World

Trump calls for 'travel ban' amid London terror attacks

2017-06-04T01:09:00.000-07:00

Members of the emergency services attend to persons injured in an apparent terror attack on London Bridge in central London on June 3, 2017.
Armed police fired shots after reports of stabbings and a van hitting pedestrians on London Bridge on

As authorities in Britain scrambled to respond to the knife and truck attacks in the heart of London Saturday night, President Trump’s immediate response was to publicly demand the courts reinstate his executive order restricting travel from six largely Muslim nations. “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough,” tweeted Trump at about 7 p.m. Eastern Time — before news outlets had been able to confirm any significant details about the incident. “We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”

The Justice Department last week asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the president’s executive order, appealing a lower court’s ruling that upheld a nationwide block of it.

Throughout the legal setbacks the Trump administration has faced on the issue is a consistent theme: judges have pointed to the words of both the president and his advisors in order to rule that the policy has more to do with religious animus toward Muslims than protecting national security.

Central to the administration’s case has been the claim that the order is not a ban but rather a temporary change of vetting rules designed to protect national security. Press secretary Sean Spicer neatly summed up their case in January, shortly after the chaotic rollout of the original policy. “It’s not a Muslim ban. It’s not a

travel ban,” said Spicer. “It’s a vetting system to keep America safe.” The courts have consistently disagreed, with the administration’s own words coming back to haunt them time and again. After Trump signed a more delicately-worded second executive order on the subject in March in an attempt to resolve the legal troubles of the original ban, a judge in Hawaii pointed to the words of senior adviser Stephen Miller. In an interview with Fox News, Miller claimed that while the order had been tweaked to respond to judges’ issues, “fundamentally you’re still going to have the same basic policy outcome for the country.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been fighting the immigration order, noted Trump’s word choice:

In its appeal to the Supreme Court to hear the case, the administration sought to address this by making the same case that its lawyers have made in the lower courts: that statements the president made as a candidate, before he took the presidential oath, should not be considered. “Without campaign materials, the court of appeals’ analysis collapses,” acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall wrote in his high court request.

But in his unfiltered response to Saturday’s presumed terrorist incidents in London, which also featured a retweet — and with it an apparent presidential endorsement — of unsubstantiated claims from conservative rumor site Drudge Report, President Trump has once again seemed to undermine his own administration’s case.

Trump’s tweet came before any official confirmation that the incidents were a terror attack, let alone information on the nationalities of the attackers. It may be hard to argue that the executive order is designed simply to protect national security against “bad dudes” from a select group of countries when the president declares a need for the “travel ban” as a response to actions by people whose nationality he is surely unaware of.

Residents shield Christians in bold exodus from Philippines city

2017-06-04T00:52:00.002-07:00

Soldiers onboard military trucks ride along the main street as government troops continue their assault on insurgents from the Maute group, who have taken over large parts of Marawi City, Philippines. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - More than 160 civilians walked out of the besieged Philippines city of Marawi just after dawn on Saturday, deceiving Islamist fighters they encountered by hiding the identity of the many Christians among them.

The audacious exodus came after text message warnings that a major assault by Philippines aircraft and ground troops was imminent in the center of the southern city, where some 250 militants and more than 2,000 civilians remain trapped.

"We saved ourselves," said Norodin Alonto Lucman, a well-known former politician and traditional clan leader who sheltered 71 people, including more than 50 Christians, in his home during the battle that erupted on May 23 in the town of more than 200,000 on the southern island of Mindanao.

"There's this plan to bomb the whole city if ISIS don't agree to the demands of the government," he said,

referring to local and foreign fighters who have sworn allegiance to the ultra-radical Islamic State.

Many evacuees told Reuters they had received text messages warning of a bombing campaign.

"We had a tip from the general commander that we should go out," said Leny Paccon, who gave refuge to 54 people in her home, including 44 Christians. "When I got the text, immediately we go out ... about 7 o'clock."

By then, Lucman and his guests had begun their escape march from another area, holding white flags and moving briskly.

"As we walked, others joined us," he told reporters. "We had to pass through a lot of [militant] snipers."

Some of the civilians were stopped and asked if there were any Christians among them, said Jaime Daligdig, a Christian construction worker.

"We shouted 'Allahu akbar'," he told Reuters, adding that thanks to that Muslim rallying cry they were allowed to pass.

Those who fled included teachers from Dansalan College, a protestant school torched on the first day of the battle.

Christians have been killed and taken hostage by the militants, a mix of local fighters from the Maute Group and other Islamist outfits, as well as foreigners who joined the cause under the Islamic State banner.

The vast majority of Filipinos are Christian, but Mindanao has a larger proportion of Muslims and Islam is followed by the vast majority in Marawi City.

ROTTING BODIES, DEBRIS

Lucman said that many of those trapped were on the verge of starvation, which also gave them the courage to leave.

He described a scene of devastation in the town center, where the streets were strewn with rotting bodies and debris. "I almost puked as we were walking," Lucman said, estimating that there were more than 1,000 dead.

Official government estimates recorded 120 militants, 38 government forces and 20 civilians as dead on Saturday.

Lucman and Paccon said militants had knocked on their doors while they sheltered the terrified Christians. They shooed them away saying there were women and children inside.

Adding to the anxiety, both said they were within 100 meters (320 feet) of militant command posts. Although the Philippines military knew civilians remained in their homes, ordnance exploded nearby repeatedly over the past week.

Resident Asnaira Asis said militants knocked on her door too, offering money or food if she handed over her 11-year-old son. "They wanted him to be a fighter," she told Reuters after joining the morning exodus. "I said no."

After an impromptu ceasefire as the civilians evacuated, bombing and ground skirmishes continued on Saturday, and FA50 fighter jets dropped bombs on the town center.

Philippines Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the conflict would be over soon but he gave no operational plans. He said there were 250 militants still in the town, far more than the 20-30 cited by the military on Friday.

"They can still put up a good fight. That's why it's giving us difficulty in clearing the area," he told a news conference.

Lorenzana said there was still a big cohort of foreign fighters in Marawi.

Officials have said militants from as far away as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Chechnya and Morocco joined the battle, raising concerns that Islamic State is seeking to establish a regional foothold there.

Deadly Texas Shootout: Suspect Dead, Three Officers Injured

2017-06-04T00:48:00.002-07:00

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Police in Portland, Oregon, arrested a homeless man on Friday morning for stealing the wedding ring and backpack of Ricky Best, one of two men fatally stabbed to death last week on a commuter train while defending two women.

George Tschaggeny, 51, was arrested at a homeless encampment under an overpass after a tip from an employee of a Domino's Pizza restaurant in the area, Portland Police Bureau officials said at a Friday press conference.

Police had released surveillance footage on Thursday of a man carrying Best's backpack leaving the Portland MAX commuter train shortly after the stabbings.

Tschaggeny was found wearing Best's ring, which he apparently had removed from Best's finger after the stabbing, said police spokesman Pete Simpson.

