Police clash with Catalan separatists in Barcelona

November 10, 2018

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Police in Barcelona have briefly clashed with Catalan separatists who are protesting a rally by Spain's national police forces in the Mediterranean city. Catalan regional police used batons to drive back a group of separatists in the city center Saturday, stopping them from advancing toward a march by an association of Spain's national police forces demanding higher pay.

In September, a similar protest by separatists of another march by the same national police association ended in clashes with regional security forces. The violent run-ins left 14 people injured and six arrests.

Spain has been mired in a political crisis since last year, when Catalonia's separatist lawmakers failed in a breakaway bid. Polls and recent elections show that the wealthy northeastern region's 7.5 million residents are roughly equally divided by the secession question.

Argentina minister says country without means to rescue sub

November 17, 2018

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Hours after announcing the discovery of an Argentine submarine lost deep in the Atlantic a year ago with 44 crew members aboard, the government said Saturday that it is unable to recover the vessel, drawing anger from missing sailors' relatives who demanded that it be raised.

Defense Minister Oscar Aguad said at a press conference that the country lacks "modern technology" capable of "verifying the seabed" to extract the ARA San Juan, which was found 907 meters (2,975 feet) deep in waters off the Valdes Peninsula in Argentine Patagonia, roughly 600 kilometers (373 miles) from the port city of Comodoro Rivadavia.

Earlier in the morning, the navy said a "positive identification" had been made by a remote-operated submersible from the American company Ocean Infinity. The company, commissioned by the Argentine government, began searching for the missing vessel Sept. 7.

It remained unclear what the next steps could be. In a statement to The Associated Press, Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett said authorities would have to determine how to advance. "We would be pleased to assist with a recovery operation but at the moment are focused on completing imaging of the debris field," he said.

Navy commander Jose Luis Villan urged "prudence," saying that a federal judge was overseeing the investigation and would be the one to decide whether it was possible to recover a part or the entirety of the ship.

Without adequate technological capabilities, however, Argentina would likely need to seek assistance from foreign countries or pay Ocean Infinity or another company, potentially complicating its recent commitment to austerity. Argentina is currently facing a currency crisis and double-digit inflation that has led the government to announce sweeping measures to balance the budget and concretize a financing deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Any move to recuperate the vessel would also be a logistically large and challenging undertaking based on the submarine's distance from the coast, its depth, and the kind of seabed upon which it is resting.

Relatives of crew members were determined to fight for it to be quickly surfaced. Isabel Vilca, the half sister of crewman Daniel Alejandro Polo, told the AP that the discovery was just the beginning.

She said families need to recover the remains of their loved ones to know what happened and help prevent similar tragedies. "We do know they can get it out because Ocean Infinity told us they can, that they have equipment," said Luis Antonio Niz, father of crew member Luis Niz. "If they sent him off, I want them to bring him back to me."

The sub's discovery was announced just two days after families of the missing sailors held a one-year commemoration for its disappearance on Nov. 15, 2017. The San Juan was returning to its base in the coastal city of Mar del Plata when contact was lost.

On the anniversary Thursday, Argentina President Mauricio Macri said the families of the submariners should not feel alone and delivered an "absolute and non-negotiable commitment" to find "the truth."

On Saturday, Aguad said that the vessel was found to be in an area that investigators had deemed "most likely." Officials showed images of the submarine, which was located on a seabed with its hull totally deformed. Parts of its propellers were buried and debris was scattered up to 70 meters (230 feet) away.

The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was commissioned in the mid-1980s and was most recently refitted between 2008 and 2014. During the $12 million retrofitting, the vessel was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced. Experts said refits can be difficult because they involve integrating systems produced by different manufacturers, and even the tiniest mistake during the cutting phase can put the safety of the ship and crew at risk.

The navy said previously the captain reported on Nov. 15, 2017, that water entered the snorkel and caused one of the sub's batteries to short-circuit. The captain later communicated that it had been contained.

Some hours later, an explosion was detected near the time and place where the San Juan was last heard from. The navy said the blast could have been caused by a "concentration of hydrogen" triggered by the battery problem reported by the captain.

Macri promised a full investigation after the submarine was lost. Federal police raided naval bases and other buildings last January as part of the probe, soon after the government dismissed the head of the navy.

Argentina gave up hope of finding survivors after an intense search aided by 18 countries, but a few navy units have continued providing logistical support to Ocean Infinity. On Saturday, Plunkett tweeted: "Our thoughts are with the many families affected by this terrible tragedy. We sincerely hope that locating the resting place of the ARA San Juan will be of some comfort to them at what must be a profoundly difficult time."

He also said: "This was an extremely challenging project and today's successful outcome, following the earlier search operations, firmly endorses our technology." The company unsuccessfully searched for the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared in 2014 over the Indian Ocean.

Associated Press video journalist Paul Byrne contributed to this report.

Ukraine's Hungarian minority threatened by new education law

November 14, 2018

CHOP, Ukraine (AP) — The Hungarian minority in western Ukraine is feeling besieged. A new education law that could practically eliminate the use of Hungarian and other minority languages in schools after the 4th grade is just one of several issues threatening this community of 120,000 people in Transcarpathia, a Ukrainian region that in the past century has been part of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.

In February, the headquarters of the minority's biggest political organization, the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association, or KMKSZ, was firebombed. More recently, mysterious billboards have appeared in the region accusing its politicians of separatism. And a dispute has erupted over the legality of the community acquiring dual Hungarian citizenship.

The incidents have left many worried that even as Ukraine strives to bring its laws and practices closer to European Union standards, its policies for minorities seem to be heading in a far more restrictive direction.

"There is a sort of purposeful policy, which besides narrowing the rights of all minorities, tries to portray the Hungarian minority as the enemy in Ukrainian public opinion," said Laszlo Brenzovics, the only ethnic Hungarian in the Ukrainian parliament. He called the separatism charges "extraordinarily absurd" and a means to distract from Ukraine's domestic problems.

Brenzovics' party, the KMKSZ, has launched its own campaign with bilingual billboards reading "Let's not allow peace to be destroyed in Transcarpathia!" "This is a peace campaign to calm the mood," said Livia Balogh, a party official in Chop, a once-booming railroad city of 9,000 people on the border with Hungary. "Hungarians here are mostly surprised and tense but also angry that the minority card is being played."

With a presidential election expected in March, Ukraine is also facing an ongoing armed conflict on its eastern borders with Russian-backed separatists. Officials say the new language rules in education, to be implemented over several years, serve a unifying purpose.

"Education is the fundament to social cohesion, which is also the fundament of security in the country," said Anna Novosad, a senior official at Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science. She attributed Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 partly to the disintegration and linguistic isolation of the local, mainly Russian-speaking population from the rest of Ukraine.

