EU, Cuba sign historic deal to normalise relations

The European Union and Cuba signed a deal Friday to normalize relations, including an agreement on the delicate issue of human rights -- a breakthrough just ahead of US President Barack Obama's historic visit to the island.

The agreement, the culmination of nearly two years of negotiations, is a further step toward ending the communist country's status as a pariah in the West.
It comes just as Obama prepares to put a capstone on the rapprochement he and Cuban President Raul Castro announced in December 2014, setting aside more than half a century of animosity rooted in the Cold War.
"This is a historic step in our relationship," said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at a signing ceremony in Havana.
"The agreement marks the beginning of a new era in our bilateral relations," she added, before heading to a meeting with Castro.
Cuba was previously the only country in Latin America without an international cooperation deal with the 28-member bloc.
The EU slapped sanctions on Cuba and suspended cooperation in 2003 over a crackdown on journalists and activists, and had since 1996 officially used its foreign policy to encourage human rights advances in the country.
That so-called "common position" was vehemently rejected by Cuba as interference in its domestic affairs.
"This accord marks the end of the common position," Mogherini said.
The European Parliament must still ratify the deal for it to take effect.
The text of the so-called "political dialogue" agreement has not been published.
The two sides said in a statement that it set the stage for relations based on "respect, reciprocity and shared interests."
The EU had said it was seeking a more constructive approach to engage Havana and persuade Castro's government to sign a series of international human rights treaties.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the deal was the result of "a dynamic process that was not without complexity."
'Credibility' for Cuba
The agreement is a win-win deal, according to political analyst Joaquin Roy of the University of Miami.
"Cuba gains in credibility and the EU casts off a weight because it never really gained anything with the 'common position,'" he told AFP.
The EU and Cuba began talks on restoring ties in April 2014, and had already reached a deal on trade.
They moved to accelerate the process after Cuba and the United States announced their historic rapprochement and then renewed diplomatic relations in July.
Some EU countries had warned against losing out to the United States.
Spain, which counts Cuba as a key trade partner, urged fellow members to "give EU businesses the chance to compete with American companies" on the island.
Many EU members continued to maintain bilateral relations with Havana despite the rupture in ties with the bloc. Their trade with Cuba has made the EU the island's second-largest trade partner after Venezuela, with 2.6 billion euros in trade in 2013.
The United States, despite reopening its embassy in Havana, has yet to lift its trade and financial embargo on Cuba.
Obama has repeatedly urged Congress to end the more than 50-year-old policy, but his Republican opponents, who control both chambers of Congress, accuse him of betraying the cause of human rights in Cuba by engaging with the Castro regime.
Obama will visit Cuba from March 20 to 22 -- the first visit by a US president since 1928, and a symbolically charged coda on his decision to restore ties.
EU negotiator Christian Leffler said the bloc had not rushed to finish the deal before Obama's trip.
"We're very happy we could do it now," he told AFP, saying the fact the deal came just before Obama's visit was a "coincidence."
(AFP)
 

Computer wins 3-0 Go series victory over South Korean grandmaster

© Google Deepmind/ AFP | Lee Se-Dol (right), a legendary South Korean player of Go competes during the Google DeepMind Challenge Match in Seoul on March 9, 2016

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2016-03-12

A Google-developed computer programme took an unassailable 3-0 lead in its match-up with a South Korean Go grandmaster on Saturday -- marking a major breakthrough for a new style of "intuitive" artificial intelligence (AI).