Police also recovered the backpack but Best's wallet was missing, Simpson said, adding that his family had

hoped to recover phone numbers Best carried in the wallet.

Tschaggeny will be charged with theft, evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse, Simpson said.

Best, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Micah Fletcher were stabbed on May 26 when they intervened to prevent Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, from harassing two young women who appeared to be Muslim by shouting ethnic and religious slurs. Best and Namkai-Meche died of their wounds.

Christian was arraigned on Tuesday on three felony murder charges, one felony assault charge, three felony weapons charges and two misdemeanor counts of intimidation.

In court on Tuesday, Christian shouted, "Death to the enemies of America ... You call it terrorism. I call it patriotism.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said earlier this week that the bureau is investigating the attack to determine whether to charge Christian with terrorism or a federal hate crime.

Immediately after the attack, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on President Donald Trump to condemn violence against Muslims.

In a Monday tweet, Trump called the attack "unacceptable," and commended the stabbing victims for "standing up to hate and intolerance."

According to The Oregonian, a witness to the stabbings said Namkai-Meche’s last words before being taken away by paramedics were, “Tell everyone on this train I love them."

New Law Compels Zimbabwe Banks To Accept Cattles, Goat And Sheep As Collateral.

2017-04-12T01:01:00.003-07:00

Commercial banks in Zimbabwe will soon be compelled to accept livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep as collateral for cash loans to informal businesses under a new law presented to parliament Tuesday.

Under the Movable Property Security Interests Bill tabled for debate by Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa in the House of Assembly, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will compile and administer a collateral-security register in which small-business operators and individuals can
register their movable assets as security for credit.

Vehicles, television sets, refrigerators, computers and other household appliances will become acceptable as collateral once they are evaluated and registered in the central bank’s register, according to Chinamasa.

“As minister in charge of financial institutions, I feel there is need for a change of attitude by our banks to reflect of our economic realities,” he said. Banks are “stuck in the old ways of doing things and failing to respond to the needs of our highly informalized economy.”

Syrians protest U.S. airstrikes and more: April 11 in photos

2017-04-12T00:43:00.002-07:00

Hundreds of Syrian students gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in Damascus to protest last week’s American missile strike on a government air base; Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, spews

lava near the Sicilian town of Riposto, Italy; and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip feed bananas to Donna, a 7-year old Asian elephant, as they open the new Centre for Elephant Care at Whipsnade Zoo in Dunstable, England.

These are just a few of the photos of the day for April 11, 2017.

Britain urges Putin to end support for 'toxic' Assad

2017-04-12T00:38:00.002-07:00

Children receive treatment in the town of Maaret al-Noman, following a suspected chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhun, a nearby rebel-held town in Syria's north-western Idlib province, on April 4, 2017

London (AFP) - Russia should end its support for "toxic" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy.

"It's time for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up," Johnson said, according to a foreign ministry spokeswoman.

"We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," he said, warning that Putin was "damaging Russia" by supporting Assad.

"He must understand that Assad is now toxic in every sense. He is poisoning the innocent people of Syria with weapons that were banned 100 years ago -- and he is poisoning the reputation of Russia," he said.

Johnson on Saturday cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow over its support for the Syrian regime.

The move came after a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Seikhun last week in which at least 87 people were killed.

The United States launched a missile strike on a Syrian airfield on Friday in its first military action against Assad in retaliation for the attack.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven main industrialised countries are meeting in the Italian town of Lucca later on Monday before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flies to Moscow on Tuesday.

"There's no doubt the US action is a game-changer in Syria. We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone," Johnson said on Monday.

Russia's foreign ministry earlier condemned Johnson's decision not to come to Moscow, saying it showed that Britain had "no real influence on the course of international affairs".

Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over the suspected gas incident and says Syrian jets struck a rebel arms depot where "toxic substances" were being put inside bombs.

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government demonstrations.

Poison gas was extensively used in the Western Front in the 1914-18 World War I from 1915.

It was outlawed internationally by the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which entered into force in 1928.

Trump declares that North Korea is ‘looking for trouble’ as tensions rise

2017-04-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

President Trump suggested on Tuesday that he could sweeten the terms of a trade agreement with China if Beijing assists in solving the North Korea “problem” — but that the United States is prepared to move forward in the western Pacific without Chinese help.

“I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!” Trump tweeted early Tuesday, three days after hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“North Korea is looking for trouble,” Trump wrote. “If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.”

Over the weekend, Trump deployed a U.S. Navy strike group to the Korean Peninsula as “a show of

force,”

In turn, North Korea warned of tough counteraction against the United States if there is any sign of a U.S. strike against Pyongyang.

“The [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S.,” a spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said, according to state news agency KCNA.

“Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theater but also in the U.S. mainland,” North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper declared.

North Korea is one of Trump’s most difficult national security challenges. On Barack Obama’s watch, Pyongyang made enough progress on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that, experts predict, it could strike the U.S. mainland, possibly even the East Coast, in two to three years.

The Obama administration enlisted China and other world powers in two rounds of international sanctions and left Trump options for further tightening the economic vise, according to administration and congressional sources.

China is the key to North Korea policy because it’s the smaller country’s patron — its source of food and fuel. Reuters reported early Tuesday morning that China had ordered its trading companies to return coal shipments, a key North Korea export, to the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang.

Trump’s Tuesday tweets come amid simmering tensions surrounding several global hot spots, including North Korea and Syria. Last week, Trump ordered an airstrike on a Syrian airfield in response to a deadly chemical attack that was allegedly carried out by the Syrian government against its own citizens. Administration officials have warned that Russia could be held accountable for its support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Speaking to reporters in Italy on Tuesday en route to Moscow, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pointed to Russia’s prior agreement to rid Syria of chemical weapons. Tillerson said it was unclear whether the Kremlin was incompetent or complicit in the attack — but that the distinction “doesn’t much matter to the dead.”

“We want to relieve the suffering of the Syrian people,” Tillerson said. “Russia can be a part of that future and play an important role. Or Russia can maintain its alliance.”

Tillerson: Syria strike a message to others, including North Korea

2017-04-10T04:25:00.000-07:00

Tillerson

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military strikes against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons are a warning to other nations, including North Korea, that "a response is likely" if they pose a danger, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday.

As a U.S. Navy strike group headed toward the Korean Peninsula, Tillerson said China agrees that action is necessary to address North Korea's nuclear arsenal, following last week's meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Asked if Friday's strikes against Syria were a message to North Korea, Tillerson told ABC's This Week: "The message that any nation can take is, 'If you violate international norms, if you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response

is likely to be undertaken.'"

"In terms of North Korea," he added, "we've been very clear that our objective is a denuclearized Korea peninsula."

In a separate interview, Tillerson told CBS' Face the Nation: "President Xi clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken."

Trump will soon review options for removing the "threat" posed by North Korean missiles, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on Sunday.

