Security forces on alert ahead of tense Philippine elections

MANILA (AFP) - 

Tens of thousands of security forces fanned out across the Philippines Sunday on the eve of national polls, following a bitter and deadly election campaign plagued by rampant vote-buying and intimidation.

Elections are a traditionally volatile time in a nation infamous for lax gun laws and a violent political culture, and they have been inflamed again this year by allegations of massive corruption from the local village to presidential level.

"Vote-buying is everywhere," Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Luie Guia told reporters.

"We are receiving reports that everything is being used to buy votes, not only money. It could be (plastic) basins, groceries."

Such small gifts are an effective, if illegal, way for politicians to win support in a nation where roughly one quarter of its 100 million people live below the poverty line.

To try to check vote buying, the election commission has banned mobile phones in polling places. This is so people cannot photograph their ballots to prove to vote-buyers that they cast their ballots for the right candidates.

At the national level, presidential and vice presidential rivals are also accusing each other of trying to rig the elections.

President Benigno Aquino, who is limited by the constitution to a single term of six years, has warned the favourite to succeed him, Rodrigo Duterte, is a dictator in the making and will bring terror to the nation.

Duterte, mayor of the southern city of Davao, has in turn accused Aquino's administration of planning "massive cheating" to ensure that his preferred successor, former interior secretary Mar Roxas, wins.

Followers of Duterte, who has admitted links to vigilante death squads in Davao that rights groups say have killed more than 1,000 people, have warned of a "revolution" if he loses.

Meanwhile, at least 15 people have died in election-related violence, according to national police statistics.

In the latest suspected case, a grenade blast killed a nine-year-old girl behind the house of a powerful political warlord in the strife-torn province of Maguindanao late on Saturday, said Chief Inspector Jonathan del Rosario.

The girl's death has not yet been included in the tally, although it likely will be, according to del Rosario, spokesman for a police election-monitoring taskforce in Manila.

"This looks like it is election-related but we have a process we have to follow," he told AFP.

Del Rosario said 90 percent of the nation's police force, or about 135,000 officers, were already on election-related duty and had been authorised to carry their assault rifles. He said they were guarding polling and canvassing places and manning road checkpoints.

© 2016 AFP

Greece has 'basically achieved' reform goals, says Juncker

Greece has "basically achieved" the objectives of the reforms required by its creditors and its eurozone partners will begin discussing possible debt relief for the country, according to European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.

"We are now at the time of the first review of the programme (to aid Greece) and the objectives have been basically achieved," Juncker said in an interview to be published Sunday in the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers in Germany.

Greece's creditors carried out the review intended to evaluate progress on reforms by the Athens government as it hopes to unlock the next tranche of its 86-billion-euro ($95 billion) bailout agreed in July.

The Eurogroup, comprised of the 19 finance ministers of the euro area countries, is set to meet Monday in Brussels and take up this review of Greek reforms.

They will also "start the first discussions about how to make Greece's debt sustainable in the long term", Juncker told the German papers.

Approval of the reforms is needed before any consideration of Greek debt relief, but despite months of talks, Greece's reforms have yet to win the backing of all its creditors largely due to differences between the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which has demanded more reforms.

Juncker's comments come as Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos Saturday called on his eurozone partners to back Greece's reform package of cuts worth 5.4 billion euros, and to put aside the creditors' call for 3.6 billion euros of additional measures.

"Any package in excess of 5.4 billion is bound to be seen by both Greek citiziens and economic agents, within and beyond Greece, as socially and economically counter-productive," he wrote in a letter to the Eurogroup.

Tsakalotos warned of the price of a "failed state" if the crucial talks on Monday run aground.

At the same time IMF chief Christine Lagarde also addressed the Eurogroup in a letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, urging the ministers to take up the question of debt relief.

Lagarde stressed the need to revise down the goal of Greece achieving a primary budget surplus of 3.5 percent of GDP in 2018, saying it was "counterproductive" to expect Athens to meet the target.

But the IMF also said there were "significant gaps" in Greece's reform offers.

Greece is under pressure as it faces a huge payment to the European Central Bank in July, with fears growing that Athens could default if the bailout funds do not come through.

(AFP)

Gunmen kill eight Egyptian police near Cairo

Gunmen shot dead eight plainclothed Egyptian policemen in the Helwan district south of Cairo, the interior ministry said Sunday.

The policemen were travelling in a minivan when the assailants in a pickup truck blocked their path and sprayed the vehicle with automatic rifle fire, the ministry said.

Jihadists, including Islamist State group militants, have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in attacks, mostly in the Sinai Peninsula and also in and around Cairo.

Egyptian criminal gangs have also killed policemen in shoot outs, but the attack bore the hallmarks of jihadists who have waged an insurgency since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The interior ministry said the dead included a lieutenant and seven lower ranking policemen who were patrolling the area just south of the capital when they were ambushed late at night.

Militants had struck before in Helwan, killing a policeman standing guard outside a museum in June 2015.

The jihadists, who are based in the sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, have repeatedly tried to make inroads in the capital, where police have had more success in quelling them than in Sinai.

