Tag: InternationalNews

{Interior ministry investigation under way to determine cause of fire that also left 12 people injured.}

Eleven people have died in a fire at a labour accommodation in Qatar, the country’s interior ministry said.

The ministry said the fire on Wednesday night, only reported a day later, also left 12 people injured.

The accommodation facility belonged to a company working on the Salwa Tourism Project, the ministry said on Twitter, adding that an investigation was ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.

The nationalities of the dead were not released. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, many of them South Asian, work in the Gulf Arab state.

An online news report said charred bodies were brought to a hospital morgue after the fire in Abu Samra in the south of the country.

{New law is part of measures taken in response to 2012 gang-rape in New Delhi that triggered global condemnation.}

India is fitting panic buttons and other emergency devices on buses across the country, in response to a deadly 2012 gang-rape in New Delhi that triggered global condemnation and widespread protests in the country.

The measure, which was passed by parliament to prevent sexual violence, became law on Thursday.

The monitoring devices, which also include close-circuit cameras and vehicle tracking systems, are already installed in new buses. Old buses will be equipped with the devices in phases.

When a panic button is pressed, an emergency message will be sent to a police control room, where officers can monitor live footage of the bus interior.

A pilot project is already under way in India’s Rajasthan state, where 10 luxury and 10 regular buses have been fitted with the emergency devices.

According to government data obtained by Al Jazeera, there were an estimated 1,676,500 registered public and private buses in India as of 2012.

Last month, the communication ministry issued a different regulation requiring all mobile phones sold in the country from 2017 to include a panic button. From 2018, phones will also have to include GPS navigation systems.
{{
‘Patriarchal social values’
}}

Campaigners said that while the new measures are good in theory, results will depend on the implementation of laws protecting women.

Annie Raja, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, said that instead of addressing the real issue, the new law will only serve to “monitor women in the name of protection and safety”.

“India is a country with patriarchal social values and thinking,” Raja told Al Jazeera. “So, we don’t consider women as equal citizens.”

Raja said there are already a number of laws protecting women, but the implementation is “not happening”.

{{‘Watershed moment’}}

In December 2012, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh was gang-raped by several men at the back seat of a bus in the nation’s capital.

The medical student died of her injuries in a hospital in Singapore two weeks after the assault.

The death of the victim triggered protests across the country, and around the world.

Indian authorities responded to the the incident by fast-tracking tougher laws against sex crimes.

Sehjo Singh, of the anti-poverty group ActionAid India, said the gang-rape incident was a “watershed moment” in Indian society, with more women now openly talking about sexual harassment and violence.

“I think that was the point, after which there were attempts by the government to address violence against women,” Singh told Al Jazeera

She also stressed that what is needed is follow-up action, not just new laws.

“If I press the panic button, what happens after? This is very important,” she said.

“What the government needs to do is restore the faith of the people. So far, our experience is that new mechanisms and institutions are created, but there is no follow-up”.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 32,077 cases of rape – on average more than one per hour – were reported in India in 2015.

{Amnesty International urges authorities to end what it calls “a systematic use of excessive force in slums”.}

Amnesty International has urged Brazilian authorities to prevent police brutality and respect human rights as they prepare to host this summer’s Olympic Games.

In a report published on Thursday, the human rights group called on the state government of Rio de Janeiro, which hosts the Games in August, to end what it called “a systematic use of excessive force in slums”.

“Brazil is at risk of repeating the deadly mistakes it has been making in policing for decades,” Amnesty said in the “Violence has no place in these Games” report.

Brazilian authorities and sports governing bodies in Rio have put in place the same “ill-conceived security policies” which led to a sharp increase in homicides and human rights violations by security forces since the 2014 World Cup, the group said.

The UK-based organisation said there has been a surge in killings during operations involving police and armed forces.

In 2014, homicides resulting from police operations jumped by 40 percent, followed by an extra 11 percent rise the following year, with 645 people killed by Rio police alone, Amnesty said.

