Sri Lanka Muslims, refugees fear backlash from Easter attack

April 25, 2019

PASYALA, Sri Lanka (AP) — After fleeing their homes in Pakistan over militant attacks and government persecution, hundreds of Ahmadi Muslims felt they finally found peace in Sri Lanka as they sought resettlement across the world.

Then came the Easter bombings that killed over 350 people, many Christians praying at church, and suddenly they were targeted again. They say Sri Lankans suspicious of their beards, their little-known faith and nationalities shouted at some, throwing stones and hitting them with sticks. Others saw their homes attacked.

Now nearly 200 huddle inside their mosque in Negombo and more than 500 sought shelter in the small town of Pasyala, 30 kilometers (20 miles) away — just one sign of the fear pervading the Muslim community across this multiethnic island off the southern tip of India.

Activists say some Muslim youths have disappeared, perhaps arrested by tightlipped security forces, while others stay at home, fearful the bombings will spark retaliation from either the government or angry mobs in a nation where interreligious violence can strike.

"The people in Pakistan attacked us and say we're not Muslims," said Tariq Ahmed, a 58-year-old Ahmadi who fled his home. "Then in Sri Lanka, people attack us because they say we are Muslims." Sunday's coordinated suicide bombings targeted three churches and three hotels, killing at least 359 people and wounding 500 more. Authorities have blamed a local group, National Towheed Jamaat, previously only known for vandalizing Buddhist statues and the extremist online sermons of its leader, alternately named Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi.

But by Tuesday, the Islamic State group had asserted it carried out the assault, bolstering its claim by publishing images of Zahran and others pledging loyalty to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Ahmadi Muslims say the harassment only grew more amplified in the days after the attack, fueled by a mistaken sense that since they came from Pakistan, they too must be like the extremists.

But the Ahmadi themselves have fled decades of persecution in Pakistan. Ahmadis believe another Islamic prophet, Ahmad, appeared in the 19th century, a view at odds with the fundamental Islamic principle that Muhammad was the final messenger sent by God.

Pakistan changed its constitution in 1974 to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims. Ten years later, the government declared it a criminal offense for Ahmadis to "pose as Muslims." They are forbidden from calling their places of worship mosques and cannot sound the call to prayer. Like other religious minorities, they can face blasphemy laws that carry the death penalty, sometimes used by neighbors in petty disputes to target them.

"We are not their enemies. We are facing the same situation these people are facing," said Qazi Moin Ahmed, 21. "We are not terrorists, but they consider us terrorists." Tension grew quickly in Negombo after Sunday's bombing, which left dozens dead at St. Sebastian's Church. Ahmadi Muslims who spoke to The Associated Press described being pulled out of tuk-tuks, hit with sticks or pelted with stones. Others said mobs sometimes broke into homes, while others said their Christian landlords, the police or soldiers helped bring them to safety.

Now, police and soldiers protect the Ahmadi mosque in Negombo, while police man an under-construction Ahmadi community center in Pasyala, where some 500 other Ahmadis had been bused. Nearly all the Ahmadis came to Sri Lanka with hopes of being resettled elsewhere in the world by UNHCR.

Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman, told the AP the agency had received word from refugees that they "have been the targets of threats and intimidation," and that efforts continued to make sure they were safe. Some 1,600 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with UNHCR in Sri Lanka, he said.

"UNHCR is working closely with local and national authorities who have been very supportive and helpful to ensure the security and safety of all refugees and asylum-seekers during this time of heightened anxiety and concern," Baloch said.

The concern extends beyond just the Ahmadi, however. There has been religious violence previously between faiths in Sri Lanka. So far, police have conducted raids and made arrest, but have been careful not to identify suspects or areas perhaps out of the fear of stoking more anger. But even as mosques hang banners supporting the government and denouncing the attack, activists say some Muslim youth have been disappeared, likely detained by authorities.

Alaina Teplitz, the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka, said she had heard of similar reports. "I think those concerns are legitimate in the sense of wanting to make sure there is no overreach given past history," Teplitz said, referring to the abuses of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

The situation remains tense in Pasyala, hundreds of men catch what sleep they can outside on the patchy grass near the community center. Women and children live inside. At breakfast Thursday, the community prepared a lentil soup for those displaced. Men sat crosslegged on a long blue tarp, sopping up the soup with hunks of bread shared from a metal cauldron.

Tariq Ahmed returned to a journalist with his mobile phone. On the line was his worried sister, Bushra Bedum, who lives in Virginia. "I am very happy before because I thought he was he was safe there, but now I am frightened," she said. "What can I do?"

Associated Press journalist Gemunu Amarasinghe contributed to this report.

Sri Lanka shakes up top security posts after deadly bombings

April 24, 2019

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's president shook up the country's top security establishment after officials failed to act on intelligence reports warning of possible attacks before the Easter bombings that killed over 350 people, his office said Wednesday.

The capital of Colombo, meanwhile, remained rattled by reports that police were continuing to conduct controlled detonations of suspicious items three days after the attacks on churches and luxury hotels, and the U.S. ambassador said that Washington believes "the terrorist plotting is ongoing."

During a televised speech to the nation Tuesday night, President Maithripala Sirisena said he would change the head of the defense forces within 24 hours, and on Wednesday he asked for the resignations of the defense secretary and national police chief in a dramatic internal shake-up. He did not say who would replace them.

Sirisena said he had been kept in the dark on the intelligence about the planned attacks and vowed to "take stern action" against officials who failed to share it. Government leaders have acknowledged that some intelligence units were aware of possible attacks weeks before the bombings that struck three churches and three luxury hotels. The death toll rose Wednesday to 359, with 500 people wounded. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara also said 18 suspects were arrested overnight, raising the total detained to 58.

Sri Lankan authorities have blamed a local extremist group, National Towheed Jamaat, whose leader, alternately named Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary online speeches. On Wednesday, junior defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene said the attackers had broken away from National Towheed Jamaat and another group, which he identified only as "JMI."

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Authorities remain unsure of the group's involvement, though authorities are investigating whether foreign militants advised, funded or guided the local bombers.

Wijewardene said many of the suicide bombers were highly educated and came from well-to-do families. "Their thinking is that Islam can be the only religion in this country," he told reporters. "They are quite well-educated people," he said, adding that at least one had a law degree and some may have studied in the U.K. and Australia.

A British security official has confirmed a report that a suicide bomber who is believed to have studied in the U.K. between 2006 and 2007 was Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed. The security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, said British intelligence was not watching Mohamed during his stay in the country. His name was first reported by Sky News.

A team of FBI agents and U.S. military officials were helping in the investigation, said U.S. Ambassador Alaina Teplitz. She told reporters that "clearly there was some failure in the system," but said the U.S. had no prior knowledge of a threat before the attacks, the worst violence in the South Asian island nation since its civil war ended a decade ago.

