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UN: Only five percent of Nepal quake funds received

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About $22m of $415m requested by UN and partners has been provided so far, amid large number of global crises.

Nepal's post-disaster response has been heavily criticised in the 10 days following the earthquake [Getty Images]

Nepal’s post-disaster response has been heavily criticised in the 10 days following the earthquake [Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

Only a fraction of the emergency funds the United Nations has requested for victims of Nepal’s earthquake have come in, UN officials have said, as crises around the world put unprecedented demands on international donors.

Of the $415 million requested by the UN and its partners last week, just $22.4 million has been provided – about five percent.

“It’s a poor response,” Orla Fagan, spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday.

Fagan attributed the shortage to “donor fatigue”, citing more than a dozen other long-running international crises, such as the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, which are also making demands on donor nations.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck northwest of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on April 25 has killed at least 7,759 people, injured more than 16,000, and destroyed more than 300,000 homes.

Nepal’s post-disaster response has been heavily criticised in the 10 days following the earthquake. Many people in rural areas have still not received any government aid. The UN and Western governments have blamed the country’s bureaucracy for taxing and stalling the flow of supplies at border crossings.

The government, however, has denied those accusations.

“Nepal is a very small country, we have limited resources,” Brigadier General Jagadish Chandra Pokharel told Al Jazeera this week. “The terrain is inaccessible even under ideal circumstances. We have no conflict and good relations, so 90 percent of military personnel are focused on relief efforts.”

David Cameron wins British election with slim majority

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PM Cameron says he will “go on working hard” after his Conservative party defies expectations and wins thin majority.

David Cameron

by Al Jazeera

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party looks set to continue in power after it defied expectations and won the 323 seats needed to command a parliamentary majority.

The results confirmed a shock exit poll projection published by British broadcasters late on Thursday night that put the party way ahead of the opposition Labour Party with 316 seats. Updated projections put the Conservatives on 329, an absolute majority.

The poll also predicted Labour winning 239 seats, the Scottish National Party (SNP) winning 58 and the Liberal Democrats winning 10. Labour’s tally was further revised down to 233 as the vote counts came in.

The party’s leader, Ed Miliband, is expected to resign his position, sources within the party told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

Nick Clegg, who was deputy prime minister under the outgoing coalition government, announced his resignation as leader of the Liberal Democrats after his party’s “catastrophic” defeat.

Clegg called the loss of more than 40 of the party’s seats “the most crushing blow to the Liberal Democrats” since it was founded.

Speaking after successfully defending his seat in Witney, Cameron said his Conservative party’s policies in the last government had been vindicated by the result.

“This has been a very strong night for the Conservative Party,” the prime minister said.

“Some people say there’s only one opinion poll that counts and that’s the one on election day, and I don’t think that’s ever been truer than tonight,” he added, referring to polls published before election day that had put his party neck and neck with Labour. A party needs 326 seats to achieve a majority in parliament, but this number is slightly lower in practice, as the Sinn Fein MPs in Northern Ireland do not take up their seats. Miliband, speaking after he retained his Doncaster North seat, said he was “disappointed” in the result. “It’s clearly been a very disappointing and difficult night for the Labour Party. We haven’t made the gains we wanted in England and Wales, and in Scotland we’ve seen a surge of nationalism,” he said, apologising to Labour members who had lost their seats to the SNP in Scotland. “I am deeply sorry for what has happened.”

Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee, reporting from Westminster palace in London, said the scale at which the opinion polls had failed to predict the result had been unprecedented.

“What’s turning out to be the result of this is an extremely divided election, and a potentially very disunited kingdom,” he said.

In Scotland, the nationalist SNP has taken a near clean sweep of seats in the region, picking up 56 of 59 seats.

The gains came at the expense of the Labour and the Liberal Democrats, which were reduced to just one seat each in the region.

Labour lost 40 seats in Scotland and saw its regional head, Jim Murphy, and shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander lose their seats.

Danny Alexander, a Liberal Democrat minister under the last government, also lost in his own constituency.

The SNP went into the elections with just six seats from 2010.

The party’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, who was not standing herself celebrated the result, after initially urging caution over the exit poll projection.

“Thanks so much to everyone who voted SNP today. Whatever the results, I’m very proud of our campaign,” she said in a post on Twitter.

 

A number of prominent MPs, including current ministers and senior leaders from across the political spectrum, have lost their seats.

