Prince Harry walks through Angola mine field, echoing Diana

September 27, 2019

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A body armor-wearing Prince Harry on Friday followed in the footsteps of his late mother, Princess Diana, whose walk through an active mine field in Angola years ago helped to lead to a global ban on the deadly weapons.

The prince walked through a dusty mine field marked with skull-and-crossbones warning signs, and was visiting the spot where Diana was famously photographed on a similar walk during her own Africa visit in 1997. That field in Huambo is now a busy street. The southern African nation is now years past a grinding civil war and hopes to be land mine-free by 2025, a goal of scores of countries around the world.

"Land mines are an unhealed scar of war," Harry said in the town of Dirico. "By clearing the land mines we can help this community find peace, and with peace comes opportunity." He said retracing his mother's path was "quite emotional."

Diana's visit is still very much discussed today in Huambo after people were struck by her warmth and willingness to acknowledge their country's devastating 27-year conflict, the Angola country director for mine-clearing organization The HALO Trust said.

"The main impact of Diana's walk in 1997 was the level of global exposure it provided for land mines not only in Angola but the world," Ralph Legg said. She was a great advocate for a land mine ban, and "her willingness to visit an actual mine field, to place herself right in that context, provided great impetus and gave it a great boost."

The international ban on anti-personnel mines was signed that year and entered into force two years later. So far 164 countries have signed on. "More than 48 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed and 31 countries have been completely cleared of land mines," The HALO Trust said, while production of the weapons has almost dried up.

Harry on his visit also remotely detonated a decades-old mine, met with mine-clearing teams and was visiting the orthopedic hospital his mother visited for her meetings with mine victims. "I think that will be a very poignant moment of coming full circle," Legg said. "Very striking once people compare those images from the two visits to see how far Angola has come."

The world, however, is hardly free of mines, and the prince said Angola itself still has more than 1,000 mine fields left to clear, 22 years after his mother's visit. "I wonder if she was still alive whether that would still be the case," Harry said. "I'm pretty sure she would have seen it through."

Other countries that remain heavily mined include Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, and Afghanistan led the world with at least 2,300 casualties in 2017, according to the Landmine Monitor 2018 report.

"Myanmar was the only known instance of government forces actively planting the weapons" in the year-long period between October 2017 and 2018, the report said. "A staggering 60 million people around the world still live in fear and risk of land mines. We cannot turn our backs on them and leave a job half done," Harry said.

Angola, which has committed a new $60 million for mine clearance, now hopes to turn some of its mine-free areas into sites for wildlife conservation and ecotourism. The prince was unveiling a project meant to protect wildlife corridors near the sprawling Okavango Delta, a rare inland delta in neighboring Botswana that doesn't flow into a sea or ocean and is home to several endangered species.

Harry called on for international effort to help clear mines from the Okavango watershed in Angola. "Everyone who recognizes the priceless importance of safeguarding Africa's most intact natural landscape should commit fully to this mission," he said.

His first official family tour with his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their baby, Archie, will continue with stops in Malawi and further events in South Africa with a focus on issues including mental health and women's empowerment.

South Korea shows its US-made F-35 stealth jets for 1st time

October 01, 2019

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Tuesday displayed some of its newly purchased U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighter jets for the first time during its Armed Forces Day ceremony, a development that will likely infuriate rival North Korea.

Under its biggest-ever weapons purchase, South Korea is to buy 40 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin by 2021. The first few batches of the aircraft arrived in the South this year. North Korea has sharply reacted to the deliveries, calling them a grave provocation that violate recent inter-Korean agreements aimed at lowering military tensions.

On Tuesday, President Moon Jae-in reviewed military planes including an F-35, missiles and artillery systems that were displayed on the ground at the start of the ceremony at an air base in southeastern South Korea.

Moon and other top officials later watched three F-35s and other warplanes flying in close formation one after another. In a televised speech during the ceremony, Moon said he felt "secure about the might of our military armed with new equipment such as F-35As that we disclosed for the first time." He said South Koreans would also be "very proud" of the military capacity.

South Korea previously publicized photos of its F-35s, but it was the first time the aircraft were shown at an official event since the first two of the planes were delivered here in March, according to the state-run Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

Moon, a liberal who espouses greater reconciliation with North Korea, was behind a flurry of North Korea-U.S. diplomacy on the North's nuclear program. During his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang last September, the two Koreas struck a set of agreements meant to ease military animosities such as halting front-line live-fire exercises and dismantling guard posts along their border.

Many conservatives in South Korea have said the deals greatly undermined South Korea's national security because North Korea's nuclear threats remain intact. Moon said during Tuesday's ceremony that strong national security would support dialogue and cooperation with North Korea and an effort to build a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Nuclear diplomacy largely remains stalled since the second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in Vietnam in February collapsed due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Kim and Trump held a brief, impromptu meeting at the Korean border in late June and agreed to resume diplomacy.

Japanese Emperor Naruhito ascends Chrysanthemum Throne

October 22, 2019

TOKYO (AP) — Three booming cheers of "Banzai!" rang out Tuesday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo as Naruhito formally declared his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the nation's 126th emperor. As a driving autumn rain briefly gave way to sunshine and 2,000 guests looked on, Naruhito pledged at an elaborate, ritual-laden ceremony to serve as a symbol of the state for his people. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe congratulated him and led the cheers of "Banzai," which traditionally means "10,000 years."

The enthronement ceremony is the high point of several succession rituals that began in May when Naruhito inherited the throne after the abdication of Akihito, his father. Naruhito leads the world's oldest hereditary monarchy, which historians say goes back 1,500 years.

The short ceremony, which some critics say was largely meant to allow Abe's ultra-conservative government to win public support, was marked by extraordinary contrasts — from the rhythmic shuffle of dozens of court dignitaries' long, stiff, antiquated robes as they brushed over mats leading to the throne room, to the thunder of cannon salutes reverberating through the palace.

"I hereby proclaim my enthronement to those at home and abroad," Naruhito said. "I hereby swear that I will act according to the constitution and fulfill my responsibility as the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people of Japan, while always praying for the happiness of the people and the peace of the world as I stand with the people."

The ceremony began with the sound of a bell. Naruhito, wearing a formal brownish-orange robe that was dyed in sappanwood and Japanese wax tree bark and a black headdress decorated with an upright tail, then stood perfectly still while a pair of black-robed chamberlains pulled aside and secured the purple curtains surrounding the throne.

The throne, called "Takamikura," is a 6.5-meter- (21-foot-) high decorative structure resembling a gazebo. It was taken apart in 3,000 pieces and transported last year from the former Imperial Palace in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto, where emperors lived until 150 years ago, and reassembled and repaired with new lacquer coatings.

Outside the palace, hundreds of well-wishers gathered to celebrate the enthronement, waving flags and shouting "Banzai!" almost in sync with the ceremony that they monitored on their smartphones. Despite the time, effort and cost put into preparations, the ceremony lasted only about 30 minutes.

It was originally modeled after one by the ancient Tang dynasty of China and is the second of three ceremonies that follow the May succession. Next month sees the highly religious and divisive ritual of Daijosai, or the Great Thanksgiving.

While the harvest ritual is an annual event that the emperor performs privately, the government funds the first one by a new emperor as part of the succession ceremonies. A one-off shrine for the Nov. 14-15 ritual is being constructed at the palace.

Some experts have raised questions over the government's funding of 16 billion yen ($150 million) for ceremonies that contain religious rites like Daijosai. Most of the cost goes to a one-time shrine that will be demolished after the event.

Criticism, however, was largely eclipsed by the festive mood, in part because Naruhito's succession came about because of abdication, not death, palace watchers said. To mark the occasion, Abe's ultra-conservative government granted pardons to about 550,000 eligible applicants. The decision was not publicly debated.

The pre-war custom of clemency by the emperor, who was revered as a god in those days, has triggered criticism as being undemocratic and politically motivated. At the time of former Emperor Akihito's enthronement, 2.5 million people were given amnesty.

