Tag: InternationalNews

{Ricardo Martinelli detained on extradition warrant from Panama, where he is accused of political espionage and graft.}

Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli has been arrested in Florida on an extradition warrant from his country, where he is accused of political espionage and corruption, the US Marshal Services said.

Martinelli, 65, was taken into custody near his home in Coral Gables, Florida, according to Manny Puri, a spokesman for the agency.

The former president was transported to a federal detention centre in Miami and was expected to appear before a judge for an extradition hearing on Tuesday.

Panama’s government had requested Martinelli’s extradition last September to face accusations he spied illegally on his political rivals and intercepted the telephone calls of more than 100 people, including politicians, business and labor leaders, and critical journalists, during his 2009-2014 term as president.

Interpol also issued a notice for Martinelli’s arrest last month.

In Panama, lawyers on Martinelli’s defence team said the extradition process would proceed normally.

“The defence for ex-president Martinelli is going to exercise all the rights and guarantees offered under the rule of law,” said lawyer Carlos Carrillo. “It is totally false that a request for political asylum was denied.”

Martinelli has denied wrongdoing and contends the case is political persecution by his successor, Juan Carlos Varela.

Varela served as Martinelli’s vice president but they have sparred bitterly since the transfer of power.

Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon, presided over an infrastructure boom and Latin America’s fastest economic growth in recent years, but his administration was tainted by allegations of corruption.

Graft charges have been brought against the former president in Panama, but the cases have stalled in the courts.

In February, prosecutors in Panama said they were seeking international help in detaining two of Martinelli’s sons in relation to an alleged scheme to launder bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Three British businessmen, detained after passengers complained they talked about ‘terrorism’, released without charge.}

German authorities found no evidence that three British men, reported by fellow passengers on a London-bound plane to have been having a “suspicious conversation” about terrorism, posed any danger.

Passengers on easyJet flight EZY3246 on Saturday, travelling from Slovenia to England, complained to airline staff that the men were talking about “terrorist matters”.

Mid-air, the plane was diverted and made an emergency landing in Germany’s cologne.

The accused trio were detained.

“The criminal investigation against them has been halted. No evidence was found,” a local police spokesman said on Sunday, announcing that the men were released without charge. “We now believe that there was never any real danger.”

The unnamed men, who worked for a British company, are aged 31, 38 and 48.

It was not immediately clear when the men, who were returning to London after a business trip, would travel onto Stansted Airport as planned.

{{Backpack detonated}}

Passengers on Saturday’s flight had claimed one of the men carried a book on which the word “kill” appeared with a sniper rifle on its cover, police and state prosecutors said in a statement.

Dozens of novels include the word kill in titles, and many feature guns on covers.

The German Bild newspaper said passengers told airline personnel they had heard the men using words including “bomb” and “explosive”, and said one carried a suspicious backpack.

That backpack, belonging to the 48-year old, was examined and blown up in a controlled explosion.

Nothing dangerous was ultimately found to have been in the bag or on the aircraft.

The incident forced the diversion of 17 inbound flights, delays in 20 departing flights and cancellation of two flights, a spokeswoman for Cologne airport said, adding that air traffic had returned to normal after a three-hour interruption.

Nine people received medical treatment after all 151 passengers were evacuated from the Airbus 319 aircraft using emergency slides.

The remaining passengers had departed on another easyJet plane for London earlier on Sunday.

EasyJet said passengers received hotel vouchers and meals during their stay, and thanked them for their understanding.

“The safety of easyJet passengers and crew is our highest priority,” the company said in a statement.

They said the alleged conversation could not be verified.

Seventeen other passengers and the easyJet crew were questioned about the incident at Cologne police headquarters, police said in a statement.

Several European countries are currently on high alert following a number of deadly attacks.

Amid this climate, several airlines in the United States and Europe have recently removed innocent passengers of Middle Eastern or Asian descent from planes on unfounded allegations by fellow passengers, leading to claims of racial discrimination.

In August 2016, easyJet forced British Muslim siblings out of a plane on the runway in London, where they were intrerrogated by armed police after passengers falsely claimed they were members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Source:Al Jazeera

{‘Orchestrated campaign’ against Qatar to change ‘independent foreign policy’ is not going to work, special envoy says.}

A senior counter-terrorism adviser to Qatar’s foreign minister has hit out at the diplomatic squeeze on Doha by several Gulf states, calling it a “policy of domination and control”.

