Biodun.BBC: Reuters and BBC News

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Sunday, November 6, 2016

China bars two Hong Kong pro-independence politicians from taking office

Mon Nov 7, 2016 | 07H:10 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, Reuters and BBC News Analysts, Beijing

China's parliament passed a ruling on Monday that effectively bars two Hong Kong pro-independence politicians from taking office, Beijing's most direct intervention in the territory's legal and political system since 1997 handover.

The National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing ruled that lawmakers must swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China and that candidates would be disqualified if they changed the wording of their oath of office or if they failed to take it in a sincere and solemn manner.

The prospect of the ruling had sparked protests in the former British colony on Sunday. Foreign diplomats were watching closely, stressing the importance of the rule of the law to the city's international reputation.

While the controversial decision effectively bars the two pro-independence Hong Kong politicians from being sworn in, a court in the Chinese-ruled city must still rule on the case, taking Beijing's decision into consideration.

The promotion of independence has long been taboo in Hong Kong, governed under a "one country, two systems" principle since 1997, amid fears in Beijing it could spread among other activists and challenge the central government's rule.

"The nature of Hong Kong independence is to split the country. It seriously violates the ‘one country, two systems’ policy," said Li Fei, chairman of the parliament's Basic Law Committee.

"The Central Government is highly concerned about the grave dangers the Hong Kong independence forces bring to the country and to Hong Kong," Li said.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said the city's government would fully implement China's interpretation of the mini-constitution, although it was not immediately clear if that meant the pro-independence pair were already disqualified from office.

The move came after pro-independence politicians Yau Wai-ching, 25, and Baggio Leung, 30, pledged allegiance to the "Hong Kong nation" and displayed a banner declaring "Hong Kong is not China" during a swearing-in ceremony for the city's legislative council in October.

Simon Young, a professor at Hong Kong University's law school, said he was still evaluating the ruling but it did seem to bar Leung and Yau from taking office.

"I do worry we are only going to see more interpretations, and attempts by the NPC to flesh out local laws, if they really want to stop the separatists," Young told Reuters, referring to China's parliament.

Leading members of China's parliament said on Saturday the pro-independence pair had damaged the territory's rule of law and posed a grave threat to China's sovereignty and security.

RULE OF LAW

The Basic Law grants China's NPC a power of interpretation above Hong Kong's highest court. While it has made four other rulings since the 1997 handover, this ruling is its first move to preempt an ongoing Hong Kong court case.

Hong Kong justice secretary Rimsky Yuen said on Monday he still believed the oath-taking controversy could be resolved locally, but he also had every confidence that the city's judiciary would uphold the rule of law.

Beijing's decision came before a Hong Kong court made its ruling and represented some of the worst privately held fears of senior judges and some government officials in Hong Kong, according to sources close to them.

The move was expected to enrage Hong Kong democracy activists further, a day after hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police in running battles around China's representative office in Hong Kong.

The scenes on Sunday night were reminiscent of pro-democracy protests in late 2014 that paralyzed parts of the Asian financial center and posed one of the greatest political challenges to the central government in Beijing in decades.

"This incident shows us the Basic Law is a handicapped legal document and the so-called mini constitution can be amended and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party at will," said Joshua Wong, 20, one of the leaders of the 2014 protests.

Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that gave the territory wide-ranging autonomy, including judicial freedom guided by a mini-constitution called the Basic Law.

James To, a lawmaker with the Democratic Party, said the central government had undermined Hong Kong's judicial process.

"In future, people's confidence in 'one country, two systems' will worsen," To said.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Trump: election results rigged 'at many polling places'

Sun Oct 16, 2016 | 07H:53 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Suzanne Gould and Biodun Iginla, Reuters and BBC News, New York

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump dug deeper in his efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the U.S. election, saying on Twitter on Sunday that he believed the results were being "rigged" at many polling places.

