the balconies as the rescue work continued. The shifting of the buildings was likely caused by soil liquefaction, when the ground loses its solidity under stress such as the shaking of an earthquake.

The quake also buckled roads and disrupted electricity and water supplies to thousands of households. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his country was dispatching a rescue team to help in the search effort.

Taiwan has frequent earthquakes due to its position along the "Ring of Fire," the seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur. A quake two years ago collapsed an apartment complex in southern Taiwan, killing 115 people. Five people involved in the construction of the complex were found guilty of negligence and given prison sentences.

A magnitude-7.6 quake in central Taiwan killed more than 2,300 people in 1999.

China solar supplier grows in India to avoid trade controls

February 06, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — One of China's biggest makers of solar panels said Tuesday it will invest $309 million to expand manufacturing in India in a move to guard against what it complained is a rising threat of import controls in the United States and other markets.

Longi Solar Technology Ltd.'s announcement follows the Trump administration's Jan. 24 decision to impose an extra 30 percent duty on imported solar modules. An Indian regulator says it is considering a "safeguard tariff" of 70 percent on solar panels from China and Malaysia.

Chinese manufacturers dominate global solar panel production. Their explosive growth has helped to propel adoption of renewable energy by driving down costs. But the United States, Europe, India and others complain unfairly low-priced exports hurt their manufacturers and threaten thousands of jobs.

The United States, Europe and other non-Chinese markets account for only 10 percent of Longi's sales, according to its strategy director, Max Xia. But he said Longi wants to promote global sales of its latest technology this year.

"We think sooner or later anti-dumping and trade protection will be happening in several countries," said Xia at a news conference. "This is why we choose to do the investment in Malaysia and also in India, because we don't know when and where it will happen, this kind of anti-dumping. So we prepare to counter it."

Xia's comment represented an unusually explicit statement by the Chinese industry that it is moving production to avoid trade controls. Other Chinese producers have set up factories in India and Southeast Asia but usually say they are getting closer to customers or taking advantage of local talent and supply chains.

That migration has complicated efforts by the United States, the European Union and other governments to control imports from China. Some Chinese solar manufacturers responded to earlier U.S. and European trade measures by supplying those markets from factories outside China, avoiding higher tariffs and quotas on Chinese-made products.

Longi already has a solar module factory in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The latest investment will double production there, the company said. Xia repeated warnings by Chinese manufacturers that import controls are hampering efforts to encourage adoption of renewable energy.

"That possibly could start a 'green energy trade war,'" he said. "That is, with the whole world concerned about climate change, what people who want to solve energy problems and realize green development aren't willing to see."

Longi, headquartered in the western city of Xi'an, ranked No. 7 among global solar panel producers by 2017 output, according to PV Tech, an industry journal. The South Korean-German supplier Hanhwa-Q Cells was the only non-Chinese competitor in the Top 10.

India is regarded by the solar industry as one of the most promising markets but low-cost Chinese imports have undercut the New Delhi government's ambitions to develop its own solar technology suppliers. Government data show imports, mostly from China, account for 90 percent of last year's sales, up from 86 percent in 2014.

India's Finance Ministry said Jan. 5 it was considering adding a temporary 70 percent "safeguard tariff" on solar equipment from China and Malaysia to prevent "further serious injury" to the Indian industry. The ministry said Chinese exporters shifted their focus to India in early 2017 after the United States and Europe stepped up import controls.

UN court lays down Costa Rica, Nicaragua maritime borders

February 03, 2018

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Court of Justice laid down definitive maritime boundaries Friday between Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and a small land boundary in a remote, disputed wetland.

As part of the complex ruling, the United Nations' highest judicial organ ruled that a Nicaraguan military base on part of the disputed coastline close to the mouth of the San Juan River is on Costa Rican territory and must be removed.

Ruling in two cases filed by Costa Rica, the 16-judge U.N. panel took into account the two countries' coastlines and some islands in drawing what it called "equitable" maritime borders that carved up the continental shelf underneath the Caribbean and Pacific.

