Egypt Air hijacker appears outside Cyprus court as he is detained for eight days

A hijacker who threatened to blow up an EgyptAir flight in Cyprus with a fake suicide vest has been remanded in custody.
Seif Eddin Mustafa, 59, appeared in court in Cyprus on Wednesday to face a raft of charges after sparking a dramatic stand-off on the tarmac at Larnaca airport.
Four Britons were on the flight from Alexandria to Cairo on Tuesday when it was forced to divert to Cyprus due to a man wearing a fake suicide belt.

Seif al-Din Mohamed Mostafa outside the court in Cyprus (Picture:Getty Images)
Passenger Ben Innes, from Leeds, decided to pose for a photograph with the bogus bomber despite the man apparently having explosives strapped to his waist.
The court ordered Seif Eddin Mustafa’s detention for eight days over charges including hijacking, illegal possession of explosives, kidnapping and threats to commit violence.
Handcuffed Mustafa flashed a ‘V’ sign out of a police vehicle as he was driven away from the Larnaca courthouse after the hearing.

Seif al-Din Mohamed Mostafa (Picture:Getty Images)
Police prosecutor Andreas Lambrianou said the suspect told police: ‘What’s someone supposed to do when he hasn’t seen his wife and children in 24 years and the Egyptian government won’t let him?’
Cypriot officials described him as ‘psychologically unstable’ following a bizarre set of demands he made to police negotiators, including what Mr Lambrianou said was a letter he wanted delivered to his Cypriot ex-wife in which he demanded the release of 63 dissident women imprisoned in Egypt.
The prosecutor said Cypriot authorities will ask for Interpol’s help to determine how the suspect managed to pass the fake explosives belt through airport security in Egypt.
Tuesday’s dramatic hijacking ended peacefully when police arrested the suspect after all 72 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A320 aircraft were released.
Ben Innes, 26, took a picture with a man identified by Cypriot officials as Seif Eldin Mustafa

Canadian priest accused of gambling away $380,000 meant for refugees

Canadian priest accused of gambling away $380,000 meant for refugees
According to reports in the Canadian media, an Ontario-based Catholic priest is under investigation on suspicion of gambling away funds that had been set aside to provide for refugees newly settled in Canada.
Father Amer Saka, a priest at the St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in London, Ontario, is suspected to have lost roughly half a million Canadian dollars (equivalent to $380,000 U.S.) that had been entrusted to him by local families keen on sponsoring new arrivals from the Middle East.
Saka phoned the church's bishop, Emanuel Shaleta, last month to confess that the funds were lost.
"He called me on the phone and . . . said he lost all the money. I said, ‘How?’ He said, ‘Gambling,’" Shaleta told the Toronto Star this weekend. He has since checked the priest into an addiction center. Investigators are examining the situation, though no formal charges have been filed.
"We believe that Father Saka has a serious gambling problem and that these funds may have been used for that purpose. Since there is an investigation going on, we cannot confirm what he’s saying," Shaleta added.
In a separate interview with the London Free Press, Shaleta lamented the plight of the seven to eight families that had given their donations to Saka. "They trusted him. They did not give it as a gift. They were trusting the priest. They didn't ask for receipts," he said.
Canada's government-led program to give sanctuary to tens of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees involves the combined efforts of the state as well as private donations to sponsor refugee arrivals. Saka was in charge of funds raised by the Hamilton Diocese to sponsor 20 Iraqi refugees.
It's not clear from reports whether these refugees would be from Saka's own Chaldean community — which is one of the world's oldest Christian populations and still has its base in Baghdad.
Since being unveiled late last year by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the government scheme to house refugees has proceeded fitfully. The hiccups that have been reported are usually ascribed to the public-sector side of the program — private and ecclesiastical sponsorships appear to have been better resourced.
The past decade has been grim for Iraq's Christian community. The ravages of the Islamic State over the past two years emptied the ancient city of Mosul of its long-standing Christian population; in total, about 125,000 Iraqi Christians of various sects were forced to flee their homes.
In 2014, Patriarch Louis Sako, the top figure in the Chaldean Catholic Church, which both Saka and Shaleta serve, likened the perils faced by his flock to the apocalyptic days of the Mongol invasion more than eight centuries prior. He also held the 2003 U.S.-led invasion in Iraq "indirectly responsible" for the political instability and sectarian strife that has prompted Iraq's exodus of Christians.
Before the invasion, more than a million Christians lived in Iraq. A decade later, that number is less than 400,000 and dropping.

She’s a young runner in Gaza, and she refuses to give up the race

She’s a young runner in Gaza, and she refuses to give up the race
MAGHAZI, Gaza Strip — Every morning as the sun rises over the Mediterranean Sea and light begins to flood this coastal enclave, Inas Nofal is up, dressed and ready to go out for her daily run.
While this might not seem unusual for someone training for a competition, the sight of Nofal, 15, running up and down the streets of the refugee camp where she lives in loose fitting, modest looking running gear and a hijab, is singular.
She is Gaza’s only competitive female runner.
Since the militant Islamist movement Hamas took over the strip in 2007 and barred mixed groups of men and women in many public activities, female athletes have faced wide-ranging restrictions. Girls rarely participate in sports, and if they do it is behind closed doors.
A marathon scheduled to take place here in 2013 was cancelled by the United Nations because Hamas would not allow women to participate.
Nofal, the youngest of four sisters, initially started running in a closed stadium but ventured out to run in the streets last December.
At first she faced verbal abuse from people shocked to see a young woman exercising in public. But support from her family, particularly her father — who rides alongside her in his car — spurred her on. Now the taunts have turned to support and admiration.
Gazans are realizing this young runner is serious and talented.
“I started running in school, in my sports class. One of my teachers saw me and told my father, who supported me, then I found myself in this kind of sport,” Nofal told The Washington Post in a recent interview. “My family, and especially my father, have helped me to keep on going until I reached the point of being the only female runner in Gaza.”
Her father, Mohammed Nofal, said his support for his daughter is not even a question.
“I love my four daughters and I see the life through them. Inas has chosen to be a runner, so I am standing with her till the end,” he said.
Before Hamas took over the strip, female athletes in Gaza were viewed as pioneers. The runner Sanna Abubkheet was one of only three athletes — and the first and only woman — to represent Palestine at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Nofal is also hoping to compete, despite the obstacles she faces. Her actions have inspired other young women to join her in her training, albeit in the stadium for now.
This Friday, she is scheduled to participate in a 10-kilometer race in the West Bank city of Bethlehem but is still waiting for a permit from Israeli authorities to leave Gaza. The event is part of the fourth annual Palestine Marathon, an event arranged by the Palestine Olympic Committee and the Right to Movement organization, among other groups.
“Inas is the best runner in Gaza at the moment,” said her coach, Sami Nateel, a former runner who has participated in many local and international competitions.
“She won the last running competition we had here, and she has ambition to continue,” he said, adding that Nofal is hoping to represent the Palestinian team at a meet in Russia in June.

