Protesters ousted from Sorbonne; French train strikes resume

April 13, 2018

PARIS (AP) — Paris riot police cleared out students seeking to occupy the Sorbonne university, and strikes shut down the Eiffel Tower and two-thirds of French trains Friday — all part of a season of simmering national discontent.

Much of the anger centers on President Emmanuel Macron, but he went on national TV on Thursday to declare that strikes and protests won't prevent him from overhauling France's economy. Rail workers resumed a strike Friday that is set to disrupt travel off-and-on through June. But the number of striking workers is down from previous actions, and international trains were largely maintained.

The Eiffel Tower announced that it is closed to the public Friday because of a strike by security personnel. Their demands were not immediately clear. The Sorbonne announced its iconic Left Bank site is closed Friday for security reasons after the Thursday night police operation. While about 200 students were evacuated, a few hundred others gathered outside, chanting angrily at police, though the incident ended peacefully.

The site was a nucleus of student protests 50 years ago in May 1968, when strikes and university occupations paralyzed France's economy in a pivotal moment in modern French history. Students at campuses around France are now protesting admissions reforms that they fear threaten access to public university for all high school graduates. Macron on Thursday dismissed the student protesters as "professional agitators" and ridiculed some of their demands.

While the 1968 protesters were seeking to overturn old ways, today's workers and students are fighting to maintain the status quo — including hard-fought worker rights that Macron says are incompatible with today's global economy.

The 40-year-old French leader said Thursday he's determined to push ahead with reforms to the national rail authority SNCF, to prepare it to open up to competition. Commuters squeezed into scarce trains Friday and electronic display boards showed disrupted traffic as SNCF workers kicked off a new two-day strike.

"We have to leave earlier, we arrive late at work. We have no choice. I'll have to leave earlier this evening to catch a train," said commuter Sandra Loretti at the Gare Saint-Lazare station in northwest Paris. "We take the car, extra journey, extra time, extra tiredness."

Hospital staff, retirees, lawyers and magistrates are also holding protests over reforms by Macron's government. The president will go on national television again Sunday, answering questions for two hours from BFM television and investigative website Mediapart.

New French unrest: Students, medics protest Macron reforms

April 05, 2018

ROUEN, France (AP) — Students and medical workers are facing off against riot police in a protest over reforms by President Emmanuel Macron's government. The protest is taking place Thursday outside a hospital in the Normandy city of Rouen, where Macron is visiting a unit dedicated to children with autism.

Medical workers brandished union flags and banners decrying "Hospital Hell" to express anger over cuts to the public health care system. Local students also joined the protest. Students have been blocking some campuses around France in recent weeks to protest plans to allow selection at public universities, and other changes.

The protest comes after two days of crippling strikes on the state railway network. Macron's efforts to overhaul the French economy are meeting increasing resistance.

French minister: Fighting gender violence 'the top priority'

March 14, 2018

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Fighting violence against women isn't just a top priority for French President Emmanuel Macron — it's the top priority, his gender equality minister said Wednesday. And one of the first targets is street harassment.

In an interview, Marlene Schiappa said legislation that she will present to the Cabinet next week would impose stiff fines for gender-based harassment on the street or in public transport. She said the bill is important in both a practical and a symbolic sense.

"It is symbolic because we have to lead that cultural fight," Schiappa said at the United Nations, where a day earlier she addressed the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women. "We have to say: 'Young men, you don't have the right — you're not allowed to follow women on the streets, to intimidate them.'"

But she also believes the law can be effectively implemented, adding that the country's interior minister, Gerard Collomb, is planning to use 10,000 policemen and policewomen to help in the fight. Fines would start at 200 euros, and could go higher if not paid right away, she said. In some cases there also would be a training session at which a violator "will learn many things about street harassment and why you don't have the right to do that to a woman."

The proposed law also includes a provision that anyone under 15 cannot consent to sex with an adult. And it extends the statute of limitations on sex crimes, allowing prosecution for 30 years after a purported victim turns 18, rather than 20.

Schiappa said she hopes there will be "quite a consensus" in support of the law in parliament. "I think it's an important subject that deserves to (stay) out of the usual fight between political groups," she said. "But we will see."

Schiappa has become one of the most outspoken members of Macron's government. In her speech Tuesday at the commission's meeting, she declared that 2017 marked "the end of global denial on gender-based and sexual violence." She said 2018 should not be just the end of an era, but the beginning of another: "Year One after #MeToo."

She said one of the most important elements of #MeToo — France has its own version called "Balance Ton Porc" — is that people are not only speaking differently about gender violence, but finally listening.

"Women have talked about that for many generations," Schiappa said. "My mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother talked with me about gender-based violence that they experienced or witnessed. They all have stories to tell."

She said that for a long time, women with such stories would hear a dismissive, "C'est la vie," or be told they just had to deal with it alone. But now after #MeToo, she said, "no one will be able to say to a woman: 'You have to deal with it.'"

Schiappa said she disagreed strongly with the much-discussed letter written by actress Catherine Deneuve and some 100 other French artists and academics in January saying that the "legitimate protest against sexual violence" stemming from the Harvey Weinstein scandal had gone too far and advocating against "puritanism."

"I think it's not about morality, about puritanism at all," the minister said. "It is about freedom, about how women can ... live peacefully in freedom, to walk on the street, to go to work, to share spaces with men in freedom and (have) a sexual life if they want to — but only if they want to."

Schiappa also addressed her goal of correcting the gender wage gap in France, noting that the first law aiming to address it was passed in 1983, when she was only 6 months old. "I am now 35 and it is still not being implemented," she said.

The government is proposing to "name and shame" companies not respecting the law on gender equality in the workplace. "It's not enough," Schiappa said, "but in terms of the gender pay gap, nothing is enough ... 'name and shame' is about that cultural fight. It's about changing mentalities and saying it's not acceptable that you pay women less than men."

The most immediate goal is getting her proposed law passed by parliament, Schiappa said. "We've been working for years now to make that law," she said. "President Macron said gender equality would be his top goal before Weinstein, before #MeToo, before the election ... really, that law will be important."

Macron's government has chosen to label associations fighting violence against women as a "great national cause" this year, which means they can broadcast messages on TV and radio for free and get help from the state to organize charity campaigns.

Schiappa was also asked about gender parity in the president's own circle of advisers and staff, which includes significantly more men than women. She said Macron has worked to increase female representation in parliament and has achieved gender parity in his Cabinet.

"In terms of advisers there are more men than women," she acknowledged. "But he is working on it."

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

Macron pledges $700 million euros for new solar projects

New Delhi (AFP)
March 11, 2018

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for solar projects in developing countries, as world leaders met in India to promote greater investment in renewable energy.

Macron, who in December warned that the global shift to a green energy future was too slow, said France would extend an extra 700 million euros ($861.5 million) through loans and donations by 2022 for solar projects in emerging economies.

