Rashida Tlaib - First Muslim woman elected into US Congress

AUG. 8, 2018

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Former Michigan state legislator, Rashida Tlaib, won the Democratic primary on Tuesday for the US House seat to represent Michigan's 13th Congressional District and potentially first Muslim woman to become US Congresswoman.

Rashida Tlaib, a 42-year-old mother of two children, and a daughter of two Palestinian immigrants, was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1976. She later went on to study politics and subsequently law.

Tlaib ran a progressive anti-establishment campaign, focusing on environmental protections and opposing tax cuts for big corporations.

She also discussed the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

The campaign raised over $1 million, which gained 33.6% of the vote, as opposed to her rival, Detroit Council President Brenda Jones, who only took 28.5% of the vote.

Following the win, Tlaib described her combination of emotions as a "happy chaos."

She added that "it has been amazing to interact with families at polling locations. I feel very much supported."

Tlaib will represent the 13th Congressional District, which is the only congressional district entirely within one county. She is the second Muslim to serve in the Michigan State House of Representatives, after James Karoub, and the second Muslim woman to serve in a state legislature nationwide after Jamilah Nasheed from Missouri House of Representatives.

Since there are no Republican candidates contesting for the House seat, Tlaib will enter Congress unopposed, following a special election on November 6, 2018, when she will officially replace John James Conyers, the current US Representative for Michigan.

It is almost certain that Rashida Tlaib will enter into Congress and become the first Muslim Palestinian-American US congresswoman in the nation's history.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780641.

Women in Kuwait granted full political rights

August 3, 2018

Kuwait has become one of the first country in the Middle East to give full political rights to women. Gulf news agencies reported that the oil rich state has granted full suffrage after decades of campaigning by women’s rights campaigners.

Praising Kuwait’s progressive move, regional media commented on the leading role women have been playing in driving the country’s overall development across all sectors, including public works, social services, economy and politics.

Opportunities for women are now said to exist in all areas of society with many high profile jobs overlooking men in favor of women.

The journey for full political rights has been a long one but the course had been set during the 90’s when women are said to have played a major role in coordinating resistance against Saddam Hussain’s invasion of the Gulf state in August 1990.

Ever since, women have overcome one hurdle after another to obtain equality; a rarity in the region dominated by powerful men. Dr. Rasha Al Sabah was one of the pioneers. She held the position of the first under-secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education in 1993. Others like Nabila Al Mulla followed in her step. She was appointed as the first Kuwaiti ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa in 1993. Mulla was then appointed in 2003 as the permanent representative at the United Nations to become the first Arab Muslim ambassadress to the global organisation.

In Kuwait women have bucked the trend and taken senior roles in several municipal, national and international positions that are normally the preserve of men only. They have achieved successes in many fields, proving that they represent half of the community and cannot be marginalized.

The progress has continued and more recently women have been appointed as ministers in several areas including the Minister of State for Housing Affairs which went to Dr. Jenan Bushahri in 2017. A similar rise to the top saw Hind Barak Al Subaih being appointed as minister of social and labour affairs and minister of state for planning and development.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180803-women-in-kuwait-granted-full-political-rights/.

Saudi Arabia orders Canadian envoy to leave over criticism

August 06, 2018

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Monday ordered the Canadian ambassador to leave the ultraconservative kingdom within 24 hours after his nation criticized the recent arrest of women's rights activists.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry also said it would freeze "all new business" between the kingdom and Canada. Some 10 percent of Canadian crude oil imports come from Saudi Arabia. "Any further step from the Canadian side in that direction will be considered as acknowledgment of our right to interfere in the Canadian domestic affairs," the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in an extraordinarily aggressive statement. "Canada and all other nations need to know that they can't claim to be more concerned than the kingdom over its own citizens."

It wasn't immediately clear if Ambassador Dennis Horak was in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia said it would recall its ambassador to Canada as well. Marie-Pier Baril, a spokeswoman for Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, said Canada was "seriously concerned" by Saudi Arabia's actions.

"Canada will always stand up for the protection of human rights, very much including women's rights, and freedom of expression around the world," she said in a statement. "Our government will never hesitate to promote these values and believes that this dialogue is critical to international diplomacy."

The dispute appears centered around tweets by Canadian diplomats calling on the kingdom to "immediately release" women's rights activists recently detained by the kingdom. Among those recently arrested is Samar Badawi, whose brother Raif Badawi was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and later sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for criticizing clerics. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, is now living in Canada.

Freeland tweeted about the arrests on Thursday. "Very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawi's sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia," she wrote. "Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi."

Saudi Arabia ended in June its long practice of not allowing women to drive automobiles in the Sunni kingdom. However, supporters of women's rights were arrested just weeks before the ban was lifted, signaling that only King Salman and his powerful son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will decide the pace of change.

Saudi women still need permission from male guardians to travel abroad or marry. The diplomatic dispute with Canada may be part of that assertive foreign policy pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed under his father. Germany similarly has found itself targeted by the kingdom in recent months over comments by its officials on the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

It isn't immediately clear what new business could be affected between the two countries. Bilateral trade between the two nations reached $3 billion in 2016, with tanks and fighting vehicles among the top Canadian exports to the kingdom, according to government statistics.

Saudi Arabia in recent years has expelled Iran's ambassador over attacks on its diplomatic posts following its 2016 execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

Spain takes more African migrants despite signs of tension

August 09, 2018

ALGECIRAS, Spain (AP) — A rescue boat carrying 87 African migrants who were saved in the Mediterranean Sea docked Thursday at the southern Spanish port of Algeciras, but without the welcome offered to previous groups as the political mood in Spain began showing signs of tension about a spike in migrant arrivals.

The boat operated by Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms brought what it said were mostly Sudanese war refugees, including 12 minors, picked up off the Libyan coast on Aug. 2. Spain allowed the boat to come after other, geographically closer, European Union countries refused to let it dock amid continuing tension among EU governments about how best to respond to the wave of migrants crossing from Africa.

