Jordanian attempts to commit suicide in parliament

July 21, 2018

Jordanian security on Thursday rescued a man who tried to throw himself off the balcony in the parliament building.

The man shouted: “I am seeking help from you,” before trying to jump while parliament were in session to approve the new government.

Parliament Speaker Atef Tarawneh asked security to take the man to his office in order for him to listen to his complaint after the parliament session ended.

However, Jordan’s newly appointed Prime Minister Omar Al-Razzaz hugged the man and went out of the parliament chamber with him.

During the session, parliament approved Al-Razzaz’s government with overwhelming majority.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180721-jordanian-attempts-to-commit-suicide-in-parliament/.

Morocco king puts social reforms among top priorities

Monday 30/07/2018

RABAT - Morocco's King Mohammed VI Sunday urged the government to take "urgent action" to address social issues, in particular health and education in the North African country which has been hit by protests over employment and corruption.

Despite the "achievements accomplished (...) I have the feeling that we continue to be lacking something in social matters," the king said in a speech marking the 19th anniversary of his accession to the throne.

Mohammed VI pointed to social support and social protection programs that "overlap each other, suffer from a lack of consistency and fail to effectively target eligible groups".

Morocco is marked by glaring social and territorial inequalities, against a backdrop of high unemployment among young people. In 2017, it was ranked 123rd out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index.

In his speech, the king called for accelerating the establishment of a national system to register families for social support programs and invited the government to "undertake a comprehensive and deep restructuring" of existing programs.

He also called for "a strong boost to programs to support schooling" and a reshaping of the health system, which "is characterized by glaring inequalities and weak management."

The king's speech was delivered in the northern city of Al-Hoceima which was the epicenter of the "Hirak" protest movement that rocked the country in 2016 and 2017.

The social unrest began in October 2016 after the death of a fisherman and spiraled into a wave of protests demanding more development in the neglected Rif region and railing against corruption and unemployment.

Over the past week Moroccan media have said they expect a royal pardon for dozens of demonstrators and activists who were sentenced in late June to up to 20 years in prison.

The 54-year-old monarch made no reference to the protests in his speech.

Afterwards, an official statement said 1,200 pardons were granted, without specifying if the jailed demonstrators were among them. Moroccan media said none of the "Hirak" protestors was pardoned.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: https://www.middle-east-online.com/en/morocco-king-puts-social-reforms-among-top-priorities.

IS claims Tajikistan attack that killed 4 foreign cyclists

July 31, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a car-and-knife attack on Western tourists cycling in Tajikistan that killed two Americans and two Europeans. Officials in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation didn't publicly address the IS claim and instead blamed the Sunday attack on a banned local Islamist group. The young men featured in an IS-linked video resembled the individuals that Tajik authorities identified as attack suspects who were later killed by police.

The Islamic State group said in a statement late Monday that several of its soldiers attacked the "citizens of the Crusader coalition." The four tourists were killed when a car rammed into a group of foreigners on bicycles south of the capital of Dushanbe, Tajik officials have said. The driver and the passengers then got out and attacked the cyclists with knives.

Two of the victims were American, one was Swiss and the fourth was from the Netherlands, foreign and Tajik officials said. The three people injured included a woman from Switzerland. A video posted on an IS-linked website Tuesday shows five men sitting on a hill against the backdrop of a black-and-white IS flag and declaring allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The men say they're from Tajikistan and pledge to slaughter disbelievers in the name of Allah. A note accompanying the video said the men took part in the weekend attack.

Tajikistan's Interior Ministry posted photos Tuesday of what it said were the bodies of four suspected attackers lying dead in a field. Three of the men resemble ones in the IS video. It blamed the attack on the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, a local party banned several years ago for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government.

Tajikistan, an impoverished, predominantly Muslim nation of some 8 million people, was devastated by a 5-year civil war with Islamist-inspired rebel forces that ended in 1997. Alarmed by the rise of the Islamic State group in recent years, Tajik authorities have clamped down on behavior and traditions associated with Islam, regulating how people dress and behave at funerals and ordering men to shave their beards. Critics say the restrictions could help radicalize secular Muslims.

Qatar recruits Jordanians

July 18, 2018

Samir Murad, Jordan's Labor Minister, and Qatar's Minister of Management Development, Labor and Social Welfare, Issa al-Naimi announced an agreement, Tuesday, to create 1,000 work places for Jordanians by September, Jordanian news agency Petra reported.

This agreement is part of the Qatari initiative to afford 10,000 work places for the Jordanian youths, the Jordanian minister said.

During a press conference in Doha, Murad said that Qatari government will issue visas for Jordanian job seekers.

Murad went on to say that both the Jordanian and Qatari ministries agreed to form a joint committee to follow up the issue. They will prepare a database for the Jordanian job seekers and make it available to Qatari employers.

Murad said that the Qatari initiative would help decrease unemployment rate in the Kingdom, which has reached 18.5 per cent (280,000).

Murad also said that Jordan would support Qatari efforts in the run up to World Cup 2022.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180718-qatar-recruits-jordanians/.

Rajoy says farewell as Spain's conservatives seek new leader

July 20, 2018

MADRID (AP) — Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed loyalty to his Popular Party in an emotional farewell Friday as the conservative party seeks to retake power in Spain. The 63-year-old politician lost a parliamentary vote last month to his Socialist party opponent, Pedro Sanchez, in the wake of graft convictions for members of his center-right party.

