Czech Republic to stay out of UN pact on migration

November 14, 2018

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech government has decided the country will stay out of a United Nations pact promoting an international approach to safe and orderly migration. Wednesday's decision comes after Prime Minister Andrej Babis vehemently opposed the document, saying it poses a threat for his country's security and sovereignty.

Babis has argued the U.N. pact that is the subject of an adoption meeting set for Dec. 11-12 in Marrakech, Morocco, is dangerous even though it's nonbinding because "it, in fact, defines migration as a basic human right."

Babis noted that the United States, Austria and Hungary also reject it. The Czech Republic previously refused a European Union plan to assign member states a required number of asylum-seekers to accept.

Italian president calls WWI a warning to Europe to co-exist

November 04, 2018

ROME (AP) — Italy's president lamented World War I's roots in "aggressive nationalism" and held up the European Union on Sunday as the "highest expression" of a commitment to common good needed to prevent catastrophic military conflicts.

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the war, Italian head of state Sergio Mattaella also recalled Europe's history of anti-Semitism as he urged young people to remember the conflict's lessons while striving for peaceful coexistence.

"To celebrate together the end of the war and to jointly honor the fallen - all the fallen - signifies to reiterate with force, all together, that over the path of war, we prefer to develop friendship and collaboration," Mattarella said at a ceremony in Trieste, a port city not far from some of the deadliest battles between Italian soldiers and troops of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

The event was part of a week of observances planned for the centenary of Armistice Day. More than 60 heads of state and government, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, are expected to attend an international ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on the Nov. 11 anniversary.

French President Emmanuel Macron started a six-day tour of World War I battlegrounds Sunday night in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. Accompanying him were his wife, Brigitte, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

On Monday, Macron plans to attend a ceremony in memory of the soldiers who died early in the war, during the Battle of Morang in 1914. In Trieste, Italy's president singled out the memory of a "simple soldier," Vittorio Calderoni, who died from his wounds at age 17 just after World War I ended. Calderoni was the son of Italians who had immigrated to Argentina, but he sailed to Europe to enlist in the army and fight for Italy.

Mattarella said he chose to pay tribute to him "because Vittorio Calderoni was Jewish, the youngest of some 400 Italians of Jewish origin who died in the Great War." The president said he considered it his duty to note that in the same square where he spoke, late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini delivered a 1938 speech that ushered in "the dark and tragic" period of the Fascist regime's anti-Jewish laws.

Mattarella encouraged young people to keep an "active" memory for the victims of wars as a way to consolidate freedom and harmony as "irreversible" choices for Europeans. In contrast, Mattarella said, the war demonstrated the "incapacity of the European ruling class" to pursue "national aspirations and interests in a peaceful" way and to thus surrender to "aggressive nationalism" and the desire for power.

Rome is a founder of the European Union, the unity of which is being tested by rising nationalist sentiments in several member countries, including Italy, where a populist government took over in June.

Thomas Adamson in Paris and Luigi Navarra in Redipuglia, Italy, contributed to this report.

Storms, floods in Sicily kill at least 12 people; 2 missing

November 04, 2018

ROME (AP) — Storm-related floods killed at least 12 people in Sicily, Italian authorities said Sunday, including nine members of two families who were spending a long weekend together when water and mud from a swollen river overran their rented villa.

After surveying the stricken Mediterranean island by helicopter, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte identified two more of the victims as a German couple whose car was swept away by flood waters near Agrigento, a tourist town known for its ancient Greek temples.

Italian news reports said a 1-year--old, a 3-year-old and a teenager were among the flood victims from the family get-together in Casteldaccia. A survivor, Giuseppe Giordano, lost his wife, two of his children, his parents and a brother, Italian news agency ANSA said.

State broadcaster RaiNews24 said Giordano was stepping outside on Saturday night when the torrent rushed in and described him as the sole person to made it out alive. When he opened the door, "there was a river of water, I was knocked down and grabbed hold of a tree," Giordano told reporters between sobs. "I was yelling, 'Help, help.'"

"My son Federico tried to save his little sister, but both died," Giordano said, telling reporters he heard his son call out "I handle" about the girl's rescue. Then "I saw the windows go dark, the light go out, a layer of mud was moving across the floor," Giordano said, Then, he said he was swept away from the house by the force of the water.

The two families had gathered in the villa during Italy's long weekend centering on the Nov. 1 All Saint's Day national holiday. Although Italian news reports originally described him of the house's owner, Giordano said he was renting the villa.

Casteldaccia Mayor Giovanni Di Giacinto told Sky TG24 that the flood water reached 2 meters (move than 6 feet) high inside the home. Rescuers retrieved the bodies from the home. A Sicilian prosecutor opened an investigation to determine if neglect, such as possible inadequate drainage of the river, played a role in the deaths or if the home was built illegally close to the river.

The latter might be the case. Pino Virga, the mayor of the neighboring town of Altavilla Milicia, told SkyTG24 TV that other local authorities told him the house was slated for demolition because it stood too near the river.

Separately, Di Giacinto told reporters the homeowner had blocked the demolition by challenging it in a local tribunal. A nursing home up the road was spared any damage, ANSA reported. Only days earlier, other storms battered much of northern Italy, killing at least 15 people, uprooting millions of trees near Alpine valleys and leaving several Italian villages without electricity or road access for days.

Conte said a special Cabinet meeting could be in the coming days to deliberate aid for storm-ravaged communities, as well as to approve 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) to ensure safe hydrogeological conditions in Italy, including proper cleaning of riverbeds.

The other known casualty in Sicily was a man whose body was also found on a guardrail along a Palermo-area road after floodwaters swept away his car, Italian news reports said. Across the island, in the town of Cammarata, near Agrigento, the fire department said its divers worked to recover the bodies of the couple whose car was caught up in the flooding waters of the Saraceno River.

Also in Agrigento province, firefighters rescued 14 people from a hotel in the town of Montevago, which was threatened by floodwaters from the Belice River. Elsewhere in Sicily, at least two other people were missing Sunday after floodwaters swept away their cars, including a doctor heading to the hospital in the hill town of Corleone.

In Casteldaccia, Maria Concetta Alfano said she, her husband and their adult disabled daughter fled after barking dogs drew their attention to the rising waters in the Milicia River. ANSA quoted the husband, Andrea Cardenale, as saying he drove away as "water was up to the hood of the car."

Venice hit by high tide as Italy buffeted by winds; 6 killed

October 29, 2018

MILAN (AP) — Venice was inundated by an exceptional high tide Monday, putting three-quarters of the famed Italian lagoon city under water as large swathes of the rest of Italy experienced flooding and heavy winds that toppled trees and other objects, killing six people.

Tourists and residents alike donned high boots to navigate the streets of Venice after strong winds raised the water level 156 centimeters (over 5 feet) before receding. The water exceeded the raised walkways normally put out in flooded areas in Venice, forcing their removal. Transport officials closed the water bus system except to outlying islands because of the emergency.

Venice frequently floods when high winds push in water from the lagoon, but Monday's levels were exceptional. The peak level was the highest reached since December 2008, according to Venice statistics.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said a series of underwater barriers that are being erected in the lagoon would have prevented the inundation. The project, nicknamed Moses, is long overdue, beset by cost overruns and corruption scandals.