North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, have repeatedly indicated an intercontinental ballistic missile test or something similar could be coming, possibly as soon as April 15, the 105th birthday of North Korea's founding president and celebrated annually as "the Day of the Sun."

Reuters was first to report on Saturday that the Navy strike group Carl Vinson, whose flagship is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of that name, will make its way toward the Korean peninsula from Singapore as a show of force after Pyongyang tested a liquid-fueled Scud missile this month.

"It's prudent to do it, isn't it?" McMaster said of the deployment on Fox News Sunday.

"This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear-capable regime, and President Xi and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said.

A U.S. national security review of options on North Korea include economic and military measures. But they lean more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its neighbor.

Fidel Castro’s ashes reunited with ‘Che’ Guevara

2016-12-01T01:05:00.000-08:00

Fidel Castro’s ashes were taken Thursday to a symbolic reunion with his fallen comrade-in-arms Ernesto “Che” Guevara in Santa Clara, the first stop in the late Cold War titan’s last trip across Cuba.
After two days of tributes in Havana, hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Cubans lined the streets to bid farewell as a military jeep began a four-day journey on Wednesday morning with the cedar urn in tow.
Crowds chanted “I am Fidel!” as the convoy started retracing the victory tour that Castro’s guerrilla took in 1959 to celebrate their defeat of US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
The flag-covered urn, which rested under a glass case on a small olive-green trailer, arrived in Santa Clara after midnight and entered a complex with a mausoleum and museum dedicated to Guevara.
“It’s a historic meeting, two comandantes who change the history of Cuba and humanity,” said Agnier Sanchez, a 33-year-old medical imaging technician.
A somber guitar, song and dance show played across a giant statue of Guevara as the “caravan of freedom” paused a third of the way into its 950-kilometer (590-mile) trek across the island.

The convoy will resume on Thursday morning, heading to other cities before a final ceremony on Sunday in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, where Castro’s ashes will be laid to rest next to 19th century independence hero Jose Marti.
Cubans were observing the fifth of nine days of mourning for Castro following his death on Friday at age 90. Castro ruled from 1959 until an illness forced him to hand power to his brother Raul in 2006.
Dissidents call Castro a dictator who jailed opponents but others in Cuba praise his legacy of providing free education and health care to Cubans while defying the US “empire.”
“I come from a poor family. I am black. In another era, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be who I am today,” said Maria Gonzalez, a 31-year-old computer engineer.
– Che Guevara –
Castro met Guevara in 1955 while in exile in Mexico, and the young doctor joined Fidel and Raul on the boat that took them to Cuba a year later.
Guevara won a crucial battle in Santa Clara in 1958, derailing an armored train and taking the city.
Guevara was given high-ranking positions in the government but he left in 1966 to lead a guerrilla expedition in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed a year later.
His remains were recovered three decades later and taken to Santa Clara, now home to a huge statute of Che and a museum dedicated to the revolutionary icon.
“His death seemed like something incredible to me. In fact, I don’t know, something that one can never get used to,” Fidel Castro once told a Spanish journalist, admitting that he occasionally had dreams in which he spoke with Guevara.
– Uncertain future –
As the country ponders its future without Fidel Castro, attention is turning toward Raul and whether he will undertake deeper economic reforms after enacting modest changes in recent years.
The 85-year-old general, who has vowed to step down in 2018, has also restored diplomatic relations with his brother’s eternal enemy, the United States.
“If Fidel’s death results in reforms in Cuba speeding up a little, the rapprochement with the United States could be energized,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think tank.
“It’s an opportunity to strengthen bilateral relations, but a lot will depend on what happens within the Cuban government,” he said.
US President-elect Donald Trump threatened this week to halt the detente that was begun by US President Barack Obama if the Castro government doesn’t offer a “better deal” to the Cuban people.
Obama did not join other foreign leaders at a massive rally for Fidel Castro in Havana on Tuesday, instead sending aides as the White House voiced concerns about the human rights situation in Cuba.
Along the caravan’s route, Fidel Castro’s supporters were confident that his revolution would go on.
“Cuba won’t change,” said Jany de la Caridad, 20, who had the face of a young Fidel painted on her face. “Look at all these people waiting for hours for Fidel’s ashes.
“You think that Cuba will deviate from its socialist path with the death of one man — even if it was commander in chief Fidel Castro?”

Cancer infection to double in Africa in 20 years if not checked – Expert

2016-12-01T00:13:00.001-08:00

A radiologist at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Prof. Ifeoma Okoye, has said Africa’s cancer mortality will double in the next 20 years if not tackled.
Speaking in Enugu on Wednesday during the Physicians’ Week organised by the Nigeria Medical Association, Enugu branch, Okoye noted that if cancer infections continued to rise without adequate modalities to control it, the country’s gross domestic product would be affected.
Okoye said: “This is because if those in productive age bracket are infected with cancer, their level of growth and productivity will be affected and this will in turn affect their individuality, community and the government.”
She regretted that many chronic diseases were not adequately addressed in the country, especially in the rural areas as many people living with cancer did not have access to primary health care.
Okoye said that the UN Cancer Control Programme was not implemented in the country and urged the governments to invest in health care to develop its own cancer plan.
The professor of radiation medicine said that tobacco intake, excessive alcohol, environmental factors and
people’s lifestyle were the major causes of cancer.
She said that early detection, medical check-up and supportive medicine would make a difference as she urged the government to promote Hepatitis B immunisation which was capable of impacting on cervical cancer.
Okoye advised the NMA to use the programme and reach out to the people, especially those in the rural areas.
Declaring the week open, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State promised to partner with the association to enhance healthcare
services in the state.
Ugwuanyi, who was represented by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sam Ngwu, challenged the NMA to come out with a robust strategy that would move the health sector forward.
In his keynote address, the Chairman of the state Assembly Committee on Health, Dr. Emeka Ogbuabo, attributed the poor health situation in the country to corruption and lack of transparency.
Ogbuabo said that the assembly would intensify its oversight function to boost the sector.
Earlier, the Chairman of NMA in the state, Dr. Cajetan Onyedum, said the programme was aimed to tackle healthcare challenges in the state and Nigeria in general.
Onyedum said the association presented a copy of the National Health Act passed in 2014 to the Enugu State House of Assembly to bring the attention of the government to the need to speed up its implementation without further delay.
The theme of the week is: “Health Care in a Frail Economy: Challenges and Way Forward.”

