US buildings closed in Portland after car-bomb threat made

August 22, 2020

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — At least two federal buildings in Portland have been closed and the FBI is investigating after a car bomb threat was made, the officials said Friday. The threat, which was received Thursday, warned of the intention to use a car bomb to target federal property in Portland, according to two law enforcement officials. A number of federal offices in the area have been closed because of the threat, the officials said. The officials could not discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the threat is credible, the FBI said in a statement. The Portland office of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court was closed because of a threat of violence in the area, according to the court’s website. Also closed was the Mark O. Hatfield Federal courthouse, which was the site of weeks of violent protests last month.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Oregon's largest city nightly since the May police killing of George Floyd and clashed repeatedly with federal agents dispatched to protect the courthouse. A statement on the courthouse website did not say why the building had closed.

The FBI's statement said: “If we develop information indicating a credible threat, we will notify the public.” Protesters this week have focused their ire on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

People in a group of about 100 late Thursday and before dawn Friday sprayed the building with graffiti, hurled rocks and bottles at agents and shined laser lights at them, Portland police said in a statement.

Agents set off smoke or tear gas and used crowd-control munitions to try to disperse the crowd, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Three people were arrested, police said in their statement. It wasn't clear if that building was included in the alleged threat or if the threat was connected in any way to those protests.

Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.

California fires claim 6 lives, threaten thousands of homes

August 21, 2020

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Sky-darkening wildfires that took at least six lives and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes blazed throughout California on Friday as firefighting resources strained under the vastness of the infernos authorities were trying to control.

Three major complexes encompassing dozens of fires chewed through a combined 780 square miles (2,020 square kilometers) of forests, canyons and rural areas flanking San Francisco on three sides. Statewide, nearly 12,000 firefighters are battling blazes that have scorched more than 1,200 square miles (3,120 square kilometers) in California, said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.

Crews from Oregon, Idaho and Arizona have arrived to relieve local firefighters, he said, with engines on their way from as far away as Maryland and New Jersey. Tens of thousands of homes were threatened by flames that drove through dense and bone-dry trees and brush. Many of the fires were sparked by lightning strikes from brief thunderstorms — nearly 12,000 since last weekend — as a high-pressure area over the West brought a dangerous mix of triple-digit weather and monsoonal moisture pulled from the south.

Some fires doubled in size within 24 hours, fire officials said. And while some evacuations were lifted in the small city of Vacaville, between San Francisco and Sacramento, other areas expanded their evacuation areas. The University of California, Santa Cruz, was evacuated, and a new fire burning near Yosemite National Park also prompted evacuations.

Santa Cruz itself, a coastal city of 65,000, wasn't affected. But Mayor Justin Cummings urged residents Thursday evening to be prepared to evacuate by gassing up their vehicles and packing important documents, medicines and other belongings.

“Prepare early so that you are ready to go at a moment's notice," Cummings said. More than 64,000 people have been ordered to evacuate in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, which make up part of Silicon Valley and hug the coast south of San Francisco.

With firefighting resources tight, homes in remote, hard-to-get-to places burned unattended. Cal Fire Chief Mark Brunton pleaded with evacuees to quit battling fires on their own, saying that just causes more problems for professionals.

“We had last night three separate rescues that pulled our vital, very few resources away," he said. An anxious Rachel Stratman, 35, and her husband, Quentin Lareau, 40, waited for word Friday about their home in the Forest Springs community of Boulder Creek after evacuating earlier this week. She knows one house has burned but has received conflicting information about the rest of the neighborhood.

“It’s so hard to wait and not know," she said. “I’m still torn if I want people to be going back to the area and videotaping. I know they cause the firefighters distraction, but that’s the only way we know.”

The couple are in a San Jose hotel with medication she needs after undergoing a transplant surgery last month. She collected her mother's ashes and some clothes while her husband closed windows and readied the home before they evacuated Tuesday.

“I kept looking at things and kept thinking I should grab this or that, but I just told myself I needed to leave. I didn’t bring any official documents and I didn’t bring my house deed or car title. No passport," she said.

The ferocity of the fires was astonishing so early in the fire season, which historically has seen the largest and deadliest blazes when gusty, dry winds blow in the fall. But the death toll already had reached at least six since the majority of blazes started less than a week ago, with four deaths claimed by fires burning in wine country north of San Francisco.

The bodies of three people were found in a home that burned in Napa, Henry Wofford, spokesman for the Napa County Sheriff’s Office, told the San Francisco Chronicle. In Solano County Sheriff Thomas A. Ferrara reported the death of a male resident there.

Separately, a Pacific Gas & Electric utility worker was found dead Wednesday in a vehicle in the Vacaville area Wednesday. In central California, a pilot on a water-dropping mission in western Fresno County died Wednesday morning when his helicopter crashed.

At least two other people were missing and more than 30 civilians and firefighters have been injured, authorities said. Smoke and ash billowing from the fires also fouled the air throughout California's scenic central coast and in San Francisco. The fires have destroyed at least 175 buildings.

Tim and Anne Roberts had gone to the beach with their two children on Monday to avoid the smoke at their home in Boulder Creek in Santa Cruz County. They packed a change of clothes, their children’s school supplies and their passports — just in case.

They learned Wednesday that their house had burned. Birth certificates, legal documents and family heirlooms are gone. But in photos of the ruins, they were surprised by how many redwoods, oaks and fruit trees were still standing.

“It’s a strange sort of comfort,” Tim Roberts said. The good news for Brookdale resident Larissa Eisenstein Thursday afternoon was that her five chickens, Kelly and The Nuggets, had been safely relocated into a stranger’s yard in a safer, neighboring community.

The chicken evacuation came a day after Eisenstein, a Silicon Valley tech worker, had been forced to leave them behind during an overnight evacuation. She fled with her cats Mochi and Mini, driving from one hotel to the next only to find they were full before landing in a safe place where they could get some rest.

The bad news Thursday was that the fire was burning down her wooded street as she adjusted to the idea that her worldly possessions may now be limited to photos of her parents, some jewelry she had grabbed, and fresh tomatoes from her garden.

“After I got the cats, I realized there was very little important to me, and the priority is to try to remember how lovely things can be," she said. “I’ve had a wonderful garden this year.” Although temperatures were predicted to ease slightly on Friday, they were also expected to be hot enough so that firefighters will not be able to count on cool evening weather aiding them. Erratic winds also could drive the fires unpredictably in multiple directions, state fire officials said.

Winds gusting to 20 mph (32 kph) over ridge tops could challenge overnight firefighting efforts in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, said the incident commander, Cal Fire Assistant Chief Billy See. More firefighters were sent to battle the complex of fires, but “it’s still not enough,” See said.

“We’re still drastically short for a fire of this size,” he said.

