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
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
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
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) toasts with Chinese President Xi Jinping while congratulating him on his birthday before the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan June 15, 2019. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated his 66th birthday on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Xi considers a close friend and who gave Xi ice cream as a present, Chinese state media reported.
The discussion of senior leaders’ private lives is extremely rare in China, and the exact birth dates of most of them are not revealed publicly, as they are considered a state secret.
State television showed pictures of Xi and Putin holding up champagne glasses to toast Xi’s birthday at the hotel he is staying at in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, where they are both attending a regional summit.
While Putin gave Xi Russian ice cream - the flavor was not mentioned - Xi gave Putin back some Chinese tea, the report said.
Xi thanked Putin and said that in China Putin was extremely popular, it added.
Pictures on Chinese state television’s website showed the two men inspecting a white cake decorated with red and blue confectionary flowers with the words written on it, in somewhat shaky red-colored Chinese characters, “good fortune double six”.
It was not immediately clear if Xi ate any of the cake.
Reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Christian Schmollinger
MANILA (Reuters) - China has rejected Philippine allegations that a Chinese fishing vessel abandoned 22 Filipinos after it sank their boat in the South China Sea, as pressure builds on President Rodrigo Duterte to take a tougher line.
FILE PHOTO: President Rodrigo Duterte speaks after his arrival, from a visit in Israel and Jordan at Davao International airport in Davao City in southern Philippines, September 8, 2018. REUTERS/Lean Daval Jr.
China’s embassy in Manila said the crew had sought to rescue the Filipino fishermen but fled after being “suddenly besieged by seven or eight Filipino fishing boats”.
“There was no such thing as (a) ‘hit-and-run’,” it said in a statement late on Friday, adding it would handle the issue in a “serious and responsible manner”.
The sinking took place on Sunday near the Reed Bank, the site of untapped gas deposits that an international arbitration court in 2016 ruled the Philippines had sovereign rights to exploit. Beijing disputes that.
The issue could complicate what are determined efforts by Duterte to build a strong relationship with China, despite deep mistrust among his U.S.-allied defense apparatus, which remains wary about China’s maritime militarization and what it sees as bullying and denial of Manila’s access to its own offshore oil and gas reserves.
Duterte has made no mention of Sunday’s incident during any of the lengthy and unscripted speeches he has since given. His defense minister, navy chief and spokesman have publicly denounced the Chinese crew and his foreign minister said he had lodged a protest with Beijing.
Presidential spokesman, Salvador Panelo, did not respond to a request for comment on China’s version of events.
Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros on Saturday called for bilateral ties to be downgraded and said China’s denial was “preposterous” and the story made no sense.
She said Duterte had plenty to say about mundane issues, but should speak up when it came to sovereignty.
“Nothing is more reassuring to the public than to see and hear their own president, the supposed architect of the country’s foreign policy, telling them that he is on top of the situation,” Hontiveros said.
Sunday’s incident is the latest confrontation involving China’s vast fishing fleet, which experts say has been co-opted to serve as Beijing’s militia and augment its constant coastguard presence in waters also claimed by Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei.
Philippines Supreme Court judge Antonio Carpio, a staunch critic of China’s maritime claims and conduct, said that among its massive fishing contingent were boats with reinforced steel hulls “purposely for ramming fishing vessels of other coastal states.”
“The Filipino people must send a strong signal to China that any new ‘gray zone’ offensive of ramming Filipino fishing vessels ...will mean a break of diplomatic ties,” Carpio said in a statement late Friday.
Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Michael Perry
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong media reported on Saturday the city’s government would suspend a proposed law on extradition to mainland China that sparked widespread anger and violent protests, with leader Carrie Lam planning to address reporters later in the day.
Support for the swift passage of the extradition bill began to crumble on Friday with several pro-Beijing politicians and a senior advisor to Lam saying discussion of the bill should be shelved for the time being.
The extradition bill, which will cover Hong Kong residents and foreign and Chinese nationals living or traveling in the city, has many concerned it may threaten the rule of law that underpins Hong Kong’s international financial status.
Around a million people, according to protest organizers, marched through Hong Kong last Sunday to oppose the bill. Protests through the week were met with tear gas and rubber bullets from police, plunging the city into turmoil and piling heavy pressure on Lam.
Another protest is planned for this Sunday.
