Italy collapse points to difficulties with aging bridges

August 16, 2018

NEW YORK (AP) — The bridge that collapsed in the Italian port city of Genoa was considered a feat of engineering innovation when it was built five decades ago, but it came to require constant maintenance over the years. Its design is now being investigated as a possible contributor to its stunning collapse.

The Morandi Bridge was severed in its midsection during a heavy downpour Tuesday, killing at least 39 people. Italian prosecutors focused their investigation into possible design flaws or inadequate maintenance of the 1967 bridge.

Engineering experts said the disaster points to the challenges of maintaining any aging bridge, regardless of its design. "What the general public does not comprehend is that bridges have been traditionally designed in the past for a life span of 50 years," said Neil Hawkins, a professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Illinois, who specializes in reinforced and prestressed concrete design. "The environment in which the bridge exists can have a major effect on how much it can last beyond that 50-year design life span."

The structure is a cable stayed bridge designed by Italian engineer Riccardo Morandi, who died in 1989. Among its unusual features were its concrete-encased stay cables, which Morandi used in several of his bridge designs instead of the more common steel cables. There are two similar bridges in the world, in Libya and Venezuela.

Experts have said a number of factors could have contributed to the collapse, including wear and tear from weather and traffic that surpassed what the bridge was originally built to sustain. "Genoa is a port city so that there can be marine effects and also it is a major industrial center so that there can be air pollution that impairs the concrete," Hawkins said in an e-mail. "Whether any of these effects, or other major deficiencies in the foundations, were present I have no knowledge. But all can contribute to a bridge failure."

Antonio Brencich, a professor of construction at the University of Genoa, said the design lent itself to swift corrosion and the bridge was in constant need of maintenance. Most recently, a 20 million-euro ($22.7 million) project to upgrade the bridge's safety had been approved before its collapse, with public bids to be submitted by September. According to the business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, the improvement work involved two weight-bearing columns that support the bridge — including one that collapsed Tuesday.

But Brencich, who warned two years ago that the design of the bridge was a failure, said the structure should have been destroyed rather than be subjected to more repairs. The Genoa bridge, along with the two similar bridges in Libya and Venezuela, have deteriorated at "unimaginable speeds," Brencich told Sky News Italian television station Wednesday. "Since this bridge was under constant maintenance, the time had come to consider a replacement for the bridge."

The Italian CNR civil engineering society said structures as old as the Morandi Bridge had surpassed their lifespans. It called for an ambitious plan to repair or replace tens of thousands of Italian bridges and viaducts built in the 1950s and 1960s, citing a series of collapses in recent years, not all fatal.

The collapse of a freeway bridge in Minneapolis in 2007 drew similar alarm bells about aging infrastructure in the U.S. The Interstate 35W bridge, whose collapse into the Mississippi river killed 13 people, was also built in the 1960s, though federal investigators ultimately concluded that poor maintenance wasn't the main cause of the disaster. Instead, they pointed to a design defect, saying crucial gusset plates that held the beams together were only half as thick as they should have been.

Since then, there has been a push to improve bridge designs and make changes to the way they are inspected. A more recent fatal collapse involved a newly constructed pedestrian bridge in Florida. U.S. investigators have said they are looking at the emergence of cracks in the structure before the collapse of the bridge near Florida International University, which killed six people.

Matteo Pozzi, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, said the bridge in Italy "was known to have problems," as evidenced by the upcoming upgrades. But he said older bridges can often be sustained with maintenance and repairs — and collapses are rare.

"It's still a challenge to predict exactly when, or if, a bridge will collapse," Pozzi said. "Overall, we are doing a good job because a failure of this kind is rare. But we are trying to improve the ways in which we understand and monitor these bridges."

Of the bridge's design, Hawkins said the concrete encasement improves the anchorage of the cables but "in a marine environment there can be a build-up of chloride in the concrete and that can lead to cable corrosion." He said any broken cables would have to be examined to determine whether that was the case in the Morandi bridge.

The bridge in Venezuela, which is much larger and spans Lake Maracaibo, also has had mishaps. In 1979, corrosion caused the rupture of one of the concrete-encased cables, forcing a complicated effort to replace it.

Pozzi said use of concrete-encased cables for bridges was considered a "pioneering technique" at the time but it was never widely adopted and came to be considered problematic. However, he said there are many bridges around the world whose original technology has been abandoned, and he cautioned against concluding that any are in danger of collapse.

More often, it means "there is a maintenance cost," he said. "The question is for how long and in what way."

Greeks see little cause for joy as 8-year bailout era ends

August 20, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — There'll be no dancing in the moonlit streets of Athens. For all the official pronouncements that Greece's eight-year crisis will be over as its third and last bailout program ends Monday, few Greeks see cause for celebration.

Undeniably, the economy is once again growing modestly, state finances are improving, exports are up and unemployment is down from a ghastly 28 percent high. But one in five Greeks are still unemployed, with few receiving state benefits, and underpaid drudgery is the norm in new jobs. The average income has dropped by more than a third, and taxes have rocketed. Clinical depression is rife, suicides are up, and hundreds of thousands of skilled workers have flitted abroad.

After the end of the bailout Monday, Greece will get no new loans and will not be asked for new reforms. But the government has agreed to a timetable of savings so strict as to plague a future generation and a half: For every year over the next four decades, governments must make more than they spend while ensuring that the economy — that shrank by a quarter since 2009 — also expands at a smart rate.

"Personally, I can see no hope for me in the coming years," says Paraskevi Kolliabi, 62, who lives on a widow's pension and helps out in her son's central Athens silver workshop. "Everything looks black to me."

Pensioners face pre-agreed new income cuts next year, while a further expansion of the tax base is due in 2020. But tax collection remains scrappy in a country where compliance was never strong, and the taxman's increasingly extravagant demands, coupled with often slapdash policing, only strengthened the sense of injustice.

"My pension has been cut about thirty percent since the start of the crisis," Kolliabi said. "I have never in my life gone through such (financial) hardship as during the past two years. There were entire days when not a single customer would enter" the shop in the Monastiraki district.

Greece's once cheerfully spendthrift middle class, whose rapid growth before the state finances imploded drove a consumption-fuelled economy, has been squeezed hard by intense taxation, mortgages from the bygone days of easy credit, and job losses.

"What I see is that the rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer," Kolliabi said. "We used to cater to the middle class, and the middle class is dead, they can't make ends meet." Following one of the latest rounds of cutbacks, her son, Panagiotis, now sees more than 60 percent of his income gobbled up by taxes, pension and social security contributions. That kills any ambition for growing the business.

