Tag: InternationalNews

{Around 280,000 new asylum seekers arrived in Germany in 2016, as compared with the 890,000 the year before.}

Germany has seen an immense drop in the arrival of asylum seekers, with the total number in 2016 down to less than a third of the 890,000 who arrived in 2015, according to the interior minister.

Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday that about 280,000 new asylum seekers arrived in 2016, while an estimated 80,000 people either left voluntarily or were deported.

The minister said authorities hoped the number of those who leave or are deported will increase.

Arrivals declined sharply with the closure of the Balkan refugee route in March and the subsequent agreement between the European Union and Turkey to stem the flow across the Aegean Sea to Greece.

Asylum applications have lagged well behind arrivals and many people who came to Germany in 2015 applied only last year.

Wednesday’s figures showed that 745,545 formal asylum applications were made last year – 268,869 more than in 2015.

Those included 268,866 applications from Syrians, 127,892 from Afghans and 97,162 from Iraqis, the biggest single groups by far.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which has been beefed up in the course of Europe’s refugee crisis, decided last year on more than 695,000 asylum applications, more than twice as many as in 2015.

Nearly 60 percent of applicants were granted either full refugee status or a lesser form of protection.

{{Deportations and returns}}

The agency has also cut the average time required for an asylum decision to under three months, and introduced a nationwide database to combine identity records for all asylum seekers.

De Maiziere said that about 55,000 failed asylum seekers returned home voluntarily last year, compared with the previous year’s 35,000. Another 25,000 were forcibly deported.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces a national election later this year and still draws criticism for her welcoming approach to refugees and migrants in 2015, has promised a “national effort” to ensure that people who are not entitled to stay go home.

The number of returns is still too low, de Maiziere said, adding that talks are under way with state authorities – who are responsible for returns – to push it up.

De Maiziere rejected the suggestion that the drop in new arrivals was the result of Europe’s efforts to prevent people reaching the continent, but acknowledged that Germany was working to ensure that refugees stay in their home region.

{{Trapped in cold}}

Closed borders across Europe have left refugees and migrants trapped in difficult humanitarian conditions in the Balkans, Greece and elsewhere.

Rights groups have expressed concern about the fate of refugees and migrants as a wave of cold weather grips the region.

In Serbia, hundreds of refugees and migrants were living in abandoned buildings behind the train and bus station in the city centre.

Temperatures have dipped as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius, while access to humanitarian aid has been limited by a ban imposed by the government.

“In some cases, not only have authorities failed to provide humane conditions, they have also tried to prevent humanitarian organisations from aiding those in need,” said Human Rights Watch in a statement last week.

In camps across mainland Greece and Greek islands, refugees and migrants have struggled as temperatures have sunk as low as minus 18 degrees in recent days.

In Moria, a camp on the island of Lesbos, more than 4,500 people who live in tents are among those hit the hardest by the snowy weather.

{Russia’s alleged hacking of the US presidential election dominates Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearing.}

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has started a confirmation hearing for Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the next Secretary of State.

Tillerson, the longtime CEO of the multinational oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil, said he would recommend a “full review” of the US-Iran nuclear deal reached under President Barack Obama’s administration in 2015.

With no prior government experience, 64-year-old Tillerson is the target of much criticism from Democrats and Republicans who have not joined the Trump camp of the party.

Speaking in his Senate confirmation hearing, Tillerson also said he did not oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade deal, but said he shares some of Trump’s views about whether the pact as negotiated reflects all the best interests of the United States.

The hearing comes at a time when Trump has come under increasing criticism over alleged ties to Russia’s President, Vladamir Putin.

Tillerson, who has business ties to Russia, also faced a grilling on his views of Putin and tough questioning from Republican Senator Marco Rubio about whether he believed Putin was a war criminal.

Rubio specifically referred to Russia’s military actions in the Syrian civil war, where it has provided military support for the Syrian government.

“I would not use that term,” Tillerson said.