His tweet came hours after his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, said Republicans would accept the outcome of the Nov. 8 contest between Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

"The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD," Trump wrote on Twitter, in the latest of a series of comments he has made over the past several days calling into question the fairness of the election.

Trump, who is trailing Clinton in opinion polls, did not provide any evidence to back his allegations of impropriety at the voting booth. Early voting and voting by mail have begun in many states.

In another tweet later on Sunday, Trump blamed "animals representing Hillary Clinton" and Democrats in North Carolina for an overnight attack on a local Republican Party headquarters in that state.

Local authorities said the building in Hillsborough, North Carolina, had been struck through a front window with flammable material and an adjacent building wall was spray-painted with a swastika and the words "Nazi Republicans leave town or else."

"Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning," Trump tweeted.

Clinton denounced the attack as "horrific and unacceptable" in her own tweet, adding: "Very grateful that everyone is safe.

'COORDINATED EFFORT'

Trump, a New York businessman, who has never held elective office, has often said the electoral process is skewed against him, including during the Republican nominating contests, when he disputed the method for winning delegates to the Republican National Convention.

His latest complaint of media bias stems from allegations by women that he groped them or made other unwanted sexual advances, after a 2005 video became public in which Trump was recorded bragging about such behavior. He apologized for the video but has denied each of the accusations.

"Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!" Trump tweeted on Sunday, a sentiment he also expressed in posts and during rallies in Maine and New Hampshire on Saturday. The comments raised questions both from Republicans and Democrats about whether he would accept the outcome should he lose to Clinton.

Trump said after the first presidential debate in September that he would "absolutely" accept the election outcome. But a few days afterward, he told the New York Times: "We're going to see what happens."

He has also urged his supporters to keep an eye on voting locations to prevent a "stolen" election, which some critics interpreted as encouraging them to intimidate voters.

Pence said on Sunday he and Trump would respect the will of the voters.

"We'll respect the outcome of this election," said Pence, the Indiana governor. "Donald Trump said in the first debate that we'll respect the will of the American people in this election. The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American history."

In a weekend statement quoted by media, a spokeswoman for U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top U.S. elected Republican, said: “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity.”

'CONSEQUENCES TO RUSSIA'

On Sunday, Pence for the second time in recent weeks broke from Trump on Russia, this time on that country's possible involvement in email hacks tied to the U.S. election, saying Moscow should face "severe consequences" if it has compromised U.S. email security.

"I think there's no question that the evidence continues to point in that direction," Pence said. "There should be severe consequences to Russia or any sovereign nation that is compromising the privacy or the security of the United States of America," Pence said on "Fox News Sunday."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week his country was not involved in trying to influence the U.S. election.

Trump, who has been criticized for appearing too close to Russia after he publicly praised Putin's governing style, has questioned the reports of Moscow's involvement. "Maybe there is no hacking," he said during last week's second debate with Clinton.

Trump also contradicted Pence on Russia during that debate. Pence had said the United States should use military force in Syria if Russia continued air strikes to prop up President Bashar al-Assad, but Trump said he disagreed.

The third and final debate between Trump and Clinton will be on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Suicide bomb blast kills three police in southern Turkey

Sun Oct 16, 2016 | 21H18 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Alara Berrak and Biodun Iginla, Reuters and BBC News, Gaziantep, Turkey

A suicide bomber killed three police officers and wounded at least nine people in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep on Sunday during a police raid on a suspected Islamic State safehouse, a local official and security sources said.

The bomber detonated explosives as police raided the house in the Besyuzevler neighborhood of the city, some 40 km (25 miles) from the Syrian border, Abdullah Nejat Kocer, a local member of parliament from the ruling AK Party, told reporters.

A second suicide bomber detonated explosives during another police raid related to the same investigation at an apartment in the city's Gazikent suburb, but no other people were killed, a police official at the scene said. That blast blew the front wall out of the building, according to a Reuters witness.

Kocer said three police officers were killed in the Besyuzevler blast. Six of the wounded were also police, two of them left in a critical condition in hospital. The three other people wounded were Syrian nationals, Kocer told reporters.

