Friday, January 30, 2015

Boko Haram crisis: African Union backs regional force of 7,500 troops

30 January 2015 Last updated at 10:04 ET

by Natalie Duval and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Addis Ababa

Chadian forces have beefed up their presence around Lake Chad, on the border with Nigeria

Boko Haram

The African Union (AU) has backed plans for a West African task force of 7,500 troops to fight Boko Haram militants.

AU commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the threat posed by the Islamist group required a "collective, effective and decisive response".
Boko Haram has seized control of a swathe of north-east Nigeria and killed thousands in a six-year insurgency.
Four of Nigeria's neighbours - Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger - have agreed to contribute troops to the task force.
Speaking after AU talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Ms Dlamini-Zuma said the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) would have an initial mandate of one year.
She said it would conduct "military operations to prevent the expansion of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups' activities and eliminate their presence".
The plan is now expected to be submitted to the UN Security Council for approval.

Ms Dlamini-Zuma said a decisive response was needed

Institute for Security Studies analyst Liesl Louw-Vaudran said agreement on the force represented a "turnaround" by Nigeria, given its previous opposition to international military intervention.
However, she said it was not yet clear if the MJTF would be deployed as a border force, protecting Nigeria's neighbours from Boko Haram incursions, or whether it would attack the militants inside Nigeria.
'Not doing enough' Nigeria has insisted that it is capable of tackling Boko Haram and is doing all it can to do so.
However, some of its neighbours, including Niger and Cameroon, have criticised it for not doing enough.
Chadian troops were recently deployed to Cameroon to help repel Boko Haram incursions.
The country's forces have also reportedly been fighting this week in north-east Nigeria, helping to retake the town of Malamfatori from the militants.
It was not clear whether the Nigerian authorities had prior knowledge of, or approved, the cross-border operation.
But late on Thursday, the Nigerian military said Malamfatori was "within the area of operation covered by the MJTF of which Chad has always been a part". It said the Nigerian air force had also been conducting missions in the area for the past two days.
Previous plans to beef up regional forces against Boko Haram have foundered.

President Jonathan was campaigning with his vice-president in Jalingo on Thursday

A small MJTF had been based in the north-east Nigerian town of Baga, but the troops were withdrawn following disagreements with the authorities in Abuja.
Shortly afterwards, Boko Haram attacked the town, which it still holds.
Satellite images have shown widespread destruction in Baga and the neighbouring town of Doron Baga.
Estimates for the number of those killed in the assault vary from 150 to more than 2,000.
Stoned On Thursday, President Goodluck Jonathan visited Adamawa, one of three states placed under a state of emergency because of the insurgency.
Speaking in the state capital, Yola, he said the army had just recaptured the town of Michika, leaving only one of Adamawa's local government areas, Madagali, in the hands of militants.

Damaged vehicle belonging to President Jonathan's party

Vehicles belonging to President Jonathan's party in Jalingo showed damage from attacks by local people

Military sources told the BBC there had been a fierce battle for Michika and troops were carrying out mopping-up operations in surrounding villages. They cautioned that it was too early to say the army was in full control of the area.
Meanwhile, the president's office has denied reports that his convoy was stoned on Thursday in Jalingo, the capital of Taraba state, which neighbours Adamawa.
Mr Jonathan, who is campaigning for re-election, has had his convoy stoned at least twice in recent days.

Boko Haram at a glance

A screen grab taken from a video released on You Tube in April 2012, apparently showing Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau (centre) sitting flanked by militants

Founded in 2002, initially focused on opposing Western-style education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
Launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state
Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - has also attacked police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja
Has abducted hundreds, including at least 200 schoolgirls
Controls several north-eastern towns
Has launched attacks on Cameroon

Why is Boko Haram so strong?
Soldiers without weapons

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Greece and the euro’s future

by Natalie de Vallieres, Judith Stein, and Biodun Iginla, The Economist and BBC News

Go ahead, Angela, make my day

Syriza’s win could lead to Grexit, but it should lead to a better future for the euro

IT WAS in Greece that the infernal euro crisis began just over five years ago. So it is classically fitting that Greece should now be where the denouement may be played out—thanks to the big election win on January 25th for the far-left populist Syriza party led by Alexis Tsipras (see article). By demanding a big cut in Greece’s debt and promising a public-spending spree, Mr Tsipras has thrown down the greatest challenge so far to Europe’s single currency—and thus to Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, who has set the austere path for the continent.
The stakes are high. Although everybody, including Mr Tsipras, insists they want Greece to stay in the euro, there is now a clear threat of Grexit. In 2011-12 Mrs Merkel wavered, but then decided to support the Greeks to keep them in the single currency. She did not want Germany to be blamed for another European disaster, and both northern creditors and southern debtors were nervous about the consequences of a chaotic Greek exit for Europe’s banks and their economies.

