China's tallest building nears finish in Shanghai

August 03, 2013

SHANGHAI (AP) — A topping-out ceremony was held Saturday for China's tallest building in the financial hub of Shanghai when the final beam was hoisted to the top of the skyscraper and installed in a flag-waving ritual.

At 632 meters (2,073 feet), the Shanghai Tower in the city's Pudong district is the world's second-tallest building, surpassed only by Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which soars 829.8 meters (2,722 feet). After the ceremony, workers will move onto the building's interior construction. Once it is completed next year, the Shanghai Tower will have retail and office space, a luxury hotel and likely a museum.

"I'm very proud," Wu Weiming, who helped installed the last beam, told reporters. Designed by U.S. architectural firm Gensler, the glass-and-steel, 121-story building takes on a transparent and spiral form.

China's booming economy has fueled a building frenzy, including some of the world's tallest buildings. The Shanghai Tower replaces the Shanghai World Financial Center — completed in 2008 — as the country's highest building.

The Shanghai Tower is the last piece in a group of super-tall skyscrapers in Shanghai's Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, which includes the Shanghai World Financial Center and Jin Mao Tower, both among the tallest in the world.

And in the south-central city of Changsha, developers are in the midst of building Sky City, an 838-meter (2,749-foot) structure that would overtake Burj Khalifa. This summer, China also unveiled the world's largest building in terms of floor space in the western city of Chengdu. The New Century Global Center edged out the previous record-holder, the Dubai airport.

Egyptian forces to cordon off protest sites

August 03, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Authorities outlined plans Friday to break up two sit-ins by supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi, saying they would set up a cordon around the protest sites, and riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators threatening a TV complex.

Morsi backers also showed their defiance by briefly setting up a third camp near the airport, but later folded their tents and left. The military-backed interim government seeks to end a political stalemate that has paralyzed Egypt and deeply divided the country. Supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood say they will not disperse until he is returned to power.

The second-ranking U.S. diplomat arrived in the Egyptian capital for talks on the political crisis, as Secretary of State John Kerry warned both sides that "the last thing we want is more violence." Also Friday, Amnesty International reported cases of alleged killings and torture at the hands of Morsi supporters inside the protest camps, saying that one man had his throat cut and another was stabbed to death.

In southwestern Cairo, police fired tear gas at Morsi supporters who rallied in front of Media City, a site housing most of Egypt's private TV stations, a security official said. A second official told the state news agency that protesters tried to "obstruct traffic in an attempt to affect work at the complex."

The rally was "a desperate attempt by rioters from the (Islamist) current," Maj. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Othman, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told the private TV station Mehwer. "There was reinforcement from police and army that will not allow any reckless person to get close to the Media City or storm it."

He described the protesters as "brainwashed" to attack broadcasters perceived as secular opponents of the Islamists. Last year, Morsi supporters held a sit-in near Media City, often harassing TV personalities and forcing many of them to sneak into the studios from other entrances.

Demonstrators said they gathered there to protest the lack of local media coverage of their activities, and insisted their gathering was peaceful. Health ministry official Khaled el-Khateeb said 23 people were injured in the clashes; and security officials said two conscripts were also wounded, including one with birdshot.

The security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to address the media, said 31 rioters were detained following the clashes. Footage of the detainees sitting on the ground outside the media city was aired on private channels.

The new unrest came as state-controlled TV reported that security forces will establish a cordon within 48 hours around the two main protest sites in Cairo where thousands have been camped out since before Morsi was ousted by the military on July 3.

The government offered protection and "safe passage" to those willing to leave the two main camps — a large one outside the Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque in eastern Cairo and a smaller one near Cairo University's main campus in Giza. The leadership had earlier given orders to police to end what it described as "threat to national security" and sources of "citizens' terrorism."

Authorities will let people leave without checking their identities or arresting them, but they will not allow anyone into the protest camps, the report said. It did not elaborate on the next steps, but the government earlier said it will use water cannons and tear gas in dispersing the crowds.

The Morsi supporters are also planning rallies late Friday outside security headquarters near one sit-in site, including the Republican Guard club, where they had staged a protest that turned bloody last month, and another army building.

