Recruitment of new soldiers threatens South Sudan's peace

February 21, 2019

YAMBIO, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's rival armed groups are forcefully recruiting civilians, including child soldiers, violating a fragile peace deal signed five months ago. The evidence from numerous accounts that opposing sides are adding fighters to their ranks is a worrying sign that threatens the country's peace, say officials.

In Yambio, near the border with Congo, all sides met recently to try to resolve their differences and strengthen the peace agreement. However, the meeting quickly turned tense as the government and opposition accused each other of recruiting new fighters, including child soldiers. The meeting highlighted the need for all fighters to be integrated into a single, unified national army, said observers.

The reports of new recruitment come from all sides. In Twic state 1,200 men were forced into the government army, according to a letter sent from community leaders to the governor in January and seen by The Associated Press.

In Upper Nile state opposition-leader Riek Machar is recruiting troops to "balance his number of forces with the government," said a high-ranking opposition member who spoke with Machar and who insisted on anonymity for his safety.

And in Western Equatoria state, another group, the National Salvation Front, is allegedly recruiting former combatants pushing them to take up arms again or hand over their weapons if they refuse, said Johnson Niwamanya, team leader for the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism, the body charged with documenting violations and overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement.

South Sudan is slowly emerging from the five-year civil war that killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions. A peace deal signed on September 12 in neighboring Sudan has been marked by delays, missed deadlines and violations.

The latest wave of recruitment shows the fragility of the peace, as all sides are boosting the size of their forces, said an expert. "In South Sudan, manpower is political power. Politicians use peace deals to grow their own armed ranks," said Alan Boswell senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Officially, the government and both opposition parties deny that any recruitment is taking place. "We are not expecting war for us to recruit," said the government's deputy army spokesman Santo Domic Chol.

In addition are accusations of the continued use of child soldiers. An estimated 19,000 children are associated with armed groups in South Sudan, according to the U.N., giving the country one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world.

James Nando, an opposition commander in Western Equatoria who is accused of having child soldiers, told AP that he is merely caring for "orphans." While the parties say they are committed to peace, fighting continues across South Sudan, especially in the hard-hit Equatoria region.

Last week the United Nations refugee agency said 13,000 people had fled renewed violence in parts of the country after clashes erupted at the end of January between South Sudan's army and the rebel group, the National Salvation Front.

Speaking to the parties in Yambio, chairman of the ceasefire-monitoring group Desta Abiche urged both sides to speed implementation of the peace deal. By May, opposition leader Machar is supposed to return to the country to once again serve as First Vice President and all armed groups are expected to be separately housed, then trained and unified into one national army. So far there are no barracks where the forces are meant to be housed.

"We need to kick everything up because of time," said Abiche to both sides. "There are three months left to take full responsibility. Peace is possible because it's you who can make peace," but he warned: "It is also you who can cause the peace to fail."

Sierra Leone bans industrial fishing for a month

Freetown (AFP)
April 1, 2019

Sierra Leone has banned industrial fishing in its territorial waters for a month from Monday in a move to try to shore up stocks that was applauded by environmental activists.

The government also decreed an April 1-30 halt to exports by major fishing companies "to protect our fish stock from depletion", said a statement from the fisheries ministry.

"All industrial fishing companies should stock their fish in cold rooms ... during the period of closure," Minister of Fisheries Emma Kowa Jalloh told AFP.

The West African states of Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone lost about $2.3 billion (more than 2.1 billion euros) a year from 2010 to 2016 due to illegal and undeclared fishing, according to the Greenpeace environmental group.

Sierra Leone National Fishermen Consortium chairman Alpha Sheku Kamara accused China and Korea of destroying stocks.

"We are happy that the government has declared fishing period closure after series of complaints," he told AFP at the bustling Tombo fishing community outside the capital Freetown.

"Industrial fishing boats from China and Korea are destroying our nets and also depleting the fish stock," he said.

"We are calling on the government to effectively enforce the ban with surveillance."

Many coastal communities in Sierra Leone depend on fishing for food and their livelihood, said Steve Trent, executive director at Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).

"We applaud the ban but the long answer is for legal, equitable and sustainable fishing industry management to be introduced."

"We are working towards helping Sierra Leone with surveillance boats and regulatory framework for sustainable fishing methods," Trent said.

"Illegal fishing accounts for about 30 percent of catches by industrial foreign fleets in Sierra Leone, according to the 2017 Sea Around Us project at the University of British Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley and five other organizations.

It found that in the past decade industrial foreign vessels have increased illegal activities off Sierra Leone either on their own or by enticing small-scale fishers into illicit partnerships.

Reduced monitoring and surveillance resulting from the withdrawal of development aid encouraged unlicensed operations, researchers said, noting an estimated 42,000 tonnes caught by illegal fishing in 2015.

A representative of a large Chinese fishing company in Sierra Leone declined to comment to AFP.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Sierra_Leone_bans_industrial_fishing_for_a_month_999.html.

School building collapses in Nigeria with scores said inside

March 13, 2019

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A three-story building collapsed in Nigeria on Wednesday with scores of school children thought to be inside, setting off frantic rescue efforts in the country's crowded commercial capital. An emergency management official said more than 40 people had been found but it was not yet clear how many died.

Associated Press video showed rescuers carrying several dust-covered, stunned-looking children from the rubble, to cheers from hundreds of people who rushed to the scene. But the crowd quieted as others were pulled out and slung over people's shoulders, unmoving.

The children were hurried through the crowd to ambulances. One man pressed his hands to a passing survivor's head in blessing. Rescue efforts unfolded in the densely populated neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital and a city of some 20 million people. More equipment was brought in as nightfall approached.

As many as 100 children had been in the primary school on the building's top floor, some witnesses said. More than 40 people had been found "but for now I am not in a position to give the number of dead," Shina Tiamiyu, general manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear why the building collapsed. Such disasters are all too common in Nigeria, where new construction often goes up without regulatory oversight and floors are added to already unstable buildings.

Lagos state Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode said buildings in the neighborhood, Ita Faji, should have undergone integrity tests but landlords resisted. Hundreds of people stood in narrow streets and on rooftops of rusted, corrugated metal, watching rescue efforts. A yellow excavator scooped at the ruins of rebar and dust. Later it nosed at concrete slabs.

With emotions high, a number of shirtless men jumped in to offer assistance, hacksaws and mallets in hand. Some were barefoot. Some were bare-handed. One held a water bottle in his teeth. The collapse came as President Muhammadu Buhari, newly elected to a second term, tries to improve groaning, inefficient infrastructure in Africa's most populous nation.

"Nigeria's infrastructure is generally less than half the size than in the average sub-Saharan Africa country and only a fraction of that in emerging market economies," the International Monetary Fund has noted.

"The perceived quality of the infrastructure is low." There was no immediate comment from Buhari's office. Instead, as the rescue work continued, the president's personal assistant posted on Twitter a photo of a gleaming new terminal at the airport in the capital, Abuja.

Nigerian president's lead widens as vote results continue

February 26, 2019

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's election lead grew on Tuesday during a second day of announcing state-by-state election results in Africa's largest democracy. The death toll in vote-related violence rose to 53 as an extremist attack was found to be worse than first reported.

