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Fresh clashes in India-occupied Kashmir

Fresh clashes in India-occupied Kashmir

A 19-year-old protester has been killed by the Indian army

A young man was killed Friday in Indian-occupied Kashmir when soldiers fired on protesters, taking the death toll to five in clashes that have continued for the fourth consecutive day, officials said.
"The 19-year-old was brought to the hospital with bullet injuries but he could not be saved," a doctor at a local hospital said, declining to be named.
A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the death, saying three other protesters with bullet wounds were sent to a hospital in the main city of Srinagar.
The latest clashes happened in Natnusa village, some 70 kilometres northwest of Srinagar.
On Tuesday, angry residents in the northern town of Handwara stormed an army bunker after a soldier was accused of molesting a local girl. Soldiers fired into the crowd, leaving three people dead, while a protester was killed in Wednesday as angry residents clashed with police.
The incidents have heightened tensions in the disputed region, where many resent the huge presence of Indian troops and regularly accuse soldiers of rights abuses.
On Friday authorities continued a curfew in parts of the territory, including Srinagar, for a third day as separatists opposed to Indian occupation of Kashmir called for protests over the killings.
Mobile internet service also remained suspended.
Kashmir's chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti has warned officials over harming civilians while maintaining order following the deaths.
The Indian army, police and the local government have initiated three separate inquirers into Tuesday's shootings, promising punishment if any soldier were found guilty.
But an emergency military law grants soldiers deployed in Kashmir immunity from prosecution in civilian courts unless specifically permitted by New Delhi.
A part of Kashmir has been occupied by India since 1947.
In 1989 a rebellion against Indian occupation of Kashmir erupted with groups seeking independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan.
Consequently, hundreds of thousands of Indian troops were deployed in the region, making it one of the world's most militarised zones.
The fighting has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians.

Iran, Saudi discuss hajj safety after stampede

Iran, Saudi discuss hajj safety after stampede

We asked that... the safety of Iranian pilgrims be ensured and that pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia only on Iranian aircraft,' head of Iranian delegation says

An Iranian delegation has held talks in Saudi Arabia about the safety of pilgrims after a deadly stampede at last year's hajj, an official said on Friday.
It is the first dialogue between the rival powers since a diplomatic crisis erupted in January.
The head of the Iranian Hajj Organisation, Said Ohadi, told Iranian state television that discussions over the pilgrims' welfare began on Thursday in Mecca.
"We asked that... the safety of Iranian pilgrims be ensured and that pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia only on Iranian aircraft," Ohadi was quoted as saying.
The death of more than 2,000 foreign pilgrims, including 464 Iranians, in the stampede at last year's hajj in Saudi Arabia also caused a major spike in tensions.
Riyadh severed diplomatic ties with Iran in January after its diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad were stormed and set alight by mobs following the Sunni kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
This year's annual hajj -- a pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Mecca that all Muslims are expected to perform at least once in their lifetime -- is due to take place in September.
So far, the Riyadh government has taken no action to compensate the families of Iranian victims, according to Ohadi.

UK turns 'blind eye' to refugee suffering

UK turns 'blind eye' to refugee suffering

Thirteen aid agencies say in joint declaration that Britain is failing to protect vulnerable asylum seekers on its doorstep

Britain is failing to protect vulnerable people around the world displaced by conflict, persecution and poverty, aid agencies have said.
A joint declaration by 13 agencies, including Oxfam, the British Refugee Council and Islamic Relief, said the U.K. was obliged to provide a safe haven to a fair share of refugees in addition to funding camps in countries like Lebanon and Jordan.
Oxfam's Head of Humanitarian Policy Maya Mailer said Britain was turning a “blind eye” to suffering on its doorstep.
According to a statement released by Oxfam, Mailer said: “The U.K. is trying to pretend that this is someone else's problem, and that refugees and migrants could and should be dealt with elsewhere.
“But people who are desperate will take huge risks to reach safety. The U.K. needs to accept its moral responsibility to offer a safe haven to the world's poorest and most vulnerable - men, women and children who have been made homeless by war, violence and disasters.”
The British government claims it is the world’s second-largest provider of aid to countries bordering Syria after the United States.
It has also pledged to accept 20,000 refugees directly from camps in the region until 2020, but the aid agencies argue it should resettle more.
According to the joint report, Britain so far dealt with just three percent of asylum applications made in the European Union in 2015, whereas Germany and Hungary processed over 50 percent in comparison.
It called on British authorities to develop a humanitarian visa scheme that would allow people to safely travel to the U.K. to claim asylum.

