Unsafe brick factories

Unsafe brick factories

2016-12-31 13:58:52.0

(By Pritam Bhattarai)

Kathmandu: Around three weeks ago, 18-months old girl named Urmila Tamang drowned in a pit dug while making bricks for a brick factory at Sunapa in Bhaktapur. The incident took place in the area leased by the owner of the brick factory for which Tamang's parents are working as brick-maker.

This is not a single incident occurred due to the negligence of both the parents and the brick factory owner. According to police data, the total 17 children drowned in such ditches dug for making bricks on the premises of brick industries in Bhaktapur in the past three years alone (six in 2070 BS, five in 2071 BS and six in 2072 BS).

 Repeated incident of this nature exposes utter negligence on the part of law enforcers and concerned authorities. Each brick industry digs at least 20 pits up to 20 meters deep to store water for making bricks. However, many such dug ditches are unsafe and remain open without fencing, risking incidents of drowning. There are around 800 registered brick factories across the country, many of them are located in Bhaktapur, according to the Federation of Nepal Brick Industries.

The worst side of such incident is neither police case has been filed in above incidents of death nor kin of the victims have got a decent compensation. Many kin of the victims are uneducated and not even aware of filing a police case. It means that such cases are settled between family of victim and brick owner responsible for such case. In most such cases, the kin of victim do not get a decent compensation.

In case of Urmila, her family members are not even aware of filing a police case. Mandip Tamang, father of Urmila, said he does not know when he would get compensation. "My brick factory owner has promised to provide compensation. But I do not know when." However, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mitra Bandhu Sharma, who looked into the case of Urmila, said there is no any legal provision to register a police case in the case of Urmila as this is not a murder case.

 He said cases of this nature are settled mutually between the family of victim and the other party. But Mona Ansari, spokesperson for the National Human Rights Commission, said one can file a police case in cases of such nature as the law has clearly restricted the practice of child labour. She said brick factory owners who have dug pits in the premises of brick factories should make such ditches safe with fencing or any other means. In an incident of such nature four years ago, a seven year-old boy drowned in a pit dug in the premises of a brick factory at Tathari in Nagarkot. Family of the deceased did not take the body initially, demanding legal action against the guilty. But later police intervened and the case was settled without filing a police case. Steps such as a regular monitoring to ensure safety of such ditches in the premises of brick factories, asking brick factory owner to guard such pits with fencing, making aware parents and not allowing children on the premises of brick factories must be taken to avert such incidents. Besides, as Sharma suggests, insuring labourers working at brick factories could be another option.

But to make the matter worse, almost all labourers working at brick industries not only in Bhaktapur, but across the country are yet to be insured. Suresh Prajapati, programme director of Mingergy, a NGO working for the welfare of labourers at brick factories, said except for one case or two, all labourers working at brick industries, to my knowledge, are not insured. He said insurance policy will help brick-makers get compensated in case of death or other accident once they are insured at least under accidental insurance. However, the Ministry of Labour and Employment pays ignorance about the idea. Gobinda Bhurtel, spokesperson for the ministry, said he does not know about the matter. RSS

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Philippines urges evacuations ahead of Christmas Day typhoon

Philippines urges evacuations ahead of Christmas Day typhoon

2016-12-24 15:38:21.0

MANILA, Dec. 24 : (AFP) - Philippine authorities urged hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes on Saturday as a strong typhoon threatened to wallop the country's east coast on Christmas Day.

Nock-Ten is expected to be packing winds of 222 kilometres per hour (138 miles per hour) when it makes landfall on Catanduanes, a remote island of 250,000 people, on Sunday, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.

It is then expected to hit the country's main island of Luzon, including the capital Manila, on Monday."We issued an advisory to local government units this morning to conduct preemptive evacuations," Rachel Miranda, spokeswoman for the civil defence office in the Bicol region that includes Catanduanes, told AFP.

Bicol, an agricultural region of 5.5 million people, is often the first area to be hit by the 20 or so storms and typhoons that pound the archipelago each year.

The most powerful and deadliest was Haiyan, which left 7,350 people dead or missing and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.

The Philippine weather service warned of potentially deadly two-metre (six-and-a-half-foot) waves along the east coast, as well as landslides and flash floods from heavy rains.

Local broadcaster ABS-CBN showed footage Saturday of long lines of trucks, cars and vehicles stranded at Bicol ports after the coastguard shut down ferry crossings to nearby islands as a precaution.The action prevented thousands of people from returning to their hometowns for the Christmas weekend, it said.

Cedric Daep, civil defence chief for the Bicol province of Albay, told AFP at least 400,000 people in that region alone needed to be evacuated.

"Our evacuation centres will not be able to accommodate all of them," he said. Others were being asked to stay with relatives or friends."We are requesting vehicle support" from other government agencies to move people to safety, Daep added.

In Aleppo, Assad supporters shout their joy after regime victory

In Aleppo, Assad supporters shout their joy after regime victory

2016-12-23 16:29:36.0

ALEPPO, Syria, Dec. 23: (AFP) - Thousands of people in western Aleppo took to the streets Thursday, rejoicing in the Syrian regime's operation to retake the eastern side of their city from rebels after a years-long battle.

Celebratory gunfire began to erupt and crowds began to fill the streets as soon as the army announced the last rebels had left east Aleppo.

The western side of the city had been under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's forces throughout the conflict, and also suffered heavy shelling and loss of life.

"We've been waiting five years for this. We have suffered, what with the rebels, the water shortages and the power cuts," said Rana al-Salem, 29, as tears welled in her eyes and noise rose to a crescendo in the background.

Cars crawled along, their drivers sounding their horns, and in city squares, children had the colours of the Syrian flag painted on their cheeks.Some carried portraits of Assad or the flags of Syria and Russia, whose air raids against the rebels were a turning point.

