Tag: InternationalNews

{Open letter from artists, poets and academics to PM accuses new law of seeking ‘to close democratic institutions’.}

A group comprising leading writers, poets and academics from across the world is calling for an investigation into a law that could shut the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.

The bill is seen as part of a wider crackdown on dissent in Hungary.

Award-winning poet and translator George Szirtes, a Briton who was born in Hungary, published the open letter to Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, on April 10 – the day the law was signed.

By time of publishing early on Friday, more than 600 people – including the Irish novelist Colm Toibin, Indian poet K Sachidananda and Kurdish poet, translator and painter Choman Hardi – had signed the petition.

The law “reduces Europe”, the letter reads. “It weakens it. It takes it one step further to the edge of disintegration. It is vital to act quickly.

“We ask for a period of intensive fact-finding into the legality of the Hungarian government’s law … and its consequences for freedom of education, and for a process of mediation, bringing the parties together around the principle of European rule of law.”

The new rule bars institutions based outside the European Union from awarding Hungarian diplomas without a binding agreement between national governments.

{{Liberal graduate school}}

Universities will also be required to have a campus and faculties in their home country – although registered in the US, the CEU – a liberal graduate school of social sciences – does not have a campus there.

“We are deeply concerned about the passing of the disgraceful law intended to shut the CEU in Budapest.,” the signatories said. “The law, intended for this one specific purpose, is the latest step taken by [Orban] to close out democratic institutions in the country, including press, media and NGOs.”

CEU was founded by the Hungarian-born American magnate George Soros.

Tens of thousands took to the streets on April 10 in Budapest to protest the bill, signed by President Janos Ader, filling Kossuth Square outside parliament.

They called on Ader, from Orban’s rightwing, populist Fidesz party, to veto the legislation.

Organisers said up to 80,000 people took part in the rally, making it the largest anti-government protest in years.

The English-language CEU has 1,800 students from 100 countries and is ranked in the top 50 universities for political and international studies in the World University Rankings list.

{{‘Foreign agents’}}

Critics see the move as another attack by Orban on Soros, whom he accuses of seeking to meddle in politics and undermine Europe by promoting immigration into Europe.

Orban has alleged that nongovernmental organisations supported by Soros, including Transparency International, the corruption watchdog, and Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the rights-advocate, are “foreign agents” working against Hungarian interests.

A law expected to be passed in May would force NGOs getting more than 7.2 million forints ($24,500) a year from abroad to register with authorities.

On April 12, the EU threatened legal action in response to “recent developments” in Hungary.

Frans Timmermans, the first vice-president of the European Commission, said that the EC would also prepare a response to the Hungarian government’s “Let’s stop Brussels!” survey, which calls on citizens to answer questions relating to EU policies Orban decries.

As he invited Hungarians to participate in the survey, Orban wrote: “The borders must be protected, and the regulation of taxes, wages and public utility charges must also remain in our hands.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Tributes flow in for first black woman to serve as a judge on New York’s highest court after unexplained death.}

Tributes were paid on Thursday to Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African-American woman to serve on New York’s highest court.

Police pulled Abdus-Salaam’s fully clothed body from the Hudson River on Wednesday, a day after she was reported missing. The 65-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. No cause of death has been announced.

There were no signs a crime had been committed in her death, a police spokesman said on Thursday.

Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity told US media that investigators were treating the death as a suicide.

One of the officials said both the judge’s mother and brother had died in recent years around Easter, the brother by suicide.

Results of an autopsy conducted on Thursday were inconclusive.

“The cause and manner of death are pending further studies following today’s examination,” Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city’s medical examiner, said in a statement.

Abdus-Salaam was widely reported to have been the country’s first female Muslim judge.

Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo hailed Abdus-Salaam as “a trailblazing jurist whose life in public service was in pursuit of a more fair and more just New York for all”.

“As the first African-American woman to be appointed to the state’s Court of Appeals, she was a pioneer,” Cuomo said. “Through her writings, her wisdom and her unshakable moral compass, she was a force for good whose legacy will be felt for years to come.”