Trump could ‘inspire a ‘disaster movie’ – Spain’s Almodovar

2016-11-30T23:07:00.001-08:00

(L-R) Actress Rossy de Palma, director Pedro Almodovar, and actress Marina Ambramovic attend the Pedro Almodovar Retrospective Opening Night at the Museum of Modern Art on November 29, 2016 in New York City. Jason Carter Rinaldi/Getty Images/AFP

Donald Trump would be the perfect protagonist for a disaster film, said Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, as a retrospective of his movies got underway in New York.
“I think that Trump is going to provide a lot of creative inspiration, especially for comedians,” said Almodovar at an event late Tuesday marking the launch of the film series at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art.
The MoMA exhibition, encompassing every movie made by Almodovar, coincides with the release of “Julieta,” his 20th feature-length film, which was also previewed at MoMA Tuesday. The movie opens in US theaters on December 21.
Almodovar, Spain’s most celebrated living movie director, made it clear that he is no fan of the US president-elect but said Trump’s larger-than-life persona is the stuff of filmmaking lore.
“He seriously would inspire a disaster movie,” Almodovar said.
“This kind of personality type have no parallel in real life. He’s like a great fictional character,” the director said.

“The bad thing is that we are all going to suffer, above all Americans will,” he said.
“We have to put up with him, and in reality, he should be a seen as a huge disaster,” Almodovar added. “Let’s hope he goes away soon.”
The two-time Academy Award-winning director had far more charitable feelings towards Trump’s vanquished Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
The former secretary of state, who Trump defeated in an upset win earlier this month, has the makings of a real “Almodovar girl,” said the director, whose acclaimed films almost always have strong female leads.
A former enfant terrible of cinema, Almodovar got misty-eyed recalling a Met showing of his movie “What Did I Do to Deserve This?” in 1984, when he was just 35 years old and a fresh-faced upstart in film world.
“It’s not just a privilege, but very emotional for me to be in the same place more than 30 years later,” he said.

Gun that nearly killed poet Rimbaud sells for almost half million euros

2016-11-30T23:04:00.002-08:00

The revolver with which French poet Paul Verlaine tried to kill his lover Arthur Rimbaud is displayed at Christie's auction house before the most famous gun in French literature goes under the hammer in Paris on November 30, 2016.Thomas Samson/AFP

The most famous gun in French literary history, the revolver with which Paul Verlaine tried to kill his lover and fellow poet Arthur Rimbaud, sold for 434,500 euros ($460,000) at an auction in Paris on Wednesday.
The staggering price for the seven mm six-shooter — which almost changed the course of world literature — was more than seven times the estimate, auctioneers Christie’s said.
Verlaine bought the weapon in Brussels on the morning of July 10, 1873, determined to put an end to his torrid two-year affair with his teenage lover.
The 29-year-old poet had abandoned his young wife and child to be with Rimbaud, who would later become the symbol of rebellious youth, idolised by 1960s singers like Jim Morrison.
But after an opium- and absinthe-soaked stay in London, which would inspire Rimbaud’s “A Season in Hell”, Verlaine wanted to go back to his wife.
He fled to the Belgian capital to get away from Rimbaud only for the younger man to follow him.
It was in a hotel room there at two in the afternoon where, after the lovers had rowed, cried and got drunk
— according to Rimbaud — that the suicidal Verlaine raised the pistol.
“Here’s how I will teach you how to leave!” he shouted before firing twice at Rimbaud.
One bullet hit him in the wrist while the other struck the wall and then ricocheted into the chimney.
But Rimbaud still wouldn’t take no for an answer. Having been bandaged up in hospital he again begged the author of “Poemes saturniens” not to leave him.
Verlaine — who was to be dogged by drink and drug addiction all his life — pulled out the revolver again and threatened him with it in the street.
He was arrested by a passing policeman and sentenced to two years in jail with hard labour where — much to Rimbaud’s fury — he embraced Catholicism.
In prison he wrote 32 poems that would later appear in some of his best-known collections, “Sagesse”, “Jadis et naguere” and “Invectives”.
Rimbaud moved back in with his domineering mother and finished “A Season in Hell”.
The gun was confiscated and finally fell into the hands of a private owner, Christie’s said.

UK experts give green light to ‘three-parent babies’

2016-11-30T23:02:00.001-08:00

British scientists on Wednesday approved the use of so-called "three-parent baby" fertility treatments, paving the way for the country to become the first in the world to officially introduce the procedures.AFP

British scientists on Wednesday approved the use of so-called “three-parent baby” fertility treatments, paving the way for the country to become the first in the world to officially introduce the procedures.
An independent panel of experts tasked with reviewing the safety of mitochondrial gene therapy said the practice should be “cautiously adopted” to prevent certain genetic diseases from being passed on to future generations.
British MPs voted in February to allow the creation of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) babies with DNA from three people.
However, the country’s fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said it would wait for Wednesday’s report before green-lighting use of the treatments in clinics.
The technique would allow women who carry disease-causing mutations in their mitochondrial genes to give birth to genetically-related children free of mitochondrial disease.
– ‘Designer babies’ –
But opponents have questioned its ethics and say it opens the way to “designer babies”.
The treatment involves the embryo receiving the usual “nuclear” DNA from the mother and father, as well as a small amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) from a female donor.
The review panel recommended its clinical use “in specific circumstances… where inheritance of the disease
is likely to cause death or serious disease and where there are no acceptable alternatives.”
Following the report, the HFEA is expected to authorise the procedure for clinical use when it meets on December 15.
The first women could receive the treatment as early as March or April next year, with a pioneering research centre in Newcastle, northeast England, expected to be the first where it would take place.
Health charities swiftly welcomed the announcement.
Robert Meadowcroft, head of Muscular Dystrophy UK, described it as “a major step” towards effective treatment for the 2,500 women in Britain affected.
“This pioneering technique could give women with mitochondrial disease the chance to have a healthy child, without the fear of passing on this condition which can lead to babies born with this condition having multiple disabilities and indeed life-limiting impairments,” he said.
– ‘Currently imperfect’ –
But David Clancy, from the faculty of health and medicine at the University of Lancaster, said the technique was “currently imperfect”.
As many as one in 30 women who receive the treatment could still give birth to a child with an inherited disease, he predicts.
“By the intervention that is MRT (mitochondrial replacement therapy), the evidence now suggests that, at some point, producing a child who will suffer from mitochondrial disease is a certainty. Are we, as a society, okay with that?” Clancy said.
Mitochondria are structures in cells which generate vital energy and contain their own set of genes called mDNA which is passed through the mother.
Mitochondrial diseases cause symptoms ranging from poor vision to diabetes and muscle wasting and health officials estimate around 125 babies are born with the mutations in Britain every year.
The first baby conceived using mitochondrial donation was born earlier this year in Mexico, where there are no rules on its use, but Britain would be the first to officially authorise it.
The treatment remains controversial in Britain and elsewhere, with religious leaders among its detractors.
The Roman Catholic Church opposes the move, pointing out that it would involve the destruction of human embryos as part of the process, while the Church of England has said ethical concerns “have not been sufficiently explored”.

