Lebanese hope for change in first vote after trash crisis

May 07, 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's capital on Sunday will hold its first elections since a months-long trash crisis left mountains of garbage festering in the streets, with an outsider group of candidates challenging a political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent.

Beirut Madinati, Arabic for "Beirut, My City," has vowed to clean up the city's streets -- and its politics. "We will go to the polls and throw out the corrupt politicians," declared list leader Ibrahim Mneihmneh, a 40-year-old architect, at a recent rally attended by hundreds of people. "We will no longer whine about the trash, traffic, or corruption."

Polling stations for the municipal election will be open on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (0400 GMT to 1600 GMT). Results are expected as early as Monday. Madinati hopes to channel the energy of the "You Stink" protest movement, which emerged in response to the trash crisis and went on to challenge the political class that has governed Lebanon since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war.

The leaders behind the "You Stink" movement, which brought thousands of protesters into the streets at the height of the trash crisis, have not formally endorsed Madinati but have attended its rallies.

Since the end of the war, Lebanon has been governed by a power-sharing arrangement among political blocs -- many led by former warlords -- that represent its various religious sects. That has led to widespread patronage and corruption, and more recently to the breakdown of public services.

The trash crisis began last summer when the government closed the city's main landfill without agreeing on a replacement. For eight months trash piled up across the city. An agreement was reached in March to open a new disposal facility, but critics cast it as simply another backroom deal that failed to address the root of the problem.

And the stench grew even worse in April, as excavators dismantled the piles of garbage to carry it out of the city. "When you talk about Beirut, you say she's a beautiful woman," said the well-known Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, who is a candidate on the Madinati list. "Unfortunately, this is not what I'm seeing now."

The Madinati list is made up of independent technocrats who have reached out to voters through town hall-style meetings, rallies and fundraisers. But many wonder if they can succeed in a system dominated by lifelong politicians.

"It's like in the village," said Mohammad Hamza, a Beirut barber. "The outsiders win the elections, and for the next six years nothing gets done, because the political bosses block everything."

Poles hold large anti-government protest in favor of EU

May 07, 2016

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Tens of thousands of Poles — perhaps up to a quarter million — marched through Warsaw on Saturday to express their support for the European Union and opposition to a conservative new government which they accuse of eroding democracy.

City authorities estimated that 240,000 turned out in one of the largest street demonstrations this Central European country has seen since communism collapsed 27 year ago. Police said there were 45,000 at the event's peak, but that the number did not include those who came and left at other points.

Either way, an Associated Press reporter saw an endless flow streaming down main streets in what clearly was the largest anti-government demonstration since the Law and Justice party took all power last year and embarked on deep restructuring that it has dubbed "good change."

The protesters object to centralization of power under the right-wing party. The greatest controversy surrounds steps that have paralyzed the Constitutional Tribunal, a top court, neutralizing it as a check on the party's power.

Law and Justice maintains that it has a democratic mandate to make the changes after decisive electoral wins last year. "I am marching because I don't like the 'good change' and I don't like this dividing of Poland and I don't like the weakening of Poland's international position," said Lukasz Lomanowski, a 29-year-old horse-riding instructor.

His voice could be hardly heard amid the sound of trumpets and chants of "we say 'no thanks' to the rotten change" and "free judge, free Poland," raised by the crowd waving white-and-red national flags and the blue-and-yellow EU flags.

One leader of the pro-EU march, Civic Platform party leader Grzegorz Schetyna, a former foreign minister, declared it the biggest demonstration in the democratic era. It was not immediately clear, though, how the numbers compared to protests by miners in the 1990s during the transition to a market economy.

"We will not allow for the nightmare of authoritarian rule to happen," Schetyna said. There was a counter-protest by about 1,000 nationalists and Catholic groups who voiced their opposition to the influence of Brussels on Poland's affairs and the secular lifestyle that has come with EU membership. They held up crosses and an image of St. Mary, praying and singing hymns.

The demonstrations highlight a bitter divide in Poland between those who want deeper integration with Europe and those who feel that EU membership has eroded national sovereignty, only recently regained after the end of the Cold War.

Ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the demonstration was an expression of dissatisfaction by some groups with the fact that his party won the elections, and was "not a big problem." Poland wants to participate in reforming the EU, but wants to be "separate" on social values, he said.

The protest was organized jointly by the opposition centrist Civic Platform party, which lost power last year, by the civic movement Committee for the Defense of Democracy, known as KOD, and by other opposition parties.

KOD was created in November, shortly after Law and Justice took power and began taking steps that have weakened the Constitutional Tribunal. That move and others which have helped the party centralize power have been condemned by the EU and the Council of Europe, a human rights group.

The ruling party says its changes are aimed at building a stronger nation free of what it says is the continued influence of former communists. Some 5.7 million voted for the party in this nation of 38 million in October elections and it remains popular.

Anarchists clash with police near Austrian border

May 07, 2016

MILAN (AP) — Dozens of hooded anarchists clashed Saturday with riot police who blocked their approach to the Austrian border during a protest against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants.

Riot police just 100 to 200 meters (yards) from Italy's border with Austria responded with tear gas after a group of 50 to 80 anarchists who covered their faces with motorcycle helmets and gas masks threw objects including bricks and firecrackers at a police blockade. The news agency ANSA said about 20 protesters were detained and four officers were injured.

Hundreds of Austrian police were deployed, but never activated, on the other side of the border, while helicopters hovered overhead. The protest spilled over on to the railway, temporarily blocking service, and then onto the heavily traveled Brenner highway, which also suffered delays. As police pushed the protesters deeper back into Italian territory, many shed their helmets and gas masks, scampering up onto a steep hillside overlooking the highway and shouting at police to free their detained comrades.

Italian RAI state television cameras showed police detaining one demonstrator at the railway station, which demonstrators also vandalized, and then another dozen detained in a road nearby. Italian Carabinieri police in Bolzano and Brenner were unable to confirm the number of arrests or injuries.

The demonstration, which included peaceful protesters behind a rainbow flag, comes after Austria announced moves to tighten border controls out of concern that the flow of migrants to northern Europe will shift to Italy after the closure of the Balkans route.

Earlier Saturday, Austria's interior minister, Wolfgang Sobotka, said in nearby Merano that the controls would not be stringent as long as Italy registers all incoming migrants and prevents a large migrant numbers from reaching the border. Austria has appeared to back down on plans to build a wall at the Brenner Pass, saying it would only be put up only in the face of a migrant influx.

The Brenner Pass is an important conduit for tourists and goods transiting Europe, with some 2 million vehicles passing each year. Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano welcomed Sobotka's assurances. Alfano was visiting Ventimiglia, near the border with France, where he said a center for migrants should be closed to discourage new arrivals.

"Migrants need to resign themselves to the fact that they cannot enter France from Ventimiglia, because we do not want to feed false expectations and because transiting across the Italian border, toward bordering European countries, can be a pretext for building walls," Alfano told a news conference.

Services in Greece grind to halt in 3-day strike

May 06, 2016

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Services in Greece, from garbage collection to public transport, shut down Friday as workers kicked off three days of strikes to protest new bailout austerity measures that they say will further reduce incomes.

Several thousand people held peaceful demonstrations in central Athens as part of protests that indicate a growing discontent with the left-led coalition government, which was only re-elected last September.

Unions on Thursday called a 48-hour general strike starting Friday, adding it onto a previously declared Sunday strike. State-run and many private services, including garbage collection, public transport, municipal offices and news broadcasts, were suspended.

Seamen, who had already declared separate strikes, joined in, leaving Greek islands without ferry connections until Tuesday morning. Doctors, dentists and journalists also walked off the job for two days, leaving state-run hospitals functioning with emergency staff and pulling all news broadcasts off the air.

The strike was timed to coincide with a vote in parliament Sunday night on a bill reforming some taxes and overhauling the pension system. The reforms were proposed by the government as part of the country's third international bailout.

The vote will test Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who initially came to power in January 2015 on promises to repeal austerity measures previous governments had imposed to qualify for international rescue loans.

