The Daily Upvote - 2016-10-18

Islamic State said to use human shields as coalition advances on Mosul

(Reuters) Residents of Mosul said Islamic State was using civilians as human shields as Iraqi and Kurdish forces captured outlying villages in their advance on the jihadists' stronghold.

The leader of Islamic State was reported to be among thousands of hardline militants still in the city, suggesting the group would go to great lengths to repel the coalition.

With attacking forces still between 20 and 50 km (12-30 miles) away, residents reached by telephone said more than 100 families had started moving from southern and eastern suburbs most exposed to the offensive to more central parts of the city.

Islamic State militants were preventing people fleeing Mosul, they said, and one said they directed some towards buildings they had recently used themselves.

“It’s quite clear Daesh (Islamic State) has started to use civilians as human shields by allowing families to stay in buildings likely to be targeted by air strikes," said Abu Mahir, who lives near the city's university.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-idUSKCN12I17X

Obs.: The helicopters remind me of Apocalypse Now, that reminded me this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVahi5BB678

Fears rise in Europe of jihadist influx if Iraq retakes Mosul

(AFP) Europe faces a new influx of Islamic State jihadists if Iraqi forces retake the group's stronghold Mosul, officials and analysts warned Tuesday, adding to fears on a continent battered by a string of Islamist attacks.

Thousands of Europeans have left for Iraq and Syria over the last two years to wage jihad, but after the IS suffered a string of territorial defeats this year in both countries, some of its fighters have begun returning to the continent.

As Iraqi forces press their offensive in Mosul, the "caliphate" declared two years ago by the IS, experts urged Europe to prepare itself for more battle-hardened jihadists ready to launch attacks back home.

"The retaking of the IS' northern Iraq stronghold, Mosul, may lead to the return to Europe of violent IS fighters," the EU's commissioner for security Julian King told German daily Die Welt.

King thought it was unlikely that there would be a mass exodus of IS fighters from Mosul to Europe but he stressed that even a handful of jihadists returning would pose a "serious threat that we must prepare ourselves for".

Around 2,500 European fighters are still in the conflict zones, said King.

Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fears-rise-europe-jihadist-influx-iraq-retakes-mosul-112945066.html

Trump? Clinton? Many young Americans prefer giant meteor, poll finds

(Reuters) Young Americans are so dissatisfied with their choices in this presidential election that nearly one in four told an opinion poll they would rather have a giant meteor destroy the Earth than see Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the White House.

The choice alluded to the Twitter hashtag "#GiantMeteor2016," a reference to an imaginary presidential candidate used to express frustration about this year's election choices.

Some 53 percent of the 1,247 people aged 18 to 35 said they would prefer to see a meteor destroy the world than have Republican New York real estate developer Trump in the Oval Office, with some 34 percent preferring planetary annihilation to seeing the Democratic former Secretary of State win.

Some 39 percent said they would prefer that U.S. President Barack Obama declare himself president for life than hand over power to Clinton or Trump, with 26 percent saying the nation would do better to select its next leader in a random lottery.

Some 23 percent, nearly one in four, preferred the giant meteor outcome to either Trump or Clinton.

That contrasts with the surge of participation by young voters that helped propel Obama into the White House for his first term in the 2008 election.

When asked to choose between the actual candidates, Clinton easily led Trump with 54 percent of respondents to 21 percent in a two-way race.

In a four-way race also including Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Clinton led with 48 percent support, to Trump's 20 percent, Johnson's 10 percent and Stein's 4 percent.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-meteor-idUSKCN12I20S

Record numbers of unaccompanied children arrive in Italy

(UNICEF) In the first nine months of 2016 more children arrived by sea in Italy than in all of last year. This year more than 90 per cent of the children travelled alone while in 2015 the unaccompanied accounted for 75 per cent. This year has also seen an increase of children from Egypt but most still come from West Africa.