Hong Kong’s iCable, the South China Morning Post and Sing Tao newspaper all reported that the bill would be suspended on Saturday. TVB and iCable said Lam would hold a news conference on Saturday afternoon.
Calls to Lam’s office went unanswered outside of business hours. Lam has not appeared in public or commented since Wednesday. Hong Kong media reported Lam would meet pro-Beijing lawmakers around noon to explain her pending announcement.
Backing down from efforts to drive the bill through the city’s legislature by July would have been unthinkable last week when the law’s passage seemed inevitable as Lam remained defiant.
People attend a rally in support of demonstrators protesting against the proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, China, June 14, 2019. Picture taken June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
But Michael Tien, a member of Hong Kong’s legislature and a deputy to China’s national parliament, said a total withdrawal of the bill was unlikely.
“The amendment is supported by the central government, so I think a withdrawal would send a political message that the central government is wrong. This would not happen under ‘one country, two systems’,” he told Reuters, referring to the model under which Hong Kong enjoys semi-autonomy.
Tien, a member of the pro-Beijing camp, said he supported a suspension of the bill without a timetable.
Despite chatter that the government would hit pause on the bill, organizers of last Sunday’s protest march stood by plans for another march this Sunday. In addition to opposing the bill they would also be calling for accountability of the police for the way protests have been handled.
Lam has said the extradition law is necessary to prevent criminals using Hong Kong as a place to hide and that human rights will be protected by the city’s court which will decide on a case-by-case basis extraditions.
Critics, including leading lawyers and rights groups, note that China’s justice system is controlled by the Communist Party, and marked by torture and forced confessions, arbitrary detention and poor access to lawyers.
Last Sunday’s protest in the former British colony was the biggest political demonstration since its return to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” deal. The agreement guarantees Hong Kong’s special autonomy, including freedom of assembly, free press and independent judiciary.
Many accuse China 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 specialised in works critical of Chinese leaders.
Slideshow (4 Images)
Beijing has denied that it has overreached in Hong Kong.
The extradition bill has 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.
Reporting by John Ruwitch, Joyce Zhou, Vimvam Tong, Clare Jim and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Michael PerryEditing by Michael Perry
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong media reported on Saturday the city’s government would suspend a proposed law on extradition to mainland China that sparked widespread anger and violent protests, with leader Carrie Lam planning to address reporters later in the day.
People attend a rally in support of demonstrators protesting against proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, China, June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Support for the extradition bill began to crumble on Friday with several pro-Beijing politicians and a senior advisor to Lam saying discussion of the bill should be shelved for the time being.
The extradition bill, which will cover Hong Kong residents and foreign and Chinese nationals living or traveling in the city, has many concerned it may threaten the rule of law that underpins Hong Kong’s international financial status.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Hong Kong last Sunday to protest the bill, and street demonstrations through the week were met with tear gas and rubber bullets from police, plunging the city into turmoil and piling heavy pressure on Lam. Another protest is planned for this Sunday.
Hong Kong’s iCable, the South China Morning Post and Sing Tao newspaper all reported that the bill would be suspended on Saturday. TVB and iCable said Lam would hold a news conference on Saturday afternoon.
Calls to Lam’s office went unanswered outside of business hours. Lam has not appeared in public or commented since Wednesday.
Backing down from efforts to drive the bill through the city’s legislature by July would have been unthinkable last week when the law’s passage seemed inevitable as Lam remained defiant.
Lam has said the extradition law is necessary to prevent criminals using Hong Kong as a place to hide and that human rights will be protected by the city’s court which will decide on a case-by-case basis extraditions.
Opponents, including leading lawyers and rights groups, say China’s justice system, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party, is marked by torture and forced confessions, arbitrary detention and poor access to lawyers.
Last Sunday’s protest in the former British colony was the biggest political demonstration since its return to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” deal. The agreement guarantees Hong Kong’s special autonomy, including freedom of assembly, free press and independent judiciary.
Many accuse China 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 extradition bill has spooked some of Hong Kong’s tycoons to start moving their personal wealth offshore, according to financial advisers, bankers and lawyers familiar with the details.
Reporting by John Ruwitch, Joyce Zhou, Vimvam Tong, Clare Jim and Anne Marie Roantree
TUMBES, Peru (Reuters) - Thousands of Venezuelans rushed to Peru’s northern border on Friday in hopes of entering the Andean country before it imposes tough immigration requirements at midnight, as one of the hitherto most welcoming destinations for the migrants in South America closes another door to them.
