Rapper and Hiplife act, Emmanuel Botway, popularly known as Kwaw Kese, says he does not feel celebrated enough.
According to him, it is a norm for Ghanaians not to celebrate their own.
He made this revelation in a yet to be aired episode of E With Becks show on Joy prime.
He told hostess, Becky, that “I don’t feel celebrated. It’s the norm in Ghana. Ghanaians don’t celebrate Ghanaians doing well, they don’t celebrate their stars, and they don’t celebrate their celebrities.”
He added that he will not be deterred for not being celebrated by his people but would rather celebrate himself.
E With Becks show airs on Joy Prime on Sundays at 5 pm.
FILE PHOTO: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said the kingdom does not want a war in the region but would not hesitate to deal with any threat to its vital interests, amid heightened tensions with rival Iran, Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Sunday.
Attacks on two oil tankers on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, which the United States blamed on Iran, have raised fears of broader confrontation in the region. Iran has denied any role in the strikes south of the Strait of Hormuz, a major transit route for oil.
Reporting By Marwa Rashad and Ali Abdelaty, writing by Stephen Kalin; editing by Diane Craft
Boris Johnson, leadership candidate for Britain's Conservative Prime Minister, leaves his home in London, Britain June 15, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville
(Reuters) - British conservative lawmaker Esther McVey said on Saturday that she will support Boris Johnson in his bid to be prime minister, The Telegraph reported.
"Boris Johnson is supporting my agenda – which is why I'm supporting him", she wrote bit.ly/2WLp52V in the newspaper, adding that she looks forward to working with Johnson to deliver on behalf of "blue collar Conservatives" across the country.
Reporting by Ishita Chigilli Palli in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis
FILE PHOTO: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters at an event to promote the start of London Tech Week, in London, Britain, June 10, 2019. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump once again criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Saturday, saying he is a “disaster” and will “only get worse” after three people were slain in the city in less than 20 hours.
Trump retweeted a tweet by the right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins who called London “stab city” and said “this is Khan’s Londonistan,” a phrase used to describe the city’s failure to tackle Muslim extremists.
“LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster - will only get worse!” Trump said on Twitter.
Trump called Khan, a Muslim of Pakistani heritage, a “stone-cold loser” earlier this month after the mayor criticized the British government for inviting Trump for a state visit and compared him to 20th century fascists.
Trump’s feud with Khan dates back several years. Khan has criticized Trump’s effort to ban travelers from Muslim countries, while the president has castigated the mayor for his handling of a 2017 terrorist attack on the London bridge that killed 11 people.
Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Bill Trott
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali militants killed eight Kenyan police with a roadside bomb near the border between the two countries on Saturday, officials said, while another eight died in a bombing the same group carried out in the Somali capital.
Both attacks were claimed by Somali Islamist insurgents, who also kidnapped three Kenyan police reservists on Friday from the same area, in Wajir district in northeast Kenya.
Kenyan military forces have occupied part of southern Somalia along the border since 2011. The Kenyans, along with allied Somali militia, wrested control of the territory from al Shabaab jihadists after a spate of kidnappings on Kenyan soil.
Al Shabaab is fighting the weak, U.N.-backed Somali government and its international allies in a quest to impose strict Islamic law.
The vehicle that was hit by the roadside bomb was carrying 11 policemen, police spokesman Charles Owino told Reuters. A local official said eight were killed.
“Eight bodies were found and taken to Wajir. Two were rescued, but they are in critical condition,” said Muhumed Ali Gedi, a member of the local community security team from Wajir who witnessed the rescue mission.
In Mogadishu, al Shabaab detonated two bombs. Police said the first blast, at a busy junction known as K4, was a car bomb intercepted by security services that caused no casualties.
The other blast killed eight people and injured 16, said Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Aamin ambulance service.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, said the group was responsible for the blast in Kenya and the two in Mogadishu.
Additional reporting by Noor Ali in Isiolo and Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar in Mogadishu,; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Edmund Blair and Andrew Cawthorne
CAIRO (Reuters) - Yemen’s Houthi movement launched fresh drone attacks targeting Jizan and Abha airports, in southern Saudi Arabia, the group’s Al-Masirah TV said on Saturday, adding the installations were out of service.
Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV said Saudi forces had intercepted a ballistic missile targeting the southwestern city of Abha.
The Iran-aligned group said multiple drone strike targeted control rooms at Jizan airport and fuel station at Abha airport.
“The two airports are now out of service. We promise the Saudi regime with more painful days as long as the aggression and siege continue on our country,” the group’s armed forces spokesman said in a tweet published by Al-Masirah TV’s account.
The Houthis have launched several strikes targeting Abha regional airport since Wednesday, when a missile attack against the same airport had wounded 26 people.
The Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in 2015 in Yemen’s civil war to restore the government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said earlier this week it intercepted five drones that targeted Abha airport and Khamis Mushait in the same region.
In response to these attacks, the Western-backed coalition said it had destroyed Houthi military assets on the outskirts of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.
It was unclear if there were any casualties following Saturday’s drone strikes.
Coalition leaders, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, accuse Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah of supporting the Houthis, a charge all three deny.
The Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks against Saudi cities as tensions have risen between Iran and Gulf Arab states allied with the United States. Last month, the group carried out drone strikes on two Saudi oil pumping stations.
Tehran and Washington have engaged in a war of words since the United States reimposed sanctions on Tehran and increased its military presence in the Gulf.
The Yemen conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Reporting by Ali Abdelaty; writing by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Diane Craft
Tristan Thompson’s ex Jordan Craig claims he spent thousands of dollars on Khloe Kardashian and her family while ignoring their son, Prince.
Court documents from the former couple's child custody battle revealed Thompson's financial report included entries totaling $65,724.56 under sections titled Khloe K, Kendall Jenner, Inc. and Kim K West, according to Radaronline.com
And Craig claimed Thompson only saw his son a total of nine times from the day Prince was born to November 2018.
During a January 28, 2019 deposition, Thompson was questioned by Craig's attorney Craig Bridwell about a $42,857.68 entry on August 15, 2018 filed under Khloe K.
Thompson was also pressed on an August 24, 2018 entry labeled Kendall Jenner, Inc for $14,886.88 with a memo listed as 'vacation.'
$7,980 was processed on November 6, 2017 under Kim K West with a note stating 'Birthday Gift'.
Receipts: Court documents from the former couple's child custody battle revealed Thompson's financial report included entries totaling $65,724.56 under sections titled Khloe K, Kendall Jenner, Inc. and Kim K West; (Kim Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian pictured)
During that period, he reportedly spent a total of $126,890.11 for dining out at celebrity hotspots in Los Angeles.
