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Saturday, February 24, 2018

Oman FM visits Al-Aqsa in 'historic' move

February 16, 2018

Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawi bin Abdullah visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday.

Azzam Al-Khatib, the director of the Islamic Waqf in occupied Jerusalem, who received the Omani minister, described the visit as “historic” and said it was aimed at supporting the people of Jerusalem.

The visit comes after a meeting between the Omani minister and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

During a press conference with the PA president, the Omani foreign minister called on the Arab countries to “accept the invitation of Mahmoud Abbas to visit Palestine and occupied Jerusalem, stressing that the Palestinian people are not alone and that all the Arab peoples are behind them”.

“What is required is the hard work of the Palestinians to build their country, which has historically been a beacon of science, containing universities, schools, professors and experts,” he added.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180216-oman-fm-visits-al-aqsa-in-historic-move/.

Spain falls short of apologizing for 1920s use of chemical weapons in Morocco

February 15, 2018

Spain has said it will respond to the Amazigh World Assembly’s (AMA) request concerning the use of chemical weapons by King’s Alfonso XIII military during the Rif War from 1921-1926 but has fallen short on agreeing to apologize for its actions.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis confirmed that the request had been made to Madrid and “as a result of the request of the King, the [AMA] were received in the Spanish embassy to submit their demands and also examine possible ways of cooperation.”

Speaking during a parliamentary meeting, Dastis answered questions from Joan Tarda, a member of the Esquerra Republicana, who has been pushing for the Spanish government to admit its use of chemical weapons in the Rif war.

However, though showing his willingness to hear the AMA’s demands, Dastis fell short of expressing his country’s readiness to apologize for its use of chemical warfare on civilians.

The conflict lasted from 1920 to 1927 between Berber rebels led by Mohamed Ibn Abd Al-Karim Al-Khattabi against Spanish colonial forces in Morocco’s Rif region. Following the defeat of Spanish troops in the Annoual battle in July 1921, Spain reportedly used chemical and toxic gas indiscriminately against the Rif civilian population in order to inflict maximum damage. The chemical attacks were a violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versaille which prohibited the use of chemical weapons.

The AMA filed a request calling on Spanish authorities to officially apologize to the Rif people and to compensate the victims and families for the tragedy. A similar request by AMA was last made in 2015 to King Felipe VI.

The Moroccan Center for Common Memory, Democracy and Peace echoed calls by AMA and called on the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs to honor previous pledges to respond to the requests of Moroccan civil society organisations calling on Spain to recognize its culpability.

As a result of the chemical warfare, many of those in the Rif have suffered the highest rates of cancer than in any other region in Morocco with 80 per cent of cases of larynx cancer in Morocco found in the Rif region.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180215-spain-falls-short-of-apologising-for-1920s-use-of-chemical-weapons-in-morocco/.

Saakashvili supporters march to demand Poroshenko step down

February 18, 2018

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Several thousand supporters of deported Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili marched through the center of Kiev on Sunday, demanding the resignation of President Petro Poroshenko.

The protest included a nationalist faction, and some of its members broke windows at two Russian-owned banks and a Russian overseas agency after the march. Saakashvili, who was Georgia's president during 2004-2013, later became governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. He resigned in a dispute with Poroshenko and was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship last year.

He also lost his Georgian citizenship and is wanted in Georgia to face abuse of power charges. Saakashvili was abroad when he lost Ukrainian citizenship, but forced his way back into the country in September.

On Monday, he was detained at a Kiev restaurant and deported to Poland.

Kosovo celebrates 10 years of independence, Serbs boycott

February 18, 2018

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The Kosovo Assembly, or Parliament, convened in a special session Sunday to celebrate the country's 10 years of independence — a ceremony boycotted by the country's ethnic Serb lawmakers.

Speaker Kadri Veseli pledged that "the second decade of independence would be focused on the economic well-being of Kosovo's citizens." The second day of celebrations continued with a parade of military and police forces and a state reception.

In Feb. 17, 2008, Kosovo's Parliament unilaterally declared independence from Serbia nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to stop a bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo, one of poorest countries in Europe, has taken a first step to European Union membership by signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement. But the country faces serious challenges besides its relations with Serbia, including establishing the rule of law and fighting high unemployment, corruption and organized crime.

Kosovo is recognized by 117 countries, including the U.S. and most Western powers but Serbia still sees Kosovo as part of its own territory and has the support of Russia and China. A day earlier in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Kosovo's independence remains fragile and won't be concluded without an agreement with Serbia.

Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania contributed.

Challenges ahead as Kosovo, Europe's newest nation, turns 10

February 16, 2018

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Every country has a national anthem, a musical compilation that aims to stir patriotic emotion, and Kosovo is no exception. Except for one peculiarity: its anthem has no lyrics.

Ten years after the former Serb territory declared independence and nearly two decades after it was engulfed in war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Yugoslav government forces, there is still difficulty in finding someone able to pen words of unity for Europe's newest country without causing offense to one of its ethnic groups.

"The text should be written in a way that does not leave the impression to the minorities they are threatened or offended," said Mendi Mengjiqi, who composed the anthem in June 2008, just a few months after Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence.

