UAE purchases world's largest rocket launcher from Turkey

August 27, 2018

Turkey’s weapons manufacturer and defense contractor, Roketsan, has developed the world’s most potent artillery, dubbed “Jobaria” at the request of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), local Turkish media reported yesterday.

Jobaria is a multiple cradle launcher that was first introduced at the International Defense Exhibition, which was held in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi in 2013. It consists of four rocket launchers attached to the trailer carrying 60 rockets, 122 millimeters each.

The Turkish artillery was listed as the world’s largest rocket launcher regarding the number of nozzles by the Guinness World Records for 2018.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180827-uae-purchases-worlds-largest-rocket-launcher-from-turkey/.

Franco's family to take charge of Spanish dictator's remains

August 25, 2018

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The family of the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco will take charge of his remains after Spain's government has them exhumed from a mausoleum, his relatives said Saturday.

"Of course we will take charge of the remains of my grandfather," Franco's grandson, Francis Franco, told Spanish newspaper La Razon in an interview published Saturday. "We won't leave them in the hands of the government."

While criticizing the decision to exhume his grandfather, he says the family doesn't plan to fight the legal changes that Spain's center-left government approved Friday to have Franco's body dug up and removed from a mausoleum the general built to honor the nation's civil war dead.

"Spending money against the government is a waste of time," he said. Franco led a right-wing uprising that ignited Spain's bloody 1936-1939 civil war and deposed Spain's democratic government. He died in 1975 and was buried in the Valley of the Fallen, a mausoleum he ordered built 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Madrid. Some 34,000 people from both sides of the fighting are buried at the site, most of them never identified.

His grandson says the family will decide in the next 15 days where the remains will reside next. In addition to exhuming Franco, the government also plans to unearth and identify the 114,000-or-so victims of the civil war and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Franco.

Spain's center-right parties have criticized the plan by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government, saying it will stir up the political strife that tormented Spain in the last century. Supporters of the decision see it as a necessary step for the country to finally acknowledge and heal the scars left by Franco's uprising and his authoritarian regime.

Spain sets in motion plan to dig up former dictator Franco

August 24, 2018

MADRID (AP) — Spain's center-left government approved legal amendments Friday to make sure that the remains of former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco will be dug up and removed from a controversial national mausoleum honoring the nation's civil war dead.

The minority Socialist government is certain that parliament will endorse the amendments, probably in a debate next month, deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo told reporters. The amendments to Spain's Historical Memory Law of 2007 grant the government the power to exhume Franco's body. That change aims to thwart legal efforts by Franco's descendants and supporters to block the exhumation in the courts.

Removing Franco's remains from the Valley of the Fallen, a mausoleum he ordered built 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Madrid, would be a momentous event in Spain, which still bears social and political scars from the country's 1936-39 civil war.

The vast Valley of the Fallen complex is most conspicuous public legacy of Franco's rule, built by the dictator as a tribute to those killed in the war in which he deposed Spain's democratic government.

Some 34,000 people from both sides of the fighting are buried at the site, most of them never identified. "Having Franco's tomb (at the complex) shows a lack of respect ... for the victims buried there," Calvo said. She noted that a visiting U.N. delegation said four years ago that "democracy is incompatible with a tomb that honors the memory of Franco."

In addition to exhuming Franco, the government also plans to unearth and identify the 114,000-or-so victims of the civil war and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Franco, who died in 1975.

Spain's Memory Law, which outlawed public events supporting the Franco regime, fell short of addressing the broad demands of civil war survivors and victims' relatives for exhumations and reparations.

Franco's descendants will be consulted and will have 15 days to say where they would like the remains to go after exhumation. If they do not reply, the government will choose a "dignified place," Calvo said.

Francisco Martinez-Bordiu, a grandson of Franco, described the government's exhumation plans as "barbaric," telling Antena 3 on Friday that descendants would assess their legal options for halting it.

An exhumation of Franco's embalmed body — possibly as early as October — would cement the government's reformist, liberal credentials after taking power last June. Removing Franco from the mausoleum, which is owned and operated by the cultural heritage agency, a public-funded body, has long been discussed in Spain. Calvo said the government is fast-tracking the exhumation because it wants to "end a state of affairs which cannot go on any longer."

At next Friday's Cabinet meeting, the procedures for the exhumation will be set out, she said. The Valley of the Fallen complex includes a mausoleum and basilica in a neoclassic style and is a popular pilgrimage site for people nostalgic for the dictatorship. It has a 150-meter (500-foot)-tall cross that can be seen from far and wide.

Franco is in a tomb in the basilica's central nave beneath a massive tombstone.

Hatton reported from Lisbon.

After Rio museum fire, questions about cause, what survived

September 04, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Forensic investigators and researchers awaited access Tuesday to the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, gutted in a fire, to find out how the blaze began and what remains of the 20 million artifacts that made the museum one of the most important in Latin America.

After a fire tore through the museum Sunday, engineers were doing tests on the structure to make sure it wouldn't collapse. Authorities had expressed concern Monday that internal walls and parts of the roof were weak.

The museum held Latin America's largest collection of historical and scientific artifacts, and officials suggested that the damage could be catastrophic, with one official telling a Brazilian news outlet that as much as 90 percent may have been destroyed.

The cause of the fire was not known. Federal police will investigate since the museum was part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. But protesters, commentators and museum directors themselves said years of government neglect had left the museum so underfunded that its staff had turn to crowdfunding sites to open exhibitions. In another example of struggling public services, firefighters initially struggled to contain it because the hydrants closest to the museum did not work. Instead, trucks had to gather water from a nearby lake.

Roberto Leher, rector of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repairs. In fact, the institution had recently secured approval for nearly $5 million for a planned renovation, including an upgrade of the fire-prevention system, but the money had not yet been disbursed.

On Monday, officials promised $2.4 million to shore up the building and promised to rebuild the museum. "Those saying that the museum will be rebuilt are not telling the truth," said Luiz Philippe de Orleans e Braganca, an heir to Brazil's last emperor. "The building could be rebuilt, but the collection will never again be rebuilt. Two hundred years, workers, researchers, professors that dedicated in body and soul (to the museum) ... the work of their life burned due to the negligence of the Brazilian state."

The museum, whose main building was once home to the royal family, had extensive paleontological, anthropological and biological specimens. It also contained a skull called Luzia that was among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas. It held an Egyptian mummy and the largest meteorite ever discovered in Brazil — one of the few objects that officials could confirm had survived. Some parts of the collection were held at others sites and thus spared.

Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, the museum's deputy director, said that anything held in the main building was likely destroyed, and Cristiana Serejo, a vice-director of the museum, told the G1 news portal that maybe around 10 percent of the collection had survived.

For many in Brazil, the state of the 200-year-old natural history museum quickly became a metaphor for what they see as the gutting of Brazilian culture and life during years of corruption, economic collapse and poor governance.

Brazil has struggled to emerge from a two-year recession and seen its political and corporate elite jailed in Latin America's largest corruption investigation. The country has been riven with deep political divisions following the impeachment and removal of former President Dilma Rousseff.

DiLorenzo reported from Sao Paulo.

