India election 2019: Sixth round of voting under way for 59 seats - Aljazeera.com

Voters in Delhi and elsewhere in India's north have lined up to cast their ballots in the second last round of a seven-phase general election, with the opposition seeking a united stand to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi a second term.

More than 100 million people across seven states are eligible to vote in the sixth phase of the poll, which began on April 11 and will end on May 19. Votes will be counted on May 23.

Sunday's voting in 59 constituencies, including seven in the Indian capital, will complete polling for 483 of 543 seats in the lower house of parliament. The voting for the remaining 60 seats will be held next Sunday.

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Turnout in the first five phases averaged 67 percent, nearly the same as in 2014 elections that brought Modi to power.

Opinion polls say the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to be the frontrunner, but it is likely to return with fewer than the 282 seats it won in 2014.

The BJP captured 31 percent of votes in 2014, but it won more than half the seats to wrest power from the Congress party in a first-past-the-post electoral system in which a candidate who receives the most votes wins.

Lok Sabha Election 2019: Total 50.77% voting till 4 pm in #Phase6. West Bengal- 70.51, Delhi-45.24, Haryana- 51.86 Uttar Pradesh- 43.26, Bihar- 44.40, Jharkhand- 58.08, Madhya Pradesh- 52.78 pic.twitter.com/0UKFGtWAPt

— ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2019

Referendum on Modi rule

Modi is running his campaign like a presidential race, a referendum on his five years of rule with claims of helping the poorest with benefits, free healthcare, providing toilets in homes and giving women free or cheap cooking gas cylinders.

At the same time, he is banking on stirring Hindu nationalism by accusing the Congress party of being soft on nuclear rival Pakistan, pandering to minority Muslims for votes and indulging Kashmiri separatists.

Opposition parties accuse Modi of digressing from the main issues affecting nearly 70 percent of the population living in villages and small towns.

The opposition is challenging him over India's 6.1 percent unemployment rate - the highest in decades - and the economic difficulties of farmers hurt by low crop prices that have led many to take their own lives.

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Opposition officials have also alleged corruption in a deal for India to purchase French fighter jets. 

Rahul Gandhi, 48-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress party president, has accused Modi of buying 36 French Rafale fighters jets at an exorbitant price, and helping a private industrialist by promoting him as an offset partner of Dassault, the aircraft manufacturer.

"It was a good fight," Gandhi said after he cast his vote. "Narendra Modi used hatred, we used love. And I think love is going to win."

Visuals of voters from outside a polling booth in Mayur Vihar Phase-3 (East Delhi Constituency). #LokSabhaElections2019 #Phase6 pic.twitter.com/4XwPuwxwNr

— ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2019

India's opposition parties have recently taken heart at what they see as signs the BJP is losing ground and have begun negotiations over a post-election alliance even before polling ends on May 19. 

Some voters in Delhi said they were backing Modi because they were won over by his tough stand on security.

"I have voted for Modi's sound foreign policy and national security," a 36-year old first-time voter who declined to be identified told Reuters news agency.

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political commentator and Modi's biographer, calls the Hindu nationalist leader "the most visible prime minister".

But he adds: "There could be an element of fatigue also. People at the end of it are looking at their bottom line. I think the issues of employment and rural distress are very important."

Congress president Rahul Gandhi shows his ink-marked finger after casting his vote at a polling station in New Delhi [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Personal attacks

Political analysts say that state-based and caste-driven parties could be decisive in determining the make-up of the next government, as a lack of new jobs and weak farm prices have hurt the BJP.

"Regional parties will play a bigger role compared to the previous five years or even 15 years," said KC Suri, a political science professor at the University of Hyderabad. "They will regain their importance in national politics."

Recent weeks have also been marked by personal attacks between leaders, including comments from Modi about the family of Rahul Gandhi.

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At a recent rally Modi called Gandhi's late father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, "Corrupt No. 1". The BJP says Modi was reacting to Rahul Gandhi calling him a thief.

"The political vitriol has become intense, and negatively intense," said Ashok Acharya, a political science professor at the University of Delhi.

"It seems as if this particular election is all about a few political personalities. It is not about issues, any kind of an agenda."

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2019-05-12 10:31:00Z
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Pakistani forces comb hotel a day after raid kills at least five - Reuters

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces searched a luxury hotel in the port city of Gwadar on Sunday a day after separatist insurgents stormed in, killing at least five people, in what the militants said was a strike against Chinese and other foreign investors.