Zika virus command center leads biggest military operation in Brazil's history

Zika virus command center leads biggest military operation in Brazil's history
It is the biggest military mobilisation in Brazil’s history: 220,000 army, navy and air force personnel have been called into action, as well as 315,000 public officials.
Rapid reaction units have been deployed to take the fight across the country. Local authorities are stockpiling munitions and supplies. Scientists have been enlisted to devise new weapons of mass destruction with which to defend the motherland.

But the enemy is not a geopolitical rival or a militant group: it is the tiny Aedes aegypti mosquito which is believed to be responsible for the spread of the Zika virus.
The war room where this battle is being coordinated is the Zika Control Room inside the National Centre for Risk and Disaster Management in Brasília. On one wall is a bank of 15 screens showing weapons stockpiles, troop numbers and indicators of where the enemy is concentrated.

In the middle is a U-shaped dark wooden desk with 14 chairs, each with a phone and broadband socket. The occupants wear uniforms: khaki for the army, blue for civil defence and casual dress for officials from the health, education and social development ministries.
 A municipal health worker sprays insecticide in an open area of a sports facility in Recife, Pernambuco state. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP
These bureaucrats describe themselves as soldiers. “This is a war. Our enemy is very dangerous,” says Fábio de Abril Luna, an education official who pulls together material to inform and motivate the public. He is proud of the work they have done since being formed in December. Graphs on the screen show Zika-busting missions have reached more than 90% of the 67m buildings in Brazil in the first of at least three cycles of inspections.

Another graph show that stocks of the main insecticide – pyriproxyfen (which is sprayed into the air from fumigation vehicles in the worst-affected areas) – have been more than doubled to 31,410kg, while the holdings of larvicide Malathion have been ramped up by 63% despite import problems (the chemical, which is produced in Germany, has to be shipped by sea because France deems it too dangerous to fly through its airspace).
Marcos Quito, the coordinator of the Zika Control Room, says many other weapons have been tried or are being tested, including larvae-eating sambo fish and Crotalaria plants that attract dragonflies that like to feast on larvae. More drastic measures are also under development with the encouragement of the World Health Organisation.
In Pircicaba city, São Paulo state, the authorities have released more than 20m male mosquitoes that have been genetically modified by UK-based Oxitec to mate with females and produce offspring that fail to reach adulthood. The company says this has reduced larvae in the area by 82%.
Other firms have irradiated mosquitoes to be sterile. The long-term consequences of releasing an army of transgenic or irradiated mosquitoes are still being studied, but if the epidemic worsens so will the pressure to use relatively untried alternatives.
“I can’t say what we would do in the future. We would need to make a new risk assessment and judge whether the benefits of using more powerful weapons would outweigh the added risks to the public,” said Quito.
Armed forces members check a house for mosquito breeding areas in a rural area in Brazlândia, 45km northwest of Brasília. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images
For the moment, however, he said the most effective way to tackle Aedes aegyptiis to mobilise the public. Two-thirds of the mosquitoes breed in and around people’s homes in water tanks, ponds, discarded bottles, plant pots and discarded tyres. Clean them up and the risks are reduced enormously.
Focusing the war effort is also important. Heat maps show the epidemic is concentrated in Pernambuco and elsewhere in the north-east, where Zika was first identified and more than 80% of microcephaly cases have been confirmed. The good news is that the weekly numbers of microcephaly cases already appear to have peaked in this area.
The bad news is that more cases are being reported elsewhere.
“We see a trend of spreading,” said Claudio Maierovitch, director of the department of vigilance for transmittable diseases in the ministry of health. “Just as with Zika last year, microcephaly started in the north-east and is now spreading across the whole country.” In the coming months, he expects an increase in cases in areas that haven’t so far reported many cases, such as São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
The moving frontline is not the only problem in targeting the enemy. So little is known about Zika that it has to be fought at one or two removes. Instead of the pathogen itself, the campaign aims at its closest known disease – dengue – and the mosquito that carries them both. This approach, which is akin to shadow boxing, has obvious shortcomings: enemy numbers are unknown. Their whereabouts can only be guessed. The threat they pose is still uncertain.
A causal association with birth defects such as microcephaly is not yet scientifically proven but it is deemed a certainty by officials. Government figures released on Tuesday show there have been 944 confirmed cases of microcephaly and another 4,291 suspected cases. But the numbers of people with Zika are unknown because 80% of infections produce no symptoms.
In the other 20% of cases, the rashes, headaches and fever are so similar to dengue that it can be hard to distinguish between the two. As a result, the government has yet to release figures for the number of infections. Instead their best guess it that is in the region of 1.5 million people. These estimates should improve. Earlier this month, the government made reporting of Zika cases obligatory and it is dispatching 250,000 testing kits to regional authorities.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Brazilian navy sailors prepare to pass out pamphlets warning of the dangers of the Zika virus and how to protect against mosquitos in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
“The Aedes aegypti is a very cunning mosquito that takes advantage of human behaviour. We are dealing with a formidable enemy,” Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organisation, declared last month in Rio. She went on to describe Zika as a “menace on a bigger magnitude” than Sars or Ebola because of its potential reach.
The current bug war is unlikely to be the last and pressure is likely to grow to escalate the conflict with the use of riskier weapons. But, even those in command of the ongoing offensive against Zika admit it is a fantasy to think the problem can be solved this way.
After all, this is not a new fight: Brazil has been fighting the mosquito for decades and on at least one occasionthe government has declared the enemy eradicated. But each time, it has returned as strong as ever. The number of cases of dengue in the first two months of this year was more than double those during the same period in 2015 and about four times higher than in January and February of 2014.
“I can’t say with any certainty that the situation will be better next year,” says Quito. “Honestly, I don’t know when this war will end. It’s likely to go on for a long time.”
Far more than the war against the bugs, he says, the priority is to reform human behaviour.

“This is not just about Zika and it is not just about Brazil,” Quito says. “This is related to the imbalance of the climate. It concerns the entire world and the response needs to be thought through as a global effort.”

Cyprus Plane Hijacker Arrives At Court

A man accused of hijacking a passenger jet and forcing it to land in Cyprus while strapped with a fake bomb has arrived at court.
Seif Eldin Mustafa took over the EgyptAir jet during an internal flight from Alexandria to Cairo on Tuesday morning.
He held four crew members and three passengers hostage during an eight-hour stand-off, claiming he was wearing a suicide belt.
The Egyptian later freed the group and handed himself in to police after making a series of "incoherent" demands.
Although his motives remain unclear, Cyprus' foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides said it had not been a terrorist act.
It was later established the belt contained no explosives and was instead packed with mobile phone covers.
Four Britons were among the 56 passengers on board the aircraft.

Japan invents electric 'salt-flavoured fork'

Japan invents electric 'salt-flavoured fork'
Health-conscious salt lovers are no doubt relieved that Japanese scientists have created a guilt-free way of enjoying it – by inventing an electric fork

Sprinkling too much salt on food has long been flagged up as a dietary sin linked to a raft of health problems, from strokes to heart disease.

So health-conscious salt lovers are likely to celebrate the fact that Japanese scientists have created a guilt-free way of enjoying it – by inventing an electric fork.

The prototype fork creates a salty taste in the mouth at the press of a button, due to the release of an electrical current which stimulates the tongue.

