Cyprus demands recognition from Turkey before consenting to EU deal

Cyprus will refuse new chapters in Turkey EU accession negotiations while Turkey illegally occupies island's north.

Middle East Online

European Council President Donald Tusk (L) and Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades NICOSIA - Cyprus on Tuesday threatened to derail a proposed EU deal with Turkey to curb the flow of migrants to Europe, insisting on longstanding demands including that Ankara recognise its government. "Cyprus does not intend to consent to the opening of any new chapters if Turkey does not fulfil its obligations," Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said after talks with EU president Donald Tusk. EU and Turkish leaders agreed last week to a tentative proposal including the return of migrants landing in Greece and a "one-for-one" swap of Syrian refugees. Cyprus has expressed reservations, not least as its longtime adversary Turkey expects the accord to lead to the opening of new chapters in Ankara's longstanding EU membership bid and to ease visa requirements in Europe's passport-free Schengen area. Anastasiades said Cyprus would not accept "the Turkish demands without (the) implementation of Turkey's long-pending obligations" in its EU membership bid. Tusk, who heads Tuesday to Ankara for talks ahead of negotiations on the EU-Turkey proposal, admitted "we are not there yet" in terms of a deal. "The Turkish proposal... still needs to be rebalanced so as to be accepted by all 28 member states and the EU institutions," he told reporters. The plan to expel migrants en masse from Greece has sparked international criticism, with the UN's top officials on refugees and human rights questioning whether it would be legal. Officials have also expressed concern over the potential need for compromise with Ankara, as fears grow over freedom of expression and rights abuses under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "One of the issues to be sorted out is the key question of legality," Tusk said. A Cypriot refusal of the migrant-swap deal would effectively block the largest diplomatic push yet to ease Europe's burden of accommodating hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of whom enter the EU through Turkey. The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded its northern sector in response to an Athens-engineered coup attempt. Turkey does not recognise the government of Cyprus and Nicosia has blocked six key chapters of Ankara's negotiations for EU membership since 2009, effectively halting the process. Cyprus insists Turkey must first meet its longstanding demands for recognition, and to open up trade ties, ports and airports. Complicating matters further is a UN-backed negotiation process between Greek and Turkish Cypriot administrations aimed at reuniting the island. European sources say EU officials admit that they took the wrong approach to Cyprus's concerns, which were overlooked in the enthusiasm among members states for a deal. At one point last week in Brussels, Anastasiades was involved in a heated confrontation with five key European figures, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in which he came under heavy pressure to back the accord, sources said. Germany registered a record influx of asylum seekers that reached 1.1 million in 2015. Tusk's Cyprus visit was arranged at the last minute -- a sign of Brussel's realisation that a new approach is needed. "I am not here to exert pressure on Cyprus," the EU president told reporters. "I am here to listen to your position."

Italy wants to help Egypt probe murder of Giulio Regeni

Egypt's Attorney General Nabil Sadeq discusses investigation with Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone, who is visiting Cairo.

Middle East Online

Cause celebre among academics around the world CAIRO - Italy's chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone on Monday offered Rome's assistance in the Egyptian investigation into the murder of an Italian graduate student after his abduction in Cairo. Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student who was researching Egyptian labour movements, disappeared on January 25 and his badly mutilated body was found a week later. Egypt's attorney general Nabil Sadeq discussed the investigation with Pignatone, who was visiting Cairo along with his deputy Sergio Colaiocco after an invitation. "The Italian side proposed its assistance to Egyptian investigators and to provide all information in its possession," said a statement, stressing the determination of both parties to shed light on the case. Last Thursday, the European Parliament called on Egypt to cooperate in the probe, saying it came within the context of deaths in custody in the North African country. In February, Egyptian Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar rejected charges of security forces being involved in the murder of Regeni. The 28-year-old's slaying became a cause celebre among academics around the world and has turned the spotlight on what rights and opposition groups say are increasing abuses by security services under the military-backed government in Cairo. Police and intelligence services in Egypt are frequently accused of carrying out torture in arbitrary detention or the killing of detainees.

Civilians flee Iraq town as security forces close in on IS

Jihadists defending positions in Hit, significant bastion in Anbar province, after security officials vowed to retake key hub on Euphrates.

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Iraqi forces have been advancing up the Euphrates Valley HIT - Terrified residents were fleeing the Iraqi town of Hit as security forces closed in Tuesday and jihadist fighters hunkered down to defend one of their main bastions in Anbar province. After regaining control of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi from the Islamic State group earlier this year, Iraqi forces have been advancing up the Euphrates Valley in recent weeks. Officials are vowing to launch a final operation to retake Hit, a key hub along the Euphrates, in the coming days. Police colonel Fadhel al-Nimrawi said thousands of families had recently fled Hit to Al-Baghdadi, a town to the northwest, and other locations in Anbar where displaced civilians are gathered. "At least 120 families arrived in Al-Baghdadi yesterday but there are thousands of families still in there," he told AFP. He said most of the civilians had gathered in the Jamaiya and Al-Omal neighbourhoods near the main market of Hit, a city that lies around 145 kilometres (90 miles) west of Baghdad. Some IS fighters fled the town on Sunday and Saturday, including some top foreign leaders who had been based in Hit, according to several senior security officials. "It is clear however that some of them remain, they are mostly deployed in defensive positions around the city," Nimrawi said. Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for the Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS in Iraq, said an operation in Hit would come soon. "Unfortunately, Hit is still under Daesh control but it will be retaken in the coming days," he told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS. Hit residents had hoped when IS fighters pulled out on Sunday that government forces and allied tribal fighters would swoop in to seal the recapture of the city. But while some IS fighters left, others rotated in and civilians in Hit fear being trapped in the town for the final battle. "So far, there are no security forces in Hit, the inhabitants are scared because they know there will be a big military operation," said Naim al-Kaoud, the leader of the Nimr tribe. Over the weekend, IS fighters also abandoned the town of Rutba - deep in the Anbar desert - only to move back in 24 hours later, according to security officials. They still control the town but their foreign leaders did not return and are believed to have moved towards Al-Qaim, a town on the border with Syria. Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, have been battling to regain ground from IS since the jihadists seized control of large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in mid-2014.

3D reconstructions of Syria archaeological sites go online

Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Krak des Chevaliers Crusader castle near Homs are two most famous buildings to have been scanned in minute detail.