From January to October 2016 it is estimated that more than 20,000 unaccompanied and separated children arrived by sea to Italy. This is already more than in 2015 when there were in total 16,500 child arrivals, of whom 12,300 were unaccompanied and separated children.*

According to a UNICEF team on the ground the situation of refugee and migrant children in Italy is increasingly desperate and the Italian child protection system is overstretched.

“Each week hundreds of children arrive here, every one of them has real burning needs – from the fragile newborn babies to the teenagers travelling alone who have no idea what to expect in a foreign land,” said Sabrina Avakian UNICEF child protection officer currently in Calabria, Italy to assess the needs of refugee and migrant children especially the new arrivals.

“Some of the children are deeply distressed from the journey, they witnessed drownings, some have terrible chemical burns from the fuel on the dinghies, the babies and their mothers need special care in breastfeeding, they all need proper protection and accommodation and it is just taking far too long for them.”

Source: http://www.unicef.org/media/media_92928.html

Montenegro opposition rejects election outcome due to "atmosphere of fear"

(Reuters) Two opposition alliances in Montenegro have rejected the outcome of Sunday's parliamentary elections in which Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's party won the most seats, accusing the government of voter intimidation.

Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists won 36 seats, five short of a majority in the 81-seat parliament, but voting was marred by irregularities.

Early on Sunday, 20 Serb citizens were arrested as they tried to enter Montenegro on suspicion of plotting attacks on state institutions and officials.

Speaking late on Monday, Nebojsa Medojevic, leader of the Democratic Forum, the larger of the two alliances, said the arrests pointed to a planned coup by the government.

"The opposition has unanimously decided not to recognize the election result because of an attempted coup and misuse of state institutions as well as the creation of an atmosphere of fear which directly influenced the election result," said Medojevic.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-montenegro-election-protests-idUSKCN12I0UQ

Top US lawmaker vows to keep embargo on Cuba

(AFP) Congress will keep a decades-old embargo on Cuba, the top Republican in the US House of Representatives vowed Tuesday, despite recent moves by President Barack Obama to ease sanctions against Havana.

"I fully intend to maintain our embargo on #Cuba," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a tweet.

Obama issued an executive order last week that further loosened restrictions on trade with Cuba, nearly two years after Washington began the process of rapprochement with its former foe.

The embargo remains a major holdover from decades of Cold War enmity between the two neighboring nations.

But Ryan, the top lawmaker in the Republican-led House, insisted in a longer statement that he would resist "the Obama administration's unilateral move to lift trade restrictions on Cuba."

"The Castros continue to jail pro-democracy activists at a rate of hundreds per month, yet it is full steam ahead for the Obama administration's efforts to appease this oppressive regime," he said, referring to the government of longtime revolutionaries Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, the current president.

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/top-us-lawmaker-vows-keep-embargo-cuba-194114930.html

Belgium detains 15 in raid over involvement in militant group

(Reuters) Belgian police on Tuesday took in 15 people for questioning after raids as part of an investigation into the financing of militant groups and recruiting fighters for Islamic State in Syria, prosecutors said.

The raids were not linked to the Brussels attacks of March 22 in which 32 people were killed, they added in a statement.

Of the 15 people detained, four will be facing an investigating judge, prosecutors said. The raids involved police in the cities of Antwerp and Ghent in northwestern Belgium.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-attacks-belgium-idUSKCN12I1Q3

Russia and Syria pause bombardment of rebel-held parts of Aleppo

(NYT) Russian and Syrian warplanes halted their bombardment of rebel-held districts in Aleppo on Tuesday, in what Russia called a gesture of good will ahead of an eight-hour unilateral “humanitarian pause” it has promised for Thursday.

The halt in aerial attacks came as residents reeled from days of shattering airstrikes that had intensified over the past week, killing scores of people, including 14 members of one family. It was unclear how long the break would last.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said at a news conference on Tuesday that he hoped the respite would allow talks “to finally separate” the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and “those like it” from armed opposition groups supported by the United States and its allies — a longstanding Russian demand.