‘Bright legal mind’

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said her colleague will be “missed deeply”.

“Her personal warmth, uncompromising sense of fairness and bright legal mind were an inspiration to all of us who had the good fortune to know her,” DiFiore said.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said her example and work on civil rights issues were inspiring to women, Muslims, and African Americans.

“Her story was a story of success, empowerment and inspiration,” he said.

The president of the New York State Bar Association, Claire P Gutekunst, noted Abdus-Salaam grew up poor in a family of seven children in Washington, DC, and “rose to become one of the seven judges in New York’s highest court, where her intellect, judicial temperament and wisdom earned her wide respect”.

Abdus-Salaam graduated from Barnard College and received her law degree from Columbia Law School. She became a public defender in Brooklyn after law school, the New York Times said, representing people who could not afford lawyers.

She went on to serve as a lawyer for New York state government and city’s office of labour services.

In one of her first cases, she won an anti-discrimination suit for more than 30 female New York City bus drivers who had been denied promotions.

She held a series of judicial posts after being elected to a New York City judgeship in 1991.

On Twitter and Facebook, some social media users criticised what they called a muted reaction to Abdus-Salaam’s death, while others alleged foul play.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Security Council unanimously votes to replace 2004 mission with a smaller police-only force as stability emerges.}

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to end its 13-year-long peacekeeping mission in Haiti and replace it with a smaller police.

The move signals the international community believes the impoverished Caribbean nation is stabilising after successful elections.

The peacekeeping mission – one of the longest-running in the world and known as MINUSTAH – has been dogged by controversy, including the introduction of cholera to the island by UN troops that killed thousands of Haitians, as well as sexual abuse claims against them.

The 15-member Security Council acknowledged the completion of Haiti’s presidential election, along with the inauguration of its new president, as a “major milestone towards stabilisation” in the Caribbean country.

“What we now need is a newly configured mission which is focused on the rule of law and human rights in Haiti,” British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said.

“Peacekeepers do fantastic work but they are very expensive and they should be used only when needed,” Rycroft said.

The shutdown of the $346m mission, recommended by UN chief Antonio Guterres, comes as the United States looks to cut its funding of UN peacekeeping.

The US is the largest contributor paying 28.5 percent of the total budget.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the decision to downsise may be because of American pressure to save money.

“The US has been demanding that the UN become leaner and meaner in its operation, and has at times threatened to withhold some of the massive funding that it gives the organisation,” Hanna said.

There are 2,342 UN troops in Haiti, who will withdraw over the coming six months.

The new mission will be established for an initial six months, from October 16, 2017 to April 15, 2018, and is projected to exit two years after its establishment. It will be a police force of about 1,000 personnel.

The 15-member Security Council acknowledged the completion of Haiti’s presidential election, along with the inauguration of its new president, as a “major milestone towards stabilisation” in the Caribbean country.

“What we now need is a newly configured mission which is focused on the rule of law and human rights in Haiti,” British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said.

“Peacekeepers do fantastic work but they are very expensive and they should be used only when needed,” Rycroft said.

The shutdown of the $346m mission, recommended by UN chief Antonio Guterres, comes as the United States looks to cut its funding of UN peacekeeping.

The US is the largest contributor paying 28.5 percent of the total budget.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the decision to downsise may be because of American pressure to save money.

“The US has been demanding that the UN become leaner and meaner in its operation, and has at times threatened to withhold some of the massive funding that it gives the organisation,” Hanna said.

There are 2,342 UN troops in Haiti, who will withdraw over the coming six months.

The new mission will be established for an initial six months, from October 16, 2017 to April 15, 2018, and is projected to exit two years after its establishment. It will be a police force of about 1,000 personnel.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Central Command says largest US non-nuclear bomb used in combat dropped on ISIL caves and bunkers in country’s east.}

The US has dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat in eastern Afghanistan on a series of caves used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, according to the Pentagon.