Brugnaro said he had asked to talk with Premier Giuseppe Conte to underline the urgency of the project, which would raise barriers when the tide reaches 109 centimeters (43 inches). That happens, on average, four times a year in Venice.

Residents and businesses typically reinforce their doors with metal or wooden panels to prevent water from entering the bottom floors, but photos on social media showed shop owners using water pumps this time to try to protect their wares.

Much of Italy is under alert for flooding from heavy rains, a problem exacerbated by a lack of maintenance of the country's many river beds. High winds toppled trees that killed passers-by in four incidents in Naples, Lazio and Liguria.

Officials closed major tourist attractions in Rome, including the Colosseum and Roman Forum, early because of heavy rains. Veneto regional governor Luca Zaia says flooding this week could reach the levels of the 1966 flood that struck both Venice and Florence. The Interior Ministry urged officials in storm-struck regions, about half of the country, to consider closing schools and offices for a second day Tuesday.

Greek civil servants walk off job in 24-hour strike

November 14, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Civil servants in Greece walked off the job Wednesday in a 24-hour strike to protest austerity measures, demanding wage and pension increases as well as the abolition of all legislation as part of the country's international bailouts.

The strike shut down local government, while workers at state-run hospitals also participated. More than 1,000 protesters marched through central Athens in two separate demonstrations. To tackle a crippling financial crisis, successive governments from 2010 imposed big tax hikes and spending cuts, including on pensions and salaries, in return for billions of euros in emergency loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

"During all the years of the crisis the workers have lost more than 40 percent of their salaries. And the result is they can't cover their basic needs anymore," said Spyros Konstantas, head of the Attica regional administration workers' union, as he called for salary increases.

"We demand and seek the coverage of everything we lost during the crisis." Greece saw its economy shrink by a quarter, while unemployment hit nearly 28 percent during the bailout years. The country's third and final bailout officially ended in August.

"We're seeking for them to give back all that they stole from us during the years of the bailouts," said Argyri Erondokrytou, a 31-year-old doctor at a public hospital in Athens. "It is a strike that demands from this government that its promises that we have exited the bailouts will not be only in words, but will also be in material things."

Greek authorities say lost ancient city of Tenea is located

November 13, 2018

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's culture ministry said Tuesday that archaeologists have located the first tangible remains of a lost city that the ancient Greeks believed was first settled by Trojan captives of war after the sack of Troy.

A ministry statement said excavations from September to early October in the southern Greek region of the Peleponnese turned up "proof of the existence of the ancient city" of Tenea, until now known mostly from ancient texts.

Finds included walls and clay, marble or stone floors of buildings, as well as household pottery, a bone gaming die and more than 200 coins dating from the 4th century B.C. to late Roman times. A pottery jar containing the remains of two human fetuses was also found amid the foundations of one building. That was unusual, as the ancient Greeks typically buried their dead in organized cemeteries outside the city walls.

Lead archaeologist Elena Korka, who has been excavating in the area since 2013, told The Associated Press that her team had only been digging in the rich cemeteries surrounding Tenea until this year. In one, antiquities smugglers dug up two remarkable 6th century B.C. marble statues of young men in 2010 and tried to sell them for 10 million euros.

"This year we excavated part of the city itself," Korka said. Excavation work continues on the cemeteries, located near the modern village of Hiliomodi about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Athens.

Archaeologists discovered nine burials there this year, finding gold, copper and bone jewelry, pottery and coins dating from the 4th century B.C. to Roman times. "The citizens seem to have been remarkably affluent," Korka said, adding that the city probably did well out of trade, standing on a key route between the major cities of Corinth and Argos in the northeastern Peloponnese.

So far, not much was known about Tenea, apart from ancient references to the reputed link with Troy and to its citizens having formed the bulk of the Greek colonists who founded the city of Syracuse in Sicily.

Korka said more should emerge during the excavations, which will continue over coming years. "(The city) had distinctive pottery shapes with eastern influences, maintained contacts with both east and west ... and had its own way of thinking, which, to the extent that it could, shaped its own policies," she said.

Tenea survived the Roman destruction of neighboring Corinth in 146 B.C., and flourished under Roman rule. It appears to have suffered damage during a Gothic invasion in the late 4th century A.D. and may have been abandoned around the time of Slavic incursions two centuries later.

EU sets Nov. 25 as summit day to endorse Brexit

November 15, 2018

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union chief Donald Tusk has called for a summit of leaders to take place on Nov. 25 so they can endorse a draft Brexit deal that has been reached with the British government. Following an early Thursday meeting, Tusk heaped praise on the EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, who had "achieved the two most important objectives" — limiting the damage caused by Britain's impending departure and maintaining the interests of the other 27 countries that will remain in the bloc after Brexit.

While British Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to win support within her fractured party as well as Parliament, the EU has held the line behind Barnier during the negotiations.

The Brexit story so far: How Britain got itself in a bind

November 15, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Britain's 2-day-old draft deal to leave the European Union is in danger of collapsing, increasing the likelihood of a disorderly, economically painful exit from the bloc next year. British politicians in favor of leaving the EU have criticized the agreement reached Tuesday after more than a year and a half of negotiations. They say it keeps the country bound to the EU under unfavorable terms and floated the idea of unseating Prime Minister Theresa May.

Even if May remains in her post, the British Parliament might reject the deal. Britain's formal exit is set for March 29, so that would leave little time to seek an alternative. Here's a look at how Britain got into this situation:

REFERENDUM

May's party, the British Conservative Party, has long been split between those in favor of EU membership and those who want out.

One advantage of membership is it gives seamless access to trade across 27 other countries. The EU is Britain's biggest trading partner.

Opponents have argued the EU took too much political power from London; many want to restrict immigration from other EU member countries as well.

To settle the question, former Prime Minister David Cameron called for a nationwide vote on whether Britain should stay or go. On June 23, 2016, 52 percent of voters said they wanted to leave.

NEGOTIATIONS

The unexpected outcome threw the country into chaos, with Cameron resigning and the value of the pound tumbling 15 percent in a day. May eventually took over as prime minister. In March 2017, she submitted the formal notice of Britain's intent to withdraw from the EU. The action started a two-year countdown and negotiations on the terms of the exit and for future EU-U.K. relations.

The difficulty of the negotiations quickly became clear. The EU took a tough approach. It insisted Britain would no longer enjoy any of the bloc's "four freedoms": the freedom for citizens, money, goods and services to travel and operate across borders without hindrance.

In a bid to solidify her power and the stated goal of ensuring a "strong and stable" government would be seated at the Brexit negotiations, May called a general election for June 2017. The move backfired, and her Conservatives lost their majority in Parliament. She had to create a minority government with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

IRISH QUESTION

The talks on a Brexit deal remained stalled for months, largely over the problem of the future border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and the EU's Republic of Ireland. The fear was that reinstalling a hard border with import duties and travel restrictions would renew sectarian violence.

The EU insisted that Britain should not be allowed to enjoy the fruits of staying in its seamless trading union. So it proposed allowing Northern Ireland to remain in the customs union, but not the rest of Britain. May's government rejected that, saying it threatened to break up Britain.

THE DEAL

With the clock ticking, British and EU officials intensified their efforts and reached a draft deal on Nov. 13.

The agreement envisions Britain leaving the EU as planned on March 29 but remaining inside the bloc's single market and bound by its rules until the end of December 2020. That would buy time to work out a permanent post-Brexit trading relationship.