The battery-operated fork - which can create sour and metallic as well as salty tastes - was pioneered by Hiromi Nakamura at Rekimoto Lab, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at the University of Tokyo.

The device, which cost researchers only £12 (Y2,000) to make, is based on the fact that a human tongues feels salty or sour when electricity is applied to it, according to the Nikkei Technology.

The technology is likely to benefit those who are required for medical reasons to limit or eliminate salt from their diet for medical reasons, such as those suffering from hypertension.
The prototype – which is not yet designed to be waterproof - was reportedly designed for an initiative called No Salt Restaurant, which aims to hold events serving salt-free full course meals.
The fork, which can run for six hours without charging, has three levels of electrical current, with different degrees of saltiness or sourness apparent depending on the eater’s age and normal dietary habits.
One researcher described testing the fork by eating a salt-free "tonkatsu" pork cutlet with salt-free sour sauce – and found that pressing the button made the pork more salty and the sauce more sour, although pushing it up to too high a level made it taste metallic.
A salt-heavy diet has long been associated with high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart disease, with government guidelines currently recommending a daily limit of 6g for adults.

FBI ducks court fight with Apple after it hacks killer’s iPhone

FBI ducks court fight with Apple after it hacks killer’s iPhone

A legal battle pitting the Obama administration against technology giant Apple has ended unexpectedly after the FBI said it had hacked into a California mass murderer’s iPhone.


Prosecutors had asked a federal judge to cancel a judgment preventing the Federal Bureau of Investigation breaking into the iPhone, saying it was no longer necessary.
The FBI used the unspecified technique to access data on an iPhone used by gunman Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after they gunned down 14 people in San Bernardino in December.
Agents are now reviewing the information on the phone, the US justice department said.
The government’s brief court filing provided no details about how the FBI got into the phone. Nor did it identify the non-government “outside party” who showed agents how to get past the phone’s security defences.
Authorities had previously said only Apple had the ability to help them unlock the phone. Apple responded by saying it will continue to increase the security of its products.
“We will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations, as we have done all along,” the company added in a statement, while reiterating its argument that the government’s demand for Apple’s help was wrong.
“This case should never have been brought,” Apple said.
FBI assistant director David Bowdich said examining the iPhone was part of an effort to learn if the San Bernardino killers had worked with others or had targeted any other victims.
“I am satisfied that we have access to more answers than we did before,” he said.
The dispute ignited a fierce internet-era debate that pitted digital privacy rights against US national security concerns and reinvigorated discussion over the impact of encryption on law enforcement’s ability to serve the public.
This latest surprise development punctured the temporary perception that Apple’s security might have been good enough to keep consumers’ personal information safe even from the US government.
And while President Barack Obama’s administration created a policy for disclosing such security vulnerabilities to companies, the policy allows for a vulnerability to be kept secret if there is a law enforcement or national security reason for doing so.
The withdrawal of the court process also takes away Apple’s ability to legally request details on the method the FBI used in this case. Apple attorneys said last week that they hoped the US government would share that information with them if it proved successful.
The US justice department would not comment on any future disclosure of the method to Apple or the public.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook had argued that helping the FBI hack the iPhone would set a dangerous precedent, making all iPhone users vulnerable.
The matter was headed for a courtroom showdown last week, until federal prosecutors asked for a postponement so they could test a potential solution brought to them by a party outside of the US government last Sunday

Renamo opens fire on government convoy in Manica

Renamo opens fire on government convoy in Manica
The delegation was travelling from the town of Catandica to the Manica provincial capital, Chimoio. The area where it was attacked has been the scene of at least three earlier ambushes.

The most senior figure in the delegation was the Provincial Director of Labour, Mouzinho Carlos, who had represented provincial governor Alberto Mondlane at celebrations earlier in the day in Catanica of the 99th anniversary of the Barue revolt against Portuguese colonial rule.


The ambush occurred at about 16.00, when the delegation was returning to Chimoio. There were dozens of vehicles in the convoy, which was under police escort.


The attackers opened fire as the convoy was passing through a village on a dangerous curve in the road. Villagers panicked and fled from their homes and stalls into the bush. Normal traffic along the road, which links Chimoio to the western city of Tete, was re-established an hour later.


Information received by AIM indicates that some people in the convoy were injured, and received medical treatment at the Manica Provincial Hospital in Chimoio. The police have not issued any figures on the number of people wounded, but promised to speak to the press on Tuesday.


In the neighbouring provinc of Sofala, Renamo has dug trenches across the main north-south road on the stretch between the Save river and the small town of Muxungue, thus slowing down the convoys under armed escort which use this road.


According to a report carried by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, citing eye witnesses, three craters have been dug across the road. A truck driver said this made driving along this stretch of the highway even more difficult and dangerous.


The Save-Muxungue stretch of the road has come unde repeated attack from Renamo gangs since mid-February.


This is the third time Renamo has dug trenches across the road. The first occasion was during the war of destabilisation, when Renamo succeeded in halting all overland traffic between Maputo and Beira for a period of about 12 years. Renamo used the same tactic during its mini-insurrection in Sofala in 2013-14.

Former Canadian minister Jean Lapierre dies in Quebec plane crash alongside wife and three siblings

Former Canadian minister Jean Lapierre dies in Quebec plane crash alongside wife and three siblings

A former Canadian cabinet minister has died in a plane crash alongside four members of his family as they travelled to his father’s funeral.
Jean Lapierre, 59, was with his wife, two brothers and sister when the aircraft crashed off an island in eastern Quebec on Tuesday.
All seven people on board, including two crew members, died in the disaster near Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands) Airport.
Mr Lapierre, the former transport minister and a prominent television broadcaster, had been on his way to attend the funeral of his father, who died aged 83 on Friday.
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, said he was “shaken by the sudden death” of Mr Lapierre and called it a great loss to the political world.
Paul Martin, who chose the Liberal politician as his transport minister, described him as a wonderful man who understood the issues and loved people.
The family were travelling in a private Mitsubishi turboprop plane that took off from the St-Hubert regional airport south of Montreal on Tuesday morning.
“The crash took place in a field on approach to (Iles-de-la-Madeleine) airport,” said Quebec provincial police Sergeant Daniel Thibodeau, who described the weather as “not ideal” for flying.

The wreckage of an airplane lies in a field Tuesday, March 29, 2016, in Havre-aux-Maison, Quebec. (AP)
The cause of the crash at 11.40am local time (4.40pm BST) was not immediately known but CBC said the plane went down in fog and freezing rain, while Environment Canada had issued an alert for strong winds in the region.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is deploying a team of investigators.
The Quebec coroner's office named the victims as Mr Lapierre, his wife Nicole Beaulieu, Martine Lapierre, Marc Lapierre, Louis Lapierre and crew members Pascal Gosselin and Fabrice Labourel.
After retiring from politics in 2007, Mr Lapierre had become a sought-after political analyst in English and French and regularly contributed to radio and television shows, as well as co-authoring a book published in 2014.

No one wants me to retire, claims Bob

No one wants me to retire, claims Bob
“YOU just go to Zimbabwe now and ask the people whether I should stand down. They will be angry with you.”