Venezuela’s economic collapse under President Nicolas Maduro has unleashed the biggest migratory crisis in recent Latin American history, forcing countries like Peru - a developing nation of 32 million people - to grapple with an unprecedented surge in immigration.
Children dominated the crowds of tired migrants who arrived at the Peruvian border town of Tumbes from Ecuador on Friday, ahead of the June 15 deadline for all Venezuelan migrants to have valid visas and passports.
On Thursday alone, 5,849 Venezuelans entered Peru at Tumbes, compared to a daily average of around 1,500-2,000 in recent months, Peru’s immigration office said on Friday.
“It was awful!” said Rosmaura, a 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant who said she had traveled for a week from the eastern Venezuelan city of Maracaibo to reach Tumbes with her two children. She declined to give her second name.
Rosmaura was afraid that after June 15 Peru would not let her 5-year-old daughter in because she lacks a passport, which she said costs $200-$500 to acquire in Venezuela - an impossible fee for most people in a country where the monthly minimum wage equates to just $6.
She said she hopes to make it to Chile.
“Most of my family is there,” she said.
Four million Venezuelans - more than a tenth of the population - have fled the economic and humanitarian crisis in their homeland, the United Nations said last week.
Peru is home to some 800,000, the government says - the second-largest Venezuelan migrant population outside Colombia, which houses more than 1.2 million.
Just two years ago, Peru had introduced new migratory laws to accommodate Venezuelan migrants. It doled out hundreds of thousands of special residency cards so they could work legally, go to school and access public health care.
But the tide has since turned, amid growing fears fanned by media reports and politicians that Venezuelan migrants are driving down wages and fuelling crime.
Slideshow (17 Images)
Peru cut short its special residency program and started deporting Venezuelans with criminal records. The government has said it would require migrants to secure a visa from its consulates in Venezuela before going to the border - a policy similar to one implemented by neighboring Chile.
As migrants took buses, hitchhiked and trekked their way to Peru’s border on Thursday, President Martin Vizcarra defended his new immigration stance from an event in the northern city of Piura.
“Our country has opened its arms to more than 800,000 Venezuelans. I think it’s completely logical and justified to ask them to bring visas to ensure better control of who enters,” Vizcarra told journalists.
Reporting by Guadalupe Pardo and Reuters TV, Writing By Mitra Taj; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Rosalba O'Brien
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico and Honduras will coordinate to protect the rights of Honduran migrants in transit through Mexico as well as strengthen their cooperation to tackle human trafficking, their foreign ministries said in a joint statement on Friday.
Officials from both countries met in Mexico City to discuss migration and development “under the principle of shared responsibility,” the statement said.
Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon, Editing by Dan Flynn
Cuban migrants return to Mexico from the United States to await their court hearing for asylum seekers as part of the legal proceedings under a new policy established by the U.S. government, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday began ramping up the pace of returns of asylum seekers to Mexico to wait out their U.S. court hearings by sending around 200 migrants back through the El Paso, Texas, port of entry, according to a Mexican official.
The increase from around 100 migrants a day is the first sign of expansion of a Trump administration policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, said Luis Carlos Cano, a spokesman for Mexico’s national immigration agency in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso. The program began in January and was meant to expand as part of a deal to stave off tariffs on Mexican goods.
Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in El Paso, Texas; Editing by Leslie Adler
CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldova’s new prime minister Maia Sandu consolidated her power on Friday as her predecessor resigned, appearing to ease a crisis that shook the country for the past week as two rival governments jostled for control.
Pavel Filip, former Moldova's Prime Minister and one of the leaders of the Democratic Party of Moldova, speaks at a news briefing in Chisinau, Moldova, June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Vladislav Culiomza
Sandu took office last weekend as the head of a new coalition government designed to fight corruption and remove a party led by tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc from power.
But Plahotniuc’s Democratic Party called her a usurper and insisted Prime Minister Pavel Filip was still in charge. Filip stepped down on Friday but demanded a snap election and refused to recognize Sandu’s government as legal.
The crisis threatened more instability for one of Europe’s smallest and poorest countries, where the West and Russia vie for influence.
Moldova has been dogged by scandals and the emigration of citizens to Russia or wealthier European countries to find work. Sandu is the country’s eighth prime minister since 2013.