He also coughed up 'about $129,000' on such lavish expenditures as private jets, high-end cloths and luxury cars.
Craig even mentioned how she feared that Prince would eventually be embarrassed that he wasn’t living the same lifestyle as his half-sister, True Thompson - the daughter of Thompson and Kardashian.
'I would like for Prince to just not feel some type of complex,' Craig said according to the documents.
Shocking revelations: In the documents, Craig claimed her ex only saw Prince nine times between December 2016 and November 2018 during which Thompson was romantically involved with Kardashian; (pictured in 2017)
'Like if he’s playing with his sister and he’s not wearing, like, designer clothes and things — luxury that Tristan can give him that I can’t.'
Thompson was previously paying $15,000 per month in child support, but Craig argued that was 'much less' than what she should be receiving, per California guidelines.
In May, he agreed to $40,000 a month, and $200,000 in retroactive child support.
Sibling rivalry: Craig even mentioned how she feared that Prince would eventually be embarrassed that he wasn’t living the same lifestyle as his half-sister, True Thompson - the daughter of Thompson and Kardashian; (True Thompson pictured) Meanwhile, Kardashian took to her Instagram story on Tuesday evening, to address reports that she was Thompson's mistress while the NBA player was dating the then-pregnant Craig.
The 34-year-old KUWTK star made her statement after the release of court documents from Jordan, after which Khloe stated that she was 'disappointed' about even needing to post the statement yet still apologised to his scorned ex.
She then went on to reveal details of the early days of her relationship with Thompson which started in 2017, in which she divulged intimate explanations of what she was told by the love rat sportsman and his inside circle.
Hitting out: Meanwhile, Kardashian took to her Instagram story on Tuesday evening, to address reports that she was Thompson's mistress while the NBA player was dating the then-pregnant Craig (Khloe and Tristan pictured in February last year) Khloe and Tristan's fractious relationship ended in tatters in February after it was alleged than he was caught kissing her sister Kylie Jenner's best friend Jordyn Woods during a house party, in a devastating blow to the star.
The infidelity comes after the basketball ace is said to have cheated on Khloe on a number of occasions while she was expecting their 14-month-old daughter True.
Since escaping the doomed relationship, Khloe has now been incensed to address ongoing claims that she was in fact, the other woman for Tristan while Jordan was expecting their two-year-old son Prince Thompson.
Khloe was named as his 'mistress' in a child support request filed by Jordan in November. She claimed when she learned about the relationship, she moved out of the Cleveland home she shared with the athlete, and back to Southern California.
Speaking out: While the 34-year-old reality star made her statement after the release of court documents from Jordan, with Khloe stating that she was 'disappointed' about even needing to post this, 'but... I need to say my truth. Take it as you will'
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, Khloe penned a lengthy prose to address such rumours while also chronicling the start of her now-defunct union with Tristan.
She wrote: 'My truth is: I met Tristan because HE CHOSE to go on a blind date with me. A mutual friend set us up... After going on some dates, Tristan told me that he had an ex that was pregnant [referring to Jordan Craig]...
'Obviously, I was reluctant about us continuing to date or start a relationship, He pleaded with me that the relationship was over long before we met. He had me talk with his most inner circle...
'He showed my physical p(r)oof (correspondence between the two) and had me on calls with his lawyers to prove his point...
'His best friends, business associates and even his mother told me, him and his ex were broken up before we met...
'This is my truth! The truth I believed and trusted. If for any reason this is NOT in fact the truth, I am so completely and utterly sorry that TRISTAN and his inner circle would lie on something like this!...
'I pray my truth is in-fact that. Lord knows I pray but now, I really don't know what to believe. Truthfully, from the deepest parts of my soul I am sorry!...
'I'm sorry for any pain that has been created either way. No woman deserves to go through anything like this! This is my TRUTH' .
Looking back: Khloe was determined to set the record straight about her romance
Radar previously reported that a child support request from last November, saw Jordan state that she was romantically-involved with the Cleveland Cavaliers center, and became pregnant with his child before his union with Khloe.
Jordan, a Los Angeles native, said when she learned about the allegedly illicit relationship, she moved out of the Cleveland home she shared with the professional athlete, and back to Southern California.
She claims she reunited after Tristan 'tried to get back together on numerous occasions,' insisting 'he would change for our family.' Jordan told the court she moved out of the LA home they shared amid Tristan's 'partying' and affairs.
J
It appears she was alluding to Khloe in the comments as she was seen recalling how she saw shots taken by the paparazzi 'with one of the women I previously confronted him about, and whom Tristan had denied even knowing.'
Images of Khloe and the NBA player began to arise in August and September of 2016, when the pair was seen clubbing in Los Angeles and vacationed in Mexico.
In harrowing words in regard to her personal situation, Jordan explained: 'Their relationship went viral and everything took a turn for the worst...
Inner circle: 'He pleaded with me that the relationship was over long before we met,' Kardashian continued. 'He had me talk with his most inner circle' 'Every day several articles were published worldwide mocking my new unfortunate reality and my pregnancy would now become one of the most popular gossip headlines due to the woman Tristan was now publicly dating during my pregnancy.'
Jordan said Thompson's affair had a critical impact on her pregnancy with son Prince, who was healthy when she gave birth to him in December of 2016.
She said: 'This brought an enormous amount of negative, unwanted attention and stress into my life, and more critically, into my pregnancy...
'My obstetrician ordered me to be on bed rest due to high levels of stress that eventually caused me to have serious pregnancy complications.'
RIYADH (Reuters) - Crew members of Frontline’s oil tanker Front Altair, one of two vessels attacked this week in the Gulf of Oman, have landed in Dubai, the Norwegian ship’s operator said on Saturday.
“All 23 crew members of the tanker departed Iran, from Bandar Abbas airport, and landed at Dubai International Airport at 1830 CET this afternoon,” a statement said.
A Frontline spokesman told Reuters that the crew, of Russian, Filipino and Georgian nationalities, were well-looked after by Iranian authorities. Most flew home straight after arrival to Dubai, with the rest to travel on Sunday.
Frontline said a tugboat reached the Front Altair on Saturday afternoon and a specialist team would inspect its condition and damage. The Front Altair caught fire after the attack but the flames were extinguished later.
The United States and Britain have accused Iran of attacking the tankers, but Tehran has denied that.
The attacks have driven up oil prices and fueled concerns about a new U.S.-Iranian confrontation.
The other tanker hit, the Kokuka Courageous, was being towed toward the United Arab Emirates’ port of Kalba, its operator said on Friday.
Reporting by Tarek Fahmy in Dubai; Writing by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday summoned the British ambassador to Tehran after London blamed it for attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, the semi-official Students News Agency ISNA reported.
