Violent anti-government protests that spread across Nicaragua in response to its social security system reforms have claimed more than five lives in three days of rioting, reports said.

The violence follows the decision of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government to push through reforms that would apply a five per cent tax to old-age and disability pensions and increase the contributions paid by both employees and employers.

The reforms, which went into effect on Wednesday, were in response to the financial crisis affecting its National Social Security Institute (INSS), The Guardian reported.

Some reports over Friday night put the death toll between five and 10. Consecutive governments have been accused of using the INSS as a source of “petty cash”.

Rosario Murillo, the vice-president and wife of President Daniel Ortega, has defended the reforms in national radio address.

Murillo has comparing the protests to “vampires, needing blood to feed their political agendas”.

Alleged fraud in electoral processes have allowed Ortega to control the country’s national assembly and make important constitutional changes, including his own right to serve more than two terms as president.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said building up the presence of the United Nations (UN) in Syria deserves attention as it will help collect reliable information.

Russia cannot accept the situation that UN agencies produce reports and statements based on information from other sources than UN’s own ones, he said at a joint press conference on Friday following talks with visiting UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, Xinhua reported.

Lavrov criticised the US-led missile strikes on Syria last week as they undermined the Geneva talks for the Syrian settlement under the auspices of the UN at a time when Russia, Turkey and Iran very closely approached the resumption of the Geneva process.

He asked the UN to step up humanitarian aid to the Syrian people and help with the reconstruction of housing, infrastructure and facilities of the war-torn country’s national economy.

De Mistura said at the press conference he was pleased that Russia remains committed to pushing for a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.

He said the deconfliction mechanism between Russian and the US forces in Syria has been effective and should continue.

De Mistura expressed the hope that experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will visit Douma district near the Syrian capital of Damascus as soon as possible to investigate an alleged chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government forces.

The US, Britain and France launched intensive missile attacks on Syria on April 14, saying the move was in response to the alleged chemical weapon attack.

Damascus denied the accusation and Russia said its military experts found no traces of toxic substances in Douma.

The OPCW experts are now in Syria for the investigation, but so far they have not visited Douma.

Western countries accused Russia of hindering the OPCW investigation, while Moscow said that the experts cannot enter the area due to a lack of the UN’s permission over safety concerns following the US-led strikes.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) in China launched a database on Friday for stolen foreign antiques to prevent them from entering and circulating in the country.

The administration will go on to ask entry-exit examination offices to intensify the supervision over the entry and exit of stolen foreign antiques, Xinhua reported.

It also called on professional institutions, practitioners and the public to check the database from time to time, to avoid the purchase or sale of such items.

The damage to cultural heritage has become a common challenge for the international community, and the stealing and trafficking of antiques has damaged the historical and cultural legacy of many countries, the SACH said in the statement.

Last year, the administration joined with the Ministry of Public Security in a similar platform for stolen Chinese antiques.

Since 2008, the SACH has made public information on over 6,900 stolen foreign antiques.

 (07:34) 

Beijing, April 21 (IANS) The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) in China launched a database on Friday for stolen foreign antiques to prevent them from entering and circulating in the country.

The administration will go on to ask entry-exit examination offices to intensify the supervision over the entry and exit of stolen foreign antiques, Xinhua reported.

It also called on professional institutions, practitioners and the public to check the database from time to time, to avoid the purchase or sale of such items.

The damage to cultural heritage has become a common challenge for the international community, and the stealing and trafficking of antiques has damaged the historical and cultural legacy of many countries, the SACH said in the statement.

Last year, the administration joined with the Ministry of Public Security in a similar platform for stolen Chinese antiques.

Since 2008, the SACH has made public information on over 6,900 stolen foreign antiques.

(Ians)

The Trump administration has unveiled a new policy that could vastly expand sales of armed drones, making it easier to put American-made weapons into the hands of US allies and partners.

With the plan that was rolled out on Thursday, the administration sought to lift — what it viewed — as self-imposed policy restrictions that limited potential opportunities for business, the New York Times reported.

However, according to experts, the move posed grave risks to US security as the newly-released conventional arms transfer policy will put jobs and the interests of arms manufacturers ahead of safety, security and human rights in its decisions on who the US should arm.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has shown an “insatiable appetite” for selling American weaponry abroad — at times using face-to-face meetings with global leaders to make a personal sales pitch.

Under the new Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) policy and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) export policy, private US defence companies will now be allowed to directly sell certain types of conventional weapons and a broader range of unmanned drones to allies without having to go through the US government, CNN reported.