These were the remarks of President Robert Mugabe in an interview with Japanese journalists Tuesday as he continued his visit to the country.
He also appeared to suggest that demands for an end to his lengthy stay in power were not coming from Zimbabweans.
“… if they don’t like my long stay in power they should criticise my people, I do not vote for myself into power,” the State owned Herald quotes him as saying.
But the 92-year-old leader admitted at a recent rally in Bindura that some in his ruling Zanu PF party and its surrogate war veterans’ movement want him to step down.
Concerned about their actual intentions, Mugabe reacted firmly when the war veterans tried to gather for a meeting in Harare last month, dousing them with teargas and then washing them down with water cannon.
But realizing that the rebellion had not been put down, a crunch meeting has now been called for April 7 with the veteran leader daring the disgruntled former fighters to openly speak their minds.
The meeting has however, been publicly pitched as aimed at discussing the veterans’ welfare issues.
“Nonsense,” a party official told NewZimbabwe.com at the weekend.
“The War Veterans Act details the benefits the former fighters, their widows and children are entitled to. As he did with the civil servants’ bonuses, Mugabe simply needs to instruct treasury to pay them what they are due.
“You don’t need to call a national meeting including security services chiefs to discuss what is clear under the law.”
The party official added: “The fact is that Mugabe realizes the scale and depth of the rebellion against his rule.
“That is why he promptly apologised for teargassing the veterans. He will use the April 7 meeting to try and buy the disgruntled veterans and the security services chiefs off.
“We wait to see whether he succeeds.”
Meanwhile, in Japan Mugabe insisted that, health permitting, he would run again for office in 2018 when the next elections are due.
He explained: “At the moment I am the President that’s why (I am here). Do you see me as not fit? Why not contest two years later?
“Two years later is no time but only God knows what will happen in two years’ time, 2018, I don’t know, it will depend.
“If I am fit enough, yes, but If I am not fit enough I will not. My people will want me to be a candidate and they have already nominated me as a candidate for 2018.”
Mugabe is visiting Japan at the invitation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who considers the Zimbabwean leader’s influence in Africa key to helping Japan counter Chinese influence on the continent.

Buy Zim campaign slams Zhuwao threat

Buy Zim campaign slams Zhuwao threat
HARARE: Buy Zimbabwe, a lobby group for domestic production and consumption, has hit out at government over threats to close foreign controlled firms that fail to comply with a controversial local ownership law by Friday this week, saying the move was against the spirit of reforms needed to help the economy recover.

Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao last week said last Wednesday Zimbabwe will, from April 1 cancel licences for foreign firms, including those operating mines and banks, that have not complied with its law to sell majority shares to locals.
The government gave foreign-owned firms a March 2016 deadline to comply with the indigenisation law, which was enacted in 2008 and requires foreign owned companies valued at over $500,000 to cede 51 percent to black locals. Analysts say the law works against foreign investment, which Zimbabwe’s economy needs to recover from a decade-long recession between 2000-2009.
Buy Zimbabwe, which is chaired by NicozDiamond Insurance managing director Grace Muradzikwa, warned on Tuesday that threats to close firms presented hurdles to economic recovery.
“The latest turnaround in flip flops on indigenisation are likely to further discourage investment in a country already hard hit by a debilitating liquidity squeeze, low capacity utilisation, company closures and job losses,” said Oswell Binha, business affairs committee chairman at Buy Zimbabwe.
Buy Zimbabwe has been leading a campaign to encourage consumers to buy local products.
“While the Act was ostensibly promulgated to empower Zimbabweans economically, by ensuring at least 51 percent of the shares of every public company and any other business shall be owned by indigenous people, the process has since degenerated into a farce amid indications of inconsistency and lack of genuine dialogue and engagement,” said Binha, who is a former president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce.
“The proposed Cabinet directive to close companies as a punitive measure against companies is tantamount to condemn Zimbabwe into continued economic decline and abject poverty. This issue of government trying to decimate the private sector is very uninformed. Threatening to close companies shows a lack of understanding of the economy and forces of economic prosperity.”
Buy Zimbabwe said the economic malaise would only be resolved through “progressive policy informed by a realistic economic agenda beyond the current legal framework.”
Zhuwao, who is Mugabe’s nephew, told journalists last week that Cabinet ‘unanimously passed a resolution directing that from 1 April 2016, all line ministries proceed to issue orders to the licensing authority to cancel licenses of non-compliant business within their respective sectors of the economy.’
Some companies had been reluctant to comply with the law as Cabinet appeared divided over implementation of the law.
Zhuwao said all government ministries would be required to submit names of companies within their portfolios that have complied with the law, adding the firms had been given ample time to comply.
Two of the world’s largest platinum producers — Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum — are some of the foreign-owned firms with operations in Zimbabwe. International banking groups Standard Chartered Plc and Barclays Plc, along with regional financial institutions Standard Bank and Ecobank, also have local operations.
Amplats and Implats have previously submitted empowerment plans.

Australian university says Britain 'invaded' the country

Australian university says Britain 'invaded' the country
A top university in Australia has hit back after being accused of a "highly controversial" rewriting of the nation's colonial history.
An indigenous terminology guide issued by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) states Australia was "invaded, occupied and colonised" in the 18th century.
The term "invaded" is advocated over "settled" or "discovered", while students are discouraged from using the term "Aborigines".
Now the institute has denied it is dictating the use of language after Australia's Daily Telegraph accused them of controversially rewriting history.
Within the guidelines, students are told it is offensive to suggest James Cook "discovered" Australia and inappropriate to say indigenous people have lived on the island for 40,000 years.
But in a statement, UNSW rejected the notion it was "dictating" language.
"The guide does not mandate what language can be used. Rather, it uses a more appropriate/less appropriate format, providing a range of examples", it said.
The university added: "Recognising the power of language, the terminology guide is designed as a resource to assist staff and students in describing Indigenous Australian peoples and their history and culture.
"The University is committed to giving all our students a positive and inclusive learning experience and respecting and learning about Indigenous knowledge is integral to that".