So far, no attempts have been successful. A decade after its independence, Kosovo seems to have all the trappings of a modern, if rather poor, Balkan country. The bombed-out buildings and tank tread-destroyed streets of the 1998-1999 war have been replaced by highways and shopping malls, bustling cafes and shiny new office complexes.

Construction cranes can be seen on the drive into Pristina, the capital, as workers busily build new homes and businesses. "Kosovo is a joint success story, of the international community and the Kosovars," President Hashim Thaci, a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, told The Associated Press.

It was he who declared Kosovo's independence in 2008, nearly nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to stop a bloody Serb crackdown against ethnic Albanians. Kosovo is recognized by 115 countries, including the United States and most Western powers, and has joined about 200 international organizations.

But Serbia, which for centuries has considered Kosovo the cradle of its civilization, still sees it as part of its own territory, and has the support of Russia and China. Five European Union members also do not recognize Kosovo's independence.

A close look reveals a young country still struggling with nationhood. The Serb minority, which was the territory's politically dominant ethnicity before the war, lives in enclaves. Although people generally are no longer physically attacked for entering a different ethnic area, tension can be easily sparked. Some 4,500 NATO-led peacekeepers are still stationed in Kosovo to ensure nothing gets out of hand. Crime and corruption are rampant.

Kosovo Serbs, who live mostly in the northern Kosovo neighboring Serbia, are adamant that they not come under direct rule from Pristina. Serbia has rejected Kosovo's statehood, but is pressed by the West to compromise with ethnic Albanians on "good neighborly relations" or jeopardize Serbia's prospects of joining the EU.

Serbian officials have hinted they would recognize Kosovo as an independent state only if northern Kosovo is handed over to Serbia — a proposal flatly rejected by Pristina. EU-mediated negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade, which began in 2011, will be key in the country's progress, and have achieved significant improvements in the nation's governance and conditions for minorities.

But substantial hurdles remain. "Both Kosovo and Serbia should make drastic compromises, which I see as very difficult," said Momcilo Trajkovic, a Kosovo Serb analyst and former politician living in the Serb enclave of Gracanica, near Pristina.

In January, moderate Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, one of the few who promoted the idea of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs living together, was gunned down outside his office in northern Mitrovica, the edge of the Serb-dominated part of northern Kosovo. His murder was condemned by both Pristina and Belgrade.

The key issues facing Kosovo now are "rule of law, fighting unemployment, corruption and organized crime and progressing in the talks with Serbia face Kosovo," said U.S. Ambassador to Pristina Greg Delawie.

Kosovo hopes one day to join the EU and has begun the first step but still has a long way to go. "I very much hope that with good homework we could increase the speed of our expectation toward EU, NATO, United Nations and other memberships," said Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, also a former KLA commander.

The EU's special representative to Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, said progress had been made in the past decade between the nation's two ethnic groups but "fragility persists, and can be easily tested even by a train, a wall or an improper initiative."

But, she noted, the biggest concern for Kosovo's people is economics. If there is one issue that the country's Serbs and Albanians can agree on, it's the lack of job prospects and the nation's crushing unemployment, which in 2017 ran at 30.5 percent. Youth unemployment stands at 50.5 percent, according to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics.

A Pristina apartment can easily go for 1,000-1,500 euros ($1,238-1,857) per square meter and it costs half a million euros ($619,000) for a villa at the Marigona Residence, five miles from Pristina, where the country's prime minister lives. But that is not affordable in a nation where the average salary is about 360 euros ($450) a month.

With their future looking bleak, many youngsters long to leave. "When will we have visa-free travel so I can get to Germany or Switzerland and build a better life?" wondered Shait Krasniqi, a 28-year-old economics graduate who works as a waiter in Pristina. "There are no prospects here, especially for us, the young people."

Kosovo has a young population and with the jobless rate so high, many pack the capital's cafes, nursing a single coffee for hours. "If my uncles did not live in Switzerland and support us, my family would die," said Ilir, a young cafe client who was too embarrassed to give his last name. "My father gets a little money from selling agricultural products he grows from our small land. No other jobs for me or my sister."

In the Serb enclave of Gracanica, home to a medieval Serb Orthodox monastery, the sentiments are the same. "Regardless of ethnicity, the situation is grave for all the people," said Mirjana Vlasacevic, a 57-year-old court employee in Gracanica. "That is the reason that they, the youngsters, are looking to leave."

Florent Bajrami in Pristina, Sylejman Kllokoqi in Gracanica, Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed.

In Italy's poorer south, populist party woos angry voters

February 19, 2018

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — In the Naples suburb of Torre del Greco, a port town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, voters are steaming. Local seamen have jobs lost to foreigners willing to work for lower pay. The town is without a mayor, who was arrested months ago in a kickback scandal. Some 13,000 small investors lost their savings in the bankruptcy of a shipping company.

Those woes only aggravate the daily difficulties of life in Italy's underdeveloped south, where youth unemployment runs 50 percent or higher, and the jobless rate among all ages is nearly double that in the relatively affluent north. It's also an area long influenced by organized crime syndicates, where prosecutors say votes have been exchanged for guarantees of lucrative public work contracts.

