IGIHE

Category: Politics

  • Egypt journalists’ union cordoned off in crackdown

    {Many protest outside union headquarters as access to building restricted following police raid and arrests.}

    Egyptian riot police have cordoned off the headquarters of the journalists’ union and limited access to the building in an escalating standoff following a raid on the premises and the arrest of two journalists.

    Hundreds of journalists rallied on the steps outside the union headquarters on Wednesday, chanting “Journalism is not a crime!” and demanding the dismissal of the country’s Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar.

    The protests are the latest in a series of demonstrations against the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, which has banned virtually all protests and carried out a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent.

    Police severely restricted access, banning non-union members from entry, as well as some residents and people who came on work errands to the surrounding area. Foreign journalists were allowed entry only after approval by several levels of officers, up to the rank of general.

    At one point, several dozen journalists pushed through a barrier and entered the area, causing a brief moment of chaos. Several held up their union cards, saying that the police would not let them enter despite the membership. The union is now holding a general assembly.

    “There are thugs here threatening us, and the police don’t want us to enter for the meeting because they know we’ll condemn the Interior Ministry,” said journalist Ahmed Bakr, who was allowed into the building’s street eventually.

    Several dozen counter-demonstrators and government supporters showed up at either end of the blocked-off street, blasting patriotic songs, chanting “Long live Egypt” and insulting union members, who responded by calling the police “thugs”.

    Activist sentenced to jail

    In a separate development, prominent Egyptian activist and protest organiser Sanaa Seif has been sentenced to six months in prison for “insulting a public official”, she wrote in a Facebook post.

    The jail term came months after the government pardoned Seif and 99 others, including journalists and activists.

    Since Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi was deposed in 2013, the government of army chief-turned-president Sisi has clamped down on political demonstrations, mainly by opponents demanding Morsi’s return.

    Hundreds of protesters have been killed and thousands detained over the past three years, and an anti-protest law has virtually banned all street demonstrations without prior police permission.

    The two journalists were arrested on Sunday over allegations that they called for anti-government protests following Sisi’s recent decision to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. Egypt’s prosecutor general has since defended the raid and imposed a media gag order on the investigation.

    Similar blockades at the union headquarters have been imposed intermittently since April 25, when security forces largely quashed demonstrations against the transfer of the two islands. That decision brought protesters on to the streets on two occasions last month, in the largest show of public defiance of Sisi since he was elected in 2014.

    “We are here today to defend journalism,” said Yahia Kalash, the head of journalists’ union, who was at the rally on Wednesday. “We are defending the rights and the dignity of journalists.”

    Mubarak’s PM acquitted

    Also in Egypt, a top appeals court has acquitted the ex-prime minister Ahmed Nazif, who had been part of the administration of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, of corruption charges after overturning his sentence for illegal profiteering, his lawyer and a judicial official said.

    Nazif had been found guilty by two criminal courts in 2012 and 2015 of illegally amassing $7.2m serving under the former president.

    He was sentenced to three years in prison in the first trial, and to five years in the second one.

    Both rulings were cancelled by the Court of Cassation.

    Nazif was also acquitted of corruption charges in a separate case in February last year, after a criminal court had sentenced him to seven years in prison for his alleged role in awarding contracts for new vehicle licence plates.

    Most have since been acquitted.

    Those released include Mubarak’s sons, who were convicted with their father of stealing from public funds. The sons were freed in October for time served.

    Courts also acquitted senior Interior Ministry officials over the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising.

    Journalists in Egypt have protested against the government crackdown on dissent

  • Burundi economy on the ropes amid political crisis

    {Effects of recession are plain to see in the capital Bujumbura, many hotels closed.}

    A year into a political crisis which has claimed about 500 lives, driven a quarter of a million into exile and prompted Western donors to suspend government aid, Burundi’s economy is on the ropes.

    The central African country had only just begun to recover from a 1993-2006 ethnic-based civil war when it became sucked back into violence after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced a year ago that he would seek a third term in office.

    “The economy had been starting to stabilise, inflation was under control, and with average growth of around 4.5 per cent over several years, Burundi seemed to be on the right path,” said an economics professor at Burundi University, who did not wish to be named.

    “But the current crisis has had catastrophic consequences, particularly on public finances” and on the business sector, he told AFP.

    Nkurunziza’s quest for a third term sparked outrage among the opposition and human rights groups, who said the move violated a two-term limit on presidential mandates and flouted a peace deal that ended the civil war.