Spain's new center-left Socialist government made fair treatment for migrants one of its headline policies after coming to power two months ago. In June, it announced measures to "put people's rights first" in the country's migration policies. Among other things, it took the first steps toward extending public health care to foreigners without residence permits.

That same month, it accepted the Aquarius rescue ship with 630 migrants on board after Malta and Italy turned it away. Authorities gave those migrants who arrived in Valencia a special entry permit into Spain of 45 days for humanitarian reasons. A further 60 who arrived on a rescue ship in Barcelona last month were given a 30-day permit while they decided what to do. Their paperwork was also fast-tracked.

But those who arrived in Algeciras on Thursday will get no such special treatment. They will be processed, the government said, like any other migrants rescued at sea: held by police for 72 hours at a migrant camp, given a medical check-up, identified and detained while they await asylum or are given an expulsion order.

The government official overseeing immigration, Magdalena Valerio, said earlier this week there would be no extra money for migrant policies before the end of the year. The Spanish Network for Immigration and Refugee Help, a non-governmental organization, accused the government of abruptly "changing course" in its immigration policies and "discriminating" against the new arrivals.

"We'd like Spain to remain a safe haven and be a bulwark against the populism of (Italian Interior Minister Matteo) Salvini and (French far-right nationalist leader Marine) Le Pen," the organization's president, Daniel Mendez, told Spanish news agency Europa Press.

Critics of the new government's perceived softer approach toward migrants said its policies had backfired, by attracting ever higher numbers, and the government is increasingly wary of that criticism.

The U.N. Migration Agency says almost 24,000 refugees and other migrants have arrived in Spain by sea this year — nearly three times the number last year. The agency says Spain has become the most popular European destination for Mediterranean migrants, with just over 40 percent of the total, after Libya and Italy began cracking down. Most come on overcrowded smugglers' boats from Tunisia and Morocco.

Opposition leader Pablo Casado has targeted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's immigration policies. "What Spaniards are looking for is a party which says clearly that we can't give documents to everyone, and Spain can't take in millions of Africans," Casado said last month.

Such criticism has left Sanchez politically exposed when he heads a minority government with just 84 of the 350 seats in the lower house of parliament. It has also fueled fears that populism may spread further in the EU. Far-right parties have joined the governments in Italy and Austria and made gains elsewhere.

Residents from the region around Algeciras expressed concern about the latest arrivals. "With so much unemployment we do not need extra expenses," Manuel Ruiz said. "The refugees, because they are not cared for properly, they start stealing to live and this causes all sorts of problems." He added: "We have to give them all the aid we can, but it has to be balanced."

Jose Lopez Vicente feared a backlash. "I think the European Union should take more of an interest in this situation. If not, the population will become racist, even if they are not." Sanchez, the prime minister, says his government and EU officials are in talks with Morocco, from where traffickers take the migrants across the Mediterranean, and with the migrants' countries of origin on how to stem the flow.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean on Thursday, a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Turkish coast, killing seven children and two women, Turkey's state-run news agency said. Many migrants continue to attempt to reach the Greek islands from the Turkish coast, hoping to eventually move to more prosperous European Union countries.

Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Donovan Torres in Algeciras, and Suzan Fraser from Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Digging up Franco: Spain divided over dictator's legacy

August 05, 2018

MADRID (AP) — Even in his grave, the 20th-century dictator who ruled Spain with an iron fist keeps dividing the country. Spain's new center-left government says removing the embalmed body of Gen. Francisco Franco from a glorifying mausoleum will be the first among many symbolic moves aimed at coming to terms with the country's troubled history.

Critics of the government and Franco's descendants are pushing back, vowing to preserve the memory of a regime they claim should be credited for "modernizing Spain." Banning the foundation that preserves the legacy of Franco is precisely what should be done instead, says Fernando Martinez, the official appointed to oversee the government's efforts to unearth and identify the 114,000-or-so victims of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Franco, who died in 1975.

"Exhuming the body of the dictator will begin healing the wounds of this country. But that task will only be completed when the last ditch with a mass grave in this country has been opened," Martinez told The Associated Press, speaking at the Ministry of Justice in Madrid, where his new Directorate General for Historic Memory is being formed.

Martinez says creating an up-to-date census of anonymous burials in ditches across the country will be among the most pressing tasks for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's new government. Other moves include re-opening an office to help victims' relatives — an office closed under Spain's previous conservative government — setting up a new system for reparation payments and turning Franco's current burial place into a museum against fascism.

"We are going to accelerate and make up for lost time, it's a question of democratic dignity," says Martinez, who was appointed in July after Sanchez ousted conservative Mariano Rajoy with a no-confidence vote in June.

Three U.N-sponsored missions to Spain since 2013 had criticized authorities for lacking a national plan to search for missing people, for poor coordination on exhumations and for outdated maps of graves. They also raised concerns about the inaction of Spanish courts in prosecuting some of the period's darkest crimes.

But a panel of U.N. rights experts just recently praised the authorities' move for "placing the right to truth at the top of the political agenda" by leading the efforts to search for those disappeared as well as for vowing to create a Truth Commission to investigate crimes that occurred under Franco up until his death.

"This decision represents a fundamental step toward the realization of the right to truth for all victims of serious human rights violations," the rapporteurs wrote. The government wants to adopt the changes by amending the 2007 Historic Memory Law, which fell short of addressing the demands of survivors and victims' relatives when Rajoy's conservative government eliminated its budgets for exhumations and reparations.

Emilio Silva, president of the Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory, or ARMH, says the new government should use its executive powers to remove Franco from the Valley of the Fallen — a macabre mausoleum 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Madrid. He also wants the government to dig up all the graves of Franco's victims, rather than kicking off a grand political showdown between conservative and progressive voices in parliament.

"They fear a legal backlash," Silva said of the government. But he called digging up unmarked graves and compensating the relatives of identified victims "very basic, human things. There shouldn't be any need to discuss them."

