Catalonia's Puigdemont to be brought before judge in Germany

March 26, 2018

NEUMUENSTER, Germany (AP) — Catalonia's former president, Carles Puigdemont, was to be brought before a court in Germany on Monday for an initial hearing on whether he stays in custody, kicking off an extradition process that could take weeks.

The closed-doors hearing comes amid heightened tensions in the Spanish region following Puigdemont's arrest on a European warrant Sunday at a highway rest area south of the German-Danish border. Tens of thousands protested late Sunday in Barcelona and other Catalan towns, and some demonstrators clashed with riot police.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and misuse of public funds in organizing an unauthorized referendum on independence for Catalonia. Prosecutors in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein wouldn't say where Monday's hearing would take place, and the timing also wasn't clear. The hearing will entail the court formally establishing Puigdemont's identity and determining whether he is kept in custody on a preliminary basis, said Wiebke Hoffelner, a spokeswoman for prosecutors.

The state court in Schleswig will decide at a later date whether to put Puigdemont in formal pre-extradition custody on the basis of documents provided by Spain. German government officials have stressed that the case is a matter for the judicial system, but declined to say Monday whether the government could ultimately overrule a court decision.

European rules call for a final decision on extradition within 60 days of the suspect's arrest, though a 30-day extension is possible, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Stephanie Krueger said. German news agency dpa said Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the town of Neumuenster on Sunday.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities. Spain originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation last week.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, in an effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement. The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont was reactivated on Friday, when he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatists who fled the country.

It wasn't immediately clear why Puigdemont wasn't arrested earlier in his trip from Finland to Belgium. However, authorities examining a European arrest warrant need to check whether the offense a suspect is accused of committing is equivalent to a criminal offense in the country where he was arrested.

Germany's criminal code — unlike Belgium's — includes an offense that appears to be comparable to rebellion, the main accusation against Puigdemont. It calls for prison sentences for anyone who "undertakes, by force or through threat of force" to undermine the existence of the republic or change the constitutional order.

Puigdemont and other Catalan separatists argue that their movement has been entirely peaceful. Separatists condemned Sunday's street violence in Catalonia that led to 100 people, including 23 police agents, being treated for minor injuries.

German Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office was informed Friday about the arrest warrant and, in parallel, the office's liaison officer in Madrid was informed that Puigdemont might enter the country.

Schleswig-Holstein's state interior minister, Hans-Joachim Grote, told NDR television that four other people who were in the car with Puigdemont were taken to a police station and then released. He didn't identify them.

Dimroth said that, in "abstract terms," Puigdemont could seek asylum in Germany because anyone can file such a request, but added that he couldn't say anything about the likelihood of him being granted asylum or whether Puigdemont had made any such request.

Puigdemont's Belgian lawyer, Paul Bekaert, argued on VRT television that there was "flagrant abuse by Spain of the European arrest warrant for political purpose, which is totally illegal." However, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in Berlin that "Spain is a democratic state of law."

"The German government remains convinced that this Catalonia conflict must be resolved within the Spanish legal and constitutional order," he said, noting Berlin's support for the "clear position" of the Spanish government in recent months.

Moulson reported from Berlin. Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

Catalan ex-leader's capture in Germany sparks mass protests

March 25, 2018

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Five months after going on the run from Spanish authorities, Catalonia's former president was detained in Germany on an international warrant Sunday by highway police after the ardent separatist crossed the border with Denmark.

Carles Puigdemont's capture, aided by Spanish intelligence services, sparked protests of tens of thousands in Catalonia's main city of Barcelona and other towns in the wealthy northeastern corner of Spain. Some of the demonstrators clashed with riot police, leaving more than 50 civilians and police officers injured and leading to four arrests. Puigdemont will appear before a German judge on Monday.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities that they say won't be lifted until a new government that respects Spain's Constitution is in place.

Spain's state prosecutor office said it was in contact with its German counterparts to carry out its request to extradite Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges including rebellion that could put him in prison for up to 30 years.

In Barcelona, riot police shoved and struck protesters with batons to keep an angry crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government's representative. Police vans showed stains of yellow paint reportedly thrown by protestors. Reinforcements were called in after several hours to clear the neighboring streets, with protestors tossing street barriers and burning two garbage bins as they retreated.

Outside the city center, groups of demonstrators cut off traffic on four different stretches of highways. Police also used batons to keep back a crowd of a few thousand who had gathered in front of the Spanish government's representative in the city of Lleida.

German highway police stopped Puigdemont on Sunday morning near the A7 highway that leads into Germany from Denmark, police in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein said. German news agency dpa said that Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the northern town of Neumuenster. Dpa photos showed a van with tinted windows believed to be carrying Puigdemont as it arrived at the prison. Video footage also showed the same van leaving a police station in Schuby near the A7 highway.

State prosecutors in Schleswig said that Puigdemont will appear in court Monday in the northern German town to confirm his identity. It said in a statement that "the question of whether Mr. Puigdemont has to be taken into extradition custody will then have to be determined by the higher regional court in Schleswig."

German state prosecutor Ralph Doepper told RTL Television that Puigdemont has been "provisionally detained. He has not been arrested." "We are now examining the further procedure, i.e. tomorrow we will decide whether we will file a provisional application for detention with the competent district court, which could lead to extradition detention later on," Doepper said.

A Spanish police official told The Associated Press under customary condition of anonymity that Spain's National Center for Intelligence and police agents from its international cooperation division helped German police to locate Puigdemont.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge reactivated an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont on Friday when he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatist who fled the country.

