UK's party leaders brace for Brexit election

October 30, 2019

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn were set to trade barbs over Brexit and public spending Wednesday when they face off in Parliament for the last time before a Dec. 12 general election.

The House of Commons on Tuesday approved an early election in hopes of breaking the deadlock over Britain's departure from the European Union. While Johnson's Conservative Party has a wide lead in opinion polls, analysts say the election is unpredictable because Brexit cuts across traditional party loyalties.

Johnson and Corbyn will trade carefully crafted quips when they face off in their regularly scheduled question-and-answer session. This will be the last episode of Prime Minister's Questions before Parliament is suspended for the election.

Johnson has told Conservative lawmakers this will be a "tough election." After three years of inconclusive political wrangling over Brexit, British voters are weary and the results of an election are hard to predict.

The House of Commons voted 438-20 on Tuesday night — with dozens of lawmakers abstaining — for a bill authorizing an election on Dec. 12. It will become law once it is approved Wednesday by the unelected House of Lords, which doesn't have the power to overrule the elected Commons.

The looming vote comes two and a half years before the next scheduled election, due in 2022, and will be the country's first December election since 1923. Meanwhile, the Brexit conundrum remains unsolved — and the clock is ticking down to the new deadline of Jan. 31.

"To my British friends," European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted Tuesday. "The EU27 has formally adopted the extension. It may be the last one. Please make the best use of this time."

December election? UK ponders early, Brexit-dominated vote

October 29, 2019

LONDON (AP) — Britain appeared on course Tuesday for an early general election that could break the country's political deadlock over Brexit, after the main opposition Labor Party said it would agree to the government's request to send voters to the polls in December.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pushing for a Dec 12 election in hopes of breaking the Parliamentary stalemate that blocked his plan to take Britain out of the European Union this month. Earlier this week, the EU granted Britain a three-month Brexit extension until Jan. 31.

Johnson — who has had to abandon his vow to lead Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 "do or die" — accused his opponents of wanting to prolong the Brexit process "until the 12th of never." He told lawmakers in Parliament on Tuesday there was no choice but "to go to the country to break free from this impasse."

"There is only one way to get Brexit done in the face of this unrelenting parliamentary obstructionism, this endless, willful, fingers crossed, 'not me guv' refusal to deliver on the mandate of the people — and that is to refresh this Parliament and give the people a choice," Johnson said.

For weeks, opposition parties have defeated Johnson's attempts to trigger an election. But now that Brexit has been delayed, Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn said his opposition party would vote in favor of an early election because the prospect that Britain could crash out of the EU without a divorce deal had been taken off the table.

"I've said consistently, when no-deal is off the table we will back an election," Corbyn said. "Today, after much denial and much bluster by the prime minister, that deal is officially off the table, so this country can vote for the government that it deserves."

Labor's shift means the U.K. is likely headed for its first December election since 1923. As it stands, Britain is not scheduled to hold a general election until 2022. On Monday, Johnson proposed a Dec. 12 election under a different procedure that required a two-thirds majority in the House of Commons but lawmakers voted it down — Johnson's third such defeat.

The House of Commons was scheduled to vote later Tuesday on a government bill calling for a Dec. 12 election. Unlike Monday's vote, it only needs a simple majority to pass. Corbyn's support means it's likely to succeed, although opposition politicians could press the government to alter the date by a day or two.

The Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party have proposed an earlier election date of Dec. 9 to reduce the possibility that Johnson could try to pass his EU divorce bill — which would allow Britain to leave the bloc and hand Johnson a major political achievement — before the campaign begins.

"It cannot be the 12th," said Liberal Democrat lawmaker Chuka Ummuna, who suggested his party could accept a compromise date of Dec. 10 or 11. "We will see what else they come forward with," he said. "We have got to break the gridlock."

A last-minute obstacle emerged when opposition parties announced plans to try to amend the terms of an early election to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 and expand the voting base to include citizens of the 27 other EU nations who are living in Britain.

It's unclear whether those amendments will be put to a vote. But the government said if they were, and they passed, it might withdraw its bill altogether. Johnson took office in July vowing to "get Brexit done" after his predecessor, Theresa May, resigned in defeat. But the Conservative leader, who said just weeks ago that he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than postpone the Oct. 31 Brexit date, was forced by Parliament to seek the extension in order to avoid a no-deal Brexit, which would damage the economies of both Britain and the EU.

Johnson plans to campaign as a leader who has a viable, strong Brexit plan for the country but who has been stymied by an anti-democratic opposition and a bureaucratic EU. On Tuesday, he accused opponents of betraying voters' decision to leave the EU. He declared that without an early election, the British government would be like the cartoon character Charlie Brown, "endlessly running up to kick the ball only to have Parliament whisk it away."

An election is a risk, though, not only for Johnson's Conservatives but also for Labor. Opinion polls currently give Johnson's Conservatives a lead over Labor, but there's a strong chance that an election could produce a Parliament as divided over Brexit as the current one. And the last time a Conservative government called an early election, in 2017, it backfired, and the party lost its majority in Parliament.

Voters are wary of politicians from all sides after more than three years of Brexit drama, and all the parties are worried about a backlash from grumpy voters asked to go to the polls at the darkest, coldest time of the year.

"We all know that a poll in December is less than ideal," said Pete Wishart, a lawmaker with the opposition Scottish National Party. "But it is worth that risk in order that we remove this prime minister."

UK moves closer to December election for 1st time since 1923

October 29, 2019

LONDON (AP) — The leader of the U.K.'s opposition Labor Party told fellow lawmakers Tuesday that he'll back an early election for Britain now that the prospect of crashing out of the European Union without a deal has been taken off the table.

The move by Jeremy Corbyn pushes the country closer to its first December election since 1923. Corbyn's remarks came only hours before Prime Minister Boris Johnson was set to ask lawmakers for a fourth time to approve an early election, saying voters must have the chance to break the Brexit deadlock in Parliament.

"We have now heard from the EU that the extension of Article 50 to Jan. 31 has been confirmed, so for the next three months, our condition of taking no-deal off the table has now been met," Corbyn said. "We will now launch the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change our country has ever seen."

In an effort to blunt opposition to an early vote, the government said Monday it would delay further consideration of the EU divorce deal until after the election, which the government wants to hold on Dec. 12.

Johnson on Monday had accused opponents of betraying voters' decision to leave the EU and said that without an early election, the government would be like Charlie Brown, "endlessly running up to kick the ball only to have Parliament whisk it away."

"We cannot continue with this endless delay," he said. Two opposition parties, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party, had proposed an even earlier election date in hopes that there wouldn't be enough time for the government to push through its Brexit bill before Parliament is suspended ahead of the election. The two parties said they will consider Johnson's latest proposal, though they still prefer a Dec. 9 date.

"It cannot be the 12th," said Liberal Democrat lawmaker Chuka Ummuna, who suggested his party could accept a compromise date of Dec. 10 or 11. "We will see what else they come forward with," he said. "We have got to break the gridlock."

However, it is possible that amendments to the bill could see the date move yet again. Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron tweeted with tongue in cheek: "Hang on, I don't think Corbyn has specified which Christmas...."

Johnson took office in July vowing to "get Brexit done" after his predecessor, Theresa May, resigned in defeat. Parliament had rejected her divorce deal three times, and the EU had delayed Britain's scheduled March 29 departure, first to April, and then to the end of October.

The EU on Monday agreed to extend the Brexit deadline for a third time, this time until Jan. 31. Johnson, who said just weeks ago that he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than postpone the U.K.'s leaving date past Oct. 31, was forced to seek the extension on Parliament's orders to avoid a no-deal Brexit, which would damage the economies of both Britain and the EU.

Afghan presidential polls close amid allegations of fraud

September 28, 2019

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's presidential polls closed Saturday amid fears that accusations of fraud and misconduct could overwhelm any election results, while insurgent attacks aimed at disrupting voting in the country's north and south caused dozens of casualties.

An upsurge in violence in the run-up to the elections, following the collapse of U.S.-Taliban talks to end America's longest war, had already rattled Afghanistan in the past weeks. Yet on Saturday, many voters expressed equal fear and frustration over relentless government corruption and the widespread chaos at polling stations.

