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Category: WORLDS

  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Saudis planned Jamal Khashoggi slaying in advance

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Saudi officials started planning to murder writer Jamal Khashoggi days before his death in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate.

    ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Saudi officials murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in their Istanbul consulate after plotting his death for days, Turkey’s president said Tuesday, contradicting Saudi Arabia’s explanation that the writer was accidentally killed. He demanded that the kingdom reveal the identities of all involved, regardless of rank.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said he wants Saudi Arabia to allow 18 suspects that it detained for the Saudi’s killing to be tried in Turkish courts, setting up further complications with the Saudi government, which has said it is conducting its own investigation and will punish those involved. Saudi Arabia has described the suspects as rogue operators, even though officials linked to Saudi Arabia’s assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have been implicated in the killing.

    “To blame such an incident on a handful of security and intelligence members would not satisfy us or the international community,” Erdogan said in a speech to ruling party lawmakers in parliament.

    “Saudi Arabia has taken an important step by admitting the murder. As of now we expect of them to openly bring to light those responsible — from the highest ranked to the lowest — and to bring them to justice,” said the Turkish president, who used the word “murder” 15 times in his speech.

    Erdogan’s speech was previously pitched as revealing the “naked truth” about Khashoggi’s slaying. Instead, he merely confirmed information previously reported based on leaks citing anonymous officials in the days since the columnist for The Washington Post walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

    Erdogan didn’t mention Prince Mohammed by name in his speech. However, he kept pressure on the kingdom with his demands for Turkish prosecution of the suspects as well as punishment for the plot’s masterminds.

    “All evidence gathered shows that Jamal Khashoggi was the victim of a savage murder. To cover up such a savagery would hurt the human conscience,” he said.

    Erdogan mentioned information that was earlier leaked by Turkish sources, including reports of 15 Saudi officials arriving in private jets shortly before Khashoggi’s death as well as a man, apparently dressed in the writer’s clothes, acting as a possible decoy by walking out of the consulate on the day of the disappearance.

    “Why did these 15 people all with links to the event gather in Istanbul on the day of the murder? We are seeking answers. Who did these people get their orders from to go there? We are seeking answers,” Erdogan said. “When the murder is so clear, why were so many inconsistent statements made? Why is the body of a person who has officially been accepted as killed still not around?”

    International skepticism intensified after Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that Khashoggi died in a brawl. The case has shocked the world and raised suspicions that a Saudi hit squad planned the writer’s killing after he walked into the consulate on Oct. 2, and then attempted to cover it up.

    At a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, King Salman again stressed that Saudi Arabia would hold those responsible for Khashoggi’s slaying “accountable,” according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

    Before Erdogan’s announcement, top Turkish officials said Turkey would clarify exactly what happened to Khashoggi as pressure increased on Saudi Arabia, which is hosting a glitzy investment conference this week that many dignitaries have decided to skip because of the scandal.

    “As we all know these are difficult days for us in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told attendees seated in an ornate hall during the opening of the conference in Riyadh.

    “Nobody in the kingdom can justify it or explain it. From the leadership on down, we’re very upset of what has happened,” Al-Falih said

    Saudi Arabia said it arrested suspects and that several top intelligence officials were fired over Khashoggi’s killing, but critics alleged that the punishment was designed to absolve Prince Mohammed, the heir-apparent of the world’s top oil exporter, of any responsibility. Any major decision must be signed off by the highest powers within its ruling Al Saud family.

    On Monday, leaked surveillance video showed a man strolling out of the diplomatic post hours after Khashoggi disappeared into the consulate, apparently wearing the columnist’s clothes as part of a macabre deception to sow confusion over his fate.

    The new video broadcast by CNN, as well as a pro-government Turkish newspaper’s report that a member of Prince Mohammed’s entourage made four calls to the royal’s office from the consulate around the same time, put more pressure on the kingdom. Meanwhile, Turkish crime-scene investigators swarmed a garage Monday night in Istanbul where a Saudi consular vehicle had been parked.

    Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, meanwhile, said Tuesday the investigation into the killing of Khashoggi would produce the truth about what happened and that his country was committed to ensuring “that the investigation is thorough and complete and that the truth is revealed and that those responsible will be held to account.”

    Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, in Indonesia, also pledged that mechanisms will be put in place so that “something like this can never happen again.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Aya Batrawy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Em

  • Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan to meet on sidelines of upcoming Syria peace talks

    Russian and Turkish leaders, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of this weekend’s four-nation Syrian War summit in Istanbul, which will also gather

    Russian and Turkish leaders, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of this weekend’s four-nation Syrian War summit in Istanbul, which will also gather representatives from France and Germany.

    Russia is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government while Turkey has been helping insurgents trying to remove him from power.

    Last month, Russia and Turkey reached an agreement to set up a demilitarized zone around the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib preventing a government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the country.

    Idlib has been calm since, though some militant groups did not meet an Oct. 15 deadline to evacuate the DMZ.

    Many feared that a government offensive in Idlib would trigger a new refugee crisis as the region is home to some 3 million people, many of them already displaced by the war from other parts of Syria.

    On Tuesday, top Russian diplomat Andrei Buravov confirmed “a separate bilateral meeting” has been scheduled for Saturday in Istanbul between Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Putin, according to the Russian news service Tass.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Moscow did not expect a breakthrough decision during the four-country talks, Tass reported.

    “It would be probably incorrect to predict that the summit is held with the aim of reaching certain agreements,” Mr. Peskov said. “Obviously, we need to be realistic.”

    Turkey’s presidential spokesman has said the summit is expected to address all aspects of the Syrian conflict, including the situation on the ground, the Idlib agreement and efforts for a lasting solution to the conflict.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to attend.

    • This article is based in part on wire service reports.

  • Russia sticking with Saudis amid boycotts over Khashoggi murder

    Russia is one country that is not letting the international furor over the fate of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi disrupt its ties with the oil-rich kingdom.

    Russia is one country that is not letting the international furor over the fate of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi disrupt its ties with the oil-rich kingdom.

    Even as U.S. and European officials and corporate titans were canceling their travel plans, Russian officials were out in force on the opening day of a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been strongly implicated in the apparent death of the U.S.-based Mr. Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey Oct. 2.

    “Saudi Arabia is a great partner for us, not just a partner in investments or oil,” Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the Russian government’s $10 billion state-controlled sovereign investment fund, told attendees at the conference Tuesday, according to Euronews.

    “There are many Russian companies here from the petrochemical sector and other sectors. They want to invest in Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Dmitriev said.

    President Trump has faced increasing pressure to scale back U.S. diplomatic and commercial ties to Saudi Arabia in light of the Khashoggi scandal, but has cited the potential for Riyadh to turn to China and Russia as a reason for caution.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Kremlin does not have enough information to judge the level of Saudi government complicity in the journalist’s killing and other top aides have hinted the incident is an internal affair for the Saudis to deal with. Mr. Putin has tried to cultivate the 33-year-old crown prince in a bid to coordinate policy between two of the world’s biggest oil-producing nations.

    “We’ve all heard the official statements from Riyadh on the case denying members of the royal family had any role,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Moscow Times Tuesday. “We’ve taken that into account. The rest is a matter for investigators.”

  • India-China rivalry looms over Bhutan election

    VARANASI, India | Bhutanese voters have already decided to oust their current leaders, voting out their prime minister and his political party in the first round of parliamentary elections last month.

    VARANASI, India | Bhutanese voters have already decided to oust their current leaders, voting out their prime minister and his political party in the first round of parliamentary elections last month.

    Now many voters of this tiny, ancient kingdom hope that whoever wins the second round Thursday will renegotiate their lopsided longtime alliance with India and make nice with rival China.

    “We love our sovereignty,” said Pawo Choyning Dorji, 35, a photographer in the capital of Thimphu. “We appreciate how India has helped in the development of Bhutan, but our relationship with India has cost us our sovereignty. India must know that someday Bhutan is going to establish a good relationship with China.”

