CHANNEL NEWS NETWORK 24 NG: December 2015

Wednesday 23 December 2015

Sangin Under Siege: Afghans Call For NATO Help

Dust billows as a British Chinook helicopter takes off in Sangin valley

The Taliban claims Sangin is under its control

but relatives of UK troops killed in Afghanistan say there should be no return.

Afghan commanders have called for NATO back up after the Taliban claimed to have taken control of the strategic town of Sangin.

The Afghan government has sent reinforcements to the district to help besieged forces but the defence minister called for international support and air cover.

A spokesman for the Taliban said on Twitter "Sangin district has completely collapsed to the Taliban" but the government has denied the claim.

:: Brits Sent To Helmand Amid Fierce Fighting

The loss of Sangin would be a significant blow for the government in Kabul because it is central to the opium trade and was a stranglehold for the insurgents.

It saw the heaviest British losses as more than 100 troops were killed in the decade-long battle to secure the Helmand province district.

The deputy governor of Helmand said all lines of communication with the town had been cut and there was no information as to what was happening inside.

Defence Minister Masoom Stanekzai said: "The Helmand battle is not easy because the province has a long border, is a core of opium production, and our enemies are well-equipped and deeply involved in the smuggling of drugs.

"These factors complicate the battle for Sangin."

:: Sky's Sam Kiley On Why Are British Forces Back In Helmand

The Taliban surge in Sangin has seen British troops pulled back into the conflict more than a year after the last of the armed forces left the country.

A small British force has been sent to Helmand to act as advisers to the Afghan forces but the Ministry of Defence has insisted they will not take part in combat operations.

Families who lost loved ones in the Afghanistan conflict have said nothing can justify sending British troops back in.

Ian Wright, whose son Gary was killed when his vehicle was caught in a suicide blast in Lashkar Gah in 2006, said: "I am totally opposed to troops back on the ground in Afghanistan, whatever roles they are carrying out.

"It's been done too many times in the past and it's clear it hasn't worked.”

But former foreign secretary David Miliband said Britain should do more to help restore stability to the country.

He told the Radio 4 Today programme: "Given the level of sacrifice but also the importance strategically of Afghanistan as an entry point into central Asia, as a potential expansion ground for Isis and others - I think it is important for Britain to be part of the overall strategy to stabilise the country. Above all that needs to be a political strategy."

US Black Lives Matter protests disrupt airports and shopping

Black Lives Matter protesters chant slogans at the Mall of America light rail station in Bloomington, Minnesota (23 December 2015) — Image captionPolice use of force against African Americans has been an ongoing issue in the US

Protests by the Black Lives Matter group have taken place in the US states of Minnesota and California on one of the busiest retail days of the year.

The demonstrators in Minnesota temporarily closed the international airport and interrupted Christmas shopping at the Mall of America.

Police said a total of 15 people were arrested at both places, mostly for trespassing or obstructing justice.

Protesters are angry over a police shooting of a black man in Minneapolis.

Jamar Clark was shot dead last month by officers responding to an assault complaint, in one of a number of recent incidents around the US.

Hundreds of people took part in the protest at the mall, one of the largest in North America, where Black Lives Matter organisers promised to congregate in defiance of a judge's warning that the shopping centre's owners could legally block the demonstration.

Image captionPolice were deployed in force at the Minneapolis-St Paul International airport

Image captionThe protests meant that travellers heading to the airport faced lengthy delays

Police and mall security staff were speedily deployed against the protesters, warning that any who did not depart immediately would be arrested. For a while the area surrounding the mall was on lockdown, but most stores were only closed for about an hour.

At one point police described the situation as "very, very dangerous".

The San Francisco Chronicle separately reported that eight protesters blocking southbound traffic on the 101 freeway near the California city's international airport were arrested on Wednesday.

Pictures of the demonstrators on social media showed them holding a sign demanding justice for Mario Woods, a black man shot dead by police who is suspected of a San Francisco stabbing.

Black Lives Matter is a loosely organised movement which was formed following protests over police killings of black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and other cities.

Police use of force against African Americans has been an ongoing issue.

Protests have been held nationwide for more than a year after a series of incidents, some of them fatal.

