Ousted Russian Orthodox Church cleric assails Russian elites

December 25, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — A conservative priest who lost his high-level job at the Russian Orthodox Church assailed Russia's "immoral elites" Friday and predicted a national catastrophe if the country fails to allow free public discussion.

Father Vsevolod Chaplin, who headed the Moscow Patriarchate's department for cooperation between church and society, was relieved of his duties Thursday and his department was disbanded. The church's Holy Synod explained the move by citing the need to increase efficiency.

Chaplin sharply criticized Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill for failing to listen to critical voices and predicted that Kirill would be replaced soon. Chaplin hadn't issued any public criticism of Kirill before being relieved of his duties, and in the past had staunchly defended the Patriarch against accusations of indulging in luxury.

Chaplin told a news conference Friday that Russia would face an "inevitable catastrophe" if the authorities fail to allow "live discussion and live public process." He said that "immoral elites are hampering the nation's development," adding that "to prevent a revolution, we need to actively offer models of peaceful reforms," according to the Interfax news agency.

Speaking to RBC news portal, Chaplin said that his view that the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church should have taken a stronger action in support of pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine had caused tensions between him and the patriarch.

The 47-year-old Chaplin has long attracted public attention with controversial statements. He said once said women should dress more modestly to avoid provoking rapes. Chaplin declared recently that "we in Russia should fulfill the best ideals of the Holy Russia, caliphate and the USSR, the systems that cast a challenge to injustice and diktat of narrow elites."

He recently has drawn strong criticism with his statement that Russia was waging a "holy war" against extremists in Syria.

Russia delivers S-300 missile system to Kazakhstan free of charge

Washington (UPI)
Dec 23, 2015

The Russian government has completed the free delivery of its S-300 air defense system to the government of Kazakhstan, according to Russian media reports.

The delivery supports the initiative between Moscow and Astana to construct and operate a common aerospace defense system. Russian defense officials say they delivered the missile system free of charge because it is the country's main contribution to the integrated air defense system.

"We have completed the project on free of charge S-300 air defense system deliveries to Kazakhstan," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a meeting according to Sputnik International.

Russian state-owned media outlet Tass reports the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of former Soviet states including Kazakhstan, has plans to further develop its joint air defense system.

"We have approved for 2016 a plan of work of the Defense Ministers' Council of the CIS countries and a plan of common steps on the joint air defense system," Shoigu added.

The S-300 missile defense system was developed by the Soviet Union and now used by the Russian government and other armed forces around the world as a surface-to-air defense system against airborne threats.

Moscow has also agreed to deliver S-300 missiles to Iran by the end of 2016.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_delivers_S-300_missile_system_to_Kazakhstan_free_of_charge_999.html.

India donates Mi-25 helicopters to Afghanistan

Washington (UPI)
Dec 23, 2015

India has delivered the first of four planned Mi-25 attack helicopters to the government of Afghanistan for use by the Afghan Air Force.

The donation marks the first time India has gifted combat equipment to Afghanistan, which has historically been met with objection from neighboring nation Pakistan. Indian military officials are also scheduled to train Afghan Air Force pilots to operate the aircraft. The deal was subject to approval from Russia as the manufacturer of the helicopters, according to The Economic Times.

The Mi-25 attack helicopters are designed to engage enemies in fortified positions, and transport troops to locations under heavy enemy fire. India is currently in the process of replacing its fleet of Mi-25 helicopters with U.S.-made Apache aircraft.

Once the deliveries are complete, the Afghan Air Force will use the Mi-25s to replace their fleet of Mi-35 helicopters, of which only one is in a state to fly, according to IHS Janes. The deliveries add to the Afghan Air Force's fleet of 109 aircraft, comprised of Russian, Indian and U.S.-made planes.

Afghanistan will receive the first of 20 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft from the United States in January 2016.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/India_donates_Mi-25_helicopters_to_Afghanistan_999.html.

Indian premier Narendra Modi visits Russia for annual summit

December 23, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks expected to focus on defense, nuclear and space cooperation.

Modi began his visit Wednesday with a private dinner with Putin. More talks involving top officials from both countries are to be held in the Kremlin on Thursday. Trade between India and Russia was just below $10 billion in 2014. The two countries have set an ambitious goal of increasing trade to $30 billion by 2025.

Russia and India have shared close ties since the Cold War, when Moscow was a key ally and the main arms supplier to New Delhi. Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told reporters ahead of the visit that Russia is a "very major military and strategic partner," adding that there will be discussions on more arms purchases for the Indian military, including a deal to manufacture 200 Kamov-226T helicopters in a joint venture located in India.

While India has remained a major customer for the Russian arms industry, the country in recent years has sought to diversify its purchases, buying military hardware from the United States, France and Israel.

Jaishankar said Modi's talks in Moscow will also include nuclear cooperation. "We have a road map for nuclear cooperation with Russia, and we are moving in accordance with that," said Jaishankar. Russia has built a nuclear reactor at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India and is now completing a second unit there. The two nations have a plan envisaging that Russia will build a total of 12 nuclear reactors in India over 20 years.