A general view of the Pearl Continental (PC) hotel in Gwadar, Pakistan April 11, 2017. Picture taken April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

Officials said at least four gunmen raided the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel, but police on Sunday declined to say if any of the attackers had been captured or killed.

Senior police official Rao Munir Ahmed Zia told Reuters three of the hotel’s four floors had been cleared and security forces were searching the top floor some 20 hours after the attack began.

Intermittent firing could still be heard from the hotel on Sunday afternoon, Gwadar resident Abdur Rahim Baloch told Reuters.

The Balochistan Liberation Army insurgent group, which says it is fighting what it sees as the unfair exploitation of the province’s natural resources, claimed responsibility saying in a statement the attack was aimed at “Chinese and other foreign investors”.

The gunmen were dressed in army uniforms, officials said.

At least three security guards and two hotel personnel were killed and four wounded as the attackers battled members of the security forces on Saturday evening. Soldiers cornered the attackers in a staircase leading to the top floor, the military said.

Balochistan, which borders both Iran and Afghanistan, is Pakistan’s poorest province but has abundant reserves of natural gas and various minerals

Separatists have for decades been fighting the central government, bombing gas and transport infrastructure and raiding security posts. Islamist militants from various factions also operate in the province.

Gwadar is a strategic port on the Arabian Sea that is being developed as part of the $60 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is itself part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project.

The separatists have denounced the development plans and vowed to block them while Pakistan has promised China it would protect its investments and Chinese workers.

The Pearl Continental Hotel, on a hillside near the port, is used by foreign guests, including Chinese project staff, but there were none in the building at the time of the attack, officials said.

Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a statement condemning the attack.

“Such attempts, especially in Balochistan are an effort to sabotage our economic projects and prosperity,” he said.

Security across most of Pakistan has improved over recent years following a major crackdown after the country’s worst attack, when 148 people, most of them children, were killed in an assault on a school in the western city of Peshawar in 2014.

But Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, remains an exception and there have been several attacks this year, with at least 14 people killed last month in an attack on buses traveling between the southern city of Karachi and Gwadar.

Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Robert Birsel

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-05-12 08:56:00Z
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Myanmar passenger jet lands safely after landing gear fails - ABC News

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2019-05-12 08:51:00Z
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Latest Sri Lanka arrest throws spotlight on Wahhabism in eastern hotbed - Reuters

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lankan authorities have arrested a Saudi-educated scholar for what they claim are links with Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the Easter Sunday bombings, throwing a spotlight on the rising influence of Salafi-Wahhabi Islam on the island’s Muslims.

A mosque is seen at Center for Islamic Guidance in Kattankudy in Kattankudy, Sri Lanka, May 4, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Mohamed Aliyar, 60, is the founder of the Centre for Islamic Guidance, which boasts a mosque, a religious school and a library in Zahran’s hometown of Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated city on Sri Lanka’s eastern shores.

“Information has been revealed that the suspect arrested had a close relationship with ... Zahran and had been operating financial transactions,” said a police statement late on Friday.

The statement said Aliyar was “involved” with training in the southern town of Hambantota for the group of suicide bombers who attacked hotels and churches on Easter, killing over 250 people.

A police spokesman declined to provide details on the accusations.

Calls to Aliyar and his associates went unanswered. Reuters was unable to find contact details for a lawyer.

The government says Zahran, a radical Tamil-speaking preacher, was a leader of the group.

Two Muslim community sources in Kattankudy told Reuters his hardline views were partly shaped by ultra-conservative Salafi-Wahhabi texts that he picked up at the Centre for Islamic Guidance’s library around 2-3 years ago. The sources are not affiliated with the center.

“I used to always run into him at the center, reading Saudi journals and literature,” said one of the sources.

During that time, Zahran started criticizing the practice of asking God for help, for instance, arguing that such pleas were an affront to pure Islam.

“That kind of teaching was not in Sri Lanka in 2016, unless you read it in Salafi literature,” the source added, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions in Kattankudy.

Salafism, a puritanical interpretation of Islam that advocates a return to the values of the first three generations of Muslims and is closely linked to Wahhabism, has often been criticized as the ideology of radical Islamists worldwide.