Mutlaq al-Qahtani, a special envoy to Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said the decision to sever ties by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt – as well as other allies – over Qatar’s alleged funding of armed groups would not prove successful.

“We have our national committees on terror financing and counter-terrorism,” he told Al Jazeera. “We also have our preventive action plan, but more importantly, we work very hard on tackling the root cause of terrorism.”

When questioned about his country hosting the Taliban, Qahtani said that this was “absolutely a request by the US government”.

“We were facilitating the talks between the Americans, the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan, because this is our foreign policy: to facilitate talks, to mediate and to bring peace,” he said.

Regarding the list of individuals and entities linked to Qatar over terrorism, Qahtani denounced it as “misleading” and “not credible”. “Most of the names in the list are not in Doha,” he added. “They do not live in Doha and they have never been to Doha.”

The tiny gas-rich emirate is at the centre of the biggest diplomatic crisis to hit the Gulf in years.

Qatar has been isolated for the past week by Saudi and others over “terrorism” and because of its relatively relaxed approach to relations with Jeddah’s great regional rival, Iran.

As a result Qatar’s only land border has been closed, it has been stopped from using the airspace of neighbouring nations, and its citizens have been told to leave various Gulf countries within two weeks.

Qahtani’s remarks are some of the few comments to so far emerge from Doha during the crisis.

The most visible member of the government has been Sheikh Mohammed, who has said Qatar would not “surrender” to the political pressure.

Qahtani said diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute would continue.

“We have more friends, more than other people might think,” he said after Sheikh Mohammed visited Germany and Russia over the weekend.

“So we are engaged and want to engage with more countries.”

He was also dismissive of a “terror blacklist” published by the Gulf allies at the end of last week, which named various Qataris and Qatar-based organisations.

As many as 18 individuals were named, including members of the royal family and a former government minister. Also on the list were Doha-based Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Qatari-funded charities.

Qahtani, though, said the list was little more than a public relations exercise.

“It’s quite unfortunate to use this kind of list, this kind of subject. It’s very serious and extremely dangerous to use it in a PR campaign, in a PR game,” he said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Prime Minister Netanyahu calls for total shut down of UNRWA, saying it is responsible for incitement against Israel.}

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Sunday for the dismantling of the UN agency that aids millions of Palestinian refugees, accusing it of anti-Israeli incitement and saying he had conveyed his message to the US ambassador to the United Nations.

Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Netanyahu was pursuing a “fantasy”.

The United States, Israel’s main ally, was the biggest donor to UNRWA last year, pledging $368 million.

In public remarks to his cabinet at its weekly meeting, Netanyahu said UNRWA perpetuated, rather than solved, the Palestinian refugee problem and that it stoked anti-Israeli incitement.

“It is time UNRWA be dismantled and merged with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,” Netanyahu said.

Referring to a meeting he held in Jerusalem on Wednesday with Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, Netanyahu said: “I told her it was time the United Nations re-examine UNRWA’s existence.”

UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war that followed Israel’s creation.

It says it currently aids five million registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.

Chris Gunness, UNRWA’s chief spokesman, told Reuters news agency that only the General Assembly, by a majority vote, could change the agency’s mandate.

“In December 2016, UNRWA’s mandate was extended for three years by the General Assembly by a large majority,” he added.

Netanyahu made his comments two days after UNRWA said it had discovered part of a tunnel running under two of its schools in the Gaza Strip’s Maghazi refugee camp.

UNRWA said it had protested to Hamas, the group that rules the enclave and which had used a network of cross-border tunnels to launch attacks inside Israel in a 2014 war.

Hamas denied the accusations, calling them “Israeli fabrications”.

“The Israeli claims regarding discovering alleged tunnels underneath the UNRWA school are classic Israeli lies aiming to dehumanize the Palestinian refugees,” senior Hamas leader and spokesman Izzat al-Rishq told Al Jazeera.

“This is not the first time the Israeli government tries to spread such lies in order to destroy the work of UNRWA in helping Palestinian refugees get their education.”

Rishq said Netanyahu’s call to dismantle UNRWA was “part of the Israeli plan to eliminate the Palestinian refugee problem once and for all”.

UNRWA’s Guinness said the agency had “robustly intervened and protested to Hamas in Gaza”.

He said UNRWA would seal the tunnel, which was discovered while the schools were empty during the summer holiday.

Over the years, Hamas has built a labyrinth of tunnels, some passing under the border into Israel in order to launch attacks.

Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip, home to nearly two million people, since Hamas wrested control of the territory from the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in 2007. Since then, it has conducted three major assaults on the territory.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Exit poll shows prospects of hung parliament in Britain, but prime minister faces calls to step down by Labour leader.}

UK Prime Minister Theresa May faced calls to quit in the early hours of Friday after her election gamble to win a stronger mandate appeared to backfire and threw British politics into turmoil.

A joint poll by BBC, SKY, and ITV news said May’s ruling Conservatives would win 314 seats, short of a majority in Britain’s 650-seat parliament. The opposition Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, was projected to win 266 seats.

In the event of a hung parliament – where no party wins enough seats to have a majority in the House of Commons – the two major parties, Conservatives and Labour, will try and form a coalition government with one of the smaller parties.

Until a coalition government is decided, May remains prime minister – unless she opts to resign.

With no clear winner likely to emerge from Thursday’s vote, May vowed to provide stability, while Corbyn said she should step down.

“At this time, more than anything else, this country needs a period of stability,” a grim-faced May said after winning her own parliamentary seat of Maidenhead in southeast England.

“If … the Conservative Party has won the most seats and probably the most votes, it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do.”

After winning his own seat in north London, Corbyn said May’s attempt to win a bigger mandate had failed.

“The mandate she’s got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence,” he said.

“I would have thought that’s enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country.”

May had unexpectedly called the snap election seven weeks ago, confident of sharply increasing the slim majority – 331 seats out of 650 – she had inherited from predecessor David Cameron before starting negotiations with the European Union over Britain’s departure from the bloc, or Brexit.

Instead, she risked an ignominious exit after just 11 months in the post, which would be the shortest tenure of any prime minister for almost a century.

Kieran Pedley, an analyst with GFK Market Research, told Al Jazeera that Labour has made impressive gains in southern marginals but that was offset to an extent by some Tory gains in Scotland.

“May didn’t have to call this election,” said Pedley.

“She called it because she expected to win and win big. Now that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, the knives are going to be out for her.”

Sterling fell nearly two percent against the dollar on the back of the exit poll that was published as soon as voting ended at 10pm local time (21:00 GMT).

The far-right UK Independence Party, which won 12.5 percent of the vote two years ago and was a driving force behind the vote in a referendum backing Brexit, risked being wiped out.

The pro-European Liberal Democrats, who have campaigned for a second EU referendum, were projected to increase their number of seats from nine, but their former leader Nick Clegg, who was also a deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015, lost his seat.

The Scottish National Party, which called for a new independence vote after Brexit, was tipped to lose up to 20 of its 54 seats.

Having won all but three of Scotland’s 59 seats in the British parliament in 2015, their share of the vote fell sharply and they lost seats to the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Parliament expresses ‘deep concern’ over Gulf diplomatic rift, but government stops short of taking a side.}

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s parliament has expressed its “deep concern” over the blockade and severing of ties with Qatar by several Arab states, calling for the government to help mediate in the crisis between the Gulf state and its neighbours.

“This House calls upon all countries to show restraint and resolve all differences through dialogue,” read a resolution passed by the lower house of parliament on Thursday.

The measure came as Pakistan’s foreign ministry reiterated the country’s “concern” at the escalating situation – but stopped short of endorsing one side or another.

“Pakistan believes in unity among Muslim countries and has made consistent and serious efforts for its promotion,” Nafees Zakaria, the Pakistani foreign office spokesperson, said on Thursday.

“We are therefore concerned at the situation.”

But Zakaria refused to comment when probed on whether Pakistan had taken any steps to mediate the crisis or was also considering severing ties with Qatar.

He also had nothing to say when pressed to provide Pakistan’s position on the allegations of “supporting terrorism” levelled against Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and their allies.

Pakistan has a close economic and strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, which is leading the calls for the blockade and severing of ties.

Yet, in the past it has resisted pressure to wade into regional conflict in the Middle East.

In April 2015, Pakistan’s parliament voted to remain neutral in the war in Yemen, despite pressure to join a Saudi-led military alliance targeting Houthi rebels in the country.

On Monday, Pakistan’s foreign office indicated that it currently had no plans to sever ties with Qatar.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Celebration, disappointment and jokes run through British social media as latest projections show a hung parliament.}

“Shock” ran through British social media on Thursday and Friday as polling showed major gains for the main opposition Labour Party.