Trump seemed to foreshadow the new policies during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday when he said at a that after allies order weapons from the US, “we will get it taken care of, and they will get their equipment rapidly”.

“It would be, in some cases, years before orders would take place because of bureaucracy with Department of Defence, State Department.

“We are short-circuiting that. It’s now going to be a matter of days. If they’re our allies, we are going to help them get this very important, great military equipment,” Trump said.

The biggest change announced involved the sale of larger armed drones like the Predator and the Reaper, which were the workhorses of the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan and the tribal regions of Pakistan.

Former President Barack Obama embraced the weapons but was also so troubled by such remote warfare tools that he placed unusual restrictions on their sale, the Times report said.

“The new drone export policy will keep our defence industrial base in the vanguard of emerging defence technologies while creating thousands of additional jobs with good wages and generating substantial export revenues,” said Peter Navarro, assistant to the President for trade and manufacturing policy.

Under the old policy, only Britain, France and Italy were approved to purchase armed drones, said Dan Gettinger, co-director of the Centre for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.

As more countries are approved, “the risk is that countries may be more willing to use military force when they can do so without risking their own people”, Gettinger said.

(Ians)

Syria has returned to France the top Légion d’honneur presented to President Bashar al-Assad in 2001, saying he would not wear the award of a country that was a “slave” to the US.

The move came days after France said a “disciplinary procedure” for withdrawing the award was under way, the BBC reported.

France had joined the US and the UK in bombing Syrian targets in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on Douma, the last rebel-held town in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus. More than 70 people were reportedly killed in the April 7 attack.

Former French President Jacques Chirac had decorated Assad with the highest class of the award, the grand-croix, after the latter took power following the death of his father.

“It is no honour for President Assad to wear a decoration attributed by a slave country and follower of the US that supports terrorists,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The other recipients of the award included former dictators Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Tunisia’s ousted former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali received it in 1989 and Russian President Vladimir Putin got it in 2006.

So far, only one foreign leader, former Panamian President Manuel Norriega, has been stripped of the honour. Under French President Emmanuel Macron, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was also stripped of the award after a series of accusations of sexual harassment and rape.

China on Friday backed its all-weather ally Pakistan and called on the international community to support its counter terrorism efforts after Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the neighbouring country as a “terror export factory”.
PTIUpdated:April 20, 2018, 3:16 PM IST facebookTwittergoogleskype

China Jumps to Pakistan’s Defence After Modi’s ‘Terror Export Factory’ Remarks File photo of Pakistan and China Flags.
Beijing: China on Friday backed its all-weather ally Pakistan and called on the international community to support its counter terrorism efforts after Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the neighboring country as a “terror export factory”.

“Terrorism is the enemy faced by all. The international community should work together to fight against it,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said during a media briefing here, when asked about China’s response to Modi terming Pakistan as a “terror export factory” during a speech in London.

“We hope the international community could support the efforts made by Pakistan in counter terrorism and forge effective cooperation with it in that regard,” Hua said putting up a strong defence for China’s all-weather ally.

While speaking at the ‘Bharat Ki Baat, Sabke Saath’ programme at the iconic Central Hall Westminster in London on Wednesday, warning Pakistan, Modi had said India will not tolerate those who export terror and will respond to them in the language they understand, referring to the 2016 surgical strikes conducted across the LoC.

“When someone has put a terror export factory in place and makes attempts to attack us from the back, Modi knows how to answer in the same language,” he had said.

Hua’s comment also came ahead of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here, to be held early next week.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is arriving here tomorrow to take part in the meeting to be held on April 24. She is due to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Sunday.

Separately Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman too will attend the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting on the same day.

These are the first meetings of the SCO after India and Pakistan were admitted into the eight-member group in which China and Russia play an influential role. Both events are to be attended by the respective Ministers from Pakistan.

SCO consists China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Modi is also due to attend this year’s SCO summit to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.
Hua said issues related to terrorism will be discussed at the meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers.

“We believe it is a purpose of the SCO to promote relevant cooperation in that field. Security has been a priority of the SCO since its inception,” she said.

“So the upcoming SCO Foreign Ministers meeting will see participants exchanging views on the relevant issues, major international and regional issues and all the participants will uphold the Shanghai sprit to consolidate more consensus and to move forward the development of the SCO,” she said.

US President Donald Trump has said he’d bring up Japan’s sensitive abductees issue when he meets North Korea top leader Kim Jong-un in an upcoming historic meeting.