The programme, AlphaGo, secured victory in the five-match series with its third consecutive win over Lee Se-Dol -- one the ancient game's greatest modern players with 18 international titles to his name.
Lee, who has topped the world ranking for much of the past decade and confidently predicted an easy victory when accepting the AlphaGo challenge, now finds himself fighting to avoid a whitewash defeat in the two remaining games on Sunday and Tuesday.
"AlphaGo played consistently from beginning to the end while Lee, as he is only human, showed some mental vulnerability," said one of Lee's former coaches, Kwon Kap-Yong.
"The machine was increasingly gaining the upper hand as the series progressed," Kwon said.
For AlphaGo's creators, Google DeepMind, victory goes far beyond the $1.0 million dollar prize on offer in Seoul, proving that AI can go beyond superhuman number-crunching.
The most famous AI victory to date came in 1997 when the IBM-developed supercomputer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov, the then-world class chess champion, in its second attempt.
But a true mastery of Go, which has more possible move configurations than there are atoms in the universe, had long been considered the exclusive province of humans -- until now.
'Mt Everest' of AI
AlphaGo's creators had described Go as the "Mt Everest" of AI, citing the complexity of the game, which requires a degree of creativity and intuition to prevail over an opponent.
AlphaGo first came to prominence with a 5-0 drubbing of European champion Fan Hui last October, but it had been expected to struggle against 33-year-old Lee.
Creating "general" or multi-purpose, rather than "narrow", task-specific intelligence, is the ultimate goal in AI -- something resembling human reasoning based on a variety of inputs and, crucially, self-learning.
In the case of Go, Google developers realised a more "human-like" approach would win over brute computing power.
The 3,000-year-old Chinese board game involves two players alternately laying black and white stones on a chequerboard-like grid of 19 lines by 19 lines. The winner is the player who manages to seal off more territory.
AlphaGo uses two sets of "deep neutral networks" that allow it to crunch data in a more human-like fashion -- dumping millions of potential moves that human players would instinctively know were pointless.
It also employs algorithms that allow it to learn and improve from matchplay experience.
It is able to predict a winner from each move, thus reducing the search base to manageable levels -- something co-creator David Silver has described as "more akin to imagination".
(AFP)

Paris attackers listed in ‘leaked’ IS group documents

© AFP | Leakers documents purportedly from the IS group contain the names and details of thousands of jihadists, including the Paris attackers..

Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2016-03-11

A trove of documents purportedly from the Islamic State (IS) group contains the names of three of the men who conducted the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks, German media reported Friday.

Among the thousands of purported IS group registration papers obtained by German and British media were those of Samy Amimour, Foued Mohamed-Aggad and Omar Ismail Mostefai, said public broadcasters NDR and WDR and Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The three men, using guns and suicide vests, killed 90 people at the Bataclan during a concert by rock band Eagles of Death Metal in the deadliest attack of the bloody rampage that claimed 130 lives across the French capital on November 13.
Mostefai, a 29-year-old French national from a poor Paris suburb, blew himself up at the Bataclan music venue. His identity was confirmed using a severed fingertip found at the scene.
Amimour, 28, a former bus driver from the Paris suburb of Drancy, and Mohamed-Aggad, 23, from Strasbourg, also blew themselves up at the Bataclan concert hall.
In addition, WDR said the files contain an apparent reference to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who has been identified as the leader of the Paris attacks.
Paris attackers did not tick ‘suicide’ mission on forms
In the documents, Amimour, Mohamed-Aggad and Mostefai said only that they wanted to fight for the IS group when they arrived, though it was possible to tick an option on the form to be a suicide attacker, WDR reported.
It said that Abaaoud apparently acted under a pseudonym, Abu Omar Al-Beliki, to vouch for the entry of another French Islamist. An initial analysis of the documents found no entry form for Abaaoud, WDR added.
The documents also showed that at least 14 men from France crossed the Turkish-Syrian border on Dec. 18, 2013, with the same smuggler and were vouched for by a single extremist of Moroccan origin. Mohamed-Aggad was one of the members of that group.
Documents include names of women
The German research team said it had now obtained data on several thousand IS group members from a total of 22,000 documents, many of them duplicates, which were earlier also obtained by British broadcaster Sky News.
They contain the names, addresses, phone numbers and family contacts of jihadists who joined the IS group, as well as their blood type, mother's maiden name, "level of sharia understanding" and previous experience.
The fighters listed in the cache of documents came from across Europe and from the United States, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago, the German media team said.
Some of the documents included names of women, but neither their nationalities nor their roles were immediately known, according to Shiraz Maher, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at Kings College in London.
Maher, who has seen a bulk of the files, told the Associated Press that while it would be unusual for women to be recruited as fighters, women may have been listed as personal references.
"One of the key things about these documents is that they contain names of people who have vouched for the recruits," Maher said. "By cross-checking these names against the information we have already, we'll be likely to piece together a detailed picture of IS networks and how they relate to one another. And a lot of the information we've seen on the documents correspondents to what we have on our databases which leads us to believe the documents are authentic."
French officials, experts advice caution
Germany's federal police said Thursday it had access to the same type of documents and considered them highly likely to be authentic.
But some experts, including FRANCE 24’s expert on jihadist movements, Wassim Nasr, have urged caution, noting there were a number of inconsistencies that have raised doubts about the credibility of the files.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Friday also stressed the need to be "very careful" about the documents.
"We are extremely interested in information which would allow us to... neutralise terrorists but such information has to be authenticated," he said in Washington.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