Teplitz called that breakdown in communication among Sri Lankan officials "incredibly tragic." The U.S. remains concerned over militants still at large and it believes "the terrorist plotting is ongoing," Teplitz said, adding that Americans in Sri Lanka should continue to be careful.

Although no more bombs were found Wednesday, Sri Lanka has been on heightened alert since the attacks, with police setting off a series of controlled explosions of suspicious objects. The military has been given sweeping police powers it last used during a devastating civil war that ended in 2009.

Government statements about the attacks have been confused and sometimes contradictory, with Gunasekara, the police spokesman, telling reporters that there were nine suicide bombers — two more than officials said one day earlier.

One of the additional bombers was the wife of another bomber, he said. The woman, two children and three policemen died in an explosion as authorities closed in on her late Sunday, hours after the main attacks were launched. The ninth suicide bomber has not been identified, though two more suspects were killed in a later explosion on the outskirts of Colombo.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe edged away from comments made by his state minister of defense that the bombings were carried out in apparent retaliation for the March 15 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 people. He told reporters Wednesday that the mosque attack may have been a motivation for the bombings, but that there was no direct evidence of that. An Australian white supremacist was arrested in the Christchurch shootings.

While Sri Lanka's recent history has been rife with ethnic and sectarian conflict, the Easter bombings still came as a shock to the country of 21 million. It is dominated by Sinhalese Buddhists but also has a significant Tamil minority, most of whom are Hindu, Muslim or Christian.

Tamil Tiger rebels were known for staging suicide bombings during their 26-year civil war for independence, but religion had little role in that fighting. The Tigers were crushed by the government in 2009. Anti-Muslim bigotry fed by Buddhist nationalists has swept the country since the war ended but Sri Lanka has no history of Islamic militancy. Its small Christian community has seen only scattered incidents of harassment.

Associated Press writers Bharatha Mallawarachi and Jon Gambrell in Colombo and Gregory Katz in London contributed.

Explosions kill at least 138 in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday

April 21, 2019

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — At least 138 people were killed and hundreds more hospitalized from injuries in near simultaneous blasts that rocked three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a security official told The Associated Press, in the biggest violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.

Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with reporters. Worshippers and hotel guests were among the dead, the official said.

The magnitude of the bloodshed recalled Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war, when separatist Tamil Tigers and other rebel groups targeted the Central Bank, a shopping mall, a Buddhist temple and hotels popular with tourists.

No one has claimed responsibility for Sunday's blasts. St. Anthony's Shrine and the three hotels where the blasts took place are in Colombo, and are frequented by foreign tourists. A National Hospital spokesman, Dr. Samindi Samarakoon, told AP they received 47 dead, including nine foreigners, and were treating more than 200 wounded.

Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels. The Shangri-La's second-floor restaurant was gutted in the blast, with the ceiling and windows blown out. Loose wires hung and tables were overturned in the blackened space.

A police magistrate was at the hotel to inspect the bodies recovered from the restaurant. From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets. Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and that a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.

Other blasts were reported at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa. St. Sebastian's appealed for help on its Facebook page.

The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at St. Sebastian's, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews, TV footage showed. Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas.

Sri Lankan security forces in 2009 defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who had fought to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils. The U.N. initially estimated the death toll from 26 years of fighting to be about 100,000 but a U.N. experts' panel later said some 45,000 ethnic Tamils may have been killed in the last months of the fighting alone.

Government troops and the Tamil Tigers were both accused of grave human rights violations, which prompted local and international calls for investigations.

Putin on Victory Day: Russian military will be strengthened

May 09, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will keep strengthening its armed forces, President Vladimir Putin promised Thursday, speaking at the annual military Victory Day parade that flooded Red Square in Moscow with celebrants, soldiers and military equipment.

The parade marked the 74th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. It included about 13,000 servicemen and 130 pieces of military equipment, ranging from a T-34 tank — renowned for its effectiveness in World War II — to lumbering Yars intercontinental missile launch units.

For the second time in three years, the parade did not conclude with an aerial display of helicopters and warplanes speeding above the square due to heavy clouds and concerns about storms. Putin said later that he regretted the aircraft could not perform but added "there's no need to risk the safety of the pilots and the people on the ground."

Among the guests were recently resigned Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Steven Seagal, the American actor who obtained Russian citizenship in 2016 and later was named a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States.

"We have done and will do everything necessary to ensure the high combat capability of our armed forces," Putin said in his speech. "At the same time, Russia is open for cooperation with all who are ready to resist terrorism, neo-Nazism and extremism."

In the afternoon, an estimated half a million people streamed down one of Moscow's main thoroughfares, many holding photos of relatives who fought or suffered in the war. The Soviet Union is estimated to have lost 26 million people in World War II, including 8 million soldiers.

Dozens of other Russian cities also held parades for the country's most significant secular holiday. In neighboring Ukraine, which also observes the holiday, outgoing President Petro Poroshenko struck out at Russia.

"For five years, the descendants of the glorious victors over Nazism have defended with arms the freedom of the Ukrainian people and their civilization choice from Russian aggression," Poroshenko said.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backs separatist rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian forces in the country's east for the past five years, a conflict that has left over 13,000 dead.

TV actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy roundly defeated Poroshenko in Ukraine's April 21 presidential runoff.

Presidents of Russia, Estonia meet after nearly a decade

April 18, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — The presidents of Russia and Estonia held talks at the Kremlin for the first time in nearly a decade Thursday, a step toward reversing an absence of high-level contacts that Russian President Vladimir Putin described as "not a normal situation."

In his opening remarks, Putin told Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid their neighboring countries have a lot of concerns in common, including environmental issues surrounding the Baltic Sea and security.

Kaljulaid said after the meeting that despite Estonia observing European Union sanctions on Russia, the two countries could make progress on bilateral issues such as developing transportation infrastructure and taxation.

Estonia, which borders Russia's northwest and is home to a large Russian-speaking minority population, was spooked by Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that Ukraine and almost all of the world views as illegal.

Estonia has since hosted scores of NATO military drills that were aimed at deterring potential Russian aggression.

Putin outlines ambitious Arctic expansion program

April 09, 2019

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday put forward an ambitious program to secure Russia's foothold in the Arctic, including efforts to build new ports and other infrastructure facilities and expand an icebreaker fleet.

Speaking at the Arctic forum in St. Petersburg attended by leaders of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, Putin said that Russia plans to dramatically increase cargo shipments across the Arctic sea route.

He said that the amount of cargo carried across the shipping lane is set to increase from 20 million metric tons last year to 80 million tons in 2025. "This is a realistic, well-calculated and concrete task," Putin said. "We need to make the Northern sea route safe and commercially feasible."

He noted that Russia, the only nation with a nuclear icebreaker fleet, is moving to expand it. Russia currently has four nuclear icebreakers, and Putin said that three new such ships are currently under construction. By 2035, Russia stands to have a fleet of 13 heavy icebreakers, including nine nuclear-powered ones, he said.