Thai woman charged with sedition over photo of 'provocative' red bowlA Thai

Thai woman charged with sedition over photo of 'provocative' red bowlA Thai woman could be jailed for seven years on charges of sedition after she posted a photo of herself holding a red bowl that had a Thai New Year greeting from siblings and ousted prime ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra.
Police ordered Theerawan Charoensuk, 57 and from Chiang Mai in Thailand’s north, to report to a military court on Tuesday to hear a charge for the photos she posted on Facebook, human rights lawyer Anond Nampa told the local Khaosod news website.
Thai New Year, or the Songkran festival, is celebrated every April with major road closures as giant water fights take over the streets. The bowl in the photo, in which Theerawan gives a thumbs up, appears to be a water scoop used during the festival.
Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and his sister, Yingluck, was also removed by the military in 2014. Vitriol between Shinawatra supporters, or red shirts, and the army generals in power, or yellow shirts, has dominated Thai politics for years and at times led to bloodshed in the streets.
That the plastic bowl— which appears to be a promotional item used by supporters of the Shinawatras — is red is significant in Thailand’s colour-coded politics. Another photo posted by the woman shows her holding a 2010 calendar with the Shinawatras on it.
The full message on the bowl is not visible in the photo. Local media said it was signed by Thaksin.
Thaksin has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to avoid being jailed for corruption on charges he denies. Yingluck is also facing charges that she ignoredcorruption surrounding a multibillion-dollar rice farming subsidy, although she too denies any wrongdoing.
Junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday that Theerawan had threatened national security.
“You have to see: the photo is about a man who broke the law,” Prayuth said, referring to Thaksin, who still has a strong support base in the north among the rural poor. “Isn’t support for a person who broke the laws and ran away from the criminal case a wrong thing to do?”
Deputy prime minister, General Prawit Wongsuwan, also defended the charges: “Tell me if you think what she did was not provocative or led to division in the society. We don’t want to arrest anyone. But those people should listen to our warning not to undertake political activities.”
The military has cracked down hard on any public displays of support for the ousted opposition, arresting activists, politicians and journalists. The junta haswarned against any expressions of dissent.
On Tuesday, a military court released Theerawan on 100,000 baht (nearly £2,000) bail pending trial.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the “draconian” charges showed an utter disregard for peaceful dissent.
“The Thai junta’s fears of a red plastic bowl show its intolerance of dissent has reached the point of absolute absurdity,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “When military courts try people for sedition for posting photos with holiday gifts from deposed leaders, it’s clear that the end of repression is nowhere in sight.”
The advocacy body said that at least 38 people have been charged with sedition since the coup in May 2014, including former education minister Chaturon Chaisaeng for a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in which he criticised military rule.

Milla was the youngest person ever to finish the obstacle race

Milla was the youngest person ever to finish the obstacle race

A nine-year-old girl from Florida has become the youngest person ever to complete a 24-hour, 36 mile long US Navy obstacle race.

Her father, Christian Bizzotto told 5 live Milla “comes to the gym” and trains with adults on a regular basis.
She wanted to compete in the Battle Frog race after finding the kid’s courses too easy for her ability.
Milla, who trains for up to three hours a day, five days a week, came 19th in the women’s elite heat.

Myanmar swears in Htin Kyaw as first civilian president in decades

Myanmar swears in Htin Kyaw as first civilian president in decades

Myanmar has sworn-in Htin Kyaw as the country’s first civilian president in half a century, a man who is expected to act as a proxy for Aung San Suu Kyi in her fight to end the army’s grip on power.
The 69-year-old, dressed in the National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s orange shirt, took an oath during a short ceremony and suggested that the junta-drafted constitution that barred Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency will be changed.
“Our new government will implement national reconciliation, peace in the country, emergence of a constitution that will pave the way to a democratic union, and enhance the living standard of the people,” he told members of parliament.
“We have the duty to work for the emergence of a constitution that is appropriate for our country and also in accordance with democratic standards,” he added.
Some members of the NLD, a party Aung San Suu Kyi formed in the late 1980s which has struggled for democratic reforms, had tears in their eyes.
“I couldn’t sleep last night. Our president U Htin Kyaw’s speech is something we have never heard before in the country,” said NLD lawmaker Thiri Yadana, 28.
“He promised that he will work for the country with the respect to our leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It’s such a big step and this has happened because everybody pushed together forward.”
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is blocked from becoming president as she has children with foreign nationality, a clause the military leaders wrote into a 2008 constitution. Her late husband was British.
Also under the constitution, the army retains 25% of seats in parliament, giving it an effective veto on constitutional change.
Barred from the top post, the longtime democracy campaigner is tipped to head four cabinet posts in Myanmar’s new government, taking the foreign affairs, president’s office, education, and energy ministries.
Her positions in the cabinet as well as domestic and international fame would give her wide sweeping powers.
The president, who under law is the most powerful person in the country, is a trusted friend who was hand picked by Suu Kyi. Before she won a landslide in November, Aung San Suu Kyi had already vowed to be “above the president.”
Running the president’s office ministry would allow her to keep close to president Kyaw. Her appointment as foreign minister would also put her on the national defence and security council with the president, two vice-presidents and the head of the armed forces.
The government will formally take power on April 1.
Three powerful ministries — defence, home affairs and border affairs — are filled by members of the defence services, or Tatmadaw.
Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing attended the ceremony. Outgoing president Thein Sein, a former general who pushed through the democratic reforms that led to his political demise, sat for a brief photo opportunity next to the new president.
Two vice-presidents, army-backed candidate and retired general Myint Swe, and Henry Van Thio, an ethnic minority Chin MP, were also sworn in on Wednesday.
Hundreds of diplomats, journalists and representatives from non-governmental organisations arrived at the parliament in the junta-built capital Naypyidaw for the ceremony.
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, vice-president of the European Parliament who also worked as chief observer during the November elections, said it was a significant day for the history of Myanmar.
“It is the conclusion of the electoral process with the handover of power, something that a few years ago would have been unthinkable,” he told Channel News Asia.
A private inaugural dinner is planned for the evening.
Reuters contributed to this report

Russia, despite draw down, shipping more to Syria than removing

Russia, despite draw down, shipping more to Syria than removing

When Vladimir Putin announced the withdrawal of most of Russia's military contingent from Syria there was an expectation that the Yauza, a Russian naval icebreaker and one of the mission's main supply vessels, would return home to its Arctic Ocean port.
Instead, three days after Putin's March 14 declaration, the Yauza, part of the "Syrian Express", the nickname given to the ships that have kept Russian forces supplied, left the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk for Tartous, Russia's naval facility in Syria.
Whatever it was carrying was heavy; it sat so low in the water that its load line was barely visible.
Its movements and those of other Russian ships in the two weeks since Putin's announcement of a partial withdrawal suggest Moscow has in fact shipped more equipment and supplies to Syria than it has brought back in the same period, a Reuters analysis shows.
It is not known what the ships were carrying or how much equipment has been flown out in giant cargo planes accompanying returning war planes.
But the movements - while only a partial snapshot - suggest Russia is working intensely to maintain its military infrastructure in Syria and to supply the Syrian army so that it can scale up again swiftly if need be.
Putin has not detailed what would prompt such a move, but any perceived threat to Russia's bases in Syria or any sign that President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's closest Middle East ally, was in peril would be likely to trigger a powerful return.
Russia operates an air base in Hmeymim and a naval facility at Tartous. Putin has said Russia will keep both and that they will need to be well protected.
"Since the main part of the force de facto stayed there, there is no reason to reduce the traffic," said Mikhail Barabanov, a senior research fellow at the Moscow-based CAST military think tank. "Supplies for the Syrian army remain significant as well."
Moscow has not revealed the size of its force in Syria, nor has it given details of its partial withdrawal.
Reuters has calculated that around half of Russia's fixed-wing strike force based in Syria flew out of the country in the days after the partial draw down was made public. The precise number of planes Russia had was secret, but analysis suggested it had about 36 fixed-wing military jets there.
On Monday, state TV showed three heavy attack helicopters being flown out of Syria along with some support staff.