The security cordon around the protest camps raises the possibility of new violence, which has killed more than 130 Morsi supporters and injured hundreds since the military coup. The ouster followed mass demonstrations calling for Morsi to step down after a year in office, saying his policies had failed and he had put power in the hands of his Islamist group.

Facing domestic and international pressure to avoid bloodshed, authorities have taken the unusual step of going into details of its security plans. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim told a newspaper that police have finalized plans for breaking up the sit-ins, and were awaiting orders from prosecutors to start the second phase of its operation.

Police have given authorities information about weapons in the protest camps and the "dangers emanating" from there, and that the next phase of the plan, which includes surrounding the sites, would begin within hours, he was quoted as saying.

"The forces have established their presence in various areas with the aim of protecting security and stability," Ibrahim said, adding that the ministry was awaiting legal action from the prosecutors. He said a prosecution team will accompany the security forces to monitor how they deal with the protesters.

Ibrahim told the newspaper that he was awaiting approval from the National Defense Council on measures relating to the final phase of the operation, which would be the use of force while trying not to injure anyone.

The Amnesty International report quoted a survivor of an attack by Morsi supporters near the Cairo University sit-in as saying that he saw one bloodied man have his throat cut and another stabbed to death.

The report also cited accounts from survivors that Morsi backers also abducted and tortured their political opponents with beatings and electric shocks at or near the protest sites. The Interior Ministry last weekend had said 11 bodies were found near one of the protest sites, with some showing signs of torture, apparently by members of the sit-ins who believed the victims were spies.

Near the Rabaah protest camp, people armed with sticks and makeshift body armor stood guard behind walls of sandbags, tires and bricks. One speaker defiantly told the crowd that the military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, appeared reluctant to carry out his promise to break up the sit-ins.

"This man is about to fall now in the face of all these retractions," the speaker said to thousands of people who gathered for a meal to break their daytime fast for the holy month of Ramadan. Ahmed Madani, 26, was installing a new tent at one of the camp entrances, saying the facilities will have a kitchen and toilets.

"We are here to show them that we are determined to stay and we won't give up," he said. "Even if I have to die, I will not leave. We are thousands ready to die for our cause." The pro-Morsi camps have disrupted daily life in Cairo, blocking traffic and antagonizing some residents already suffering under Egypt's economic woes.

"A peaceful sit-in does not block roads, it doesn't terrorize people, it does not kill people and it does not attack people," said Wahid Idris, an opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood. "I want them to use any means to put an end to that sit-in."

In addition to the smaller sit-in across town, a new vigil sprung up briefly near Cairo's international airport, on the outskirts of the suburb of Heliopolis, in a neighborhood known as "The Thousand Houses."

An Associated Press reporter saw thousands of protesters, many of them are families and women in conservative Muslim dress, occupying a square and laying prayer rugs on the asphalt. They raised banners with Morsi's portrait saying, "Down with military rule," waved Egyptian flags and chanted, "Go away Sissi! Morsi is my president."

About six hours later, however, the camp was dismantled because organizers believed it to be insecure, said Adel Hassan, a protester who folded his tent. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns arrived in Cairo, and an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official said he would meet with interim leadership officials and representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies Saturday.

Amr Darag, one of the Brotherhood negotiators who will meet with Burns, told the AP that the group and its allies are looking for "confidence-building measures" in order for them to sit at the table with their rivals.

Such measures include releasing detained Brotherhood leaders, unfreezing the group's assets, lifting the ban on its TV stations and ending violence against its protests. Darag said the group can't order its protesters to go home because they are fighting for their rights and the reinstatement of Morsi as president.

It was unclear if Burns would see Morsi during his second visit to Cairo since the coup. On Monday, top European Union diplomat Catherine Ashton saw Morsi for two hours at the facility where he is being held by the military. An African Union delegation also briefly met the ousted president a day later.

In London, Kerry sought to clarify controversial remarks he made Thursday about the crisis when he told Geo TV in Pakistan that the Egyptian military was "restoring democracy." The comment was seen by some as a signal the U.S. was siding with the military, even though the State Department has repeatedly said the U.S. is not taking sides.