“During the meeting with Iran’s foreign ministry official, Iran strongly condemned the unfounded allegations and criticized Britain’s unacceptable stance regarding the attacks in the Gulf of Oman,” it said.
The ambassador was asked for an explanation and correction after Britain was the only nation to echo U.S. accusations, ISNA reported.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt issued a statement on Friday blaming Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the attacks, saying no other state or non-state actor could have been responsible.
Iran has denied any involvement.
The attacks have raised fears of a confrontation in the vital oil shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz at a time of increased tension between Iran and the United States.
Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Andrew Cawthorne
PARIS (Reuters) - A small congregation in white hard hats attended mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Saturday, the first service since fire devastated the Gothic landmark two months ago.
The Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit leads the first mass in a side chapel two months to the day after a devastating fire engulfed the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, in Paris, France June 15, 2019. Karine Perret/Pool via REUTERS
Church leaders are keen to show life goes on at the cathedral as donations for rebuilding trickle in.
Less than 10% of the 850 million euros ($953 million) pledged by billionaires, business leaders and others has been received so far, the French government said.
The mass, which commemorates the cathedral’s consecration as a place of worship, was held in a side-chapel left undamaged by the April 15 fire, with attendance limited to about 30 people wearing protective headgear.
Priests in ceremonial garb of white robes and yellow stoles briefly parted with their hard hats during the communion.
“It is with much emotion that we are here to celebrate the consecration of the cathedral,” said Paris’s archbishop Michel Aupetit, who led the service.
“It is a message of hope and thanks to all those who were moved by what happened to this cathedral,” he added, acknowledging afterwards it was “a bit strange” to celebrate mass with a helmet.
The service was broadcast live on a religious TV channel that showed poignant images of the blue sky through the collapsed roof and the black rubble still clogging the building.
On Friday, France’s Culture Minister Franck Riester said the cathedral was still in a fragile state, especially the vault.
The blaze caused the roof and spire of the architectural masterpiece to collapse, triggering worldwide sadness.
Among those who promised to donate to the rebuilding effort were luxury goods tycoons Bernard Arnault and François-Henri Pinault.
“There could be people who promised to donate then in the end did not,” Riester told France 2 television, without giving further details. “But more importantly, and this is normal, the donations will be paid as restoration work progresses.”
President Emmanuel Macron has set a target of five years for restoring the cathedral, though Riester was more cautious.
“The president was right to give a target, an ambition,” he said. “But obviously what matters in the end is the quality of the work. So it does not mean that work will be totally finished in exactly five years.”
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the European Union to aim for a 55% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, far more than the bloc’s current target for a 40% reduction.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the R20 Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Austria, May 28, 2019. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
In a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, seen by Reuters, ahead of a summit of EU leaders, Guterres said the world’s largest economic bloc should lead by example to avert the worst effects of global warming and limit temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Next week’s gathering of the 28 EU heads of state is the last before a U.N. meeting on global climate talks in September.
“I am counting on you, once again, to demonstrate the leadership of the European Union,” Guterres said in the letter to Tusk dated May 23.
An announcement “aiming for a target of 55% reduction in emissions, would send a powerful message,” he said. He also asked leaders to phase out burning coal, ending approval of new coal-fired power plants beyond 2020.
Despite a French-led push by eight capitals for more ambitious action on climate, notably by striving to go carbon neutral by 2050, leaked draft summit conclusions make no mention of ramping up the bloc’s commitment under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
With China and India seeking to take center stage at the U.N. meeting after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris pact, some EU diplomats fear the bloc may become increasingly sidelined on the global deal.
EU states such as Poland, which relies heavily on coal-fired power, and Germany, with its powerful automotive sector, balk at deeper emission cuts for industry, while the “yellow vest” protests have dented France’s climate drive.
However, growing climate concerns marked by protests across the continent helped propel Green parties to their strongest showing yet in the recent European Parliament elections.
The European Parliament and the EU’s climate chief Miguel Arias Canete have called for the bloc to aim for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, saying legislation passed since the Paris deal already puts it on track to overshoot its current target.
Climate campaigners, however, say action taken by the EU so far is as yet far from consistent with the transformative change scientists say is needed to avert the bleakest scenarios.
“This is not just about leadership, it’s about doing what’s necessary to ensure humanity’s survival and protect the natural world for future generations,” Sebastian Mang, an EU climate policy adviser at Greenpeace, told Reuters.
HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - With an escalating U.S. trade war, a faltering economy and tensions in the South China Sea vexing her bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam appeared in no mood to compromise on a planned extradition law at recent meetings, according to foreign envoys and business people who met with her.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks at a news conference in Hong Kong, China, June 15, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Some of the people at those meetings in recent weeks pointed to media reports that even Hong Kong’s usually reticent judges were worried about the proposed law which threatened to send people for trial in mainland China for the first time.
But Lam bluntly dismissed concerns about a Chinese justice system that is widely criticized for forced confessions, arbitrary detentions and one-sided trials, saying judges were not supposed to speak.
Worries over the bill’s impact on Hong Kong’s international standing as a financial hub with a respected legal system were building in Washington, London and other European capitals, but Lam stressed the need for the extradition law to help solve the murder of a Hong Kong woman in Taiwan.
“She needed a dinghy and she deployed the Titanic,” one diplomat who met Lam this month told Reuters, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
In numerous public appearances after that, Lam was unyielding on the need for the bill, despite huge and sometimes violent street protests including one last Sunday that organizers said drew more than a million people.
Then on Saturday, Lam suddenly announced the bill had been postponed indefinitely.
She told a news conference she felt “deep sorrow and regret that the deficiencies in our work and various other factors have stirred up substantial controversies and disputes in society”.
Hong Kong’s self-styled Iron Lady had cracked, having apparently created an entirely fresh crisis for President Xi Jinping - and the city’s biggest since Britain handed it over to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee its freedoms and autonomy would be preserved.
Clues to the catalyst for the about-face may lie in a reported meeting between Lam and China’s Vice-Premier Han Zheng.
According to Hong Kong’s Sing Tao newspaper, Lam had a clandestine emergency meeting with Han, a member of the Politburo’s seven-person Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body, across the border in Shenzhen on Thursday.
The content of the meeting is unknown. Lam on Saturday refused to confirm or deny that it had taken place, despite repeated questions.
BEIJING BACKDOWN
Beijing’s grip over Hong Kong has intensified markedly since Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, and after the city’s protracted 2014 pro-democracy street protests.
He warned in 2017 that any attempts to undermine Chinese sovereignty were a “red line” that Beijing would not allow to be crossed - warnings that reinforced his strongman image amongst Hong Kongers.
Many politicians, diplomats and analysts had not expected Beijing to allow any backdown on the bill, unlike in 2003 when contentious national security laws were scrapped after half a million people took to the streets.