One in every five killings in the city were committed by police on duty, it added.

{{‘Violent response’
}}

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Atila Roque, Brazil’s director of Amnesty International, called on the government to reform protocols and conduct thorough investigations for each police-involved shooting, especially in slum areas.

“Police officers are going into these neighbourhoods with the intention of fighting the enemy,” Roque said.

“Their initial response is very violent.”

Many of the hundreds of slums in Rio are controlled by heavily armed drug traffickers. Police operations in such areas often lead to shootouts.

Roque said he was worried that increased security for the Games could result in more bloodshed in rough neighbourhoods.

“In mega-sporting events, you send more police officers who follow the same logic,” Roque said. “The natural result is a higher death toll.”

Rio law enforcement officials provided a much lower number of police-related deaths for part of the same period, only offering the estimate for areas where they have set up neighbourhood police units.

In a statement, the State Public Safety Department said there were 17 deaths in the first half of 2015 “due to police intervention”, without providing further statistics.

The department also said it had taken measures to reduce police-involved killings, such as decreasing the use of rifles and improving training.

Since 2007, more than 2,000 officers have been suspended for excessive use of force.

Rio state officials previously said that they were planning to deploy 47,000 police officers and 38,000 soldiers to secure the city during the games in August.

{Meeting to decide whether to hold a vote to remove the president cancelled as protesters clash with police in Caracas.}

Venezuela’s opposition has appealed for calm after electoral authorities cancelled a meeting on whether they could go ahead with efforts to remove President Nicolas Maduro in a referendum.

The National Electoral Board (CNE) had been due to deliver its ruling on whether it accepted or rejected an initial petition with 1.8 million signatures endorsing a recall vote against Maduro, whom the opposition accuses of driving Venezuela into economic and political chaos.

Maduro’s opponents say the country faces an explosion of unrest if authorities do not allow a recall referendum this year.

But just after their meeting with the CNE was due to start on Thursday, Jesus Torrealba, opposition spokesperson, said the electoral authorities had postponed it indefinitely.

“We are going to announce to the nation the steps we will take in the face of this unprecedented situation,” Torrealba said.

“We call on the Venezuelan people to remain calm.”

Venezuela’s economy is forecast to contract eight percent this year, with inflation of 700 percent.

The economic crisis has made daily life increasingly difficult for Venezuelans, who face hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine, daily power outages, the near-paralysis of government offices and violent crime.

On Thursday, a throng of protesters demanding food made a run for the presidential palace in a rare, apparently spontaneous outburst of anger at the socialist administration within the heart of Caracas.

More than 100 people charged down the main thoroughfare in central Caracas chanting “No more talk. We want food”.

They got within about a half dozen blocks of the palace before police in riot gear headed them off and began firing tear gas.

Banging pots

Police pushed the crowd back as some demonstrators kicked their plastic shields while more officers ran to the scene and filled in the streets between the protesters and the palace.

Onlookers leaned out of windows banging pots and yelling insults at the police.

“Close to 100 people were coming on one main avenue,” said Al Jazeera’s Virginia Lopez, reporting from Caracas. “They met a different group that was coming on a different avenue.

“It was not a planned protest, it was spontaneous. This is quite rare in the capital. It was people chanting that they wanted food.”

Unlike the organised protests, which draw largely from what’s left of Venezuela’s middle class and are never allowed by police to reach the president palace, Thursday’s disturbance was driven mostly by people from the slums overlooking the central district and who form the core of the government’s support.

As such, it revived the spectre of the so-called Caracazo, a four-day convulsion of looting in 1989 that left hundreds dead and is seared in Venezuela’s national memory.

Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodriguez, a Maduro ally, told a local radio station that the protest was started by black-market vendors who resell scarce items like sugar and toilet paper “at blood prices” near the site where the incident started.

He said the government was working on food programmes to put those vendors out of business.