A deeply flawed election and contested result could drive the war-weary country into chaos. Many Afghans found incomplete voters' lists, unworkable biometric identification systems aimed at curbing fraud, and in some cases hostile election workers.

Ruhollah Nawroz, a representative of the Independent Complaints Commission tasked with monitoring the process, said the problems are countrywide. Nawroz said he arrived at a polling center in the Taimani neighborhood of Kabul, the capital, at 6 a.m. and "hour by hour I was facing problems."

Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time and closed at 5 p.m. after the Independent Election Commission (IEC) extended polling by one hour. Preliminary results won't be out until Oct. 17, with a final vote count on Nov. 7. If no candidate wins 51 percent of the vote, a second round will be held between the two leading candidates.

Voter Hajji Faqir Bohman, who was speaking on behalf of disgruntled voters at the Taimani polling center, said the polling was so disorganized and flawed that even if his candidate wins "I will never believe that it was a fair election."

The leading contenders are incumbent President Ashraf Ghani and his partner in the five-year-old unity government, Abdullah Abdullah, who already alleges power abuse by his opponent. Cameras crowded both men as they cast their vote earlier in Kabul, with Ghani telling voters they too had a responsibility to call out instances of fraud.

A young woman, Shabnam Rezayee, was attacked by an election worker after insisting on seeing the voter's list when she was told her name was not on the list. Rezayee said the worker hurled abuses at her, directing her insults at her ethnicity. She then punched and scratched her.

When it ended and the attacker left, Rezayee found her name on the list and voted. "I am very strong," she said. In Kabul, turnout was sporadic and in the morning hours it was rare to see a crowded polling center. Afghans who had patiently lined up before the voting centers were opened, entered in some locations to find that election officials had yet to arrive by opening time.

Imam Baksh, who works as a security guard, said he wasn't worried about his safety as he stood waiting to mark his ballot, wondering whom he would vote for. "All of them have been so disappointing for our country," he said.

The government's push to hold the vote was in itself controversial. In an interview with The Associated Press last week, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who still wields heavy influence, warned that the vote could be destabilizing for the country at a time of deep political uncertainty and hinder restarting the peace process with the Taliban.

On Saturday, one of the first reports of violence came from southern Afghanistan, the former spiritual heartland of the Taliban. A bomb attack on a local mosque where a polling station was located wounded 15 people, a doctor at the main hospital in the city of Kandahar said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak with the media.

The wounded included a police officer and several election officials, along with voters. Three were in critical condition. In northern Kunduz, where Taliban have previously threatened the city — even briefly taking control of some areas — insurgents fired mortar rounds into the municipality and attacked Afghan security forces on its outskirts, said Ghulam Rabani Rabani, a council member for the province.

Rabani said the attacks are to "frighten people and force them to stay in their homes and not participate in the election." He said ongoing fighting has wounded as many as 40 people. Tens of thousands of police, intelligence officials and Afghan National Army personnel were deployed throughout the country to protect the 4,942 election centers. Authorities said 431 polling centers will stay closed because it was impossible to guarantee their security since they were either in areas under Taliban control or where insurgents could threaten nearby villages.

At one polling station in Kabul's well-to-do Shahr-e-Now neighborhood, election workers struggled with biometric machines as well as finding names on voters' lists. Ahmad Shah, 32, cast his vote, but said the election worker forgot to ink his finger — which is mandatory to prevent multiple voting by the same person.

"What sort of system is this?" he asked, frustrated that he had risked his safety to vote and expressed fear that fraud will mar the election results. "It's a mess." Still, 63-year old Ahmad Khan urged people to vote.

"It is the only way to show the Taliban we are not afraid of them," he said, though he too worried at the apparent glitches in the process. In Kabul traffic was light, with police and the army scattered throughout the city, stopping cars and looking for anything out of the ordinary. Larger vehicles were not being allowed into the capital on Saturday, which is normally a working day but for the elections was declared a holiday.

Campaigning for Saturday's elections was subdued and went into high gear barely two weeks ahead of the polls as most of the 18 presidential candidates expected a deal between the United States and the Taliban to delay the vote. But on Sept. 7, President Donald Trump declared a deal that seemed imminent dead after violent attacks in Kabul killed 12 people, including two U.S.-led coalition soldiers, one of whom was American.

While many of the presidential candidates withdrew from the election, none formally did so, leaving all 18 candidates on the ballot. Elections in Afghanistan are notoriously flawed and in the last presidential polls in 2014, allegations of widespread corruption were so massive that the United States intervened to prevent violence. No winner was declared and the U.S. cobbled together the unity government in which Ghani and Abdullah shared equal power — Ghani as president and Abdullah as chief executive, a newly created position.

Constant bickering and infighting within the government frustrated attempts to bring in substantive legislation as security, which has been tenuous, continued to deteriorate, frustrating Afghans and causing many to flee as refugees.

Neighboring Pakistan, routinely accused of aiding insurgents, said it was re-opening its borders with Afghanistan after receiving a request from the Afghan defense minister to allow Afghans to return home to vote. Pakistan had announced the border would be closed Saturday and Sunday.

Associated Press writer Mukhtar Amiri in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

Afghans vote for president amid Taliban threats, fraud fears

September 28, 2019

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghans headed to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president amid high security and Taliban threats to disrupt the elections, with the rebels warning citizens to stay home or risk being hurt.

Still at some polling stations in the capital voters lined up even before the centers opened, while in others election workers had yet to arrive by poll opening time. Imam Baksh, who works as a security guard, said he wasn't worried about his safety as he stood waiting to mark his ballot, wondering who he would vote for.

"All of them have been so disappointing for our country," he said. The leading contenders are incumbent President Ashraf Ghani and his partner in the 5-year-old unity government, Abdullah Abdullah, who already alleges power abuse by his opponent. Cameras crowded both men as they cast their vote, with Ghani telling voters they too had a responsibility to call out instances of fraud.

Fear and frustration at the relentless corruption that has characterized successive governments ranks high among the concerns of Afghanistan's 9.6 million eligible voters. Even in the early hours of voting, complaints had begun to be raised such as polling stations in the posh Wazir Akbar region opening late and biometric machines, aimed at curbing fraud, not working.

In the northern Taimani neighborhood of mostly ethnic Hazaras, two-thirds of the voting registration papers had yet to arrive and angry voters were told their names were not on the list. Abdul Ghafoor, who spoke on behalf of dozens of men waiting to cast their ballot, said that of about 3,000 registered voters only 400 appeared on the list that had arrived at the center.

Ghafoor said he was told to return at 2 p.m. and that he would be allowed to vote even if his name was not on the list and without using the biometric machine. "But how can they do this? My vote won't count if I am not on a list," he said.

In Khoja Ali Mohfaq Herawi mosque in Kabul's well-to-do Shahr-e-Now neighborhood, election workers struggled with biometric machines as well as finding names on voters' lists. Ahmad Shah, 32, cast his vote, but said the election worker forgot to ink his finger — which is mandatory to prevent multiple voting by the same person.

"What sort of system is this?" he asked, frustrated that he had risked his safety to vote and expressed fear that fraud will mar the election results. "It's a mess." Still, 63-year old Ahmad Khan urged people to vote.

"It is the only way to show the Taliban we are not afraid of them," he said, though he too worried at the apparent glitches in the process. Tens of thousands of police, intelligence officials and Afghan National Army personnel have been deployed throughout the country to protect the 4,942 election centers. Authorities said 431 polling centers will stay closed because it was impossible to guarantee their security since they were either in areas under Taliban control or where insurgents could threaten nearby villages.

In Kabul traffic was light, with police and the army scattered throughout the city, stopping cars and looking for anything out of the ordinary. The Taliban said they would take particular aim at Afghanistan's cities.

Outfitted in bullet-proof vests, their rifles by their side, soldiers slowed traffic to a crawl as they searched vehicles. Larger vehicles were not being allowed into the capital on Saturday, which is a usual working day but for the elections was declared a holiday.