The Russian leader said that Russia plans to expand the ports on both sides of the Arctic shipping route — Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the Kamchatka Peninsula — and invited foreign companies to invest in the reconstruction project.

Other ports and infrastructure facilities along the route will also be upgraded and expanded, he said. Russia, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway have all been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic as shrinking polar ice creates new opportunities for resource exploration and new shipping lanes.

Speaking at the forum, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg emphasized the need to respect international law and noted that the Arctic Council provides a key arena for dialogue. "Now and then I hear the Arctic described as a geopolitical hotspot," she said. "This is not how we see it. We know the Arctic as a region of peace and stability."

She noted that "this should not be taken for granted," adding that "it is the result of political decisions and practical cooperation between the Arctic states." "Respect for international law and regional cooperation are keys to ensuring peace and stability across borders," Solberg said.

Solberg and other leaders who spoke at the forum underlined the need for all countries in the Arctic region to focus on areas of mutual interest despite differences. The Russian military has revamped and modernized a string of Soviet-era military bases across the polar region, looking to protect its hold on the region, which is believed to hold up to one-quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas.

Addressing the forum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that military deployments in the Arctic are intended to protect national interests. "We ensure the necessary defense capability in view of the military-political situation near our borders," Lavrov said, noting that a recent NATO exercise in Norway was openly directed against Russia.

Russia's relations with the U.S. and other NATO allies have plummeted to post-Cold War lows over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, the war in Syria, Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other issues.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto emphasized the need to search for common ground despite Russia-West tensions. "In spite of what has taken place in Ukraine, we still actually from the Urals to Atlantic, we are Europe, and Europe is the neighbor of Russia," he said. "So usually it is wise to stay in as good relations with your neighbor as possible."

Putin used the forum to criticize the U.S. and the EU sanctions against Russia over its action in Ukraine, but insisted that they wouldn't hamper the country's plans to expand its presence in the Arctic.

He charged that the U.S. has used the economic restrictions as a tool to protect its economic interests, citing Washington's opposition to a prospective pipeline under the Baltic Sea that would carry Russian gas to Germany as an example.

The Russian leader emphasized the challenges to the polar region posed by global warming, saying that Russian scientists believe that the climate is changing faster than indicated by earlier estimates.

"I wouldn't like to see the Arctic turning into something like Crimea, and Crimea becoming a desert due to our failure to take timely measures," he said. Putin said that Russia has fulfilled its obligations under an international agreement aiming to limit global warming by cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, noting that the U.S. has opted out of the pact.

He voiced hope that President Donald Trump will take the U.S. back into the deal, adding that without the involvement of the U.S., which accounts for a large share of global emissions, the agreement wouldn't serve its purpose.

Vladimir Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

Russia Reveals Details About Its First 'Predator' Satellite

Moscow (Sputnik)
Mar 28, 2019

While the US expresses concern about Moscow developing new military satellites, Russian space companies have come up with peaceful and actually globally useful inventions in the sphere of satellite technologies.

State-funded firm Russian Space Systems has presented the concept and characteristics of their latest development - a satellite capable of devouring the remains of its own kind littering the Earth's orbit.

In the course of one full operational cycle, the satellite can recycle up to 500 kilograms of space debris, the developers indicated. What is more, it will use recycled trash as operational fuel.

The 2.5 tonne satellite will be sent into the lower orbits at a height of around 400 kilometers, where it will find its first prey, grab it using a two-section titan net, compress it and then grind it into dust.

The latter will be mixed into a so-called pseudo-liquid fuel using oxygen and hydrogen gases that in turn will be generated by the satellite itself using a processor that regenerates water.

As the satellite inventor Maria Barkova puts it, her invention will basically act as a space "predator" - feeding on other satellites to move further into higher and more littered orbits. This will allow for a reduction in deployment costs, as it won't require additional stages to be sent into lower orbit.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_Reveals_Details_About_Its_First_Predator_Satellite_999.html.

Prince William meets New Zealand mosque attack responders

April 25, 2019

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Britain's Prince William on Thursday met with some of the police officers and medics who were the first to respond to last month's mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Duke of Cambridge arrived in Christchurch in the afternoon after earlier attending an Anzac Day service in Auckland alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. At the service, the prince laid a wreath of red and white flowers on behalf of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

William is on a two-day trip to New Zealand and plans to meet later with survivors of the mosque attacks in which 50 people were killed and 50 others wounded. New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush told reporters after the meeting with first responders that the prince had been very supportive and had wanted to make sure the officers and medics were looking after themselves.

Bush said the prince told staff that "A good friend doesn't pick up the phone when people are in need. You travel to their place and you put your arms around them." Anzac Day is a memorial holiday on the anniversary of New Zealand and Australian soldiers, known as Anzacs, landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. More than 10,000 soldiers from the two countries were killed during that World War I campaign in what is now Turkey.

On Friday, William will visit the two mosques where the massacres took place March 15.

Major Threats to New Zealand's Environment Highlighted in Government Report

Apr. 18, 2019

By Jordan Davidson

New Zealand's pristine image as a haven of untouched forests and landscapes was tarnished this week by a brand new government report. The Environment Aotearoa 2019 painted a bleak image of the island nation's environment and its future prospects.

The report, which was put out by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand, is a follow-up to a 2015 report. While stopping short of making explicit suggestions, it "provides evidence to enable an open and honest conversation about what we have, what we are at risk of losing, and where we can make changes," according to the report's summary.

It found that New Zealand's native plant and animal life has been decimated by invasive species, with 75 animal and plant species having vanished since humans settled the islands. The risk of extinction has worsened for 86 species in the last 15 years, while only improving for 26 species over the last decade.

The numbers in the report tell a dark picture. Almost 4,000 of New Zealand's native species are currently threatened with or at risk of extinction. Marine, freshwater and land ecosystems all have species at risk: 90 percent of seabirds, 76 percent of freshwater fish, 84 percent of reptiles and 46 percent of plants are currently endangered or on the precipice of extinction, according to the report.

"New Zealand is losing species and ecosystems faster than nearly any other country," said Kevin Hague from the conservation group Forest and Bird to The Guardian. "Four thousand of our native species are in trouble … from rampant dairy conversions to destructive seabed trawling – [we] are irreversibly harming our natural world."

The report highlights the dairy industry as particularly problematic since maintaining a herd is land-intensive. The report found that converting land to pasture use contributed to nearly 173,000 acres of natural vegetation loss since 1996 and nearly 2,500 acres of wetland loss since 2001.

"It is undeniable that the dairy industry deserves the title of the dirtiest industry in New Zealand, and urgent action is required," Greenpeace senior campaign and political advisor, Steve Abel said, New Zealand based Newshub reported.