Now in the opposition, Popular Party members on Friday began a two-day congress to choose a new leader between Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, 47, who was deputy prime minister until June, and lawyer Pablo Casado, 37.

The winner faces the challenges of reuniting a party split by a bitter leadership battle and rebuilding its scandal-tarred reputation as rival new parties, both on the left and the right, upend Spain's traditional bi-partisan politics.

Rajoy, who led the party for 14 years, has vowed not to interfere in the election of his successor. "I'm taking a step aside, but I'm not leaving," Rajoy told a full auditorium, adding: "I will be loyal."

Instead, in an emotional 40-minute televised speech, Rajoy defended his record applying austerity to steer the eurozone's fourth-largest economy out of its worst crisis in decades. He also said that, despite difficulties, his government had handled well the challenge by Catalan separatists over the northeastern region's sovereignty, which became a full-blown political crisis late last year. He also took pride from "defeating" the militant group ETA, which fought for decades for Basque independence.

In 2017, Rajoy became the first sitting Spanish prime minister to testify as a witness for his party's corruption misdeeds. In a ruling last May, the court fined the party for benefiting from a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme. That prompted the Sanchez-led opposition to call —and win— a vote of no confidence against Rajoy.

Sanchez, Spain's new prime minister, is trying to push ahead with a social agenda that overturns some of his conservative predecessors' policies. That won't be easy however, since he only controls 84 votes in the 350-seat lower house, while the Popular Party has 134 lawmakers.

Ecuador's ex-president seeks protection from arrest order

July 20, 2018

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ex-President Rafael Correa asked for international protection Friday after an Ecuadorean judge ordered that he be jailed for missing a court date, even though the former leader is living in Europe.

Correa appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for protection, saying he is in grave danger from the criminal prosecution. While in power, he denounced the commission as being illegitimate.

A judge in Ecuador ordered Correa's arrest and extradition from Belgium after he failed to appear for legal proceedings in connection with a kidnapping case. Correa has not been charged with a crime, but officials requested he appear periodically in court in Ecuador's capital as they investigate the botched 2012 kidnapping of his former political rival Fernando Balda.

The 55-year-old Correa lives in his wife's native Belgium.

Serbian lawyers go on strike to protest slaying of colleague

July 29, 2018

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Lawyers in Serbia declared a weeklong strike Sunday to protest the killing of a prominent attorney who was on the legal team that defended former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Dragoslav Ognjanovic, 56, was gunned down late Saturday outside his home in the new part of Belgrade, the Serbian capital, police said. Ognjanovic's 26-year-old son was wounded in the arm during the shooting, police said in a statement.

Police said they were searching "intensively" for the killer. Serbian media reported that police sealed off the area near the home Saturday night and blocked exits from the city. The search continued Sunday.

Ognjanovic was part of the legal team that defended Milosevic at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, where Milosevic was tried for war crimes committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Milosevic died of a heart attack in 2006 before the end of the court proceedings.

Ognjanovic has also defended well-known crime figures in Serbia. Serbian media said his killing might have been the latest in a series of Mafia-style executions that took place amid an ongoing war among criminal gangs in Serbia and in neighboring Montenegro.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Sunday that police have "certain leads" in the investigation. Vucic added that the state would step up pressure to curb crime. "The clan war over the drug market is becoming something that the state must deal with in a more brutal way," Vucic said, according to news channel N1.

The Bar Association of Serbia said Ognjanovic's slaying "showed in a most drastic way the circumstances in which lawyers in Serbia conduct their professional work." "This killing is only the latest in a series of attacks on lawyers, many of which have remained unsolved," the statement said, urging Serbian authorities to use "all possible resources" to find the killer.

The lawyers' protest strike starts Monday. The association also said it would offer a reward for information on Ognjanovic's killing.

Space, not Brexit, is final frontier for Scottish outpost

By Roland Jackson
Farnborough, United Kingdom (AFP)
July 20, 2018

Never mind Brexit: For a remote peninsula in the Scottish highlands, the buzz is all about hi-tech rocket launchers firing satellites into space.

In just three years' time, rockets will send satellites into orbit from the rugged stretch of coastline, under British government plans unveiled this week.

The sleepy county of Caithness and Sutherland has been selected as the site of the country's first ever space port, Britain announced at the Farnborough Airshow, a showpiece event for the global aerospace sector.

The UK Space Agency awarded a ?2.5-million ($3.3-million, 2.8-million-euro) grant towards the construction of a vertical space port facility in Sutherland, which will become operational in 2021.

The announcement has boosted hopes for an industry worried about the effects of Britain leaving the European Union and raised spirits in pro-EU Scotland, which was outvoted in the 2016 referendum.

"It is rocket science," Roy Kirk, area manager for Caithness and Sutherland at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), a development agency for Scotland's devolved government, said in an interview with AFP at Farnborough.

The launchers, made by established player Lockheed Martin and startup business Orbex, will stand 17 meters (56 feet) tall and will fire rockets that take just eight minutes to get into orbit.

- Boost to local economy -

"We are delighted we have been selected as a spaceport for vertical launch," said Kirk, adding that the site would also create tourism opportunities.

"The local economy will benefit."