Brazil leftist party insists on banned candidate da Silva

September 02, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's main leftist party said Saturday it's sticking with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as its presidential candidate even though the electoral court has thrown him off the ballot for an election just five weeks away.

Da Silva's vice presidential running mate, former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad told reporters the Workers Party will continue pushing to somehow get da Silva, 72, who easily leads in the polls, back on the ballot.

"The people are sovereign regarding the party's candidate. And that candidate is Lula," Haddad said. That strategy would keep da Silva in the spotlight until the absolute last minute, perhaps rallying support from backers that could then be transferred to a stand-in, likely Haddad, who is much less popular or charismatic.

The electoral court voted 6-1 early Saturday to reject da Silva's candidacy because of a corruption conviction that has been upheld on appeal. Da Silva and the party are appealing both the conviction and the electoral court ruling.

The ruling had been widely expected and there were no immediate street protests of the sort that occurred when the former president was initially arrested. Da Silva, who was wildly popular when he left office on Jan. 1, 2011, is now a sharply polarizing figure. Many Brazilians still revere him for pulling millions from poverty during his eight years in power.

But he and the Workers' Party have lost much of that appeal over the last several years due to a stumbling economy under his hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff and a sprawling corruption probe that has ensnared many top businessmen and politicians, including da Silva.

That division was clear in the reaction to the electoral court ruling. "We have a big debt with Lula," said Thiago Renato, a 39-year-old IT specialist in the northeastern city of Recife. "We trust him here. I will vote for whoever he endorses because then I will know who will have the biggest impact for the poor," he added. "I know Haddad, but I don't know him well. If he is the candidate, he will have my vote."

At a Sao Paulo coffee shop, Alexandre Fonseca- 21 year old medical student, called the court decision an "unfortunate and fully expected ruling," one unlikely to be overturned on appeal. "The party must unite behind Haddad or whoever will replace Lula, to win the elections and give continuity to his legacy," he said.

But Virginia Toledo, a 37-year-old housewife in Sao Paulo, said da Silva's ouster means "we have another reason to celebrate." "First he was jailed and now his chances of returning to power have been eliminated," she said, while buying ice cream for her 10-year-old daughter

"We have to pray that Haddad or whoever the Workers' Party chooses as its candidate for president does not win the election," she added The former president is serving a 12-year-sentence for corruption and money laundering after being convicted of trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS in exchange for the promise of a beach house apartment.

As part of the ruling, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said the Workers' Party should replace da Silva within 10 days, and that he should not appear as a presidential candidate in free airtime that is given to political parties on nationwide TV and radio.

However the party used the first day of free campaign TV airtime on Saturday to denounce the electoral court ruling in a spot that featured filed footage of da Silva. Left-leaning candidate Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party said the electoral court's ruling was "not a good thing for Brazil."

"No matter how much Lula is detested in some sectors and no matter how he is idolized in others, to prohibit the country's biggest popular leader from taking part in the electoral process is traumatic."

Lula da Silva barred from running for Brazil's presidency

September 01, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been barred from Brazil's October presidential election by the country's electoral court despite easily leading in the polls — a ruling that adds uncertainty to the race to lead Latin America's largest nation, leaving no clear favorites.

In a session that stretched into the early hours of Saturday, the justices voted 6-1 against the once hugely popular president, who is imprisoned on a corruption conviction he claims is a sham. Da Silva's left-leaning Workers' Party issued a statement vowing to appeal, but there appeared to be scant chance it would succeed. That would seem to leave the party's fortunes in the hands of its current vice presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, a former Sao Paulo mayor who so far has polled in single digits and would have to count on the borrowed charisma of da Silva to succeed.

Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso cast the first vote against da Silva, saying the ruling was "very simple" because the law forbids candidates whose conviction has been upheld on appeal. "There is no margin here for the electoral court to make any other evaluation but the one showing there is a conviction, and that conviction matters in the candidate's eligibility," Barroso said.

Justice Edson Fachin disagreed, citing a recent call by a U.N. human rights committee calling for da Silva to be allowed to run while he further appeals his conviction. Even as the justices were debating, the Workers' Party put out ads on social media channels featuring da Silva, holding fast to a strategy to keep the former president front and center as long as possible.

The former firebrand union leader led Brazil during a booming period from 2003 and 2010, promoting social policies that pulled millions from poverty. U.S. President Barack Obama once called him the "most popular politician on earth."

But da Silva and party have lost much of that appeal over the last several years due to a stumbling economy under his hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff and a sprawling corruption probe that has ensnared many top businessmen and politicians, including da Silva.

The 72-year-old ex-president is serving a 12-year-sentence for corruption and money laundering after being convicted of trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS in exchange for the promise of a beach house apartment.

Justice Barroso said the Workers' Party should replace da Silva within 10 days, and that he should not appear as a presidential candidate in free airtime that is given to political parties on nationwide TV and radio starting on Saturday.

In a statement late Friday, the Workers' Party said it would appeal the electoral court ruling, just as da Silva is fighting to overturn his corruption conviction. With da Silva out of the race, Haddad was expected to take his place on the Workers' Party ticket. Polls show tepid support for his bid, but the party hopes da Silva's popularity could boost the former mayor's hopes.

On Saturday, Haddad was scheduled to visit Garanhuns, a city in Brazil's impoverished Northeast where da Silva was born.

Ukraine rebels say bodyguard died with leader in bombing

September 01, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — The health minister of Ukraine's separatist Donetsk region says a cafe bombing that killed the separatists' leader also killed a bodyguard and wounded 12 others. Alexander Zakharchenko's death on Friday is re-escalating tensions in the conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine. Separatists claimed that Ukraine was preparing new offensives.

Zakharchenko was prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. His death was reported soon after the cafe explosion, but the extent of the casualties was not revealed until DPT health minister Alexander Oprishchenko reported them on Saturday.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014, but mostly has waned in recent years.

Ukraine separatists say leader killed in cafe bombing

August 31, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — A blast in a war-themed cafe in eastern Ukraine on Friday killed the most prominent leader of the Russia-backed separatists who have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014, rebel officials said.

The death of Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, underlined the dismal prospects for resolving the conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. Rebel and Russian authorities blamed the Ukrainian government, with some suggesting that the United States had a role, while a top Ukrainian security official said the blast was likely the result of the separatists' factional infighting or an operation by Russian special forces.

Deputy rebel military commander Eduard Basurin said the explosion in the region's capital of Donetsk was caused by a bomb planted in the restaurant, which was named "Separ" in honor of the separatists and decorated with camouflage netting hanging from the eaves.

Seriously injured in the blast was Alexander Timofeev, the revenues and taxes minister for the separatists, according to the rebels' DAN news agency. In September 2017, Timofeev was injured in another bombing in Donetsk, the region's capital.

The Donetsk People's Republic, along with a separatist republic in neighboring Luhansk, has fought Ukrainian forces since 2014, the same year Zakharchenko became the DPR's prime minister. More than 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

Fighting fell off significantly after the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in 2015 signed an accord in Minsk, Belarus, on ending the violence. But most of the agreement's provisions remain unfulfilled and clashes break out sporadically.