The Liberal Democrats bore the brunt of the losses, their 59 seats reduced to about a dozen. The party’s former leader, Charles Kennedy, lost his seat to the SNP, and ministers Vince Cable and Simon Hughes also lost in their constituencies.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell told Al Jazeera the party would have to “start from the bottom up”.

George Galloway, a former Labour MP and leader of the Respect party, lost to Labour’s Naz Shah in Bradford West, a seat he was widely expected to retain.

The Conservative Employment Minister Esther McVey lost her seat in Wirral West to Labour.

Labour’s shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, was also defeated by Conservative candidate Andrea Jenkyns.

In Wales, the nationalist Plaid Cymru held its three seats, and in England the right-wing UK Independence Party is expected to pick up only one seat, despite gaining around 12 percent of the votes cast. Party leader Nigel Farage failed in his attempt to take the Thanet South seat from the Conservatives.

The Green Party’s Caroline Lucas is expected to hold its only seat. 

 

Pakistan: Norway, Philippines envoys killed in helicopter crash, army claims no terror attack

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This file photo shows Polish ambassador Andrezej Ananicz (C) with his wife (L) and Ambassador of Norway Leif Larsen (R). — Dawn/File

This file photo shows Polish ambassador Andrezej Ananicz (C) with his wife (L) and Ambassador of Norway Leif Larsen (R). — Dawn/File

by Mateen Haider & Imtiaz Taj, Dawn

Gilgit: Ambassador of Philippines Domingo D Lucenario Jr, Ambassador of Norway Leif Larsen and the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors were among seven people killed in a helicopter crash in Naltar Valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region on Friday.

Two pilots and a crew member were among those killed when the Pakistan Army helicopter crash-landed on a school in Naltar Valley, Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major-General Asim Bajwa said. Media reports identified the two pilots as Major Altamash and Major Faisal.

Injuries were also reported from the incident in which Dutch ambassador Marcel de Vink and Polish ambassador Andrzej Ananicz were injured.

Bajwa said that six Pakistanis and 11 foreigners were on board the MI-17 helicopter.

The convoy comprised of three MI-17 helicopters, one carrying foreign diplomats, one carrying the prime minister and his staff and a third one with senior military officials, Bajwa said.

AFP quoted a statement by the Prime Minister Office as saying that Premier Nawaz Sharif was on a plane, not helicopter, en route to the Gilgit area at the time of the incident, but turned back to Islamabad after news of the crash broke.

A top regional administration official told AFP that the premier was due to inaugurate a chair-lift project at a ski resort in Naltar Valley.

The crashed helicopter was carrying a delegation of ambassadors to inspect projects on a three-day trip to Gilgit-Baltistan, where the foreign envoys were set to meet with the prime minister.

What caused the crash

Speaking to DawnNews after the incident, DG ISPR said the helicopter crashed due to a technical fault and ruled out the possibility of any terrorist or subversive activity.

He, however, said that as per procedure, a board of inquiry has been constituted to investigate the cause of the crash.

Moreover, the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed that the incident was the result of an attack it carried out however this could not be independently verified.

Transporting bodies, injured

Shortly after the incident, the injured were taken to the emergency ward of the Combined Military Hospital in Gilgit, hospital officials said.

Moreover, arrangements were being made by the Pakistan Air Force to bring the bodies of the ambassadors and the wives of two other envoys to Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office in Islamabad has informed the respective governments about the tragic incident.

According to a list of passengers obtained by AFP, the ambassadors of Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Romania, Norway, South Africa, the Philippines and Poland were scheduled to fly on the helicopter.

A passenger in one of the helicopters told AFP that the air convoy was supposed to have included four helicopters but the number was later reduced to three.

“It was a diplomatic trip with members of 37 countries in total,” said the passenger who requested anonymity, adding that the school had caught fire after the crash but no children were in class at the time.

“The school, built by Pakistan Air Force for the children of the area, was closed as part of a security plan for the prime minister’s visit,” he said.

PM declares one day of mourning

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has extended heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of the two ambassadors and the spouses of two other envoys who died in today’s incident and has declared one day mourning in relation to the incident.

He also expressed concern over the conditions of the injured diplomats and prayed for their speedy recovery. He directed concerned authorities to provide the injured diplomats with the best medical treatment.

The premier also directed authorities to dispatch planes and helicopters to evacuate the injured diplomats and transport the bodies to Islamabad.

CAR to sue French soldiers over alleged sex crimes

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Justice minister announces case against soldiers accused of raping children in exchange for food at a refugee camp.