Such rulings can affect issues including fishing rights and exploration for resources like oil. Earlier, the court ordered Nicaragua to compensate Costa Rica for damage Nicaragua caused with unlawful construction work near the mouth of the San Juan River, the court's first foray into assessing costs for environmental damage.

The order by the United Nations' principal judicial organ followed a December 2015 ruling that Nicaragua violated Costa Rica's sovereignty by establishing a military camp and digging channels near the river, part of a long-running border dispute in the remote region on the shores of the Caribbean Sea.

In total, Nicaragua was ordered to pay just over $378,890 for environmental damage and other costs incurred by Costa Rica— a small fraction of the $6.7 million sought by San Jose. That "represents a great defeat for Costa Rica and its ambitions, and a vindication of Nicaragua's position," President Daniel Ortega's government said in a statement.

Nicaraguan vice president, government spokeswoman and first lady Rosario Murillo said the findings "leave us with ample natural patrimony both in the Caribbean and in the Pacific." Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez said the court did not take into account environmental recovery projected over 50 years in areas where trees more than two centuries old were logged, but added that his country would abide by the ruling.

"This should be one of the last chapters of that painful page of our bilateral history," Gonzalez said in a statement. Decisions by the court based in The Hague, Netherlands, are final and legally binding.

Associated Press writers Javier Cordoba in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Luis Manuel Galeano in Managua, Nicaragua, contributed to this report.

Israel bans call to prayer at Ibrahimi Mosque 49 times

February 1, 2018

Israeli occupation authorities banned the call to prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron 49 times in January.

Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs Yousif Ideis said: “The occupation continues to violate the sanctity and religious rituals of Muslims in Palestine without fear of deterrence or condemnation.”

In a statement released today, he added: “The occupation prevented the raising of the adhan [call to prayer] in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron 49 times over the past month … launching 2018 with a number of violations of the Ibrahimi and Al-Aqsa Mosques, whose sanctity is violated every day by extremist settlers who call for its demolition.”

He called on the international community and its concerned institutions to take action to ensure the protection of the religious, historical and cultural heritage of the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Occupation forces prevent the adhan at the Ibrahimi Mosque on the grounds that it causes an “inconvenience to settlers”. Muslim worshipers are also subject intrusive searches at the electronic gates and military barriers leading up to the mosque and the old town of Hebron.

The holy site was split into a synagogue – known to Jews as the Cave of Patriarchs – and a mosque after US-born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians inside the mosque in 1994.

Muslims have since been prevented from praying in the mosque during Jewish holidays.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180201-israel-bans-call-to-prayer-at-ibrahimi-mosque-49-times/.

Israel warns Slovenia against recognizing State of Palestine

February 1, 2018

Israel warned Slovenian against recognizing the State of Palestine as planned, Quds Press reported yesterday.

According to the Israeli TV Channel 10, the Israeli Ambassador to Slovenia Eyal Sila spoke to the Speaker of the Slovenian Parliament Milan Brglez and the chair of the Foreign Policy Committee Jozef Horvat in Ljubljana to warn them against the move.

According to the TV channel, Sila told the Slovenian authorities that recognizing Palestine would have “negative consequences” on Israeli-Slovenian relations.

Slovenia’s Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday postponed a vote on a draft resolution which would be a first step towards recognition of the State of Palestine.

Sweden is currently the only country in Europe which recognizes the State of Palestine.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180201-israel-warns-slovenia-against-recognising-state-of-palestine/.

Lieberman threatens ground invasion in Lebanon

February 1, 2018

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to carry out ground invasion in Lebanon and push Beirut residents to live in shelters, Arab48 reported yesterday.

During a speech at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Lieberman said: “Maneuvering is not a goal in itself. The goal is to end the war.”

“No one is looking for adventures, but if we have no choice the goal is to end [the fighting] as quickly and as unequivocally as possible,” he added. “Regrettably, what we have in all the conflicts in the Middle East is that without soldiers on the ground it does not come to an end.”