Whichever party can convert voters' palpable anger in the south into support in Italy's March 4 election could very well determine who governs Italy. A few dozen southern races, including in the Campania region embracing Naples, are critical.

The maverick 5-Star Movement, a populist phenomenon that bills itself as the antidote to establishment politics, appears positioned to benefit from citizen outrage as it aims to enter Italy's national government for the first time.

"The South is a crucial area, an area in which negative emotions play a very relevant role, and it's where these negative emotions can lead to the 5-Stars," said Giovanni Orsina, a political expert at Rome's LUISS university.

Analysts predict the March 4 vote will produce three blocs: the 5-Star Movement, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's alliance of centrist and right-wing groups and a center-left group led by former Premier Matteo Renzi.

Vincenzo Accardo, the head of Torre del Greco's seamen's group, angrily told a rally last week that he had asked all the main parties to come to this town and learn about its problems. All but one didn't bother to reply.

But he joyously presented the only candidate for premier who did — 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio. "This is a land that not only has great traditions, it unfortunately has a high level of youth unemployment," said Di Maio, pledging to promote lasting jobs for young people.

In a sign of how crucial the southern voters are, the 5-Star Movement founder, comic Beppe Grillo, also came, making his only campaign appearance so far in support of Di Maio. "Beppe! Beppe!" the crowd chanted.

In opinion polls, the 5-Stars consistently rank as the most popular choice of those saying they'll vote. But they also appear far short of clinching the absolute majority needed to form a government. And because they have rejected any postelection deal to join a coalition government, they risk not getting into power.

Still, the 5-Stars could play the spoiler, siphoning off support in key races from what pollsters say is the only electoral group that could get a majority — Berlusconi's conservatives and far-right allies.

Gelsomina Assante, who came to the rally from nearby San Giorgio a Cremano, said she'd vote for the 5-Star Movement "for their honesty" and hoped others would too. "If not, I've told my husband we can leave Italy," she declared.

Recent developments have questioned that 5-Star "honesty." Seeking to distance themselves from establishment politicians, 5-Star lawmakers pledged to turn over half their salaries along with unspent expense accounts to a fund that provides modest loans to small businesses and the self-employed. A TV expose found that several lawmakers had kept the money instead.

Supporters view the 5-Stars as a long-awaited opportunity to break with Italy's established parties, like Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, which has done well previously in the south but which they say failed to help the region develop.

"The question is, why not vote the 5-Star Movement?" asked voter Giuseppe Apicella, who clutched a Movement flag. For decades in the south, politics consisted of doling out development aid and, prosecutors say, doling out public contracts to crime syndicates in exchange for votes. But those ways may be changing, according to Orsina.

Amid Italy's tepid economic recovery, it's "very difficult for politicians to ask for votes because they don't have the resources" to deliver on promises, Orsina told The Associated Press. Judging by the crowd at Di Maio's rally in his hometown of Pomigliano d'Arco, a factory town on the outskirts of Naples, 5-Stars certainly appeal to young professionals. But what about the have-nots?

With its crumbling balconies, broken windows, uncollected garbage and dim corridors where drug dealers do business, the public housing project in Naples' Scampia neighborhood has served as a backdrop for the hit movie and TV series "Gomorrah." Di Maio stopped in Scampia, visiting a judo school that takes the Camorra's future young recruits off the streets.

This gym "did more than the politicians did" for Scampia, said Di Maio, a 31-year-old former web designer who was raised in the Naples area. In a Scampia coffee bar, the verdict was mixed about who deserved their votes.

Giovanna Cardeopoli, 49 and jobless, said she would vote again for Berlusconi's party "because he gets things done." But one of her teenage daughters has left Naples for Rome, hoping to find work. Owner Salvatore Varriale, working the espresso machine, differed.

"Berlusconi by now has given what he had to give," he said. He believed the 5-Stars "think about the future of us young people." There's one bloc of voters that surpasses the 5-Stars in opinion polls: Italians who are undecided or say they won't vote at all. They total some 33 percent of those polled.

Lorenzo Liparulo held a banner with other Scampia residents outside Di Maio's judo stop, proclaiming themselves the "Organized Unemployed." "Honestly, I don't trust anyone anymore," Liparulo said. "I say that from my heart. Because after so many years, and after so many promises, no one has maintained any of them, no matter what party."

Paolo Santalucia and Trisha Thomas in Naples and Maria Grazia Murru in Rome contributed to this report.

Dutch foreign minister quits after lying about Putin meeting

February 13, 2018

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch foreign affairs minister resigned Tuesday, a day after admitting that he lied about attending a meeting hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin more than a decade ago.

An emotional Halbe Zijlstra announced his resignation at the start of a debate Tuesday at which he was expected to be grilled by opposition lawmakers about the lie. He called it "by far the biggest mistake I have committed in my entire career."