France had already committed $300 million euros to the initiative when it co-founded with India a global alliance in 2015 to unlock new cash for solar projects in sunny yet poor nations.

"We need to remove all obstacles and scale up," Macron said at the launch of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi on Sunday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- who has committed to reducing India's sizable carbon footprint through a massive scale-up in renewable energy -- said it was vital that nations were not priced out.

"We have to make sure that a better and cost effective solar technology is available to all," Modi told the gathering of investors and world leaders from about 20 mainly African nations.

"We will have to increase solar in our energy mix."

India, the world's third-largest polluter, is undergoing spectacular growth in its solar sector and is on track to become one of the world's largest clean energy markets.

It pledged at the Paris climate summit in 2015 to source at least 40 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030, mainly via solar.

The energy-hungry giant of 1.25 billion people is banking on solar to electrify homes for hundreds of millions of its poorest citizens without adding to its considerable emissions output.

Macron and Modi hope the alliance will spur $1 trillion in new solar spending by 2030 in 121 countries lacking investment in the sector.

These countries have "the paradox of being the sunniest in the world while enjoying the least solar energy," said S?gol?ne Royal, a former French minister in India as a special envoy for the alliance.

Macron told world leaders in Paris in December that "we are losing the battle" against climate change and urged faster action to combat global warming.

The French leader called on private sector attendees in New Delhi to engage more actively because "solar investments are becoming more profitable".

He and Modi will open a new 100 megawatt solar plant near the holy Indian city of Varanasi on Monday. The French leader will also visit the Taj Mahal in Agra later Sunday.

Source: Solar Daily.
Link: http://www.solardaily.com/reports/Macron_pledges_700_million_euros_for_new_solar_projects_999.html.

EU's Juncker warns of possible return to war in Balkans

April 17, 2018

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is warning that the volatile Balkans could face a return to war if countries in the region have no hope of joining the European Union.

Juncker told EU lawmakers Tuesday: "I don't want a return to war in the Western Balkans." He said: "If we remove from these countries, in this extremely complicated region, I should say tragically, a European perspective, we are going to live what we already went through in the 1990s."

EU and Balkan leaders meet in Bulgaria next month, but the EU is unlikely to invite any country to join soon. The prospect of EU membership has proved a driving force for reform in the Balkans, which was torn apart by war as former Yugoslavia broke up.

EU recalls Moscow envoy after blaming Russia over spy attack

March 23, 2018

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is recalling its ambassador from Moscow for consultations over the nerve gas attack against a former spy in Britain earlier this month, reinforcing a united stand with Prime Minister Theresa May against Russia.

After the EU firmly sided with May in the escalating conflict reminiscent of the Cold War and said it was "highly likely Russia is responsible" for the attack on Sergei Skripal, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the EU envoy "is being recalled for consultations to Brussels."

May won the backing of 27 other EU leaders at a summit Thursday and the bloc called the attack a "grave challenge to our shared security." The EU states said they would "coordinate on the consequences to be drawn in the light of the answers provided by the Russian authorities."

May was delighted with the support early Friday. "This is about us standing together to uphold our values against the Russian threat," she said. Rutte said no sanctions were actually discussed at the summit even though rumors swirled of more drastic diplomatic measures. President Dalia Grybauskaite of former Soviet state Lithuania said she was considering expelling Russian diplomats in the wake of the March 4 attack.

Rutte said over the coming days or weeks, "we and our partners must see what the logical next steps are." He insisted that any measure "must have an added value to this extremely strong political declaration."

The unanimity was a victory for May. She had been striving at a summit in Brussels to persuade her EU colleagues to unite in condemning Moscow over the attack on Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for Britain, and his daughter, Yulia.

Russia strongly denies responsibility and has slammed Britain's investigation. During a summit dinner, May laid out the reasons Britain is convinced Moscow was behind the attack, including the type of poison used — a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok — and intelligence that Russia has produced it within the last decade.

Britain argues the attack is part of a pattern of behavior by an increasingly assertive Russia whose muscle-flexing, cyber-meddling and law-breaking on foreign soil pose a threat to the international rule of law.

May said Thursday that "it is clear that the Russian threat doesn't respect borders." She said "the incident in Salisbury was part of a pattern of Russian aggression against Europe and its near neighbors, from the western Balkans to the Middle East."

But European politicians and leaders varied in how far they were willing to go in blaming the Kremlin. Russia President Vladimir Putin's office said Thursday that Greek leader Alexis Tsipras had called Putin to congratulate him on his re-election and discuss issues, including the Salisbury poisoning.

Britain and Russia have expelled 23 of each other's diplomats in a dispute showing no sign of easing. Russia's ambassador to the U.K., Alexander Yakovenko, accused the U.K. Thursday of having a "bad record of violating international law and misleading the international community."

"History shows that British statements must be verified," he told reporters in London, demanding "full transparency of the investigation and full cooperation with Russia" and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Danica Kirka and Greg Katz in London contributed to this report.

Queen tips Prince Charles to follow her as Commonwealth head

April 19, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II opened a summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth on Thursday, and backed her son Prince Charles to be the next leader of the association of Britain and its former colonies.

In a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, the queen said she hoped Charles would "carry on the important work" of leading the Commonwealth, a loose alliance of countries large and small that has struggled to carve out a firm place on the world stage.

For decades, the queen has been the driving force behind the Commonwealth but she has no designated successor as chief. Some have suggested that Charles should not take over the helm of the group, which takes in 2.4 billion people on five continents.

"It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations and will decide that one day the Prince of Wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949," the queen said.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who hosted the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2015, signaled that leaders were likely to confirm Charles as successor to his mother, who turns 92 on Saturday.

Muscat said he was sure that Charles, a long-time advocate for environmental issues, "will provide solid and passionate leadership for our Commonwealth" when called upon to do so. Commonwealth leaders are to discuss who will succeed the queen when they meet Friday at Windsor Castle, west of London.

British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman, James Slack, said Britain supported Charles becoming leader of the group, but added that "succession is a matter for the Commonwealth as a whole to determine."

The survival of the Commonwealth owes much to the commitment of the queen, who has visited almost every member country — often multiple times — over her 66-year-reign. May praised the monarch for being "the Commonwealth's most steadfast and fervent champion."

Leaders from countries ranging from vast India to tiny Tuvalu will spend two days meeting in London and at Windsor Castle. Their agenda includes protecting the world's oceans and helping small states boost their cybersecurity.

Britain also hopes to use the meeting as a launch pad for stronger trade ties with Commonwealth countries after the U.K. leaves the European Union next year. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said this week that Brexit could revitalize the Commonwealth and "usher in a new era, harnessing the movement of expertise, talent, goods and capital between our nations in a way that we have not done for a generation or more."

Others are skeptical that increased Commonwealth trade can make up for reduced access to Britain's biggest market, the EU. In 2017, 44 percent of British exports went to the EU and just 9 percent to Commonwealth countries.