UN adopts measure to tackle sex abuse by peacekeepers

The U.N. Security Council on Friday approved its first-ever resolution tackling the escalating problem of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers who act as predators when sent to protect vulnerable civilians in some of the world’s most volatile areas.

The United Nations has been in the spotlight for months over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic and Congo. The U.N. says there were 69 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in 2015, with an additional 25 allegations so far this year.
The resolution was approved by a vote of 14-0 with Egypt abstaining after a last-minute amendment it proposed that would have weakened the text was defeated.
The U.S.-drafted resolution endorses Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s plan for reform, including his decision to repatriate military or police units “where there is credible evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse.”
It also asks Ban to replace contingents where allegations are not properly investigated, perpetrators are not held accountable or the secretary-general is not informed on the progress of investigations. The Egyptian amendment would have required that all three conditions are met before a military or police unit is sent home, not just one of them as now required.
It’s up to the home country of the soldier or police officer to conduct the investigation and determine the punishment if allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation are proven.
The United States, the biggest financial contributor to U.N. peacekeeping operations, said it wanted the U.N.’s most powerful body to send a strong signal that it will not tolerate the escalating problem.
“To the victims of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, we pledge that we will do better,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said after the vote. “We will do better to ensure that the blue helmets that we send as your protectors will not become perpetrators.”
Secretary-General Ban called the resolution “a significant step in our collective efforts to combat the terrible damage caused to victims of sexual exploitation and abuse” and pledged to ensure protection and support for those who have been abused, his spokesman said.
Naming countries of perpetrators
More than 100,000 troops and police are deployed in the U.N.’s far-flung peacekeeping operations, the vast majority from developing countries. The United Nations reimburses troop contributing countries for salaries and provides allowances for peacekeepers.
As part of the secretary-general’s reforms, the United Nations has for the first time begun naming the countries of alleged perpetrators, a move meant to pressure states to pursue allegations that, U.N. records show, they often have let slide. Ban has also pledged to speed up investigations and to make information available about outstanding allegations on a new U.N. website.
Egypt, Russia and several other countries had argued that the council resolution would punish thousands of peacekeepers for the actions of a few. They say the issue should be addressed in the General Assembly instead. But General Assembly actions are not legally binding, while Security Council resolutions are.
Egypt’s U.N. Ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta said libeling and “branding entire states” is totally unacceptable and “drastically and inevitably affects the morale of the troops.” He said it would have been more appropriate if the Security Council focused on the root causes of sex crimes including training and supervision at camps for peacekeepers.
One of the 25 allegations this year is against an Egyptian peacekeeper in the Central African Republic. Egyptian authorities are investigating the case, according to the U.N. website.
Russia and China supported the Egyptian amendment but then voted in favor of the resolution.
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Petr Iliichev said it was “wrong” for the council to reject the Egyptian amendment which reflected the view of troop contributing countries.
But he said Russia decided to support the resolution because the final text was expanded to call for all forces deployed by the Security Council - a reference to French troops accused of sexually abusing children in Central African Republic and African Union soldiers in Somalia, Darfur and elsewhere.
“Today is a step in the right direction,” Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Director Tirana Hassan said, “but it will still require significant reform throughout the U.N. system.”
(AP)

