Saudis cut ties with Iran following Shiite cleric execution

January 04, 2016

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it was severing diplomatic relations with Shiite powerhouse Iran amid escalating tensions over the Sunni kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

The move came hours after protesters stormed and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and followed harsh criticism by Iran's top leader of the Saudis' execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave his country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran had been called home.

The mass execution of al-Nimr and 46 others — the largest carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades — laid bare the sectarian divisions gripping the region as demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan in protest.

It also illustrated the kingdom's new aggressiveness under King Salman. During his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Saudi Arabia on Sunday of "divine revenge" over al-Nimr's death, while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting "terrorism" in a war of words that threatened to escalate even as the U.S. and the European Union sought to calm the region.

Al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the Iranian regime has "a long record of violations of foreign diplomatic missions," dating back to the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, and such incidents constitute "a flagrant violation of all international agreements," according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

He said Iran's "hostile policy" was aimed "at destabilizing the region's security," accusing Tehran of smuggling weapons and explosives and planting terrorist cells in the kingdom and other countries in the region. He vowed that Saudi Arabia will not allow Iran "to undermine our security."

"The history of Iran is full of negative and hostile interference in Arab countries, always accompanied with subversion, demolition and killing of innocent souls," al-Jubeir said, just before announcing the severing of diplomatic relations.

Al-Nimr was a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of terrorism charges but denied advocating violence. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia put al-Nimr and three other Shiite dissidents to death, along with a number of al-Qaida militants. Al-Nimr's execution drew protests from Shiites around the world, who backed his call for reform and wider political freedom for their sect.

While the split between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to the early days of Islam and disagreements over the successor to Prophet Muhammad, those divisions have only grown as they intertwine with regional politics, with both Iran and Saudi Arabia vying to be the Mideast's top power.

Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups fighting to oust its embattled ally, President Bashar Assad. Riyadh points to Iran's backing of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region as a sign of its support for terrorism. Iran also has backed Shiite rebels in Yemen known as Houthis.

Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, condemned al-Nimr's execution, saying Sunday the cleric "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism."

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" would lead to the "downfall" of the country's monarchy. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism."

In Tehran, a protest outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday quickly grew violent as protesters threw stones and gasoline bombs at the embassy, setting part of the building ablaze, according to Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, the country's top police official, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Forty people were arrested and investigators were pursuing other suspects, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of al-Nimr, but also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as "extremists."

"It is unjustifiable," he said in a statement. Hundreds of protesters later demonstrated in front of the embassy and in a central Tehran square, where street signs near the embassy were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikh's name.

Western powers sought to calm the tensions. In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the Obama administration was aware of the Saudis' severing of ties with Tehran. "We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions," Kirby said.

Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif by phone and urged Tehran to "defuse the tensions and protect the Saudi diplomats," according to a statement.

The disruption in relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran may have implications for peace efforts in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and others spent significant time trying to bring the countries to the negotiating table and they both sat together at talks aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the civil war. Last month, Saudi Arabia convened a meeting of Syrian opposition figures that was designed to create a delegation to attend peace talks with the Syrian government that are supposed to begin in mid-January.

Across the region, demonstrators took to the streets Sunday in protest over the execution of al-Nimr. In Bahrain, police fired tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators on Sitra Island, south of the capital, Manama, wounding some. In al-Daih, west of the capital, Shiite protesters chanted against Saudi Arabia's ruling Al Saud family, as well as against Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa family.

In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called al-Nimr "the martyr, the holy warrior," while protests erupted from Turkey to India to Pakistan. The cleric's execution has also threatened to complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq, where the Saudi Embassy is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. On Saturday there were calls for the embassy to be shut down again.

Meanwhile, al-Nimr's family prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al-Awamiya in the kingdom's al-Qatif region in predominantly Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia. The sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials informed his family that the cleric had been buried in an undisclosed cemetery, a development that could lead to further protests.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Reem Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain, Brian Rohan in Beirut, and Tom Strong and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Spain's Socialist leader wants to head progressive coalition

January 07, 2016

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — If Spain's acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is unable to form a government despite his recent election victory, the main opposition Socialist party will try to take power by forging a broad alliance with parties determined to change the country's direction, Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez said Thursday.