They have claimed several attacks in Cairo, including an attempted assassination of the interior minister in late 2013 and the bombing of the Italian consulate in July 2015.

More recently militants have conducted hit and run attacks on policemen in Cairo and small scale bombings.

Retaliation

They often claim their attacks are in retaliation for a bloody police crackdown on Islamist supporters of Morsi, which has killed hundreds of protesters and imprisoned thousands.

They have also targeted foreigners.

In October, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a south Sinai resort, killing all 224 people on board.

The group said it smuggled explosives concealed in a soda can on to the plane in airport at Sharm El-Sheikh, a popular Red Sea resort in south Sinai.

That attack prompted Russia to suspend all flights to Egypt, and has lost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism revenues.

The bombing came two months after they abducted a Croatian oil worker near Cairo and beheaded him.

Police later tracked down the top Islamic State group operative in Cairo, who was linked to the Croat's murder, and killed him in a shoot out.

But efforts to quell the insurgency in Sinai have floundered despite a massive army campaign.

In March, Islamic State gunmen killed 15 policemen in an attack on a checkpoint near the El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai.

Since pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq, in November 2014, the Sinai branch's attacks have grown more sophisticated.

The military says it has killed more than 1,000 militants, occasionally publishing pictures of their bodies.

The claims are difficult to verify, with reporters having little access to the north of the peninsula.

(AFP)

North Korea’s Kim says will not use nuclear arms unless threatened

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will not use nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is infringed by others with nuclear arms, and is willing to normalize ties with states that had been hostile towards it, state media said on Sunday.

Isolated North Korea has made similar statements in the past, although it has also frequently threatened to attack the United States and South Korea, and has defied United Nations resolutions in its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Kim also set out a five-year plan to boost economic growth, emphasizing the need to improve North Korea’s electricity supply, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

The North “will faithfully fulfill its obligation for non-proliferation and strive for the global denuclearization,” Kim said in a report to a rare congress of the ruling Workers’ Party (WPK) that opened on Friday, the KCNA news agency reported.

The first congress in 36 years began amid anticipation by the South Korean government and experts that the young third-generation leader would use it to further consolidate power. Kim became leader in 2011 after his father’s sudden death.

On Sunday morning, foreign journalists were told to dress presentably and were brought to the People’s Palace of Culture, where dozens of black Mercedes-Benz E-class sedans, with the 727 number plates reserved for the highest government officials, were parked.

However, after a one-hour wait in a lobby outside large wooden doors with frosted glass, the journalists were taken back to their hotel without having met any officials.
While the North Korean capital has been tidied-up as part of a 70-day campaign of intensified labour ahead of the congress, the 128 members of the foreign media invited to Pyongyang to cover the event had yet to be granted access to the proceedings.

Short on details

Although Kim’s economic plan was short on details, Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership, said it was significant that Kim had set out an economic plan at all.

“In stark contrast to his father, he is publicly taking responsibility for the economy and development as the originator of the policy. His father never undertook that responsibility,” Madden said.

Late on Saturday, North Korean state TV showed video of Kim addressing the congress which, according to state media, includes 3,467 voting delegates.

“As a responsible nuclear weapons state, our Republic will not use a nuclear weapon unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying on the second day of the meeting on Saturday.

“The WPK and the DPRK government will improve and normalize the relations with those countries which respect the sovereignty of the DPRK and are friendly towards it, though they had been hostile toward it in the past,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kim, 33, also called for improved ties with the rival South by erasing misunderstanding and mistrust, although he has made similar proposals in the past that led to talks by government officials that made little progress.

The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and relations have been at a low since the North’s January nuclear test, its fourth.

North Korea came under toughened new U.N. sanctions in March after its most recent nuclear test and the launch of a long-range rocket that put an object into space orbit in defiance of past Security Council resolutions.

Since then, it has continued to engage in nuclear and missile development activities and claimed that it had succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead and launching a submarine-based ballistic missile.

In March, Kim said the North would soon test a nuclear warhead, and South Korea has said Pyongyang may conduct its fifth nuclear test in conjunction with the party congress.

(REUTERS)

Nobel laureates call for easing of sanctions on North Korea

During a week-long trip, three renowned scientists have seen for themselves the impact of international sanctions on North Korea. They say the quality of medical care and academic research has been weakened. 

Nobel medicine prize winner Richard Roberts, Nobel economics prize winner Finn Kydland and Nobel chemistry prize winner Aaron Ciechanover have described how United Nations sanctions and a lack of internet access are hampering North Korean scientists.

Speaking to reporters following their visit to Pyongyang, the three laureates from Norway, Britain and Israel called for a rollback of many of the international restrictions that have been placed on the Communist state.

"You don't pressurize via making people sicker," said Ciechanover: "That's not the right way to go."

Roberts described how North Korean academic institutions suffered from a lack of modern scientific equipment. He said restrictions on internet use prevented most scientists from collaborating with colleagues in other countries, or accessing the latest scientific literature.

"So this embargo is really hurting the scientists in some major ways, and I think that's a great shame," Roberts added.

He said there was a strong desire for more international exchanges. During the trip, at least two North Korean students were invited to the West.