But a source in Beijing with ties to China’s leadership who meets regularly with senior officials, said the Hong Kong government had handled the extradition saga badly.
And while a backdown from Beijing on the bill seemed near inconceivable just a week ago, the violence and escalating unrest forced their hand.
“The outcome doesn’t bear thinking about if this situation wasn’t turned around,” the source said, also declining to be named given the sensitivity of the matter.
The source added that Beijing now had severe doubts about Lam’s capabilities. China’s State Council and the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Steve Tsang, a London-based political scientist, said Lam had caused Xi “major embarrassment” at a time that is not helpful for him given trade tensions with the United States, and ahead of a possible meeting with U.S. president Donald Trump at the month’s end at the G20 summit in Japan.
“Xi is not a leader who tolerates failures of officials,” Tsang said.
Retired senior Hong Kong government official Joseph Wong said he was shocked by Beijing’s U-turn, but the situation had become so untenable that he believed it had led to a recalculation by Han after meeting Lam in Shenzhen.
“I suspect ... he (Han) would have had to consider, are we prepared to continue to fire rubber bullets or even real bullets in order to get this through, and what would be the implications for the central government internationally, vis-a-vis the U.S. So that protest was the turning point.”
Lam has refused calls from the opposition and protestors to step down but her ability to govern has been questioned on numerous fronts, including her failure to gauge the pulse in Hong Kong, the broader U.S.-China relationship, and Taiwan’s refusal to accept any extradition bill, undermining her core argument the bill would resolve the Taiwan murder case.
Political scientist Tsang said he did not expect Lam to last much longer as leader.
“I think Carrie Lam’s days are numbered...Beijing cannot afford to sack her right away because that would be an indication of weakness. They would have to allow for a bit of decent interlude.”
Two former post-colonial leaders, Tung Chee-Hwa and Leung Chun-ying, were forced to truncate their terms of office from various controversies linked to policies that stoked fears of Chinese encroachment on the city’s freedoms.
Slideshow (2 Images)
For her part, Lam has asked for time so that the bill can be properly deliberated.
“Give us another chance and we will do this thing well,” she told Saturday’s news conference.
Asked about China’s leaders, she said: “They have confidence in my judgment and they support me.”
Reporting by James Pomfret and Greg Torode in Hong Kong and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Additional reporting by Anne Marie Roantree, Clare Jim and Jessie Pang and John Ruwitch in Hong Kong; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
(Reuters) - An explosion on Saturday in a Syrian ammunition depot in a military zone west of the capital was caused by wildfires, state television reported.
It said the depot was in the Dummar residential area.
But residents said the explosion, which could be heard across the capital, appeared to have come from a mountainous area between Dummar and Qudsaya, where large army units are stationed.
Israel, which sees Iran as a threat to its existence, has attacked Iranian targets in Syria before including those of allied militia such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Its strikes on the capital had long focused on southern and northern areas where Western intelligence sources have said there were military compounds for Hezbollah and other Iranian backed militias.
Syrian President Bashar al Assad has said Iranian forces are welcome in the country, after years of military victories that have brought large parts of it back under his control.
Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Additional reporting to Ali Abdelaty; Editing by Hugh Lawson
NICOSIA (Reuters) - The UAE’s foreign minister said on Saturday a “state sponsor” was involved in a May 12 attack on oil tankers in the Gulf, but did not name any particular country.
He did not mention attacks on two other tankers this week in the same area. The United States has said Iran was involved in both the May and the June incidents - accusations dismissed by Tehran.
“Our conclusion is this has only been possible by a state-sponsored attack,” Al Nahyan told reporters after meeting his Cypriot counterpart in Nicosia, referring to the May attack.
“We haven’t named the state, but we hope that we can further work with our friends and partners in preventing such escalations from moving forward,” he added.
Earlier on Saturday, Arabiya TV’s Twitter account quoted Al Nahyan as saying Iran’s fingerprints were clear on the May 12 attacks. The tweet later disappeared from Twitter and Arabiya TV did not immediately comment on the reason.
The May 12 attacks targeted two Saudi tankers, an Emirati vessel and a Norwegian tanker, causing no casualties but fueling tensions between the United States and Iran during weeks of escalating rhetoric.
Reporting By Michele Kambas; Additional reporting by Asma Alsharif in Dubai; Editing by Andrew Heavens
DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia called for swift action to secure Gulf energy supplies, after the United States blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in a vital oil shipping route that have raised fears of broader confrontation in the region.
FILE PHOTO: An oil tanker is seen after it was attacked at the Gulf of Oman, in waters between Gulf Arab states and Iran, June 13, 2019. ISNA/Handout via REUTERS
Thursday’s tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman exacerbated the antagonistic fallout from similar blasts in May that crippled four vessels. Washington, already embroiled in a standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, has blamed Tehran.
Iran has denied any role in the strikes on the tankers south of the Strait of Hormuz, a major transit route for oil from Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, and other Gulf producers.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said “there must be a rapid and decisive response to the threat” to energy supplies, market stability and consumer confidence after the attacks in the Gulf area, the Saudi Energy Ministry reported on Twitter.
The U.S. military released a video on Thursday, saying it showed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were behind the explosions that damaged the Norwegian-owned Front Altair and the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous.
“Iran did do it and you know they did it because you saw the boat,” U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday.
The United States has tightened sanctions on Iran since Washington withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and global powers last year. Washington’s stated aim is to drive Iranian oil exports, the mainstay of its economy, to zero.
Tehran has said that if its oil exports were halted, it could block the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel of water separating Iran and Oman through which a fifth of the oil consumed globally passes.
ENERGY SECURITY
Oil prices have climbed 3.4% since Thursday’s attacks. Ship insurers said insurance costs for ships sailing through the Middle East have jumped by at least 10%.
“The kingdom is committed to ensuring stability of global oil markets,” the Saudi energy minister said in Japan at a meeting of energy ministers from the G20 group of nations.
Japanese Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said ministers agreed on the need to “work together to deal with the recent incidents from (an) energy security point of view.”
Trump, who pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal under which world powers agreed to ease international sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear work, said any move to close the Strait of Hormuz would not last long.
He also said he was open to holding talks with Iran, although Tehran said it had no plans to negotiate with the United States unless it reversed a decision on the nuclear deal.
Tehran and Washington have both said they have no interest in a war. But this has done little to assuage concerns that the arch foes could stumble into conflict.
A U.S. official told Reuters a surface-to-air missile was fired from Iranian territory on Thursday morning at a U.S. drone that was near Front Altair following the attack on the tanker. The missile did not hit the drone, the official said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the United States was “planning various contingencies” when asked if more military forces would be sent to the area, but added that the focus was on building an international consensus.