Har reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco, Camille Fassett in Redwood City and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

First female general officer promotes, transfers to Space Force

 by Staff Sgt. James Richardson | Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

Washington DC (AFNS)

Aug 18, 2020

In a significant milestone for the nation's newest armed service, Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno became the first female officer to promote to three-star general and transfer into the U.S. Space Force during a ceremony at the Pentagon, Aug. 17.

Armagno will serve as the director of staff for Headquarters U.S. Space Force, where she will oversee day to day staff operations to include establishment activities for the new service.

"We're starting fresh. We're starting a clean sheet," Armagno said. "We're going to be agile, we're going to be nimble, and we're going to bring the best of everything into the space force."

Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond, chief of space operations, officiated the ceremony and said Armagno was the right choice for the position for three qualities. She is a space expert, has broad experience as a commander and leader, and is a mentor and teacher to everyone.

"It is absolutely my honor to promote Nina as a lieutenant general in the United States Space Force," Raymond said. "This is a big job, and I'll tell you as much momentum as we have, as much as we've gotten done, there's 20 times more to do. Having your leadership to guide the staff to get this right for our nation is going to be really important, and I couldn't think of a better officer to do that."

Armagno earned her commission from the Air Force Academy in 1988. After graduating from Undergraduate Space Training in 1988, she served as a combat-mission-ready operator, instructor, evaluator and flight commander in strategic missile warning, space surveillance, space control, space launch and theater missile warning mission areas.

Armagno holds the unique distinction as the only Air Force officer to command both the U.S. Eastern and Western Ranges culminating in an unprecedented, flawless record with over 48 successful launch campaigns valued at more than $19 billion. She received the 2014 General Jerome F. O'Malley Distinguished Space Leadership Award, presented in part for her efforts to reorient Air Force philosophy to build the operational use of space systems at the highest levels of the Air Force.

During the ceremony, Armagno highlighted the leadership qualities she learned from space professionals throughout her career.. She said that there is a Space Force today because of the incredible space leaders of the past.

"This is about the years before us, the leaders, the hundreds of thousands of Airmen who have been doing space for decades," Armagno said. "These are the shoulders - the titans' shoulders -the space force was built uponthe shoulders we stand on today."

Source: Space War.

Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/First_female_general_officer_promotes_transfers_to_Space_Force_999.html.

Zimbabwe court bars top lawyer from representing journalist

August 18, 2020

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwean magistrate Tuesday barred Beatrice Mtetwa, a top human rights lawyer, from representing a jailed journalist and ordered that she be prosecuted for comments posted on a Facebook page run by an American filmmaker.

Magistrate Ngoni Nduna also said he will forward his ruling to the Law Society of Zimbabwe for possible further punishment of the lawyer. Mtetwa was representing Hopewell Chin’ono, an investigative journalist who has reported alleged government corruption on Twitter and has been in jail for more than three weeks on accusations of mobilizing an anti-government protest.

Prosecutors in Chin’ono’s bail case last week asked the magistrate to order Mtetwa to step down, arguing that she had posted on a Facebook page called “Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law” proceedings that were held in camera.

The allegedly offensive posts called on the international community to speak out against Chin’ono’s imprisonment. Chin’ono told the court that Mtetwa had nothing to with the page. He said it was administered by an American filmmaker who produced a documentary by the name of the Facebook page, where people regularly post on human rights issues in Zimbabwe.

On Tuesday, the magistrate agreed with the prosecution and also ordered that Mtetwa should be charged with contempt of court. Mtetwa has over the past decades represented dozens of journalists, human rights campaigners and opposition leaders accused of plotting against the government. She also frequently speaks against human rights abuses in the troubled southern African country.

She has been arrested, detained and allegedly assaulted by police in a pattern of harassment and intimidation. Mtetwa said Tuesday’s ruling was meant to instill fear in human rights lawyers and could have the “chilling effect” of dissuading young lawyers from taking on human rights issues.

“The intention is to stop us defending a certain type of client … it means the right to legal representation has been severely curtailed and it has been curtailed by the courts,” she told reporters outside the court. She said she will appeal the ruling.

France: Mali junta's timeline 'out of the question'

August 30, 2020

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — France's defense minister is pressing Mali's military junta to return the country to civilian rule within months, saying Sunday that the three-year timeline proposed by the coup leaders is “out of the question.”

The comments came hours after the junta hastily met with prominent figures from the opposition coalition following a public dispute that highlighted emerging divisions. Both sides were united in their desire to see former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita gone, but the opposition has begun criticizing the junta in recent days showing how tense the debate over Mali's future has become.

On Friday, imam and opposition leader Mahmoud Dicko publicly urged the junta leaders to meet the demands of regional mediators in order to spare Mali further crippling financial sanctions. Dicko, whom some suspect has political ambitions of his own, called on the current leadership to "be part of the solution and not another problem.”

The 15-nation West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has said Mali’s return to democracy must not take more than a year and already has stopped financial flows to the country among other measures.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly agreed, telling Europe-1 radio the transition should take place within “a matter of months.” “If this does not happen, the risk is that all this benefits terrorists first and foremost," she said. "Terrorists feed on the weakness of states.”

A similar military coup in Mali in 2012 unleashed political upheaval that was exploited by Islamic extremists in the country's north. They managed to seize power of the major towns in the north and implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law before former colonizer France led a military intervention the following year to oust them.

The jihadists though have regrouped in the surrounding rural areas, and have continued to launch scores of attacks on U.N. peacekeepers and the Malian military, one of the factors contributing to the president's downfall. While the violence started before he took office in 2013, many Malians felt his government had not done enough to stamp out the extremists, who further encroached into central Mali during Keita's presidency.

Nearly two weeks after a military junta seized power, there is still no consensus on who will lead the transition that the international community is demanding, nor has there been any agreement on how quickly that should be achieved. Many fear that further political instability could unravel more than seven years of effort by France and the international community to stabilize the country.

The French defense minister said that a video conference would be organized this week with 18 international partners, though no further details were available. Early Sunday, Mali's opposition alliance known as M5-RFP said it had put forth its own plan to the junta, but no details were given about their suggested time frame.

Tensions had flared Saturday when the M5-RFP leadership put out a terse statement saying they hadn't been invited to the junta's planned forum on the country's future. Coalition spokesman Issa Kaou Djim later said they had “cleared up the misunderstanding” with junta leaders.

However, questions remain about what role each will play. Dicko became an influential figure during the months of street demonstrations to oust Keita. Initially, he indicated he wanted to leave politics and return to preaching at his mosque. But his public statement Friday fueled further speculation he may still have political ambitions.

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Mali junta wants to hold off on elections until 2023

August 24, 2020

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The military junta that overthrew Mali's president wants to put off new elections for three years, an official said Monday, as the international community pressed for an immediate return to civilian rule.

The coup leaders want to prepare a new constitution before holding any vote, said an official in the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists. The junta's proposal will likely be rejected by West African regional mediators and former colonizer France: It's more than double the time it took to hold a vote after a similar coup in 2012, and would allow the soldiers who overthrew a democratically elected president to remain in power for years.