The space port would employ about 40 staff within three years of operation, but the supply chain around that would support nearer 400 jobs.

Satellite uses include navigation, weather forecasting, telecommunications and financial transactions, while they are also vital for defense and energy sectors.

The Sutherland facility will cost an estimated ?17.3 million to build, including some ?10 million from HIE.

The port will be well positioned geographically to launch satellite rockets over the North Pole.

- 'No different than before Brexit' -

Prime Minister Theresa May's government is seeking to develop the UK space industry after its role in European space projects was called into question by Brexit.

Space is one of Britain's fastest growing sectors and generates more than ?13 billion of income per year.

"Our ambition to grow the space sector is in no way any different than it was before Brexit," Graham Turnock, head of the UK Space Agency, told AFP on the sidelines of Farnborough.

"We are actually looking to the opportunities for trade deals with the rest of the world after Brexit so we are very positive about that.

"We are still aiming to achieve 10 percent of the world space market by 2030. We are very confident that we can do that."

He also sought to dispel concerns that Britain's departure from the European Union in 2019 would hurt the industry.

"Obviously we are talking to the EU about our future participation in the space programs.

"We have said that we'd very much like to continue to participate in Galileo Copernicus, but it takes two sides to want to have that discussion."

Britain wants continued participation in the EU's Galileo satellite navigation system -- but Brussels rejects the idea.

UK Transport Secretary Chris Grayling meanwhile appeared at Farnborough to champion the space investment.

"After pioneering the development of those small satellites over many years, adding our own space ports means we can now move to offering customers a one stop shop in the United Kingdom," Grayling told delegates.

"A full package of services -- from design to build, right up to launch."

- Focus on strategy -

Brexit has sparked uncertainty but also opportunity, some academics argue.

"The main impact of Brexit right now is uncertainty," said Martin Barstow, professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester, which is launching a government-backed global industry hub Space Park in the central English city in 2020.

"Having said that, there have been some positive consequences as a result," he added, citing government investment in both Space Park Leicester and the Sutherland spaceport.

"The government suddenly needed to focus on industrial strategy and suddenly needed to focus on investment in the regions quite quickly."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Space_not_Brexit_is_final_frontier_for_Scottish_outpost_999.html.

Bodies of 70 killed in deadly Greek wildfires identified

July 31, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The bodies of 70 people killed by Greece's deadliest wildfire in decades have been identified, authorities said Tuesday, as forensic experts continue work to identify more remains recovered from the area.

Separately, the coast guard said Tuesday it had recovered the body of a woman from the sea in the Saronic Gulf south of Athens, many miles away from the site of the blaze. The body had not been identified and it was unclear whether it was related to the July 23 blaze that devastated the seaside resort of Mati northeast of Athens.

On Monday, coast guard special operations divers recovered another body from the waters off the coast of the fire area, believed to be of someone who drowned in their effort to escape. Identification was also pending.

During the blaze, hundreds of people fled to beaches, and many were forced to swim out to sea to escape the flames and choking smoke. A massive search operation involving vessels and divers continues in the waters near the fire zone.

At least 91 people are believed to have died in the blaze, but confusion surrounds the exact death toll. On Sunday, the fire department said 59 bodies had been identified, while the identification procedure was pending for another 28. A further four people died of their injuries in hospitals.

However, the department explained on Tuesday that coroners found some bodies were so badly burned that some body bags contained the remains of more than one person. The intensity of the heat during the fire was such that it even melted metal, turning the hub caps of cars into molten rivulets.

That has led the fire department to stop issuing information about the number of bodies believed to have been recovered, changing instead to relating the number of identified victims. A list of people officially registered as unaccounted for stood at 14.

Fanned by gale-force winds, the blaze raced through seaside resorts that are a mixture of permanent residences and holiday homes for Athenians. The high death toll has prompted criticism of the government over the absence of access roads, warning systems and other civil protection measures in residential areas surrounded by forest and at high risk of wildfires.

Greek PM visits area damaged by deadly forest fires

July 30, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's prime minister has visited the site of Greece's deadliest wildfire in decades, a week after the blaze swept through a seaside resort north of Athens, killing dozens. Alexis Tsipras visited Mati, the worst-affected area, early Monday morning, tweeting that he spoke with "citizens, engineers, soldiers, firefighters and volunteers." His office released photos and the prime minister took along a camera from state-run television. No other media was alerted.

Last week, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos visited the area and was heckled by distraught survivors who criticized the response to the fire. The blaze, whipped by gale-force winds, raced through the seaside area northeast of Athens on July 23. The vast majority of victims died in the fire itself, with some drowning while swimming out to sea fleeing the flames.

Heartbreak: Funerals begin for Greece's wildfire victims

July 29, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Funerals for the victims of Greece's lethal wildfire began Saturday with the burial of an elderly priest who drowned as he sought safety from the flames in the sea off the coastal community of Mati.

Hundreds of people attended Father Spyridon Papapostolou's funeral in his parish of Halandri, a northern suburb of Athens, the Greek capital. Papapostolou, his wife and daughter were among hundreds who entered the water to protect themselves from the fast-moving flames. But the 83-year-old cleric passed out and drowned, while his wife and daughter survived.

"Father Spyridon was certainly ready for this trip, but not in this way, he didn't deserve it," his niece, Ifigenia Christodoulou, told The Associated Press. "I hope that he prays for all us from up there, just as he has done all these years."