Earlier Tuesday, the 59-year-old Naruhito put on a white robe and prayed at Kashikodokoro and two other shrines, to report to gods ahead of the ceremony. Enshrined at Kashikodokoro is the sun goddess Amaterasu, the mythological ancestress of Japan's emperors.

Recent changes to the enthronement ceremony included a slightly smaller structure for the empress — called "Michodai," or "The August Seat of the Empress" — where Naruhito's wife, Masako, stood, dressed in traditional costume. It was first used by Naruhito's grandmother.

Naruhito and Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat, hosted a court banquet Tuesday evening for about 400 guests, including foreign dignitaries and heads of Japan's administrative, legislative and judicial branches and their spouses.

A parade originally planned for Tuesday afternoon had been postponed until Nov. 10 because of a recent typhoon that caused flooding and other damage in central and northern Japan. Naruhito and Masako have been warmly welcomed by the Japanese public. They made positive impressions by freely conversing with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump during their visit weeks after Naruhito's succession in May, palace watchers say.

"I think people have high expectations for the emperor, who is fluent in foreign languages and internationalized," said historian and monarchy expert Eiichi Miyashiro, who is also a journalist. Naruhito, who studied at Oxford, is a historian, a viola player and an expert on water transport. Masako has struggled for more than a decade since developing "adjustment disorder" after giving birth to the couple's only child, Princess Aiko, and facing pressure to produce a boy in Japan's monarchy, which allows only male heirs.

A shortage of males in the royal family has raised succession concerns and prompted calls for a debate, possibly to allow female emperors. Naruhito has an 83-year-old uncle and two potential heirs — his younger brother Crown Prince Akishino and a 13-year-old nephew.

Abe and his ultra-conservative supporters insist on male-only succession, while a majority of the general public supports allowing female emperors.

Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report.

Chaos as Hong Kong lawmakers thwart leader's annual address

October 16, 2019

HONG KONG (AP) — Furious pro-democracy lawmakers twice forced Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to stop delivering a speech laying out her policy objectives Wednesday, clamoring for her to resign in chaotic scenes that caused her to walk out of the legislature.

Lam was able to deliver the annual address more than an hour later by video, but the reception inside the Legislative Council marked a slap in the face for the embattled chief executive grappling with anti-government protests now in their fifth month.

When Lam started delivering the speech, she was shouted down by chanting pro-democracy lawmakers who held aloft placards showing her waving with hands colored blood-red. She left the chamber and then came back a few minutes later to try again, only to be interrupted one more time. Again, she left. One lawmaker wearing a paper mask showing the face of Chinese President Xi Jinping tossed a placard as Lam was leaving.

Finally, 75 minutes after the previously scheduled start of the lengthy address, Lam delivered it via video link, with China's yellow-starred red flag to her right and Hong Kong's flag on her left. Describing the semi-autonomous Chinese territory as going through "major crisis," Lam said: "People are asking: Will Hong Kong return to normal?"

She appealed for its 7.5 million citizens to "cherish the city," warning that "continued violence and spread of hatred will erode the core values of Hong Kong." Standing ramrod-straight, she then launched into a dry and detailed explanation of plans to tackle Hong Kong's shortage of affordable housing, a long-standing source of discontent, and other welfare issues. With its focus on such minutiae as building new tunnels and freeing up land for development, the 50-minute speech seemed likely to fuel protesters' criticism that Lam is deaf to their concerns about the future of the territory's freedoms, unique in China.

Even before Lam delivered it, one of the protesting lawmakers, Claudia Mo, dismissed the address as a "shame and a sham" and said the chief executive had lost all authority. "She is just a puppet on strings, being played by Beijing," Mo said at an impromptu news conference with other lawmakers outside the chamber after they successfully thwarted Lam's address there.

They played a recording on a small loudspeaker they said was the sound of police tear-gassing protesters and of protesters' wails. "These are the voices of people screaming and they are just ordinary Hong Kong people," said lawmaker Tanya Chan. "Please, please, please Mrs. Carrie Lam, don't let us suffer any more."

She and others called for Lam's resignation. "This is the only way that we can have a good future," said Chan. Lam had been bracing for trouble in the chamber as her government battles the protests that started in June over a contested extradition bill and have snowballed into a sustained anti-government, anti-police and anti-China movement.

The widespread use of teargas by riot-control squads and 2,600 arrests, some appearing heavy handed, have triggered public disgust with the 30,000-strong police force once considered among Asia's finest. Hardcore black-clad and masked protesters have responded with widespread vandalism of China-linked businesses, subway stations and other targets, and attacked police with gasoline bombs and other weapons.

This month, two police shootings that injured teenage protesters, the stabbing of a police officer, and the detonation of a small, remote-controlled bomb close to police officers ratcheted up violence to levels unprecedented in the former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Saying rioters are "spreading chaos and fear," Lam appealed for order and sought to end her address on a positive note. Her Facebook profile was updated before she spoke, with a photo of a smiling Lam against a backdrop of a rainbow over Hong Kong's harbor.

"We have to put aside differences and stop attacking each other," she said. "I thoroughly believe that Hong Kong will be able to ride out this storm and move on."

Israel's Gantz, Netanyahu hold talks to break gov't deadlock

October 27, 2019

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister and his main rival opened a new round of unity talks Sunday in the latest effort to break a political stalemate and avoid an unprecedented third parliamentary election in less than a year.

Israel has been paralyzed by political deadlock following an inconclusive election last month, with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud nor the rival Blue and White party in control of a 61-seat majority in parliament.

After nearly a month of efforts, Netanyahu last week said he had failed to cobble together a coalition. Israel's president has now given the task to Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz. Gantz, a former military chief, met with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv to discuss a possible power-sharing agreement. Gantz's party issued a statement that the two discussed possible options and agreed to a second meeting.

Ahead of the talks, Netanyahu expressed support for a "broad national unity government." Speaking to his Cabinet, Netanyahu said such a coalition is essential for Israel to face what he said were mounting security challenges around the region.

"We must make tough decisions that require a government with broad shoulders," he said. "This is not a political question, but a national and security question of the highest order. I hope that we can advance this goal in the coming days."

With Blue and White controlling 33 seats in parliament and Likud holding 32, the two parties together have enough support to form a government together. While both men support the idea of a unity deal, they have disagreed over who should lead it.

Netanyahu wants his traditional religious and nationalist allies to sit with Likud and Blue and White. Gantz has been cool to sitting together with Netanyahu's hardline allies. He also refuses to serve under a Netanyahu-led government while the long-serving leader faces possible indictment for corruption charges. Israel's attorney general is to decide on whether to charge Netanyahu in the coming weeks.

Ahead of their meeting, negotiators from the two parties met for preparatory talks that were "held in good spirits," according to a Blue and White statement. It is the first time in more than a decade that a candidate other than Netanyahu has been given the opportunity to form a government.

But without Likud, Gantz's options are limited. He can try to break up Netanyahu's right-wing bloc and win over smaller hard-line parties. So far, there is no sign of that happening. His remaining potential partners include a diverse group of parties that have little in common, including the secular ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, dovish Jewish parties and a grouping of Arab parties, which have never sat in a government before.

The country has faced political paralysis since Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman refused to sit in a government with Netanyahu's ultra-religious partners following April's election. That decision robbed Netanyahu of a parliamentary majority, leading to last month's inconclusive election.

Lieberman has refused to endorse either candidate for prime minister and demands they reach a unity deal. If the sides fail, Israel could face a third election early next year.

Anger as Israel official attends Morocco conference

October 16, 2019

Moroccan anti-normalization activists have expressed their anger as a former Israeli interior minister attended an international symposium in Marrakech and gave a presentation, a move the activists described as a “crime of penetration”.

Former Knesset member Meir Sheetrit attended the World Policy Conference, which was held last weekend in Marrakech. The event was attended by ministers and officials from Moroccan and all over the world, according to Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

The Morocco Observatory Against Normalisation with Israel said the presence of Sheetrit is a “new Zionist crime of penetration”, denouncing conferences in Morocco that allow current and former Israeli officials to attend.

No Arab country has established formal political, economic, or cultural relations with the occupying state, except for Jordan and Egypt, which have signed peace agreements with Israel.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191016-anger-as-israel-official-attends-morocco-conference/.