A mediation team from the 15-nation regional bloc known as ECOWAS has been pressing the junta to hand over power to a civilian transitional government. Initially, they called for ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to be reinstalled as president, but that prospect has become unlikely amid an outpouring of public support in Mali for the coup d'etat.

The official taking part in the talks indicated there had been some movement toward releasing Keita, who has been detained along with Mali's prime minister since the coup a week ago. Among the options is allowing him to stay at his residence in Bamako under surveillance instead of at the military barracks in Kati, he said.

African countries and the wider international community have expressed alarm over the coup d’etat, which deposed Keita three years before his final term was due to end. Mali has been fighting against Islamic extremists with heavy international support for more than seven years, and jihadists have previously used power vacuums in the country to expand their territory.

The high-level regional delegation, led by Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan, held talks with the junta, including Col. Assimi Goita, who has declared himself the group’s leader. The regional delegation also has met with Keita and the other detained officials.

After the brief meetings, few details were given, but Jonathan did say that Keita was doing well. Hours after Keita was detained at his home last week, he announced his resignation on state broadcaster ORTM saying he did not want any blood to be shed for him to stay in power. The next day, soldiers took to the airwaves calling themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People.

Keita won the country's 2013 election in a landslide, only to see his popularity plummet after his 2018 reelection as the Malian army faced punishing losses from jihadist attacks. Then after dozens of legislative elections were disputed this spring, demonstrators began taking to the streets calling for his resignation. He offered concessions and regional mediators intervened, but his opponents made it clear they would accept nothing short of his departure.

Mali’s opposition coalition, the M5-RFP, welcomed the ouster of Keita but they insisted they remained “deeply attached to democracy.”

Top West Africa delegation goes to Mali to meet with junta

August 22, 2020

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Top West African officials are arriving in Mali's capital following a coup in the nation this week to meet with the junta leaders and the deposed president in efforts to negotiate a return to civilian rule.

The mediation efforts on Saturday come a day after thousands of Malians took to the streets of Bamako, the capital city, to celebrate the coup. The West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has strongly condemned the coup and said the high-level delegation will work “to ensure the immediate return of constitutional order.” ECOWAS also demanded the reinstatement of deposed president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

ECOWAS had said it is mobilizing a regional military force, an indication that it is preparing for a military intervention in case its negotiations with the junta leaders fail. The high-level delegation is to hold talks with the junta, including Col. Assimi Goita, who has declared himself the group's leader. Later the regional delegation will meet with Keita and the other detained officials, according to the ECOWAS program.

The widespread support for the coup shown by the demonstration in Bamako Friday means the junta may argue to the ECOWAS delegation that they enjoy popular support. The coup occurred on Tuesday when soldiers detained the president and forced him to resign and to dissolve the National Assembly and government. By Wednesday, soldiers from the junta calling itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People had declared they were in charge of the West African nation and would work toward a civilian transitional government. Keita and his prime minister have remained in the custody of the coup leaders.

The international community has expressed alarm about the coup d’etat, which deposed Mali’s democratically elected leader who still had three years left in his term. Mali has been fighting against Islamic extremists with heavy international support for more than seven years, and jihadists have previously used power vacuums in Mali to expand their territory.

Keita — first elected in a 2013 landslide the year after a similar military coup — saw his popularity plummet after his 2018 re-election as the Malian army faced punishing losses from jihadist attacks. Then after dozens of legislative elections were disputed this spring, demonstrators began taking to the streets calling for his resignation. He offered concessions and regional mediators intervened, but his opponents who formed a coalition known as M5-RFP made clear they would accept nothing short of his departure.

On Friday, they welcomed the week’s developments but insisted they remained “deeply attached to democracy.” The junta has promised it will return the country to civilian rule but has given no time frame for doing so. Mali was not due to have another election until 2023.

Military juntas across West Africa have not always been in a rush to hand over power even when promising to do so — after the country’s March 2012 coup, the first democratic election was not held until the following August.

Mahmoud Dicko, an imam who led the political opposition to Keita’s presidency, told supporters Friday he was ready to return to his mosque. But he did not rule out a return to politics entirely, saying: “I am an imam, I wish to die an imam, but I won’t keep quiet about injustice.”

Associated Press writer Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.

Mali's junta spokesman promises transition to civilian rule

August 21, 2020

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The military junta ruling Mali following this week's coup is seeking a transitional president to return the country civilian rule, the group's spokesman said. Ismael Wague told The Associated Press that the newly formed National Committee for the Salvation of the People will meet with political parties and civil society groups to determine the duration and composition of the transition.

His words come as West African leaders are escalating pressure on the junta and urging them to restore President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to power. Wague, however, denied that the junta had carried out a coup d’etat, saying that Mali still has constitutional order and the 75-year-old Keita was only being held at army barracks for his own protection. He denied that the president had been ousted.

“The president of the republic resigned on his own after making an analysis of the country’s situation,” Wague said. “For us, this is a civil transition, not a military one, and the president of the transition must reach a consensus among the forces of the nation,” he said.

Mali's opposition coalition, the M5-RFP, has not yet said if it will be part of the transition, though experts say it is likely. It is holding marches Friday in Bamako, the capital, “to pay tribute to the Malian people for their heroic struggle,” they said in a statement.

The coalition called on the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, “the African Union and the international community as a whole to better understand the situation in Mali apart from questions of sanctions and to support the Malian people in their quest for peace and reconciliation. national, genuine democracy and better living.”

The M5-RFP welcomed Keita’s resignation and the dissolution of the National Assembly, it said in a statement Friday. Though the M5-RFP was not involved in the overthrow, they led mass demonstrations starting in June calling for Keita’s ouster.

ECOWAS has called for the creation of a standby regional military force for possible intervention in Mali, saying Keita must be allowed to serve out the three years left in his term after this week’s “coup attempt.”

ECOWAS leaders, after an urgent summit meeting on Thursday, warned that Mali's junta was responsible for the safety of Keita and all other detained government officials. The regional bloc said it would soon send a delegation to Bamako to try to help restore constitutional order. The ECOWAS leaders have already suspended Mali’s membership, closed its borders with the country, and said that financial sanctions would be imposed against the junta leaders.

The United Nations and France have also urged a return to constitutional order in Mali, amid fears that Islamic extremists could once again gain ground amid the political upheaval, derailing more than seven years of effort to stabilize the country.

French and U.N. soldiers patrolled the streets in Mali’s northern city of Gao on Friday, where there was worry of more chaos. The U.N. has a mission of 15,600 soldiers in Mali and France has about 5,000 troops in its Operation Barkhane, both to try to stabilize the country amid increasing attacks from Islamic extremists.