The GBU-43 bomb was dropped on Thursday from a MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, said Adam Stump, a Pentagon spokesperson.

Also known as the “mother of all bombs”, the GBU-43 is a 9,797kg GPS-guided munition and was first tested in March 2003, just days before the start of the Iraq war.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strike was designed to minimise the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the area.

But the ultra-heavy explosive – equal to 11 tonnes of TNT with a blast radius of 1.6km on each side – could potentially cause many civilian casualties.

{{‘Towering flames’}}

The non-nuclear bomb killed at least 36 fighters and destroyed a deep tunnel complex of ISIL, Afghan officials said on Friday, ruling out any civilian casualties.

“As a result of the bombing, key Daesh [ISIL] hideouts and deep tunnel complex were destroyed and 36 IS fighters were killed,” the defence ministry said of the strike.

The bomb landed in the Momand Dara area of Achin district, according to Esmail Shinwari, the local governor.

“The explosion was the biggest I have ever seen. Towering flames engulfed the area,” Shinwari told AFP news agency.

General John Nicholson, the head of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said the bomb was used against caves and bunkers used by ISIL in Afghanistan, also known as ISIS-K.

“As ISIS-K losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defence, he said.

“This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K”.

ISIL’s offshoot in Afghanistan, created in 2015, is also known as the Khorasan Province.

Mark Kimmitt, a retired brigadier-general in the US army and former deputy assistant secretary of defence, played down the use of the GBU-43, saying it is “just another tool the military has”.

“It allows us to go after deeply buried and hardened structures. It’s good use against tunnels and it’s also good use because it’s going to set off IEDs in the area,” he told Al Jazeera.

Kimmitt said it was not at all certain that “political authorities” were informed of the raid before it was carried out.

“Although the size of the bomb was a bit larger than normal, it was a routine military mission against a routine military target,” he said.

The White House would not confirm whether or not President Donald Trump had authorised the use of the bomb.

“Everybody knows exactly what happened and what I do is I authorise my military,” Trump told reporters.

“We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done their job as usual. So, we have given them total authorisation.”

US officials say intelligence suggests ISIL is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province, among tens of thousands of civilians.

ISIL strength

Estimates of ISIL’s strength in Afghanistan vary.

US officials have said they believe the group has only 700 fighters, but Afghan officials estimate there are closer to 1,500 in the country.

Western and Afghan security officials believe fighters frequently switch allegiances between armed groups, making it difficult to know who is to blame for violence.

Peter Galbraith, a former US diplomat and former UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said ISIL would have to be targeted in different locations for the US military strategy to succeed.

“ISIL doesn’t concentrate its forces … so you have to target it in many different places,” he told Al Jazeera.

He said conditions for military operations in ISIL’s Syrian and Iraqi strongholds, Raqqa and Mosul, are different, as they are urban areas with civilian populations.

“A bomb of this magnitude could cause a lot of collateral damage,” Galbraith said.

“But when you’re using it in a remote, rural part of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, you presumably can have some confidence that you’ll not have civilian casualties, or at least not many of them.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Sculptor of bull statue says ‘Fearless Girl’ is attacking the bull and distorting the message of his art.}

The sculptor of Wall Street’s “Charging Bull” statue is seeing red over New York City’s decision to keep in place the “Fearless Girl” sculpture that now stares it down, saying the adjacent art has changed the meaning of his work and violated his legal rights.

“Charging Bull” has stood south of Wall Street for nearly 30 years and the Italian-American artist who created it alleged on Wednesday that “Fearless Girl” breached his copyright, distorted his artistic message and should be moved elsewhere.

“It’s really bad,” sculptor Arturo Di Modica, 76, told reporters, his voice thick with emotion and barely audible. “She’s there attacking the bull.”

The 50-inch girl stands fists on hips on a cobble stone plaza, eye-balling the 11-foot bull that has occupied the space in Manhattan’s financial district for nearly three decades.

Initially installed to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, the girl statue was meant to be removed on April 2. But the city extended its stay amid ebullient interest on social media, generous press attention and at least two petitions.