Israel opens natural spring to visitors – except Palestinians

October 16, 2019

Israeli authorities have opened a natural spring in southern Jerusalem to visitors, “but on the explicit condition that Palestinians not be allowed to enter the site”, reported Haaretz.

The decision by police yesterday meant that the Ein Hanya spring “was kept under heavy guard by the police and Border Police, which even closed the road leading to Palestinian towns”.

Meanwhile, “hundreds of Israelis visited the site”, said Haaretz.

As described by the paper, Ein Hanya “is one of the largest and most important natural springs in the Jerusalem area”.

While it is located within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, Palestinian residents of neighboring village Al-Walaja “regularly visit it”.

Much of Al-Walaja’s land has been confiscated by Israeli authorities over the decades, with village land straddling the 1967 ‘Green Line’

The official opening of the spring as a tourism site was subject to repeated delays, thanks to “a dispute over whether entry fees should be charged”, as well as the “police’s demand that Palestinians not be allowed to enter”.

Police have also insisted that a checkpoint be relocated further south, “so that it would separate Palestinian towns from the spring”, at an estimated cost of 12 million shekels ($3.4 million).

The spring has now opened for just three days, before closing again “until the checkpoint is moved”.

According to Haaretz, “over the past few days, police have stepped up enforcement against Palestinian farmers seeking to work land near the spring”, and have “even forced a farmer to leave”.

Shaul Goldstein, the nature authority’s director, “said his agency has no objection to Palestinians visiting the spring, nor does it have any interest in moving the checkpoint.”

However, he noted that “since Ein Hanya is located in Jerusalem, from the defense establishment’s perspective, any Palestinian who goes there is in the capital illegally.”

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191016-israel-opens-natural-spring-to-visitors-except-palestinians/.

Philippine police chief resigns amid drug allegations

October 14, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine national police chief resigned on Monday after he faced allegations in a Senate hearing that he intervened as a provincial police chief in 2013 to prevent his officers from being prosecuted for allegedly selling a huge quantity of illegal drugs they had seized.

Gen. Oscar Albayalde said his decision relinquishing his post was accepted by Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano over the weekend but insisted on his innocence, saying he has never been criminally or administratively charged for the alleged irregularity. Albayalde resigned a few weeks before his scheduled retirement on Nov. 8.

Addressing the 190,000-strong police force in the last flag-raising ceremony he led at the national police headquarters, Albayalde ordered the policemen to continue serving the Filipino people well. "Do not let these challenges demoralize or stray you from your path," he said.

The allegations against Albayalde were the latest dark cloud to loom over the national police force, which has largely been enforcing President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead, alarmed Western governments and human rights groups and sparked complaints for mass murder before the International Criminal Court.

Albayalde headed the police force in Pampanga province north of Manila when 13 of his officers seized a large quantity of methamphetamine, a powerful and prohibited stimulant, in a raid. The officers later faced allegations that they presented a small fraction of the seized drugs in a news conference, possibly to foster their promotion, then hid and sold the rest, with suspicions being fueled when they purchased pricey SUVs not long after.

Albayalde's men allegedly freed a suspected Chinese drug lord in exchange for a huge bribe then arrested another foreigner, who they presented as the owner of the seized drugs. Albayalde pointed out that state prosecutors cleared the officers of criminal complaints they had faced for the alleged offenses.

Albayalde said the allegations against him may have been an offshoot of jockeying for the top police post that he would vacate if he has stayed in his post until his retirement. But two police officials, including a general who has retired from the force and is now a city mayor, testified in Senate hearings that Albayalde did not take adequate actions to have his men be criminally prosecuted.

One of the two officials, Aaron Aquino, who now heads the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, testified that Albayalde called him then to inquire about the status of the cases against his men. Albayalde acknowledged that as a result of the 2013 incident, he was put on a "floating status," which meant he was transferred to a regional police force without being given any specific assignment or post. Several months after, however, he was appointed as metropolitan Manila police chief and as national police chief in April last year.

"No protest was made on my appointment," Albayalde said. "Implicitly, it may be assumed that the president himself was aware of my appointment to that position." Asked in recent weeks about the possibility of firing Albayalde, Duterte replied he would allow Ano to make a recommendation to him after an assessment. The wait contrasts with Duterte's outright firing of other government officials accused of corruption and irregularities.

Putin courts Africa, offers to mediate Nile dam dispute

October 24, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to expand Moscow's clout in Africa by touting military aid and economic projects Thursday at the first-ever Russia-Africa summit. He even offered to help mediate a growing water dispute between two of the continent's largest powers, Egypt and Ethiopia.

The two-day summit in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi underlined Russia's renewed bid for influence in resource-rich Africa and was attended by the leaders of 43 of Africa's 54 countries. As African leaders roamed through an expo center displaying Russian military hardware, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin addressed the contentious dam issue with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in separate meetings on the sidelines of the summit.

Peskov didn't say whether Egypt and Ethiopia accepted Putin's mediation offer — and offer that the United States also extended in recent days after talks on the dam collapsed this month. Some pro-government media in Egypt have cast the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as a national security threat that could affect Egypt's share of water from the Nile River and could warrant military action.

For his part, Abiy, Ethiopia's Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader, declared this week that "no force" could stop the dam's construction. El-Sissi and Abiy met Thursday and an Egyptian spokesman said they agreed on resuming technical talks "immediately" to reach a "final proposal" on filling and operating the dam. The statement made no mention of mediation offers or plans.

Ethiopia, meanwhile, said the two African leaders met about "issues of common concern" but did not elaborate. Putin hailed the Russia-Africa summit as historic. "Summing up its results, we can immediately say that this event really opened a new page in relations between Russia and the states of the African continent," Putin said in closing the summit.

Putin emphasized that developing stronger ties with the continent ranks among Russia's top foreign policy priorities, noting that African nations have emerged as "one of important pillars of the multi-polar world."

Russia's annual trade with African nations has doubled in the last five years to exceed $20 billion and Putin voiced confidence that it could double again "as a minimum" in the next four or five years.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union provided generous economic and military aid to many African countries amid its global rivalry with the United States. Moscow's influence withered after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia is now still far behind the West and China in trade and investment in Africa, but it has capitalized on Soviet-era ties to widen its role in the continent's affairs.

The Russian president emphasized Thursday that Russia and African nations should expand their cooperation in combating extremism, including exchanging information between their security agencies. Russia is Africa's largest arms supplier, and Putin noted that Russia now has military cooperation agreements with more than 30 African nations. He added that Moscow could expand its training of military and security personnel from African nations.

"We hope that ... you will help us, in particular, to build up our armed forces," said Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of Sudan's transitional Sovereign Council, according to a Kremlin account of his meeting with Putin. He spoke in the wake of an August power-sharing agreement between Sudan's army and a pro-democracy movement following the overthrow of autocratic former President Omar al-Bashir.

The president of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, agreed to renew a lapsed military cooperation agreement with Russia that is expected to lead to more direct procurement of military equipment, President Muhammadu Buhari's office said.

Nigeria also said it and Russia would work to improve the efficiency of Abuja's all-important oil sector by establishing a framework for a joint venture between Nigeria's state-owned oil company and Russia's Lukoil that will include prospecting for oil "deep offshore." The countries also agreed to solidify the venture between the state-owned oil company and Russian gas giant Gazprom.

Other African leaders expressed warmth over Russia's revived interest in the continent. "What stands Russia in good stead in the eyes of many African countries is that Russia was never a colonial power," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, according to his spokeswoman.

He spoke shortly after a pair of Russian nuclear-capable bombers landed in his country on an unprecedented visit to the continent, reflecting Moscow's new push for clout.

Anna reported from Johannesburg. Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.

Putin aims to boost Moscow's clout with Russia-Africa summit

October 23, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed dozens of leaders of African nations Wednesday for the first-ever Russia-Africa summit, reflecting Moscow's new push to expand its clout on the continent and saying there is "enormous potential for growth."