A UN report detailed interviews with six children, aged eight to 15, who approached the French soldiers to ask for food [EPA]

A UN report detailed interviews with six children, aged eight to 15, who approached the French soldiers to ask for food [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

The Central African Republic will take legal action against the French soldiers accused of raping children in exchange for food at a refugee camp, the country’s justice minister has said.

“Legal action will be pursued … These are still very serious acts,” said Justice Minister Aristide Sokambi on Wednesday, insisting his nation was not targeting France but individual soldiers.

Several children – the youngest just nine – allege that 14 soldiers dispatched to the impoverished nation as part of a peacekeeping force sexually abused some of them in exchange for food between December 2013 and June 2014.

“We regret the fact we were not brought into these investigations despite the cooperation agreements we have with France,” Sokambi added.

“So I have instructed the public prosecutor to open a probe and seek the evidence already at the disposal of the French.”

French troops were deployed to the Central African Republic in December 2013 to help African Union peacekeepers restore order after a bout of sectarian violence triggered by a coup.

Hundreds of troops were stationed at Bangui’s M’Poko airport, which was transformed into a giant refugee camp.

Most of the displaced families living amid the abandoned planes had lost everything in the conflict, which pitted mainly Muslim rebels against vigilantes from the majority Christian population.

Paris investigates

Prosecutors in Paris have opened an investigation into the reports, with France’s defence ministry pledging to take “all the measures necessary for the truth to come out”.

The defence ministry has said it immediately launched a probe into the case, sending police investigators to the former French colony on August 1 after receiving the news.

The ministry has denied attempting to cover up a potentially devastating scandal. The allegations were contained in an internal UN report that was leaked to French authorities last summer by a UN official.

If proven, the allegations will not only affect the French army but also the Central African Republic, which is trying to find a way out of a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 900,000 people.

Many people living in the camp at M’Poko airport had lost their livelihoods to the violence.

Hunger in the camp became so widespread that riots often broke out when food was distributed.

Four arrested in Germany over 'plot against Muslims'

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Three men and a woman held for possession of explosives and for planning attacks on mosques and leading Muslim figures.

A report links the increase in anti-immigrant attacks to the rise of right-wing groups in the country [Reuters]

A report links the increase in anti-immigrant attacks to the rise of right-wing groups in the country [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

German authorities have conducted raids across the country, seizing explosives and arresting four people accused of founding a right-wing group to attack mosques and housing for asylum seekers.

Police arrested three men and a woman accused of leading the group during raids by some 250 investigators on homes in Saxony and four other states, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Prosecutors allege the four helped found the “Oldschool Society” (OSS) group and were planning to attack asylum-seeker housing, mosques and well-known members of the Islamic community in Germany.

The four arrested, identified only as Andreas H, 56, Markus W, 39, Denise Vanessa G, 22, and Olaf O, 47, in line with German privacy laws, are being held on terrorism charges and are also accused of having procured explosives.

The statement identified Andreas H and Markus W as the group’s president and vice president.

The North Rhine-Westphalia state interior ministry said Olaf O was from the western city of Bochum and had been under observation since November as “a leading member of the OSS”.

“According to current investigations, it was the group’s goal to conduct attacks in smaller groups inside Germany on well-known Salafists, mosques and asylum-seeker centres,” the statement said.

“For this purpose the four arrested procured explosives for possible terror attacks by the group.”

Inquiries made by the Associated Press news agency to an apparent cell phone number and email address for the group were not immediately returned.

Attack plans

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the Oldschool Society appeared to be a newly formed group.

Rhineland-Palatinate interior minister Roger Lewentz, at the same news conference, held up what appeared to be the group’s logo – a white skull on black background framed by bloody butcher’s cleavers with lightning bolts resembling the runes of the Nazi SS.

“The SS rune is in there – that’s not for nothing,” Lewentz said.

Prosecutors said they are still trying to determine whether the group had concrete attack plans and refused to comment beyond their written statement.

There have been conflicts in recent years between far right groups and the Muslim community in North Rhine-Westphalia that have escalated into violent street fights.

In 2013, authorities said they foiled a plot to assassinate a high-ranking member of a far-right party in the state.

Right-wing groups have been a renewed focus for German intelligence agencies after it came to light that a neo-Nazi group calling itself National Socialist Underground, or NSU, allegedly killed eight Turks, a Greek and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007. It is also believed to be behind two bombings and 15 bank robberies.

De Maiziere said statistics released Wednesday showed a sharp increase of 22.9 percent in violent crimes by right-wing extremists in 2014 to 1,029, three times the number in 2013.