Buhari led by more 1 million votes as he seeks a second term, urging Nigerians to give him time to build on the foundation of his first term hurt by a rare recession and widespread insecurity. Buhari had won 10 of Nigeria's 36 states by mid-afternoon while top challenger Atiku Abubakar, a billionaire former vice president, won seven states, most in the largely Christian south, and the capital's territory.

The process could continue into Wednesday in a race once described as too close to call. Abubakar's party has alleged manipulation of results after Saturday's vote. The ruling party rejects the claim, calling it an attempt to discredit the election, which some observers have called a step back from the widely praised 2015 vote.

In Kano, Nigeria's second-largest state and the heart of the country's Muslim north, the local results were declared at 4 a.m., with Buhari winning. "Well, we thank God that at least we finished this safely, without any hitches," the state electoral commissioner, Riskuwa Shehu, told The Associated Press.

Within minutes, he would join security agents in carrying the results to the capital, Abuja, where they would get in line to announce them for a national audience. Turnout appeared to be lower, Shehu said. He pointed to a number of factors, including the fear of possible violence after heated campaigning. The "disappointment" of a weeklong postponement likely played a role, he said.

Election observers say the vote was hurt by the surprise postponement and significant delays in the opening of polling stations. While they called the process generally peaceful, at least 53 people were killed, analysis unit SBM Intelligence said Tuesday.

The toll rose because an attack claimed by the Islamic State West Africa Province extremist group in the northeast was deadlier than first thought, with at least 17 people killed, head of research Cheta Nwanze told AP.

Nigerians now wonder whether Buhari or Abubakar will follow through on pledges to accept a loss, or challenge the results. A former United States ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, says the troubled election has given them grounds to go to the courts. That route could take months.

"Alhamdulillah," said 36-year-old Umar Ibrahim, who bantered with clients about politics at his tiny shop in Kano. "Up to now they say Buhari is leading, far. He is a good elder." Grace Eje, a 25-year-old domestic worker, held out hope for Abubakar, saying Nigeria needed someone new after Buhari. "No money, no work, no help from him," she said of the president, grimacing.

Nigeria's some 190 million people say they pray for peace. They were surprised in 2015 when President Goodluck Jonathan conceded before official results were announced giving victory to Buhari, a former military dictator who pulled off the first defeat of an incumbent by the opposition in the country's history.

Many worry that such a concession appears unlikely this time. "Jonathan set the benchmark on how electoral outcomes should be handled," Chris Kwaja, a senior adviser to the United States Institute of Peace, told The Associated Press. "Accept defeat in the spirit of sportsmanship. This is a critical vehicle for democratic consolidation. So far, it is unclear what the candidates will do."

For the presidency, a candidate must win a majority of overall votes as well as at least 25 percent of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states. If that isn't achieved, the election moves to a runoff.

The YIAGA Africa project, which deployed more than 3,900 observers, projected that no runoff election will be needed and that a "clear winner" would emerge. It was not yet clear how many of Nigeria's estimated 73 million eligible voters turned out. YIAGA estimated turnout at between 36 percent and 40 percent, down from 44 percent in 2015. That would continue the trend of recent elections.

Some polling units still open in Nigeria, day after voting

February 24, 2019

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Some polling stations remained open across Nigeria Sunday as votes were being counted in most of the country following Saturday's presidential election that is widely seen as a tight race between the president and a former vice president.

Although voting was peaceful in most areas of Nigeria Saturday, there were a few outbreaks of violence in the vast West African country and many reports of delays that compelled electoral officials to reopen polling stations Sunday.

Many polling stations remained open after dark to allow people waiting in line to vote. Because of the delays voting was still taking place Sunday "in several places" across Nigeria, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, a spokesman for the electoral commission, told The Associated Press. He gave no more details, but local media reports cited voting lines in the states of Plateau, Jigawa and Nasarawa.

More than 72 million people were eligible to vote. President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who won election in 2015, is seeking his second term against more than 70 candidates. His main rival is Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and billionaire businessman.

Many Nigerians, appalled that their country recently became the world leader in the number of people living in extreme poverty, said the election will be decided by economic issues. Nigeria suffered a rare, months-long recession under Buhari when global oil prices crashed, with unemployment growing significantly to 23 percent and inflation in the double digits.

Abubakar's party is alleging "deliberate" voter suppression in areas where Buhari's party is known to be unpopular. One of the largest domestic observer groups, Watching the Vote, told reporters on Sunday that Nigeria had missed its chance to improve on the 2015 election. Logistical problems caused 59 percent of the polling stations it monitored to open late, and misconduct at some stations hurt people's ability to vote. The issues, however, didn't necessarily undermine the election's credibility, spokesman Hussaini Abdu said.

In the northern city of Kano tempers flared at one collation center where unaccredited Abubakar supporters alleged that ballots from a couple of polling units hadn't been counted. Amid shouting, security personnel pushed them out of the courtyard's metal door.

A ruling party supervisor, Joy Bako, watched in exasperation before they engaged her in a heated argument. "It was free and fair," she said. "Nobody was arguing. I'm surprised at all this noise." Observers and workers at the collation center, and others who had visited multiple centers, reported a peaceful process in an area where voters were expected to largely support Buhari.

Even an opposition supporter, Abubakar Ali, paused from the ruckus to acknowledge that "everything was going clear." But a lot of people did not come out to vote as compared to the last time, he said.

Godwin Ugbala, who spent the election as an agent for one of the country's dozens of small political parties, reported a smooth voting day and added his voice to the frustration with Buhari. "This one failed us in so many ways," Ugbala said. "No business. Everything is tired."

He voted for Buhari in 2015 but said the president had "betrayed" the people by not following up on his promises. Nigeria's presidential election was held a week late, after the electoral commission said it needed more time to organize the logistics of holding a credible election

Observers said the postponement, blamed on logistical challenges, could favor Buhari, with some Nigerians saying they didn't have the resources to travel a second time to their place of registration. It's unclear when a winner will be announced, but some observers say it could be Tuesday or Wednesday.

Muhumuza reported from Yola, Nigeria.

Counting starts in Nigeria's delayed poll marked by violence

February 23, 2019

DAURA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria began counting votes in a presidential election on Saturday marked by an extremist attack and other killings, late-opening polling stations and a surprise loss for top challenger Atiku Abubakar in his hometown.

Voting in Africa's largest democracy took place a week after a painful election delay. Final results are expected on Tuesday. Observers and security forces gave scattered reports of torched ballot boxes, soldiers firing on suspected vote-snatchers and people illegally selling their votes for as little as 500 naira ($1.38).

President Muhammadu Buhari, who seeks a second term after largely failing to deliver on fighting insecurity and corruption, was first in line at his polling station in his northern hometown of Daura. After cheekily peering at his wife's ballot, he told reporters he was ready to congratulate himself on victory. He refused to say whether he would accept a loss.

Billionaire former vice president Abubakar, who had told reporters that "I look forward to a successful transition," was embarrassed by his 186-167 loss to the president at his polling station under a tree in Yola. A large crowd of Buhari supporters exploded in cheers at the news.