Middle East Online

Essential operation to preserve memory PARIS - 3D reconstructions of some of Syria's most spectacular archaeological sites go online Tuesday after a big push to digitalise the war-torn country's threatened heritage. French digital surveyors have been working with Syrian archaeologists to map some of the country's most famous monuments after Islamic State jihadists sparked international outrage by blowing up two temples in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palmyra last year. The eighth-century Umayyad Mosque in the capital Damascus -- regarded by some as the fourth holiest place in Islam -- and the Krak des Chevaliers Crusader castle near the ravaged city of Homs are the two most famous buildings to have been scanned in minute detail. Photogrammetric technology developed by the French start-up Iconem has also been used to record the Roman theatre in the coastal city of Jableh and the Phoenician site in the ancient port of Ugarit, where evidence of the world's oldest alphabet was found. Its technicians have also been working alongside 15 specialists from the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) to digitalise some of the country's major museum collections. Hundreds of important heritage sites have been sacked or destroyed during the five-year conflict, with the destruction of the first-century temples of Bel and Baalshamin in the ancient desert city of Palmyra causing a global outcry. The Islamic State group has made a point of razing ancient shrines and statues it considers as idolatry and is also suspected of involvement in the illegal sale of antiquities. Work on the "Syrian Heritage" database, the biggest 3D record of the country's monuments and treasures, began in December and includes a large number of Ottoman-era buildings in Damascus as well as its 11th-century citadel, which looms over the city. The head of DGAM, Maamoun Abdulkarim, said the operation was essential to "avoid an irreplacable loss to humanity" given "the dramatic situation in our country". "This solution gives our archaeological sites a real hope of renaissance and allows the memory of them to be preserved, no matter what happens," he added in a statement. The drive, carried out with the help of the French grande ecole ENS and the research institute INRIA, is one of a number trying to catalogue sites in danger of falling into the line of fire. The Institute for Digital Archaeology, created by Oxford and Harvard universities and Dubai's Museum of the Future, is also compiling a record of many vulnerable sites in Syria and neighbouring Iraq. It has handed out 5,000 low-cost 3D cameras to archaeologists and NGOs with the hope of gathering a million images of threatened sites. The Million Images Database hopes be fully online by the end of the year and will display life-size replicas of Palmyra's destroyed triumphal arch in New York's Times Square and London's Trafalgar Square in April. The replicas of the arch, blown up by ISIS jihadists in October, are being made with the world's largest 3D printer. France's culture minister had earlier floated the idea of a 3D recreation of the ancient city, known as the "Pearl of the Desert", based on photos taken by tourists over the years.

Israel seizes 234 hectares of Palestinian land

Land seizure - equivalent to more than 250 football pitches - is the largest since 2014.

Middle East Online

'The government is adding fuel to the fire' JERICHO - Israel has declared 234 hectares of West Bank territory as state land, officials said Tuesday, leading a watchdog to warn of possible settlement expansion that could increase tensions with Palestinians. COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for implementing government policies in the Palestinian territories, said the move was taken "in accordance with the decision of the political level". It gave no further explanation nor more details, but settlement watchdog Peace Now said the land involved is south of the Palestinian city of Jericho and close to the Dead Sea. Peace Now said the land - equivalent in size to more than 250 international football pitches - is the biggest reclassification since a seizure of 400 hectares in 2014. The NGO said the order to seize the land was signed on March 10 as US Vice President Joe Biden wrapped up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, though COGAT refused to comment on the timing. Palestinians who claim ownership of the land can appeal the decision within 45 days. Peace Now said the land could help link up and potentially expand local Jewish settlements. "This declaration is a de-facto confiscation of Palestinian lands for the purpose of settlement," a statement said. "Instead of trying to calm the situation, the government is adding fuel to the fire." The confiscation comes amid a wave of violence that has seen 194 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese killed since October 1, according to an AFP count. Most of the Palestinians were youths killed while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to the Israeli authorities. Many were killed in clashes with soldiers while protesting against Israel's continued illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Palestinian leaders, including president Mahmud Abbas, have in part blamed the expansion of settlements, and frustration at diminishing prospects for peace, for the violence. In 2010, Israel unveiled plans to build 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem during a previous Biden visit. Weeks later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a visit to the White House, was denied the privileges customarily granted to foreign dignitaries, even the ritual handshake photograph.

IS commander 'Omar the Chechen' dies in Syria

Pentagon confirms Omar al-Shishani is dead after suffering injuries in US-led coalition strike in northeastern Syria.

Middle East Online

Big loss to IS WASHINGTON - A top Islamic State group commander known as "Omar the Chechen" is dead after suffering injuries in a US-led coalition strike in northeastern Syria, the Pentagon confirmed Monday. The announcement would appear to clear up the fate of the notorious Omar al-Shishani, a week after a US official said the most-wanted militant had been targeted in a March 4 attack on the jihadist's convoy. "We believe he subsequently died of his injuries," Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said. On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Shishani had been "clinically dead" for several days. Shishani -- the nom de guerre of Tarkhan Batirashvili -- was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head.

‘Biased’ UN chief angry at Morocco protest

Ban Ki-moon lashes out at Morocco over 'disrespectful' protest which he feels targeted him in person.

Middle East Online

Banners speak for themselves NEW YORK - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon angrily told Morocco's foreign minister Monday that protests organized in Rabat against his remarks on Western Sahara were disrespectful. Ban "expressed his deep disappointment and anger regarding the demonstration that was mobilized on Sunday, which targeted him in person," said a UN statement released after his meeting with Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar in New York. The secretary-general "stressed that such attacks are disrespectful to him and to the United Nations" and asked the minister to "ensure that the United Nations enjoys respect in Morocco." Hundreds of thousands of people carrying banners denouncing Ban's "lack of neutrality" on the Western Sahara issue took to the streets of Rabat on Sunday. The demonstrations followed Ban's visit to a refugee camp in Algeria housing refugees from Western Sahara and his use of the term "occupation" to describe the status of the territory. Morocco considers the territory as part of the kingdom and insists its sovereignty cannot be challenged. The United Nations has been trying to broker a Western Sahara settlement since 1991 after a ceasefire was reached to end a war that broke out when Morocco deployed its military in the former Spanish territory in 1975. During the meeting with Mezouar, Ban asked for a clarification regarding reports that several members of the Moroccan government took part in the demonstration. The UN chief charged that the protesters "and their sponsors" had misrepresented his trip to the region and failed to recognize that he was calling for genuine negotiations to achieve a lasting solution to the dispute over Western Sahara. The UN statement contained unusually blunt language on Ban's response to the Moroccan protests and his meeting with the foreign minister amounted to a diplomatic dressing-down. During his visit, Ban announced plans to re-launch UN-sponsored talks between Rabat and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which is seeking independence for the territory. In a statement released last week, the Moroccan government said Ban's use of the word "occupation" to describe the status of Western Sahara was "an insult." Ban visited the camp as part of a regional tour that also took him to Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Algeria, but not to Morocco. The UN spokesman has said that Ban plans to visit Rabat and Laayoune, the main city in Western Sahara, later this year. The UN chief wants to achieve progress in resolving the 40-year conflict over Western Sahara before he steps down at the end of the year. A UN mission, MINURSO, is based in Laayoune, where previous UN chiefs Kofi Annan and Boutros Boutros-Ghali have visited during their mandates.