Tsipras' government has a majority of just three seats in the 300-member parliament, and has lost its lead to opposition conservatives in opinion polls amid mounting voter disillusionment. "Everything the unions are doing now is to justify their existence. Absolutely nothing will change," Athens resident pensioner Constantine Andreopoulos said. "And those who came to power after 50 years will not risk their seats. They're not stupid. They will do anything, even sell their souls to the devil."

Tsipras' initial term in power after winning elections in January 2015 was marked by months of tumultuous negotiations with international lenders — the other European countries that use the euro currency, and the International Monetary Fund. Unable to ensure vital rescue loans from the lenders that would prevent Greece from potentially being forced out of the euro, Tsipras called a referendum and new elections last summer, eventually dropping his anti-bailout stance and signing up instead to a third bailout.

The planned pension reforms, under which workers will pay higher contributions, have triggered months of protests, including by farmers who blockaded highways and lawyers who have abstained from court appearances for months.

The government insists the reforms will create a fairer system and end years of political pandering to powerful labor groups. It moved up the parliamentary debate and vote to this week, ahead of a meeting on Greece by eurozone finance ministers — the so-called eurogroup — in Brussels on Monday.

"Despite the parliamentary activity over the coming weekend, however, no major announcement on the ongoing first review of the bailout is expected to come from the eurogroup meeting," said Wolfgango Piccoli of Teneo Intelligence.

He said the finance ministers will possibly discuss ways to lighten Greece's debt burden, but will not announce any concrete details. Greece has been hammered by six years of austerity measures since the country was locked out of international borrowing markets in 2010 amid investor worries about its public finances. About a quarter of the workforce is unemployed.

Talks on further reforms as part of the country's third bailout have been dragging on for more than six months, delaying the payout of vital bailout loans.

Derek Gatopoulos and Raphael Kominis contributed

Far right rally against Merkel's migrant policies in Berlin

May 07, 2016

BERLIN (AP) — About 1,000 right-wing extremists and others protesting Chancellor Angela Merkel's refugee policies squared off with about 4,500 counter-demonstrators outside the Berlin chancellery on Saturday, chanting slogans at one another but being kept at a wide distance by police in full riot gear.

Protesters from the far-right cheered and jeered as counter-demonstrators who tried to break through the police cordon were quickly overwhelmed and dragged away by officers. Occasional bottles and even a beer stein flew from the counter-demonstration but fell far short of the far-right march about 150 meters (yards) away, amid chants of "Nazis out."

On the other side, the right-wing demonstrators held signs with slogans like "No Islam on German Soil" and chanted "Merkel must go" while waving German flags. About 1.1 million migrants crossed into Germany last year raising concerns nationwide about how the country would cope with the influx.

Still, the anti-Merkel rally drew only about a fifth of the numbers organizers had expected and three counter-protests drew about 7,000 people. Police said some 1,700 officers were on hand to keep the peace at those demonstrations, and seven other unrelated protests in the capital on Saturday.

There were no immediate reports of injuries of either police or demonstrators.

Bus driver's son Sadiq Khan becomes 1st Muslim London mayor

May 07, 2016

LONDON (AP) — Throughout his election campaign, Sadiq Khan had a simple mantra: London made me. The city's new mayor appealed to voters as a true child of Britain's diverse and dynamic capital. Like many Londoners, he's the son of immigrants, born to parents who came to Britain from Pakistan. Like more than 1 million of the city's 8.6 million residents, he's Muslim. And on Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city.

Khan won despite a concerted, and controversial, campaign by Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith to taint him with ties to Islamic extremists, claiming Khan had shared a platform with a radical London imam.

Khan, a former human rights lawyer, accused Goldsmith of trying to divide Londoners, and pointed out that he'd often shared platforms with people he disagreed with. His team unearthed photos of the imam meeting Goldsmith, too.

Khan stands on the political center-left, and supported Labour policies including the legalization of gay marriage, a stance he said brought death threats. Before polling day, he urged Londoners to "choose hope over fear" and back him.

Khan was born in London in 1970, one of eight children of a bus driver and a seamstress. He grew up in a three-bedroom public-housing apartment in south London, sharing a bedroom with brothers until he was in his early 20s.