"The assassination of the DPR head makes the Minsk accords devoid of sense," Russian parliament speaker Alexander Volodin said. Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Zakharchenko, who was 42, as "a true people's leader" and promised Donetsk residents that "Russia always will be with you."

Denis Pushilin, the speaker of the separatists' parliament, blamed Ukraine's forces for the explosion, calling it "the latest aggression from the Ukrainian side," according to DAN. A statement from the rebel command said "it was conducted by special operations forces of Ukraine under control of U.S. special services."

"Instead of fulfilling the Minsk accords and finding ways to resolve the internal conflict, the Kiev war party is implementing a terrorist scenario," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of Zakharchenko's death. "Having failed to fulfill the promise of peace, apparently they decided to turn to a bloodbath."

Igor Guskov, chief of staff of the Ukrainian Security Service, rejected allegations of any involvement, saying: "We have reason to believe that the death of Zakharchenko may be the result of an internal criminal conflict among the rebels ... but we do not exclude that it was an attempt by Russian special services to remove this odious figure."

There have been several assassinations or attempted slayings of prominent rebels in recent years. It never was established if pro-Kiev attackers were responsible or if the violence resulted from disputes within the rebel ranks or Moscow's possible desire to eliminate individuals it found inconvenient.

Among the prominent separatists who have been targeted are former Luhansk leader Igor Plotnitsky, who was severely injured in 2016 when a bomb exploded near his car; Arsen Pavlov, a feared squadron leader known as "Motorola," who died when the elevator of his apartment building was bombed; and fighter Mikhail Tolstykh, whose office is believed to have been hit by a shoulder-fired rocket.

Russia denies providing troops or equipment to the separatists despite widespread allegations it has done so. Russia is believed to have supplied a mobile Buk missile launcher that a team of international investigators alleges shot down a Malaysian passenger jet while flying over rebel territory in 2014, killing all 209 people aboard.

The rebellion in Donetsk and Luhansk arose soon after pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from power amid mass protests in February 2014. Russian-speakers predominate in the two regions, and separatist sentiment skyrocketed.

Encouraged by Russia's annexation of Crimea, which also came after Yanukovych's ouster, rebel leaders initially hoped their regions would be absorbed by Russia as well.

Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus, contributed.

Moscow, Kiev in tug-of-war over religious future of Ukraine

August 27, 2018

LONDON (AP) — As Kiev and Moscow clash on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, a new front has opened up in the religious sphere. Earlier this year Ukrainian's president launched a campaign to persuade Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, seen by many as the first among equals of Eastern Orthodox leaders, to grant Ukrainian clerics full ecclesiastical independence from the Russian Orthodox Church to which they have been tied for hundreds of years.

Ukrainian politicians see such a declaration, known as a "Tomos of Autocephaly," as a key step in consolidating their country's national identity. Russian religious leaders see it as an attack on Christian Orthodox unity and are fighting to stop it.

It's in the midst of this religious tussle that The Associated Press has discovered a Russian digital espionage campaign targeting Bartholomew's top aides. Here's a look at what autocephaly means, why it's so important and whether it's likely to happen.

WHAT'S AT STAKE?

To hear the religious leaders in Moscow tell it, separating the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Russia would spark the worst schism since Orthodox and Catholic Christianity parted ways nearly 1,000 years ago.

"This wrong step can only be compared to the division between East and West in 1054," senior Moscow Patriarchate official Hilarion Alfeyev said earlier this year. "If such a thing happens, Orthodox unity will be buried."

More immediately, the move would dramatically shrink the size and influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Even though Ukraine's population is several times smaller than that of its large Slavic neighbor, it is widely considered the more observant of the two and accounts for something like a third of the Russian Orthodox Church's approximately 35,000 parishes.

Perhaps just as important, the Russian Orthodox Church would lose its link to centuries' worth of tradition tied up in Ukraine's shrines and monasteries — a heavy symbolic blow.

Losing Ukraine "would be humiliating," said Katja Richters, an independent researcher who writes about the Russian Orthodox Church. "The Moscow Patriarchate would lose about 600 years of history."

SHOULDN'T EVERY COUNTRY HAVE ITS OWN CHURCH?

That's what many Ukrainians argue.

"When a new state appears, when it becomes stable, it's a normal procedure for the Orthodox church believers to separate their church from the others," said Ukrainian historian Kyrylo Halushko. "This happened a few times in the 20th century: in Bulgaria, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, etc. So it's a very logical step for independence to be given to Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

It may be logical, but it's not simple.

Leaving aside the theological wrangling over who has the authority to declare a church independent, there are important philosophical reasons for keeping the Ukrainian church in communion with its Russian counterpart.

Christians are enjoined to unity (Galatians 3:28 says , in part, "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.") The global Orthodox community is already fragmented and few leaders relish the prospect of cutting the world's largest Orthodox denomination in two. Even within Ukraine, some Orthodox clergy are leery of a process driven in part by secular politicians and the pressure of armed conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Some of them say that it is difficult to have it done in a time of war and military confrontation with Russia," said Thomas Bremer, a professor of Eastern Churches Studies at the Faculty for Catholic Theology of the University of Muenster in Germany. "There is also a group of priests and bishops who would prefer to stay as a self-administering part of the Russian Orthodox Church.'"

The Ecumenical Orthodox Church also faces countervailing pressures. Bartholomew is 78 and some doubt he wants to cloud his legacy with a schism.

"I do not believe that Bartholomew wants to enter church history as the patriarch who has split his Church," said Bremer.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

Anticipation is building on the Ukrainian side that Bartholomew will take the bold step of issuing a Tomos. Writing earlier this month for the Atlantic Council, an American think tank, Ukrainian commentator Kateryna Kruk said the ecclesiastic divorce "is almost a done deal."

Richters, the independent researcher, urged caution.

"The Ukrainians seem very excited and they seem to think there will be a Tomos on Autocephaly in early September," she said. "They were fairly convinced 10 years ago and it didn't happen then."

Many read a trip by the Moscow patriarch to Istanbul planned for this week as a sign that the Russians are worried.

"This visit is not accidental," said Vasilios Makrides, a professor of religious studies at the University of Erfurt in Germany. "They must be nervous."

It's not clear whether the AP's spying revelations will have any impact on the debate over autocephaly, but Richters said it could heighten emotions that are already running high on both sides.

"(The hacking) would definitely be seen as hostile and tasteless and immoral," she said.

Poland bans Ukraine activist from Europe, raising questions

August 20, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland has used its powers as a European Union member to ban a human rights Ukrainian activist from all 26 countries in Europe's Schengen area, saying she poses a security threat following allegations that she works for Russian interests. Some government critics, however, have questioned whether the government is misusing the system to intimidate its opponents.

The activist, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, and her Polish husband Bartosz Kramek told The Associated Press they consider the move punishment for their open opposition to Poland's conservative, nationalist government.