    In modern “Great Game” playing out far from the focus of much U.S. and Western foreign policy these days, Bhutan is just one case study of China and India jockeying for influence across South Asia, a clash of interests that has been playing out in recent years in countries from Bangladesh and Nepal, to Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Maldives.

    But it is the tiny country of Bhutan where the rivalry is hottest these days.

    “It’s a tiny speck of a country in South Asia, and it was only last summer’s standoff between India and China that brought Bhutan to the headlines,” said Faisel Pervaiz, South Asia analyst at the global think tank, Stratfor. “But now, what looks to be an election in a tiny, mountainous Himalayan kingdom actually has geopolitical implications between the world’s two most populous countries.”

    Both countries are closely watching the results, hoping for an advantage in the future. The ruling party had been very close to India, analysts said.

    In fact, India has had a “hegemony by default” in the region for decades, being the largest country in terms of size and population with the strongest economy and military. And while it has strong cultural and linguistic ties to its neighbors, it is Bhutan where India has played the most dominant role, all but dictating its foreign and economic policy, and being its dominant benefactor and trade partner.

    Enter China with its Belt and Road initiative, it’s “Marshall Plan” to underwrite and build massive infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa and Europe. In South Asia, Beijing has been calling on governments with offers of investments, loans and economic partnerships, talking to countries who lack resources for roads, bridges and ports. As a result, they have been very receptive.

    India has been so concerned that it has tripled its foreign aid over the past seven years — the most going to what it sees as its buffer state of Bhutan — and upped its own offer of loans, infrastructure projects and other economic and military cooperation.

    Last year, the rivalry came to a head.

    New Delhi has long had an interest in protecting the so-called narrow “chicken neck” near Bhutan that connects northeastern India to the rest of the country. Last year, Indian troops stopped Chinese forces from building a road on Bhutanese-controlled land on the Doklam plateau that Beijing has long claimed, stoking fears of a repeat of the Sino-Indian border war of the early 1960s. Both sides stood down after talks.

    In Bhutan, many now see China as the future.

    “China is beneficial for us,” said Shyam Parajuli, 46, who sells gifts and knickknacks, often to Chinese tourists, in Thimphu. “They pay a good price for the goods they buy here. Indians don’t, because they know every inch of this country very well.”

    Some voters thought it would be a boon for local business.

    “We get most of the business-related items from India but recently China has started giving us cheap products which make the trade cheaper, and many people prefer cheap products here,” said Sangay Choden, a middle-aged teacher in Thimphu. “If we get more trade goods from China on regular basis, we may be able to do more business with more profit.”

    Other noted, however, that India provides Bhutan with crucial aid and the lion’s share of its commerce.

    “We enjoy Indian liquors in the bars here, thinking how to loosen the Indian hold around our neck,” said Pushpa Gurung, a 28-year-old aspiring fashion model.

    Many Bhutanese, resenting recent pressure by India to limit relations with Beijing, insist they are not worried of becoming another Tibet — the remote land incorporated into China after Mao’s takeover in the late 1940s. That development was one reason why Bhutan drew closer to India in the first place. The world has changed since then, said Thimphu-based political blogger Yeshey Dorji, 63.

    “We are not worried about China entering Bhutan — this is not the 1950s or 1970s,” Mr. Dorji said. “If China wants to enter Bhutan, they will employ economic means — as does India, to subjugate Bhutan. Once our boundary issues are sorted out, China will be as good a neighbor as any other country.”

    • Jabeen Bhatti reported from Berlin; John Dyer in Boston contributed to this report.

  • Israel retaliates on Hamas targets in Zeitoun, Tel Al-Hawa

    From certain parts of this crowded city, one doesn’t hear rockets like the salvo fired from the Gaza Strip in the twilight hours of Wednesday morning, nor the more than two dozen retaliatory strikes b

    GAZA CITY, Gaza — From certain parts of this crowded city, one doesn’t hear rockets like the salvo fired from the Gaza Strip in the twilight hours of Wednesday morning, nor the more than two dozen retaliatory strikes by the Israeli Defense Forces shortly after.