The Western scientists visited hospitals, universities and research institutes in Pyongyang and met with students and academics. They described clean and modern facilities - a stark contrast to other accounts, which describe the country as brutally impoverished.

The trip, which has been described as an exercise in "silent diplomacy," was planned more than two years ago with help from the International Peace Foundation (IPF). In turn the Vienna-based organization received an unsolicited email from the Korean National Peace Committee.

The visit coincided with the start of the congress of the ruling North Korean Workers' Party, the first in 36 years. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to be bestowed with the country's top title during the conference.

The scientists insisted that they had no contact with the country's top leadership.

Earlier this year, the UN tightened sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang carried out several ballistic missile launches and its fourth nuclear bomb test.

On Saturday, US observers said they believed Pyongyang was planning another nuclear test.

Tear gas used on Brenner Pass protest against Austria migration policy

Dozens of protesters have thrown bricks and firecrackers at a police blockade, with officers using tear gas in response. Austria's plans to tighten border controls have angered many Italians. 

Video footage posted to social media Saturday showed a line of riot police being attacked by projectiles and smoke bombs just a few hundred meters from the Austrian border with Italy.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters, many of whom were hooded or wore helmets or gas masks.

The Italian news agency Ansa reported that about 500 people had gathered close to the Brenner Pass border to demand a reversal of a raft of Austrian anti-migrant measures, which include new border controls on the Austria-Italy border.

One official was injured and several demonstrators were arrested, according to the German news agency dpa.

The protest spilled over on to the railway, blocking train services, and then onto the highway. Italy's state television RAI showed police detaining one demonstrator near some railway tracks.

Saturday's protest went ahead despite a prohibition zone being placed around the mountainous Brenner Pass after a similar demonstration on Friday.

Free movement 'at risk'

After receiving 90,000 asylum applications over the past year, Austria has speeded up plans to restrict access through the Alpine crossing and to build a fence to prevent a new influx of refugees arriving through Italy.

The Austrian government said it was forced to take preventive measures after another major migrant route, through Greece and the Balkans, was shut off, leaving the Alpine route vulnerable.

The Brenner is a key route between Austria and Italy and until recently, there were no border controls as the crossing is part of Europe's borderless Schengen zone.

Since January 1, over 28,500 migrants have landed in Italy, with many of them then heading to other European countries.

EC Commissioner warns of consequences

Also on Saturday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker waded into the debate over the new border controls, saying they would be a "political catastrophe" for Europe.

"Everything that blocks the Brenner Pass will have not just serious economic consequences, but most importantly heavy political consequences," he said, referring to the route being a major European transport corridor.

mm/jm (dpa, AP)

CSU contemplates independent campaign against Merkel's CDU in 2017 election

The Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is pondering an even more independent campaign in Germany's 2017 election. The refugee crisis and the rise of the AfD has divided the parties. 

German magazine "Spiegel" reported on Saturday that next year's election could see the Christian Social Union (CSU) campaigning even more independently than in 2013.

At a meeting of the CSU Strategy Commission for next year's election, Horst Seehofer, chairman of the CSU and Minister President of Bavaria, reportedly said that if the CDU fails to deal with the growing popularity of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), then the CSU must, at a pinch, launch its own election campaign.

The populist AfD, which was initially founded as an anti-bailout alliance in 2013, is now represented in eight of Germany's 16 state parliaments. Even at the national level, the party has made strong gains, with opinion polls suggesting that they now hold between 12 and 14 percent of the vote.

According to German newspaper "Bild," Merkel told party allies on Monday that more needed to be done to win over conservative voters to prevent even more of them jumping ship to support the AfD. The CDU must "grapple with other opinions, including those of the AfD, without foam at the mouth and without blanket prejudice," Merkel said.

Differences previously 'unimaginable'

In the event that the CSU campaigns indepependently for the 2017 chancellery, Seehofer would run at the top of the national candidates,"Spiegel" reported.

"Then it must be made clear to voters that they're not choosing Merkel, but the CSU," Seehofer said.

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) told "Spiegel" that it was unclear whether there would be a common election platform of both parties.

"I'd never have imagined that the CDU and CSU could even think so differently about such a central topic as we've seen on the issue of refugees," he added.

In light of the unprecedented influx of some 1.1 million refugees to Germany last year, tensions between the two sister parties have dramatically increased in recent months, with Seehofer - whose state lies on the border with Austria and thus at the heart of Germany's refugee crisis - publicly criticizing Merkel's open-door policy on countless occasions.

The CSU has repeatedly called on Merkel to restrict the number of new refugee arrivals this year to 200,000. But with the chancellor strongly opposed to limiting the amount of people able to seek asylum in Germany, tensions remain high.

'Bavaria plan'

The CSU already stressed their independence in the 2013 chancellery election campaign. Although there was a common election manifesto, the CSU still campaigned for the national, as well as the state election with a "Bavaria plan."

Included in the plan were points which the CSU was unable to include in the joint manifesto due to opposition from the CDU, such as the introduction of a car toll fee for foreigners and nationwide referendums on fundamental EU decisions.