    Despite mass protests and an attempted coup, Nkurunziza refused calls from the international community to step aside, winning another term in July elections that were boycotted by the opposition.

    {{RECESSION}}

    With his re-election came recession and a further slide in global development ranks.

    The economy shrank by 7.4 per cent in 2015, taking Burundi from the world’s third-poorest country to the poorest, with a GDP of $315.20 dollars per inhabitant, according to the International Monetary Fund.

    The effects of the recession are plain to see in the capital Bujumbura, where most hotels have gone to the wall or laid off most of their staff.

    “The hotel sector is a disaster zone,” said the owner of a big hotel in the capital, which had only two guests during the first four months of the crisis.

    “I only kept a tenth of my staff because it’s impossible to just shut up shop given the investments I’ve made and the bank loans I took out,” the hotelier told AFP.

    Like many people in Bujumbura, he refused to give his name for fear of repercussions.

    The collapse of the fledgling tourism sector has also hit the banks that provided loans for hotel construction in the mountainous country in recent years.

    “No-one is paying them back,” the university professor explained.

    In March, the European Union, Burundi’s biggest donor, cut funding to the government in a move aimed at pressuring Nkurunziza into talks with the opposition on a way out of the political deadlock.

    “It was a very hard blow to the government, even though it has tried to downplay its impact,” a European diplomat in Bujumbura told AFP.

    While the economy had not collapsed per se, the country’s budget deficit has grown and the effects of the recession were “plain to see,” the diplomat said.

    In Bujumbura, at least one bridge on a major road that was washed away by floods has yet to be rebuilt, for lack of funds. Several main roads are also in a dire state of repair.

    Heavily armed police patrol the streets in Bujumbura on April 12, 2016. Burundi economy is in the doldrums amid a year-long political crisis that has driven a quarter million into exile.

  • Nepal asks Canadian to leave over social media posts

    {Robert Penner given marching orders after arrest for criticising government decisions including journalist’s detention.}

    A Canadian living and working in Nepal has been ordered to leave the country within two days after criticising the government on social media, according to a Nepali official.

    Robert Penner, a computer programmer working for CloudFactory, an outsourcing company, was arrested at his office on Monday and taken to the immigration department for questioning.

    He criticised the Nepal government on social media during unrest that followed the passing of Nepal’s constitution last year and also denounced the recent arrest and detention of Kanak Mani Dixit, a prominent journalist and civil rights activist.

    Dixit was released from detention on Monday on the orders of the Supreme Court.

    “Robert Penner must leave Nepal voluntarily within two days,” Kedar Neupane, director general of the Department of Immigration, told Reuters news agency.

    “If he fails to leave within this timeframe, he will be considered as staying here illegally.”

    Neupane said there was no provision for Penner to appeal against the decision but the Canadian’s legal representative said his client had broken no laws and would appeal against the decision.

    “The decision was made based only on his tweets, but such allegations cannot be substantiated just by his tweets and personal opinions,” he told AFP news agency.

    “There is no evidence of any crime committed linked to what he has said.”

    The deportation order was issued after government officials received numerous complaints about tweets and online writings that Penner had posted, said Neupane.

    He declined to elaborate on exactly who and how many had complained.

    There was no provision for Penner to appeal, according to the immigration department head

  • Donald Trump becomes presumptive Republican nominee

    {Path clear for controversial billionaire as main rival Ted Cruz bows out of race for presidential nomination.}

    Donald Trump has gone from long-shot contender to the Republican party’s presumptive nominee for president with a crushing win in Indiana that forced his main rival Ted Cruz out of the race.

    Addressing jubilant supporters at Trump Tower in New York after romping to his seventh straight state-wide victory, the real estate mogul promised them: “We’re going to win in November, and we’re going to win big, and it’s going to be America first.”

    Trump won at least 51 of 57 possible delegates awarded in Indiana, according to the Associated Press news agency delegate tracker. His victory in the state pushed him to 1,047 delegates of the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination, compared with 153 for Kasich.

    Cruz had 565 delegates before suspending his campaign.

    “This phenomenon is just amazing,” Peter Mathews, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “Trump seems to have got free television time. He got an estimated $1bn of free time during the election.”