Still, some say the Commonwealth could present a platform for British diplomatic and cultural clout after it leaves the EU. Michael Lake, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society charity, said the Commonwealth could be a "useful and productive stepping stone for the development of a new soft-power agenda."

But Britain's relationship with the Commonwealth has been clouded by diplomatic missteps and the legacy of empire. May had to apologize this week after it emerged that some people who came to the U.K. from the Caribbean decades ago had been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork to show their rights to residence.

Gay-rights activists are also protesting the summit, urging the repeal of laws against homosexuality that are in effect in more than 30 Commonwealth countries — in many cases, introduced under British rule.

May says Britain deeply regrets its role in passing the anti-gay laws. "I am all too aware that these laws were often put in place by my own country," she said. "They were wrong then, and they are wrong now."

The Commonwealth is officially committed to democracy and human rights, but its rights record is mixed. Many look with pride on the organization's role in the 1970s and '80s in trying to end apartheid in South Africa.

But many Commonwealth nations have been plagued by corruption or destabilized by coups. Zimbabwe's former president, Robert Mugabe, pulled his country out of the group in 2003 after it was suspended for widespread human rights abuses. Gambia quit in 2013, calling the Commonwealth a "neocolonial institution." It rejoined earlier this year.

Still, the Commonwealth provides support for democracy and corruption-fighting, and gives its smaller members a chance to be heard as part of an international network. Attempts to expand the club beyond former British colonies have had modest success, with Mozambique and Rwanda joining in recent years.

Philip Murphy, who heads the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, said the Commonwealth was held together by "a kind of inertia, the fact that it's probably more trouble to wind it up than to keep going."

But he said he wouldn't write it off just yet. "It's sort of like the Holy Roman Empire — international organizations can survive long beyond their natural expiry date," Murphy said.

Queen to welcome Commonwealth leaders as group seeks mission

April 18, 2018

LONDON (AP) — The flags of more than 50 nations are flying outside Buckingham Palace as Queen Elizabeth II prepares to welcome leaders from the Commonwealth, an international club with an eclectic membership, an identity problem and an uncertain future.

The Commonwealth, an association of the U.K. and its former colonies, includes 53 countries, from populous India to tiny Tuvalu, held together loosely by historic ties, the English language and affection for the queen, who turns 92 on Saturday and has no designated successor as head of the group.

Philip Murphy, director of the University of London's Institute of Commonwealth Studies, wrote in the Guardian newspaper the group was like "a grandfather clock that has been in the family for generations. It hasn't told the right time for decades, but no one has the heart to take such a treasured heirloom to the (dump)."

Yet the old piece of furniture is getting a polish and a tuneup. With the U.K. set to leave the European Union next year, British authorities see the Commonwealth as a potential cornerstone of post-Brexit "global Britain."

Britain is devoting both royal pomp and political capital to the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which is being held in London for the first time in two decades. The queen is hosting a Buckingham Palace dinner on Thursday, and has enthusiastically backed the "Commonwealth Canopy," a forest conservation plan for all member nations.

Charismatic younger royals including Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle have been deployed to Commonwealth-related events with young people, businesses and volunteer groups. Commonwealth leaders will spend Friday discussing issues such as trade, climate change, terrorism and cybersecurity in the grand surroundings of Windsor Castle, west of London.

Government leaders including India's Narendra Modi, Canada's Justin Trudeau, Australia's Malcolm Turnbull, New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern and Jamaica's Andrew Holness have all traipsed into 10 Downing St. for meetings with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

As Britain leaves the EU and its borderless single market for goods and services, it is eager to bolster trade with the Commonwealth, which includes wealthy industrialized nations such as Australia and Canada as well as huge, fast-growing India.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said this week that Brexit could revitalize the Commonwealth and "usher in a new era, harnessing the movement of expertise, talent, goods and capital between our nations in a way that we have not done for a generation or more."

Others are skeptical. In 2017, 44 percent of British exports went to the EU and just 9 percent to Commonwealth countries. Even if intra-Commonwealth trade almost doubles by 2020, as a recent report from the organization predicted, it would still leave a big trading gap for British exporters.

Murphy calls the promise of a Commonwealth economic boost "snake oil" from pro-Brexit campaigners. Still, some say the Commonwealth could provide a platform for British diplomatic and cultural clout after it leaves the EU.

Michael Lake, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society charity, said the Commonwealth could be a "useful and productive stepping stone for the development of a new soft-power agenda." "It is absolutely not a replacement for Europe. But if you are looking to reshape your foreign policy, it would be perverse to think that the Commonwealth wasn't a useful element in that," he said.

But Britain's relationship with the Commonwealth has been clouded by diplomatic missteps and the legacy of empire. May had to apologize this week after it emerged that some people who came to the U.K. from Caribbean decades ago had been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork to show their right to residence.

The treatment of the "Windrush generation" — named for the ship Empire Windrush, which brought the first big group of post-war Caribbean immigrants to Britain in 1948 — has strained Commonwealth relations just as Britain is trying to strengthen them.

Gay-rights activists will be protesting the summit, urging the repeal of laws against homosexuality that are in force in more than 30 Commonwealth countries — in many cases, introduced under British rule.

May said Tuesday that Britain deeply regretted its role in passing anti-gay laws. "I am all too aware that these laws were often put in place by my own country," she said. "They were wrong then, and they are wrong now."

The Commonwealth is officially committed to democracy and human rights, but its rights record is mixed. Many look with pride on the organization's role in the 1970s and '80s in trying to end apartheid in South Africa.

But many Commonwealth nations have been plagued by corruption or destabilized by coups. Zimbabwe's former president, Robert Mugabe, pulled his country out of the group in 2003 after it was suspended for widespread human rights abuses. Gambia quit in 2013, calling the Commonwealth a "neocolonial institution." It rejoined earlier this year.

Still, the Commonwealth provides support for democracy and corruption-fighting, and gives its smaller members the chance to be part of an international network. Attempts to expand the club beyond former British colonies have had modest success, with Mozambique and Rwanda joining in recent years.

The survival of the Commonwealth owes much to the commitment of the queen, who has visited almost every member country — often multiple times — over her 66-year-reign. Her son Prince Charles is heir to the British throne, but will not automatically succeed her as the organization's head. Commonwealth officials say the heads of government and secretary-general will decide who should head the group next, but have not said when or how that will take place.

Lake thinks "there is a widely held view that when the time comes Charles would be an able and widely accepted successor" — but there's no guarantee. Murphy said the Commonwealth today is held together by "a kind of inertia, the fact that it's probably more trouble to wind it up than to keep going."

But he said he wouldn't write it off just yet. "It's sort of like the Holy Roman Empire — international organizations can survive long beyond their natural expiry date," Murphy said.

UK's May tells lawmakers: Syria strikes were legal and moral

April 16, 2018

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May told restive lawmakers Monday that military airstrikes on Syria were right both legally and morally, and she accused Syria and its ally Russia of attempting to cover up evidence of a deadly chemical weapons attack.