With a towering 150-meter (500-foot) tall cross that can be seen from miles away, the somber neoclassic-style mausoleum and basilica of the Valley of the Fallen were built by Franco as a tribute to the dead during his so-called "glorious crusade" in overthrowing Spain's democratic government.

Some 34,000 people from both sides of the fratricidal war are buried at the site, most of them never identified, along with the remains of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the fascist Spanish Falange party. Franco's tomb, a simple granite slate with only his name engraved, presides over the altar of the basilica. Fresh flowers are always on display.

Public events supporting the Franco regime were outlawed in 2007, but the grandiose site remains a popular pilgrimage destination for those nostalgic for the dictatorship. Activists say the whole place exudes a totalitarian air and is an insult to the memory of the victims. They are also angry at the decrepit state of the remains, with water leaks that have turned the crypts into "piles of bones," according to an expert's assessment in 2011.

Martinez says the projected revision of the law will include a proposal to remove symbols celebrating the dictatorship and will rebrand the Valley into a monument for reconciliation and a museum that tells about the abuses during its construction, including the use of political prisoners as forced laborers.

But the government, which failed to exhume Franco by July as promised, is facing a myriad of obstacles, including its weak position in parliament. Hundreds of people nostalgic for Francoism have staged protests at the Valley, and conservative parties are accusing Sanchez's administration of reopening a chapter they consider closed instead of focusing on 21st-century problems.

Meanwhile, descendants of Franco's family are refusing to cooperate with authorities, mounting a legal case against plans to exhume the dictator and refusing to take his remains to the family sepulchral vault in Galicia. With their refusal, authorities are faced with the dilemma of what to do with Franco's remains.

Digging Franco up, Martinez said, aims to "consolidate our democracy," which was peacefully instituted in the late 70s upon the death of the dictator. Martinez refused to venture a date for the Franco exhumation. But even if it succeeds, Sanchez's government will face the politically sensitive task of outlawing the National Francisco Franco Foundation, which up to 2003 was receiving public funding for safeguarding documents from the 1939-1975 regime.

The Franco Foundation did not respond to AP's requests for comment, but in recent statements online, officials said any attempt to ban them would be against Spain's Constitution, which protects freedom of speech. Its president, retired Gen. Juan Chicharro, wrote that the foundation must defend itself from "the staggered outlawing of everyone who doesn't bend to the totalitarian demands" of the Spanish left.

ARMH's Silva said "banning the foundation does not limit their freedom to express their ideas," it just restricts their access to public funding. Martinez believes the issue is not about free speech but about protecting Spain's democracy.

"Every foundation justifying Francoism has no space in democracy, the same way it wouldn't by supporting fascism or a Nazi ideology, because these are ideologies that go against democratic values and liberties," he said. "Those of us in favor of democracy have a mandate to defend democracy."

Portugal says major wildfire will take days to put out

August 08, 2018

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A major wildfire blackening hills in Portugal's southern Algarve region likely will take several more days to bring under control, the country's prime minister said Wednesday. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that efforts to control the fire that broke out Friday were being hampered by gusting winds, the region's deep ravines and the numerous plantations where combustible eucalyptus is grown for paper pulp.

Costa spoke after visiting the headquarters of the Portuguese Civil Protection Agency, the government body that is coordinating the emergency response to the fire. The Civil Protection Agency said almost 1,300 firefighters from across Portugal were assigned to the blaze, the most since it started. Public TV network RTP said more than 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) have burned in the fire.

The prime minister is aware of potential political repercussions from major wildfires; the deaths of 109 people in blazes last year almost brought down his government. Costa acknowledged that much more work was needed to prevent catastrophic fires, including diversifying the vegetation in Portugal's forests and establishing fire breaks.

High clouds of black smoke have towered for days over the Algarve region, a top European vacation destination. While winds have made the firefighting effort more difficult, crew working overnight kept flames from reaching the town of Silves, a popular tourist spot and home to about 6,000 people.

The torrid weather that has hung over much of Europe for weeks also was subsiding, with a high of 31 degrees Celsius (88 F) forecast for the Algarve on Wednesday. Along with ground crews, 13 aircraft and more than 380 vehicles were battling the blaze.

In neighboring Spain, 27 aircraft were helping some 700 firefighters put out a fire near Valencia. Radio broadcaster Cadena SER said nearly 2,900 hectares have been burned.

Wildfires torment Portugal, Spain; French, Dutch feel heat

August 07, 2018

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Firefighters and anxious residents braced Tuesday for a fifth straight night of battling a major wildfire that is racing across tinder-dry forested hills in southern Portugal. The blaze is sending high plumes of smoke across the Algarve region's famous beaches and bringing criticism of authorities for failing to halt the flames.

A strong seasonal wind from the north known as a "nortada" was driving the fire south toward Silves, a town of about 6,000 people, after it narrowly missed the smaller town of Monchique. Several hundred people were evacuated, and 29 were hurt, one seriously, officials said.

Almost 1,200 firefighters supported by 16 aircraft and 358 vehicles were deployed around Monchique, a town of 2,000 people about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Lisbon, where the blaze came within 500 meters (yards) of the local fire station.

An unknown number of homes — believed to number in the dozens, according to local reports — in the forested hills have burned down. With so many resources deployed, many residents asked why the fire was still burning, especially after 95 percent of it was under control on Monday.

Firefighters also publicly questioned the wisdom of the strategy to counter the flames, with some claiming poor organization was thwarting the operation. Monchique was identified as a high risk area months ago.

Firefighting is coordinated by the Civil Protection Agency, a government body overseen by the Ministry for the Interior, which oversees national defense. The National Association of Professional Firemen and the Professional Firemen's Trade Union issued a joint statement saying that the government's recent reorganization of firefighting capabilities need to be reassessed and rethought. The organizations asked for a "very urgent" meeting with the Minister of the Interior.