{{Sanctions questioned}}

Tillerson also declined to say whether he would support upholding President Barack Obama’s executive order imposing fresh sanctions, which was in retaliation for what Washington charges was Moscow’s hacking and other efforts to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favour.

Tillerson said it was “a fair assumption” that Putin was aware of Russian efforts to interfere in the US election.

He said cyber activity by the Russian government, as well as other “bad actors”, undermined the democratic process in the US.

The hearing was interrupted by sporadic protests.

Tillerson’s confirmation hearing comes at a time of rising tensions with Russia.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia was behind the hacks of political figures in an effort to help the Republican Trump defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election. Moscow has denied the allegations.

In another revelation, also denied by Moscow, two US officials said on Tuesday evening that classified documents that the heads of four US intelligence agencies presented last week to Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him. Trump dismissed the reports, first made by CNN, as “fake news”.

Tillerson opposed US sanctions against Russia in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine because he said he thought they would be ineffective.

{Russia reportedly confirms date for upcoming Syria negotiations in Kazakhstan’s capital amid concerns over participants.}

Russia has reportedly confirmed talks between the Syrian government and the opposition are due to take place in Kazakhstan capital, Ashtana, on January 23.

The negotiations, brokered by Russia and Turkey, intend to build on the current ceasefire, which has been in effect since late December.

The truce, which does not include the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), or the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, has brought calm to large parts of the country.

Yet, fighting has continued in some places, such as rebel-held areas on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.

“At this time there is no indication that the meeting will be postponed. The date of January 23 is set,” a source in the Russian foreign ministry told AFP news agency on Wednesday.

The source said that current preparations for the peace talks involve compiling a list of participants amid concerns over whether the meeting will be fully representative.

“Behind the scenes we know that the opposition is not keen on these talks,” Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said.

“What they want to attend is the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva scheduled for February,” she added.

“We are hearing that perhaps a low-level delegation by the Free Syrian Army and the High Negotiations Committee bloc could attend. At the same time, they are saying if violations of the ceasefire in besieged areas continue they will not do that.”

It is still unclear whether the government representatives at the meeting in Astana and the opposition will take part in the negotiations directly.

If the negotiations are indirect, Turkey and Russia may stand in for UN mediation.

Earlier this week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that his government was ready to negotiate “on everything” during the upcoming talks in Astana, but opposition fighters have repeatedly said they do not trust the leadership in Damascus.

More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.

The war has also forced millions of Syrians to flee the country and become refugees.

{Prosecutor summons Samsung leader Jay Lee over donations made to firm linked to scandal involving president’s friend.}

A South Korean special prosecutor said it had summoned Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee as a suspect in a scandal involving President Park Geun-hye.

Prosecutors have been checking whether Samsung’s support for a business and foundations backed by Park’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, was connected to a 2015 decision by the National Pension Service to back a controversial merger of two Samsung Group affiliates.

Samsung, South Korea’s largest bunisess group, has acknowledged making contributions to two foundations as well as a consulting firm linked to Choi.

The prosecution summoned two senior Samsung Group officials this week for questioning, though they were classified as witnesses.

At a December parliament hearing, the executive denied that the firm paid bribes to pave the way for the 2015 merger.

Samsung made the biggest contributions of 20 billion won ($17m) to Choi’s foundations, followed by Hyundai, SK, LG and Lotte.

In December, investigators also summoned Kim Jae-youl, chief of the sports marketing unit of Samsung Group, as they look into allegations that the business giant sponsored the president’s jailed friend, Choi, to receive government favours.

Samsung is separately accused of funnelling millions of dollars to Choi to bankroll her daughter’s equestrian training in Germany.

President Park could become South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to leave office early after parliament voted in December to impeach her over the corruption scandal, a decision that must be approved or overturned by the Constitutional Court.

{White supremacist convicted of killing nine black churchgoers in 2015, expresses no regret for crime in final statement.}

Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who shot dead nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, has been sentenced to death by a federal jury.

Roof, who was convicted last month of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, was condemned to death on Tuesday by a unanimous jury after about three hours of deliberations.