Conflict Resolution Work in Syria

The Carter Center has developed a reputation as a trusted, objective broker after years of experience working with Syrians — including government, opposition, and civil society stakeholders. Since the onset of the uprising, the Center's Conflict Resolution Program has been developing alternative paths to a political solution.

The humanitarian, political, and socioeconomic repercussions of the Syrian civil war remain catastrophic. The overall death toll, though difficult to estimate, is close to a quarter million and shows no signs of slowing. As a result of the ongoing violence, more than half of Syria's population has been displaced. Although talks have shown little progress so far, the war will eventually end with a political agreement. The possibility of a peace agreement on Syria — whether internationally backed, domestic, or a hybrid — provides the context for The Carter Center's efforts to continue assisting the country with an eventual transition to peace.

The Carter Center's work in Syria is designed to provide input to stakeholders in the resumption of a political process and help facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Currently, the Center's efforts are divided between two parallel and complementary projects: Syria Transition Dialogue Initiative and Syria Conflict Mapping Project, detailed below.

Syria Transition Dialogue Initiative

Since July 2013, The Carter Center has held workshops and individual consultations with Syrians and government representatives in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and has become intimately acquainted with all issues of concern to stakeholders regarding a transition to peace and future governance. The Center has established a unique and diverse network of Syrians across political divides working on transition. The profiles of Syrians engaged to date have been lawyers, judges, senior political officials, representatives of paramilitary groups, academics, activists, civil society representatives, as well as international experts. Syrian interlocutors have stated that the workshops have provided an opportunity to overcome prejudice towards fellow compatriots and to find common ground on substantive issues surrounding a transition period in Syria.

Following each workshop, the Center updates and refines a working paper that encompasses participants' contributions and stances regarding options for a transition to peace in Syria. The initiative is grounded in an analysis of current developments in Syria, Syrian constitutional and other laws, past and present, and experience in recent post-conflict political transitions elsewhere. The last iteration of the report, published in Arabic and English can be found below:

July 1, 2015 | Options for a Political Transition in Syria (PDF) (عربي)

Syria Conflict Mapping Project

Since 2012, the Syria Conflict Mapping Project has worked to analyze open source information related to the Syrian conflict in as much detail as possible, with the goal of assisting mediators and humanitarian responders. Using these publicly available resources, as well as regular consultations with stakeholders in the country, the Center has documented and mapped over 40,000 conflict events in Syria (including clashes, aerial bombardments, artillery shelling, etc.), the changing relations between thousands of armed groups, movements of internally displaced people, and humanitarian conditions.

Analyzed together, this information allows The Carter Center to provide mediators and humanitarian responders with up-to-date, detailed analysis on developments throughout Syria. Additionally, the Center maintains a near real-time, auto-updating map of areas of control throughout Syria. All of this information is analyzed and is shared directly with mediators and humanitarian organizations through a software tool provided by Palantir Technologies.

Nigeria Boko Haram: Militants 'close to defeat' - Buhari

The Nigerian military is close to completely defeating Islamist Boko Haram militants, President Muhammadu Buhari has told the BBC.

He said the militants could no longer mount conventional attacks against security forces or population centres.

"I think, technically, we have won the war," he said.

The president has given the army until the end of the month to defeat Boko Haram, whose six-year insurgency has devastated north-eastern Nigeria.

But the BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi in the capital, Abuja, says that the deadline is likely to be extended as Boko Haram is still bombing areas despite losing towns under its control.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari presents Lance Corporal Kenneth Kulugh with the Purple Heart medal for gallantry in the fight against Boko Haram (14 November 2015) — Image captionThe president says that key to the defeat of Boko Haram is reorganising, retraining and reequipping the army

Female students stand in a burnt classroom at Maiduguri Experimental School in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria, after it was attacked by Boko Haram militants to keep children away from education (12 May 2012) — Image captionThe Islamist insurgency has kept about one million children out of school in Nigeria and three neighbouring states, the UN children's agency said earlier this week

Boko Haram video — Image captionBoko Haram has sworn allegiance to Islamic State and often displays its trademark black flag

Critics of the government argue that it has exaggerated the scale of its success against the militants, and that each time the army claims to have wiped out Boko Haram, the militants have quietly rebuilt.

The insurgency is said to have killed some 17,000 people and left more than two million homeless.

The jihadists have been forced to cut back on suicide bombings as a result of the military action against them, President Buhari said.