This time the odds have changed. Grexit would look more like the Greeks’ fault, Europe’s economy is stronger and 80% of Greece’s debt is in the hands of other governments or official bodies. Above all the politics are different. The Finns and the Dutch, like the Germans, want Greece to stick to promises it made when they twice bailed it out. And in southern Europe centrist governments fear that a successful Greek blackmail would push voters towards their own populist opposition parties, like Spain’s Podemos (see article).

A good answer to a bad question

It could all get very messy. But there are broadly three possible outcomes: the good, the disastrous, and a compromise to kick the can down the road. The history of the euro has always been to defer the pain, but now the battle is about politics not economics—and compromise may be much harder.
Tantalisingly, there is a good solution to be grabbed for both Greece and Europe. Mr Tsipras has got two big things right, and one completely wrong. He is right that Europe’s austerity has been excessive. Mrs Merkel’s policies have been throttling the continent’s economy and have ushered in deflation. The belated launch of quantitative easing (QE) by the European Central Bank admits as much. Mr Tsipras is also right that Greece’s debt, which has risen from 109% to a colossal 175% of GDP over the past six years despite tax rises and spending cuts, is unpayable. Greece should be put into a forgiveness programme just like a bankrupt African country. But Mr Tsipras is wrong to abandon reform at home. His plans to rehire 12,000 public-sector workers, abandon privatisation and introduce a big rise in the minimum wage would all undo Greece’s hard-won gains in competitiveness.
Hence this newspaper’s solution: get Mr Tsipras to junk his crazy socialism and to stick to structural reforms in exchange for debt forgiveness—either by pushing the maturity of Greek debt out even further or, better still, by reducing its face value. Mr Tspiras could vent his leftist urges by breaking up Greece’s cosy protected oligopolies and tackling corruption. The combination of macroeconomic easing with microeconomic structural reform might even provide a model for other countries, like Italy and even France.
A very logical dream—until you wake up and remember that Mr Tsipras probably is a crazy leftwinger and Mrs Merkel can barely accept the existing plans for QE. Hence the second, disastrous outcome: Grexit. Optimists are right that it would now be less painful than in 2012, but it would still hurt.
In Greece it would lead to bust banks, onerous capital controls, more loss of income, unemployment even higher than today’s 25% rate—and the country’s likely exit from the European Union. The knock-on effects of Grexit on the rest of Europe would also be tough. It would immediately trigger doubts over whether Portugal, Spain and even Italy should or could stay in the euro. The euro’s new protections, the banking union and a bail-out fund, are, to put it mildly, untested.
So the most likely answer is a temporary fudge—but it is one that is unlikely to last long. If Mr Tsipras gets no debt relief, then he will lose all credibility with Greek voters. But even if he wins only marginal improvements in Greece’s position, other countries are bound to resist. Any changes in the bail-out terms will have to be voted on in some national parliaments, including Finland’s. If they passed, voters in countries like Spain and Portugal would demand an end to their own austerity. Worse still, populists from the right and left in France and Italy, who are not just against austerity but against their countries’ membership of the euro, would be strengthened.
And there are technical problems with any fudge. The ECB is adamant that it cannot provide emergency liquidity to Greece’s banks or buy up its bonds unless Mr Tsipras’s government is in an agreed programme with creditors, so any impasse is likely to trigger a run on Greek banks. By stretching out maturities, some of this could be avoided—but that may be too little for Mr Tsipras and too much for Mrs Merkel.

Hello to Berlin

So in the end, Greece will probably force Europe to make some hard choices. With luck it will be towards the good outcome outlined above. Greek voters may be living in a fool’s paradise if they think Mr Tsipras can deliver what he says, but the Germans too have to look at the consequences of their obstinacy. Five years after the onset of the euro crisis, southern euro-zone countries remain stuck with near-zero growth and blisteringly high unemployment. Deflation is setting in, so debt burdens rise despite fiscal austerity. When policies are delivering such bad outcomes, a revolt by Greek voters was both predictable and understandable.

Explore our interactive guide to Europe's troubled economies

If Mrs Merkel continues to oppose all efforts to kick-start growth and banish deflation in the euro zone, she will condemn Europe to a lost decade even more debilitating than Japan’s in the 1990s. That would surely trigger a bigger populist backlash than Greece’s, right across Europe. It is hard to see how the single currency could survive in such circumstances. And the biggest loser if it did not would be Germany itself.