But rebel leaders are likely to reject that demand, and United Nations officials said that they had received no prior notification from Russia about the pause in the bombardment, that they had no knowledge of the corridors the Russian military said would be opened to let civilians and militants out of the city, and that humanitarian agencies would not be able to send aid in or bring wounded out without more time and additional guarantees.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/world/middleeast/syria-russia-aleppo.html

One in three people believe same-sex marriage should be legal: global survey

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) Almost one in three adults globally believe people of the same sex should be allowed to marry, a survey of almost 100,000 people in 65 countries showed on Tuesday.

Some 32 percent said same-sex marriage should be legal, while 45 percent said it should not be, and the remaining 23 percent replied they did not know, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) survey said.

The rights group said a breakdown of the results highlighted deep regional divisions.

Only 19 percent of respondents in Africa and 26 percent in Asia said they approved of same-sex marriage, against 35 percent in the Americas, 41 percent in Europe and 56 percent in Oceania the online survey found.

These divisions reflect that rights advocates in Africa and Asia have focused on more pressing issues, such as fighting discrimination against gays rather than promoting acceptance of same-sex marriage, said study co-author Aengus Carroll.

"This is so far off the agenda for Africa and Asia," Carroll told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-gaymarriage-survey-idUSKCN12I285

Burundi's president signs bill on withdrawal from the ICC

(AP) Burundi's president on Tuesday signed legislation to make his country the first to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, which had said it would investigate recent political violence there.

No country has ever withdrawn from the ICC, which prosecutes cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

President Pierre Nkurunziza approved the law after it won lawmakers' overwhelming support last week, the presidency said on Twitter.

Burundi's decision to quit the ICC follows a bitter dispute with the international community over the human rights situation in the East African country. More than a year of deadly violence has followed Nkurunziza's controversial decision to pursue a third term, which some have called unconstitutional.

Source: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8598b628ca984b71a69d1bb6d218b1e7/burundis-president-signs-bill-withdrawal-icc

Croatia PM-designate ready to seek approval for new government

(Reuters) Croatia's Prime Minister-designate Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday he had chosen ministers for his cabinet and would seek parliamentary approval this week.

His government's main tasks will be to fix fragile public finances and boost moderate growth in the newest European Union member, one of the bloc's weakest economies.

"I believe it's a choice of people who are ready to give their utmost in the coming years for the benefit of the country," Plenkovic, a 46-year old former diplomat and leader of the conservative HDZ party, told reporters.

He did not provide the names of all the ministers, but said there would be four deputies, one of whom would be Martina Dalic in charge of the economy. She was briefly the finance minister in a previous HDZ government five years ago.

The parliament is expected to vote on Plenkovic's proposal for new cabinet on Wednesday.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-croatia-government-idUSKCN12I2HY

Elections of Venezuelan mayors, governors delayed until 2017

(EFE) The president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council, or CNE, Tibisay Lucena, announced Tuesday that voting for governors and mayors will not take place until the first and second halves of 2017, respectively.

In this way the CNE delays for several months the regional elections, which according to the constitution should be held at the end of this year to complete the four years in office of those elected in December 2012.

Lucena gave no specific dates for any of the elections but said that voting for governors will take place at the end of the first half of 2017, while balloting for mayors will be "in the second half" of that year.

The term for which the 23 governors including 20 Chavistas were elected in 2012 will expire at the end of 2016, but they must remain in office until new elections are scheduled.

Source: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/10/18/elections-venezuelan-mayors-governors-delayed-until-2017

Two dozen ELN rebels surrender ahead of Colombia peace talks

(Reuters) Two dozen fighters from the leftist ELN rebels have surrendered voluntarily to the Colombian navy, the military said on Tuesday, in a sign the group may be losing strength as it prepares to begin peace talks with the government.