Anti-Semitic attacks have also reportedly increased.

The report suggested the rise could be linked to months of non-violent anti-Islam protests by a group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, or PEGIDA.

Report: 38 million people are internally displaced throughout the world, Iraq hardest hit

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A photo taken on April 5, 2015 shows an internally displaced Iraqi girl at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the northern city of Sammara. (AFP/Mohammed Sawaf)

A photo taken on April 5, 2015 shows an internally displaced Iraqi girl at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the northern city of Sammara. (AFP/Mohammed Sawaf)

by Press TV

A record 38 million people across the globe are displaced inside their own homelands due to conflicts and violence, with Iraq being the hardest-hit nation, a watchdog group reveals.

The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) released the data in a report titled Global Overview 2015 on Wednesday.

The report said nearly one third of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), or 11 million people, were forced from their homes last year alone, with an average of 30,000 people fleeing every day.

The IDMC said the total number of those displaced around the globe in 2014 increased by 14 percent compared to the figure reported in the year before.

“These are the worst figures for forced displacement in a generation, signaling our complete failure to protect innocent civilians,” said Jan Egeland (pictured above), the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which oversees the IDMC.

“This report should be a tremendous wake-up call,” said Egeland, adding, “We must break this trend where millions of men, women and children are becoming trapped in conflict zones around the world.”

The data also showed that a staggering 60 percent of the newly displaced people last year were in just five countries, namely Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Iraqi people have been the hardest hit, with 2.2 million people forced to flee their homes to other parts of the country due to the violence by Daesh.

In Syria, some one million more people were forced from their homes last year, bringing the total number of the IDPs in the Middle Eastern countries to 7.6 million, or 40 percent of the population.

Ukraine also appeared in the IDMC’s report for the first time, with some 646,500 people internally displaced there in 2014 amid fighting between Kiev government troops and pro-Russia forces in the country’s eastern regions.

The watchdog group said the data also showed that there currently are nearly twice as many people who are internally displaced than refugees – those who flee their homeland – without giving an exact number of the refugees.

According to statistics from the United Nations, some 16.7 million people across the globe were living as refugees at the end of 2013.

'Forty migrants drown in Mediterranean': Save the Children

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Migrants wait to disembark from military ship "Bettica" following a rescue operation at sea on May 5, 2015 in the port of Salerno, southern Italy. (AFP/Mario Laporta)

Migrants wait to disembark from military ship “Bettica” following a rescue operation at sea on May 5, 2015 in the port of Salerno, southern Italy. (AFP/Mario Laporta)

by Al Bawaba

Forty migrants drowned off the coast of Italy when a boat trying to reach Europe either deflated or burst from the heat, survivors told the organization Save the Children.

According to Reuters, some of the 194 survivors told the activist group the deaths occurred on Sunday. The survivors came from several African countries including Gambia, Senegal, Ghana, Mali and the Ivory Coast. AFP said there were 137 people on board.

Human traffickers have increased their attempts to smuggle people out of conflict-torn countries to try to reach Europe as spring weather has calmed seas and provided good weather. The UN has estimated more than 1,700 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year.

Targeting ISIS, US-led strike kills 52 civilians, including 7 children

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Edited U.S. Air Force image of two F-15E fighters after conducting airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 23, 2014. U.S. Central Command directed the operations. (Photo by Senior Airman Matthew Bruch/USAF via Stuart Rankin/cc/flickr)

Edited U.S. Air Force image of two F-15E fighters after conducting airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 23, 2014. U.S. Central Command directed the operations. (Photo by Senior Airman Matthew Bruch/USAF via Stuart Rankin/cc/flickr)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

A U.S. military strike on Friday targeting fighters with the Islamic State has killed 52 civilians, including 7 children and 9 women, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday.

According to the human rights watchdog group, an additional 13 Syrian civilians are missing following the attack on a village in the northern province of Aleppo. The deaths mark the highest civilian loss from a single attack since the U.S.-led coalition began its war against the Islamic State, or ISIS, in September 2014.

“[We] condemn in the strongest terms this massacre committed by the U.S led coalition under the pretext of targeting the IS in the village, and we call the coalition countries to refer who committed this massacre to the courts, as we renew our calls to neutralize all civilians areas from military operations by all parties,” the group said in a statement.

Coalition airstrikes have killed an estimated 118 civilians. However, Reuters notes, the U.S.-led attack has “had little impact on the hardline Islamic State group, slowing its advances but failing to weaken it in areas it controls.”