Ines Arrimadas, the leader of the pro-Spain Citizens party which has the most seats in Catalonia's Parliament, said that the chaos on the streets was "of a society broken in two" by the secessionist movement.

Arrimadas said: "Puigdemont knew that fracturing Catalan society into two parts, spending public money on illegal activities, provoking a political and institutional crisis without precedents and confronting a 21st-century democracy of the European Union was going to have consequences."

But the Catalan parliament speaker, the highest-ranking elected official in the region until it forms a government, made a televised address on Catalan public television to call for a united "democratic front" of political parties, labor unions and civil society organizations to respond to what he called "the thirst for revenge of the powers of the state."

Speaker Roger Torrent accused Spain's central authorities of "attacking the heart of democracy making a general cause against its political adversaries." Miquel Coca, a business owner in Barcelona, likewise vowed that the secession push wouldn't falter.

"All the negative inputs that we have received help us to unite the society even more," Coca said. "If we can't have this leader, well, then there will be another. This is a movement of the people, not of one person."

Polls show Catalonia's 7.5 million residents are equally divided over secession, although a majority support holding a legal referendum on the issue. Puigdemont, 55, is a former journalist and mayor of Girona who was thrust to the forefront of Catalonia's independence push when he was handpicked by predecessor Artur Mas to become regional president in 2016. He withstood intense political pressure from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Spain's courts as he piloted the secession bid.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week. Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement. Puigdemont was also able to successfully run a campaign as the head of his "Together for Catalonia" bloc in a regional election in December in which separatist parties maintained their slim majority in Catalonia's regional parliament.

All told, Puigdemont has become enemy No. 1 of Rajoy's conservative government and Spain's justice system. He had wanted to be re-elected as Catalonia's regional president — albeit while remaining abroad to avoid arrest — but eventually was stopped by a Spanish court.

Separatists in Catalonia are currently trying to elect a leader for the regional government before a two-month time limit is up and new elections are called. Spain's Constitution says the nation is "indivisible" and any changes to its top law must be made by its national parliament in Madrid.

Nine people who promote Catalan secession have been placed in pre-trial custody to prevent what Llarena considered a flight risk or intention to continue with independence efforts. Also, Spain's highest judicial authority condemned insults that appeared painted on the street near a house owned by Llarena in the Catalan town of Das. They called the Supreme Court judge a "fascist" and wrote the message that he is "not welcome in Das or anywhere."

Scottish police said Sunday that the lawyer of Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan regional minister also being sought by Spain, had been in contact and is preparing to be handed over to authorities. She had moved to Scotland from Belgium earlier this month.

Kirsten Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Aritz Parra in Madrid, and Renata Brito in Barcelona, contributed to this report.

Catalan separatist: Swiss model alternative to secession

March 18, 2018

GENEVA (AP) — Catalonia's fugitive ex-president says that independence for the Spanish region is not the "only option" for resolving Spain's worst political crisis in recent decades. Carles Puigdemont says that a moderate alternative could be adopting Switzerland's canton model, which presumably would give more self-rule to the already ample powers granted to Spain's regions.

Puigdemont said that "'is independence the only option?' Not at all, there are others of course, and perhaps among them, the Swiss model is perhaps the most effective and the most attractive." Puigdemont was speaking at the University of Geneva where he attended a film festival and forum on human rights Sunday.

This was just his second trip outside Belgium, where he has been residing since fleeing Spain following Catalonia's unsuccessful declaration of independence in October.

Angry families demand facts on deadly Venezuela jail riot

March 29, 2018

VALENCIA, Venezuela (AP) — Distraught families are clamoring for information about detained relatives following a fire that Venezuela's chief prosecutor says killed 68 people when it swept through the cells of the state police station.

Angry relatives fought with police outside the facility Wednesday after being unable to get any information on casualties from Wednesday's fire, which townspeople said erupted after a disturbance involving detainees. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and local officials would confirm only that there were fatalities.

Late Wednesday, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on his official Twitter account that 68 people were dead and nearly all of them were prisoners. He said the dead included two women who were staying overnight at the station, but he didn't provide any further details.

Saab said four prosecutors had been named to determine what happened at the state police headquarters in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Caracas. It was one of the worst jail disasters in Venezuela, where human rights groups complain about poor conditions in prisons and jails. A fire at a prison in the western state of Zulia killed more than 100 inmates in 1994.

With tears streaking cheeks, people waiting outside the station Wednesday said dozens of detainees had been kept in squalid conditions and they feared the worst for their loved ones. Some people buried their hands in their faces. Others had to be supported by friends and family as they collapsed in despair. Some wept quietly and clutched their hands in prayer.

"I don't know if my son is dead or alive!" cried Aida Parra, who said she last saw her son the previous day, when she took food to him. "They haven't told me anything." Nearby, National Guard troops wearing flak jackets and carrying rifles slung across their backs walked in and out of the station. Fire trucks and ambulances stood outside. Unused stretchers leaned against a wall.

A Window to Freedom, a nonprofit group that monitors conditions at Venezuela's jails and prisons, said preliminary but unconfirmed information indicated the riot began when an armed detainee shot an officer in the leg. Shortly after that a fire broke out, with flames growing quickly as the blaze spread to mattresses in the cells, it said. Rescuers apparently had to break a hole through a wall to free some of the prisoners inside.