"Our joy is immense. Life returned to Aleppo today," said lawyer Omar Halli, who predicted "victory over all of Syria".

"God, Syria, Bashar are all we need," "Hey, hey, hey, Aleppo," "With our soul, our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for Syria!," some chanted.ome took selfies in the middle of the crowd, and others let off fireworks.

"My mother swore that I would only get married in our house, in the Old City," a 26-year-old man who gave his name as Assaad, told AFP."I am going to go back to our house and build another floor on it, and I'll be living there after my wedding," he vowed.

Centuries old and studded with historic stone buildings, the Old City became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.But in the battle of Aleppo, the quarter was on the frontline, between the rebel-held east and regime-held west. In 2013, the UN agency placed it on its list of cultural heritage that was at risk.

Aleppo, Syria's second city, was an economic powerhouse for the country before the war, and locally-born businessman Aly Akkam predicted it would rise once more.

"Aleppo will bounce back even stronger," Akkam said, adding he planned to return to the Old City where he had a textile shop that he had to abandon.

The loss of east Aleppo is the biggest blow to the rebel movement in Syria's nearly six-year conflict, which has killed more than 310,000 people.Wednesday's announcement came after a landmark evacuation deal that ended a month-long offensive by government forces and allied militia.

IS 'burns Turkish troops alive' after Ankara vows no let-up

IS 'burns Turkish troops alive' after Ankara vows no let-up

2016-12-23 16:30:30.0

BEIRUT, Dec. 23: (AFP) - The Islamic State jihadist group has released a video purportedly showing two captured Turkish soldiers being burned alive, after Ankara vowed to fight "terror" in Syria in response to 16 of its troops being killed in battle.   The 19-minute video, showing two uniformed men being hauled from a cage before being bound and torched, was posted on jihadist websites and was supposedly shot in the IS-declared "Aleppo Province" in northern Syria.

Speaking in Turkish, the killer of the two men criticises Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and calls for "destruction to be sowed" in Turkey.The shocking images recall the killing of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, a Jordanian fighter pilot, who was captured by the jihadists when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014, and was later burned alive in a cage.

The IS-linked news agency Amaq said last month that the jihadists had kidnapped two Turkish soldiers, and the Turkish army separately said it had lost contact with two of its men.

The video's release comes a day after 16 Turkish soldiers were killed by IS fighters in Ankara's biggest loss so far in its unprecedented incursion into Syria.They were killed in a succession of attacks around the Syrian town of Al-Bab on Wednesday that included three suicide car bombings.

The heavy toll showed the intensifying battle for the town, which Turkish forces have been seeking to capture for weeks in the biggest test of their four-month incursion into Syria.

Turkish troops entered Syria on August 24 in support of pro-Ankara Syrian rebels, with the aim of ousting IS jihadists as well as Kurdish militia from the border area.

At least 38 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the operation, which the Turkish government has dubbed Euphrates Shield.

Speaking earlier Thursday, Erdogan vowed no let-up in the ongoing campaign."Yes, maybe we will have to lay martyrs to rest," he said in a speech in Ankara."But we are determined to preserve their memory and protect what they left us and continue this struggle."

Turkey, he said, "is engaged in its most serious struggle since the war of independence" that led to the creation of the modern state in 1923.Turkish television showed distraught relatives of the dead dealing with the news and putting national flags outside their homes.

- 'Difficult fight' -

The earlier stages of Turkey's campaign proceeded with lightning speed and the border town of Jarabulus was taken on the first day of the offensive.But the army has suffered increasing casualties in the fight for Al-Bab -- 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the border.

Defence Minister Fikri Isik told parliament on Thursday that 1,005 IS jihadists and 299 fighters affiliated to the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) had been killed in the operation so far.

Ankara considers the YPG a terror group, even though it works together with the United States as an ally in the fight against IS. The army said the latest clashes erupted around a weapons depot that had been used by IS for the last two years. Al-Bab lies 35 kilometres northeast of Aleppo, which is now under control of government forces in the biggest defeat for rebels in the civil war.Turkey has been a key backer of the rebels and insists the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad is the only way to bring peace to Syria.

But Ankara has stayed out of the most recent battle for Aleppo and worked with Assad's key ally Russia to broker evacuations from the city.

Turkish air strikes on Al-Bab meanwhile killed at least 47 civilians including 14 children and nine women, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. There was no immediate response from the government to the claim.Turkey has also been hit at home by the bloodiest attacks in its modern history, which it blames on jihadists and Kurdish militants. The government is also carrying out a wide-ranging crackdown following an attempted coup in July, which it says was orchestrated by the group of an exiled cleric, Fethullah Gulen.RSS

Happy birthday to Colo: Oldest gorilla in US turns 60

Happy birthday to Colo: Oldest gorilla in US turns 60

2016-12-23 16:28:08.0

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - She is a mother of three, grandmother of 16, great-grandmother of 12 and great-great-grandmother of three. She recently had surgery to remove a malignant tumor, but doctors say she's doing well.

    She's Colo, the nation's oldest living gorilla, and she turned 60 on Thursday at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

    Colo was the first gorilla in the world born in a zoo and has surpassed the usual life expectancy of captive gorillas by two decades. Her longevity is putting a spotlight on the medical care, nutrition and up-to-date therapeutic techniques that are helping lengthen zoo animals' lives.

    "Colo just epitomizes the advances that zoos have made, going all the way back to her birth at Columbus," said Dr. Tom Meehan, vice president for veterinary services at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo and veterinary adviser to a national gorilla species survival plan.

    The changes also mean more animals living with the normal aches and pains of growing older. Today, zoo veterinarians regularly treat animals for heart and kidney disease, arthritis, dental problems and cancer.