Neighbor Pakistan, routinely accused of aiding insurgents, announced it was closing its borders with Afghanistan Saturday and Sunday to further protect security in the war-weary country. Campaigning for Saturday's elections was subdued and went into high gear barely two weeks ahead of the polls as most of the 18 presidential candidates expected a deal between the United States and the Taliban to delay the vote. But on Sept. 7, President Donald Trump declared a deal that seemed imminent dead after violent attacks in Kabul killed 12 people, including two U.S.-led coalition soldiers, one of whom was American.

While many of the presidential candidates withdrew from the election, none formally did so, leaving all 18 candidates on the ballot. Elections in Afghanistan are notoriously flawed and in the last presidential polls in 2014, allegations of widespread corruption were so massive that the United States intervened to prevent violence. No winner was declared and the U.S. cobbled together the unity government in which Ghani and Abdullah shared equal power — Ghani as president and Abdullah as chief executive, a newly created position.

Constant bickering and infighting within the government frustrated attempts to bring in substantive legislation as security, which has been tenuous, continued to deteriorate, frustrating Afghans and causing many to flee as refugees.

Associated Press writer Mukhtar Amiri contributed to this report.

Bolton summoned; 1st big vote set on impeachment probe

October 31, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — House investigators are asking former national security adviser John Bolton to testify in their impeachment inquiry, deepening their reach into the White House as the probe accelerates toward a potential vote to remove the president.

Democratic lawmakers want to hear next week from Bolton, the hawkish former adviser who openly sparred over the administration's approach to Ukraine — in particular, President Donald Trump's reliance on his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for a back-channel operation. Bolton once derided Giuliani's work as a "drug deal" and said he wanted no part of it, according to previous testimony.

Bolton's attorney, Charles Cooper, said Wednesday evening that his client would not appear without a subpoena. The Democrats are also calling John Eisenberg, the lawyer for the NSC who fielded an Army officer's concerns over Trump's phone call with the Ukraine president, and Michael Ellis, another security council official, according to a person familiar with the invitation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

The rush of possible new witnesses comes as the House prepares to take its first official vote Thursday on the process ahead. That includes public hearings in a matter of weeks and the possibility of drafting articles of impeachment against the president.

The White House has urged officials not to testify in the impeachment proceedings, and it's not guaranteed that those called will appear for depositions, even if they receive subpoenas as previous witnesses have.

Bolton's former deputy, Charles Kupperman, has filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to resolve the question of whether he can be forced to testify since he was a close and frequent adviser to the president. Any ruling in that case could presumably have an impact on whether Bolton will testify. A status conference in that case was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Trump and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill say the entire impeachment inquiry is illegitimate and are unpersuaded by the House resolution formally setting out next steps. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the format for the impeachment probe denies Trump the "most basic rights of due process."

Now in its second month, the investigation is focused on Trump's July phone call with Ukraine when he asked President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats and a potential 2020 political rival, Joe Biden, as the White House was withholding military aid Ukraine relies on for its defenses. Democrats contend Trump was proposing a quid-pro-quo arrangement.

On Thursday, the investigators are to hear from Tim Morrison, a former top GOP aide on Capitol Hill, who served at Trump's National Security Council and was among those likely monitoring the president's call with Ukraine.

Late Wednesday, it was disclosed that Morrison was resigning his White House position. He has been a central figure in other testimony about Trump's dealing with Ukraine. Earlier in the day, the Democratic and Republican House lawmakers heard fresh testimony about the Trump administration's unusual back channels to Ukraine.

Two State Department Ukraine experts offered new accounts of Trump's reliance on Giuliani rather than career diplomats to engage with the East European ally, a struggling democracy facing aggression from Russia.

Foreign Service officer Christopher Anderson testified that Bolton cautioned him that Giuliani "was a key voice with the president on Ukraine" and could complicate U.S. goals for the country. Another Foreign Service officer, Catherine Croft, said that during her time at Trump's National Security Council, she received "multiple" phone calls from lobbyist Robert Livingston -- a former top Republican lawmaker once in line to become House speaker -- telling her the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, should be fired.

"It was not clear to me at the time -- or now -- at whose direction or at whose expense Mr. Livingston was seeking the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch," she said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

Livingston characterized Yovanovitch as an "'Obama holdover' and associated with George Soros," she said, referring to the American financier who is often the subject of conservative criticism in the U.S. and Europe.

Most Democrats are expected to support the formal impeachment investigation resolution Thursday, even if they don't back impeachment itself, saying they are in favor of opening the process with more formal procedures.

Public hearings are expected to begin in mid-November, a matter of weeks. Democrats are eager to hear from some top witnesses who have already provided compelling testimony behind closed doors, including diplomat William Taylor, a top ambassador in Ukraine, and Alexander Vindman, the Army officer who testified Tuesday that he twice reported to superiors, including Eisenberg, his concerns about Trump's actions toward Ukraine.

Vindman is willing to testify publicly, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity Wednesday to discuss it. At Trump's hotel in Washington, during a fundraiser for House Republicans and lengthy dinner afterward with GOP leaders, the president indicated he was prepared for the fight ahead, said those familiar with the private gatherings Tuesday night.

"He's a tough guy," said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the GOP whip. Both career diplomats testifying Wednesday had served as top aides to the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who was the first to testify in the impeachment inquiry and whose cache of text messages provided key insight into Trump's demands on the new Ukraine president.

Croft, who testified for nearly five hours, described being told at an administration meeting that security funds for Ukraine were being put on hold "at the direction of the president," corroborating other accounts that have been provided to investigators.

In his opening statement, Anderson traced his unease with developments that he felt threatened to set back relations between the U.S. and Ukraine. He told investigators that senior White House officials blocked an effort by the State Department to release a November 2018 statement condemning Russia's attack on Ukrainian military vessels.

Both witnesses were instructed by the administration to not testify but appeared in response to subpoenas from the House, according to a statement from their attorney Mark MacDougall. The lawyer told lawmakers that neither of his clients is the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment inquiry and that he would object to any questions aimed at identifying that person.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Padmananda Rama, Matthew Daly and Alan Fram contributed to this report.

Envoy for North Korea expected to get No. 2 State Dept. job

October 28, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, is expected to be nominated as early as this week to be second-in-command at the State Department, officials said Monday. Two Trump administration officials and a congressional aide familiar with the selection process said the White House is expected to nominate Biegun to be the next deputy secretary of state in the coming days. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Biegun would replace John Sullivan, who has been nominated to be the next U.S. ambassador to Russia. Both positions require Senate confirmation. Biegun has had a prominent role in the delicate negotiations that led to historic meetings between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

A former Ford Motor Co. executive who served in previous Republican administrations and has advised GOP lawmakers, Biegun has led as yet unsuccessful negotiations to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons since being appointed to his current post in August 2018. He is expected to keep the North Korea portfolio if he is confirmed to the new post, the officials said.

His nomination has been expected since mid-September, but its timing has been unclear amid turmoil in the State Department over the House impeachment inquiry into the administration's policy toward Ukraine.

Sullivan was nominated to be envoy to Moscow in September although his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was just set for Wednesday, making Biegun's nomination to fill the soon-to-be vacant No. 2 spot at the State Department more urgent.

Sullivan's confirmation hearing is likely to be dominated by questions from committee Democrats about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and his role in Ukraine policy. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified to impeachment investigators earlier the month that Sullivan was the official who informed her that she had lost Trump's confidence and was being recalled early from Kyiv. Democrats are expected to use Wednesday's confirmation hearing to press Sullivan on the extent of his involvement in Ukraine and why the department bowed to a campaign to oust Yovanovitch spearheaded by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Democrats move ahead with subpoenas, Trump impeachment

September 28, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats took their first concrete steps in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, issuing subpoenas demanding documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and scheduling legal depositions for other State Department officials.

At the end of a stormy week of revelation and recrimination, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi framed the impeachment inquiry as a somber moment for a divided nation. "This is no cause for any joy," she said on MSNBC.

At the White House, a senior administration official confirmed Friday a key detail from the unidentified CIA whistleblower who has accused Trump of abusing the power of his office. Trump, for his part, insisted anew that his actions and words have been "perfect" and the whistleblower's complaint might well be the work of "a partisan operative."