"This is something that we would like not to repeat in the western part of our country," Novosad said. Vasyl Filipchuk, a Ukrainian diplomat and chair of the board of the International Center For Policy Studies in the capital Kiev, said the anti-Hungarian campaign was being used to distract voters.

"It's artificial, manipulative technology" to overshadow the real problems of the people — corruption, lack of jobs and lack of economic prospects, Filipchuk said, adding that the use of patriotic, nationalistic rhetoric is "very dangerous."

Some of the issues have triggered a diplomatic dispute between Ukraine and Hungary, with Hungary blocking Ukraine's talks on integration with the European Union and NATO until the language stipulations in the education law are revised. In early October, Ukraine expelled a Hungarian consul after a secret video surfaced of Ukrainian Hungarians taking the oath of Hungarian citizenship. In response, Hungary expelled a Ukrainian consul.

Almost all members of Ukraine's Hungarian minority live in Transcarpathia — called Zakarpattia Oblast in Ukrainian and Karpatalja in Hungarian. The last census, from 2001, counted 151,000 Hungarians, but unofficial estimates now see around 120,000.

Scores have emigrated to Hungary and western Europe, driven in part by Ukraine's economic crisis and facilitated by the possibility of acquiring dual Hungarian citizenship, which comes with a European Union passport.

It's a community that is still strongly tied to Hungary — everyone seems to set their watches to Hungary's time zone, an hour behind Ukraine's. Jozsef Kantor, principal of a high school with some 700 students in Velyka Dobron, a village near Chop with a majority Hungarian population, acknowledged that a more modern education law was needed. Still, he lamented the "much harsher and unfavorable education law" now proposed.

At Kantor's school, which is undergoing renovations paid mostly by subsidies from the Hungarian government, Ukrainian language and literature are the only classes not taught in Hungarian. National authorities seem open to developing Ukrainian language textbooks which would take into account the fact that many Hungarian children enter school without speaking much, if any, Ukrainian.

Many of the school's graduates are taking advantage of having an EU passport to get their higher education in Hungary or elsewhere abroad. "What affects us negatively is that many of them don't come back," Kantor said. "Ultimately, if this continues for 20 or 30 years, there's a risk that the intellectual class among Hungarians in Transcarpathia will shrink significantly."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has made a name for himself in Europe through his unrelenting anti-immigration and nationalist policies, has made supporting the estimated 2.2 million Hungarians living in neighboring countries — lands that Hungary lost after World War I and the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire — a key objective.

Subsidies totaling some $60.1 million have been given to institutions, businesses and families abroad since 2017, and Brenzovics, the lawmaker, said the payments have helped establish 3,000 new businesses.

Officials have simplified steps for Hungarians abroad to acquire dual Hungarian citizenship. An initial goal of adding 1 million dual citizens — on top of Hungary's population of some 10 million — was achieved nearly a year ago.

Orban's efforts have created a political windfall. In April's elections, over 95 percent of voters casting ballots by mail — mostly from neighboring countries — backed Orban's coalition led by his Fidesz party, helping him to a third consecutive term.

In Chop, teacher Zsuzsanna Dzjapko, a Hungarian whose husband's family is Russian-Ukrainian, has accepted the fact that the best educational prospects for their 11-year-old daughter Rebeka — who speaks all three languages and is a talented singer and musician — are across the border.

"I don't have hopes that she'll come back, because as a Hungarian folk singer in this country, she wouldn't have much of a future," Dzjapko said in a small apartment shared by three generations. "We hope the times will change, the winds will change and the laws will change, as well."

Ukraine rebel regions vote in ballot that West calls bogus

November 11, 2018

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Residents of the eastern Ukraine regions controlled by Russia-backed separatist rebels voted Sunday for local governments in elections denounced by Kiev and the West. The elections were to choose heads of government and legislature members in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, where separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since the spring of 2014 in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Although a 2015 accord on ending the war calls for local elections in Donetsk and Luhansk, critics including Ukraine's president, the U.S. and the European Union say the vote is illegitimate because it is conducted where Ukraine has no control.

But the separatists say the vote is a key step toward establishing full-fledged democracy in the regions. "It's another exam for the civic position, political position for the whole Donetsk Republic," said Denis Pushilin, who became acting head of the Donetsk separatist regime since predecessor Alexander Zakharchenko was killed in a restaurant bombing in August.

His Luhansk counterpart, Leonid Pasechnik, said Sunday that "we are a free republic, a free country" and denied that the voting was being held contrary to the 2015 agreement signed in Minsk. The leaders of Germany and France, which helped negotiate that accord, dismissed "the illegal and illegitimate elections ... held today despite numerous appeals by the international community."

"These are elections for entities that have no legitimacy under the Ukrainian constitution," Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, said last week. "The people in eastern Ukraine will be better off within a unified Ukraine at peace rather than in a second-rate police state run by crooks and thugs, all subsidized by Russian taxpayers," he said Sunday on Twitter.

Both regions reported voter turnout of more than 70 percent as of two hours before the polls closed at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT). Later Sunday, the spokesman for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he discussed the elections with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron amid ceremonies in Paris commemorating the end of World War I Sunday.

In a statement after the meeting, Merkel and Macron said that holding "so-called" elections undermines Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, and urged all sides to respect the ceasefire and release political prisoners.

Germany, France and Ukraine are part of the so-called "Normandy format" countries seeking a resolution to the conflict. Russia is the fourth country in the format, which has not held talks in two years.

Andrei Yermolaev, an analyst at the New Ukraine think-tank in Kiev, said "conducting the elections despite the opinions of Kiev and the West means that the Kremlin completely controls the situation in the region and intends to use this 'frozen conflict' as a lever of pressure on the Ukrainian authorities."

Jim Heintz in Moscow and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this story.

Ukraine's president meets Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul

November 03, 2018

ISTANBUL (AP) — Ukraine's president has met the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, as some Ukrainian clerics prepare to break ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. President Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew I spoke in Istanbul on Saturday, weeks after the patriarchate's Oct. 11 decision to recognize the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Russia in turn broke off ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate.

Poroshenko thanked the patriarch, who is the "first among equals" in the Orthodox world, for supporting the Ukrainian church's independence. The Ukrainian church had been under the Russian Orthodox Church since 1686. Ukrainian clerics are now being forced to pick sides, to join the independent Ukraine Orthodox church or remain within Russian influence, as the fighting persists in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed rebels.

Macedonia ex-leader requests asylum in Hungary

November 14, 2018

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled his country to avoid a two-year prison term for corruption, has requested asylum in Hungary, the Hungarian government said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev called on Hungary to extradite Gruevski, his bitter political rival. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's office said it considers Gruevski's asylum request "solely a legal issue" and views Macedonia as "an important ally."