Crimean Tatar leader slams Russia's suspension of Mejlis

Crimean Tatar leader slams Russia's suspension of Mejlis

Move to suspend Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People 'declaration of war,' Crimean Tatar leader Kirimoglu says

Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Abduldzhemil Kirimoglu has slammed Russia’s suspension of minority’s supreme executive commission.

A Russia-backed prosecutor in Crimea suspended the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Wednesday to “prevent violations of the federal laws.”
Addressing World Crimean Tatar Congress in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius Thursday, Kirimoglu termed the move a “declaration of war”.
Later, Kirimoglu, who is a former Mejlis head and member of Ukrainian parliament, said “[Russia] considers us an extremist terrorist group...to suspend our Mejlis means suspending all Crimean Tatar people.”
He said the Russian media has also launched a smear campaign against Crimean Tatar leaders and institutions.
He highlighted the fact that human rights violations were on the rise in the annexed region, including police raids on common people's homes and searches becoming part of normal life.
He called for sanctions to end the occupation of Crimea. “The most prudent way is sanctions which should remain in force until the occupant country [Russia] has retreated,” Kirimoglu said.
On Feb. 15, Russia-backed Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya filed a lawsuit at the Crimean High Court to recognize the Crimean Tatar Mejlis as an extremist organization and demanded its closure. The first hearing was held on March 3, and since then the case examination got postponed four times on various grounds.
Poklonskaya’s ruling to suspend the activity of Crimean Tatar Mejlis would remain valid until Crimea’s Supreme Court announces its decision.
Kirimoglu earlier said courts in the annexed region were simply obeying orders of Moscow. He said the decision to suspend the activity of Mejlis was in violation even according to Russian law. “If you have filed a lawsuit, the result should be awaited,” he said, adding: “This decision shows to the world who is Russia.”
About the restrictions on the body, the prosecutor had said: “The association is banned from using all state and municipal media, it can’t hold various public mass events, use bank accounts or conduct any type of work. All its propaganda will be prohibited.”
In March 2014, Putin signed into law a deal, according to which the Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea joined the Russian Federation, following an illegal referendum held in the peninsula. The move was strongly opposed by Ukraine, EU, and the U.S. who put sanctions on Moscow.
Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, consists of 33 members, including the chairman, according to its official website.
It aims to eliminate “the consequences of the genocide, committed by the Soviet state against Crimean Tatars, restoration of the national and political rights of the Crimean Tatar people and implementation of its right to free national self-determination in its national territory,” the Mejlis website added.

UN envoy 'regrets' failure to evacuate besieged Syrians

UN envoy 'regrets' failure to evacuate besieged Syrians

Assad regime has not allowed possible medical evacuation of up to 500 people in four beseiged Syrian towns, UN envoy de Mistura says in Geneva

The Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria has not allowed medical evacuations of up to 500 people from several besieged towns, UN envoy said in Geneva Thursday.
In remarks made to the media following a UN task force meeting on humanitarian access, UN Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura said: "I cannot deny everyone in the meeting was disappointed and many of them are frustrated by the lack of new convoys reaching some besieged towns.
"We have not been able to reach Douma, Daraya, East Harasta…There was a possibility of medical evacuation up to 500 people in four towns, that has not happened and we regret it."
The head of the UN’s humanitarian efforts in Syria, Jan Egeland, said last week that up to 500 sick and wounded people and their families would be evacuated from the towns of Madaya, Zabadani, Foua and Kufreya.
Noting World Food Programme’s success in making three airdrops in Deir ez-Zor, de Mistura said: "The next airdrops will include not only food items but also medical items."
UN envoy said he was also concerned about not getting permission from the Syrian regime to deliver surgical items in Syria, which could have also helped children.
On Sunday, food packages from the World Food Programme were parachuted to the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, where 200,000 civilians have been besieged by ISIL forces since March 2014.
"Vaccinations are expected to start on 24th of April," he said.
He said the possibility of airdrops to Daraya was also discussed in the UN meeting.
A new round of peace talks to resolve the ongoing Syria conflict began in Geneva Wednesday, with the UN envoy still unable to give a date for a face-to-face meeting between the warring opposition and regime delegations.
The Syrian regime delegation is expected to join Syria talks on Friday after the Assad regime requested to resume talks after parliamentary elections were held in Syria Wednesday.
In March, at the end of the last round of talks, de Mistura handed a document to the Syrian regime and opposition in Geneva, outlining basic principles for a political solution to the Syria crisis. He said that neither the regime delegation nor the opposition delegation had rejected this document.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to the UN.

