Brunei won't enforce death-by-stoning punishment for gay sex - New York Post

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Brunei’s sultan has said a moratorium on capital punishment is in effect for new Shariah criminal laws including stoning people for gay sex and adultery that sparked an international outcry.

The United Nations has called the laws implemented April 3 “draconian” while the U.S. and several other countries have urged Brunei to halt its plans. Celebrities including George Clooney, Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres have rallied for a boycott of nine hotels in the U.S. and Europe linked to Brunei.

Even before 2014, homosexuality was already punishable in Brunei by a jail term of up to 10 years. The new laws say those found guilty of gay sex can be stoned to death or whipped.

Adulterers risk death by stoning too, while thieves face amputation of a right hand on their first offense and a left foot on their second. The new laws apply to children and foreigners, even if they are not Muslim.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said Sunday in a speech to mark the start of Ramadan that he was aware of the “many questions and misperceptions” over the penalties provided for under new sections of Brunei’s Shariah Penal Code, but stressed that there should be no fear.

Brunei has had a “de facto moratorium” on capital punishment for over two decades and “this will also be applied to cases under the (Shariah laws) which provides a wider scope for remission,” he said. The announcement came as a surprise but appeared aimed at deflecting criticism that Islamic criminal laws are cruel.

“We are conscious of the fact that misperceptions may cause apprehension. However, we believe that once these have been cleared, the merit of the law will be evident,” the sultan said.

Sultan Hassanal said Brunei will also ratify the U.N. Convention Against Torture to show its commitment to human rights.

“Both the common law and the Shariah law aim to ensure peace and harmony of the country. They are also crucial in protecting the morality and decency of the public as well as respecting the privacy of individuals,” he added.

In an immediate reaction, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland on Monday hailed the moratorium on the death penalty but also urged Brunei to revoke other harsh punishments such as amputation and flogging. Brunei is a member of the Commonwealth.

Sultan Hassanal instituted the Shariah Penal Code in 2014 to bolster the influence of Islam in the oil-rich monarchy of around 430,000 people, two-thirds of whom are Muslim. There has been no vocal opposition to the new penalties in Brunei, where the sultan rules as head of state with full executive authority. Public criticism of his policies is extremely rare in the country.

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2019-05-06 10:22:00Z
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Fragile Cease-Fire Takes Hold Between Israel and Gaza After Weekend Attacks - The New York Times

JERUSALEM — A tentative cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza appeared to have taken hold Monday morning, bringing a short but deadly bout of cross-border fighting to an end as abruptly as it had started. At least 22 Palestinians, including militants and children, were killed in Gaza over the weekend, and four Israeli civilians died in the fighting.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Gaza groups that fired about 600 projectiles at southern Israel on Saturday and Sunday, had indicated a readiness to restore the fragile truce that went into effect nearly five years ago but has been interrupted repeatedly by violence. A Hamas-run television channel reported in the early hours of Monday that a new cease-fire had been reached, and would come into effect at 4:30 a.m.

According to Arab news reports, the understanding was brokered by Egypt and the United Nations, and includes measures to ease the acute economic crisis in the impoverished Gaza Strip, home to two million people. It came with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

At least nine militants and as many Palestinian civilians, including two children, were killed by Israeli forces on Sunday alone, according to Health Ministry officials in the Hamas-run coastal territory. It was the worst violence between the two sides since a 50-day war in 2014.

The Israeli military said it had struck 350 militant targets over the weekend. It resumed wartime tactics that included the targeted assassination of individuals and bombing multistory buildings it said were used for military purposes.

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The remains of a building in Gaza City after it was hit by Israeli air strikes on Sunday.CreditMahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Israeli government did not overtly confirm a renewed cease-fire, as is customary in such situations, with officials reluctant to go public about understandings or agreements with groups that Israel classifies as terrorist organizations.

But in an acknowledgment of the restoration of calm, the Israeli military announced the lifting, from 7 a.m., of all restrictions on public gatherings in communities within a 25-mile radius of Gaza. Roads in the vicinity of the border and most schools reopened.

Then, in a statement issued around 11 a.m., Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to the end of this round of battle, if not the general state of war.