Kozlovska, who runs an organization with offices in Warsaw, Brussels and Kiev, the Open Dialog Foundation, said her group's work has largely focused on promoting democracy in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Moldova. One effort, she said, involved lobbying the EU to place sanctions on people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But after the conservative Law and Justice party won power in Poland in 2015 and began reshaping the country's judiciary, the pair also started to accuse that government of violating the rule of law. Kozlovska said they began to face political pressure and that some ruling-party members and online trolls accused her of ties to Russia.

"There is a smear campaign against us," she said. "If I am a Russian agent why would I put people around Putin on a sanctions list? It's nonsense that I am some kind of agent." On Monday, the Internal Security Agency said its counterintelligence department had "serious doubts" about the financing of her foundation and that the ban resulted from the agency denying an application by her for a long-term residency permit.

Kozlovska was stopped Aug. 13 at the Brussels Zaventem airport after arriving from Kiev, held overnight and put on an early flight back to Kiev the next morning. Belgian authorities acted after Poland entered her in the Schengen Information System, a database aimed at ensuring security in Europe's passport-free Schengen Area.

The move effectively forces Kozlovska, 33, and Kramek, 32, to either live apart or for him to leave Poland. They spoke by phone to the AP from Kiev, where he joined her last week, though he said he plans to be in Warsaw for a street demonstration Thursday in her support.

They said they believe the Polish-requested ban is related to an open manifesto that Kramek published last year calling for civil disobedience against the government. In his appeal, he wrote: "Mere protests and appeals are not enough; extraordinary and resolute actions based on the idea of civil disobedience must be taken immediately. Nobody wants Maidan or bloodshed in Poland, but the escalating tension makes us take almost any unimaginable scenario into account — and be prepared for it."

Kramek said that was a reference to his support for the Euromaidan, a wave of pro-Western demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine that began in 2013. "I didn't call for any violence," Kramek said. "I was trying to explain that the Maidan was a peaceful revolution and that nobody was violent until the government tried to suppress the protesters using extreme violence."

Artur Lompart, director of the Foreign Ministry's press office, told the AP in a written statement that names are put on the Schengen system "for reasons of defense, national security or public order."

"The claims made by Mr. Kramek and his spouse that the refusal of entry into Schengen area for Ms. Kozlovska was a result of their anti-government activities are hugely exaggerated," he said. "Mr. Kramek openly publishes anti-government texts and he often actively participates in anti-government manifestations or protests. Poland is a democratic country where there is a full freedom of opinion and expression of political views."

Some political activists and members of the Ukrainian community expressed doubts to the AP about the legitimacy of Kozlovska and her foundation. Some nonetheless criticize the government for a lack of transparency and say they fear the move could be an effort to discredit the opposition to the government after three years of frequent street protests.

Michal Szczerba, an opposition lawmaker, said Poland's authorities "are behaving like Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey." Earlier this year, three members of the European Parliament from the Polish ruling party failed in their bid to have Kozlovska denied access to the EU legislature.

One of them, Kosma Zlotowski, said in his request that Kozlovska was granted a Russian passport after the annexation of Crimea. "Moreover, the Foundation and its sponsors are suspected of having connections with Russia, including with entities connected with the Russian Navy. ... Such connections should raise certain concern," Zlotowski continued.

The couple denied those allegations. Poland has absorbed nearly 2 million Ukrainians in recent years. Tom Junes, a historian with the Human and Social Studies Foundation Sofia who researches protest movements and disinformation in Eastern Europe, believes that context is essential to understanding Kozvlovska's case.

The deportation makes the point that anybody who becomes engaged in activism against the current government in Poland could be banned not only from Poland but also from the EU, Junes said. Olena Babakova, a Ukrainian freelance journalist based in Warsaw, agreed. "This is a warning for all foreigners who think that Poland is their home and that they can take an active part in public life," she said.

Poland marks Army Day with parade, call for US military base

August 15, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's president voiced hope for a permanent U.S. military presence in his country, speaking as the nation put on a large military parade on its Armed Forces Day holiday Wednesday replete with tanks and people marching in historic uniforms.

Poland is fearful of Russia's renewed aggression, and President Andrzej Duda said that a permanent presence by the U.S. Army would "deter every potential aggressor." The U.S. military, on its own and as part of a NATO effort, began rotating troops in and out of Poland and other nervous countries on NATO's eastern flank, including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, after Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

Poland has recently been lobbying for a permanent U.S. base and more American forces. There hasn't yet been a response on whether Washington will agree to a move that would be expensive and sure to infuriate Moscow.

Some of the troops from the U.S. and other allied countries also marched in the parade. Poland considers the U.S. its key protector, with some doubts about whether Europe's NATO members really would ever come to its defense.

Duda said if the economy allows, he also wants Poland to increase its own defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2024, above the current 2 percent NATO target, which Poland already meets. The parade is part of a national holiday observed every Aug. 15 that celebrates Poland's defeat of Russian Bolsheviks in 1920 near Warsaw — celebrated as a near-miraculous victory for a country that has seen more than its share of defeat and occupation in past centuries.

"We won. Yes, we won. We Poles won," Duda said. "Today we look with pride at those times." This year's event was especially large and colorful to mark the centenary of Poland regaining its independence in 1918 after having been swallowed up for 123 years by Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

There was a show of military might by the armed forces, while hundreds of members of historical reconstruction groups also paraded in historic uniforms, including from the Middle Ages, the Napoleonic era and the 20th century.

Czechs boo prime minister 50 years after Soviet-led invasion

August 22, 2018

PRAGUE (AP) — A ceremony to honor the victims of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia on Tuesday turned into a protest against Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Hundreds jeered and booed Babis' arrival for a ceremony in front of the Czech public radio building in downtown Prague, a site of a fierce street battle between unarmed civilians and invading troops in the first hours of occupation where 17 people died.

"Shame, shame...," the crowd chanted while blowing horns and whistles during his speech. Babis didn't immediately react to the protest. In his speech, he said Babis, a populist billionaire, is a controversial figure because of a power-sharing deal with the maverick Communist Party and fraud charges he is facing. His position is also complicated by allegations he collaborated with the former communist-era secret police.

Troops from the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance formed in 1955 between the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European nations, invaded Czechoslovakia on Aug. 20, 1968 to crush liberal reforms enacted in the brief era known as the Prague Spring. The country was subsequently taken over by a hard-line Communist regime fully loyal to Moscow.

In 1968 alone, 137 people were killed by Warsaw Pact soldiers, and a total of more than 400 died during the occupation of Czechoslovakia that ended only after the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution.

In Brussels, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Europe isn't divided by an Iron Curtain any more. "But let us use this day of solemn commemoration to collectively remember that freedom and the respect for human rights can never be taken for granted and need to be fought for every single day," he said.

In another move related to the anniversary, which will likely anger Russia, Prague authorities unveiled a new explanatory text about the role of Soviet World War II commander Ivan Stepanovic Konev to his monument in Prague.

Marshall Konev led Red Army forces that liberated large parts of Czechoslovakia from Nazi occupation in 1945. His monument was unveiled in the Prague 6 district in 1980. On Tuesday, Prague 6 mayor Ondrej Kolar said the authorities wanted to give people "full information that would not conceal what happened."