“Such operations demand great effort and unfortunately casualties too. All options are open and I and not enslaved to any viewpoint,” he added. “We must prepare for maneuvering on the ground too, even if we do not use it.”

“We will do so with full strength. We must not take one step forward and one step backward. We will move forward as fast as possible,” said Lieberman.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180201-lieberman-threatens-ground-invasion-in-lebanon/.

Netanyahu inaugurates new settler-only road in occupied West Bank

January 31, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Israel Katz inaugurated a new road on Tuesday that connects illegal settlements east of the occupied West Bank city of Qalqiliya, Israeli media reported. The road, which was given the name of Nabi Elias, is for use by Jews only.

“We place a special emphasis on advancing the planning and execution of strategic transportation projects in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank],” said Katz. He noted that this road is part of the current Israeli government’s efforts to promote transportation between settlements as well as the security and safety of Jewish settlers. He omitted the fact that the settlers and their settlements are illegal under international law.

“This road,” explained Netanyahu, “is part of the system of bypass roads that we are building throughout Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank] that serves the residents [settlers] of Judea and Samaria and the residents of the entire State of Israel.”

Quds Press reported Katz saying that paving the news bypass roads includes the expansion and reorganization of existing roads, and building tunnels to make connections with Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem easier.

The inauguration of this road came weeks after a pledge by Netanyahu to allocate NIS800m ($228m) for a security package as part of the 2018 budget. It will be used for settlement roads and infrastructure development. His move followed mass protests by Jewish settlers and their leaders, and confirms Israel’s status as a settler-colonial state.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180131-netanyahu-inaugurates-new-jews-only-road-in-occupied-west-bank/.

Israel says Poland agrees to talks in WWII legislation spat

January 29, 2018

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday night that Israel and Poland have agreed to hold talks seeking to resolve the uproar over proposed Polish legislation that would outlaw blaming Poland for any crimes committed during the Holocaust.

Earlier, Israel's Foreign Ministry had summoned a Polish envoy to express its displeasure at the bill. But Polish officials dug in their heels, saying the measure was being misinterpreted and its wording would not be changed.

Netanyahu then spoke by phone with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki late Sunday. "The two agreed that teams from the two countries would open an immediate dialogue in order to try to reach understandings regarding the legislation," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

The prime minister said at his weekly Cabinet meeting earlier Sunday that Israel has "no tolerance for the distortion of the truth, the rewriting of history and the denial of the Holocaust." The lower house of the Polish parliament's bill calls for prison time for referring to "Polish death camps" and criminalizes the mention of Polish complicity.

The bill still needs approval from Poland's Senate and president. Still, it marks a dramatic step by the nationalist government to enforce its official stance that the vast majority in Poland — a country that was terrorized by Nazi Germany's occupation — acted heroically under those conditions. Historians say many Poles collaborated with the Nazis and committed heinous crimes.

The bill has sparked outrage in Israel and suddenly raised tensions with a close European ally. Israel declared independence in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust and is home to the world's largest community of Holocaust survivors.

On Sunday, the Foreign Ministry summoned Poland's deputy ambassador, Piotr Kozlowski, to express Israel's opposition to the bill. It called the timing of the bill, passed on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, "particularly surprising and unfortunate" and said it expected the draft to be amended before final approval.

"The legislation will not help further the exposure of historical truth and may harm freedom of research, as well as prevent discussion of the historical message and legacy of World War II," a ministry statement said.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting, Kozlowski said the intent of the legislation is not to "whitewash" history. It is already a crime in Poland to deny that the Holocaust happened. "It is to safeguard it, to safeguard the truth about the Holocaust and to prevent its distortion," he said of the proposed legislation.

Polish authorities insisted they would not give in to the Israeli demands. "We will not change any provisions in the bill," said Beata Mazurek, spokeswoman for the ruling conservative-nationalist Law and Justice party, "We have had enough of Poland and Poles being blamed for German crimes."

Mark Weitzman, the director of government affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a U.S.-based group that battles anti-Semitism, called the law "an obscene whitewashing" of history. He said its wording could be used against Holocaust survivors talking about their personal experiences as well as researchers, teachers or anyone else documenting the Holocaust.