Colombia’s congress approves revised deal with FARC

2016-11-30T22:59:00.002-08:00

Colombia’s Congress has approved a revised peace deal with the FARC rebel group, paving the way to end a conflict that has lasted more than 50 years.
The lower house voted 130-0 on Wednesday to approve the text adopted a day earlier by the Senate.
President Juan Manuel Santos said the vote provided “landmark backing” for a deal he personally pushed for. Santos, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, shepherded the revised deal through Congress after voters shocked the world by rejecting an earlier version in a referendum last month.
The government’s chief peace negotiator with the FARC, Humberto de la Calle, had urged lawmakers to ratify this deal, warning the army’s ceasefire with the leftist guerrillas was “fragile”.
The first agreement was rejected in a referendum in October, with majority of voters saying they felt it was too lenient toward the rebels, who have battled the government for 52 years.
Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Medellin, said the approval was a significant step towards peace in the country, but added that the deal still faced hurdles.
“A few more obstacles remain,” he said, adding the constitutional court still needed to rule on a mechanism allowing Congress to pass implementing regulations, including an amnesty law.
Resistance remains

The new agreement introduces some 50 changes intended to assuage critics led by still-powerful former president Alvaro Uribe.
They range from a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging crimes by the FARC or government, to a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets, some of them amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensating their victims.
But the FARC would not go along with the opposition’s strongest demands: jail sentences for rebel leaders who committed atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.
Public opinion has been divided on the signing of the deal, as some overwhelmingly loathe the FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, for crimes such as kidnappings and drug-trafficking, while others want peace to prevail.
However, a recent wave of alleged assassinations in conflict areas has raised pressure on the government to seal a peace deal fast.
The revised deal aims to end 52 years of conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people, left 60,000 missing and displaced millions.
However, a period of discord and uncertainty looks certain, as opponents threatened to resist the revised deal.
Uribe, the former president, had complained that it still did not satisfy his key demands, notably punishing FARC leaders for their crimes.
The peace deal follows three failed efforts to end the conflict, under presidents Belisario Betancur (1982-1986), Cesar Gaviria (1990-1994) and Andres Pastrana (1998-2002).

Refugee protests disrupt Australian parliament

2016-11-30T22:55:00.001-08:00

Protesters, angered by Australia’s refugee policy, have disrupted parliament for a second day by abseiling down the building and erecting a banner that read “close the bloody camps now”.
In the early hours of Thursday the group also poured red dye – representing blood – into a fountain in front of the building, the national broadcaster ABC reported.
The incident came after a protest on Wednesday during which the group stopped parliamentary proceedings for half an hour, shouting slogans and gluing their hands to railings in the public gallery.
The group was protesting specifically against Australia’s offshore prisons which hold 1,300 asylum seekers who were picked up trying to reach Australia by boat.
Canberra sends asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by sea to isolated outposts on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, with the prison conditions widely criticised by refugee advocates and medical professionals.
Speaker Tony Smith suspended question time in what cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said was the most serious intrusion into parliament in 20 years.
The group of around 30 protestors began chanting loudly soon after the session began, shouting “close the
camps” and “where is your moral compass?”.
Security tried to remove them as they glued their hands to the railings, with guards using hand sanitiser to help peel them free, television footage showed.
They were eventually removed from the chamber, some forcibly.
The protesters, from the Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance (WACA) group, said on Wednesday that the country’s policy of offshore detention represented a “state of emergency”.
“Parliament shutdown by @akaWACA #closethecamps #bringthemhere,” the grassroots alliance said on Twitter.
The group continued their protests on Thursday, inviting everyone in the capital Canberra to join them in front of the parliament.
While the Greens party congratulated the protesters, government Senator James McGrath said on his Facebook page that they were a “bunch of bong-sniffing, dole-bludging, moss-munching, glue guzzling K-Mart Castros.”
The group was protesting specifically against Australia’s offshore detention centres which hold 1,300 asylum seekers who were picked up trying to reach Australia by boat.
UN special rapporteur Francois Crepeau this month said Australia’s “punitive approach” to boatpeople had tarnished its human rights record after an 18-day mission that took him across the country and to Nauru.
The government has defended its position as necessary to stem waves of migration by people from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the Middle East, with many dying at sea during the treacherous journey.
“I wondered whether we could press on … we could not,” said Smith in explaining why he took the rare step of suspending parliament, which resumed some 40 minutes later when the protestors were taken away.

Two dead, 4 injured in US Thanksgiving Day shooting

2016-11-25T02:39:00.001-08:00

Two persons were killed and four were injured in a shooting at a Thanksgiving Day football tournament in Kentucky on Thursday.
The shooting occurred at Shawnee Park, where a youth football tournament called the Juice Bowl is held every year on Thanksgiving Day.
Louisville Metro Police said officers responded to a call of multiple shootings at Shawnee Park on Thursday afternoon.
Police said there were no suspects in custody and they had not established a motive for the shooting, which occurred during an annual football tournament that dates back to the 1950s.
Dwight Mitchell, spokesman for the Louisville Metro Police Department, said that as yet, no one is aware of the motive for the shooting.
Mr. Mitchell told reporters that the four survivors suffered non-life-threatening injuries and had been taken to the hospital.

The police spokesman said the department had not made any arrests, and were still searching for possible suspects.
“When you have a tragedy like this take place, certainly it puts a damper on anyone celebrating,” Mitchell said.
The event began in the 1950s and families are known to arrive at the park early on Thursday to secure prime seats for the all-day community celebration.
Reports said that the shootings occurred about 200 yards from the annual Juice Bowl football games, which were attended by Mayor Greg Fisher.
Fischer said he attended the tournament and was about 150 yards from the shooting.
“To have people with guns so disrespect life, Shawnee Park, and neighborhood tradition is sad and has no place in our city,” he said.
The Louisville’s mayor asked people with information on the shooting to contact police, noting that there had been a recent uptick in homicides in the city.
Gunshots rang out in the afternoon just after children finished playing football and two women’s teams were playing a flag football game, according to reports.
The men’s games scheduled for the afternoon were cancelled.
U.S. President Barack Obama earlier met with his national security team and directed them to ensure a safe Thanksgiving holiday season for all Americans.
A statement issued by the White House, said Mr. Obama, at the meeting with his Counter-terrorism and Home Security Team, also “thanked those standing watch on behalf of our country”.
“This morning, the President convened members of his national security team to review our comprehensive domestic and international efforts to protect the American people during this holiday season.
“The President commended the continued cooperation between federal, state and local authorities to ensure public safety.
“He directed that all agencies maintain vigilance to ensure we are best postured to defend the homeland and prevent attacks by individualized radicalized to violence,” the statement read.