Dimitra Bavavea directed her anger at the "unjust" way that so many people — 86 — had lost their lives. The fire was the deadliest wildfire in Europe since 1900, according to the International Disaster Database run by the Centre for the Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Brussels.

"My sorrow is great as is my rage for those who left people to burn to death so unjustly," she said. "I hope that those who died are in heaven and I thank you Father Spyridon for all that you have offered us."

Greece's public order minister continued to defend authorities' response to Monday's blaze. Minister Nikos Toskas told state broadcaster ERT it was impossible to evacuate the area's 15,000 people in the 90 minutes that Monday's blaze roared through the area.

In more sad news, the bodies of twin girls who their father initially believed had survived the fire have been identified, private investigator George Tsoukalis told the AP. He said nine-year-old twins Sophia and Vasiliki Philipopoulos were found in the arms of their grandparents, who also perished in the fire.

A day after the fire, Yiannis Philipopoulos issued a public appeal to try to locate his missing daughters, saying that he had spotted them alive in TV news footage among a group of people getting off a fishing boat that had rescued them.

The twins' tragic death was also confirmed by Smile of the Child, an independent child welfare agency that also confirmed the death of 13-year-old Dimitris Alexopoulos, whose body was among those found by firefighters.

Coroner Nikolaos Kalogrias told the AP that identification of the fire remains continues at a steady pace. Greek authorities haven't given an account of exactly how many people are still missing. Toskas said fire crews did all they could to save as many lives as possible, but that town planning errors over the last 60 years had created conditions that made it difficult for fire crews to do their job.

Toskas said over half of buildings in the Mati area, 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Athens, were constructed without permits. In addition, some beaches were fenced off, blocking people fleeing the flames from reaching the water.

He said the government's priority now is to take measures so that something like this never happens again. Toskas did not appear to heed the call of his boss, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, to follow his lead in accepting political responsibility for the disaster.

But locals in the stricken resort of Mati were unimpressed by Tsipras' declaration. "I want to know what 'I accept political responsibility' means ... Will he go to jail? What's the payback?" Vissarion Pantelides, 79, said Saturday.

Demetris Nellas, in Athens, and Adam Pemble, in Mati, contributed to the story.

Greek forest fire survivor tells of dramatic flight, rescue

July 24, 2018

RAFINA, Greece (AP) — The fire came suddenly, and the group of friends ran. When they reached the beach and there was nowhere more to run, they swam into the ocean, choking and blinded by the smoke and pulled by the strong current.

The same winds that fanned the flames had whipped up the seas, and soon they lost sight of the shore and became disoriented. For two hours the group struggled to stay afloat, until salvation came in the form of a fishing boat and its Egyptian crew. Nikos Stavrinidis was pulled to safety. So was his wife and two of their friends.

But two more — a woman and her son — had disappeared into the waves. "It is terrible to see the person next to you drowning and not be able to help him. You can't," Stavrinidis said, his voice breaking. "That will stay with me."

The couple had gone to the Greek port of Rafina to prepare their summer home for their daughter, who planned to visit for the summer, when they were caught up in Greece's deadliest wildfires in more than a decade.

"It happened very fast. The fire was in the distance, then sparks from the fire reached us. Then the fire was all around us," he said. "The wind was indescribable — it was incredible. I've never seen anything like this before in my life."

And so they ran, making their way toward the beach, but even that wasn't safe. "We ran to the sea. We had to swim out because of the smoke, but we couldn't see where anything was," he said. The current was strong and the smoke blinding, and the friends fought to stay afloat.

"We fell into the sea and tried to distance ourselves, to get away from the monoxide. We went as far in as we could," he said. "But as we went further, there was a lot of wind and a lot of current and it started taking us away from the coast. We were not able to see where we were."

Stavrinidis credited the crew of the fishing boat for saving the surviving friends. "They jumped into the sea with their clothes still on," he said. "They made us tea and kept us warm. They were great."

Tourists frustrated as Eiffel Tower closes in peak season

August 02, 2018

PARIS (AP) — The August sun sparkles on the Seine River beyond the imposing Eiffel Tower. But the many visitors who descended on the beloved Paris monument Thursday at the peak of the summer tourist season had their hopes of climbing it thwarted.

Since Wednesday, Eiffel Tower workers have been on strike over the landmark's new visitor access policy, which they say is responsible for inordinately long queues. Yet for many visitors whose stay is limited, long queues are better than no access at all.

German tourist Nico Schulze Bilk, who had planned his visit to Paris eight months ago, voiced frustration. "This is my first time in Paris and I was really excited to see the Eiffel Tower and ... the city from the top, but now it is closed," he said. "I'm a little bit disappointed."

Caroline Brawand, who was visiting with her family from Switzerland, had planned to share the magical view with her daughter for the first time. "We are very let down, because we booked one month in advance to go up to the last floor of the Eiffel Tower," she said. "At the same time we understand the employees who explained to us the state of the queues."

Since last month, the Eiffel Tower has been allowing half of its tickets to be booked in advance for scheduled entry times. Previously, pre-booked tickets accounted for around one-fifth of the entries.

But unions that represent the tower's some 300 employees complain that since different ticketholders are now being allocated separate elevators, this has created "monstrous" waiting times and management has not listened to their concerns.