Boko Haram crisis: Chad 'captures Nigerian town from militants'

29 January 2015 Last updated at 11:13 ET

by Rashida Adjani and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, N'Djamena, Chad

Soldiers of the Chadian army at the border between Nigeria and Cameroon - January 2015

Earlier this month, Chadian soldiers deployed to Cameroon's border with Nigeria

Boko Haram

Chad's army has driven Boko Haram militants out of Malumfatori town in north-eastern Nigeria, a senior official from Niger has told the BBC.

The reported capture of the town, which lies near the borders of Chad and Niger, follows two days of fighting.
Both ground and air forces are reported to have been used in the assault.
Niger officials said Chadian ground forces moved into the town after crossing Lake Chad. It is not known if the operation was approved by Nigeria.

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced because of the Boko Haram insurgency

Boko Haram insurgents have carried out a number of cross-border attacks on Nigeria's neighbours in recent months, attacking villages and military bases.
The Islamist group has seized dozens of people and taken them back to north-east Nigeria, where it controls a swathe of territory.
Action plan The Nigerian authorities say they are doing all they can to tackle the militants but neighbours, including Niger and Cameroon, have said more must be done.
Chad has already sent troops to Cameroon to help it counter Boko Haram incursions and last week Nigeria said the Chadian army would be fighting on its territory.
However, it was not immediately clear if the authorities in Abuja had prior knowledge of, or any role in, the operation in Malumfatori.
People who fled the area told the BBC they had seen military planes bombing the town, which is on the shores of Lake Chad.

Armoured vehicle of Boko Haram captured by Nigerian troops

The Nigerian army has recently captured military vehicles used by Boko Haram

Some of those who left the town during the fighting are reported to have crossed into Niger.
Meanwhile, reports from the area say fighting has now spread to a nearby town, Abadam.
Nigerian officials have made little public comment. They said they were investigating the reports of fighting in the north-east.
Aviation Minister Osita Chidoka told the BBC that Nigeria "has to redefine its fault lines in fighting" Boko Haram.
He said tackling the group required not just military action but also "improving the capacity of the Nigerian state" in areas such as the judiciary, prison system and law enforcement agencies.
"A lot will be done about Boko Haram beyond fighting them in the north-east part of the country," he said.
African Union heads of state are due to discuss the crisis over Boko Haram at their summit beginning on Friday.
Ghanaian President John Mahama has said the leaders must produce a "specific plan of action" to "deal permanently" with Boko Haram.
Thousands have died and many more have been displaced because of the group's six-year insurgency.

Boko Haram at a glance

Founded in 2002, initially focused on opposing Western-style education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
Launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state
Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - has also attacked police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja
Has abducted hundreds, including at least 200 schoolgirls
Controls several north-eastern towns
Has launched attacks on Cameroon

Why is Boko Haram so strong?
Soldiers without weapons

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, BBC News

A gunman has been arrested in the studio of Dutch public TV station NPO1 after disrupting the main evening news programme, reportedly demanding airtime.

Staff were evacuated from the building in the Media Park in the central city of Hilversum.
The man, who was well-dressed and carrying a pistol, entered the studio control room, Dutch media report.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
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Andrew Sullivan Says He’s Done Blogging | FishbowlDC

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

US nuclear scientist jailed for trying to sell secrets

28 January 2015 Last updated at 22:33 ET

by Biodun Iginla, BBC News, New York

Mr Mascheroni said the US government wrongly targeted him as a spy

A former scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US has been sentenced to five years in jail for attempting to pass nuclear bomb-making secrets to Venezuela.

Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni pleaded guilty in 2013 to delivering secrets to an undercover FBI agent, who he thought was a Venezuelan official.
Pedro Mascheroni, who is 79, is originally from Argentina.
His wife was also sentenced to one year in prison.
Mascheroni was under investigation for about a year before he was charged.
The US intelligence agency, the FBI, seized computers, letters, photographs and book from his home.
Undercover agent According to court documents, Mr Mascheroni told the undercover FBI agent that he could help Venezuela develop a nuclear bomb within 10 years.
He said the country would be able to set up a secret underground nuclear reactor to produce and enrich plutonium.
Venezuela would also be able to build a plant to produce nuclear energy, he said.
Mr Mascheroni worked for around a decade in a nuclear weapons design division at the Los Alamos laboratory where the the first atomic bomb was developed.
He was laid off in 1988. His wife was a technical writer there.
In an interview with Associated Press, he said he had approached other countries after his ideas on cleaner nuclear power were rejected by the laboratory and later by congressional officials.
Mascheroni said he approached Venezuela after the United Sates rejected his theories that a hydrogen-fluoride laser could produce nuclear energy.
The American government has said it does not believe Venezuela was trying to access US nuclear secrets.

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Berlin

Kathrin Oertel had become the public face of Pegida after her predecessor stepped down

The new leader of Germany's controversial Pegida anti-Islamisation group Pegida has resigned a week after her predecessor.

