IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • President rejects Muslim PM candidate Sevil Shhaideh

    {Sevil Shhaideh, a politician of Turkish origin, could have been EU nation’s first female and Muslim prime minister.}

    Romania’s president has rejected the left-wing Social Democrats’ candidate for prime minister, Sevil Shhaideh, who would have been the EU nation’s first female and Muslim prime minister.

    Klaus Iohannis has not elaborated on his reason for rejecting the candidacy of Shhaideh, a 52-year-old politician of Turkish origin who comes from Romania’s 65,000-strong Muslim community.

    “I have properly analysed the arguments for and against and I have decided not to accept this proposal,” Klaus Iohannis said in a televised statement on Tuesday.

    “I call on the PSD coalition to make another proposal.”

    The PSD, which has yet to comment on the issue, had put forward Shhaideh after its sweeping election victory on December 11 when it won 45 percent of the vote.

    The PSD, along with its junior coalition partner and longtime ally ALDE, control 250 of the combined 465 seats in the two-house assembly – enough majority for their leader to be elected as the prime minister.

    Liviu Dragnea, leader of the PSD, had withdrawn his bid to become prime minister because he is serving a two-year suspended sentence for electoral fraud.

    Shhaideh’s political experience is limited; she served as development minister for six months before the previous PSD-led government resigned in late 2015.

    This and her personal closeness to Dragnea – he was a witness at her 2011 wedding to a Syrian businessman – have spurred opposition accusations that she would merely be a puppet.

    {{Election promises}}

    Rise Project, a member of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project of investigative journalists, said this month that Shhaideh’s husband had posted messages on his Facebook account in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    The PSD, which promised higher wages and pensions during the election campaign, had hoped Dragnea would stand for prime minister but Iohannis made clear he would refuse any candidate with a criminal record.

    The PSD’s election triumph came barely a year since anger over a deadly nightclub fire that killed 64 people forced it and Victor Ponta, the prime minister, from office.

  • Cristina Kirchner Fernandez charged in corruption case

    {Cristina Fernandez accused of corruption and slapped with $630m asset freeze linked to government contracts.}

    Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, the former Argentine president, has been charged in a corruption case and slapped with a $630m asset freeze over public tenders awarded to a businessman friend during her administration.

    Federal Judge Julian Ercolini approved charges on Tuesday of illicit association and fraudulent administration against Fernandez and two of her erstwhile aides: Julio de Vido, ex-planning minister, and Jose Lopez, former public works secretary.

    Also named was businessman Lazaro Baez, whose Austral Construcciones company allegedly benefited from irregular contracts.

    The ruling published by official Center of Judicial Information said the defendants are accused of associating to illegally take public fund meant for public works between May 2003 and December 2015, largely in the southern province of Santa Cruz.

    The judge said 52 contracts worth about $2.9bn were assigned to Baez’s companies at prices that averaged 15 percent above the original budget.

    Fernandez’s late husband Nestor Kirchner was president from 2003 until 2007.

    Fernandez made no immediate comment on the charge, but she has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and invited an audit of public works contracts during her administration.

    Gregorio Dalbon, Fernandez’s attorney, said on his Twitter account that he was not worried about the indictment and said he would appeal.

    Illicit association carries a possible 10 year prison sentence, while fraudulent administration can lead to six years behind bars.

    Since leaving office in December 2015, Fernandez has alleged that she is the victim of persecution by her conservative successor, Mauricio Macri.

    In May, a judge indicted Fernandez on charges of manipulating currency exchange futures markets, allegedly causing economic damage to the government.

    Fernandez has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and invited an audit

  • Kabul deplores exclusion from trilateral meeting

    {Russia, China and Pakistan meet in Moscow to discuss “growing ISIL threat” in Afghanistan – the third in a series.}

    Government officials in Kabul have reacted with dismay to a trilateral meeting in Moscow involving Pakistan, China and Russia to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

    The gathering in the Russian capital – the third in a series of consultations between Russia, China and Pakistan that have so far excluded Afghanistan – is likely to deepen worries that the government in Kabul is being sidelined in negotiations over the country’s future.

    Ahmad Shekib Mostaghni, Afghanistan’s foreign affairs ministry spokesperson, said the government was not optimistic about the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting.

    “Even if such talks are organised with a good will, it cannot yield any substantial results because no one from the Afghan side is there to brief the participants about the latest ground realities,” Mostaghni said.

    He said meetings without the presence of Afghan government officials will not represent a real picture of the situation.