The White House acknowledged that a record of the Trump phone call that is now at the center of the impeachment inquiry had been sealed away in a highly classified system at the direction of Trump's National Security Council lawyers.

Separately, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters that the whistleblower "has protection under the law," something Trump himself had appeared to question earlier in the day. He suggested then that his accuser "isn't a whistleblower at all."

Still at issue is why the rough transcript of Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president was put on "lock down," in the words of the whistleblower. The CIA officer said that diverting the record in an unusual way was evidence that "White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired" in the conversation.

The whistleblower complaint alleges that Trump used his office to "solicit interference from a foreign country" to help himself in next year's U.S. election. In the phone call, days after ordering a freeze to some military assistance for Ukraine, Trump prodded new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to dig for potentially damaging material on Democratic rival Joe Biden and volunteered the assistance of both his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

Pelosi refused to set a deadline for the probe but promised to act "expeditiously." The House intelligence committee could draw members back to Washington next week. Pelosi said she was praying for the president, adding, "I would say to Democrats and Republicans: We have to put country before party."

At the White House, it was a senior administration official who acknowledged that the rough transcript of Trump's conversation with Ukraine's Zelenskiy had been moved to a highly classified system maintained by the National Security Council. The official was granted anonymity Friday to discuss sensitive matters.

White House attorneys had been made aware of concerns about Trump's comments on the call even before the whistleblower sent his allegations to the intelligence community's inspector general. Those allegations, made in mid-August, were released Thursday under heavy pressure from House Democrats.

One former official said memos of Trump calls with foreign leaders had to be severely restricted after leaks in 2017. Calls with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russia's Vladimir Putin were among those whose distribution were kept to a minimum. The official cautioned that administrations discuss sensitive matters with both nations, and that the treatment shouldn't imply anything untoward on the call. Even some calls with US allies are also restricted due to discussions of classified topics. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the process.

On the Ukraine matter, Trump was keeping up his full-bore attack on the whistleblower and the unnamed "White House officials" cited in the complaint, drawing a warning from Pelosi against retaliation.

Late Thursday, Trump denounced people who might have talked to the whistleblower as "close to a spy" and suggested they engaged in treason, an act punishable by death. Then on Friday, he said the person was "sounding more and more like the so-called Whistleblower isn't a Whistleblower at all."

He also alleged without evidence that information in the complaint has been "proved to be so inaccurate." Pelosi told MSNBC, "I'm concerned about some of the president's comments about the whistleblower."

She said the House panels conducting the impeachment probe will make sure there's no retaliation against people who provided information in the case. On Thursday, House Democratic chairmen called Trump's comments "witness intimidation" and suggested efforts by him to interfere with the potential witness could be unlawful.

Trump's Friday comment questioning the whistleblower's status seemed to foreshadow a possible effort to argue that legal protection laws don't apply to the person, opening a new front in the president's defense, but Conway's statement seemed to make that less likely.

The intelligence community's inspector general found the whistleblower's complaint "credible" despite finding indications of the person's support for a different political candidate. Legal experts said that by following proper procedures and filing a complaint with the government rather than disclosing the information to the media, the person is without question regarded as a whistleblower entitled to protections against being fired or criminally prosecuted.

"This person clearly followed the exact path he was supposed to follow," said Debra D'Agostino, a lawyer who represents whistleblowers. "There is no basis for not calling this person a whistleblower."

Lawyers say it also doesn't matter for the purposes of being treated as a whistleblower if all of the allegations are borne out as entirely true, or even if political motives or partisanship did factor into the decision to come forward.

Giuliani, already in the spotlight, was scheduled to appear at a Kremlin-backed conference in Armenia on Tuesday, but he said Friday he would not be attending. The agenda showed him speaking at a session on digital financial technologies. Russian President Vladimir Putin also was scheduled to participate in the conference.

Republicans were straining under the uncertainty of being swept up in the most serious test yet of their alliance with the Trump White House. "We owe people to take it seriously," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a onetime Trump rival who is now a member of the intelligence committee.

"Right now, I have more questions than answers," he said. "The complaint raises serious allegations, and we need to determine whether they're credible or not." A swift resolution to the impeachment inquiry may not be easy. The intelligence committee is diving in just as lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week recess, with the panel expected to work while away. One person familiar with the committee's schedule said that members might return at the end of next week.

Findings will eventually need to be turned over to Rep. Jerrold Nadler's Judiciary Committee, which is compiling the work of five other panels into what is expected to be articles of impeachment. The panel will need to find consensus.

Meanwhile, Trump's reelection campaign took to accusing Democrats of trying to "steal" the 2020 election in a new ad airing in a $10 million television and digital buy next week. The ad also attacks Democrat Biden, highlighting his efforts as vice president to make U.S. aid to Ukraine contingent on that country firing a prosecutor believed to be corrupt. The ad claims that the fired prosecutor was investigating the former vice president's son.

In fact, the prosecutor had failed to pursue any major anti-corruption investigations, leaving Ukraine's international donors deeply frustrated. In pressing for the prosecutor's ouster, Biden was representing the official position of the U.S. government, which was shared by other Western allies and many in Ukraine.

AP writers Lisa Mascaro, Laurie Kellman, Mary Clare Jalonick, Alan Fram, Matt Lee, Padmananda Rama and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Protests choke communities in Haiti as aid, supplies dwindle

October 06, 2019

LEOGANE, Haiti (AP) — Gabriel Duvalesse squatted slightly as he prepared to push 50 gallons (190 liters) of cooking oil in an old wheelbarrow to an outdoors market an hour away so he could earn $1. It was his first job in seven days as deadly protests paralyze Haiti's economy and shutter businesses and schools. Opposition leaders and thousands of supporters are demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse amid anger over government corruption, ballooning inflation and scarcity of fuel and other basic goods.

Seventeen people have been reported killed and nearly 200 injured in the protests. The political turmoil is hitting cities and towns outside the capital of Port-au-Prince especially hard, forcing non-government organizations to suspend aid as barricades of large rocks and burning tires cut off the flow of goods between the city and the countryside. The crisis is deepening poverty in places such as Leogane, the epicenter of Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake.

"We are starving," said 28-year-old Duvalesse, who has been unable to work. "I had to make $2 last one week." The United Nations said that before the protests even began, some 2.6 million people across Haiti were vulnerable to food shortages, adding that roadblocks have severely impacted some humanitarian programs. On Sept. 16, the World Food Program was forced to suspend all food deliveries to schools as demonstrations started.

Meanwhile, cash transfers to some 37,000 people in need were postponed. U.N. officials also said that private transporters are reluctant to deliver goods given the security situation, a problem that Leogane business owner Vangly Germeille knows well.

He owns a wholesale company that sells items including rice, soap, cooking oil and cereal to small markets. But his warehouse is nearly empty and he struggles to find truck drivers willing to go to markets to deliver the goods because of thieves and barricades.

"It's an enormous economic loss," said Germeille, a father of two who is thinking of moving to the Dominican Republic if things don't improve soon. "If there's no way to make a living here, I can't stay."

Rice, coconuts, milk and diapers are among the dozens of goods that people in this coastal community of more than 200,000 inhabitants say are hard to find since the protests began in mid-September. On Saturday, a grocery store near the town's center opened briefly to sell rice, said 40-year-old IT engineer Sony Raymond.

"In less than three hours it was gone," he said. "Leogane is basically paralyzed." The protests and barricades are increasingly isolating already struggling communities across Haiti, including those like Barriere Jeudi, where amateur bull fights on weekends provide some distraction from people's financial problems.

Bruinel Jean-Louis, who repairs refrigerators and stoves, said he hasn't been able to find much work because he can't travel to find the parts he needs. "It takes a very long time, and that also makes me suffer," he said as several bulls brayed behind him.

To make up for the financial shortfall, he sells halters for horses. Haitian economist Kesner Pherel noted that Haiti is a country of nearly 11 million people where 60% make less than $2 a day and 25% make less than $1 a day. He said the problem is worsening now that food is not going to Haiti's capital nor manufactured goods to rural areas, causing a stoppage to the economy.