Speaking from the presidential palace later in the day, Maduro pledged to stop those who he said are trying to destabilise the country, but did not make any direct references to Thursday’s protest.

“They come at us every day looking for violence in the streets, and each day the people reject and expel them,” he said.

“We’re winning peace on the corners, on the streets, on the avenues and in the slums.”

Trading accusations

The opposition accuses electoral authorities of dragging their feet on the referendum process to protect Maduro.

Maduro’s camp in turn accuses the opposition of massive fraud in its petition drive.

Even if the CNE eventually accepts the petition submitted on May 2, Maduro’s opponents would face a long and winding road to call a referendum.

And they may not get there by the crucial date of January 10 – four years into the leftist leader’s six-year term – at which point a successful recall vote would no longer prompt new elections but simply pass power to Maduro’s vice president.

For the petition to be accepted, the CNE must recognise at least 200,000 signatures as valid.

Signatories would then have to present themselves in person to confirm their identity with a fingerprint scan.

The opposition would then have to submit a second petition, this time with four million signatures, or 20 percent of the electorate, for the CNE to organize a referendum.

The pro-recall camp would need more votes than the 7.5 million Maduro won in the 2013 election to remove him from office.

That adds up to a lot of ifs, and political analysts say the CNE could easily stall the process until next year, when Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) could orchestrate his replacement by another party leader.

However, the divided opposition has struggled to rally a substantial protest movement or effectively wield the congressional majority it won last December, which has been frustrated by a Supreme Court seen as loyal to Maduro.

{Kremlin insider tells Al Jazeera that Moscow is considering sending special forces to fight against Syrian rebel groups.}

Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin may deploy special operations forces on the ground in Syria, a former official told Al Jazeera, a move that might be made to ensure “a decisive victory”.

It’s been more than eight months since Russia intervened in the Syrian conflict, and at the time Putin said there were no plans to participate in ground operations – but he also said “for now”.

The Russian president is reportedly discussing with military commanders the possibility of deploying combat troops on the battlefield.

“This is under discussion, there are plans for this,” Andrei Fyodorov, a former deputy minister for foreign affairs, told Al Jazeera.

The reinforcements could be special forces or volunteer soldiers who are willing to fight alongside the Syrian army and its allies.

“This is a delicate issue for our military. There are serious doubts that any participation by Russia on the ground would be favourable. [Rather it could] complicate the negotiation process and lead to further disagreements with the US,” Fyodorov explained.

But there are those in political and military circles who believe this deployment is needed.

Russian firepower prevented the collapse of the Syrian government last year. Damascus was struggling to repel rebel advances on several fronts.

The Kremlin wanted to tip the balance in favour of its ally enough to allow it to benefit at the negotiating table.

But the battle lines didn’t change and peace talks led nowhere. Neither side was willing to compromise nor strong enough to impose a settlement.

“From the Russian point of view, [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad should control 70 percent of Syria, and that way you can hold elections and they would be favourable for Assad. That is why the issue of ground operations is becoming more actual,” said Fyodorov.

Over recent weeks, Russia’s role on the Syrian battlefield was noticeably reduced as Moscow wanted to give a chance to political talks.

That message was clear when Russia didn’t provide close air power to the Syrian government and its allies in their military campaign in Aleppo in early May.

But on May 22, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the first Russian air strikes in Aleppo province since the US-Russian brokered cessation of hostilities deal in February.

The Russian defence ministry has said it recently intensified strikes against the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, and warned the conflict will only escalate after blaming Washington’s refusal to join efforts in the fight against what it called “terrorism”.

Russia’s draft constitution: End of Syria’s Baath era?

“Russia has little choice. It can’t allow itself to lose Aleppo. It would deprive it of a trump card. It would enable the other side to regain the initiative and be forced to accept conditions not favourable for Assad,” Sergey Strokan, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

There are Russian voices within the government and military pushing for the ground operation.

Russia’s intervention in Syria has been costly – billions of dollars have already been spent, and the country is suffering from an economic crisis.