    Hundreds of people gathered at the zoo Thursday to see Colo, singing "Happy Birthday" moments before the gorilla ambled into an enclosure decorated with multicolored construction paper chains and filled with cakes such as squash and beet and cornbread with mashed potato parsley frosting.

    Among the first in line was Pam Schlereth of Columbus, who at 63 was just a little girl when her father brought her to see the newborn Colo in a gorilla incubator in 1956.

    "It's a tribute to the zoo that she's alive at 60 years old," Schlereth said.Colo represents so much to the zoo, Tom Stalf, president of the zoo, told the crowd. "It's all about connecting people and wildlife," he said.

    Colo is one of several elderly gorillas around the country. The oldest known living male gorilla, Ozzie, is 55 years old and lives at the Atlanta Zoo, which has a geriatric gorilla specialty.

    At Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, staff members use acupuncture, massage, laser therapy, and heat and joint supplements to help Emma, a 13-year-old rabbit.

    At the National Zoo in Washington, Shanthi, a 42-year-old Asian elephant with arthritis, receives osteoarthritis therapy and was recently fitted with specially crafted front foot boots to help her feet heal as medications are applied.

    In Oakland, California, Tiki, a 27-year-old giraffe and one of the oldest in the nation, gets foot care, massage therapy, acupuncture and chiropractic care, along with traditional veterinary medicine. Gao Gao, a 26-year-old male panda at the San Diego Zoo with a heart condition, periodically undergoes cardiac ultrasounds.

    "Geriatrics is probably one of our most common medical challenges that we face in a zoo situation," said Dr. Keith Hinshaw, director of animal health at the Philadelphia Zoo. "So pretty much anything that you could imagine would happen with an older person is going to happen eventually with any animal."

    That's up to and including medication: JJ, a 45-year-old orangutan at the Toledo Zoo, is on the human heart medicines carvedilol and Lisinopril, along with pain and orthopedic medications. He also takes Metamucil.

    Colo, a western lowland gorilla, holds several other records. On her 56th birthday in 2012, she exceeded the record for longest-lived gorilla. On Thursday, she surpasses the median life expectancy for female gorillas in human care (37.5 years) by more than two decades.

    Other age-defying zoo animals:

POLAR BEAR

    Coldilocks, a 36-year-old polar bear at the Philadelphia Zoo and considered the oldest polar bear in the U.S. The bears' typical lifespan in captivity is 23 years. The zoo says treating her early for kidney disease appears to have helped prolong her life. RHINO

    Elly, an eastern black rhino at the San Francisco Zoo estimated to be 46 years old, is the oldest of her species in North America. She has had 14 calves, and her offspring have produced 15 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great-grandchild. ELEPHANT

    Packy, an Asian elephant at the Oregon Zoo, and at 54, the oldest male of his species in North America. The zoo says Packy, born in 1962, became the first elephant to be born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years.

MONKEY

    Nikko, a 33-year-old snow monkey at the Minnesota Zoo, the oldest male snow monkey in North America.

CHIMPANZEE

    Little Mama, a chimpanzee living at Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Florida, with an estimated age in her late 70s. She takes allergy medicine, iron supplements and omega 3 multivitamins, and has been trained to accept a nebulizer treatment for coughing.

TORTOISE

    Emerson, a Galapagos tortoise at the Toledo Zoo in Ohio, whose age is estimated at about 100. Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/andrew-welsh-huggins This story has been corrected to show that Tiki the giraffe is in Oakland, California, not San Francisco.

The Teacher Who Changed My Life

The Teacher Who Changed My Life

-        Nicholas Gaze

In the essay, "The Teacher Who Changed My Life", the writer, Nicholas Gaze has clarified how a good teacher can really transform the life of students. A good teacher does not provide a fish to eat but he rather teaches him how to fish. So that the students could eat fish throughout the life. In other words, a good teacher explores the potentiality of the students and consequently the students become the successful citizen in the future. The writer himself was a refugee boy who came to America with the trauma of his mother's death. He would like to forget his bitter past but his teacher, Marjourie Hurd changed it into a successful writing. As a result, he became a successful journalist as well as a writer. According to the writer, he was born in 1939 in Greece. At that time there was a radical communist movement in Greece due to which his mother was killed. He was just 9 years old when he lost his mother and he entered America with his two sisters as a refugee boy. His father was already in the USA and he detested his father for not saving his mother. As a refugee boy, Nicholas was sent to a low Graded school for 4 years. Only in 1953, he was sent in an English school where he met Miss Marjourie Hurd. Miss Hurd was the patron of the club named 'Newspaper Club' and he had been there following the most beautiful girl of his class. In fact, he why he joined the Newspaper club. Miss Hurd was a very strict teacher who made her students read the stories of immigrants and refugees. When she knew the pathetic story of Nicholas, she told him to write his own story as a refugee boy and the death of his mother. He did not like to unfold his bitter past however when Miss Hurd insisted, he wrote how his mother was killed mercilessly by the communist Guerrillas. His article made him well known all over his school and it was even published in the school magazine. After the publication of his first article, the writer understood the power of written words. Gradually, he began writing about his motherland and became proud on being born in Greece. He even promised to punish those people who had killed his mother.

Nicholas Gaze became so famous that he was even called by the President of his country America and his photo with the president were carried by his father in his pocket till he took the last breath. Though he did not like his father in the beginning, he adored him at the end because he understood the helplessness of his father. Even though he lost his parents, he always found Miss Hurd at his side with her inspiring words. If Miss Hurd was not his teacher, he would never become a journalist and a writer. In this way, it is the evident that a good teacher always makes the student explore the potentiality due to which the students become a successful citizen in the future.