"The prospects for after Aug. 20 are not good," he said. "There's no way I will be able to make an investment ... to expand my business." In the northern city of Thessaloniki, Christos Marmarinos, 55, had to close his clothes manufacturing unit after 25 years in business due to lack of customers. Instead, he plunged what funds he had into something altogether different, a cafeteria and grocery store.

"We found this way out, and employ ten people," he said. But Greece needs more than cafeterias if the economy is to pick up again and modernize, he says. "We need real investments in manufacturing." Part of the sufferings of Greece's private sector are due to disastrous government attempts in the panicky first months of the crisis to shield from cutbacks the bloated public sector, which has traditionally been the political fiefdom and key source of votes for any ruling party.

But while considerably smaller and poorer than before the crisis, the public sector remains largely ineffective and disgruntled, providing ever shoddier services. The one area of the economy that's undoubtedly flourishing is tourism, contributing some 20 percent of GDP, with officials projecting a record-high 32 million arrivals this year. Greeks, however, are finding it increasingly expensive to go on holiday in their own country, while a boom in short-term rentals in residential districts of Athens has driven rents beyond the reach of many locals.

Even the governing coalition, which swept to power in 2015 promising to instantly end austerity and cancel Greece's debt — only to reverse course and sign a new tough bailout program — is low-key about the end of the bailout era.

"We're not planning any parties," said Costas Zahariadis, an official in the dominant leftwing Syriza party. "We don't believe we should start celebrating as if a large section of Greek society didn't have serious financial problems. But of course we won't be shedding tears over Greece leaving the bailout era."

Financial analyst Manos Chatzidakis, who is head of research at Beta Securities, says much has been done over the past eight years, although the tax and judiciary systems need further work. He said that if future governments stick to agreed reforms and fiscal policy then gradually returning confidence will allow Greece to sell its bonds at affordable rates — even if investors initially demand high returns — and attract investment.

The ability to tap bond markets is vital, because after the bailout program, Greece will have to finance itself, albeit initially assisted by a substantial cash buffer. "I think it's all a question of commitment to the bailout program, to the privatizations, to everything that has been agreed" with Greece's creditors, he said. "I'm definitely more optimistic than in the past. Things had reached a point (in 2015) where they couldn't get worse."

Hatzidakis stressed that many of the bailout reforms were "unprecedented" for Greece, which took a long time to understand and implement them. "So we should not be strict and expect everything to happen fast," he said. "It took time to reach this point and a lot of effort, which I think is starting to bear fruit."

Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Athens and Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed to this report.

German authorities take aim at far-right party's youth wing

September 03, 2018

CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) — German authorities said Monday they're stepping up surveillance of the far-right Alternative for Germany amid growing concern the third-largest party in parliament is closing ranks with extremist groups.

Activists for AfD, the nationalist party's German acronym, marched in the eastern city of Chemnitz alongside leading figures in anti-migrant group PEGIDA and members of the area's militant neo-Nazi scene in the past week, after two refugees were arrested in a German citizen's fatal stabbing.

"Parts of AfD are openly acting against the Constitution," Justice Minister Katarina Barley told the RND media group. "We need to treat them like other enemies of the Constitution and observe them accordingly."

Authorities in northern Germany's Bremen and Lower Saxony said Monday they have begun monitoring the party's youth wings in the two states. Boris Pistorius, Lower Saxony's interior minister, said the decision to keep an eye on the AfD's local youth wing, was unrelated to the recent events in Chemnitz. It was based on Young Alternative's anti-democratic goals and links to the Identitarian Movement, a white nationalist group that has been under state surveillance for four years, Pistorius said.

His counterpart in Bremen, Ulrich Maeurer, described the views of AfD's youth wing in the city-state as "pure racism." While Germany's top security official, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, said over the weekend that the party as a whole didn't merit surveillance, the monitoring of its youth wings at the state level was a significant step. Some members of the Left party, which describes its position as democratic socialist, also are subject to surveillance.

AfD immediately announced that it would dissolve the two youth sections in question to avert harm to the party and insisted its aims were democratic. Andreas Kalbitz , a member of the party's national leadership, accused other political parties of panicking in the face of AfD's electoral success.

AfD's rise since its founding five years ago has shaken Germany's establishment and called into question the country's post-World War II consensus that far-right parties have no place in the mainstream.

The party, bolstered by widespread unease in Germany about the influx of more than 1 million refugees since 2015, placed third in last year's national election. Officials are particularly concerned about its strategy in eastern Germany. Kalbitz said the party hopes to become the strongest force there after state elections next year.

Saxony - where Chemnitz is located - has an entrenched neo-Nazi scene and seen strong support for AfD. The party encouraged last week's protests, which drew thousands following the Aug. 26 slaying of 35-year-old carpenter Daniel Hillig in Chemnitz. Some of the demonstrations erupted into violence between far-right marchers and counter-protesters.

A 22-year-old Iraqi citizen and a 23-year-old Syrian citizen were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in Hillig's death, police said. Speaking publicly for the first time since her husband's death, Hillig's widow told Germany's daily Bild newspaper that "Daniel would have never wanted" the protests triggered by his killing.

"Daniel was neither left nor right," the widow, identified by Bild only as Bianca T., told the newspaper. Expressing shock at how far-right groups exploited her family's loss with protest rallies and a "mourning march" over the weekend, she said: "I looked at the events on Saturday night - this was not about Daniel at all."

"All we want to do right now is mourn him in peace," she said. Government officials urged Germans who are upset over the killing to distance themselves from the neo-Nazis who performed the stiff-armed "Hitler salute," chanted "Foreigners out" and harassed journalists covering the demonstrations.

"If one doesn't think this way, it would be good to draw a clear line and distance oneself from those who are doing that," said Steffen Seibert, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman. In an organized response to the far-right marches, tens of thousands of people gathered Monday in Chemnitz for a free, open-air concert by some of Germany's best-known bands.

The show was part of efforts to encourage young Germans to stand up against far-right extremism. It was promoted with the hashtag #WeAreMore and broadcast live online. "The concert is highly symbolic because it sends a signal that we'll mobilize people from across the whole country, if necessary, so Chemnitz isn't abandoned to the right," said Johannes Staemmler, a political scientist who grew up in Saxony and has focused his research on eastern Germany.

Former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel tweeted on Monday that "the far-right terror in Chemnitz is not a Saxon problem, it's a German one." Gabriel criticized Germany's political establishment for being too passive when it comes to combating far-right support and urged public officials to visit towns with simmering anti-migrant sentiment.

"I think it would be good if as many representatives as possible - not only in Chemnitz but everywhere - go to places where we think the citizens are not agreeing with our state," he said in an interview with Bild.

Jordans and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed reported from Berlin.

German government: Chemnitz protesters should shun neo-Nazis

September 03, 2018

CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) — Germany's government on Monday urged those aggrieved by the suspected killing of a man by migrants in Chemnitz to distance themselves from far-right extremists who have participated in violent, xenophobic protest marches in the eastern city over the past week.