NAVAL FIREPOWER
But an examination of shipping data, official information, tips from maritime security sources and photographs from bloggers of Russian ships passing the Bosphorus strait en route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, shows no signs that the "Syrian Express" is being wound down.
A Reuters analysis of the same data shows Russia is also likely to have replaced any warships that have left the Mediterranean with new ones, ensuring its naval firepower there remains undiminished. That means its ships are within easy reach of Syria's coast and can protect cargo vessels. It also gives Moscow the option of firing cruise missiles from the sea.
Russia appears to have more than a dozen military vessels in the Mediterranean, including the Zeleniy Dol warship equipped with terrain-hugging Kalibr cruise missiles which are accurate to within three metres, according to Russian state media and the database of Bosphorus Naval News, a Turkish online project.
Moscow is likely to maintain that strength, said CAST's Barabanov.
"Russia doesn't have too many ships that it can keep in the Mediterranean. The role of the force was to ensure the activity of the 'Syrian Express' and to demonstrate it to the West and, later, to Turkey."
The Russian defence ministry did not reply to questions about what the Russian navy was doing in the Mediterranean or whether there were plans to reduce its presence.
Russia's military ships and most auxiliary vessels are not shown in publicly available databases. But most of its ships are seen and photographed when they pass the Bosphorus on their way from Russia to the Mediterranean or vice versa.
In most cases it is impossible to track military shipments to destination ports however, meaning data is only partial.


LOW IN THE WATER
Since Moscow began to scale back in Syria, Russia has sent two landing ships, which are typically used to transport troops and armour - the Caesar Kunikov and the Saratov - to the Mediterranean along with the Yauza, an auxiliary cargo vessel.
The Saratov looked loaded when it passed the strait on Thursday going south towards Syria. Its load line was visibly lower than on March 14 when it was photographed going the other way, towards Russia.
At the same time, two warships - the Alexander Otrakovsky and the Minsk - and the Dvinitsa-50, an auxiliary vessel, were photographed by Turkish bloggers passing the Bosphorus en route back to Russia.
At least two of the returning ships, the Alexander Otrakovsky and the Dvinitsa-50, looked unloaded on their way back.
Photographs show that the Otrakovsky, a large landing ship, sat higher in the water on its return to Russia compared to March 2 when it crossed the strait in the other direction. It was not clear if it carried troops or equipment.
The load line of the Dvinitsa-50 was also high above the water when it was photographed in the Bosphorus on March 20 on its way back to Russia.
It seems unlikely that Russian troops or equipment were on board any of the returning ships. None of them looked like they had heavy cargo onboard.
Non-military cargo traffic between Russia and Syria also shows no signs of flagging.
Four cargo ships involved in the supply operation called at Syria in the two weeks before Putin announced the draw down.
A fifth, the Alexander Tkachenko, a Russian ferry, previously photographed with military trucks onboard, probably called there too.
Reuters shipping database showed it was approaching Syria, but then suddenly disappeared for a few days before re-appearing en route back to Russia. The only explanation for this is that it turned off its transponders for that period for some reason.
Five cargo ships, including an oil tanker, arrived in Syria in the two weeks following Putin's announcement.

Delhi denies arrest of 'Indian spy' in Pakistan

Delhi denies arrest of 'Indian spy' in Pakistan

India has rejected Pakistan's claims that it has arrested an "Indian spy" in the restive Balochistan province.



Pakistani authorities on Tuesday released a video in which the man is shown confessing that he was involved in spying activities.
"There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan," army spokesman Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa said.
Delhi said the man was an Indian national, but dismissed spying charges and said he was "clearly tutored".
"Government categorically rejects allegations that this individual was involved in subversive activities in Pakistan at our behest," India's foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in a statement to media.
Mr Swarup added that India was "concerned" about the arrested man's well-being and added that "it is also relevant to note here that despite our request, we have not been given consular access to an Indian national under detention in a foreign country, as is the accepted international practice".
Pakistan officials have said the man was a serving Indian navy officer and was trying to "sponsor terrorism" in Balochistan.
"If an intelligence or an armed forces officer of this rank is arrested in another country, it is a big achievement," Lt-Gen Mr Bajwa said.

China Air Quality Study Has Good News and Bad News

China Air Quality Study Has Good News and Bad News

BEIJING — You’re moving to China with your family, and you’re excited but also concerned: What might the country’s notorious smog do to your and your children’s lungs?

Here’s how you can feel the fear and move to China anyway, while minimizing your health risks:

Relocate to Guangzhou, the capital of the southern province of Guangdong, near Hong Kong. Second best: move to Shanghai.

Don’t move to Beijing, Chengdu or Shenyang, if you can help it.

Those are some conclusions to be drawn from a new study of air quality in five major cities by a team of researchers at Peking University led by Chen Songxi, a statistician at the university’s Guanghua School of Management.

In an interview, Mr. Chen said the study was prompted by a sense of “disgust” at air pollution. “I felt that as scientists we should do something about the situation facing a billion Chinese people,” he said.

There was both good and bad news in the report, titled “Air Quality Assessment Report (2): A Statistical Analysis of Air Pollution in Five Chinese Cities” and published online.

The team scrutinized three years of air quality data for the measure known as PM 2.5, the fine particulate matter that is especially hazardous to health. One source of the data was the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection. The other was the United States Embassy in Beijing and consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenyang.

By using two independent data sets, the researchers answered a second question: Is the Chinese government’s air quality data trustworthy? The answer: Yes, at least in these five cities. That was one piece of good news.

China began releasing PM 2.5 figures for hundreds of locations in 2013, five years after the United States Embassy began publishing readings from monitors on its grounds that drew wide attention among Chinese. Suspicions linger to this day about the reliability of the Chinese government data.

Another piece of good news: PM 2.5 levels declined over the last three years in all five cities. In Beijing, they fell from 99 micrograms per cubic meter to 81, and in Shanghai from 61 to 50. In Guangzhou, they fell from 54 to 39.

That was because of two factors: stricter emissions regulations that took effect on Jan. 1, 2015, and a slowing economy.

“The economic downturn helped,” Mr. Chen said.

But there was bad news, too. In all five cities, the air pollution readings remained higher than the World Health Organization’s upper safety limit of 35 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic meter.

China uses a considerably more liberal standard, classifying up to 75 micrograms as “good.” Many readings regularly exceeded that.

The researchers defined a level of under 35 as “good,” and under 75 as “light” pollution, and found that Guangzhou and Shanghai had the most “good” or “light” days. About 80 percent of days each year fell into those categories. Chengdu and Shenyang had about 60 percent. Beijing came last with 50 percent.

In addition, Beijing and Chengdu suffered the most prolonged spells of heavy pollution, which the team defined as readings of 150 or higher. Even Shanghai and Guangzhou did not have more than 37 percent “good” air days.

“This shows the grave challenge facing China in its air pollution prevention efforts,” the report says.

Mr. Chen’s interest was ignited after a colleague in the United States sent him the United States Embassy air quality readings in 2013.

“The more I looked at it, the more disgusted I felt,” Mr. Chen said. “Then, on a very polluted day in early March” of 2014, “I said, ‘I have to do something.’ I called together a team.”