France's Hollande vows ‘no concessions’ to Turkey on rights, visas

© Mustafa Ozer, AFP | Turkey has secured a pledge to revive talks on its accession to the European Union.

Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2016-03-12

French President Francois Hollande said Saturday that the EU must not grant Turkey any concessions on human rights or visas in exchange for guarantees to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.

"There cannot be any concessions on the matter of human rights or the criteria for visa liberalisation," Hollande told reporters ahead of the resumption next week of tough negotiations between Turkey and the EU in Brussels.
Under a controversial draft deal reached this week, Turkey would take back all migrants landing in Greece in a bid to reduce their incentive to pay people smugglers for dangerous crossings to the Greek islands in rickety boats.
In return for every Syrian sent back from Greece, the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey – which is hosting about 2.7 million people who have fled the conflict across the border.
Turkey is also demanding six billion euros ($6.6 billion) in aid, visa-free access for its nationals within Europe's passport-free Schengen zone and for swifter action to process its bid to join the EU.
Criticism of draft deal

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 the rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Hollande, speaking in Paris after talks with several left-wing leaders from around Europe, called for more “clarification and transparency” in discussions with Turkey.
The French president also said "there must be protection of the [EU’s] external borders" to avoid the re-establishment of new internal borders in Schengen – a reference to steps taken by individual member states to reintroduce border controls in a bid to keep migrants at bay.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
 

China's criminal conviction near 100 percent in 2015

© AFP/File | China found almost 100 percent of criminal defendants guilty in 2015, according to figures from the country's top court

BEIJING (AFP) -  China found almost 100 percent of criminal defendants guilty last year, figures from the country's top court showed on Sunday, even as authorities pledged to reduce wrongful convictions.
A total of 1,039 accused were "declared innocent" by Chinese courts in 2015, Zhou Qiang, head of the Supreme People's Court, said in a report to the annual session of the Communist-controlled National People's Congress (NPC) legislature.
In contrast 1.232 million were found guilty, a conviction rate of 99.92 percent.
The corresponding figures for 2014 were 778 acquittals and 1.184 million convictions, according to Zhou's report last year.
The use of force to extract confessions remains widespread in China and rights groups say suspects often do not have an effective defence in criminal trials, leading to regular miscarriages of justice.
Courts are politically controlled, with activists who come to trial virtually certain to be found guilty.
Public anger has mounted over miscarriages of justice, and in recent years courts have reversed death sentences in a handful of cases marred.
In February alone, five men were acquited of murder charges for which they had been wrongly jailed more than two decades earlier.
Chinese courts "corrected" 1,357 verdicts in 2015, the report said, but only explained the outcome of three cases.
The country should "learn a serious lesson" from the cases, Zhou said in the report, and "improve the mechanisms which can effectively prevent and correct false and wrong cases in a timely manner".
The Communist Party has pledged to ensure the "rule of law with Chinese characteristics" and said it will lessen the influence of local officials over courts.