“I have a message to the entire world. Moldova is finally free,” Sandu told a televised briefing.
Earlier on Friday in an interview with Reuters, she laid out some of her government’s priorities: fight corruption, sack dishonest officials, make the electoral system fairer and get foreign aid flowing.
“The biggest challenge of the country is that people are leaving. It’s the young people who are leaving.”
UNLIKELY ALLIANCE
After a February election produced a hung parliament, Sandu, a Harvard-educated former World Bank economist, became head of a coalition government comprising her ACUM bloc and the Socialist party of President Igor Dodon.
It is an unlikely alliance – ACUM wants Moldova to join the EU, while Dodon wants closer ties with Russia.
Sandu told Reuters her government will adhere to Moldova’s current international agreements, including a political and trade pact with the EU rolled out in 2014.
“This is not a natural alliance. There is no question about it, and probably half a year ago nobody would have said that this could happen,” she said.
She is keen to ensure Moldova receives two outstanding tranches of aid from the International Monetary Fund before the current program expires in November.
Sandu joined politics in 2012 as an education minister, where she became well known for her efforts to clamp down on rampant cheating during exams.
Tackling corruption on a national scale would likely prove popular as it is one of voters’ biggest concerns.
Plahotniuc’s Democratic Party said Sandu had missed a legal deadline to form the government and the Constitutional Court last weekend declared her government invalid.
It suspended Dodon temporarily to allow Filip as acting president to declare an election in September. Sandu and Dodon ignored the ruling.
The crisis led to two rival governments issuing orders. Sandu’s ministers could not enter government buildings, which were surrounded by police and Plahotniuc’s supporters. She ran her government out of offices in the parliament.
When the man Sandu appointed interior minister tried to enter police headquarters earlier this week, it ended in a scuffle with officers in helmets and balaclavas.
Russia supports the new government. The EU, which froze aid to Moldova last year, said it was “ready to work with the democratically legitimate government”. Washington had earlier called on all sides to show restraint.
Sandu accuses Plahotniuc of corruption and trampling on democracy. Plahotniuc’s camp says such allegations against him are politically driven lies, and that Sandu’s government would let Moldova fall into Moscow’s orbit.
Filip, for his part, has accused Sandu and Dodon of subverting democracy and called their administration an “illegal, Kremlin-backed government”.
Slideshow (6 Images)
He resigned on Friday but said he only did so because of the pressure being put on his administration.
“Our resignation does not unblock the legal process, because the constitutional crisis continues,” he said.
Sandu called on the Democratic Party to withdraw its supporters from surrounding government buildings and desist from protests.
Additional reporting by Alexander Tanas; Editing by Kevin Liffey
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) should and is likely to declare an international emergency over the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has now spread to Uganda, experts said as a WHO advisory panel met on Friday.
A health worker wearing Ebola protection gear enters the Biosecure Emergency Care Unit (CUBE) at the ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action) Ebola treatment centre in Beni, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, April 1, 2019. Picture taken April 1, 2019.REUTERS/Baz Ratner
Congo’s epidemic is the second worst worldwide since West Africa’s Ebola outbreak in 2014-16, with 2,084 cases and 1,405 deaths since being declared in August. The WHO said on Thursday that two people had died in Uganda having arrived with the disease from Congo.
A panel of 13 independent medical experts on the WHO’s Emergency Committee (EC) were meeting from midday to evaluate the latest evidence and whether the epidemic constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Such a decision would lead to boosting public health measures, funding and resources, and could include recommendations on trade and travel, academic experts and aid groups said.
“Will @WHO declare global emergency for #Ebola? I predict yes. My sense is @DrTedros will call PHEIC if #EC recs it. He understands depth of crisis,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C., who is not on the panel, said in a tweet.
People are still dying outside of Ebola treatment centers - exposing their families to the disease - and many don’t appear on lists of known contacts being monitored, he said.
“Vaccines alone can’t work if community hides cases due to distrust. Violence persists. We are in this for the long haul,” Gostin said, referring to deadly attacks on Congo health facilities.
The panel, which twice before decided not to declare an emergency, will make recommendations to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who takes the final decision.
Only 4 emergencies have been declared in the past decade: the H1 virus that caused an influenza pandemic (2009), West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, polio (2014) and Zika virus (2016).