Observers had said the election was too close to call. Election day began with multiple blasts in Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Borno state. Security forces at first denied an attack but eventually acknowledged that extremists had "attempted to infiltrate" the city by launching artillery fire. One soldier was killed and four were wounded, a security official said, insisting on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The attacks, claimed by the Islamic State West Africa Province, frightened some voters away from the polls. "I feared for my life," resident Haruna Isa said. He stayed home and wished the candidates luck.

Asmau Hassan said she lost her voting card in the chaos after one explosion struck her displacement camp. She wanted to vote for Buhari but said "I have just turned into an onlooker now." Authorities confirmed another attack on a military base in Geidam in northeastern Yobe state, saying it prevented the governor from voting.

In Rivers state in Nigeria's restive south, the army said it killed six people it described as "political hoodlums" after troops were ambushed at a road barricade in Abonnema. Spokesman Sagir Musa said a lieutenant also was killed in the shootout.

Several other election-related deaths were reported. Police in Rivers state said a former aide to the governor was shot dead along with his brother. The Nation newspaper reported three people killed in Lagos, Africa's largest city, when thugs attacked a polling booth and burned ballot boxes.

A coalition of civic groups said multiple polling units had not opened more than four hours after the official start. Delays were reported in parts of the south and in the north-central state of Nasarawa as well as in Lagos.

Many of Nigeria's more than 72 million people eligible to vote pressed on, some walking for hours along roads deserted by traffic restrictions. Raphael Dele in Yola said he walked over 10 kilometers (6 miles) to his polling station "because there is no room for excuses."

Many Nigerians, appalled that their country recently became the world leader in the number of people living in extreme poverty, said the election will be decided by economic issues. Nigeria suffered a rare, months-long recession under Buhari when global oil prices crashed, with unemployment growing significantly to 23 percent and inflation in the double digits.

Some on Saturday noted a lower turnout than four years ago, when many Nigerians hoped that Buhari, a former military dictator, would tame multiple security crises. "Really this time, there were not many people from what I observed," said Habiba Bello, a political party agent who attended vote-counting in Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city. A nearby station showed just 102 voters out of the nearly 400 expected.

In the dusty schoolyard, party agents recited aloud in unison as polling officials held ballot papers aloft one by one. "I'm feeling fine now!" declared Nura Abba, there for the ruling party. An electoral commission presiding officer, Kabiru al-Haji Musa, showed another station's presidential results, scrawled in ballpoint pen. Buhari received 88 votes. Abubakar had eight.

Elsewhere, votes were counted by the light of mobile phones after sundown. The ruling party warned of possible violence "in the wee hours" as ballots were compiled in poorly defended locations such as schools.

Observers said the delay of the election from last week, blamed on logistical challenges, could favor Buhari, with some Nigerians saying they didn't have the resources to travel a second time to their place of registration.

Some also warned the delay could hurt the election's credibility. "Unless Atiku is declared the winner, many will still believe that (the electoral commission) colluded with the government to rig him out," said Jideofor Adibe, associate professor of political science at Nasarawa State University.

Some voters, however, dismissed concerns about having to wait. "This election means so much to me. It means the future of Nigeria. The future of my children unborn. And the future of my entire family," voter Blessing Chemfas said.

Muhumuza reported from Yola, Nigeria. Abdulrahim reported from Maiduguri, Nigeria. Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Kano, Nigeria, Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria, Hilary Uguru in Oleh, Nigeria, and photographer Jerome Delay in Kaduna, Nigeria contributed.

Ocean changes affected deadly duo of Mozambique cyclones

April 26, 2019

BERLIN (AP) — Warming waters and rising sea levels are affecting Indian Ocean cyclones such as those that have wrought havoc in Mozambique in recent weeks, making them potentially more deadly. But experts caution it is premature to say whether the unprecedented double-whammy of storms to hit the southern African nation is a consequence of climate change, and whether these cyclones will become more common.

Cyclone Idai, which swamped large parts of central Mozambique last month, killed over 600 people and displaced thousands. Cyclone Kenneth made landfall Thursday evening in the north of the country where no such storm has been recorded since satellite observations began in the 1970s.

"There is no record of two storms of such intensity striking Mozambique in the same season," said Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization. "It is difficult to pronounce on one event like Idai, or even two like Idai and Kenneth. The statistical size of the sample is just too small," she said. "But one thing is sure: The vulnerability of coastal areas will become worse with the sea-level rise induced by global warming."

Inland areas, too, are at risk because storms are getting wetter. Kenneth, which has weakened to a tropical depression, is expected to bring heavy rainfall to already saturated soil and dams at the end of the rainy season.

"While attention is often given to wind speed, we know from experience that it is rainfall — and subsequent flooding and landslides — that can be even more dangerous from a humanitarian perspective," said Antonio Carabante, an emergency relief delegate with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"This was certainly the case for Cyclone Idai," Carabante said, adding that many affected areas are prone to flooding and landslides even with normal levels of rainfall. "And this is far from a normal situation."

Such conditions can be particularly devastating for developing countries like Mozambique and neighboring Malawi and Zimbabwe, all hit by Cyclone Idai, where food stores can be quickly depleted in a disaster and the health care system struggles to cope with a sudden disease outbreak like cholera.

"Cyclone Kenneth may require a major new humanitarian operation at the same time that the ongoing Cyclone Idai response targeting 3 million people in three countries remains critically underfunded," said the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, Mark Lowcock, who described the situation as a "climate-related disaster."

Abubakr Salih Babiker, a meteorologist at the Nairobi-based Intergovernmental Authority on Development, said there are indications that tropical cyclones are becoming more common off East Africa as rising sea surface temperatures are a key ingredient for cyclones to form.

"There's a pattern here," he said, citing recent violent storms from Somalia in the Horn of Africa down to Mozambique. "What used to be rare is not rare anymore." And just as warmer seas are helping spark cyclones, hotter air is feeding the resulting rainfall, Salih Babiker said. "If the air is warmer, it has more ability to hold moisture."

The World Meteorological Organization said this year's cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean has been exceptionally intense, with 15 storms including nine intense cyclones. It is now tied with the record season of 1993-1994.

Nullis said the agency is sending an expert delegation to Mozambique to discuss with the government how to improve its resilience to extreme weather. Long and narrow with a 2,400-kilometer (1,500-mile) Indian Ocean coastline, the country is one of the world's most vulnerable to global warming.

Macron in Kenya, 1st French leader there since independence

March 13, 2019

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron will be in Kenya today in the first visit by a French leader since the East African nation's independence in 1963. This is the latest stop in Macron's Africa tour, followed by Ethiopia and Djibouti, focusing on investment and security in a region of increasing strategic importance.

The French leader is attending a U.N. environmental meeting and One Planet Summit in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Macron's office says that Kenya is the only African nation to reach the goal of making renewable energy 75 percent of its energy mix.

The office also notes the ongoing threat to Kenya from extremism. Al-Shabab is in neighboring Somalia. French business leaders are also traveling with Macron. Kenya is East Africa's commercial hub.