Other terms call for Britain paying 39 billion pounds ($50 billion) to settle outstanding obligations to the EU. British and citizens of EU countries would be allowed to remain where they currently live and work.

The deal also commits the two sides to a "backstop" solution that keeps the U.K. in a customs arrangement with the EU as a guarantee the Irish border remains free of customs posts. The backstop would last until superseded by new trade arrangements, which both sides say they hope to have in place by the end of 2020.

POLITICAL BACKLASH

Many pro-Brexit politicians immediately slammed the deal. They said it would leave Britain a vassal state by making it observe EU customs rules that it will no longer have a say in shaping. Some pro-EU politicians favored calling another vote on whether Britain should leave the EU at all.

May has defended the deal as providing the continuity businesses need while the country and the EU agree on a long-term trade relationship.

Two Cabinet ministers and five junior government members resigned Thursday and a leading pro-Brexit lawmaker called for a no-confidence vote on May.

NO-DEAL RISKS

If Parliament rejects the draft deal, the more likely it is that Brexit happens without any agreement spelling out future relations with the EU. Businesses and most economists view that as a worst-case scenario for the British economy.

It would mean a return of tariffs on trade between Britain and the EU as well as border checks on goods. That could delay shipments of everything from food and fuel to clothing and cars. Some companies have been stockpiling to prepare for such a possibility.

And Britain would drop out of Europe-wide protocols that govern areas such as aviation and prescription drugs, threatening to ground flights and disrupt supplies of drugs.

EU divorce deal in peril after two UK Cabinet ministers quit

November 15, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Two British Cabinet ministers, including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, resigned Thursday in opposition to the divorce deal struck by Prime Minister Theresa May with the EU — a major blow to her authority and her ability to get the deal through Parliament.

The resignations, less than a day after the Cabinet collectively backed the draft divorce agreement, weakens May and is likely to embolden her rivals within her Conservative Party. A leadership challenge is being openly discussed.

"I cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU," Raab said in a letter to the prime minister. "I cannot reconcile the terms of the proposed deal with the promises we made."

Raab is the second Brexit Secretary that May has lost — David Davis, who like Raab backed Brexit in the U.K.'s June 2016 EU membership referendum, quit in July of this year. Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey followed Raab out the door. She said in a letter that it is "no good trying to pretend to (voters) that this deal honors the result of the referendum when it is obvious to everyone that it doesn't."

The departures — several junior ministers have also quit — are a further sign that many supporters of Brexit won't back May in a vote in Parliament on the deal. Pro-Brexit politicians say the agreement, which calls for close trade ties between the U.K. and the bloc, would leave Britain a vassal state, bound to EU rules that it has no say in making.

May is due to address lawmakers later Thursday about the draft agreement, the culmination of a year and a half of negotiations between the two sides. Before Parliament votes on the deal, EU leaders have to give their backing. On Thursday, EU chief Donald Tusk called for a summit of leaders to take place on Nov. 25 so they can rubber-stamp the draft Brexit deal reached by officials earlier this week.

May has supporters in her party and some were arguing Thursday that the alternatives — leaving the trading bloc without a deal or a second vote on Brexit — were not realistic options. "'No deal' is not pretty," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Radio 4. "A second referendum would be divisive but not be decisive."

The opposition parties, notably the Labor Party, are signaling that they will vote against the deal if and when it comes before them, most likely in December. That's important as May's Conservatives government doesn't have enough lawmakers of its own to get a majority and relies on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland, which has also voiced opposition to the deal.

Labor's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer told the "Good Morning Britain" television program that the deal was a "miserable failure of negotiation." Meanwhile in Brussels, Tusk heaped praise on the EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, who had "achieved the two most important objectives" for the bloc — limiting the damage caused by Britain's impending departure and maintaining the interests of the other 27 countries that will remain in the EU after Brexit.

"As much as I am sad to see you leave, I will do everything to make this farewell the least painful possible for both for you and for us," said Tusk, who in his role as European Council President chairs the meetings of leaders.

The deal also requires the consent of the European Parliament as well as the British one and on Thursday Barnier was set to travel to Strasbourg, France, to win over legislators there. The parliament's chief Brexit official, Guy Verhofstadt, has already welcomed the draft withdrawal agreement late Wednesday.

But over the coming weeks, the British Parliament will be the focal point of the Brexit process. The deal has to be backed by a majority of lawmakers so Britain can leave the EU on March 29, 2019.

Casert contributed from Brussels.

After intense wrangling, UK backs a Brexit deal. Now what?

November 14, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Like white smoke from the Vatican announcing a new pope, the signal from Britain's Cabinet table says: We have a decision. After a year and a half of negotiating with the European Union — and fighting with itself — the U.K. government on Wednesday backed a deal to allow Britain's orderly exit from the bloc, and paint the outlines of future relations.

Prime Minister Theresa May's fractious Conservative government agreed on a deal that solves the key outstanding issue — how to ensure a frictionless border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit. The "backstop" plan involves keeping the U.K. in a customs union with the EU until a permanent trade treaty is worked out.

It's a breakthrough, but the path to Brexit day — just over four months away on March 29 — remains rocky. Here's a look at what is likely to happen next:

BEELINE TO BRUSSELS

May is due to update Parliament on Thursday on what has been agreed, while Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will likely head to Brussels to meet with chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier.

Barnier declared there has been "decisive progress" toward a deal — the phrase that allows EU leaders to call a special summit to approve the deal. They have penciled in a meeting for Nov. 25. The deal consists of two parts: a legally binding withdrawal agreement — which includes the border backstop — and a looser framework for future relations. The two sides have given themselves a transition period until the end of 2020 to work out the details of future trade ties.

PERIL IN PARLIAMENT

Once the EU has signed off on it, the deal also must be approved by the European and British parliaments May hopes to get it passed by U.K. lawmakers before Christmas. Business groups warn that most U.K. companies will implement Brexit contingency plans — cutting jobs, stockpiling goods, relocating production — if there isn't clarity by then about the terms of Brexit.

But she faces an uphill battle. May's Conservative Party doesn't hold a majority of seats in the House of Commons, and relies on 10 lawmakers from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to win votes. But the DUP says it will reject any deal that treats Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the U.K.

Several dozen pro-Brexit Conservatives have vowed to oppose any arrangement that keeps Britain in a customs union, and tied to EU trade rules, indefinitely. The main opposition Labor Party also says it will oppose any deal that doesn't offer the same benefits Britain currently has as a member of the EU's single market and customs union.

May is calculating that, faced with the prospect of a chaotic "no-deal" exit — complete with financial turmoil, gridlock at U.K. ports and shortages of essential goods — most Conservatives and some opposition lawmakers will crumble and support the deal.

UNCHARTED TERRITORY

If Parliament rejects the deal, Britain enters unknown territory. Lawmakers could try to send the government back to the negotiating table with the EU, though there's no simple mechanism to make that happen. They could defeat the government in a no-confidence vote in an attempt to trigger a national election.

Lawmakers could even vote for a new referendum on EU membership, though it seems unlikely there would be time to hold one before the U.K.'s scheduled departure date. The U.K. will cease to be an EU member on March 29 — deal or no deal.