SECOND WORST EPIDEMIC
Top WHO official Mike Ryan said on Thursday there had been no known person-to-person spread of Ebola in Uganda and that there were encouraging signs in Congo, with the disease’s spread slowing in cities of Butembo and Katwa. However it the virus was now entrenched in rural areas including Mabalako, he said.
“But these can be very volatile, these can go up and down week to week. So we have to be careful looking at one week of data and declaring victory.
“We have a hell of a long way to go in this response,” he told Reuters.
The WHO, in a statement overnight, said that given all three confirmed cases in Uganda belong to a single family cluster, the level of preparedness and experience of Ugandan authorities to manage previous Ebola outbreaks, and their rapid detection of cases in a limited geographical area, “the overall level of risk at national level is assessed as moderate”.
“However, the overall regional risk posed by the outbreak in DRC remains very high. The overall risk at international level remains low,” it said.
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global medical charity, said the WHO should declare a public health emergency of international concern.
“Doing so would raise the levels of international political support, which has been seriously lacking so far, show strong support for DRC and neighboring countries and WHO, and release more resources, including finance, healthcare workers, enhanced logistics, security and infrastructure,” he said.
Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Thursday responded to the crisis in Hong Kong over a proposed extradition law with China by introducing legislation that would require the U.S. government to justify the continuation of special treatment for the territory.
Protesters hold signs following a day of violence over a proposed extradition bill, outside the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong, China, June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
The bipartisan Senate legislation, sponsored by several senior senators, would require the U.S. secretary of state to issue an annual certification of Hong Kong’s autonomy to justify special treatment under the U.S. Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992.
The proposed law, introduced by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, would also require the U.S. president to identify those responsible for the abduction of booksellers and other individuals from Hong Kong and subject them to U.S. sanctions.
In Beijing on Friday, the foreign ministry expressed “extreme dissatisfaction” with the proposed U.S. bill, calling it “irresponsible carping and crude interference”.
China called on the United States “to give up its delusions of creating chaos in Hong Kong, stop pushing the proposed bill and to stop interfering in China’s domestic affairs,” spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular media briefing.
The bill would also require the president to issue a strategy to protect U.S. citizens and business from the effects of a revised extradition law and the U.S. Commerce Department to issue an annual report assessing whether Hong Kong was adequately enforcing U.S. and U.N. sanctions, particularly those on Iran and North Korea.
In addition, the legislation would make clear that Hong Kong citizens should not be denied visas to the United States if they were arrested or detained in connection with protest activity there.
The legislation was expected to be introduced to the House on Thursday.
Scuffles broke out between demonstrators and police in Hong Kong on Thursday as hundreds of people persevered with a protest against the extradition law a day after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up big crowds.
Wednesday’s protests around the city’s legislature forced the postponement of debate on the bill, which many in Hong Kong fear will undermine freedoms and confidence in the commercial hub.
Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Huizhong Wu; Editing by Steve Orlofsky
FILE PHOTO: Security personnel stand guard in front of St Anthony's Shrine, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 29, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Five Sri Lankans suspected of having links to Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people were brought home in police custody on Friday after being deported from Saudi Arabia, police said.
Police declined to provide details of the arrests beyond saying the five were picked up in a Middle Eastern country and were sent back, in the custody of Sri Lankan police, from the Saudi city of Jeddah.
“These are the five remaining leaders of the April 21 terrorist group,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters.
The coordinated Islamist militant suicide bomb attacks on hotels and churches sent shockwaves through the Indian Ocean island state that had enjoyed relative peace since a civil war ended a decade ago.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks that authorities said were carried out by two little-known domestic groups - the National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim.
Police declined to give information about the nature of the five suspects’ roles in the attacks but said one of them, identified as Mohamed Milhan, was a senior member of the NTJ.
“He could have been the next leader,” Gunasekera said.
Authorities have arrested more than 2,000 people in connection with the attacks. While courts have released most of them on bail, 634 remain in detention.
Authorities say the threat of more attacks has been contained and the security services have dismantled most of the network linked to the bombings.
Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer, Robert Birsel
A picture of the Kokuka Courageous, one of two that were hit in suspected attacks in the Gulf of Oman, is displayed during a news conference by the ship owner Kokuka Sangyo Ltd. at the company office in Tokyo, Japan June 13, 2019, in in this photo released by Kyodo. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
TOKYO (Reuters) - Two “flying objects” damaged a Japanese tanker in a suspected attack on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, but there was no damage to the cargo of methanol, the president of the shipping company said on Friday.