"To turn this around, the Government must institute policies that will lead to land use change, get rid of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, dramatically reduce cow numbers, and invest millions into regenerative farming."

The rapid increase in dairy farming has wreaked havoc on the country's freshwater. The report found that over 82 percent of river water near farmlands was unsuitable for swimming due to pathogens, which have also threatened three-fourths of New Zealand's freshwater fish with extinction.

"The biggest degradations in New Zealand's environment in recent years have been caused by the dairy industry," said Abel to Newshub. "As a nation reliant on an international reputation of being clean and green, we're failing pretty epically."

Source: EcoWatch.
Link: https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-conservation-biodiversity-2634969155.html.

New Zealand Parliament passes sweeping gun restrictions

April 11, 2019

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's Parliament on Wednesday passed sweeping gun laws that outlaw military style weapons, less than a month after the mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch where 50 people were killed and dozens were wounded.

A bill outlawing most automatic and semi-automatic weapons and banning components that modify existing weapons was passed by a vote of 119 to 1 in the House of Representatives after an accelerated process of debate and public submission.

The bill needs only the approval of New Zealand's governor general, a formality, before becoming law on Friday. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke emotionally during the bill's final reading of the traumatic injuries suffered by victims of the March 15 attack, whom she visited in Christchurch Hospital after the shootings.

"I struggle to recall any single gunshot wounds," Ardern said. "In every case they spoke of multiple injuries, multiple debilitating injuries that deemed it impossible for them to recover in days, let alone weeks. They will carry disabilities for a lifetime, and that's before you consider the psychological impact. We are here for them."

"I could not fathom how weapons that could cause such destruction and large-scale death could be obtained legally in this country," she said. Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, was charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder. The royal commission set up to investigate issues surrounding the massacre is examining how he obtained a gun license in New Zealand and purchased weapons and ammunition.

Ardern, who has won international praise for her compassion and leadership since the shootings, was able to win rare bipartisan support for a bill that makes it illegal to own a military-style semi-automatic rifle. The only dissent was from the libertarian ACT Party's lone lawmaker in Parliament.

The law includes a buy-back scheme under which owners of outlawed weapons can surrender them to police in return for compensation based on the weapon's age and condition. Anyone who retains such a weapon after the law formally passes on Friday faces a penalty of up to five years in prison. Some exemptions have been allowed for heirloom weapons held by collectors or for professional pest control.

Ardern said lawmakers had a responsibility to act on behalf of victims of the shootings. "We are ultimately here because 50 people died and they do not have a voice," she said. "We in this house are their voice. Today we can use that voice wisely."

"We are here just 26 days after the most devastating terrorist attacks created the darkest of days in New Zealand's history," she said. "We are here as an almost entirely united Parliament. There have been very few occasions when I have seen Parliament come together in this way and I cannot imagine circumstances where that is more necessary than it is now."

Ardern said that there was some opposition from firearms owners, but that the response to the proposed legislation was overwhelmingly positive. "My question here is simple," she said. "You either believe that here in New Zealand these weapons have a place or you do not. If you believe, like us, that they do not, you should be able to believe we can move swiftly. "An argument about process is an argument to do nothing."

UN rights envoy says Laos focus on big projects hurting poor

March 28, 2019

BANGKOK (AP) — A United Nations human rights expert has urged communist-ruled Laos to focus less on foreign-invested dam and railway contracts and devote more resources to helping its children and the poor.

The U.N. rapporteur on poverty, Philip Alston, said Thursday that Laos' impoverished economy can only thrive if its leaders do a better job of educating and caring for all of its people. The current strategy of favoring big-ticket projects with Chinese investors and granting big concessions for land and other resources favors a wealthy elite and is leaving many others behind, he said.

Alston made the remarks in a news conference livestreamed from Laos' capital, Vientiane, after he toured parts of rural Laos, including an area devastated by a dam collapse last year. They add to a chorus of concern over China's push for big construction projects linked to its "Belt and Road" initiative, which is aimed at weaving a global network of transport and trade that is integrated with its own economy and industries.

Tucked between Thailand, China, Myanmar and Cambodia, tiny Laos' economy has grown quickly in recent years, but the benefits of that growth have not reached many in its largely rural population. Alston said many infrastructure and plantation projects take land from local residents, forcing their resettlement. Most generate too few jobs and result in too much debt, he said.

"Those concessions potentially cover something like 40 percent of the national territory and many if not most of those concessions have produced very few returns to the national budget," he said. "They have generated very little real revenue that can be spent on the wellbeing of the Lao people and of course they have led to widespread dispossession."

A Lao foreign ministry official, Phetvanxay Khousakoun, objected to Alston's comments. "Some of that information that you received might be biased. Also, NGOs might have hidden agendas. This might provide you some misperceptions about Laos," he said. "These are rather small groups of people that do not reflect the entire country."

The official also suggested Alston's comments went beyond his mandate. Alston praised the government for allowing his 11-day visit to the country. But he countered that his findings were in line with his mission.

"These challenges can only be met if they are acknowledged," he said. He noted that women in Laos are largely shut out of decision making, and that the ethnic minorities who make up nearly half of the population are "severely deprived" by nearly every measure, with low incomes and inferior access to education and health care.

Despite major progress in alleviating poverty, more than one-fifth of Lao children are underweight, 9 percent suffer from "wasting," or severe malnutrition and a third are stunted. Less than half have been vaccinated.

"You might have no interest in children, but all you have to know is they are the economic future," he said. "You're not going to have a great workforce with those statistics as your starting point." Alston, an Australian who is based in the U.S., acknowledged that all countries struggle with poverty.

He said the government's pursuit of resource-oriented foreign investment such as rubber plantations, mining and hydroelectric dams is directly linked to poverty because they fail to generate tax revenues or jobs needed to address poverty.

"Poverty is a political choice," he said. "When you decide to spend money on something else, you produce poverty or you perpetuate poverty."

Iran threatens more enrichment if no new nuclear deal

May 08, 2019

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran threatened Wednesday to resume higher enrichment of uranium in 60 days if world powers fail to negotiate new terms for its 2015 nuclear deal a year after President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord, raising tensions as a U.S. aircraft carrier and a bomber wing deploy to confront unspecified threats from Tehran.

In a televised address, President Hassan Rouhani also said that Iran would stop exporting excess uranium and heavy water from its nuclear program, two requirements of the deal. He did not elaborate on the degree to which Iran was prepared to enrich uranium, which at high levels of enrichment can be used in nuclear weapons.

Rouhani said Iran wanted to negotiate new terms with remaining partners in the deal, but acknowledged that the situation was dire. "We felt that the nuclear deal needs a surgery and the painkiller pills of the last year have been ineffective," Rouhani said. "This surgery is for saving the deal, not destroying it."

Iran notified Britain, Russia, China, the European Union, France and Germany of its decision earlier Wednesday. All were signatories to the nuclear deal and continue to support it. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was to meet Wednesday in Moscow with his Russian counterpart.