"This is about the credibility of the minister of foreign affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands," Zijlstra said. "That credibility must be beyond doubt." Zijlstra, a member of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's center-right VVD party, is the first minister to quit since Rutte's four-party coalition took office in October. Rutte, who was also in Parliament for Zijlstra's resignation, hugged him as he left.

Zijlstra's position as the country's top diplomat became untenable after he admitted lying about a meeting with Putin. Zijlstra has in the past said he attended a 2006 meeting when Putin said he considered Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states as part of a "Greater Russia."

On Monday, Zijlstra conceded he wasn't present at the meeting but heard the story from somebody who was. He said he considered Putin's statements so geopolitically important that he spoke about them publicly and took credit for hearing the comments as a way of protecting his source.

"It was clearly a wrong choice," Zijlstra said as he announced his resignation. The Russian embassy in the Netherlands waded into the debate by issuing a statement accusing some in the Netherlands of distributing "fake news" aimed at discrediting Moscow by suggesting it has expansionist ambitions.

"This can only be heard from those who are interested in presenting Russia as an enemy and who under the pretext of the notorious 'Russian threat' keep pushing NATO military infrastructure eastwards, therefore consciously provoking military confrontation," the Russian statement said.

Zijlstra's resignation came a day before he was due to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow. There was no immediate announcement about a replacement.

UK judge upholds arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder

February 13, 2018

LONDON (AP) — A judge upheld a British arrest warrant for Julian Assange on Tuesday, saying the WikiLeaks founder should have the courage to come to court and face justice after more than five years inside Ecuador's London embassy.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot rejected arguments by Assange's lawyers that it is no longer in the public interest to arrest him for jumping bail in 2012 and seeking shelter in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden. Prosecutors there were investigating allegations of sexual assault and rape made by two women, which Assange has denied.

Arbuthnot did not mince words in her ruling at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court, saying that by jumping bail Assange had made "a determined attempt to avoid the order of the court." She said Assange appeared to be "a man who wants to impose his terms on the course of justice."

"He appears to consider himself above the normal rules of law and wants justice only if it goes in his favor," the judge said, drawing exclamations of dismay from Assange supporters in the public gallery.

Assange can seek to appeal, though his lawyers did not immediately say whether he would. Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation last year, saying there was no prospect of bringing Assange to Sweden in the foreseeable future. But the British warrant for violating bail conditions still stands, and Assange faces arrest if he leaves the embassy.

Assange's lawyers had asked for the U.K warrant to be withdrawn since Sweden no longer wants him extradited, but the judge rejected their request last week. Assange's attorney had gone on to argue that arresting him is no longer proportionate or in the public interest. Lawyer Mark Summers argued the Australian was justified in seeking refuge in the embassy because he has a legitimate fear that U.S. authorities want to arrest him for WikiLeaks' publication of secret documents.

"I do not find that Mr. Assange's fears were reasonable," the judge said. "If the United States initiates extradition proceedings, Mr. Assange would have the ability to raise any bars to the extradition and challenge the proceedings" in a British court, she said.

Arbuthnot dismissed another plank of Assange's case — a report from a U.N. working group which said the 46-year-old was being arbitrarily detained. "I give little weight to the views of the working group," the judge said, noting that Assange had "restricted his own freedom for a number of years."

Assange's lawyer had argued that the 5½ years Assange has spent inside the embassy were "adequate, if not severe" punishment for his actions, noting that he had health problems including a frozen shoulder and depression.

The judge accepted that Assange had depression and other conditions, but said he was overall in "fairly good physical health." Arbuthnot also rejected an argument that Assange's actions had not stalled Sweden's legal case, because he had offered to be interviewed by Swedish prosecutors at the embassy.

Assange's legal team said emails recently released after a freedom of information request showed that a British state prosecutor had advised Sweden "that it would not be prudent for Sweden to try to interview Mr. Assange in the U.K."

The judge said she could not tell from the emails she had seen whether the lawyer who sent them had behaved inappropriately. But she said Assange's "failure to surrender has impeded the course of justice."

"Defendants on bail up and down the country, and requested persons facing extradition, come to court to face the consequences of their own choices," she said. "He should have the courage to do so too."

The ruling leaves the long legal impasse intact. Apart from the bail-jumping charge — for which the maximum sentence is one year in prison — Assange suspects there is a secret U.S. grand jury indictment against him for WikiLeaks' publication of classified documents, and that American authorities will seek his extradition.

Assange's lawyers say he is willing to face legal proceedings in Britain, but only if he receives a guarantee that he will not be sent to the U.S. to face prosecution. That is not an assurance Britain is likely to give.

Outside the courtroom, Assange lawyer Gareth Peirce gave little indication of what might come next in the twisting legal saga. "The history of the case from start to finish is extraordinary," she said. "Each aspect of it becomes puzzling and troubling as it is scrutinized."

Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.

Far-right nationalists march in Bulgaria's capital

February 17, 2018

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Hundreds of Bulgarian nationalists marched through the country's capital on Saturday to honor a World War II general known for his anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi activities. The government had banned the rally saying it harms the image of the country, which currently holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, but the organizers secured a court order overturning the ban.