Kathrin Oertel appeared on TV last week and had become the public face of the movement after Lutz Bachmann stepped down.
A photo of Mr Bachman posing as Hitler had been published and he had made disparaging comments about refugees.
Four other leading figures in the group have resigned alongside Ms Oertel.
One of the five told Bild newspaper that they had resigned because of Mr Bachmann's continuing influence and the role of a separate, sister movement in Leipzig known as Legida.

Placard at Pegida protest in Villingen-Schwenningen (26 Jan)

Slogans such as "Truth instead of lying press" have been criticised as harking back to the Nazi era

Thousands of supporters have joined Pegida marches in several towns and cities in recent weeks, especially in Dresden where the movement began. The name stands for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West".

A critical moment for Pegida - by Jenny Hill, BBC News Berlin Kathrin Oertel's strikingly pencilled eyebrows have probably attracted more comment here than her political opinions.
But she has tried to take Pegida mainstream. She has distanced herself from the more radical Leipzig branch of Pegida.
She recently appeared on a German TV talk show, Pegida's first major TV appearance, to demand dialogue with the political establishment.

A government minister has now, controversially, met Pegida supporters to discuss their concerns. But those supporters, not to mention the leadership, have wildly divergent opinions.
Some believe there's no place for "foreigners" in Germany. Some are right-wing extremists. Others just want a public debate about immigration.
And, without strong and consistent leadership, it is that lack of cohesion that, critics predict, will prove fatal for this movement.

'Hostile messages' The growth of the movement around Germany has prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel and several other political leaders to warn of the dangers of intolerance and racism.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned of the damage that Pegida's "xenophobic and racist slogans and placards" were having on Germany's image abroad. One slogan, "lying press", is seen as harking back to the Nazi era. It was used by Adolf Hitler in 1922 and later by his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
After news of the resignations was leaked, a statement appeared on Pegida's Facebook page (in German), in which the group accused the media of "falling over themselves with all sorts of news".
"The fact is, Kathrin has resigned from her post as spokeswoman for the time being. This is because of massive, hostile messages, threats and the disadvantages she has suffered to her career," the statement read.
It was not about personalities, but about the cause, it added.
Ms Oertel had become well known in Germany after appearing on the widely watched Guenther Jauch talk show on 19 January.

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Friday, January 30, 2015

Africa

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Boko Haram

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Boko Haram

Analysis

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From other news sites

International Business Times UK AU backs move to deploy thousands of troops in Nigeria against Boko Haram 7 hrs ago

IAfrica.com AU calls for Boko Haram force 7 hrs ago

Telegraph African Union calls for 7,500-strong force to fight Boko Haram 14 hrs ago

PR Web via Yahoo! Nigeria fighter jets bomb town held by Boko Haram 16 hrs ago

Reuters UK African Union backs plan for regional task force to fight Boko Haram 17 hrs ago

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Go ahead, Angela, make my day

Syriza’s win could lead to Grexit, but it should lead to a better future for the euro

Africa

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Boko Haram

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Boko Haram

Analysis

Life in the north

Background

From other news sites

Guardian.co.uk Nigerian youths stone presidential convoy amid anger over failure to stop Boko Haram 1 hr ago

International Business Times UK Boko Haram: Chad 'captures Nigerian town from militants' 3 hrs ago

Yahoo! UK and Ireland Nigeria needs regional force to defeat Boko Haram 35 hrs ago

Individual.com Think Again - Chad Rides to the Rescue in Nigeria, but Which Chad? [analysis] 54 hrs ago

Angola Press Nigeria's Boko Haram unrest: African leaders urged to act 56 hrs ago

Europe

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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

US & Canada

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Guardian.co.uk FBI US nuclear scientist secretly taped claiming he could bomb New York 49 mins ago

NewsMax.com* Scientist Offers to Build Nuke Bomb Targeting New York 1 hr ago

New Zealand Herald Disgruntled scientist's nuclear bomb plan 2 hrs ago

Mail Online UK US scientist jailed over nuclear spy sting 4 hrs ago

Albuquerque Journal Breaking: Former LANL scientist sentenced to five years for attempt to sell nuclear secrets 7 hrs ago

Europe

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International Business Times UK Germany: Anti-Islam Pegida group leader Kathrin Oertel quits 4 hrs ago

Yahoo! UK and Ireland More leaders quit German anti-Islam group PEGIDA 7 hrs ago

Independent On Saturday German anti-Islam movement in crisis 7 hrs ago

Telegraph Germany's Pegida anti-Islam movement unravelling 8 hrs ago

Reuters UK German anti-Islam group PEGIDA loses second leader in a week 11 hrs ago