"If the five countries join negotiations and help Iran to reach its benefits in the field of oil and banking, Iran will return to its commitments according to the nuclear deal," Rouhani said. However, Rouhani warned of a "strong reaction" if European leaders instead sought to impose more sanctions on Iran via the U.N. Security Council. He did not elaborate.

Rouhani also said Wednesday that if the 60 days pass without action, Iran will halt a Chinese-led effort to redesign its Arak heavy water nuclear reactor. Such reactors produce plutonium that can be used in nuclear weapons.

Zarif separately issued his own warning from Moscow. "After a year of patience, Iran stops measures that (the) US has made impossible to continue," he tweeted. World powers have "a narrowing window to reverse this."

Reaction came swiftly from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch critic of Iran and the nuclear deal. "I heard that Iran intends to continue its nuclear program. We will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said. "We will continue to fight those who seek to take our lives, and we will thrust our roots even deeper into the soil of our homeland."

There was no immediate response from the U.S. However, the White House said Sunday it would dispatch the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf over what it described as a new threat from Iran.

Apparently responding to that, the general staff of Iran's armed forces issued a statement Wednesday applauding Rouhani's decision and warning its enemies. "Any possible movement by them will face a regrettable response by the Iranian nation and its armed forces," the statement said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

The 2015 deal lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Iran reached the deal after years of negotiations, including secret talks between Iran and President Barack Obama's administration in Oman. Western governments had long feared Iran's atomic program could allow it to build nuclear weapons. Iran has always maintained its program is for peaceful purposes.

The U.S. withdrew from the deal after Trump campaigned on a pledge to tear up the document. His administration contends the deal should have included limits to Iran's ballistic missile program and what it describes as Tehran's malign regional influence.

However, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, repeatedly has verified Iran stuck to terms of the deal. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After the U.S. withdrew from the accord it restored crippling sanctions on Iran, exacerbating a severe economic crisis. The Iranian rial, which traded at 32,000 to $1 at the time of the accord, traded Wednesday at 153,500.

That Iran chose to keep its excess uranium and heavy water first, rather than abandon the accord in its entirety, indicates it still hopes to secure a deal. In years of negotiations over its nuclear program, Iran had similarly gone step-by-step in ramping up its activities while holding talks. The latest move also protects Rouhani, a relative moderate within Iran's Shiite theocracy, from criticism from hard-liners who have long maintained that Iran gave up too much in the nuclear deal.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of low-enriched uranium and 130 tons of heavy water, a coolant used in nuclear reactors. That's compared to the 10,000 kilograms (22,046 pounds) of higher-enriched uranium it once had.

The U.S. last week ended deals allowing Iran to exchange its enriched uranium for unrefined yellowcake uranium with Russia, and to sell its heavy water, which is used as a coolant in nuclear reactors, to Oman. The U.S. also has ended waivers for nations buying Iranian crude oil, a key source of revenue for Iran's government.

Currently, the accord limits Iran to enriching uranium to 3.67%, which can fuel a commercial nuclear power plant. Weapons-grade uranium needs to be enriched to around 90%. However, once a country enriches uranium to around 20%, scientists say the time needed to reach 90% is halved. Iran has previously enriched to 20%.

"Whenever our demands are met, we will resume the same amount of suspended commitments, but otherwise, the Islamic Republic of Iran will suspend the implementation of other obligations step by step," a statement from Iran's Supreme National Security Council said Wednesday.

It added: "The window that is now open to diplomacy will not remain open for a long time."

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed.

Russia moves to expand state control of internet

April 11, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers approved Thursday a bill that would expand government control over the internet and whose opponents fear heralds a new era of widespread censorship. The bill would install equipment to route Russian internet traffic through servers in the country. That would increase the powers of state agencies and make it harder for users to circumvent government restrictions.

The proposed move sparked protests of several thousand people in Moscow last month. Opponents argue it would allow the state to control the flow of information and enforce blocks on messaging applications which refuse to hand over data.

The bill's backers have sought to play down the expanded powers for controlling traffic. Instead, they say it's a defense measure in case Russia is cut off from the internet by the United States or other hostile powers.

Nikolai Zemtsov, a lawmaker who backed the bill, told The Associated Press a future Russia could cooperate with ex-Soviet countries on a "Runet" where news from critical Western media was restricted. "It could be that in our limited, sovereign internet we will only be stronger," he said.

The bill passed by 322-15 in a second reading in the lower house of parliament. The second reading is when amendments are finalized, and is usually the most important. The bill must pass a third reading and the upper house before being signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.

Since last year, Russian authorities have been trying to block the messaging app Telegram, which has refused to hand over users' encrypted messages in defiance of a court order. Telegram's traffic used millions of different internet protocol addresses, meaning attempts to block it resembled a game of whack-a-mole. Many unrelated apps, online stores and even Volvo car repair services were temporarily knocked offline last year before Russian officials eased their pressure. The new law could make a block easier.

Russia already requires certain personal information about Russian citizens to be stored on servers in the country. That measure led to the social network LinkedIn being blocked in 2016. By moving to exert more control of the internet, which is not overseen by a central authority, the Russian government is taking a page from China's playbook.

China subjects its 700 million internet users to extensive monitoring and tight controls. Beijing has a system of automated filters — known as the "Great Firewall" — to block political content as well as sites related to gambling and pornography. Chinese users are prevented blocked from using Western internet sites such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, leaving the market open for homegrown giants like Tencent.

Chinese regulators have ratcheted up control on local microblogs such as Weibo, ordering them to set up a mechanism to remove false information. They've also been cracking down on virtual private networks — software that can be used to get around internet filters by creating encrypted links between computers and blocked sites.

Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this report.

WikiLeaks' Assange arrested at Ecuador embassy in London

April 11, 2019

LONDON (AP) — Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum.

Ecuador's president Lenin Moreno said a tweet that his government withdrew Assange's status for repeated violations of international conventions. Moreno described it as a "sovereign decision" due to "repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life."

Assange took refuge in the embassy in London in 2012 and has been holed up inside ever since. "Today I announce that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable," Moreno said in a video statement released on Twitter.

Police said Assange has been taken into "custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates' Court as soon as is possible." Video posted online by Ruptly, the agency wing of Russia Today, showed about five to six men in suits forcibly escorting Assange out of the embassy building, surrounding him as he staggered down the steps and boarded a police van.

Police said officers were invited into the embassy by the ambassador following the Ecuador government's withdrawal of Assange's asylum. Assange had not come out of the embassy for years because he feared arrest and extradition to the United States for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Moreno for breaking the impasse, saying on Twitter that Assange "is no hero and no one is above the law." His arrest came a day after WikiLeaks accused the Ecuador's government of an "extensive spying operation" against Assange.