Saudi FM says donation to Malaysia PM 'genuine'

Saudi FM says donation to Malaysia PM 'genuine'

Adel al-Jubeir insists $681 mln found in Razak’s accounts was from Saudi Arabia ‘with nothing expected in return’

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has insisted that $681 million found in the personal bank accounts of Malaysia’s embattled prime minister was a “genuine donation” from the Gulf kingdom.
Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported Friday that Riyadh’s top diplomat Adel al-Jubeir told reporters that Saudi authorities “are aware of the donation and it is a genuine donation with nothing expected in return.”
Critics and opponents of Malaysian Premier Najib Razak have questioned the money found in his accounts, which the long-ruling United Malays National Organization had proudly declared as coming from "Middle East Royals" who wanted the party to retain power.
In January, Malaysia’s attorney general ruled out any wrongdoings by Razak, saying the funds were a political donation from Saudi royals during the May 2013 general election -- $620 million of which was returned.
In early February, al-Jubeir said he accepted the clearance of Razak, but expressed doubt on whether the funds were a political donation from Saudi rulers.
“It is a private Saudi citizen, I believe, and the funds went to an investment in Malaysia,” he had told the New York Times (NYT).
The NYT article also cited an unnamed member and an associate of the Saudi royal family, both of who requested anonymity, as saying the money had not been provided as a donation but had come from a “Saudi prince”.
The associate added that it had been “part of a business deal”, and questioned whether the actual amount was the reported $681 million.
On Thursday, while attending the 13th Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, al-Jubeir said that they were “also fully aware that the Attorney-General of Malaysia has thoroughly investigated the matter and found no wrongdoing”.
"So, as far as we are concerned, the matter is closed," he added.
Critics have questioned the credibility of the decision by the attorney general’s office, and have also demanded Razak’s resignation over indebted state investment vehicle 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The wealth arm -- Razak's brainchild in which he serves as advisory board chair -- had amassed debts worth 42 billion Ringgit ($11.6 billion) in just six years of operations.
The premier has stated that he did not swindle funds for personal gain as alleged by political opponents, be it from 1MDB, Finance Ministry-owned SRC International or other entities.

Germany to sanction refugees failing to integrate

Germany to sanction refugees failing to integrate

Germany's ruling coalition agrees on steps to integrate refugees, which also included plans for new anti-terror legislation

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition agreed Thursday on tough measures to spur the integration of migrants and refugees, including sanctions for failing to take part in programmes such as language classes.
The deal, hammered out in six hours of late-night talks between Merkel's conservative Christian Union bloc and the Social Democrats (SPD), also included plans for new anti-terror legislation.
The integration bill would take a carrot-and-stick approach, providing subsidised courses to help newcomers find their way in German life but, in some cases, denying residence permits to those who fail to take up the offer.
"Germany now has an integration law, 50 years after the start of immigration," tweeted the leader of the SPD's parliamentary group, Thomas Oppermann.
He was referring to postwar Germany's programme to invite Turks and other "guest workers" to fuel its economic miracle which was criticised for failing to provide millions of immigrants and their descendents a stake in German society and a path to citizenship.
Under the new pact, federal funds would be used to create 100,000 jobs for asylum seekers receiving benefits.
Those facing imminent deportation would be excluded but asylum seekers taking part in job training would be shielded from expulsion for the length of the programme.
Refugees who abandon state-assigned housing would face unspecified consequences, but waiting periods for acceptance courses teaching German language and customs are to be slashed to six weeks from three months currently.
"Learning the language is also necessary for temporary stays in Germany," the document states.
The right-left coalition also agreed to give more funding, personnel and powers to security forces to combat terrorism.
A significant new provision would allow federal police to deploy undercover officers for attack prevention as well as criminal prosecution.
It would also allow the secret services to step up cooperation with their counterparts from partner states in Europe and NATO as well as Israel.
The draft law is to be completed on May 24 and then presented to parliament, where the so-called grand coalition has a large majority.
Merkel and her coalition partners were to hold a news conference on the agreement at 1000 GMT.
Germany took in more than one million asylum seekers in 2015 and Merkel has faced mounting criticism from sceptics, particularly from within her conservative camp, arguing that Europe's top economy is ill-equipped to cope with the influx.
The closure of the so-called Balkan route taken by many migrants has led to a sharp decline in new arrivals in recent weeks.