“Over the last two days, we struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad with great force,” he said. “We hit over 350 targets. We struck at terrorist leaders and operatives and we destroyed terrorist buildings. The campaign is not over, and it demands patience and sagacity. We are prepared to continue. The goal has been — and remains — ensuring quiet and security for the residents of the south. I send condolences to the families and best wishes for recovery to the wounded.”

Israeli commentators said that Israel had also been eager to cut short the fighting, with Memorial Day and Independence Day celebrations coming this week, and a stream of international singers arriving to compete in the Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv this month. In hosting the international contest, Israel intends to showcase itself as a tourist destination.

The exact terms of the cease-fire were not publicized, but in the past they have included measures like an extension of the fishing zone off the Gaza coast in the Mediterranean waters controlled by Israel, assurances for the smooth transfer of Qatari money into the territory and other measures to ease the blockade imposed by Israel, with Egypt’s help. Both countries restrict the movement of people and goods in and out of the enclave, citing security grounds and the need to stop weapons smuggling.

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A building in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod that was damaged by a rocket strike from the Gaza Strip.CreditJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

This latest round of fighting appeared to have been set off by events on Friday, when two Israeli soldiers were wounded by a Gaza sniper and four Palestinians were killed.

Two of the Palestinians were shot by Israeli forces during weekly protest along the fence dividing the territory from Israel, according to Gaza health officials. The others, who were identified as Hamas militants, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in retaliation for the sniper attack. Starting Saturday morning, Hamas and Islamic Jihad unleashed an unusually heavy barrage of rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel.

Perennially simmering tensions along the border have burst into at least eight brief but increasingly fierce rounds of fighting over the past year, sometimes lasting little more than a day. These exchanges appear to have replaced the broader wars that occurred in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014, with neither side showing any appetite now for a full-scale showdown.

Mr. Netanyahu, who also serves as Israel’s defense minister, is in the process of forming a new, right-wing governing coalition after his party’s victory in the general elections in April.

Opposition leaders from the political center and left have repeatedly criticized him as lacking a more decisive and strategic policy toward Gaza.

Yair Lapid, of the centrist Blue and White party, accused Mr. Netanyahu of “a complete surrender” to Hamas.

Mr. Netanyahu was also criticized by a senior politician in his own Likud party.

“The cease-fire, given the circumstances under which it was reached, lacks achievements for Israel,” the politician, Gidon Saar, who is considered a rival for the party leadership, wrote on Twitter. “The time ranges between the rounds of violent attacks on Israel and its citizens are getting shorter, and the terrorist organizations in Gaza use the periods in between to get stronger. The campaign has not been prevented, but postponed.”

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2019-05-06 11:04:40Z
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Aeroflot jet's black boxes recovered after Moscow crash kills dozens - NBC News

The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the Murmansk-bound aircraft had circled twice over the Russian capital before making an emergency landing after just under 30 minutes in the air. Storms were passing through the Moscow area at the time.

Survivor Pyotr Egorov said the plane appeared to have been hit lightning.

"We were so scared, we almost lost consciousness," the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily quoted Egorov as saying. "The plane jumped down the landing strip like a grasshopper and then caught fire on the ground."

The Aeroflot plane burns after making an emergency landing on Sunday.Russian Investigative Committee / via AFP - Getty Images

Video captured at the scene showed passengers leaping from the wreckage onto an inflatable slide and people clinging to their luggage as emergency vehicles sped toward the jet.

Russian news agencies reported that the plane had been serviced as recently as last month.

Aeroflot has long shaken off its troubled post-Soviet safety record and now has one of the world's most modern fleets on international routes where it relies on Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

The airline said the pilot had some 1,400 hours of experience flying the two-engine regional aircraft.

The remnants of the Aeroflot jet after it made an emergency landing on Sunday.HANDOUT / Reuters

The Sukhoi Superjet was the first passenger plane developed in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The model was put into service in 2011 and has been used by airlines in countries including Mexico.

One crashed in Indonesia in 2012, killing all 45 people on board. Human error was blamed.

Yuliya Talmazan

Yuliya Talmazan is a London-based journalist.

Elena Holodny

Elena Holodny is a Moscow-based producer for NBC News.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed.

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2019-05-06 09:50:00Z
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Ceasefire appears to take hold in Gaza, ending deadly weekend of hostilities - CNN

At least 23 people were killed in Gaza, including two infants and two pregnant women, in the exchanges that began Friday, while four people were killed in Israel by rockets.