The new text describes Konev's leading role in crushing the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary, his contribution to the construction of the Berlin Wall and the preparation of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Russia and four other former Soviet republics had officially protested that. A small group of communists condemned at the site what they called "the rewriting of history." Others demanded the monument was completely removed given what Konev had done.

AP Interview: Photographer documented 1968 Soviet invasion

August 19, 2018

PRAGUE (AP) — It's been 50 years, but powerful images of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia taken by photographer Josef Koudelka still resonate among Czechs and elsewhere in the world — they've even been admired in Russia.

As the armies of the five Warsaw Pact countries invaded his country an hour before midnight on Aug. 20, 1968, Koudelka was ready. Risking his life, he took thousands of photos in the week that followed, capturing the shocking experience for his nation — and the defiance of its people.

After the negatives were smuggled out of the country, the photos that were published in the West became one of the most famed documentary series of the 20th century. Looking back at 1968 in an interview with The Associated Press, Koudelka said he seized the once-in-a-career opportunity.

"The opportunity to take so many photos made it possible for me to do something I never thought I would be able to do," Koudelka said. "And I think that a majority of people in Czechoslovakia who knew me as a photographer didn't even think I could do anything like that."

His photos captured the mood on the streets of Prague: the public anger, frustration and massive protests against the troops that came in with tanks to crush the Prague Spring — the brief period of liberal reforms under leader Alexander Dubcek meant to lead toward democratization of communist Czechoslovakia.

"It was a tragedy. But also miracles happened at the time," Koudelka said. "One of the biggest miracles for me was — and that has happened at major events elsewhere — that people are able to completely change overnight."

He said in reaction to the attack, the whole nation became united. "No matter who you were, only one thing mattered: We were all against them," he said. One of his now-iconic photos shows a man holding his coat wide open in front of an armed soldier standing on a Soviet tank, while another one captures an elderly man trying to hit a tank with a cobblestone.

"My photos captured a moment when we behaved like a nation," Koudelka said. "And that didn't happen too often in our history." Unarmed people could not stop the armies, however, and the country was subsequently taken over by a hard-line Communist regime fully loyal to Moscow. The occupying troops stayed for over 20 years and withdrew only after the 1989 Velvet Revolution led by the late Vaclav Havel.

According to historians, 137 people were killed by Warsaw Pact soldiers in 1968 alone, and a total of over 400 died during the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Koudelka's photos were first published by media around the globe in 1969 under the attribution "P.P." (Prague photographer) to prevent his persecution by the Communists.

He left the country in 1970 to work for the Magnum Photos agency and didn't reveal until 1984 that he was the author of the 1968 pictures. Now 80, Koudelka is not ready to retire. He still keeps his camera busy every day.

Over his long career, he took many great photographs, including his Gypsy, Exile and Panoramas series that are in the collections of major museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

But his 1968 photos have been most known globally. This year alone, there are exhibitions of his work in Poland, Belgium and Italy, together with a retrospective, "Returning," at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague accompanied by the publication of his new book of the same name.

His photos been displayed around the world, including in China and Russia. "I never believed I would be able to take the Russian tanks to Moscow," Koudelka said.

Italy: Catholic church, Albania, Ireland to take migrants

August 25, 2018

ROME (AP) — Catholic bishops, tiny Albania and Ireland agreed to take the 140 migrants blocked aboard an Italian coast guard vessel, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday, announcing the end of 10-day standoff over the asylum-seekers but making clear an angry Italy could avenge a perceived lack of overall European Union solidarity by refusing to approve the bloc's next multi-year budget.

"Italy must take note that the 'spirit of solidarity is struggling to translate into concrete acts," Conte said in a statement. Conte referred to declarations made at an EU summit in late June promising to help Italy and other Mediterranean countries deal with the burden of migrants rescued from human traffickers' unseaworthy boats.

In his role as head of a nearly three-month-old populist coalition government, Conte said Italy under current conditions "doesn't consider it possible to express adhesion to a proposed budget that underpins a policy so incoherent on the social level."

Earlier in the week, some in the government threatened to withhold nearly 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in contributions to the EU if member nations didn't volunteer to take the last group of rescued migrants reaching Italy. Brussels sharply reminded Italy it was legally obliged to pay.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, refused to let the migrants off the coast guard vessel Diciotti until other EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers, most of them young men from Eritrea.

Just before Conte announced the drama's resolution, Salvini told party supporters at a rally in northern Italy that a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, had put him under investigation for suspected abduction for refusing to let the migrants disembark.

If the prosecutor "wants to interrogate me or even arrest me because I defend the borders and security of my country, I'm proud of it," Salvini tweeted. Many of his supporters blame migrants for crime.

Earlier in the week, the government's rights office for detained persons concluded this week that the migrants were being unjustly held by the government. Salvini took credit for convincing bishops to take many of the migrants. The bishops agreed to "open up their doors, heart and wallet," he told the rally.

Fifty others of the 190 people rescued at sea on Aug. 16 by the Italian coast guard were previously allowed off the ship, including all the minors and ailing adults. A few hours before Conte's announcement, Italian Red Cross ambulances waiting at dockside took away six ill men, suspected of having tuberculosis, pneumonia or other infections, and seven of the 11 women who were still aboard.

Authorities had said the women recounted how they had been raped while in Libya for months, awaiting the opportunity to leave in migrant smugglers' boats. Four other women chose not to leave the ship because their husbands were blocked aboard.

The standoff had prompted an impassioned appeal at the height of the standoff Saturday by the U.N. refugee agency's chief, who asked Italy to let the migrants disembark and urged EU countries to take responsibility for the asylum-seekers.

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said it's time to end a "race to the bottom on who can take the least responsibility for people rescued at sea." He urged European countries "to do the right thing and offer places of asylum for people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in their time of need."

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi expressed appreciation for Albania's "sign of great solidarity and friendship," his ministry said. Albania, which isn't in the European Union, saw thousands of its citizens flee to Italy across the Adriatic Sea aboard dramatically overcrowded rickety ferries and fishing boats in hopes of a better life in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Sicily-based prosecutors took their investigation of the migrant standoff to Rome. Prosecutor Patronaggio left without speaking to reporters after questioning two Interior Ministry officials at the Italian capital's prosecutors' office, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Prosecutors would have to seek permission from a special panel to question Salvini. As a lawmaker, Salvini also holds immunity from prosecution that could only be lifted by fellow lawmakers. Italian Red Cross official Stefano Principato in Catania told reporters that Italy's health minister had ordered an inspection of sanitary conditions for the migrants, who have been sleeping on the ship's deck and coping with a baking sun and limited toilet facilities.

Doctors have said many of the migrants on the ship have scabies but "more than a health emergency, it would be better to speak of a psychological emergency," Principato said.

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Migrant tailors stitch together new lives in Italy

August 23, 2018

ROME (AP) — An American costume maker living in Rome has created a dressmaking cooperative around migrant tailors, an example of initiatives cropping up in Italy to help new arrivals assimilate and make a living while they wait for decisions on their asylum requests.