Iain Begg, a professor at the London School of Economics' European Institute, said rejection of a deal would trigger a major political crisis because Britain's patchwork constitution offers no "prescribed way out of that dilemma."

He said in that case, "we really are into a period of great uncertainty about what happens next. I think nobody can know how it would unfold."

D-Day for May as she seeks backing for draft Brexit deal

November 14, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that a draft divorce deal with the European Union delivers the Brexit that Britons voted for, as she tried to persuade her divided Cabinet that it must back the agreement or plunge the U.K. into political and economic uncertainty.

May's Cabinet was debating whether to support the deal at a marathon meeting after negotiators from Britain and the European Union broke a months-long logjam and reached agreement on divorce terms, including a plan to keep the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland open after Brexit.

Ministers filed into 10 Downing St. at 2 p.m. (1400 GMT; 9 a.m. EST) as noisy rival protests — one by pro-EU demonstrators, the other by Brexit-backing group Leave Means Leave — chanted and shouted down the street.

Three hours later, they were still inside, and May's office said the meeting was not due to end until early evening. The prime minister was due to make a statement outside once it finished, Earlier, May told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the draft deal "takes us significantly closer to delivering what the British people voted for in the referendum" of 2016 that opted to leave the EU.

May said Britain would "take back control of our borders, our laws and our money ... while protecting jobs, security and the integrity of our United Kingdom." But pro-Brexit lawmakers in May's Conservative Party — a group that includes some members of the Cabinet — say the agreement will leave Britain tethered to the EU after it departs and unable to forge an independent trade policy.

Euroskeptic Conservative legislator Peter Bone warned May that she would "lose the support of many Conservative (members of Parliament) and millions of voters across the country" if she pressed ahead with the agreement.

May's supporters argue that the deal is the best on offer, and the alternatives are a chaotic "no-deal" Brexit that would cause huge disruption to people and businesses, or an election that could see the Conservative government replaced by the left-of-center Labour Party.

Former Foreign Secretary William Hague warned "ardent Brexiteers" that if they shoot down May's deal, it could lead to a change of government and a new referendum and "Brexit might never happen at all."

Failure to secure Cabinet backing will leave May's leadership in doubt and the Brexit process in chaos, with exit day just over four months away on March 29. If the Cabinet supports the deal, it still must be approved by leaders of the 28-nation EU. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said EU leaders had penciled in a Nov. 25 Brexit summit to discuss the deal — though he cautioned nothing was guaranteed and much could still go wrong.

Then May will need to win backing from Britain's Parliament — no easy task, since pro-Brexit and pro-EU legislators alike are threatening to oppose it. The main obstacle to a withdrawal agreement has long been how to ensure there are no customs posts or other checks along the border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit. Britain and the EU agree that there must be no barriers that could disrupt businesses and residents on either side of the border and undermine Northern Ireland's hard-won peace process.

The proposed solution involves a common customs arrangement for the U.K. and the EU, to eliminate the need for border checks, with some provisions that are specific to Northern Ireland. The solution is intended to be temporary, but pro-Brexit politicians in Britain fear it may become permanent, hampering Britain's ability to strike new trade deals around the world.

Pro-Brexit former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the agreement would make his favored option, a loose Canada-style trade deal with the bloc, impossible. He tweeted: "Cabinet must live up to its responsibilities & stop this deal."

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May's minority government, said it would oppose any deal that leaves Northern Ireland subject to different rules to the rest of the U.K. after Brexit.

DUP chief whip Jeffrey Donaldson said the proposed deal threatens "the constitutional and economic integrity of the U.K." "That is not something we can support," he told the BBC. May also faced disquiet from Scottish Conservative lawmakers, worried about what the deal means for Scotland's important fishing industry.

All 13 of the party's Scottish legislators — including Scottish Secretary David Mundell, a Cabinet minister — wrote to May saying Brexit must mean "full sovereignty over domestic waters." They warned that Britain couldn't stay in the EU's Common Fisheries Policy past the end of the transition period in December 2020.

May also faces growing opposition from pro-EU lawmakers, who say her proposed Brexit deal is worse than the status quo and the British public should get a new vote on whether to leave or to stay. Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament who is deputy to the legislature's Brexit chief Guy Verhofstadt, said the real problem during the negotiations "lies within the U.K." because it didn't know what relationship it wanted with the EU.

"That is the real problem, because if the U.K. had a single agreed line, backed by the majority of parties and the majority of MPs, then the whole situation would not be so unclear," she said.

Heir's big birthday: 70 candles lined up for Prince Charles

November 13, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Prince Charles turns 70 Wednesday and is still heir to the throne — a role he has served since he was a young child. He's not lacking in things to do and shows few signs of slowing down — he is wealthy, extremely active in matters of great importance to him, and preparing to welcome his fourth grandchild into the world when Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, gives birth next spring.

His destiny, however, is to be king, a position he will automatically assume with the death of his 92-year-old mother, Queen Elizabeth II. When that happens, Charles will be bound by the constitutional requirement that the monarch refrain from trying to influence policy. Until then, Charles is free to lobby for action on climate change, support organic farming, and fight genetically modified crops as he sees fit.

He's doing all that while increasingly stepping in for the queen and supervising the Prince's Trust, an ambitious charity he founded 42 years ago that has helped hundreds of thousands of young Britons.

Is the candle-crowded birthday cake a signal that it's time for the elegantly greying prince to take it easy? Not on your life, says Charles' wife, Camilla, the duchess of Cornwall. "I don't think he thinks he's 70," she wrote in a birthday tribute in The Telegraph Magazine. "I think it's just a number to him. There's no way that he will slow down. You must be joking. I keep saying 70 is getting on a bit. It's not very old but it is old. You have to slow down a bit."

The royal family is in the midst of a slow, understated transition. The patriarch, 97-year-old Prince Philip, has formally retired from public life, although he makes occasional appearances in support of the queen.

For her part, the queen still maintains a busy schedule, but she no longer makes long haul flights to far flung parts of the 53-nation Commonwealth, and this year she took the unusual step of lobbying the Commonwealth countries to specify that Charles would be the next leader of the group, a position that is not hereditary.

The support for Charles was unanimous, reflecting not only appreciation for the queen's work over the decades but a belief that Charles has a strong commitment to the Commonwealth. Charles has also taken a more visible role representing the queen at some important national events, most recently during the Remembrance Day celebrations honoring Britain's fallen soldiers. He placed the queen's wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph monument while she watched from a balcony seat.

But his working trips abroad and his speeches at home generate precious little buzz as the press focuses on younger, more photogenic royals and their cute offspring. In a way, Charles is sandwiched between generations, caught between his mother, a symbol of dignity and continuity who has reigned since 1952, and his two immensely popular sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, who have along with their wives come to symbolize the future of the world's best known monarchy.

William and Harry also remind many of their mother, the late Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997 after a messy divorce from Charles that for a time tarnished his standing with the British public.

It is William and Harry — along with their wives Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan — who appear on the cover of glossy magazines, not the about-to-be-70 Charles. It is the young royals who are seen as glamorous modernizers with the common touch, while Charles is sometimes perceived as dour, preachy and remote.

Camilla says the public doesn't understand how "incredibly kind" and funny Charles is, and William and Harry — taking part in a rare BBC interview to mark his father's birthday — praise the way he has used his undefined position as Prince of Wales to advocate so many important causes, such as environmental protection.