© 2016 AFP

Defiant Trump stares down protesters after rally violence

© AFP / by Michael Mathes | Attendees clash during a Trump rally at the International Exposition Center in Cleveland, Ohio

CLEVELAND (AFP) -  Donald Trump trained his fire on the protesters disrupting his rallies, branding them "thugs" and extremists, as White House rivals warned the Republican's heated rhetoric was dangerously fanning tensions.
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton issued a stern warning a day after a Trump rally in Chicago was called off amid scenes of violence, with days to go until a crucial round of nomination votes Tuesday.
"If you play with matches, you're going to start a fire you can't control. That's not leadership, that's political arson," Clinton said.
But Trump dismissed the notion his extreme statements on immigrants and Muslims had exacerbated tensions, placing the blame squarely on "organized thugs" as he returned to his theme over and over on the campaign trail Saturday.
After a demonstrator tried to rush on stage during Trump's rally in Dayton, Ohio, early Saturday, the candidate made unverified claims that the man was linked to the Islamic State group.
"So, the judge let him go. And then one of my people said, wow. They found his name, and it was probably ISIS or ISIS related. Do you believe it? Certainly, he's not in love with our country, that I can tell you, okay?" Trump said.
According to the Dayton Daily news website, the man in question is a 22-year-old anti-racism activist named Thomas Dimassimo, who was filmed last year taking part in a protest that involved students standing on American flags, holding signs saying, "Not my flag."
In support of his claim, Trump tweeted a link to a video of the flag protest, dubbed over with Islamic chants in what appeared to be a crude hoax intended to suggest ties to extremism.
Earlier, Trump had described the Chicago skirmishes as a "planned attack" by organized agitators against his supporters -- the "nice folks."
He blamed "our communist friend," the Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, who has urged Trump to act against violence at his rallies and said he never encouraged his backers to disrupt them.
"Where do these people come from?" Trump asked. "They're Bernie's crowd."
- Palpable tension -
Friday's violence flared after throngs of protesters -- many of them blacks and Latinos angered by Trump's anti-immigrant stance -- massed at the Chicago venue in a tense standoff with the candidate's own supporters, with fistfights breaking out as the meeting was called off.
Trump hosted two huge meetings Saturday in the heartland state of Ohio and one in Kansas, which passed off without major troubles, but in a climate of palpable tension with groups of protesters picketing the various venues.
In Cleveland, protesters gathered outside the cavernous exhibition center hosting Trump's rally holding signs that read "Dump Trump!," and "Donald Trump: Making America Hate Again."
Half a dozen police on horseback watched from a distance a heated verbal exchange between several black protesters and mostly white Trump supporters who yelled in their faces: "Get a job! Get a job!"
The evening rally in Kansas City was repeatedly disrupted by protests.
"Get 'em out," Trump said. "I hope they arrest these people, because they're really violating all of us, okay?" he said, vowing to press charges.
Bill Burns, a small businessman from Sheffield Lake, Ohio who came to cheer Trump in Cleveland, was clear on who was to blame for the troubles.
"All the problems are from the protesters," said the tall, bearded 41-year-old, who wore a T-shirt reading "EBOLA," with the "O" made to resemble Barack Obama's campaign logo.
"They're the ones out there, you see them standing on the American flag. What do you expect to happen? You're just adding fuel to the fire."
- Make-or-break -
Saturday's campaign stops came three days ahead of key elections expect to further winnow the Republican field, with Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich both facing make-or-break tests in their home states.
Trump's three remaining rivals for the Republican nomination --- Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich -- seized a chance to bring the frontrunner down a notch and unanimously condemned the rally chaos.
But many in the party see Tuesday's votes as the last best chance to derail Trump's insurgent candidacy.
Cruz scored a small victory Saturday against Trump, trouncing him with 66.3 percent of the vote in the Wyoming Republican caucus, against 19.5 percent for Rubio and just 7.2 percent for Trump.
That hands Cruz nine more delegates for the Republican national convention. Cruz also picked up one delegate in Guam, though the US island territory's five other delegates remain uncommitted. Rubio won the caucuses in the US capital Washington.
But the reality TV star, who has never served in elected office, has so far won 15 of 27 early contests -- to the despair of the Republican establishment.

by Michael Mathes

© 2016 AFP