    For their part, the representatives from Russia, China and Pakistan at the Moscow meeting said the influence of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group was growing in Afghanistan and that the security situation there was deteriorating.

    They also agreed to invite the Afghan government to such talks in the future, the Russian foreign ministry said.

    “[The three countries] expressed particular concern about the rising activity in the country of extremist groups including the Afghan branch of IS,” Maria Zakharova, the ministry spokesperson, said referring to ISIL, also known as ISIS.

    She said the three countries agreed on a “flexible approach to remove certain figures from sanctions lists as part of efforts to foster a peaceful dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban movement”.

    Responding to the developments, Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan parliament member, said Pakistan should convince the Taliban to come to the negotiating table “so that we have only one enemy to fight, which is the ISIL”.

    “What we are concerned about is that there is a legitimate elected government that could represent Afghanistan in international and regional talks,” she told Al Jazeera from Kabul.

    “And we know that without Afghanistan’s inclusion, any process will prove unsuccessful.

    “At this stage we have multiple enemies in Afghanistan, therefore our vulnerabilities are growing and as a result we cannot defeat our enemies in the country.”

    {{US not invited }}

    Along with Afghanistan, the US, which still has nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan more than 15 years after the Taliban was toppled, was not invited to the Moscow talks.

    Officials in Kabul and Washington have said that Russia is deepening its ties with the Taliban, but Russia has rejected the claims.

    Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last month asked the UN to add the Taliban’s new leader to its sanctions list, further slowing a faltering peace process.

    A number of Afghan provincial capitals have come under pressure from the Taliban this year, while Afghan forces have been suffering high casualty rates, with more than 5,500 killed in the first eight months of 2016.

    An offshoot of ISIL has claimed responsibility for several attacks in the last year.

  • Ruling Saenuri party splits over Park Geun-hye scandal

    {Dozens of MPs quit Saenuri Party and vow to start new party that observers say might try to recruit outgoing UN chief.}

    Dozens of politicians have split from South Korea’s ruling party over the corruption scandal involving impeached President Park Geun-hye.

    Their move on Tuesday could shape presidential elections that might take place in just months.

    The 29 anti-Park MPs who left the Saenuri Party planned to create a new conservative party that observers say might try to recruit outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as its presidential candidate.

    There is a possibility of more leaving Saenuri in coming weeks over rifts with Park loyalists who continue to occupy the party’s leadership.

    Choung Byoung-gug, who left Saenuri, accused the loyalists of “neglecting the values of real conservatism” and “shamelessly defending the infringement of constitutional values” as they continued to support the scandal-hit president.

    “One could have seen this coming given that the presidential impeachment motion pushed through by the national assembly which happened on December 9 was backed by 234 of the lawmakers here,” said Al Jazeera’s Craig Leeson, reporting from Seoul.

    “Fifty-six were against out of 300 which suggests that many of Park’s own party members crossed the floor to make that motion go through.”

    Ban Ki-moon leads polls

    The split came as investigators widened their inquiry into the scandal surrounding Park, who has been accused of colluding with a longtime confidante to extort money and favours from the country’s biggest companies, and to allow the friend to manipulate government affairs.

    The team led by special prosecutor Park Young-soo was planning to summon the president’s jailed friend, Choi Soon-sil, on Tuesday afternoon, following their first interrogation of her on Saturday.

    The outgoing Un chief is seen as the best hope for conservatives to win back the Blue House after Park’s collapse complicated politics for her party.

    Recent opinion polls put Ban slightly ahead of liberal politician Moon Jae-in, who conceded the presidential race to Park four years ago, as the favourite to win a presidential vote.

    In a recent meeting with South Korean reporters in New York, Ban said he was ready to “burn” his body in devotion for South Korea, his strongest hint yet that he would run for president.

    South Korea’s opposition-controlled parliament voted on December 9 to impeach Park over the scandal that saw millions of people protest in recent weeks.

  • Houthi fighters storm Al Jazeera bureau in Sanaa

    {Raid comes just hours after Doha-based media network airs documentary on looting of heavy weaponry by group.}

    Yemen’s Houthi fighters have stormed the closed Al Jazeera Network bureau in the capital Sanaa and stolen the remaining equipment.

    Sunday’s raid came just hours after the Arabic channel broadcast a documentary film titled Stolen Weapons in Yemen, discussing the group’s looting of arms.

    “Eyewitnesses said that two cars carrying more than 10 fighters raided the office and began looting what has been left of furniture, desks and TV screens,” Saeed Thabit, head of Al Jazeera’s office in Yemen, said in an Arabic statement on his Facebook page.

