Monday, March 7, 2016

I will inject myself with the blood of the child:

2016-03-07

He would have injected himself the blood sample of the child, who had been rumoured to have congenital HIV/AIDS, Social Empowerment and Welfare Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake said today.

“If it is necessary to prove that the child had not infected with HIV/AIDS, I have would have done so to demolish the rumours among the people of Kuliyapitiya,” he said.

“If anyone challenges to prove that the child had been infected with HIV/AIDS, I will inject a blood sample of that child to open their eyes who claim that the child has AIDS,” the Minister said.

The Minister visited the mother and son in Illukhena, their village, on Saturday.

The Minister shared a chocolate with the child to demonstrate to the people that HIV/AIDS cannot be contracted through even saliva.

Meanwhile, the President had issued a directive to the Ministry of Education that the child be admitted to any school in the country without any obstacles.

The Minister said according to the doctors’ reports they confirmed the child had not been infected with HIV/AIDS.

“In fact we don’t know how many Parliamentarians, Pradeshiya Sabha Members or Provincial Council Members were infected with HIV/AIDS. But if so we will never chase them away. We will look after them,” the Minister said.

“I have conveyed the situation to President Maithripala Sirisena. Some schools in London have come forward to accommodate the child if schools in Sri Lanka refused admission on the basis that the child had AIDS,” he said.

“By letting our country is sending out a message to the world that we are not caring about HIV/AIDS patients. It creates a bad image of the country. Then I thought on intervening,” Minister Ramanayake said.

“This is not my electoral seat. I came to the site not for any election promotion, but to find justice to the innocent child,” he said. (Chaturanga Pradeep)

Like how Universities must be freed from the grip of politicians so they cannot be the property of University Dons

(Lanka-e-News -07.March.2016, 5.45PM) Recently, a letter was sent by the Minister of higher education and highways Lakshman Kiriella to a Dean of a faculty of the University to inquire into the suitability of the candidate closely known to him with a view to appoint him as an assistant lecturer. This letter was publicised by the media, and charges were leveled against him alleging it was a wrongful method .

Of course a wrong is a wrong , irrespective of who commits it. We have every right to mount opposition against a wrong specially because we were the victims who suffered most under the MaRa’s regime when it committed all the egregious wrongs of corruption , criminalities and inequities; and further more because we are now reposing faith in the new government of good governance with the hope that it will act righteously and duly , after overthrowing the MaRa regime that was steeped in vice and villainy.

How Universities became the property of Namal

The fact of the matter is this is not the first time such a thing has happened. It is worthy of note it was during the Rajapakse era the worst inequities , irregularities and wrongs were committed , therefore without making mention of those murky activities , the true picture cannot be portrayed.

We have not forgotten how , during the period when Ms. Kshanika Hirimburegama was the president of the University Grants Commission (UGC) , her husband Kumara Hirimburegama the Vice chancellor of the University of Colombo then , rode the high horse and had undue illegitimate control over the University .

Need we remind how the rule that the candidates who scored the highest marks at the G.C.E. adv. Level shall be selected to the University was ruthlessly and recklessly ignored during that era – incredibly , an ordinary letter from a “podiyan” M.P.like Namal Rajapakse was given preference over the established rules and regulations governing University selections. How come we did not hear the screams and squeals of Chathura of Derana against such outrageous violations at that time , who is today shouting at the top of his voice?

Cracks appear in Yahapalanaya

By all accounts, the Yahapalana government is going through a rough patch. Some folks quip, tongue-in- cheek that the Joint Opposition’s coconut dashing has begun to work. Whatever the otherworldly forces behind the fallout, this is bad show. The UNP stalwart and the Minister of Higher Education and Highways Lakshman Kiriella was on record berating in abusive language a journalist after the former was exposed in influence peddling in an academic appointment at the Kelaniya University.

The Minister has sent a letter recommending a supporter be recruited as a temporary lecturer at the university. He later justified the action claiming that ‘he had only exercised the power vested in him under the University Act and had only asked to consider the qualifications of the said individual. (The Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) which played a key activist role in the election of President Maithripala Sirisena has demanded that the Minister should now resign)

Minister Kiriella’s expletive- rich response to an innocuous media query brings him to the good company of a few others political bigwigs in the previous regime, especially Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Mervyn Silva. However, the incumbent Higher Education Minister should be thankful that the media was kind enough to expunge the expletives in his response, so that the listeners and the readers had to make use of their imagination. However, the then Sunday Leader printed in verbatim the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s menacing response to Frederica Jansz, including that gem of an ingenious insult, ‘sh*t eating pig’.

Minister Kiriella’s letter to the Kelaniya University is a blatant abuse, no matter whatever justifications

he later concocted including the misinterpretation of his powers under the University Act, itself.

Equally disturbing is his manifest contempt to the media personnel, who dared to question about the letter. For those who believed that the new administration would herald a new era of accountability and civility, that was a disappointment.