Ethiopia to send plane's black box abroad, as grief grows

March 13, 2019

HEJERE, Ethiopia (AP) — The black box from the Boeing jet that crashed and killed all 157 people on board will be sent overseas for analysis but no country has been chosen, an Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said Wednesday, as much of the world grounded or barred the plane model and grieving families arrived at the disaster site.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Asrat Begashaw said the airline has "a range of options" for the data and voice records of the flight's last moments. "What we can say is we don't have the capability to probe it here in Ethiopia," he said.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The disaster is the second with a Max 8 plane in just five months. While some aviation experts have warned against drawing conclusions until more information on the latest crash emerges, much of the world, including the entire European Union, has grounded the Boeing jetliner or banned it from their airspace.

That leaves the United States as one of the few remaining operators of the plane. "Similar causes may have contributed to both events," European regulators said, referring to the Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people last year.

British regulators indicated possible trouble with a reportedly damaged flight data recorder, which could hamper the retrieval of information. Some aviation experts have warned that finding answers in this crash could take months.

Asrat, the Ethiopian Airlines spokesman, told the AP that the remains of victims recovered so far are in freezers but forensic DNA work for identifications had not yet begun. The dead came from 35 countries.

More devastated families arrived at the crash site on Wednesday, some supported by loved ones and wailing.

Landmark UN plastic waste pact gets approved but not by US

May 11, 2019

GENEVA (AP) — Nearly every country in the world has agreed upon a legally binding framework to reduce the pollution from plastic waste except for the United States, U.N. environmental officials say. An agreement on tracking thousands of types of plastic waste emerged Friday at the end of a two-week meeting of U.N.-backed conventions on plastic waste and toxic, hazardous chemicals.

Discarded plastic clutters pristine land, floats in huge masses in oceans and rivers and entangles wildlife, sometimes with deadly results. Rolph Payet of the United Nations Environment Program said the "historic" agreement linked to the 186-country, U.N.-supported Basel Convention means that countries will have to monitor and track the movements of plastic waste outside their borders.

The deal affects products used in a broad array of industries, such as health care, technology, aerospace, fashion, food and beverages. "It's sending a very strong political signal to the rest of the world — to the private sector, to the consumer market — that we need to do something," Payet said. "Countries have decided to do something which will translate into real action on the ground."

Countries will have to figure out their own ways of adhering to the accord, Payet said. Even the few countries that did not sign it, like the United States, could be affected by the accord when they ship plastic waste to countries that are on board with the deal.

Payet credited Norway for leading the initiative, which first was presented in September. The time from that proposal to the approval of a deal set a blistering pace by traditional U.N. standards for such an accord.

The framework "is historic in the sense that it is legally binding," Payet said. "They (the countries) have managed to use an existing international instrument to put in place those measures." The agreement is likely to lead to customs agents being on the lookout for electronic waste or other types of potentially hazardous waste more than before.

"There is going to be a transparent and traceable system for the export and import of plastic waste," Payet said.

UN mission: Ukraine actions after Odessa fire inadequate

May 03, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Five years after 48 people died in clashes in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, a United Nations' human rights monitoring mission criticized authorities Thursday for delays in investigating and prosecuting people for the violence.

The loss of life on May 2, 2014 started during a confrontation between demonstrators calling for autonomy in eastern Ukraine amid a Russia-backed separatist uprising and supporters of Ukraine's government. Six people were killed during hours of street fighting.

The worst was yet to come. After pro-autonomy demonstrators retreated to a trade union building, government supporters threw fire bombs into the building; 42 people died inside or after jumping or falling from windows.

In a statement on the bloodshed's five-year anniversary, the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said "authorities have not done what it takes to ensure prompt, independent and impartial investigations and prosecutions."

In Odessa, residents marked the anniversary by laying flowers outside the trade union building and attending other events. About 4,500 people took part, according to police.

UN adds leader of outlawed Pakistan group to sanctions list

May 02, 2019

ISLAMABAD (AP) — In a major diplomatic win for India, the United Nations added the leader of an outlawed Pakistani militant group to its sanctions blacklist Wednesday after the group claimed responsibility for a February suicide attack in disputed Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers.

Sanctions against Masood Azhar were confirmed by Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal at an urgently held news conference in Islamabad. Azhar's addition to the Security Council's Islamic State and al-Qaida blacklist includes a travel ban and freeze on his assets as well as an arms embargo.

The development came less than three months after Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad group claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack in Kashmir, which is split between the two countries and is claimed by both in its entirety. The clashes brought the two nuclear rivals to the brink of war.

India had intensified its lobbying to have Azhar blacklisted after the killing of its soldiers and New Delhi quickly welcomed the Security Council decision. Sanctions against Azhar had been delayed because Security Council member China had blocked them on three previous occasions. But the council went ahead after China no longer objected.

Azhar was blacklisted for his leadership of the al-Qaida-linked Jaish-i-Mohammad. The official listing by the U.N. sanctions committee said the 50-year-old Azhar was associated with al-Qaida by supporting its activities including by supplying arms and recruiting members, and for financially supporting Jaish-i-Mohammed after he was released from prison in India in 1999 in exchange for 155 passengers on an Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

As a group, Jaish-i-Mohammed had been put on the sanctions blacklist in 2001 for its ties to "Al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban." The U.N. listing noted that 2008 recruitment posters for Jaish-i-Mohammed "contained a call from Azhar for volunteers to join the fight in Afghanistan against Western forces."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter that "today is a day that would make every Indian proud! I thank the global community and all those who believe in humanitarian values for their support."

Days after the Feb. 14 Kashmir attack, India responded by launching an airstrike in northwest Pakistan that caused no casualties. Pakistan then responded on Feb. 27 by shooting down two Indian warplanes and capturing a pilot, who was later returned.

Timely intervention by the international community defused tensions between the two South Asian nuclear powers, who have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947. Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said the Trump administration commends the decision to sanction Azhar. Azhar's sanctioning comes weeks after Washington said it was seeking to have him put on the U.N. blacklist. Pakistan is a key ally of the U.S. in its fight against extremism.

A senior U.S. administration official told reporters that "after 10 years China has done the right thing by lifting its hold on this designation." The official, who insisted on speaking anonymously, said Britain and France joined the U.S. in putting pressure on China after the Feb. 14 attack, and Beijing seems to have understood "that it is increasingly important that its actions on the international stage on terrorism matched its rhetoric."

The official said the Trump administration is watching to see if Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's commitment to crack down on militants in the country "will translate into irreversible steps to end terrorist and militant safe havens inside Pakistan."

Khan has ordered the takeover of assets and property of Jaish-i-Mohammed and dozens of banned militant organizations that operate in Pakistan. Bushra Aziz, a spokesman for Pakistan's Embassy to the U.S. in Washington, said the country is resolved to countering terrorism and claims that no other country can match Pakistan's efforts in the fight. Aziz said terrorism is a menace to the world and also criticized India's actions against residents of Kashmir.

Pakistan has said authorities have detained dozens of people suspected of involvement in the Kashmir attack after receiving a file with intelligence on the attack from New Delhi. Pakistan said its probe did not establish any direct link between Azhar or his group and the attack that killed the Indian soldiers. However, Islamabad has sought more evidence from New Delhi so that it can act against Azhar and his group.