    Trump’s immediate challenge is to unite deep fissures within the Republican Party as many party loyalists are appalled at his bullying style, his treatment of women and his signature proposals to build a wall on the border with Mexico and deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

    Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump the party’s presumptive nominee in a tweet and said, “We all need to unite and focus” on defeating Clinton.

    The former reality TV star himself called for unity in a speech at a victory rally that was free of his usual bombast and flamboyance.

    Calling Indiana a “tremendous victory”, he immediately directed fire at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

    “We’re going after Hillary Clinton,” he said. “She will not be a great president, she will not be a good president, she will be a poor president. She doesn’t understand trade.”

    {{Clinton upset}}

    Clinton on Tuesday suffered an upset in Indiana as her rival Bernie Sanders mounted a come-from-behind victory, denying the former secretary of state a feather in her cap as she seeks their party’s presidential nomination.

    Sanders, a self-declared socialist, beat Clinton by 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with about three quarters of precincts reporting – although Clinton remained well ahead in the overall delegate battle for the nomination.

    “Bernie Sanders was behind several points just a few weeks ago. Thousands were turning to his rallies even in thunderstorms to hear what he had to say,” Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Indianapolis, said.

    “A narrow victory in Indiana is enough to re-inject his campaign with momentum and for him to say that he is going to take it all the way to Democratic convention in Philadelphia in the summer.”

    As the race was called overwhelmingly in Trump’s favour, Cruz conceded to supporters in Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forwards.

    “We left it all on the field in Indiana,” Cruz said. “We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path.

    “And so with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.”

    Al Jazeera’s Fisher said that Indiana had become a pivotal point in the race.

    “On the Republican side, Cruz lost the primary by a significant margin. His appeal to voters simply did not work,” he said.

    Trump, who has never held public office, is likely to formally wrap up the nomination on June 7 when California votes, although Ohio Governor John Kasich vowed to stay in the race as his last challenger.

  • Uganda:Oulanyah defies NRM, insists on Speaker job

    {Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah has rejected a closed-door decision by NRM executives to ring-fence the 10th Parliament Speaker job for incumbent Rebecca Kadaga.}

    The NRM Caucus, which is numerically larger and comprises all Members of Parliament elected on the NRM party ticket, is scheduled to meet at State House in Entebbe, tomorrow to decide whether to maintain the status quo where Ms Kadaga remains the Speaker deputised by Mr Oulanyah.

    The party’s Central Executive Committee, meeting at State House Entebbe up to midnight yesterday, had resolved that the current leadership be upheld in order not to polarise the 10th Parliament.
    Hours after the resolution, Mr Oulanyah refused to budge and after a meeting with some of his supporters announced that he would run for Speaker “come rain or come shine”.

    He held a follow up meeting with President Museveni, the national party chairman who presided over the nine-hour Monday meeting, but details of their discussions were not available by press time.

    Whereas the Speakership is, for now, a two-horse race between Kadaga and Oulanyah, the Deputy Speaker position has attracted seven contestants. The party CEC resolved to re-open closed nominations for the crowded slot to enable Oulanyah register but he had not done so by press time.

    Sources that attended the CEC meeting said the proposal to maintain the status quo was fronted by Hajji Moses Kigongo, the National Vice Chairman, and supported by Mr Sam Engola, the party’s vice-chairman (North), and Haji Abdul Nadduli (vice-chairman, Buganda).

    The meeting also grilled Ms Kadaga, faulting her for opening a war of words with CEC members taking exception that she drew the first blood when she branded Mr Oulanyah as a “greedy and arrogant man”.

    Sources at the CEC meeting told Daily Monitor that Ms Kadaga was also questioned over claims that she fraternises with Opposition MPs and her quarrels with the media.

    It is reported that Ms Kadaga apologised and promised to work with Oulanyah. Ms Kadaga reportedly told CEC that she attacked her deputy because she was “under pressure” to defend her job and that she was “not breathing”. She also accused her opponents of using the media to fight her.

    The President who is the NRM chairman, however, apologised for taking long to intervene and promised to reconcile the two principals as soon as possible. When Ms Kadaga and Mr Oulanyah were called to CEC for counselling, members asked the two leaders to “bury the hatchet and move on”.

    NRM electoral commission chairman Tanga Odoi, who attended CEC meeting, confirmed that the bickering between the duo was discussed with CEC and resolving that Mr Museveni should mediate the talks.

    Mr Odoi said the NRM Caucus will take the final decision on the duo tomorrow.

    “The chairman of the party will sit them down and talk to them. They were not reprimanded because it is a learning process,”Mr Odoi said.