Lydia Witt, 35, said she was inspired to open the Sewing Cooperative while volunteering at refugee centers, where she met many people who had worked as tailors in their home countries. She said one strong motivation was to challenge misconceptions on refugee resettlement in Europe, while helping skilled refugees get jobs and create dialogue with local residents. Before moving to Rome, Witt worked for a decade as a dressmaker for the New York City Ballet and Broadway productions.

The Sewing Cooperative — currently hosted by the Sala Uno center for contemporary arts — works with five migrants, mostly from West Africa, to make dresses on commission for clients. They use mostly colorful fabrics and create clothing according to their customers' requests, basing the shapes on a "look book." The pieces cost anything between 45 and 120 euros (between $51 and $137).

Similar tailoring initiatives involving migrants have emerged in recent years, such as Florence-based "Crune Lab," and multicultural clothing brand Waxmore, which launched a campaign last year to fund a training course for four asylum-seeking tailors.

On a recent August day at Witt's studio in Rome, 26-year-old Daouda Doumbia from Ivory Coast was carefully sewing the hem on a brightly colored skirt for an American client. Doumbia said he fled ethnic tensions in Ivory Coast only to realize that the countries to which he had fled — Mali, Algeria and then Libya — were also dangerous. He undertook the risky sea crossing in a rubber dinghy, arriving in Italy in 2016. He received papers allowing him to work while he awaits a response on his asylum request.

Bakary Bamba was also born and raised in Ivory Coast, where he had a tailoring business. He escaped his native country, leaving his wife and two children behind, after his shop burned down and the family of a victim in the fire threatened to kill him for revenge. Similarly to Doumbia, he had a harrowing journey through several African nations before paying a smuggler to get him to Europe.

"I feel important, I feel good today," said Bamba, explaining he's happy to be safe after all he's been through. "I work, I earn some money with the activities we do." Witt said she wants to show that migrants arrive in Europe with "gifts and talents they're ready to use."

One of the misconceptions she faces is that she's teaching the already-expert tailors how to sew. "It's more about creating opportunities and opening doors," she said. "We're learning from each other every day."

Italian company says new bridge can be built in 8 months

August 21, 2018

MILAN (AP) — The board of the private company that controls the bridge that collapsed in Genoa approved on Tuesday an initial 500 million euros ($576 million) in funding to help victims and finance a new steel bridge that it says can be ready in about eight months.

Autostrade per l'Italia's board said after an extraordinary meeting one week after the Morandi Bridge tragedy that killed 43 that it would meet at a later date to respond to government moves to privatize the more than 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) of toll highway that it runs under a concession.

The board said it approved an initial list of self-financed initiatives it plans following the bridge collapse. They include rebuilding the bridge "in steel according to the most modern technologies," paying for new roadways to handle traffic in the meantime, as well as establishing funds to help the families of the victims and those who have been displaced because of concerns about the stability of the remaining structure.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte told the Milan daily Corriere della Sera that the half a million euros being offered by the company was insufficient. "The sum allocated is modest compared to their profits," Conte said. "They could quadruple or quintuple that."

The government has taken a hard-line with Autostrade and its controlling company, Atlantia, opening procedures to retake control of the roadways alleging poor maintenance was behind the collapse. Autostrade is by far the largest of the private companies operating highways under agreements with the government that allow them to collect tolls in exchange for maintenance and upkeep. Atlantia, which is controlled by the Benetton family, lost a quarter of its stock market value in trading last week after the tragedy.

Prosecutors are investigating the collapse for possible lapses in maintenance or design flaws, but have not identified a target.

Italy threatens to return migrants to Libya in new standoff

August 19, 2018

ROME (AP) — Italy's firebrand interior minister threatened Sunday to return to Libya 177 migrants who have been aboard an Italian coast guard ship for days following another standoff with Malta. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini demanded that other European countries take in the migrants after his Maltese counterpart, Michael Farrugia, insisted that the "only solution" is for the Diciotti ship to dock at the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The Diciotti, working under the EU's Frontex Mediterranean rescue operation, has been off Lampedusa after rescuing the migrants Aug. 16. Italy asked Malta to take them in, but Malta refused, saying the migrant boat wasn't in distress and that the migrants declined Maltese assistance, preferring to continue toward Italy.

In a tweet Sunday, Farrugia accused Italy of rescuing the migrants in Maltese waters "purely to prevent them from entering Italian waters." Salvini, who has refused to allow aid groups to dock in Italy, shot back: "Or Europe decides to help Italy concretely, starting with the 180-odd migrants aboard the Diciotti, or we'll be forced to do what will definitively stop the smugglers' business: bring the people recovered at sea to a Libyan port," the ANSA news agency quoted him as saying.

If carried out, Salvini's threat could pose legal issues for Italy, since the Italian government has already been faulted by the European Court of Human Rights for using its own ships to return migrants to Libya. Italy has gotten around that 2012 court ruling by helping Libya's coast guard better patrol its own coasts to bring migrants back.

Italy's transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, demanded that Europe open its ports, and tweeted Sunday that Malta's position was "worthy of sanction." Malta has defended its actions as entirely consistent with international law.

Italy's leader demands safe roads; bridge toll rises to 43

August 18, 2018

GENOA, Italy (AP) — Italy's president demanded guarantees Saturday that all the nation's roads are safe following the Genoa highway bridge collapse, after he hugged and comforted mourners at a state funeral in the grieving port city.

President Sergio Mattarella spoke quietly to victims' families before the ceremony began on Genoa's fairgrounds. Usually reserved in demeanor, Mattarella was embraced tightly for a long moment by one distraught woman.

He then took his place with other Italian leaders, including Premier Giuseppe Conte and the transportation minister, in the packed yet cavernous hall. Afterward, Mattarella called the funeral, which took place on a day of national mourning, "a moment of grief, shared grief, by all of Italy."

One mourner, a local man who would only give his first name, Alessandro, held a placard that read: "In Italy, we prefer ribbon-cuttings to maintenance" — referring to the country's dilapidated infrastructure.

"These are mistakes that keep on repeating. And now, for the umpteenth time, angels have flown into heaven and paid for the mistakes of other human beings," Alessandro said. As the city honored its dead, the toll from Tuesday's bridge collapse rose unofficially Saturday to 43 with the discovery of four more bodies in the rubble and the death in the hospital of the most severely injured survivor.

Firefighter Stefano Zanut told Sky TG24 TV they had extracted from tons of broken concrete the crushed car that an Italian couple on vacation with their 9-year-old daughter had been traveling in. Zanut said the last body pulled out of the wreckage was that of a young Italian man, an employee of Genoa's trash company, who was working under the bridge when it collapsed. The man's mother had refused to leave a tent set up a few hundred yards away from the rubble until his body was found.

RAI state radio said authorities now believe there are no more missing in the tragedy. Later, San Martino Hospital said a Romanian truck driver who had suffered severe cranial and chest injuries in the bridge collapse died Saturday evening.

The families of 19 victims their loved ones' coffins brought to the hall for the funeral Mass led by Genoa's archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, who said the tragedy "gashed the heart of Genoa." "The initial disbelief and then the growing dimension of the catastrophe, the general bewilderment, the tumult of emotions, the pressing "Whys?" have touched us yet again and in a brutal way showed the inexorable fragility of the human condition," he said.