    The electricity was out in the hotel across from the sea, a regular occurrence. The street was quiet, and there was no internet service, limiting what residents here can learn of the violence raging just blocks away.

    In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Hamas terrorists fired a rocket towards Israel and made a direct hit on a home in the city of Beersheva, gutting the second floor. While there were no injuries, a mother and her children who had hid in their bomb shelter were treated for “shock” — an all-encompassing term for the nervous breakdown that occurs for people in this area experiencing frequent near-death experiences.

    In retaliation, Israeli fighter jets targeted at least 12 Hamas military targets in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood and Zeitoun, close to Gaza City. The targets included tunnel-digging sites and a factory used for the manufacturing of aerial weaponry, according to the office of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman.

    In the south of the Strip, the IDF targeted tunnel digging sites and a maritime terror tunnel shaft in Khan Yunis, and weapon manufacturing factories in Rafah, the Gazan city on the border with Egypt.

    The IDF also released video footage Wednesday showing a strike on a terrorist squad that attempted to launch rockets at an Israeli community in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, an area that borders Gaza to the north.

    In the video, a man in sandals, white pants and a long sleeve shirt is seen setting up a launching pad for a rocket. Another man with blue jeans, a black shirt and a gray vest is seen loading a rocket into a launcher before the entire site explodes with the IDF attack.

    “This, sadly, is the normal here in Gaza — and there’s no major impact other than it just keeps the level of anxiety and nervousness very high,” said Matthias Schamle, the director of operations for UNRWA Gaza, the troubled U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees, in an interview. As Mr. Schamle spoke in his office in Gaza City, Hamas members milled about outside.

    Border closings at Erez, the main crossing point in the north, and Kerem Shalom in the south, can affect the delivery of needed materials from Israel into the Gaza Strip, he said.

    “I keep saying, more broadly, that things remain tense here and that we don’t think anyone wants war — on either the Israeli or Palestinian side here — but incidents by hotheads, if I may call it this way, on either side could trigger a war,” he said.

    Border closings and the threat of a war could complicate travel around the Gaza Strip, complicating efforts by a reporter to get a full picture of the conflict.

    An Israeli press office in Jerusalem confirms the closure of the border but offers no information on when it would be open.

    “That’s above my pay grade,” said one IDF spokesman.

    Electricity was inconsistent on a three-day visit to the densely populated Palestinian enclave, a reality Gazans have become accustomed to and a challenge by shop, restaurant and cafe owners meet with their own generators.

    By mid-morning after the exchange of fire, the streets of Gaza City were packed with cars and people — young men and women heading to the Islamic University of Gaza and Al-Azhar University. An email from the Israeli Government Press Office announced that the Erez crossing had re-opened, but only until 3:30 p.m.

    Without electricity, no stoplights work and people tend to drive through intersections with little regard for stopping, making the drive to the crossing before it closed a hazard in itself.

    At the Erez crossing, the first checkpoint on the Gaza side is controlled by Hamas.

    In October 2017, a little over a year to the day, the Palestinian government in Ramallah signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas that would slowly transfer governing authority of the Gaza Strip back to the recognized PA government. The first step, in those early days, was for PA security forces to take over the Erez crossing.

    But that arrangement quickly broke down, as Hamas officals — distrusting the P.A. — set up their own makeshift checkpoint, complete with desks, laptops, and photocopy machines inside two office trailers.

    After a few minutes of conversation, a reporter was allowed to proceed through a gate, but still needed to take a $5 taxi ride half a mile to the Palestinian Authority checkpoint. The second check goes more quickly and border-crossers leave with no stamps in their passport.

    The Israeli checkpoint was still another mile to travel. A young Palestinian with a motorcycle and a trailer gave offered a lift. At the Israeli entrance were six heavy metal sliding doors, which remained shut and monitored by a security camera

    The hulking concrete of the security fence erected by Israel stretches out into the distance on either side of the crossing terminal. After a few minutes the doors creaked, slid open, and a traveler was back in Israel.