"There have been days with three-hour-long queues. Some elderly people fainted," said Eiffel Tower union representative Denis Vavassori. "We are exhausted and we do not want to relive that in August."

The Eiffel Tower sees some six million visitors a year but has been beset by multiple strikes and security issues in recent years. "This strike will continue until we will reach an agreement to reopen the Eiffel Tower and welcome our visitors under the best possible conditions," Vavassori said.

Hot African air brings scorching heat, dust to Europe

August 02, 2018

MADRID (AP) — Hot air from Africa is bringing a new heatwave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that are forecast to peak at 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) in some southern areas.

The torrid weather meant that public services were put on alert in Spain and Portugal. Temperatures were forecast to reach 44 degrees (111 Fahrenheit) Thursday in the Portuguese city of Evora, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of the capital of Lisbon, and in the Spanish province of Badajoz, across the border.

A hot air mass was moving northward from Africa, authorities said, warning that the mercury could peak at 47 degrees Celsius this weekend in the southern Portuguese town of Beja. Portuguese authorities issued a nationwide health warning, including for dust from the Sahara Desert. Warnings were also issued for 40 of Spain's 50 provinces.

Up north in Sweden, the country's official tallest point is set to change amid record temperatures. Scientists said a glacier on Mount Kebne, the Scandinavian country's highest peak at 2,111 meters (6,925 feet, 10 inches), is melting and is no longer Sweden's tallest point.

Gunhild Rosqvist, a Stockholm University professor in geography, said the glacier lost four meters (13 feet, 2 ½ inches) of snow in July alone as Sweden endured record temperatures that triggered dozens of wildfires, even in the Arctic Circle.

In neighboring Finland, a supermarket came up with a novel way of escaping the heat. The K-Supermarket said on its Facebook page that patrons hoping to cool down could sleep overnight in its air-conditioned store in Helsinki.

Homes in Finland are designed to handle the extreme cold and damp typical of the Nordic region, not the recent high temperatures. In eastern Europe, Poland endured unusually high temperatures up to 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 Fahrenheit), forcing its power plants to go into emergency mode to increase output due to the wide use of air conditioning and electric fans.

In the streets of Warsaw, the Polish capital, authorities placed cooling water installations around and advised people to stay indoors. Dozens of the country's Baltic Sea beaches have "no swimming" warnings due to health risks from algae blooms.

Farmers across the continent were battling the effects of drought, so the European Union offered to speed up funds to help them cope. German farmers have already asked their government for 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in financial aid to help cover losses from this year's poor harvest.

AP correspondents across Europe contributed to this report.

Chinese leader arrives for Africa visit as US interest wanes

July 21, 2018

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Africa on Saturday on a four-nation visit seeking deeper military and economic ties while his rival in a bitter trade war, the Trump administration, shows little interest in the world's second most populous continent.

This is Xi's first trip abroad since he was appointed to a second term in March with term limits removed, allowing him to rule for as long as he wants. That rang familiar to some of Africa's long-entrenched leaders.

China is already Africa's largest trading partner, and it opened its first military base on the continent last year in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, which this month launched a China-backed free trade zone it calls the largest in Africa. After surpassing the U.S. in arms sales to Africa in recent years, China this month hosted dozens of African military officials for the first China-Africa defense forum.

Xi is stopping in Senegal and then Rwanda ahead of his participation in a summit of the BRICS emerging economies in South Africa that starts on Wednesday. The summit comes amid the United States' billion-dollar trade war with China and tough trade negotiations with other key economic partners. Last month the foreign ministers of BRICS members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa criticized what they called a "new wave of protectionism," saying U.S. measures undermine global trade and economic growth.

Xi's Africa visit also highlights China's sweeping "Belt and Road" initiative that envisages linking Beijing to Africa, Europe and other parts of Asia via a network of ports, railways, power plants and economic zones.

While such high-profile projects bring badly needed infrastructure and generate economic growth, U.S. officials and others have warned that African nations are putting themselves into debt to China. Its government, banks and contractors loaned more than $94 billion to African governments and state-owned companies from 2000 to 2015, according to the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University.

"Public debt in the median sub-Saharan African country rose from 34 percent of GDP in 2013 to an estimated 53 percent in 2017," says a report in January by Wenjie Chen and Roger Nord of the International Monetary Fund.

From oil in countries like Nigeria and Angola to rare minerals in Congo, Africa's natural resources are a major draw for China's economy, the world's second largest behind the U.S. China's voracious appetite for resources such as timber and ivory, however, has taken its toll on Africa's environment, often with the help of corrupt local officials.

On his first visit to a West African country Xi will meet with President Macky Sall of Senegal, which according to the International Monetary Fund had economic growth of 7.2 percent last year and whose largest trading partner is the European Union, notably France.

The stop highlights China's interest both in Francophone Africa and in Atlantic Ocean ports, while Senegal positions itself as a gateway to the region. Already a Chinese-backed industrial park has appeared outside the capital, Dakar, while rail and road links are being improved as part of an ambitious plan to reach the other end of the continent in Djibouti.

Xi then moves on to Rwanda, becoming the first Chinese president to visit the landlocked East African country, whose economy grew by 6.1 percent last year. He will meet with President Paul Kagame and visit a memorial for Rwanda's 1994 genocide, which killed more than 800,000 people.