    The film investigates how Houthi rebels managed to obtain heavy weaponry, where they store the arms, as well as the quantity and types of arms they have been using.

    Two years ago, the office witnessed a similar attack in which the Al Jazeera team was assaulted and received death threats.

    In 2015, Houthi fighters abducted an Al Jazeera broadcast engineer and a security guard in Sanaa.

    The Arabian Peninsula country has been torn apart by conflict since 2014, when the Iran-allied Houthi fighters, in cooperation with troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, captured large expanses of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

    {{Devastating toll}}

    Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies began their military campaign in Yemen in March last year with the aim of preventing Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Saleh from taking control of the country.

    The conflict has also taken a devastating toll on Yemen’s health system, which is on the verge of collapse, a recent UNICEF report says.

    Humanitarian groups have struggled to deliver aid to large parts of the country owing to the fighting and air strikes, with the medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders calling the situation “extremely challenging”.

    Several medical facilities have been damaged or destroyed.

    The coalition has also imposed a sea blockade on Yemen and air strikes have led to a virtual lockdown of Sanaa.

    The Al Jazeera offices witnessed a similar raid two years ago

  • Kremlin: Terrorism not likely cause of Tu-154 crash

    {Massive search for bodies and black box under way after Syria-bound military jet carrying 92 crashed into Black Sea.}

    Russian rescuers have found the first parts of the Syria-bound military plane that plunged into the Black Sea, while officials have dismissed terrorism as a possible cause of the crash that killed all 92 people on board.

    Investigators have yet to confirm the cause of the crash, but officials said on Monday that an act of terror was not being considered as a possible explanation, despite the plane and its black boxes still being underwater.

    A spokeswoman for the Sochi-based search and rescue branch of the emergency ministry confirmed that parts of the plane had been found under water.

    “The debris is at the depth of 27 metres one mile from shore,” Rimma Chernova, spokesperson, told AFP news agency.

    {{‘Control mechanism’}}

    The Russian military said that divers had retrieved “two elements of the plane’s control mechanism”.

    Russia’s federal security service said it was looking into four suspected causes of the crash, which do not include terrorism.

    “No signs or facts pointing to a possible act of terror have been received at this time,” Russia’s Federal Security Service said in a statement carried by national news agencies.

    The probe is focusing on a pilot error, a technical fault, bad fuel and a foreign object in the engine as the four main scenarios, it added.

    Vigils were held in Russia on Monday after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a day of mourning.

    More than 3,000 people are racing to find the remaining bodies and debris in a massive operation that includes 45 vessels, planes, helicopters and drones, along with divers and remotely-operated deepwater machines.

    Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said some of the bodies could have already been carried off by the “strong current” to Abkhazia, the separatist region of Georgia, and some of its own rescue workers have joined the search operation.

    Along with the first 10 bodies, 86 body fragments were brought to the Russian capital for DNA analysis, defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

    ‘Black box’ recorders

    The search party has not yet found the plane’s “black box” recorders, Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov told Russian news agencies.

    The Tu-154 jet, headed for Syria, went down on Sunday morning minutes after taking off at 5:25am local time (02:25 GMT) from Sochi’s airport.

    The plane was taking Russia’s famed choir, the Alexandrov Ensemble, to a New Year’s concert at Hemeimeem airbase in Syria’s Latakia province.

    Mourners left flowers in front of the Moscow headquarters of the famed choir, more than 60 of whom were killed in the crash.

    The defence ministry says the downed jet, a Soviet-era plane built in 1983, had last been serviced in September and undergone more major repairs in December 2014.

    The last big TU-154 crash was in 2010 when a Polish jet carrying then-president Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland’s political elite went down in western Russia killing everyone on board.

    A massive search operation includes 45 vessels, planes, helicopters and drones

  • George Michael, British pop star, dies aged 53

    {Michael’s manager says the singer’s death in Oxfordshire, England on Sunday was caused by heart failure.}

    British singer George Michael, who became one of the pop idols of the 1980s with Wham! and then forged a career as a successful solo artist, has died at his home in England, aged 53.

    Michael’s manager, Michael Lippman, said on Sunday that the cause of death was heart failure.

    Before Lippmann’s announcement, police had issued a statement calling Michael’s death at his home in Goring, Oxfordshire “unexplained but not suspicious”.

    A post-mortem would be undertaken in due course, the police said.

    Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on June 25, 1963 in London to Greek Cypriot immigrant parents, Michael once played music on the London underground train system before finding fame with Wham!.