Rajoy's conservative Popular Party won a Dec. 20 ballot but failed to get a majority in Parliament and is having trouble finding political support to form an administration. "If (Rajoy) fails, the Socialist party will convene a grand coalition of progressive forces to lead the process of change Spain needs," Sanchez told a news conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

Sanchez accused the Popular Party, which has governed Spain for the past four years, of dismantling social services and deepening inequality. He said a Socialist-led coalition would fight for economic growth and jobs, increase pensions and the minimum salary, and introduce fairer taxes.

Sanchez's Socialists came second in the ballot and are eyeing the possibility of emulating Portugal's Socialist leader Antonio Costa, who received Sanchez for talks in the Portuguese capital. Costa's party also came second in an election at the end of last year, but he built an alliance with the Communist Party and radical Left Bloc to form a government — a so-called "coalition of losers." Since November, Costa's administration has set about reversing austerity measures adopted by the previous center-right government.

Spanish custom is that the monarch invites the election winner to form a government, but King Felipe VI could also nominate a coalition of other parties that collected fewer votes if they can deliver a more stable option. The nominated party leader must win a vote of confidence in Parliament to take office.

If the issue is not resolved after two months, a new election is called.

Poland's president signs media law despite EU concerns

January 07, 2016

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A new wave of concern for media freedom in Poland rose among European Union leaders and independent journalists after Poland's president signed a temporary new law Thursday that's a step toward giving the government full control of state radio and television.

The legislation will take effect Friday and expires on June 30. By then, a sweeping new law intended to overhaul the state-run broadcasters and the PAP news agency is expected to be in place. President Andrzej Duda signed the new legislation because he wants state media to be "impartial, objective and reliable," his aide Malgorzata Sadurska said. She added that the president believes that the private views of journalists currently interfere with the objectivity of information in state media.

The new law allows for the immediate ending of the terms of the heads of state radio and television, and transfers the authority to appoint successors to the treasury minister, from a separate radio and TV committee that oversees the media. It also limits the number of members sitting on the state broadcasters' supervisory and management boards.

The legislation was proposed and put on a fast track for approval by the new conservative ruling party, which has embarked on sweeping state and social reforms, including the new media law, that have raised eyebrows in Brussels.

The European Commission will debate Poland's rule of law on Jan. 13, a step that could eventually result in the country losing its EU voting rights on matters that concern the entire 28-nation bloc. Poland joined the EU in 2004.

EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans said the issue of core democratic principles affected more than just Poland alone, especially considering the authoritarian rule in central and eastern Europe under Soviet domination.

"Looking back over the last quarter of a century, one of the biggest successes of European integration is the transformation of our new member states in Central and Eastern Europe away from dictatorship to fully fledged democracies," Timmermans said in Amsterdam.

He insisted those principles were "a collective responsibility, not just of the member states, but of the union as a whole." The new media law has also provoked concern among independent media organizations, which say that it threatens media freedom in Poland.

The "measures taken by the Polish government are contradictory to media pluralism and independence of public service broadcasting, and to democracy in Poland," the European Federation of Journalists said Thursday in a letter to Gunther Oettinger, the European commissioner responsible for media issues who suggested on Sunday that Poland should be put under a special monitoring mechanism.

"They would be in clear contradiction to EU fundamental values," the letter added. The International Federation of Journalists, with some 600,000 members around the world, said it was "deeply worried" by Duda's signing of the bill.

The law is a "huge leap backward" that puts an end to independent state media in Poland, it said in a statement to The Associated Press. Sadurska said the president is fully aware of the EU concerns, and believes the new law won't be detrimental. She insisted that Duda wants public media to perform their role properly.

The conservative Law and Justice party that took power in November says that state broadcasters are now serving the previous, liberal and pro-EU government. On Tuesday, the Council of Europe human rights commissioner Nils Muiznieks appealed to Duda not to sign the law.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday Poland is an "important and full member of the EU" and he didn't want to speculate about the consequences of the steps being taken by the new government in Warsaw.