    Yesterday, Ms Kadaga was in celebratory mood, telling MPs from the Bugisu sub-region that CEC endorsed her to retain the Speaker’s job.

    Mr Oulanyah

  • Uganda:NRM vets Oulanyah, Kadaga for Speaker

    {The race for Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament yesterday entered critical stage as eight aspirants appeared before the ruling party’s Central Executive Committee chaired by President Museveni to defend their candidature in a tense vetting process.}

    The decision by CEC to scrutinise the credentials of the contenders in the race for Speaker ties with Section 9 of the 2014 NRM Parliamentary Caucus Rules of Procure, requiring the top organ to vet and approve parliamentary leadership hashed out behind the scenes, with an anointing of sorts when a new Parliament begins, rather than a contested vote.

    Sources close to CEC told Daily Monitor last evening that individual messages were sent to each of the eight candidates in the race, inviting them for vetting at State House at 10am. However, the meeting did not commence until past 3pm since the NRM electoral commission boss Tanga Odoi had to present the list of successful candidates to CEC.

    {{NRM EC presents candidates}}

    Dr Odoi presented Mr Oulanyah and Ms Kadaga as the only NRM MPs nominated for Speakership. He also told CEC that six candidates were nominated for the position of the Deputy Speaker.

    The six candidates are Finance state minister David Bahati, Mr Hamson Obua of Ajuri County and Mitooma Woman MP Jovah Kamateeka. Others are Kumi District MP-elect Monica Amoding, Kitagwenda MP-elect Abbas Agaba and Lwemiyaga County MP Theodore Ssekikubo.

    {{Two-horse race }}

    Ms Kadaga and Mr Oulanyah appeared before a 29-member committee and were reportedly asked to account for their decisions in the 9th Parliament and shed light on how each of them intends to wriggle the challenges in the 10th Parliament.

    Sources told Daily Monitor that while Mr Oulanyah marketed himself as “steadfast” and “experienced” in law and rules of procedure, .

    In Ms Kadaga and Ms Oulanyah, CEC members who talked to Daily Monitor but requested not be quoted talked of “a hard choice,” that has divided the committee.

    Some members were pushing for the status-quo and others were backing Mr Oulanyah. There was a third group who had demanded that Ms Kadaga and Mr Oulanyah be forwarded to the Parliamentary Caucus sitting this Thursday to take a decision. By Press time, the president had not given his views on the two candidates.

    Mr Ssekikubo apparently told CEC that he was not “an extremist” and that President Museveni needs him to deliver the promises in the NRM manifesto (2016-2021). He also told CEC that even when he was “unfairly” expelled from the party, he worked so hard to return and encouraged colleagues to do the same.

    As CEC remained holed up in the meeting, the jostling for the race of Speaker intensified at Parliament, with MPs backing Ms Kadaga unveiling their next course of action-just in case their candidate does not sail through the NRM internal processes.
    After failing to convince Mr Oulanyah to step down for Ms Kadaga, Lango MPs echoed concerns first raised by the Busoga Parliamentary Caucus, insisting that they will front Ms Kadaga as an independent candidate if she is either thrown out by CEC or does not clinch the NRM flag in the primaries.

    {{The regional questions}}

    “Incase our candidate does not go through NRM CEC, what will we do? CEC does not have the power to direct us. We will back the candidate to come as an Independent,” Erute North MP Charles Angiro Gutumoi told a press briefing at Parliament.

    “We want the status quo [of Kadaga as Speaker and Oulanyah as deputy] retained because it takes care of the regional balance. Having an easterner as Speaker and a northerner as Deputy,” Ms Betty Amongi (Oyam County South) said.
    To balance the equation of regional politics, the Lango MPs decided to back Mr Hamson Obua (Ajuri County) for the Deputy Speaker slot.

    {{Kadaga’s strategy}}

    Ms Kadaga is running a more open campaign, unveiling MPs from different Caucuses to pledge allegiance to her while Mr Oulanyah has been campaigning rather covertly focusing on 83 per cent of the new MPs.

    L-R: Mr Oulanyah and Ms Kadaga all nominated for Speakership.

  • May Day observed from Turkey to Taiwan

    {Trade unions and other groups stage rallies and events around the world to mark International Workers Day.}

    Trade unions and other groups are staging rallies around the world to mark International Workers Day. A look at some May Day events:

    {{TURKEY}}

    Turkish police on Sunday used tear gas and water cannon to disperse dozens of May Day demonstrators in Istanbul.