Kerry said Friday that all parties — the military as well as the Morsi supporters — should be inclusive and work toward a peaceful resolution of the crisis. "The last thing that we want is more violence," he said. "The temporary government has a responsibility with respect to demonstrators to give them the space to be able to demonstrate in peace. But at the same time, the demonstrators have a responsibility not to stop everything from proceeding in Egypt."

A spokesman of Egypt's Mulim Brotherhood, Gehad el-Haddad, denounced Kerry's remarks, asking if Kerry would similarly approve of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel deposing President Barack Obama if large protests took place in the United States.

Rights groups have warned against using force to end the protests. The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the interim leadership to take all measures to avert bloodshed. "To avoid another bloodbath, Egypt's civilian rulers need to ensure the ongoing right of protesters to assemble peacefully, and seek alternatives to a forcible dispersal of the crowds," said Nadim Houry, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

The Muslim Brotherhood has opposed all measures taken by the military since the coup, including the appointment of an interim president, the suspension the constitution and the disbanding of the Islamist-dominated legislative council.

Associated Press writer Tony G. Gabriel contributed to this report.

Iranian news agency says it misquoted Rouhani

August 02, 2013

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency says it misquoted the country's president-elect Hasan Rouhani.

ISNA reported Friday that Rouhani said "the Zionist regime has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world for years and the wound should be removed" in remarks ahead of his inauguration. The remarks, made during an annual pro-Palestinian rally, echoed longstanding views of other Iranian leaders and threatened to tarnish his image in the West as a voice of moderation in Iranian affairs.

But after an outcry, ISNA corrected the quote, saying Rouhani actually said "in our region and under occupation of Palestine and dear al-Quds (Jerusalem), there has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world."

Greek protesters take campaign to Acropolis

August 02, 2013

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek civil servants protesting mass staff cuts took their campaign to the gates of the ancient Acropolis on Friday, after the government announced that 500 workers at the culture ministry would be suspended next month.

State archaeologists gathered in front of the ancient site, but did not block the entrance. Several museums around the country, including the popular Archaeological Museum on the island of Santorini, were closed in protest.

Elsewhere, civil servants continued a second day of work stoppages and held a protest rally in central Athens. The government has promised its international rescue lenders it will suspend 25,000 public sector workers by the end of the year, with about a third of them likely to be fired.

Despina Koutsoumba, head of the Association of Greek Archaeologists at the ministry, said employees were preparing to step up protests, and were to hold a meeting Monday to decide on strikes. "As things stand, we don't have enough people to function properly. We have to cover 19,000 archaeological sites and 210 museums nationwide, as well as several hundred archaeological excavations in progress all over the country," Koutsoumba told the AP, as colleagues held up a Styrofoam cut of a temple, with "for sale" signs stuck on it.

"We have 6,600 staff at the Ministry of Culture and Sport, and they will dismiss 500. But they will just have to hire that number back again — of course on part-time contracts and for less money." Civil servants have seen their salaries repeatedly cut since the start of the crisis in late 2009, but had been largely spared dismissals, while unemployment ravaged the private sector as debts and austerity measures squeezed credit and led to multiple tax hikes.

But Greece is now under growing pressure from its bailout lenders — the other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund — to fire workers on the state payroll. Parliament late Thursday approved legislation to speed up the closure of state-run companies and departments, and the government on Friday published a list of criteria that will be used to assess staff placed in the eight-month suspension scheme.

Whether an employee is fired or submitted to involuntary transfer within the public sector will depend on criteria such as work experience, language skills, level of higher education, and family disabilities, among others.

Some think the plan may lead to more cuts than currently estimated. Critics note that the government has during the crisis repeatedly changed its austerity plans to meet new targets. "We don't believe they really have a plan," Koutsoumba said. "This is a head count. And now we have got to the point where they are chopping off those heads."

African missions cautiously approve Zimbabwe vote

August 02, 2013

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's elections received cautious approval Friday from two African observer missions despite allegations by the main challenger to President Robert Mugabe and a local monitoring group that the vote was heavily rigged.