Mass arrests in DR Congo's second city: residents

Mass arrests in DR Congo's second city: residents

2016-12-22 [22ND DECEMBER, 2016]

LUBUMBASHI, DR Congo, Dec 22, 2016 (AFP) - Soldiers sealed part of DR Congo's second city and carried out mass arrests of young men Thursday, residents said, as talks to defuse the country's explosive political crisis were set to continue.

    Protests and deadly clashes have erupted in the vast country over President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down at the end of his mandate on December 20.

    The army sealed off the Matshipisha-Gbadolite neighbourhood of Lubumbashi from 5am (0300 GMT), five residents of the city told AFP.

    On Wednesday the governor of Haut-Katanga province, Jean-Claude Kazembe, was forced to flee as stones were thrown at him when he tried to visit Matshipisha on a "peace march" aimed at demonstrating that the authorities were in control there following deadly violence on Tuesday.

    Police said a total of 22 people were killed Tuesday in clashes in the capital Kinshasa, Lubumbashi in the southeast, and Matadi and Boma in the west.

    They said eight of the deaths were in Matshipisha, where 47 people were also injured.

    Human Rights Watch has placed the total death toll at 26.

    "The army has sealed off the district and carried out arrests" of young men and adolescents, said one resident.

    "There are soldiers all along the road" that surrounds the neighbourhood, a resident of an adjacent district said by telephone, adding that soldiers could be seen "going house to house looking for young people".

    "They arrest all men, with or without identity documents. They put them in trucks to take them off in an unknown direction," another resident said, adding that two adolescents and a young man were arrested in his area.

    "I saw three trucks filled with young people," said another resident.

- 'Arbitrary arrests' -

    A demonstration of several dozen people, representing families of those detained, formed outside the Lubumbashi headquarters of the UN's MONUSCO force to protest the "arbitrary arrests". They were cleared by Congolese police around 11:30 am (0930 GMT) without incident.

    Lubumbashi, the capital of Haut-Katanga, is the fiefdom of an opposition leader in exile, Moise Katumbi.

    Talks to end the political crisis headed by the Episcopal Conference, CENCO, resumed on Wednesday after breaking up at the weekend without a breakthrough. CENCO chairman Archbishop Marcel Utembi appealed for a deal by Christmas.

    The mainstream opposition headed by 84-year-old Etienne Tshisekedi has called for "peaceful resistance" from the country's 70 million people, pinning its hopes on a deal at the negotiating table.

    But in what Kabila's opponents dubbed a provocation, a new government was announced overnight Monday.

    In separate development, 17 people were killed in clashes between DR Congo police and members of a cult that believes the end of Kabila's mandate will usher in the apocalypse, a regional governor said Thursday.

    Bienvenu Esimba, governor of DR Congo's northwestern Mongala province, said the clashes broke out Wednesday in the provincial capital Lisala when members of the sect burned dozens of houses and attacked a market before launching an assault on local electoral commission offices.

    DRC has never witnessed a democratic transfer of power following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.

    The president has been in office since his father Laurent Kabila's assassination in 2001. He was elected in 2006, and again in 2011.

    Two decades ago, the country collapsed into the deadliest conflict in modern African history. Its two wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s dragged in at least six African armies and left more than three million dead.

Mortar fire kills 11 including aid workers in Iraq's Mosul: UN

Mortar fire kills 11 including aid workers in Iraq's Mosul: UN

2016-12-22 20:28:35.0

BAGHDAD, Dec 22, 2016 (AFP) - Mortar fire killed 11 people including four aid workers as civilians gathered to receive assistance in the battleground Iraqi city of Mosul, the United Nations said on Thursday.

    Iraqi forces launched an operation on October 17 to retake Mosul, the country's last city held by the Islamic State jihadist group, and have retaken part of its eastern side, but these areas are still exposed to deadly artillery attacks, bombs and gunfire.

    "According to initial reports, four aid workers and at least seven civilians queueing for emergency assistance in eastern Mosul city have been killed by indiscriminate mortar fire," Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement.

    "Within the last 48 hours, there have been two separate incidents" that also wounded up to 40 people, Grande said.

    "People waiting for aid are already vulnerable and need help. They should be protected, not attacked," she said, adding: "The killing of civilians and aid workers violates every humanitarian principle."

    Mahmud al-Sorchi, a spokesman for volunteer fighters from Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, said mortar fire had killed aid workers from a local organisation called Faz3a.

    A post on a Facebook page identified as belonging to an aid organisation called Faz3a said that mortar fire and a roadside bomb in Mosul had killed six of its members.

    The UN announcement came a day after Human Rights Watch said that IS was "indiscriminately" attacking civilians who refused to retreat along with the jihadists in Mosul.

    "Residents said (IS) members told them in person, by radio, and over mosque loudspeakers that those who stayed behind were 'unbelievers' and therefore valid targets along with the Iraqi and coalition forces," the rights group said.

    The jihadists have targeted civilians with mortars, explosives and gunfire, HRW said.

    Amnesty International highlighted the impact of the Mosul conflict on children, saying they were exposed to injury or death, in addition to witnessing horrific violence.

    "Children caught in the crossfire of the brutal battle for Mosul have seen things that no one, of any age, should ever see," Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said.

    More than 100,000 people have been displaced since the battle for Mosul began more than two months ago, but the Iraqi government has encouraged civilians to stay in their homes if possible.

    This keeps the number of people from fleeing from reaching the catastrophic proportions estimated by some aid organisations before the Mosul operation began, but also exposes civilians to significantly more danger than they would face if they moved to camps.

    Iraq's elite counter-terrorism service punched into Mosul from the east, but progress has since slowed and the battle is far from over.

    Forces that made a long advance toward Mosul on the southern front have yet to enter the city, as have those on the northern side.

    The immediate area around western Mosul remains open on the ground, though forces from pro-government paramilitary groups have advanced close to the town of Tal Afar, between Mosul and the Syrian border.