May faced down her domestic critics as France's premier defended the "proportionate" response to the use of chemical weapons. European Union foreign ministers united to say they understood the need for the airstrikes and called for a new push for a political solution to the war in Syria.

British Royal Air Force jets joined American and French warplanes and ships in hitting targets in Syria early Saturday in response to a reported chemical attack by the Syrian government in the town of Douma.

The British government is not legally bound to seek Parliament's approval for military strikes, although it is customary to do so, and many lawmakers expressed anger that they were not consulted. May told legislators in the House of Commons that seeking their approval would have been impractical, both because Parliament was on a spring break until Monday and because some of the intelligence behind the decision was classified.

"We have always been clear that the government has the right to act quickly in the national interest," May said, calling the military action "not just morally right but also legally right." "We cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalized, either within Syria, on the streets of the U.K., or elsewhere," May said — linking the chemical attack in Syria with the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter last month with a military-grade nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury.

Syria and Russia have both denied that Syrian government forces carried out the Douma gas attack, suggesting it may have been staged to implicate them. May said the presence of helicopters and the use of barrel bombs pointed the finger of blame squarely at the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. She accused Syria, aided by Russia, of trying to block an investigation into the gas attack by the international chemical weapons watchdog.

"The Syrian regime has reportedly been attempting to conceal the evidence by searching evacuees from Douma to ensure samples are not being smuggled from this area. And a wider operation to conceal the facts of the attack is underway, supported by the Russians," she said.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Monday that the organization's team "has not yet deployed to Douma," two days after arriving in Syria. He said Syrian and Russian officials who met the OPCW team in Damascus told them "that there were still pending security issues to be worked out before any deployment could take place."

In Britain's House of Commons, much of Monday's scheduled business was scrapped for an emergency debate on the airstrikes that stretched late into the evening. But the after-the-fact debate — without a binding vote — did not satisfy angry opposition lawmakers.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, called the airstrikes "legally questionable" and accused May of "following Donald Trump's lead." Corbyn said May should remember she "is accountable to this Parliament, not to the whims of the U.S. president.

May denied acting at the behest of the U.S. "We have not done this because President Trump asked us to do so," May said. "We have done it because we believe it was the right thing to do — and we are not alone."

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also justified the military action in a speech Monday to the National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament. Philippe told lawmakers that France's "riposte" was "proportionate" and sent a strong, clear message to dissuade Syria's government from using chemical weapons.

He said the joint action of the U.S., Britain and France was aimed at placing a prohibitive cost on the use of chemical weapons and degrading Assad's ability to use them. Some French opposition leaders have criticized the strikes, saying they were not legitimate. Under the French Constitution, the government must inform the parliament, but a vote is requested only if a military intervention is expected to last more than four months.

In Luxembourg, the foreign ministers of the 28 EU countries called for a political breakthrough involving regional players to put Syria on track to a peaceful solution for its seven-year conflict. The ministers said the EU "understands" the need for the coordinated U.S, French and British airstrikes following the suspected April 7 chemical attack. They insisted it was executed with "the sole objective to prevent further use of chemical weapons and chemical substances as weapons by the Syrian regime to kill its own people."

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU wants to use a major meeting on Syria in Brussels next week to give impetus to U.N. peace efforts following Saturday's airstrikes. "There is the need to give a push to the U.N.-led process," Mogherini said.

More than 70 delegations are expected at the April 24-25 donor conference for Syria in Brussels.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless reported this story in London and AP writer Raf Casert reported from Luxembourg. AP writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

1 year to Brexit: So much to do, so little time

March 29, 2018

LONDON (AP) — The late British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said that a week is a long time in politics. For current British leader Theresa May, the coming year — the year before Brexit — may feel like just one very short, rushed week.

Thursday marks 365 days until Britain officially leaves the European Union on March 29, 2019, ending a 46-year marriage that has entwined the economies, legal systems and peoples of Britain and 27 other European countries.

There are a thousand complex issues to settle, and little time. Brexit is not so much like getting toothpaste back into the tube as trying to separate the ingredients of the paste. Britain formally announced its intention to leave the EU a year ago, triggering a two-year countdown. University of Manchester political science professor Rob Ford said that timeframe is "ludicrously short."

"That's not sufficient time to disentangle 40 years of political, social and economic entanglement," he said. "Even with the best will in the world — which isn't the spirit in which these negotiations have been conducted — it couldn't happen."

Across the English Channel in Brussels, the chief European Parliament Brexit official, Guy Verhofstadt, listed a few of the many areas where the two sides must strike a deal: fishing, aviation, research and academic exchanges, nuclear cooperation and the handling of radioactive materials. Failure could leave British hospitals unable to offer radiation treatment and British planes stranded on the tarmac.

"In every of these fields it will be necessary to find a new arrangement," Verhofstadt told The Associated Press. Britain will turn into a third country "and a third country cannot have the same advantages as a member state."

The EU has repeated that warning ever since Britain voted in June 2016 to leave: Brexit is going to hurt. That applies especially to future trade and economic ties, which the two sides have barely begun to negotiate.

In a speech this month, May said she wanted "the broadest and deepest possible partnership" through a free-trade deal unlike any other in the world. EU leaders warn Britain that it cannot "cherry-pick" the benefits of membership without the obligations.

The two sides have given themselves until October to agree on the outlines of a deal, so that the EU and national parliaments can sign off on it before Brexit day. That deadline is rapidly approaching after many months of delay and deferral.

Nine months passed between Britain voting to leave the EU and the triggering of the two-year countdown. More delay followed when May called a snap election to strengthen her hand in Brexit talks — only to lose her majority in Parliament and much of her authority as leader.

Her government now relies on support from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which has further complicated talks on the most intractable of all Brexit issues — maintaining the near-invisible border between the EU's Ireland and the U.K.'s Northern Ireland.

Negotiations between Britain and the EU finally began in earnest last summer. Their main achievement so far is a transition period that will last until the end of 2020. During the transition, Britain will continue to pay into EU coffers and follow the bloc's rules, though it will lose its voice in decision-making.

The transition period has eased, though not erased, fears of a Brexit cliff-edge, in which time runs out and Britain crashes out of the EU with no deal. Both Britain and the EU — and most businesses — want to avoid that economically and politically destabilizing scenario.

Verhofstadt said he is "an optimist by nature" and considers a cliff-edge Brexit unlikely. "The question is: Can we bridge the red lines of the U.K. with the principles of the European Union? And the answer is yes, it is possible," he said.

Amid the uncertainty, British businesses worry. Since the referendum, inflation in Britain has shot up, and growth, once among the highest in the EU, is now below the bloc's average. May plans to mark the one-year countdown on Thursday with a whistle-stop visit to the four corners of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — to stress her commitment to a Brexit that unites the country.

That seems a distant hope. The 52 percent-48 percent referendum result divided Britain into two mutually mistrustful camps, leavers and remainers, battling over the nation's future. Remainers argue Britain should be able to change its mind if it turns out Brexit will damage the economy and the country. "Nobody voted in the referendum to be worse off," said pro-EU Labour lawmaker Chris Leslie.