Italy's Berlusconi says a woman cannot be a mother and a mayor

A woman could not handle being a mother and mayor of Rome, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday, drawing sharp criticism from across the political spectrum in a country where many complain of rampant sexism.
The 79-year-old leader of the right-wing Forza Italia party also defended his choice of Rome mayoral candidate, Guido Bertolaso, who was quoted this week as saying that a pregnant potential rival, Giorgia Meloni, should focus on being a mother.
"It is clear to everyone that a mother cannot devote herself to a job and this would be a terrible job, because Rome is in such a terrible state," the billionaire said on state radio RAI.
Parties of all stripes are tearing themselves apart over municipal elections slated for June, and the new mayor will have a particularly tough job in Rome, where years of alleged corruption have been laid bare in a Mafia trial.
Meloni, who leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, has not yet decided whether to run but, if she does, that would split the center-right vote in the capital.
On Sunday, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement's (M5S) candidate for mayor of Milan dropped out of the race, saying she had been shaken by criticism of her looks and weight.
"When will they ask a male candidate to withdraw because he is not telegenic, or because he needs to be a father?" Reforms Minister Maria Elena Boschi said on Twitter.
Democratic Party deputy Titti Di Salvo said: "This is pure patriarchal machismo, deciding what place a woman should occupy. Harping on this matter shows we are still in the Middle Ages culturally."
Gender inequality is writ large in Italy's employment data, which shows less than half of working-age women has a job, 18 percentage points below their male counterparts. The female employment rate was the second lowest in the European Union in 2014 after that of Greece, according to Eurostat.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has trumpeted gender equality within his government, but political watchdog Openpolis says only 14 percent of Italy's mayors are women, and no city with more than 300,000 inhabitants has a female mayor.
"This is not a country for women. What is going on at the moment is incredible, it reveals a fundamental misogyny," Health Minister and mother of twins Beatrice Lorenzin said on Monday.
However, an opinion poll, published on Tuesday, suggested that M5S's female candidate to take charge of corruption-riddled Rome, Virginia Raggi, was leading the field of contenders.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Poll: Voters back Sanders as the next commander in chief

By Chris Kahn

Who do Americans think would be the most trustworthy person to lead the nation’s military? The answer may surprise you. According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, the highest-scoring candidate for the post is Democrat Bernie Sanders, who wins a total of 38 percent of those surveyed among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Hillary Clinton also beats out her Republican rivals, placing second with 31 percent overall.
Among Democrats, Sanders and Clinton won roughly similar support within the poll’s margin of error (61 percent and 57 percent respectively.)
Republicans, meanwhile, don’t seem to be fazed by the latest scuffles at Donald Trump’s rallies. with a majority of polled party members still thinking front-runner Trump would make the best head of the armed forces–and, by implication, the next president.
When Democrats and independents were added to the mix, a smaller total of 26 percent overall supported Trump leading the armed forces.
Reuters asked the commander-in-chief question a second time in this election cycle to see if there was a change as Trump continued to express his admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump’s embrace of water boarding as an interrogation technique and his threats to “take out” the families of suspected militants.
The answer: Republicans are even more trusting of Trump as commander in chief than they were in December. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll from March 10-13, 51 percent of Republicans say they’d trust him in the position, compared with 41 percent for Ted Cruz, 30 percent for Marco Rubio and 29 percent for John Kasich.
When we asked the question in December, 42 percent of Republicans said they’d trust Trump, compared with 35 percent for Cruz, 32 percent for Rubio and 12 percent for Kasich. Both polls included more than 600 Republicans and have a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of about 4.5 percentage points.

Trump eyes Republican breakthrough via wins in Florida, Ohio

TAMPA, Fla. | By Steve Holland

 

Donald Trump could take a giant step on Tuesday toward securing the Republican presidential nomination if he wins the Florida and Ohio primaries, which would intensify pressure for rivals from the party establishment to pull out of the race.Trump has the potential to sweep five big states holding party primary contests for the November election: Florida, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Missouri. The Republican front-runner could knock out his two mainstream rivals, Ohio Governor John Kasich and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, if he wins their states.
The 69-year-old billionaire businessman has a significant lead over Rubio in opinion polls in Florida, but is neck and neck with Kasich in Ohio. Any win by either Rubio, Kasich or U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, 45, of Texas would give at least a small degree of hope to Republicans battling to deny Trump the nomination.
Trump said on Tuesday that his momentum was already drawing in establishment Republicans who had previously balked at his candidacy but now see him as the likely nominee.
"They're already calling," the New Yorker told NBC's "Today" show, without naming names. "The biggest people in the party are calling."
Trump victories in the five states could make what once seemed inconceivable a strong probability, putting the former reality TV star - who has vowed to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, impose some protectionist trade policies and temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country - on a glide path to being the Republican Party's presidential candidate in November.
Trump drew first blood on Tuesday, winning the Northern Mariana Islands caucuses with almost 73 percent of the vote. The win in the U.S. Pacific commonwealth gave him nine delegates.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 68, could put some distance between herself and rival Bernie Sanders, 74, a U.S. senator from Vermont, in Tuesday's Democratic primaries.
Opinion polls gave her a big lead in Florida and North Carolina, but showed Sanders gaining ground in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, a possibly worrisome sign for Clinton after Sanders' surprise victory in Michigan a week ago.
"I voted for Bernie because I want to see a real change to how we do things in this country," Jackie Zydeck, 52, an attorney for the federal government, said after voting in Chicago's liberal Albany Park neighborhood.
"I like his single-payer healthcare idea; I like his ideas about taxes," Zydeck said.
'OPTIMISM OVER PESSIMISM'
Trump held rallies in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina on Monday and said establishment Republicans who have labored to stop his outsider candidacy needed to rally to his cause.
An outbreak of clashes between Trump supporters and protesters that forced him to cancel a rally in Chicago on Friday, and scattered protests at some of his campaign events this week have prompted more concerns from mainstream party figures.
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday condemned efforts to disrupt political rallies, but said all presidential candidates must bear responsibility for helping curb violence at campaign events and creating a less hostile atmosphere.
"All candidates have an obligation to do what they can do ... provide an atmosphere of harmony, to reduce violence, to not incite violence," Ryan told reporters.
The Republican establishment's only real hope for stopping Trump is to deny him the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination, even though he may win a majority of them. That would extend the battle to the party's nominating convention in July in Cleveland.
"I believe the ideal outcome in this campaign is to have someone not named Donald Trump coalesce the party with 1,237 delegates and go on to defeat Hillary Clinton in November," Rubio, 44, told Fox News. "If he's the nominee, he is not going to be able to unite the party. In fact, I think he'll bitterly divide it."
Kasich, 63, slammed Trump for a series of comments he has made over the years that disparage women. Those remarks featured in an ad released this week by an anti-Trump Republican Super PAC group.
"I have two daughters. They see this stuff; what do you think they think?" Kasich told reporters in Westerville, Ohio.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Becker in Ohio, Fiona Ortiz in Chicago, Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu in Washington; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Peter Cooney, W Simon and Jonathan Oatis)
 

Russia drops the mic: Syria pullout comes at perfect moment

By Mark Galeotti

 