As Putin and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi hosted the two-day summit attended by leaders of 43 of the continent's 54 countries, two Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers landed in South Africa in the first-ever visit to the continent to underline Moscow's bid for influence.

Russia's annual trade with African nations doubled in the last five years to exceed $20 billion, Putin said, and expressed his wish that trade will double again "as a minimum" in the next four or five years.

Russia has worked in recent years to expand its influence in Africa, taking advantage of the seemingly waning U.S. interest in the continent under President Donald Trump's administration. Moscow has sought to revive relationships forged during the Cold War, when it poured funds and weapons into Africa in rivalry with the U.S., and has worked to cultivate new ties such as relations with South Africa.

Russia has signed military cooperation agreements with at least 28 African countries, the majority in the past five years, and expanded arms sales to the region. It is already the continent's largest arms supplier.

Putin noted that Moscow has written off $20 billion in debt — he did not say over what period — and provided aid to African nations. He said Russia is willing to help tap natural resources and offer its technologies to the continent, and he welcomed the recent creation of an African free trade zone.

Russia's geological survey agency signed agreements with South Sudan, Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea to search for carbon resources on their territories. And Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, said it was preparing to explore Mozambique's offshore oil resources.

Angolan Mineral Resources and Oil Minister Diamantino Azevedo said his country was working to expand cooperation with Russia's diamond company Alrosa. Putin also met with several African leaders to discuss potential projects.

He told South African President Cyril Ramaphosa that Moscow is looking to further expand trade with the country, one of the continent's most developed economies. Trade reached $1 billion last year. Putin congratulated Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on winning the Nobel Peace Prize this month, hailing his efforts to make peace with longtime rival Eritrea.

Abiy's office said he and Putin discussed cooperation in defense, education, "nuclear technology for peaceful purposes" and increased trade relations. While speaking with Namibian President Hage Geingob, Putin touted prospects for Russia to help tap the country's vast uranium resources, diamonds and other mineral riches. Geingob, in turn, welcomed Russia to send military advisers.

Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera thanked Putin for Russian weapons and asked for more military assistance, saying his government needs it to fight armed groups competing for the country's gold, diamonds and uranium riches. Russian private contractors and security experts reportedly have helped train the nation's military.

Last year three Russian journalists were killed in Central African Republic while investigating a Russian military contractor, Wagner. The perpetrators haven't been found, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Touadera discussed the probe into the killing.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pledged that Moscow will help African countries raise their profile in the international arena, including potential permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council, something African nations have sought for years.

"We are continuously upholding the role of Africa as one of the leading centers of the evolving multi-polar world," Lavrov said.

Russia seeks to cement its role as power broker in Syria

October 16, 2019

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (AP) — Russia moved to fill the void left by the United States in northern Syria on Tuesday, deploying troops to keep apart advancing Syrian government forces and Turkish troops. At the same time, tensions grew within NATO as Turkey defied growing condemnation of its invasion from its Western allies.

Now in its seventh day, Turkey's offensive against Kurdish fighters has caused tens of thousands to flee their homes, has upended alliances and is re-drawing the map of northern Syria for yet another time in the 8-year-old war.

Russia moved quickly to further entrench its role as a power broker after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the pullout of American forces in northeastern Syria. The American move effectively abandoned the Kurdish fighters who were allied with the U.S. and cleared the way for Turkey's invasion aimed at crushing them.

Desperate for a new protector, the Kurdish administration struck a deal with the Russia-backed government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose forces on Sunday began moving into Kurdish-administered areas to shield them against Turkey.

Syrian troops waved flags after they rolled into Manbij, a flashpoint town west of the Euphrates River that Turkey had been aiming to capture and wrest from Kurdish control. Video by Russian journalists with the troops showed what appeared to be an abandoned outpost where U.S. forces had been stationed.

A U.S. military spokesman, Col. Myles B. Caggins, confirmed U.S. troops had completed their pullout from Manbij. During the withdrawal, contacts were kept open with the Turks and Russians to ensure the several hundred American forces there got out safely, U.S. officials said.

U.S. troops have had outposts in Manbij since 2017, when they went in to avert a battle over the town between Turkish and Kurdish fighters. Now Russia was playing that role. Outside Manbij, Russian troops patrolled front lines between Turkish and Syrian army positions to keep them apart, Russia's Defense Ministry said.

"No one is interested" in fighting between Syrian government troops and Turkish forces, said Alexander Lavrentyev, Moscow's envoy for Syria. Russia "is not going to allow it," he told Russian state news agencies.

Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters Washington is "deeply concerned" that Russian troops are patrolling between the two sides. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke to U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper to discuss "issues of mutual interest in the context of situation in Syria," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a brief statement, without elaborating.

Russia has been a staunch ally of Assad for decades and entered the Syrian conflict in 2015, providing air power that eventually turned the tide of the war in his favor. The Russian military has shipped weapons to Damascus, trained thousands of troops and put its advisers in key Syrian military units.

In the first week of the Turkish assault, at least 154 fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been killed, as well as 128 fighters from Turkish-backed Syrian factions , according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor of the war. It said at least 69 civilians have been killed in Syria. Turkey says six of its soldiers have died, as well as at least 20 Turkish civilians killed by Kurdish mortar fire across the border.

Despite the Syrian and Russian deployments, Turkey insisted it would capture Manbij. Asked on Sky News if Turkey's military was willing to fight Assad's army, Vice President Fuat Oktay said, "We hope it's not going to happen, but again we are determined to get control over Manbij."

Mortar fire from Manbij killed two Turkish soldiers and wounded seven others, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. An Associated Press team later saw up to 200 Turkish troops along with armored vehicles crossing near Manbij and Kobani, a border town that is not yet secured by Syrian forces. Farther east on the border, Turkish and Kurdish forces were in heavy battles over the town of Ras al-Ayn, captured by Turkish troops days earlier.

A U.S. official said the approximately 1,000 U.S. troops being withdrawn from northern Syria will reposition in Iraq, Kuwait and possibly Jordan. The U.S. forces in Iraq could conduct cross-border operations against the Islamic State group in Syria as they did before creating the now-abandoned partnership with Syrian Kurdish-led forces, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning for a U.S. pullout.

After opening the way for the Turkish assault with its pullout, Washington is now trying to restrain its fellow NATO member. Trump on Monday announced sanctions aimed at Turkey's economy. The U.S. called on Turkey to stop the offensive and declare a cease-fire, while European Union countries moved to broaden an arms sale embargo against their easternmost ally.

Trump was sending Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser Robert O'Brien to Ankara to try to begin negotiations to stop the fighting. Pence said Trump spoke directly to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised not to attack the border town of Kobani, which in 2015 saw the Islamic State group's first defeat in a battle by the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters.

Erdogan made clear, however, that he had no intention of halting the Turkish offensive. "They say 'declare a ceasefire.' We could never declare a ceasefire," he told reporters. The U.N. Security Council planned a closed meeting Wednesday on the situation, requested by Germany and other EU members. "Everybody hopes that ... we can do something to bring back the parties to the peace process," said the current Security Council president, South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Jerry Matjila.

NATO ambassadors also will meet on Wednesday in Brussels on Turkey's offensive, said alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Erdogan defended Turkey's offensive in a column in the Wall Street Journal, urging the international community to support Ankara's effort to create what it calls a resettlement "safe zone" for refugees in northeastern Syria, or "begin admitting refugees."

"Turkey reached its limit," Erdogan wrote of the 3.6 million Syrians in his country. He said Turkey's warnings it would be unable to stop refugee floods into the West without international support "fell on deaf ears."

Turkey said it invaded northern Syria to create a zone of control the entire length of the border and drive out the Kurdish fighters, which it regards as terrorists because of their links to Kurdish insurgents in Turkey.

Instead, after the Kurds' deal with Damascus, a new de facto carving up of the border appeared to be taking shape. Turkish forces control the beginnings of a truncated zone roughly in the center of the border about 100 kilometers (60 miles) long between the towns of Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain.

Syrian government troops were moving into or increasing their presence in areas on either side of that enclave, including Manbij to the west and the cities of Qamishli and Hassakeh in the far northeastern corner of Syria.