  • Jamal Khashoggi killing sparked by Muslim Brotherhood ties

    The prevailing narrative about the bizarre case of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is that Saudi Arabia’s hard-charging young crown prince ordered him kidnapped and perhaps killed in order

    The prevailing narrative about the bizarre case of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is that Saudi Arabia’s hard-charging young crown prince ordered him kidnapped and perhaps killed in order to silence a particularly effective critic who wrote widely read, disparaging columns about the royal family and the crown prince’s own ambitious reform agenda.

    But Middle East insiders say some deeper subplots played into Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance — stemming from his long career of political activism, ties to Saudi intelligence and Mr. Khashoggi’s past relationship with the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood.

    Mr. Khashoggi, who was 59 when he disappeared at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, is said to have withdrawn years ago from any formal affiliation with the Brotherhood, but his past ties to the transnational Islamist group are believed to have been a source of distrust for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

    The 33-year-old prince branded the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and one of his signature moves as heir to the Saudi throne was to cut off all ties with the rival Gulf nation of Qatar. The prince blames Doha for financing the Muslim Brotherhood to foment unrest against the powers that be across the Arab world, in particular Saudi Arabia.

    Since leaving Saudi Arabia for self-imposed exile in the U.S. last year, Mr. Khashoggi has worked to create an advocacy group called Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) to promote Arab Spring-style freedom movements across the Middle East.

    Some say Mohammed, who has a reputation for quickly identifying and crushing any threats to his authority, was well aware of Mr. Khashoggi’s political activities and likely more concerned about them than his journalistic efforts as a columnist for The Washington Post.

    Longtime regional analyst and former Wall Street Journal publisher Karen Elliott House said in the newspaper this week: “Those who watch the crown prince closely say he is determined to pre-empt any hint of possible disruption before it can materialize.

    “So Mr. Khashoggi’s decision to register in the U.S. a new political organization, perhaps funded by Saudi regional rivals, might have triggered this action,” wrote Ms. House, who is also the author of an influential 2012 book on Saudi Arabia.

    The New York Times, citing interviews with longtime friends of Mr. Khashoggi, reported that he was in the midst of raising money for DAWN when he disappeared in Turkey, whose own government is a rival to Saudi Arabia in the Muslim world and has close ties to Qatar and to the Muslim Brotherhood.

    Qatar has not commented on claims by Turkish officials that Mr. Khashoggi was killed by a Saudi “hit squad.” The crown prince, meanwhile, has denied any knowledge of what happened and has pledged to support a transparent investigation into the journalist’s disappearance.

    Meeting bin Laden

    Mr. Khashoggi had a long and varied career in Saudi affairs before he became a U.S.-based opinion writer, including working on and off for the Saudi government.

    The Khashoggi name was well-known in U.S. government circles long before Jamal Khashoggi came onto the scene. His uncle Adnan Khashoggi was a noted global arms dealer implicated in the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra scandal.

    Jamal Khashoggi reportedly engaged in occasional work for Saudi intelligence during the era of Prince Turki al-Faisal, who headed Riyadh’s spy agencies from 1979 until just before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

    As a younger man in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Khashoggi considered himself a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which analysts often describe as a foundational group behind the emergence of al Qaeda.

    In his 30s, Mr. Khashoggi drew international attention for interviewing Osama bin Laden. According to the 2007 book “The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” Mr. Khashoggi met with the emerging terrorist leader in Sudan in 1995 and pressured him to disavow violence.

    “I was aware of Jamal for many years, during his tenure as a reporter and editor,” Warren David, the founder of the U.S.-based media organization Arab America, wrote on the organization’s website Wednesday.

    Mr. David described Mr. Khashoggi as a “man of principle and integrity” who believed in the promotion of democracy in the Arab world and as someone steeped in the challenges of navigating the tumultuous media scene in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East.

    “Jamal could speak from experience. He was the editor-in-chief of the Al-Arab News Channel, owned by Saudi prince and philanthropist, Al Waleed bin Talal Abdulaziz al Saud,” Mr. David wrote. “After the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, Prince Waleed founded the channel which would focus on freedom of speech and democratic media.