Japan sends troops to fight massive fire

Japan sends troops to fight massive fire

2016-12-22 16:33:59.0

TOKYO, Dec. 22 : (AFP) - Japan drafted in troops Thursday to help contain a rapidly spreading fire, fanned by strong winds, which engulfed dozens of buildings and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from a northern city.

Aerial footage broadcast live on Japanese TV showed massive orange flames and thick smoke spewing out of buildings in the city of Itoigawa in Niigata prefecture.Troops were on their way to the coastal city after Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyam requested military aid, an official in the fire division of the prefectural government said.

"At the moment, activities to put out the fire are still going on," he told AFP on the phone."About 50 houses and buildings have been damaged," he said.The blaze started at 10:28 am (0128 GMT) at a Chinese restaurant, and a total of 17 fire trucks have been deployed in the area.

The blaze spread quickly due to strong winds, according to public broadcaster NHK.

"Sparks of fire flew around," a man in the neighbourhood told NHK."That's why far away buildings unexpectedly caught fire and it became large-scale. I've never seen something like this before."

The city also issued an evacuation advisory to 586 residents in the neighbourhood.Despite the scale of the fire, there were few reported injuries.Two women in their 40s were lightly injured. One fell sick after inhaling smoke and a prefectural government employee fell and hit her head, according to the fire division official.

France, Britain push for helicopter ban, sanctions on Syria

France, Britain push for helicopter ban, sanctions on Syria

2016-12-22 16:34:13.0

UNITED NATIONS, United States, Dec. 22 : (AFP) - France and Britain are pushing the UN Security Council to ban the sale of helicopters to Syria and to impose the first sanctions over the use of chemical weapons in the five-year war.

A draft resolution obtained by AFP on Wednesday calls for asset freezes and travel bans against four Syrian officials and 10 entities including a Syrian research center tied to chemical weapons development.

Diplomats however said the measure is certain to be vetoed by Russia, Syria's ally, which has blocked council action on Syria with six vetoes so far.A vote at the council is expected as early as next week.

A joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that several units of the Syrian army had used toxic weapons against three villages in northern Syria in 2014 and 2015.

It was the first time an international probe blamed President Bashar Al-Assad's forces after years of denial from Damascus.

Government helicopters flying from two regime-controlled air bases dropped chlorine barrel-bombs on the villages of Qmenas, Talmenes and Sarmin, the panel's latest report said.

Chlorine use as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013 under pressure from Russia.British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said there must be "significant measures" to follow up on the panel's findings and called for sanctions."We'll be pursuing that with our council colleagues and circulating a draft shortly," he told reporters.

Russia however has said that the report's findings are "inconclusive" and not strong enough to warrant sanctions.

Under the proposed measure, the council would demand that all UN member-states "prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer" to the Syrian military and government of "any helicopters, or related materiel including spare parts."

A UN committee that oversees a sanctions blacklist for Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State would also be tasked with adding names of those responsible for a mustard gas attack in Syria in 2015.The UN panel concluded that IS fighters were behind that attack.

The mandate for the joint investigation was recently extended for another year to allow it to investigate chemical attacks that have been reported in Syria this year.The OPCW is investigating more than 20 alleged cases of use of toxic chemicals in Syria since August, the director general told AFP last month.

Trump officially secures title of U.S. President-elect amid protest, turmoil

Trump officially secures title of U.S. President-elect amid protest, turmoil

2016-12-20 16:11:31.0

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 : (Xinhua) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday officially won the Electoral College vote, securing his future four-year presidency amid protest and turmoil fuelled by U.S. intelligence agencies' consensus about Russia's alleged election meddling.

"The official votes cast by the Electoral College exceeded the 270 required to secure the presidency by a very large margin," Trump said in a statement released Monday evening.

"With this historic step we can look forward to the bright future ahead," Trump said, promising to work hard to unite the country and to "be the President of all Americans."

A total of 538 electors, chosen by their state political parties, convened on Monday in Washington D.C. and 50 statehouses across the country to cast two votes - one for the president and one for the vice president.

Before Monday's electoral vote, which has long been regarded as little more than a formality, many Republican electors have been urged to defect from Trump amid continuous protests over Trump's election victory.

Major U.S. intelligence leaders have expressed support for an assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that Russia intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election partly to help Trump win the White House.

The hope of the so-called "Hamilton Electors" was to dump Trump by having at least 37 Republican electors vote against the will of their states so as to deprive Trump of the 270 electoral vote majority.

However, in the end all but two Republican electors stayed loyal to the party's candidate, keeping Trump well above the 270 electoral vote threshold.

Both the two Republican "faithless electors" are from Texas. One voted for Ohio Governor John Kasich and the other for former Texas congressman Ron Paul. In comparison, on the Democratic side, there were at least eight "defectors" emerging from the Electoral College in five states, though three of them were later replaced by state election officials under their state law.

In Minnesota, Hawaii and Colorado, each state had an elector voting for Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton's strongest rival during the Democratic primaries.

In Washington State, three Democratic electors voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is actually an African-American Republican, while one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American environmental activist opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

David Bright, a Maine Democratic elector, announced early on Monday that he would vote for Sanders instead of Clinton so as to help the embattled Democratic Party woo back young voters.

"Hillary Clinton will not become President, and there is nothing I can do about that. Knowing this, I was left to find a positive statement I could make with my vote," said Bright on Facebook. However, he finally recast his vote for Clinton after being deemed improper.

Most U.S. states have laws compelling electors to follow their state's popular vote result. However, there is no federal or Constitutional directive for that. Local media said only nine U.S. electors in the past 100 years broke from their states' Election Day results.