To test the accuracy of the Chinese government data, the researchers used readings from two or three ministry monitors in each city as close as possible to the American sites. They found a “high” similarity, the report says.
Photo



Beijing last December during a period of heavy smog. It remains China’s worst city for air pollution, researchers found. CreditReuters



“They show a lot of consistency,” Mr. Chen said. “They won’t be exactly the same, because of data randomness and because they’re not at exactly the same locations.”

“If they were still manipulating the data, that would be really hopeless and I’d leave China,’’ he said. “But it does show that the government and the Ministry of Environmental Protection are serious.”

Still, there were significant data problems on the Chinese side, he said.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection website gives hourly readings, “but it doesn’t provide historical data,’’ Mr. Chen said. “You have to grab it, hour by hour. The government wants to do something about this, but not 100 percent.”

The report recommends improving data collection and publication.

The team also factored in meteorological factors and consumption of coal, petroleum and diesel to get a better picture of the relations among emissions, weather and pollution. But here too they encountered a lack of information.

“The economic and energy data are very sparse,’’ Mr. Chen said. “We couldn’t find data on consumption, especially of petroleum products. We don’t know how much gasoline was sold in 2014, and we think petroleum products may be a bigger problem than coal in Beijing.”

Asked where a family moving to China should settle to minimize exposure to polluted air, Mr. Chen said, “I grew up in Beijing and I love Beijing, so you put me in a very hard position.”

The North China Plain, where Beijing is, and the Sichuan Basin, where Chengdu is, “are not good places to be. They’re not suitable for heavy industry,’’ Mr. Chen said. Their physical settings trap pollutants. “If you have heavy industry there, this is what you’ll get.”

“Shanghai and Guangzhou are more fortunate,’’ he said, “because they’re close to the sea and have more rainfall.”

Beijing’s saving grace: a strong northwesterly wind in winter that helps clear the air. But that doesn’t address the source of the problem. Another recommendation: reduce emissions.

From Senegal to Libya - an African student joins Islamic State

From Senegal to Libya - an African student joins Islamic State
When Sadio Gassama decided to go into medicine, he started by giving free check-ups at his mosque in Senegal's poor southern region of Casamance. Now, the 25-year-old medical student says he is treating Islamic State fighters in Libya.
Until recently, many thought the peaceful, tolerant Sufi brotherhoods in countries such as Senegal could prevent more conservative and radical versions of Islam from taking hold in poorer parts of West Africa, like Mali and Niger.
But security experts say Gassama's story shows how the penetration of hardline Islamic Salafism, coupled with Gulf money and militant propaganda, is aiding recruitment, even from stable and democratic Senegal.
In particular, in their appeals to Africans, Islamic State propagandists are calling on doctors to make "hijrah", or pilgrimage, to their African stronghold of Sirte in Libya.
Pictures posted on Gassama's Facebook page before he joined Islamic State show him hugging his young niece. Now, he is brandishing a machine gun, his name stitched on to his military uniform.
Friends and family say Gassama's decision to join thousands of militants in Libya in December during the fifth year of his medical studies was sudden and unexpected.
His shocked father described him as a 'humanist' motivated by a desire to help others. A former professor called him a "brilliant student, incapable of hurting anyone".
But an interview with Gassama showed a darker side. Speaking from Sirte, he said he had been planning an attack in Dakar.
"Senegal is lucky. I was planning to commit an attack there in the name of the Islamic State before one of their contacts helped me go to Libya," he told Reuters last month via the internet. He could not be reached subsequently.
Friends said he took trucks to Libya via Mali and Niger, accompanied by another Senegalese man and paying his way with his student grant.
"I left Senegal a year after embracing the ideology of the Islamic State," Gassama said. "Joining ISIS in Libya was relatively easy and accessible. I wanted to contribute to the establishment of a caliphate in Libya."
Asked what he was doing there, he replied: "I am a jihadist doctor."
Islamic State propaganda and security sources confirm fighters from countries including Chad, Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria are already in Libya, where the group is consolidating its presence.
The number of sub-Saharan Africans is not known but they are thought to represent a minority of the 3,000-6,000 Islamic State fighters there, with most from North Africa and the Middle East.
However, there are concerns more will travel there along the same desert routes migrants use to reach Europe, as Gassama did.
"Libya is closer and easier to reach for some African fighters than Syria, and the political disarray there opens space for fighters to enter and operate," said Andrew Lebovich, a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations who focuses on North Africa and the Sahel.
GULF DONATIONS
Across Africa's arid Sahel region, Western diplomats note an increase in conservatism, alongside tens of millions of dollars a year in charity donations from Gulf states.
In Niger, some religious leaders are calling for a "re-Islamisation" against the secularism imposed by former colonial power France.
This is already underway in the capital, Niamey, where some women wear the full veil and pay higher fares to avoid sharing taxis with men.
Gulf-financed bodies deny links to radical groups and say their money is for charity, but local sources say it can go astray.
"Contributions are intended for the poor and to build mosques but are often diverted in the wrong direction," said Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute and a coordinator for the Observatory on Religious Radicalism and Conflicts in Africa.
This foreign money and the migration of Senegal's youth to the cities has undermined the country's Mouride brotherhood, an old-established Islamic Sufi order which preaches tolerance.
In Gassama's home town of Ziguinchor, the mosque he attended in the HLM neighbourhood is funded by a Kuwaiti NGO called Africa Muslims Agency.
AMA director Almany Badji said it was one of more than 100 mosques it has financed in Casamance. The mosque Gassama attended at Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University also has Salafist leanings, Sambe said.
Gassama did not say who helped him join Islamic State more than a year ago, referring only to 'guidance' in Senegal.
"Through meetings with local scholars it became clear that jihad was my Muslim duty," he told Reuters.
His friends and family said the only change they noticed before he left was to a more Salafist dress code.
"His pants were shorter and did not reach all the way to the floor," said his father, Boucar Gassama, a retired civil servant, surrounded by Gassama's siblings in the shady courtyard of his house. "But I could not know he had been radicalised."
CALLS FOR REFORM
There is growing concern in West Africa about recruitment into Islamic State and other militant groups after attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
Modou Faye, Gassama's professor, says students need more guidance in reading the Koran, which is often rote-learnt at religious schools similar to one Gassama attended.
Mauritania has closed several Koranic schools for security reasons, officials said.
In Mali, where an Islamist insurgency is intensifying, some are calling for checks on mosques and NGOs.
"We must take stock of the potential risks of collusion between civil society and terrorists, better monitor places where radicalisation occurs, keep tabs on all suspect individuals like radical preachers and trace their funds," former Prime Minister Moussa Mara said.
But others say labelling peaceful Islamic groups as jihadists is risky. Depriving poor communities of services such as orphanages and free study trips to Saudi Arabia could provoke a backlash.
"A politician who attempts to regulate this risks losing his electorate," said Moulaye Hassane, researcher at the Institute of Research and Human Sciences and Niger's former ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "I think they are afraid."