After five years of brutal fighting and two weeks of a scrappy ceasefire, President Vladimir Putin has suddenly announced that “the main part” of Russia’s forces currently in Syria will begin to be withdrawn. Assuming this is not some public relations stunt (and if it is, it will very quickly become clear, seriously damaging Moscow’s credibility), then it represents a shrewd and pragmatic move.
They will not go quickly, and it is still unclear quite who will be leaving and who will stay. The Tartus naval resupply station will remain in Moscow’s hands — presumably with some security forces — and so will the Hmeymime (Latakia) air base, implying that there will still be some Russian bombers along with their flight and technical crews, guards and commanders.
However, the creeping expansion of the ground forces contingent within the expeditionary force — first some Spetsnaz special forces for spotting, next some extra tanks, then heavy artillery — is presumably going to be reversed. This way, not only does Russia make itself less vulnerable to attacks from insurgents, it also sets aside the temptation to get more deeply involved in the fighting.
Speaking to officers in Moscow in an off-the-record session, one of their greatest concerns was of being swept up in a cycle of escalation if a serious attack was carried out against Russian forces by any of the many rebel groups. As one put it, “if the president sees this as a challenge, he’ll be tempted to send a brigade of paratroopers, and before you know it, we’re there for 10 years.”
This was not a casually chosen timeframe: 10 years is how long Soviet troops were mired in Afghanistan, another intervention that was expected to be short-lived and uncomplicated and turned out to be anything but.
Politicians tend to find it easier to start wars than to end them, to escalate rather than to withdraw. For a leader who clearly relishes his macho image and who has been articulating a very aggressive foreign policy in recent years to opt for such a stand-down is a striking act of statesmanship.
That said, Putin’s announcement that “the objectives given to the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces as a whole have largely been accomplished” is probably accurate.
This intervention was, after all, never about “winning” the war in Syria: even the most starry-eyed optimist would not expect a relative handful of aircraft and ground forces to end this bloody and complex conflict. Nor was it primarily to save Bashar al-Assad’s skin and position.
Rather, it had three main objectives. Firstly, to assert Russia’s role in the region and its claim to a say in the future of Syria. Secondly, to protect Moscow’s last client in the Middle East, ideally by preserving Assad, but if need be by replacing him with some other suitable client. Thirdly, to force the West, and primarily Washington, to stop efforts diplomatically to isolate Moscow. For the moment, at least, all three have indeed been accomplished.
Now, Russia is a more significant player in Syria’s future than the United States. Influence is bought by blood and treasure; by being willing to put its bombers, guns and men into play, Moscow not only helped Assad but reshaped the narrative of the war. The Kurds and even some of the so-called “moderate rebels” are beginning to show willing to talk to the Russians.
At the time of the intervention, Assad’s forces were in retreat, momentum was favoring the rebels, and Moscow was terrified that the regime’s elite might begin to fragment. The client state the Soviets left behind when they withdrew from Afghanistan was actually surprisingly stable and effective. But when Defense Minister Shahnawaz Tani broke with President Najibullah, it began to break apart and was doomed; this was something Moscow feared could happen in Damascus.
However, the unexpected injection of Russian airpower on Sept. 30 not only changed the arithmetic on the battlefield, it also re-energized the regime. The scale of the bombing assault, with more than 9,000 sorties flown according Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, allowed government forces to turn back the tide. Not only were they able to retake Aleppo and some 400 other settlements by Shoigu’s count, but the Syrian Arab Army’s morale recovered considerably too, and with it Assad’s personal authority.
Finally, on the diplomatic front there is no question that Putin’s intervention did indeed end any hope of ignoring and isolating him. Russia and the United States are joint guarantors of the ceasefire in Syria now, and even in Ukraine the two countries have renewed conversations about a settlement in the Donbas, though it was Moscow that began the conflict.
In short, for once there is more truth than rhetoric in claims of a “mission accomplished.” By beginning to withdraw his forces, Putin also addresses three important concerns.
He will reassure a domestic audience that enjoyed the daily doses of gun-camera footage and upbeat military assessments, but remained worried that what started as a relatively bloodless — for the Russians — campaign could become something much more serious. Indeed, the military will also be happy, conscious as they are that the longer forces are in-country, the greater the risk of something going badly wrong. That’s not least because many of Russia’s senior officers served in Afghanistan.
He can present himself as a peacemaker; it is hardly a coincidence that this announcement was made on the first day of real negotiations in peace talks being held in Geneva. This will strengthen Russia’s claim to a role in those negotiations and the shaping of Syria’s future: a spokesman for the rebel High Negotiations Committee said that “if there is seriousness in implementing the withdrawal, it will give the talks a positive push.” It may also offset some of the ground lost internationally after a recent escalation of fighting in the Donbas and the show trial of kidnapped Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko.
Finally, Putin can retain the initiative, something he clearly savors. He has once again caught the West off guard (and probably also Assad for that matter: he seems to have been informed by Putin only earlier in the day).
He has reduced his exposure to reverses on the ground, but not abandoned Syria. Rather, he has the best of both worlds. He will retain not just some troops there but the ports and airfields which will allow him to surge forces back into Syria if need be — or simply just threaten to do so. He can also, as he has in the past, use long-range bomber strikes or cruise missiles fired from naval units to deliver devastating reminders of Russia’s military capabilities.
In short, this is at once classic, and yet also unusual Putin. It is a characteristic move in its decisiveness and its unexpectedness (even Russians within the defense and foreign affairs apparatuses appear to have been taken by surprise).
But Putin, especially in this presidential term, has up until now tended to default to escalation, confrontation and defiance. Even though it is for entirely pragmatic reasons, this is the first time he has stepped back from an adventure. It may prove to be a propaganda move, or short-lived. It may be precisely that he wants to concentrate on his vicious war in the Donbas. Or it may be that, his economy suffering, his elite worried and his people increasingly discontent, that this is the first sign of the emergence of a more pragmatic Putin, who has come to realize that his grand vision for a re-empowered Russia is actually driving it towards penury and chaos. Time will tell.
 

Seat at geopolitical top table allowed Putin to scale back in Syria

MOSCOW | By Andrew Osborn

 