Photos shared by the group showed prisoners being taken out on stretchers, their limbs frozen in awkward positions as skin peeled off. Carlos Nieto Palma, director of A Window to Freedom, said officials should be held accountable for failing to address the poor conditions in police station jails. The group said overcrowding has become common throughout Venezuela, with detainees being kept long past customary brief holding periods before being let go or sent to larger jails to await trial.

"It's grave and alarming," Nieto Palma said. "What happened today in Carabobo is a sign of that." Opposition lawmaker Juan Miguel Matheus demanded that the pro-government leader of Carabobo state inform relatives about what happened.

"The desperation of relatives should not be played with," he said. Clashes between prisoners and guards are not uncommon in Venezuela. Inmates are frequently able to obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards and heavily armed groups control cellblock fiefdoms.

Venezuela AG says 68 dead after riot, fire at police station

March 29, 2018

VALENCIA, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's chief prosecutor reported late Wednesday that 68 people died in a fire that swept through the cell area inside a police station, which townspeople said followed a disturbance by detainees being held there.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on his official Twitter account that nearly all the dead were prisoners. He said two women who were staying overnight at the station were also killed, but didn't provide any further details.

Saab said four prosecutors had been named to determine what happened at the state police headquarters in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Caracas. It was one of the worst jail disasters in a country where human rights groups complain about bad prison conditions. A fire at a prison in the western state of Zulia killed more than 100 inmates in 1994.

Local authorities in Valencia had confirmed earlier only that there were fatalities, and said they were working to determine an exact number. They said they were not providing any estimates "out of respect for the families."

Angry relatives who gathered outside the station said dozens of detainees had been kept in squalid conditions at the station and expressed fear that their loved ones were dead. Dozens of men and women demanding to know if their loved ones had survived clashed with police officers in riot gear. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

"I don't know if my son is dead or alive!" cried Aida Parra, who said she last saw her son a day before, when she went to deliver him food. "They haven't told me anything." A Window to Freedom, a nonprofit group that monitors conditions at Venezuela's jails, said preliminary but unconfirmed information indicated the riot began when an armed detainee shot an officer in the leg. Shortly after that a fire broke out, with flames growing quickly as the blaze spread to mattresses in the cells, it said. Rescuers apparently had to break a hole through a wall to free some of the prisoners inside.

Photos shared by the group showed prisoners being taken out on stretchers, their limbs frozen in awkward positions as skin peeled off. A Window to Freedom's director, Carlos Nieto Palma, said officials should be held accountable for failing to address deteriorating conditions in police station jails. The group said overcrowding has become common throughout the country as detainees are kept long past customary brief holding periods before being sent to other larger jails before trial or freed.

"It's grave and alarming," Nieto Palma said. "What happened today in Carabobo is a sign of that." Outside the police station, some relatives buried their hands in their faces as tears streamed down their cheeks. Others had to be held up with the support of friends and family as they collapsed in despair. Still others wept quietly and clutched their hands in prayer.

Nearby, National Guard troops wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying rifles across their backs walked in and out of the station. Fire trucks and ambulances stood outside, and unused stretchers leaned against a wall.

Opposition lawmaker Juan Miguel Matheus demanded that the pro-government leader of Carabobo state inform relatives about what had happened. "The desperation of relatives should not be played with," he said.

Clashes between prisoners and guards are not uncommon in Venezuela. Inmates are frequently able to obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards and heavily armed groups control cellblock fiefdoms.

Peru's congress ready to replace scandal-tainted president

March 23, 2018

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru's congress is expected to vote Friday to accept President Pedro Pablo Kuczysnki*s resignation and swear in as his replacement a politician who the vast majority of voters never even heard of until recently.

Vice President Martin Vizcarra flew back to Lima on Thursday from Canada, where he had been serving as ambassador, amid one of the most politically turbulent periods in Peru's recent history. Efforts to oust the unpopular Kuczynski led by the daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori have been building for months. But the campaign went into overdrive this week after the emergence of secretly shot videos showed allies of Kuczynski, including Fujimori*s son, allegedly attempting to buy the support of an opposition lawmaker to block the president's impeachment.

To stem off an even more disgraceful exit, Kuczynski delivered a resignation letter to congress Wednesday, blaming relentless attacks by his opponents for making it impossible to govern. During a heated debate that ran far into Thursday night, lawmakers appeared to be leaning toward accepting the offer, although some parties on the left argued the body should instead hold impeachment proceedings.

Kuczynski's downfall was his association with Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant that has admitted to spreading some $800 million in bribes to officials across Latin America, including $29 million in Peru.

For months, even as three of his predecessors became ensnared in the bribery scandal, Kuczynski vehemently denied having any business or political ties to the company. But documents presented by Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force party showed his consulting firm had received $782,000 in payments from Odebrecht a decade ago, some of them when he was a government minister.

The former Wall Street investor said he wasn't then managing the day-to-day affairs of his consulting business and denied any wrongdoing. Stepping into the void left by Kuczynski is Vizcarra, whose name wasn't recognized by 81 percent of Peruvians in a March poll by Ipsos. His only previous experience in public office before becoming vice president in 2016 was as governor of Peru's second-least populated province.

While Vizcarra is expected to continue Kuczynski*s pro-business agenda, he will face a tough challenge building consensus with a hostile congress and growing public anger at Peru's political class. Protesters scuffled with police Thursday night while calling for new elections for both president and congress.

The new president's first test on the international stage will come in three weeks when he is expected to host President Donald Trump and other Western Hemisphere leaders at the Summit of the Americas in Lima.