The minister, Eduardo Cabrita, told reporters authorities were switching coordination of the Monchique fire from the local Civil Protection Agency to the department's national operational command in Lisbon.

He declined to criticize the firefighting operation, saying the effort had been "notable." Portugal beefed up its wildfire response over the winter after 109 people died last year in forest blazes amid a severe drought.

Vitor Vaz Pinto, the Civil Protection Agency's district commander, said the weather forecast around Monchique was "unfavorable," with a gusting wind from the north, known as a "nortada." Temperatures were forecast to reach 35 C (95 F) — normal for August in southern Portugal.

The Iberian peninsula endured some record heat last weekend, with temperatures exceeding 45 C (113 F), which parched large areas. Spanish emergency services said a wildfire Tuesday near Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast, was almost under control after two dozen aircraft were brought in. The blaze forced the evacuation of around 2,500 people.

The high temperatures moved northward to France. The hottest weather was expected in central and northeastern France, with temperatures that could reach 40 C (104 F). Dutch authorities evacuated four campsites as a brush fire swept through parched countryside in the eastern Netherlands, where temperatures were in the mid-30s C (90s F). The regional security service said that firefighters from three provinces were battling the blaze Tuesday in Wateren, 135 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of Amsterdam.

Lisbon breaks record for maximum temp, hits 44 C (111.2 F)

August 05, 2018

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Lisbon broke a 37-year-old record to notch its hottest temperature ever as an unrelenting heat wave baked Portugal and neighboring Spain. New heat records were set in 26 places around Portugal.

Portugal's weather service said the capital reached 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday afternoon, surpassing the city's previous record of 43 C (109.4 F) set in 1981. The day's hottest temperature of 46.8 C (116.2 F) was recorded at Alvega in the center of Portugal. The country's highest temperature on record is 47.4 C (117.3 F) from 2003.

Portugal's weather service said new maximum highs were recorded at 26 places from measurements taken at a total of 96 weather stations around the country. More than 60 percent of the country registered temperatures of over 40 C (104 F).

The hot, dusty conditions across the Iberian Peninsula are the result of a mass of hot air from Africa and have increased the risk of forest fires. Over 700 firefighters were still battling a forest fire near the Portuguese town of Monchique in the southern Algarve region, a popular tourist destination.

Six people were injured late Saturday as they escaped a separate blaze near the Portuguese town of Estremoz, civil protection officer Jose Ribeiro told the Portuguese state television RTP. Sunday's forecasts called for temperatures to dip slightly while remaining extremely high.

Portugal issued warnings of extreme heat for most of the country and forecast maximum temperatures of 44 C (111.2 F) for some areas in the south. Spain lowered its warnings for heat from "red" to "orange" for large parts of the south, but highs there were still predicted to reach 40-42 C (104-107.6 F).

Venezuelan government: Drone strikes targeted Maduro

August 05, 2018

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Drones armed with explosives detonated near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Saturday in an apparent assassination attempt that took place while he was delivering a speech to hundreds of soldiers being broadcast live on television, officials said.

Caught by surprise mid-speech, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced after hearing the sound of an explosion pierce the air. "This was an attempt to kill me," he said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. "Today they attempted to assassinate me."

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the incident took place shortly after 5:30 p.m. as Maduro was celebrating the National Guard's 81st anniversary. The visibly shaken head of state said he saw a "flying device" that exploded before his eyes. He thought it might be a pyrotechnics display in honor of the event.

Within seconds, Maduro said he heard a second explosion and pandemonium ensued. Bodyguards escorted Maduro out of the event and television footage showed uniformed soldiers standing in formation quickly scattering from the scene.

He said the "far right" working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible. Some of the "material authors" of the apparent attack have been detained.

"The investigation will get to the bottom of this," he said. "No matter who falls." Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations. Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.

In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the lam.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Maduro, but rather the military's entire high command on stage with the president. Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Saab, adding that he would give more details Monday.

"We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela," Saab said. Firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the government's version of events. Three local authorities said there had been a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near Maduro's speech where smoke could be seen streaming out of a window. They provided no further details on how they had reached that conclusion.

A Colombian official with the president's office described Maduro's claims that Santos was involved in the attack as baseless. Adding to the confusion, a little known group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target. The Associated Press could not independently verify the authenticity of the message.

"We showed that they are vulnerable," the group said in a tweet. "It was not successful today, but it is just a matter of time." The organization did not respond to a message from The Associated Press.

David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said the incident did not appear to be a staged attack by Maduro's government for political gain.

The "amateurish" attack prompted embarrassing images of Maduro cut off mid-sentence with droves of soldiers running away in fear, making the president appear vulnerable, Smilde noted. Despite the optics, Smilde said he suspected that Maduro would nonetheless find a way to take advantage of it.

"He will use it to concentrate power," Smilde said. "Whoever did this, he'll use it to further restrict liberty and purge the government and armed forces." The event had been just one more of many Maduro routinely holds with members of the military, a key faction of Venezuelan society whose loyalty he has clung to as the nation struggles with crippling hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.

"We are going to bet for the good of our country," Maduro declared triumphantly moments before the explosion. "The hour of the economy recovery has come." Images being shared on social media showed officers surrounding Maduro with what appeared to be a black bullet-proof barrier as they escorted him from the site. Maduro said at no point did he panic, confident the military would protect him.

"That drone came after me," he said. "But there was a shield of love that always protects us. I'm sure I'll live for many more years."

Armario reported from Miami, Florida. Associated Press video journalist Clbyburn Saint John contributed to this report.

Incoming Colombia president faces long list of challenges

August 07, 2018

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The young protégé of a powerful former president is being sworn in as Colombia's new leader Tuesday, tasked with guiding the implementation of a peace accord with leftist rebels that remains on shaky ground.

Forty-two-year-old Ivan Duque will be the youngest Colombian chief of state ever elected in a popular vote when he is sworn into office at Bogota's Plaza Bolivar. The prematurely graying father of three describes himself as a centrist who will unite the nation at a time when many are still fiercely divided over the peace agreement that ended more than five decades of bloody conflict.