The Chinese leader then will make his third state visit to South Africa for the BRICS summit. South Africa's economy, one of Africa's largest, grew just 1.3 percent last year amid a drop in investor confidence because of a corruption scandal around former President Jacob Zuma, who resigned in February.

Finally, Xi will stop in the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, whose economy grew by 3.9 percent last year. China's economic push will continue in September with the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which brings together dozens of heads of state.

Anna reported from Johannesburg. Associated Press writers Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda and Christopher Torchia in Johannesburg contributed.

British warship docks in Tokyo as UK expands Asia presence

August 03, 2018

TOKYO (AP) — A British warship docked in Tokyo on Friday as Britain seeks to expand its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region. The HMS Albion, which has been conducting maritime security and surveillance operations in the Pacific, is the second of three British warships being deployed to Asia this year. They are the first such deployments in several years.

"Our presence here is part of a much wider commitment of the Royal Navy to the Asia-Pacific in 2018," Capt. Tim Neild said at a welcome ceremony at Harumi Pier on Tokyo Bay. Britain and Japan agreed last year to step up defense cooperation in the face of a growing threat from North Korea and China's efforts to bolster its claims to disputed territory in the South China Sea.

Neild said that the British navy is committed to enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea and protecting a rules-based international system, a veiled reference to China's island-building activities. The waters are a major shipping lane for global trade, with 35 percent of Britain's trade passing through the Asia-Pacific, he said.

A senior Japanese officer welcomed Britain's increased commitment to the region including the enforcement of sanctions on North Korea. "No single nation or navy alone can deal with all these issues today," said Vice Admiral Gojiro Watanabe of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, as the Japanese navy is known.

The Albion is an 18,500-ton amphibious assault ship that can launch landing craft into waters for a coastal attack. Neild said one of its major activities during its Asia tour will be a joint exercise with Japan later this month at a beach southwest of Tokyo.

The Japanese military, concerned about Chinese designs on some islands that both countries claim, is developing an amphibious brigade.

Norway demands Israel explain seizure of boat bound for Gaza

July 31, 2018

Norway has asked Israel to explain the legal grounds for detaining a Norwegian-flagged fishing boat seized while activists tried to sail with aid to the Gaza Strip, Norway’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said its diplomats in Israel had been providing consular assistance to five Norwegians who were among the 22 passengers and crew detained onboard the vessel Kaarstein on Sunday. Two Israelis on board were quickly released.

“We have asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the circumstances around the seizure of the vessel and the legal basis for the intervention,” the spokesman for the Norwegian foreign affairs ministry in Oslo said. A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Torstein Dahle, head of the group Ship to Gaza Norway which organised the shipment, said it was the first Norwegian aid vessel to attempt to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The captain had been struck on the head by Israeli soldiers who ordered him to sail for Israel, but no one was seriously hurt, Dahle said.

“This is a peaceful boat; it’s impossible that it can threaten Israel’s security,” he said.

The Gaza Strip is controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which has fought three wars against Israel in the decade since taking power there.

Israel, citing security concerns that include fears of Hamas weapons smuggling, maintains a naval blockade of Gaza, and along with Egypt also restricts imports by land.

The territory is home to 2 million Palestinians, mainly the stateless descendants of people who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel at its founding in 1948. Under the blockade, Gaza has suffered an economic crisis creating what the World Bank describes as a “collapse in humanitarian conditions” including access to clean water, medicine and electricity.

Numerous activist ships have been prevented from reaching Gaza in recent years. An Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla in 2010, in which ten activists were killed, caused a serious rupture in relations between Israel and Turkey, one of Israel’s few friends in the Middle East.

Audun Lysbakken, leader of Norway’s opposition Socialist Left party, called on the foreign ministry to protest against what he described as Israel “hijacking” the Norwegian boat in international waters.

Among those detained is Mikkel Gruner, a Danish citizen who lives in Norway and is the Socialist Left representative in the municipal council of the Norwegian city of Bergen. Lysbakken said the activists had legal rights to protest against Israel’s blockade, demanding the release of Gruner and the others.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180731-norway-demands-israel-explain-seizure-of-boat-bound-for-gaza/.

Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa wins 1st post-Mugabe election

August 03, 2018

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa won election Friday with just over 50 percent of the ballots as the ruling party maintained control of the government in the first vote since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent of the vote while main opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 percent. The opposition is almost certain to challenge the results in the courts or in the streets.

While election day was peaceful in a break from the past, deadly violence on Wednesday against people protesting alleged vote-rigging reminded many Zimbabweans of the decades of military-backed repression under Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's president says he is "humbled" by his win. "Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our dreams," Mnangagwa said on Twitter. "This is a new beginning. Let us join hands, in peace, unity & love, & together build a new Zimbabwe for all!" Mnangagwa tweeted, after a week that began with peaceful voting Monday but spiraled into deadly violence in the capital Wednesday as the military fired on protesters.

Western election observers who were banned in previous votes have expressed concern at the military's "excessive" force in the capital, Harare. Their assessments of the election are crucial to the lifting of international sanctions on a country whose economy collapsed years ago.

Shortly before the election commission's announcement, Morgen Komichi, the chief agent for Chamisa's opposition alliance, took the stage and said his party "totally rejects" the results and said he had not signed the election results. Police escorted him from the room.