But Harry — who has endeared himself to the British public in part with his impish smile and sunny outlook — urged his dad to cut back a bit on the doom and gloom that often accompanies Charles' pronouncements.

"I would encourage him to remain optimistic because I think it can be very easy to become despondent and negative," Harry said. "But hopefully with his children and his grandchildren, and a few more grandchildren to come, he can get energy from the family side and then carry on his leadership role."

He also had this advice: don't work so hard, and have dinner earlier.

UK Cabinet to meet after Britain, EU reach draft Brexit deal

November 13, 2018

LONDON (AP) — After months of stalled talks, false starts and setbacks, negotiators from Britain and the European Union struck a proposed divorce deal Tuesday to provide for the U.K.'s smooth exit from the bloc.

But the agreement faces major political hurdles starting Wednesday, when British Prime Minister Theresa May will try to win the approval of her divided Cabinet for a deal many ministers view with skepticism.

The British government confirmed that the negotiating teams had reached a draft agreement and the Cabinet would hold a special meeting Wednesday afternoon to consider the proposal. Its support isn't guaranteed: May is under pressure from pro-Brexit ministers not to make further concessions to the EU on the key issue of the Irish border.

A spokesman for chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier urged caution, saying a deal wasn't yet finalized and the bloc would "take stock" Wednesday. Ambassadors from the 27 other EU countries are also due to hold a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

Britain wants to seal a deal this fall, so that Parliament has time to vote on it before the U.K. leaves the bloc on March 29. The European Parliament also has to approve any agreement, as do all 28 EU nations.

Officials have said for weeks that agreement on divorce terms and a framework for future U.K.-EU relations was 95 percent complete, and for several days negotiators have been meeting late into the night in Brussels in a bid to close the remaining gaps.

The main obstacle has long been how to ensure there are no customs posts or other checks along the border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit. Britain and the EU agree that there must be barriers that could disrupt businesses and residents on either side of the border and undermine Northern Ireland's hard-won peace process — but they have differed on how to achieve that.

Irish national broadcaster RTE said the draft agreement involves a common customs arrangement for the U.K. and the EU, to eliminate the need for border checks, with special provisions for Northern Ireland and a review mechanism to oversee its functioning.

A sticking point in talks has been Britain's insistence that any such customs arrangement must be temporary. The EU says that in order to guarantee an open border, it can't have a time limit. The pound rallied on news of a deal, rising 1.5 percent against the dollar to $1.3038.

But May faces pressure from pro-Brexit Cabinet members and lawmakers not to agree to an arrangement that binds Britain to EU trade rules indefinitely. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a staunch Brexiteer, said the deal was unacceptable and Cabinet ministers should "chuck it out."

May also faces growing opposition from pro-EU lawmakers, who say her proposed Brexit deal is worse than the status quo and the British public should get a new vote on whether to leave or to stay. If there is no agreement soon, U.K. businesses will have to start implementing contingency plans for a "no-deal" Brexit — steps that could include cutting jobs, stockpiling goods and relocating production and services outside Britain.

Even with such measures in place, the British government says leaving the EU without a deal could cause major economic disruption, with gridlock at ports and disruption to supplies of foods, goods and medicines.

On Tuesday, the European Commission published a sheaf of notices outlining changes in a host of areas in the event of a no-deal Brexit. They point to major disruption for people and businesses: U.K. truckers' licenses won't be valid in the EU, British airlines will no longer enjoy traffic rights, and even British mineral water will cease to be recognized as such by the EU.

The EU said Tuesday it was proposing visa-free travel for U.K. citizens on short trips, even if there is no deal — but only if Britain reciprocates. Meanwhile, official figures suggest Brexit is already having an impact on the British workforce.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of EU citizens working in the country — 2.25 million— was down 132,000 in the three months to September from the year before. That's the largest annual fall since comparable records began in 1997.

Most of the fall is due to fewer workers from eight eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004. Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King's College London, said the prospect of Brexit "has clearly made the U.K. a much less attractive place for Europeans to live and work."

Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this story.

China woos Pacific islands with loans, showcase projects

November 16, 2018

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) — As world leaders land in Papua New Guinea for a Pacific Rim summit, the welcome mat is especially big for China's president. A huge sign in the capital, Port Moresby, welcomes Xi Jinping, picturing him gazing beneficently beside Papua New Guinea's leader, and his hotel is decked out with red Chinese lanterns. China's footprint is everywhere, from a showpiece boulevard and international convention center built with Chinese help to bus stop shelters that announce their origins with "China Aid" plaques.

On the eve of Xi's arrival for a state visit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, newspapers in the country ran a full-page statement from the Chinese leader. It exhorted Pacific island nations to "set sail on a new voyage" of relations with China, which in the space of a generation has transformed from the world's most populous backwater into a major economic power.

With both actions and words, Xi has a compelling message for the South Pacific's fragile island states, long both propped up and pushed around by U.S. ally Australia: they now have a choice of benefactors. With the exception of Papua New Guinea, those island nations are not part of APEC, but the leaders of many of them have traveled to Port Moresby and will meet with Xi.

The APEC meeting, meanwhile, is Xi's to dominate. Headline-hogging leaders such as Russia's Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump are not attending. Trump's stand-in, Vice President Mike Pence, is staying in Cairns in Australia's north and flying into Papua New Guinea each day. Australia's new prime minister, Scott Morrison, the country's fifth leader in five years, is barely known abroad.

"President Xi Jinping is a good friend of Papua New Guinea," its prime minister, Peter O'Neill, told reporters. "He has had a lot of engagement with Papua New Guinea and I've visited China 12 times in the last seven years."

Pacific island nations, mostly tiny, remote and poor, rarely figure prominently on the world stage but have for several years been diligently courted by Beijing as part of its global effort to finance infrastructure that advances its economic and diplomatic interests. Papua New Guinea with about 8 million people is by far the most populous, and with its extensive tropical forests and oil and gas reserves is an obvious target for economic exploitation.

Six of the 16 Pacific states still have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, a sizeable bloc within the rapidly dwindling number of nations that recognize the island regarded as a renegade province by Beijing. Chinese aid and loans could flip those six into its camp. A military foothold in the region would be an important geostrategic boost for China, though its purported desire for a base has so far been thwarted.

Beijing's assistance comes without the oversight and conditions that Western nations and organizations such as the World Bank or International Monetary Fund impose. It is promising $4 billion of finance to build the first national road network in Papua New Guinea, which could be transformative for the mountainous nation. But experts warn there could also be big costs later on: unsustainable debt, white elephant showpieces and social tensions from a growing Chinese diaspora.

"China's engagement in infrastructure in PNG shouldn't be discounted. It should be encouraged but it needs to be closely monitored by the PNG government to make sure it's effective over the long term," said Jonathan Pryke, a Papua New Guinea expert at the Lowy Institute, a think tank in Sydney.

"The benefits of these projects, because a lot of them are financed by loans, only come from enhanced economic output over a long time to be able to justify paying back these loans," he said. "The history of infrastructure investment in PNG shows that too often there is not enough maintenance going on," Pryke said. "There's a build, neglect, rebuild paradigm in PNG as opposed to build and maintain which is far more efficient."