The fatal stabbing of 35-year-old carpenter Daniel Hillig in the eastern city on Aug. 26 sparked a series of rallies, some of which erupted into violence. Protesters looked on as neo-Nazis performed the stiff-armed 'Hitler salute,' chanted "foreigners out" and harassed journalists covering the demonstrations.

"If one doesn't think this way it would be good to draw a clear line and distance oneself from those who are doing that," said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. He echoed comments by Chemnitz mayor Barbara Ludwig, who told a rally in the city Saturday that people who repeatedly join protests by far-right extremists "strengthen the right-wing, violent scene."

The tension that has built up over the past week in Chemnitz reflects the growing polarization over Germany's ongoing efforts to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants to the country since 2015.

Authorities said a 22-year-old Iraqi and a 23-year-old Syrian have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in the Chemnitz killing "If their guilt is proven then they will experience the full force of our laws," said Seibert.

Thousands of people were expected to attend a free, open-air concert in the city Monday intended to send a signal against hatred and anti-migrant sentiment. The concert, which is being promoted under the #WeAreMore hashtag, is part of an effort by German civil society to position itself against the growing far-right movement in parts of Germany.

Former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel tweeted on Monday that "the far-right terror in Chemnitz is not a Saxon problem, it's a German one." He harshly criticized the political establishment for being too passive when it comes to fighting far-right groups in Germany and asked them to make a stronger showing in places with simmering discontent and anti-migrant sentiment.

"I think it would be good if as many representatives as possible — not only in Chemnitz but everywhere — go to places where we think the citizens are not agreeing with our state," he said. But, Gabriel added, there was a clear line between angry citizens and those inciting people with hatred.

"We have to go with toughness after these terrorists," he said in an interview with Bild Television, adding that "there won't be any discussions with people who make the Hitler salute. There will only be the rigidity of the state."

Gabriel called on the domestic intelligence service to start watching the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party, which was voted into national parliament last year. In the past, the nationalist AfD has officially distanced itself from radical far-right groups, but over the weekend it joined ranks for the first time with the more radical Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, and Pro Chemnitz group and marched through the city together with them.

While Germany's top security official, Horst Seehofer, has said there are no grounds to monitor Alternative for Germany, the state-level intelligence service in the northern city of Bremen said it is putting the party's youth wing under observation.

Also on Monday, Hillig's widow spoke out for the first time, saying that, "Daniel would have never wanted" the protests triggered by his killing. "Daniel was neither left nor right," the widow, identified only as Bianca T., told daily Bild adding that she was shocked by how the far right was exploiting his death. "I looked at the events on Saturday night — this was not about Daniel at all."

"All we want to do right now is mourn him in peace," she said.

Grieshaber and Jordans reported from Berlin.

Foreign minister to Germans: get off the couch, fight racism

September 02, 2018

CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) — Germany's foreign minister told his fellow countrymen Sunday they're too lazy when it comes to battling racism and fighting for democracy. "We have to get off the couch and open the mouth," Heiko Maas said in an interview with weekly Bild am Sonntag. "Our generation was given freedom, rule of law and democracy as a present. We didn't have to fight for it; (now) we're taking it too much for granted."

Maas' comments followed Saturday's demonstrations by about 4,500 far-right protesters in Chemnitz, who were rallying against migration a week after a German was killed in the eastern city, allegedly by two migrants from Iraq and Syria. Around 4,000 leftist protesters also marched through the city in a counter-protest, and 1,800 police officers were deployed to keep the groups apart.

Eighteen people, including three police officers, were injured during the rallies, which at times were very tense, especially after police ended a march of the far right groups early. After the rallies were over, small groups clashed with each other, police reported.

Soeren Bartol, a lawmaker with the Social Democrats, tweeted that after the end of the protests he and his group "were attacked by Nazis" who destroyed their party flags and physically attacked some of them.

Far-right activists and leftist groups had already clashed in Chemnitz on Monday, a day after the 35-year-old German man's death. Scenes of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the city's streets have shocked people in others parts of Germany since then.

The tension that has built up over the past week in Chemnitz, reflects the growing polarization over Germany's ongoing effort to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants seeking jobs since 2015.

The far right has constantly criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. On Monday, thousands of people are expected to travel to Chemnitz again, this time, however, to visit a free open air concert that has been quickly organized by some of the country's most popular bands, including the rock group Tote Hosen, as a stand against far-right nationalism and anti-migrant prejudice.

Kirsten Grieshaber reported from Berlin.

German police end march envisioned as far-right springboard

September 02, 2018

CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) — Police in eastern Germany brought an early close Saturday to an anti-migrant march that far-right activists hoped would launch a nationwide movement to challenge the political establishment, with the fatal stabbing of a German citizen as the catalyst.

A trio of nationalist groups held separate rallies in the city of Chemnitz over the Aug. 26 slaying for which a Syrian and an Iraqi citizen were arrested. The two largest groups also organized their first joint march, a display of unity meant to build on other protests since the killing and a potent force to take hold.

Saxony state police cited security concerns for halting the march after more than an hour, producing screams and whistles from demonstrators as officers moved in to clear the streets but no violence or vandalism as the crowd dispersed.

The progress of the far-right march had been interrupted several times before then as counter-protesters blocked the route and the sizeable police contingent on hand rushed to keep them and the marchers apart.

Saxony police estimated the event had 4,500 participants and 4,000 counter-protesters. If attendance is any gauge, the numbers revealed a movement in an early embryonic stage at best rather than approaching a mainstream arrival that could be hastened by well-timed pushes.

The emboldened far-right activists had reason to be optimistic and local authorities to be worried after the opposing camps clashed in Chemnitz on Monday, the day after the 35-year-old German man's death. Scenes of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the city's streets have shocked people in others parts of Germany since then.

Police, at times, were unable to control the earlier protests and clashes. Leaders of the two groups that combined forces on Saturday night cultivated a different image for the "mourning march," wearing dark suits and carrying white roses.

However, the mood at the event bringing together previously isolated clusters of nationalists — from lawmakers to Hitler-saluting skinheads — darkened as the sun set. People from both ends of the political spectrum could be seen drinking beer and shouting slurs at police.

The tension in the air reflected the polarization over Germany's ongoing effort to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants seeking jobs since 2015. The right blames Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan for multiple problems. Some far-right supporters argued before the killing in Chemnitz that migrants are responsible for an increase in serious crimes, especially attacks on women.

The anti-migrant sentiment has been particularly strong in Saxony state, traditional strongholds of groups that sought to inspire a nationwide movement on Saturday night: the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, and the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has won seats in federal and state parliaments with an anti-Muslim platform.