Mali had a similar coup in 2012 which created a power vacuum that allowed jihadists to seize control of key northern cities until a French-led military operation pushed the rebels out of the urban centers the following year.

Observers fear Mali's current political upheaval will give extremists another chance to expand their reach. Wague, the junta spokesman, said the new military rulers were doing everything possible to be sure that was not the case.

“It is possible that some may take advantage of the situation to plan things, but we are in contact with the operational units on the ground so that they can continue their work,” he told AP. “We know how difficult it is for them because all of us come from the field and we will do everything we can to increase their operational capacity.”

After extremists allied to al-Qaida took over the major centers in northern Mali, they implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, including amputating hands for those accused of theft. Since being pushed out of the northern cities, the jihadists have regrouped in rural areas and launched relentless attacks on the Malian military, as well as the U.N., French and regional forces in the country. The extremists have moved south, inflaming tensions between ethnic groups in central Mali.

Col. Assimi Goita, Mali’s new strongman, had been head of a special military unit based in central Mali. He also had taken part in the annual Flintlock training organized by the U.S. military to help Mali and other Sahel countries better fight extremists.

While Mali’s Islamic insurgency started before Keita took office, many felt his government did not do enough to end the violence.

Associated Press writers Carley Petesch and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.

Mali coup leaders vow elections amid widespread condemnation

August 19, 2020

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The junta that forced Mali’s president to resign urged people to go back to business as usual on Wednesday, seeking to normalize their coup amid global condemnation from leaders who feared the power grab would only further mire West Africa's fight against growing Islamic extremism.

Former colonizer France, which has worked to stabilize the country since leading a 2013 military operation to oust extremists from power in the north, called for a return to civilian rule. The United Nations, which is spending $1.2 billion a year on its peacekeeping mission in Mali, also strongly condemned the coup.

Tuesday’s developments “represent an enormous setback” after seven years of investment by international partners to address Mali’s insecurity and political challenges, said Judd Devermont, the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Bamako is going to be paralyzed by the political jockeying over the future, and our ability to work with the government and security services are going to be undercut and restrained,” he said. “This intermediary period is really dangerous for the region’s security.”

The coup was an enormous blow for West Africa, where military power grabs were increasingly becoming a thing of the past before President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s ouster this week. Unpopular leaders in recent years were more likely to be forced into exile than overthrown outright by soldiers in the middle of the night.

This week’s developments sparked alarm it could set a dangerous precedent. Keita’s hand was forced Tuesday after months of anti-government protests amid deteriorating security. Mutinous soldiers surrounded his residence, fired shots into the air and eventually detained him and his prime minister. Keita later announced his resignation on state broadcaster ORTM. He said the National Assembly would also being dissolved.

Even as the international community condemned the coup, Keita's departure was met with jubilation by anti-government demonstrators in the capital, Bamako. The mutinous soldiers — who identified themselves as the National Committee for the Salvation of the People — tried to calm concerns in an address on state broadcaster ORTM early Wednesday.

“With you, standing as one, we can restore this country to its former greatness,” said spokesman Col. Maj. Ismael Wague He announced that Mali's borders were closed and imposed a nighttime curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. — but later Wednesday the junta urged people to return to life as usual.

Wague said the committee will implement a transition to civilian political rule with elections in a “reasonable amount of time," but gave no timeline. Mali was long hailed as a pillar of stability and democracy in West Africa, but it has been beset by insecurity since 2012, when a coup created a power vacuum that Islamic extremists took advantage of. Their rapid march through the country’s north alarmed the international community, as they set up a parallel state that many feared would threaten the security of the entire region.

French-led forces pushed back the jihadists, and a U.N. peacekeeping force of more than 15,000 troops is now on the ground. But even with substantial help from France's military, Malian forces have failed to end the attacks, which increased dramatically last year, unsettling the population.

Instability in Mali threatens the entire Sahel — an arid, thinly populated region south of the Sahara — where the U.S. also has about 1,400 troops, including special forces. In the years since the Islamic insurgency began in Mali, the rise of extremism also has increasingly destabilized neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger.

Criticism of the takeover was swift from the African Union and the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, as well as France, the European Union and the United Nations. The U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the situation, and ECOWAS said it was sending a high-level delegation to “ensure the immediate return to constitutional order.”

The bloc had previously sent mediators to negotiate a unity government, but those talks fell apart. It said it would stop all economic, trade and financial flows and transactions between ECOWAS states and Mali.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the military takeover and pledged full support to the regional mediation effort. An official with the French presidency wouldn’t give any details about what the French military might do, saying only: “The priority is to not lose the fight against terrorism.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named according to official policy.

Keita, who tried to meet protesters’ demands through a series of concessions, was first elected with 77% of the vote and has enjoyed broad support from France and other Western allies. But his political downfall closely mirrored that of his predecessor, Amadou Toumani Toure, who was forced out by an army captain angered over the government’s lack of support for soldiers battling ethnic Tuareg separatist rebels in the north.

The deteriorating security situation for soldiers as well as late and low payments for troops were among the issues playing a key role in this week's coup, said Alexandre Raymakers, a senior Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk consultancy.

But the actions by the military are about more than just insecurity, said Devermont, of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He noted that Keita appointed his son to a prominent political position and relied on low voter turnout during the coronavirus pandemic and a friendly constitutional court to assert control of the legislature.

"His political maneuvering and seeming disregard to the country’s plight triggered massive protests,” he said. A transitional government, however, will take some time to put together and, if done hastily, won't necessarily yield a dramatically different kind of leader, he warned.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Mali warned that more chaos would only hurt the Malian people. “People in northern and central Mali have lived for years n a vicious cycle of conflict and climate shocks that have driven them from their homes and destroyed their livelihoods. Their needs must not be forgotten,” said the head of the delegation for ICRC in Mali, Klaus Spreyermann.

Petesch reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, and Angela Charlton from Paris contributed.

Mali soldiers behind coup take to airwaves, promise handover

August 19, 2020

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The Malian soldiers who forced President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to resign in a coup promised early Wednesday to organize new elections after their takeover was swiftly condemned by the international community.

In a statement carried overnight on state broadcaster ORTM, the mutinous soldiers who staged Tuesday's military coup identified themselves as the National Committee for the Salvation of the People led by Col. Maj. Ismael Wagué.

“With you, standing as one, we can restore this country to its former greatness," Wagué said, announcing that borders were closed and that a curfew was going into effect from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m The news of Keita’s departure was met with jubilation by anti-government demonstrators in the capital, Bamako, and alarm by former colonial ruler France, and other allies and foreign nations.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the unfolding situation in Mali, where the U.N. has a 15,600-strong peacekeeping mission. Keita, who was democratically elected in a 2013 landslide and re-elected five years later, still had three years left in his term. But his popularity had plummeted, and demonstrators began taking to the streets calling for his ouster in June.

West African regional bloc ECOWAS had sent mediators to try and negotiate a unity government but those talks fell apart when it became clear that the protesters would not accept less than Keita's resignation.