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed reported in Islamabad and AP writer Ashok Sharma reported from New Delhi, India. AP writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.

Israeli election may have dimmed hopes for 2-state solution

April 21, 2019

JERUSALEM (AP) — Is the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dead? After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coasted to another victory in this month's Israeli election, it sure seems that way.

On the campaign trail, Netanyahu ruled out Palestinian statehood and for the first time, pledged to begin annexing Jewish settlements in the West Bank. His expected coalition partners, a collection of religious and nationalist parties, also reject Palestinian independence.

Even his chief rivals, led by a trio of respected former military chiefs and a charismatic former TV anchorman, barely mentioned the Palestinian issue on the campaign trail and presented a vision of "separation" that falls far short of Palestinian territorial demands.

The two Jewish parties that dared to talk openly about peace with the Palestinians captured just 10 seats in the 120-seat parliament, and opinion polls indicate dwindling support for a two-state solution among Jewish Israelis.

"The majority of the people in the state of Israel no longer see a two-state solution as an option," said Oded Revivi, the chief foreign envoy for the Yesha settler council, himself an opponent of Palestinian independence. "If we are looking for peace in this region, we will have to look for a different plan from the two-state solution."

For the past 25 years, the international community has supported the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — as the best way to ensure peace in the region.

The logic is clear. With the number of Arabs living on lands controlled by Israel roughly equal to Jews, and the Arab population growing faster, two-state proponents say a partition of the land is the only way to guarantee Israel's future as a democracy with a strong Jewish majority. The alternative, they say, is either a binational state in which a democratic Israel loses its Jewish character or an apartheid-like entity in which Jews have more rights than Arabs.

After decades of fruitless negotiations, each side blames the other for failure. Israel says the Palestinians have rejected generous peace offers and promoted violence and incitement. The Palestinians say the Israeli offers have not been serious and point to Israel's ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, now home to nearly 700,000 Israelis.

The ground further shifted after the Hamas militant group took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 and left the Palestinians divided between two governments, with one side — Hamas — opposed to peace with Israel. This ongoing rift is a major obstacle to negotiations with Israel, and has also left many Palestinians disillusioned with their leaders.

Since taking office a decade ago, Netanyahu has largely ignored the Palestinian issue, managing the conflict without offering a solution for how two peoples will live together in the future. After clashing with the international community for most of that time, he has found a welcome friend in President Donald Trump, whose Mideast team has shown no indication of supporting Palestinian independence.

Tamar Hermann, an expert on Israeli public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the election results do not necessarily mean that Israelis have given up on peace. Instead, she said the issue just isn't on people's minds.

"Most Israelis would say the status quo is preferable to all other options, because Israelis do not pay any price for it," she said. "They don't feel the outcome of the occupation. ... Why change it?"

While the two-state prospects seem dim, its proponents still cling to the belief that the sides will ultimately come around, simply because there is no better choice. "Either Israel decides to be an apartheid state with a minority that is governing a majority of Palestinians, or Israel has to realize that there is no other solution but two states," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told The Associated Press. "Unfortunately the Israeli prime minister is politically blind about these two facts."

Shtayyeh noted the two-state solution continues to enjoy wide international backing. Peace, he insisted, is just a matter of "will" by Israel's leaders. Dan Shapiro, who served as President Barack Obama's ambassador to Israel, said the two-state solution "is certainly getting harder" after the Israeli election but is not dead.

Getting there would require leadership changes on both sides, he said, pointing to the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt 40 years ago, reached by two leaders who were sworn enemies just two years earlier.

"We know what's possible when the right leadership is in place," he said. "So that puts us supporters of it in a mode of trying to keep it alive and viable for the future." That may be a tall task as the Israeli election results appear to reflect a deeper shift in public opinion.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, which conducts monthly surveys of public opinion, support for the two-state solution among Jewish Israelis has plummeted from 69% in 2008, the year before Netanyahu took office, to 47% last year. Just 32% of Israelis between the ages of 18-34 supported a two-state solution in 2018. The institute typically surveys 600 people, with a margin of error of just over 4 percentage points.

Attitudes are changing on the Palestinian side as well. Khalil Shikaki, a prominent Palestinian pollster, said 31% of Palestinians seek a single binational state with full equality, a slight increase from a decade ago. His poll surveyed 1,200 people and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Although there was no breakdown by age group, Shikaki said the young are "clinging less to the two-state solution because they lost faith in the Palestinian Authority's ability to provide a democratic state" and because the expanding settlements have created a new reality on the ground.

Amr Marouf, a 27-year-old restaurant manager in the city of Ramallah, said he maintains his official residence in a village located in the 60% of the West Bank that Israel controls, just in case Israel annexes the territory. That way, he believes, he can gain Israeli citizenship.

"I think the one state solution is the only viable solution," he said. "We can be in Israel and ask for equal rights. Otherwise, we will live under military occupation forever." Netanyahu is expected to form his new coalition government by the end of May, and he will come under heavy pressure from his partners to keep his promise to annex Israel's West Bank settlements.

Such a step could extinguish any hopes of establishing a viable Palestinian state, particularly if the U.S. supports it. American officials, who have repeatedly sided with Israel, have said nothing against Netanyahu's plan.

There is also the Trump administration's long-delayed peace plan, which officials have signaled could finally be released this summer. U.S. officials have said little about the plan, but have indicated it will go heavy on economic assistance to the Palestinians while falling far short of an independent state along the 1967 lines.

Shtayyeh said such a plan would be a nonstarter. "This is a financial blackmail, which we reject," he said.

Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

U.S. kicks off Balikatan exercise in Philippines

By Allen Cone
APRIL 1, 2019

April 1 (UPI) -- Balikatan 2019, an annual military exercise involving thousands of troops -- and, for the first time, the F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter -- began Monday in the Philippines.

The opening ceremony took place at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City with 4,000 Filipino, 3,500 American and 50 Australian troops, according to the U.S. Navy, and it will run through April 12.

This is the 35th Balikatan, which is a Tagalog language phrase in the Philippines for "shoulder-to-shoulder."

On Saturday, the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, with embarked Marines from Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force 4, led by the 4th Marine Regiment, arrived in Subic Bay. The USS Wasp is part of the 7th Fleet.

Aboard the ship are F-35Bs, the short-takeoff, vertical-landing variant of the 5th generation fighter jet, in air support of Marines on the ground.

"We are excited to visit the Philippines for the first time since Wasp was forward deployed to 7th Fleet," Capt. Colby Howard, Wasp's commanding officer, said in the news release. "Balikatan is a great opportunity for the Navy, Marine Corps team and our allies from the Republic of the Philippines to learn from one another, and further improve our ability operate together."

Balikatan helps train troops to support an ally should a crisis or natural disaster occur, according to the news release.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations members will participate as part of the International Observers Program.

U.S. and Philippine forces will conduct amphibious operations, live-fire training, urban operations, aviation operations and counterterrorism response on the islands of Luzon and Palawan, according to the Defense Department.

The focus this year is on maritime security and amphibious capabilities, as well as multinational interoperability through military exchanges.