Later Komichi said the elections were "fraudulent" and "everything has been done illegally." He said he had refused an electoral commission request to sign papers certifying Mnangagwa's win. "We're not part of it," said Komichi, adding that the opposition would be challenging the election in the courts.

Commission chair Priscilla Chigumba urged the country to "move on" with the hopeful spirit of election day and beyond the "blemishes" of Wednesday's chaos: "May God bless this nation and its people." With the military still deployed in Harare, the capital's streets were quiet following the announcement of Mnangagwa's victory.

By the center where the election results were announced, Charity Manyeruke, who teaches political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said she was delighted. "There is continuity, stability," Manyeruke said. "Zimbabwe is poised for nation-building."

The signs that Mnangagwa's election will be disputed appears to deepen a political crisis that was worsened by Wednesday's violence in Harare as the military swept in with gunfire to disperse opposition supporters alleging vote-rigging.

The death toll rose to six, with 14 injured, police said, and 18 people were arrested at the offices of the main opposition party amid tensions over a vote that was supposed to restore trust in Zimbabwe after decades of Mugabe's rule.

While Mnangagwa and the ruling party accused the opposition of inciting the violence, the opposition, human rights activists and international election observers condemned the "excessive" force used against protesters and appealed to all sides to exercise restraint.

Police raided the headquarters of Chamisa's Movement for Democratic Change party while a lawyers' group said Chamisa was being investigated for allegedly inciting violence. He and several others are suspected of the crimes of "possession of dangerous weapons" and "public violence," according to a copy of a search warrant seen by The Associated Press.

Chamisa, however, said police seized computers and were looking for what he called evidence that his party had gathered of vote-rigging by Mnangagwa's party. The evidence already had been moved to a "safe house," he said.

Mnangagwa called for an "independent investigation" into Wednesday's violence, saying those responsible "should be identified and brought to justice." Mnangagwa was a longtime Mugabe confidante before his firing in November led his allies in the military to step in and push Mugabe to resign after 37 years in power. Thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans celebrated in the streets of Harare, greeting the military with selfies and cheers.

Since taking office, the 75-year-old Mnangagwa has tried to recast himself as a voice of reform, declaring that Zimbabwe was "open for business" and inviting long-banned Western election observers to observe Monday's vote, which he pledged would be free and fair.

A credible election after past votes were marred by violence against the opposition and alleged irregularities is crucial for the lifting of international sanctions and for the badly needed foreign investment to help Zimbabwe's long-collapsed economy revive. Mnangagwa himself remains under U.S. sanctions.

While Monday's election has been widely judged as peaceful with a high turnout, the deadly violence that erupted on Wednesday brought back chilly memories of decades of repression under Mugabe. It was a reminder, as opposition leader Chamisa declared Thursday, that "'We have removed Mugabe but not Mugabe-ism."

The military deployment was the first time that soldiers had appeared in the streets of the capital since Mugabe's resignation. Some Harare residents expressed frustration and exhaustion at the dramatic change from November's exuberant expression of hope to the current tensions.

"We are a peaceful nation," said 29-year-old Sifas Gavanga of the latest chaos. "We don't deserve the death we saw."

Zimbabwe's ruling party wins control of parliament

August 01, 2018

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's ruling party has won a majority of seats in Parliament, the electoral commission announced Wednesday, as the country braced for the first official results of the presidential election.

The ruling ZANU-PF won 109 seats while the main opposition MDC party had 41 in the country's 210-seat House of Assembly. The commission said two seats were won by smaller parties and 58 seats had yet to be declared.

The commission said it would announce the results of Zimbabwe's presidential race, pitting President Emmerson Mnangagwa against opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, only after all the votes have come in from across the country.

Western and other election observers were set to give their first public assessments of the election and whether it was free and fair. The opposition alleges the elections have irregularities, saying voting results were not posted outside one-fifth of polling stations as required by law.

Mnangagwa's government, meanwhile, accused Chamisa and his supporters of inciting "violence" by already declaring he had won the election, the first after former leader Robert Mugabe stepped down in November.

"Let me also warn such individuals and groups that no one is above the law," Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu said. Security forces "will remain on high alert and continue to monitor the security situation in the country."

The possibility of confrontation is an unnerving reminder of the tensions that pervade this southern African nation, debilitated by Mugabe's long rule. The 94-year-old former leader had been in power since independence from white minority rule in 1980 until he was forced to resign after the military and ruling ZANU-PF party turned on him.

Mnangagwa, a former deputy president who fell out with Mugabe and then took over from him, has said his showing in the presidential polls was "extremely positive" while urging people to wait for official results.

Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, has gone further, saying his own count shows that he won the election and that he's ready to form the next government.

"We won the popular vote & will defend it!" Chamisa tweeted Wednesday morning. Zimbabweans desperately hope the peaceful vote, which took place Monday, will lift them out of economic and political stagnation after decades of Mugabe's rule, but the country is haunted by a history of electoral violence and manipulation that means trust is scarce.

While the electoral commission has five days from the end of voting to release the final tally, the national mood is growing anxious partly because unofficial results are already swirling on social media.

Dozens of opposition supporters gathered Tuesday evening at their headquarters in the capital, Harare, celebrating in the belief that they had won the presidential election based on results they said they collected from agents in the field.