The situation angers 62-year-old Carolle Bercy, who moved back to Haiti last year after working in financial services for 30 years in Connecticut, both in Stanford and Bridgeport. She said she has seen people fighting over fuel on the rare instances that a gas station opens, and she worries about the future of Haitians.

"It's unbelievable," she said. "No country on earth should go what Haitian people are going through."

Thousands rally against Haitian president, clash with police

October 05, 2019

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Thousands of protesters marched through the Haitian capital to the U.N. headquarters Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in a weekslong push to oust embattled President Jovenel Moïse.

At least two people were shot as police in riot gear blocked the main entrance to the airport and fired tear gas at the crowd, which threw rocks and bottles. Carlos Dorestant, a 22-year-old motorcycle driver, said he saw the man next to him shot, apparently by police, as protesters dismantled a barrier near the U.N. office.

"We are asking everyone in charge to tell Jovenel to resign," he said, his shirt stained with blood. "The people are suffering." Several protesters held up signs asking the U.S. for help. "Trump give Haiti one chance" read one, while another quoted a tweet by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. A third referred to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who discussed the crisis with Haitians in Miami on Thursday.

The unrest on Friday came after almost four weeks of protests in which 17 people have been reported killed, the economy has been largely paralyzed, 2 million children have been kept from going to school and badly needed aid has been suspended, especially to rural areas. The U.S., United Nations and other important international players have yet to drop their support for Moïse, making it appear unlikely that he will step down, despite protests that have made gasoline, food and water scarce in some areas.

"We will continue until Jovenel leaves office," said Sen. Sorel Jacinthe, who was once the president's ally but joined the opposition earlier this year. The opposition has rejected Moïse's call for dialogue and created a nine-person commission it says would oversee an orderly transition of power, with many demanding a more in-depth investigation into corruption allegations which involve the use of funds from a Venezuela-subsidized oil program. Critics say Moïse has not looked into the former top government officials accused, including ally and former President Michel Martelly.

To protest against the alleged corruption and a shortage of basic goods, Haitians have taken to the streets in force. Opposition leader and attorney André Michel said the international community should recognize the protesters' demands and blamed Moïse for the country's economic and social problems.

"He has plunged the country into chaos," he said. Moïse's ally, former Prime Minister Evans Paul, also met earlier this week with the Core Group, which includes officials from the United Nations, U.S., Canada and France to talk about the political situation. He has said that he believes Moïse has two options: nominate an opposition-backed prime minister or shorten the length of his mandate.

Moïse, who owned a company named in the investigation, has denied all corruption allegations. He urges dialogue and says he will not resign. Laurent Dubois, a Haiti expert and Duke University professor, said there is no clear answer on what might happen next as the turmoil continues.

"The thing that haunts all of this is ... is this going to lead to the emergence of more authoritarian rule?" he said. Earlier Friday, police fired tear gas at thousands gathered under a bridge to urge the international community to withdraw support for the president. Some demonstrators were carrying guns, machetes or knives.

A police commander could be heard ordering officers to take up their positions. "It's become more than a protest!" he yelled. At various locations, water cannon trucks were on hand. Getta Julien, 47, said she had enough of the protests and the president as she stabilized portions of rice, beans and vegetables she had packed into foam containers.

"He has to go," she said. "He's doing nothing for the country. Nothing at all." Nearby, others cheered as Jacinthe arrived and greeted supporters, including an artist riding a white horse amid burning tires as he carried a large red and black flag that read, "Long live the economic revolution."

One protester, 38-year-old electrician Delva Sonel, said he did not want the international community to interfere. "We're trying to send a signal to the world that we're not a little country," he said. "We want to tell them to stay out of our business."

Some questioned why international leaders had not spoken publicly against Moïse even as he and his administration face corruption allegations. "How can they support this government if it represents everything that is wrong?" said Israel Voltaire, a 35-year-old attorney. "With us being a democratic country, it's like we're losing the war."

Haiti braces for new protest, demands that leader resign

September 30, 2019

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Opposition leaders are calling for a nationwide push Monday to block streets and paralyze Haiti's economy as they press for President Jovenel Moïse to give up power, and tens of thousands of their dedicated young supporters are expected to heed the call.

People stood in lines all day Sunday under a brutal sun to get water, gasoline and other basic supplies before the next round of protests that many worried would turn more violent than a demonstration Friday during which several homes and businesses were burned as police fired tear gas at protesters.

Several people have died in the past three weeks amid the political clashes. "I have a feeling that the country is going to change," said Yves Bon Anée, a mason standing next to eight empty plastic gallons that he would fill with gasoline at $2 a gallon for friends, family and himself. He planned to resell his portion to make some money because he hasn't been able to find work in weeks amid Haiti's crisis.

"My kids are suffering," he said of his three young boys. Opposition leaders and supporters say they are angry about public corruption, spiraling inflation and a dwindling supply of gasoline that has forced many gas stations in the capital to close as suppliers demand the cash-strapped government pay them more than $100 million owed.

Protesters also are demanding a more in-depth investigation into allegations that top officials in the previous government misused billions of dollars in public funds that were proceeds from a Venezuela subsidized oil plan meant for urgent social programs.

Moïse, who took office in 2017 following an election redo, has said he will not step down despite the unrest and instead called for calm, unity and dialogue during an address televised at 2 a.m. Wednesday. It was a rare appearance for the president since the new wave of protests began about three weeks ago.

Laurent Dubois, a Haiti expert and professor at Duke University, said he believes the country will face an increasing impasse unless the parties find a way to reach some kind of resolution. "There's a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety ... that things are going in a direction in Haiti that we haven't seen in a while," he said. "It seems like we're going into some kind of new phase in Haitian history, but what it holds will be difficult to predict."

Opposition leaders demanding Moïse's resignation say they envision a transitional government after the chief justice of Haiti's Supreme Court takes over as dictated by law if a president resigns. André Michel, an attorney and professor of human rights, said Haiti's current political system has generated misery, underdevelopment and corruption that have led to poverty, noting that the country's middle class has shrunk.

Michel said Haiti needs to rebuild a new society and state as he called on the international community to back the goal of opposition leaders to oust Moïse. "The will of the people is clear," Michel said. "If he insists on remaining as president, he will lead the country into chaos."

At a news conference Sunday, opposition leaders urged the dozens of supporters gathered around them to start blocking streets and to help them look for Moïse, whom they contend has gone into hiding. Among those leading the call to find Moïse was opposition Sen. Youri Latortue, who has denied corruption allegations that U.S. officials made against him more than a decade ago and once led a party allied with Moïse's Tet Kale faction.

"We're going to search for him everywhere," Latortue said.

Russia and Cuba rebuild ties that frayed after Cold War

October 29, 2019

HAVANA (AP) — Over the last year Russia has sent Cuba 1,000 minibuses, 50 locomotives, tens of thousands of tourists and a promise to upgrade the island's power grid with a multi-million dollar improvement plan.

Russian-Cuban trade has more than doubled since 2013, to an expected $500 million this year, mostly in Russian exports to Cuba. And a string of high-ranking Russian officials have visited their former ally in the Caribbean, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. On Tuesday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel lands in Moscow for meetings with officials including President Vladimir Putin, with the expectation that they will move forward on deals for more trade and cooperation.

Russian-Cuban ties are far from the Cold War era of near-total Cuban dependence on the Soviet bloc, which saw this island as a forward operating base in the Americas then largely abandoned it in the 1990s. But observers of Cuban and Russian foreign policy say there is a significant warming between the former partners prompted in part by the Trump administration's reversal of President Barack Obama's opening to Cuba. Cuba and Russia are also heavily supporting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. has been trying to overthrow.

"We did make huge mistakes in the 1990s while turning our backs on Cuba. That time is definitely over, and I'm absolutely sure that our relations deserve better attention from Russia," said Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament. "They deserve more investments from Russia both in terms of finances and equipment of course, but also human resources. And definitely we should assist, we should help, Cuba; we should support Cuba as long as it's discriminated against, as long as it's sanctioned, as long as it's blockaded by the United States."