Vladimir Putin cited Russian military success in Syria as his reason for scaling back his forces there. But his belief that the intervention delivered him a seat at the top table of world affairs is more likely to have tipped his hand.Russia's Syria operation, launched on Sept. 30 last year, made military, diplomatic and domestic political sense for the Kremlin which was keen to shore up its closest Middle East ally and protect its only naval facility on the Mediterranean. It has largely achieved both aims.
But an analysis of comments made by the Russian president and other officials, and conversations with people familiar with his thinking, suggests his primary aim was to make Russia so indispensable to the Syrian peace process that it could regain a measure of the global clout the Soviet Union once enjoyed.
"Russia has returned to the global board of directors," said Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "(It has returned) to the table where world and regional powers decide the fate of others' conflicts and Russia is clearly not a local but a world player."
Putin is famously inscrutable and unpredictable, and his decision to draw down in Syria was no exception. He confides in only a small coterie of people around him, and it came as a total surprise for many in the Kremlin and the defense ministry.
"I spent all day at the defense ministry and did not hear a peep," one defense industry source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.
State propaganda outlets spoke on Tuesday of a "mission accomplished", a phrase that deliberately mimicked the one plastered on a U.S. warship in 2003 when President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq.
The real mission, some say, was to give Russia a say in world affairs.
In the space of six months it has gone from being a pariah state in the West because of its annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Kremlin rebels in eastern Ukraine to being the go-to partner over Syria. Once spurned by Western leaders, it is now a regular interlocutor for both Washington and EU leaders.
"Putin has already got all the political benefits," said Nikolai Petrov, a political expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. "It is better to withdraw before costs increase, before any accident can happen, and before the risks become too high."
Reuters estimates the 5-month operation has cost the Kremlin $700-800 million. The human cost has been higher. Although the official Russian military body count is just four, Islamic State claimed it blew up a Russian passenger plane over Egypt in October, killing all 224 people onboard, in revenge for Syria.
NEW WORLD ORDER
Reasserting Russia's global voice is crucial to Putin, who has been alternately president and prime minister for over 15 years, and is thought to have a close eye on his historical legacy while showing no signs of wanting to leave the Kremlin.
He has long pushed for a new multilateral world order where other powers counter-balance U.S. influence.
In a speech to the United Nations in New York in September, in a barely disguised dig at the United States, he complained of the "arrogance, exceptionalism and impunity" of those he said had engineered the Arab spring.
Dmitry Medvedev, his prime minister and ally, outlined the world order the Kremlin craved as recently as last month, evoking the 1962 Cuban missile crisis as a model of how Moscow and Washington were able to solve dangerous crises.
He said he believed the world's powers could come together in "a fair and equal union" to maintain global peace.
Russian officials say recent events show how Moscow has, once again, come to matter.
They point out that it was Russia, along with the United States, which co-brokered the current cessation of hostilities in Syria, however fragile. Officials also rarely miss a chance to note that it is the Americans who have time and time again come to them for help over Syria.
John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, flew to Moscow in December to discuss Syria with Putin, and has recently spoken almost daily to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin and White House statements confirm.
Even Putin's critics have recognized the clout Syria has gifted the Russian leader.
"There's one man on this planet who can end the civil war in Syria by making a phone call and that's Mr Putin," Philip Hammond, Britain's foreign secretary, told BBC TV last month.
ASSAD SEEN SAFE
By scaling back after a campaign of over 9,000 sorties estimated to have cost $700-800 million, the Kremlin has made it less likely it will be dragged into a potential regional conflict with Turkey or Saudi Arabia.
And although it did not in the end help bag a spectacular battlefield victory, such as the complete taking of Aleppo, the Kremlin thinks it has done enough to ensure that Assad and his forces can hold the line.
Domestically, the intervention helped keep Putin's ratings near record highs and served as a useful distraction at a time of economic pain. Amid brass bands and rousing speeches, state TV on Tuesday presented the decision to start drawing down forces as the culmination of a short, victorious war.
But though Putin's partial Syria withdrawal may be seen as a diplomatic coup by some, his country's return to the world stage has not been a complete success.
U.S. and EU sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis remain in place and compound a domestic financial crisis made worse by the collapse in oil prices.
And the decision to scale back Russian forces was, some analysts believe, conversely dictated more by weakness and a realization that Russia could not make a deal with the West over Syria to lift sanctions on it.
Others, including one Western diplomat who told Reuters the news came as a complete and inexplicable surprise, say Putin's motives are unfathomable.
"None of us knows what the intent of Mr Putin is when he carries out any action, which is why he is a very difficult partner in any situation like this," Britain's Hammond said on Tuesday.
Putin's move is being interpreted in some circles as an attempt to influence the outcome of Syrian peace talks in Geneva and possibly to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to get serious about doing a deal.
Yet few inside Russia believe Assad is in danger of losing Putin's support, even if the Kremlin does want him to contest any future presidential election.
Putin has shown no particular fondness for the Syrian leader but appears to see little point in replacing him with someone who might turn out to be even worse and does not believe Syria is ready for Western-style democracy anyway.
Putin has in any case hedged his bets.
If he feels his new-found global influence or Assad is threatened he can use the two military bases left behind to rapidly expand the Kremlin's military footprint.
His public relations strategy is also hedged.
"If the ceasefire turns into a lengthy peace he will automatically be considered the victor," said Carnegie's Baunov. "But if war breaks out again, he can always say: 'You see, when we were there everyone was making peace but after we left war erupted.'"
(Additional reporting by Dmitry Soloyvov, Jack Stubbs, Lidia Kelly and Parniyan Zemaryalai and by William James in London, Editing by Timothy Heritage) 

Police kill gunman in Brussels siege linked to Paris attacks

BRUSSELS | By Robert-Jan Bartunek, Philip Blenkinsop and Clement Rossignol 

 

Belgian police on Tuesday killed a gunman in a raid on a Brussels apartment linked to Islamist militants involved in November's Paris attacks, and two others were on the run, state broadcaster RTBF reported.Belgium's federal prosecutor said earlier one or more suspects had barricaded themselves into an apartment after police had come under heavy weapon fire through a door when carrying out the raid.
Belgian media said four police officers were wounded.
Belgian daily DH said one suspect was shot dead after being spotted from a police helicopter in a nearby garden.
Phone calls made by Reuters seeking comment from police and prosecutors were not answered.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said French police took part in the raid in the Belgian capital. Streets around the house in a southern section of the city were sealed off by police, Reuters journalists at the scene said.
"This operation is connected to the Paris attacks," a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutor said.
Reuters journalists heard gunshots as police commandos crowded into the street where the raid unfolded.
Investigators believe much of the planning and preparation for the Nov. 13 bombing and shooting rampage in Paris that killed 130 people were carried out by young French and Belgian nationals, some of whom fought in Syria for Islamic State.
The area around Tuesday's raid, near a car factory and a major north-south railway linking Paris and Amsterdam, was sealed off, and a police helicopter buzzed overhead.
Police told residents to stay indoors and schools and kindergartens close to the scene of the shootings were in lockdown, residents said.
Belgian security forces have been actively hunting suspects and associates of the militants involved in the attacks in Paris. Some of the attackers came from Brussels.
One of the prime suspects, 26-year-old Brussels-based Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, is still on the run. He left Paris shortly after his brother blew himself up in the attacks. Belgian authorities are holding 10 people who have been arrested in the months since the attacks, mostly for helping Abdeslam.
RTBF quoted French police sources as saying Abdeslam had not been the target of Tuesday's raid.
Brussels, headquarters of the European Union as well as Western military alliance NATO, was locked down for days after the Paris attacks for fear of a major incident there. Brussels has maintained a high state of security alert since then, with military patrols a regular sight.
Soldiers were on streets in central Brussels on Tuesday as the operation continued.
Belgium, with a Muslim population of about 5 percent among its 11 million people, has the highest rate in Europe of citizens joining Islamist militants in Syria.
(Additional reporting by Miranda Alexander-Webber; Editing by Mark Heinrich) 

UN’s Ban furious with Morocco over Western Sahara protests

© Fadel Sena, AFP | Moroccan protesters hold placards and shout slogans in the capital Rabat, on March 13, 2016.

