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Veteran leftist MP Corbyn voted leader of UK opposition

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Jeremy Corbyn, critic of austerity and military intervention, elected to lead Labour Party with 59.5 percent of ballot.

Corbyn has been an outspoke critic of the British government's austerity policies [Reuters]

Corbyn has been an outspoke critic of the British government’s austerity policies [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The UK’s opposition Labour Party has elected veteran left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn to be its new leader, in one of the most controversial leadership votes in recent British political history.

The announcement of Corbyn’s success brings to close a bitterly fought contest, which could herald the start of renewed divisions within the party between those in support of his anti-austerity platform, and those advocating a further shift away from the left.

Corbyn won the vote in the first round, picking up 251,417 or 59.5 percent of votes cast.

In a speech delivered after the announcement of his victory, Corbyn said his first act as leader of the party would be to attend a protest demanding better treatment of refugees.

“They are the generational victims of war, who end up in desperation, end up in terrible places, end up trying to get a place of safety … they are human beings just like you, just like me,” Corbyn said.

“Let’s deal with the refugee crisis with humanity, with support, with help, with compassion … we cannot go on like this with grotesque levels of global inequality.”

Corbyn said he would take the ruling Conservative Party to task for its cuts to welfare payments and public services, which he blamed for rising poverty in the UK.

“The Tories (Conservatives) have used the economic crisis of 2008 to impose a terrible burden on the poorest people in this country … it’s not right, it’s not necessary and it’s got to change,” Corbyn said.

The MP for the London constituency of Islington North, also thanked a number of trade unions for their backing during his leadership campaign.

Corbyn’s support base derived largely from left-leaning members, and from new members who joined the party after its crushing election defeat in May.

Labour’s new leader also slammed coverage of his campaign by the British press, many sections of which have cast him as economically dangerous.

Andy Burnham, Corbyn’s nearest competitor, received 19 percent of the ballots cast. MP Tom Watson was elected Corbyn’s deputy.

As refugee aid falters, European leaders pursue military action at sea

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Led by Britain, European leaders ask United Nations Security Council to approve military targeting of ‘human smugglers’ along route from Libya

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

As their humanitarian response to the ongoing refugee crisis falters, European leaders are pressing the United Nations Security Council to authorized an escalated military force to pursue so-called “human smugglers” in the Mediterranean Sea’s international waters.

The effort to advance the draft resolution is, according to Foreign Policy, being led by Britain, whose government has come under fire for “turning its back” on people seeking refuge from war and poverty.

Specifically, the plan would approve military action in international waters along a route from the coast of Libya to Italy, according to reports from the New York Times on the proposal, which will soon be circulated within the UNSC.

The route is commonly used to transport people fleeing West Africa, Eritrea, and Afghanistan, while Syrians are increasingly using a pathway that passes through Turkey.According to an unnamed Security Council diplomat quoted by The New York Times, the proposal stipulates for seized boats to be taken to Italy, where the refugees aboard would then be considered for asylum.

The plan is less severe than a previous proposal, circulated by Britain last spring, that would have allowed European military forces to pursue “human smugglers” in Libyan waters and even on the country’s soil. Britain eventually abandoned the measure after failing to secure Libyan approval.

However, many have argued that military targeting of “smuggling” networks would neither deter nor help refugees, who undergo tremendous hardship and risk their lives in a bid to escape war and poverty. The UN refugee agency recently declared they do not expect the influx of refugees to Europe to slow.

Going further, many observers argue a military response is the polar opposite of the humanitarian response wealthy nations owe refugees. “A whole generation of people are putting themselves in debt to be smuggled into Europe, only to be thrown out,” UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants Francois Crepeau told Al Jazeera last month. “That is a really ridiculous transfer of wealth… We can help people by giving them better options.”

The Britain-led resolution is not the only effort underway to ramp up Europe’s military response to the humanitarian crisis. The European Council agreed in May to another plan to escalate military targeting of so-called smugglers, by giving a European maritime force the power to seize vessels. The Council is continuing to press Libya to approve pursuit on their soil.

The proposed military campaigns at sea have been accompanied by parallel efforts on land, with some EU leaders already tightening borders, and Hungary moving forward with a 110-mile razor wire fence to bar refugees from entry—while also bolstering its military at the border.

What’s more, elected leaders across Europe and the world are using the humanitarian crisis to justify military escalation towards Syria, despite warnings that there is no military solution to the hardships refugees endure.