WikiLeaks claims meetings with lawyers and a doctor inside the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed. WikiLeaks said in a tweeted statement that Ecuador illegally terminated Assange's political asylum "in violation of international law."

Twitter Throttled Account of Pro-Life Film 'Unplanned,' Users Say

BY PETR SVAB
April 1, 2019

Scores of people on Twitter are saying the social-media platform was preventing them from following the account of “Unplanned”—a movie about a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turning against abortion.

Hundreds of people said late March 31 that they clicked the “Follow” button on the movie’s Twitter account, only to return to the page moments later and see they were no longer following the account. Many reported experiencing this issue repeatedly, with some posting videos of the phenomenon.

“Every single time I follow @UnplannedMovie within seconds drops my follow—nine times in a row ‘sup @Twitter ?” wrote Salena Zito, a reporter at the right-leaning Washington Examiner, in a March 31 tweet.

She received more than 180 replies, most of which were people reporting the same issue.

Actress Ashley Bratcher, who stars in the movie, said she also encountered the problem.

“I can’t even follow my own movie. It keeps kicking me off!” she said in an early April 1 tweet.

People reported that the follower count on the movie’s Twitter page was wildly fluctuating on March 31, from anywhere between over 170,000 to mere hundreds or thousands.

Twitter Trouble

The movie had a rough start on Twitter, when its account was suspended for some time on March 30, a day after the movie’s theater debut. A Twitter spokesperson said the account was suspended by mistake.

“It wasn’t directly about this account. When an account violates the Twitter Rules, the system looks for linked accounts to mitigate things like ban evasion. In this case, the account was mistakenly caught in our automated systems for ban evasion,” the spokesperson said in an April 1 email.

“We reinstated the account as soon as it was brought to our attention. An account’s followers take time to fully replenish after it is reinstated. We are not hiding follower counts or disallowing certain people from following.”

The spokesperson said the time to “replenish“ the follower count caused the problem users complained about. “That’s why it appeared as if some people were automatically ‘unfollowing,'” the spokesperson said. “That wasn’t the case.”

The movie’s account posted a notice from Twitter, which said the follower count after suspension “may take an hour or so … to return to normal.” The Help Center on Twitter’s website states incorrect follower counts on reactivated accounts “will be fully restored within 24 hours of reactivation.”

“If it has been more than 48 hours and your counts have still not been restored, contact support for assistance,” the website says.

Actress and author Patricia Heaton, who also reported having the issue, said in an April 1 morning tweet that “this problem has been fixed.”

Indeed, during the morning hours, people started to report that their attempts to follow the account appeared to stick.

Promotional Boost

The Twitter controversy seems to have considerably added to the movie’s promotion, as its account grew from only several thousand followers on the movie’s opening day to more than 250,000 as of noon on April 1.

The movie is a biopic of Abby Johnson, a former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas who later became an anti-abortion activist. With a $6 million budget, the movie ranked fifth on its opening weekend, grossing an estimated $6.1 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the country, performing more than 330,000 abortions a year, according to its 2017-2018 Annual Report (pdf). Among its other frequent services are breast exams, cervical cancer screenings, pregnancy tests, and contraception.

The issue of abortion has been pushed to the forefront in recent months as several Democrat-controlled states proposed or passed bills that would allow abortions all the way up to the time of birth, with limited constraints for very late-term abortions—an apparent effort to preserve easy access to abortion in case the conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which hamstrung states’ ability to restrict abortion.

At least nine states controlled by Republicans have bills underway to restrict abortion. The bills would likely be ruled unconstitutional by federal courts under Roe v. Wade, which would likely prompt the states to try to escalate the issue to the Supreme Court.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: https://www.theepochtimes.com/users-complain-twitter-throttled-unplanned-movie-about-abortion_2861826.html.

Modi declares India 'space superpower' as satellite downed by missile

By Jalees Andrabi
New Delhi (AFP)
March 28, 2019

India said it had destroyed a low-orbiting satellite in a missile test that proved the nation was among the world's most advanced space powers.

In a rare address to the nation on Wednesday, just weeks before a national election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India had joined the United States, Russia and China in accomplishing the feat.

A missile fired from a testing facility in Odisha, eastern India, downed the satellite at an altitude of around 300 kilometers (185 miles) in "a difficult operation" that lasted around three minutes, Modi said.

"This is a proud moment for India," Modi added, in his first televised national address since late 2016.

"India has registered its name in the list of space superpowers. Until now, only three countries had achieved this feat."

It comes a month after Indian and Pakistani fighter jets engaged in a dogfight over the disputed border in Kashmir -- a serious military escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Modi said the anti-satellite missile (ASAT) test was peaceful, and not designed to create "an atmosphere of war".

"I want to assure the world community that the new capability is not against anyone. This is to secure and defend... fast-growing India."

But analysts said it would not go unnoticed in China and Pakistan, India's chief rivals in the nuclear-armed region, and could be interpreted as a show of New Delhi's advancing military capabilities.

"This is less about shooting down satellites and more about proving high-altitude 'hit-to-kill' proficiency, which is the core competency required to get good at a range of things -- including defense against nuclear-capable ballistic missiles," Ankit Panda, of the Federation of American Scientists, told AFP.

"This is how the message is going to be perceived in Islamabad."

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said countries that had "strongly condemned" the demonstration of similar technologies in the past should work towards preventing the militarization of space.

"Boasting of such capabilities is reminiscent of Don Quixote's tilting against windmills," the spokesman said.

- Star wars -

The United States and the former Soviet Union carried out their first successful anti-satellite missile tests in 1985, and China in 2007.

All are now said to be working on so-called Star Wars laser weapons to destroy satellites.

With satellites increasingly important because of their intelligence gathering role -- and major nations seeking to gain a foothold in space -- the United States in 2014 rejected a Russian-Chinese proposal for a treaty to ban weapons in space, saying it was "fundamentally flawed" because of the lack of weapons verification measures.

India's foreign ministry said the country "has no intention of entering into an arms race in outer space".

"We have always maintained that space must be used only for peaceful purposes," the ministry said.

"At the same time, the government is committed to ensuring the country's national security interests and is alert to threats from emerging technologies."

Modi said the test did not violate any international treaties and was for the betterment and safety of India's 1.3 billion people.

But NASA and the Pentagon warned that ASAT tests create potentially dangerous debris fields in Earth's orbit.

"Some people like to test anti-satellite capabilities intentionally, and create orbital debris fields that we today are still dealing with," NASA chief Jim Bridenstine told Congress Wednesday.

"And those same countries come to us for space situational awareness, because of the debris field that they themselves created."

Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan said not having rules was "worrisome".

"We all live in space. Let's not make it a mess," Shanahan said.

"Space should be a place where we can conduct business, space should be a place where people have freedom to operate. We cannot make it unstable, we cannot create a debris problem that ASAT tests create."