On Tuesday, mutinous soldiers forced his hand by surrounding his residence and firing shots into the air. Keita and the prime minister were soon detained and hours later he appeared on state broadcaster ORTM. A banner across the bottom of the television screen referred to him as the “outgoing president.”

“I wish no blood to be shed to keep me in power,” Keita said. “I have decided to step down from office.” He also announced that his government and the National Assembly would be dissolved, certain to further the country’s turmoil amid an eight-year Islamic insurgency and the growing coronavirus pandemic.

Keita, who tried to meet protesters’ demands through a series of concessions, has enjoyed broad support from France and other Western allies. He also was believed to have widespread backing among high-ranking military officials, underscoring a divide between army leadership and unpredictable rank-and-file soldiers.

Tuesday marked a repeat of the events leading up to the 2012 coup, which unleashed years of chaos in Mali when the ensuing power vacuum allowed Islamic extremists to seize control of northern towns. Ultimately a French-led military operation ousted the jihadists, but they merely regrouped and expanded their reach during Keita’s presidency into central Mali.

Keita’s political downfall closely mirrors that of his predecessor: Amadou Toumani Toure was forced out of the presidency in 2012 after a series of punishing military defeats. That time, the attacks were carried out by ethnic Tuareg separatist rebels. This time, Mali’s military has sometimes seemed powerless to stop extremists linked to al-Qaida and IS.

Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.

Mali's president announces resignation after armed mutiny

August 19, 2020

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s president announced his resignation late Tuesday, just hours after armed soldiers seized him from his home in a dramatic power grab following months of protests demanding his ouster.

The news of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s departure was met with jubilation by anti-government demonstrators and alarm by former colonial ruler France, and other allies and foreign nations. The U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the unfolding situation in Mali, where the U.N. has a 15,600-strong peacekeeping mission.

Speaking on national broadcaster ORTM just before midnight, a distressed Keita, wearing a mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic, said his resignation — three years before his final term was due to end — was effective immediately. A banner across the bottom of the television screen referred to him as the “outgoing president.”

“I wish no blood to be shed to keep me in power,” Keita said. “I have decided to step down from office.” He also announced that his government and the National Assembly would be dissolved, certain to further the country’s turmoil amid an eight-year Islamic insurgency and the growing coronavirus pandemic.

Keita, who was democratically elected in 2013 and reelected five years later, was left with few choices after the mutinous soldiers seized weapons from the armory in the garrison town of Kati and then advanced on the capital of Bamako. They took Prime Minister Boubou Cisse into custody along with the president.

There was no immediate comment Wednesday from the troops, who hailed from the same military barracks where a coup was launched more than eight years ago, allowing the Islamic insurgency to take hold amid a power vacuum.

The political upheaval unfolded months after disputed legislative elections. And it also came as support for Keita tumbled amid criticism of his government’s handling of the insurgency, which has engulfed a country once praised as a model of democracy in the region.

The military has taken a beating over the past year from Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked groups. A wave of particularly deadly attacks in the north in 2019 prompted the government to close its most vulnerable outposts as part of a reorganization aimed at stemming the losses.

Tuesday’s developments were condemned by the African Union, the United States, and the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, which had been trying to mediate Mali’s political crisis. Former colonizer France and the United Nations, which has maintained a peacekeeping mission in Mali since 2013, also expressed alarm ahead of Keita’s speech.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sought “the immediate restoration of constitutional order and rule of law,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. But news of Keita’s detention was met with celebration throughout the capital by anti-government protesters who first took to the streets back in June to demand that the president step down.

“All the Malian people are tired — we have had enough,” one demonstrator said. The detention was a dramatic change of fortune for Keita, who seven years earlier emerged from a field of more than two dozen candidates to win Mali’s first democratic post-coup election in a landslide with more than 77% of the vote.

Regional mediators from ECOWAS, though, had failed in recent weeks to bridge the impasse between Keita’s government and opposition leaders, creating mounting anxiety about another military-led change of power.

Then on Tuesday, soldiers in Kati took weapons from the armory at the barracks and detained senior military officers. Anti-government protesters immediately cheered the soldiers’ actions, and some set fire to a building that belongs to Mali’s justice minister in the capital.

Cisse urged the soldiers to put down their arms. “There is no problem whose solution cannot be found through dialogue,” he said in a statement. But the wheels already were in motion — armed men began detaining people in Bamako too, including the country’s finance minister, Abdoulaye Daffe.

Keita, who tried to meet protesters’ demands through a series of concessions, has enjoyed broad support from France and other Western allies. He also was believed to have widespread backing among high-ranking military officials, underscoring a divide between army leadership and unpredictable rank-and-file soldiers.

Tuesday marked a repeat of the events leading up to the 2012 coup, which unleashed years of chaos in Mali when the ensuing power vacuum allowed Islamic extremists to seize control of northern towns. Ultimately a French-led military operation ousted the jihadists, but they merely regrouped and expanded their reach during Keita’s presidency into central Mali.

Keita’s political downfall closely mirrors that of his predecessor: Amadou Toumani Toure was forced out of the presidency in 2012 after a series of punishing military defeats. That time, the attacks were carried out by ethnic Tuareg separatist rebels. This time, Mali’s military has sometimes seemed powerless to stop extremists linked to al-Qaida and IS.

Back in 2012, the mutiny erupted at the Kati military camp as rank-and-file soldiers began rioting and then broke into the camp’s armory. After grabbing weapons, they later headed for the seat of government under the leadership of Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo. Sanogo was later forced to hand over power to a civilian transitional government, which then organized the election Keita won.

Mediators this time around have urged Keita to share power in a unity government. He even said he was open to redoing disputed legislative elections. But those overtures were swiftly rejected by opposition leaders who said they would not stop short of Keita’s ouster.

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Yoshihide Suga wins party vote for Japan prime minister

 September 14, 2020

TOKYO (AP) — Yoshihide Suga was elected as the new head of Japan’s ruling party on Monday, virtually guaranteeing him parliamentary election as the country’s next prime minister. Suga received 377 votes in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party election to pick a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced last month that he would resign due to health problems. Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, one of the other two contenders, received 89 votes, while former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba got 68.

The victory by Suga, currently the chief Cabinet secretary of Abe’s government, all but guarantees his election in a parliamentary vote Wednesday because of the majority held by the Liberal Democrats’ ruling coalition.

Suga, the son of a farmer in northern Japan's Akita prefecture, said he had come a long way. “I will devote all of myself to work for the nation and the people," he said in his victory speech. He has said his top priorities are fighting the coronavirus and turning around a Japanese economy battered by the pandemic. He repeatedly has noted achievements under the Abe-led government when asked about various policies.

Suga had gained the support of party heavyweights and their wing members early in the campaign on expectations that he would continue Abe’s policies. That his victory appeared to be a done deal has raised criticism from inside and outside the party that the process is undemocratic and murky.