He urged Poland to "immediately terminate this law and put an end to all attempts to distort the history of the Holocaust for political purposes." The Polish prime minister on Sunday night compared Poles and Jews to two families who lived in the same house — Poland — before the war and were both victimized by the Nazis.

In a post on Twitter, Morawiecki said: "A gang of professional thugs enters a two-family house. They kill the first family almost entirely. They kill the parents of the second, torturing the kids. They loot and raze the house. Could one, in good conscience, say that the second family is guilty for the murder of the first?"

Associated Press writer Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.

Royal audience as SpaceX launches satellite for Luxembourg

February 01, 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX had a royal audience as it launched a satellite for Luxembourg. The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off late Wednesday afternoon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, hoisting GovSat-1 for the government of Luxembourg and SES, the European country's prime satellite operator. The satellite will support both military and civilian security efforts.

Witnessing the launch were Luxembourg's Prince Guillaume and his wife, Stephanie. The country's prime minister, Xavier Bettel, and other high-ranking officials also were present. The rocket's first-stage booster — which also flew last spring — was not recovered this time. Instead, it dropped into the Atlantic.

With GovSat-1 now in orbit, SpaceX can focus on next week's debut of its new, big Falcon Heavy rocket. The test flight is scheduled for Tuesday.

Putin marks Stalingrad victory as tribute to Russian grit

February 02, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin attended commemorations Friday marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi surrender that ended the battle of Stalingrad, lauding the Red Army's victory as a shining example of Russia's perseverance amid adversity.

Putin on Friday visited Volgograd, the current name of the city in southern Russia that stretches along the western bank of the Volga River. The city was renamed in 1961 as part of the Soviet Union's rejection of former dictator Joseph Stalin's personality cult. But the name Stalingrad remains inextricably linked to the historic battle that perhaps turned the tide of World War II more than any other.

The five months of fighting in Stalingrad between August 1942 and February 1943 is regarded as the bloodiest battle in history. The death toll for soldiers and civilians is estimated to have been an astonishing 2 million. Most of the city was reduced to rubble before Nazi forces surrendered on Feb. 2, 1943.

"Such degree of resistance, self-sacrifice and spiritual power were invincible, incomprehensible and terrifying for the enemy," Putin said. Putin hailed the Stalingrad victory as a reflection of the "courage of our soldiers and the talent of their commanders."

"The defenders of Stalingrad ... have left us a great heritage: love for the Motherland, the readiness to defend its interests and independence and to show resistance while facing any trials," he said.

Russian presidential candidate shuns Communist party dogma

January 31, 2018

LENIN STATE FARM, Russia (AP) — The Communist Party's candidate for president would seem to be an odd choice: He's a millionaire and proud of it. He also openly rejects the basic tenets of Communism. Pavel Grudinin is the Russian party's first new nominee in 14 years as it hopes to rejuvenate itself and broaden its appeal from its traditional base of aging voters who are nostalgic for the old Soviet Union.

Not that Grudinin — or any other candidate — has much of a chance of unseating President Vladimir Putin when Russia votes on March 18. The presence of Grudinin and other official candidates are largely viewed as a Kremlin ploy to boost voter participation in an election that has a foregone conclusion.

A low presidential vote turnout would be seen as an embarrassment for the Kremlin. That's why opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was leading a grassroots campaign for nearly a year before being formally barred from running, has been urging his supporters to boycott the presidential election and dent its legitimacy.

In contrast, Grudinin is urging voters to come to polls and bring change through the political process. The 57-year-old agricultural college graduate runs what is still known as the Lenin State Farm, a sprawling collective farm south of Moscow, the capital.

With his bushy mustache and salt-and-pepper hair, Grudinin's looks are often compared to those of a young Josef Stalin. Grudinin worked on the farm in the mid-1980s and was appointed its director a decade later.