Neither country provides many details about their improving relations, but Russian products being exported to Cuba include new-model Lada automobiles and Kamaz trucks. There's a new Cuban-Russian joint venture to produce constructions materials, and when Medvedev visited Cuba this month, he inaugurated a petroleum products plant and signed deals to repair three Soviet-era power plants.

As tourism from the U.S. slackens, Russian visits rose 30% in 2018, to 137,000. "Russia is trying to preserve the zone of influence it had during the era of the Soviet Union, looking for partners in Latin America and letting Washington know that it's still a great power," said Arturo López-Levy, a Cuban-born assistant professor of international relations and politics at Holy Names University in Oakland, California. "Cuba's signing up for projects that can benefit it, and are already showing results on the island."

Russia is making no secret of its desire to play reliable partner to an island facing hostility from the United States, including sanctions on ships bringing oil from Venezuela. "It's obvious, the U.S. desire to create a toxic atmosphere around cooperation with Cuba, to frighten investors and block the flow of energy," Medvedev said during his trip to Havana. "Cuba can always count on Russia's support."

During the 1960s, 1970s and '80s, Cuba was filled with Soviet products and citizens, who worked alongside Cubans in chemical plants, mines and army bases. Moscow sent billions in aid before the fall of the Soviet Union caused a disastrous 30% drop in gross domestic product.

Cuba emerged with $35 billion in debt to the Soviet Union, 90 percent of which Russia forgave in 2014, an event that Cuban-Russian anthropologist Dmitri Prieto Samsónov called the start of the modern era of relations between the two countries.

"Russia started to think more about its business and government interests and a new relationship with Cuba emerged on the foundation of the old brotherly relations," Prieto said.

Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

'This man lives forever': Zimbabwe's Mugabe is buried

September 28, 2019

ZVIMBA, Zimbabwe (AP) — A priest asked God to take pity on Robert Mugabe as the family of the longtime Zimbabwean leader buried him Saturday at his rural home. They chose a private farewell for one of Africa's most divisive figures after a weeks-long dispute with the administration that forced him from power.

"This man lives forever," declared the priest, to cries of approval. Mugabe died this month in Singapore at age 95 after leading the country for nearly four decades and being pushed into a shocking resignation as thousands danced in the streets. "I was ridiculed," a relative said Mugabe told them.

His coffin, draped in the country's flag, was carried by military pallbearers as his black-veiled wife, Grace, looked on. On display was a photo of Mugabe holding up his fist in a classic gesture of defiance, and a floral arrangement spelled out "Dad." Many mourners wore T-shirts saying "Liberator" and "Torch bearer."

Grace later stood motionless as the coffin was lowered into the grave and a choir sang "Remember me." Mugabe, who led the bitter guerrilla war to end white-minority rule in the country then known as Rhodesia, was Zimbabwe's first leader and ruled from 1980, overseeing a years-long slide from prosperity to economic ruin and repression. He was forced by the military and ruling party to retire in late 2017 after bitter political feuding centered in part on his wife's political ambitions.

Some of Mugabe's political rivals, including opposition figures who were routinely arrested or harassed during his 37-year rule, attended the service while longtime colleagues did not. Notably absent were senior officials from the ruling party that he led for more than four decades, including during the fight for liberation.

Just a handful of people in the gathering of some 200 wore party regalia, a sign of how the bookish, combative former leader died isolated from the people he called comrades for much of his adult life.

Mugabe's family earlier had agreed to a government request to bury him at the National Heroes Acre shrine in the capital, but only after a hilltop mausoleum was built to set him apart from the rest. Then the government on Thursday abruptly announced the family had changed its mind, leaving it with scaffolding around the partially completed memorial.

While some might blame his widow for the move, it was Mugabe himself who wanted the private ceremony instead of one presided over by the people who removed him from power, Grace's sister Junior Shuvai Gumbochuma said in a speech on Saturday.

"Some may be surprised by this small crowd given this man's greatness," she said. "I remember he presided over many burials of heroes that were attended by busloads of people. I thought one day such crowds would attend his own burial. What we did today was his wish."

She added: "I asked him why he didn't want to be buried at Heroes Acre and he responded: 'I was ridiculed.'" A spokesman for the ruling ZANU-PF party, Simon Khaya Moyo, called the choice of a private burial "most unfortunate."

In a statement, Moyo added that "we indeed respect the wishes of families of deceased heroes, hence we are saddened when maneuvers that border on political gimmicks begin to unfold on an issue concerning an illustrious liberation icon."

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a once-trusted deputy who helped oust Mugabe from power, was not attending the burial. State-run media reported that the government would be represented by the home affairs minister.

Only approved guests and funeral parlor vans were allowed, a decision out of sync with the local tradition that funerals are free for all to attend. One elderly neighbor threw a tantrum after being blocked at the gate.

"This gathering is a paradox," the priest told the gathering. "We are mourning at the same time we are celebrating because this man lived his life in a manner that many of us would want to emulate." Later, standing by the coffin, he prayed: "God, take pity on him. Don't judge him harshly."

South Sudan's opposition leader warns of return to civil war

October 20, 2019

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar warned Sunday that the country could return to civil war if a coalition government is formed by a Nov. 12 deadline and he asked for another months-long delay for the crucial step in a fragile peace deal.

Machar made an impassioned plea to a visiting United Nations Security Council delegation that met with him and President Salva Kiir to urge speedier progress in pulling the country out of a five-year civil war that killed almost 400,000 people.

"Suppose we form a government on the 12th, you know what's going to happen? The ceasefire we've been enjoying for over a year will erupt," said the visiting Machar, whose opposition has said he won't return to South Sudan for good until security arrangements are in place.

The previous attempt at Kiir and Machar sharing power ended in renewed fighting and Machar fleeing the country on foot in 2016. The issues being discussed today are the same ones that led to that earlier failure, the opposition leader said.

But the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Kelly Craft, said the council was "disappointed" by Machar's warnings. The U.S. has said it would reevaluate its relationship with South Sudan if next month's deadline isn't met.

The Security Council still wants the Nov. 12 deadline met, South Sudan government spokesman Michael Makuei said: "No change of schedule nor change of program." The opposition, however, now wants a three-month delay, Makuei said.

One key outstanding issue is security. Machar and Kiir were told Sunday that it would take at least three months to train at least 41,500 fighters and troops into a unified national army along with a 3,000-member VIP protection force.

South Sudan's government has said the international community should help fund that process. The Security Council "is of the view that nothing is impossible, nothing is unsurmountable," said South Africa's ambassador to the U.N., Jerry Matthews Matjila. The remaining issues can be discussed by an inclusive government, he said.

One South Sudan expert said the international community is making a mistake. "The U.N. Security Council took the wrong approach today," Alan Boswell, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press.

"Rather than fixate on Nov. 12, everyone should be focused on pressuring the parties to resolve the issues necessary to form a viable government at less risk of collapse," he said. "There are much worse scenarios than another delay."

Another expert suggested a different approach. South Sudan's government "has consistently acted in bad faith," said Klem Ryan, former coordinator of the Security Council's panel of experts monitoring sanctions against South Sudan. "They need to be treated as illegitimate through increased international isolation by the diplomatic community until such time as they show a genuine desire to meet the needs of the people of South Sudan."

The world's youngest nation erupted in civil war just two years after winning independence from Sudan as Kiir and his deputy, Machar, clashed and their supporters took up arms. Millions have since been displaced and the oil-rich country's economy has been shattered.

Nigeria's leader in South Africa after attacks on foreigners

October 03, 2019

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s president on Thursday said “early warning mechanisms” will be put in place to avoid the kind of deadly attacks on foreigners that angered many African countries and led to an extraordinary airlift of Nigerians, while Nigeria’s visiting leader again condemned such violence as “unacceptable.”

What originally was planned as a business meeting between Africa’s two largest economies turned into talks by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on how to calm the unrest that has erupted regularly in South Africa in recent years.

South Africa has been making efforts to mend ties with Nigeria and others after its government faced criticism for not explicitly speaking out against xenophobia at first but instead framing the violence as crime. Ramaphosa on Thursday again stressed the need for immigrants to obey local laws but called the xenophobia “regrettable.”