    “In February of 2015, Al-Arab News Channel debuted in Bahrain under the leadership of Jamal Khashoggi. On the first day of broadcast, the opposition leader of Bahrain’s uprisings was interviewed,” wrote Mr. David. “Shockingly, within a couple of hours, the channel’s closure was announced. After searching for a new location, and securing a home for the network in Qatar, Jamal was ready to initiate broadcasting with the new network but was informed by Prince Al Waleed in February 2017 that the channel would never open.”

    ‘Putin-style’ whacking?

    While Mr. Khashoggi often and ironically expressed support for the crown prince’s social and economic reforms, he made no secret of his disgust with Mohammed’s crackdown of perceived critics.

    “With young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power, he … spoke of making our country more open and tolerant,” Mr. Khashoggi wrote in September 2017. “But all I see now is the recent wave of arrests. … The arrested are accused of being recipients of Qatari money and part of a grand Qatari-backed conspiracy.”

    Although the columns were often critical, analysts are at a loss to explain why the Saudi leadership would risk geopolitical blowback and the strains on U.S.-Saudi ties that would result from an operation to kidnap or kill him. Many say Crown Prince Mohammed simply underestimated the reaction the mission would spark.

    Mr. Khashoggi’s “ties to the Muslim Brotherhood do not seem to have involved any links to extremism,” said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “His criticisms of the Saudi government seem to have been limited to the kinds of reforms the kingdom will eventually have to make.

    “In fact, a more enlightened and pragmatic Saudi crown prince might have seen them as actually helping in the near term by acting as a counterweight to the hard-line Saudi conservatives that challenge every [reform],” Mr. Cordesman wrote this week.

    But others say Mr. Khashoggi crossed a line in his columns for The Post.

    David Ottaway, a Middle East fellow at the Wilson Center who knew Mr. Khashoggi for more than 20 years, wrote in The Post on Wednesday that “Khashoggi’s unpardonable sin was to call for debate not about the crown prince’s social reforms, which he wholeheartedly supported, but about the crown prince’s stifling intolerance for anyone who cast even a speck of dirt on his highly polished image as the kingdom’s long-awaited savior.”

    But sources close to the Saudi government insist the crown prince would never go so far as to order an assassination.

    “Saudi policy toward a critic like this is always to buy people off, try to bring them back into the fold,” one source told The Washington Times. “An act like this is totally out of character for the royal family. If it happened, it would be because it was a total [mistake] by some people and there will be consequences.”

    Still others say the prince is a new kind of leader for the tradition-bound, hierarchical kingdom, one who drew global attention last year by engineering a nearly three-month-long house arrest of dozens of fellow princes and leading business figure, including several older relatives within the royal family.

    Joshua Landis, who heads the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said the prince has ushered in a sharp shift in the way Riyadh conducts itself on the world stage.

    “The Saudis may have used money, not force, for decades to get their way with bribes, but that all changed with Mohammed bin Salman,” Mr. Landis said. “Frankly, I don’t put it past him to have put out an order for [Mr. Khashoggi] to be whacked in the same way [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is whacking opponents overseas, because it sends a message and intimidates critics.

    “Every Saudi who might be thinking about speaking up,” he added, “is [now] going to be quiet.”

  • Myanmar demonstrators condemn foreign intervention

    Several thousand pro-military and nationalist demonstrators marched through Yangon on Sunday, voicing their support for Myanmar’s armed forces and government while condemning foreign involvement in th

    YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Several thousand pro-military and nationalist demonstrators marched through Yangon on Sunday, voicing their support for Myanmar’s armed forces and government while condemning foreign involvement in the country’s affairs.

    The march led to a stage lined with portraits of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, where speakers addressed a flag-waving crowd and condemned the international community’s involvement in Myanmar, claiming groups would “fight back” against international bodies who have called for the investigation and prosecution of the country’s top generals.

    “We, the people of Myanmar, strongly denounce and condemn any intervention or intrusion by the foreign countries, international communities and various organizations which unrightfully manipulate our nation and our Myanmar armed forces,” proclaimed one of the speakers of the event, reading from a prepared statement.