Dramatic rescues as tsunami-like flood hits Japan city

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More than 100,000 flee homes after Kinugawa river breaks banks, leaving houses submerged and residents stranded.

The building of an open-air spa, right, that belongs to Kinugawa Plaza Hotel, falls into the rapid stream of the Kinugawa River swollen by heavy rainfall in Nikko, northeast of Tokyo [Kyodo News/AP]

The building of an open-air spa, right, that belongs to Kinugawa Plaza Hotel, falls into the rapid stream of the Kinugawa River swollen by heavy rainfall in Nikko, northeast of Tokyo [Kyodo News/AP]

by Al Jazeera

Military helicopters have plucked residents from the top floors of their homes after raging floodwaters poured in and inundated a wide swath of a city north of Tokyo.

As heavy rain pummelled Japan for a second straight day, the Kinugawa River broke through a flood berm on Thursday, sending a tsunami-like wall of water into Joso, about 50km northeast of Japan’s capital.

The flooding has forced more than 100,000 people from their homes, at least 17 people were injured. Two people were missing.

A 63-year-old woman was missing in a landslide that hit her home while a man in his 70s in Joso was feared trapped when water engulfed his home, NHK national television said.

Earlier, NHK showed aerial footage of rescuers lowered from helicopters and clambering onto second-floor balconies to reach stranded residents.

In one dramatic rescue by a military helicopter, the rescuer could be seen descending four times over about a 20-minute period to take four people up one-by-one, as a deluge of water swept around the home.

Yuko Yoshida from the Japanese Red Cross told Al Jazeera that the exact number of those in need of emergency rescue was not known because many people had evacuated before the rains came in.

“From our assumptions, the government has managed this situation well. Medical facilities are operating,” Yoshida said.

Woman missing

Elsewhere in the region, one woman was missing hours after a landslide hit houses at the foot of a steep, wooded incline. Bullet train services were partially suspended.

Others waved cloths from their veranda as torrents of water around them washed away cars and knocked buildings off their foundations.

Tokyo was also drenched with rain, but the hardest-hit area was to the north in Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures.

The rain came on the heels of Tropical Storm Etau, which caused similar flooding and landslides Wednesday as it crossed central Japan.

The Fire and Disaster and Management Agency said 15 people were injured by Etau, two seriously. Both  were elderly women knocked over by strong winds.

Al Jazeera’s weather forecaster, Everton Fox, said the worst of the rains would clear within the next 12 to 18 hours, adding that by Friday the downpour will have largely stopped.

“The floods are likely to peak for some time because the run off from the higher ground will seep through for a couple of days and then we can expect a gradual improvement in the situation,” Fox said.

A man carries belongings through a flooded street in Oyama, northeast of Tokyo on Thursday [Kyodo News/AP]

EU sets deadline to relocate 160,000 refugees

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EU Commission President Juncker calls on member nations to agree on plan by next week as he unveils $2bn refugee fund.

eu-refugee

by Al Jazeera

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called on EU countries to agree by next week to share 160,000 refugees, as thousands continued to stream across European borders, fleeing from war and persecution.

In an impassioned appeal on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Juncker unveiled a list of new proposals to help Europe confront its biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

The plan, which will see Germany and France take in the lion’s share of refugees, is likely to run into serious resistance from some member states.

Juncker warned that Greece, Italy and Hungary, where most of the refugees are currently camped out, can no longer cope alone.

“It is time for bold, determined action by the European Union,” Juncker told EU lawmakers, noting that some 500,000 migrants have entered Europe this year, many from conflict-torn Syria and Libya.

In his proposal, Juncker wants 22 of the member states to accept another 120,000 people, on top of the 40,000 already agreed upon in June, bringing the total number to 160,000.

All the 120,000 additional refugees are currently in Greece, Italy and Hungary. Under the new proposal Germany will take in 31,443 refugees; France, 24,031; Spain, 14,931; Poland, 9,287; and The Netherlands, 7,214. Other member nations will take the rest based on wealth, population, unemployment rate and the number of asylum applicants already processed.

“It is a matter of humanity and human dignity,” Juncker said.

“We are fighting against Islamic State, why are we not ready to accept those who are fleeing Islamic State?” he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group that has taken over territories in Iraq and Syria.

“It is high time to act, to manage the refugee crisis, because there is no alternative. No rhetoric. Action is what is needed for the time.”

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Strasbourg, said the EU leader “told it like it is”, making the point that many Europeans themselves have been refugees at in recent years.