Australia has sent special forces, medical, engineering and chaplaincy personnel.

"The exercise allows us to build our relationship with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the United States Indo-Pacific Command," the Australian chief of joint operations, Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld, said in a statement.

"Through this partnership, we aim to increase our ability to coordinate a multilateral response to a disaster or humanitarian crisis in a complex and ever-evolving regional security environment."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/04/01/US-kicks-off-Balikatan-exercise-in-Philippines/2951554120962/.

Newly crowned Thai king begins 2nd day of coronation events

May 05, 2019

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn has launched the second day of coronation activities with a ceremony to grant new titles to members of the royal family. Vajiralongkorn on Saturday took part in an elaborate set of rituals, a mix of Buddhist and Hindu Brahmanic traditions, which established his status as a full-fledged monarch with complete regal powers. He had already been serving as king since the October 2016 death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The 66-year-old Vajiralongkorn began Sunday morning's event before dignitaries in a hall at Bangkok's Grand Palace by paying respects in front of portraits of his late father and mother, who has been hospitalized for an extended period. His mother, who was Bhumibol's queen, was granted a new official title of Queen Mother.

As coronation begins, Thai king's future role still unclear

May 03, 2019

BANGKOK (AP) — Three days of elaborate centuries-old ceremonies begin Saturday for the formal coronation of Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who has been on the throne for more than two years. What Vajiralongkorn — also known as King Rama X, the 10th king of the Chakri dynasty — will do with the power and influence the venerated status confers is still not clear.

The 66-year-old monarch has sent mixed signals. Bursts of assertiveness alternate with a seemingly hands off approach in other matters — a perception girded by the amount of time he spends at a large residence in Germany.

On Wednesday, he suddenly announced his fourth marriage, to a former flight attendant who is a commander of his security detail, and appointed her Queen Suthida. The timing of the announcement, just ahead of his coronation, suggests a new commitment to his royal duties.

But he is likely to remain burdened by old gossip about his personal life that has dogged him since returning from his education in England and Australia. Many Thais are familiar with tales about his alleged exploits while he was crown prince, even though harsh laws mandate a prison term of three to 15 years for anyone found guilty of insulting the monarchy.

Vajiralongkorn early on was pinned with the reputation of a playboy, a trait that even his own mother acknowledged. He has gone through bitter divorces with three women who have borne him seven children.

His father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej — the only monarch most Thais had known when he died in October 2016 after seven decades on the throne — won most of his countrymen's deep love and respect as an exemplar of rectitude and an avid cheerleader for his country's economic development. His three sisters are frequently engaged in public service.

"The defining years saw King Bhumibol spending large amounts of time in provincial Thailand, visiting ordinary people," said Michael Montesano, coordinator of the Thailand Studies Program at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. "We have yet to see similar behavior on the part of his heir."

Paul Chambers, a political scientist at Naraesuan University in northern Thailand, finds Vajiralongkorn's style "more hands off," even as he has brought more of Thailand's administration directly under the palace.

Vajiralongkorn's early actions as king included replacing his late father's loyalists with his own in key palace posts. Some of those he fired were called lazy, or arrogant, and in some cases, guilty of "extremely evil behavior."

"The new king is a very decisive man, and he's a very daring man, unlike his father," asserts Sulak Sivaraksa, a conservative social critic. "His father was on the whole, a very quiet person, and he 'suffered fools (gladly)' around him. He knew (if) somebody cheated him and so, but he was very tolerant."

There have been suggestions that the new king's purges amount to an anti-corruption campaign. Such a case can be made, acknowledges Montesano. "But the same actions also appear to bespeak an interest in gaining or exerting greater control over certain institutions," Montesano said. "That possible motive must be kept in mind."

There is little question that Vajiralongkorn has tightened control over royal institutions and what amounts to political privileges. He surprised the country's ruling junta when, "to ensure his royal powers," he requested changes to a new constitution that had already been approved in a referendum. They acquiesced.

The powers he acquired centralize royal authority in his hands and make explicit his right to intervene in government affairs, especially in times of political crisis. Vajiralongkorn has also sought to shore up the palace's finances, previously controlled by a vast and somewhat creaky bureaucracy. The palace's fortune, estimated by sources such as Forbes magazine to be in the neighborhood of $30 billion, is largely controlled by the Crown Property Bureau, a professionally managed holding company with large stakes in real estate, banking and industry.

Vajiralongkorn instituted changes giving him tighter control to personally manage the bureau and its holdings. Vajiralongkorn's greatest challenge is likely to be sorting out the palace's relationship with the military.

His father Bhumibol and the army worked out a delicate balance of power, with the palace arguably holding the stronger hand, especially after a 1973 pro-democracy uprising temporarily discredited military rule. The army's declared mission of protecting the monarchy became its shield against criticism.

But as Bhumibol's health declined in the last decade and a half of his life, that balance began to shift. Now, with the army entrenched in government for five years after staging a coup in 2014, things seem to have shifted more in the military's favor.

Vajiralongkorn has supporters in the military. He was educated at military academies, took part in 1970s counterinsurgency action against the Communist Party of Thailand, and is a qualified pilot in the air force, the service he is closest to.

There are special army units directly under the palace's command, and Vajiralongkorn has augmented their strength. "He has sought to bring more army units under his personal control," said Chambers. "Prior to his father's death, the junta leaders seemed to have acted for the ailing and aged king but they were becoming too big for their britches, so to speak. Hence the new sovereign wanted to ensure personalized monarchical control over the military."

Vajiralongkorn's actions help restore the balance of palace-barracks relations and "reflect a diminution of the army's own influence," agrees Montesano. The relationship, however, is a two-way street. An election held under the junta in March has been widely seen as rigged to favor the military and its preferred candidate, Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup and has headed the government since then.

When Vajiralongkorn's older sister, Princess Ubolratana, lent her support to Prayuth's opponents by agreeing to be their candidate for prime minister, the king immediately clamped down, declaring the action unconstitutional. He also issued a statement on the eve of the election saying that people should support "good people" to prevent "bad people" from gaining power and causing chaos, words that seemed to echo the junta's justification for taking power following years of political tensions and occasional violence.

He is likely to be embroiled in the political battle again just a few days after his coronation, when election results are supposed to be certified and will almost certainly be challenged by the losers.

The Thai people, said Sulak, will probably be peaceful and "full of joy" during the coronation ceremony period. "But I'm not sure afterwards," he said.

Thai king appoints consort as queen ahead of coronation

May 02, 2019

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn has appointed his consort as the country's queen ahead of his official coronation on Saturday. An announcement Wednesday in the Royal Gazette said Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya is legally married to the 66-year-old king, and is now Queen Suthida.

Although she has been in the public eye for about three years, there has been little official information released about her and the news was a surprise to many Thais. She is reported to be 40 years old and to have previously worked as a flight attendant for Thai Airways International. The two reportedly met on a flight.