A spokesman for the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad told CNN that the agreement took effect at 4:30 a.m. local time in Gaza.

Israel rarely confirms or comments on the existence of any ceasefire. But Israeli authorities have lifted all restrictions on civilians in the Gaza periphery, which is likely a clear indication that Israel expect this latest round of fighting has ended.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned Sunday that "massive attacks against terrorist elements" would continue due to the rocket attacks coming from Gaza.

At his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Netanyahu said "Hamas bears the responsibility not only for its own attacks and actions but also for the actions of Islamic Jihad, and it is paying a very heavy price for this."

Israeli Economy Minister Eli Cohen used similar language in discussing the conflict.

"The rules of the game have changed. We are preparing for a campaign that, by the end of it, Hamas and Islamic Jihad will beg for a ceasefire," Cohen said in a statement posted on social media.

"The heads of the snake in Gaza are already paying a price and they will continue to a heavy price for the unnecessary provocation and the harm to our citizens."

Hamas threatened a similar escalation if the fighting continued.

"We stress that the more atrocious the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian civilians are, the stronger the Palestinian response will be," Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' leader in Gaza, said in a statement Sunday.

"If the Israeli occupation does not implement the ceasefire understandings, the battlefield will witness more escalation."

The violence marks the first serious escalation in hostilities since the Israeli election about a month ago. Included among the deceased in Gaza are eight members of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad -- the Quds Brigade -- a spokesman for the group said.

The weekend also saw the first use of a targeted killing by Israeli authorities in Gaza in years. Israeli aircraft struck the vehicle of Hamid Ahmed Abdul Khudri, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), who they say was responsible for money transfers from Iran to militant groups like Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the two largest factions inside the Gaza Strip.

The catalyst for the weekend of hostilities occurred Friday afternoon.

Two Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli troops during weekly protests along the fence between Gaza and Israel Friday, according to Palestinian health officials.

Also during the demonstrations, a sniper in Gaza wounded two Israeli soldiers near the border. Israel responded by striking a Hamas military post, killing two members of Hamas' military wing.

Hamas and other factions inside Gaza vowed to hit back. On Saturday morning, militant factions fired a barrage of rockets into Israel.

The fighting escalated by the hour. Short-range rockets targeting the Gaza periphery gave way to more powerful rockets aimed at Beer Sheva and Ashdod, some of the largest cities in southern Israel. Islamic Jihad also fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli civilian vehicle. Israel's attacks escalated as well, from hitting smaller military posts to larger multi-story buildings the IDF says were used as terror infrastructure by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

By the time the sun rose Monday, Palestinian militants had fired about 690 rockets into Israel, according to the IDF, and Israel had conducted airstrikes on 350 targets.

Those killed in Israel include two men in their fifties, health officials said. In Gaza, two infants, a 12-year-old boy and two pregnant women were among the dead, per Gazan officials.

There is a dispute over the cause of the deaths of one of the infants and one of the pregnant women -- Gaza health officials say both died in an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military says they were killed when a militant rocket misfired on launch.

Diplomatic attempts to bring an end to the fighting continued throughout the weekend, including "very intense" mediation efforts by Egypt and the United Nations, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told CNN.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' office condemned "in the strongest terms the launching of rockets from Gaza into Israel, particularly the targeting of civilian population centers" in a statement Sunday.

CNN's Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report

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2019-05-06 09:00:00Z
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In Israel-Gaza conflict, an airstrike response to a cyberattack will be closely watched by experts - CNBC

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, on May 05, 2019.

Sameh Rahmi| NurPhoto | Getty Images

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday they responded to a cyberattack from a Hamas-controlled compound in Gaza with an airstrike, a rare mix of physical and cyber conflict on the world stage.

The cyberattacks emanating from the Gaza facility were aimed at harming Israeli civilians and was thwarted online before the strike, the IDF said, though they did not immediately release further details about the cyberattack.

In Gaza, Hamas militants have launched 600 rockets into Israel, while the country has retaliated with hundreds of strikes on military targets there.

International organizations and militaries have long debated how or when countries should use military force to respond to cyberattacks that could harm citizens.