The annual "Lukov March," staged by the far-right Bulgarian National Union, attracted hundreds of dark-clad supporters who walked through downtown Sofia holding torches and Bulgarian flags, and chanting nationalist slogans.

Police guarded the procession from possible attacks of opponents of the event. The marchers praised Gen. Hristo Lukov, who had supported Germany during the Second World War and was killed by an anti-fascist resistance movement on Feb. 13, 1943. The general served as war minister from 1935 to 1938, and led the pro-Nazi Germany Union of Bulgarian Legions from 1932 until 1943.

Organizers deny that Lukov was an anti-Semitic fascist or that they were neo-fascists, but claim that the descendants of the murderers of Lukov were afraid of the event. One of the leaders of the Union, 32-year-old Plamen Dimitrov, said ahead of the march that a "vast majority of young Bulgarians" approve of their activities.

He also said that several nationalist supporters from Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Estonia had arrived to join the event. "They are here today because the survival of all European people is jeopardized," he told reporters.

Human rights groups, political parties and foreign embassies condemned the Lukov March and criticized its organizers for promoting racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. The U.S. Embassy to Bulgaria expressed concern about "the display of intolerance represented by the Lukov March."

"General Hristo Lukov was a Nazi supporter who promoted hate and injustice, and is not someone deserving of veneration," the embassy said in a statement.

Ethics dispute erupts in Belgium over euthanasia rules

February 16, 2018

A disputed case of euthanasia in Belgium, involving the death of a dementia patient who never formally asked to die, has again raised concerns about weak oversight in a country with some of the world's most liberal euthanasia laws.

The case is described in a letter provided to The Associated Press, written by a doctor who resigned from Belgium's euthanasia commission in protest over the group's actions on this and other cases. Some experts say the case as documented in the letter amounts to murder; the patient lacked the mental capacity to ask for euthanasia and the request for the bedridden patient to be killed came from family members. The co-chairs of the commission say the doctor mistakenly reported the death as euthanasia.

Although euthanasia has been legal in Belgium since 2002 and has overwhelming public support, critics have raised concerns in recent months about certain practices, including how quickly some doctors approve requests to die from psychiatric patients.

The AP revealed a rift last year between Dr. Willem Distelmans, co-chair of the euthanasia commission, and Dr. Lieve Thienpont, an advocate of euthanasia for the mentally ill. Distelmans suggested some of Thienpont's patients might have been killed without meeting all the legal requirements. Prompted by the AP's reporting, more than 360 doctors, academics and others have signed a petition calling for tighter controls on euthanasia for psychiatric patients.

Euthanasia — when doctors kill patients at their request — can be granted in Belgium to people with both physical and mental health illnesses. The condition does not need to be fatal, but suffering must be "unbearable and untreatable." It can only be performed if specific criteria are fulfilled, including a "voluntary, well-considered and repeated" request from the person.

But Belgium's euthanasia commission routinely violates the law, according to a September letter of resignation written by Dr. Ludo Vanopdenbosch, a neurologist, to senior party leaders in the Belgian Parliament who appoint members of the group.

The most striking example took place at a meeting in early September, Vanopdenbosch writes, when the group discussed the case of a patient with severe dementia, who also had Parkinson's disease. To demonstrate the patient's lack of competence, a video was played showing what Vanopdenbosch characterized as "a deeply demented patient."

The patient, whose identity was not disclosed, was euthanized at the family's request, according to Vanopdenbosch's letter. There was no record of any prior request for euthanasia from the patient. After hours of debate, the commission declined to refer the case to the public prosecutor to investigate if criminal charges were warranted.

Vanopdenbosch confirmed the letter was genuine but would not comment further about the specific case details. The two co-chairs of the euthanasia commission, Distelmans and Gilles Genicot, a lawyer, said the doctor treating the patient mistakenly called the procedure euthanasia, and that he should have called it palliative sedation instead. Palliative sedation is the process of drugging patients near the end of life to relieve symptoms, but it is not meant to end life.

"This was not a case of illegal euthanasia but rather a case of legitimate end-of-life decision improperly considered by the physician as euthanasia," Genicot and Distelmans said in an email. Vanopdenbosch, who is also a palliative care specialist, wrote that the doctor's intention was "to kill the patient" and that "the means of alleviating the patient's suffering was disproportionate."

Though no one outside the commission has access to the case's medical records — the group is not allowed by law to release that information — some critics were stunned by the details in Vanopdenbosch's letter.

"It's not euthanasia because the patient didn't ask, so it's the voluntary taking of a life," said Dr. An Haekens, psychiatric director at the Alexianen Psychiatric Hospital in Tienen, Belgium. "I don't know another word other than murder to describe this."

Kristof Van Assche, a professor of health law at the University of Antwerp, wrote in an email the commission itself wasn't breaking the law because the group is not required to refer a case unless two-thirds of the group agree — even if the case "blatantly disregards" criteria for euthanasia.

But without a request from the patient, the case "would normally constitute manslaughter or murder," he wrote. "The main question is why this case was not deemed sufficiently problematic" to prompt the commission to refer the case to prosecutors.