“How did the process happen and should permits be revoked?” the attorney, Norman Siegel, said, adding that his client ought to have been consulted.

“He should have been asked, never was. There are copyright and trademark infringement issues.”

State Street Global Advisors, a subsidiary of State Street Corp, said it financed the installation by artist Kristen Visbal to highlight the need for more women on corporate boards.

Twenty-five percent of the largest 3,000 US companies have no female directors, State Street noted at the time.

Siegel said the intent was less high-minded, adding, “They did it for commercial purposes.”

The 3,200kg bull itself originally appeared as guerrilla art, installed unofficially in front of the New York Stock Exchange by Di Modica in 1989 and intended to convey the fighting spirit of the United States and of New York.

After police seized the sculpture, public outcry led the city’s parks department to reinstall it days later nearby at its current location.

Siegel said they want the girl sculpture moved and for Di Modica to be awarded damages for the violation of his legal, statutory rights.

“Very simply we request respectfully that the ‘Fearless Girl’ statue be removed,” said Siegel, calling for damages to be awarded for the “violation” of his client’s statutory rights.

“Fearless Girl”, he suggested, could be relocated outside any number of New York firms with poor records on gender equality, or indeed in any other US city.

“None of us here today are in any way not proponents of gender equality but there are issues of copyright and trademark,” he said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Differences remain as top US diplomat Rex Tillerson meets Russian leader Vladimir Putin and counterpart Sergey Lavrov.}

Relations between the United States and Russia are at a low point and marked by serious distrust, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after meetings in Moscow that highlighted the two countries’ differences over the Syria conflict.

“There is a low level of trust between our two countries,” Tillerson said on Wednesday during a news conference with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, adding that the “degradation” of US-Russian ties needs to end.

“The world’s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship,” said the top US diplomat, who also met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US and Russia have traded caustic accusations following a US strike on a Syrian airbase in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Syria, blamed by Washington on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russia.

Tillerson’s comments echoed televised remarks by Putin, who earlier on Wednesday said the trust between the two countries had “deteriorated” since Donald Trump was elected US president.

“One could say that the level of trust on a working level, especially on the military level, has not improved but has rather deteriorated,” Putin said in an interview broadcast on Russian television.

“On Syria, they are miles apart and it doesn’t seem that there’s been any breakthrough at all,” said Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the White House.

{{Airspace deal}}

Speaking to reporters, Tillerson reiterated Washington’s position that Assad must eventually relinquish power – a position starkly at odds with Russia, which has been bombing rebel-held areas in Syria in support of Assad’s forces since September 2015.

For his part, Lavrov warned against an international effort to remove Assad, citing the cases of Iraq and Libya to argue that toppling autocratic rulers by external forces leads to chaos.

He said Moscow was ready to resume a deal with Washington to avoid incidents in Syrian airspace as the two countries lead separate bombing campaigns.

“Today the president confirmed our readiness to return to its implementation on the understanding that the original aims of the air forces of the American coalition are reaffirmed, namely the fight with IS [ISIL] and al-Nusra,” Lavrov said.

The deal was suspended after US missile strikes against the al-Shayrat airbase following a suspected gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun, in an act Moscow labelled “aggression against a sovereign state”.

Tillerson said the US was confident in its assessment that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons in the bombing on Khan Sheikhoun and alleged that Syria had used such weapons more than 50 times in the past.

Lavrov said Russia has no intention to “shield anyone”, adding that a United Nations chemical weapons watchdog must conduct an “objective and unbiased probe” into the attack that killed dozens of people.

Russian veto

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said that the press conference highlighted the two diplomats’ “differences in style, in position and in views of the world.

“There were no dramatic proposals made, no big deals discussed,” Challands said.

“The conversation was basically about how to stop it [the relation] from getting worse, not necessarily about grand steps to make it any better.”

The press conference came just moments before Russia again cast a veto at the UN Security Council, blocking a bid from the US, UK and France to condemn the suspected gas attack and push the Syrian government to cooperate with investigators.