- Elections -

The test comes ahead of a national election starting April 11 in which Modi -- whose Hindu nationalist party stormed to power in 2014 -- is seeking a second term in office.

Under election laws, the government is forbidden from announcing new policies or other major developments that could benefit the ruling party.

"The timing and the manner of the announcement, with elections around the corner, will certainly lead to speculation," Dhruva Jaishankar, Delhi-based fellow in foreign policy with Brookings India, told AFP.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi congratulated India's scientists on the feat but also wished Modi "a very happy World Theatre Day" -- referring to celebrations also marked around the globe on March 27.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defended the announcement, saying for "a deterrent of this kind there is no better than the prime minister to inform the world".

India has made giant strides in its space journey in recent years. It launched a record 104 satellites in a single mission in 2017, and has also built a reputation for low-cost space exploration and science missions.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Modi_declares_India_space_superpower_as_satellite_downed_by_missile_999.html.

Australian prime minister hit with egg in protest

May 07, 2019

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's prime minister was hit on the head with an egg and a woman was knocked off her feet Tuesday during a protest ahead of a general election next week. The egg appeared to strike Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the back of the head then bounce off without breaking as he spoke to voters at a hall in the regional town of Albury.

Bystander Margaret Baxter was knocked to the floor as security guards grabbed a 25-year-old woman who is accused of throwing the egg and carried her outside. Morrison helped Baxter to her feet. He later suggested the protester was part of a militant movement that raids farms that it accuses of cruelty to animals.

"My concern about today's incident in Albury was for the older lady who was knocked off her feet," Morrison tweeted. "I helped her up and gave her a hug. Our farmers have to put up with these same idiots who are invading their farms and their homes," he added.

Baxter later said she had been knocked over by a cameraman. She said she landed on her hip but was not injured. "The prime minister helped me get up off the floor and I was very grateful for his assistance," Baxter told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"I recently had surgery on my stomach so my main concern was holding my stomach to make sure it didn't get hit or somebody land on it," she added. Outside the hall, the protester told reporters she did not mean to knock anyone down.

The protester, who did not identify herself, described throwing the egg as "the most harmless thing you can do." Police later said in a statement the woman had been taken into custody. Opposition leader Bill Shorten condemned the protest as "appalling and disgraceful behavior."

"In Australia, we have violence-free elections," Shorten told reporters. "People are allowed to protest peacefully, but anything approaching violence is unacceptable." Morrison was campaigning in an electorate held by his conservative Liberal Party. The party fears that an independent candidate could win the seat at the election on May 18.

Armenian trans woman gets threats after parliament speech

April 27, 2019

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — A transgender woman who broke boundaries with a speech in Armenia's parliament says she has received death threats and is avoiding leaving her home in the backlash to her three-minute address.

Lilit Martirosian told members of parliament's human rights committee on April 5 that the group she founded, Right Side, had recorded 283 cases of transgender rights violations. "For me, that means that there are 283 criminals in Armenia living next to me and you," Martirosian said during her speech. "And who knows, maybe a 284th will commit a crime tomorrow."

Some lawmakers immediately expressed their offense. The head of the human rights committee complained Martirosian disturbed a hearing agenda and disrespected parliament. The next day, hundreds of people protesting outside the parliament building demanded to have the podium Martirosian used fumigated.

One protester brandished a knife at cameras and said he would use it against transgender people. A priest from the dominant Armenian Apostolic Church said gay sex should be considered a crime punishable by prison.

Armenia decriminalized homosexuality in 2003, but many in the country resist recognizing LGBT rights. "I received many calls with threats directed against me personally. People would say I needed to be murdered, butchered," Martirosian told The Associated Press on Friday.

Martirosian says she reported the threats to police. Some people in Armenia see her experience as a test of the government that came to power last year following widespread demonstrations calling for an end to corruption and respect for human rights.

"LGBT people face problems in every sphere of life -- they can be violated physically, sexually, psychologically," Mamikon Hovsepian, executive director of the LGBT rights group PINK Armenia, said. "They can be refused in police stations or they can face double discrimination, refused health care services."

Since taking office, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has tried to keep a distance from the issue of LGBT rights, calling it "an unnecessary headache to deal with in 10, 20, 30 years." But Pashinian has criticized the Republican Party that dominated Armenian politics before he came to power over Martirosian's treatment. He noted that the previous government issued her a passport in 2015 with the first name Martirosian took as a woman but had the sex marked as male.

"The moment the (Republicans) gave this person a passport of an Armenian citizen, they included this person in the electoral lists and bestowed the person with all rights of an Armenian citizen," he said.

Beluga whale with Russian harness raises alarm in Norway

April 29, 2019

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A beluga whale found with a tight harness that appeared to be Russian made has raised the alarm of Norwegian officials and prompted speculation that the animal may have come from a Russian military facility.

Joergen Ree Wiig of the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries says "Equipment St. Petersburg" is written on the harness strap, which features a mount for an action camera. He said Monday fishermen in Arctic Norway last week reported the tame white cetacean with a tight harness swimming around. On Friday, fisherman Joar Hesten, aided by the Ree Wiig, jumped into the frigid water to remove the harness.

Ree Wiig said "people in Norway's military have shown great interest" in the harness. Audun Rikardsen, a professor at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe, northern Norway, believes "it is most likely that Russian Navy in Murmansk" is involved. Russia has major military facilities in and around Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula, in the far northwest of Russia.

It wasn't immediately clear what the mammal was being trained for, or whether it was supposed to be part of any Russian military activity in the region. Rikardsen said he had checked with scholars in Russia and Norway and said they have not reported any program or experiments using beluga whales.

"This is a tame animal that is used to get food served so that is why it has made contacts with the fishermen," he said. "The question is now whether it can survive by finding food by itself. We have seen cases where other whales that have been in Russian captivity doing fine."

Hesten told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that the whale began to rub itself again his boat when he first spotted it. Russia does not have a history of using whales for military purposes but the Soviet Union had a full-fledged training program for dolphins.

The Soviet Union used a base in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula during the Cold War to train the mammals for military purposes such as searching for mines or other objects and planting explosives. The facility in Crimea was closed following the collapse of the Soviet Union, though unnamed reports shortly after the Russian annexation of Crimea indicated that it had reopened.

The Russian Defense Ministry published a public tender in 2016 to purchase five dolphins for a training program. The tender did not explain what tasks the dolphins were supposed to perform, but indicated they were supposed to have good teeth. It was taken offline shortly after publication.

Thousands march on May Day, demand better working conditions

May 01, 2019

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of trade union members and activists were marking May Day on Wednesday by marching through Asia's capitals and demanding better working conditions and expanding labor rights.

A major South Korean umbrella trade union also issued a joint statement with a North Korean workers' organization calling for the Koreas to push ahead with engagement commitments made during a series of inter-Korean summits last year. Many of the plans agreed to between the Koreas, including joint economic projects, have been held back by a lack of progress in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.