Hooded attacker kills woman in French missionaries’ home

2016-11-25T02:29:00.000-08:00

Gendarmes stand guard on a road near a retirement home for monks in Montferrier-sur-Lez, southern France, early on November 25, 2016, after an armed man burst in the home killing a woman with a knife. Armed police were hunting the man inside the home, which is home to around 70 men and women who have served as missionaries in Africa. Authorities said it was a "criminal act".AFP/Pascal Guyot

A hooded man wielding a knife murdered a woman at a retirement home for missionaries in southern France on Thursday triggering a manhunt, with the country still on edge following a string of jihadist attacks.
The man, brandishing a sawn-off shotgun and a knife, tied up and killed the woman who worked at the home in the village of Montferrier-sur-Lez near the city of Montpellier, a prosecutor said.
More than 70 men and women, most of whom served as missionaries in Africa, live at the home.
Armed police searched the building but believe the man fled, sources close to the police operation said, and a large-scale police operation was under way to find the unidentified attacker.
A helicopter was seen flying over the area, scanning the ground with a giant spotlight.
Investigators so far had no evidence to suggest the attack was terror-related at a time when France remains under a state of emergency after a number of Islamist atrocities, including the murder of an elderly Catholic priest in July.
“For the time being, there is only one victim,” Montpellier prosecutor Christophe Barret told AFP. “For the
moment there is no particular evidence about the motive for this crime.”
“Nothing is pointing towards the motive” of the killer, he added.
The man was not known to authorities.
Residents of the home “are very elderly with an average age of 75 although some are more than 90,” said Alain Berthet, a local councillor in Montferrier-sur-Lez.
Many of the residents require assistance to walk, he said.
The secretary general of the French Bishops’ Conference, Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, said in a Twitter message: “Our prayers tonight go to the woman who lost her life in this attack on a retirement home.”
Around two hours after the attacker burst into the home, more than a dozen police and emergency vehicles lined the roads near the home while police set up roadblocks to check vehicles passing through the area.
A large security perimeter, stretching for several hundred metres (yards), had been set up and officers from elite armed unit RAID were on the scene.
France is under a state of emergency that gives security forces enhanced powers of surveillance and arrest.
Islamist extremists have carried out three large-scale attacks in France since January 2015, when gunmen targeted the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket.
Ten months later, Islamic State jihadists massacred 130 people in attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, France’s national stadium and a handful of bars and restaurants in eastern Paris.
And in July, a self-radicalised extremist ploughed a truck into crowds watching Bastille Day fireworks in the southern city of Nice, killing 86.
Two weeks later, two jihadists in their 20s claiming to be IS followers slit the throat of 84-year-old priest Jacques Hamel at a church near the northern city of Rouen.

South Africa braces for credit review as growth falls

2016-11-25T02:26:00.002-08:00

South Africa braced for a potentially damaging credit rating review Friday as Moody’s releases its latest assessment amid political tension, reform blockages and weak economic data.
President Jacob Zuma has been engulfed by graft scandals and a power struggle with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, while growth has fallen to 0.5 percent and unemployment hit a 13-year high.
Moody’s will issue its updated grading later Friday, before Standard & Poor’s makes its key announcement a week later on December 2.
S&P currently has South Africa — the continent’s most developed economy — rated at the lowest investment grade, and a downgrade would put the country’s bonds into so-called “junk” status.
Moody’s currently rates South Africa two levels above junk.
Any downward review would further drain investor confidence in the country’s prospects under Zuma and the ANC party, which has ruled since the end of apartheid.
“We are politicising downgrading. That is our problem,” the president told parliament this week. “We have
been working hard… and we are talking to them (rating agencies).”
Efforts to avoid junk status have been at the centre of political drama for months, with Zuma loyalists at loggerheads with Gordhan, who is widely respected among international investors.
“Zuma has focused on removing Gordhan and maintaining his grip on power, while Gordhan (has) been working very hard to avert a ratings downgrade,” the Eurasia consultancy group said in briefing note.
– Junk status looms? –
Analysts warned that Moody’s sticking to its current “negative outlook” assessment for South Africa could be a pointer to S&P’s possible downgrade to junk next week.
“A stable outlook would indicate little to no intention to downgrade to junk any time soon,” Old Mutual economist Rian le Roux said.
A junk rating by S&P could trigger a bout of bond selling by foreign investors.
Some investment funds have rules that allow them to only hold bonds that have investment-grade ratings.
Dennis Dykes, senior economist at Nedbank, told AFP that a downgrade would “have a negative but limited impact because the markets had almost a year to absorb the probability”.
Gordhan had been due to appear in court earlier this month on graft charges that many analysts saw as an attempt by Zuma associates to oust him.
The charges were dropped at the last minute, exposing deep tensions in the ANC as several ministers came out in his support.
Gordhan was appointed only last year to calm panicked investors when Zuma sacked two finance ministers within four days.
South Africa on Monday unveiled the proposed figure for its first minimum wage — 3,500 rand ($242) a month — in a move that could improve labour relations.
Gordhan and deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa have been pushing for reform of loss-making state companies, including power company Eskom and national airline South African Airways.
A recent watchdog report included allegations that Zuma ensured one business family won huge preferential contracts to supply Eskom with coal.

South Africa’s scandal-plagued Zuma to face ANC integrity panel

2016-11-25T02:23:00.001-08:00

South African President Jacob Zuma will be questioned next week by the African National Congress’ (ANC) integrity commission following persistent allegations of corruption and poor election results, the party said on Friday.
Zuma’s appearance before the panel could deepen divides within the ANC as it gears up for a national conference next year when Zuma, 74, is expected to stand down as party leader.
“He will be having a meeting with the IC,” ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe confirmed to Reuters, referring to the integrity commission.
Zuma’s meeting with the commission is expected to be held on Dec. 3 behind closed doors. Members of the ANC have been removed from their posts as a result of the commission’s recommendation.
The ANC formed the commission in 2013 to help protect its image and take “urgent action” to deal with members of the party who face allegations of improper conduct.

The Mail & Guardian newspaper reported on Friday that the commission, headed by anti-apartheid stalwart Andrew Mlangeni, would question Zuma over a slew of corruption scandals and the party’s worst local election results in August.
Mantashe did not say what would be discussed at the meeting.
Several senior members of the ANC have called for Zuma to resign in recent months after scandals rattled markets in Africa’s most industrialised economy and cost the party votes.
A constitutionally-mandated anti-graft watchdog this month called for a judge to investigate allegations Zuma provided special favours for wealthy friends and allowed them to choose ministerial appointments. Zuma denies any wrongdoing.
In March, the Constitutional Court ordered Zuma to repay some of $16 million of state funds inappropriately spent on enhancing his country home. He has since paid back more than $500,000 as required by the court.

Thanksgiving sales surge online as shoppers stay home for holiday

2016-11-25T02:06:00.001-08:00

Workers prepare orders for customers at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Tracy, California, November 29, 2015.Reuters/Fred Greaves

Online spending by U.S. bargain hunters climbed to above $1 billion by Thanksgiving evening, according to Adobe Digital Index, surging almost 14 percent from a year ago and reflecting a broader trend away from brick-and-mortar shopping.
At the start of the first holiday shopping season since the election of Donald Trump as president on November 8, U.S. consumers loosened their purse strings and spent $1.15 billion online between midnight and 5 pm ET on Thursday, according to Adobe.
Traditionally the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, has started the holiday shopping season in the United States with retailers offering steep discounts and turning a profit. But its popularity has been on the wane given the emergence of online shopping and cheap deals through the year from retailers including e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O).
U.S. stores are now opening on Thanksgiving to try and boost in-store sales, while retailers have been offering online deals weeks in advance to cope with lower demand and stiff pricing competition.