Turkey proposes Muslim cooperation against terrorism

Turkey proposes Muslim cooperation against terrorism

President Erdogan proposes a body within the OIC to solidify, institutionalize cooperation against terrorism, as terror groups do not represent Islam

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday proposed a body within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to solidify and institutionalize cooperation against terrorism.
“Once again, I call on the international bodies to review their approaches to terrorist organizations. It is necessary to conduct operations against terror organizations on the ground, while there should [also] be efforts to target those organizations' financial and human resources,” Erdogan said in his opening speech at the 13th Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Istanbul.
“For that, international cooperation is vital. Establishing a body that would solidify and institutionalize cooperation against terror within the OIC is the right step to take”.
Turkey is now hosting the OIC summit for the first time since the body’s inception in 1969.
Turkey will take over the bloc’s chair for the next two years during the summit, which will be held under the theme “Unity and Solidarity for Justice and Peace”.
The two-day summit is set to strengthen unity and solidarity between Muslim countries in the fight against terrorism.
Erdogan thanked member countries for helping support the establishment of the OIC’s new police cooperation and coordination center in Istanbul.
Saying that terror is one of the gravest problems facing the Islamic world, Erdogan decried the devastation of Afghanistan, in which hundreds of thousands Muslims were killed and millions of them were mistreated by al-Qaeda.
“Now ISIL, which controls certain places in Iraq and Syria and tries to get control of Libya, serves the same dirty plans. We see Boko Haram and Al Shabaab, which conduct terror attacks in Africa, in the same category. Apart from a few attacks for show, all these terror organizations oppress and harm all Muslims,” Erdogan stressed.
Erdogan maintained that these terror organizations do not represent Islam. “Our religion is a religion of peace and compromise,” Erdogan added.
During his talks, the Turkish leader also backed a Saudi-backed alliance to fight against terror and said that alliance should turn into an operational body.
Erdogan said that Islamic world should deal with terror and other crisis themselves instead of waiting for “other powers to intervene.”
“We need to intervene and solve. When we don’t, others intervene,” he said, adding that if the alliance becomes active, a new era in front of Muslim countries would open.
The Turkish leader also stressed that Muslims need to overcome “the instigation of sectarianism”.
“My religion is neither Sunni nor Shia. My religion is Islam,” said Erdogan.

Egypt police disperse protest against Saudi island deal

Egypt police disperse protest against Saudi island deal

Police officers fire tear gas and make arrests at one of the protests in Cairo

Egyptian police fired tear gas at dozens of protesters in Cairo on Friday who rallied against a controversial deal to hand two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, a security official said.
A police official said officers fired tear gas and made arrests at one of the protests in the Cairo neighbourhood of Mohandessin.
The deal to hand over two islands in the Straits of Tiran, signed during a visit by Saudi King Salman to Cairo last week, has provoked a storm of criticism against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Egyptian police had warned Egyptians on Thursday not to hold demonstrations after activists called for rallies across Cairo after the Friday Muslim prayers, held at noon.
Sisi, a former army chief who overthrew Egypt's first ever democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, led a crackdown on his supporters that killed hundreds of protests.
Demonstrations not approved by the police have been banned.
The calls for the protests were made by the activists who accuse Sisi of "selling" the islands in return for Saudi investments.
The Egyptian government says the islands were Saudi to begin with, and were leased to Egypt in 1950.