The number of electors each state has is equal to its number of representatives and senators in Congress - 538 in total, with those extra three electors coming from Washington, District of Columbia. Among them are state party leaders, elected officials or just individuals with a personal connection to a presidential candidate.The Congress, where Republicans hold a majority, is set to certify the vote on Jan. 6. RSS

Police: Truck attack that killed 12 in Berlin 'intentional'

Police: Truck attack that killed 12 in Berlin 'intentional'

2016-12-20 16:11:00.0

BERLIN, Dec. 20 :  (AP) Police said Tuesday that the driver who rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in the heart of the German capital, killing at least 12 people and injuring nearly 50, did so intentionally and that they are investigating a suspected "terror attack."

The truck struck the popular Christmas market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church late Monday as tourists and locals were enjoying a traditional pre-Christmas evening out near Berlin's Zoo station.

"Our investigators are working on the assumption that the truck was intentionally driven into the crowd at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz," Berlin police said on Twitter.

"All police measures concerning the suspected terror attack at Breitscheidplatz are being taken with great speed and the necessary care," they said.Hours earlier Germany's top security official had refrained from pointing to an intentional act, but said evidence pointed in that direction, while the White House condemned "what appears to have been a terrorist attack."

The crash came less than a month after the U.S. State Department called for caution in markets and other public places across Europe, saying extremist groups including Islamic State and al-Qaida were focusing "on the upcoming holiday season and associated events."

The Islamic State group and al-Qaida have both called on followers to use trucks in particular to attack crowds. On July 14, a truck plowed into Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, which was carried out by a Tunisian living in France.

-: 4 :-

After the Berlin attack, dozens of ambulances lined the streets waiting to evacuate people, and heavily armed police patrolled. Authorities on Twitter urged people to stay away from the area, saying they need to keep the streets clear for rescue vehicles. Among the dead was a passenger in the truck, who succumbed as paramedics treated him, Berlin police spokesman Winfried Wenzel said. Police said later that the man was a Polish national, but didn't give further details of who he was or what happened to him.

A suspect believed to be the driver was picked up about 2 kilometers (1½ miles) away, near the Victory Column monument. He was being interrogated, Wenzel said. The truck was registered in Poland, and police said it was believed to be stolen from a building site there. They didn't give a specific location.

The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle, driven by his cousin, may have been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver around noon, and the driver told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning. "They must have done something to my driver," he told TVN24.

Federal prosecutors, who handle terrorism cases, took over the investigation, according to German Justice Minister Heiko Maas. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the United States was in contact with German officials and ready to help in the investigation and response.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump blamed Islamist terrorists, though it was unclear what that assessment was based on. He said Islamic extremists must be "eradicated from the face of the earth" and pledged to carry out that mission with all "freedom-loving partners."

But German officials said shortly after the attack that it was too early to call the crash intentional.

"I don't want to use the word 'attack' yet at the moment, although a lot speaks for it," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD television. "There is a psychological effect in the whole country of the choice of words here, and we want to be very, very cautious and operate close to the actual investigation results, not with speculation."

Germany has not experienced any mass-casualty attacks by Islamic extremists, but has been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers in the summer that were claimed by the Islamic State group. Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks, and two others unrelated to Islamic extremism in the same weeklong period, helped stoke tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Venezuela gate-crashes meeting with regional powers

Venezuela gate-crashes meeting with regional powers

2016-12-15 17:09:47.0

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 15: (AFP) - Venezuela's top diplomat turned up uninvited to a meeting of the South America's Mercosur on Wednesday, despite Caracas' suspension from the trade bloc for failing to meet democratic and trade standards.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pushed her way through a crowd of riot police and journalists to enter the Argentine foreign ministry in Buenos Aires where the extraordinary meeting was held.

"These (Mercosur) presidents insist Venezuela can't participate," she told reporters outside the building."Well we'll come in through the window because we're here to defend Venezuela's rights and also defend the rights of Mercosur."

She later tweeted a picture of herself inside the conference room.But her colleagues -- who had explicitly said Venezuela was not invited -- excluded her from the meeting, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra said.

The other Mercosur countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- had suspended Venezuela earlier this month for failing to ratify rules on trade, politics, democracy and human rights.

In a surreal turn, Venezuela insists it still holds Mercosur's rotating presidency -- a claim Rodriguez repeated on Wednesday.But Malcorra said Argentina had in fact taken over the presidency at the meeting.

- Defiant -

Speaking in Havana, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro took a defiant tone.

"Nothing and nobody is going to remove us from Mercosur because Mercosur belongs to the people," he insisted, accusing an alliance of "ultra-right" governments in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay of trying to destroy the bloc.

Venezuela's neighbors are becoming increasingly wary of developments in the once-booming oil giant.Maduro has presided over an economic meltdown marked by food shortages, riots and looting.

The opposition accuses the deeply-unpopular president of trampling on democracy by throwing its leaders in jail and blocking efforts to remove him constitutionally.

Announced on December 2, the Mercosur suspension represents the international community's biggest rebuke of Maduro's government since the political crisis deepened this year.

Venezuela joined Mercosur in 2012 when fellow leftist governments held sway across the region.But the political tide has turned as a regional recession bites, with Maduro now facing sharp criticism from center-right presidents Michel Temer in Brazil and Mauricio Macri in Argentina.Wednesday's meeting was called to discuss the regional impact of the Venezuelan crisis and progress toward signing a trade deal with the European Union.

Russian leader Putin arrives in Japan for territorial talks

Russian leader Putin arrives in Japan for territorial talks

2016-12-15 17:10:02.0

NAGATO, Japan, Dec. 15: (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Japan on Thursday for a two-day summit that marks his first official visit to a G-7 country since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

His Rossiya Airlines plane touched down at 4:50 p.m. at Yamaguchi Ube Airport on the coast of western Japan, two hours and 40 minutes behind schedule.