His detractors fear he will be little more than a puppet for Alvaro Uribe, the conservative ex-president who led a referendum defeat of the initial version of peace accord in 2016. Uribe is still backed by millions of Colombians, though he is perhaps equally detested by legions who decry human rights abuses during his administration.

Duque is taking Colombia's presidency at a critical juncture: Coca production is soaring to record levels, holdout illegal armed groups are battling for territory where the state has little or no presence and a spate of killings of social activists has underlined that peace remains a relative term.

"If Duque is not able to solve this problem and find a way to bring the state into the countryside, we're going to keep having the same problems we've had for decades," said Jorge Gallego, a professor at Colombia's Rosario University.

Duque is the son of a former governor and energy minister and friends say he has harbored presidential aspirations since early childhood. But his rise from unknown technocrat to a popular senator and now president has been extraordinarily rapid, propelled in large part by the support of his mentor, Uribe.

Just four years ago, Duque was a Washington suburbanite with a cushy job at an international development bank. It was there that he developed close ties to Uribe, assisting the former president when he taught a course at Georgetown University. Later Duque helped Uribe lead a United Nations probe into Israel's deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and helped him write his memoir.

Then in 2014, Uribe propelled Duque into the political limelight when he encouraged him to return to Colombia to run for a Senate seat and placed him on a list of newcomer candidates that he urged his multitude of supporters to elect.

Within Uribe's conservative Democratic Center party, Duque's reputation as a more moderate voice can at times put him at odds with the solidly right-wing faction. Uribe's support is thus considered crucial for Duque to rule with the full backing of his party. But he will need to build a broader alliance to pass laws in Congress.

Duque's dependence on Uribe has sparked concern from critics, though analysts believe the former leader's mounting legal troubles could provide the incoming president a new degree of independence. Uribe briefly stepped down from the Senate in July after the Supreme Court asked him to testify on allegations of bribery and witness tampering in a case related to claimed ties to paramilitaries, which he vehemently denies. Uribe later reversed course and withdrew his resignation letter.

In the weeks since Duque's resounding victory over leftist ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro, the president-elect has signaled both his loyalty to Uribe and a conviction to chart his own path. While many of his Cabinet picks have ties to Uribe, there are also a number of incoming ministers with no links to a traditional political party.

"So far I think he has shown more independence than some sectors believed," Gallego said. "Treating Duque as a puppet of Uribe is a very simplistic way of analyzing things." At the top of Duque's agenda are likely to be Colombia's economy and the peace agreement as well as reversing coca production that last year reached levels unseen in more than two decades of record keeping and $10 billion in U.S. counter-narcotics work. The soaring coca levels have tested traditionally close ties with the United States.

Throughout his campaign, Duque promised to push changes in the peace agreement, including creating tougher penalties for former leaders of the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia responsible for crimes against humanity. Under the accord, most rebels who fully confess their crimes will be spared any jail time, a sore point for many Colombians who still vividly remember the atrocities of war.

Colombia's conflict between leftist rebels, the state and paramilitary groups left at least 260,000 dead, some 60,000 missing and millions displaced. While some fear Duque's anti-accord rhetoric and proposed changes could further destabilize what has already been a slow and tumultuous implementation, others hope that in the long-term the agreement could enjoy broader support from a divided Colombian society if led by someone with a critical approach.

Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, noted that Duque's rhetoric on the peace accord has softened somewhat since his election.

"There was a sense that because Uribe had campaigned so strenuously against the peace agreement that Duque was going to come into office and just rip the thing apart," she said. "I don't think that that's likely."

Brazil party names jailed leader as presidential nominee

August 05, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — The Workers' Party in Brazil named jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday as its nominee for the country's top job in October's election. Delegates of the left-leaning party confirmed da Silva, who served two terms as Brazil's president between 2003 and 2010, with enthusiastic approval at a convention in Sao Paulo.

The former president is likely to be barred by Brazil's electoral court, though. Since April, the former president has been jailed on a corruption conviction, but he denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted.

Da Silva leads polls for the office by a large margin, and surveys show voters would lend their support to another Workers' Party candidate if he cannot participate. The party is not expected to name his running mate until Monday.

In a recorded message to the convention, da Silva said that "it is those that sentenced me that are jailed in a lie." "Brazil needs to restore its democracy, find itself and be happy again," he said. "They might lock me up, shut me up, but I will keep my faith in the Brazilian people."

After his nomination was approved, another message written by da Silva was read aloud. "They already brought down a president that was elected and now they want to veto the right of the people to elect their next president. They want to invent a democracy without people," he said.

Meanwhile, other candidates criticized da Silva and his party. "It pains my heart, but I don't expect anything from them now," said left-leaning presidential hopeful Ciro Gomes, of the Democratic Labor Party.

Conservative Geraldo Alckmin, who was named by the Social Democracy Party as its presidential nominee Saturday, cast blame for the country's 13 million unemployed. "It was the lies and the radicalism that created the chain of events that is the tragic heritage of the Workers' Party," he said.

Workers' Party chairwoman Gleisi Hoffmann, who is trying to lure other left-leaning parties to the ticket, addressed supporters at the convention after two fringe parties endorsed da Silva's run. "They tried to exclude Lula from the political discussion," she said. "There is no political discussion in Brazil without Lula and the Workers' Party."

Centrist Marina Silva was also nominated by the Rede party on Saturday. Polling third, Silva will bid for the presidency for a third time. But this time her campaign isn't nearly as structured as in previous opportunies.

"We are here maybe in a much harder situation, but we trust that this time our position will beat the establishment," she said at the convention of her Rede party.

Argentine Senate rejects historic abortion law

August 09, 2018

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's Senate has rejected a bill to legalize elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The issue has divided the homeland of Pope Francis. Lawmakers debated for more than 15 hours and voted Thursday 31 in favor to 38 against.