Stiff resistance

Under the proposal, countries refusing to take in refugees could face financial penalties.

Germany, which hosts the largest number of refugees, has already backed the idea. It has welcomed Syrian refugees, waiving EU rules and saying it expects to deal with more than 800,000 asylum seekers this year alone.

Italy, which is one of the main arrival points for thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean is also in favour and so are France and Spain.

But the plan has met stiff opposition from countries like Hungary, which is building a fence to keep refugees away from its borders.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from the Roszke on the Hungarian Serbian border on Wednesday, said Hungary has already clamped down on refugees crossing the country, and has stopped providing information to countries like Austria about the movement of refugees.

Its neighbours, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Slovak Republic have also said that mandatory and permanent quotas would be unacceptable.

Following Juncker’s speech on Wednesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Europe does not need a new plan to deal with the crisis, and instead stick to an earlier agreement.

“It is necessary to move from negotiating tables to action and to work hard on those measures that we have approved with other EU leaders and agreed on in the past months,” Sobotka said in a statement.

The EU’s first refugee plan never won full support, and only around 32,000 refugees have been allocated. Hungary was among the countries to reject it, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

Juncker wants both plans endorsed on Monday at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels. “This has to be done in a compulsory way,” he said.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the new plan and also called for it to be made compulsory.

On Monday, France threw its weight behind the EU plan by saying that it would take in 24,000 refugees this year, exactly the figure the new scheme calls for.

Britain, which is not taking part, announced separately that it would welcome up to 20,000 refugees currently in countries outside of the EU over the next five years.

On Wednesday, the Commission also unveiled a plan to set up a $2bn fund to help African nations better manage their borders and help reduce the number of refugees heading for Europe.

Australia to strike ISIL in Syria and take refugees

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Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Australia will target armed group within days, and accept 12,000 Syrians and Iraqis.

Abbott reversed on comments made on Sunday, when he said Australia was not planning to boost the overall intake of refugees [EPA]

Abbott reversed on comments made on Sunday, when he said Australia was not planning to boost the overall intake of refugees [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Australia has announced it will launch air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group targets in Syria within days and resettle an additional 12,000 refugees from the deepening humanitarian and security crisis in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott also announced Wednesday that his government will pay an additional $31m to support 240,000 Syrians and Iraqis in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

On Sunday, Abbott said Australia would allocate more spaces in its 13,750 annual intake quota to those fleeing violence in Syria, but did not plan to boost the overall intake, sparking criticism from across the political spectrum.

The opposition Labor Party was among the critics, calling for an additional 10,000 refugees to be resettled from Syria.

After Abbott announced an even higher figure on Wednesday, opposition leader Bill Shorten said that the plan had bipartisan support.

The Australian government will give preference to women, children and families from persecuted minorities from Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, Abbott said.

The prime minister also announced that Australia’s involvement in strikes against ISIL, which already take place in Iraq, could extend to Syria within days.

“Destroying this death cult is essential, not just to ending the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East but also to ending the threat to Australia and the wider world,” Abbott said.

The government said the legal basis for extending air operations into Syria was the collective self-defence of Iraq as the armed group did not respect national borders.

“We are exercising the right to collective self-defence under Article 51 of the UN charter in striking Daesh [ISIL] in Syria,” Abbott said, adding that the focus of the campaign would be on ISIL, and not the Assad government.

“We have no legal basis at this point in time for wider strikes in Syria and we don’t intend to make wider strikes in Syria,” he said.

As major culprit in creating crisis, US rebuked for failing refugees

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Observers say the U.S. is not only lagging in its humanitarian response, but also driving the war and conflict behind ongoing displacement

Children rest on the ground at Piraeus harbor in Greece. (Photo: Michael Debets/Pacific/Barcroft )

Children rest on the ground at Piraeus harbor in Greece. (Photo: Michael Debets/Pacific/Barcroft )

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

As refugees are stranded at train stations, attacked by riot police, and killed during the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, Europe’s failure to address the rising humanitarian crisis is being met with global outrage and sorrow.

Now, many are also looking across the Atlantic to the United States, where observers say key responsibility for the crisis lies—not only because the country is lagging in its humanitarian response, but also because its war policies lie at the root of the ongoing displacement.