That argument infuriates Brexiteers like John Longworth, co-director of lobby group Leave Means Leave. He says pro-EU campaigners are "a fifth column in the U.K. working in collusion with the European Union to try and wreck the Brexit process."

While Brexit has divided Britain, it has brought out unity in the often fractious EU. "After Brexit, everybody thought there would be a sort of domino effect," Verhofstadt said. "A Dexit, the Danish going out; Nexit, the Dutch going out; a Frexit even, the French going out. What we have seen is exactly the opposite. Since Brexit, we see that people again have a positive feeling about the EU.

"They are saying, we will not be so stupid as to leave the EU, to destroy the EU. So Brexit has been a serious wake-up call."

Casert reported from Brussels.

World's First Road That Recharges Vehicles While Driving Opens in Sweden

13.4.2018 Friday

Sweden inaugurated on Wednesday the first road of its kind that can recharge commercial and passenger car batteries while driving.

The eRoadArlanda project consists of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of electric rail installed on a public road outside Arlanda Airport. The innovation was funded by the Swedish Transport Administration and is part of the government's goal of fossil fuel-free transportation infrastructure by 2030.

According to the project website, the road works by transferring energy from an electrified rail to a movable arm attached underneath the vehicle. The arm is able to detect and lower onto the electrified section when the vehicle drives above it.

The road is divided into 50-meter sections, with each section supplying power only when a vehicle is above it. When the vehicle stops, the current is disconnected. The system is also able to calculate the vehicle's energy consumption, which enables electricity costs to be debited per vehicle and user.

A diesel-turned-electric truck owned by logistics firm PostNord is the first to use the road. Over the next 12 months, the truck will stay juiced as it shuttles deliveries between Arlanda Airport and its distribution center 12 kilometers away, The Local reported.

"Everything is 100 percent automatic, based on the connector magnetically sensing the road," Hans S?ll, chairman of the eRoadArlanda consortium and business development director at construction firm NCC, told The Local. "As a driver you drive as usual, the connector goes down onto the track automatically and if you leave the track, it goes up automatically."

The developers claim that electrified roads can cut fossil fuel emissions by 80 to 90 percent. According to the project website, "operating costs will be minimal, due to significant reductions in energy consumption arising from the use of efficient electric engines. Electricity is also a cleaner, quieter and less expensive source of energy, compared with diesel."

S?ll told the Guardian, "If we electrify 20,000 kilometers of highways that will definitely be be enough."

"The distance between two highways is never more than 45 kilometers and electric cars can already travel that distance without needing to be recharged. Some believe it would be enough to electrify 5,000 kilometers," he added.

According to the Guardian, electrification will cost about €1 million ($1.23 million) per kilometer, which is said to be 50 times lower than the cost of building an urban tram line.

"One of the most important issues of our time is the question of how to make fossil-free road transportation a reality," S?ll said in a statement. "We now have a solution that will make this possible, which is amazing. Sweden is at the cutting edge of this technology, which we now hope to introduce in other areas of the country and the world."

Source: EcoWatch.
Link: https://www.ecowatch.com/electric-vehicles-recharge-road-sweden-2559608067.html.

Trump: US, France and UK launch strikes on Syria

April 14, 2018

President Donald Trump just announced he ordered strikes on the Syrian regime in response to a chemical weapons attack last weekend.

“I ordered the United States armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapon capabilities of Syrian dictator of Bashar al-Assad,” Trump said from the White House Diplomatic Room.

Trump said the strikes were in coordination with France and the United Kingdom, adding that the purpose of the campaign is to “establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons.”

“The combined American, British and French response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our national power: military, economic and diplomatic,” Trump said.

Trump indicated the strikes would continue until the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons ends.

“We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents,” Trump said.

The President also insisted that the US would not remain engaged in Syria forever under any circumstances. He has previously told his national security team he wants US troops to exit Syria within six months.

“America does not seek an indefinite presence in Syria,” Trump said from the White House. “As other nations step up their contributions we look forward to the day we can bring our warriors home.”

Trump told the nation in his address the US “cannot purge the world of evil or act everywhere there is tyranny.”

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180414-trump-us-france-and-uk-launch-strikes-on-syria/.

50 New York student groups back BDS

April 12, 2018

Fifty student groups at New York University pledged to back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on Monday.

Students for Justice in Palestine, NYU Jewish Voice for Peace, the African Student Union, the Malaysian Students Association, Asian American Women’s Alliance, Black Students Union, and the Muslim Students Association are amongst the student groups which have voiced their opposition of Israel’s ongoing “campaign of ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians.

The groups committed to “boycotting Israeli goods and goods manufactured in the Occupied Territories, except for those manufactured by Palestinians”. They also agreed not to co-sponsor events with the NYU’s pro-Israel clubs and Israeli academic institutions.

“We call on NYU to divest its holdings from companies and funds that are complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” the groups said in a joint letter, adding that they “are proud to be a part of this struggle for justice”.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180412-50-new-york-student-groups-back-bds/.

First clues emerge about Cuba's future under new president

April 20, 2018

HAVANA (AP) — Miguel Diaz-Canel has been the presumptive next president of Cuba since 2013, when Raul Castro named the laconic former provincial official to the important post of first vice president and lauded him as "neither a novice nor an improviser," high praise in a system dedicated to continuity over all.

Castro said nothing about how a young civilian from outside his family could lead the socialist nation that he and his older brother Fidel created from scratch and ruled with total control for nearly 60 years.

Exiles in Miami said Diaz-Canel would be a figurehead for continued Castro dominance. Cubans on the island speculated about a weak president sharing power with the head of the communist party, or maybe a newly created post of prime minister. No one who knew was talking. And no one who was talking knew.

The first clues to the mystery of Cuba's future power structure were revealed early Thursday when Raul Castro handed the presidency to Diaz-Canel, who took office when the 604-member National Assembly said 603 of its members had approved the 57-year-old as the sole official candidate for the top government position.

With Castro watching from the audience, Diaz-Canel made clear that for the moment he would defer to the man who founded Cuba's communist system along with his brother. Diaz-Canel said he would retain Castro's Cabinet through at least July, when the National Assembly meets again.

"I confirm to this assembly that Raul Castro, as first secretary of the Communist Party, will lead the decisions about the future of the country," Diaz-Canel said. "Cuba needs him, providing ideas and proposals for the revolutionary cause, orienting and alerting us about any error or deficiency, teaching us, and always ready to confront imperialism."

Perhaps more importantly, Castro's 90-minute valedictory speech offered his first clear plan for a president whom Castro seemed to envision as the heir to near-total control of the country's political system, which in turn dominates virtually every aspect of life in Cuba. Castro said he foresees the white-haired electronics engineer serving two five-year terms as leader of the Cuban government, and taking the helm of the Communist Party, the country's ultimate authority, also for two five-year terms, when Castro leaves the powerful position in 2021.