The Kokuka Courageous was sailing toward the port of Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates after the crew, which had evacuated after the incident, returned, President Yutaka Katada of Kokuka Sangyo told a press conference. It was being escorted by the U.S. Navy, he said.
“The crew told us something came flying at the ship, and they found a hole,” Katada said. “Then some crew witnessed the second shot.”
Katada said there was no possibility that the ship, carrying 25,000 tons of methanol, was hit by a torpedo.
The crew saw an Iranian military ship in the vicinity on Thursday night Japan time, Katada said.
The United States blamed Iran for attacking the Kokuka Courageous and another tanker, the Norwegian-owned Front Altair, on Thursday, but Tehran denied the allegations.
Japanese Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said on Friday that the incidents will be discussed at a meeting of G20 energy and environment ministers this weekend.
Seko declined to comment on American officials blaming Iran, saying Japan is still investigating the incident, which occurred while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran trying to help ease rising tensions between the United States and Iran.
Reporting by Junko Fujita; writing by Malcolm Foster; editing by Richard Pullin
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s industry minister, Hiroshige Seko, said on Friday an attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman this week will be discussed at a meeting of G20 energy and environment ministers this weekend.
FILE PHOTO - Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko leaves the European Commission headquarters after a meeting on steel overcapacity, in Brussels, Belgium March 10, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Walschaerts
The ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 major economies will be held in Karuizawa, northwest of Tokyo, in the run up to the G20 summit to be held in Osaka, western Japan, on June 28-29.
Two tankers, one operated by a Japanese shipping company, were attacked in the Gulf on Thursday. The United States blamed Iran for the attacks, raising concerns about a new U.S.-Iranian confrontation and driving up oil prices. Tehran denied involvement.
“Maintaining energy security is something we can share with other ministers and is an important policy issue to be discussed at the G20 energy ministerial meeting,” Seko said at a regular press conference.
“The Middle East is a key area for global energy security. We want to talk with other ministers about our concerns about global security and threats,” he said.
Seko declined to comment when asked about whether Japan would send its armed forces to the Gulf to protect tankers.
He also declined to comment on remarks by U.S. officials blaming Iran for the attacks, saying Japan was still investigating details of the incident.
The attacks happened while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran trying to help ease rising tensions between the United States and Iran.
Seko said Abe told Iranian leaders that Japan wanted to maintain economic cooperation with Iran, including buying crude oil when international circumstances allowed. Japan stopped purchases earlier this year after the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
Seko said the attack would not affect Japan’s energy supplies.
The other ship that was attacked was an oil tanker chartered by Taiwan’s state oil refiner, CPC Corp, to carry fuel from the Middle East.
GRAPHIC: Attacks in Gulf of Oman IMG - tmsnrt.rs/2X8ePpU
Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; writing by Aaron Sheldrick; editing by Richard Pullin
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Police kept a close watch over central Hong Kong as the Asian financial hub returned to normalcy on Friday, with banks re-opening branches closed during violent protests against a proposed extradition bill with mainland China.
A woman attends a protest following a day of violence over a proposed extradition bill, under a footbridge leading to the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong, China, June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
But with the city’s government showing no signs of backing down over the controversial bill, which critics warn threatens Hong Kong’s rule of law, further demonstrations are planned.
A few dozen demonstrators remained near the city’s legislature on Friday, which had been scheduled to debate the bill this week but was thwarted when thousands of protesters took to the streets and blocked the building.
Police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, have been criticized for using excessive force on unarmed demonstrators.
Opponents of the proposed extradition bill fear it would undermine Hong Kong’s that underpins its status as an international financial hub.
The territory’s Beijing-backed leader, Carrie Lam, has stood by the bill, arguing that it is necessary to plug loopholes that allow criminals wanted on the mainland to use the city as a haven. She has said the courts would provide human rights safeguards.
On Friday, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank re-opened branches that had been closed near where the protests erupted. Businesses were operating normally and commuters flowing through the area to work.
Hong Kong authorities have closed government offices in the city’s financial center for the week due to the unrest.