Paraguay ruling party candidate wins presidential election

April 23, 2018

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — The son of a former dictator's top aide won the presidential election in Paraguay on Sunday, helped by a booming economy under his party. Mario Abdo Benitez of the governing Colorado Party had 46.5 percent of the votes, with 96 percent of 21, 000 polling stations reporting, electoral officials said. Efrain Alegre of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party finished second with 42.7 percent of the ballots. Eight other candidates finished far out of the running.

Both candidates are conservatives and the election was closer than the 20-point edge that opinion polls had given Abdo going into the election. Alegre, a 55-year-old lawyer who also finished second in the last presidential election, declined to concede, saying he would wait for the final count, though electoral officials said there were not enough ballots left to be counted to change the result.

The new president begins a five-year term Aug. 15. Abdo, a 46-year-old marketing expert, campaigned on a promise to continue the business-friendly policies of outgoing President Horacio Cartes and he played down any fears of a return to the heavy-handed past of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled from 1954 to 1989. Abdo's father was Stroessner's private secretary.

After the results were announced, Abdo promised an "unwavering commitment" to being a good manager of the government. "We built an electoral project with a dialogue of reconciliation and pardon among all Paraguayans," he said.

The top two candidates had similar platforms, promising to attract foreign investment to create jobs in an economy that has been one of the fastest-growing in the region but that still suffers from high poverty levels, extreme inequality and endemic corruption.

Both also are social conservatives who criticized sex education and abortion rights. The Colorado Party has led Paraguay with only a few interruptions since the mid-20th Century. The landlocked nation of about 7 million people borders Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil.

Election officials reported no serious disturbances during the balloting, though a woman was detained for hitting Abdo in the shoulder while he was at the polling place. Police said her motive was unclear.

Sunday's voting also elected all seats in Congress and 17 governorships nationwide.

Brazil's top court rules against da Silva on prison

April 05, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's top court voted narrowly in the early hours Thursday to turn down an attempt by former President Luiz Inacio da Silva to stay out of jail while he appeals a corruption conviction, a decision that will have widespread implications in this polarized nation.

After nearly 11 hours of often heated debate, the justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal voted 6-5 to deny da Silva's preventative habeas corpus request to stave off a 12-year jail sentence while he fights a conviction in a case that he argues was nothing more than a ploy to keep him off of October's presidential ballot.

Despite the conviction and several other corruption charges pending against him, da Silva leads all preference polls for the election. The decision means he will likely be jailed soon, though probably not until at least next week thanks to various technicalities.

Within minutes of the decision, da Silva's Workers' Party, which held Brazil's presidency from 2003 to 2016, put out a tweet that foreshadowed the struggles to come. "The Brazilian people have the right to vote for Lula, the candidate of hope," it read. "The Workers' Party will defend this candidacy on the streets and in every court until the last consequences."

The court's debate underscored how fraught the matter is at a time of high tension and angst in Brazil, which is struggling to emerge from a crippling recession and is four years into a major corruption scandal that has ensnared much of the country's elite, including da Silva.

"The constitution secures individual rights, which are fundamental to democracy, but it also assures the exercise of criminal law," said Chief Justice Carmen Lucia, who cast the deciding vote after spending much of the session being criticized by colleagues.

Justice Gilmar Mendes, traditionally a critic of da Silva, voted in favor of the former leader's petition to stay out of jail, challenging his colleagues to buck pressure from society. "If a court bows (to pressure), it might as well not exist," said Mendes.

Justice Luis Roberto Barroso argued that the integrity of the justice system was at stake. "A penal system that doesn't work with minimal effectiveness leads to an instinct for taking justice into one's own hands," said Barroso, who voted against the petition.

Justice Rosa Weber, who legal analysts predicted would be key because there was much doubt about her position on the matter, voted against da Silva. In one of several brisk exchanges, after Weber's vote, justice Marco Aurelio Mello accused Lucia of plotting against da Silva's case. Mello said limiting the vote just to the habeas corpus petition and not the larger question of when a convict should be forced to begin serving a sentence helped sway Weber's vote.

"I want this to be registered in the court's records," Mello told Lucia, who responded by saying "yes" to the request. The session reflected the debate happening across Brazil as millions tuned into the televised session. When the decision was leveled, fireworks and yells could be heard and seen in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, two of the nation's most important cities.

Da Silva was once wildly popular after his two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, but he has become a polarizing figure amid the "Car Wash" corruption scandal that has roiled Brazil the last several years and made average citizens furious with the political class.

Da Silva was convicted in July of helping a construction company get sweetheart contracts in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. He denies any wrongdoing in that case or in several other corruption cases that have yet to be tried. An appeals court upheld the conviction in January, and the three reviewing magistrates even lengthened the sentence to 12 years and one month.

Technically, the Supreme Federal Tribunal's decision doesn't keep da Silva off the ballot. The country's top electoral court makes final decisions about candidacies beginning in August, but it has been expected to deny da Silva's candidacy under Brazil's "clean slate" law, which disqualifies people who have had criminal convictions upheld.

Thursday's decision was about much more than the future of a once towering politician trying to make a comeback. Many legal observers had said that allowing da Silva to stay out of jail could have a big impact on all the other cases related to "Car Wash" and other white-collar criminals with the means to continue appealing.

Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a right-leaning legislator who is running second in the polls behind da Silva, summed up what many da Silva detractors were likely thinking. "Brazil hopes that after today's vote Sergio Moro is able to order his arrest to show corruption doesn't work," Bolsonaro said while demonstrating outside Congress in Brasilia during the session. "We should never do politics like this again. Crooks should not have votes. They should have a cell."

Argentina pays homage to Brit who recovered Falklands dead

March 24, 2018

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — They looked eye-to-eye and shed tears together: On one side the families of Argentine soldiers killed in the 1982 war with Britain, across the table the former British army officer who helped recover and rebury their loved ones.

A forensic study recently identified the remains of 90 Argentine soldiers buried in a Falkland Islands cemetery after the war. The families of the fallen troops will travel next week to the faraway graves on a lonely hillside in the South Atlantic, where until now gravestones have read: "Argentine soldier known only to God."

The identification process was led by the International Red Cross under an agreement between the two nations. But it was only possible thanks to the efforts of Geoffrey Cardozo, who is a retired British colonel.

When the war ended on June 14, 1982, most Argentine bodies were left untouched on the battlefield or in temporary graves during the southern winter. Britain tried for months to send them to Buenos Aires, but the ruling military junta said they were already in their homeland.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher finally agreed to build a cemetery. Cardozo, then a 32-year-old captain, was ordered in January 1983 to recover and rebury the dead. "They very quickly became my boys because they were orphans. Their mothers and fathers were not on the island and I was the only one who could look after them," Cardozo told The Associated Press. "And so I took great care to bury them, to look after them. And every step I took along the way with each body, I had in my mind their mothers, their families."

Cardozo assembled a team of British funeral directors that rappelled into minefields from helicopters and dug up mass graves to recover Argentine corpses. They carefully prepared each one for reburial in individual coffins.

On Friday, the families of the soldiers and Argentine officials paid homage to Cardozo at an emotional ceremony in Buenos Aires. "Today, I feel a great joy, a great tranquility," Cardozo told the relatives as they broke into tears.

A multinational team of 14 experts exhumed the remains last year. Tissues were analyzed and compared with DNA samples from family members of some of the dead soldiers at a laboratory in Argentina. Laboratories in Britain and Spain conducted quality control of the DNA analyses.

The Red Cross has said the identification process of the more than 120 graves was highly successful. "I would have never imagined 35 years later that we would achieve this kind of success," Cardozo said. "It's formidable, miraculous."

On Monday, Cardozo will join the families as part of the mission to the Falklands to explain how he organized the cemetery with its rows of white crosses and dark gray tombstones. "What will happen next Monday will bring a huge relief to these heavy hearts," he said.

Many families of the Argentine fallen troops had long distrusted the idea of sending experts to the islands to identify their war dead. "One day, my mom finally told me: 'Who am I to impede another mother from finding her son,'" said Maria Fernanda Araujo, who was 9 when her brother Eduardo was killed in the war. She now leads a group for the relatives of the fallen soldiers.

"We had to make other families understand that this was not impossible," she said. In all, 649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers died in the war. "The angels lined up — 649 of them — and Geoffrey was there. And we can all be friends," Araujo said as she turned to Cardozo, who was sitting next to her, and they embraced.

Ukrainian lawmaker arrested on alleged coup plot charges

March 23, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday sanctioned the arrest of a celebrated former military pilot accused of plotting an attack on parliament with grenades and automatic weapons. Nadiya Savchenko, who has declared presidential ambitions, described the charges against her as an attempt by President Petro Poroshenko's government to get rid of a powerful challenger ahead of the next year's presidential vote.

The Shevchenko District Court in the Ukrainian capital on Friday ordered that she be kept behind bars for two months pending an official probe. The ruling followed parliament's vote to strip her of her immunity as a lawmaker.

Prosecutors have accused Savchenko of plotting a coup in collusion with Russia-backed rebels — a plan to attack parliament with hand grenades, automatic weapons and even heavy mortars. Savchenko said she talked about attacking parliament as a "surrealist political provocation" to mock the government because she knew she was being wiretapped.

Savchenko told the court Friday that her case was politically motivated. "When I said I would run for president I became dangerous for the authorities, and they sought to cast me in a negative light," she told the court.

She said she's going on a hunger strike to let the public realize that "the Ukrainian government is just as criminal as the Russian one." Savchenko became a national hero in Ukraine after spending years in a Russian prison. She was elected in absentia to parliament in 2014, months after she was captured by Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine while serving in a volunteer battalion. She then landed in a Russian prison.

In March 2016, a Russian court sentenced her to 22 years in prison, saying she acted as a spotter for mortar fire that killed two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine. During her trial she sang the national anthem and raised her middle finger in a show of contempt for Russian authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned her shortly afterward amid international outrage at her sentence, but after her return home, Savchenko quickly fell out with Poroshenko, whose government she has accused of corruption and incompetence.

Ukrainian lawmaker stripped of immunity on coup charges

March 22, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday stripped a celebrated former military pilot and presidential hopeful of her immunity as a lawmaker, sanctioning her arrest on charges of plotting an attack on parliament with grenades and automatic weapons.

Nadiya Savchenko was served a summons minutes after the parliamentary session, where she denounced the Ukrainian government for "killing and dividing" the Ukrainian people. A court was to consider putting her in custody later in the day.

Critics say the dramatic charges against Savchenko were part of authorities' efforts to get rid of a powerful challenger ahead of the next year's presidential vote. In Thursday's speech to lawmakers, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko accused Savchenko of plotting an attack on parliament with hand grenades, automatic weapons and even heavy mortars. Lutsenko claimed Savchenko was acting in cahoots with Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine to stage a "terrorist coup in the interests of Ukraine's enemies."