“Iraqis, Syrians, Palestinians, and Libyans are not running away from their homes because of a natural disaster,” Raed Jarrar, expert on Middle East politics and government relations manager for the American Friends Service Committee, told Common Dreams. “The U.S. should see this crisis as partially caused by its own actions in the region.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at a press briefing on Thursday that the United States sees no “impending policy changes” in light of the worsening crisis. He indicated the U.S. plan will remain focused on lending assistance from afar while letting EU nations take the lead on confronting the crisis. “There is certainly capacity in Europe to deal with this problem,” Earnst said, “and the United States certainly stands with our European partners.”

Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in March 2011, the U.S. estimates it has contributed over $4 billion in aid to those impacted by the conflict. That figure, Earnest declared, is “certainly more than any other country has done.”

But Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Common Dreams that such claims are factually true, yet misleading. First of all, explained Bennis, the European Union donates money as a group. “But more significant,” she continued, “is the fact that the U.S. is—by a high margin—the largest economy in the world, representing somewhere near 25 percent of the global economy. We should be paying 25 percent of whatever the United Nations says it needs, just as a starting point, without blinking. We don’t do that.”

What’s more, many have pointed out that aid dollars pale in comparison to U.S. military spending. Yacoub El Hillo, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Syria, recentlynoted to the New York Times that while the U.S. government spends $68,000 an hour on warplanes targeting ISIS, the UN grapples with dramatic funding shortfalls in which it has less than 50 percent of what it needs to care for Syrians uprooted by war.

Oxfam America is calling on the United States to immediately boost the amount of money it sends to the World Food Program, which warned in mid-August that it is facing “critical funding shortages that forced it to reduce the level of the assistance it provides to some 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.”

And then there is the matter of the refugees themselves. The U.S. has admitted roughly 1,500 Syrian refugees since 2011 and says that it will resettle no more than 8,000 by the end of 2016. In 2013, the last year for which Homeland Security statistics are available, the U.S. granted asylum to just 36 people from Syria.

This puts the U.S. far behind Germany, which has committed to accepting up to 800,000 refugees by the end of this year.

However, even Germany’s commitments pale in comparison to the roughly 4 million Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq—where a refugee crisis has long been brewing. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees now comprise one quarter of the population.

“This is getting attention now because refugees are trying to flood into Europe,” said Bennis. “But this should not just be about how do we support the Europeans.”

The aid group International Rescue Committee is circulating a petition for the the U.S. to resettle at least 65,000 Syrian refugees by 2016, and it has so far garnered nearly 12,000 signatures. And 14 Senate Democrats have joined in the call to “dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement.”

But many insist the ultimate solution lies in creating the conditions that will allow refugees to return home—where U.S.-led policies laid the groundwork for the ongoing violence, including the rise of ISIS.

“The U.S. should consider some immediate humanitarian solutions to ease the suffering of millions of refugees fleeing the Middle East, but we should also keep in mind that humanitarian assistance is not the solution to this crisis,” Jarrar emphasized. “The ultimate solution to the onging refugee crisis is a political solution that will stabilize the region and give refugees the option to go back home.”

Millions at risk as severe drought hits Ethiopia

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Ethiopia says it is managing crisis though UN says number in need has increased by more than 55 percent this year.

sécheresse-afrique

by Al Jazeera

Around 4.5 million Ethiopians could be in need of food aid because of a drought in the country, the UN has said.

Hardest-hit areas are Ethiopia’s eastern Afar and southern Somali regions, while pastures and water resources are also unusually low in central and eastern Oromo region, and northern Tigray and Amhara districts.

Reacting to the UN’s claims that the number in need had increased by more than 55 percent this year, Alemayew Berhanu, spokesman for Ministry of Agriculture, told Al Jazeera that Ethiopia had “enough surplus food at emergency depots and we’re distributing it”.

“When we were informed about the problem, the federal government and the regional state authorities started an outreach programme for the affected people,” he said.

In August, the Ethiopian government said that it had allocated $35m to deal with the crisis that has been blamed on El Niño, a warm ocean current that develops between Indonesia and Peru. The UN says it needs $230m by the end of the year to attend to the crisis.

“The absence of rains means that the crops don’t grow, the grass doesn’t grow and people can’t feed their animals,” David Del Conte, UNOCHA’S chief in Ethiopia, said.

One farmer in the town of Zway told Al Jazeera that he was selling personal belongings to stay alive.

“There is nothing we can do. We don’t have enough crops to provide for our families. We are having to sell our cattle to buy food but the cattle are sick because they don’t have enough to eat,” Balcha, who has a family of nine, and grows corn and wheat, said.