Security sources said police had pursued a vehicle believed to be carrying explosives to the house, where a group of Syrian nationals were thought to be sheltering, before raiding it.

Turkey has seen a spate of suicide bombings by militants suspected of links to Islamic State. A suicide bomb killed more than 50 people, many of them children, at a Kurdish wedding in Gaziantep in August.

Turkey launched an incursion into Syria in August in support of Syrian rebels to try to push Islamic State from its border. The rebels said on Sunday they had captured the village of Dabiq from the jihadist group, a stronghold where it had promised to fight a final, apocalyptic battle with the West.

Turkish security forces have repeatedly raided houses in Istanbul, Gaziantep and other cities in a crackdown on suspected jihadists linked to Islamic State.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Newspaper says Syrian bombing suspect in Germany spoke to IS contact about attack plans

Sun Oct 15, 2016 | 18H:56 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, Reuters and BBC News, Berlin

A Syrian refugee arrested on suspicion of planning a major attack in Berlin spoke to a member of Islamic State in Syria by telephone about a possible target a day before German police discovered explosives in his apartment, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Jaber Albakr was detained on Monday, two days after police discovered about 1.5 kg of explosives in his apartment. He was found dead in prison on Wednesday. Authorities said he had committed suicide.

Germany's Welt am Sonntag (WamS) cited investigation sources as saying U.S. intelligence had provided a tip-off about Albakr after tapping several phone calls between him and an Islamic State member in Syria. During the calls, 22-year-old Albakr spoke about his attack plans, the newspaper said.

In a call on Oct. 7, Albakr told his contact that 2 kg of explosives were ready and he named a possible target, saying a "big airport in Berlin" was "better than trains", WamS reported.

In July, the militant group claimed responsibility for two attacks in the German state of Bavaria - one on a train near Wuerzburg and the other at a music festival in Ansbach that wounded 20 people.

WamS said federal prosecutors investigating the case assumed that Albakr wanted to make a vest packed with explosives for an attack.

Albakr arrived in Germany in February 2015 during a migrant influx into the country and was granted temporary asylum four months later.

The man who rented the flat in the eastern city of Chemnitz in which Albakr last lived - a 33-year-old Syrian who WamS named as Khalil A. - is in custody and is being investigated on suspicion of helping Albakr, the newspaper said.

Separately, the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper and the regional broadcaster rbb cited federal security sources as saying Albakr had spent a night in Berlin in the second half of September and met a contact there.

During that time, he visited one of the city's two airports, they added, without saying which one.

The newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (F.A.S.) said train tickets that investigators found in Albakr's possessions were key to uncovering the Berlin trip.

The federal prosecutor's office declined to comment on media reports when contacted by Reuters.

F.A.S. cited a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office as saying there were not yet "enough links to IS that could be used in court".

German security sources told Reuters that Albakr had traveled to Turkey after receiving asylum in Germany and spent several months there this summer.

F.A.S. said Albakr landed in the eastern German city of Leipzig at the end of August on his return from Turkey. The newspaper cited investigators as saying Albakr had already planned an attack at that point.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

BREAKING: Two police officers shot and killed in Palm Springs, California

Sat Oct 8, 2016 | 02H:36 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Rochelle van Amber and Biodun Iginla, Reuters and BBC News, Palm Springs

Two police officers were shot and killed on Saturday in the Southern California desert town of Palm Springs after they were called to an apparent domestic dispute and came under fire as they arrived on the scene, according to police and eyewitness accounts.

A third officer was wounded in the shooting around 1 p.m. local time, Palm Springs police said in online bulletins.

The officers who were killed were identified as Jose Vega, a 35-year veteran, and Lesley Zerebny, who had been an officer for about a year and a half.

Dozens of police officers swarmed the scene of the shooting, which unfolded in a residential neighborhood of Palm Springs, a normally placid resort community about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

A suspect in the shooting was believed to be holed up inside a house surrounded by police in tactical gear, with an armored assault vehicle stationed in front of the house with an officer perched in a turret atop the vehicle.