Roof is the first person to get the death penalty for federal hate crimes.

Federal judge Richard Gergel will formally deliver Roof’s sentence on Wednesday morning at the Charleston court. The verdict reached by the jury is binding.

Former white supremacist reflects on church shooting
Earlier on Tuesday, the 22-year-old threw away his one last chance to plead for his life in front of the jurors, telling them: “I still feel like I had to do it.

“I have the right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good it would do anyway”.

The attacker specifically picked out Emanuel AME Church, the South’s oldest black church, to carry out the massacre, Assistant US Attorney Jay Richardson said.

A Bible study group at the Church was just beginning its closing prayer when Roof, a self-avowed Nazi and Ku Klux Klan sympathiser opened fire, killing nine people, ranging in age from 26 to 87.

Roof stood over some of the fallen victims, shooting them again as they lay on the floor, Richardson said.

He did not explain his actions to jurors, saying only that “anyone who hates anything in their mind has a good reason for it”.

In his FBI confession, Roof said that he hoped the massacre would bring back segregation or start a race war.

In notes confiscated from Roof in prison in August 2015, he wrote that he was “not sorry”.

“I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed,” the notes said.

Roof represented himself in the sentencing phase of the trial, against the advice of his lawyers and the judge. He called no witnesses and offered no evidence for the jury to consider.

Capital punishment is only rarely meted out in federal cases, in part because violent crimes more typically are tried under state laws.

{Ex-marine general says creation of physical obstacles and supporting surveillance technologies key to achieving goal.}

John Kelly, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the department of homeland security, has said tightening the country’s border will be his top priority in his new role.

Speaking before a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Kelly called for a “layered defence” on the southern border that would include the possible use of drones and sensors.

“A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job,” Kelly told a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.

A layered defence, he said, would include better partnerships with some Latin American countries as far south as Peru and border patrol agents, as well as technology such as drones that would work in “places that perhaps the wall can’t be built or will be built any time soon”.

He said such tactics were needed because Trump’s plan to build a wall along the border to stop undocumented immigrants would not be sufficient.

Deportations reached record levels under President Barack Obama, whose administration deported more than 2.5 million people between 2009 and 2015.

A large wall already exists on much of the US-Mexico border.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Senate confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, was marred by interruptions .

Two men wearing costumes of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), the white supremacist organisation with a history of fatal racist attacks on people of colour, were ejected from the building after they disrupted the hearing.

Civil-liberties advocates seized on Sessions’ voting record and his appearances before groups that espouse anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views.

He was rejected for a federal judgeship by the Senate Judiciary Committee 30 years ago amid accusations of racism.

Separately, John Kerry, the outgoing US secretary of state, said on Tuesday there has been little contact between Department of State officials and Trump’s transition team.

Asked about the transition process at a forum in Washington, DC, Kerry said: “It’s going pretty smoothly because there’s not an enormous amount of it”.

Kerry said he had not yet met Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, but expected to do so soon.

{Activists seize on Republican Jeff Sessions’ appearance before groups that espouse anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views.}

The Senate confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, has been marred by interruptions.

Two men wearing costumes of the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist organisation with a history of fatal racist attacks on people of colour, were ejected from the building on Tuesday after they disrupted the hearing.

Security removed them from the room as they yelled mockingly “You can’t arrest me, I am white!” and “White people own this government”.

Other protesters later erupted in the chant: “No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!”

Civil liberties campaigners have seized on Sessions’ voting record and his appearances before groups that espouse anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views.

He was rejected for a federal judgeship by the Senate Judiciary Committee 30 years ago amid accusations of racism.

In a prepared opening statement, Sessions said that he understood “the history of civil rights and the horrendous impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and the denial of voting rights has had on our African-American brothers and sisters”.

He also said accusations of racism were “damnably false charges”.

During a 1994 campaign for Alabama attorney general, Sessions came out in support of chain gangs – the forced labour of prisoners – and life sentences for children as young as 14, the progressive Mother Jones news site reports.