“We also need to broaden our support for this international situation,” he told reporters.
RESTRAINT
As well as blaming Iran for the tanker attacks, Washington has also said Tehran was behind May 14 drone strikes on two Saudi oil-pumping stations. Tehran has denied all those charges.
Britain has backed the United States in blaming Iran for the tanker attacks, saying no other state or non-state actor could have been responsible.
But others have urged caution. Germany said the video was not enough to prove Iran’s role, while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation to determine responsibility.
China and the European Union called for restraint.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani renewed Iran’s threat to continue scaling back compliance with the nuclear deal unless other signatories to the pact show “positive signals”.
Slideshow (3 Images)
He did not specify what Iran wanted in his comments to a meeting of Asian leaders in Tajikistan.
France and other European signatories to the nuclear deal, have said they wanted to save the accord, but many of their companies have canceled deals with Tehran, under pressure from the United States.
Additional reporting by Michele Kambas in Nicosia, Nazarali Pirnazarov in Dushanbe, Yuka Obayashi in Karuizawa; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Leaked personal messages published on Saturday by a news website show the judge who led the corruption trial that jailed former Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva advised prosecutors to influence public opinion against the leftist leader.
FILE PHOTO: Brazil's Justice Minister Sergio Moro speaks during a session of the Public Security commission at the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo
The Intercept posted what it said were social media chats from then judge Sergio Moro to the prosecution team, suggesting prosecutors make a public statement playing up what Moro said were contradictions in Lula’s testimony to undermine his claim to be a victim of political persecution.
The exchange occurred after Lula’s May 10, 2017 deposition against charges that he took a beachside luxury apartment as a bribe. Lula left the court room to tell supporters that he was being “massacred” and was preparing to run for president again.
Moro, who is now Brazil’s justice minister, questioned the authenticity of the messages and said he would not comment on texts obtained by hackers.
“The supposed material, obtained in a criminal way, must be presented to an independent authority so that its integrity can be certified,” he said in a statement.
The texts copied off the Telegram messaging app appear to show Moro suggesting to prosecutors that they mount a public campaign against the man he was judging, and The Intercept said they raised doubts about Moro’s impartiality in the trial that led to a 12-year prison sentence for Lula.
“Maybe tomorrow you should write a statement clarifying the contradictions between (Lula’s) deposition and the rest of the proof and his previous statement,” the judge wrote to prosecutor Carlos dos Santos Lima on the corruption investigation.
Lula’s lawyers have long argued that Moro was a politically motivated judge who wanted to jail their client to block him from running for the presidency last year, when opinion polls showed him easily leading the race, even after he had been jailed.
In an interview published on Friday, Moro told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that he was not worried that the corruption conviction against Lula would be overturned, which legal experts including the Brazilian Bar Association and some Supreme Court Justices have said could happen.
The Intercept has published stories based on what it said was an “enormous trove” of messages received from an anonymous source containing exchanges between prosecutors, Moro and others involved in the investigation and prosecution of the “Car Wash” corruption probe.
Considered the world’s largest graft investigation, it has uncovered billions of dollars of bribes paid in schemes mostly involving sweetheart contracts at state-run firms. It has brought down hundreds of members of the business and political elite in Brazil and across Latin America.
Moro told the newspaper he did not think there was anything illegal in his chats with prosecutors and insisted that Lula’s case “was decided with absolute impartiality based on proof without any type of influence.”
Moro was picked for justice minister by right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who won the presidency after Lula was barred from running because of his conviction.
Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Daniel Wallis
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean authorities found alive one of three Bolivian miners trapped beneath the rubble at a small copper mine early on Saturday, while another was found dead, Chile´s mining ministry said.
Authorities have yet to locate the third miner. The three men had gone missing late Thursday after a small landslide blocked the entrance to the mine, trapping the miners nearly 70 meters (230 feet) beneath the surface.
“Our rescue teams found one of the miners in good physical condition, and he has been transferred to the hospital,” mining minister Baldo Prokurica said in a statement on Saturday. “We will continue to look for the third person that has not been found.”
The mining ministry said authorities had worked for nearly 40 hours at the Directorio 8 mine near Tocopilla on the northern Chilean coast before locating two of the three men.
Chile is the world’s top copper producer, and mining accidents, while uncommon, are closely followed by the Chilean public and politicians.
In 2010, a mining accident in Copiapo, northern Chile, led to 33 miners being trapped underground for nearly 10 weeks before being rescued, an event that made world headlines.
Reporting by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Franklin Paul
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir delivers a speech inside Parliament in Khartoum, Sudan April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan’s chief prosecutor said on Saturday that ousted President Omar al-Bashir would be sent for trial soon on corruption charges related to his three decades in power.
Alwaleed Sayed Ahmed Mahmoud told a news conference the trial referral would be made after a one-week period for objections expires, adding that criminal cases have been opened against 41 other former officials accused of graft.
The prosecutor’s office said on Thursday that Bashir, who was ousted by the military in April following months of protests against his 30-year autocratic rule, had been charged with corruption after an investigation was completed.
The charges are related to laws on “suspected illicit wealth and emergency orders,” the office said, without giving more details.
Bashir had already been charged in May with incitement and involvement in the killing of protesters. Prosecutors also ordered his interrogation on suspicion of money laundering and terrorism financing.
Mahmoud also said he had attended a meeting with military heads to discuss judicial supervision of a plan to clear what he called “criminals” from an area adjacent to a protest camp in the center of the capital.
But the idea of dispersing the protesters was not discussed, he added.
The country’s military rulers said on Thursday they had thwarted several coup attempts and that some officers had been arrested over the deadly dispersal of protesters at a sit-in in Khartoum earlier this month.
Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Helen Popper
ROME (Reuters) - Franco Zeffirelli, who directed the world’s greatest opera singers and brought Shakespeare to the cinema-going masses, has died. He was 96.
In a statement, his foundation said he died in Rome on Saturday. “Ciao Maestro,” said the announcement.
Often appreciated more by the public than critics, Zeffirelli was the last of a generation of Italian film giants who came of age after World War Two, including Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica.
He directed more than two dozen films, working with stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Faye Dunaway, and Jon Voight.
“Franco Zeffirelli, one of the world’s greatest men of culture, passed away this morning,” Dario Nardella, the mayor of Zeffirelli’s home city of Florence, said in a Twitter post. “Goodbye dear Maestro, Florence will never forget you.”
Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said Zeffirelli would “remain in the hearts and the history of this country.”
Zeffirelli’s opera productions for the stage included singers such as Maria Callas, Placido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Scotto and Jose Carreras.