Some high-profile Chinese projects in Papua New Guinea have already run into problems. A promised fish cannery hasn't materialized after several years and expansion of a port in Lae, the major commercial center, was botched and required significant rectification work. Two of the Chinese state companies working in the country, including the company responsible for the port expansion, were until recently blacklisted from World Bank-financed projects because of fraud or corruption.

Xi's newspaper column asserted China is the biggest foreign investor in Papua New Guinea, a statement more aspirational than actual. Its involvement is currently dwarfed by the investment of a single company- ExxonMobil's $19 billion natural gas extraction and processing facility.

Australia, the former colonial power in Papua New Guinea, remains its largest donor of conventional foreign aid. Its assistance, spread across the country and aimed at improving bare bones public services and the capacity of government, is less visible.

But its approach is shifting in response to China's moves. In September, the Australian government announced it would pay for what is typically a commercial venture - a high-speed undersea cable linking Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands that promises to make the internet and telecommunications in the two island countries faster, more reliable and less expensive.

Earlier this month, Australia announced more than $2 billion of funding for infrastructure and trade finance aimed at Pacific island nations and also agreed to joint development of a naval base in Papua New Guinea, heading off feared Chinese involvement. It is also boosting its diplomatic presence, opening more embassies to be represented in every Pacific island state.

"The APEC meeting is shaping up to be a faceoff between China and Australia for influence in the Pacific," said Elaine Pearson, the Australia director of Human Rights Watch. That might seem a positive development for the region, but Pearson cautioned that competition for Papua New Guinea's vast natural resources has in the past had little positive impact on the lives of its people.

"Sadly exploitation of resources in PNG has fueled violent conflict, abuse and environmental devastation," she said.

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.

Israeli defense minister resigns over Gaza cease-fire deal

November 14, 2018

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense minister abruptly resigned Wednesday in protest over a cease-fire reached with Gaza militants, in a move that rocked the Israeli political scene and seemed likely to bring about early elections.

Avigdor Lieberman said the cease-fire amounted to "surrender to terrorism" after two days of heavy fighting, and that he could no longer serve a government that endorsed it. Lieberman had demanded a far stronger Israeli response to the most intense round of rocket fire against Israel since a 50-day war in 2014, but appeared to have been overruled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His resignation delivers a major blow to Netanyahu's coalition government and sparked immediate calls for early elections. Lieberman said he hoped that in the coming days a date would be set for a new vote. The opposition parties joined his call.

The government still has a narrow one-seat majority in the Knesset without Lieberman's nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu faction, but is unlikely to survive until the next elections, currently set for November 2019.

The party of another Netanyahu rival, Naftali Bennett, has already announced that if he is not appointed defense minister it will also quit the coalition — a move that would trigger early elections. Given Bennett's sometimes rocky relationship with Netanyahu, it is far from certain he will be given the powerful defense post. Yair Lapid, head of the opposition Yesh Atid Party, said "the countdown has begun" to the end of Netanyahu's term in office.

Lieberman's resignation will take effect in 48 hours and Netanyahu will take over the defense portfolio on an interim basis. Netanyahu currently also serves as Israel's foreign minister. Netanyahu had come under heavy criticism for agreeing to the cease-fire, especially from his own political base and in rocket-battered towns in southern Israel that are typically strongholds of his ruling Likud Party.

Angry residents took to the street Tuesday chanting "Disgrace!" at what they saw as the government's capitulation to violence and its inability to provide long-term security. Many have openly vowed to never vote Likud again.

"We are third-class citizens here in Sderot and the communities on the border with Gaza," complained David Maimon, a local resident. "It's a shame. Instead of helping us and letting us live quietly, they let us suffer."

Recent months have seen sporadic rocket attacks as well as militant infiltration attempts and a wave of incendiary kites that have destroyed Israeli crops. Netanyahu presented the decision to step back from a full-blown conflict as a unified one made by his Security Cabinet and based on the military's recommendations. But Lieberman and Bennett later expressed reservations, saying they favored a stronger response.

Netanyahu defended his actions at a memorial ceremony in the Negev desert for Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. "I see the big picture of Israeli security that I cannot share with the public," he said. "Our enemies begged for a cease-fire and they know well why. I cannot detail our plans for the future. We will dictate the time and circumstances that are right for Israel and are right for the security of our people."

"In times like these, leadership is not doing the easy thing. Leadership is doing the right thing, even if it is hard. Leadership is sometime facing criticism," he added. Lieberman said the cease-fire deal, coupled with a decision to allow Qatar to deliver $15 million in aid to Gaza last week, were too much for him to bear.

"We are buying quiet in the short-term at the cost of severe damage to our security in the long-term," he said in his resignation announcement. "The weakness we displayed also projects itself to other arenas."

A gleeful Hamas said Lieberman's resignation marked a "political victory for Gaza." "Lieberman's departure is recognition of defeat and failure to confront the Palestinian resistance," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement. "Gaza's steadfastness sent a political shockwave."

The Israel-Gaza frontier remained largely quiet overnight after the heavy fighting of recent days. But on Wednesday afternoon, Gaza's fishermen's union said a 20-year-old fisherman was fatally shot on the beach near the fence separating Gaza from Israel.

The Israeli military said it opened fire under standard procedure after the man ventured too close to the border. Hamas had no immediate reaction. During this week's fighting, Palestinian militants fired 460 rockets and mortars into Israel in a 24-hour period, while the Israeli military carried out airstrikes on 160 Gaza targets. Seven Palestinians, including five militants, were killed. In Israel, one person was killed in a rocket strike and three were critically wounded.

With air raid sirens wailing throughout southern Israel and the explosions of airstrikes thundering in Gaza, the two sides had appeared to be on the verge of their fourth war in a decade. Instead, Gaza's Hamas rulers abruptly announced a cease-fire and Israel's Security Cabinet ended a seven-hour discussion with a decision to hold its fire.

The latest round of violence was triggered by a botched Israeli raid on Sunday that left seven Palestinian militants and a senior Israeli military officer dead. Before the raid, Egyptian and U.N. mediators had made progress in reducing tensions.

In recent days, Israel had allowed fuel shipments to increase the power supply in Gaza, which suffers from frequent blackouts, and agreed to additional Qatari assistance to allow Hamas to pay the salaries of its thousands of government workers.

Hamas has staged near-weekly border protests since March in an effort to lift the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after the Islamic militant group seized control of the coastal strip in 2007. The blockade has ravaged Gaza's economy, and Israel refuses to lift it unless Hamas disarms, a demand rejected by militant group, which is pledged to Israel's destruction.

Demonstrators each week have approach the border fence, throwing firebombs, grenades and burning tires at Israeli troops. Israeli snipers have killed about 170 people, most of them unarmed. Israel says it is defending its border against attackers, but it has come under heavy international criticism for shooting unarmed people.

Sri Lankan lawmakers fight in Parliament over PM dispute

November 15, 2018

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Rival lawmakers exchanged blows in Sri Lanka's Parliament on Thursday as disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed the speaker had no authority to remove him from office by voice vote.

The fighting in the chamber came a day after it passed a no-confidence vote against Rajapaksa's government. When Parliament re-convened, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said the country had no government and there was no prime minister — either Rajapaksa or his rival whose ousting in late October by the president started the crisis.

Rajapaksa disagreed, saying "a vote should have been taken. Such important motions should not be passed by a voice vote." He added that Jayasuriya has no power to remove or appoint the prime minister and Cabinet members.