“We saw one of our strongest days ever online,” Brian Cornell, chief executive of discount retailer Target (T.N), told reporters on Thursday evening. He added that online sales grew by double digits, without giving further details.
The holiday season spanning November and December is crucial for retailers because it can account for as much as 40 percent of annual sales. Retailers try to attract shoppers with deep discounts, sometimes as much as 85 percent.
The National Retail Federation, which has been bullish with projections in the past, expects holiday sales to grow 3.6 percent this year to $655.8 billion.
“Online discounts are earlier and a lot bigger than last year,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal research analyst at Adobe Digital Index.
The Adobe figure is collected from 21 billion online visits to 4,500 U.S. retail sites since Nov. 1.
“Black Friday is no longer a one-day event; it has turned into a multi-week event,” said Christopher Baldwin, chief executive officer at BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc, which operates club stores on the East Coast that compete with Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s (WMT.N) Sam’s Club.
Store traffic remained subdued across the country, according to spot checks made by Reuters reporters and industry officials.
“Initial reports show it’s steady and not very busy at stores around the country,” said Craig Johnson, president at retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners. The firm deployed 18 people nationwide to observe customer traffic.
Rain hurt shopping at stores in the Northeast, Johnson said, but some retailers like Best Buy (BBY.N) and Wal-Mart saw improved customer traffic at stores across the country.
At a JC Penney store in Manhattan, Terry Bodiford, visiting from South Carolina, said he did not feel deals were better than he had found online over the past few weeks.
Macy’s and Best Buy on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile were packed, but employees said most of the customers were tourists.
Chicago’s State Street, a normally bustling shopping area popular with locals, was desolate.
Shaun Smith, a 29-year-old restaurant manager, said he only came to the State Street store to take advantage of a deal for a $279 Westinghouse TV which is normally priced over $600
“I will buy most of what I need online,” he said.

EU vote: Erdogan threatens to open Turkey borders to migrants

2016-11-25T01:58:00.002-08:00

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday threatened to throw open Turkey’s borders to illegal migrants after the European Parliament voted to back a freeze in membership talks with Ankara.
“Listen to me. If you go any further, then the frontiers will be opened, bear that in mind,” Erdogan told the European Union (EU) in a speech in Istanbul.
On March 18, Ankara and Brussels forged a deal for Turkey to halt the flow of migrants to Europe — an accord that has largely been successful in reducing numbers crossing the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece.
Turkey agreed to step up maritime and land border controls in exchange for incentives on its long-stalled membership bid, including visa-free travel for its citizens and an acceleration of accession talks.
However with an October target passing and no apparent progress on the visa issue and accession talks
stalled, Ankara has stepped up accusations that Brussels was not keeping its side of the bargain.
The latest setback was the vote on Thursday by the European Parliament to freeze membership talks, a move prompted by alarm over Turkey’s crackdown after an attempted putsch.
But the resolution is non-binding and has not been backed by the European Commission or almost any member states.
Erdogan said that the EU had cried out for help in 2015, as tens of thousands of migrants massed at the border crossing with EU member Bulgaria.
“You began to ask us ‘what will we do if Turkey opens its borders’?” he asked.
Around one million migrants from poverty-stricken countries and refugees from wars crossed into Europe in 2015, raising fears of a social crisis in the EU and strengthening the hand of right-wing nationalist parties.

Blast kills two at governor's office in southern Turkish city

2016-11-24T03:05:00.001-08:00

A firefighter tries to extinguish burning vehicles after an explosion outside the governor's office in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, November 24, 2016. Ihlas News Agency via REUTERS

An explosion killed two people and wounded more than 30 outside the governor's office in the southern Turkish city of Adana on Thursday, weeks after the United States warned of attacks by what it called extremist groups.

Video footage showed a vehicle ablaze in the car park outside the building and thick black smoke rising into the sky in the city, 40 km (25 miles) from Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Windows were blown out and parts of the facade of the building, roughly six floors high, were torn off.

The state-run Anadolu agency quoted provincial governor Mahmut Demirtas as saying two people were killed. Anadolu said the blast, which occurred shortly after 8 a.m., came from a vehicle in front of the building.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Adana for a

conference at a separate location, said 33 people had been wounded in the blast.

Adana is about 10 miles (16 km) from Incirlik Air Base, which the U.S. military uses to launch attacks against Islamic State militants in Syria. Families of U.S. military personnel were ordered to leave Adana and some other parts of Turkey in March over security concerns.

"Damned terror continues to target our people. We will fight with this terror to the end in the name of humanity," Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik wrote on Twitter, saying he had spoken to the Adana governor.

The U.S. embassy in Turkey strongly condemned what it described as an "outrageous terrorist attack" and said it stood against terror with Turkey, a NATO ally and member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Labour Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said Kurdish PKK militants may have been responsible and that 21 people were wounded, five of them seriously.

"It looks like they (the PKK) were probably behind it this morning yet again, as this looks like their one of their actions," he told broadcaster CNN Turk.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

PKK militants have carried out dozens of attacks on members of the security forces and government buildings since July 2015, when a ceasefire between the group and the Turkish state collapsed. Civilians have also been killed.

A Turkish soldier was killed and two wounded on Thursday after an improvised explosive device was detonated by suspected PKK militants in the southeastern province of Sirnak, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, security sources said.

The PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's southeast.

Turkey has also been hit by at least half a dozen suicide attacks blamed on Islamic State over the past year, including suicide bombings in Istanbul in January and March which killed German and Israeli tourists, and a gun-and-bomb attack at Istanbul airport which killed 45 people in June.

Turkey launched an incursion into Syria to try to push Islamic State away from the border in August, days after a suicide bomber killed more than 50 people at a wedding in the southern city of Gaziantep.

The U.S. Consulate General in Adana warned three weeks ago that "extremist groups continue aggressive efforts to attack U.S. citizens and other foreigners in Adana". The State Department has warned U.S. citizens to avoid travel to southeastern Turkey.

Trump's friend Farage taunts British PM with 'ambassador's reception'

2016-11-24T03:02:00.001-08:00

Nigel Farage, the interim leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) holds a platter of Ferrero Rocher chocolates during a party in London, Britain, November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Guy Faulconbridge

RAGELONDON (Reuters) - Nigel Farage, the Brexit campaigner who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said would be great as Britain's envoy to Washington, taunted Prime Minister Theresa May with a mock ambassador's reception complete with chocolate and champagne.

May's government dismissed Trump's suggestion this week of "Ambassador Farage" saying there was no vacancy as Kim Darroch is currently serving as ambassador to Washington.

But at a party at London's Ritz hotel, Farage was cheered by his financial backers before offering guests pyramids of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a joking reference to a long-running British 'ambassador's reception' TV advert which cast the gold-foiled confection as the delicacy of choice for diplomats.