The incident is certain to spark further debate on how cyberattacks and live conflict should mix. It's an important distinction as countries including the United States grow increasingly concerned at the possibility a cyberattack on the electric grid, water supply or other infrastructure could lead to loss of human life, and create norms for how they will respond to those threats, either immediately or preemptively.

NATO, cyberwarfare experts will weigh in

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been the preeminent world group involved in creating rules and norms for how cyber conflict and "kinetic," or live physical conflict, should intersect.

NATO's role at the forefront of this debate has roots in 2007, when a dispute between Russia and Estonia over military statues led to a cyberattack by Russia against the smaller country. The attack devastated communications infrastructure, knocked out access to banks and news broadcasts in Estonia, and was the first example of how a cyberattack could be use to hobble a country's citizens.

As a result of the attacks, NATO headquartered its international Cyber Defense Center in Tallinn, Estonia's capital. The organization has closely tracked what it refers to as "hybrid warfare." In 2016, the organization expanded its list of warfare domains – air, land and sea – to include "cyber" for the first time, meaning a cyberattack on any NATO organization could invite retaliation from all of them.

Further attacks, including the ransomware attacks of 2017 and attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure from Russia, among others, have all contributed to a young but growing body of knowledge of how to handle major cyber conflicts in realtime.

But few countries have been involved in such a hybrid conflict that spilled over to the physical realm. Israel's actions will likely shift the debate of how to handle cyberattacks in times of conflict or war forward. This is especially true because Israel is already a world leader in cybersecurity and cyberwarfare, making its actions and techniques in this case likely to be emulated by other countries in the future.

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2019-05-06 07:49:19Z
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China says trade delegation is preparing to go to the U.S. - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Chinese staffers adjust U.S. and Chinese flags before the opening session of trade negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade representatives at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s foreign ministry said on Monday a Chinese delegation is preparing to go to United States for trade talks, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and target hundreds of billions more soon.

Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, speaking at a regular news briefing, did not say if Vice Premier Liu He, who is China’s lead official in trade negotiations with the United States, would be part of the delegation.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Robert Birsel

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-05-06 07:44:00Z
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Israel and Gaza reach ceasefire agreement amid tense calm - Al Jazeera English

Palestinian officials say a ceasefire agreement has been reached with Israel to end a surge of violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel that has led to the deaths of at least 23 Palestinians and four Israelis.

Gaza officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that a deal was reached at 1:30 GMT, and no Israeli air raids on the Palestinian territory have been reported since the deal came into effect.

The officials said Egypt and Qatar helped mediate an end to days of attacks between Gaza and Israel.

There was no confirmation from the Israeli side. However, the Israeli army early on Monday lifted all protective restrictions imposed near the Gaza area during the weekend's flare-up.

The Home Front Command instructed residents of the south to return to their routines.

The Israeli Transportation Ministry announced that all public bus routes in the south would return to full and normal operation. The railway line between the cities of Ashkelon and Beersheba was also set to resume later in the morning.

An Islamic Jihad official, on condition of anonymity, said the truce agreement was based on Israel easing its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Among the steps, he said, were the easing of limits on the fishing zone to 12 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza and improvements in Gaza's electricity and fuel situation.

An Egyptian official also confirmed the deal on condition of anonymity.

The flare-up was the most serious clash between the two sides since a spate of fighting in November.

Rocket sirens in southern Israel, which had gone off continuously over the weekend, sending residents running for cover, were quiet for a few hours straight before dawn on Monday.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered "massive strikes" on the Gaza Strip after a two-day escalation in which Israeli warplanes and gunboats targeted Gaza as fighters in the besieged enclave fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel.

A 34-year-old Hamas commander was killed on Sunday in what the Israeli military described as a targeted strike.

An army statement accused Hamad al-Khodori of "transferring large sums of money" from Iran to armed factions in Gaza.

Other Palestinian victims included two pregnant women and three infants.

In the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a 58-year-old Israeli man was killed after being struck by shrapnel from a rocket attack. Two other Israelis, critically wounded in a separate rocket attack on a factory on Sunday afternoon, later died.

Around two million Palestinians live in Gaza, the economy of which has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas' West Bank-based rival.

Israel said its blockade was necessary to stop weapons reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the area.

What does a Netanyahu election victory mean for Palestinians?

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2019-05-06 07:01:00Z
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