Crowds of supporters and opponents of the measure braved the heavy rain to watch the debate on large screens set up outside Congress. The lower house of Congress had already passed the measure and President Mauricio Macri had said that he would sign it.

Argentina now allows the procedure only in cases of rape or risks to a woman's health.

Ukraine's Roma live in fear amid wave of nationalist attacks

August 06, 2018

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — After attackers charged into a Roma encampment on the outskirts of Kiev, beating the residents and chasing them away, a leader of an ultranationalist group posted photos of his colleagues clearing the site and burning tents left behind.

The camp's former dwellers took off "after persuasive legal arguments," Serhiy Mazur, an activist with the C14 organization, wrote on Facebook. Mazur added: "Further raids are planned." The April attack was the first of 11 forced removals that ultranationalists in Ukraine have carried out this year at settlements of Roma. Radical nationalist groups claimed responsibility for all of the raids and asserted they acted in concert with police. Police deny involvement.

"We were called garbage and dirt, kicked and driven off," Aza Rustik, who fled during the first raid, said. "I just managed to grab the children and a bag with documents." During an especially vicious assault in a wooded area in western Ukraine, a gang armed with chains and pieces of metal pipe killed a 23-year-old man and injured four others outside the city of Lviv.

After the April camp invasion, C14's Mazur was charged with hooliganism. Two lawmakers spoke on his behalf, and he was released to await trial under house arrest. "I would like to hear from the police and the neighborhood administrative officials, who many times asked us for help," he said when he appeared in court last month.

The attacks and the prospect of more violence are terrifying to Ukraine's estimated 100,000 Roma. "They threw stones at us, and when we jumped out of the tent, they beat us indiscriminately," recalled Klara Gaga, a survivor of the fatal attack outside Lviv.

Four suspects were detained in the Lviv attack. Twelve people also were detained after Roma had guns fired at them in Ternopil; the suspects subsequently were released. "Not a single person has been sentenced in attacks on the Roma in Ukraine. That illustrates better than any words the attitude of the authorities," Zola Kondur, a leader of Roma organization Chiricli, said.

Representatives of extremist groups justify the actions by saying they liquidate illegal Roma settlements because authorities have not. Right-wing nationalist groups such as C14 have seen their popularity and power grow in recent years amid Ukraine's confrontations with Russia and corruption-riddled domestic politics.

"State institutions are weak, the police are ineffective and the government is forced to resort more and more to the services of right-wing groups, giving them a carte blanche in return," said Vadim Karasev, director of independent Kiev-based think tank Institute of Global Strategies.

Arthur Sokolov, who is the lead investigator in the Mazur case, rejected the C14 member's claim that asked the group for help. He said he didn't know anything about C14 ties with local authorities and police.

"There were no preliminary agreements between the police and other formations," Sokolov he said in response to a question from The Associated Press about Mazur's assertion. But Eugene Savvateev, who for several years was involved in the training and integration of Roma children, alleged that police and the nationalists work together.

Savvateev said he heard from Roma that police drove them away when they returned to the former camp site to retrieve remaining belongings. They also recalled that C14 members accompanied local officials who visited the camp before it was destroyed, Savvateev said.

"The authorities do not want to dirty their hands, so they use C14," he said. "Police came to the settlement after the attack to drive Roma away, and after that Roma certainly don't trust police and believe they work in sync with the attackers."

Animosity toward Roma — an ethnic group, also known as Gypsies, that faces discrimination and disdain in much of Europe — is high in Ukraine. Many residents say they resent messy Roma encampments and unsightly fixed settlements such as the Radvanka district in Uzhhorod, where houses made of stones, plywood and polystyrene resemble sheds and children play in piles of garbage.

"Roma remain the most impoverished and unprotected part of Ukrainian society," Roma activist Myroslav Horvat, of the World Roma Organization in Uzhhorod, said. "The state declares in words the programs of integration and training of the Roma, but there is no money for it, and everything remains only on paper."

Hunger, poverty and unemployment drive hundreds of Roma to try to earn money in the richer center of the country. During the warm months of the year, the work might consist of searching for scrap metal, trading goods and telling fortunes on the street.

"Gypsies in the cities — this is theft, robbery, drug trafficking and dirty dens," read leaflets bearing the symbols of nationalist groups Natskorpus and Natsdruzhiny that have appeared in Ukraine's major cities.

Western governments and international human rights groups have called on Ukrainian authorities to prosecute the perpetrators and stop turning a blind eye to violence against Roma. "Most of the crimes committed by radical groups have not been properly investigated by law enforcement agencies that do not want or cannot conduct effective investigations, even if certain groups publicly take responsibility for crimes," said Mariya Guryeva, an Amnesty International spokeswoman in Ukraine.

Government officials try to shift blame to Russia, alleging that it has sought to foment violence to destabilize Ukraine amid a tug-of-war between the two ex-Soviet neighbors. "We understand that the Russians always try to play with so-called interethnic problems," Security Service of Ukraine head Vasily Hrytsak said.

"The murders of the Roma were inspired by Russia," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said after the fatal Lviv attack. Those who accuse Russia of organizing the raids have yet to present supporting evidence for their claims.

Yuras Karmanau reported from Minsk, Belarus.

Romania probes anti-Jewish graffiti on Elie Wiesel's house

August 04, 2018

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian police began an investigation Saturday after anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on the house of late Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in northwest Romania. The probe was launched after comments in bright pink paint were scrawled overnight on Wiesel's small house— a protected historical monument— in the town of Sighetu Marmatiei. One of the comments said Wiesel was "in hell with Hitler."

The Romanian group for Monitoring and Fighting Anti-Semitism called it an act of vandalism against the "memory of Elie Wiesel, the memory of the Holocaust victims and the souls of the Holocaust survivors."

The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania called for a thorough inquiry. It said Romania's president and government have pledged to fight anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in Romania, where some have denied or downplayed the country's role in the Holocaust.