Foreign Minister Bert Koenders of Netherlands, which currently holds the EU presidency, noted that dialogue was needed with Poland over the matter. "I have contacted the Polish foreign minister (Witold Waszczykowski) on the importance we attach to a dialogue .... that it does not become a confrontation in the EU," Koenders told The Associated Press.

Waszczykowski said earlier this week he requested to meet with an EU diplomat in Warsaw on Friday to hear why the officials were formulating their concerns based on media reports rather than on actual documents and diplomatic channels.

Raf Casert in Amsterdam contributed to this report.

German Muslims condemn Cologne attacks, fear consequences

January 07, 2016

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Members of Cologne's large Muslim community have joined the chorus condemning a string of assaults on women on New Year's Eve that have shocked Germany. But some are also voicing concern that pointing the finger of blame at Muslims in general — and North African immigrants in particular — is unfair when most migrants are law-abiding and the full facts of what happened on the night remain unclear.

In Ehrenfeld, a multi-ethnic neighborhood where streets are lined with colorful Turkish grocery stores and halal butchers, few can believe that those who allegedly carried out the assaults amid the crowds ringing in the New Year may share their religion.

Police said Wednesday that 121 women have filed criminal complaints for robbery and sexual assault — including two allegations of rape. They said the attackers were among a group of some 1,000 men described as being of "Arab or North African origin" who gathered in front of the Cologne's main train station and gothic cathedral that night.

Although there is little solid information so far on who committed the assaults, the incident has put a spotlight on Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance toward those fleeing conflict, and has been seized on by Germany's far right, which opposes most forms of immigration.

"It's really sad what happened," said one woman wearing a Muslim headscarf, who only gave her last name, Ozap. She rejected the suggestion by some German politicians that the Muslim attitudes toward women might have played a role in the attacks.

"Everywhere it says that this has something to do with Muslims. What I read and learned in the Quran is completely different. "I've been here for 30 years myself and I've never seen anything like this," she added.

Hassan Akdogdu, a 34-year-old businessman and a second-generation Turkish immigrant, agreed. He accused police of not doing enough to prevent the attacks. "It's nothing to do with religion," he said. "Lack of respect for women isn't a religious problem, as a Muslim I can say that."

Akdogdu also questioned whether the issue might have triggered greater outrage because of an ongoing debate in Germany over how to integrate the nearly 1.1 million refugees who came to the country last year, many of them Muslims from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Refugees are an important political issue at the moment but I don't believe, I don't want to believe, that it was really refugees," said Akdogdu. "Harassment and suchlike isn't just something you need to talk about with refugees, but with everyone."

The assaults have dominated headlines in recent days. German media — initially reluctant to report on the incident last week while many of the details were still hazy — have published grim details and sharp editorials calling for tough justice.

Several media outlets on Thursday published an internal report by German police describing how women had to run through mobs of drunken men outside Cologne train station. The report compiled by an unidentified senior federal police officer recounts how "several thousand male persons with a migrant background" hurled fireworks and bottles into the crowds of revelers who had gathered in front of Cologne Cathedral to celebrate New Year.

"Women had to literally 'run the gauntlet' of very drunk men," the report said. "In the course of the operation numerous crying and shocked women/girls approached officers and told them of sexual assaults by male migrants/groups. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to identify them anymore."

Federal police spokesman Jens Floeren confirmed the authenticity of the report, but noted that it represented one officer's "subjective assessment" of the incident three days after it happened. Merkel described the assaults as "repugnant criminal acts that ... Germany will not accept," and said changes to the law and increasing police presence may be examined.

"The feeling women had in this case of being at people's mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well," she said in Berlin. "And so it is important for everything that happened there to be put on the table."

Murat Ornek, the German-Turkish manager of a hair salon in Ehrenfeld, said he was worried both by the assaults and by the possible backlash against Muslims. "To be honest many people don't talk about it, they live their lives as if nothing happened. But many people are afraid too, that things will escalate here too," he said.