Wahhabi Islam has its roots in Saudi Arabia and is backed by its rulers, although Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has committed the kingdom to a more moderate form of Islam.

Other than the fact that Zahran visited the center, the sources in Kattankudy said they did not know of any personal ties between him and Aliyar.

Aliyar founded the center in 1990, a year after he graduated from the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, in what one resident said marked a key moment in the spread of Salafi doctrine in Kattankudy. The center was partly funded by Saudi and Kuwaiti donors, according to a plaque outside.

TROUBLEMAKER

Reuters spoke to three members of the center’s board before Aliyar’s arrest. They asked to remain anonymous, citing security concerns amid a backlash against some Muslims.

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They said Zahran was a troublemaker and that they had warned authorities about his extremist views. The members said they thought Zahran frequented the library around a decade ago, but had no recollection of him visiting recently and denied that any of its books were to blame for his views.

Funding for the center came from local donations, student fees, and private donors who were classmates of Aliyar’s in Riyadh, the center’s sources said. Reuters was unable to immediately determine further details about the funding of the center.

The Saudi government communications office in Riyadh did not respond to requests for comment on the funding of the center.

Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin in Riyadh and Ranga Sirilal in Colombo; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-05-12 05:32:00Z
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Trump suggests China wants Dem elected in 2020 to secure better trade terms - Fox News

President Trump shared his take on the stalled U.S. trade talks with China on Saturday, suggesting Beijing may be waiting until the 2020 presidential election to see if a Democrat gets elected to secure more favorable terms.

“I think that China felt they were being beaten so badly in the recent negotiation that they may as well wait around for the next election, 2020, to see if they could get lucky & have a Democrat win - in which case they would continue to rip-off the USA for $500 Billion a year...." the president wrote.

Trump’s remarks came a day after another round of talks between Washington and Beijing ended with no trade pact. In follow-up tweets, the president said it would be wise for China to agree to a trade deal soon, before predicting it would face “far worse” terms if the impasse continues.

"....The only problem is that they know I am going to win (best economy & employment numbers in U.S. history, & much more), and the deal will become far worse for them if it has to be negotiated in my second term. Would be wise for them to act now, but love collecting BIG TARIFFS!" he posted.

VARNEY: CHINA TRADE TALKS, TARIFFS 'THE MOST IMPORTANT FINANCIAL STORY OF THE YEAR'

In response to a lack of progress between both sides last week, the U.S. imposed further tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods and threatened more tariffs on remaining Chinese products worth $325 billion.

China’s top negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, said Friday that both sides have agreed to more trade talks in Beijing, Bloomberg reported. Speaking to Chinese media, he said the U.S. must remove all extra tariffs to clear the way for the possibility of an agreement. China has vowed retaliation but has not released specifics.

“For the interest of the people of China, the people of U.S. and the people of the whole world, we will deal with this rationally,” Liu said. “But China is not afraid, nor are the Chinese people,” adding that “China needs a cooperative agreement with equality and dignity.”

TRUMP'S ATTACKS ON POWELL REPORTEDLY HURTING US-CHINA TRADE TALKS

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Trump administration would release details of the tariffs on $325 billion in Chinese imports on Monday.

A trade deal seemed imminent, until last week when China sent American trade negotiators a cable with redacted text that both sides had been working on. To the American, the modification signaled Beijing’s walking back of its earlier commitments made during months of negotiations.

In this March 5, 2019 photo, a cargo ship arrives at the Port of Tacoma, in Tacoma, Wash. U.S. and Chinese negotiators resumed trade talks Friday, May 10, 2019, under increasing pressure after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods and Beijing promised to retaliate. (Associated Press)

The divide between both sides has not stalled the U.S. economy. The GDP rose at a 3.2 percent annualized rate, even as a five-week partial government shutdown affected some sectors. Unemployment is at a historic low and 213,000 jobs are being created monthly.

Trump, who is seeking re-election on the heels of a booming economy, signaled Friday that he is no rush to secure a deal. Over Twitter, he proposed using income from the import taxes to buy agricultural products from American farmers.

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Chinese state media said China would give in on its core interests, Reuters reported.

“China clearly requires that the trade procurement figures should be realistic; the text must be balanced and expressed in terms that are acceptable to the Chinese people and do not undermine the sovereignty and dignity of the country,” the People’s Daily newspaper said in a commentary on Saturday.

