Algeria gives PA treasury $26m

Monday, 11 January 2016

Algerian Ambassador to the Arab League Nazir Al-Arbaoui gave the Head of the Arab League Nabil Al-Arabi a cheque for $26 million as a contribution to the Palestinian Authority’s budget, Al-Resalah newspaper reported.

Al- Arbaoui said this is Algeria’s contribution towards the Arab League’s annual support for the PA’s budget.

A statement issued by the Algerian embassy in Cairo said that by handing over the cheque, Algeria has “completely fulfilled its pledges to support the resistance of the Palestinian people.”

It also said that this donation expresses the “continuous” Algerian support for achieving the legal Palestinian goal which is the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/23273-algeria-give-pa-treasury-26m.

Qatar will continue aiding Palestine, reconstructing Gaza

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Qatari Ambassador Mohammed Al-Emadi said yesterday that his country will continue aiding Palestine and reconstructing what the Israeli occupation destroyed in the Gaza Strip, Felesteen newspaper reported.

Al-Emadi met with the Deputy Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Bahar in his office in Gaza and passed the greetings of the Qatari Emir to the Palestinians and to the people of Gaza, stressing that the Qatari support for Gaza will continue.

He also said that the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza would continue to guarantee the entrance of the materials needed for the reconstruction of houses destroyed by the Israeli occupation.

The Qatari ambassador said that his country is doing its best to guarantee a "decent" life for Palestinians, noting that it is working to solve the electricity crisis.

Meanwhile, Bahar hailed Qatar’s support for the Palestinian people, pointing out that Qatari has been carrying out vital projects in Gaza.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/23293-qatar-will-continue-aiding-palestine-reconstructing-gaza.

S. Korea leader calls for Chinese help to punish North Korea

January 13, 2016

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president on Wednesday urged North Korea's only major ally, China, to help punish Pyongyang's recent nuclear test with the strongest possible international sanctions.

Park Geun-hye's comments came as Seoul said North Korea sent leaflets across the border describing her and her government as "mad dogs," as Cold War-style propaganda warfare between the rivals deepened.

South Korea, the United States and others are pushing hard to impose fresh sanctions and other punitive measures on the North for what Pyongyang said was a hydrogen bomb test one week ago. There is widespread skepticism over the H-bomb claim, but whatever the North detonated underground will likely push the country closer toward a fully functional nuclear arsenal, which it still is thought not to have.

On Wednesday, Park said in a nationally televised news conference that South Korea will push as hard as it can for "the strongest" sanctions that can force change in North Korea. Diplomats at a U.N. Security Council emergency session last week pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions. For current sanctions and any new penalties to work, better cooperation and stronger implementation from China, the North's diplomatic and economic protector and a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, is seen as key.

"Holding the hands of someone in a difficult situation is the mark of the best partner," Park said, referring to China and South Korea's need to punish the North. "I trust China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, will play a necessary role."

Beijing has recently shown signs that it's losing patience with North Korea over its repeated provocation. But China is still seen as reluctant to clamp down on the North in part because of fears that a toppled government in Pyongyang would see millions of desperate North Koreans flooding across the border with China and a U.S.-backed South Korean government in control of the Korean Peninsula.

Responding to the North's test, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged China to end "business as usual" with North Korea. But in a telephone conversation with his South Korean counterpart Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made it clear that Beijing supports dialogue to resolve the nuclear standoff. His reported remarks sparked speculation in Seoul that China has no intention of joining in any harsh punishment on the North.

Top nuclear envoys from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan were set to meet later Wednesday in Seoul to discuss sanctions against the North. On Thursday, the South Korean nuclear envoy is to fly to Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry.

In the wake of the nuclear test, the two Koreas have settled into a Cold War-era standoff. Since Friday, South Korea has been blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda and K-pop songs from huge speakers along the border, and the North is using speakers of its own in an attempt to keep its soldiers from hearing the South Korean messages.

Park said South Korea will continue its loudspeaker campaign, calling it "the surest and most effective psychological warfare tool." Park said past broadcasts helped frontline North Korean soldiers learn the truth about Pyongyang's authoritarian rule and defect to South Korea. "The most powerful threat to totalitarianism is the power of truth," she said.