Khan attended a local state high school with a gritty reputation. "It was a tough school ... you had to be street-wise," he told the New Statesman magazine. He went on to study law at the University of North London before training as a solicitor. He became a partner in human rights law firm Christian Khan, and in 2005 was elected to Parliament for Tooting, the area where he grew up.

Khan served as communities minister in the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown before Labour lost power in 2010. His role included fostering cohesion in the years after the July 2005 London transit bombings, when al-Qaida-inspired suicide bombers killed 52 commuters.

Married to lawyer Saadiya Ahmed — the couple has two daughters — Khan is a fan of boxing, and colleagues say he's a deft and powerful political operator. A member of the mainstream, social-democratic strand of Labour, he's more of a centrist than current leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was kept at a distance from Khan's mayoral campaign. Khan was quick to criticize Labour members who made anti-Israel remarks and urged Corbyn to be tougher in stamping out anti-Semitism.

On the campaign trail, Khan said that London "gave me the helping hand I needed to fulfill my potential." He has spoken of his gratitude that his family had a secure, affordable home when he was growing up — something he fears younger Londoners are increasingly denied, in a city where market-rate rents and property prices have soared and local authorities build little social housing.

He says he'll make housing his priority as mayor, building 50,000 new homes a year and giving locals "first dibs" on some new properties. Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said Khan's policies were firmly in the political center, but his election was a "remarkable step" for the city.

"The majority of people who voted for him will not have been Muslims," Travers said. "So that does suggest that despite all the challenges of being a Muslim in the West, a city like London sort of shrugs its shoulders and says, 'He's a mainstream politician.'"

Philippine campaign ends in panic as Trump-like mayor leads

May 07, 2016

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A bruising presidential campaign was drawing to a close in the Philippines on Saturday, with a last-minute attempt by the president to unify candidates against a front-running mayor perceived as a threat to democracy virtually collapsing.

After crisscrossing the archipelago nation for three months, five presidential candidates led by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte will converge in the vote-rich capital Manila for their final rallies ahead of Monday's vote.

On the eve of the final day of campaigning, President Benigno Aquino III made a desperate call on candidates to agree to an alliance to defeat the brash Duterte, who has been likened to U.S. Republican front-runner Donald Trump for his controversial remarks but has topped pre-poll surveys.

Duterte's 30-point lead in surveys can be overcome if his trailing rivals — mainly former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe — join hands, Aquino said, implying that some of them should back out and support a single aspirant.

Under the Philippine electoral system, a candidate who gets the most votes is proclaimed the winner, even if no one gets a majority. Poe, however, refused an invitation by Roxas, who has been backed by Aquino, to meet and discuss an arrangement where she would be forced to back out. Vice President Jejomar Binay also stated he would not step aside. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has trailed far behind in surveys, has also vowed never to surrender.

Duterte's camp said calls for an alliance against him "reeks of stench of defeat." "It's an admission that a victory by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has virtually become inevitable," said the mayor's national campaign manager Leoncio Evasco Jr.

A longtime mayor of southern Davao city, the 71-year-old Duterte courted controversy with his profanity-laden speeches, vulgar jokes and devil-may-care irreverence but has successfully tapped into public insecurities with a bold promise to wipe out crime and corruption in three to six months if he is elected.

Aquino, business executives and church leaders felt that he crossed the line when he joked about wanting to have raped first an Australian missionary, who was gang raped and brutally killed by inmates in a 1989 jail riot.

When the Australian and U.S. ambassadors sniped at his joke, Duterte asked them to shut up and expressed openness at the possibility of severing ties with major Western allies if he wins the presidency. He also has threatened to close Congress if lawmakers try to impeach him if he wins next week and has said he would allow Marxist guerrillas to play a political role in his government.

A senator has threatened to immediately try to impeach Duterte if he becomes president. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has filed a corruption complaint alleging the mayor hired non-existent employees and kept a huge amount in a joint bank account with his daughter that he did not declare publicly in 2014, as required by law. Duterte has denied any wrongdoing.