May Day rallies were also being held in other parts of Asia, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Cambodia and Myanmar. Other parts of the world were set to have rallies as well. In Sri Lanka, major political parties called off traditional May Day rallies due to security concerns following the Easter bombings that killed 253 people and were claimed by militants linked to the Islamic State group.

French authorities announced tight security measures for May Day demonstrations, with the interior minister saying there was a risk that "radical activists" could join anti-government yellow vest protesters and union workers in the streets of Paris and across the country. More than 7,400 police will be deployed, aided by drones to give them an overview of the protests and a quicker way to head off potential violence.

Wearing headbands and swinging their fists, the protesters in Seoul rallied in streets near City Hall, marching under banners denouncing deteriorating working conditions and calling for equal treatment and pay for non-regular workers.

The protesters also called for the government to ratify key International Labor Organization conventions that would strengthen South Korean workers' rights for organization and collective bargaining, and take firmer steps toward reforming "chaebol," or huge family-owned conglomerates that dominate South Korea's economy and are often accused of corruption and monopolistic behaviors. South Korean laws ban government employees and laid-off workers from forming or joining labor unions.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which organized the protests and issued the joint statement with the North Korean organization, said more than 27,000 demonstrators turned out for Wednesday's marches in Seoul. May Day rallies were also held in other major South Korean cities, including Busan, Gwangju and Daejeon.

"A new caste system has taken hold as the discrimination of non-regular workers in wages and job status has caused extreme social divide," KCTU chairman Kim Myeong-hwan said at the Seoul rally. "Small merchants, the poor, the disabled and every other member of the socially weak are living precariously in an unequal society that's dominated by chaebol and offers only a punctured social safety net."

In Bangladesh, hundreds of garment workers and members of labor organizations rallied in Dhaka, the capital, to demand better working conditions and higher wages. Nazma Akter, president of one of Bangladesh's largest unions, said female garment workers were also demanding six months of maternity leave and protection against sexual abuse and violence in the workplace.

Bangladesh has thousands of garment factories employing millions of workers, and the industry generates around $30 billion in exports a year. Construction workers, bus drivers, freelancers and domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia joined a Labor Day march through central Hong Kong. The protesters marched from Victoria Park to the main government offices, some carrying banners reading "Maxed Out!"

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, which organized the march, is demanding a maximum standard work week of 44 hours and an hourly minimum wage of at least 54.7 Hong Kong dollars ($7). Construction workers called for legislation to ensure work safety, while freelance workers are seeking basic labor protections such as the right to recover unpaid wages.

Thousands of low-paid workers took to the streets in Indonesia to demand higher wages, better benefits and improved working conditions in Southeast Asia's largest economy. Laborers in Jakarta, the capital, gathered at national monuments and other places, shouting their demands.

"We demand the rights of workers and their families," said Joko Harianto, head of the national trade union. "People think things are good, but actually these rights are very difficult to obtain." In Taiwan, several thousand workers were marching through the streets of Taipei, the capital, to demand better working conditions. They carried banners and flags and chanted for more days off and higher overtime pay.

Many wore baseball caps and colorful clear plastic ponchos over their clothes, though a light rain ended as the march got underway. Taiwan's official Central News Agency said 6,000 people joined the march.

In the Philippines, thousands of workers and labor activists marched near the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila. They demanded that the government of President Rodrigo Duterte address labor issues including a minimum wage increase and the end of contractualization for many workers.

Police said about 5,000 people joined the march, which comes just over a week before senatorial elections are held in the country. One labor group said its members would not vote for any candidate endorsed by Duterte and burned an effigy of Duterte.

Associated Press journalists Iya Forbes in Manila, Philippines, Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, Andi Jatmiko in Jakarta, Indonesia, Al-emrun Garjon in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Katie Tam in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Tanker hijacked by rescued migrants arrives safely in Malta

March 28, 2019

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — A Maltese special operations team on Thursday boarded a tanker that had been hijacked by migrants rescued at sea, and returned control to the captain, before escorting it to a Maltese port.

Armed military personnel stood guard on the ship's deck, and a dozen or so migrants were also visible, as the vessel docked at Boiler Wharf in the city of Senglea. Several police vans were lined up on shore to take custody of the migrants for investigation.

Authorities in Italy and Malta on Wednesday said that the group had hijacked the Turkish oil tanker El Hiblu 1 after it rescued them in the Mediterranean Sea, and forced the crew to put the Libya-bound vessel on a course north toward Europe.

Italy's interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said the ship had rescued about 120 people and described what happened as "the first act of piracy on the high seas with migrants" as the alleged hijackers. Malta has put the number of migrants rescued at 108.

The ship had been heading toward Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa and the island of Malta when Maltese forces intercepted it. Maltese armed forces established communications with the captain while the ship was still 30 nautical miles off shore. The captain told Maltese armed forces he was not in control of the vessel "and that he and his crew were being forced and threatened by a number of migrants to proceed to Malta." A patrol vessel stopped the tanker from entering Maltese waters, they said.

The special team that restored control to the captain was backed by a patrol vessel, two fast interceptor craft and a helicopter. There was no immediate word on the condition of El Hiblu 1's crew. Humanitarian organizations say that migrants are mistreated and even tortured in Libya, and have protested protocols to return migrants rescued offshore to the lawless northern African nation. Meanwhile, both Italy and Malta have refused to open their ports to humanitarian ships that rescue migrants at sea, which has created numerous standoffs as European governments haggle over which will take them in.

A private group that operates a rescue ship and monitors how governments treat migrants, Mediterranea, urged compassion for the group on the hijacked vessel and said it hoped European countries would act "in the name of fundamental rights, remembering that we are dealing with human beings fleeing hell."

Mass migration to Europe has dropped sharply since 2015, when the continent received 1 million refugees and migrants from countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The surge created a humanitarian crisis in which desperate travelers frequently drowned and leading arrival spots such as Italy and Greece struggled to house large numbers of asylum-seekers.

Along with the dangerous sea journey itself, those who attempt to cross the Mediterranean risk being stopped by Libya's coast guard and held in Libyan detention centers that human rights groups have described as bleak places where migrants allegedly suffer routine abuse.

EU members "alert the Libyan coast guard when refugees and migrants are spotted at sea so they can be taken back to Libya, despite knowing that people there are arbitrarily detained and exposed to widespread torture, rape, killings and exploitation," said Matteo de Bellis, an international migration researcher for Amnesty International.

European Union member countries, responding to domestic opposition to welcoming immigrants, have decided to significantly downscale an EU operation in the Mediterranean, withdrawing their ships and continuing the mission with air surveillance only.

"This shameful decision has nothing to do with the needs of people who risk their lives at sea, but everything to do with the inability of European governments to agree on a way to share responsibility for them," de Bellis said.

Barry reported from Milan. Vanessa Gera contributed from Rome.