"The Macedonian government of the day is a partner of Hungary in interstate relations, and therefore we in no way wish to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign countries," Orban's office said.

For his part, Zaev said he expects the Hungarian government to respect international law by returning Gruevski. "What will be (Macedonia's) motivation to join the European Union if one of its member states becomes a shelter for criminals?" he said during a news conference in Skopje with visiting Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Macedonia's justice ministry spokesman, Vladimir Delov, told The Associated Press that the ministry is preparing the necessary documentation for Gruevski's extradition. Gruevski, prime minister from 2006-2016, fled after Macedonian police tried to arrest him to serve the prison sentence. He was convicted in May of unlawfully influencing interior ministry officials over the purchase of a luxury vehicle.

Delov said the formal extradition request will take some time as the documents need to be translated into Hungarian. Macedonia has no extradition agreement with Hungary, but can seek application of the European Convention on Extradition that binds members of the Council of Europe — to which both countries belong.

In Hungary, left- and right-wing opposition parties called on the Orban government to extradite Gruevski. Earlier Wednesday, Macedonian authorities temporarily jailed two former government officials on trial for corruption following Gruevski's flight.

A criminal court on Wednesday ordered former transport minister Mile Janakieski and former government secretary-general Kiril Bozinovski to be held for 30 days. Prosecutors sought their detention amid fears they could also try to flee the country.

They are on trial on charges including corruption over public contracts and election fraud. Gruevski's flight marks the latest dramatic episode in a volatile confrontation between his conservatives and Zaev's Social Democrats.

The two sides remain bitterly at odds over a proposed deal to change the republic's name to North Macedonia and end a dispute with neighboring Greece that would allow Macedonia to join NATO and start accession talks with the European Union.

Western leaders provided Zaev's government strong backing in supporting the deal, while Russia argued that it was the target of the alliance's expansion eastward.

Pablo Gorondi reported from Budapest, Hungary.

Polish leaders to walk with nationalists on Independence Day

November 10, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish government and the organizers of a march put on by nationalist groups annually for the country's independence holiday have agreed to hold a joint event in Warsaw Sunday on the 100th anniversary of Poland's rebirth as a state.

The announcement late Friday means President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and other state officials will join groups who held a march in Warsaw last year where racist banners and white supremacist symbols were displayed.

Michal Dworczyk, the head of Morawiecki's chancellery, tweeted that both sides reached an agreement, adding: "Poland won. On Nov. 11 there will be a great communal march to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Independence!"

The deal was also announced by the top march organizer, Robert Bakiewicz. He is a leader of the National Radical Camp, which traces its roots to an anti-Semitic movement of the 1930s. The development underscored how the ruling Law and Justice party has at times sought to embrace the same base that supports far-right groups. It's a source of controversy in Poland, where many are furious at how radical nationalists came to dominate the Independence Day holiday.

Duda said he wants the participants to walk "under white-and-red flags, under our national colors, under the motto of a free and independent Poland." The president told Poland's Nasz Dziennik newspaper he wants all the participating groups to leave their individual emblems and banners expressing their particular point of view behind.

Last year's march in the capital was cited in a recent European Parliament resolution that called for member states to act decisively against far-right extremism. It noted the presence at that march of xenophobic banners with slogans such as "white Europe of brotherly nations," and flags depicting the "falanga," a far-right symbol dating to the 1930s.

The announcement of the joint march comes after chaotic days of preparations and negotiations with the nationalist group before the centennial of Poland's independence, which was regained at the end of World War I in 1918 when the three empires — Russia, Austria and Germany — that had ruled Poland for more than a century collapsed in defeat.

Duda's office held talks with march organizers over several months in hopes of reaching an agreement on a joint march. But the talks broke down when the nationalists refused a demand to have no banners.

New talks between state officials and the nationalists took place Friday leading to the announcement of an agreement. Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, a hero of the anti-communist Solidarity movement of the 1980s, strongly criticized the authorities for what he described as pandering to "bandits" and "fascists."

Law and Justice party spokeswoman Beata Mazurek appealed to all participants to be a "guardian" of order at the march and to report any "provocative behavior" to the police. On the eve of the anniversary, Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski attended the unveiling of a monument to former Polish President Lech Kaczynski, The twin brother of the ruling party leader was killed in a 2010 plane crash in Russia.

The memorial and its location in a large central square with statues and other installations representing significant moments from Poland's glorious and tragic past has been another source of national discord leading up to the independence centennial.

Polish army organizing security for Independence Day march

November 08, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's Defense Ministry will handle security during an Independence Day march this weekend in Warsaw as police are staging mass walkouts in a pay dispute that has created concerns about keeping people safe.

Over the past decade, radical nationalists have staged marches featuring racist banners and rioting on Nov.11 as Poles celebrate their nation's independence, regained at the end of World War I after more than a century of foreign rule.

With security concerns running high, Warsaw's mayor on Wednesday banned the nationalists' march, and the president's and prime minister's offices quickly announced plans for an inclusive state march in its place.

Michal Dworczyk, chief of the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's chancellery, said that the Defense Ministry, in charge of the army, will organize security at events marking the centenary of Polish independence on Sunday.

In recent days many police officers — up to 60 percent of the force in some places — have gone on sick leave to protests their pay, raising concerns about how it will be possible to secure the march in Warsaw along with many other events across the nation on Sunday.

Another divisive issue has been a statue being unveiled Saturday of the late President Lech Kaczynski in a central Warsaw square. At nearly 7 meters (23 feet) it towers over a nearby monument of the national hero Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, the statesman who led Poland in regaining its independence a century ago.

Kaczynski, who was killed in a 2010 plane crash in Russia, was the identical twin of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the right-wing Law and Justice party currently in power. While Poles united in mourning the tragedy that took his life and 95 others, including the first lady, they are deeply divided on whether he deserves such heroic status.

In another development, the president signed a law late Wednesday that makes next Monday a day off work for Poles since the holiday falls on a Sunday. Pro-business lawmakers and many in the business community say the last-minute organization of a day off is causing disruptions and chaos and warn it will affect their bottom line.

Poland blocks far-right march, will hold inclusive event

November 07, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The mayor of Warsaw on Wednesday banned radical Polish nationalists from marching on the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence due to security concerns. The move prompted Polish leaders to quickly draw up plans for an inclusive march Sunday that could be embraced by all citizens.

It was a significant about-face for the populist government, which has been trying not to alienate far-right voters but then faced the strong possibility that the main news from Poland on its centennial would have been about extremists or even violence. It seemed the Warsaw mayor, normally a political rival from the opposition centrist Civic Platform, offered them a way out of their predicament.

Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz said she wanted to put a stop to the extremist displays that have appeared yearly on Poland's Nov. 11 Independence Day holiday at far-right marches that have drawn tens of thousands to the capital.

At last year's march, some marchers carried racist and anti-Islamic banners calling for a "White Europe" and displayed white supremacist symbols like the Celtic Cross. There were also cases of violence against counter-protesters.

The event drew heavy media coverage and international criticism. Lawmakers in the European Parliament called the participants "fascists" — a label that infuriated the conservative Polish government, whose leaders said most people marched with the national flag and without the racist banners. They mostly praised the march as an expression of patriotism, with one minister calling it a "beautiful sight."

This year, Poland is celebrating the centenary of its independence, gained in 1918 at the end of World War I. "This is not how the celebrations should look on the 100th anniversary of regaining our independence," Gronkiewicz-Waltz told a news conference. "Warsaw has suffered enough because of aggressive nationalism."

Gronkiewicz-Waltz noted that the chief organizer of the Warsaw far-right march is a leader of the National Radical Camp, which traces its roots to an anti-Semitic movement of the 1930s. She said she has asked the government to outlaw it but has been ignored.

"The capital city saved the honor of the country," the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza wrote. Many other Poles have resented how the nationalists in recent years have managed to draw so much attention on Independence Day, overshadowing other celebrations.

President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki met after the mayor's announcement and announced that a march organized by the government would take place in Warsaw on Sunday instead. Presidential spokesman Blazej Spychalski invited all Poles to march with national flags to show that "we are one white-and-red team," a reference to the flag's colors.

The government had held failed talks earlier with the far-right nationalists, hoping to make their march a state event, but far-right organizers refused the government demand that marchers could carry flags only, no banners, Morawiecki said.

A similar ban on a far-right Independence Day march was announced Tuesday by the mayor of the western Polish city of Wroclaw, who cited the risk that participants might incite racial and ethnic hatred.

The bans followed signals that extremists from elsewhere in Europe planned to travel to Warsaw on Sunday. Mass walk-outs by Polish police officers in recent days also raised concerns that clashes between participants and counter-protesters could get out of hand if there were not enough officers to intervene.

Meanwhile, a controversial statue of the late President Lech Kaczynski was installed in a central Warsaw square ahead of its weekend unveiling as part of the centennial celebrations. Kaczynski, who was killed in a 2010 plane crash in Russia, was the identical twin of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the right-wing Law and Justice party currently in power.

While Poles have universally mourned the deaths of the president and the 95 other people who perished with him they remain divided on how to judge his presidency and whether he deserves such hero status.

More than 140 memorials to him already exist across the nation of 37 million people. Authorities in Warsaw's local government opposed the statue and its central location. Pro-government provincial authorities were in favor. The clash is playing out in Poland's court system even as the 7-meter (23-foot) statue went up.

The end of World War I is also being marked on Sunday in Paris, where dozens of world leaders will gather, including host French President Emmanuel Macron and counterparts Donald Trump of the United States, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In Britain, Armistice Day will be commemorated Sunday with a solemn ceremony at the Cenotaph in London that will be attended by Queen Elizabeth II. Special tributes to fallen and injured servicemen will also include a Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in London.

Polish ruling party chief puts best face on election results

November 06, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The leader of Poland's populist ruling party on Tuesday hailed its showing in local elections as an "all-out victory" despite the party's failure to win mayoral races in any of Poland's large cities.

In an apparent face-saving measure, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said "our victory is not subject to the slightest doubt" and called the results a good sign for his Law and Justice party in next year's parliamentary elections.

Party officials presented charts to reporters to show Law and Justice victories in country and local councils. He was speaking following the vote that ended Sunday in some cities and smaller municipalities. The conservative ruling party won the most seats in regional assemblies but performed poorly in mayoral races, winning no big cities and only a handful of smaller ones.

Kaczynski contested the opinions of some commentators who say that the failure in the cities should sound a warning for the party, which won power in 2015. "This election brought another victory for Law and Justice and it makes a very good prognosis for the parliamentary elections," Kaczynski said.

Poles will elect representatives to the European Parliament in May and to the national parliament in the fall, and will then pick a president in 2020.

Tusk defends actions as former PM at Poland's pyramid probe

November 05, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Donald Tusk, the head of the European Council, strongly defended his actions as Poland's former prime minister during questioning Monday into a pyramid scheme that cheated thousands of Poles out of their savings.

In an emotional moment during the seven-hour hearing, which was televised live across Poland, Tusk told the ruling conservative party that it was using his questioning by a parliamentary committee for political purposes.

"You need this commission, you need this spectacle, to keep repeating ... your insinuations, also on the subject of my family," Tusk said. Still, Tusk said during the questioning that he did not feel particularly threatened or the object of a witch hunt. He said he was confident in his actions as prime minister from 2007 to 2014.

Tusk said the hearing showed the weakness of the commission, which he said was trying to put blame on him. Before the hearing, Tusk told reporters he rearranged his EU calendar and showed up because he treats the commission's work "seriously."

"It was my obligation as a citizen," he said. Still, there was no escaping the political overtones of Monday's interrogation, for there have been years of enmity between Tusk and Poland's ruling Law and Justice party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Commentators on private TVN24 described the event as a public "grilling," and it was widely seen as part of the conservative party's efforts to discredit Tusk, a political foe who is still popular in Poland.

Tusk was sworn in by the special multi-party commission that has already questioned dozens of state officials in its efforts to pinpoint responsibility for the scam. Addressing him as "prime minister" the commission sought to determine the scope of Tusk's authority over state security and other offices and when he was made aware of the pyramid scheme by the Amber Gold financial institution.

Prosecutors say some 19,000 investors lost over 850 million zlotys ($225 million) in what turned out to be one of the biggest financial scandals in Poland. Amber Gold's two founders are both under arrest in prison and are on trial facing up to 15-year sentences. One of them is also serving a prison term for another bank scam.

The scam, which was revealed in 2012, has raised questions about the effectiveness of Poland's government during Tusk's term in office. Critics say Polish authorities failed to react in time to warning signals about Amber Gold.

Rejecting these allegations, Tusk said a warning against Amber Gold was issued by the Polish Financial Supervision Commission, or KNF, and it was not the prime minister's job to issue such a warning. "While I have sympathy for those who invested in Amber Gold, because they are the victims of these dealings, I want to say that a warning by the KNF that it was linked to very high risk was publicly available," Tusk said.

He suggested that some anti-crime procedures had failed in the Amber Gold case, as well as fiscal controls and the office for protecting consumers. "In the Amber Gold case, had all the links described in the procedure worked as they should have, we would have probably managed to avoid the lion's share of the losses that people sustained," Tusk said.