In a 2013 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he said the general public would remember him most for his 1968 film of “Romeo and Juliet,” the 1977 television mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth,” and “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” his 1972 film tribute to St. Francis of Assisi.
“Romeo and Juliet”, one of several times Zeffirelli brought Shakespeare to the screen, was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. His 1990 “Hamlet” starred Mel Gibson.
One of the high points of his opera career was a triumphant production of Verdi’s Aida at Milan’s La Scala in 2006, which won more than 15 minutes of applause on opening night.
However, Zeffirelli’s unconventional ventures into opera were often welcomed more abroad than at home, particularly in the United States, where he had more than a dozen top productions at the New York Metropolitan Opera.
In 1994 Zeffirelli, who directed several productions at London’s Covent Garden, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his “valuable services to British performing arts”.
A homosexual and devout Catholic, he revealed in his 2006 autobiography that he had been seduced by a priest when he was a teenager. But he said it was not molestation because there was no violence.
FILE PHOTO: Italian director Franco Zeffirelli arrives to attend Luciano Pavarotti's funeral at the cathedral of Modena September 8, 2007. REUTERS/Daniele La Monaca/File Photo
Zeffirelli hated the term “gay”, saying it was “undignified”.
“How can you say that Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were ‘gay’?” he asked Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. “Being homosexual carries with it a great weight of responsibility and difficult social, human and cultural choices”.
MOZART-LOVING MOTHER
Zeffirelli was born in Florence on February 12, 1923, to Alaide Garosi Cipriani, a seamstress, and Ottorino Corsi, a cloth salesman. Because they were married to other people, the law at the time meant he could not take either of their surnames and had to be registered by another one.
His mother, who loved Mozart, chose “Zeffiretti” after the Italian word for “little zephyrs” (breezes) in an aria in the Austrian composer’s Italian-language opera “Idomeneo”. But a transcription error by a city hall clerk made it forever “Zeffirelli”.
“Relatives and friends were horrified and very worried for the future which lay ahead of her,” he told a Catholic magazine in 2003. “Some advised her to have an abortion, but she refused. She believed that the child which was about to be born was a monument to her great love.”
His mother died of tuberculosis when he was six and he was raised by an aunt and at times by a group of eccentric ex-pat English women in Florence known as “Gli Scorpioni” (The Scorpions) for their biting wit.
Under their influence and tutelage, he learned to love English and Shakespeare, an experience that formed the basis of his 1999 film “Tea With Mussolini,” starring Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Cher.
“They taught me all the important things in life,” he told an interviewer in 1999. “These ladies helped me to understand my own city, my own culture and my own upbringing.”
In World War Two, Zeffirelli fought as a partisan before becoming an interpreter for the Scots Guards.
After the war, he studied architecture at the University of Florence and was drawn into theater and film, working initially as an assistant to Visconti, the director, for whom he designed the set for the first Italian production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1949.
Away from the screen and the stage, Zeffirelli was often in the news for his outspoken views.
In 1993, he was criticized by the Vatican for saying there should be capital punishment for women who have abortions.
FILE PHOTO: Italy's film director Franco Zeffirelli smiles during a ceremony at the British Embassy in Rome November 24, 2004. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo
From 1994 to 2001 he served as a senator for former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative Forza Italia party, hoping to inject culture into politics. He later said he regretted the decision.
Speaking in 2017 about his Christian faith, he told the Catholic newspaper Avvenire: “Faith is a gift, I am certain of that. I have it and I must hold on to it tightly. I know the past will never return but I am not saddened because I’ve had a full life, even though it began uphill.”
Reporting by Philip Pullella and Gavin Jones.; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Mike Harrison
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A roadside bomb hit a police vehicle patrolling near Kenya’s border with Somalia on Saturday, killing several of the 11 officers inside, a police spokesman said.
Separately, another blast in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu killed eight people, according to emergency services.
Both attacks were claimed by Somali Islamist insurgents who also kidnapped three Kenyan police reservists on Friday from the same area in Wajir district in northeast Kenya.
Kenyan military forces have occupied part of southern Somalia along the border since 2011. The Kenyans, along with allied Somali militia, wrested control of the territory from al Shabaab jihadists after a spate of kidnappings on Kenyan soil.
Al Shabaab is fighting the weak, U.N.-backed Somali government and its international allies in a quest to impose strict Islamic law.
Exact casualty figures from Saturday’s patrol attack were still unclear, police spokesman Charles Owino told Reuters.
In Mogadishu, al Shabaab detonated two bombs. Police said the first blast, at a busy junction known as K4, was a car bomb intercepted by security services that caused no casualties.
The other blast killed eight people and injured 16, said Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Aamin ambulance service.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, said the group was responsible for the blast in Kenya and the two in Mogadishu.
Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar in Mogadishu; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Edmund Blair and Andrew Cawthorne
PARIS (Reuters) - NATO faces significant costs if it does not act soon to choose a successor for its ageing fleet of 14 Boeing E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft, often called the alliance’s “eyes in the sky”, senior officials said.
FILE PHOTO: A NATO AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control Systems) aircraft approaches the Air Base number 5 during the Real Thaw 2018 exercise in Monte Real, Portugal February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante/File Photo
Michael Gschossmann, general manager of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agency that manages the AWACS fleet, said he expected to finalize by December a $750 million contract with U.S. arms maker Boeing Co to extend the life of the aircraft through 2035, with $250 million more earmarked for design, spare parts and testing.
But he said it was critical to decide quickly how to replace the 1979/1980-era airplanes, with their distinctive radar domes on the fuselage, or NATO would need to take costly steps to keep them flying even longer.
“We have to get moving on this. We have to ensure that the studies move along quickly. We need a reality check,” he said.
The AWACS planes are among the few military assets owned and operated by NATO, rather than individual states. They are used to conduct missions such as air policing, support for counter-terrorism operations, evacuations, and crisis response.
Gschossmann told Reuters NATO could follow the lead of member states Britain and Turkey in purchasing the E-7, a newer radar plane also built by Boeing. Those aircraft, he said, were large enough to add potential new capabilities, such as operating drones for expanded surveillance, in coming years.
“We have to ensure that we acquire a system that has growth potential, but that also – for financial and time reasons – is based on existing capabilities,” he said.
NATO is considering the AWACS replacement issue as part of a broader study of surveillance, but the process has dragged out given rapidly changing threats and newly emerging capabilities.
France and the United States also operate E-3A aircraft and could potentially buy E-7 planes in coming years, which could lower costs by generating larger order quantities.
“Why don’t we bet on the proven technology that we already have in the E-7 and provide NATO with a certain number of those aircraft? That would give us a basic capability that could be expanded in the future,” he said.
George Riebling, deputy general manager of the agency and a former senior U.S. official, said NATO was running out of time.