He presented wiretapped recordings in which Savchenko discussed smuggling weapons from the east and went over plans for the attacks. Savchenko said she was aware of being wiretapped, and that she talked about the attacks as a "surrealist political provocation" to mock the government that she said failed the public after Ukrainians staged huge protests that led to the ouster of its former Russia-friendly president in February 2014.

Russia responded to those developments by annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula a month later and has supported a separatist insurgency fighting the government in eastern Ukraine since then. Savchenko, who has declared plans to run for president in the March 2019 election, is regarded by many as a national hero and a symbol of resistance against Russia.

She was elected in absentia to parliament in 2014, months after she was captured by Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine while serving in a volunteer battalion. She then landed in a Russian prison.

In March 2016, a Russian court sentenced her to 22 years in prison, saying she acted as a spotter for mortar fire that killed two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine. During her trial she sang the national anthem and raised her middle finger in a show of contempt for Russian authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned her shortly afterward amid international outrage at her sentence. She remains popular despite falling out with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's government, accusing it of corruption and incompetence.

"The Ukrainian government is the main evil in Ukraine," Savchenko told booing lawmakers Thursday. "The entire people of Ukraine think so." She accused Ukrainian authorities of profiting from the fighting in the east, saying that "Ukrainians on both sides want peace."

She also mocked lawmakers for making an about turn and casting her as an enemy, displaying her Hero of Ukraine's media, the nation's highest award. Shortly after the vote, Poroshenko thanked law-enforcement agencies in a Facebook statement for "preventing terror attacks and exposing the Russian special operation against Ukraine."

Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kiev-based independent political analyst, noted that Savchenko's arrest came amid exacerbating political tensions. "Savchenko is very charismatic and unmanageable, and it just so happened that she was isolated ahead of the start of the presidential campaign in which she could challenge many politicians," Fesenko said.

"The story of her plot is a clear symbol of the current anarchy which reflects our political tradition," he added.

Ukraine eyes new Spaceport downunder

Moscow (Sputnik)
Mar 13, 2018

The Ukrainian Space Agency has reportedly come up with an ambitious proposal to establish a spaceport some 11,500 km from home.

According to The West Australian newspaper, Kiev has been lobbying both Canberra and the northwestern Australian state government of Kimberley for two years now, with its proposals falling on deaf ears.

Ukraine's ambassador to Australia, Nikolai Kulinich, assured the newspaper that the proposal was "very realistic," adding that "Ukraine could launch tomorrow morning if we had a site. We offer our people and our expertise if Australia has land for use."

According to the Ukrainian Space Agency, it would require between 5,000 and 7,000 square kilometers of territory on a commercial lease. It would like to establish its space port near the Curtain Air Base, a Royal Australian Air Force airbase and civilian airport. A preliminary study could be completed for about half a million dollars, The West Australian says, with a study on construction and feasibility possible within two years.

The Ukrainian Space Agency envisions its Australian spaceport venture becoming Asia's key spaceport, with launches sponsored by Australian, Japanese, Singaporean, South Korean and Indonesian partners.

Private investments, as well as contributions from Australia's neighbors and allies, are expected to fund the construction of the spaceport, including its launch pads, hangars and support facilities.

Commenting on the ambitious plan, observers have pointed out that Ukraine's once-proud space industry is but a shadow of its former self following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine's space enterprises, including legendary enterprises like the Yuzhmash rocket plant and the Yuzhnoye design bureau have fallen on particularly hard times after the severing of space and rocketry industry cooperation with Russia in 2014, with many rocket scientists leaving Ukraine in pursuit of better opportunities elsewhere.

As to the potential costs of Ukraine's proposed space port idea, Moscow's experience with the construction of its Vostochny Cosmodrome has given some indication of the tremendous price tag attached to building a spaceport from scratch. Vostochny, expected to be completed later this year, has been estimated to cost upwards of $7.5 billion US.

Expert opinion aside, social media users aren't too thrilled about the idea either, hatching a series of memes about the lack of realism in Kiev's plan.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Ukraine_eyes_new_Spaceport_downunder_999.html.

Slovenia's premier resigns over court ruling on referendum

March 14, 2018

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia's prime minister said Wednesday he is resigning after the country's top court annulled last year's referendum on a key railway project and ordered a new vote. Miro Cerar said he sent his resignation to parliament and will formally notify the president Thursday. The move means that Slovenia's parliamentary elections, which were due in early June, will be held a few weeks earlier.

"I have made a decision any trustworthy politician should make in such a situation," Cerar said in a statement broadcast live. "You (citizens) will have a chance in the elections to judge between right and wrong and who deserves your support."

Cerar also praised his center-left government's achievements in curbing an economic downturn in the tiny European Union nation of 2 million people that is the home country of U.S. first lady Melania Trump.

"During my term the economic crisis ended. Slovenia has stable economic growth, third strongest in EU," he said. "We have the lowest unemployment rate after 2009." The government also has faced a wave of strikes and protests by public sector workers demanding higher wages amid economic recovery. Many schools in Slovenia were closed Wednesday as teachers went on strike for the second time in a month.

Slovenia's Supreme Court ruled earlier Wednesday that government backing for the railway project during the referendum campaign was one-sided and could have affected the outcome of the vote. The referendum in September approved the government's plan to build 27 kilometers (16 miles) of additional railway linking the Adriatic port of Koper with the Divaca hub near the border with Italy.