"From that point on, I will be just another soldier defending this revolution," Castro said. The 86-year-old general broke frequently from his prepared remarks to joke and banter with officials on the dais in the National Assembly, saying he looked forward to having more time to travel the country.

State media struck a similar valedictory tone. The evening newscast played black-and-white footage of Castro as a young revolutionary, with the soundtrack of "The Last Mambi" a song that bids farewell to Castro as a public figure and was written by Raul Torres, a singer who composed a similar homage to Fidel Castro after the revolutionary leader's death in 2016.

The plan laid out by Raul Castro on Thursday would leave Diaz-Canel as the dominant figure in Cuban politics until 2031. "The same thing we're doing with him, he'll have to do with his successor," Castro said. "When his 10 years of service as president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers are over, he'll have three years as first secretary in order to facilitate the transition. This will help us avoid mistakes by his successor, until (Diaz-Canel) retires to take care of the grandchildren he will have then, if he doesn't have them already, or his great-grandchildren."

Diaz-Canel pledged that his priority would be preserving Cuba's communist system while gradually reforming the economy and making the government more responsive to the people. "There's no space here for a transition that ignores or destroys the legacy of so many years of struggle," Diaz-Canel said.

Diaz-Canel said he would work to implement a long-term plan laid out by the National Assembly and Communist Party that would continue allowing the limited growth of private enterprises like restaurants and taxis, while leaving the economy's most important sectors such as energy, mining, telecommunications, medical services and rum- and cigar-production in the hands of the state.

"The people have given this assembly the mandate to provide continuity to the Cuban Revolution during a crucial, historic moment that will be defined by all that we achieve in the advance of the modernization of our social and economic model," Diaz-Canel said.

Cubans said they expected their new president to deliver improvements to the island's economy, which remains stagnant and dominated by inefficient, unproductive state-run enterprises that are unable to provide salaries high enough to cover basic needs. The average monthly pay for state workers is roughly $30 a month.

"I hope that Diaz-Canel brings prosperity," said Richard Perez, a souvenir salesman in Old Havana. "I want to see changes, above all economic changes allowing people to have their own businesses, without the state in charge of so many things."

But in Miami, Cuban-Americans said they didn't expect much from Diaz-Canel. "It's a cosmetic change," said Wilfredo Allen, a 66-year-old lawyer who left Cuba two years after the Castros' 1959 revolution. "The reality is that Raul Castro is still controlling the Communist Party. We are very far from having a democratic Cuba."

After formally taking over from his older brother Fidel in 2008, Raul Castro launched a series of reforms that led to a rapid expansion of Cuba's private sector and burgeoning use of cellphones and the internet. Cuba today has a vibrant real estate market and one of the world's fastest-growing airports. Tourism numbers have more than doubled since Castro and President Barack Obama re-established diplomatic relations in 2015, making Cuba a destination for nearly 5 million visitors a year, despite a plunge in relations under the Trump administration.

Castro's moves to open the economy even further have largely been frozen or reversed as soon as they began to generate conspicuous displays of wealth by the new entrepreneurial class in a country officially dedicated to equality among its citizens. Foreign investment remains anemic and the island's infrastructure is falling deeper into disrepair. The election of President Donald Trump dashed dreams of detente with the U.S., and after two decades of getting Venezuelan subsidies totaling more than $6 billion a year, Cuba's patron has collapsed economically, with no replacement in the wings.

Castro's inability or unwillingness to fix Cuba's structural problems with deep and wide-ranging reforms has many wondering how a successor without Castro's founding-father credentials will manage the country over the next five or 10 years.

"I want the country to advance," said Susel Calzado, a 61-year-old economics professor. "We already have a plan laid out." At the U.S. State Department, spokeswoman Heather Nauert expressed disappointment at the handover, saying Cuban citizens "had no real power to affect the outcome" of what she called the "undemocratic transition."

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted at Castro that the U.S. won't rest until Cuba "has free & fair elections, political prisoners are released & the people of Cuba are finally free!" Diaz-Canel first gained prominence in Villa Clara province as the top Communist Party official, a post equivalent to governor. People there describe him as a hard-working, modest-living technocrat dedicated to improving public services. He became higher education minister in 2009 before moving into the vice presidency.

In a video of a Communist Party meeting that inexplicably leaked to the public last year, Diaz-Canel expressed a series of orthodox positions that included somberly pledging to shutter some independent media and labeling some European embassies as outposts of foreign subversion.

But he has also defended academics and bloggers who became targets of hard-liners, leading some to describe him a potential advocate for greater openness in a system intolerant of virtually any criticism or dissent.

International observers and Cubans alike will be scrutinizing every move he makes in coming days and weeks.

Associated Press writer Ben Fox contributed to this report.

Raul Castro retires as Cuban president, outlines future

April 20, 2018

HAVANA (AP) — Raul Castro turned over Cuba's presidency Thursday to a 57-year-old successor he said would hold power until 2031, a plan that would place the state the Castro brothers founded and ruled for 60 years in the hands of a Communist Party official little known to most on the island.

Castro's 90-minute valedictory speech offered his first clear vision for the nation's future power structure under new President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez. Castro said he foresees the white-haired electronics engineer serving two five-year terms as leader of the Cuban government, and taking the helm of the Communist Party, the country's ultimate authority, when Castro leaves the powerful position in 2021.

"From that point on, I will be just another soldier defending this revolution," Castro said. The 86-year-old general broke frequently from his prepared remarks to joke and banter with officials on the dais in the National Assembly, saying he looked forward to having more time to travel the country.

In his own half-hour speech to the nation, Diaz-Canel pledged to preserve Cuba's communist system while gradually reforming the economy and making the government more responsive to the people. "There's no space here for a transition that ignores or destroys the legacy of so many years of struggle," Diaz-Canel said. "For us, it's totally clear that only the Communist Party of Cuba, the guiding force of society and the state, guarantees the unity of the nation of Cuba."

Diaz-Canel said he would work to implement a long-term plan laid out by the National Assembly and communist party that would continue allowing the limited growth of private enterprises like restaurants and taxis, while leaving the economy's most important sectors such as energy, mining, telecommunications, medical services and rum- and cigar-production in the hands of the state.

"The people have given this assembly the mandate to provide continuity to the Cuban Revolution during a crucial, historic moment that will be defined by all that we achieve in the advance of the modernization of our social and economic model," Diaz-Canel said.

Cubans said they expected their new president to deliver improvements to the island's economy, which remains stagnant and dominated by inefficient, unproductive state-run enterprises that are unable to provide salaries high enough to cover basic needs. The average monthly pay for state workers is roughly $30 a month, forcing many to steal from their workplaces and depend on remittances from relatives abroad.

"I hope that Diaz-Canel brings prosperity," said Richard Perez, a souvenir salesman in Old Havana. "I want to see changes, above all economic changes allowing people to have their own businesses, without the state in charge of so many things."