Along with 14,000 Jews, Wiesel and his family were deported in May 1944 to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz from the town, formerly called Sighet. His mother and younger sister died there while he and his two older sisters survived.

Wiesel died in 2016. His classic book "Night" drew on his experiences in the death camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, becoming a testament to Nazi crimes. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Romania deported 150,000 Jews and 25,000 Roma to Nazi concentration camps in a part of the Soviet Union that was controlled by the Axis powers from 1942 to 1944, when the country was run by pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu.

Romania has about 19.5 million people now, including about 6,000 Jews.

Farmworkers protest treatment in Italy after migrant deaths

August 08, 2018

ROME (AP) — Hundreds of crop pickers held a one-day strike and protest march in southeastern Italy Wednesday to protest the exploitation of migrant farmworkers. Labor union activists organized the strike and march from the shanty town of San Severo to the city of Foggia after 16 farmworkers died in two recent road accidents in the Foggia area.

Flanked by labor leaders, the protesters held signs reading "Never Slaves" and "We are workers, not meat for the butcher." Many waved flags of the left-wing USB labor union. Workers said there was running water or electricity in the shanty town. Activists said crop pickers are charged for rides in overcrowded, rundown vans to the fields and orchards where they spend long hours laboring in the sun.

The farmworkers who were killed on Saturday and Monday were riding in vans that collided with trucks carrying tomatoes. Prosecutors are investigating to determine if the vans safe. Most of the crop pickers who work in Italy's verdant Puglia region are foreigners, typically from Africa or eastern Europe. Union leaders and the farmworkers themselves contend they often are paid below union wages.

Italy's previous center-left government successfully lobbied in 2016 for a law intended to prevent the exploitation of agriculture workers, both migrants and Italians. It authorized stiffer penalties for labor recruiters and employers.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, who heads Italy's new populist government, told reporters Wednesday that enforcement of the law must be improved.

Italian premier to visit scenes of 2 deadly accidents

August 07, 2018

MILAN (AP) — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte is planning to visit the scenes of two deadly accidents in the north and south of the country "to bring closeness of the government to the injured and the relatives of the victims."

Conte said he would visit Tuesday the scene of a deadly fireball in the northern city of Bologna and the place where a van packed with immigrant farmworkers overturned after colliding with a truck carrying tomatoes in the southern Puglia region, killing 12.

In the Bologna accident, a tanker truck carrying highly explosive gas rammed into the back of a truck stalled in traffic on a major highway, creating a fireball that partially collapsed a raised highway and sent secondary explosions that shattered windows and incinerated vehicles in new car lots below.

Wildfire uncovers hidden World War II-era landmark

August 06, 2018

BRAY HEAD, Ireland (AP) — A wildfire in Ireland has uncovered a World War II-era landmark that was hidden for years by undergrowth. An Irish police air unit spotted the word Eire, which means Ireland, while surveying the damage caused by a fire on Bray Head. More than 80 such signs were created during the war to alert pilots that they were flying over a neutral country.

The Irish Air Corps says the Bray Head sign was No. 8. Volunteers have restored some of the signs that were in plain view.

Seoul: Rival Koreas to meet to prepare for leaders' summit

August 09, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The rival Koreas will meet Monday for high-level talks meant to prepare for a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, South Korea said, the third such meetings between the leaders in recent months.

The announcement Thursday by the South's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean issues for Seoul, comes amid attempts by Washington and Pyongyang to follow through on nuclear disarmament vows made at a summit in June between President Donald Trump and Kim.

Pyongyang has also stepped up its calls for a formal end to the Korean War, which some analysts believe is meant to be the first step in the North's effort to eventually see all 28,500 U.S. troops leave the Korean Peninsula. Washington is pushing for the North to begin giving up its nuclear program.

A South Korean official at the Unification Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules, said the two Koreas will also discuss ways to push through tension-reducing agreements made during an earlier summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon. Among the agreements was holding another inter-Korean summit in the fall in Pyongyang.

The rival Koreas may try to seek a breakthrough amid what experts see as little progress on nuclear disarmaments between Pyongyang and Washington despite the Singapore summit in June and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's several visits to North Korea.

Pyongyang insisted that the U.S. should reciprocate to the North's suspension of missile launches and nuclear tests and other goodwill gestures such as the return of remains of American troops killed in the Korean War. The United States has dismissed calls to ease sanctions until the North delivers on its commitments to fully denuclearize.

The inter-Korean meeting on Monday will be held at Tongilgak, a North Korean-controlled building in the border village of Panmunjom. It wasn't clear who would attend the talks, but such meetings have typically been handled in the past by South Korea's unification minister and his counterpart in the North. It also wasn't clear when another summit might happen, but if the April 27 summit agreements are followed through, the leaders will likely meet in Pyongyang in the next couple of months.

In the meantime, both Koreas are seeking an early end of the Korean War. South Korea's presidential spokesman said last month that Seoul wants an early declaration of the end of the 1950-53 war sooner than later. The Korean Peninsula is still technically in a state of war because the fighting ended with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

Earlier Thursday, North Korea's Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary that ending the Korean War is "the first process for ensuring peace and security not only in the Korean peninsula but also in the region and the world."

Seoul said it accepted the North's proposal after Pyongyang first suggested a meeting Monday to discuss another summit. Kim and Moon met in April at a highly publicized summit that saw the leaders hold hands and walk together across the border, and then again in a more informal summit in May, just weeks before Kim met Trump in Singapore.

Nagasaki marks 73 years since A-bombing as UN chief attends

August 09, 2018

TOKYO (AP) — Nagasaki marked the anniversary of the world's second atomic bombing Thursday with the United Nations' chief and the city's mayor urging global leaders to take concrete steps toward world nuclear disarmament.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the first United Nations chief to visit Nagasaki, said fears of nuclear war are still present 73 years after the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings and that they should never be repeated. He raised concerns about the slowing effort to denuclearize, saying existing nuclear states are modernizing their arsenals.