More than 12 people were killed and more than 700 arrested after bands of South Africans in Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria, launched attacks against foreign-owned shops and stalls, looting and burning the small businesses and attacking some shopkeepers.

Nigeria's foreign minister called the attacks "sickening" and the government recalled its high commissioner to South Africa. South Africa temporarily closed its diplomatic missions in Nigeria, citing concerns over staff safety. In Nigeria’s megacity Lagos, operations of South African telecommunications giant MTN were targeted in retaliatory attacks.

South Africa's president now says his government is "totally committed" against attacks on foreign nationals. He acknowledges frustration about the country’s high unemployment and sluggish economy but has told countrymen not to take it out on foreigners.

It was not immediately clear how the “early warning mechanisms” to avoid further unrest would work between South Africa and Nigeria. Buhari said police and intelligence forces in both countries should be alert to avoid further violence.

The periodic attacks against Nigerians and citizens of other African nations include accusations by South Africans that foreigners are peddling illegal drugs or taking jobs. The attacks on Nigerians led some in Nigeria to call for the closure of South African companies doing business in the West African powerhouse _ a move that would create instant pain for a bilateral relationship that saw more than $3.3 billion in trade in 2018.

“Relations between our two countries are very strong and we want to welcome more businesses from Nigeria to come here," Ramaphosa said. He noted that Africa’s population should double to 2.5 billion people by 2050, calling the continent “the next great growth market.”

The violence against foreigners in South Africa is in sharp contrast to the hospitality that other African nations showed to black South Africans during their long fight against the harsh system of white minority rule known as apartheid, which ended in 1994.

“We will not forget how Nigeria spearheaded the call for political and economic sanctions against apartheid South Africa following the Sharpeville Massacre of 21 March 1960, which left many unarmed demonstrators dead,” Ramaphosa said Thursday evening. “Without Nigerian support, our freedom would have come at a much greater cost.”

Fire burns down structures at historic Japanese castle

October 31, 2019

TOKYO (AP) — A fire early Thursday burned down structures at Shuri Castle on Japan's southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying the UNESCO World Heritage site. Firefighters were still battling the blaze a few hours after the fire started early Thursday and nearby residents were evacuated to safer areas, Okinawa police spokesman Ryo Kochi said.

The fire in Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa, started from the castle's main structure. The main Seiden temple and a Hokuden structure, or north temple, have burned down. A third main structure Nanden, or south temple, was also burned down later.

Nobody has been injured. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. A fire department official in protective gear told reporters in a televised interview from the scene that the fire was reported by private security company that recognized the alarm. The fire that started near the main hall then quickly jumped to the other key buildings.

Footage on NHK television showed parts of the castle, engulfed in orange flames and turning into charred skeleton, collapsing to the ground. Many residents gathered and looked on from a hillside road, where many people quietly took photos to capture what's left of the castle before it's lost. Some people were crying.

"I feel as if we have lost our symbol," said Naha mayor Mikiko Shiroma, who led an emergency response team. "I'm shocked." Shiroma vowed to do everything she could to save what is remained of the castle.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the central government will also do the utmost for the reconstruction of the castle, which stands on a national park. Kurayoshi Takara, a historian at Univerisity of the Ryukyus who helped reconstruct the Shuri Castle, said he was speechless when he saw the scene. He told NHK that the castle reconstruction was a symbolic event for the Okinawans to restore their history and Ryukyu heritage lost during the war.

"I still can't accept this as a reality," Takara said. "It has taken more than 30 years and it was a monument of wisdom and effort of many people. Shuri Castle is not just about buildings but it reconstructed all the details, even including equipment inside."

The ancient castle is a symbol of Okinawa's cultural heritage from the time of Ryukyu Kingdom that spanned about 450 years from 1429 until 1879 when the island was annexed by Japan. The castle is also a symbol of Okinawa's struggle and effort to recover from World War II. Shuri Castle burned down in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa near the war's end, in which about 200,000 lives were lost on the island, many of them civilians.

The castle was largely restored in 1992 as a national park and was designated as the UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000. Okinawa was under the U.S. occupation until 1972, two decades after the rest of Japan regained full independence.

3rd strong quake this month kills 5 in southern Philippines

October 31, 2019

KIDAPAWAN, Philippines (AP) — The third strong earthquake this month killed five people Thursday, injured several others and destroyed buildings that were already damaged by the earlier shaking in a devastated region in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Several cities and towns in the quake-hit area suspended school classes and office work due to fear of more tremors. Many residents may have returned to already-damaged houses despite the risks because of the humid tropical heat, causing some injuries due to falling debris, officials said.

A village hall collapsed in Batasan village in Makilala town of hard-hit Cotabato province and the village leader was pinned to death, Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said. Another man was pinned to death by a fallen tree and a woman died after being hit by heavy debris elsewhere in Makilala, government welfare officer Rosemarie Alcebar told The Associated Press by telephone. Two other villagers died due to quake-related injuries in Cotabato's Arakan town but details of their deaths were not immediately available, Alcebar said.

In Cotabato's city of Kidapawan, a small hotel partially collapsed, crushing the lobby and a bank on the ground floor and causing the building to lean on an adjacent hospital. Both the hotel and the hospital were ordered abandoned because of the previous quake damage but six employees and an engineer were inside Eva's Hotel when the ground shook at midmorning, Mayor Joseph Evangelista said.

"They're supposed to inspect the building with an engineer then it happened. They managed to run out," Evangelista told DZMM radio. The hospital and the hotel, its concrete columns precariously leaning and its rooms exposed without walls and windows, were cordoned off as they may collapse completely anytime.

In Davao city, President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown, a five-story condominium partly crashed down on its basement and rescue workers scrambled to bring out nine residents, one of whom was injured and brought to a hospital, officials said.

The residents of the 56-room building had been urged to evacuate after it was damaged by the earlier quake on Tuesday but some defied the warning. Duterte and his family were safe in his Davao city home but engineers would check the stability of his house just to be sure, said Brig. Gen. Jose Eriel Nembra, who heads the presidential security force.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the 6.5-magnitude quake was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) about 28 kilometers (17 miles) east of Tulunan town in Cotabato province. The region already was devastated by two powerful earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks this month.

At least eight people died in Tuesday's 6.6 magnitude quake, two were missing, 395 were injured and more than 2,700 houses and buildings, including schools and hospitals, were damaged, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

An Oct. 16 earthquake with a magnitude 6.3 killed at least seven people, injured more than 200 and destroyed or damaged more than 7,000 buildings. The Philippine archipelago lies on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," the arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur.

UEFA closes Bulgaria stadium for fan racism at England game

October 29, 2019

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Bulgaria was punished Tuesday for the Nazi salutes and racist chanting of its soccer fans with an order to play a European Championship qualifying game in an empty stadium, although the team avoided expulsion from the competition.

UEFA's options to deal with the incidents in Sofia at a Euro 2020 qualifier against England could have removed Bulgaria from the playoffs in March. The UEFA disciplinary panel also put Bulgaria on probation for two years, which should include most of the 2022 World Cup qualifying program. A repeat offense will trigger a stadium closure for a second competitive game.

Bulgaria fans made Nazi salutes and targeted monkey noises at England's black players during a 6-0 loss two weeks ago. The game was twice stopped by the referee following UEFA guidelines to address discrimination.

The Bulgarian soccer federation was fined 85,000 euros ($94,000), including the mandated 50,000 euros ($55,500) for a second charge of racist behavior. A charge of fans throwing objects was also proven.

Although the England game was the third time Bulgaria fans were guilty of racist behavior this year, the previous incidents at back-to-back Euro 2020 qualifiers in June were judged together in July. UEFA's disciplinary code states a team will be punished for a second offense with "one match played behind closed doors and a fine of 50,000 euros."

A third offense "is punished with more than one match behind closed doors, a stadium closure, the forfeiting of a match, the deduction of points and/or disqualification from the competition," according to UEFA rules.