Muslims elsewhere in Germany also voiced anguish over the attacks, especially on social media. Among members of a Facebook group for Syrian refugees in Germany, some called for the perpetrators to be strongly punished and deported immediately.

Riham al-Kousaa, a Palestinian-Syrian journalist, warned that it would take much longer to erase prejudices than the time it took to create them. The attackers in Cologne, she wrote for the magazine Cicero, hadn't understood "that they didn't just harm the victims and themselves. They harmed thousands who left their homes because of precisely such crimes."

Police said investigators working with video footage have identified 16 young men — mostly of North African origin — who may be suspects and are working to determine whether they committed any crimes. Authorities have not released names for most of the men.

While officials have cautioned against casting suspicion on refugees in general, Merkel said "we must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of ... deportations from Germany in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order."

In Muelheim, another Cologne neighborhood with a distinct immigrant presence, German-Tunisian lawyer Mehdi Labidi said there was no excusing the attacks — but questioned why police had identified the perpetrators as North African before making any arrests.

Labidi said some of his refugee clients acknowledged being at the train station on New Year's Eve, but denied committing assaults. "They told me there were other men there too, Italians, Albanians, Kurds, Iraqis and Turks. And the number of 1,000 is completely exaggerated."

"Germany is a tolerant country but I find this really strange that an entire ethnic group is being branded as criminals," he added. "If far-right extremists attack North Africans then we are going to file a criminal complaint against police for incitement."

Dorothee Thiesing in Cologne and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Iranian Princess Ashraf, shah's twin sister, dies at age 96

January 08, 2016

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of the country's deposed shah whose glamorous life epitomized the excesses of her brother's rule, has died after decades in exile. She was 96.

Many in Iran before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution believed Princess Ashraf served as the true power behind her brother, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and pushed him into taking power in a 1953 coup engineered by the U.S.

Immortalized in her royal prime by an Andy Warhol portrait with bright red lips and raven-black hair, Princess Ashraf's years out of power more resembled a Shakespearean tragedy. Assassins killed her son on a Paris street just after the Islamic Revolution, her twin brother died of cancer shortly after, while a niece died of a 2001 drug overdose in London and a nephew killed himself in Boston 10 years later.

Still, she always defended her brother's rule and held onto her royal past. "At night, when I go into my room, that's when all the thoughts come flooding in," the princess told The Associated Press in a 1983 interview in Paris. "I stay up until 5 or 6 in the morning. I read, I watch a cassette, I try not to think. But the memories won't leave you."

Reza Pahlavi, a son of the shah, announced his aunt's death in a Facebook post on Thursday night. Her personal website said she died Thursday, without elaborating. A longtime adviser to Princess Ashraf in New York could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.

In Iran, local media reported her death relying on international reports. State television reported she died in Monte Carlo and described her as being famous for being corrupt. Born Oct. 26, 1919, Princess Ashraf was the daughter of the monarch Reza Shah, who came to power in a 1921 coup engineered by Britain and later was forced to abdicate the throne after a 1941 invasion by Britain and Russia. By 1953, America helped orchestrate the coup that overthrew Iran's popularly elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, over fears he was tilting toward the Soviet Union. That brought her brother to power and set the stage for decades of mistrust between the countries.

But the shah was "a man of indecision," according to a long-classified CIA account of the coup first published by The New York Times in 2000. To push the coup along, the plotters reached out to "the shah's dynamic and forceful twin sister" who already had been in touch with U.S. and British agents, according to the account. After "considerable pressure" by her and a U.S. general, the shah reportedly agreed.

As her brother's government ruled in opulence and its secret police tortured political activists, Princess Ashraf focused on women's rights in an appointment to the United Nations. She traveled widely and became known for gambling on the French Riviera, the French press dubbing her "La Panthere Noire," or "the Black Panther." She survived a 1977 apparent assassination attempt in Cannes that killed her aide and wounded her chauffer.

The political opposition during the shah's era criticized Princess Ashraf over allegations of corruption, as well as her highly publicized love affairs with Iranian actors and public figures. She and her sister, Shams, also were among the first Iranian women to go in public with their hair uncovered, breaking traditional norms in the Shiite country.