China, which has vetoed six resolutions on Syria since the civil war began six years ago, abstained from Wednesday’s vote, along with Ethiopia and Kazakhstan.

Ten countries voted in favour of the text, while Bolivia joined Russia in voting no.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Remnants of Cyclone Cook expected to bring torrential rain and damaging winds to the North Island.}

Less than a week after severe floods caused by Cyclone Debbie, residents of the North Island are preparing for the arrival of another storm system, ex-Tropical Cyclone Cook.

An active frontal system has already brought more than 60mm of rain to the northern half of the South Island. This represents almost one month’s worth of rain in a typical April.

In the coming hours, Cook’s remnants will make their presence felt across the North Island. Landfall from this weather system is expected around 02:00 GMT on Thursday. According to the New Zealand Met Service landfall will occur somewhere between the Coromandel Peninsula and the western Bay of Plenty.

Cook is expected to produce very strong sustained winds with gusts as high as 150 kilometres an hour. Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and central zone as far south as Wellington are all at risk of damaging winds.

In addition, many parts of the Island will see rainfall totals of up to 180mm, more than double the April average rainfall.

This comes on top of the heavy rain of last week as a result of Cyclone Debbie’s passage across the Island. More than 100mm of rain fell in some areas. The Rangitaiki River overflowed and the town of Edgecumbe was under two metres of water.

There are obvious concerns that, with a high water table and swollen rivers, the rainfall from this next system could cause widespread flooding.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Clash on Bohol leaves several fighters dead, notably Moammar Askali, blamed for the beheading of foreign hostages.}

Soldiers battling Abu Sayyaf in central Philippines are reported to have killed a key commander of the armed group who had been blamed for the beheadings of two Canadians and a German hostage.

Military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano said troops recovered and identified the remains of Moammar Askali, also known as Abu Rami, at the scene of the battle in a coastal village on Bohol island on Tuesday.

Five other Abu Sayyaf members were killed, along with four soldiers and policemen.

Ano said troops took the picture of Askali after his death and that captured Abu Sayyaf fighters identified the the young commander.

“This is a major blow to the Abu Sayyaf,” Ano told AP news agency. “If they have further plans to kidnap innocent people somewhere, they will now have to think twice.”

He said Askali had led several fighters, who travelled by speedboats from their jungle hideouts in the southern Sulu province to Bohol, in an apparent bid to carry out another kidnapping in a region that is popular for its beach resorts and wildlife.

Sporadic gun battles between the remaining Abu Sayyaf fighters and government forces continued on Wednesday, military officials said.

At least 10 people has been killed since Tuesday in the fighting in Bohol, far from the group’s southern jungle bases.

Military officials say at least six fighters, three soldiers and a policeman have died in the ongoing gun battle in a village in the coastal town of Inabanga.

Bohol – an island province – lies near Cebu province, a bustling commercial and tourism centre.

Ronald dela Rosa, the national police chief director-general, said troops and policemen attacked the armed men early on Tuesday in Inabanga, where they had arrived aboard three boats.

It is the Abu Sayyaf’s first known attempt to carry out ransom kidnappings deep in the heartland of the central Philippines, far from its jungle lairs in the southern provinces of Sulu and Basilan.

Bohol, which is popular with tourists, lies about 640km southeast of Manila, and about an hour away by boat from Cebu province, across the busy Cebu Strait.

Abu Sayyaf fighters have crossed the sea border with Malaysia on powerful speedboats and kidnapped scores of foreign tourists in past years.

In 2001, they sailed as far as western Palawan province, where they seized 20 people from a resort.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered troops to destroy the group in Sulu and in outlying island provinces, and has threatened to declare martial law in the country’s south if the threat posed by the Abu Sayyaf and other groups aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gets out of control.

Abu Sayyaf is still holding at least 29 captives in Sulu’s jungles, many of them foreign tugboat and cargo ship crewmen seized at the sea border between the southern Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Source:Al Jazeera