    Nationalist monk Wirathu also gave a speech calling for the international community to stay out of Myanmar’s national affairs.

    “The day the International Criminal Court comes to our country, that’s the day R2P (responsibility to protect) comes to our country. That’ll be the day that Wirathu picks up a gun,” Wirathu said.

    A United Nations fact-finding mission reported last month that Myanmar’s military systematically killed thousands of Rohingya Muslim civilians, burned hundreds of their villages and engaged in ethnic cleansing and mass rape. It called for top generals to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide.

    Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay was unable to be reached for comment Sunday.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show that “R2P” refers to “responsibility to protect.”

  • Battles over safe Ebola burials complicate work in Congo

    A runaway hearse carrying an Ebola victim has become the latest example of sometimes violent community resistance complicating efforts to contain a Congo outbreak – and causing a worrying new rise in

    BENI, Congo (AP) — A runaway hearse carrying an Ebola victim has become the latest example of sometimes violent community resistance complicating efforts to contain a Congo outbreak – and causing a worrying new rise in cases.

    The deadly virus’ appearance for the first time in the far northeast has sparked fear. Suspected contacts of infected people have tried to slip away. Residents have assaulted health teams. The rate of new Ebola cases has more than doubled since the start of this month, experts say.

    Safe burials are particularly sensitive as some outraged family members reject the intervention of health workers in the deeply personal moment, even as they put their own lives at risk.

    On Wednesday, a wary peace was negotiated over the body of an Ebola victim, one of 95 deaths among 170 confirmed cases so far, Congo’s health ministry said. Her family demanded that an acquaintance drive the hearse, while they agreed to wear protective gear to carry the casket. A police vehicle would follow.

    On the way to the cemetery, however, the hearse peeled away “at full speed,” the ministry said. A violent confrontation followed with local youth once the hearse was found at the family’s own burial plot elsewhere. The procession eventually reached the cemetery by day’s end.

    The next day, with a better understanding of what was at stake, several family members appeared voluntarily at a hospital for Ebola vaccinations, the ministry said.

    “They swore no one had manipulated the corpse,” it added. Ebola spreads via bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead.

    The Beni community where the confrontation occurred is at the center of Ebola containment efforts. To the alarm of the World Health Organization and others, it is also where community resistance has been the most persistent – and where many of the new cases are found.

    So far, the Ebola work in Beni has been suspended twice since the outbreak was declared on Aug. 1. A “dead city” of mourning in response to a rebel attack caused the first. Wednesday’s violence caused the second. With each pause, crucial efforts to track thousands of possible Ebola contacts can slide, risking further infections.

    Defending themselves, Beni residents have pointed out the shock of having one of the world’s most notorious diseases appear along with strangers in biohazard suits who tell them how to say goodbye to loved ones killed by the virus.

    “Until now we didn’t know enough about Ebola and we felt marginalized when Red Cross agents came in and took the corpse and buried it without family members playing a role,” Beni resident Patrick Kyana, who said a friend lost his father to the virus, told The Associated Press. “It’s very difficult. Imagine that your son dies and someone refuses to let you assist in his burial. In Africa we respect death greatly.”

    Until recently many people in Beni didn’t believe that Ebola existed, thinking it was a government plot to further delay presidential elections, Kizito Hangi, president of Beni’s civil society, told the AP.

    Now the population has started to catch on and cooperate, Hangi said. “The problem was that the health workers all came from outside, but local specialists have been included to persuade and inform people in local languages.”

    The head of emergency Ebola operations with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Jamie LeSueur, acknowledged the problem. In early October two Red Cross volunteers were severely injured in an attack during safe burials in the community of Butemo. Another volunteer was injured in September by people throwing stones.

    “It raised a lot of questions for all of us. Where is the violence coming from?” he said. They have stepped up efforts to collaborate with communities and be clearer about messaging while working within cultural norms as best as possible.

    “Of course there are limitations,” LeSueur said. “Some people like to view the corpse as it is buried but with Ebola it is difficult to open up the body bag.” In the emotionally charged environment where families have lost loved ones, a misstep could quickly raise tensions.