Among the coffins were those of two young Albanian Muslim men who lived and worked in Italy. Their remains were blessed at the end of the Catholic service by a Genoa imam, who drew applause when he prayed for God to "protect Italy and all Italians."

Players and managers from the city's two major league soccer teams, Genoa and Sampdoria, also attended after their weekend matches were postponed out of respect for the dead. At other bridge funerals on Friday, angry mourners blamed authorities of negligence and incompetence for failing to keep the bridge safe.

During the state funeral, applause rang out and many fought back tears Saturday as a prelate read out the first names of some 30 victims who have been identified. The mourners also applauded Italian firefighters, police and volunteers for the civil protection department as they arrived.

Mattarella toured what's left of the Morandi Bridge, which broke apart in a fierce rainstorm, sending a long stretch of roadbed crashing 45 meters (150 feet) into a dry river bed near several apartment buildings. Those buildings have been evacuated and authorities say they will have to be demolished.

After the funeral, Mattarella told reporters the bridge collapse "is an unacceptable tragedy." He demanded that "responsibility be ascertained with rigor" for the collapse of the bridge, which linked two major highways, one leading to Milan and the other toward France.

Prosecutors say they are focusing their probe on possible design flaws or inadequate maintenance of the highway bridge, which was completed in 1967. "I, too, have traveled over this bridge many times," said Mattarella, demanding that authorities commit to carrying out their "duty to guarantee the safety of our roads."

Responding to harsh criticism, the Italian highway company in charge of the collapsed bridge offered Saturday to build a new bridge in eight months. Giovanni Castellucci, CEO of Autostrade per l'Italia, the company that manages Italian highways and bridges, told reporters it has a plan to demolish what's left of the largely concrete 51-year-old Morandi Bridge and build a "less imposing" steel one.

Italy's government, however, has begun procedures to revoke the company's concession and has vowed that Autostrade per l'Italia will never again run the nation's roads. Castellucci declined to talk about the government's stance. He said even though the cause of Tuesday's bridge collapse hasn't been determined "we apologize" since "perceptions count."

Castellucci also said the company would provide funds to help the hundreds of people evacuated from apartment buildings in the shadow of the bridge. But the Italy's new populist government quickly spurned both the offer of help and the apology.

"Let's be very clear, the state won't take charity from Autostrade," Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, who attended the funeral, said in a Facebook post. "We'll insist on credible reimbursement, and there won't be any bartering. The only road the government will follow is that of going forward with revocation procedures."

At the state funeral, the names of the dead were placed on each coffin before the altar. Photographs, flowers and on one coffin a signed sports jersey, a sports trophy and a stuffed animal added personal touches.

Players from a local team in Italy's Serie D soccer, Campi Corniglianese, came to pay tribute to one of their own. Among the two Albanian dead was Marius Djerri, 22, who played for the team and was on his way to work for a cleaning company along with his compatriot when their truck plunged into the abyss.

"(Marius was) a golden boy. Maybe not the strongest player on the pitch, but as a person, I would like all players to be like him," team president Augustus Pintus said.

D'Emilio reported from Rome.

Amid ire, UK's Labor Party alters anti-Semitism definition

September 04, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Britain's main opposition Labor Party on Tuesday adopted an internationally recognized definition of anti-Semitism, an about-face aimed at defusing a crisis that has alarmed U.K. Jews and divided party ranks.

After a meeting lasting several hours, Labor's National Executive Committee backed a definition approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Earlier this year, the party adopted a more limited definition, omitting some of the alliance's language around criticism of Israel. The alliance's definition, for example, says it is anti-Semitic to compare contemporary Israeli policies to the policies of the Nazis. The original Labor definition left that out, but it has now been included.

Labour's reluctance to adopt the entire definition renewed claims that the left-of-center party has become hostile to Jews under leader Jeremy Corbyn, a longtime supporter of the Palestinians. Corbyn has insisted that anti-Semitism has no place in the Labor Party, but some members accuse him of failing to stamp out anti-Jewish prejudice. Last week, veteran lawmaker Frank Field quit Labor's grouping in Parliament, saying the party had become a "force for anti-Semitism."

Corbyn has been accused of failing to expel party members who express anti-Semitic views and has received personal criticism for past statements, including a 2010 speech in which he compared Israel's blockade of Gaza to Nazi Germany's sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad during World War II.

Critics have also condemned him for attending a 2014 wreath-laying to Palestinians whom Israel has linked to the murder of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Corbyn supporters accuse political opponents and right-wing media outlets of misrepresenting the leader's views. Some also say accepting the alliance definition could quash legitimate criticism of Israel.

Labour said Tuesday that it had adopted the alliance definition, including its examples of anti-Semitism, "alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians."

Emotions ran high outside Tuesday's meeting, where rival groups of demonstrators shouted chants for and against Corbyn. Anti-Corbyn protesters held signs altering the party's slogan "For the many, not the few" to "Labor: For the many, not the Jew." The opposing group insisted that "Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism."

The European Jewish Council "cautiously" welcomed Labor's change of policy but said it was "deeply regrettable" it had taken so long. Labor's deputy leader, Tom Watson, said he hoped "today is the start of a new conversation with the Jewish community in Britain."

"It starts by adopting the full definition and we can go out and reassure people and work in partnership with the Jewish community to tackle anti-Semitism very, very quickly and very, very decisively, and make the bigger case that Jewish people are welcome in the democracy of the Labor Party," he told the BBC.

Anti-migrant mood boosts far-right party in Swedish election

September 04, 2018

FLEN, Sweden (AP) — For Monica and Bengt Borg, a retired Swedish couple, Flen doesn't feel like Sweden anymore. As they sit on a bench on the town's main street, an Iraqi man nearby watches a Kurdish television program on his phone. Arabic pop music pulses from a girl's phone. A constant flow of Somalis, Ethiopians and Syrians pass by, the women in headscarves.

"We don't recognize our country as it is today," said Bengt Borg, 66. His wife, 64, says she no longer feels safe walking alone at night due to reports of rapes by immigrants. Both plan to join a growing number of Swedes voting for a nationalist and anti-immigrant party, the Sweden Democrats, in Sunday's general election.

The vote will be the first since the nation of 10 million accepted 163,000 migrants in 2015 — the largest number relative to the total population of any European state during the massive migrant influx into Europe that year. In the town of Flen, with just 6,000 residents, asylum-seekers now make up about a fourth of the population.

On a broader scale, Sunday's balloting is also set to be the latest test for populist far-right forces as much of Europe shifts to the right amid a backlash to immigration. Far-right parties have made gains in several countries that shouldered a large share of the migrant burden, including Germany, Italy and Austria.

The Sweden Democrats have their roots in a neo-Nazi movement. Despite working for years to soften their image, many are not convinced, fearing the party's rise could erode the country's longstanding democratic and liberal traditions and identity as a "humanitarian superpower."

Others, however, worry that the egalitarian ethos of Sweden — the first country to make gender equality a foreign policy priority — is threatened by the large number of Muslim newcomers. Support for the once-fringe party has swollen to around 20 percent — up from the 13 percent it won in 2014. Part of that success reflects disillusionment with the governing coalition between the Social Democrats and the Green Party, which has run the country for the past four years. The coalition's earlier open-door policies toward migrants are now widely denounced.