The onset of El Niño means the spatial distribution of rainfall from June to September has being very low. According to the UN children’s agency (UNICEF), the El Niño weather pattern in 2015 is being seen as the strongest of the last 20 years.

Experts say it could be a major problem for the country’s economy, as agriculture generates about half of the country’s income.

Climate shocks are common in Ethiopia and often lead to poor or failed harvests which result in high levels of acute food insecurity.

Approximately 44 percent of children under 5 years of age in Ethiopia are severely chronically malnourished, or stunted, and nearly 28 percent are underweight, according to the CIA World Factbook.

UNICEF says that about 264,515 children will require treatment for acute severe malnutrition in 2015 while 111,076 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition between January and May 2015.

‘Groundbreaking’ torture charges put US rendition tactics in spotlight

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‘We need to see more accountability happening in Canada, in the U.S., in Jordan and in Syria. The ones who tortured and the ones who helped these horrible acts to happen should face justice.’

Maher Arar, pictured, was sent to Syria by the CIA in 2002, where he was imprisoned and tortured. (Photo: Lucas Oleniuk/TORONTO STAR)

Maher Arar, pictured, was sent to Syria by the CIA in 2002, where he was imprisoned and tortured. (Photo: Lucas Oleniuk/TORONTO STAR)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

Canada on Tuesday filed charges against a Syrian intelligence officer for torturing Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen who was handed over to the Syrian government in 2002 by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The whereabouts of the officer, Col. George Salloum, are unknown and it is unlikely that he will be arrested and extradited to Canada to face charges. But Arar’s family said the move by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) signals a newly strengthened opposition to CIA tactics of kidnapping and rendition.

It is also the first formal acknowledgment that Arar was tortured as a terror suspect, although an earlier investigation by the Canadian government in 2006 also cleared him of any links to extremist organizations. Arar’s ordeal became one of the most well-known cases of extraordinary rendition.

“This is a clear message to my husband—and to whoever denied that torture happened—that this is real and that you cannot commit torture [with] impunity,” his wife, Monia Mazigh, said on Tuesday.

The charges are “a big step in the right direction,” Mazigh added. “We need to see more accountability happening in Canada, in the U.S., in Jordan and in Syria. The ones who tortured and the ones who helped these horrible acts to happen should face justice.”

One of Arar’s attorneys, Paul Champ, said the charges were “groundbreaking and historic… critical for a family who have long struggled for justice.”

Salloum reportedly oversaw Arar’s treatment at the notorious Sednaya prison in Damascus. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented Arar in a lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and other U.S. government officials, Arar was sent to the facility after being detained during a layover with his family at John F. Kennedy airport in New York. After nearly two weeks in custody by U.S. authorities, Arar was rendered to Syria, where he remained for almost a year. He was never charged with a crime.

Former U.S. spy and whistleblower John Kiriakou recently revealed that the intelligence agency knew Arar was the wrong guy when they arrested him.

“My husband and my family suffered tremendously all these years,” Mazigh added. “Extraordinary rendition is a horrible tool that has been used by the U.S. government in an attempt to make torture legal and acceptable.”

A statement by the RCMP says the force “will continue to work with its domestic and international law enforcement and security partners in locating Salloum in order to begin the extradition process to bring him to Canada where he will face justice.”

But while Arar’s family and human rights activists welcomed the development, they also emphasized that it did not go far enough.

ACLU Human Rights Program director Jamil Dakwar told The Intercept on Tuesday, “As part of the process of providing Mr. Arar his right to truth, the U.S. government should, as a matter of obligation, open an investigation into the responsibility of U.S. officials in his mistreatment.”

Dakwar continued: “This episode has never been credibly or independently investigated in the United States. If there is evidence of lawbreaking, including complicity in torture, the individuals responsible need to be held criminally responsible, and there needs to be an apology and reparations provided to the victim.”

Icelanders call on government to take in more Syrian refugees

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12,000 in country, which currently accepts just 50 refugees, sign open letter with many saying they would house Syrians in their own homes

A double rainbow at Skogafoss waterfall in Iceland. The country has been named as the most peaceful on earth, with Syria the least. Photograph: Jorunn Sjofn/Rex Shutterstock

A double rainbow at Skogafoss waterfall in Iceland. The country has been named as the most peaceful on earth, with Syria the least. Photograph: Jorunn Sjofn/Rex Shutterstock

by Jessica Elgot, The Guardian

Thousands of Icelanders have called on their government to take in more Syrian refugees – with many offering to accomodate them in their own homes and give them language lessons.