“I suspect Trump will raise the subject if there is a meeting. Of course, his priority will be the three American hostages held by North Korea,” Xinhua news agency reported quoting Douglas Paal, Vice President for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“There have also been reports from North Korea that the regime believes the abductees question has been settled, so expectations for concrete results are low even though emotions still run high,” said Paal.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe concluded his two-day working visit to the US on Wednesday. During a meeting with Trump, Abe scored a major win when Trump promised he’d bring up the issue during the upcoming historic meeting with Kim.

The issue has been ongoing for some 40 years.

“Trump should raise the issue of Japanese abductees with Kim, but in the context of a broader, lasting peace in the region,” said Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, a Washington-based non-profit policy research institution.

“While the focus of the upcoming talks will be denuclearisation, if there is to be a sustainable peace in the region afterwards, North Korea will need to resolve issues such as the abductees in addition to denuclearising,” Stangarone told Xinhua.

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West said that it would not be difficult for North Korea to address the abductees issue.

“It should be easy for North Korea to address the abductees issue. So I would anticipate progress there,” he said.

(Ians)

The strike against the jihadists was conducted on Haider al-Abadi’s order “because of the danger they pose to Iraqi territory,” a statement said.

The Iraqi air force on Thursday carried out a “deadly raid” against positions of the ISIS group in neighbouring Syria, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office said.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has asked Commonwealth leaders gathered at Buckingham Palace for the opening of a major summit to appoint her son Prince Charles to succeed her as their head.

She said it was her “sincere wish” that Prince Charles takes over “one day”, as she opened the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) attended by 53 member countries in London on Thursday, the BBC reported.

The Queen said that her son should follow her and lead the organisation which her father, King George VI, founded after the end of the British Empire.

The role is not hereditary and will not pass automatically to Charles, the Prince of Wales, on the Queen’s death. The Commonwealth leaders will make a decision on the succession on Friday, No 10 Downing Street said.

“It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations, and will decide that one day the Prince of Wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949,” she told the leaders.

Over 100 officers and soldiers from the Coldstream Guards were in honour guard outside the venue, wearing scarlet tunics and bearskins, as a 53 gun salute marked the formal opening.

Issues under discussion at the two-day summit included ocean conservation, cyber security and trade between the countries.

Prime Minister Theresa May told the leaders the summit would “take on some of the 21st Century’s biggest questions”.

Speaking in the ballroom, which was decorated with the flags of the 53 nations, May said: “There have been difficulties, successes, controversies, but I believe wholeheartedly in the good that the Commonwealth can do.”

She also thanked the Queen for hosting the event, calling her a “steadfast and fervent champion” of the Commonwealth.

The ceremony was attended by 46 Commonwealth heads of government, out of the 53 member states, with the remaining attendees being Foreign Ministers.

In his speech, the 69-year-old Prince said: “For my part, the Commonwealth has been a fundamental feature of my life for as long as I can remember, beginning with my first visit to Malta when I was just five years old.

“The modern Commonwealth has a vital role to play in building bridges between our countries.”

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and Prince William were among the other royals in attendance.

(IANS)

McDougal said she was in love with Trump and the affair started not long after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron.
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal reached an agreement on Wednesday with tabloid publisher American Media Inc that will allow her to speak freely about an affair she alleges she had with US President Donald Trump, the company said in a statement.

McDougal filed suit in California last month seeking to be released from a deal reached in 2016 with AMI, publisher of the National Enquirer, that gave the company exclusive rights to her story in exchange for USD 150,000.

“AMI is pleased that we reached an amicable resolution with Ms. McDougal today that provides both sides what they wanted as a result,” the company said in a statement.

Representatives for McDougal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the deal, AMI said it would have the right to receive up to USD 75,000 of any future profits from the sale of her story about the alleged 10-month affair, which she says started in 2006.

McDougal will also appear on the September 2018 cover of Men’s Journal magazine, which will include a feature-length article about her, the company said.

In an interview with CNN that aired last month, McDougal said she was in love with Trump and the affair started not long after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron.

The White House has said that Trump denies having an affair with McDougal.

AMI has said McDougal was permitted to speak about her relationship with Trump in response to “legitimate press inquiries.”

McDougal had argued in her lawsuit that the agreement was an illegal corporate donation from AMI to the Trump campaign that violated federal election law.

American Media head David Pecker has described Trump as a “personal friend.”

Trump has been engaged in a legal battle with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who says she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has sued Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen to be released from a 2016 agreement not to publicly discuss the alleged sexual encounter in exchange for USD 130,000.

The White House has denied that Trump had sex with Daniels.