After the ruling Conservative Party failed to win an absolute majority, Britain will now be run by a hung parliament.

With votes from nearly all 650 constituencies counted, by the time of publishing, the Conservative Party, led by Theresa May, had won 314 seats, failing to secure the required 326 seats.

The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, won 261 seats.

After the first exit poll was announced, a prediction that is largely accepted as fairly accurate, many expressed disbelief and excitement at what appeared to be big Labour gains.

In the event of a hung parliament – where no party wins enough seats to have a majority in the House of Commons – the two major parties, Conservatives and Labour, will try and form a coalition government with one of the smaller parties.

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Source:Al Jazeera

{Foreign minister Javad Zarif rejects statement by US president that Iran fell victim ‘to the evil they promote’.}

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called US President Donald Trump’s reaction to deadly attacks in Tehran “repugnant”, as intelligence officials said that the five attackers were Iranians who had fought for ISIL in Syria and Iraq.

At least 16 people were killed on Wednesday in attacks claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, as suicide bombers and gunmen targeted the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini – leader of the 1979 revolution – in the capital, Tehran.

“Repugnant [White House] statement & Senate sanctions as Iranians counter terror backed by US clients. Iranian people reject such US claims of friendship,” Zarif tweeted on Thursday.

He was responding to a statement released by Trump’s press secretary’s office, which took the opportunity of an attack to make a point that “states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote”.

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Javad Zarif ✔ @JZarif
Repugnant WH statement & Senate sanctions as Iranians counter terror backed by US clients.Iranian people reject such US claims of friendship
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The White House statement, which mentioned how Iranian people were “going through such challenging times”, came as the US Senate advanced legislation that would impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic, partly for what the bill described as Iran’s “support for acts of international terrorism”.

What kind of “terrorism” these statements refer to remains vague. Trump has long accused Iran of backing “terrorism” and has threatened to tear up a 2015 nuclear deal between the Iranian government and major western powers.

Trump’s comments also brought criticism from Iranians on social media, who recalled their government’s offers of support and candlelit vigils held in Iran after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York.

“Iranians lit candles for you on 9/11. You kick them while they’re down. Classy,” tweeted Ali Ghezelbash, an Iranian business analyst.

{{Attackers fought for ISIL}}

More than 40 people were also wounded in Wednesday’s attacks.

A statement by the intelligence ministry issued on Thursday said that the men who carried out the twin attacks had left Iran to fight for ISIL in the Iraqi city of Mosul, as well as Raqqa, in Syria – the armed group’s de facto capital – before returning last summer.

It identified the men only by their first names, saying they did not want to release their last names owing to security and privacy concerns for their families.

The assault marks the first attacks claimed by ISIL in Iran.

Iranian security officials counter that it is their regional rival Saudi Arabia, a close US ally, that is responsible for funding and spreading the ideology that most closely resembles ISIL’s.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard weighed Saudi Arabia of being behind Wednesday’s attacks.

“The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack,” the Revolutionary Guard said in a statement, referring to Saudi Arabia.

The statement also said that the “spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged”.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Massive explosion goes off as workers were making firecrackers at factory in Madhya Pradesh state.}

At least 25 people were killed and several others were injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, police said on Thursday.

The blast occurred on Wednesday afternoon when a blaze engulfed the factory in Balaghat district.

Dozens of workers managed to escape unhurt as firefighters brought the fire under control in two hours.

“The blast was so powerful that its sound could be heard five kilometres from the site,” Balaghat Police Chief Amit Sanghi said.

Another five were being treated for burns and smoke inhalation, while the condition of two was critical.

Police said the cause of the blast was not immediately known and was being investigated.

READ MORE: Manufacturing discontent: India’s workers in crisis

However, it was likely triggered after a worker may have callously tossed a lit cigarette butt in the premises.

“The rescue operation is over now. We have cleared the place and thankfully no one is trapped inside,” local administrative chief Bharat Yadav told the AFP news agency from the site of the blast.

Police have lodged a criminal case against the factory owner.

Shivraj Singh Chauhan, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, announced a compensation of around $3,000 for the families of the deceased.

India has a huge demand for firecrackers, which are used in religious festivals and weddings.

Workplace accidents are common in Indian fireworks factories, where inadequate safety standards and lax enforcement of regulations have led to horrific deaths.

Local media reported that at least 11 people were killed in similar accidents in Madhya Pradesh in April.

Source:Al Jazeera