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2016-03-15

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Morocco’s foreign minister on Monday he was angered and disappointed by a demonstration in Rabat he said was a personal attack on him over remarks he made about the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Tens of thousands of Moroccans marched though the capital on Sunday to protest Ban’s position on Western Sahara and rally support for the king.
Ban “conveyed his astonishment at the recent statement of the government of Morocco and expressed his deep disappointment and anger regarding the demonstration that was mobilized on Sunday, which targeted him in person,” Ban’s press office said in an unusually tough statement.
“He stressed that such attacks are disrespectful to him and to the United Nations,” said the statement, which was issued after he met with Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar.
Rabat accused Ban last week of no longer being neutral in the Western Sahara conflict, saying he used the word “occupation” to describe Morocco’s presence in the region that has been at the center of a dispute since 1975.
The United Nations acknowledges he used the term. Monday’s statement said there was a misunderstanding over his use of the word “occupation,” noting it was Ban’s “personal reaction to the deplorable humanitarian conditions in which the Sahrawi refugees have lived in for far too long.”
The U.N. statement issued on Monday evening said Ban asked Mezouar for “clarification regarding the reported presence of several members of the Moroccan government among the demonstrators.”
State news agency MAP said 3 million people attended Sunday’s march, although those figures could not be confirmed. Some protesters said they were bused for free to the march and that trains had also been free for the day of the rally.
The dispute over the region in the northwest edge of Africa has dragged on since Morocco took control over most of it in 1975 after the withdrawal of former colonial power Spain.
The Polisario Front, which says the territory belongs to ethnic Sahrawis, fought a war against Morocco until a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 1991, but the two sides have since been deadlocked.
Polisario, backed by Morocco’s regional rival and neighbor Algeria and a number of other African states, wants a referendum promised in the ceasefire agreement on the region’s fate.
Morocco says it will not offer more than autonomy for the region, rich in phosphates and possibly offshore oil and gas.
(REUTERS

German anti-Islam PEGIDA leader summoned on hate speech charges

© DPA/AFP/File | Lutz Bachmann, a leader of the PEGIDA movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) speaks to protestors during a rally in Leipzig on March 7, 2016

BERLIN (AFP) -  The founder of Germany's xenophobic and anti-Islam group PEGIDA has been summoned to court on hate speech charges for describing refugees as "cattle" and "scum", a court in Dresden said.
Lutz Bachmann, 43, was charged with inciting hatred in October for a series of widely shared posts on the PEGIDA Facebook page, which stands for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident".
A court date has been set for April, with two further hearings in May.
The court said Bachmann's comments "disrupted public order" and constituted an "attack on (the refugees') dignity".
PEGIDA started life in October 2014 as a xenophobic Facebook group, initially drawing just a few hundred protesters to demonstrations in the eastern city of Dresden before gaining strength, peaking with turnouts of 25,000 people.
Interest subsequently began to wane following Bachmann's overtly racist comments and the surfacing of "selfies" in which he sported a Hitler-style moustache and hairstyle.
But the group has seen a revival with the arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers, many fleeing war in mostly Muslim countries like Syria and Iraq. They are part of an unprecedented influx of newcomers to Germany, which took in more than a million migrants and refugees last year.
The populist right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made surprise gains in weekend regional polls in what was widely seen a protest vote against Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy on refugees.

© 2016 AFP

Iran FM says Russian pullout of Syria 'positive' for ceasefire

© AFP | Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (L) speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif before a meeting at Parliament House in Canberra on March 15, 2016

CANBERRA (AFP) -  Russia's move to begin withdrawing from Syria should be seen as a positive sign for the ceasefire, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday.
Speaking in Canberra after meeting with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop, Zarif underlined Iran's stance on the need for a ceasefire and a political solution in Syria.
"The fact that a semi-ceasefire has been holding in Syria is welcome news, it's something that we've been asking for at least two-and-a-half, three years," he said.
"The fact that Russia announced that it's withdrawing part of its forces indicates that they don't see an imminent need for resort to force in maintaining the ceasefire.
"That in and of itself should be a positive sign. Now we have to wait and see."
Zarif said while the ceasefire did not include Daesh, the so-called Islamic State group, and the Al-Qaeda linked extremist group Al-Nusra Front or their collaborators, the international community was united against them.
"The message that the international community has been sending to Daesh, and should be sending to Daesh and other extremist organisations, is that our fight against them is relentless," Zarif said.
"We will not stop and I believe the entire international community is united in that."
Zarif said he did not think anybody should consider Daesh or other extremist organisations as a leverage "even for temporary political gains".
"And I hope that message can be driven home everywhere in the region, particularly as we see more and more instances of carnage in terrorism in our region carried out by Daesh," he said.
President Vladimir Putin called long-standing ally Bashar al-Assad on Monday to inform him that Moscow will withdraw the bulk of its forces from Syria, a move hailed by the United Nations Security Council as a "positive step" for the fraught peace negotiations.
But hopes for a breakthrough at the Geneva talks remain remote with both sides locked in a bitter dispute over the future of the Syrian president.

© 2016 AFP

Niger fights back against 'curse' of fistula

© AFP / by Patrick Fort | Founder of NGO Dimol (Dignity), Salamatou Traore, speaks about obstetric fistula disease at the health centre of the NGO in Niamey, Niger

NIAMEY (AFP) -  "I was at death's door. I'd just lost my child who was stillborn and my husband abandoned me," recalls Hadiza Zakaria who suffered a fistula while pregnant -- a condition seen as a curse in Niger.
Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury caused by a complicated labour which can leave victims with chronic incontinence and often results in them becoming social outcasts.
A preventable condition, it affects around a million of the world's poorest women, and is widespread in this west African nation which has the highest birthrate in the world.
"It's a public health problem whose scope is beyond us," says Dr Abdou Amada Traore, who volunteers to help women suffering from the condition he describes as a national "scourge".
The condition arises from a complicated labour where a woman can struggle for days without giving birth, with the pressure of the baby's head cutting off blood supply to delicate tissues, causing a hole to form between the vagina and the bladder or rectum.
Although such complications could be solved by a Caesarian section, for those without access to emergency medical care, the result can be devastating -- the baby often dies and the mother develops a fistula which causes urinary or rectal incontinence.
One of the groups at the heart of the struggle is Dimol, a local NGO which is dedicated to the prevention of fistula, to treating the victims and to helping them be reintegrate back into society.
Funded entirely from donations, the charity helps around 60 women a year at its centre in Niger's capital, Niamey, helping them both prepare for and recover from corrective surgery.
Although an obstetric fistula is treatable through surgery, the social ostracism often takes much longer to heal.
- 'Seen as a curse' -
Once a housewife in a remote village, Zakaria, 48, now makes a living selling 'boule', a traditional grainy porridge-like dish which she prepares.
She is a frequent visitor to Dimol where she offers support to younger women, telling them her story of complications in labour which resulted in her losing the baby.
She ended up with urinary incontinence and her husband left her. Eventually, she found help through Dimol where she underwent surgery and started rebuilding her life.
"One of the problems with a fistula is that it's often seen as a curse," explains Imorou Nafissatou, who works with the charity.
"Because of the smell, people believe the woman's being punished, that it's witchcraft or that she's committed adultery... She's often shunned and rejected. She herself doesn't understand what's happening to her."
Often the women become depressed and can even develop dementia, she says.
Some 20 veiled women and a gaggle of children live in the small house run by Dimol on the outskirts of Niamey, where a teacher regularly visits to give them basic literacy classes.
They also work on old pedal sewing machines.
"That's part of their treatment -- it forces them to move their legs and get the blood circulating," explains Dimol's Sana Ousmane.
- Children giving birth -
A "social disease", the condition is symptomatic of "poverty and often a consequence of teenage marriage," Nafissatou explains.
In Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, young women in rural areas often go without pre-natal consultations, says Dimol founder Salamatou Traore.
Girls also marry very young, often giving birth before their bodies are ready for it, with UN figures showing one in three girls in Niger are married off before age 15 and three quarters before the age of 18.
"We sometimes have girls who give birth without having had their periods -- children of 12."
The result?
"We have very young girls giving birth who are not morphologically or anatomically ready to do so," says Dr Abdou.
"I often say that ending up with fistula is lucky. Often they die," he says.
- Reintegration is key -
One of the victims is 16-year-old Hadjura Zerifili, who was married at 12 and lost her baby several months ago.
"At the start, I was ashamed (at becoming incontinent). My parents initially thought I was doing it on purpose but later they understood," she says.
"All I want is to have my health back. Since I arrived here I feel better. I see other women here and that reassures me," the teenager says.
Maimouna Moukaila Salman, 20, is all smiles. She has been through her surgery and is now getting ready to be "reintegrated" into her village.
"I am cured. I want to go home to my husband," she says.
But first, she will have to spend several months with her family to allow the scars to heal before heading home.
Reintegration is very important, Traore says.
"We hold a ceremony which allows us to pass on a message to other women who might have a fistula to show that they can be healed," she says.
"The women who return are much more fulfilled," she says.
"They have more self-confidence and they can serve as an example."