After her brother's 1979 overthrow in Iran's Islamic Revolution, Princess Ashraf shuttled between homes in Paris, New York and Monte Carlo. She published a memoir and remained outspoken immediately after the overthrow.

"After the death of my brother, if we had had the $65 billion some people said we had we would have retaken Iran just like that," she told the AP in 1983. Princess Ashraf married and divorced three times in her life and had three children. She gradually faded from public view in later years, though she attended U.S. President Richard Nixon's funeral in 1994. And she always maintained she regretted nothing.

"I would want to do the same thing. It's passed, now, only memories. But there were 50 years of grandeur, of glory," she once said.

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Berlin elephants enjoy late festive snack: Christmas trees

January 08, 2016

BERLIN (AP) — Zoo elephants in Berlin have enjoyed a light festive snack: a late delivery of Christmas trees.

The New Year feeding of unsold pine trees has become an annual event. Zookeeper Mario Hammerschmidt says the trees are certified as pesticide-free. Hammerschmidt said Thursday that the trees are "a good supplement to the food the elephants get during winter time."

The elephants also used the greenery to scratch themselves after keepers put them in the enclosure. But with snow on the ground and temperatures below freezing at the Tierpark, one of two zoos in the German capital, the feast didn't last long.

Apparent North Korea nuclear blast as quake rocks test site

By Giles Hewitt
Seoul (AFP)
Jan 6, 2016

North Korea appeared to have carried out a nuclear test Wednesday -- its fourth -- with seismologists detecting a 5.1 magnitude tremor next to its main atomic test site in the northeast of the country.

The website of the China Earthquake Network Center described the seismic activity, which came just two days before North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's birthday, as a "suspected explosion".

North Korea state radio said Pyongyang would make a "special announcement" at 12:00 Pyongyang time (0330 GMT). It gave no details of the content.

The Korea Meteorological Administration told AFP that initial analysis suggested the quake was "artificial," while the Japanese government said there was a strong possibility that "this might be a nuclear test".

The US Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake -- detected at 10:00 am Pyongyang time (0130 GMT) -- was in the northeast of the country, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Kilju city, placing it right next to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

Any confirmed test will trigger widespread international condemnation of North Korea, which has already conducted three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 -- all at Punggye-ri.

It would certainly result in a tightening of international sanctions imposed after the North's previous nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

In Seoul, the presidential Blue House called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, as officials scrambled to confirm the precise nature of the tremor.

Last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un had suggested Pyongyang had already developed a hydrogen bomb -- although the claim was greeted with skepticism by international experts.

A hydrogen, or thermonuclear device, uses fusion in a chain reaction that results in a far more powerful explosion.

North Korea has hinted before at the possession of "stronger, more powerful" weapons, but Kim's remarks were believed to be the first direct reference to an H-bomb.

Researchers at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said last month that recent satellite images showed North Korea was excavating a new tunnel at Punggye-ri.

"While there are no indications that a nuclear test is imminent, the new tunnel adds to North Korea's ability to conduct additional detonations over the coming years if it chooses to do so," they said at the time.

A nuclear test would be seen as major slap in the face to the North's chief ally China and extinguish any chance of a resumption of six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear program that Beijing has been pushing for.

After its last nuclear test in 2013, the North restarted a plutonium reactor that it had shut down at its Yongbyon complex in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord.

The Yongbyon reactor is capable of producing six kilograms (13 pounds) of plutonium a year -- enough for one nuclear bomb Pyongyang is currently believed to have enough plutonium for as many as six bombs, after using part of its stock for at least two of its three atomic tests to date.

It is still unclear whether the 2013 test used plutonium or uranium as its fissile material.

A basic uranium bomb is no more potent than a basic plutonium one, but the uranium enrichment path holds various advantages for the North, which has substantial deposits of uranium ore.

Uranium enrichment carries a far smaller footprint than plutonium and can be carried out using centrifuge cascades in relatively small buildings that give off no heat.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Apparent_North_Korea_nuclear_blast_as_quake_rocks_test_site_999.html.