On Thursday, Hong Kong Police Commissioner Stephen Lo said police had arrested 11 people and fired about 150 tear gas canisters at the crowd during protests on Wednesday. The city’s hospital authority said 81 people were injured in the protests.
Police also later arrested two students at the University of Hong Kong after a raid on a student hall of residence, according to an official at the university. The police gave no immediate response to Reuters inquiries on what charges the students face.
Despite the calm on Friday more protests loom this weekend.
Last Sunday, a march against the extradition bill drew what organizers said was more than a million people for the biggest street demonstration since the 1997 handover of the former British colony back to Chinese rule.
March organizers have urged people to take to the streets again on Sunday, and protesters applied for a permit to gather on Monday, when the Legislative Council may re-convene to discuss the bill.
Meanwhile, diplomatic pressure on Hong Kong mounted.
In the United States, senior congressional lawmakers from both parties responded to the crisis on Thursday by introducing legislation that would require the U.S. government to provide an annual justification for the continuation of special business and trade privileges afforded to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under an agreement that promised a high degree of autonomy for the city within a “one country, two systems” framework. Critics say Beijing has been slowly undermining that deal and encroaching on Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Beijing has rejected those accusations and Chinese state media said this week “foreign forces” were trying to damage China by creating chaos over the bill.
Skyscrapers at Hong Kong's central business district are seen during sunset, China, June 13, 2019 REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
The hawkish Chinese newspaper the Global Times on Friday lambasted foreign leaders for being hypocrites and failing to condemn what it called “violent demonstrators”.
“This is a stark provocation. These U.S. senators make us see the dark mind of the U.S. political elite who just want to turn Hong Kong into a chaotic place by hyping the uncontrolled violent street politics,” an editorial on the newspaper’s website said.
Hong Kong’s benchmark stock exchange slid as much as 1.5% on Thursday before closing down 0.1%, extending losses from the previous day.
Writing by John Ruwitch; Additional reporting by Sijia Jiang in HONG KONG and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Editing by Michael Perry
LONDON (Reuters) - Boris Johnson, who has pledged to deliver Brexit on Oct. 31, surged closer to power on Thursday, winning by far the most support from Conservative lawmakers in the first round of the contest to replace Prime Minister Theresa May.
Three years since voting 52%-48% to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom is heading toward a possible crisis over Brexit as most of the candidates vying to succeed May are prepared to leave on Oct. 31 without a deal.
While parliament has indicated it will try to stop a no-deal Brexit, which investors warn would hurt financial markets and the world economy, some of those running say it may be the only way for Britain to leave the bloc without further delay.
Johnson, the face of the official campaign to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, won the support of 114 Conservative lawmakers in the first round of the contest to replace May. A total of 313 lawmakers voted.
“Thank you to my friends and colleagues in the Conservative & Unionist Party for your support. I am delighted to win the first ballot, but we have a long way to go,” Johnson said on Twitter.
His closest rivals were: Jeremy Hunt, the foreign minister, who won 43 votes; Michael Gove, environment minister, with 37 votes and Dominic Raab, former Brexit minister, on 27 votes.
Sajid Javid, interior minister, came fifth with 23 votes. Matt Hancock won 20 votes and Rory Stewart 19. Three were knocked out: former leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom, Mark Harper and Esther McVey.
Betting markets give Johnson, who has a long record of scandals and gaffes, a 70% probability of winning the top job.
SECOND ROUND
Johnson, a former London mayor and foreign minister, has spent weeks wooing Conservative lawmakers, staying out of the spotlight with a low-key campaign at odds with his flamboyant publicity stunts of the past.
But his spokesman, while celebrating a higher-than-expected number of supporters, said there was still “a long way to go in the contest and you have to hold the numbers to go into the next rounds and that’s the challenge”.
The second round is due on June 18 with further ballots planned for June 19 and June 20 until there are just two candidates. A postal ballot of the wider Conservative Party membership will then be held to pick a leader.
A new prime minister should be chosen by the end of July. There had been speculation that the contest could be accelerated due to Johnson’s strong lead but there was no immediate sign of rivals bowing out of the race.
Some were quick to make veiled warnings about the frontrunner.
PM hopeful Boris Johnson leaves his home in London, Britain, June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
Hunt, who has pitched himself as a unifier of both Brexit-supporting and pro-EU Conservatives, warned members of the party that “the stakes have rarely been higher for our country”. “This serious moment calls for a serious leader,” he tweeted.