by Patrick Fort

© 2016 AFP

Bangladesh central bank governor quits over $81 mn heist

© AFP/File | Bangladesh Bank Governor, Atiur Rahman, speaks during the IMF?World Bank Annual Meetings, in Washington, DC, in 2014

DHAKA (AFP) -  Bangladesh's central bank chief resigned on Tuesday, the finance minister said, after hackers stole $81 million from the nation's foreign reserves in an audacious cyber-heist that has hugely embarrassed the government.
"He called me yesterday and I've asked him to resign. And he has resigned today," minister A.M.A Muhith told AFP, referring to the Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman.

© 2016 AFP

'Forced labour' for thousands of maids in Hong Kong: report

© AFP/File | Tens of thousands of foreign maids in Hong Kong are in "forced labour", according to a new report

HONG KONG (AFP) -  Tens of thousands of foreign maids in Hong Kong are in "forced labour", according to a new report that fuels growing criticism of the city's treatment of its army of domestic workers.
The study by the Justice Centre estimates that one in six, or 50,000 of Hong Kong's more than 300,000 migrant domestic workers -- mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines -- fell into the "forced labour" category.
Its findings come after a report by the UN Committee Against Torture in December urged Hong Kong authorities to reform laws in order to protect victims of forced labour and trafficking.
The plight of the city's domestic workers was also thrown into the international spotlight by the high-profile abuse case of Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, whose Hong Kong employer received a six-year jail sentence last year.
The new report defined forced labour as employment for which the worker had not been recruited freely, was not doing the job freely, or could not walk away from work.
Fourteen percent of those in forced labour had been trafficked into the city, it said.
"Hong Kong must come clean and acknowledge these problems. It can no longer afford to sweep them under the carpet," said Piya Muqit, executive director of Justice Centre, a non-profit rights group.
"Current regulations can actually increase the vulnerability of workers to exploitation and victims face very real barriers in seeking assistance and justice," she said.
Debt incurred by unscrupulous employment agencies both in Hong Kong and the workers' home countries also played a major role in trapping workers in their jobs, the report found.
"Forced labour does not always involve physical violence, there are many tools of coercion and deception," said Victoria Wisniewski Otero, co-author of the study that interviewed more than 1,000 workers.
One Indonesian maid named as Indah told researchers she felt she had no choice but to continue working because of the debt she had incurred.
She also said she had no access to her passport, which was being held by her employer.
The study found migrant domestic labourers worked an average 70-hour week and more than a third were not given the full 24-hour rest period required under Hong Kong law.
The report called on the Hong Kong government to review legislation, improve workers' living and working conditions, and penalise agencies that overcharge.
Rules that say foreign maids must live with their employers and leave the city within two weeks of terminating an employment contract must also be scrapped, it said.
"The government will have to be pushed and pulled into doing something," said legislator Emily Lau, head of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, who also called for workers' home countries to take action.
Hong Kong's labour department had no immediate response to the report.

© 2016 AFP

Russia, Tajikistan hold huge military drills near Afghan border

© AFP/File | Russia and Tajikistan have begun large-scale military drills close to the Central Asian state's restless border with Afghanistan

DUSHANBE (TAJIKISTAN) (AFP) -  Russia and fragile ex-Soviet ally Tajikistan have begun large-scale military drills close to the Central Asian state's restless border with Afghanistan, a Tajik military official confirmed Tuesday.
A spokesman for Tajikistan's defence ministry said the drills involved about 50,000 Tajik troops and 2,000 Russian troops, including paratroopers flown in from Russia.
"The manoeuvres involve around 1,000 armoured vehicles, artillery, and 32 combat and transport aircraft," spokesman Faridun Makhmadalizoda told AFP, adding that they would continue until the end of the week.
This is the first time troops from Russia's Central Military District have been involved in exercises in Tajikistan, highlighting Moscow's growing unease over chaos in Afghanistan's northern provinces.
The other Russian troops engaged in the exercises are from Moscow's 201st military base in Tajikistan, the spokesman confirmed.
Last year a contingent of 2,500 troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a military bloc led by Russia and including Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, also staged military exercises in the country.
Afghanistan's northern provinces have been rattled by militancy amid government infighting in Kabul and the drawdown of the US-led military presence.
Skirmishes along the porous 1300-kilometre (810 mile) frontier Afghanistan shares with Tajikistan occur frequently.
Earlier this month the Tajik border service confirmed that one of its officers and a militant had been killed in a shootout after an armed group crossed into Tajikistan from Afghanistan.

© 2016 AFP

Russia pullout 'significant development' for Syria talks: UN envoy

© AFP | UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura hosted a fresh round of peace talks in Geneva, on March 14, 2016

GENEVA (AFP) -  The UN envoy for Syria on Tuesday hailed Russia's partial military withdrawal from the war-ravaged country, describing the move as a "significant development" and voicing hope it could positively influence peace talks.
"The announcement by President (Vladimir) Putin on the very day of the beginning of this round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva is a significant development, which we hope will have a positive impact on the progress of the negotiations in Geneva aimed at achieving a political solution of the Syrian conflict and a peaceful political transition in the country," Staffan de Mistura said in a statement.

© 2016 AFP

700 migrants held in Macedonia after crossing Greek border

© AFP | Migrants cross a river on their way to Macedonia from a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni on March 14, 2016

IDOMENI (GREECE) (AFP) -  About 700 refugees and migrants were being held in Macedonia on Tuesday after they managed to slip across the border from Greece, a frontier that has been shut for a week.
Dozens of others who failed to cross were returning to the overflowing Idomeni camp on the Greek side, where 14,000 people are stuck in increasing squalor following a string of border closures on the European migrant route.
European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was set to visit the camp at Idomeni at around midday on Tuesday.
Giorgos Kyritsis, spokesman for Greece's migration coordination agency, said the hundreds who managed to cross the border Monday were still in Macedonia after they were intercepted by the Macedonian army.
"If the authorities ask us to take them back, we will examine the request," Kyritsis told public broadcaster ERT.
A group of around 80 journalists and activists who were detained by Macedonian police after travelling with the group, including an AFP video journalist, were released and allowed to return to Greece, Kyritsis added.
A local Greek police source said Macedonian authorities had pushed back groups of migrants from unguarded parts of the border during the night.
ERT reported that dozens who were blocked from entering Macedonia from the Greek side of a river were heading back to Idomeni after tramping through the night in the cold and rain, carrying children and babies.
Greek authorities said the migrants who tried to breach the border on Monday -- around 1,500 in total, according to media -- had read leaflets in Arabic describing the route across the river.
The document warned migrants that they risk being sent back to Turkey if they stay in Greece, the ANA news agency reported.
Dozens of Greek police had tried to block the route, before giving up because of the size of the crowd.