The closed-door politics also apparently led lawmakers to support Suga in hopes of getting favorable party and Cabinet posts in the new administration. “Now I'm handing the baton to new party leader Suga," Abe said after the vote. "We can count on him."

Despite his low-key image as Abe's right-hand man, Suga is actually known for his iron-fist approach to getting jobs done as a policy coordinator and influencing bureaucrats by using the centralized power of the prime minister's office.

Suga says that he is a reformist and that he has worked to achieve policies by breaking territorial barriers of bureaucracy. He has credited himself for those efforts in achieving a booming foreign tourism industry in Japan, lowering cellphone bills and bolstering agricultural exports.

Compared to his political skills at home, Suga has hardly traveled overseas, and his diplomatic skills are unknown, though he is largely expected to pursue Abe’s priorities. In addition to the coronavirus and the economic fallout, Suga stands to inherit several other challenges, including China, which continues its assertive actions in the East China Sea. He also will have to decide what to do with the Tokyo Olympics, which were pushed back to next summer due to the coronavirus. And he will have to establish a good relationship with whoever wins the U.S. presidential race.

China confirms it detained 12 Hong Kongers at sea last month

September 15, 2020

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese authorities have confirmed the criminal detention of 12 Hong Kongers who were allegedly attempting to travel illegally to Taiwan by boat last month, while the foreign ministry in Beijing labeled the group separatists.

The 12 people, aged 16 to 33, were under “compulsory criminal detention” in accordance with Chinese law for illegally crossing the border, according to a statement Sunday from the public security bureau in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city. It said they were arrested on Aug. 23.

The statement was the first formal announcement from Chinese authorities that the 12 would likely face criminal charges. Last month authorities confirmed the detention at sea of the 12, some of whom were linked to the anti-government protest movement in the city last year.

The 12 were believed to be traveling to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, a popular choice among protesters who have chosen to leave Hong Kong since the passage of a new national security law in June. Critics say the Hong Kong law is Beijing's clearest attempt to erase the legal firewall between the semi-autonomous territory and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system.

Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Sunday on Twitter that the 12 detained were not “democratic activists, but elements attempting to separate #HongKong from China.” Under Hong Kong’s security law, attempting to separate Hong Kong from China is illegal, as the law outlaws secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces in the city’s internal affairs.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Eddie Chu expressed concern in a interview with public broadcaster RTHK on Monday that the 12 could face more severe charges in the future, which could result in longer prison sentences. They are currently accused of illegally crossing the border and not separatism.

The relatives of the arrested Hong Kongers held a news conference on Saturday calling for the return of their family members to Hong Kong, saying their legal rights were being violated. The relatives, who wore masks and sunglasses and did not not reveal their names, said those arrested should be allowed to meet with lawyers they themselves have hired, not those appointed by Chinese authorities. They also said they should be provided with needed medications and be allowed to call their families.

In a statement released at the news conference, the families said that the Hong Kong government had not yet provided any sort of concrete assistance to the families. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said last week that the group arrested would have to be dealt with according to Chinese laws if they were arrested for committing an offence in China. She said that the Hong Kong government would try and render assistance.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Friday that the U.S. is “deeply concerned” over the arrests of the 12 people, whom he called “democracy activists.” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a Twitter post Saturday that the arrest of the 12 is “another sad example of the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong.”

“Legitimate governments do not need to wall their countries in and prevent their citizens from leaving,” Ortagus wrote.

Pompeo tweet indicates US ambassador to China is leaving

September 14, 2020

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to China appears to be leaving his post, based on tweets posted Monday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo thanked Ambassador Terry Branstad on Twitter for his more than three years of service. There was no immediate confirmation from the State Department.

“Ambassador Branstad has contributed to rebalancing U.S.-China relations so that it is results-oriented, reciprocal, and fair,” Pompeo wrote. Branstad was embroiled in a recent controversy when China’s official People’s Daily newspaper rejected an opinion column that he had submitted. It wasn’t clear if his apparent departure was related to the piece.

Pompeo tweeted last week that China's ruling Communist Party refused to run Branstad's op-ed while the Chinese ambassador to the United States “is free to publish in any U.S. media outlet.” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded that Branstad's article was “full of loopholes, seriously inconsistent with facts and wantonly attacks and smears China.”

The U.S. Embassy had contacted the People's Daily on Aug. 26 about the piece, asking that it be printed in full without any edits by Sept. 4.

China detains 23 in crackdown on Inner Mongolia protests

September 08, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Police in China's Inner Mongolia region have detained at least 23 people following protests last week against a new policy that replaces Mongolian-language textbooks with Chinese ones in classrooms.

The push to use the new textbooks, which started in other ethnic minority regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet in 2017, has prompted demonstrations and school boycotts by ethnic Mongolians in at least five cities and counties in Inner Mongolia.

The 23 detentions were across eight banners, the regional word for counties, according to an Associated Press tally of nine local police reports over the past several days. The reasons range from “organizing and collecting signatures for a petition” to “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."

Others were for “flagrantly insulting a deceased former leader of the country” and “sharing videos in a WeChat group to obstruct the implementation of the national textbooks policy.” WeChat is a popular messaging app in China.

The local government is also exerting pressure in other ways. Authorities in Zhenglan banner announced Saturday that they had suspended two members of the ruling Communist Party without pay for failing to carry out the policy.

Police in Chifeng city said Monday they handed over Communist Party members, including two elementary school teachers, to a local party disciplinary committee for investigation. Information about the situation has become harder to get, said Enghebatu Togochog, the U.S.-based director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, an activist group for Mongolian rights.

“Before these things happened, we were able to get relatively accurate information through WeChat groups,” he said. “Now, it’s almost a communication blackout.” The government has stepped up positive messaging on the policy, under which more classes will be taught in Mandarin Chinese.

“There are still many young people, middle-aged people and herders who cannot use Mandarin for basic communication,” said a Q&A published by the state-backed Inner Mongolia Daily. “This has become an obstacle to lifting individuals out of poverty, impacting local economic and social development, and an important factor limiting the ethnic unity and harmony in our region.”

Local governments have published videos of happy-looking students in class and playing on school grounds, saying that students have returned to school. Togochog said many people in rural areas are still not sending their children back to school, based on private messages his group has received. But he was unable to say how many.

A high school student who left school with others last week said a teacher had told them to come back to class, and that classmates said their parents had been threatened over their jobs. The AP is withholding the student's name for safety reasons.

“I have a feeling I may be in trouble soon, the parents of a lot of students have been caught. I spoke out, telling everyone to persist,” the student said on Sunday via a messaging app. “But I'll be deleting this app. You won't be hearing from me anymore.”