While the share of foreigners residing in Saxony remains below Germany's national average and displays of Nazi symbols are outlawed across the shame-marked country, far-right sympathizers mobilized with exceptional speed on the night of the Chemnitz slaying and the days after.

German Justice Minister Katarina Barley said Saturday that authorities should investigate the role of networks from the radical far right in spearheading the week's protests. "We do not tolerate that right-wing extremists infiltrate our society," Barley told weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "It's about finding out who's behind the mobilization of far-right criminals."

Local police appeared to have been caught unprepared when the slaying triggered the protests, which attracted crowds openly engaging in Nazi veneration and devolved into violence. The protests were sparked by a fatal stabbing early Sunday morning of a 35-year-old German man, Daniel Hillig. Two asylum-seekers, a 22-year-old Iraqi and a 23-year-old Syrian, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, known for his anti-migrant stance, said Saturday that he understood why "the people in Chemnitz and elsewhere are upset about the brutal killing" but added "there's no excuse for violence," Funke Media Group reported.

"We need a strong state and we have to do everything politically to overcome the polarization and division of our society," Seehofer stressed. While anti-migrant protests took place in Germany before, especially during the early 1990s, a strong and vocal opposition usually was there to provide a counterforce. Artists organized concerts to raise awareness, and ordinary citizens lined up in miles-long human chains to protest violence against newcomers.

Chemnitz, a city known for its hardened neo-Nazi scene, at first attracted a comparatively weak response to the recent anti-migrant activity. Some 70 left-leaning and pro-migrant groups organized the "Heart not Hatred" rally that got in the way of Saturday's far-right march.

"I've a lot of experience with far-right protests in Chemnitz," Tim Detzner, a member of the Left Party in Chemnitz, said, noting that the street riots this week "reached a level of aggression, brutality and willingness to use violence that we haven't known before."

Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.

Merkel's Africa tour arrives in Ghana as migration a concern

August 30, 2018

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Ghana on Thursday during a three-nation West Africa visit aimed at boosting investment in a region that is a major source of migrants heading toward Europe.

"I firmly believe that there can only be a prosperous European Union if we can deal with the issues of migration and the issues of partnership with Africa," the leader of Europe's largest economy said after emerging from talks with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Merkel is traveling with nearly a dozen German CEOs to help promote business ties. A memorandum of understanding was signed for Volkswagen South Africa to build an assembly plant in Ghana. The German leader first stopped in Senegal, another of Africa's fastest-growing economies, and will continue on to Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and one of the world's top oil producers.

Migrant arrivals in Europe across the Mediterranean from Africa and Turkey are at their lowest level in five years but the issue remains sensitive. Merkel, who refused to close Germany's borders at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, has toughened her stance recently to salvage her government from a rift over the issue.

Some in Europe hope that investing more in West Africa will help keep people in a region plagued with unemployment, dodgy infrastructure, rising extremism and now the effects of climate change from leaving.

Ghana's president noted that migrants who are illegally in Germany would like to remain there given the chance. While it's up to the German government to solve the problem "we must address the issue of the illegal migrants in a mutually agreed manner," he said.

Akufo-Addo also made a pitch for further investment, saying that "the stronger we are the better it is for our youth to stay." Senegal and Ghana are two of Africa's most stable countries. Both have signed on to the Compact with Africa initiative to promote private investment that Germany launched last year during its presidency of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations.

Nigeria, West Africa's regional power, is plagued by widespread corruption and security threats that include Boko Haram and Islamic State-linked extremists in the north, violent clashes between herders and farmers in the central region and oil militants in the south.

A number of world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping and, this week, British Prime Minister Theresa May have visited West Africa in recent months with some combination of business, security and migration in mind.

The international community has interest not only in sub-Saharan Africa's growing economic potential but also in its booming population, which is expected to double by 2050.

Germany: Saxony governor visits city shaken by protests

August 30, 2018

CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) — The governor of Germany's eastern state of Saxony visited Thursday the city where anger over the suspected killing of a man by migrants sparked violent protests. Police were preparing for further demonstrations during the trip to Chemnitz by Governor Michael Kretschmer, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

At least 18 people were injured Monday when far-right protesters, mobilized from surrounding areas and further afield, clashed with counter-protesters in the city center. The demonstration followed calls on social media to honor a 35-year-old German citizen stabbed to death Sunday in an altercation.

Authorities denied online rumors that the victim had been protecting a woman from harassment, saying there was no evidence this had been the case. Still, the public display of anger and footage showing neo-Nazis hurling abuse and bottles at counter-protesters as police struggled to keep the groups apart raised fresh concerns about the threat posed by far-right extremists in Germany.

Saxony has long been a hotbed of anti-migrant sentiment and is home to the group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, as well as a stronghold of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which received almost a quarter of the vote in the state last year.

There have been regular attacks against migrants over the years in Saxony, especially since the influx of more than a million refugees to Germany in 2015 and 2016. While the share of foreigners in Saxony remains below the national average, concern among the population about migrants committing crimes is particularly high.

Chemnitz prosecutors said a 22-year-old Iraqi and a 23-year-old Syrian were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with Sunday's killing. Adding to pressure on Kretschmer, who faces state elections next year, opposition parties have called for an investigation into alleged collusion between police and far-right extremists after the arrest warrants for the two suspects were leaked on social media.

The incident comes days after a man at a far-right protest was filmed harassing journalists. Police subsequently held the reporters for 45 minutes — ostensibly to check their identities — preventing them from covering the demonstration. It later emerged that the protester was a civilian employee of Saxony's criminal police department. On Thursday, the state police department said that after talks with the man and his lawyer, the man would resign from his job with the police next week, the German news agency dpa reported.

Green party lawmaker Claudia Roth told news agency dpa that "organized far-right extremists" appeared to be using public anger over the killing for their ends. Footage showing numerous protesters performing the stiff-armed Nazi salute was evidence of their extremist ideology, she said.

Public displays of the salute, the Nazi swastika and other means of glorifying Adolf Hitler's National Socialist regime are forbidden in Germany and can result in fines or prison sentences. Authorities in Saxony requested the help of federal police to prevent further outbursts of violence in the coming days, including during a planned far-right protest outside a town hall meeting Kretschmer planned to hold with citizens late Thursday.

In a separate incident, police said Thursday that a 20-year-old Syrian man was attacked in the northern city of Wismar by three German-speaking men shouting anti-migrant slurs and had to be hospitalized for his injuries.

Rostock police said the incident late Wednesday was being investigated as a hate crime. The Syrian in Wismar was on his way home alone when he was attacked. Two of the suspects punched him in the face and the third hit him with a chain on the shoulder and ribs area, knocking him to the ground before they fled.