    Security forces arrested several people to prevent them from gathering in Istanbul’s Taksim Square which has symbolic meaning as the centre of protests in which 34 people were killed in 1977.

    A police vehicle ran over and killed one protester who was trying to reach the public square, named by local media as 57-year-old Nail Mavus, in Tarlabasi district of Istanbul.

    In the nearby district of Sisli, police fired tear gas and water cannon to scatter other protesters.

    Up to 15,000 police and 120 water cannons were deployed across Istanbul, according to Anadolu Agency.

    According to Birgun newspaper, 52 people were arrested as they tried to reach Taksim Square.

    “The police are routinely heavy-handed in such demonstrations, not only on May Day. The scuffles occurred after police did not let people enter Taksim Square,” Yavuz Baydar, a Turkish columnist and analyst, told Al Jazeera.

    Authorities had previously agreed with some unions to mark the day in a designated area in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district near the airport.

    Elsewhere in Turkey, May Day marches were held without incident but were cancelled in the southern city of Gaziantep after of a car-bomb attack on a police station.

    A May 1 rally in the city of Adana was also cancelled earlier on Sunday as a result of a suicide-bombing threat.

    Turkish police detained four suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) members who were allegedly planning an attack on May Day celebrations in the capital Ankara, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

    Initial investigations showed that the four were Syrian citizens who had been in Ankara for some time, Anadolu said, without giving details on the nature of the attack.

    “It is a tense Turkey nowadays. A low-intensity civil war is going on in the mainly Kurdish southeastern provinces of the country,” Baydar, the Turkish columnist, said.

    “As for the oppositional liberal parts of society in the urban areas, they believe their demands are not being met, and not even being listened to, by the government. This tension has been spreading across the country.”

    Tens of thousands of people marched across Moscow’s Red Square on Sunday morning in a pro-Kremlin workers’ rally. The protesters were carrying the Russian tricolour and balloons.

    As is typical for rallies organised by the ruling United Russia party, the May Day rally steered clear of criticising President Vladimir Putin or his government for falling living standards.

    The slogans focused on wages and jobs for young professionals.

    Left-wing Russian groups held their own rallies.

    This year the May Day coincided with the Orthodox Easter in Russia.

    Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told Russian news agencies before the rally that he celebrates Easter despite the Communist Party’s history of oppressing the Russian Church.

    When a supporter greeted him with “Christ has risen!”, Zyuganov echoed “He is risen indeed!” in a traditional Orthodox greeting.

    {{TAIWAN}}

    In Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, labour unions took to the streets with a march to call on the government to reduce working hours and increase wages.

    Many among the Taiwanese public have been concerned that outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou’s push for closer economic ties with China has benefited just a few.

    Young Taiwanese have seen wages stagnate and good full-time jobs harder to find as the export-led economy has slowed.

    Chen Li-jen, a protester with the Taiwan Petroleum Workers Union, said that while companies were seeing their earnings per share grow every year, workers’ salaries were not rising in tandem.

    “Hardworking labourers are being exploited by consortiums,” Chen said.

    “For the past decade, our basic salary has not made any progress.

    “Labourers’ rights have always been neglected. This is why I hope to take advantage of the May 1 Labour Day protest and tell the government that we are determined to fight for our rights.”

    Thousands of people in the German cities of Berlin and Hamburg are participating in demonstrations marking the Labour Day, according to the DW news agency.

    The protests have been peaceful, with police only reporting some minor incidents of violence.

    Protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany Party are expected to take place in several German cities, including Stuttgart, where the party is holding a congress.

    Leftwing protests were held against the demonstration of right-wing, anti-immigration activists in the town of Plauen.

    {{SOUTH KOREA}}

    Tens of thousands of South Koreans took part in Sunday’s May Day protests to criticise labour reforms pushed by the government and to call for a higher minimum wage.

    Labour activists say the labour reform bill, pushed by President Park Geun-Hye and her conservative Saenuri Party, will make it easier for companies to lay off workers.

    “Let’s fight together against the evil bill!” labour activists and unionised workers chanted in unison during a protest held in Seoul Plaza in front of the city hall.

    About 30,000 unionised workers at local companies took part, according to the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.

    {{FRANCE}}

    Sunday’s May Day rallies pulled together all the different French trade unions and groups opposed to the proposed reform of the Labour laws.