He accused the speaker of being partial and representing the position of his party, the United National Party, which is led by ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Rajapaksa also called for fresh elections, suggesting that it was the best way to resolve the crisis.

The brawl erupted after the opposition asked for a vote on Rajapaksa's statement, with lawmakers supporting him gathering in the middle of the house while some ran toward the speaker shouting slogans condemning his behavior.

More than 50 lawmakers in the 225-member house fought and some who fell on the floor were kicked by rivals. Some of the lawmakers supporting Rajapaksa threw water bottles, books and trash cans at the speaker. Those opposed to Rajapaksa surrounded Jayasuriya to protect him.

Dilum Amunugama, an ally of Rajapaksa, was taken to a hospital with injuries to his hand while trying to pull out a microphone from the speaker's table. The commotion went on for about half an hour before Jayasuriya adjourned the house.

"The speaker was under complete siege, he came very close to being physically assaulted by MPs supporting Rajapaksa," said Chandani Kirinde, a senior correspondent of the Sunday Times, a weekly paper in Sri Lanka. "While clashes have happened in the house, this is probably the first time the speaker came under so much intimidation and abuse."

On Wednesday, Jayasuriya said debate on the no-confidence motion was not possible after the chamber descended into chaos and he had no choice but to take an oral vote. In January, lawmakers also exchanged blows during a debate over alleged corruption that marred the reputation of Wickremesinghe's government that was elected on a platform of good governance.

Sri Lanka has been in a crisis since Oct. 26, when President Maithripala Sirisena suddenly fired Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Rajapaksa. The former president is considered a hero by some of the ethnic Sinhalese majority for ending a long civil war by crushing Tamil Tiger rebels. However, his time in power was marred by allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism.

Tensions had been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president did not approve of economic reforms introduced by the prime minister. Sirisena has also accused Wickremesinghe and another Cabinet member of plotting to assassinate him, a charge Wickremesinghe has repeatedly denied.

Sirisena had also suspended Parliament, apparently to allow Rajapaksa time to gather support among lawmakers. But Wickremesinghe insisted his firing was unconstitutional. He refused to vacate his official residence and demanded that Parliament be summoned to prove he still has support.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court suspended Sirisena's order to dissolve Parliament and hold new elections until next month.

Chaotic Sri Lankan Parliament rejects president's chosen PM

November 14, 2018

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's Parliament passed a no-confidence vote against the government headed by the hastily sworn-in Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as lawmakers convened Wednesday for the first time since the president dismissed his Cabinet and suspended the legislature last month.

The motion brought by the leader of an opposition party could mean that Rajapaksa will have to resign his post but does not necessarily mean the leader whose ousting set off the crisis will be reinstated.

Lawmakers supporting Ranil Wickremesinghe, whom President Maithripala Sirisena replaced with Rajapaksa on Oct. 26, had a visible majority in the chamber. Many wore shawls with the words "For democracy."

As Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya prepared to let the no-confidence motion be debated, the chamber descended into chaos, with lawmakers supporting Rajapaksa filing into the center of the room shouting political slogans and accusing Jayasuriya of betraying the people's mandate.

Jayasuriya then said he had no choice but to bypass the debate and take an oral vote, with those in favor clearly voicing more support for the motion than those against it. Before the results were announced, Rajapaksa walked out of the chamber.

After it became clear last week that Rajapaksa would not survive a no-confidence motion, Sirisena dissolved Parliament, but the Supreme Court on Tuesday had ordered the legislature to keep working until next month.

Namal Rajapaksa, a lawmaker in his father's United People Freedom Alliance party, told The Associated Press that they "don't accept this verdict" and will continue as the government. Lawmaker Ajith Perera, a Wickremesinghe supporter, said the results of the vote meant Wickremesinghe and his government would be reinstated.

It's unclear if that would be the case. Parliament adjourned after the vote and is to reconvene Thursday morning.

Russian opposition leader Navalny allowed to leave Russia

November 14, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he's been able to fly out of Russia after being told he was barred from leaving the country a day earlier. Navalny was traveling to France to attend a hearing of his case at the European Court of Human Rights when he was stopped at a Moscow airport on Tuesday and told that he had been barred from leaving Russia because of a bailiff ruling.

Navalny posted a picture of himself at passport control at a Moscow airport on Wednesday morning, saying that he has now been allowed to leave the country. He said on Tuesday that the bailiffs had not notified him that they had issued a ruling to collect some $31,000 in damages in a civil lawsuit against him. The money was promptly paid.

Russian opposition leader Navalny barred from leaving Russia

November 13, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was stopped at a Moscow airport on Tuesday and barred from leaving Russia as he was about to travel to a hearing at the European Court for Human Rights in France.

Navalny said in a blog post that he was due to attend a court hearing which is expected to rule if his countless detentions have been politically motivated. He was stopped by border guards and told that a ruling by court bailiffs over an unpaid fine had barred him from leaving Russia.

The bailiffs' service said the fine was paid later Tuesday and that restrictions on Navalny's travel have been lifted. It was not immediately clear if he left the country after paying the fine. The hearing in Strasbourg on Thursday could prove a major embarrassment for the Kremlin which routinely dismisses Navalny, arguably Russia's most popular opposition figure, as a trouble-maker with no political backing.

"Apparently, Putin's regime thinks (that) not letting me fly to Strasbourg to hear this ruling will change anything," he wrote on Twitter after being stopped at Domodedovo Airport. Navalny said the formal reason for barring him from leaving Russia was a bailiffs ruling, dated Friday to collect 2.1 million rubles ($31,000) from him in damages in a civil lawsuit against a timber company. He lost the lawsuit last year but Navalny said the court never provided any documents or banking details for him to pay the damages.

The bailiffs' service later said "Navalny has paid the debt promptly and in full," according to state news agency Tass. Navalny has faced numerous criminal charges in the past that are widely viewed as attempts by the Kremlin to sideline him.

Two separate criminal cases have prevented Navalny from traveling in the past but the ban was lifted in spring last year when he had to leave to Spain for urgent medical treatment. Navalny, who rose to prominence thanks to his investigations into official corruption, spearheaded major anti-government protests which have attracted Russians from across the political spectrum.

WWI descendants see armistice through prism of personal pain

November 11, 2018

PARIS (AP) — William Kearsey's war was long over by the time his son ever heard about it. By then, the World War I veteran had undergone 28 surgeries to knit back together the bones and flesh of his face, which was shattered in a trench in Belgium in 1917.

A century after fighting in the first war of its kind ceased, Kearsey's son, Peter, stood on a rain-soaked avenue in Paris on Sunday to honor the armistice that ended the war his father and so many other soldiers endured.

"It's appropriate, really, like what they went through in the trenches. It was raining and very muddy," he said. "It's raining today, 100 years later." Kearsey and his wife traveled to Europe to tour World War I battlefields "to honor the lost."

Official commemorations held to mark the 100th anniversary of the agreement between the Allies and a defeated Germany that silenced guns on the Western Front have provided an opportunity to contemplate the implications of the first war of its kind.

But for the children and grandchildren of soldiers who were injured or killed in more than four years of brutal fighting, the centennial offered a moment to reflect on the enduring toll of decisions made by world leaders very much like the presidents, prime ministers and kings also standing in the rain.