    With a school friend, Andrew Ridgeley, he formed Wham! in 1981, a partnership that would produce some of the most memorable pop songs and dance-floor favourites of the 1980s.

    “It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period,” his publicist said in a statement.

    “The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage,” the statement said.

    Michael sold more than 100 million albums in his career. Fans gathered outside the singer’s home in London to pay their respects on Monday.

    He was due to release a documentary in 2017 after a period of living as a virtual recluse in which he hit the headlines for a series of bizarre incidents linked to drugs.

    Earlier this month, it was also announced that producer and songwriter Naughty Boy, whose real name is Shahid Khan, was working with Michael on a new album for next year.

    Following years of speculation over his sexuality, Michael came out as gay in 1998 after being arrested for committing a “lewd act” in the public toilet of a Los Angeles park.

    He fronted a documentary about HIV to coincide with World Aids Day the year he came out.

    LGBT charity Stonewall reacted to the news of his death in a tweet, saying: “R.I.P. George Michael. You inspired many and your music will live on in the hearts of the community. You will be sorely missed.”

    Michael’s death comes at the end of a year that has seen the passing of several music superstars, including David Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen.

    Rick Parfitt, the guitarist of British rock group Status Quo, died on Saturday at 68.

  • US envoy to Israel summoned over UN settlement vote

    {Dan Shapiro had earlier been excluded from summons targeting 14 envoys of UNSC member states that voted for resolution.}

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has summoned the US ambassador to Israel over a resolution condemning settlements on Palestinian territories.

    The summon on Sunday came hours after envoys of all other UN Security Council members were asked to appear before the foreign ministry following the UN vote.

    Dan Shapiro, who was excluded from earlier summons targeting 14 UNSC member states, was called to discuss the US decision to abstain, which enabled the adoption of the resolution. Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu had called on the US to block the text.

    On Friday the Council passed the first resolution since 1979 condemning Israel over its settlement policy.

    The resolution demands “Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem”.

    It says settlements have “no legal validity” and are “dangerously imperilling the viability of the two-state solution”.

    Netanyahu calls for ‘action plan’

    Netanyahu has asked the foreign ministry to prepare an “action plan” to present to the security cabinet within a month over how to handle Israel’s relations with UN institutions.

    “We will do all it takes so Israel emerges unscathed from this shameful decision,” Netanyahu said.

    By way of rebuke of the vote, Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman also announced on Sunday that Israel was cutting civilian coordination with Palestinians.

    Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Israel now had to choose between closing itself off or opening itself up to negotations.

    “I call upon you this morning to seize the opportunity, to wake up, to stop the violence, to stop settlements and to resume negotiations,” he told Israel Radio on Sunday.

    Netanyahu claims that US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were behind the resolution.

    “We have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated the drafts and demanded to pass it,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of a weekly cabinet meeting.

    “This is of course in total contradiction to the traditional American policy of not trying to impose conditions of a final resolution. And, of course, the explicit commitment of President Obama himself in 2011 to avoid such measures,” he said.

    The Israeli leader said that he had told Kerry “friends don’t take friends to the Security Council”.

    In addition to the pledges made on Sunday, Netanyahu cancelled his upcoming meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

    Planned visits to Israel by Senegal’s foreign minister and Ukraine’s prime minister were cancelled in light of those countries’ support for the UN vote.

    While the resolution contains no sanctions, Israeli officials are concerned it could widen the possibility of prosecution at the International Criminal Court.

    They are also worried it could encourage some countries to impose sanctions against Israeli settlers and goods produced in the settlements.

    Army radio reported that Lieberman has ordered Israeli security to halt cooperation on civilian matters with the Palestinians, while retaining security coordination. Israeli officials refused to comment on the report.

    The measures taken on Sunday add to Netanyahu’s order to review engagements at the United Nations, including funding for UN agencies and the presence of its representatives in Israel.

    Right-wing Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Saturday night that Israel should “announce a full annexation of settlement blocs” in response to the resolution.

    Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home told army radio that his party would “soon propose a bill to annex Maale Adumim”, a settlement city east of Jerusalem.

    Shapiro had been excluded from summons because the US abstained from the UN vote, but Washington did not veto it

  • India to build giant statue of medieval King Shivaji

    {At 192 metres and costing $530m, the memorial off Mumbai’s coast will be twice the size of the Statue of Liberty.}

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone for what is set to be the world’s tallest statue nearly four kilometres into the sea off Mumbai, as its projected cost and environmental impact drew criticism.

    The 192-metre statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, a medieval Hindu ruler in the western state of Maharashtra who fought the Muslim Mughal dynasty and carved out his own kingdom, is expected to be completed by 2019.