South Korea's military and police announced Wednesday they have found thousands of anti-South leaflets in Seoul, border towns and other areas. Officials said they believe the leaflets were likely sent over the border attached to balloons by the North's military.

Similar North Korean propaganda leaflets were discovered on a South Korea border island between late 2013 and early 2014. Such leafleting, however, by the North is still rare, though South Korean activists occasionally send anti-Pyongyang leaflets in balloons across the border.

The leaflets found earlier Wednesday included such messages as "Let's knock down the Park Geun-hye group like we do mad dogs," and "The U.S. must immediately stop its anachronistic hostile policy on North Korea."

Germany charges 4 with forming far-right terror group

January 13, 2016

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors have charged three men and one woman with forming a far-right terror group and planning to bomb a refugee shelter, officials said Wednesday.

The four are alleged to have created a group two years ago that went by the name Oldschool Society, using social media to recruit new members and promote far-right ideas, federal prosecutors said. The group became increasingly radical and, in mid-November 2014, members discussed how to manufacture explosives and the possibility of attacking Islamic extremists and asylum-seekers in Germany.

The four — identified only as Andreas H., 57; Markus W., 40; Denise Vanessa G. 23; and Olaf O., 47, in line with German privacy rules — are accused of forming and being members of a "terrorist organization" and planning an explosion, prosecutors said.

Andreas H. and Markus W. were described as the group's president and vice president. "There was a concrete plan to carry out an explosives attack on an inhabited refugee shelter near Borna in connection with their second meeting from May 8-10, 2015," prosecutors said. The town is southeast of Leipzig in the eastern state of Saxony, which has been a hotbed of anti-foreigner sentiment.

Markus W. and Denise Vanessa G. allegedly traveled to the Czech Republic in May 2015 to purchase fireworks and the group discussed how to make them more dangerous by wrapping nails around them. They were arrested May 6 as part of nationwide raids, before the attack could take place. All four are in prison pending trial.

Separately, Hannover prosecutors said Wednesday they charged two men, aged 25 and 31, and a 24-year-old woman with attempted murder and attempted arson for allegedly throwing a gasoline bomb through a window at an asylum-seekers' home in northwestern Germany.

The three are alleged to have thrown the improvised device in August through a ground-floor window in a school in Salzhemmendorf that had been converted to house about 30 asylum seekers, setting fire to a mattress and a rug in an unoccupied room. The early-morning blaze was quickly extinguished.

Prosecutors said the three have admitted to the attack, but not to their motivation. German authorities have recorded a rise in attacks against refugees over the past year amid an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers. While most of the attacks are believed to have been carried out by people with no previous affiliation to far-right groups, authorities believe neo-Nazi groups could stage violent attacks ever since the existence of the self-styled National Socialist Underground came to light four years ago.

The NSU allegedly killed eight Turks, a Greek and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007, and is believed to be behind two bombings and 15 bank robberies. The group's sole survivor, Beate Zschaepe, and four alleged supporters are currently on trial in Munich.

David Rising contributed to this report.

EU opens case against Poland over new media, court laws

January 13, 2016

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday escalated its standoff with Poland's new government, deciding to open a case over new laws affecting the country's constitutional court and media that have been criticized as running counter to the bloc's fundamental principle of the rule of law.

EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans said his executive will carry out a preliminary assessment — the first step in a drawn-out procedure that could ultimately lead to suspending Polish voting rights in the 28-nation bloc.

Timmermans said he wanted specific explanations about changes in procedure at the constitutional tribunal "which could potentially limit the leeway for action in the court and increase political influence" on it.

The debate is seen in Poland as undue meddling in national affairs and in Brussels as a potential danger that democratic standards in the bloc's members may be slipping. "Poland is an extremely important member state," Timmermans said.

In Warsaw, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo defended her government's moves. "Poland has the right to take sovereign decisions concerning the course of home affairs or how the media need to be organized. This is a sovereign decision of any state, including Poland," Szydlo said.