While most of the collective plots outside Moscow were sold off years ago to property developers, the Lenin State Farm evolved into a successful private business, growing vegetables and raising livestock. Its signature product is strawberries, accounting for a third of all of them produced in Russia.

While metal or wooden strawberries adorn lampposts, fences and farm buildings in the town, Grudinin's self-promoted image of a farmer is not the whole story. He admits that his company over the years has made only a third to half of its income from agricultural production, which he blames on a lack of government subsidies and low wages for consumers who cannot afford his organic produce.

In fact, the Lenin State Farm makes most of its money from property deals, leasing and selling land for shopping centers. Corruption is rampant in the Moscow region, home to some of Russia's most expensive real estate. Yet many international corporations doing business here refuse to pay officials under the table.

Grudinin views his deals with companies like the Swedish furniture giant IKEA as a badge of honor, citing it as proof that he does not pay bribes. Grudinin owns 44 percent of the farm and runs it with 33 other shareholders. The Communist-capitalist prides himself on reinvesting the profits back into the business or creating housing, education and other benefits for the community.

The small town that bears the same name as the farm is dominated by two Disneyland-like castles with spires and a futuristic building that looks like a sports arena but is actually a high-tech, 1.7 billion-ruble ($30 million) school that the farm built for residents.

"We spend this money in line with socialist principles: We spend it on people," he says. Grudinin boasts that he is fighting corruption just like opposition leader Navalny — but "not only with words but also with deeds, by not paying bribes."

While Grudinin refuses to recognize Navalny as the only viable alternative to Putin, he is willing to appropriate some of the opposition leader's agenda. "We have too many bureaucrats and no one is responsible," Grudinin said on state television. "If I tell the rich 'instead of buying yachts, you should pay a higher income tax here, just like they do abroad,' then maybe we will replenish the budget and we will modernize education and health care."

Grudinin, who has declared 157 million rubles ($2.8 million) in income in the past six years, is no political novice. He sat on the local council in the early 2000s and was a member of the ruling United Russia Party until 2010.

In Putin's first presidential election in 2000, Grudinin was one of 100 proxies for him, representing or speaking on his behalf in the campaign. Asked if it feels strange now to run against Putin, Grudinin replies: "I wouldn't say I'm running against Putin. I stand for a different path for the country's development."

Although openly critical of the current political order — saying that "people don't trust the authorities" and that "corruption has taken the upper hand" — Grudinin is careful not to blame it all on the man who has been leading Russia for the past 18 years. Putin is just part of the system, he says.

That line echoes the rhetoric of his predecessor, long-time Communist Party chairman Gennady Zyuganov, who has run in four presidential elections since 1996. Once a searing critic of President Boris Yeltsin, the 73-year-old Zyuganov and the Communists have been coopted by the Kremlin. These days, the Communists support all crucial Kremlin directives, such as the 2014 annexation of Crimea, while dissenting on minor issues, which allows Putin to maintain a facade of democracy.

While running against Yeltsin in 1996, Zyuganov spooked Russia's oligarchs and foreign investors by promising to re-nationalize the strategic sectors of the economy while still allowing private property. Grudinin rejects calls to ban private ownership of land — once a key tenet of Communism.

Unlike Russia's oligarchs who make headlines by buying foreign sports teams or giant yachts, Grudinin's investments like those in the town of 5,000 people have made him a popular figure. Pavel Samoilov, who works in a car repair shop, says he would love to work for Grudinin but the jobs on the farm are hard to get.

"People in the regions are much worse off than what they say on television," says Samoilov, 33. He says he admires Putin's foreign policy but says he has "allowed the country to come to ruin." Putin enjoys national approval ratings of over 80 percent. While Grudinin once was polling second to Putin, he has since fallen to a tie with perennial candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has run for president six times.

Many of those who admire Grudinin still do not see him as a leader. Maria, a 40-year-old mother of two who wouldn't give her last name, sounded ecstatic about the well-equipped local school and kindergarten and likes Grudinin. But she won't vote for him.

"We need to vote for Putin because he is a strong leader," she said. "This is Putin's place."