Though they gain protection from the Turks by the deal with Damascus, the Kurds risk losing the virtual self-rule they have enjoyed across the northeast — the heartland of their minority community — ever since Assad pulled his troops from the area seven years ago to fight rebels elsewhere.

The U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator said at least 160,000 civilians in northeastern Syria have been displaced amid the Turkish operations.

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed.

Putin implies teen climate activist is being manipulated

October 02, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg may have been manipulated to serve the interests of others. Speaking at an energy forum in Moscow on Wednesday, Putin said: “I don’t share exultation about Greta Thunberg.”

The Russian leader called Thunberg a “kind and sincere girl” who doesn’t understand complex global issues such as the barriers to cleaner energy in developing countries. Putin added, “It’s deplorable when someone is using children and teenagers in their interests.” He didn’t elaborate.

Thunberg inspired other students by skipping school for weekly climate change protests. At a United Nations climate summit last month, she rebuked world leaders for not doing enough and asked them, "How dare you?”

Putin says Russia has fulfilled its obligations under an international agreement to tackle global warming.

About 20,000 rally in Moscow to demand protesters' release

September 29, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — About 20,000 people rallied in Moscow on Sunday to demand the release of those who were arrested during a wave of opposition demonstrations this summer. Those at the rally in downtown Moscow, which was sanctioned by Russian authorities, chanted "Free them all!"

Protests erupted in Moscow in July after officials refused to allow a dozen independent and opposition candidates to run for the Moscow city legislature in the Sept. 8 vote. Rallies drew crowds of up to 60,000 at a time, the largest show of discontent against President Vladimir Putin's rule in seven years.

Russian police violently dispersed some of the election protests that weren't sanctioned, detaining a total of more than 2,400 people. Most were quickly released, but more than a dozen were put into custody on charges of involvement in riots.

Amid the public outrage, the authorities dropped charges against some of the protesters, but several people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to four years and a few others are in still custody or under house arrest awaiting court verdicts.

"Let's be confident of our power. If we come out in force, we will win their release," Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin's most visible foe, said at the rally. Lyubov Sobol, a Navalny associate and one of the opposition candidates denied registration who spearheaded the summer protests, vowed to maintain the pressure on the Kremlin.

"We have shown them that we are strong and will keep defending our rights," she said.

Russian theater and film director Mark Zakharov dies at 85

September 28, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Mark Zakharov, a renowned Russian theater and film director whose productions were widely acclaimed and loved by several generations of Russians, has died. He was 85. Zakharov died in Moscow on Saturday, according to the Lenkom Theatre, which he had led for more than four decades. The theater's chief administrator, Mark Varshaver, said Zakharov died of pneumonia.

Born in Moscow, Zakharov graduated from the capital's leading theater school in 1955 and worked as an actor for a decade before he became a stage director. He served as the Lenkom Theatre's director from 1973 until his death.

Many of Zakharov's theater productions become iconic. He also gained fame as a film director. In a condolence letter, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Zakharov as a "colossal personality" and praised the late director's "remarkable talent, freedom and dignity."

Plans call for Zakharov to be buried Tuesday at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.

Facebook takes down page of Palestine news site

October 11, 2019

Facebook on Wednesday deleted the page of the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) in a move, the news site says, which is part of its war on Palestinian content on social media networks.

The site’s management said Facebook provided them with no prior warning before deleting the page, which had nearly five million followers, without any justification.

They called on Facebook to reinstate the page and stop its battle against Palestinian content, saying they have contested the ban.

The Palestinian Information Center has previously been forced to suspend posting on Facebook after the social media giant banned the accounts of some of its directors. Member of management have also seen their accounts deleted and removed.

The blocking of the PIC’s page comes as part of an extensive campaign in recent weeks that included many Palestinian social media platforms.

The Palestinian Information Center was founded in December 1997 in Arabic, as the first Palestinian news site, dedicated to advocating the Palestinian cause and the Arab conflict with the Zionist occupier. It is biased in favor of the rights of the Palestinian people and their sanctities and the legitimate right to resist the occupier by all legitimate and internationally guaranteed means. It is the only Palestinian site that broadcasts its material in eight languages.

Earlier this week, journalists and activists in Palestine launched a social media campaign against Facebook’s censorship of Palestinian content.

Using the hashtag FBblocksPalestine, the drive hopes to bring to light “the threat posed by Facebook against Palestinian content, and to make it public, as well as reveal the double-standard policy of Facebook management in dealing with Israeli and Palestinian incitement on its site,” says Eyad Rifai, head of Sada Social Centre which is running the drive.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191011-facebook-takes-down-page-of-palestine-news-site/.

China-Australia rift deepens as Beijing tests overseas sway

October 03, 2019

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s ban on Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s involvement in its future 5G networks and its crackdown on foreign covert interference are testing Beijing’s efforts to project its power overseas.

In its latest maneuver, China sent three scholars to spell out in interviews with Australian media and other appearances steps to mend the deepening rift with Beijing _ a move that appears to have fallen flat.

In a recent press conference at the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, Chen Hong, the head of Australian studies at East China Normal University, accused Australia of acting as a “pawn” for the United States in lobbying other countries against Huawei’s involvement in the nascent 5G networks.

“Australia has been in one way or another, so to speak, pioneering this kind of anti-China campaign, even some kind of a scare and smear campaign against China,” Chen said. “That is definitely not what China will be appreciating, and if other countries follow suit, that is going to be recognized as extremely unfriendly,” he said.

After meetings in Beijing last week, Richard Marles, the opposition’s defense spokesman, assessed the relationship as “terrible.” A growing number of Australians are convinced that Beijing has been using inducements, threats, espionage and other clandestine tactics to influence their politics _ methods critics believe Beijing might be honing for use in other western democracies.

“Australia is seen as a test bed for Beijing’s high-pressure influence tactics,” said Clive Hamilton, author of “Silent Invasion,” a best seller that focuses on Chinese influence in Australia. “They are testing the capacity of the Australian democratic system to resist,” he said.

Still, Australian officials have downplayed talk of a diplomatic freeze. They must balance a growing wariness toward China and their desire for strong ties with the U.S. with the need to keep relations with their resource-rich country’s largest export market on an even keel.

Australia relies on China for one-third of its export earnings. Delays in processing of Australia exports of coal and wine at Chinese ports have raised suspicions of retaliation by Beijing. While Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared to side with President Donald Trump on the issue of China’s trade status during a recent visit to Washington, he sought to temper suggestions by Trump that he had expressed “very strong opinions on China” in their closed-door meeting.

“We have a comprehensive, strategic partnership with China. We work well with China,” Morrison replied. Trump and Morrison did agree that China has outgrown trade rule concessions allowed to developing nations, advantages it insists it should still be able to claim.

Australia also chose to side with the U.S, in shutting Huawei, the world's biggest telecom gear producer, out of its next generation 5G rollout on security grounds. Huawei, and the Chinese government, objected to that, saying the security concerns were exaggerated for the sake of shutting out competition. But Huawei still renewed a sponsorship deal with an Australian rugby team, saying it hopes the ban will be lifted.

Morrison, the prime minister, has won praise from the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times for standing up for Gladys Liu, the first Chinese-born lawmaker to be elected to Australia's Parliament, when she was attacked for her associations with the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, whose mission is to exert influence overseas.

Hong Kong-born Liu, a conservative, was elected in May to represent a Melbourne district with a large population of ethnic Chinese voters. She says she has resigned from such organizations and any honorary positions she might have held, some possibly without her “knowledge or consent.”

Morrison accused her critics of smearing the 1.2 million Chinese living in Australia. That was a “decent gesture,” the Global Times said. But while it seeks to control damage from the tensions with Beijing, the Australian government has been moving to neutralize its influence by banning foreign political donations and all covert foreign interference in domestic politics.

Opposition lawmakers likened Liu’s situation to that of Sam Dastyari, who resigned as a senator in 2017 over his links to Chinese billionaire political donor Huang Xiangmo. Huang successfully sued Australian media outlets for defamation over the allegations of his involvement in Chinese political interference. But he lost his Australian permanent residency after it was discovered that his company had paid Dastyari's personal legal bills. Huang also appeared with him at a news conference for Chinese media where Dastyari supported Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea, contradicting Australia's bipartisan policy.