The Polish government said Timmermans has been invited to Warsaw for talks on the Polish laws. In December, Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, which has a parliamentary majority, took steps to gain influence in the constitutional tribunal, which is supposed to be an independent arbiter with the power to block the government's legislation. It is currently dominated by judges linked to the opposition.

In addition, Poland's president signed a law last week that heads toward giving the government full control of state radio and television, a move that critics see as undermining free speech. Even before Wednesday's announcement, the Polish government criticized the EU for wading into Polish affairs.

"In the future, please have more restraint in instructing and reprimanding the parliament and the government of a sovereign, democratic country," Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro wrote to Timmermans.

On Wednesday, Timmermans said "regardless of the tone of the letter, it is clear they want to have a discussion with us." The EU has had similar issues with Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a recalcitrant member on many EU issues, has stressed his support for Poland.

The EU has never had to move toward suspending the voting rights of a member state. The threat of such a measure and the long procedure "worked in the case of Orban's overreach in Hungary," said Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the ALDE liberal group in the EU Parliament, who urged Timmermans to "do the same before the situation in Warsaw gets out of control."

Scislowska reported from Warsaw

Head of Venezuela's new opposition congress ready to fight

January 13, 2016

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Leaning back in the mahogany chair that belonged to his socialist predecessor, new congress boss Henry Ramos doesn't seem worried about being branded an out-of-touch conservative intent on burying the memory of late President Hugo Chavez and ousting his successor.

On the contrary, he's ready for a fight. "If you call me a dinosaur, you're saying a dinosaur is what voters want. I didn't get here falling from a parachute," said Ramos, 72, who last week became president of the first opposition congress Venezuela has seen since Chavez launched his socialist revolution nearly two decades ago.

"We're not seeking confrontation, but if they insist...." he added with an arch of his eyebrow. A veteran politician, Ramos on Jan. 5 was sworn in to replace outgoing legislative leader Diosdado Cabello, a former army officer widely seen as the revolution's enforcer.

Now second in the line of succession after President Nicolas Maduro's vice president, Ramos promises to be just as much of a polarizing figure as Cabello. During his first tumultuous days on the job, he seated three opposition lawmakers despite a Supreme Court order barring them from taking office.

He was also recorded on videotape telling workers to remove all portraits of Chavez from the neoclassical capitol and take them to presidential palace "or the trash." Ramos came under fire for the video, distributed by his own press chief, which infuriated the socialist government. State television played the video over and over. The video also rankled some allies who want the opposition to keep the focus on an economic crisis marked by triple-digit inflation and widespread shortages.

Ramos makes no secret of his swanky tastes. While top socialist officials dance to salsa music on live TV and proclaim their devotion to Venezuela's rice, beans and shredded beef dish, Ramos expounded on his love for expensive whisky, classical music and haute cuisine as smoke from his assistants' cigarettes curled toward the chandeliers in his office during an interview with The Associated Press.

After being re-elected to congress in December's landslide legislative election victory, Ramos beat out moderates in the opposition coalition to take the leadership gavel by doing what even his detractors say he does best: negotiating behind closed doors, in this case aligning with opposition hardliners who have adopted a six-month deadline to recall Maduro from office.

But he's never been known for his personal grace. In a 2006 diplomatic cable, then-U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield called Ramos "repellent" as well as "crude, abrasive, arrogant, and thin-skinned." In the same memo, he compares Ramos' style to that of Chavez.

Like the late populist leader, Ramos excels at playing to his base and driving his opponents to act in anger. Members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela responded to his removing of all images of Chavez from the congressional compound by vowing to plaster every corner of Caracas with posters of the late leader. They also successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify any action taken by the new congress until the legislative leadership removes the three contested opposition lawmakers he seated.

Maduro has also doubled down on hardline policies in recent days. He left moderates spluttering last week when he appointed a new economic czar who says inflation does not exist in real life. "The more Maduro takes a confrontational approach, the stronger he makes Henry Ramos's position," said Javier Corrales, who teaches Latin American politics at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

"If he were to make a peace offering of some sort, it would divide the opposition, because some are willing to make pacts with the government," said Corrales. "But Maduro has done nothing to divide and conquer."