"Boko Haram has reverted to using improvised explosive devices (IEDs)," he said. "They have now been reduced to that."

"Boko Haram is an organised fighting force, I assure you, [but] we have dealt with them."

He said the militants had all but been driven out from Adamawa and Yobe states and remained a force only in its heartland of Borno state.

"They cannot now marshal forces and attack towns or attack military installations and so on as they did before.

"I don't think this is mad talking."

The president said that Nigeria had reorganised and reequipped the military. which had received training from the British, the Americans and the French.

"A lot is being done," he said.

Boko Haram at a glance:

Founded in 2002, initially focused on opposing Western-style education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
Launched military operations in 2009
Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, hundreds abducted, including at least 200 schoolgirls
Joined so-called Islamic State, now calls itself IS's "West African province"
Seized large area in north-east, where it declared caliphate
Regional force has retaken most territory this year

Tuesday 22 December 2015

Nigeria raises borrowing in budget as oil prices fall

Man found alive after more than 60 hours buried in China landslide

Survivor found in Shenzhen after landslide

A survivor is found at the site of landslide at an industrial park in Shenzhen, on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015. (Jin Liangkuai/Xinhua News Agency via AP)

BEIJING -- A migrant worker was pulled out alive Wednesday after he was buried for more than 60 hours in a massive landslide that swept through part of a major manufacturing city in southern China.

Rao Liangzhong of the Shenzhen Emergency Response Office said that the man, Tian Zeming, was rescued around dawn on Wednesday. He said Tian was from Chongqing in southwestern China.

"The survivor had a very feeble voice and pulse when he was found alive buried under debris, and now he's undergoing further checks," Dr. Wang Yiguo told a news conference in Shenzhen, according to a transcript posted by the district government that covers the area.

When they found him, Tian told rescuers his name and that there was another person buried near him, according to the transcript. Another neurosurgeon, Dai Limeng, told the news conference that he had gone into the rubble and confirmed that the second person had not survived.

More than 70 people are still missing from the landslide that happened Sunday when a mountain of construction waste material and mud collapsed and flowed into an industrial park in Shenzhen.

The Ministry of Land and Resources has said a steep man-made mountain of dirt, cement chunks and other construction waste had been piled up against a 100-meter (330-foot) -high hill over the past two years.

Heavy rains saturated the soil, making it heavy and unstable, and ultimately causing it to collapse with massive force in and around an industrial park.

State media reported that the New Guangming District government identified problems with the mountain of soil months earlier.

The Legal Evening News said a district government report in January found that the dump had received 1 million cubic meters of waste and warned of a "catastrophe."

Under pressure from the media, officials allowed about 30 journalists, mostly from foreign outlets, to approach an edge of the disaster area. Flanked by police, reporters could observe military posts with computers and disease control stations set up for the rescue workers.

Shenzhen is a major manufacturing centre, making everything from cellphones to cars, and it attracts workers from all parts of China.

Man facing terror charges once worked as baggage handler at Minneapolis airport: FBI

Terror suspect Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, 20, is pictured in this undated photo provided by the Anoka County Sheriff to AP.

MINNEAPOLIS -- A man who faces terrorism-related charges once boasted that he was capable of building rockets that could threaten planes landing at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and also once worked at the airport as a baggage handler, an FBI agent testified Tuesday.

FBI Special Agent Daniel Higgins spoke at a hearing for Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, 20. Warsame was the 10th young man from Minnesota's Somali community to be charged since April with terrorism-related counts accusing them of plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group. He was arrested and charged Dec. 9 with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of providing such support.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Becky Thorson ruled there was probable cause to support the charges, and that Warsame should not be released because he's a flight risk and danger to the community. The case now goes to a grand jury where prosecutors will seek an indictment so they can proceed to trial.

Three of the other defendants have pleaded guilty, while five are scheduled to go on trial in May. The FBI says one is in Syria.

Higgins' testimony added details that weren't in the criminal complaint against Warsame, which included an affidavit from another FBI agent, Vadym Vinetsky, who wrote that Warsame was appointed "emir," or leader of the local group, by Guled Ali Omar, who was planning to leave for Syria but was thwarted and is now among those awaiting trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Winter told the court Warsame's time as emir was brief, but it showed his leadership role in the alleged conspiracy, helping one defendant with money for an expedited passport and helping another alleged co-conspirator make contact with Islamic State facilitators in Turkey.