As they danced to music blasting from speakers set up on a truck, police with water cannon circulated in the area.

Powerful bomb in van kills at least 11 in south Philippines

July 31, 2018

LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) — A bomb-laden van driven by a suspected militant went off in a powerful blast Tuesday that killed 11 people, including a soldier, five militiamen and the driver, in a brazen attack that reignited terrorism fears in the southern Philippines.

Regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Gerry Besana said six army scout rangers and a militiaman were also wounded in the explosion outside an army militia outpost. The blast tore a crater on the road and damaged the outpost in Lamitan city in one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country this year.

Militiamen, who had been alerted about possible bombings, stopped the van at a checkpoint in Colonia village, where the bomb went off, military officials said. "If he triggered the bomb, he was probably waiting for a more opportune time to inflict harm on a bigger number of people," Besana said by phone, referring to the driver, who died in the blast. "That's their death wish — the more, the merrier."

The Philippine government condemned the terrorist attack, calling it a "war crime." The Islamic State group, through its media arm, claimed credit for the attack, saying the attacker was a Moroccan. However, it cited a much higher death toll.

Investigators have yet to determine if the bomb or bombs were being carried in the van or the vehicle had been turned into a car bomb, Besana said, adding it was also unclear if the explosive was remotely detonated or was set off by the driver in a suicide attack.

Militiaman Gregorio Inso, who survived but lost his wife to the blast, said the van was flagged down for inspection by his colleagues outside the militia outpost. When the driver apparently wanted to restart the engine, the militiamen looked inside and saw suspicious strands of wire inside the van and called a group of scout rangers.

"When the rangers were approaching, the vehicle suddenly exploded," Inso said. "When I looked again everyone was dead." Military spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo said the driver, who witnesses described as looking scared and who did not respond to questions at the checkpoint, could be an Abu Sayyaf militant under a ruthless commander, Furuji Indama, who recently plotted bombings in predominantly Muslim Basilan.

Government forces have also been put on alert in the south, scene of decades-long Muslim separatist unrest, after President Rodrigo Duterte signed a new autonomy agreement last week with the biggest Muslim rebel group in the country.

The peace deal has been opposed by much smaller but violent extremist bands like the Abu Sayyaf and others which have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group. The country's south remains under martial law, which Duterte declared last year to deal with a five-month siege by Islamic State group-linked militants in southern Marawi city that left more than 1,200 mostly militants dead, displaced hundreds of thousands of villagers and sparked fears that the Islamic State group was gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia amid its battle defeats in Syria and Iraq.

The Abu Sayyaf, which was founded in the late 1980s in Basilan, has been blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. It has been weakened by government offensives and surrenders but remains a national security threat.

Associated Press journalists Jim Gomez, Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila in Manila and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

On nature's side: Vegan soccer club is now carbon neutral

July 31, 2018

NAILSWORTH, England (AP) — One-nil for the environmentalists. An English soccer team has become the first professional sports team in the world to be certified carbon-neutral by the United Nations. Forest Green Rovers, which plays in English soccer's fourth tier, has adopted a number of environmentally-friendly measures, from using electric vehicles, to vegan-only meals for players, staff and fans.

The club's 2,000-seat stadium in the quiet town of Nailsworth, England, is powered entirely by renewable energy, about 20 percent of which by solar panels. Chairman Dale Vince, who also owns a renewable energy company, took control of the club in 2010 and quickly set to reshaping its policies.

"Football clubs can influence society to create change," he said. "And to do that, they've got to set a good example." The U.N.'s Climate Neutral Now initiative aims to encourage all parts of society to take action against climate change. Applicants must measure their greenhouse gas emissions, then reduce them as much as possible.

Miguel Naranjo, a program officer at the United Nations' Climate Change Secretariat, said it's a way to help people understand how they can reduce emissions in their everyday life. "It's the small things that make a big difference," said Naranjo.

Forest Green Rovers' plant-based menu was granted a vegan trademark by the Vegan Society last year. The team claims to be the world's first fully-vegan soccer club. While the players are not committed to being vegan outside of team meals, several of them say they are.

One popular dish is the 'Q Pie,' made with meat substitute Quorn, rather than the traditional beef or chicken that is found at soccer club kiosks across England. "Some people come in and might think; 'Oh God, vegan food,'" said head chef Jade Crawford. "But then as soon as they try it, they're like: 'Actually it's quite nice.'"

The pitch, meanwhile, is tended without pesticides. And rather than driving a gas-powered mower, groundskeepers use a solar-powered robotic lawnmower, nicknamed "The Mowbot." It works like a Roomba vacuum cleaner, driving in straight lines across the pitch until it encounters an obstacle.

Of course, there are some associated emissions the club can't avoid. Many fans travel to matches in traditional gas-powered cars, for instance. Dale, the chairman, said that to meet the criteria for U.N. certification, they had to offset whatever carbon emissions they could not reduce by donating to a U.N. renewable energy program.

Forest Green, known as the "Green Devils" to their fans, donated to a project in India to offset its remaining emissions worth about 200 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Environmentalists have praised the approach. Jamie Peters, a campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said the club has shown leadership, "to show that these things can be done at scale."

And being environmentally friendly seems compatible with sporting success, too. Last year, the club was promoted to the English Football League, the fourth tier, for the first time in its 129-year history.