The Kremlin never wanted a permanent war, and it can’t just pull out of a conflict that has brought it back into the international arena.

That is why some analysts suggest a “Stalingrad” in Syria is what the Syrian government and its allies need – a final battle to decisively end the war. And that would require ground troops.

{Nearly half of French rail services halted as transport unions join strikes against controversial labour law.}

Striking transportation workers have halted nearly half of French rail services, just nine days before the Euro 2016 football tournament, in the latest labour standoff between unions and the government.

Around half of the country’s trains were cancelled on Wednesday as workers from railway operator SNCF launched their eighth strike in three months, this time saying they will continue until demands for better pay and conditions are met.

“It’s a nightmare today – even more than the other strike days,” Christine, an SNCF worker told the AFP news agency at Ormesson station in the Paris suburbs, where commuters were struggling to squeeze on to one of the few trains that had shown up.

The strike has piled further pressure on the deeply unpopular Socialist government, which has been hit by months of protests and work stoppages over a controversial labour bill.

Despite often violent demonstrations, President Francois Hollande’s government has refused to scrap the legislation, saying its new labour law is aimed at reducing stubbornly high unemployment and making the struggling economy more business-friendly.

But unions say the law favours bosses by letting them set their own working conditions for new employees, rather than being bound to industry-wide agreements, allowing companies to cut jobs during hard times and go beyond the 35-hour work week.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from the capital Paris, said France is facing a “weekend of potential public transport paralysis” as metro and port and dock workers, as well as air traffic controllers are expected to join the strikes.

“That said, it is expected many services will operate normally,” Hull said, adding that the real pressure will be on next week when two-and-a-half million people descend on France for the kick-off of the European football championship.

“That could well be disrupted and could bring even more pressure on the French government to back down,” Hull said.

The SNCF state railway said six out of 10 high-speed TGV trains were running on Wednesday, along with one-third of other inter-city services and half of regional trains. Heavy flooding also cut some lines in central France and the rail link to Luxembourg.

Eurostar train services to Britain were not affected, while 75 percent of trains to Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland were running, and about 40 percent to Spain and Germany.

Three of the four rail unions called their members out on an open-ended strike over a planned reorganisation even though the government has intervened to press SNCF management to protect train drivers’ weekends off.

‘Permanent drama’

The government played down the disruption and stuck to its refusal to withdraw its planned labour changes.

“France loves to give this image of itself as a sort of permanent drama, but that’s not the reality. France is not at a standstill,” Jean-Marie Le Guen, secretary of state for relations with parliament, told Radio Classique.

CGT leader Philippe Martinez told LCP television his union had no intention of disrupting the football championship and urged the government to negotiate. But he also insisted it scrap a key article of the bill that would give company-level deals precedence over sector-wide agreements on pay and conditions.

“There’s no question of blocking the Euros,” Martinez said. “It’s not transport strikes that will block the Euros.”

At least 77 people were arrested last week across France during labour reform protests, which attracted an estimated 18,000 demonstrators in the French capital. Police fired tear gas at demonstrators in many of the protests.

{Hamas leaders and The Other Voice peace activists agree on need to end animosity and stop war once and for all.}

A small group of Israeli peace activists is pushing to have their government end its occupation of the Palestinian territories and siege on Gaza while fostering personal relationships on both sides of the border.

Eric Yellin is the leader of The Other Voice, an Israeli organisation dedicated to changing the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians. He said his group is proposing peace and reconciliation meetings with Palestinians in Gaza, based on the work of the late Palestinian psychiatrist Dr Eyad al-Sarraj.

Sarraj tried to reconcile differences between Palestinians and Israelis and build relationships on both sides of the Gaza border, and to eventually reach a “hudna”, or a ceasefire, that will bring a lasting peace.