Olusegun Obasanjo, head of the African Union mission, said his monitors noted some apparent irregularities but that they did not constitute evidence of systematic tampering. Mugabe's supporters have rejected allegations of rigging and claimed victory. Wednesday's contentious vote has created fresh uncertainty in a country long afflicted by division and economic turmoil.

"Yes, the election is free," Obasanjo said. He described the vote as credible unless any evidence to the contrary emerges, and asked election authorities to investigate reports that tens of thousands of eligible voters were turned away. Another poll monitoring group in Zimbabwe said as many as 1 million of the more than 6 million eligible voters were prevented from casting ballots.

"If 25 percent were not allowed, then, yes, the election is fatally flawed," said Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president. His mission has 70 observers. The head of the observer mission for the Southern African Development Community, a regional body, described the election as "very free" and "very peaceful," but noted that there were some violations and a full analysis was still underway.

"The question of fairness is broad and you cannot answer it within one day," said Bernard Membe, who is also Tanzania's foreign minister. "And so be sure that within 30 days, through our main report, the question of fairness may come."

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's main opponent in the presidential vote, has declared the election "null and void." Official results announced by the election commission by Friday morning showed Mugabe's ZANU-PF capturing 54 of the 210 parliament seats and Tsvangirai's party winning 19 seats so far.

Full results on the presidential and parliament votes have been promised by Monday. Obasanjo said voting itself was peaceful but the observers noted "incidences that could have been avoided and even tended to have breached the law."

Independent election monitors have alleged many people were unable to vote because of disorganized voters' lists and a chaotic program to register electors on those lists in the run-up to polling day.

Obasanjo said some apparent irregularities were made in error largely after funding for the vote was late in coming from the nation's depleted state coffers. "I have never seen an election that is perfect," he said. "The process continues and we have to limit our comments."

Aisha Abdullahi, the African Union's commissioner for political affairs, said observers reported that Zimbabwe had made improvements in the conduct of elections since the last violent and disputed elections in 2008 that led regional leaders to forge a shaky coalition between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader.

But she said voters' lists this time were not made available in time for inspection and verification by voters, contesting parties and candidates. Public scrutiny of the voters' roll was vital, she said.

She said the electoral commission printed 8.7 million ballot papers for 6.4 million voters, or 35 percent above the number of registered voters against the international standard of 5 to 10 percent. Observers said a significant number of ballot booklets had missing ballot papers and papers without serial numbers.

The late publicity on the location of voting stations just 48 hours before stations opened contributed also to the high number of voters who were turned away because they were not at correct polling sites.

Abdullahi said observers reported a high number of disabled, elderly or other "assisted voters" being helped to cast their ballots by polling officers who may have influenced them against their free will. In some outlying stations, one-quarter of voters were helped this way.

She said some AU observers are to remain in Zimbabwe until Aug. 14.

Germany nixes surveillance pact with US, Britain

August 02, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Germany canceled a Cold War-era surveillance pact with the United States and Britain on Friday in response to revelations by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden about those countries' alleged electronic eavesdropping operations.

Chancellor Angela Merkel had raised the issue of alleged National Security Agency spying with President Barack Obama when he visited Berlin in June. But with weeks to go before national elections, opposition parties had demanded clarity about the extent to which her government knew of the intelligence gathering operations directed at Germany and German citizens.

Government officials have insisted that U.S. and British intelligence were never given permission to break Germany's strict privacy laws. But they conceded that an agreement dating back to the late 1960s gave the U.S., Britain and France the right to request German authorities to conduct surveillance operations within Germany to protect their troops stationed there.

"The cancellation of the administrative agreements, which we have pushed for in recent weeks, is a necessary and proper consequence of the recent debate about protecting personal privacy," Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement.

A German official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the cancellation would have no practical consequences. He said the move was largely symbolic since the agreement had not been invoked since the end of the Cold War and would have no impact on current intelligence cooperation between Germany and its NATO allies. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the issue, said Germany was currently in talks with France to cancel its part of the agreement as well.