Suthida joined the palace guard in 2013 and became commander of the king's security unit, currently holding a general's rank. The new queen also has several top royal decorations. Vajiralongkorn has had three previous marriages and divorced his previous wife, with whom he has a son, in 2014. He became king after the death in October 2016 of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Thai television, which broadcast the royal order Wednesday evening, showed a video of Suthida prostrating herself before the king. According to the announcer, she presented the king with a tray of flowers and joss sticks, and in return was bestowed traditional gifts associated with royal power.

TV showed the king in a white uniform and his bride in a pink silk traditional dress formally registering their marriage on Wednesday in his palace residence in Bangkok. The couple was seen signing a marriage certificate book, which was also signed by the king's sister, Princess Sirindhorn, and Privy Council head Prem Tinsulanonda as witnesses. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and other senior officials were also in attendance.

No Mass for Sri Lanka's Catholics; no veils for Muslim women

April 28, 2019

AMPARA, Sri Lanka (AP) — The effects of Sri Lanka's Easter suicide bombings reverberated across two faiths Sunday, with Catholics shut out of their churches for fear of new attacks, left with only a televised Mass, and Muslim women ordered to stop wearing veils in public.

Many across the nation knelt before their televisions as Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, delivered a homily before members of the clergy and the country's leaders in a small chapel at his residence in the capital.

The closing of all of Sri Lanka's Catholic churches — an extraordinary measure unheard of in the church's centuries on this island off the southern tip of India — came after local officials and the U.S. Embassy in Colombo warned that more militants remained on the loose with explosives a week after bombings claimed by the Islamic State group and aimed at churches and hotels killed more than 250 people.

Before services began, the Islamic State group claimed three militants who blew themselves up Friday night after exchanging fire with police in the country's east. Investigators sifting through that site and others uncovered a bomb-making operation capable of spreading far more destruction.

"This is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last Sunday," Ranjith told those watching across the nation. "This is a time questions such as, does God truly love us, does he have compassion toward us, can arise in human hearts."

Later on Sunday, President Maithripala Sirisena banned all kinds of face coverings that may conceal people's identities. The emergency law, which takes effect Monday, prevents Muslim women from veiling their faces.

The decision came after the Cabinet had proposed laws on face veils at a recent meeting. It had deferred the matter until talks with Islamic clerics could be held, on the advice of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

In a rare show of unity, Sirisena, Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa had attended the Mass in person. Their political rivalry and government dysfunction are blamed for a failure to act upon near-specific information received from foreign intelligence agencies that preceded the bombings, which targeted three churches and three luxury hotels.

Police said they had arrested 48 suspects over the last 24 hours as checkpoints mounted by all of Sri Lanka's security forces sprung up across this country of 21 million people. Those arrested include two men whom authorities recently appealed to the public to locate.

The government also warned that it would crack down on those spreading false information and making inflammatory remarks. Police, meanwhile, entered the main mosque of National Towheed Jamaat on Sunday afternoon, just a day after authorities declared it and another organization terror groups over the bombings.

Police entered the mosque, located in Kattankudy in eastern Sri Lanka, and stopped an interview among foreign journalists and mosque officials. Later, a senior police officer dispersed journalists waiting outside, saying authorities were conducting a "cordon and search operation."

Police then left, locking up the mosque just before afternoon prayers were to start. Authorities banned National Towheed Jamaat over its ties to Mohammed Zahran, the alleged mastermind of the Easter Sunday bombings. Zahran and masked others had pledged their loyalty to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before carrying out the attacks, showing the danger the extremist group poses even after losing all its territory in Iraq and Syria.

On Friday night, a confrontation with police sparked a firefight with the militants in Kalmunai, some 225 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of Colombo. Sri Lanka's military said the gunfire and later suicide blasts killed 15 people, including six children.

On Sunday, the Islamic State group claimed three of the militants who blew themselves up there. In a statement carried by the extremists' Aamaq news agency, IS identified the bombers by their noms du guerre as Abu Hammad, Abu Sufyan and Abu al-Qa'qa. It said they opened fire with automatic weapons and "after exhausting their ammunition, detonated ... their explosive belts."

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said a woman and a 4-year-old child found wounded after the gunbattle have been identified as Zahran's wife and daughter. At the main police station in Ampara, an outdoor stage now holds what police recovered after the firefight. The IS-aligned militants had created a bomb-making factory at the home, complete with laboratory-style beakers and thick rubber gloves.

Bags of fertilizer, gunpowder and small ball bearings filled boxes. Police found tens of liters (gallons) of acids, used to make the fire of the blast more lethal. A police investigator, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly comment, said the mix of acids worsened the wounds suffered by those who didn't immediately die in the blast.

"At the hospital a lot more people died. That's why," he said, nodding toward the acids. "It made the wounds incurable." The bombers likely carried two rectangular detonators in their pockets similar to the ones recovered, the investigator said. A red switch armed the explosives, while a light teal button detonated the bombs hidden inside of their large backpacks.

Along with the acids, the bombs contained a mixture of fertilizer, gunpowder, ball bearings and explosives typically used by quarries to blast loose rocks, the investigator said. Those explosives made the bombs powerful enough to blow the roof off of St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, he said, referring to one of the churches near Colombo targeted in the Easter attacks.

The Sri Lankan navy controls the sale of the mining explosives and investigators already have begun tracing the serial numbers off of the plastic sticks, he said. A notebook contained bomb-making instructions that had apparently been explained to the writer.

Police also recovered religious tracts in Tamil glorifying suicide bombings, saying they granted the attacker direct entrance to heaven. The investigator contrasted that to the Tamil Tigers, a separatist group the government defeated in 2009 after a 26-year civil war.

"Their only intention is to kill as many as possible," the investigator said. "That is different than the Tamil Tigers. They wanted to control land. These people want to kill as many as possible."

Francis reported from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Associated Press journalists Gemunu Amarasinghe and Rishabh Jain contributed to this report.

Sri Lanka Muslims brave militant threats for Friday prayers

April 27, 2019

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — At 12:10 p.m. Friday, men and boys in a Muslim neighborhood in Sri Lanka's capital did something everyone had warned them not to do: They came together to pray. Hundreds gathered at the Masjidus Salam Jumma mosque for their communal Friday prayers, one of many mosques that conducted services despite warnings of retaliatory violence.

And while praying through tears to Allah to help their fellow countrymen, all stressed one thing: the Islamic State-claimed Easter attacks targeting churches and hotels that killed at least 250 people came from people who didn't truly believe the teachings of Islam.

They are "not Muslims. This is not Islam. This is an animal," said Akurana Muhandramlage Jamaldeen Mohamed Jayfer, the chairman of the mosque. "We don't have a word (strong enough) to curse them." Up until the call to prayer echoed through Colombo's Maligawatta neighborhood at noon, it wasn't certain the community would be able to pray. On Thursday, the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka issued a stark warning over Twitter that places of worship could be targeted by militants through the weekend. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also told The Associated Press he feared some of the suspects "may go out for a suicide attack" and local authorities urged Muslims to pray at home.

But Friday prayers hold a special importance to Muslims as the Quran has its own chapter on the worship called "Al-Jumah," or Friday in Arabic. "When the call is made for prayer on Friday, hurry toward the remembrance of Allah, and leave all business," the Quran commands.