Chen and the other two Chinese scholars recently dispatched to Australia to try to sway public opinion insisted China was without blame. “If we’re talking about Australia-China relations, I think the responsibility totally is on the Australian side,” Chen said. “China always promotes friendship and mutual benefits between our two countries.”

The Chinese scholars singled out for criticism Hamilton and another Australian author, John Garnaut, who has described Australia as the canary in the coal mine of Chinese Communist Party interference.

Hamilton’s book was published last year, but only after three publishers backed out, fearing retaliation from Beijing. It became a top seller. Hamilton told a U.S. congressional commission last year that Beijing was waging a “campaign of psychological warfare” against Australia, undermining democracy and silencing its critics.

In separate testimony, Garnaut, a former government security adviser, told the House of Representatives Arms Services Committee that China was seeking to undermine the U.S.-Australian security alliance.

In 2016, the government commissioned Garnaut to write a classified report that found the Chinese Communist Party has been seeking to influence Australian policy, compromise political parties and gain access to all levels of government.

He has said Australia is reacting to a threat that other countries are only starting to grapple with. “This recognition has been assisted by the sheer brazenness of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s drive for global influence and by watching Russian President Vladimir Putin and his agents create havoc across the United States and Europe,” Garnaut wrote.

“In the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, it is far more difficult to dismiss foreign interference as a paranoid abstraction,” he added. Garnaut, whose friend Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been detained in Beijing since January on suspicion of espionage, declined to comment to The Associated Press.

China wants to make an example of Australia, said Chinese-born Sydney academic Feng Chongyi, who was detained for 10 days and interrogated about his friend Garnaut’s investigation while visiting China in 2017.

“For the last two decades, Australia has been taken for a soft target because of this myth of economic dependence on China, so they believe they have sufficient leverage to force Australia to back off,” said Feng, a professor of China studies at the University of Technology in Sydney.

“They are extremely upset that Australia somehow in the last two years has taken the lead in what we call the democratic pushback” against Chinese interference, he said.

Tens of thousands of goats munch Greek island into crisis

October 06, 2019

SAMOTHRAKI, Greece (AP) — With oak and chestnut forests, waterfalls and rugged coastline, Samothraki has a wild beauty and a remoteness that sets it apart from other Greek islands. There are no package holidays here or even a reliable ferry service to the mainland. Island authorities hope to achieve UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status. Yet still, the natural environment is under threat from an insatiable assailant.

Goats outnumber human inhabitants 15-fold and they are munching stretches of Samothraki into a moonscape. After decades of trying to find a solution, experts and locals are working together to find a 21st-century way to save the island's ecology and economy.

Semi-wild, the goats roam across the island, which is roughly three times the size of Manhattan, and can be spotted on rooftops, in trees or on top of cars as they scour the landscape for anything to eat. Their unchecked overgrazing is causing crisis-level erosion.

Torrential rains two years ago swept away the island's town hall and severed its roads. There were no trees or vegetation left on the steep, goat-eaten hillsides to stop the mudslides caused by the downpour.

"There are no big trees to hold the soil. And it's a big problem, both financial and real because (the mud) will come down on our heads," says George Maskalidis, who helps run Sustainable Samothraki Association, an environmental group.

Samothraki, in the northern Aegean Sea, is a two-hour ferry ride south of Alexandroupoli, a Greek city near the country's border with Turkey. With just 3,000 inhabitants and hard to access, the island has largely missed out on Greece's tourism boom. Mountain herding is still a way of life here and despite trying for three decades, regional authorities have found it hard to build a local consensus on how to deal with the issue.

The goat population, meanwhile, soared fivefold to an estimated 75,000 by the late 1990s. Some parts of the countryside were simply nibbled away. The goat numbers have since dropped to below 50,000 as there is little left to graze on. But this has left the island in a trap. Most of its goats are malnourished and too scrawny to be used commercially for meat, animal feed is too expensive to maintain a sustainable business and much of the soil is too depleted for trees to grow back.

At the same time, prices for wool, leather, meat and milk have dropped, leading Samothraki's farmers to grow increasingly desperate. Yiannis Vavouras, a second-generation goat farmer, says many island farmers have few alternatives.

"Most of us are ready to give up. If I had another job, I would drop the goats," he says, speaking over the noise of jangling goat bells. "It doesn't make enough to buy you a coffee." Herds soared due to European Union subsidies, under a system that critics say was poorly monitored and lacked any long-term planning. It now may have to be reversed as a livestock reduction appears inevitable, along with grazing limits.

But that correction doesn't have to be painful, at least according to the island's resident optimist Carlota Maranon, a Spanish lawyer who settled here a decade ago. She heads the sustainability initiative and has eased islanders' deep-rooted mistrust of solutions from the mainland or beyond.

The environmental group has worked with overseas researchers and helped create a herd management app, among many other pilot projects, to tackle the issue. Fiercely independent livestock farmers have even joined a new cooperative to try to pool resources and establish a brand for the island.

"It is possible to do things in a more sustainable way," Maranon says. "That might mean fewer goats but that could actually work out better for the farmers." Having a tight-knit community, she says, will also help.

"Everyone here is connected to the herders in some way, so this issue affects everyone. To live off the land, you have to keep it alive," she said.

From Beirut to Hong Kong, protests evoke global frustration

October 26, 2019

BEIRUT (AP) — In Hong Kong, it was a complicated extradition dispute involving a murder suspect. In Beirut, it was a proposed tax on the popular WhatsApp messenger service. In Chile, it was a 4-cent hike in subway fares.

Recent weeks have seen mass protests and clashes erupt in far-flung places triggered by seemingly minor actions that each came to be seen as the final straw. The demonstrations are fueled by local grievances, but reflect worldwide frustration at growing inequality, corrupt elites and broken promises.

Where past waves of protests, like the 2011 Arab Spring or the rallies that accelerated the breakup of the Soviet Union, took aim at dictatorships, the latest demonstrations are rattling elected governments. The unrest on three continents, coupled with the toxic dysfunction in Washington and London, raises fresh concerns over whether the liberal international order, with free elections and free markets, can still deliver on its promises.

THE PEOPLE STILL WANT THE FALL OF THE REGIME

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese poured into the streets after the government floated a new tax on WhatsApp on the heels of an austerity package that came in response to an increasingly severe fiscal crisis.

The protests rapidly escalated into an indictment of the entire post-civil war order , in which a sectarian power-sharing arrangement has transformed former warlords and other elites into a permanent political class. In the three decades since the war ended, the same leaders have used patronage networks to get themselves re-elected again and again even as the government has failed to reliably provide basic services like electricity, water and trash collection.

A similar story has unfolded in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, where a government that distributes power and top offices among Shiites and minority Sunnis and Kurds has calcified into a corrupt stasis, with parties haggling over ministries as services and infrastructure fall into further ruin despite the country's considerable oil wealth.

"Thieves! Thieves!" protesters in both countries chanted this week.

"Massive economic mismanagement coupled with spiraling corruption have pauperized large segments of the Arab people," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. "It is no wonder then that millions of Arabs are fed up."

The protests in both countries target governments that are close to Iran and backed by its heavily armed local allies, raising fears of a violent backlash. Nearly 200 Iraqis have been killed in recent clashes with security forces, and supporters of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group have brawled with protesters in Beirut.

"There is no magical bullet or easy answer to the severe crisis of governance in Arab lands," Gerges said. "The struggle will be fierce and long and costly, but there is no turning back."

RISING UP AGAINST A RISING CHINA

Hong Kong's protests erupted in early June after the semiautonomous city passed an extradition bill that put residents at risk of being sent to China's judicial system. At one point, protesters said they had brought 2 million people into the streets.

Authorities were forced to drop the extradition proposal , which was triggered by the need to resolve the status of a murder suspect wanted for killing his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan. But by then, the movement had snowballed to include demands for full democracy in the form of direct elections for the city's top leader.