The vote was initiated by independent campaigner Vili Kovacic, who also took the issue to Slovenia's top courts. Kovacic was supported by some opposition parties. Cerar said the rail project is of "strategic importance for the development of Slovenia." He complained that "some are jeopardizing Slovenia's development."

The date for the new referendum wasn't immediately set.

Associated Press Writer Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.

Slovakia goes from stability to chaos after journalist death

March 09, 2018

PRAGUE (AP) — Slovakia has quickly turned from what seemed to be a stable European Union country into chaos, in the wake of the unprecedented slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee. In a speech last month, President Andrej Kiska talked about his country as "successful, proud and self-confident." On March 4, however, he said Slovakia faces a "serious political crisis" triggered by the shooting deaths of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova. Police said Kuciak's killing was likely linked to his work.

The political storm has been intensifying daily since their bodies were found Feb. 25. Amid heated exchanges between the ruling coalition and the opposition, conspiracy theories spread by Prime Minister Robert Fico and his repeated verbal attacks on Kiska, a growing number of people have started to turn against the Fico government, threatening its very existence.

For his last unfinished story, Kuciak, 27, reported on the influence of the Italian mafia in Slovakia and its possible ties to people close to Fico. That was followed by news that Slovak authorities had been informed by their Italian counterparts about a powerful Italian crime syndicate operating in Slovakia. Seven members of the group are suspects in the killings. They were detained last week and later released.

When tens of thousands marched across the country and in cities around the world last week to honor Kuciak, many called on government ministers to resign. Massive demonstrations — this time aimed directly at the government — are planned for Friday.

"Many have realized that the situation is becoming critical," said Michal Vasecka, an analyst from the Bratislava Policy Institute think tank. "A fight started to prevent Slovakia from becoming another Hungary, an autocracy controlled by a small group of oligarchs."

Reflecting the popular mood and growing protests, Kiska called for substantial changes in the government or for an early election to resolve the crisis. "There's a huge public distrust of the state," Kiska said. "And many don't trust law enforcement authorities ... This distrust is justified. We crossed the line, things went too far and there's no way back."

Fico fired back, accusing the president of destabilizing the country with help from Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros whom Kiska privately met with in New York in September. Soros dismissed Fico's suggestion he might have anything to do with the president's proposals and the anti-government protests.

Vasecka, the analyst, said Fico's conspiracy claims likely anger some people and contribute to their decision to join the protests because they hark back to the 1990s and the rule of authoritative Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar who led the country into international isolation. Meciar also targeted Soros.

"It reminds people of Meciar and also of communist rule. And a large part of society is very sensitive about it," Vasecka said. U.S. Ambassador Adam Sterling said in a statement that "as Slovak society wrestles with the implications of this crime, we urge all parties to refrain from resorting to the use of conspiracy theories and disinformation."

A junior party in the ruling coalition has called for the resignation of Interior Minister Robert Kalinak as a condition to remain in the government. Thousands already demanded Kalinak's resignation last year after he was linked to earlier corruption scandals. The leadership of the coalition party known as Most-Hid will meet on Tuesday to decide on their role in the coalition.

Meanwhile, the opposition has requested a parliamentary no-confidence vote on the government, but a date has yet to be set. Fico called the opposition request an "attempted coup."

Thousands of Romanian health workers protest salary cuts

April 26, 2018

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Thousands of Romanian health care workers on Wednesday protested wage cuts outside the government offices in the capital. Traffic was restricted in downtown Budapest as up to 10,000 health care workers from all over the country traveled to Bucharest for the protest. They threatened to go on strike next month if the government doesn't resolve their salary issues. Demonstrators blew whistles and vuvuzelas, jeered and yelled "Thieves, thieves!"

Romania's left-wing government recently approved substantial salary hikes for some state health workers, with some medics seeing their wages more than doubled. However, Leonard Barascu, heads of the Sanitas health union, said that at the same time some employees lost up to 1,100 lei ($290) of their net monthly pay.

Several protesters told The Associated Press they were angry that the government has cut compensation they get for working in dangerous or risky conditions. They said doctors had seen big salary increases, while some nurses and health assistants had lost out.

Psychiatric nurse Catalin Magda, who had traveled from the central city of Alba Iulia, said he had seen his monthly wage of 5,100 lei ($1,345) reduced by 10 percent. "We are not satisfied; we want the salary the government promised us."

Gheorghe Pop, 46, who carries out disease control at a hospital in northern Romania, said he had personally seen his salary doubled, but was demonstrating to show his solidarity with colleagues whose wages went down.

Barascu said unions would hold talks with the government on May 2. Health Minister Sorina Pintea met hospital chiefs this week and called on them to manage their resources better to cover wage losses.

Anti-migrant League party wins big in Italian regional vote

April 30, 2018

ROME (AP) — Italy's right-wing League party has a new regional election win, fueling its determination Monday to govern the entire country. Final results on Monday showed the anti-migrant League's candidate for governor, Massimiliano Federiga, capturing 57 percent of the votes cast Sunday for the center-right campaign alliance which backed him in the balloting in the northeast Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The victory expands the League's solid dominance in Italy's affluent north.

League senator Roberto Calderoli said the latest triumph should make Italy's president "reflect" on his next move in trying to nudge the country's squabbling parties into forming a national coalition government following an election in March.