    While Congo’s government is acting to give more protection to its own safe burial teams in Beni, LeSueur noted that the “militarization” of similar efforts in the far deadlier Ebola outbreak in West Africa a few years ago led some residents to hide or not report deaths from the virus.

    “I don’t think that will be the case in this event” but everyone remembers that lesson, he said.

    With its position of neutrality the Red Cross doesn’t use armed guards in any case, LeSueur added. “Community acceptance, that’s our security.”

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    Anna reported from Johannesburg.

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    Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

  • Polish police use tear gas to protect gay rights march

    Polish police used tear gas and a water cannon Saturday against right-wing extremists who were trying to block the first equality parade in the city of Lublin in eastern Poland.

    WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish police used tear gas and a water cannon Saturday against right-wing extremists who were trying to block the first equality parade in the city of Lublin in eastern Poland.

    More than 1,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activists with rainbow-colored flags and banners gathered Saturday in Lublin for the parade, while around 300 right-wing opponents stood in the march’s way. Police used tear gas, concussion grenades and high-pressured water to disperse them.

    The right-wing protesters pelted police with stones and dispersed, but some small groups tried to get through the police cordon that was protecting the march.

    The colorful parade then proceeded undisturbed.

    The march took place after Lublin’s Court of Appeals on Friday overruled a ban by Mayor Krzysztof Zuk, who had cited security concerns as his reason for banning the parade.

    Gay rights parades have been taking place for years in Warsaw, the capital, and many other cities in predominantly Catholic Poland, but the ruling conservative party is not supportive of gay rights groups.

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    This story has been corrected to show that 300 right-wing extremists tried to block the parade, not 3,000.

  • Saudi stock market plunges after Donald Trump threat over Jamal Khashoggi disappearance

    The Saudi stock market plunged Sunday after President Donald Trump threatened “severe punishment” over the disappearance of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Saudi stock market plunged Sunday after President Donald Trump threatened “severe punishment” over the disappearance of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.

    The Tadawul exchange in Riyadh dropped over 6 percent in the week’s first day of trading, with 182 of its 186 listed stocks showing losses by the early afternoon.

    Turkish officials say they fear Saudi agents killed and dismembered Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, saying they have audio and video recordings of it that they have not released. The kingdom has called the allegations “baseless,” but has offered no evidence the writer ever left the consulate.

    In an interview to be aired Sunday, Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the consequences of Saudi Arabia being involved would be “severe.”

    “There’s something really terrible and disgusting about that, if that was the case, so we’re going to have to see,” Trump said. “We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment.”

    However, Trump in the same interview said: “As of this moment, they deny it and they deny it vehemently. Could it be them? Yes.”

    Saudi officials had no immediate comment on the selloff, though state television aired an interview with an analyst who blamed it on weaker markets in the U.S. However, other stock exchanges in the Mideast saw far less volatility Sunday. U.S. markets have been rattled by rising interest rates, signs of a slowdown in the global economy and the U.S.-China trade dispute.

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has aggressively pitched the kingdom as a destination for foreign investment. But Khashoggi’s disappearance, and suspicions he may have been targeted over his criticism of the crown prince, have led several business leaders and media outlets to back out of an upcoming high-profile investment conference in Riyadh.

    Trump also said “we would be punishing ourselves” by canceling arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which his administration touted on his first overseas trip. The sale is a “tremendous order for our companies,” and if the kingdom doesn’t buy its weaponry from the United States, they will buy it from others, he said. Trump said he would meet with Khashoggi’s family.

    American lawmakers in both parties have been more critical of Saudi Arabia, with several suggesting officials in the kingdom could be sanctioned if they were found to be involved in Khashoggi’s disappearance and alleged killing.

    Khashoggi, who was considered close to the Saudi royal family, had become a critic of the current government and Prince Mohammed, the 33-year-old heir apparent who has shown little tolerance for criticism.

    As a contributor to the Post, Khashoggi has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticism of its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving.

    Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the crown prince, who has also presided over a roundup of activists and businessmen.