Since China took control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997, the city's leaders have been selected by an elite committee made up mostly of pro-Beijing tycoons. Local councillors and half of the Asian financial center's legislature are directly elected, but the other half are chosen by representatives from the finance, tourism, catering, accounting and other industries, which adds to the public discontent over stifled promises of democracy.

Underlying the Hong Kong protest movement are rising fears about China's tightening grip on the city and worries that Beijing is reneging on promises not to meddle with Hong Kong's Western-style civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and an independent judiciary.

Protesters also fear China's technology-powered authoritarianism. Wearing masks to conceal their identities, they have cut down "smart lampposts" and smashed surveillance cameras. They worry about artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition surveillance systems capturing their biometric data and sending it for processing by Chinese technology giants to track and identify them.

UNREST IN WEALTHY, DEMOCRATIC CHILE

On Friday, an estimated 1 million Chileans filled the streets of the capital Santiago, more than ever took to the streets during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet or the democratic governments that came after him.

The protests were sparked by the subway fare hike but soon morphed into a mass movement against inequality in one of Latin America's wealthiest countries. At least 19 people have been killed as protesters have clashed with police in recent days.

Protesters tried to force their way onto the grounds of Chile's legislature Friday, provoking an evacuation of the building. Police fired tear gas to fend off hundreds of demonstrators on the perimeter as some lawmakers and administrative staff hurried out of the legislative building, which is in the port city of Valparaiso.

Marta Lagos, head of Latinobarometro, a nonprofit survey group in Chile, said the protests have exposed the shortcomings of the country's political system. "There is a failure of the system of political parties in its ability to represent society," Lagos said.

Struggling to contain the strife, President Sebastián Piñera's administration announced increases in the minimum wage, raised minimum pensions by 20% and rolled back the subway fare increase.

He put a 9.2% increase in electricity prices on hold until the end of next year, but with analysts predicting his resignation and fresh elections, the consequences of that move could fall to his successor.

CATALAN PROTESTS TAKE A VIOLENT TURN

For years, Catalan separatists have held peaceful, festive marches, but the movement took a violent turn last week when protests erupted over the imprisonment of nine leaders who led a bid for independence from Spain in 2017.

That failed attempt left the separatist movement rudderless, with 12 of its leaders arrested and most of the rest fleeing the country, including former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont.

New activist collectives have emerged in their place, including one calling itself the Tsunami Democratic, which uses its own app and encrypted messages to call for "civil disobedience."

But one of its first calls to protest, after the Oct. 31 Supreme Court ruling jailing the leaders, turned into a massive siege of Barcelona's international airport, with rioters clashing with police late into the night.

The group has borrowed some of its tactics and rhetoric from the Hong Kong protesters, and protesters in both places have staged demonstrations in support of one another, though most Hong Kong protesters have been careful not to push for independence from China — one of President Xi Jinping's "red lines."

That one movement is struggling against domination by one-party China while the other is rising up against a European democracy is a distinction that has been lost in the tear gas.

Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong and Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed.

Protests rattle the postwar order in Lebanon and Iraq

October 26, 2019

BAGHDAD (AP) — Tens of thousands of people, many of them young and unemployed men, thronged public squares and blocked main streets Friday in the capitals of Iraq and Lebanon in unprecedented, spontaneous anti-government revolts in two countries scarred by long conflicts.

Demonstrators in Iraq were beaten back by police firing live ammunition and tear gas, and officials said 30 people were killed in a fresh wave of unrest that has left 179 civilians dead this month. In Lebanon, scuffles between rival political groups broke out at a protest camp, threatening to undermine an otherwise united civil disobedience campaign now in its ninth day.

The protests are directed at a postwar political system and a class of elite leaders that have kept both countries from relapsing into civil war but achieved little else. The most common rallying cry from the protesters in Iraq and Lebanon is "Thieves! Thieves!" — a reference to officials they accuse of stealing their money and amassing wealth for decades.

The leaderless uprisings are unprecedented in uniting people against political leaders from their own religious communities. But the revolutionary change they are calling for would dismantle power-sharing governments that have largely contained sectarian animosities and force out leaders who are close to Iran and its heavily armed local allies.

Their grievances are not new. Three decades after the end of Lebanon's civil war and 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the streets of their capitals echo with the roar of private generators that keep the lights on. Tap water is undrinkable and trash goes uncollected. High unemployment forces the young to put off marriage and children.

Every few years there are elections, and every time it seems like the same people win. The sectarian power-sharing arrangement that ended Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war distributed power and high offices among Christians, Shiites and Sunnis. It has mostly kept the peace, but has turned former warlords into a permanent political class that trades favors for votes. A planned tax on WhatsApp amid a financial crisis was the last straw.

In Iraq, a similar arrangement among Shiites and minority Sunnis and Kurds has led to the same corrupt stasis, with parties haggling over ministries so they can give jobs and aid to supporters while lining their own pockets. The devastating war against the Islamic State group only exacerbated decades-old economic problems in the oil-rich country.

"They (leaders) have eaten away at the country like cancer," said Abu Ali al-Majidi, 55, pointing toward the Green Zone, home to government offices and Western embassies. "They are all corrupt thieves," he added, surrounded by his four sons who had come along for the protest.

In Iraq, a ferocious crackdown on protests that began Oct. 1 resulted in the deaths of 149 civilians in less than a week, most of them shot in the head and chest, along with eight security forces killed. After a three-week hiatus, the protests resumed Friday, with 30 people killed, according to the semi-official Iraq High Commission for Human Rights.

In both countries, which share a history of civil strife, the potential for sustained turmoil is real. Iraq and Lebanon are considered to be firmly in Iran's orbit, and Tehran is loath to see protracted political turbulence that threatens the status quo, fearing it may lose influence at a time when it is under heavy pressure from the U.S.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut and the Popular Mobilization Forces in Baghdad have said they want the governments in both countries to stay in power. The protests against Iraq's Shiite-led government have spread to several, mainly Shiite-populated southern provinces. In Lebanon, demonstrations have erupted in Shiite communities, including in south Lebanon for the first time.

Signs of a backlash against Tehran's tight grip on both countries can already be seen. Among the protesters' chants in Baghdad, one said: "Iran out, out! Baghdad free, free!" Protesters trying to reach the heavily fortified Green Zone were met with tear gas and live ammunition. Men in black plainclothes and masks stood in front of Iraqi soldiers, facing off with protesters and firing the tear gas. Residents said they did not know who they were, with some speculating they were Iranians.

In the south, headquarters of Iran-backed militias were set on fire. In central Beirut, Hezbollah supporters clashed with anti-government protesters. Supporters of the powerful group rejected the protesters equating its leader with other corrupt politicians. A popular refrain in the rallies, now in their ninth day, has been: "All means all."

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned in a televised speech that the protests — although largely peaceful until now — could lead to chaos and civil war. He said they were being hijacked by political rivals opposing the group.

"We are closing the roads, calling for toppling the system that has been ruling us for the past 30 years with oppression, suppression and terror, said Abed Doughan, a protester blocking a street in southern Beirut.

After Friday's deadly violence in Iraq, a curfew was announced in several areas of the south. Hundreds of people were taken to hospitals, many with shortness of breath from the tear gas. The current round of protests has been endorsed by nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has a popular base of support and holds the largest number of seats in parliament. He has called on the government to resign and suspended his bloc's participation in the government until it comes up with a reform program.

However, powerful Shiite militias backed by Iran have stood by the government and suggested the demonstrations were an outside "conspiracy." Iraq's most senior Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, appealed for protesters and security forces to avoid violence. In his Friday sermon, he also criticized the government-appointed committee investigating the crackdown in the previous protests, saying it did not achieve its goals or uncover who was behind the violence.

As in the protests earlier this month, the protesters, organized on social media, started from the central Tahrir Square. The demonstrators carried Iraqi flags and chanted anti-government slogans, demanding jobs and better public services like water and electricity.

"I want my country back, I want Iraq back," said Ban Soumaydai, 50, an Education Ministry employee who wore black jeans, a white T-shirt and carried an Iraqi flag with the hashtag #We want a country printed on it.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has struggled to deal with the protests. In an address to the nation early Friday, he promised a government reshuffle next week and pledged reforms. He told protesters they have a right to peaceful demonstrations and called on security forces to protect the protesters.