Woman celebrated Easter Mass before trying to swim to cruise ship

Woman celebrated Easter Mass before trying to swim to cruise ship

 

By Hannah Tooley
A 65-year-old woman that jumped into the sea to swim to her cruise ship after it left without her, had attended an Easter mass just moments before.
Susan Brown marked Mass on the island of Madeira before jumping into the Atlantic ocean to try to reach the cruise ship, the Marco Polo.
Another worshipper said that she had joined in the singing and praise at Sao Pedro Church and celebrating Holy Eucharist.
The woman's handbag acted as a buoyancy aid during the time she was stranded 1,600ft out at sea.
According to The Telegraph the timing of the church service does not match the events recalled by Susan Brown who appeared "very confused" when she got back to land.
She is a regular church-goer in her home village in Dorset, Fontmell Magna and a source told the paper she was being treated in a psychiatric unit.
Susan Brown's husband - who she thought to be on the cruise ship when it left without her, is expected to arrive soon, according to the source.
The 69-year-old, Michael Brown is believed to have flown home from Madeira alone.
It has been reported that the pair cut short their 32 day cruise after parting company.
Susan Brown was rescued by local fishermen, one said: "She seemed very pale and perturbed... It seemed her bag acted as a buoy.
"She had been in the water for hours and was very confused and pale, like a survivor from the Titanic film."

Hamas tunnelling again in Gaza as Israelis fear attack from below

Hamas tunnelling again in Gaza as Israelis fear attack from below



The scraping, scratching, grating sound could be an insect in the wall, a rodent under the floorboards, or the creaking of water pipes. Or it could be Hamas operatives digging under the earth from Gaza to Israel.

Some residents of the small communities along the Israeli side of the Gaza border believe they can hear the faint sound of tunnelling in the dead of night. Others are sceptical, saying fear and paranoia are fuelling imaginations.

But there is no doubt that, 19 months after the end of the last war between Israel and Gaza, in which the discovery of Hamas’s tunnels was declared a casus belli by Israel, large-scale digging has resumed.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, has said so. This year he told the people of Gaza that Hamas fighters were “digging twice as much as the number of tunnels dug in Vietnam”.

The Israeli military has also said so. “We can see Hamas digging from our [observation] posts. They aren’t trying to hide it from us,” a senior Israel Defence Forces official told the Guardian.

All reports and recordings of sounds heard by residents in the communities along the border with Gaza were investigated, he said. “We take every report from citizens and soldiers very seriously.”

But, he added: “As of today, we don’t know of any tunnels that have crossed the border into Israel.”

During the 50-day war in the summer of 2014, the extent and sophistication of Hamas’s underground network took Israel’s political and military leadership by surprise.

By the time a ceasefire held, the IDF said it had destroyed 32 tunnels that crossed under the border. It declared it had achieved the strategic goal of the conflict – but some were sceptical.

Brigadier-General Shimon Daniel, former head of the IDF’s combat engineering corps, said at the time: “Of course Hamas will try to rebuild the tunnels. The moment we go out [of Gaza] they will begin to dig.”

Since the war – in which the UN estimates Israeli forces destroyed or damaged nearly 100,000 homes – almost 3.5m tonnes of construction materials have entered Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing,according to Israeli figures.

Israel says Hamas has diverted much of that from house-building to tunnel construction, assisted by a flourishing black market.

Last December, Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, formed a special unit to dig and equip tunnels and train fighters to use them. Based on the cycle of conflict over the past 10 years, they are preparing for another war.

At least five tunnels have collapsed so far this year, killing 12 members of the Qassam Brigades and injuring dozens more. In one incident, seven people were killed east of Gaza City.

According to Gazan political analyst Mustafa Ibrahim, the Qassam Brigades are “using tunnels as a strategic weapon and intend to develop them and use them extensively”. In the 2014 war, Hamas believed it caused the IDF “substantial damage” by using its underground passages to carry out operations, he added.

The Islamic militant organisation has been engaged in tunnelling activity for at least a decade. IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was captured on the Israeli side of the border in a tunnels operation in 2006, and was held in Gaza for more than five years before being released in exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

These days, the tunnels fall into four categories. Some are intended to snake under the border, to be used for attacks on troops or civilians. Some are for holding rockets ready to be launched through the air from Gaza to Israel.

Many form part of a labyrinth of passages and bunkers beneath Gaza City, in which Hamas leaders and senior fighters can shield themselves in periods of intense conflict.

And a few are intended for smuggling arms from Egypt into Gaza, although the Egyptian army has destroyed most of the hundreds of tunnels which existed in the black market’s heyday.

The Qassam Brigades declined a Guardian request for an interview, but last month a military leader going by the name of Abu Hamza told the Hamas-linked al-Khaleej Online: “In any future confrontation, Israelis will be surprised by the strength and solidity of these tunnels, which can withstand Israeli shelling and concussion bombs fired by the Israeli aircraft or tanks.”

The tunnels, he said, could be used to “launch a large number of advanced rockets and mortar shells toward the Israeli towns adjacent to Gaza Strip, keep fighters away from Israeli radar, help them escape any Israeli attack and hide quickly when abducting Israeli soldiers.”

The IDF military chief of staff, Gadi Eizenkot, said this year that the tunnels were “at the top of the Israel Defence Forces’ priority list”.

The United States has provided $40m (£28m) this year “to establish anti-tunnel capabilities to detect, map and neutralise underground tunnels that threaten the US or Israel,” according to a report in Foreign Policy quoting US defence department spokesman Christopher Sherwood. There is talk of an underground “Iron Dome” to match Israel’s vaunted anti-rocket defence system.

Hamas has claimed that it has found sensors and cameras at the site of tunnel collapses, fuelling rumours in Gaza that such incidents are triggered by Israel rather than engineering miscalculations by Hamas.

The IDF refused to be drawn on such claims. “We are engaged in increased engineering work along the fence between Gaza and Israel. We are doing everything in our power to take out this specific weapon,” was all the senior IDF official would say.

He was at pains to point out the IDF’s successes. “In the last war, in 50 days we destroyed tunnels that took them years to build,” he said. And he added: “On any measure, the past year and a half since the last operation has been the quietest period we have seen for a long time.”

Not all Israelis living in small agricultural communities close to the Gaza border are reassured.

“There is fear and anxiety in the air,” said Arnon Avni, a graphic designer who has lived in Kibbutz Nirim, home to 360 people and about 2km from the border, all his life. “Everyone has some level of anxiety, but it’s different from person to person.

“This is partly a psychological war. Hamas is trying to frighten us – and they succeed. If you shake the stability of people’s minds, you are doing your work.”

Avni, who is firmly on the left of the Israeli political spectrum, described a recurring dream in which Hamas fighters advance on the kibbutz and he is powerless to protect his family and community.

“This is my nightmare. But my rational fear is that another round of war is coming.”

In Netiv HaAsara, a community so close to northern Gaza that you can clearly see into Palestinian neighbourhoods such as Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, tomato-grower Shaike Shaked reported increased military activity on both sides of the border in recent months.

“We need a break from wars, a rest. But the way things are going, it’s just a matter of time. If there is an infiltration, and they kill civilians in Israel, what happened in the last war is tiny compared to what would happen in this event,” he said.

“Personally, I don’t want to watch the reaction from Israel. The pictures [from inside Gaza] in the last war were so cruel that I don’t want to see another confrontation.”