He was released after treatment for a fractured nose and bruises to his face and upper body. The co-leader of Alternative for Germany, which came third in last year's national elections, said he understood the public anger over the killing of the German man last Sunday.

Alexander Gauland told daily Die Welt in an interview published Wednesday that "when such a killing occurs, it's normal for people to snap."

Germany returns 27 sets of colonial-era remains to Namibians

August 29, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — A Namibian delegation is taking possession of the remains of 27 of their countrymen whose bones were taken by German colonial forces more than a century ago for pseudo-scientific racial experiments.

Before the handover of the remains, Germans and Namibians gathered Wednesday for a church ceremony in Berlin. The repatriation of the remains is a reminder of Germany's short-lived past as a colonial power in Africa which included the bloody suppression of a Herero and Nama uprising between 1904 and 1908 that left tens of thousands dead.

German Lutheran Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber told the group "we intend to do something today we should have done many years ago, namely to give back mortal human remains of people who became the first victims of the first genocide of the 20th century."

Germany: 6 people injured during violent far-right protest

August 28, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — At least six people have been injured after bottles and fireworks were thrown during a far-right protest in the eastern German city of Chemnitz. German news agency dpa reported Tuesday that Chemnitz police acknowledged having mobilized too few officers for the demonstration Monday night, which erupted into clashes between neo-Nazis and left-wing counter-protesters.

The far-right protest was sparked by the death of a 35-year-old German man Sunday following a violent altercation with several other men. Two other men were injured. A 22-year-old Syrian and a 21 year-old Iraqi have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

Footage showed far-right protesters trying to break through police lines on Monday night, performing Nazi salutes and chanting "the national resistance is marching here!"

Drought reveals remains of German 'Atlantis' in lake

August 19, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — A sustained drought in Germany has revealed the ruins of a village abandoned when a large reservoir was created more than 100 years ago. German news agency dpa reported Sunday that a bridge and the foundations of Berich — known locally as the Atlantis of Lake Eder — have recently emerged from the waters in the central state of Hesse.

Germany's third-biggest reservoir is being drained to keep water levels on the Weser river high enough for shipping. Like many European countries, Germany has seen remarkably little rain in recent months.

The government is expected to decide Wednesday whether to provide federal aid to farmers whose business has suffered from the drought. Eight German states have already reported drought-related damage amounting to 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion).

Macron says Europe's security architecture must be rethought

August 30, 2018

HELSINKI (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday "we must rethink the European security architecture," as he pushed for a continent-wide effort to create "a strategic partnership, including in terms of defense, with our closest neighbors."

Macron wants Europe to take responsibility for its own defense, so that it doesn't have to rely so much on the United States for its own security. Speaking during an official visit to Finland, Macron said that "our interest with Turkey as well as with Russia is to have a strategic partnership which enables to stabilize the relationship with the European Union in the long term."

Maron added that "we must bring up to date our relationship with Russia further to the end of the Cold War," saying that old habits have led "to mistakes or misunderstanding in the last two decades." That was something he discussed in St. Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin in May, he said.

Once Europe has its strategy and defense autonomy, "we must rethink the terms of the European security architecture" with Russia, "which is in our interest to maintain stability in the entire region," he told a news conference.

Macron who said "NATO remains an important alliance," added that he believes that "our role is also to make Europe a kind of model, guiding beacon of what the challenges of globalization are." Macron met in Helsinki with Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Juha Sipila during the second leg of a Nordic tour that also took him to Copenhagen, Denmark.

While Finland expressed interest in joining Macron's plan for tighter European defense cooperation, Denmark is limited by its defense opt-out clause in its EU ties, which keeps its out of military matters.

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

France's Macron turns away from Trump in laying out roadmap

August 27, 2018

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron laid out his roadmap for the country's diplomatic priorities in the year to come during a 90-minute speech to France's ambassadors Monday. Notably, Macron appeared to be shifting his approach to the United States and President Donald Trump, with whom he has had such a demonstrative relationship the two leaders were teased about their "bromance."

His speech focused on strengthening the European Union to face today's challenges rather than counting on the U.S. support that had two world wars as a crucible. Since his election last year, Macron repeatedly tried to convince Trump not to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. France's 40-year-old pro-EU president also urged Trump not to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum.

Bromance or not, his efforts were in vain. On Monday, Macron urged the European Union to take more responsibility for its own defense . A look at other issues on his roadmap:

EUROPE

The continent's future was Macron's major focus. Nine months before the next European parliament election, he stressed the need to make the EU more "sovereign." He has pledged to redouble efforts to counter rising nationalism in Europe.

He closed the door to further talks about Turkey's accession to the EU and proposed instead a "strategic partnership" with Russia and Turkey. To promote his proposals, Macron plans to visit Denmark and Finland this week and to meet with counterparts from Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands next week. After that, he is scheduled to host German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris.

BREXIT

In line with France's position, Macron said he wants the EU to reach an agreement with Britain on the terms of its departure from the bloc and future relations with it by the end of the year.

"Brexit is a sovereign choice that we must respect, but it is a choice that cannot happen at the expense of the European Union's integrity," he said.

Macron added: "France wishes to maintain a strong, privileged relationship with London, but not at the expense of the European Union dissolution."

MULTILATERALISM

Macron's comments weren't new to the French ambassadors. He often advocates the value of multilateralism over each country pursuing what might be best for it alone.

During his speech, he specifically criticized what he described as the current "aggressive and unilateral trade policy" of the United States.

"Multilateralism is, in effect, going through a major crisis, which is striking all of our diplomatic relationships, above all because of American policy," Macron said in his pointed remarks. "The partner with whom Europe had built the order of post-war multilateralism seems to turn his back on this common history."

SYRIA

No major shift. Macron said France's main priority is to fight the Islamic State and that he does not consider Syrian President Bashar Assad's departure a pre-condition of ending the country's long civil war.

Yet maintaining Assad in power would be a "fatal error," Macron said. He stressed the importance of a negotiated political transition.

"It is not up to France to appoint the future leaders of Syria," the president said. "But it is our duty and our interest to ensure that the Syrian people will be in a position to do so."

Macron also called on Russia and Turkey to use their influence in the region to help bring the war to a close.

Nicaragua to expel UN team after critical report

August 31, 2018

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expelling a United Nations human rights team two days after the body published a critical report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests.

Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, chief of the U.N.'s human rights mission in Nicaragua, said Friday in a news conference that he and his team would leave the country Saturday. "We put forward the report not to polarize, but rather to make known what we had seen," Fernandez said. "This has had a lot of media coverage and we did not expect the government's reaction in this sense. We only did our job."