Sessions has rejected claims of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
Sessions has also accused the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People civil rights group and the American Civil Liberties Union of being “un-American”, according to Gerald Hebert, a former justice department civil rights attorney who worked with Sessions in Alabama.

Speaking in New York City on Monday, Trump described Sessions as a “high-quality man”.

Separately, John Kerry, the outgoing US secretary of state, said on Tuesday that there has been little contact between officials of the Department of State and Trump’s transition team.

Asked about the transition process at a forum in Washington DC on Tuesday, Kerry said: “It’s going pretty smoothly because there’s not an enormous amount of it.”

Kerry said he had not yet met the man Trump has picked to take over as secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, but expected to do so soon.

{Study conducted with US National Cancer Institute says 80 percent of deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.}

Smoking will kill more than eight million people a year by 2030, according to a World Health Organization study.

The study, which was conducted with the US National Cancer Institute and released on Tuesday, found that more than 80 percent of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.

Smoking also costs the global economy more than a trillion dollars annually.

Those costs far outweigh global revenues from tobacco taxes, which the WHO estimated at about $269bn in 2013-2014.

“It is responsible for over $1 trillion in healthcare costs and lost productivity each year,” said the study, peer-reviewed by more than 70 scientific experts.

The economic costs are expected to continue to rise, and although governments have the tools to reduce tobacco use and associated deaths, most have fallen far short of using those tools effectively.

Jeremias Paul, the head of WHO’s Tobacco Control Economics Unit, told Al Jazeera that the most effective form of reducing smoking is increasing the tax on tobacco.

“It is also the most underutilised method for tobacco control,” he said.

The total number of smokers worldwide is rising [Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters]
Taxing tobacco will have the most effect in low-income areas because money is hard to come by. Right now tobacco is really cheap in those areas, Paul explained.

Tobacco taxes could also be used to fund more expensive interventions such as anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and support for cessation services and treatments, it said.

Governments spent less than $1bn on tobacco control in 2013-2014, according to a WHO estimate.

Furthermore, tobacco use accounts for a significant share of the health disparities between the rich and poor. These disparities are exacerbated by a lack of access to healthcare.

Although smoking prevalence is falling among the global population, the total number of smokers worldwide is rising.

China alone will suffer two million deaths a year by 2030, unless actions is taken to reduce the number of smokers.

An anti-smoking campaign will soon be launched in the country.

In Beijing, where it is illegal to smoke inside public buildings, a group of volunteers has the authority to hunt for smokers in these public spaces and fines them when they are caught in the act.

{Health workers in rebel-held Damascus suburb say daily attacks by Syrian troops are stretching them to the limit.}

Health workers in a besieged rebel-held suburb of Damascus said daily attacks by Syrian troops are stretching them to the limit, and many fear the fall of Aleppo has emboldened the government of President Bashar al-Assad to step up its offensive.

The Douma suburb is a flashpoint town and is the largest rebel-held area on the Damascus outskirts, which the government is trying to retake.

In a report published on Monday, Assad said that his forces are on the road to victory, citing the recapture of Aleppo as a “tipping point” in his fight against Syrian rebels.

“We don’t consider it [retaking Aleppo from the rebels] as a victory. The victory will be when you get rid of all the terrorists,” Assad told French journalists visiting the Syrian capital on Monday.

As fighting intensifies in Douma, most field clinics have been moved to basements, and health workers worry that medical supplies are running out.

Anas Abu Malik, a volunteer medic, told Al Jazeera that he tries to avoid taking the main streets for fear of being hit by government bombardments.

Anas was a medical student when the uprising started six years ago. But he left school and joined hundreds of volunteers operating field clinics as the fighting intensified.

“The town is targeted everyday with all sorts of weapons, rockets, shells, air strikes, barrel bombs, they target mostly civilian areas, markets, busy streets,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Most of the times we can’t rescue people because of the intense air strikes.”

{{Fear and anxiety}}

Anas has recently become a father, and that has only increased his anxiety about the future of Syria.