Recordings secretly made by an FBI informant included a conversation Warsame had with Omar about weapons, Higgins said. They discussed a propaganda video about a "tank hunter" who used rocket-propelled grenades. "The defendant indicated he would like to take such a role and said he quote, loved RPGs," he testified.

In another conversation recorded by the informant, while walking around Lake Nokomis, which is under one of the airport's main flight paths, Warsame said he could build "homemade rockets" that could reach 2,000 feet (600 metres), Higgins testified. He suggested that was enough to hit a descending plane.

And from April to August of 2014, Warsame worked as a baggage handler at the airport "with access to the airplanes," Higgins testified.

Under cross-examination from defence attorney Robert Sicoli, Higgins acknowledged that he wasn't aware of any evidence that Warsame ever tried to build such a rocket. Sicoli then asked why, if Warsame was such a threat, authorities didn't arrest him earlier. Higgins replied that that decision wasn't up to him.

The agent also acknowledged that he wasn't aware of Warsame doing anything suspicious, planting bombs or doing anything else illegal at the airport.

"The only reason detention is being recommended in this case is the politics of the situation, Sicoli later argued, which drew an indignant denial from Winter.

"I want to make it clear that the court is not making a decision about politics," Thorson said as she issued her rulings, saying they were based on the evidence and the law.

About a dozen Minnesota residents have travelled to Syria to join jihadist groups since late 2013. In addition, more than 22 young men from Minnesota's Somali community have left the state since 2007 to join the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab in Somalia.

Higgins' testified that investigators determined that Warsame planned to travel to with his family to Somalia, then either break free of them and travel from there to Syria, or to wait in Somalia for a time when he believed al-Shabab would join forces with the Islamic State group.

New York may be warmer than L.A. on Christmas, partly due to El Nino

El Nino causes plenty of snow in Washington

A car still topped by snow drives past trucks stopped to remove chains after making the drive across Snoqualmie Pass, Wash., on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

SEATTLE -- A weather pattern partly linked with El Nino has turned winter upside-down across the U.S. during a week of heavy holiday travel, bringing spring-like warmth to the Northeast, a risk of tornadoes in the South and so much snow across the West that even skiing slopes have been overwhelmed.

In a reversal of a typical Christmas, forecasters expect New York to be in the mid-60s Fahrenheit (upper teens Celsius) on the holiday -- several degrees higher than Los Angeles.

The mild conditions have helped golf courses in the northeastern New England states do brisk business, but the pattern comes at a steep cost for ski resorts that have closed and for backcountry skiers who confront avalanche risks. And many Americans complain that it just doesn't feel like the holidays without a chill in the air.

"It's been a great snow season so far from the Rockies to the higher elevations in the Cascades and the northern Sierras, and it's been the total opposite on the East Coast," said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service.

Big parts of the county are basking in above-average temperatures, especially east of the Mississippi and across the Northern Plains. Record warmth was expected on Christmas Eve along the East Coast, Oravec said.

He laid the credit -- or blame -- with a strong El Nino pattern, the warming of surface waters in the Pacific Ocean near the equator. That's helped drive warm air west to east across the Lower 48 states and kept colder air from the Arctic at bay, he said.

In the Pacific Northwest and California, the effects of El Nino haven't really hit yet. They're typically seen in January through March, and the heavy rains and snows in the region are probably not linked to the phenomenon, said Washington State Climatologist Nick Bond.

The winter in the Pacific Northwest is still predicted to be drier than normal, so the series of storms that dumped feet of snow in the Cascades this month and piled the snowpack back above normal, were helpful, he said.

Come summer, farmers and salmon alike will rely on that melting snow.

In Washington state, authorities have closed the main east-west route, Interstate 90, over the Cascade Mountains repeatedly this week due to heavy snows and avalanche danger. On Sunday, a heavy storm closed Oregon's Mount Ashland Ski Area when it knocked out power.

California is in its driest four-year span on record, and experts anticipate a possible fifth year of drought. Weather forecasters say a strong El Nino weather system could drench the state, but one good, wet winter won't be enough to rehydrate the parched land.