Similarly, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri issued an emergency reform package few days after the protests began on Oct. 17 — a document that has been dismissed by protesters as "empty promises."

Karam reported from Beirut and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed.

2 Nobel literature prizes to be awarded after 2018 scandal

October 10, 2019

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two Nobel Prizes in literature will be announced Thursday after the 2018 literature award was postponed following sex abuse allegations that rocked the Swedish Academy. The chemistry prize went Wednesday to three scientists for their work leading to the development of lithium-ion batteries. That was a day after the physics award was given to a Canadian-American and two Swiss, and on Monday the Physiology or Medicine award went to two Americans and one British scientist.

So far, nine Nobel prizes have been awarded this week and all the laureates are men. The coveted Nobel Peace Prize is Friday and the economics award on Monday. In March, the foundation behind the Nobel Prize in literature said the Swedish Academy had revamped itself and restored trust. The Nobel Foundation had warned that another group could be picked to award the prize if the academy didn't improve its tarnished image.

The literature prize was canceled last year after a mass exodus at the exclusive Swedish Academy following sex abuse allegations. Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of a former academy member, was convicted last year of two rapes in 2011. Arnault allegedly also leaked the name of Nobel Prize literature winners seven times.

Among the favorites for the literature award are Canadian poet Anne Carson, novelists Maryse Condé of Guadeloupe, Can Xue of China and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author of "The Handmaid's Tale," which has been made into a hit TV series.

In his will, Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel specifically designated the Swedish Academy as the institution responsible for the Nobel Prize in literature. Other institutions in Sweden and Norway were given the task to find winners for the other Nobel Prizes.

Nobel decided the physics, chemistry and medicine should be awarded in Stockholm, and the peace prize in Oslo. His exact reasons for having an institution in Norway handing out the peace prize is unclear, but during his lifetime Sweden and Norway were joined in a union, which was dissolved in 1905.

Wednesday's chemistry prize went to John B. Goodenough, a German-born engineering professor at the University of Texas; M. Stanley Whittingham, a British-American chemistry professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton; and Japan's Akira Yoshino, of Asahi Kasei Corporation and Meijo University.

On Tuesday, Canadian-born James Peebles, 84, an emeritus professor at Princeton University, won the physics prize for his theoretical discoveries in cosmology together with Swiss scientists Michel Mayor, 77, and Didier Queloz, 53, both of the University of Geneva. The latter were honored for finding an exoplanet — a planet outside our solar system — that orbits a solar-type star, the Nobel committee said.

A day earlier, two Americans and one British scientist — Drs. William G. Kaelin Jr. of Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Gregg L. Semenza of Johns Hopkins University and Peter J. Ratcliffe at the Francis Crick Institute in Britain and Oxford University — won the prize for advances in physiology or medicine. They were cited for their discoveries of "how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability."

With the glory comes a 9-million kronor ($918,000) cash award, a gold medal and a diploma. The laureates receive them at an elegant ceremony on Dec. 10 — the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896 — in Stockholm and in Oslo.

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

Controversy stalks Nobel Peace, Literature prizes

October 06, 2019

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Controversy stalks the Nobel prizes for peace and literature in a way it rarely does for science. The revamped panel at the Swedish Academy who will hand out the Nobel Literature prizes Thursday for both 2018 and 2019 would relish arguments about the winners, rather than intrigue about the #MeToo scandal that forced the institution to suspend the prize last year.

And U.S. President Donald Trump has done his part to kindle intrigue about the 2019 Peace Prize winner, by simultaneously seeming to pitch himself for the prize while also slamming the Norwegian panel that awards it.

"Controversy is a natural effect of the Literature Prize," says Mats Malm, the Swedish Academy's new permanent secretary, appointed to head a reformed 18-person panel after two years of convulsions at the prestigious institution. "We want to contribute to the international discussion about literature and what it is supposed to be."

The literary science professor is leading an overhaul of the body, which was ripped apart in late 2017 and 2018 by sex assaults involving Jean-Claude Arnault , the husband of a former academy member and a once-notable figure on Sweden's cultural scene.

Arnault was convicted last year of two rapes in 2011 but not before accusations of abuse had led to an exodus of academy committee members, the ouster of then-Permanent Secretary Sara Danius and the absence of a Nobel Literature prize for the first time since 1943 at the height of World War II.

With a threat hanging from the Nobel Foundation — the body behind the Nobel Prizes — that the Swedish Academy could be stripped of its right to award the prize, the academy brought in five external members to help adjudicate the two literature awards this year. At the same time, it ousted everyone involved in the scandal and it "no longer includes any members who are subject to conflicts of interest or criminal investigations," according to the foundation.

Across the border, the five-person Norwegian Nobel Institute that oversees the Peace Prize usually claims not to enjoy the controversy that accompanies its choices. But Geir Lundestad, the non-voting secretary of the committee from 1990 to 2014, says some members have traditionally thrived on the controversies that the high-profile prize inevitably brings.

"I am not sure the differences between the two committees are so big. The literature and peace prizes are more accessible to ordinary people than the prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry," he says. "Some of the members enjoy the controversy that brings. It varies tremendously between members. But many recognize that some sort of controversy goes with the territory."

The Nobel committees never announce the names of candidates and nominations are not revealed for 50 years. Lundestad was in charge when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former U.S. President Barack Obama within months of his inauguration in 2009 — a prize that has attracted the ire of Trump, his successor.

Obama was there "for about 15 seconds" before he was awarded the prize, Trump told a press conference in February. Trump has been nominated for the Peace Prize by U.S congressmen for opening a dialogue with North Korea.

"I'll probably never get it, but that's OK," Trump said. "They gave it to Obama. He didn't even know what he got it for." Second-guessing the thinking of the secretive panel is rarely fruitful, but the committee is not immune from the charms of U.S. presidents. As well as Obama, Theodore Roosevelt won it in 1906, Woodrow Wilson took the prize in 1920 and Jimmy Carter was chosen for the award in 2002.

However, a better signal for this year's award might be former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who won the Peace Prize alongside the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007. Gore at the time was the face of the climate movement, a mantle now sitting on the slender shoulders of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden.

The teenage activist bolstered her profile last month, stepping onto the global stage at the U.N. to berate world leaders. "How dare you?" she kept saying to some of the world's most powerful people, accusing them of ignoring the science behind climate change. "You are failing us."

Last month, Thunberg won the Right Livelihood award, often called the "Alternative Nobel." British bookmakers have Thunberg as the hot peace prize favorite this year, with Trump listed as a rank outsider behind several other world leaders, including two prime ministers, Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The panel could also choose to acknowledge the joint leadership of Greece's Alexis Tsipras and North Macedonia's Zoran Zaev. The two prime ministers put 30 years of acrimony between their neighboring countries behind them when they agreed that the former Yugoslav republic should officially be renamed from Macedonia to North Macedonia and Greece should drop its objections to its neighbor joining NATO.

On the literature side, the British website Nicer Odds has solved the dilemma of having two winners announced this year by only taking bets on the 2019 winner. Among the favorites are Canadian poet Anne Carson, novelists Maryse Conde of Guadeloupe and Can Xue of China and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author of "The Handmaid's Tale," which has been made into a hit TV series.

The Nobel week begins Monday with the awards for physiology or medicine. The Physics Prize is handed out Tuesday, chemistry the following day, this year's double-header Literature Prizes will be awarded Thursday and the Peace Prize will be announced on Friday.

The economics prize — officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which is the only prize not created by the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite — will be awarded on Oct. 14.

Nobel's reason for having an institution in Norway hand out the Peace Prize while others are awarded in Sweden is unclear, but during his lifetime the two Scandinavian countries were in a union, which was dissolved in 1905.

Nobel fame this year comes with a 9-million kronor ($918,000) cash award, a gold medal and a diploma. The laureates get them at elegant ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10 — the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Sheila Norman-Culp in London contributed to this report.