In a statement, the U.N. human rights regional office for Central America said that it had received a letter Thursday from the foreign ministry notifying it that the government's invitation was over. "The letter indicates that said invitation was extended with the purpose of accompanying the Verification and Monitoring Commission and that with the reasons, causes and conditions finished that spurred said invitation, the invitation is considered concluded," according to the statement.

The U.N. statement said the team will continue monitoring and reporting on the situation remotely. It was a rough day for the U.N. in Central America. While the human rights mission was preparing to leave Nicaragua on Friday, military vehicles surrounded the U.N.-backed anti-corruption mission headquarters in Guatemala's capital. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is facing an attempt to strip his immunity so he can be investigated for illicit campaign financing.

The U.N. Security Council will discuss the situation in Nicaragua on Sept. 5. The report released Wednesday by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights described repression in the country that stretched from the streets to courtrooms, where some protesters face terrorism charges.

More than 300 people have been killed since popular protests began in mid-April triggered by cuts to the social security system. Ortega reversed the cuts, but demonstrations quickly expanded and turned into a call for him to step down.

In July, the government forcefully cleared the last of the roadblocks erected by protesters that had snarled the country's traffic. It also retook the last of the university campuses occupied by students.

The U.N. report called on the government to immediately halt the persecution of protesters and disarm the masked civilians who have been responsible for many of the killings and arbitrary detentions. It also documented cases of torture and excessive force through interviews with victims and local human rights groups.

In response, the government said that the report was biased and did not consider that its actions occurred in the context of what it alleges was a failed coup attempt. It said the report ignored the violence afflicted against members of his Sandinista party.

Ortega has called the protesters "terrorists" working in coordination with domestic and foreign interests which want him removed from office. The government also accused the U.N. team of overstepping its authority in violation of Nicaragua's sovereignty and said the U.N. had not been invited to evaluate the human rights situation, but to accompany the commission working to end the crisis.

A national dialogue aimed at finding a resolution ultimately stalled, and Ortega accused the Roman Catholic bishops who were mediating talks of working with coup mongers. Denis Moncada, Nicaragua's foreign minister, met with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres this week in New York.

Guterres' spokeswoman said after the meeting that Nicaragua's path out of the crisis had to be "politically inclusive."

AP writer Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Florida Democrats nominate first black candidate for governor

AUG. 28, 2018
By Ray Downs

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis each defeated the establishment picks in their respective gubernatorial primaries in Florida and will face each other in November.

Gillum, the Mayor of Tallahassee, will become the first black candidate of a major party to run for governor in the Sunshine State. The 39-year-old had been trailing in the polls for months behind former congresswoman Gwen Graham, whose father Bob Graham was a former governor and U.S. Senator of Florida, and Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine.

But with the help of an enthusiastic progressive base and endorsements from national figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and celebrities like actress Gabrielle Union, Gillum surged in the polls this week and edged Graham 34 percent to 31 percent., according to The New York Times voting numbers.

Gillum finished strong in each of Florida's major cities, including Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and his home city of Tallahassee. He also handily beat Graham in the state's two largest counties -- Miami-Dade and Broward -- by winning more than twice the amount of votes she received there.

Levine, thought to have been the second most-popular candidate of the three for several weeks, finished a distant third with about 20 percent of the vote and lost his home county of Miami-Dade to Gillum by nearly 10,000 votes.

On the Republican side, DeSantis, a U.S. congressman from the Jacksonville area, stomped Adam Putnam, a former congressman and current Commissioner of Agriculture in Florida, with more than 56 percent of the vote.

Putnam carried nearly 37 percent.

Putnam had long been considered the favorite to win the GOP primary with state party backing and big donations from the biggest corporate entities in the state, including supermarket chain Publix, U.S. Sugar, Florida Power & Light and Disney.

But in polls over the past two months, DeSantis began to pull away from Putnam with the help of a strong endorsement from President Donald Trump, who rallied for him in Florida this month.

DeSantis has also been a regular face on Fox News. According to Politico, DeSantis appeared on the network more than 100 times this year.

"That's a lot of exposure," Rick Wilson, an MSNBC contributor and veteran GOP ad maker, told Politico. "Fox News has become a silo of the Fox/Trump media ecosystem, and DeSantis is on the list as one of their favorites."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/08/28/Florida-Democrats-nominate-first-black-candidate-for-governor/8371535506180/.

Guatemala president shuts down UN anti-corruption commission

August 31, 2018

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales on Friday shut down a crusading U.N.-sponsored anti-graft commission that has pressed a number of high-profile corruption probes — including one pending against him over purported illicit campaign financing.

Speaking in front of civilian and military leaders as army vehicles surrounded the commission's headquarters in the capital, Morales said he had informed the U.N. secretary-general of his decision to revoke the body's mandate and "immediately" begin transferring its capacities to Guatemalan institutions.

The decision caps a long history of friction between the president and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or Cicig for its initials in Spanish. In August 2017, Morales announced that he was expelling the commission's chief, Ivan Velasquez, but that move was quickly blocked by Guatemala's top court.

At the time Morales declared Velasquez a persona non grata and fired his foreign minister for refusing to carry out the order to expel him, before later backing off and saying he would obey the court's decision.

Morales accused the commission Friday of "violating our laws, inducing people and institutions to participate in acts of corruption and impunity," and "selective criminal prosecution with an ideological bias."

"Selective justice has been used to intimidate and terrorize the citizenry," he charged. "Judicial independence has been violated, with the intention of manipulating justice, actions that attack the presumption of innocence and due process."

The announcement was promptly met with criticism from human rights officials and advocates. "We sincerely regret the great mistake that the president made public in not renewing Cicig's mandate," Guatemalan human rights prosecutor Jordan Rodas said. "We are grateful for its valuable contribution in the country to the fight against corruption and impunity."

Morales is suspected of receiving at least $1 million in undeclared contributions during the 2015 campaign. He has denied wrongdoing. Last week the Supreme Court allowed a request brought by Cicig and Guatemalan prosecutors to strip his immunity from prosecution to go to Congress for consideration. If 105 lawmakers vote in favor, it could open him up to investigation for possible illicit campaign financing.

"I think there's a conflict of interest, and an attempt by President Morales to try to protect his own interests in light of the ongoing investigation and probe," said Adriana Beltran, director for citizen security at the Washington Office on Latin America, which advocates for human rights in the region.

Beltran said Cicig and Velasquez have made remarkable progress in strengthening the rule of law in Guatemala "despite constant attacks and efforts to try to undermine (their) work," and that "there's still much more that needs to be done."

At least 12 military vehicles were outside the commission's headquarters Friday, and Cicig spokesman Matias Ponce told The Associated Press that police and army vehicles intercepted a car carrying a team from the commission on a street in the capital.