Vanopdenbosch, who in the letter called himself a "big believer" in euthanasia, cited other problems with the commission. He said that when he expressed concerns about potentially problematic cases, he was immediately "silenced" by others. And he added that because many of the doctors on the commission are leading euthanasia practitioners, they can protect each other from scrutiny, and act with "impunity."

Vanopdenbosch wrote that when cases of euthanasia are identified that don't meet the legal criteria, they are not forwarded to the public prosecutor's office as is required by law, but that the commission itself acts as the court.

In the 15 years since euthanasia was legalized in Belgium, more than 10,000 people have been euthanized, and just one of those cases has been referred to prosecutors. Genicot and Distelmans said the group thoroughly assesses every euthanasia case to be sure all legal conditions have been met.

"It can obviously occur that some debate emerges among members but our role is to make sure that the law is observed and certainly not to trespass it," they said. They said it was "absolutely false" that Vanopdenbosch had been muzzled and said they regretted his resignation.

Mike Corder in Amsterdam contributed to this report.

South Africa's ruling party finally turns against Zuma

February 14, 2018

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's ruling party on Tuesday disowned President Jacob Zuma after sticking with him through years of scandals, ordering him to resign in an attempt to resolve a leadership crisis that has disrupted government business in one of Africa's biggest economies.

The announcement by the African National Congress did not immediately end the protracted turmoil in a party that was the main movement against white minority rule and has led South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994. If the politically isolated president defies the party's order, the matter could go to parliament for a motion of no confidence that would further embarrass the party once led by Nelson Mandela.

Ace Magashule, the ANC's secretary-general, said he expected Zuma to reply to the directive on Wednesday. Another senior party official suggested that Zuma would be unwise to flout the edict of the party, which is eager to recover from internal disarray ahead of 2019 elections.

"A disciplined cadre of the ANC, you are given a chance to resign on your own, but if you lack discipline you will resist," party chairman Gwede Mantashe said at a provincial rally, according to South African media.

"Once you resist, we are going to let you be thrown out through the vote of no confidence because you disrespect the organization and you disobey it, therefore we are going to let you be devoured by the vultures," Mantashe said.

Business leaders welcomed the ANC's decision to recall Zuma, saying the country needs to focus on economic growth and address social problems such as unemployment. ANC leaders must act "swiftly, but constitutionally" to remove Zuma so the "work of recovering our future, which was imperiled by his ruinous regime — characterized by incompetence, corruption, state capture and low economic growth — can begin in earnest," said Bonang Mohale, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, a group that promotes development.

"State capture" is a term used in South Africa to describe the alleged looting of state enterprises by associates of Zuma, who denies any wrongdoing. A judicial commission is about to start a probe of those allegations. Separately, Zuma could face corruption charges tied to an arms deal two decades ago.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said Tuesday that it had been informed by the chief prosecutor that his team will provide its recommendation on Feb. 23 about whether to prosecute Zuma on the old charges. The charges had been thrown out but the opposition fought successfully to get them reinstated.

In another scandal, South Africa's top court ruled in 2016 that Zuma violated the constitution following an investigation of multi-million-dollar upgrades to his private home using state money. "We are determined to restore the integrity of the public institutions, create political stability and urgent economic recovery," said Magashule, once a staunch supporter of Zuma.

The ANC secretary-general spoke respectfully of Zuma, saying he had "not been found guilty by any court of law" and that the decision to recall him was not taken because he had done "anything wrong." Zuma had agreed to resign and wanted to stay in office for several more months, but the national executive committee decided at a 13-hour meeting that he had to leave at once, Magashule said.

The ANC said it wants Zuma to be replaced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected party leader in December and has vowed to fight corruption. Zuma, who took office in 2009 and is in his second five-year term, has not made any public appearances in recent days.

Government leaders hope the standoff can be resolved ahead of the unveiling of the national budget in parliament on Feb. 21, which would go some way toward reassuring investors that the country is getting back on track. Zuma did not give the state of the nation address last week because of the political crisis, and a regular Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed.

A motion of no confidence sponsored by an opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, has been scheduled for Feb. 22 in parliament. Opposition parties want the vote moved up to this week and then want parliament to be dissolved so that early elections can be held.

Zuma has survived similar motions in the past, but ruling party members now see him as a political liability ahead of next year's elections and likely would vote against him on the orders of the party leadership.

UN chief appoints Briton as Yemen envoy

February 16, 2018

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed former British diplomat Martin Griffiths as his new envoy charged with trying to broker peace in Yemen, the UN announced on Friday.

Guterres notified the UN Security Council of his intention to appoint Griffiths earlier this week and the 15-member council approved his choice on Thursday evening.

“Mr Griffiths brings extensive experience in conflict resolution, negotiation, mediation and humanitarian affairs,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.

Griffiths, currently executive director of the European Institute of Peace, replaces Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who the UN said would step down after three years in the job when his current contract finishes this month.

A Saudi Arabia-led coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015, backing government forces fighting Iran-allied Houthi rebels. Yemen, which relies heavily on imports for food, is on the brink of famine and nearly 1 million people have been infected with cholera.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180216-un-chief-appoints-briton-as-yemen-envoy/.