Stewart, who has criticized Johnson for making promises on Brexit he cannot keep, voiced optimism about his campaign: “This is amazing - we’re getting some real momentum here ... It’s increasingly clear it’s me against Boris. And let’s win.”
Finance minister Philip Hammond, who has not publicly endorsed a candidate, wrote on Thursday to all remaining leadership contenders to urge them to stick to existing budget rules until at least the next scheduled election in 2022.
Johnson has proposed cutting income tax to 20% from 40% for those earning 50,000-80,000 pounds ($65,000-$105,000), while Gove has suggested replacing value-added tax on goods and services with a narrower sales tax.
Johnson kicked off his official campaign on Wednesday with a pledge to lead Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 and a warning to his divided Conservative Party that “delay means defeat”.
“After three years and two missed deadlines, we must leave the EU on October 31,” Johnson, 54, said then. “I am not aiming for a no-deal outcome.”
Johnson, whose unconventional style has helped him shrug off a series of scandals in the past, has won over much of his party by arguing that only he can rescue the Conservatives by delivering Brexit.
He argues that if Britain is prepared for a no-deal Brexit, the EU will bend to his argument to remove the so-called Northern Irish backstop to prevent a return to a hard border with Ireland if there is no agreed future trade deal.
Slideshow (3 Images)
But the EU has refused to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement reached with May last November and Ireland has said it is not willing to change the backstop.
On Wednesday, the European Commission said: “In light of the continued uncertainty in the United Kingdom ... and the overall domestic political situation, a ‘no-deal’ scenario on 1 November 2019 very much remains a possible - although undesirable - outcome.”
Additional reporting by David Milliken; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Stephen Addison and Janet Lawrence
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s special forces are about to shift away from counter-terrorism work and instead concentrate on blocking covert operations by countries such as Russia, the BBC reported on Thursday, citing unnamed British officials and military sources.
Senior military officers are considering the proposal and are likely to recommend the government approve it, the BBC’s security editor said.
“The counter-terrorist task is drawing down, while the need to confront dangerous international behavior by peer adversaries is increasing,” the BBC quoted one source as saying.
Britain blames Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency for the poison attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury last year. Russia denies responsibility.
The Skripals’ poisoning with a nerve agent prompted a wave of diplomatic expulsions and recriminations, with ties between London and Moscow shriveling to a post-Cold War low in its wake.
Russia has raised international concerns following its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the Skripal affair and accusations by the United States and some EU governments that it interfered in their elections.
“Under the new plan, an operation might be mounted in a Baltic republic or African country in order to uncover and pinpoint Russian covert activities,” the BBC said.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the BBC report, and a spokeswoman said the government did not routinely comment on matters affecting special forces.
The BBC said the change would boost the role of Britain’s Special Reconnaissance Regiment, a military unit which carries out covert surveillance such as planting cameras in insurgent-held territory and electronic eavesdropping.
It quoted an unnamed senior British military officer as saying commanders wanted a greater range of options beyond conventional military action.
“Right now, you do nothing or you escalate,” the officer said. “We want to expand that competitive space.”
Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Sandra Maler
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is discussing with its allies a variety of options on how to protect international shipping in the Gulf of Oman in the wake of tanker attacks that Washington has blamed on Iran, senior Trump administration officials said on Thursday.
Two officials, speaking to a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States wants to ensure the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and make sure international commerce is not disrupted.
Two oil tankers were attacked on Thursday and left adrift in the Gulf of Oman.
“We don’t think this is over,” one official said of the possibility of more such attacks.
The official said options are being reviewed.
“We’re discussing and will be discussing with our partners and allies suggestions on how we collectively can take steps to ensure, one, that we maintain freedom of navigation and international commerce is not disrupted and, second, that we protect our forces’ interests and our commercial assets and those of our partners and allies,” the official said.
The official said the attacks appeared “designed to have a political outcome” and suggested it could have been an attempt to disrupt a visit to Tehran by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“We are going to obviously evaluate our presence in the region and the growing threat and make subsequent decisions,” the official said. “We have to look at the threat, as we always do, to our personnel and our forces but the threat to a strategic chokepoint. There’s a significant amount of trade that transits the Strait of Hormuz every day.”
Reporting by Steve Holland and Phil Stewart; Editing by Sandra Maler and David Gregorio