A neighbor, Juan Graciano, 67, said he heard angry shouting between a father and son who live at the residence in question before the father emerged from the home, crossed the street and asked another neighbor to call for help.

Graciano said the other neighbor apparently called police, who came under fire as they arrived at the home, and that some police returned fire. He said he saw one female officer who appeared to be wounded lying on the ground as fellow officers tried to resuscitate her.

"I think he's still inside," Graciano said of the suspected gunman.

According to the local Desert Sun newspaper, witnesses reported hearing between 10 and 20 gunshots during the incident.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Trump backs off praise of Russia's Putin after debate

Thurs Oct 6, 2016 | 07H:31 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Suzanne Gould and Biodun Iginla, Reuters and BBC News, New York

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump backed off from praising Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, saying he was unsure of his relationship with the Russian president who he has described as a better leader than President Barack Obama.

The day after running mate Mike Pence appeared to break ranks with Trump during a vice presidential debate and called Putin "a small and bullying leader," Trump adjusted his own previously warm rhetoric toward the Russian.

"I don't love (Putin), I don't hate. We'll see how it works. We'll see," Trump told supporters during a campaign stop in the swing state of Nevada. "Maybe we’ll have a good relationship. Maybe we’ll have a horrible relationship. Maybe we’ll have a relationship right in the middle."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has criticized Trump, who often praises Putin, as being too cozy with the Russian leader and questioned the Republican's business interests in Russia. Those charges were repeated by her vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine during a debate with Pence on Tuesday.

In response, Pence denounced Putin for his interference in Syria's civil war and support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"The small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the United States,” Pence said. "The greatest nation on earth just withdraws from talks about a ceasefire, while Vladimir Putin puts a missile defense system in Syria."

The vice presidential encounter set the table for a second presidential debate on Sunday in St. Louis between Clinton and Trump, who needs to rebound from a rocky performance in his first debate, one that gave Clinton a boost in national opinion polls with the Nov. 8 Election Day only five weeks away.

In Nevada, Trump suggested Russia could be a valuable ally in the fight against Islamic State, also known by the acronym ISIS.

"I will say if we get along with Russia and Russia went out with us and knocked the hell out of ISIS, that’s okay with me, folks,” he said.

Trump celebrated a strong debate performance by Pence, the governor of Indiana, and said his running mate had won on style and on the issues.

"He's getting tremendous reviews from me and everybody," Trump told a group of pastors and leaders gathered at a Christian academy in Las Vegas.

DEBATE ATTACKS

The encounter between Pence and Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia, was the only such debate between the vice presidential contenders, and the two spent most of their time attacking each other's running mates.

For more than 90 minutes at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, Pence sought to project an image as a reassuring presence, in contrast with the bombastic Trump, while Kaine tried to frighten voters away from Trump and make Clinton seem more trustworthy.

A CNN/ORC snap poll declared Pence the winner with 48 percent support, compared with 42 percent for Kaine, who frequently interrupted his opponent.

The television audience for the debate was 35.6 million viewers, according to preliminary data, about half the number who watched the first encounter between Trump and Clinton.

Republican strategists said Pence's strong debate performance could provide lessons for Trump on how to approach the second debate - if he was willing or able to learn.

"Trump should hopefully learn a lesson - don't get angry, don't lose your cool, answer the question you want to answer," Republican strategist John Feehery said. "The biggest thing is to not get rattled and be able to smile when you are attacked."

Clinton met with advisers at her Washington, D.C., home on Wednesday and did not appear on the campaign trail. An aide said she spoke by phone with Kaine and congratulated him on his debate performance.

"Mike Pence didn't want to defend Donald Trump, and as Senator Kaine said, if you can't defend the person at the top of the ticket, how can you ask people to vote for you," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told reporters outside her house.

Biodun Iginla, BBC News