Rodas called the deployment an "oversize and intimidating presence." "It is an unnecessary military movement that reminds us of days past when there were coups, and now we are a democracy — nobody is above the law," he said, adding that he would work to guarantee the safety of the commissioner and his team.

The commission's work with Guatemalan prosecutors has led to high-profile graft probes that ensnared dozens of politicians and businesspeople and even led to the downfall of former President Otto Perez Molina and his then-vice president.

The military deployment came the same day a U.N. human rights team was expelled from the Central American nation of Nicaragua after the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights published a critical report accusing President Daniel Ortega's government of violent repression of opposition protests.

There was no immediate indication of a link between the two events.

Associated Press writer Peter Orsi contributed from Mexico City.

UN court hears case over strategic Indian Ocean islands

September 03, 2018

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Officials from the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius told United Nations judges Monday that former colonial power Britain strong-armed its leaders half a century ago into giving up territory as a condition of independence, a claim that could have an impact on a strategically important U.S. military base.

Judges at the International Court of Justice began hearing arguments for an advisory opinion the U.N. General Assembly requested on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. The largest island, Diego Garcia, has housed the U.S. base since the 1970s.

"The process of decolonization of Mauritius remains incomplete as a result of the unlawful detachment of an integral part of our territory on the eve of our independence," Mauritius Defense Minister Anerood Jugnauth told judges.

Mauritius argues that the Chagos archipelago was part of its territory since at least the 18th century and taken unlawfully by the U.K. in 1965, three years before the island gained independence. Britain insists it has sovereignty over the archipelago, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Jugnauth testified that during independence negotiations, then-British Prime Minister Harold Wilson told Mauritius' leader at the time, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, that "he and his colleagues could return to Mauritius either with independence or without it and that the best solution for all might be independence and detachment (of the Chagos Islands) by agreement."

Ramgoolam understood Wilson's words "to be in the nature of a threat," Jugnauth said. British Solicitor General Robert Buckland described the case as essentially a bilateral dispute about sovereignty and urged the court not to issue an advisory opinion.

Buckland also disputed Mauritius' claim about coercion, citing Ramgoolam as saying after the deal that the detachment of the Chagos islands was a "matter that was negotiated." The U.K. sealed a deal with the U.S. in 1966 to use the territory for defense purposes. The United States maintains a base there for aircraft and ships and has backed Britain in the legal dispute with Mauritius.

However, Jugnauth said the base shouldn't be affected by his country's claim against Britain. "Mauritius has been clear that a request for an advisory opinion is not intended to bring into question the presence of the base on Diego Garcia," he told the U.N. judges. "Mauritius recognizes its existence and has repeatedly made it clear to the United States and the administering power that it accepts the future of the base."

Representatives from about 20 nations, including the U.S., and from the African Union are due to speak in the case this week. Judges are expected to take months to issue their advisory opinions on two questions: Was the process of decolonization of Mauritius lawfully completed in 1968 and what are the consequences under international law of the U.K.'s continued administration, including with respect to the inability to resettle Chagos residents on the islands?

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos archipelago in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an air base on Diego Garcia. The islanders were sent to the Seychelles and Mauritius, and many eventually resettled in the U.K.

The Chagossians have fought in British courts for years to return to the islands. A small group of Chagossians protested outside the court Monday holding banners including one that read: "Chagossian sacrifice to protect the world but our reward is slow death."

Another Chagossian, Marie Liseby Elyse, recorded a video that was shown to judges. In it, she recalled being taken by boat from her home island. "We were like animals and slaves in that ship," she said. "People were dying of sadness."

Buckland expressed Britain's deep regret at the way the Chagossians were removed. Britain, "fully accepts the manner in which the Chagossians were removed from the Chagos Archipelago and the way they were treated thereafter was shameful and more," he said.

Lawsuit lays bare Israel-made hack tools in Mideast, Mexico

September 01, 2018

PARIS (AP) — One day late last year, Qatari newspaper editor Abdullah Al-Athbah came home, removed the SIM card from his iPhone 7 and smashed it to pieces with a hammer. A source had just handed Al-Athbah a cache of emails suggesting that his phone had been targeted by hacking software made by Israel's NSO Group. He told The Associated Press he considered the phone compromised.

"I feared that someone could get back into it," he said in an interview Friday. "I needed to protect my sources." Al-Athbah, who edits Qatar's Al-Arab newspaper, now has a new phone, a new SIM card and a new approach to email attachments and links. He says he never opens anything, "even from the most trusted circles in my life."

Al-Athbah's discovery touched off a process that has led, months later, to parallel lawsuits filed in Israel and Cyprus — and provided a behind-the-scenes look at how government-grade spyware is used to eavesdrop on everyone from Mexican reporters to Arab royalty.

The NSO Group did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The first lawsuit , filed in a Tel Aviv court on Thursday, carries a claim from five Mexican journalists and activists who allege they were spied on using NSO Group software. The second, filed in Cyprus, adds Al-Athbah to the list of plaintiffs.

Both draw heavily on the leaked material handed to the editor several months ago. Portions of the material — which appears to have been carefully picked and exhaustively annotated by an unknown party — appear to show officials in the United Arab Emirates discussing whether to hack into the phones of senior figures in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, including members of the Qatari royal family.

Al-Athba declined to identify his source and the AP was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the material, some of which has already been entered into evidence in the Israeli case, according to Mazen Masri, a member of Al-Athbah's legal team. But The New York Times, which first reported on the lawsuits earlier Friday, indicated that it had verified some of the cache, including a reference to an intercepted telephone conversation involving senior Arab journalist Abdulaziz Alkhamis. The Times said Alkhamis confirmed having had the conversation and said he was unaware that he was under surveillance.

The parallel lawsuits underline the growing notoriety of the NSO Group, which is owned by U.S. private equity firm Francisco Partners. One of the Mexican plaintiffs, childhood anti-obesity campaigner Alejandro Calvillo, drew global attention last year when he was revealed to have been targeted using the Israeli company's spyware. The NSO Group's programs have since been implicated in a massive espionage scandal in Panama. A month ago, respected human rights organization Amnesty International accused the company of having crafted the digital tools used to target one of its staffers.

The five Mexican plaintiffs, who were advised by Mexico City-based digital activism group widely known by its acronym R3D, are seeking 2.5 million Israeli shekels ($693,000) in compensation and an injunction to prevent the NSO Group from helping anyone spy on them.

Al-Athbah said he wanted the case to go even further and spawn restrictions on the trade in hacking tools. "I hope selling such technology should be stopped very soon," he said.

Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Islamic countries join Israeli Navy in the world’s largest naval exercise

August 27, 2018

Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that “the Israeli navy participated in the world’s largest maritime exercise alongside Islamic countries”.