Latest Iran missile launch violates UN resolution: US

Latest Iran missile launch violates UN resolution: US

State Dept. vows to take issue to UN Security Council

Iran's recent ballistic missile launch, if true, violates a UN resolution but not a nuclear deal Tehran signed last year with world powers, the U.S. said Tuesday.
State Department spokesman John Kirby would not confirm reports earlier in the day that Iran recently launched several medium- and short-range ballistic missiles, but he said the U.S. is trying to get more information about what happened.
He emphasized that the U.S. would take the reports up "appropriately" and had every intention of raising the issues with the UN Security Council, if found to be true.
"We're not going to turn a blind eye to this and we're not at all trying to make any excuses for it," he said.
The U.S. relies on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its judgments about the degree to which Iran was meeting its commitments to the JCPOA, according to Kirby.
The JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is the agreement Tehran signed last year with world powers that placed restrictions on the Islamic republic’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions.
A White House spokesman said the possible test wasn’t a violation of the JCPOA because it "specifically focused on preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and required Iran to curtail significant aspects of their nuclear program".
Kirby said the IAEA is preparing its first report on the implementation of the deal, but did not elaborate on when the findings will be released.
The U.N. Security Council resolution 2231 -- adopted one week after the Iran nuclear deal was signed -- endorses the JCPOA and has prohibitions that continue to be used to disrupt Iran's missile related proliferation and procurement activities.
The resolution demands Iran not to undertake ballistic missile activity, including test launches with ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The Panamanian authorities have raided the offices of Mossack Fonseca

MEXICO CITY — The Panamanian authorities have raided the offices of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the vast leak of documents this month that exposed the global use of offshore tax shelters, and spent at least 16 hours combing through the company’s files looking for evidence of possible “illegal activities,” officials said on Wednesday.

The search at the company’s headquarters in Panama City, which was led by an organized crime unit from the attorney general’s office, began Tuesday afternoon and lasted until Wednesday morning. Other groups of investigators also searched subsidiaries of the firm in Panama and a Panamanian telephone company’s data support center, officials said.

The disclosure of about 11.5 million documents from the firm, which specializes in setting up offshore accounts, laid bare the elaborate system of shell companies that the world’s wealthy and powerful use to stash their money, often in an effort to minimize or avoid tax payments.

The revelations have spurred criminal investigations around the world, brought pressure on senior politicians in numerous countries and led to the resignation of the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson.

The Panamanian investigators were gathering documents related to news articles “that establish the possible use of the law firm in illegal activities,” the Public Ministry of Panama, which includes the attorney general’s office, said in a statement.

Sandra Sotillo, spokeswoman for the Public Ministry, said in a phone interview that investigators were “trying to verify whether the information published in the news media was true.”

Computer forensics experts and financial analysts accompanied prosecutors and police officers on the raid at the company’s headquarters, according to La Prensa, a Panamanian daily.

The search came a day after the Peruvian authorities raided the Lima offices of the law firm and seized accounting documents. Peru’s tax agency issued a statement saying that investigators were exploring whether shell companies established by the firm had been used to commit crimes in Peru.

Prosecutors from the intellectual property division of the attorney general’s office in Panama visited Mossack Fonseca’s offices in Panama City on Monday to explore the firm’s contention that the leak was the work of an outside computer hacker rather than an inside job.

The firm and its co-founders, Ramón Fonseca and Jūrgen Mossack, have asserted that they committed no crimes and that the authorities should be focusing not on their work but on the cause of the leak. They have said that they are not responsible for the actions of the shell companies and the use of the offshore accounts they help create.

“We stand ready, willing and eager to cooperate with the authorities again on their latest investigations to ensure this situation is brought to a just conclusion,” the firm said in a statement on Tuesday as the sweep in Panama City unfolded. “In this case, we’re the ones against whom a crime has been committed. Our systems having been unlawfully breached by parties external to the firm.”

News of the latest raid in Panama City came as tax officials from around the world gathered on Wednesday in Paris under the aegis of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to discuss the worldwide implications of the leak of documents.

President Juan Carlos Varela of Panama has said that his government would form an international committee of experts to review the country’s legal and financial practices and to propose measures that would increase transparency in the global financial sector. His government on Tuesday announced that the economist Joseph Stiglitz would be a member of the panel.