Russian opposition leader arrested amid election protests

January 29, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Protesters gathered across Russia on Sunday to support opposition leader Alexei Navalny's call to boycott the March presidential election, and Navalny himself was arrested while walking to the Moscow demonstration.

Many of the crowds that turned out in generally frigid weather skewed sharply young, apparently reflecting growing discontent among Russians who have lived most or all of their lives under President Vladimir Putin, who came to power on New Year's Eve 1999.

"As long as I've been alive, Putin has always been in. I'm tired of nothing being changed," said 19-year-old Vlad Ivanov, one of about 1,500 protesters who assembled in St. Petersburg. Navalny, Putin's most prominent foe, organized the protests to urge a boycott of Russia's March 18 presidential election, in which Putin is sure to win a fourth term. He was wrestled to the ground and forced into a police bus as he walked toward the demonstration on Moscow's Pushkin Square.

The anti-corruption campaigner was denied permission to be a presidential candidate because of an embezzlement conviction in a case widely seen as politically motivated. Late Sunday night, hours after police detained him, Navalny said on Twitter that he had been released before a trial. Russian news reports cited police earlier as saying he was likely to be charged with a public-order violation for calling unauthorized demonstrations.

Independent radio station Ekho Moskvy reported after his release that Navalny had not yet been presented with a charge. No figures were available for how many people participated in the protests, but the turnout was clearly smaller than for rallies Navalny organized last year. The size and scope of the earlier protests, which took place in provincial cities regarded as the center of Putin's support, rattled the Kremlin.

Protests were reported in dozens of cities, from the Pacific Coast to the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. Navalny's web page showed a small group of protesters in remote Yakutsk, where it was minus 45 Celsius (minus 49 Fahrenheit).

A crowd that police estimated at 1,000 people, but appeared larger, assembled in central Pushkin Square, brandishing placards reading "They've stolen the election from us" and "Elections without Navalny are fake."

After that gathering dispersed, columns of protesters took off in several directions. One group skirted the Kremlin, then headed down the Novy Arbat, a prime shopping and entertainment area, and to the riverside government headquarters building informally called the Russian White House.

Shouting "Putin is a thief," some of the protesters threw handfuls of snow through the high spiked fence surrounding the building. Police did not interfere, a contrast to their typically quick and harsh responses to unauthorized gatherings.

The OVD-Info organization, which monitors political repression, reported that 257 people were arrested in the demonstrations throughout the country. Hours before the Moscow protest, police raided Navalny's headquarters, where there is a studio for live video transmissions. One broadcaster on the stream said police apparently were using a power grinder tool to try to get into the studio.

The anchors hosting the feed reported that police said they had come because of an alleged bomb threat. One anchor, Dmitri Nizovtsev, was detained by police, according to video broadcast from the headquarters. Navalny's Moscow coordinator, Nikolai Lyaskin, also was detained Sunday, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Several hundred demonstrators assembled in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, complaining both of Putin's rule and of Navalny's exclusion from the March 18 presidential election. "They took these elections away from us, they took away our votes. Our candidate was not allowed to run," said Vladivostok demonstrator Dmitri Kutyaev.

Navalny rose to prominence with detailed reports about corruption among top Russian officials, which he popularized on social media to circumvent state control of television.

Irina Titova in St. Petersburg contributed to this report.

From anteaters to zebras: London Zoo counts its creatures

February 07, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Gibbons Jimmy and Yoda, Max the Eurasian eagle owl and Bhanu the lion have stood up to be counted as London Zoo conducts its annual audit of creatures big and small. Zookeepers tallied 19,289 animals in the annual count of every mammal, bird, reptile, fish, amphibian and insect at the famous zoo.

The penguins, at least, made it easy Wednesday, lining up flipper to flipper. Some concessions are made. Ants, for example, are counted en masse. This year's event was delayed after a fire just before Christmas that killed four meerkats and an aardvark.

But Mark Haben of the Zoological Society of London says the count "brought everyone together and really allowed us all to support each other, and really focus on our animal breeding for this year."