But in Miami, Cuban-Americans said they didn't expect much from Diaz-Canel. "It's a cosmetic change," said Wilfredo Allen, a 66-year-old lawyer who left Cuba two years after the Castros' 1959 revolution. "The reality is that Raul Castro is still controlling the Communist Party. We are very far from having a democratic Cuba."

After formally taking over from his older brother Fidel in 2008, Raul Castro launched a series of reforms that led to a rapid expansion of Cuba's private sector and burgeoning use of cellphones and the internet. Cuba today has a vibrant real estate market and one of the world's fastest-growing airports. Tourism numbers have more than doubled since Castro and President Barack Obama re-established diplomatic relations in 2015, making Cuba a destination for nearly 5 million visitors a year, despite a plunge in relations under the Trump administration.

Castro's moves to open the economy even further have largely been frozen or reversed as soon as they began to generate conspicuous displays of wealth by the new entrepreneurial class in a country officially dedicated to equality among its citizens. Foreign investment remains anemic and the island's infrastructure is falling deeper into disrepair. The election of President Donald Trump dashed dreams of detente with the U.S., and after two decades of getting Venezuelan subsidies totaling more than $6 billion a year, Cuba's patron has collapsed economically, with no replacement in the wings.

Castro's inability or unwillingness to fix Cuba's structural problems with deep and wide-ranging reforms has many wondering how a successor without Castro's founding-father credentials will manage the country over the next five or 10 years.

"I want the country to advance," said Susel Calzado, a 61-year-old economics professor. "We already have a plan laid out." Most Cubans have known their new president as an uncharismatic figure who until recently maintained a public profile so low it was virtually nonexistent. Castro's declaration Thursday that he saw Diaz-Canel in power for more than a decade was likely to resolve much of the uncertainty about the power the new president would wield inside the Cuban system.

"The same thing we're doing with him, he'll have to do with his successor," Castro said. "When his 10 years of service as president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers are over, he'll have three years as first secretary in order to facilitate the transition. This will help us avoid mistakes by his successor, until (Diaz-Canel) retires to take care of the grandchildren he will have then, if he doesn't have them already, or his great-grandchildren."

Cuban state media said Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Diaz-Canel and thanked Castro for the many years of cooperation between the two countries, while Chinese President Xi Jinping also reaffirmed his country's friendship with Cuba and expressed interest in deeper ties.

At the U.S. State Department, spokeswoman Heather Nauert expressed disappointment at the handover, saying Cuban citizens "had no real power to affect the outcome" of what she called the "undemocratic transition" that brought Diaz-Canal to the presidency.

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted at Castro that the U.S. won't rest until Cuba "has free & fair elections, political prisoners are released & the people of Cuba are finally free!" Diaz-Canel said his government would be willing to talk with the United States but rejected all demands for changes in the Cuban system.

With Castro watching from the audience, Diaz-Canel made clear that for the moment he would defer to the man who founded the Cuban communist system along with his brother Fidel. He said he would retain Castro's cabinet through at least July, when the National Assembly meets again.

"I confirm to this assembly that Raul Castro, as first secretary of the Communist Party, will lead the decisions about the future of the country," Diaz-Canel said. "Cuba needs him, providing ideas and proposals for the revolutionary cause, orienting and alerting us about any error or deficiency, teaching us, and always ready to confront imperialism."

Diaz-Canel first gained prominence in central Villa Clara province as the top Communist Party official, a post equivalent to governor. People there describe him as a hard-working, modest-living technocrat dedicated to improving public services. He became higher education minister in 2009 before moving into the vice presidency.

In a video of a Communist Party meeting that inexplicably leaked to the public last year, Diaz-Canel expressed a series of orthodox positions that included somberly pledging to shutter some independent media and labeling some European embassies as outposts of foreign subversion.

But he has also defended academics and bloggers who became targets of hard-liners, leading some to describe him a potential advocate for greater openness in a system intolerant of virtually any criticism or dissent. International observers and Cubans alike will be scrutinizing every move he makes in coming days and weeks.

As in Cuba's legislative elections, all of the leaders selected Wednesday were picked by a government-appointed commission. Ballots offered only the option of approval or disapproval and candidates generally receive more than 95 percent of the votes in their favor. Diaz-Canel was approved by 604 votes in the 605-member assembly. It was unclear if he had abstained or someone else had declined to endorse him.

The assembly also approved another six vice presidents of the Council of State, Cuba's highest government body. Only one, 85-year-old Ramiro Valdes, was among the revolutionaries who fought with the Castros in the late 1950s in the eastern Sierra Maestra mountains.

Associated Press writer Ben Fox contributed to this report.

Israeli PM slams Dublin mayor's visit to Palestine

April 13, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the mayor of Dublin, Ireland Thursday over his recent visit to Palestine.

Dublin Lord Mayor Micheal Mac Donncha “should be ashamed of himself for attending an anti-Israel conference in Ramallah”, Netanyahu said in a post on his Facebook account.

The conference, held Wednesday, focused on the disputed status of Jerusalem.

Donncha, who is banned from entering Israel for supporting the Palestinian cause, managed to slip through immigration at Tel Aviv airport because authorities misspelled his name on the order barring his entry.

Ireland’s ambassador to Israel was summoned by Israel’s Foreign Ministry to protest Donccha’s attendance of the event.

Earlier in the week, the Dublin City Council passed a resolution calling on Ireland’s government to expel the Israeli ambassador over the recent killings of Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip.

At least 31 Palestinians have been killed by cross-border gunfire by the Israeli army since March 30 when peaceful rallies began along the Gaza Strip’s roughly 45-kilometer eastern border with Israel.

Demonstrators are demanding that Palestinian refugees be given the “right of return” to their towns and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948.

The rallies are part of a six-week-long demonstration that will culminate on May 15. That day will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment — an event Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180413-israeli-pm-slams-dublin-mayors-visit-to-palestine/.

Israel minister calls for assassination of Syria's Bashar Al-Assad

April 12, 2018

Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant has called for Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad to be assassinated, Sky News reported.

Israeli media reported that Al-Assad has left his presidential palace yesterday morning accompanied by a Russian military convoy for fear of an American strike, reports Russia has denied.

In preparation for a possible US-led strike on Syria, Russia Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) yesterday recommended all Russia flights exercise caution while travelling through the eastern Mediterranean region.

“Rosaviatsiya has sent telegrams to air transport companies notifying them to give special attention to planning flights in the Eastern Mediterranean region and to the importance of notifications provided by the aviation authority to alert pilots to hazards on the flight course,” a source at the Russian organisation told TASS news agency.

The international air traffic control agency Eurocontrol has also warned flights travelling over the Eastern Mediterranean to exercise extra caution, due to possible strikes over the next 72 hours that could interrupt radio navigation systems. Most flights have avoided the area since the start of the conflict, although Syrian Air and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines continue to use Syrian airspace.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180412-israel-minister-calls-for-assassination-of-syrias-bashar-al-assad/.