    To be built at a cost of about $530m, it will be more than twice the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York and five times higher than Christ the Redeemer in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro.

    “Even in the midst of struggle, Shivaji Maharaj remained a torchbearer of good governance,” Modi said at the inaugural event on Saturday.

    “So many aspects of his personality inspire us.”

    The government of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, has come under criticism for the project.

    By Saturday evening, about 27,000 people had signed a Change.org petition asking that the government spend the money on infrastructure and development instead.

    “Apart from a waste of money, this statue is going to be terrible for the environment, for the traffic situation in South Bombay and a security nightmare,” the petition said.

    Environmentalists claim the project would involve reclaiming land and disturbing the fragile marine ecosystem along the coast.

    “Marine life would be impacted and fishermen would be hard hit,” Stalin Dayanand of non-profit Vanashakti said.

    The 42-acre area on which the project was planned was a prime fishing area and the construction would affect the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of fishermen, Damodar Tandel of local fishermen’s union AMMKS said.

    More than 50 fishermen, who were protesting against the proposed memorial, were arrested before the foundation laying ceremony on Saturday, according to the news website thewire.in.

    “How can we think about the cost when it comes to building a memorial for Shivaji Maharaj?” Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently said in the state legislative assembly.

    “He is our pride and it is only fitting that we should build a grand memorial in his name.”

    Shivaji is revered by many in Maharashtra. Mumbai’s main train station and airport are named after the ruler, who is also one of the symbols of a Hindu cultural revival promoted by Modi.

    {{Patel statue}}

    This is not the first time that a large amount of taxpayer money has been set aside to build a massive statue or memorial to a popular leader in India.

    In 2014, shortly after Modi became prime minister, the national budget set aside about $34m to build a massive structure to honour independence leader Vallabbhai Patel.

    That project is under way in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Once complete, it is expected to cost about 10 times the amount set aside in the budget. The rest is expected to be filled by private and corporate donations.

    The 192-metre statue is expected to be completed by 2019

  • Pope urges end to Syria fighting in Christmas message

    {“It is time for weapons to be still forever and actively seek negotiated solution,” Francis says in Vatican address.}

    Pope Francis has urged an end to the fighting in Syria as he gave his Christmas address at the Vatican, saying “far too much blood has been spilled” in the conflict.

    His traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and The World) message on Sunday was linked by a common thread of war, violence and suffering.

    “It is time for weapons to be still forever, and the international community to actively seek a negotiated solution,” he told some 40,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square.

    Francis, marking the fourth Christmas season since his election in 2013, also urged Palestinians and Israelis, facing renewed tension after a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements on occupied land, to have the courage to put aside hate and revenge and “write a new page of history”.

    “Peace to those who have lost a person dear to them as a result of brutal acts of terrorism, which have sown fear and death into the hearts of so many countries and cities,” he said.

    Security was heightened for the Christmas weekend in Italy and at the Vatican after Italian police killed the man believed to be responsible for the Berlin market lorry attack while other European cities kept forces on high alert.

    “Today this message [of peace] goes out to the ends of the earth to reach all peoples, especially those scarred by war and harsh conflicts that seem stronger than the yearning for peace,” he said, speaking in Italian from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

    He called for immediate assistance to the exhausted population of the city of Aleppo, which Syrian government forces recaptured last week after four years of devastating fighting with rebels.

    Members of the Christian minority community gathered at St Elias Cathedral in Aleppo’s old City, as prayers were held for peace at the first Christmas Eve Mass for five years.

    “The festive atmosphere is great. It’s a new birth for Jesus Christ and a new birth for the city of Aleppo,” George Bakhash, a Christian community leader, told Reuters news agency.

    Francis, the first Latin American pope, also said Christmas should inspire everyone to help the less fortunate, including migrants, refugees and those swept up by social and economic upheavals.

    “Peace to the people who suffer because of the economic ambitions of the few, because of the sheer greed and the idolatry of money, which leads to slavery,” he said.

    At his Christmas eve Mass on Saturday, Francis said the feast had been “taken hostage” by dazzling materialism that puts God in the shadows.

    On Sunday, he also called for an end to “fundamentalist terrorism” in Nigeria, a reference to Boko Haram, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state.

    Francis further appealed for an end to tensions between the government and opposition in Venezuela, for harmony in Colombia, which recently ended a civil war with FARC guerrillas, and an end to strife on the Korean peninsula and in Myanmar.

    Francis marked his fourth Christmas as pope since his election in 2013