    The traditional marches, which will continue throughout the day, are likely to be tense affairs after violence marred demonstrations earlier this month.

    Police are expected to be out in force following protests on April 28 during which dozens of police officers were wounded and 214 arrest were made.

    Bernard Cazeneuve, interior minister, in a telegram to senior police officers on Saturday, outlined a number of measures to be taken to avoid a repeat of the violence at previous demonstrations.

    William Martinet, president of the UNEF students union, accepted that more needed to be done to protect and police the marches.

    The CGT and the Force Ouvriere trade unions will lead the main May Day march in Paris, which will leave Place de la Bastille and head for Nation in the southeast of the city.

    There will be representations from all the major student unions.

    There will also be marches in other major towns and cities all over France.

    However, neither the CFDT nor the CFTC unions, both of whom support the proposed Labour reform, will be marching today.

    For its part, France’s far-right National Front party moved its annual May 1 gathering from its traditional location near the famous Louvre, to another location at Saint Augustin, a church in north central Paris.

    The National Front said it had made the decision after ISIL announced earlier this year that the group was on the list of targets.

    However, the founder Jean-Marie Le Pen still held a rally at the traditional location, in defiance of current party leader Marine Le Pen, his daughter.

  • May Day observed from Turkey to Taiwan

    {Trade unions and other groups stage rallies and events around the world to mark International Workers Day.}

    Trade unions and other groups are staging rallies around the world to mark International Workers Day. A look at some May Day events:

    {{TURKEY}}

    Turkish police on Sunday used tear gas and water cannon to disperse dozens of May Day demonstrators in Istanbul.

    Security forces arrested several people to prevent them from gathering in Istanbul’s Taksim Square which has symbolic meaning as the centre of protests in which 34 people were killed in 1977.

    A police vehicle ran over and killed one protester who was trying to reach the public square, named by local media as 57-year-old Nail Mavus, in Tarlabasi district of Istanbul.

    In the nearby district of Sisli, police fired tear gas and water cannon to scatter other protesters.

    Up to 15,000 police and 120 water cannons were deployed across Istanbul, according to Anadolu Agency.

    According to Birgun newspaper, 52 people were arrested as they tried to reach Taksim Square.

    “The police are routinely heavy-handed in such demonstrations, not only on May Day. The scuffles occurred after police did not let people enter Taksim Square,” Yavuz Baydar, a Turkish columnist and analyst, told Al Jazeera.

    Authorities had previously agreed with some unions to mark the day in a designated area in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district near the airport.

    Elsewhere in Turkey, May Day marches were held without incident but were cancelled in the southern city of Gaziantep after of a car-bomb attack on a police station.

    A May 1 rally in the city of Adana was also cancelled earlier on Sunday as a result of a suicide-bombing threat.

    Turkish police detained four suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) members who were allegedly planning an attack on May Day celebrations in the capital Ankara, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

    Initial investigations showed that the four were Syrian citizens who had been in Ankara for some time, Anadolu said, without giving details on the nature of the attack.

    “It is a tense Turkey nowadays. A low-intensity civil war is going on in the mainly Kurdish southeastern provinces of the country,” Baydar, the Turkish columnist, said.

    “As for the oppositional liberal parts of society in the urban areas, they believe their demands are not being met, and not even being listened to, by the government. This tension has been spreading across the country.”

    Tens of thousands of people marched across Moscow’s Red Square on Sunday morning in a pro-Kremlin workers’ rally. The protesters were carrying the Russian tricolour and balloons.

    As is typical for rallies organised by the ruling United Russia party, the May Day rally steered clear of criticising President Vladimir Putin or his government for falling living standards.

    The slogans focused on wages and jobs for young professionals.

    Left-wing Russian groups held their own rallies.

    This year the May Day coincided with the Orthodox Easter in Russia.

    Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told Russian news agencies before the rally that he celebrates Easter despite the Communist Party’s history of oppressing the Russian Church.

    When a supporter greeted him with “Christ has risen!”, Zyuganov echoed “He is risen indeed!” in a traditional Orthodox greeting.

    {{TAIWAN}}

    In Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, labour unions took to the streets with a march to call on the government to reduce working hours and increase wages.

    Many among the Taiwanese public have been concerned that outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou’s push for closer economic ties with China has benefited just a few.