The populist 5-Star Movement trailed badly in Sunday's ballot, with 11.7 percent. But in the March 4 vote, the 5-Stars triumphed in the economically lagging south, where their support has been soaring, and became Parliament's largest party.

The League, led by Matteo Salvini, was part of a center-right bloc in the March vote that controls the largest number of seats in Parliament. But neither the League nor the 5-Stars have enough lawmakers in Parliament to govern alone. Italy's head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, has been sounding out leaders across the political spectrum to see whose forces could unite in a government with a solid parliamentary majority.

While 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio has insisted he be the Italy's premier, Salvini is eager for the same post. Neither party has ever had a leader in the premier's office. After center-right leaders, including former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, failed to work out a bargain with the 5-Stars, Mattarella asked the 5-Stars to sound out the Democrat Party, which has governed Italy since 2013 but which did badly in the recent national elections.

Democrats, squabbling among themselves for years now, are also divided about whether to explore the prospect of governing with Di Maio's populists. Top Democrat leaders will try to decide their next move at a meeting on Thursday. Matteo Renzi, the former premier and ex-chief of the Democrats, on Sunday night ruled out the possibility that he and his faction in the party would join a 5-Star government.

With the League notching another electoral victory in the north, and the Democrats divided over any future alliance with the 5-Stars, Di Maio on Monday tossed out a new idea. "At this point, there is no other solution. We need to go back to vote as soon as possible," Di Maio said on Facebook.

Mattarella is considered to be reluctant to give up now on Italy's getting a government on the basis of the March vote. It's up to the president to dissolve Parliament, paving the way for a new election.

Storm sweeps over western Europe, floods streets, basements

April 30, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — Firefighters are pumping rainwater from basements and clearing flooded road tunnels after a storm swept through parts of western Germany overnight. Germany's far-west Aachen region was the hardest hit, with rescue services receiving hundreds of calls. Aachen police say nobody was harmed in the storm.

France, Belgium and Luxembourg were also affected by heavy rain and hail — weather that is more often seen during the summer than the spring. Recent days have seen unseasonably warm weather in parts of western Europe.

The storm was moving north Monday toward Denmark.

South Korea to remove propaganda loudspeakers at border

April 30, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the border with North Korea this week, officials said Monday, as the rivals move to follow through with their leaders' summit declaration that produced reconciliation steps without a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff.

During their historic meeting Friday at a Korean border village, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to end hostile acts against each other along their tense border, establish a liaison office and resume reunions of separated families. They also agreed to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, but failed to produce specific time frames and disarmament steps.

Seoul's Defense Ministry said it would pull back dozens of its front-line loudspeakers on Tuesday before media cameras. Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyunsoo said Seoul expected Pyongyang to do the same. South Korea had already turned off its loudspeakers ahead of Friday's summit talks, and North Korea responded by halting its own broadcasts.

The two Koreas had been engaged in Cold War-era psychological warfare since the North's fourth nuclear test in early 2016. Seoul began blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts and K-Pop songs via border loudspeakers, and Pyongyang quickly matched the South's action with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets.

Seoul's announcement came a day after it said Kim told Moon during the summit that he would shut down his country's only known nuclear testing site and allow outside experts and journalists to watch the process.

South Korean officials also cited Kim as saying he would be willing to give up his nuclear programs if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and a pledge not to attack the North. Kim had already suspended his nuclear and missile tests while offering to put his nukes up for negotiations.

The closing of the Punggy-ri test site, where all six of North Korea's atomic bomb tests occurred, could be an eye-catching disarmament step by Pyongyang. But there is still deep skepticism over whether Kim is truly willing to negotiate away the nukes that his country has built after decades of struggle and sacrifice.

According to a summit accord, Kim and Moon agreed to achieve "a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization," rather than clearly stating "a nuclear-free North Korea." Pyongyang has long said the term "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" must include the United States pulling its 28,500 troops out of South Korea and removing its so-called "nuclear umbrella" security commitment to South Korea and Japan.

Kim could offer more disarmament concessions during his meeting with President Donald Trump, expected in May or June, but it's unclear what specific steps he would take. Some experts say Kim may announce scraping North Korea's long-range missile program, which has posed a direct threat to the United States.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton reacted coolly to word that Kim would abandon his weapons if the United States pledged not to invade. Asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" whether the U.S. would make such a promise, Bolton said: "Well, we've heard this before. This is — the North Korean propaganda playbook is an infinitely rich resource. What we want to see from them is evidence that it's real and not just rhetoric."

Kim's meeting with Moon was his second summit with a foreign leader since he took office in late 2011. In March, he traveled to Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While meeting with Xi, Kim suggested he prefers a step-by-step disarmament process in line with corresponding outside rewards, according to Chinese state media. U.S. officials want the North to take complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament measures.

China said Monday that Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Pyongyang on Wednesday and Thursday. China is the North's only major economic partner, but trade has declined by about 90 percent following Beijing's implementation of economic sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear and missile tests. Some analysts say Kim's recent charm offensive was aimed at weakening the sanctions.

Meanwhile, the North's parliament on Monday adopted a decree to sync its time zone with South Korea's this Saturday. The North's state news agency said the parliamentary move was made at the proposal of Kim, who found it was "a painful wrench to see two clocks indicating Pyongyang and Seoul times hanging on a wall of the summit venue."

Moon's office said Sunday that Kim made similar remarks to Moon during the summit. The North in 2015 had set its clock by 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan, saying the measure was aimed at rooting out the legacy of Tokyo's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.