“Every day when I leave home to the clinic, there comes this feeling that I may never come back home, or that God forbids, my wife and my child could be killed in an air strike,” he said.

Aid agencies managed to get to Douma in June for the first since government forces besieged the town four years ago.

People in the area have refused to leave despite the siege, and they said they are still hoping the war will end.

Still, as the army closes in on the town, many are worried they might have no option but to leave their homes.

“We live in tough times. It’s very cold and we don’t have money to buy wood to heat the house. Our kids suffer a lot,” a patient in one of the underground hospitals told Al Jazeera.

The capture of Aleppo by government forces has sent shockwaves in rebel held areas, said Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, who is reporting in Gaziantep near the border with Syria.

“Many now believe that as the international community seems to be showing less desire to get involved in the Syrian conflict, President Assad may continue his push to reclaim more territory.”

The nearly six-year civil conflict has killed more than 310,000 people, and forced millions of Syrians to flee the country, and become refugees.

{Sources confirm four men, all known for liberal secularist views on social media, disappeared in the span of a week.}

At least four activists known for their liberal views on social media have gone missing in Pakistan this week, according to relatives and workers of nongovernmental organisations.

A cybersecurity NGO said two of the men, Waqas Goraya and Asim Saeed, disappeared on January 4, while the relatives of Salman Haider said he vanished on January 6 and Ahmed Raza Naseer on January 7.

All four were active on social-media groups promoting left-wing, secularist views, often against the country’s military and the conservative establishment.

The opposition Pakistan’s People’s Party submitted a request in parliament on Monday seeking an answer from the interior ministry on the disappearances, which it labelled a planned and coordinated crackdown to silence voices critical of state policies.

{{Family worried}}

Speaking to Al Jazeera by phone from Islamabad, Haider’s brother said that his family is worried about his health as he suffers from a medical condition called anaphylaxis.

“My brother’s wife received a call late at night asking her to pick up Salman’s car from an unknown location in Islamabad,” Zeeshan Haider said.

“We did find the car but could not see any sign of Salman. It’s been four days now and we don’t know who and why would anyone kidnap my brother.”

Haider has written for the largest English-language newspaper, Dawn, and teaches at Fatima Jinnah Women’s University in the city of Rawalpindi, about 15km from capital Islamabad.

Last year, he wrote a poem about human-rights abuses in Pakistan’s Balochistan province which had a line about disappearances of his friends.

The government of Pakistan has seen resistance from tribes in Balochistan since the country came in to existence following India’s partition in 1947.

Baloch nationalists demanding greater political rights, autonomy and control over their natural resources have revolted four times since Pakistan’s creation – in 1948, 1958-59, 1962-63 and 1973-77 – all of which were crushed by the army.

{{‘Killed, injured, abducted’}}

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the South Asian country “has never been a particularly safe country for rights activists”.

“Many have been killed, injured, abducted and threatened for their work. Unfortunately, these actions have not always come from non-state quarters,” HRCP, an independent watchdog, said on Sunday.

Pakistan is also routinely ranked among the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, and reporting critical of the military is considered a major red flag, with journalists at times detained, beaten and even killed.

“The state has controlled TV and now they’re focusing on digital spaces,” said Raza Rumi, a writer and analyst who left Pakistan in 2014 after he was attacked by men who shot his driver dead.

Naseer, who suffers from polio, was taken from his family’s shop in central Punjab province, his brother Tahir told AFP news agency on Sunday.

Waqas Goraya, who is usually a resident of the Netherlands, was picked up on January 4, as was Aasim Saeed, Shahzad Ahmed, head of cybersecurity NGO Bytes for All, told AFP.

“None of these activists have been brought to any court of law or levelled with any charges,” Ahmed said.

Rights activists say the disappearances have stirred unease among those critical of the government and Pakistan’s powerful military, though no evidence has been provided to suggest state actors were involved.

“No one has the right to be punished for what they believe in. My brother is kidnapped just because he said something a few people did not like,” Zeeshan Haider said.