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2019-05-12 04:26:40Z
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French hostage says ordeal in Burkina Faso was 'hell' - CNN

Laurent Lassimouillas was freed along with another Frenchman, an American woman and a South Korean woman in a French-led operation with the support of the US military. The rescue occurred between Thursday and Friday in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso.

"I want to thank French authorities and Burkina Faso ones," Lassimouillas told reporters at the presidential palace in the capital of Ouagadougou before a meeting with Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, Burkina Faso's President.

"Our thoughts are for the families of the soldiers and the soldiers who lost their (lives) to free us from this hell," he added, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

Lassimouillas, his compatriot, Patrick Picque, and the South Korean landed safely Saturday at a French air force base outside Paris, where French President Emmanuel Macron greeted them. The former hostages will receive a full health examination.

The American woman was "directly collected by the Americans" in Burkina Faso, a press officer for France's Élysée Palace told CNN.

The French citizens were kidnapped May 1 in the neighboring West African country of Benin, according to the Élysée Palace. Their safari guide was found dead in Pendjari National Park, and their vehicle was burned, Reuters reported.

Four terrorists were killed in the rescue operation, Florence Parly, the French minister for the armed forces, said Friday.

The minister said investigations were underway to identify the kidnappers, noting that networks affiliated with al Qaeda and ISIS are known to operate in the area.

The US military supported the French-led operation to free the four hostages, according to two US officials. One official said that the US support was in the form of overhead intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

French soldiers Cedric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello were killed in the operation. The two will be honored in a national tribute Tuesday, Macron said.

"They gave their lives to release others," the French leader wrote on Twitter. "From now on, let us carry our thoughts to their families and brothers of arms."

CNN's Antoine Crouin reported from Paris, while Rob Picheta wrote in London. CNN's Jennifer Deaton contributed to this report.

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2019-05-11 18:07:00Z
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'We're courting danger': Trump suffers foreign policy setbacks in Iran, North Korea - USA TODAY

Deirdre Shesgreen and David Jackson USA TODAY

Published 12:14 PM EDT May 11, 2019

WASHINGTON – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is deriding President Donald Trump as foolish for trying to oust him. Kim Jong Un is testing Trump’s “love” – and his resolve – in the North Korea negotiations. And Iran’s leaders are finding new ways to threaten the U.S. and to defy the president’s “maximum pressure” campaign.

In short, Trump’s foreign policy agenda is hitting the diplomatic rocks, with potentially disastrous results.

Some say it’s by design – Trump doesn't mind sowing chaos and confusion, and he has. Others say it’s a result of misguided policies and contradictory, undisciplined decision-making inside the White House.

Either way, the president has suffered a series of stunning foreign policy setbacks this week, raising fresh questions about his approach to military engagement and international affairs.

“What you see is a mismatch between means and ends across the board – whether it’s in Venezuela, whether it’s in North Korea, whether it’s in Iran – where the end’s always extremely ambitious and the diplomatic means tend to be quite de minimis,” said Robert Malley, a senior White House adviser on the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf region in the Obama administration. “We’re courting danger where there’s no reason to.”

Jon B. Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank, said the series of foreign policy crises that have come to a head in recent days seem part of Trump’s design.

“The president is a lot more comfortable with chaos than any president in recent memory,” Alterman said. “The president doesn’t see uncertainty and disorder as a liability. He sees it as an asset.”

So escalating tensions in Iran and the stalemate in Venezuela, he said, are not necessarily an aberration but a feature of Trump’s sometimes erratic and contradictory approach to world affairs.

The result has been on full display in recent days:

• On Tuesday, the Pentagon rushed B-52 bombers and a carrier strike group to the Middle East in response to intercepted intelligence indicating Iran or its proxies in the region might be preparing attacks on American military troops and facilities. A day later, Iran’s president declared his country would pull back on its compliance with a sweeping, multilateral nuclear agreement aimed at preventing Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
• On Thursday, North Korea tested a suspected short-range missile, the second time in less than a week that Kim’s regime has taken that kind of provocative step.
• On Friday, Trump roiled markets and sowed confusion when he deleted and then reposted a Twitter thread in which he said Chinese trade talks were progressing in "a very congenial manner" and that there is "no need to rush" a new agreement – right after his administration imposed new U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods because the two sides were unable to reach a new trade deal.
• Last week, top Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, touted the possibility of U.S. military action in Venezuela as a U.S.-backed uprising led by opposition leader Juan Guaido fizzled and Maduro mocked the failed effort as “foolishness by coup mongers” in the Trump White House.