© 2016 AFP

China 'weighs tax on currency trades'

© AFP | China's foreign-exchange reserves dropped to $3.20 trillion at the end of February 2016

BEIJING (AFP) -  China's central bank has drafted plans to impose a tax on currency trades, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, in what would be its latest volley against those betting on a depreciation of the yuan.
Chinese authorities have spent unprecedented sums to support the currency and stem capital flight since a surprise devaluation rattled investors last summer.
The tax would be the most dramatic measure to date, although Bloomberg reported that the rules had yet to be approved and the level might initially be kept at zero as an experiment.
Dubbed a "Tobin tax" after Nobel economics prizewinner James Tobin, it would impose a small levy on foreign-exchange transactions. The aim would be to deter investors from seeking to profit on fluctuations in the currency.
Analysts said the move would reduce liquidity in the long term and possibly fuel short-term volatility as investors were forced to leave the market.
If implemented, the tax could also raise questions about plans for the yuan to join the International Monetary Fund's elite reserve currency basket, scheduled for October.
"RMB as reserve currency RIP," George Magnus, associate at the University of Oxford China Centre, wrote on Twitter. "Not that it was likely anyway."
"Tobin taxes" have been fiercely debated since they were first proposed, with Sweden adopting a financial transaction tax in the 1980s to boost government revenue, and then abolishing it after bond trading volumes collapsed.
Major banking hubs such as Britain and the US have previously opposed them for the damage they would cause the financial sector.
The idea of a Chinese Tobin tax was floated last year by the deputy chief of the central People's Bank of China in an article for China Finance magazine, in which he said it would help "contain the inflows and outflows of short-term speculative and arbitrage funds".
Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, said there was speculation that the central bank "is taking the fight to the speculative FX community", but that the Tobin tax would "not be taken kindly by the IMF" if adopted.
"If Chinese officials broaden this to other markets, like swaps, then speculators may pile into proxy currencies" such as the Hong Kong dollar, he added.
China's foreign-exchange reserves dropped to $3.20 trillion at the end of February, the People's Bank of China reported last week -- down more than $300 billion in just four months.

© 2016 AFP

Al-Qaeda threatens France and allies after Ivory Coast attack

© AFP | A soldier patrols on a beach in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, on March 14, 2016, a day after a shooting rampage that killed 18 people

ABIDJAN (AFP) -  Al-Qaeda's north African branch threatened France and its allies fighting against jihadists in the volatile region, in a statement boasting about the group's deadly weekend attack on an Ivory Coast beach resort.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) said the shooting rampage at the Grand-Bassam resort on Sunday that left 18 people dead was one of a series of operations "targeting dens of espionage and conspiracies".
It warned that those nations involved in the regional anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane and the 2013 French-led Operation Serval in Mali would "receive a response", with their "criminal leaders" and interests targeted, according to the SITE group which monitors extremist organisations.
The statement was issued on the eve of a visit Tuesday by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to Ivory Coast after the beach attack whose victims included four French nationals.
Barkhane, which succeeded Serval in 2014, has at least 3,500 soldiers deployed across five countries -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- to combat jihadist jihadist insurgencies.
AQIM warned Ivory Coast and all allies of France in the region that their "crimes will not pass without a response" and issued a wider threat to Western nationals to leave Muslim lands or "we will destroy your security and the security of your citizens".
The group had also claimed the attack on a top hotel and a nearby restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital in January that killed 30 people, and a hostage siege in the Malian capital Bamako in November that cost 20 lives.

© 2016 AFP

Berlin car bomb 'kills driver'

© AFP/File | German police said the explosion occurred during peak-hour traffic on Bismarckstrasse

BERLIN (AFP) -  A car bomb killed a driver travelling down a street in central Berlin on Tuesday, police said, adding that it was caused by an explosive device "on or in the vehicle".
The explosion occurred during peak-hour traffic on Bismarckstrasse, within sight of the Victory Column monument, leaving the front of the car severely dented after it flipped over, while debris was strewn a few metres away.

© 2016 AFP

Voting opens in 'Super Tuesday 2' presidential nominating contest

© AFP/File | Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton

YOUNGSTOWN (UNITED STATES) (AFP) -  Voting began Tuesday in North Carolina and Ohio, two of the five states where Republican and Democratic primary contests are being held to choose a nominee for the November US presidential election.
Polls opened in North Carolina and Ohio at 1030 GMT, while polls are set to open in Florida, Illinois and Missouri at 1100 GMT in an event dubbed "Super Tuesday 2."
Among Republicans, Donald Trump is seeking to confirm his status as a front-runner and possibly push one or two of his rivals out of the race. Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton hopes to fend off a resurgent Bernie Sanders and assert her claim as the party's all-but-certain presidential nominee.

© 2016 AFP

 

 

American Islamic State group fighter' in Iraqi custody

© AFP file photo | Image posted on the jihadist Twitter account Al-Baraka news in June 2014 allegedly shows an IS militant at the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2016-03-15

An American fighting for the Islamic State group was taken into custody in northern Iraq after he left territory controlled by the militant group, according to two Kurdish officers, one of whom arrested him.

Both said it appeared the man was intending to escape both Islamic State and Kurdish forces but handed himself in after peshmerga fighters opened fire on him near the frontline in the village of Golat.
Captain Daham Khalaf said they had spotted the fighter hiding in long grass around dawn and waited until the sun rose before surrounding him. “He shouted, ‘I am a foreigner’,” Khalaf said, describing him as bearded and dressed in black.

https://youtu.be/FjHf5F_OtQw
The fighter did not have a passport but was carrying an American driving license and spoke English and broken Arabic, according to General Hashim Sitei who spoke to him.
A copy of what was said to be the license, seen by Reuters, was in the name of Khweis Mohammed Jamal. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the man’s identity.
“We gave him food and treated him with respect and handed him over to military intelligence,” said Sitei. The fighter was unarmed but carrying three mobile phones and said his father was Palestinian and his mother was from the Mosul area in Iraq, both officers said.
The State Department said it was aware of the reports that a U.S. citizen said to have been fighting for Islamic State was captured by Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq.
The address on the driver’s license confiscated by the peshmerga was for a residence in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.
As reporters and television crewmembers waited outside, a black Lincoln Town Car drove up. Two men stepped out and angrily demanded that the media leave.
The older man, who identified himself as Jamal Khweis, grabbed a photographer’s camera as the younger man pushed at the lenses of television cameras.
The man confirmed that he has a son the same age as the American captured by the peshmerga. He said he did not know where his son was, but that he would “never go” to Iraq.
“He is my son. He is a good person,” he said. More than 250 Americans have joined or tried to fight with the extremist group in Syria and Iraq since 2011, according to a September 2015 bipartisan congressional taskforce report.
At least 80 men and women have been charged by federal prosecutors for connections to Islamic State, and 27 have been convicted.
(REUTERS)