One of the themes of the investigation and of Monday's questioning was the fact that Tusk's son Michal was employed by an airline owned by Amber Gold. Tusk denied allegations that his son's job could have served as a protective umbrella for the pyramid scheme.

The televised questioning came a day after Poland's populist ruling party suffered a blow in the country's mayoral races by failing to win control of any of the nation's largest cities. The pyramid probe commission's own chief, Malgorzata Wassermann of Law and Justice, lost her bid to become mayor of the city of Krakow.

In Sunday's runoff races, Poles chose the mayors of 649 cities, towns and local municipalities across the central European nation of 37 million, handing landslide victories to opposition politicians in top cities. Polish media described the results as a clear defeat for Law and Justice.

Tusk said he was "very surprised by the scale of Law and Justice's defeat" and said the opposition got a boost from the local elections. The vote highlighted the deep political divisions in Poland between the country's urban liberals and its staunchly conservative, often older, rural residents.

For his part, Kaczynski claims that negligence under Tusk was the reason for the 2010 plane crash in which his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, was killed. Tusk and the president had a rocky relationship.

However, the investigation into the plane crash in Smolensk, Russia — which killed 96 state, military and other officials — said it was due to human error amid poor visibility at a rudimentary airport.

Poland: Exit poll gives centrists edge in key mayoral races

November 04, 2018

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — An exit poll suggested Poland's populist ruling party lost mayoral runoff elections Sunday in key cities including Krakow and Gdansk, though it wasn't immediately clear how hundreds of other local races were leaning.

Poland's local elections have received more international attention this year amid the rise of populist governments in other parts of Europe and around the world. Poland's ruling Law and Justice party has taken a hard stance against migration, like U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and the coalition government leading Italy. Law and Justice also has clashed with the European Union over moves to assert more control over the courts.

Results from the first round of voting two weeks ago and projections from Sunday's runoffs indicated the party's populist approach to governance was rejected by voters in Poland's larger cities, which have seen mass anti-government protests in the three years since Law and Justice came to power. At the same time, the ruling party has been solidifying its support in rural areas.

Runoff elections for the mayor's office in 649 cities, towns and municipalities took place between the top two vote-getters from the first round of voting conducted two weeks ago. During the Oct. 21 first round voting, Law and Justice strengthened its position in regional assemblies but lost mayoral races outright in Warsaw, Poznan and Lodz to a centrist pro-European Union coalition led by the Civic Platform party.

With Sunday's runoffs, the opposition took at least three more of Poland's most biggest cities. In the Baltic port city of Gdansk, incumbent Pawel Adamowicz with Civic Platform won re-election to a sixth term. The Ipsos polling agency projected support for Adamowicz at nearly 65 percent and support for the Law and Justice candidate, Kacper Plazynski, at just over 35 percent.

In Krakow, another long-serving mayor, Jacek Majchrowski, held off a challenge from Law and Justice challenger Malgorzata Wassermann. Majchrowski was also projected to win nearly 65 percent of the vote.

Ipsos' projections had the mayor's job in the city of Kielce going to another opposition candidate: Bogdan Wenta, one of the best athletes in the history of Polish handball and a former coach of the national team.

The results have highlighted deep political differences between residents of Poland's cities, which have been liberal centers of opposition to the Law and Justice-led government, and of the country's rural heartland, which remains largely supportive of the party despite its conflicts with the EU.

Official returns were not expected until Monday at the earliest. The local elections kicked off a string of votes that will be crucial for Poland's course, including the May election choosing European Parliament representatives, the national parliament vote in fall 2019 and a presidential election in the spring of 2020.

Law and Justice won 34 percent of the total regional assembly votes two weeks ago, and the opposition coalition nearly 28 percent. One of the primary jobs of the assemblies is choosing how to spend EU subsidies.

If the ruling party maintains the level of support it received two weeks ago, it would appear to be well-poised to remain in power after the 2019 national elections, but without the parliamentary supermajority it is seeking to pursue constitutional amendments.

Man-made Czech waterways help save carp, a Christmas treat

November 17, 2018

KRCIN, Czech Republic (AP) — Czechs will have to pay more for their traditional Christmas delicacy this year after a serious drought devastated the carp population this year. The drought overheated and dried out ponds, sucking oxygen from them and drastically reducing numbers of the fish in most parts of the Czech Republic.

But the situation was different in the southern Bohemia region near the border with Austria, which is considered a carp haven. The region also suffered from the drought, but a network of about 500 carp ponds interconnected with man-made canals ensured adequate living conditions for the fish.

As fishermen start the practice of catching carp for Christmas markets, here's a look at the annual tradition and the effects the drought has had on it.

RISING PRICES

Carp being sold this year at Christmas markets will be more expensive, by up to 10 koruna ($0.44) per kilogram.

"A lack of water in the ponds was a key factor this autumn for the (increased) price," said Josef Malecha, chief executive of Trebon Fisheries, a major fresh water fish producer in the country and the European Union.

The company estimates its fish production this year will be similar to previous years, about 3,200 metric tons (3,527 tons). Carp account for more than 90 percent of the catch. The rest include pike, catfish, pike perch, amur (grass carp) and tench. They are exported to many European countries.

The drought affected the ability of the fish to gain weight, Malecha said. "So, we had to fix it by using more food (grain)," he said. "And the food was more expensive because the farmers suffered from the drought as well."

FISH FRENZY The Czech Republic is a country of meat lovers that mostly overlook fish for the rest of the year, but nobody can imagine Christmas without carp. Live carp are sold in street markets just before the holiday and turned into fish soup and fried in bread crumbs to serve on Christmas Eve.

Some lucky ones are given to children to play with in their bathtubs and are later released back into rivers or ponds. While carp is derided in some parts of the world like Australia and the U.S. where the fish poses threats to native fish species and ecosystems.

But Czechs adore the carp, which is said to bring good fortune — but only if you keep some of their scales in your wallet.

FLINTY FISHERMEN

It was freezing after dawn on a recent day when dozens of fishermen in dark green waterproofs wade into the frigid waters, using a centuries-old technique of slowly scooping fish up from the Krcin pond with nets before sorting them manually and placing them in containers.

About 70 metric tons (77 tons) of fish were expected to be extracted from the pond, which is named after Jakub Krcin, a key fish pond builder who was instrumental in completing the southern region's waterway network during the second half of the 16th century.

"What has changed is that we are using some machines," Malecha said. "So the manual labor has decreased. But it is still hard work for the men who have to work no matter what the weather is in the open air. But often some people envy the fisherman. It's a job you can only do if you love it."

Scattered tax protests persist in France; injuries up to 409

November 18, 2018

PARIS (AP) — French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, standing firm against a wave of grassroots protests, said Sunday that fuel tax hikes would remain in place despite nationwide agitation. "The course we set is good and we will keep it," Philippe said during an interview on TV station France-2, "It's not when the wind blows that you change course."