While 20 percent would not be enough for the Sweden Democrats to lead a government, a strong show of support will give the party greater power to pressure the next government and could deprive the Social Democrats or the center-right Moderates, the country's other major party, of a clear mandate.

The narrative of Sweden as a failing experiment of multiculturalism is backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who caused a stir in early 2017 when he suggested an extremist attack had happened overnight in Sweden. The night, in fact, had been quiet; Trump had seen a Fox News report about crime by immigrants in Sweden. But he insisted his overall picture of the country was still correct: as one where large migration has brought crime and insecurity.

David Crouch, a British journalist and author of "Bumblebee Nation: The Hidden Story of the Swedish Model," said Sweden's unique high-wage, high-welfare social model and emphasis on progressive policies had long given the country a wonderful reputation as "a country which does things differently and gets things right." That has changed dramatically in the past two years.

"Particularly with Donald Trump in power, a different, much darker, narrative has emerged of Sweden on the brink of some sort of social catastrophe, with talk about violence, shooting, rape, and so on," he said.

Crouch believes that view is "not representative of the country as a whole." Sweden's economy is booming and creating jobs, meaning there is potential to bring newcomers into the labor market, he argued. He added that much of the message about a Sweden on the verge of apocalypse is a product of media with a racist agenda.

"If you are a racist and you hate immigrants, you don't want immigrants coming to your country. So you take a country which has got a lot of immigrants and you say: that country is going down the toilet, this country is failing," he said. Some with that agenda have reported "downright lies, things that didn't happen."

Voices supporting the Sweden Democrats have been amplified on social media. The Swedish defense research agency said last week that automated Twitter accounts, or bots, were 40 percent more likely to support the Sweden Democrats than genuine accounts. Swedish officials had earlier warned of Russian interference in the elections, saying Russia is seeking to create divisions by stressing the problems of immigration and crime.

A police officer in a southern Stockholm suburb who supports the Sweden Democrats acknowledged that it is an exaggeration to portray Sweden as so overrun by crime that there are "no-go zones" where police dare not enter, a common refrain by the European far-right.

Still, he sees real problems in migrant neighborhoods and blames mainstream political parties for a climate of political correctness that long prevented Swedes from openly debating them. "If five years ago you had said that we should consider how many migrants we take in, you would have been considered a racist," the officer told The Associated Press. He refused to be identified because people "can lose friends and jobs" for supporting the party.

The Sweden Democrats have benefited by distancing themselves from their origins as a white supremacist movement. Years ago they changed their symbol, a flaming torch in the blue and yellow national colors, to a pretty blue-yellow flower.

Party leader Jimmie Akesson has also cracked down on open expressions of xenophobia, though some question how deep the changes are. Last week the Expressen newspaper reported that nine people left the party for voicing pro-Nazi sentiments. One had reportedly posted a manipulated image of Anne Frank in a sweatshirt saying "Coolest Jew in the Shower Room."

Many Swedes don't agree with the backlash against migrants. Some volunteer to teach Swedish to the newcomers, and some politicians even argue that as the national population ages and shrinks, the country needs even more to maintain what is one of the most generous welfare states in the world.

That's the position of Hakan Bergsten, head of the local government in Flen, where an ice-cream producer and a Volvo maintenance plant provide some of the only industrial jobs in a rural area 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Stockholm.

For Bergsten, the election can be summed up by a choice between parties "only focusing on the problems today, while others are trying to explain why we need to take this step" of welcoming migrants for the future.

Crouch, the author, said the nature of debate surrounding immigration in Sweden has changed so radically in the past years that "it's hard to imagine how the issue of immigration was almost taboo."

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

Duterte voids amnesty of critical senator, orders his arrest

September 04, 2018

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has voided an amnesty given to a former rebel military officer and ordered the arrest of the man who as a senator has been one of the controversial leader's fiercest critics.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV spoke Tuesday in the Senate to condemn Duterte's move against him as illegal and draconian but added he won't resist arrest. After being advised that Senate leaders won't allow his arrest in the building, Trillanes said he would heed their advice and stay within the Senate in a looming standoff.

"We're living basically in a de facto martial law environment of the '70s kind," Trillanes told a throng of journalists and followers, referring to the martial law declared by dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, which is regarded as a dark chapter in Philippine democracy.

Some opposition politicians started trooping to the Senate to show support to Trillanes, a 47-year-old former navy officer, who had been detained for several years before his election to the Senate for his involvement in at least three military uprisings from 2003 to 2007 to protest official corruption.

Trillanes received an amnesty during the time of Duterte's predecessor, President Benigno Aquino III. Several young military officers who were detained for joining the failed coup attempts and uprisings against the administration of Aquino's predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, benefited under the amnesty program, but only Trillanes' amnesty has been voided so far.

Trillanes said his lawyers would file petitions to the Supreme Court "to resolve this madness of Duterte" and the government's solicitor-general and fight what he said amounted to a warrantless arrest.

"They're bending the law to be able to do their political objective, which is to persecute the political opposition," Trillanes said. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told a separate news conference that Duterte signed a proclamation last week voiding the 2011 amnesty given to Trillanes because the senator failed to comply with all the amnesty requirements, including a clear admission of his involvement in past coup attempts.

Law enforcers can comply with Duterte's order to arrest Trillanes anytime because the senator cannot invoke his immunity from such arrests because the crimes he supposedly committed, including rebellion, were serious and are punishable by life imprisonment.

Opposition Sen. Franklin Drilon said all rebellion and coup-related cases against Trillanes were dismissed by a court after he was amnestied. Duterte's administration could not renew those cases against the senator because that would amount to a "double jeopardy" that's forbidden under Philippine law.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who is accompanying Duterte in a visit to Israel, denied that the move against Trillanes was political persecution, saying the government was just enforcing the law. He said the government would exercise maximum tolerance in case protests erupt.

Duterte has openly expressed his anger against Trillanes, who has accused him of large-scale corruption and involvement in illegal drugs, allegations the volatile president has repeatedly denied. He has been hyper-sensitive to criticism, especially concerning his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, and once told President Barack Obama to "go to hell" after Obama raised concerns over the drug killings.

Aside from Trillanes, a fellow opposition senator, Leila de Lima, has been detained after being accused by Duterte of involvement in illegal drugs, a crime she has vehemently denied. De Lima, a former human rights commission chief, investigated allegations of Duterte's links to extrajudicial killings of drug suspects when Duterte was still mayor of southern Davao city.

Duterte, now 73, said those past investigations did not turn up any evidence against him. De Lima and other former human rights officials said witnesses were terrified of testifying against Duterte in Davao because of the many killings of drug suspects when Duterte served for years as Davao's mayor.

Another Duterte critic, Maria Lourdes Sereno, was ousted by fellow magistrates in the Supreme Court in May after the government alleged that her appointment by Duterte's predecessor was legally flawed and petitioned her removal in an unprecedented move that Sereno called political persecution.