After shaking hands with Japanese officials, Putin and his motorcade headed for a hot springs resort in Nagato city, the ancestral hometown of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

During two days of talks, Abe hopes to make progress on a long-running territorial dispute, while trying to bolster ties with economic projects. A major breakthrough is seen as unlikely.Abe has invited Putin even though the G-7 nations, including Japan, still have sanctions on Russia. The meetings will move to Tokyo on Friday.

"This really is an extraordinary development," said James Brown, author of a book on the Japan-Russia territorial dispute and a professor at the Japan campus of Temple University in Tokyo. "I think Prime Minister Abe is being really quite bold in announcing this new approach to relations with Russia, especially coming at such a difficult time in relations between Russia and the West."

Putin has shown up late before. He kept Pope Francis waiting at the Vatican for one hour and 20 minutes in 2015. Earlier this month, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida waited for two hours when he visited the Kremlin. Disagreements over four southern Kuril islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, have kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities."I hope to negotiate thoroughly in quiet atmosphere, in the silence of the night," Abe told reporters in Tokyo ahead of his departure for Nagato. "I head into negotiations keeping close to my heart the long-cherished desire of the former islanders" to resolve the dispute.

Japan says the Soviet Union took the islands illegally at the end of World War II, expelling 17,000 Japanese to nearby Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. Russia governs the islands and the Russians who now live there.

Putin told Japanese journalists earlier this week that progress hinges on Japan's flexibility to compromise, and that he doesn't mind the status quo. "We think that we have no territorial problems. It's Japan that thinks that is has a territorial problem with Russia," he said.But Russia wants to attract Japanese investment, particularly to its far east. Japan hopes that stronger ties through joint economic projects will help resolve the thorny territorial issue over time.

Nigerian inflation rises for 13th straight month

Nigerian inflation rises for 13th straight month

2016-12-15 17:09:30.0

ABUJA, Dec. 15: (AFP) - Nigerian inflation rose again in November, driven by higher food, petrol and electricity prices, data showed Thursday, with analysts saying that the upward trend may not be over.

It is the 13th consecutive monthly rise for the West African country, with the government struggling since August to pull the economy out of recession.The announcement comes six months after Nigeria's central bank let the naira float, causing a sharp decline in the currency's value against the dollar and pushing up the price of imported goods.

"The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 18.48 percent (year-on-year) in November 2016, 0.15 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in October (18.33 percent)," the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled a plan to spend 7.3 trillion naira ($23 billion) in 2017, a 20-percent boost over this year's spending, to "pull the economy out of recession as quickly as possible".

The statistics agency said food items increased by 17.2 percent (year-on-year) in the month under review, up 0.1 points from the October rise."During the month, the highest increases were seen in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, clothing materials and other articles of clothing, books, liquid fuel, passenger transport by air, motor cycles and shoes and other footwear," the NBS added.

The Nigerian economy has been hammered by the global crash in prices for oil -- worth 70 percent of its revenue and the bulk of its dollars -- and ongoing rebel attacks on oil infrastructure in the southern swamplands.In June, the central bank removed a 15-month peg on the naira.

The currency now trades at 485 to the dollar in the open market. Dollar scarcity continues to hurt businesses.According to Bloomberg, the central bank also left its benchmark lending rate at 14 percent in November in a bid to tame inflation.

"With the CBN's tight monetary stance, if there are no further structural shocks, inflation is likely to peak at a rate slightly above 20 percent in March 2017," Abuja-based Time Economics Ltd. said in an emailed note before the data were released.

"The inflation in the economy is largely due to structural factors."

Oil-rich Nigeria normally produces 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), but output dropped to a low of 1.4 bpd this year as a result of rebels attacking pipelines, with no sign of the militants being ready to lay down their arms.

Notable deaths of 2016

Notable deaths of 2016

2016-12-15 21:00:22.0

PARIS, Dec 15, 2016 (AFP) - From legendary British singer David Bowie to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and American boxer Muhammad Ali, here are some of the notable figures who died in 2016.

- January -

- 5: PIERRE BOULEZ, 90, French conductor-composer.

- 7: ANDRE COURREGES, 92 French fashion designer known for his 1960s futuristic styles.

- 10: DAVID BOWIE, 69, legendary British singer and musician who died of cancer two days after his 25th album was released.

- 14: ALAN RICKMAN, 69, British actor who often played villains, such as professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

- 19: ETTORE SCOLA, 84, Italian director who made "A Special Day" and "We All Loved Each Other So Much"

- February -

- 16: BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI, 93, Egyptian diplomat and UN secretary general from 1992 to 1996.

- 17: ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI, 75, Polish filmmaker who directed "The Third Part of the Night" and "The Devil".

- 19: HARPER LEE, 89, US author of "To Kill a Mockingbird".

- 19: UMBERTO ECO, 84, Italian writer and philosopher who wrote "The Name of the Rose".

- March -

- 6: NANCY REAGAN, 94, US first lady from 1981 to 1989 and a quiet influence on president Ronald Reagan.

- 8: GEORGE MARTIN, 90, British music producer nicknamed "The fifth Beatle".

- 24: JOHAN CRUYFF, 68, Dutch football star who led the powerful Ajax Amsterdam team in the 1970s.

- 26: JIM HARRISON, 78, US writer of novels and poems who explored the natural world in such works as "Legends of the Fall".

- 31: IMRE KERTESZ, 86, Hungarian author and 2002 Nobel laureate, who wrote "Fatelessness".

- 31: ZAHA HADID, 65, British architect of Iraqi origin who won the 2004 Pritzker prize.

- April -

- 21: PRINCE, 57, Groundbreaking US musician whose many hits include "Purple Rain", "Girls & Boys" and "Kiss".

- 24: PAPA WEMBA, 66, Singer and king of Congolese rumba.