For Muslims, Friday prayers means dressing in their nicest clothes and communing with others, often sharing a meal after listening to the imam and praying. The day carries the same significance for Muslims in Sri Lanka, where Arab traders brought Islam in the 7th century. Today, nearly 10% of Sri Lanka's 21 million people are Muslim.

In the hours before, community leaders decided that women should stay home for the prayers because of the threat. It remained unclear if they would hold the prayers, even as young men stopped in the mosque for a moment of quiet prayer, their sweat dripping from their brows as they bowed down on the purple-and-gray carpeting.

"Everyone is nervous," said Abdullah Mohammed, 48. "Not just the Muslims. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus — everybody's nervous." But as the time drew closer, they decided to hold them. Sri Lankan police officers armed with Kalashnikov rifles stood guard around the mosque, blocking the street. Organizers posted young volunteers to watch surrounding streets above the mosque, near a major cricket stadium.

Inside the mosque, a young man worked on its internal security cameras, one hanging above wooden carvings of Arabic calligraphy and copies of the Quran. Jayfer said they had been installed two years earlier, but they needed repair "given what's happening."

When the electronic clock struck 12:10 p.m., a caller got on the loudspeaker, saying "Allah akbar," or God is great. Men and boys quickly filled two floors of the mosque and part of a third as Imam Mohamed Imran stood before them on the minbar, the pulpit from which he preached.

In English and later Tamil, Imran reminded the congregation they remain a minority in Sri Lanka, that they need to pray and ask for God's help. As the sermon ended, he offered a prayer, growing emotional as he asked for God for help. Several men in the congregation cried.

Then they bowed toward Mecca and its cube-shaped Kaaba, finishing their prayers and walking safely out of the mosque into the street below. A new sign in Sinhala hung by the mosque outside offered condolences, saying that just because the attackers had Arab names didn't make them Muslims.

"It is our country. We are Sri Lankans," Jayfer said. All "Sri Lankans have a duty to be calm and quiet. (There) has to be peace."

Iran's foreign minister in Pakistan amid tensions with US

May 24, 2019

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran's foreign minister lashed out at President Donald Trump on Friday during a critically timed visit to Pakistan amid a simmering crisis between Tehran and Washington and ahead of next week's emergency Arab League meeting called by Saudi Arabia over the region's tensions.

The remarks by Mohammad Javad Zarif were the latest in a war of words between him and Trump. The Iranian diplomat on Friday assailed the American president for his tweet earlier this week warning Iran not to threaten the U.S. again or it would face its "official end."

"Iran will see the end of Trump, but he will never see the end of Iran," Zarif was quoted by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency as saying during a visit to Islamabad. Tensions have ratcheted up recently in the Mideast as the White House earlier this month sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the region over a still-unexplained threat it perceived from Iran. And on Thursday, the Pentagon outlined proposals to the White House to send military reinforcements to the Middle East to beef up defenses against Iran.

The purpose of Zarif's visit to Pakistan, where he held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi and also Prime Minister Imran Khan, was not made public. But there has been speculation that Iran is looking to Islamabad and its close relationship with Riyadh to help de-escalate the situation. Ahead of Zarif's arrival, Pakistan's foreign ministry called on "all sides to show restraint, as any miscalculated move, can transmute into a large-scale conflict."

Zarif has been criticized this week by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who named him and President Hassan Rouhani as failing to implement the leader's orders over Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Khamenei had claimed the deal had "numerous ambiguities and structural weaknesses" that could damage Iran.

Separately, the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Zarif in Islamabad as warning of anarchy if world powers don't unite to stop what he called U.S. aggression — Iran's official parlance for Washington's pressure on Tehran.

The crisis takes root in the steady unraveling of the nuclear deal, intended to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The accord promised economic incentives in exchange for restrictions on Tehran's nuclear activities.

The Trump administration pulled America out of the deal last year, and subsequently re-imposed and escalated U.S. sanctions on Tehran — sending Iran's economy into freefall. Khamenei's criticism of Zarif signaled a hard-line tilt in how the Islamic Republic will react going forward amid President Donald Trump's maximalist pressure campaign.

Iran declared earlier this month that the remaining signatories to the deal — Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia — have two months to develop a plan to shield Iran from American sanctions. On Monday, Iran announced it had quadrupled its production capacity of low-enriched uranium, making it likely that Tehran will soon exceed the stockpile limitations set by the nuclear accord, which would escalate the situation further.

Several incidents have added to the crisis. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia said Yemen's Iran-aligned rebels again targeted an airport near its southern border with a bomb-carrying drone. The Saudi military said it intercepted the drone, while the rebel Houthis said it struck a Patriot missile battery at the airport. The Houthis have claimed three times in recent days to have targeted the airport, which also hosts a military base. It comes after the Houthis last week targeted a Saudi oil pipeline in a coordinated drone attack.

Pakistan was quick to condemn the attacks and promised Saudi Arabia, a staunch ally, its full support. The kingdom this week announced a $3.2 billion deferred oil and gas payment package for energy-strapped Islamabad.

With neighboring Iran, Pakistan walks a fine line and their relationship is sometimes prickly. Islamabad has little leverage with Washington, although relations between the two have improved since Pakistan expressed readiness to help move talks between the Afghan Taliban and Washington forward.

IRNA also reported that Zarif came to Pakistan with a proposal to link Iran's port of Chabahar on the Arabian Sea with Pakistan's Gwadar port, mostly being developed by China as part of the multi-billion-dollar One Road project that will connect the Arabian Sea with China.

The proposal is unexpected because Pakistan's rival India has been Iran's partner in developing Chabahar while Iran's key regional rival, Saudi Arabia, has been in talks to develop an oil refinery facility at Pakistan's Gwadar, though no agreements have been signed.

Meanwhile, Oman's Foreign Ministry said it was working to "ease the tensions" between Iran and the U.S. The ministry in a series of tweets on Friday morning attributed the comments to Yusuf bin Alawi, the sultanate's minister of state for foreign affairs, and cited an interview in Asharq Al-Wasat, the London-based newspaper owned by a Saudi media group long associated with the Al Saud royal family.

In the interview, bin Alawi warns war "could harm the entire world if it breaks out." He doesn't confirm any current Omani mediation but says both the U.S. and Iran realize the gravity of the situation.

Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said spoke last week by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Oman, a nation on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has long been an interlocutor of the West with Iran. The U.S. held secret talks in Oman with the Iranians that gave birth to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Vahdat reported from Tehran, Iran. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Chinese official hands over new panda to Vienna zoo

May 20, 2019

VIENNA (AP) — A senior Chinese official has officially handed over a 19-year-old male giant panda to Vienna's Schoenbrunn zoo. Yuan Yuan arrived in Vienna last month and has spent the last few weeks in quarantine. He was chosen as a partner for Yang Yang, the zoo's 18-year-old female panda, who has been at the zoo since 2003 but without a companion since its previous male, Long Hui, died of cancer in 2016.

Li Zhanshu, the head of China's parliament, handed over Yuan Yuan at a ceremony Monday. China lends the rare bears to other countries as a sign of goodwill in what is known as "panda diplomacy." Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen described the animals as a "symbol of friendship" and said they have a "certain diplomatic mission."