Nearly 300,000 protesters paralyzed traffic at more than 2,000 strategic sites around France on Saturday in a bid to force the government to lower taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline. Other issues, like buying power, melted into the main demand as the demonstrations unfolded.

A protester was struck and killed Saturday when a panicked driver facing a roadblock in the eastern Savoie region. French press reports Sunday said the driver was charged with manslaughter and released. At last count, at least 409 people had been injured — 14 seriously, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said Sunday on RTL radio.

Holdouts refusing to end the protests continued to slow traffic Sunday. Blockades were counted at 150 scattered locations Sunday, Castaner told RTL radio. Protesters were notably in Rennes, in western France, Avignon, in the south, and Nancy, in the east, where police moved in to clear them.

The situation throughout the night was "agitated," Castaner said, with "aggressions, fights, knife-slashing" taking place, including among the protesters. Overall, 157 people were detained for questioning - double the number reported Saturday night.

The upstart movement behind the weekend protests represents middle-class citizens and those with fewer means who rely on their cars to get to work. The protesters called themselves "yellow jackets" after the safety vests French drivers are obliged to keep in their cars for emergencies.

While it was unclear if the weekend's momentum would continue, the movement is posing a challenge to French President Emmanuel Macron. "I hear what the French are saying. It's very clear," the prime minister said Sunday. "But a government that ... zigzags according to the difficulties, what too many past governments have done, that won't lead France to where it must be."

Macron wants to close the gap between the price of diesel fuel and gasoline as part of his strategy to wean France off fossil fuels. A "carbon trajectory" calls for continued increases, particularly on diesel.

Philippe said more explaining is needed "and we will do that," while adhering to the plan. He vowed that results would be in at the end of Macron's mandate in 2022 - and good for the French. Taxes on diesel fuel have gone up 7 euro cents (nearly 8 U.S. cents) and are to keep climbing in the coming years, Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne has said. The tax on gasoline is to increase 4 euro cents.

Macron, whose popularity ratings are sliding regularly, has not commented. "I don't think silence is the right answer," said Troyes Mayor Francois Baroin, a former mainstream right minister and senator before the prime minister spoke. The Troyes prefecture was invaded and damaged by protesters on Saturday.

"It's a very powerful message sent from the depths of France," he said on BFMTV.

Allies rally to UK's May amid leadership woes over Brexit

November 16, 2018

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May won support for her beleaguered Brexit deal Friday from key politicians and business groups, but she remained besieged by internal party opponents determined to oust her.

In a tumultuous week, May finally clinched a divorce deal with the European Union — only for it to be savaged by the political opposition, her parliamentary allies and large chunks of her own Conservative Party. Two Cabinet ministers and a handful of junior government members resigned, and grumbles about her leadership erupted into a roar.

Friday brought some respite, as supportive Cabinet ministers rallied around her. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, a prominent pro-Brexit voice in Cabinet, threw May a lifeline by urging rebels to "take a rational and reasonable view of this."

"Ultimately I hope that across Parliament we'll recognize that a deal is better than no deal," he said. Britain's Conservatives have been divided for decades over Britain's membership in the EU, and the draft withdrawal agreement has infuriated the most strongly pro-Brexit members, who want the country to make a clean break with the bloc. They say the draft agreement, which calls for close trade ties between the U.K. and the EU, would leave Britain a vassal state, bound to rules it has no say in making.

The deal drove a group of disaffected Brexiteers to try to topple May by submitting letters saying they have lost confidence in her leadership. They are aiming for the magic number of 48 — the 15 percent of Conservative lawmakers needed to trigger a challenge to her leadership under party rules.

After a day of conflicting rumors about whether 48 letters had been sent, leading Brexiteer Steve Baker said, "I think we're very close." He suggested the threshold might be reached "sometime next week."

If May lost her job as party leader, she would also lose her position as prime minister. But winning a leadership vote could strengthen her position, because the rules say she can't be challenged again for a year.

Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, one of May's chief allies, predicted that "if it does come to a challenge, the prime minister will win handsomely." "I've seen no plausible alternative plan from any of those criticizing her or wanting to challenge her position," Lidington said.

May got another piece of good news when Environment Secretary Michael Gove decided not to follow two Cabinet colleagues and quit over the divorce deal. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey quit Thursday, saying they could not support the agreement. Like them, Gove was a strong supporter of the "leave" campaign in Britain's 2016 EU membership referendum.

Gove said Friday that he "absolutely" had confidence in May, adding that he would work with government colleagues to achieve "the best future for Britain." But he did not answer when asked if he supported May's Brexit deal.

May replaced Raab and McVey on Friday with two lawmakers with track records of loyalty. Former junior Health Minister Stephen Barclay replaced Raab as Brexit secretary, while ex-Interior Minister Amber Rudd was named to the work and pensions post.

But May's Cabinet still contains tensions and potential fissures. Some pro-Brexit ministers, including House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, have not resigned but also have not publicly endorsed May's deal.

May is determined to fight on, warning that abandoning her Brexit plan, with Britain's withdrawal just over four months away on March 29, would plunge the country into "deep and grave uncertainty." She appealed directly to voters Friday by answering questions on a radio call-in show. It was not an easy ride. One caller said May should resign and let a more staunchly pro-Brexit politician take over; another compared her to Neville Chamberlain, the 1930s prime minister who tried in vain to appease Nazi Germany to avoid war.

May stood by her plan. "For a lot of people who voted 'leave,' what they wanted to do was make sure that decisions on things like who can come into this country would be taken by us here in the U.K., and not by Brussels, and that's exactly what the deal I've negotiated delivers," she said.

Businesses, which fear the turmoil that could follow a disorderly Brexit, have largely welcomed the withdrawal deal. The Confederation of British Industry, a leading business lobby group, said the agreement represented "hard-won progress."

In a statement, the group said the withdrawal agreement "opens a route to a good long-term trade deal." It warned that leaving the EU without a deal on trade and other relations — a path advocated by some Brexit supporters — "is not an acceptable option" and "would badly damage our economy by disrupting supply chains, causing shortages, and preventing vital services reaching people."

Simon Kempton of the Police Federation, a union for police officers, said a "no-deal" Brexit could spark protests, and "it's a real concern that those protests might escalate into disorder." "It's 2018. It's the year that people dial (emergency number) 999 because KFC ran out of chicken," he told Sky News. "If that will happen, imagine what will happen if we start seeing food or medical supply shortages."