Pro-Israel Hungary to send sole European representative for Trump's 'peace' ceremony

September 14, 2020

European states have on the whole decided against sending a representative to tomorrow’s signing ceremony in Washington to celebrate normalization between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The only country that will be sending a delegation is the right-wing Hungarian government of Victor Orban.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced yesterday that he will be the only EU diplomatic leader to attend the signing ceremony which has been dismissed as a public relations spectacle designed to boost US President Donald Trump’s chances in November’s election. The much maligned US commander and chief is currently trailing his rival Joe Biden in opinion polls.

“At the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump, as the only European Union minister, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will also attend … the signing ceremony in the White House on Tuesday,” Mate Paczolay is reported saying in Reuters.

Szijjarto’s announcement underlines the deep relations between Hungary, under Prime Orban, with his US and Israeli counterparts. Both Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are seen as sharing Orban’s hostility towards immigrants and disdain for democratic principles.

Szijjarto is one of the few European leaders to offer effusive praise for the Trump-led normalization deal. “Since the White House prepared the agenda for stabilizing the region, this has been the second development to prove that this is the best peace plan thus far and promises to bring peace in the Middle East at last,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

“The U.S. President thus deserves gratitude,” he said, adding praise for Israeli, UAE and Bahraini leaders.

Reuters also confirmed that Szijjarto will also hold talks with Trump’s son-in-law and chief adviser, Jared Kushner.

American Jews have expressed “horror” over the deep ties between Netanyahu and Orban, who is accused of being an anti-Semite.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200914-pro-israel-hungary-to-send-sole-european-representative-for-trumps-peace-ceremony/.

Navalny team alleges Novichok found in hotel water bottle

 September 17, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Colleagues of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Thursday that a water bottle with a trace of the Novichok nerve agent was found in his hotel room in the Siberian city of Tomsk after he fell ill on a flight from there to Moscow last month.

Navalny later was flown to Germany, where he was kept in an induced coma for more than two weeks as he was treated with an antidote at Berlin's Charite hospital. Members of his team accused the Kremlin of involvement in the poisoning, charges that Russian officials have vehemently denied.

The Kremlin has bristled at calls from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders to answer questions about the poisoning, urging Germany to provide its evidence. On Tuesday, Navalny posted a picture of himself from his hospital bed, hugged by his wife and children. "I still can’t do almost anything on my own, but yesterday I managed to breathe on my own for the entire day,” he added in the post.

A video posted on Navalny’s Instagram account on Thursday showed members of his team in plastic gloves inspecting his hotel room in Tomsk shortly after he left the city on Aug. 20 and collapsed on a flight home. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was hospitalized before being taken to Berlin two days later on a medevac plane.

Navalny's Instagram post said they went to the room an hour after learning that he had fallen ill, accompanied by a lawyer, and packed half-empty plastic water bottles and unspecified other items for further inspection. In the video post, someone who appears to be a hotel employee could be heard telling members of the Navalny team that they need to ask police before taking any items from the room, and one of them refuses to do that.

“Two weeks later, a German laboratory found a trace of Novichok on a bottle from the Tomsk hotel room,” they said. “And then another three labs that took Alexei's samples proved that he was poisoned with it. Now we understand: It was done before he left his room to go to the airport.”

The founder of the Berlin-based organization Cinema for Peace, which helped organize the medevac flight for Navalny, said that some bottles were brought to Germany last month. “I made sure that we flew some of Navalny’s water bottles with us on our plane with Navalny,” Jaka Bizilj told The Associated Press in a text message.

There had been previous speculation that Navalny was poisoned at the airport, where he drank a cup of tea before boarding the flight. “We didn’t have much hope of finding something," members of Navalny's team said on Instagram. “But as it was absolutely clear to us that Navalny wasn't just ‘slightly unwell’ or ‘under the weather’ and candy wouldn’t help, we decided to take everything that could hypothetically be of use and hand it over to doctors in Germany.”

They noted that they did so because they were aware that Russian authorities would be reluctant to launch a probe. “It was quite obvious that they wouldn’t investigate the case in Russia," they said. "And so it happened: Nearly a month after Russia hasn’t recognized that Alexei was poisoned.”

Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh tweeted that “Navalny had been poisoned with Novichok at the hotel before he went to the airport.” But Lyubov Sobol, a top Navalny associate, later tweeted that while “traces of Novichok were found on a bottle from the hotel, it doesn't mean that Navalny was poisoned specifically with the bottle.”

Georgy Alburov, a close colleague of Navalny who inspected his hotel room in Tomsk along with other associates, said in a live broadcast on YouTube that German experts said the bottle wasn't the source of the Novichok and only had a trace amount of the nerve agent, probably left by Navalny when he drank from it after he had already been poisoned.

Alburov alleged that Navalny probably was poisoned in the hotel, adding that its management had refused to show them recordings from surveillance cameras. He said police in Tomsk later seized computer servers containing the recordings.

A German military lab determined that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, the same class of Soviet-era agent that Britain said was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the German lab conducted tests on “various samples from Mr. Navalny,” but neither she nor other German officials have elaborated. On Monday, the German government said independent tests by labs in France and Sweden backed up its findings. The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is also taking steps to have samples from Navalny tested at its designated labs.

The Kremlin has said that Russian doctors who treated him in Omsk found no sign that Navalny was poisoned. Russia has repeatedly prodded Germany to share Navalny’s analyses and other medical data and compare notes with the Russian doctors.

German officials have responded to Moscow’s request for evidence by saying that Russian authorities must have the samples already since Navalny spent two days in the Omsk hospital. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who canceled a scheduled trip Tuesday to Berlin, said in a TV interview earlier this week that Russian authorities have conducted a preliminary inquiry and documented the meetings Navalny had before falling ill, but he emphasized that investigators need to see evidence of poisoning to launch a full criminal probe.

Lavrov accused the West of trying to smear Russia and use the incident as a pretext for new sanctions against Moscow. He argued that Navalny’s life was saved by the pilots of the plane who quickly landed in Omsk after he collapsed on board and by the rapid action of doctors there — something he said Western officials have failed to recognize.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized the European Union's plan to name a prospective sanctions mechanism for punishing human rights violators in honor of Navalny. “We hope that the EU will regain common sense, and our partners will abandon the practice of finger-pointing and will make conclusions only on the basis of real and confirmed facts,” she said.

Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.

Madrid, Europe's pandemic hotspot, mulls targeted lockdowns

 September 16, 2020

MADRID (AP) — The Spanish capital will introduce selective lockdowns in urban areas where the coronavirus is spreading faster, regional health authorities announced Wednesday. The measures in Madrid, including restrictions on mobility, will most likely affect southern, working-class neighbourhoods where virus contagion rates have been steadily soaring since August, deputy regional health chief Antonio Zapatero said at a press briefing.

“Madrid wants to flatten the curve before the arrival of autumn and the complications that cold weather could bring,” Zapatero said, adding that the “drastic measures” to be taken will be decided by the weekend.