2,000 Kachin trapped by Myanmar fighting lack food, medicine

April 19, 2018

BANGKOK (AP) — Community leaders from the Christian ethnic Kachin community have called for urgent medical attention for about 2,000 civilians, including pregnant women and the elderly, trapped in the jungle where they fled to escape clashes between the Myanmar's army and the Kachin guerrillas in the country's north.

The latest fighting in Kachin state's Tanai region — an area known for amber and gold mining — began in early April with government shelling and airstrikes in response to threats by the rebel Kachin Independence Army to retake lost territory.

The Rev. Mung Dan, a Baptist community leader, said Wednesday the civilians trapped without medicine or sufficient food include five pregnant women, two women who just gave birth, 93 old people, and other villagers wounded by mortar shelling. They are "in dire need of medical treatment as well as rations," he said by phone.

"Even today, it's been raining the whole day in our region and these civilians do not have any shelter yet and they are suffering from sickness as well," he added. A non-governmental organization based in Kachin state has sent an open letter to the Kachin State Minister on Wednesday, asking for the permission to rescue civilians but the permission has not been granted yet.

"We have been asking permission to rescue people who are trapped in the jungle and they are in a very critical condition," said Awng Ja, a member of Kachin State Women Network, which helps displaced women. "But the state minister said only if the military granted us access, we can rescue these civilians."

Rights and aids groups said the Myanmar government and the military have dramatically increased restrictions on humanitarian assistance to some 100,000 displaced people. The government has denied virtually denied all access for the United Nations and other international humanitarian groups.

Some civilian have already been killed by the government's offensive, the Kachin say. "At least three civilians were killed by the army's mortar shells and airstrikes in three different places since April 11," said Naw Bu, the head of the information department of the Kachin Independence Organization, the political organization to which the Kachin Independence Army is affiliated.

The Kachin Independence Army, like other ethnic minority armed groups, has been fighting on and off for decades against the central government for greater autonomy. Combat between the Kachin rebels and the government military resumed in 2011, ending a 17-year ceasefire agreement. The clashes have left hundreds dead and more than 100,000 civilians displaced.

Myanmar's military has long been accused of grave human rights violations against ethnic minority groups in different parts of the country. Most recently, it has been accused of abuses against the Muslim ethnic Rohingya minority in the western state of Rakhine that critics say amounts to "ethnic cleansing," as violent counter-insurgency sweeps by the army helped drive about 700,000 Rohingya across the border to neighboring Bangladesh, where they stay in refugee camps.

Myanmar's president grants amnesty to over 8,500 prisoners

April 17, 2018

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar President Win Myint has granted amnesty to more than 8,500 prisoners, reportedly including at least three dozen political prisoners. The amnesty, announced Tuesday, coincided with Myanmar's traditional New Year. It was granted to 8,490 Myanmar citizens and 51 foreigners. A statement from presidential spokesman Zaw Thay said those released included the aged, people in ill health and drug offenders. None was individually named.

It also said 36 of those to be freed had been listed as political prisoners by the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The releases were to take place at prisons nationwide. Relatives and friends of those held waited Tuesday outside the gates at Insein Prison, in the northern outskirts of Yangon, where it was expected that more than 300 prisoners, including eight political detainees, would be released.

Although called an amnesty, the action appeared to actually be a mass pardon, meaning it would cover only prisoners who had already been convicted of crimes. Two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, facing a high-profile freedom of the press trial for possessing secret official documents would not be covered under the action.

One of the journalists' lawyers, Khin Maung Zaw, said his understanding was that the president was only pardoning convicted criminals. "So, since the two reporters have not been sentenced for prison terms, we don't know if they will be part of the release. If this was an amnesty, then it's possible that they might be part of the list," he told The Associated Press.

Bo Kyi, secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, said the group was waiting to confirm the releases. "We don't know exactly if all 36 political prisoners will be released or not, and that's why the family members are waiting outside of the prison," he said.

The group, which has extensive experience in monitoring the incarceration of political prisoners, says that 54 are currently serving prison terms after being convicted, 74 are in detention awaiting trial, and another 120 are awaiting trial but are not detained.

Win Myint became president last month, after his predecessor, Htin Kyaw, stepped down because of illness. The Facebook page of Deputy Information Minister Aung Hla Tun said the presidential action was taken "as a gesture of marking the Myanmar New Year and after taking into consideration the prevalence of peace of mind among the people, humanitarian concerns and friendly relations among nations."

The release of political prisoners was a priority of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party when it took over power from a pro-military government in March 2016. Suu Kyi is the country's de facto leader, holding the specially created post of State Counsellor. Constitutional rules prohibit her from serving as president because her two children are British, as was her late husband.

When Suu Kyi's government took power in 2016, it made it a priority to release political prisoners detained during military rule, freeing almost 200 within a month. However, critics of Suu Kyi's government say it also has pursued politically motivated prosecutions, citing cases against land rights activists and journalists.

University of Sydney academics back BDS, as Israel guns down protesters

April 13, 2018

Dozens of academics at the University of Sydney have declared their support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, reported the Australian.

According to the paper, the move comes as a response to the lethal crackdown by Israeli occupation forces on Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip.

The Australian notes that signatories to the BDS pledge say they “will not attend conferences sponsored by Israeli universities, participate in academic exchange schemes, or otherwise collaborate professionally with Israeli universities until the stated goals have been fulfilled.”

The BDS campaign, describes the paper, is an international movement “inspired by the success of boycotts in bringing an end to apartheid in South Africa”.

Nick Riemer, a senior lecturer in English and linguistics at the University of Sydney and a member of its BDS group, “said the response from fellow academics was encouraging” and expressed his hope that the pledge would spread to other Australian universities.

“People are already talking at Melbourne about the possibility of something like this,” he said.

According to the Sydney BDS website, some 40 academics have currently endorsed the pledge.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180413-university-of-sydney-academics-back-bds-as-israel-guns-down-protesters/.

Animal rights groups slam bear use at Russian soccer match

April 17, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Animal rights groups have condemned the use of a bear that performed before a Russian soccer match. The routine happened before a third division match Sunday in the city of Pyatigorsk. TV footage from the game showed the animal being led to the Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk club's stadium, clapping at spectators. The bear, named Tima, also held the ball before handing it over to the referee.

The stadium's announcer claimed that the bear will take part in the World Cup's opening ceremony in Moscow in June, but soccer authorities haven't confirmed that. The club's manager says it was borrowed from a circus.

The New York-based World Animal Protection group condemned the stunt Monday, saying that it's clear from the footage that "cruel training methods have been used" on the bear. Rustam Dudov, manager of the Mashuk club which arranged for the bear to perform, told the Sport Express newspaper Monday that the bear was borrowed from a traveling circus which approached the club suggesting that the bear perform before the game. Dudov said the Russian Football Union approved the performance.