EU leaders, who have called a Nov. 25 summit in Brussels to sign off on the draft agreement, were doing their best to refrain from commenting on Britain's political chaos. But they stressed that the U.K. should not hope to renegotiate the deal — it is a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

"This is a withdrawal agreement which took the best part of two years to negotiate involving 28 countries, all of whom have their own particular concerns and interests," said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. "If you start trying to amend it or unthink it, you might find that the whole thing unravels."

Associated Press writers Pan Pylas in London and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Passengers in Zimbabwe caught in bus fire; 40 killed

November 16, 2018

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Fire swept through a passenger bus in Zimbabwe, killing more than 40 people and injuring at least 20, some of whom suffered severe burns, authorities said Friday. A photograph posted on Twitter by the Zimbabwe Red Cross shows the remains of the bus that was completely incinerated late Thursday. The Red Cross said its teams responded to a "horrific accident" involving a bus heading to neighboring South Africa at around midnight.

"Combustible material was allowed onto the bus, thus causing a conflagration which entrapped, scalded and consumed innocent passengers," President Emmerson Mnangagwa said in a condolence message. Mnangagwa said the government should "take appropriate measures which comprehensively deal with this growing menace on our roads."

The accident happened in Gwanda district, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba confirmed a death toll of more than 40. Last week, a collision between two buses in Zimbabwe killed 50 people and injured about 80.

Netanyahu takes on defense post amid call for early polls

November 18, 2018

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would take on the defense minister portfolio, rejecting calls to dissolve his government even as early elections appeared increasingly likely.

Netanyahu said heading to elections now, amid repeated violent confrontations with Gaza militants, was "irresponsible" of his coalition partners, who have been pushing for early polls since the resignation last week of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman over a Gaza cease-fire.

"Today, I take on for the first time the position of defense minister," said Netanyahu, speaking from Israel's defense headquarters in Tel Aviv in a statement broadcast live at the top of the evening newscasts.

"We are in one of the most complex security situations and during a period like this, you don't topple a government. During a period like this you don't go to elections," he said. The sudden coalition crisis was sparked by the resignation of the hawkish Lieberman, who had demanded a far stronger response last week to the most massive wave of rocket attacks on Israel since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. He alleges the cease-fire agreement reached with Gaza's Hamas rulers will put southern Israel under a growing threat from the group, similar to that posed to northern Israel by Lebanon's heavily armed Hezbollah group.

The departure of Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu party leaves the coalition with a one-seat majority in the 120-member parliament. Netanyahu's other partners say that makes governing untenable and would leave the coalition susceptible to the extortion of any single lawmaker until elections scheduled for November 2019.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, has already threatened to bring down the government if he is not appointed defense minister. He and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, also of Jewish Home, are set to deliver a statement to the media Monday. If the party leaves the coalition, it would strip Netanyahu of his parliamentary majority.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, another senior partner, says another year of such instability will harm the economy. A meeting between him and Netanyahu Sunday meant to convince Kahlon to stay ended with no results.

Netanyahu's Likud allies are already preparing to pin the blame on coalition partners if the effort to salvage the government fails. "I think that there is no reason to shorten the term of a national government, not even for one day, and at this moment it's in the hands of the education minister and the finance minister," said Gilad Erdan, the minister of public security.

No Israeli government has served out its full term since 1988. Since then, elections have almost always been moved up because of a coalition crisis or a strategic move by the prime minister to maximize his chances of re-election.

Though Netanyahu has been reportedly flirting with the idea of moving up elections himself in recent months, the current timing is not ideal for him. He has come under heavy criticism for agreeing to the Gaza cease-fire, especially from within his own political base and in the working-class, rocket-battered towns in southern Israel that are typically strongholds of his Likud Party. But with Lieberman forcing his hand and the other coalition partners appearing eager to head to the polls he may not have a choice.

Most opinion polls show Netanyahu easily securing re-election, which would secure him a place in Israeli history as the country's longest serving leader. But several factors could trip him up, including a potential corruption indictment that could knock him out of contention.

Police have recommended he be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in two cases and have questioned him at length on another. The country has long been eagerly awaiting the attorney general's decision on whether to press charges.

Netanyahu has angrily dismissed the accusations against him, characterizing them as part of a media-driven witch-hunt that is obsessed with removing him from office.

Associated Press writer Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Cambodia says Khmer Rouge tribunal that convicted 3 is done

November 19, 2018

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia has reiterated it intends to end the work of the U.N.-backed tribunal that last week convicted the last two surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said the tribunal's work had been completed and there would not be any additional prosecutions for acts that led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people in the 1970s. The only other person convicted was the regime's prisons chief.

He cited the terms under which the tribunal, staffed jointly by Cambodian and international prosecutors and judges, had been established, limiting its targets to senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime that was in power from 1975 to 1979. The rules also allow prosecuting those most responsible for carrying out atrocities.

Sar Kheng spoke Saturday at a government ceremony in the northern province of Oddar Meanchey and his remarks were reported Sunday. On Friday, the tribunal convicted and gave life sentences to Nuon Chea, 92, the main Khmer Rouge ideologist and right-hand man to its late leader Pol Pot, and Khieu Samphan, 87, who was the regime's head of state. The sentences were merged with the life sentences they were already serving after an earlier conviction for crimes against humanity.

In nine years of hearings and at a cost exceeding $300 million, the tribunal has convicted only one other defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who as head of the Khmer Rouge prison system ran the infamous Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh.

Cases of four more suspects, middle-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge, had already been processed for prosecution but have been scuttled or stalled. Without the cooperation of the Cambodian members of the tribunal, no cases can go forward.

Long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen has repeatedly declared there would be no more prosecutions, claiming they could cause unrest. Hun Sen himself was a midlevel commander with the Khmer Rouge before defecting while the group was still in power, and several senior members of his ruling Cambodian People's Party share similar backgrounds. He helped cement his political control by making alliances with other former Khmer Rouge commanders.

In his remarks, Sar Kheng sought to reassure former Khmer Rouge members that they would not face prosecution. "Because there are some former Khmer Rouge officers living in this area, I would like to clarify that there will be no more investigations taking place (against lower-ranking Khmer Rouge members), so you don't have to worry," said Sar Kheng, who is also interior minister.

He acknowledged that even without more prosecutions, the tribunal still had to hear the appeals expected to be lodged by Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, but aside from that task, its work was finished.

Netanyahu's main coalition partner pushes for early election

November 16, 2018

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel moved closer to early elections Friday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main coalition partner, the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, said it wants a vote "as soon as possible," and will press for consultations on a date on Sunday.

The call for early elections came after a meeting Friday between Netanyahu and Education Minister and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett. The two men have been locked in a tense rivalry, with Bennett often criticizing Netanyahu from the right.

Bennett had demanded the post of defense minister, after the incumbent, Avigdor Lieberman, resigned earlier this week in protest over Netanyahu's Gaza policies. A senior Jewish Home official said it became clear after the Bennett-Netanyahu meeting that there "is a need to go to elections as soon as possible." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing the content of a closed meeting.