In March 2011, two U.S. Air Force members were killed and two others wounded when a gunman from Kosovo fired on a military bus at Frankfurt International Airport. The gunman told police he was motivated by anger over the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Berlin, Ruth Bennett, confirmed that the agreement had been canceled but declined to comment further on the issue. Officials at the United Kingdom's embassy in Berlin couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Mali presidential race goes to runoff

August 02, 2013

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A career politician, known for ruling with a firm hand, took the lead in Mali's first presidential election since last year's coup, according to provisional results announced Friday, a sign that Malians are looking for decisive leadership after months of turmoil.

Mali will still face a runoff later this month, however, since none of the 28 candidates received a majority of the vote. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime minister and speaker of the country's parliament, received about 39.2 percent of the 3.1 million votes that were cast. He will face off against second-place finisher, former Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse, who received half as many votes with 19.4 percent, according to the results announced by the Minister of Territorial Administration Moussa Sinko Coulibaly.

Known to everyone by his initials "IBK," Keita is known for his tough demeanor, blunt message delivery and his uncompromising stance once he takes a position. These qualities have cost him support in the past, but they were cited as the very reason why people voted for him during an election that comes just months after French soldiers intervened in a military campaign to free Mali's northern half from the grips of al-Qaida's army in the region.

"I voted for IBK and so did all the soldiers that are under me because we know that we need a strong leader to deal with the problems in the north," said Lt. Mohamed Lamine Ag Klita, who is stationed in the northernmost province of Kidal, a city at the epicenter of the most recent rebellion which remains largely under rebel rule. "Mali needs a dictator."

Keita, 68, is in many ways a foil of ex-President Amadou Toumani Toure, or "ATT," who was overthrown in last year's March coup. Toure tried to rule the country by consensus and making concessions. It was a strategy that allowed Mali to emerge from the first three Tuareg-led rebellions in the 1960s, 1990s and in 2007, conflicts that ended with the signing of accords promising the north greater resources and influence.

Voters who said they cast ballots for Keita in the July 28 poll said that Toure's strategy may have won peace in the short term, but it laid the seeds for the most recent rebellion which broke out in January of 2012, led by veterans of past insurgencies who learned they could win concessions through the gun. Their campaign was fueled by an influx of weapons and well-trained fighters from neighboring Libya following the collapse of Moammar Gadhafi's regime, as well as by al-Qaida's army in the region, which joined forces with the separatists, helping them seize Mali's northern half.

As town after town fell to the rebels last year, soldiers in the capital mutinied, overthrowing Toure, which created the security vacuum needed for the insurgents to advance. Rebels succeeded in seizing and controlling an Afghanistan-sized stretch of land, before France intervened in a military campaign earlier this year, flushing out the fighters and pushing Mali to hold the election to restore constitutional rule.

During Keita's time as prime minister and head of parliament, he was also uncompromising in his dealings with the Tuareg separatists. When he tried to make a campaign stop last month in Kidal, Tuareg separatists drove pickup trucks onto the runway to try to stop his plane from landing. They later pelted the parked jet with stones.

"IBK is the man of the moment. We don't need a technocrat. We don't need some big intellectual. We need a guy who can right the country," said Mahamane Toure, a 48-year-old waiter. "He's a fighter," he said, punching his fist into his hand. "He hits things with his head. When he says 'no,' it's 'no.'"

Keita will face Cisse in the runoff on Aug. 11. Cisse most recently headed the West African Monetary Union. In the days before the election results were announced, he accused the election body of massive fraud, pointing out that Coulibaly, the minister of territorial administration, is known to be close to Mali's junta, which overthrew the nation's democratically elected leader last year. Many believe that the junta is backing Keita, and the candidate's chief bodyguard and aide-de-camp showed the Associated Press recent photos of himself posing with junta leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo.

By contrast, Cisse, a diminutive man, was among the political figures targeted by the junta after their March 2012 coup. His hand still bears the scars from when he threw himself over his home's chain link fence, crushing two vertebrae after soldiers allied with the junta broke down his front door a few weeks after the coup. He spent months in rehab in France before returning to Mali.

Earlier this week, Coulibaly had announced that early results indicated that Keita would likely win on the first round, giving rise to speculation that the junta would try to gerrymander the results to assure a first-round win for Keita. "I don't have any palpable proof," said Cisse in an interview with reporters. "But that is the sentiment that it leaves you with."

Associated Press writer Baba Ahmed contributed to this report.