In addition to serving in congress several times, Ramos has been a leader for decades in the Democratic Action party, which co-governed Venezuela during an era of politics that preceded Chavez when elites dominated the government.

In 2005, Ramos led a disastrous campaign to sit out legislative elections, a strategy that ultimately handed complete control of congress and other major institutions to the socialists. These days, he gets to the office by 5 a.m., surrounds himself with a young staff, and doesn't slow down for anyone, including a doctor who told him to lay off pork after undergoing open heart surgery.

Some worry that Ramos' combative style is pushing the country toward a dangerous showdown. The chaotic sidewalks beyond Ramos' heavy golden drapes are decorated with graffiti calling him a clown. A video of socialist supporters burning his effigy has begun circulating online.

But many in the opposition believe that a clash with the socialist government is inevitable, and see Ramos as the best man to stand firm. On the possibility of a negotiation, Ramos said that smart leaders can reflect and make changes.

But he could not resist needling his political adversary. "Maduro is not about to die from intelligence," he said.

Russia warns cuts needed to avoid repeat of '98 crash

January 13, 2016

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's leaders are warning the government will need to make more cutbacks if the nation is to avoid a repeat of the 1998 financial crash, the country's biggest post-Soviet economic trauma.

The economy, which is heavily reliant on its massive oil and gas industry, is getting hammered by the plunge in global energy prices. State revenues are running dry and the cost of living is soaring for Russians as the currency drops.

Faced with the prospect of the economy languishing in recession in an election year, the government sought Wednesday to manage expectations. "Our task is to bring the budget in line with new realities. If we don't do that, then the same thing will happen as in 1998 and 1999, when the people pay through inflation for what we haven't done," finance minister Anton Siluanov was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass.

At the time, Russia devalued its currency and defaulted on its debts, events that caused inflation to jump to around 85 percent. Analysts say Russia's situation is not as dire now, as it has very little debt. But its economic prospects grow darker as energy prices drop.

The International Monetary Fund forecast in November that the Russian economy would shrink by 0.6 percent in 2016. Since that estimate was made, oil has dropped almost another 40 percent, to about $30 per barrel. The Russian budget drawn up in October is based on oil at $50 a barrel.

That leaves few opportunities for the government's traditional largesse to voters ahead of September's parliamentary elections, a key test for the ruling United Russia party, which has much lower levels of popularity than President Vladimir Putin's soaring personal ratings. The last legislative elections in 2011 saw United Russia win a majority but were dogged by allegations of electoral fraud that led to street protests.

In a warning against "populism" at a conference in Moscow, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tried to temper hopes for the future. Quoting former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he said "there can be no liberty without economic liberty," before adding: "However, liberty does not come without responsibility ... It's always nice to make promises about a bright future, but promises must be kept."

As Russia burns through once-ample cash reserves, the budget adopted in October increasingly seems a relic. "If the oil price continues to fall, the parameters of the budget will require correction," Medvedev said. "That needs to be understood. We need to prepare for the worst-case scenario, as other countries are doing."

Following 10 percent cuts in most budget areas in 2015, with a few exceptions such as military spending, further reductions will be a test of public support for the government. Alexander Zhukov, a senior United Russia figure who is also deputy speaker, said Wednesday the ax would likely fall first on investment projects, something he said was "deeply unpleasant" but necessary to avoid painful cuts to social spending.

Consumer price inflation was over 12 percent last year, accompanied by increasing cases of unpaid wages and particular concern over rising food prices pushed up by Russia's ban on food imports from the European Union and other countries.

On the opening day of the Gaidar Forum in Moscow, traditionally a start-of-year showcase for Russian government policy following the 10-day New Year break, there was a mood of grim endurance. Leading figures did not echo the assurance that Putin regularly made in the fall that "the peak of the crisis is behind us," instead focusing on the challenges yet to come. Low energy prices are the "new normal," Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said.

Ulyukayev said that the budget deficit could hit 7.5 percent of GDP in 2016 because of the low oil price, compared to a planned deficit for 3 percent outlined in the budget, in comments reported by RIA Novosti.

To raise funds, privatization of state-owned banks and oil company Rosneft has been discussed, though similar ideas have been raised in the past to no avail.