In central London, thousands of people marched in a "people's procession" to honor fallen soldiers. Descendants of many veterans attended the march, which was described as an expression of gratitude for those who fought in WWI and other conflicts.

Participants passed central London's Cenotaph war monument, where senior members of Britain's royal family and national leaders had placed wreaths earlier in the day. Among them were Marion Lewis and Dorothy Heslop, sisters who said they wanted to honor their grandfather. Pvt. John Waters who suffered a severe head wound during World War I while fighting in France.

"They did not expect him to survive, so they left him outside the medical tent and we think it's the cold that probably saved him," Heslop told Britain's Press Association. Growing up, they said, it was an unspoken rule not to ask granddad about the war.

Oliver Davies was a 21-year-old driver for the Royal Engineers when he was hit by a stray bullet while taking animals to water near Jerusalem in 1917. His family still has the letter from Davies' captain informing his mother of his death.

His great-grandniece, Jackie Sheridan, attended the London march. "It's a very proud moment to represent my family who are descendants," Sheridan said. "It's going to be emotional to see everybody here, knowing there's 10,000 of us."

As for William Kearsey of Australia's 33rd Battalion, he survived the trench in Belgium hit by enemy fire because of a friend who dragged him out. But coming home with severe damage from the first war to use industrial-era war equipment like machine guns, Kearsey faced a new hell.

His injuries included lost sinuses and tear ducts. But years of surgery in Britain and South Wales gave the veteran another chance at life, Peter Kearsey said of his father, who died in 1971. "He was a kind, gentle man. He suffered a lot right up till his death," the son recalled.

Some 62,000 Australians died on the battlefields of the Great War, and 150,000 were injured, according to Kerry Neale of the Australian War Memorial. She stood with Peter Kearsey and his wife in the rain.

"He didn't talk of the fighting, except how he was saved by his best friend," Kearsey said.

In remembering WWI, world warned of resurging 'old demons'

November 11, 2018

PARIS (AP) — World leaders with the power to make war but a duty to preserve peace solemnly marked the end of World War I's slaughter 100 years ago at commemorations Sunday that drove home the message "never again" but also exposed the globe's new political fault lines.

As Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and dozens of other heads of state and government listened in silence, French President Emmanuel Macron used the occasion, as its host, to sound a powerful and sobering warning about the fragility of peace and the dangers of nationalism and of nations that put themselves first, above the collective good.

"The old demons are rising again, ready to complete their task of chaos and of death," Macron said. "Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism," he said. "In saying 'Our interests first, whatever happens to the others,' you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: Its moral values."

Trump, ostensibly the main target of Macron's message, sat stony-faced. The American president has proudly declared himself a nationalist. But if Trump felt singled out by Macron's remarks, he didn't show it. He later described the commemoration as "very beautiful."

As well as spelling out the horrific costs of conflict to those with arsenals capable of waging a World War III, the ceremony also served up a joyful reminder of the intense sweetness of peace, when high school students read from letters that soldiers and civilians wrote 100 years ago when guns finally fell silent on the Western Front.

Brought alive again by people too young to have known global war themselves, the ghostly voices seemed collectively to say: Please, do not make our mistakes. "I only hope the soldiers who died for this cause are looking down upon the world today," American soldier Capt. Charles S. Normington wrote on Nov. 11, 1918, in one of the letters. "The whole world owes this moment of real joy to the heroes who are not here to help enjoy it."

The Paris weather — gray and damp — seemed aptly fitting when remembering a war fought in mud and relentless horror. The commemorations started late, overshooting the centenary of the exact moment when, 100 years earlier at 11 a.m., an eerie silence replaced the thunder of war on the front lines. Macron recalled that 1 billion shells fell on France alone from 1914-1918 .

As bells marking the armistice hour rang across Paris and in many nations ravaged by the four years of carnage, Macron and other leaders were still on their way to the centennial site at the Arc de Triomphe.

Under a sea of black umbrellas, a line of leaders led by Macron and his wife, Brigitte, marched in silence on the cobbles of the Champs-Elysees, after dismounting from their buses. Trump arrived separately, in a motorcade that drove past three topless protesters with anti-war slogans on their chests who somehow got through the rows of security and were quickly bundled away by police. The Femen group claimed responsibility. French authorities said the three women faced charges of sexual exhibitionism. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited security protocols for the presidential motorcade's solo trip down the grand flag-lined avenue, which was closed to traffic.

Last to arrive was the Russian president, Putin, who shook Trump's hand and flashed him a thumbs-up. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was positioned in pride of place between Trump and Macron, an eloquent symbol of victors and vanquished now standing together, shoulder to shoulder. Overhead, fighter jets ripped through the sky, trailing red, white and blue smoke in homage to the French flag.

The geographical spread of the more than 60 heads of state and government who attended, silent and reflective, showed how the "war to end all wars" left few corners of the earth untouched but which, little more than two decades later, was followed so quickly and catastrophically by the even deadlier World War II.

On the other side of the globe, Australia and New Zealand held ceremonies to recall how the war killed and wounded soldiers and civilians in unprecedented numbers and in gruesome new, mechanized ways.

Those countries lost tens of thousands of soldiers far away in Europe and, most memorably in the 1915 battle of Gallipoli, in Turkey. In central London, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, clad in black, watched from a balcony as her son Prince Charles laid a wreath on her behalf at the foot of the Cenotaph memorial that honors the fallen. Britain had 880,000 military dead in the war.

The gulf between Trump's "America First" credo and European leaders was starkly underscored again later Sunday, when Trump went his own way. He visited an American cemetery outside Paris at precisely the moment that Macron, Merkel and other dignitaries were opening a peace forum where the French leader again sounded the alarm about crumbling international harmony as he ruminated about the legacy of the morning's commemorations.

"Will it be the shining symbol of durable peace between nations or will it be a picture of a last moment of unity before the world goes down in new disorder?" Macron asked. "It depends only on us." While praising France for "a wonderful two days," Trump described his rainy stop at the American cemetery at Suresnes as "the highlight of the trip."

On Saturday, Trump drew criticism for canceling a separate commemorative visit to the Belleau Wood battleground northeast of Paris because of rain. Remembered for brutal trench warfare and the first use of chemical weapons, WWI pitted the armies of France, the British empire, Russia and the U.S. against a German-led coalition that included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. Almost 10 million soldiers died, sometimes tens of thousands on a single day.

The U.S. came late to the war, in April 1917, but over 1½ years it became a key player and tipped the scales for the allies. At the war's end, the U.S. had 2 million troops in Europe and another 2 million ready to cross the Atlantic if needed, a force that turned the United States into a major military power whose soldiers then fought and died again for Europe in World War II.

Even though Germany was at the heart of provoking two world wars over the past century, the nation has become a beacon of European and international cooperation since. With so many leaders in Paris, the commemoration also provoked a flurry of diplomacy on the sidelines, with conflict in Yemen and Syria among the hot-button issues.

On Sunday, Merkel met with the head of the United Nations, an organization born from the ashes of World War II, and the president of Serbia. It was a Serb teenager, Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated the Austro-Hungarian crown prince in Sarajevo in 1914 to set off events which led to the outbreak of war.

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton, Sylvie Corbet, Elaine Ganley and Thomas Adamson contributed to this report.