“If you don’t have an idea of what you’re going to do to replace NATO AWACS, then the ‘F’ in Final Lifetime Extension Programme (FLEP) can’t stand for final,” he said.
“There will be things we need to do to the NATO E-3A fleet to keep it flying past 2040.”
The FLEP program will update the aircraft’s mission system, as well as the processors for its electronic support measures (ESM) antenna. But it does not cover the radar itself, which would have doubled the cost.
Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
DUBAI (Reuters) - A tweet from Arabiya TV quoting the UAE’s foreign minister talking about Iran on Saturday later disappeared from Twitter.
Arabiya TV did not immediately comment on the reason.
The original tweet quoted Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan saying Iran’s fingerprints were clear attacks on oil tankers that took place on May 12.
A statement by the UAE’s state news agency later quoted the foreign minister as saying a state actor was involved but there was insufficient evidence to point to any particular country.
Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Andrew Heavens
Image caption Mr Zeffirelli directed movie stars including Elizabeth Taylor and opera greats such as Maria Callas
Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli has died aged 96, Italian media report.
The Florence native directed stars including Elizabeth Taylor in the 1967 film Taming of the Shrew and Dame Judi Dench on stage in Romeo and Juliet.
Italian media said Zeffirelli died after a long illness which had grown worse in recent months.
The two-time Oscar nominee also served in the Italian senate for two terms as a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
He is perhaps best known to many as the director of the 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet – starring a then-unknown Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey.
It was viewed by generations of school students studying the Shakespearean drama.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Franco Zeffirelli, photographed in 1967
The illegitimate son of a merchant, his mother gave him the surname "Zeffiretti" – meaning "little breezes" – which was misspelled on his birth certificate.
The original meaning came from a Mozart opera – and Zeffirelli would go on to become a prolific creator of opera himself, staging more than 120 in his career.
"Franco Zeffirelli, one of the world's greatest men of culture, passed away this morning," tweeted Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence. "Goodbye dear Maestro, Florence will never forget you."
Zeffirelli initially studied architecture, but said that after seeing Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944), he was inspired to make a career in theatre.
In 1945, he started work as a set designer at Florence's Teatro della Pergola, and concentrated on theatre throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
At the Pope's request, in 1970 Zeffirelli staged "Missa solemnis" in honour of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth.
His first film was a Shakespeare adaptation, of The Taming of the Shrew. While initially intended to star two Italian actors, but was heavily funded by Hollywood couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor – who eventually assumed the two leading roles.
Another notable adaptation of the bard's plays would come in 1990s Hamlet – starring Mel Gibson in the title role, with Glenn Close and Helena Bonham Carter among the supporting cast.
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland will not allow the Northern Ireland “backstop” clause in Britain’s EU withdrawal agreement to be dropped because doing so would be as big a threat to the country as Britain leaving without a deal, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Saturday.
FILE PHOTO: Ireland's Prime Minister (Taoiseach) and Defence Minister Leo Varadkar arrives for the informal meeting of European Union leaders in Sibiu, Romania, May 9, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
While it is “alarming” that leading contenders to replace Theresa May as Britain’s Prime Minister are increasingly threatening a no-deal Brexit, Ireland was 100 percent certain the European Union would not allow the backstop to go, he said.
Leadership contenders, including front-runner Boris Johnson, have called for the controversial Irish clause that is designed to avoid border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland to be changed or scrapped. They have said Britain would be prepared to leave without a deal if there was no compromise.
“To me no backstop is effectively the same as no-deal because what the backstop is is ... a legally operable guarantee that we will never see a hard border emerge again,” Varadkar told RTE radio. “If we don’t have that, that is no deal.”
How to manage the land border between EU-member Ireland and British-run Northern Ireland - including an emergency “backstop” solution to prevent the return of extensive frontier controls - has proven the most contentious element of Britain’s planned exit from the European Union.
Varadkar again rejected a proposal for a time limit on the Northern Ireland clause, saying a backstop with a time limit is “not a backstop.”
He said that Ireland remained open to the possibility of alternative arrangements that would allow an open border with Northern Ireland while protecting the European Union’s single market - something Johnson has suggested may offer a solution.
But Varadkar said that would only be a possibility once the technologies required had been demonstrated to work effectively.
“What people are saying is give up the backstop, which we know will work legally and operationally in return for something that doesn’t yet exist but might exist in the future ... I can’t do that to the border communities,” Varadkar said.
Varadkar said he was looking forward to sitting down with May’s replacement, but said the next prime minister should not expect a better Brexit deal.
“The fact that the failure of the House Of Commons to ratify the withdrawal agreement somehow means they are going to get a better deal, that is just not how the European Union works,” he said.
Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Edmund Blair
Image caption Graham Norton, Gary Lineker and Steve Wright lead the BBC pay list, with Claudia Winkleman the highest-earning woman
Cutting the pay of stars and senior managers would only save a fraction of the cost of free TV licences for older people, the BBC has said.
The broadcaster has defended its decision to end universal free licences for over-75s because of the £745m cost.
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, BBC director of policy Clare Sumner said the BBC could only save £25m if it kept all salaries at or below £150,000.
Up to 3.7 million pensioners stand to lose the free licence from next year.
Ms Pearson accused the broadcaster of having a "culture of ludicrously inflated salaries" and being "dangerously out of touch" with the public.
She called for cuts to the salaries of more than 100 senior staff earning over £150,000, as well as cutting the pay of stars and presenters.
According to the BBC annual review last year, among the highest-paid stars were Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker (£1,750,000-£1,759,999), chat show host Graham Norton (£600,000-£609,000) and Radio 2 presenter Steve Wright (£550,000-£559,999).
The top-earning female star was Claudia Winkleman, whose salary is estimated at £370,000-£379,999.
The total pay for on-air talent was £148m in 2017/2018.
£745mEstimated cost to the BBC of current scheme by 2021/22
£250mEstimated cost of new scheme depending on take-up
190,000people consulted on the change
52%in favour of reforming or abolishing free licence scheme
But in her letter to the Daily Telegraph, Clare Sumner said: "Even if we stopped employing every presenter earning more than £150,000, that would save less than £20m.
"If no senior manager were paid over £150,000 that would save only £5m."
She said spending on senior managers' salaries has been cut by £38m since 2010 and 94% of the BBC's budget was spent directly on programmes and services.
The highest-paid senior manager is director general Tony Hall, with an annual salary of £450,000. In total, 94 executives earn more than £150,000, nine of whom are paid more than £250,000.
'Rising cost'
Providing free TV licences to over-75s who claim pension credit will cost the BBC about £250m by 2021-22, depending on take-up.