For his part, Trump says he is cleaning up "the mess" left behind by predecessors, from bad trade deals across the globe to protracted military conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan.

"We have made a decisive break from the failed foreign policy establishment that sacrificed our sovereignty, surrendered our jobs and tied us down to endless foreign wars," Trump said during a political rally Wednesday in Florida.

Democrats scoff at Trump's efforts to blame his foreign policy troubles on previous presidents.  

“Everything the president has touched internationally has gone to crap,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said at a national security forum on Friday sponsored by former Obama administration officials. 

“We have split our alliances," said Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We have engaged in a trade war that’s cost Americans money. We have allowed Iran to restart their nuclear program. We have made no substantial progress in North Korea. The Middle East is more chaotic, not less chaotic. There’s still 20,000 members of ISIS who are getting ready to regroup.”

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the fundamental problem with Trump's approach to foreign policy is that he sets sky-high goals, but is unwilling or unable to deliver on them. 

"The president has articulated wildly ambitious goals that he almost certainly is going to fail to meet," he said. 

For example, Trump says he wants North Korea to give up its entire nuclear arsenal, and to do it quickly. He wants Iran's regime to collapse or to radically alter its behavior across the Middle East. He wants fundamental changes in China trade policy. 

All these are long shots, at best, Haass said.

"In all three of those cases he will have to compromise, or he will fail," said Haass, author of the book "A World In Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order."

Others echoed that assessment but said Trump has exacerbated that disconnect with contradictory positions coming from within the White House. 

Take the current crisis in Venezuela, where Trump had forcefully backed Guaido's bid to oust Maduro, a socialist leader who had helped drive his country to the brink of economic collapse. Trump's position has been driven by hawks inside his administration, including Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton. 

After Maduro's uprising floundered last week, Bolton and Pompeo went to the Pentagon to talk to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan about possible U.S. military options. But such intervention would run directly counter to Trump's own instincts, and his campaign promises, to steer clear of military interventions. 

Trump's advisers seem "more willing to bandy about the threat of the use of military force, whereas he is far less inclined to do so," Malley said. That split between Trump and his advisers creates one layer of confusion, Malley said, and a second one comes from "a tug of war within (Trump's) own mind."

While Trump says he wants to avoid messy military entanglements, he also wants "to project a sense not just of power but of a willingness to go the brink and to court confrontation," Malley said.

That has fed a sense of failure or stalemate in places like Venezuela, he added, where Bolton predicted Maduro's ouster was just a matter of time. And it's created whiplash on North Korea, where Trump went from threatening Kim with "fire and fury" to declaring that they "fell in love."

Alterman said economic pressure, like the sanctions that Trump has slapped on the Maduro government, almost never lead to regime change or a popular revolt against an authoritarian leader. But Trump doesn't seem to really want to take the next step of military intervention in places like Venezuela.

The same is true with Iran, he said, where Trump has set himself up for failure by outlining a policy that shoots for the stars – complete transformation of the Iranian regime, or what Alterman called "self-regime change." But the president is relying on economic pressure and bellicose rhetoric to achieve that, which Alterman said will almost certainly not work. 

Brian Hook, the State Department's special envoy for Iran, argues that Trump's approach to Iran has borne fruit. Exhibit A, Hook says, is that Iran appears to be cutting back its financial support for militant groups in Syria and Lebanon. 

But he and others concede that Iran is not close to reopening talks with the U.S. on a broader agreement that would curb its ballistic missile program or halt its support for terrorism. And just days after the Pentagon rushed its bombers to the region in response to an Iranian threat, Trump told supporters he would like to sit-down with Iran's president and negotiate. 

"I hope to be able at some point … to sit down and work out a fair deal," he said during Wednesday's rally in Florida. "We’re not looking to hurt anybody ... We just don’t want them to have nuclear weapons." 

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Related coverage:

'We need to know why': Lawmakers wary as Trump aides weigh military options for Venezuela

President Donald Trump hopes to 'sit down' with Iran over nuclear deal

North Korea launches second projectile in less than a week

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2019-05-11 16:14:00Z
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