“Washington and its allies say their aim is to support what they call moderate rebels fighting against both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Isis,” Reuters continues. “But four years into Syria’s civil war, no side is close to victory. A third of the population has been made homeless and more than 220,000 people have been killed.”

USA: Gunmen killed at controversial exhibition featuring cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad

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Two suspected gunmen shot dead outside an exhibition depicting the Prophet Muhammad in suburb of Dallas, Texas.

REUTERS/Mike Stone

REUTERS/Mike Stone

by Al Jazeera

Two gunmen have been shot dead outside a controversial exhibition featuring cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in Dallas in Texas, US authorities say.

The shooting was reported shortly before 7pm local time on Sunday outside the Curtis Culwell Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland.

The two armed suspects drove up to the front of the building in a car as the event, called the Muhammad Art Exhibit, was coming to an end, and began shooting at a security officer, the city said in a message posted online.

Garland police officers then exchanged fire with the gunmen and both suspects were shot dead, the city said.

The security guard was shot in the ankle in the gunfire, but his injuries were not considered serious and he has already been discharged from hospital.

A police bomb squad is reportedly at the scene and is inspecting the dead gunmen’s car.

A Garland police spokesman, Joe Harn, said there was a large police presence already at the scene, as police “had prepared for this event, in case something like this happened”.

Lockdown

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro, who is near the scene of the shooting, said an area of about a kilometre radius around the incident had been locked down, following reports that a third suspect was seen near a shopping centre.

A New York-based group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) had claimed it was exercising their right of free expression in running the contest.

The judging was supposed to be on Sunday, with the winner from some reported 350 entries from around the country offered a $10,000 prize.

Zhou-Castro said the woman who led the AFDI group, Pamela Geller, was “known to make anti-Muslim statements”, and had gone to the courts several times to be able to place anti-Muslim advertisements around New York.

Following the shooting, Geller had tweeted from inside the cultural centre that the incident was “a war on free speech”, however her critics on Twitter said she had “been trying to provoke an incident like this for years”.

Islam forbids depictions of its prophet.

Controversial advertisement

In April, AFDI won a case in the US federal court that allowed it to display a controversial advertisement referring to Muslims killing Jews on New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses.

US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said the AFDI ad, which had previously run in Chicago and San Francisco, was protected speech under the First Amendment of the US constitution.

Similar AFDI campaigns have also run elsewhere, including in Washington DC.

The ad portrayed a menacing man wearing a scarf around his head and face, included a quotation “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah” was attributed to “Hamas MTV”, and then stated: “That’s His Jihad. What’s yours?”

Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right politician who is well-known for his anti-Islam beliefs, was one of the main speakers during the event. Wilders shared on his Twitter account that he had just left the building before the shooting.

Wilders caused a scandal last March when speaking in The Hague he asked party supporters whether they wanted “fewer or more Moroccans in the city and in the Netherlands”.

“Fewer! Fewer!” the crowd shouted as a smiling Wilders answered: “Then we’re going to take care of that.”

ICC rejects Israel's claims of bias in war crimes investigation

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ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told reporters that the court will carry out an "unbiased" inquiry into the war crimes accusations. (AFP/File)

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told reporters that the court will carry out an “unbiased” inquiry into the war crimes accusations. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected Israel’s claims that the court may carry out a biased investigation into the Tel Aviv regime’s war crimes during its devastating military aggression against the Gaza Strip last summer.

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper on Friday that The Hague-based court will launch an “unbiased” inquiry into the case. The court will consider evidence brought by Palestinians against Israel “independently and impartially without fear or favor,” Bensouda said, adding that her “office will be guided by a policy of investigating and prosecuting those most responsible for the commission of mass crimes.”

The Israeli regime launched a 50-day deadly war on Gaza last summer that ended in August 2014 with a truce. The aggression left about 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, dead and over 11,100 others injured.

In April, Palestinians formally joined the ICC, a membership that enabled them to bring war crimes charges against Israeli officials.

Tel Aviv reportedly claims that institutions like the ICC are biased against Israel and thus prone to unfairly target the regime. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the regime will allow the Israeli soldiers to appear at the ICC and face potential war crime charges.

Joining the ICC also opens up the possibility for Palestinians to challenge Tel Aviv’s illegal settlement expansion in the occupied territories besides taking the regime to task for its war crimes during the 2014 military aggression against the Gaza Strip.

In January, the ICC opened a preliminary examination into Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister, however, denounced ICC’s decision as “absurd,” claiming that the move runs against the international law.

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