"Disarmament processes have slowed and even come to a halt," Guterres told the audience at the Nagasaki peace park. "Here in Nagasaki, I call on all countries to commit to nuclear disarmament and to start making visible progress as a matter of urgency." Then he added: "Let us all commit to making Nagasaki the last place on earth to suffer nuclear devastation."

The peace and nuclear disarmament movement, started by survivors of the atomic bombings, has spread around the world but frustration over the slow progress led to last year's adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Japan, despite being the only country in the world to have suffered nuclear attacks, has not signed the treaty, because of its sensitive position as an U.S. ally protected by its nuclear umbrella. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged Japan's government to do more to lead nuclear disarmament, especially in the region to help advance the efforts to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. He said citizens of the atomic-bombed cities are hoping to see North Korea denuclearized.

Taue said he hoped Japan's government would take the opportunity to realize a nuclear-free Northeast Asia, including Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Taue urged Tokyo to sign the treaty and "fulfill its moral obligation to lead the world towards denuclearization." He said more than 300 local assemblies have adopted resolutions calling on Japan to sign and ratify the treaty.

Japan seeks to close the gaps between nuclear and non-nuclear states to eventually achieve a nuclear-free world, said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, repeating almost the same phrase he used in his speech three days ago in Hiroshima.

The bombing of Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, was the second U.S. nuclear attack on Japan, killing 70,000 people, three days after the bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed 140,000. They were followed by Japan's surrender, ending World War II.

Hiroshima marks 73rd anniversary of atomic bombing

August 06, 2018

TOKYO (AP) — Hiroshima marked the anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the city with a somber ceremony Monday to remember those killed and injured and a call to eliminate nuclear weapons amid hopes of denuclearizing North Korea.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui opened his speech by describing the hellish scene of the blast that morning 73 years ago and the agony of the victims, telling the audience to listen "as if you and your loved ones were there." Then he raised concerns about the global rise of egocentrism and tensions, and urged Japan's government to take more leadership toward achieving a truly nuclear-free world.

"Certain countries are blatantly proclaiming self-centered nationalism and modernizing their nuclear arsenals, rekindling tensions that had eased with the end of the Cold War," Matsui said, without identifying the nations. Nuclear deterrence and nuclear umbrellas are "inherently unstable and extremely dangerous" approaches that seek to maintain international order by only generating fear in rival countries, he said, urging world leaders to negotiate in good faith to eliminate nuclear arsenals instead.

The U.S. attack on Hiroshima killed 140,000 people, and the bombing of Nagasaki killed more than 70,000 three days later, leading to Japan's surrender and ending World War II. Matsui said in his speech that Japan's government should do more to achieve a nuclear-free world by helping the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons take effect. Japan, which hosts U.S. troops and is covered by the U.S. nuclear umbrella protecting it from attack, has not signed the treaty.

Japan should live up to the spirit of its pacifist constitution to lead the international community "toward dialogue and cooperation for a world without nuclear weapons," Matsui said. About 50,000 people, including Hiroshima residents and representatives from 58 countries, including U.S. Ambassador William Hagerty, attended this year's ceremony.

Survivors, their relatives and other participants marked the 8:15 a.m. blast with a minute of silence. The anniversary comes amid hopes to denuclearize North Korea after President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made vague aspirational statements of denuclearizing the peninsula when they met in Singapore in June. "We in civil society fervently hope that the easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula will proceed through peaceable dialogue," Matsui said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also was at the ceremony, said differences between the nuclear and non-nuclear states are widening. But he pledged to do more to bridge their gap. In order to gain cooperation from both sides, it is important for everyone to understand "the reality of the tragedy of nuclear attacks," he said, reiterating Japan's pledge to maintain its pacifist and non-nuclear principles.

Russia warns of 'horrible' conflict if Georgia joins NATO

August 07, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — An attempt by NATO to incorporate the former Soviet republic of Georgia could trigger a new, "horrible" conflict, Russia's prime minister said Tuesday in a stern warning to the West marking 10 years since the Russia-Georgia war.

Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the Kommersant daily broadcast by Russian state television that NATO's plans to eventually offer membership to Georgia are "absolutely irresponsible" and a "threat to peace."

Medvedev was Russia's president during the August 2008 war, which erupted when Georgian troops tried unsuccessfully to regain control over the Moscow-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia and Russia sent troops that routed the Georgian military in five days of fighting.

The Russian army was poised to advance on the Georgian capital, but Medvedev rolled it back, accepting a truce mediated by the European Union. After the war, Georgia entirely lost control of both South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia. Russia has strengthened its military presence in both regions and recognized them as independent states, but only a few countries have followed suit.

The European Union on Tuesday reiterated its "firm support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders" and lamented the Russian military presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In a show of support for Georgia, foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and a Cabinet member from Ukraine, visited Tbilisi Tuesday, urging Russia to withdraw its troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "Nowadays no country can change the borders of another country by force," said Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz.

Russian-Georgian relations have improved since the war, but the issue of the breakaway regions remains, preventing the full normalization of ties. Medvedev warned that NATO's attempt to embrace Georgia could have catastrophic consequences.

"There is an unresolved territorial conflict ... and would they bring such a country into the military alliance?" he said. "Do they understand the possible implications? It could provoke a horrible conflict."

Medvedev pointed to Moscow's recognition of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the Russian military bases there, saying that any attempt to change the status quo could lead to "extremely grave consequences." ''I hope that NATO's leadership will be smart enough not to take any steps in that direction," he said.

The Russian prime minister described NATO's eastward expansion as a major security threat to Russia. "Whatever our colleagues from the alliance may say, NATO countries see Russia as a potential enemy," he said. "We can't help getting worried when the circle around our country keeps narrowing as more and more countries join NATO. NATO's expansion clearly poses a threat to the Russian Federation."