“We are trying to establish a future reality between Israelis and Palestinians, and we believe that Palestinians deserve an equal opportunity to have a prosperous life in Gaza by ending the siege that makes life in Gaza unbearable,” Yellin, who is from the Israeli town of Sedrot bordering Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

He added that he eventually wants full peace between both peoples but for that to take place, there must be incremental steps.

To get there, Yellin said someone must initiate the process, which could either be Palestinians or Israelis, or international intermediaries such as the French or Egyptians – or any other party.

Hamas leaders who spoke to Al Jazeera did not oppose the idea of a long-term hudna with the Israeli side, and expressed the desire to have “calm” and “peace” on both sides of the border.

Ghazi al-Hamad, senior Hamas leader in Gaza, agreed with Yellin that the region does not need another war.

But Hamad said calm can only come when political and security problems are resolved. Without ending the occupation, tensions and conflict will remain, he said.

He said he hopes The Other Voice “can create a peaceful environment towards the Palestinians in Israel, because after all, we are a nation that wants to live in peace and have its independence and freedom on its own land”.

“We in the Hamas organisation want calm and peace at the frontlines, and we are not interested in any military escalation or a war with Israel. That said, however, if we were attacked, we would have no other choice but to defend ourselves,” said Hamad.

Julia Chaitin is an Israeli member of The other Voice who lives in Kibbutz Urim near Gaza. She said that after three devastating wars between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza it is time to end the cycle of violence and start rebuilding.

Chaitin, a trained social psychologist who teaches at Sapir College in the area, told Al Jazeera there is a “culture of fear” that has become the primary instinct dominating the Israelis who live around Gaza.

“This fear is due in part to lack of communication and interaction with the other side,” she said

Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based senior Hamas leader in charge of foreign affairs, told Al Jazeera the idea of a long-term hudna between Israel and the Palestinians was first suggested by Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in 1992. Yassin was assassinated in an Israeli air strike in 2004.

“The peaceful efforts by this group could represent a positive message and the beginning of positive transformation that would save the region from unpredictable dire consequences,” Hamdan said.

Hamdan added that he senses “unsettled feelings” among Israeli citizens because of the far-right positions the Israeli government has taken. Directing his message to ordinary Israelis, Hamdan said the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will never bring stability to the region.

He also said the two-state solution has all but died due to hardline Israeli policies inside the Palestinian territories. The problem now, according to Hamdan, is the solutions that regional and international actors are advancing are made at the expense of the Palestinian people. “This is just unacceptable,” he said.

Chaitin said Israeli leaders have exploited the uncertainty and fear of war felt by Israelis living near Gaza, and this has contributed to moving Israeli society further to the right.

“At this point, we are stuck in a lose-lose situation with the Palestinians, but we must turn that around. As common sense would have it, we would work with each other, open borders, and make the Palestinians’ lives better and hopeful,” she said.

Chaitin admitted she is also fearful and angry, but said she’s “more angry with Israeli politicians and leaders who are dragging us into more wars”.

{Mechanical engineering professor identified as victim of murder-suicide which led to cancellation of classes in UCLA.}

A murder-suicide has killed two people at the University of California, Los Angeles, shutting down the campus for two hours as officers in camouflage and tactical gear responded to reports of a shooting.

Charlie Beck, Los Angeles police chief, confirmed one man shot another and then himself on Wednesday in the engineering building and that police recovered a gun at the scene.

“There are no suspects outstanding and no continuing threat to UCLA’s campus,” Beck said.

Police recovered what may turn out to be a suicide note, he said.

A law -enforcement official said the victim was a mechanical engineering professor.

William S Klug was shot in the engineering building office on Wednesday morning, according to the official who has knowledge of the investigation but was not authorised to publicly discuss it.

Colleagues of Klug’s told the Associated Press news agency he was a married father of two and a kind, gentle person.

Charles Knobler, UCLA biology and chemistry professor, said those who knew Klug are in shock.

He described the professor as “a very lively, lovable, likeable guy”.

The shooter has not yet been identified.