Farage praised what he called "the political revolution" that had brought Brexit and then the election of

Trump, who Farage supported at a political rally before his victory.

"For those that are here who aren't particularly happy with what's happened in 2016, I've got some really bad news for you: It's going to get a bloody sight worse next year," Farage told guests from a staircase at the Ritz to laughs and cheers.

"I suspect there is another big seismic shock in British politics, perhaps going to come at the next election," Farage said after complaining that Britain was still ruled by "the career professional political class."

When asked by ITV television about Farage's ambassadorial ambitions, finance minister Philip Hammond said if he ever needed advice from the leader of the UK Independence Party, he had his telephone number.

"Tell him not to hold his breath," he added.

Thousands demonstrate against scandal-hit Malaysia PM

2016-11-19T00:13:00.000-08:00

Thousands of yellow-clad Malaysians gathered in the capital to demand Prime Minister Najib Razak resign.Edgar/Reuters

Thousands of anti-government protesters marched in Malaysia’s capital demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak over his alleged involvement in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal.
Clad in yellow shirts and unfazed by arrests of activists and opposition leaders, protesters marched on Saturday from various spots towards downtown Lumpur amid tight security.
Najib, who is attending an Asia-Pacific summit in Lima, Peru, has kept an iron grip since graft allegations emerged two years ago involving the indebted 1MDB state fund that he founded. 1MDB is at the center of investigations in the US and several other countries.
The US Justice Department said that at least $3.5 billion had been stolen from 1MDB by people close to Najib and initiated action in July to seize $1.3 billion it said was taken from the fund to buy assets in the US.
The US government complaints also said that more than $700 million had landed in the accounts of “Malaysian Official 1.” They did not name the official, but appear to be referring to Najib.

Some were chanting “Save Democracy” and “Bersih, Bersih” – the name of the electoral reform group that organised the rally. The name means “clean” in the Malay language.
Bersih said on Twitter that police raided its office on Friday and detained its chairwoman Maria Chin and another official Mandeep Singh.
It said at least seven others including several politicians were also held. It said police also confiscated laptops, mobile phones and bank statements.
“Despite the authorities’ desperate measures to stop us, (the rally) will go on,” the group tweeted.
Another Bersih official, Mandeep Singh, and 12 others including several politicians were also detained, mostly in connection with the rally and to prevent rioting, the police said.
“The reason why people are on the streets is not just about asking him [Najib] to resign, but it is also about changing the system,” Azmi Sharom, a law professor at the University of Malaysia, told Al Jazeera.
“The ruling party can win less popular votes and yet win the large majority in the house, so it’s a serious systematic problem that needs to be changed and this is why most of the people are out on streets today.”
‘Heavy-handed’
The protesters gathered around the Independent Square, the main venue that was locked down by police. A smaller group of red-shirt pro-government supporters held a counter-rally.
Najib, who has denied any wrongdoing, said he won’t be cowed by the rallies.
In a statement on his blog, Najib called Bersih “deceitful” and said the group has become a tool for opposition parties to unseat a democratically elected government.
“We want to see Malaysia more developed and not robbed of billions of ringgit,” said Wan Aisyah Wan Ariffin, an opposition supporter.
A rally that Bersih organized in August 2015 also demanding Najib’s resignation brought together 50,000 people, according to police estimates. Bersih said the number was much higher.
Britain-based rights group Amnesty International slammed the crackdown and called for the immediate release of the Bersih activists, describing them as prisoners of conscience.
“Can protests change anything? We don’t know because that would require a huge move on the part of the election commission, it would need a parliament to agree on something, so it’s a bit of a long shot,” Sharom told Al Jazeera.
“But I think people are angry, they feel the desire, the need to express themselves and hopefully this would push and gather momentum and perhaps in the next elections something positive can come out of it.”

Trump settles Trump University lawsuits for $25 mn

2016-11-18T23:53:00.002-08:00

US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits accusing his now-defunct Trump University of fraud, sparing him the embarrassment of further legal wrangling as he prepares to enter the White House.
A trio of suits brought by former students alleged that the training program — which was not an accredited college or university, but was in operation from 2005 to 2011 — fleeced students by tricking them with aggressive marketing.
Students paid as much as $35,000 to enroll, wrongly believing they would make it big in real estate after being taught by the Manhattan mogul’s hand-picked experts, said the suits brought in New York and California.
Trump’s lawyers had countered for years that many students had given the program a thumbs-up and those who failed to succeed had only themselves to blame.
But, with the president-elect apparently seeking to put the thorny matter to rest as he builds his cabinet, a
deal was reached.
“Today’s $25 million settlement agreement is a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university,” New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman said.
“I am pleased that under the terms of this settlement, every victim will receive restitution and that Donald Trump will pay up to $1 million in penalties to the State of New York for violating state education laws.”
A spokesperson for Schneiderman’s office said the settlement covers all three class-action lawsuits against Trump University: two in California dating to 2010 and one in New York filed in 2013.
Robert Guillo, a 76-year-old New Yorker who spent nearly $40,000 on tuition alongside his son, had previously told AFP that the program was an “absolute scam.”
“I learned absolutely nothing,” Guillo said. “He fooled me for $35,000.”
– ‘Full attention’ on running country –
The agreement came just before a hearing in a San Diego federal court was about to begin to decide on a request by Trump to delay the trial.
Jason Forge, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs in the San Diego cases, hailed the settlement.
“This case has been unprecedented in so many ways,” he told AFP. “It’s only fitting that it end with an unprecedented recovery for so many people.”
He added that the settlement proves the students had a valid case.
“This man fights for what he believes in and I respect that,” Forge said, referring to Trump. “So this settlement means he believed that the students deserved a real recovery.”
He said $21 million of the settlement would go to reimburse the Trump University plaintiffs in San Diego. The remainder would go to the attorney general in New York to reimburse plaintiffs in that case.
Forge added that the aggrieved former students could expect their money within three to four months.
Lead Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli said his client had put aside his personal feelings to settle the matter.
“President-elect Trump is pleased to put this case behind him,” Petrocelli told reporters in San Diego. “We think it’s a victory for everybody.”
Trump agreed to the settlement without admitting any fault or liability, Petrocelli added.
A Trump Organization spokesman insisted that had the case gone to trial, Trump would have won.
“While we have no doubt that Trump University would have prevailed at trial based on the merits of this case, resolution of these matters allows President-elect Trump to devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation,” the spokesman said in a statement read on CNN.
In February, Trump tweeted that the program had a 98 percent approval rating and that he would not settle out of principle.
Trump also attacked the US-born federal judge handling the case in San Diego, Gonzalo Curiel, saying he could not be impartial because of his Mexican roots — comments that outraged many.
During the bitter presidential campaign, Trump had pledged to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and to expel millions of illegal immigrants — comments, he claimed, had turned the judge against him.