Five dead, 150,000 evacuated in Latin America floods

Asuncion (AFP)
Dec 24, 2015

Flooding dampened Christmas eve celebrations in parts of Latin America on Thursday, leaving five people dead and driving almost 150,000 from their homes in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Some 130,000 people have been forced from their homes across Paraguay, officials said, as President Horacio Cartes declared a state of emergency to free up more than $3.5 million in disaster funds.

Three people traveling Paraguay's international Route 2, which links Asuncion and Foz de Iguazu in Brazil were killed when a tree fell on their vehicle before dawn.

Another woman traveling by motorcycle in Asuncion was killed by a falling tree overnight, official sources told AFP.

The National Emergency Secretariat (SEN) reported a dozen other similar incidents in the capital.

The agency's head of operations, David Arellano, said rescue and evacuation operations were underway for dozens of families in the face of floodwaters from the Paraguay River.

Around the capital Asuncion 125,000 homes were without power and 17 power distribution centers knocked out across the country.

Northeastern Argentina also reported widespread disruption and one fatality from the worst flooding in half a century.

A 13-year-old boy was electrocuted by a power cable while trying to assess storm damage to his home in the city of Corrientes, local media reported.

In Entre Rios province at least 10,000 people were evacuated, with Concordia, a city of some 170,000 on the banks of the Uruguay River, the worst affected with nonstop rain throughout the night, Mayor Enrique Crest said.

"This is the worst flooding in 50 years," he said, adding that although "flooding was predicted due to El Nino, no one thought that it would be so substantial."

The city is located 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the Salto Grande dam, which was helping to hold the waters back, but was nearing its full capacity, Crest said.

The governor of Entre Rios said the total number of evacuees across the province could rise to "between 16,000 to 20,000."

Argentina's vice president, Gabriela Michetti, traveled Thursday to the affected region to view the damage and assess disaster relief needs.

The country has declared a state of emergency for the Panama, Uruguay and Paraguay rivers and their tributaries, following exceptionally high rainfall.

In November and December, the Rio de la Plata river basin in Argentina's northeast received between 150 and 300 millimeters more rain than is typical for the period, the farm industry ministry said in a statement.

Uruguay on Wednesday also declared a state of emergency in three northern departments affected by flooding.

The number of displaced people reached almost 5,500 Thursday, as the situation worsened.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Five_dead_150000_evacuated_in_Latin_America_floods_999.html.

Saudi voters elect 20 women candidates for the first time

December 13, 2015

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi voters elected 20 women for local government seats, according to results released to The Associated Press on Sunday, a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the country's history.

The women who won hail from vastly different parts of the country, ranging from Saudi Arabia's largest city to a small village near Islam's holiest site. The 20 female candidates represent just one percent of the roughly 2,100 municipal council seats up for grabs, but even limited gains are seen as a step forward for women who had previously been completely shut out of elections. Women are still not allowed to drive and are governed by guardianship laws that give men final say over aspects of their lives like marriage, travel and higher education.

Though there are no quotas for female council members, an additional 1,050 seats are appointed with approval by the king who could use his powers to ensure more women are represented. Around 7,000 candidates, among them 979 women, competed in the election for a seat on the municipal councils, which are the only government body elected by Saudi citizens. The two previous rounds of voting for the councils, in 2005 and 2011, were open to men only.

The conservative capital of Riyadh saw the most women candidates win, with four elected. The Eastern Province, where minority Shiites are concentrated, saw two women elected, said Hamad Al-Omar, who heads the General Election Commission's media council.

Saudi Arabia's second largest and most cosmopolitan city, Jiddah, also elected two women, as did one of the most conservative regions, Qassim. The mayor of the city of Mecca, Osama al-Bar, told the AP that a woman won in a village called Madrakah, about 93 miles (150 kilometers) north of the city which houses the cube-shaped Kaaba to which Muslims around the world pray.

Another woman won in Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad's first mosque was built. Other women hailing from the kingdom's northernmost areas won, with two elected in Tabuk, one in al-Jawf and another in Hail. Additionally, a woman won in Saudi Arabia's southern border area of Jizan, another in Asir and two won in al-Ahsa.

Many women candidates ran on platforms that promised more nurseries to offer longer daycare hours for working mothers, the creation of youth community centers with sports and cultural activities, improved roads, better garbage collection and overall greener cities.

In October, the Saudi Gazette reported that harsh road conditions and long distances to the nearest hospital had forced some women in the village of Madrakah, where one female candidate was elected, to give birth in cars. The local newspaper reported that the closest hospital and the nearest university were in Mecca, prompting some students to forgo attending classes. The article said residents were also frustrated with the lack of parks in the village.

It is precisely these kinds of community issues that female candidates hope to address once elected to the municipal councils. The councils do not have legislative powers, but advise authorities and help oversee local budgets.

Most ran their campaigns online, using social media to get the word out, due to strict gender segregation rules that ban men and women from mixing in public. This meant candidates could not directly address voters of the opposite sex.