UCLA, with more than 43,000 students, is in the Westwood section of Los Angeles and one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system, known for its successful sports programme.

Classes were cancelled on Wednesday, but they are expected to resume on Thursday.

{{‘Extraordinary grace’}}

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti praised the people of UCLA for “extraordinary grace and calm” and lamented the violence at a place of learning.

“I am heartbroken by the sight of SWAT teams running down avenues normally filled with students, and angered by the fear that one person with a firearm can inflict on a community,” Garcetti said.

The response to the shooting was overwhelming: up to 200 police officer approached the scene fearing the shooter might still be active and university officials ordered the campus locked down.

The officers stormed into buildings that had been locked down and cleared hallways as police helicopters hovered overhead.

Advised by university text alerts to turn out the lights and lock the doors where they were, many students let friends and family know they were safe in social media posts.

Some described frantic evacuation scenes, while others wrote that their doors were not locking and posted photos of photocopiers and foosball tables they used as barricades.

Those locked down inside classrooms described a nervous calm. Some said they had to rig the doors closed with whatever was at hand because they would not lock.

{Truce agreed in rebel-held Daraya to let humanitarian aid in for first time since 2012, Russian officials say.}

Convoys have reached two out of Syria’s 19 besieged areas on the day of the deadline set by the international community over the arrival of humanitarian aid to affected populations.

The first Red Cross convoy entered the rebel-held Syrian town of Daraya on Wednesday, in the first such delivery since a government-imposed siege began in 2012.

Both UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff were involved in the delivery, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the Daraya convoy carried some medical supplies, vaccines, and nutritional items, such as baby milk – but no food.

“Sources are telling me that the Syrian government did not allow all medical items – they certainly didn’t allow surgical kits into Daraya,” Bays said.

Fadi, a local activist, told the dpa news agency the convoy contained “no food supplies, only medical and school kits”.

Another convoy, containing only food supplies and no medicine, entered into neighbouring Moadamiyah.

Bays said Wednesday was the deadline to decide whether there should be airdrops in Syria’s besieged areas.

“On the day of the deadline for the start, perhaps, of an airdrop programme, the Syrian government, which hadn’t been allowing convoys through, has allowed a little bit in,” he said.

Truce agreed

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, New York

This was the deadline set by the international community. If aid wasn’t going to get in by convoy they were going to start having air drops in Syria.

So UN officials are telling me every little bit helps, but they add this isn’t really enough.

Diplomats are saying that what they are seeing here is something we have seen so many times before; the tactics of the Syrian government, when confronted with a deadline, when confronted with an imminent Security Council meeting, they let in a little aid at the last minute.

Daraya, which lies in Western Ghouta outside the capital Damascus, has been under an increasingly tight government siege since 2012, with no access to essential services, such as running water and electricity.

No vaccinations have been carried out during that time.

Only about 8,000 people remain in Daraya, which had a population of about 80,000 before the war. But what little food can be grown locally is not enough, locals say.

On May 12, a five-truck aid convoy was turned back by the government in a dramatic 11th-hour rejection.

Wednesday’s delivery came after Russia’s foreign ministry said a local truce would be observed in Daraya for 48 hours to ensure the safe arrival of aid to the city’s besieged population.

“On the initiative of Russia and in agreement with the leadership of Syria and the American side a ‘regime of silence’ has been introduced for 48 hours on June 1, 2016 from 00:01am in the settlement of Daraya to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the population,” Lieutenant-General Sergei Kuralenko said.

Russia had last week called for a 72-hour “regime of silence” in Eastern Ghouta and Daraya amid deadlocked efforts to turn a cessation of hostilities into a lasting peace in the country.

The United States and Russia are co-partners in the so-called Vienna diplomatic process of the International Support Group for Syria, which met last month in the Austrian capital but made no notable progress.

At least 280,000 people have been killed and more than half of Syria’s population have fled their homes since the conflict first erupted in 2011.