The military expert Yoav Zitun stated on Saturday that “this exercise, known as RIMPAC is the largest on a global level. It is held to simulate the takeover of a sensitive water crossing by hostile forces similar to Iran’s threats to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Zitun added that RIMPAC 2018 included 25 thousand participants from 26 countries, 47 warships, 200 aircraft, and five submarines. The training took place in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii.

He pointed out that it is the first time Israel participated with a delegation representing its navy.

The expert demonstrated that this exercise has been held every two years since the 1970s and joined new participant countries in each session, noting that the training lasted a month and ended two weeks ago.

He added: “Officers from countries that do not have official diplomatic relations with Israel, including Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei, as well as Vietnam and Sri Lanka, participated side by side with Israeli officers”.

Zitun said that the Israeli participation was limited in the management of the maneuver through the command and control room at the US military, naval station in Pearl Harbor.

He explained that “the exercise was based on simulating hostile forces carrying out their threat to close internationally prominent naval straits. The crews were divided into ten large combat teams, aimed at destroying hostile troops that took control of two out of five islands adjacent to Hawaii.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, some senior Israeli generals such as Idan Ben Moshe, Commander of naval vessels, and the Naval Attaché in Washington, Gen. Amir Gutman, and Maj. Ran Steigman of the Israeli Navy participated.

Steigman was quoted saying: “We have worked with officers from the United States, Germany, Chile, Peru, Australia, Brunei, and Singapore as well as Thailand, and we have had significant training”.

He added: “They appreciated the efforts of the Israeli Navy and its achievements since the Six-Day War in 1967. We agreed that the Israeli delegation participating in the next training would be a larger one. The Americans requested that we send naval combat equipment, ground forces, and rescue crews”.

Steigman drew attention claiming: “We have seen ships manufactured by the military Israeli industries used by armies of Latin American countries, although Israel is overlooking the Mediterranean and not the Pacific, the sea is the sea.”

The Major added: “It was not the first time I have met with officers from Islamic countries with whom we have no official diplomatic relations, such as Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia. During my military studies in the United States, I have had several acquaintances with officers from Arab countries.”

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180827-islamic-countries-join-israeli-navy-in-the-worlds-largest-naval-exercise/.

Russians rally to stop increase of pension eligibility age

September 02, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Russians held rallies throughout the country Sunday to protest a government plan to raise the age for receiving state pensions. Several thousand people gathered in central Moscow for a protest organized by the Communist Party. Another Moscow protest organized by the A Just Russia party attracted about 1,500 people.

Other demonstrations were reported in at least a dozen cities throughout the country including Vladivostok in the Far East, Simferopol in Russia-annexed Crimea and Omsk, Barnaul and Novosibirsk in Siberia.

No arrests were immediately reported. The rallies had official sanction. The plan was introduced in June and has passed first-reading in the lower house of parliament. But widespread opposition has persisted and President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings in polls have fallen notably since the plan was announced.

In an unusual televised address to the nation, Putin last week conceded that the pension age for women will be raised only to 60 rather than the proposed 63. The current pension age for women is 55. The plan would retain the raising of the men's pension age from 60 to 65, implementing the steps up over five years.

The plan has attracted opposition from a notably wide specter of age groups and political beliefs. Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption activist and Putin foe who has built his movement on relatively young and well-educated urbanites, has called for his supporters to rally nationwide next Sunday.

People who appeared to be in their 20s and 30s made up a large part of the Communist-called rally in Moscow. Younger opponents of the move fear that keeping older people in the workforce longer will shrink job opportunities for them. Older people complain they may not live long enough to collect significant benefits.

"The reform that the government offers deprives our women of a normal pension. This reform doesn't give our youth the chance to get a good job," Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov said at the Moscow rally.

The Communists are demanding to have the issue put to a national referendum. The average life expectancy in Russia was notoriously low in the 1990s, but has risen in recent years. It stands now at about age 67 for men and 78 for women.

Proponents of increasing the age for collecting a pension say the pension system would be overburdened if the eligibility threshold isn't adjusted since Russians are living longer. The pension reform was announced in June on the eve of the opening of the Russia-hosted soccer World Cup. Many critics saw the timing as an attempt to introduce a controversial idea while Russians were distracted by the tournament's excitement.

But Putin's polling numbers dropped significantly. A weekly survey by the Fund For Public Opinion found 61 percent saying they fully or mostly trusted Putin in mid-August, down from 75 percent just before the pension reform proposal.

Iran says it will boost missile capacity

Saturday 01/09/2018

TEHRAN - Iran plans to boost its ballistic and cruise missile capacity and acquire modern fighter planes and submarines, the Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted a senior Defense Ministry official as saying on Saturday.

News of the military development plans came a day after Iran dismissed a French call for negotiations on Tehran's future nuclear plans, its ballistic missile arsenal and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen, following the US pullout from Tehran's nuclear agreement with world powers.

State media also reported the launch earlier this week of war games involving some 150,000 volunteer Basij militia members, who vowed to defend the Islamic state against "foreign threats" including its arch foe, the United States.

Tehran is furious over US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord on Iran's nuclear program and re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

Senior Iranian officials have warned the country will not yield easily to a renewed US campaign to strangle Iran's vital oil exports. They say the country's missile program is solely for defense purposes and is not negotiable as demanded by the United States and European countries.

"Increasing ballistic and cruise missile capacity ... and the acquisition of next-generation fighters and heavy and long-range vessels and submarines with various weapons capabilities are among the new plans of this ministry," said Mohammad Ahadi, deputy defense minister for international affairs, IRNA said.

Speaking to Tehran-based foreign military attaches, Ahadi said international sanctions had not hampered the development of Iran's arms industry.

"We have the necessary infrastructure and what we need to do is research and development, and at the same time upgrade and update the defense industry while relying on the country's very high scientific capacities and tens of thousands of graduates in technical fields and engineering," Ahadi was quoted as saying.

He also defended Iran's role in conflicts in Iraq and Syria: "If Iran and its allies in Syria and Iraq had not stopped Islamic State, today the map of the region would be different and the world would face a terrible challenge."

Separately, the head of the Defense Ministry's naval industries said Iran was developing a water jet propulsion system that would be ready by next March and a military commander said the air force planned to adopt Iran's new Kowsar fighter plane after successful tests, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last month the Islamic Republic's military prowess was what deterred Washington from attacking it.

The exercises by the Basij militia, which are led by the elite Revolutionary Guards, come ahead of massive annual rallies planned for later this month to mark the start of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

"The motto of these war games is unity ... and to declare that, when it comes to adversity and threats from foreigners, we all join to defend the (Islamic Republic's) system," Basij commander Gholam-Hossein Gheibparvar was quoted as saying by IRNA.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: https://www.middle-east-online.com/en/iran-says-it-will-boost-missile-capacity.