- June -

- 3: MUHAMMAD ALI, 74, US boxing legend, triple world heavyweight champion.

- 16: JO COX, 41, British Labour Party MP, killed in the street a week before Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.

- July -

- 2: ELIE WIESEL, 87, US writer, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor.

- 2: MICHAEL CIMINO, 77, US director who made the 1978 film "The Deer Hunter" based on the Vietnam War.

- 4: ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, 76, Iranian film director who won the 1997 Palme d'Or in Cannes for "Taste of Cherry".

- September -

- 2: ISLAM KARIMOV, 78, president of Uzbekistan from independence in 1991.

- 28: SHIMON PERES, 93, A founding father of Israel and a former president who won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize after signing the Oslo Accords with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.

- October -

- 9: ANDRZEJ WAJDA, 90, Polish film director who won the 1981 Palme d'Or in Cannes for "Man of Iron".

- 13: BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ, 88, king of Thailand and until his death the world's longest reigning monarch.

- 13: DARIO FO, 90, Italian writer and actor who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1997.

- November -

- 7: LEONARD COHEN, 82, Canadian poet and musician who became an icon of the 1960s counterculture generation with songs like "Suzanne" and "Hallelujah."

- 25: FIDEL CASTRO, 90, the Cuban leader who is said to have survived multiple assassination attempts and survived the administrations of 11 US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.

- December -

- 8: JOHN GLENN, 95, the first US astronaut to orbit the earth.

Police fire teargas outside Sri Lanka parliament

Police fire teargas outside Sri Lanka parliament

2016-12-03 19:15:08.0

COLOMBO, Dec 3, 2016 (AFP) - Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of opposition-backed protestors outside parliament Saturday as law makers debated the annual budget.

          Demonstrators led by loyalists of former president Mahinda Rajapakse held up traffic and blocked the main access to the parliament complex for several hours in the capital.

          Opposition lawmaker Ranjith Soysa said protesters were demanding local elections which were due last year, but postponed to devise a new electoral system.

          "Police unleashed a vicious teargas attack and 10 opposition MPs, including myself, were hit," Soysa said in parliament while pointing to his drenched clothing.

          The latest police clash follows a protest by private bus operators and taxi drivers who stopped work over a proposed 50-fold increase in traffic fines in a bid to make Sri Lankan roads safer.

          During the bus and taxi strike, police fired teargas to disperse drivers who were holding up traffic along a main highway outside Colombo.

Merkel to chart 2017 election battle at party congress

Merkel to chart 2017 election battle at party congress

2016-12-03 19:14:31.0

BERLIN, Dec 3, 2016 (AFP) - After Donald Trump's shock victory, Francois Hollande's decision not to seek re-election and populism on the rise, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is next up on the campaign podium to set out her strategy for winning in 2017 polls.

          When her centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) holds its annual two-day congress from Tuesday, she will seek to rally members behind her bid for a fourth term as Germany's leader.

          Merkel has admitted that the general election, likely to be held in September, will be "more difficult than any before it".

          Her opponents will seek to capitalise on resentment over her liberal refugee policy that brought one million asylum seekers to Europe's biggest economy over the past two years.

          Here is an outline of what the CDU congress in the western city of Essen is about.

          What is expected to happen?

          The event opens Tuesday with a speech by Merkel, who has led the CDU for 16 years after ousting long-time leader Helmut Kohl.

          The 62-year-old is due to give a rundown on what she has achieved since their last congress, especially on the hot-button issue of reducing the mass influx of refugees and migrants.

          Crucially, the party faithful will be keen to hear how she expects to take the party forward into the coming election year, which will pit the CDU against its current coalition partner the Social Democrats and several smaller parties.

          Will anyone challenge her?

          There is no question Merkel will win a new two-year mandate to helm the CDU, but her score, and the length of the standing ovation, will be closely scrutinised for any signs of dissent.

          At the last vote in 2014, she scored a North Korean-style 96.7 percent, just below her record high of 97.9 percent from 2012.

          Several potential successors have been floated, but no one has caught the wider public's imagination -- among them Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen.

          Most German voters still feel comfortable with "Mutti" (Mummy) -- a survey found 64 percent welcomed her new candidacy against 33 percent who did not.

          Political analyst Hajo Funke of Berlin's Free University said Merkel had made "the correct decision, for both the party and for Germany's stability".

          Despite some grumbling from their Bavarian CSU allies, angered by the migrant influx, the conservative CDU rank-and-file "know who generates power for their party," Funke said.

          What else will they discuss?

          While CDU members approve of Merkel's fourth term bid as chancellor, not all are on board with her policies.

          Merkel will be called to account for the party's poor showing in five consecutive state elections this year in a voter backlash driven by the migrant crisis.

          Linked to that are questions on how the party can counter the leaching away of support to the right-wing populist and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is polling around 12 percent.

          To address some of the concerns, party chiefs will propose banning the full-face Muslim veil and cracking down on marriages involving minors.

          Some may seek a tougher stance on immigration. CDU deputy chairman Thomas Strobl last week set out a demand to streamline the extradition of rejected asylum seekers.

          But it remains unclear if his proposal will be put to the congress, or whether party leaders will try to quash unwelcomed suggestions through backroom compromises.

          What's next for Merkel?

          With the party congress, the CDU kicks off a long election campaign in which Merkel will seek to capture the middle ground.

          CDU general secretary Peter Tauber said "all the questions that currently preoccupy the population also preoccupy CDU members".

          Merkel's party next year faces three state elections, with momentum steadily building to the last regional poll in May in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

          The new year promises to throw up a host of new international challenges. It will see Trump move into the White House and Britain start its EU exit negotiations.

          Merkel will also watch carefully the hotly contested French presidential election and its impact on key EU issues, including migration and attitude towards Russia.