In an effort to create a more level playing field for women who wear the traditional full-face veil, the General Election Committee banned both male and female candidates from showing their faces in promotional flyers, billboards or online. They were also not allowed to appear on television.

Still, al-Omar said the historic election drew a staggering 106,000 female voters out of some 130,000 who'd registered. Out of 1.35 million men registered, almost 600,000 cast ballots. In total, some 47 percent of registered voters took part in Saturday's election.

In Jiddah, three generations of women from the same family voted for the first time. The oldest woman in the family was 94-year-old Naela Mohammad Nasief. Her daughter, Sahar Hassan Nasief, said the experience marked "the beginning" of greater rights for women in Saudi Arabia.

"I walked in and said 'I've have never seen this before. Only in the movies'," the daughter said, referring to the ballot box. "It was a thrilling experience."

Saudi Arabia to host Syrian opposition ahead of peace talks

December 04, 2015

BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia is hosting Syrian opposition groups and many of the main rebel factions next week in an effort to come up with a unified front ahead of peace talks with representatives of the government in Damascus, scheduled to begin early next year.

The meeting is the first of its kind in the Sunni kingdom, which is a main backer of the Syrian opposition, underscoring how the internationally backed effort is the most serious yet in attempts to end the nearly five-year civil war. The conflict has killed more than a quarter of a million people and triggered a refugee crisis of massive proportions.

The rebel factions' participation points to the evolution in the position of many of them that long rejected any negotiations with Damascus as long President Bashar Assad was in power. Now they are on board to attempt a process that the United States and its allies say must eventually lead to Assad's removal — but with no timetable for it.

At the three-day gathering that starts next Tuesday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the factions will try to form a unified opposition delegation and a platform regarding what is meant to be a transitional period in Syria, officials who were invited said.

"We will be negotiating Assad's departure," said Mustafa Osso, the vice president of the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western-backed opposition group. "If this regime stays, violence will continue in Syria and there will be no stability," he said, speaking from Turkey. Osso will be part of what he said will be a 20-member delegation from the coalition at the Riyadh meeting.

A peace plan agreed to last month by 20 nations meeting in Vienna sets a Jan. 1 deadline for the start of negotiations between Assad's government and opposition groups. The plan says nothing about Assad's future, but states that "free and fair elections would be held pursuant to the new constitution within 18 months."

Among the nations that took part in the Vienna meeting were the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Russia and Iran have been Assad's strongest supporters since the crisis began in March 2011 while Saudi Arabia and Turkey have backed factions trying to remove the Syrian president from power.

In Tehran, Iran's deputy foreign minister denounced the planned gathering in Saudi Arabia, the official IRNA news agency reported. "The action will divert Vienna political efforts on Syria from its natural path and will drive the Vienna talks toward failure," Hossein Amir Abdollahian was quoted as saying.

Most of the main rebel factions have been invited to the Riyadh talks, including the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. Also among the invited are two of the biggest — Jaysh al-Islam and the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group that has been for months trying to improve its image and market itself as a moderate faction, said Ibrahim Hamidi, a journalist who covers Syrian affairs for the Saudi-owned newspaper Al Hayat.

Spokesmen for Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham did not respond to requests for comment on whether the groups would attend. "The time for serious negotiations to find a solution has begun," Hamidi said.

But in a sign of the splits within Assad's opponents, no Kurdish factions have been invited, including the main Kurdish militia known as the YPG. The YPG has been the most successful group fighting the Islamic State group and captured scores of towns and villages from the extremists over the past year.

Saleh Muslim, the president of the largest Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party or PYD, said his group has also not been invited. He said Turkey, which has broad fears of Kurdish ambitions, likely pressured Saudi Arabia not to invite them or the YPG.

"We would love to participate. The conference is related to Syria's future and we are a main part of Syria and its future," Muslim said. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up more than 10 percent of the country's pre-war population of 23 million people. There are Kurds, including Osso, in some other factions that will attend.

Among those invited is Hassan Abdul-Azim, a veteran opposition figure in Syria who leads the Syria-based National Coordination Body for Democratic Change. He said that his group will enter talks with the Syrian government "without pre-conditions."

"The fate of the Syrian president will be decided during the negotiations," Abdul-Azim said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that the Syrian government has already put forward to the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, the makeup of its delegation to the upcoming negotiations. Lavrov last week said peace talks cannot go ahead until all parties involved agree on which groups should be listed as terrorist and which as Syria's legitimate opposition.

Also ahead of the peace talks, Jordan is to oversee a process identifying which militant groups in Syria should be considered as terrorists and thus should be prevented from participating in any negotiations. That is to be completed by the time the political process between the government and opposition begins in January.

Separately, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that the world body is working to launch talks between Syria's warring parties and start a nationwide cease-fire in the country in early January. He also said he expects the third round of talks on the "Vienna process" to take place in New York but wouldn't confirm a Dec. 18 date, though that date is being considered, according to U.N. diplomats.

Also Thursday, Iyad Ameen Madani, the secretary general of the world's largest body of Muslim nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, appealed to the Syrian opposition leaders to "close ranks and make the legitimate demands of the Syrian people for change, reform and reconstruction of institutions.

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.