But continuing the universal scheme would cost £745m, a fifth of the BBC's budget and equivalent to the cost of BBC Two, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, the BBC Scotland channel, Radio 5 Live and a number of local radio stations.
"If we had continued with the current scheme, its rising cost would have meant closures of services that we know older audiences, in particular, love, use and value every day," Ms Sumner said.
Free licences were first introduced by the Labour government in 2000.
In 2015, the Conservative government announced the BBC would take over the cost of providing free licences for over-75s by 2020 as part of the fee settlement.
More than 495,000 people have now signed an Age UK petition calling for the government to take back responsibility for funding free TV licences.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam attends a news conference in Hong Kong, China, June 15, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s foreign minister Jeremy Hunt welcomed a decision by the Hong Kong government to suspend a proposed law that would allow people to be extradited to mainland China for trial.
Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” principle, with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed elsewhere in China.
“Well done HK Government for heeding concerns of the brave citizens who have stood up for their human rights,” Hunt said on Twitter. “Safeguarding the rights and freedoms in the Sino-British Joint Declaration is the best future for HK and Britain stands behind this legally-binding agreement.”
Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Edmund Blair
(Reuters) - - Franco Zeffirelli, the film and opera director acclaimed for movies such as “Romeo and Juliet” and opulent lyrical productions on the world’s major stages, died on Saturday at the age of 96.
Often appreciated more by the public than critics, Zeffirelli was the last of a generation of Italian film giants who came of age after World War Two and included Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica.
He directed more than two dozen films, working with stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Faye Dunaway, and Jon Voight.
“Franco Zeffirelli, one of the world’s greatest men of culture, passed away this morning,” Dario Nardella, the mayor of Zeffirelli’s home city of Florence, announced on Twitter. “Goodbye dear Maestro, Florence will never forget you.”
Reporting by Gavin Jones; Editing by Andrew Heavens
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Saturday indefinitely delayed a proposed law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, in a dramatic retreat after anger over the bill triggered the city’s biggest and most violent street protests in decades.
The extradition bill, which would have covered Hong Kong’s seven million residents as well as foreign and Chinese nationals there, was seen by many as a threat to the rule of law in the former British colony.
Around a million people marched through Hong Kong last Sunday to oppose the bill, according to organizers of the protest, the largest in the city since crowds came out against the bloody suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations centered around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Demonstrations continued through the week and were met with tear gas, bean bag rounds and rubber bullets from police, plunging the Asian finance hub into turmoil and piling heavy pressure on Lam.
“After repeated internal deliberations over the last two days, I now announce that the government has decided to suspend the legislative amendment exercise, restart our communication with all sectors of society, do more explanation work and listen to different views of society,” Lam told a news conference.
In her first public appearance or comments since Wednesday, she said there was no deadline, effectively suspending the process indefinitely.
Political opponents called for the bill to be scrapped completely. Protest organizers said they would go ahead with another rally on Sunday to demand Lam step down.
The about-face was one of the most significant political turnarounds under public pressure by the Hong Kong government since Britain returned the territory to China in 1997, and it threw into question Lam’s ability to continue to lead the city.
It also potentially alleviated an unwanted headache for the leadership in Beijing, which is grappling with a slowing economy and an all-consuming trade war with the United States.
Asked repeatedly if she would step down, Lam avoided directly answering and appealed to the public to “give us another chance”. She said she had been a civil servant for decades and still had work she wanted to do.
She added that she felt “deep sorrow and regret that the deficiencies in our work and various other factors have stirred up substantial controversies and disputes in society”.
‘GREAT CARE’
The extradition bill deliberations started in February and Lam had pushed to have it passed by July.
But the protests changed the equation. Cracks began to appear on Friday in the support base for the bill with several pro-Beijing politicians and a senior adviser to Lam saying discussion of the bill should be postponed for the time being.
Sing Tao newspaper reported on Saturday that China’s top official overseeing Hong Kong policy, Vice Premier Han Zheng, met Lam in Shenzhen in recent days.
Lam declined to confirm whether or not the meeting had happened, but took ownership for the decision to suspend the bill and said she had support from the central government.
Steve Tsang, a political scientist at SOAS in London, said Beijing had most likely ordered Lam to postpone the bill.
“They would have indicated to Carrie...that this just has to end. She didn’t understand what she was doing,” he said.
“I think Carrie Lam’s days are numbered...Beijing cannot afford to sack her right away, because that would be an indication of weakness.”
The Chinese government office in charge of Hong Kong affairs expressed “support, respect and understanding” of Lam’s decision to suspend the bill.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks at a news conference in Hong Kong, China, June 15, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
In a statement via the state news agency Xinhua, a spokesman said the central government “fully affirmed” the work of Lam and the Hong Kong government and would continue “to firmly support” her. Beijing “strongly condemns” the violence during the protests and supports the Hong Kong police, the statement said.
Pro-democracy politicians, responding to Lam’s announcement, said a suspension was not enough.
“Carrie Lam has lost all credibility among Hong Kong people. She must step down,” said Claudia Mo, a legislator and member of the pan-democratic camp, which has opposed the bill.
A spokesman said the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong welcomed Lam’s decision and urged “great care and taking into account the views of the local and international community should the Hong Kong government pursue any amendments to its extradition laws, particularly as they relate to mainland China”.
WITHDRAWAL ‘WRONG’
Beyond the public outcry, the extradition bill had spooked some of Hong Kong’s tycoons into starting to move their personal wealth offshore, according to financial advisers, bankers and lawyers familiar with the details.
And senior police officers have said Lam’s refusal to heed public opinion was sowing resentment in the force, which was already battered by accusations of police brutality during the 2014 pro-democracy “Umbrella” civil disobedience movement.
Lam had said the extradition law was necessary to prevent criminals using Hong Kong as a place to hide and that human rights would be protected by the city’s court which would decide on the extraditions on a case-by-case basis.
Critics, including leading lawyers and rights groups, note China’s justice system is controlled by the Communist Party, and say it is marked by torture and forced confessions, arbitrary detention and poor access to lawyers.
China says it respects rule of law.
Hong Kong is governed by China under a “one country, two systems” deal that guarantees it special autonomy, including freedom of assembly, free press and independent judiciary.
Slideshow (6 Images)
Many accuse Beijing of extensive meddling since then, including obstruction of democratic reforms, interference with elections and of being behind the disappearance of five Hong Kong-based booksellers, starting in 2015, who specialized in works critical of Chinese leaders.
The Chinese government has denied that it has overreached in Hong Kong.
Reporting by John Ruwitch, Clare Jim, Jessie Pang, James Pomfret, Joyce Zhou, Vimvam Tong, Anne Marie Roantree, Greg Torode and Twinnie Siu; Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Michael Perry and Christian Schmollinger
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