While ski resorts celebrated a deluge that threatened to drop almost 2 feet (60 centimetres) of snow in parts of Colorado's mountains, forecasters warned of serious avalanche risks.

An avalanche near the Montana-Wyoming state line on Sunday buried three snowmobilers, killing a 33-year-old North Dakota man. Another avalanche partially buried a ski patrol employee at the Snowbasin resort, about 45 miles (72 kilometres) north of Salt Lake City, and two snowboarders were caught in a backcountry slide southwest of Breckenridge Ski Area on Saturday. They escaped serious injury.

"We're giving our generally weak snowpack a very large and rapid load, and it's unlikely to be able to hold up," said Brian Lazar, deputy director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Warnings and advisories were posted for much of Colorado's high country.

Elsewhere, severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes were forecast for Wednesday in Arkansas, northern Alabama, northern Mississippi and western Tennessee. Tornadoes are not unheard-of in the region in late December, but the extreme weather, driven by warm temperatures and large amounts of moisture in the atmosphere, was nonetheless striking, said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Weather Underground.

In addition to El Nino, a weather pattern called the North Atlantic Oscillation is also helping keep cold air bottled up in the Arctic. Combine that with warm temperatures around the planet from man-made global warming, he said, and you have a recipe for intense weather.

Not everyone welcomed the warmth.

Astrid Rau, 55, of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, baked 16 kinds of Christmas cookies, but with the temperature expected to reach 72 F (22 C) on Thursday, she had trouble getting in the holiday spirit.

"I associate cold with Christmas," she said. "And if it's warm it just doesn't feel quite right to me."

British man who wrote of killing Prince Charles, 'non-Aryans' detained indefinitely

Prince Charles, who was possible terrorism target

Prince Charles visits with people whose homes were flooded, in Carlisle, England, on Monday, Dec. 21, 2015. (Alan Davidson/Pool Photo via AP)

LONDON - A British man who fantasized about assassinating Prince Charles with a rifle and compared himself to Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has been detained indefinitely under mental health laws.

Mark Colborne was convicted of planning terrorism in September. Prosecutors said the 37-year-old wrote about his hatred for "non-Aryans" and about how he was "looking for major retribution, a mass terrorist attack." They said he suffered from depression and felt marginalized as a white, red-haired man.

Colborne was arrested in June 2014 after his family uncovered chemicals, items related to making lethal poison and notes detailing his racial hatred in his bedroom.

Judge John Bevan said Tuesday that Colborne was a "warped individual" whose "extraordinarily violent fantasies" were seriously concerning.

Amnesty International accuses Russia of using cluster bombs, killing civilians in Syria

In this Dec. 9, 2015 file photo made from video footage provided by the Russian Defense Ministry, a Russian Su-34 bomber drops bombs on a target. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

BEIRUT -- A human rights watchdog on Wednesday accused Russia of using cluster munitions and unguided bombs on civilian areas in Syria in attacks that it says have killed hundreds of people in the past few months.

The report by Amnesty International said there has been a surge in reports of cluster munitions dropped in areas targeted by Russian forces since Moscow formally joined the conflict Sept. 30.

Cluster munitions are by nature indiscriminate and often leave unexploded bomblets on the ground. These can maim and kill civilians long after the cessation of hostilities.

The report focuses on six attacks in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo provinces between September and November which it says killed at least 200 civilians. It denounced Russia's "shameful failure" to acknowledge civilian killings.

"Some Russian air strikes appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking residential areas with no evident military target and even medical facilities, resulting in deaths and injuries to civilians," said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program. "Such attacks may amount to war crimes," he said.

The accusations follow a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch last week which said cluster munitions were used on at least 20 occasions since Syria and Russia began their joint offensive on Sept. 30.

Russian officials have repeatedly rejected such accusations, and residents and opposition activists inside Syria acknowledge they have no way of knowing for sure whether the attacks are carried out by Russia or the Syrian military.

When asked Monday about allegations that Russia is using cluster bombs, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian military in Syria operates in line with international law.

"Russia is conducting its operation in strict conformity with principles and norms of the international law, including those sections of the international law that regulate using and bans on using one or another type of weapons," Peskov told reporters.

Russia says its airstrikes are aimed at the Islamic State group and other "terrorists," but Western officials and Syrian rebels say most of the strikes have focused on central and northern Syria, where IS does not have a strong presence.