    Young Taiwanese have seen wages stagnate and good full-time jobs harder to find as the export-led economy has slowed.

    Chen Li-jen, a protester with the Taiwan Petroleum Workers Union, said that while companies were seeing their earnings per share grow every year, workers’ salaries were not rising in tandem.

    “Hardworking labourers are being exploited by consortiums,” Chen said.

    “For the past decade, our basic salary has not made any progress.

    “Labourers’ rights have always been neglected. This is why I hope to take advantage of the May 1 Labour Day protest and tell the government that we are determined to fight for our rights.”

    Thousands of people in the German cities of Berlin and Hamburg are participating in demonstrations marking the Labour Day, according to the DW news agency.

    The protests have been peaceful, with police only reporting some minor incidents of violence.

    Protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany Party are expected to take place in several German cities, including Stuttgart, where the party is holding a congress.

    Leftwing protests were held against the demonstration of right-wing, anti-immigration activists in the town of Plauen.

    {{SOUTH KOREA}}

    Tens of thousands of South Koreans took part in Sunday’s May Day protests to criticise labour reforms pushed by the government and to call for a higher minimum wage.

    Labour activists say the labour reform bill, pushed by President Park Geun-Hye and her conservative Saenuri Party, will make it easier for companies to lay off workers.

    “Let’s fight together against the evil bill!” labour activists and unionised workers chanted in unison during a protest held in Seoul Plaza in front of the city hall.

    About 30,000 unionised workers at local companies took part, according to the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.

    {{FRANCE}}

    Sunday’s May Day rallies pulled together all the different French trade unions and groups opposed to the proposed reform of the Labour laws.

    The traditional marches, which will continue throughout the day, are likely to be tense affairs after violence marred demonstrations earlier this month.

    Police are expected to be out in force following protests on April 28 during which dozens of police officers were wounded and 214 arrest were made.

    Bernard Cazeneuve, interior minister, in a telegram to senior police officers on Saturday, outlined a number of measures to be taken to avoid a repeat of the violence at previous demonstrations.

    William Martinet, president of the UNEF students union, accepted that more needed to be done to protect and police the marches.

    The CGT and the Force Ouvriere trade unions will lead the main May Day march in Paris, which will leave Place de la Bastille and head for Nation in the southeast of the city.

    There will be representations from all the major student unions.

    There will also be marches in other major towns and cities all over France.

    However, neither the CFDT nor the CFTC unions, both of whom support the proposed Labour reform, will be marching today.

    For its part, France’s far-right National Front party moved its annual May 1 gathering from its traditional location near the famous Louvre, to another location at Saint Augustin, a church in north central Paris.

    The National Front said it had made the decision after ISIL announced earlier this year that the group was on the list of targets.

    However, the founder Jean-Marie Le Pen still held a rally at the traditional location, in defiance of current party leader Marine Le Pen, his daughter.

    France's National Front party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen delivered a speech as part of May Day tribute to Joan of Arc

  • Muqtada al-Sadr loyalists leave Baghdad’s Green Zone

    {Prime Minister Abadi issues call for arrests as 24-hour sit-in ends but protesters vow to return if demands are not met.}

    Protesters in Baghdad’s Green Zone have left the heavily fortified government district after a 24-hour sit-in but pledged to return by the end of the week if their demands for political reform are not met.

    The dispersal came on a day two suicide car-bomb attacks in southern Iraq killed at least 32 people and injured 75 others.

    Sunday’s blasts, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, occurred in the centre of the southern city of Samawa.

    Iraq has endured months of discontent prompted by Haider al-Abadi’s attempt to replace party-affiliated ministers with technocrats as part of an anti-corruption drive.

    A divided parliament has failed to approve the prime minister’s proposal amid scuffles and protests.

    Abadi’s arrest order

    Deep frustration over the deadlock culminated in a breach on Saturday of the Green Zone by supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shia leader.

    Protesters stormed the parliament, clashed with police and broke the barricades.

    Abadi’s statement ordered “the interior minister to track down the perpetrators who assaulted the security forces, the citizens and members of the council of representatives and were involved in vandalising public property and to present them to court so they can have a fair trial and face justice”.

    Sadr and his supporters want the political system put in place following the US-led invasion in 2003 to be altered.

    As it stands, entrenched political blocs representing the country’s Shias, Sunnis and Kurds rely on patronage, resulting in widespread corruption and poor public services.

    The major blocs have until now blocked Abadi’s reform efforts.