Bulgaria's next home game is against the Czech Republic on Nov. 17. The stadium closure will likely cost the national soccer body at least 100,000 euros ($110,000) in lost revenue. Bulgaria drew about 5,000 fans for home games against Kosovo and Montenegro, then more than 17,000 to see England.

Bulgaria is last in Group A with no chance to advance to Euro 2020 by finishing in the top places. However, the sanctions do not affect Bulgaria's second chance to reach the final tournament from the playoff round in March. Potential playoff opponents include Iceland and Scotland.

A UEFA charge of Bulgaria fans causing disturbance during the national anthem for England accounted for 10,000 euros ($11,100) of the 85,000 euros ($94,000) fine. The English Football Association was fined 5,000 euros ($5,500) for a similar charge.

Putin hosts Cuban leader for talks on expanding ties

October 29, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Cuba's resilience in the face of U.S. pressure as he hosted his Cuban counterparts for talks Tuesday on expanding cooperation between the old allies.

Putin told Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel that Russia has always remained supportive of Cuba. "It's not easy to solve economic and social issues in the conditions that Cuba finds itself in, but you have done it successfully," he said. "We are glad to see the strengthening of the Cuban state."

Russian-Cuban ties are still far from the Cold War era of near-total Cuban dependence on the Soviet bloc, which saw the island as a forward operating base in the Americas then largely abandoned it in the 1990s. But observers of Cuban and Russian foreign policy say there is a significant warming between the former partners, prompted in part by the Trump administration's reversal of President Barack Obama's opening to Cuba.

Cuba and Russia are also heavily supporting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. has been trying to overthrow. Speaking to Putin, Díaz-Canel said his government considers developing ties with Russia its top priority and hailed a recent visit by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. "We observe the growing role of Russia that resists the U.S. attempts at domination," he added.

The Cuban leader on Tuesday also met separately with Medvedev for talks on boosting economic ties. Russian-Cuban trade has more than doubled since 2013, to an expected $500 million this year, mostly in Russian exports to Cuba. Over the past year Russia has sent Cuba 1,000 minibuses, 50 locomotives, tens of thousands of tourists and a promise to upgrade the island's power grid with a multimillion-dollar improvement plan.

Neither country provides many details about their improving relations, but Russian products being exported to Cuba include new-model Lada automobiles and Kamaz trucks. There's a new Cuban-Russian joint venture to produce construction materials, and when Medvedev visited Cuba this month, he inaugurated a petroleum products plant and signed deals to repair three Soviet-era power plants.

As tourism from the U.S. slackens, Russian visits rose 30% in 2018, to 137,000. "Russia is trying to preserve the zone of influence it had during the era of the Soviet Union, looking for partners in Latin America and letting Washington know that it's still a great power," said Arturo López-Levy, a Cuban-born assistant professor of international relations and politics at Holy Names University in Oakland, California. "Cuba's signing up for projects that can benefit it, and are already showing results on the island."

Russia is making no secret of its desire to play reliable partner to an island facing hostility from the United States, including sanctions on ships bringing oil from Venezuela. "We did make huge mistakes in the 1990s while turning our backs on Cuba. That time is definitely over, and I'm absolutely sure that our relations deserve better attention from Russia," said Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament.

"They deserve more investments from Russia both in terms of finances and equipment of course, but also human resources. And definitely we should assist, we should help, Cuba; we should support Cuba as long as it's discriminated against, as long as it's sanctioned, as long as it's blockaded by the United States."

During the 1960s, 1970s and '80s, Cuba was filled with Soviet products and citizens, who worked alongside Cubans in chemical plants, mines and army bases. Moscow sent billions in aid before the fall of the Soviet Union caused a disastrous 30% drop in gross domestic product.

Cuba emerged with $35 billion in debt to the Soviet Union, 90 percent of which Russia forgave in 2014, an event that Cuban-Russian anthropologist Dmitri Prieto Samsónov called the start of the modern era of relations between the two countries.

"Russia started to think more about its business and government interests and a new relationship with Cuba emerged on the foundation of the old brotherly relations," Prieto said.

Rodriguez reported from Havana.

Putin to visit EU nation Hungary as Russian influence grows

October 29, 2019

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Hungary takes him to the country that is the Kremlin's strongest beachhead in the European Union and NATO, two groups that generally regard Russia with unease.

The focus of Putin's trip, which begins Wednesday, will be his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose disdain for liberal democracy mirrors Putin's. Orban has fiercely opposed immigration, including building razor-wire fences to divert migrants away from his nation, and limited media freedoms. He has also denounced Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros, whom Putin also dislikes.

The relationship also has a strong foundation in economics, especially natural gas. Hungary has long relied on Russia for most of its gas and that dependence is likely to increase when Russia's Gazprom state gas monopoly completes the Turkstream pipeline that runs under the Black Sea to Turkey, with a branch planned to serve Hungary.

Russian gas currently is transmitted to Turkey in pipelines that cross Ukraine. The contract with Ukraine for transshipment concludes at the end of 2019 and it is unclear if negotiations to renew it will succeed. A dispute between Russia and Ukraine in 2009 led to severe shortages in gas deliveries to EU countries during the dead of winter.

Hungary has decided to stockpile Russian gas. Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto said after a visit to Moscow this month that his country will accumulate enough reserves to last through next winter.

Having Russian gas skirt Ukraine en route to Hungary would be politically attractive to both Orban and Putin, depriving Kyiv of transit fees. The Russian and Hungarian leaders both are suspicious of Ukraine and reportedly were influential in souring U.S. President Donald Trump on Ukraine. Hungary has been at odds with Ukraine over its refusal to allow ethnic Hungarians there to hold dual citizenship.

Russia also holds sway in Hungary with its contract to upgrade the country's only nuclear power station, a project largely financed by a Russian line of credit. Hungary has been one of the strongest voices in the EU for backing off on sanctions imposed by the bloc for Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and its support of separatists rebels in eastern Ukraine, which Szijjarto says have deprived Hungary of about $8 billion in export opportunities.

The minister said Putin's visit is further evidence that Orban is becoming an influential figure abroad rather than being seen as an outlier. "The world is now viewing Viktor Orban as a Central European leader who it is worth listening to, worth paying attention to, and who it is worth meeting," he was quoted as saying by the MTI news agency. "The next chapter of this story will be written in Budapest on Oct. 30."

Iran, Russia lash out at US plans to protect oil in Syria

October 29, 2019

GENEVA (AP) — Iran and Russia on Tuesday criticized and scoffed at Trump administration plans to protect oil deposits in Syria, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accusing Washington of "illegal" actions.

Lavrov joined Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Geneva to lend support to U.N.-backed talks among Syrian government, opposition and civil society delegations on the country's constitution starting Wednesday.

The most pointed comments at their joint news conference addressed new Pentagon plans to increase efforts to protect Syria's oil fields from both the Islamic State radical group and the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government, even as U.S. forces are withdrawn from other parts of the country.

"Well, it seems that the United States is staying to protect the oil — and at least President Trump is honest to say what the United States intends to do," said Zarif with a smile. Lavrov accused the United States of looking for a "pretext" to protect the oil deposits. He said any "exploitation of natural resources of a sovereign state without its consent is illegal," according to a translator of his remarks in Russian.

Cavusoglu, however, remained focused on a top priority for Turkey in Syria: Ensuring that Kurdish fighters whom the United States supported to help drive out ISIS don't threaten Turkish interests. Ankara has long argued the Kurdish fighters are an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a guerrilla campaign inside Turkey since the 1980s. Turkey, U.S. and the European Union have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.

Turkey has led a military incursion into northeastern Syria to create a 30-kilometer (19-mile) "safe zone" between Kurdish fighters and the Turkish border. Cavusoglu reiterated the hopes of Turkey — along with much of the international community — that Syria won't split apart. He suggested that areas now controlled by Turkish forces and their allies in Syria could one day be "handed over" to the Syrian government, especially if the talks enhance prospects for peace and stability.

"When times come that the Syrian regime, at the end of this political process, is capable enough to protect the country's territories and eliminate the terrorist organization (PKK) from that, I think all the territories should be handed over to Syria," he said. "This is the territory of Syria."