Zapatero also said that people have relaxed protection measures by holding large gatherings, often forgetting about social distancing or masks. He announced that police will monitor compliance of mandatory self-isolation. At least 90 people have been found to be skipping quarantines after testing positive for the new virus, the regional government said.

Madrid and its surrounding region of 6.6 million residents has been accounting for nearly one-third of the country’s new daily infections, which seem to have stabilized at an average of 8,200 per day for the past week.

With a coronavirus caseload above 600,000 and more than 30,000 confirmed deaths for the new virus, Spain has been the hardest hit European country in what some experts are describing as the second wave of the pandemic.

The country flattened the curve of contagion earlier this year with a 3-month lockdown, one of the strictest in the world, but since it reactivated in mid-June, outbreaks have spread throughout the country.

Authorities say they are now doing more tests and that more than half of the newly infected show no symptoms, but health centers are starting to struggle to cope with the number of virus tests required and responding to patients. In hospitals, 8.5% of the country's beds are now treating COVID-19 patients, but in Madrid at least one-fifth of hospital capacity is devoted to coronavirus-related complications.

“Madrid is maintaining a steady level of infections, but we have to take into account the impact of the pandemic in primary care, in hospitals, which is totally sustainable at the moment, but we have to make that line of infections decrease,” Zapatero said.

EU wants better coordination on virus, announces summit

 September 16, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that the bloc must rise above its fragmented approach on dealing with the coronavirus by centralizing more decision-making on health issues.

She also told EU legislators that Italy will host a global health summit next year, during its G20 presidency. Von der Leyen fully acknowledged the fragile state that the pandemic has left EU in, with the death toll closing in on 150,000 and the economy facing the worst slump in the bloc's history.

To counter this, von der Leyen said she wants more money poured into research and development and more powers going to EU-wide institutions like the European Medicines Agency. “So for me, it is crystal clear we need to build a stronger European health union. It is time to do that," she said.

During the early part of the pandemic, EU member states took independent measures, sometimes at the cost of one another, to contain the virus. Borders were closed, creating massive traffic jams and stranding citizens in other EU nations and beyond.

Quickly, she said, the EU forced through measures to ease the burden. “When it’s closed borders, we created green lines for goods. When more than 600,000 European citizens were stranded all over the world, the EU brought them back home,” she said.

In the wake of the 1.8-trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) recovery fund and long-term budget agreed by EU member states over the summer, there was criticism that not enough of the money was going to health issues.

“I had proposed to increase funding. And I’m grateful that this parliament is ready to fight for more funding and remedy the cuts made by the European" summit of government leaders. Italy was the early hotspot in Europe as the virus spread from China, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte welcomed the summit, saying: “We stand united to protect our health and to build a better future for the next generation .”

No precise date was announced.

Greek minister: 5,000 move into new refugee camp on Lesbos

 September 17, 2020

KARA TEPE, Greece (AP) — More than 5,000 asylum seekers left homeless after Greece's notoriously overcrowded Moria camp on the island of Lesbos burnt down have now been housed in a new facility, the country's migration minister said Thursday afternoon.

Speaking on the island, Notis Mitarachi said rapid coronavirus tests found 135 of the former residents of Moria positive for the coronavirus, and these people were being kept "in special areas where they receive the appropriate medical conditions."

More than 12,000 people had been sleeping rough by a roadside since the squalid Moria camp burnt down last week. Authorities said the fires were set deliberately by a small group of migrants angered by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions imposed after an outbreak in the camp. Six Afghans, including two minors, have been arrested on suspicion of arson.

Police launched an operation Thursday morning to persuade people to move from the roadside into the new camp in the island's Kara Tepe area. The operation included 70 female police officers and no violence was reported.

“As long as it is peaceful, we believe it is a good move,” said Astrid Castelein, head of the U.N. Refugee Agency’s office on Lesbos. “Here on the street it is a risk for security, for public health, and it’s not dignity which we need for everyone.”

The new site consists of large family tents erected in an old army firing range by the sea. By late Wednesday, it had a capacity of around 8,000 people, according to the UNHCR. New arrivals are tested for COVID-19, registered and assigned a tent.

“This is an operation for the protection of public health and with a clear humanitarian mission,” the police said in a statement. Moria had a capacity of just over 2,700 people, but more than 12,500 had been living in and around it when it burned down. The camp was held up by critics as a symbol of Europe’s failed migration policies.

“It is critical that Europe demonstrates tangible solidarity to the pressure that the Greek islands have had over the last few years,” said Mitarachi, the migration minister. The European Union is due to issue proposals to overhaul the bloc's migration policy next week in an effort to end years of division among member states. As a frontier state, Greece is pressing for increased participation by other EU members in relocation schemes — unpopular with many central and East European countries — but has also suggested that alternative obligations may be assigned to countries wishing to opt out of relocation.

Speaking at a debate in the European Parliament on the situation in Greece, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said that “there can be no more Morias,” and that it was time for a fresh start on migration.

Several EU members have offered to take in refugees from Greece, led by Germany which says it will take in 1,553 refugees from Greek island camps who have had their asylum applications approved.

Becatoros reported from Athens. Geir Moulson in Berlin, Raf Casert and Samuel Petrequin in Brussels, and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed.

Greek police begin moving asylum-seekers into new camp

 September 17, 2020

KARA TEPE, Greece (AP) — A Greek police operation is underway on the island of Lesbos to move thousands of migrants and refugees left homeless after a fire destroyed their overcrowded camp into a new facility on the island.

Police said Thursday morning’s operation included 70 female police officers who were approaching asylum-seekers with the aim of persuading them to move to the new camp in the island’s Kara Tepe area. No violence was reported as the operation began.

The notoriously squalid Moria camp burned down last week in fires that Greek authorities said were deliberately set by a small group of the camp’s inhabitants angered by lockdown restrictions imposed after a coronavirus outbreak.

The blazes have left more than 1,200 people in need of emergency shelter. The vast majority have been sleeping rough by the side of a road leading from Moria to the island capital of Mytilene, erecting makeshift shelters made of sheets, blankets, reeds and cardboard.

The new camp consists of large family tents erected in a field by the sea. By Wednesday night, it had a capacity of around 8,000 people, according to the UN refugee agency, but only around 1,100 mostly vulnerable people had entered.

New arrivals are tested for the coronavirus, registered and assigned a tent. “This is an operation for the protection of public health and with a clear humanitarian content,” the police said in a statement.

Six Afghans, including two minors, were arrested on suspicion of causing last week’s fires at Moria. The blazes broke out after isolation orders were issued during a generalized camp lockdown, when 35 people tested positive for the coronavirus.

Moria had a capacity of just over 2,700 people, but more than 12,500 people had been living in and around it when it burned down. The camp and its squalid conditions were held up by critics as a symbol of Europe’s failed migration policies.