Israeli settler leader says settlements grew rapidly in 2017

February 20, 2018

JERUSALEM (AP) — The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank grew at nearly twice the rate of Israel's overall population last year, a settler leader said Monday, predicting that settlement growth would surge even more in the coming years thanks in part to the Trump presidency.

Yaakov Katz said that President Donald Trump, backed by a Mideast team dominated by settler supporters, has created a friendly new atmosphere conducive to settlement growth after eight contentious years with the Obama White House.

"This is the first time, after years, that we are surrounded by people who really like us, love us, and they are not trying to be objective," Katz said. "We have to thank God he sent Trump to be president of the United States."

Katz is founder of "West Bank Jewish Population Stats," a report sponsored by "Bet El Institutions," a prominent settler organization that has ties to Trump's closest Mideast advisers. He said the figures are based on official data from the Israeli Interior Ministry not yet available to the public.

According to his figures, the West Bank settler population reached 435,159 as of Jan. 1, up 3.4 percent from 420,899 a year earlier. The settler population has grown 21.4 percent in the last five years.

In comparison, Israel's total population grew 1.8 percent to 8.743 million last year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Katz said the rapid growth of the settlements should put to rest the idea of a two-state solution favored by the Palestinians and most of the international community.

Based on recent growth patterns, he said the West Bank settler population could approach 500,000 by the time Trump leaves office. His study did not include the more than 200,000 Israelis now living in east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital.

"We are changing the map," he said. "The idea of the two-state solution is over. It is irreversible." The Palestinians seek the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, for a future independent state. Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Mideast war, though it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

A string of U.S. presidents, both Republican and Democrat, have endorsed the idea of a two-state solution and have joined the international community in opposing settlements as obstacles to peace. But after years of failed U.S.-led peace efforts, Trump has taken a different line. He says he would support a two-state solution only if both sides agree to it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist coalition is dominated by settler allies who oppose Palestinian independence.

Trump also has taken a softer stance toward the settlements, urging restraint at times but avoiding the strong condemnations of his predecessors. His ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is a former president of Bet El Institutions. His chief Mideast adviser, son-in-law Jared Kushner, has donated to the group, and even Trump once sent a donation.

These deep ties to the settlements have helped fuel Palestinian suspicions of the White House. Those suspicions deepened after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December, prompting the Palestinians to say the U.S. can no longer be an honest Mideast broker. Trump's team has been working on a peace proposal, though it is not clear when it will be released.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the figures reflect an Israeli policy of building settlements to destroy the two-state solution. He said Trump's muted response encourages more settlement building.

"What is required of the world, including the American administration, is to condemn the settlements as illegitimate and illegal and to recognize the principle of two states on the 1967 borders," he said. "if they want to keep hope in any future peace process, they must stop these plans."

Brian Reeves, spokesman for Peace Now, an anti-settlement monitoring group, said it could not corroborate Katz's figures but that they are in the "ballpark" of its own estimates. Katz said the settlement growth has been fueled both by natural growth of the population, which is heavily religious and tends to have larger families, as well as the attraction of cheaper housing in the West Bank.

He predicted even faster growth in the coming years, claiming that the Trump White House has given Netanyahu a "green light" to advance construction. "Bibi is less afraid of what the president will say about him," he said. "We are very, very, very happy with the Trump administration."

Israeli PM Netanyahu to Iran: Don't test Israel's resolve

February 18, 2018

MUNICH (AP) — The international nuclear deal with Iran has emboldened Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, warning that Iran should "not test Israel's resolve."

Netanyahu said if the U.S. decides to scrap the 2015 nuclear deal, which he has long opposed, "I think they'll do nothing." But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, appearing two hours later at the same Munich Security Conference, fired back that Netanyahu's comment was "delusional thinking."

"I can assure that if Iran's interests are not secured, Iran will respond, will respond seriously. And I believe it would be a response that means people would be sorry for taking the erroneous action they did," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed deep skepticism about the Iran nuclear deal that lifted sanctions against the country. He extended sanctions waivers in January but said he would not do so again when they come up for renewal in May unless his concerns are addressed.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a main architect of the nuclear deal, said it was "absolutely critical" to ensure it survives. "We know what the world looks like without the Iran nuclear agreement," he said Sunday, speaking at the same conference. "It's not a better place."

If the U.S. abandons the current nuclear deal it's unlikely Iran would consider a new one, Kerry said. "The problem is the waters have been muddied because of this credibility issue about America's willingness to live up to any deal," he said.

Kerry dismissed Netanyahu's contention that Iran would be on its way to having a nuclear arsenal in 10 years, saying "that's fundamentally not accurate." Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir weighed in, saying the Iran nuclear deal "has flaws that need to be fixed." He said that, among other things, the inspection system needs to be more intrusive.

"The world has to extract a price from Iran for its aggressive behavior," he added. Netanyahu told world leaders, diplomats and defense officials at the conference that the deal was similar to the infamous 1938 "Munich Agreement" that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe, which became synonymous with appeasement.

"The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime," he said. "Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war... those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly."