Iceland, which has a population of just over 300,000, has currently capped the number of refugees it accepts at 50.

Author and professor Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir put out a call on Facebook on Sunday asking for Icelanders to speak out if they wanted the government to do more to help those fleeing Syria. More than 12,000 people have responded to her Facebook group “Syria is calling” to sign an open letter to their welfare minister, Eygló Harðar.

Speaking on Iceland’s RÚV television, Bjorgvinsdottir said her country’s attitude was being changed by the tragic news reports. “I think people have had enough of seeing news stories from the Mediterranean and refugee camps of dying people and they want something done now,” she said.

“Refugees are human resources, they have experience and skills,” the Icelandic letter reads.

“Refugees are our future spouses, best friends, or soulmates, the drummer for the band of our children, our next colleague, Miss Iceland in 2022, the carpenter who finally finished the bathroom, the cook in the cafeteria, the fireman, the computer genius, or the television host.”

Many of those posting on the group have said they would offer up their homes and skills to help refugees integrate. “I have clothing, kitchenware, bed and a room in Hvanneyri [western Iceland], which I am happy to share with Syrians,” one wrote. “I would like to work as a volunteer to help welcome people and assist them with adapting to Icelandic society.”

“I want to help one displaced family have the chance to live the carefree life that I do,” another wrote. “We as a family are willing to provide the refugees with temporary housing near Egilsstaðir [eastern Iceland], clothing and other assistance. I am a teacher and I can help children with their learning.”

Iceland’s prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, said he was aware of increasing popular pressure to take in more refugees. “I assume that during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting I will propose the establishment of a special committee of ministers to discuss the problem and evaluate how Icelanders can respond, how we can contribute as much as possible,” he told RÚV.

“It has been our goal in international politics to be of help in as many areas as possible and this is one of the areas where the need is most right now.”

Iceland was recently named the world’s most peaceful country in the Global Peace Index, with Syria the least peaceful.

The open letter and offers of assistance from ordinary citizens reflects a shifting attitude towards refugees in some parts of Europe.

Over the weekend, German football fans held up signs at matches welcoming those fleeing persecution, and the German tabloid Bild, not renowned for its liberal attitudes towards immigration, has taken up the cause. Martin Patzelt, an MP from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party, has temporarily housed two Eritrean refugees in his home in Brandenburg.

Patzelt said he been contacted by many other Germans offering their homes too, but had also received death threats. “I didn’t want any refugees in my life, but they came. And I took the challenge,” he told EU Observer.

Last month, the Guardian reported on the story of a French family in Calais who gave a Syrian refugee food and shelter every night as he attempted to cross to the UK.

About 20,000 people took to the streets of Vienna on Monday to protest against the treatment of refugees, including senior church leaders and politicians, after the bodies of 71 people were found in an abandoned truck last week.

“We’ve had enough – enough of the deaths, the suffering and the persecution,” the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, said.

Nepal police kill protesters amid political unrest

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Clashes during rally against planned new constitution leave at least five demonstrators, who want more autonomy, dead.

More than 20 people have died in protests since those plans were unveiled two weeks ago [Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]

More than 20 people have died in protests since those plans were unveiled two weeks ago [Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Police have killed at least five protesters as demonstrators threw stones and petrol bombs, angry at a new planned constitution.

Kamal Singh Bam, a police official, said on Tuesday that officers had shot and killed four demonstrators in the town of Birjung in Parsa district, 60km south of the capital Kathmandu, when a police post was attacked.

In a separate clash with police, a fifth demonstrator was killed in the neighbouring district of Bara, police official Lokendra Malla said, without giving further details.

Under the constitutional proposals, 22 districts in the southern plains, also known as the Tarai, would be joined with provinces that are dominated by mountain dwellers.

The protesters, mostly from the Madhesi and Tharu minority communities, are demanding that their narrow strip of homeland should not be divided into more than two states.

More than 20 people have died in protests since those plans were unveiled two weeks ago, with members of two large plains communities demanding greater autonomy under the charter.

The government and major political parties hope that the constitution, in the works for seven years, will provide much-needed political stability and bolster economic development in the Himalayan nation, which is still reeling from two devastating earthquakes that killed 8,900 people this year.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has called for talks to tackle the problem, but the protesters insist that the constitutional process must be stopped before any dialogue begins.

Adoption of the charter, which requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, would be followed by elections for a new president, prime minister and speaker.

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