    “In Iraq, a change is demanded by almost most Iraqis, especially by those out of power,” Ghassan al-Atiyyah, head of Iraqi National Initiative, told Al Jazeera.

    “Ultimately, the ball is in our court. We have to devise a way to improve the situation. Failure of the secular and ethnic parties in moving Iraq forward has created an atmosphere for change.”

    Abadi has given warning that continued turmoil could hamper the war against ISIL, which controls large parts of northern and western Iraq and has frequently targeted the seat of power.

    The Green Zone protesters issued an escalating set of demands, including a parliamentary vote on a technocrat government, the resignation of the president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker and new elections.

    If none of the demands are met, a spokesperson for the protesters said in a televised speech, they would resort to “all legitimate means”, including civil disobedience.

    The peaceful defusing of the crisis came after Abadi convened a meeting with Iraq’s president, parliament speaker and political bloc leaders who called the breach “a dangerous infringement of the state’s prestige and a blatant constitutional violation that must be prosecuted”.

    The Green Zone, a 10sq km district on the banks of the Tigris River which also houses many foreign embassies, has been off-limits to most Iraqis since the US-led invasion in 2003.

    In an unprecedented breach on Sunday, hundreds of people pulled down and stormed over concrete blast walls, celebrating inside parliament and attacking several deputies.

    Many protesters, including some women and children, had spent Sunday in the square, taking refuge inside event halls from 37C heat, while others lay on the grass or cooled off in a large fountain topped with a military statue.

    Videos on social media showed a group of young men surrounding and slapping two Iraqi legislators as they attempted to flee the crowd, while other protesters mobbed motorcades.

    Protesters were also seen jumping and dancing on the parliament’s meeting hall tables and chairs and waving Iraqi flags.

    The protesters eventually left the parliament on Saturday night before camping out in the Green Zone.

  • Zuma told to resign after court ordered graft cases restored

    {President has faced three votes to sack him in the last six months.}

    Opposition parties in South Africa want the country’s leader President Jacob Zuma to resign following the High Court judgment which reinstated 783 corruption and fraud charges against him.

    The charges had been set aside in 2009 by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), but for seven years the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has been fighting to have the charges restored.

    On Friday, the High Court in Pretoria said NPA’s decision to drop the charges had been irrational.

    The new judgment follows a recent Constitutional Court ruling against President Zuma for failing to implement the findings of the Public Protector for non-security features in his Nkandla private home.

    The opposition parties believe the reinstatement of the charges is another convincing reason for the beleaguered leader to step down.

    Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said they were calling for Mr Zuma to step down.

    “He must resign and allow the prosecution and investigation to go on uninterrupted,” he said.

    But the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has, once again, jumped to its leader’s defence cautioning that the court had not found the President guilty of any charges.

    ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said they note the fact that the application before the court was the application for review and has nothing to do with the guilt or not.

    “But what is important is that there are no charges against the President at the moment, what the court has ordered is for the court to review its decision,” Mr Kodwa said.

    DA leader Mmusi Maimane said if Mr Zuma appeals the decision, he would ensure Mr Zuma has his day in court.

    “Those charges must be reinstated. What we are simply saying is that the charges must be put to Jacob Zuma, he must have his day in court because ultimately what that means is that, we are not pronouncing guilt on Jacob Zuma. We are simply asking for him to face prosecution,” Mr Maimane said.

    Minority political parties such as the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Congress of the People (COPE), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Inkatha Freedom Parties (IFP) and Freedom Front Plus also joined in the calls for Mr Zuma’s head.

    They warned the South African leader and the ruling ANC not to try to evade this protracted legal battle by appealing it.

    In the last six months, Mr Zuma has survived three impeachment attempts.

    Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters party won a massive show of support as it targeted white privilege and the ruling African National Congress as it launched its local election manifesto on Saturday.

    Around 40,000 people turned Orlando stadium in Soweto into a sea of red as supporters roared their approval of fiery EFF leader Julius Malema’s promises to seize white-owned land without compensation and nationalise the banks.

    The huge turnout was a shot across the bows of the ANC, which failed to fill a similar stadium during the launch of its own manifesto in the coastal city of East London two weeks ago.

    A man shouts slogans as people take to the streets protesting against South African President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party during a rally organised by the opposition political parties, Civil Society organisations and religious groups as the nation celebrates Freedom Day in Johannesburg on April 27, 2016.