Similarly, he said, the Iranian nuclear agreement has "unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond." Declaring that Iran's "brazenness hit new highs," he theatrically held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week by Israel in Israeli airspace and challenged Zarif.

"Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should, it's yours," Netanyahu said. "You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran — do not test Israel's resolve!" Tehran has denied that the drone belonged to Iran. Zarif on Sunday dismissed Netanyahu's stunt as "a cartoonish circus... which does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

Netanyahu has been projecting a business-as-usual approach on his visit to Germany amid uproar at home after police on Tuesday said was sufficient evidence to indict him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two cases. The Israeli leader has angrily rejected the accusations and denounced what he describes as an overzealous police investigation. He has also dismissed the accusations as a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media.

Zarif suggested the Israeli leader might be escalating tensions with Iran simply to distract from his domestic problems. Denouncing what he said were Israel's "almost daily illegal incursions into Syrian airspace," Zarif said Israel was trying "to create these cartoonish images to blame others for its own strategic blunders, or maybe to evade the domestic crisis they're facing."

Netanyahu told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israel's resolve. "Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck," he said. "We will act if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself."

Lebanese Defense Minister Yaacoub Sarraf accused Israel of being hypocritical, saying that he'd had "an Israeli drone above my head for the past 15 years" and warning about any aggression from its neighbor.

"Lebanon has no belligerent intent on anybody, but watch out, we will defend ourselves," he said. "We also have partners, we also have friends, we also have people willing to die for their country. We are for peace, yet we will not stand for any threat and we will not accept any aggression. "

Moulson reported from Berlin.

Russian curler stripped of Olympic medal, country pays fee

February 22, 2018

GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) — Within hours of curler Alexander Krushelnitsky being stripped of a bronze medal for a doping violation, the Russian Olympic Committee said it had paid a $15 million fee that was part of the criteria to have its team reinstated at the Pyeongchang Games.

Russia's team was officially banned from the games because of widespread doping at the Sochi Olympics four years ago, but 168 Russians were allowed by the IOC to compete as "Olympic Athletes from Russia" under the Olympic flag.

The IOC is due to decide Saturday whether to formally reinstate the Russian team for the closing ceremony the following day. With the doping case against Krushelnitsky shaping as a potential impediment, the Russians moved to settle the matter quickly.

Krushelnitsky waived his right to a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, despite denying that he knowingly took a banned substance, and agreed that his doping samples taken at the Pyeongchang Games contained meldonium.

On Thursday, CAS disqualified Krushelnitsky's results from the Olympics, withdrew his credential and referred his doping case to the international curling federation to determine a suspension from competition.

The Russian Olympic Committee issued a statement saying it had returned the bronze medal which Krushelnitsky and his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova, won in the mixed doubles. It also confirmed an investigation into how the banned substances got into his system has been launched.

"The results of the doping samples taken at the Olympics are not challenged," the Russian delegation said in a statement. "The follow-up investigation will be carried out jointly by the law enforcement agencies, the Russian Curling Federation, and the athletes to establish all the circumstances of this case."

The Russian committee also outlined its push to meet the criteria for reinstatement that were set by the IOC's executive board last December. "One of (the criteria) is the payment of the amount of $15 million for the development of the global anti-doping system and the facilitation of cooperation in this area between the IOC, the WADA and international sports federations," the statement said. "As of now, the ROC has paid this amount in full.

"Thus, all the financial covenants toward the Russian Olympic Committee in order to lift its suspension have been fulfilled." Discussions between Olympic and Russian officials have been going on behind the scenes at the Winter Games, including a meeting between IOC President Thomas Bach and Igor Levitin, a former Russian minister of transport and adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed the meeting happened but said it lasted four minutes and the main purpose was for Bach to wish Levitin a happy 66th birthday. Adams said Bach and Levitin "may have talked about something else," but he declined to speculate what that might have been.

CAS said its decision was based on written evidence and Krushelnitsky accepted a provisional suspension beyond the Olympics, but "reserved his rights to seek the elimination or reduction of any period of ineligibility based on 'no fault or negligence.'"

Norwegian pair Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien, who placed fourth in the mixed doubles after losing 8-4 to the Russians, were expected to be elevated to the bronze. Russian curling officials have said they believe Krushelnitsky's food or drink could have been spiked with meldonium either by Russia's political enemies or by jealous Russian rival athletes who had not made the Olympic team.

Dmitry Svishchev, president of Russia's curling federation, said he hoped the loss of the medal was temporary. "This is by no means an admission of guilt, nor an end to the fight for our guys' honor," Svishchev said.

Krushelnitsky and Bryzgalova became the first Russians to participate in the Pyeongchang Games when they competed in a preliminary-round game on Feb. 8, the day before the opening ceremony. A statement in Krushelnitsky's name published by state news agency Tass said the curler accepted meldonium had been found in his sample but that he had not doped intentionally.

"I accept a formal breach of the current anti-doping rules," he was quoted as saying. The statement said it would be "useless and senseless" for Krushelnitsky and Bryzgalova to fight the doping case during the Olympics but added that they considered themselves "clean athletes."