The official said leaders of coalition parties will meet Sunday to coordinate the date for early elections. The apparent failure of the Netanyahu-Bennett meeting seemed to seal the coalition's fate. The departure of Lieberman and his Israel Beitenu party had left the coalition with a one-seat majority in the 120-member parliament. Without Bennett's Jewish Home, Netanyahu's coalition would lose its parliamentary majority.

The political crisis began with a botched Israeli undercover raid in Gaza on Sunday. The raid led to two days of intense cross-border fighting. Gaza's Hamas rulers fired hundreds of rockets at southern Israel, while Israeli warplanes targeted scores of targets in Gaza.

After two days, Egypt brokered an informal truce between Israel and the Islamic militant Hamas. Netanyahu averted a war, but drew blistering criticism from ultra-nationalists. Lieberman resigned in protest on Wednesday.

On Friday, he toured southern Israel and accused Netanyahu of being soft on terrorism. He said Netanyahu's Gaza policy is strengthening Hamas. Lieberman alleged that the truce will put southern Israel under a growing threat from Hamas, similar to the threat posed to northern Israel by Lebanon's heavily armed Hezbollah militia.

"It's impossible that after Hamas launches 500 rockets at the Israeli border communities, the heads of Hamas are actually getting immunity from the Israeli cabinet," he told reporters. "We are now feeding a monster" that will only grow if not stopped, he said. "Within a year we will have a twin brother of Hezbollah, with all the implications."

Disputed Sri Lankan PM faces 2nd no-confidence motion

November 16, 2018

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Lawmakers in Sri Lanka's Parliament supporting disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa threw books, chairs and chili powder mixed with water to try to block the proceedings on Friday, a day after a fierce brawl between rival lawmakers worsened political turmoil in the island nation.

Police who escorted Speaker Karu Jayasuriya into the chamber held boards around him to protect him from being hit by the angry Rajapaksa loyalists, who did not allow him to sit in the speaker's chair. Several opposition lawmakers and policemen were wounded.

Sri Lanka has been in a political crisis since Oct. 26, when President Maithripala Sirisena abruptly sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe says he still has the support of a majority in Parliament.

Jayasuriya, using a microphone, conducted the proceedings while standing on the floor of Parliament, which for the second time passed a no-confidence motion against Rajapaksa and his government by a voice vote.

Jayasuriya first offered to take the vote by name, but was unable to do so because of the commotion and opted for a voice vote. He then adjourned the house until Monday. Lawmakers loyal to Rajapaksa hooted and continued to hurl abuse at Jayasuriya until he left the chamber. Arundika Fernando, a lawmaker allied with Rajapaksa, sat in the speaker's chair while others shouted slogans.

Sirisena vowed not to dissolve Parliament and called upon "all parties to uphold principles of democracy and parliamentary traditions at all times." Sirisena dissolved Parliament a week ago and ordered new elections, but the Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended Sirisena's directive.

Opposition lawmaker R. Sampathan accused Rajapaksa loyalists of preventing a roll-call vote on the no-confidence motion, as requested earlier by Sirisena. On Thursday, Sirisena held an emergency meeting with the leaders of the opposition parties that voted for the first motion against Rajapaksa and asked them to take up the motion again and allow it to be debated and then put to a roll-call vote.

Sirisena held the meeting following the chaos in Parliament on Thursday, when rival lawmakers exchanged blows, leaving one injured, after the speaker announced the country had no prime minister or government because of Wednesday's motion against Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa has refused to accept the no-confidence motion, also saying it should not have been done by voice vote. He also insisted the speaker had no authority to remove him and said he is continuing in his role as prime minister.

Rajapaksa, a former president, is considered a hero by some in the ethnic Sinhalese majority for ending a long civil war by crushing ethnic 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.

Interpol meets to select new president after China's arrest

November 18, 2018

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Police chiefs from around the world gathered in Dubai on Sunday for Interpol's general assembly to select a new president after the agency's former official in the post was detained in China.

Meng Hongwei— who was China's vice minister of public security while also leading Interpol — went missing while on a trip to China in September. It later emerged that the long-time Communist Party insider with decades of experience in China's security apparatus was detained as part of a sweeping purge against allegedly corrupt or disloyal officials under President Xi Jinping's authoritarian administration.

Interpol member-states will also be deciding whether to accept Kosovo as a full member, which would allow officials there to file red notices for Serbian officials that Kosovo considers war criminals.

The red notices are alerts circulated by Interpol to all member countries that identify a person wanted for arrest by another country. Interpol says there are 57,289 active red notices around the world.

Interpol acts as a clearinghouse for national police services that want to hunt down suspects outside their borders. The body, however, has faced criticism that governments have abused the "red notice" system to go after political enemies and dissidents, even though its charter explicitly proclaims its neutrality and prohibits the use of police notices for political reasons.

Two years ago, Interpol introduced new measures aimed at strengthening the legal framework around the red notice system. As part of the changes, an international team of lawyers and experts first check a notice's compliance with Interpol rules and regulations before it goes out. Interpol also says it enhanced the work of an appeals body for those targeted with red notices.

Chinese authorities say Meng is being lawfully investigated for taking bribes and other crimes. China's beleaguered rights activists point out that as someone with a seat atop the country's powerful public security apparatus, Meng helped build the opaque system of largely unchecked power wielded by the ruling Communist Party to which he's now fallen victim.

Meng's wife has told The Associated Press from France that the bribery accusation he faces is just an excuse for a lengthy detention and that he is being persecuted for political reasons. As more than 1,000 delegates from most of the 192 member-states began filling the main hall for the annual event, Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock explained to reporters that the agency's rules did not allow for Meng to continue acting as president. Meng had been serving as president since November 2016, and his term was due to end in 2020.

He said Interpol received Meng's resignation letter from China on Oct. 7 and that Interpol was notified by Chinese authorities that Meng is no longer a delegate to Interpol. "It sounds a little technical but again that automatically leads to the fact, according to our rules, that he is not the president anymore," Stock said. "We had to take the measures to ensure the functioning of the organization."

Meng's representatives say Interpol accepted an unsigned resignation letter without any resistance and without evidence of his consent. In Meng's place on Sunday, senior vice president of Interpol's executive committee, Kim Jong Yang of South Korea— who was previously named acting president — helped open the ceremony for the general assembly meeting.

A little more than a week ago, Stock told reporters in France— where Interpol is headquartered— that there was no reason for him to suspect that anything about Meng's resignation "was forced or wrong."

He said he "encouraged" Chinese authorities to provide information about Meng's location and legal status but can do no more because the role of Interpol is "not to govern over member states."