The National Liberation Army, or ELN, rebels will start negotiations with the government of President Juan Manuel Santos on Oct. 27 in a bid to end more than 52 years of war.

Many rebels who demobilize do so individually, making the surrender of a large group of fighters unusual.

The rebels from the Cimarron Resistance Front in north-western Choco province handed over their firearms and munitions on Monday, General Juan Pablo Rodriguez said in a statement.

So far during 2016, 252 ELN members have demobilized, 388 have been captured and 46 have been killed in combat, according to the statement.

Despite more than two years of on-and-off closed-door talks with the government, the 2,000-strong ELN has remained active, kidnapping and bombing oil installations.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-peace-eln-idUSKCN12I2IW

Ecuador acknowledges limiting Julian Assange's web access

(NYT) Ecuador announced on Tuesday that it had cut off Julian Assange’s access to the internet in his exile in the country’s embassy in London, making it clear that it feared the tiny country was being sucked into an effort to “interfere in electoral processes” in the United States by the activities of the founder of WikiLeaks.

The announcement came a day after WikiLeaks said that Mr. Assange’s connection to the internet had been severed shortly after the organization published speeches that Hillary Clinton gave to Goldman Sachs, the global investment firm. The transcripts, the latest in a series of disclosures, appear to have come from the hacked email account of John Podesta, the chairman of her campaign and a White House chief of staff when Mrs. Clinton’s husband served as president.

The statement clearly sought to separate Ecuador from the decision by WikiLeaks to publish Mr. Podesta’s emails and, before those, emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and other organizations. In recent weeks, Mr. Assange, once the hero of the American left for exposing classified State Department and Pentagon documents, has been hailed by Donald J. Trump and his advisers for disclosures from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, which Mr. Trump has used almost daily to fuel his attacks on her.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/world/europe/julian-assange-embassy.html

Hong Kong fails to delay pro-independence lawmakers from taking office

(Reuters) The Hong Kong government failed in an unprecedented legal attempt on Tuesday to halt the swearing-in of two newly elected lawmakers seeking to push for independence for the autonomous region.

High Court Judge Thomas Au rejected its last-ditch request for an injunction against a decision allowing the two lawmakers to re-take their oath of office at Hong Kong's Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Au did approve the government's request for a judicial review of the case, which will take place early next month. By that time, they could already be serving in the legislature.

Yau Wai-ching, 25, and Baggio Leung, 30, were initially barred by legislative authorities last week after pledging their allegiance to the "Hong Kong nation" and displaying a "Hong Kong is not China" banner when they first attempted to take office.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-politics-idUSKCN12I23H

Imprisoned Saudi blogger faces more lashes: supporters

(DW) Saudi blogger Raif Badawi received the first part of his corporal punishment, 50 lashes, on January 9, 2015. The punishment was carried out in public in a square next to a mosque in Jeddah. Badawi was so badly injured that the rest of his punishment was suspended.

A source close to Haidar has told her that the remaining 950 lashes will be carried out privately in prison very soon.

"I was totally shocked by the news. I am worried and scared that they will carry on whipping him," Haidar said in an interview with DW. "I am very concerned about Raif's health, which is not good. Niether is his mental or his physical state."

Haidar has called on the Saudi government and royal family to cease the punishments. "I would hope that the Saudi authorities strip Raif of his citizenship and then deport him to Canada, so he can be with us," said Haidar, who lives in asylum with their children in Canada. She hopes that western governments will come out supporting the suspension of Raif's sentence.

Badawi was sentenced in May 2014 to ten years in prison, handed a fine and condemned to 1,000 lashes. He was accused of insulting Islam on his private internet forum, "The Saudi Liberals." The forum was intended to serve as a platform for critical and uncensored reports and analyses. Badawi received a number of honors for his work. In the last year, he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for human rights from the European Parliament and the Freedom of Speech Award from Deutsche Welle.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/raif-badawi-threatened-with-more-lashes-says-saudi-bloggers-wife/a-36084203