But, those events should not be a surprise. The sense of condescension which was given verbal expression by Mr. Kiriella is deeply entrenched in a political and bureaucratic system that for too long used to view the average public as no better than goats whose only use is to be milked for the elections.

"However, there is a silver line in the dark clouds. Even though the government has failed to hold its members accountable, some independent institutions empowered by the 19th Amendment are filling the void to a certain extent"

Yoshitha Finds Himself On A Sinking Ship?

With revelations his school buddy too got a free ride in the Navy, the former President’s son is diving deeper into trouble

Yoshitha Rajapaksa

by Nirmala Kannangara

Monday, March 07, 2016

Startling details of how taxpayers had to bear the cost of a British naval training not only to Yoshitha Kanishka Rajapaksa but also to his school friend D. A.K.V. Dissanayake amounting to millions of rupees have now come to light.

Although it is common knowledge that Yoshitha Rajapaksa received training in the United Kingdom with public money, it is now revealed that Dissanayake too had received the same training in UK together with Yoshitha. Both did not have the necessary qualifications to be employed at Sri Lanka Navy nor to go to UK for naval training, highly reliable Navy sources said on condition of anonymity.

It is learnt that the Dissanayake and Rajapaksa families enjoyed a close friendship. It is also revealed that Kavishan Dissanayake who is now in remand custody with Yoshitha on money laundering charges is the brother of D.A.K.V. Dissanayake who had left the Sri Lanka Navy some time ago.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa who will remain in remand custody until March 10th was arrested on January 30th by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) regarding alleged financial irregularities at the Carlton Sports Network (CSN). Former CSN chairman Rohan Weliwita, former CEO Nishantha Ranatunga, Kavishan Dissanayake and Ashan Rabinath Fernando were also remanded on an order by the Kaduwela Magistrate. Yoshitha Rajapaksa was suspended from all naval duties last week.

Navy Spokesman Captain Akram Alavi told The Sunday Leader that Yoshitha’s salary and allowances had been stopped with immediate effect pending inquiry and added that Yoshitha would be sacked if found guilty of the money laundering charges levelled against him.

China of course is not the only country, we ourselves in the past ten years have also experienced corruption on a scale as never before; we need most definitely to have transparency not only in government transactions but also in the Corporate sector, we, the people, must next have the Right to Information and all Members of Parliament and officials and families must be required to declare their assets which must be public documents and last but not least, whistle blowers MUST BE PROTECTED and rewarded, as those who give evidence in criminal cases. The penalty for violation should be extreme to protect our country.

by K. Godage

( March 7, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I am happy to note that this government which appeared to have, immediately after taking office, struck, what was perceived to be an anti-China stance, perhaps because of the contentious Port City Project, has corrected itself and is now reaching out to China, which has stood with us and assisted us at the worst of times from 1971 and more particularly through the war years both with equipment to defend our country and also at the UN Security Council; this course correction is without doubt absolutely in our national interest. I was happy to learn that Ministers Malik Samarawickrema and Sagala Ratnayake have concluded a successful visit to prepare for the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in April.

My first visit to China was in 1975, when the roads were filled with bicycles, motor cycles and a few cars, but on my last visit there, (my eighth) two years ago, I hardly saw a cyclist, it was cars and more cars, Lambroginis, Mercs, you name them and they have them, with a few motor bicycles, in Beijin and Shanghai of course; yes the country has indeed moved on, particularly in the past 30 plus years after Deng Xiao Ping opened their economy and moved away from Marxist economics, though the Communist Party still retains control. From the time the economy was opened they have had a ten percent annual growth rate, that was how their economy grew to what it is today. It is most likely that even with a 7% growth rate it would overtake the US by 2020.

Counter adverse publicity

Despite this amazing expansion I do believe her principal concern today is her image and of how the world sees her; this I believe is what she is presently addressing and spending billions on; because her image has been tainted in recent months by interested parties, claiming that China has imposed draconian restrictions on her people at home including the media. Yes China has now mounted a major PR effort to counter adverse publicity and protect and advance her image.

With such tremendous growth and prosperity invariably comes corruption and China is no exception for the Chinese are also human and when the opportunity is there some do succumb particularly when the stakes are high; many big heads have begun to roll in China.

Western countries

Our relationship with China is indeed a very special relationship both to them and us; the fact that we gave them that strategic commodity Rubber, which no other rubber producing country in Asia or LA was prepared to give them at the time of the Korean War, has not and will not be ever forgotten by them, they have repeatedly told us so. Sri Lanka was among the first countries to recognize the Republic of China and also to support her claim to a seat in the Security Council.

China has over the years not only built our first National Convention Center, the BMICH, but provided significant military and economic aid to our country; a fact little known is that China stood by us at the worst of times during the war with the LTTE, when certain western countries sought to use the Security Council to stop the war and save the LTTE which waged war to divide our country. China never got involved in any foreign inspired so called ‘Peace Process’ to arrive at a negotiated settlement for she knew that Prabhakaran had only one goal and that was to establish a separate state in Sri Lanka.

China has made a tremendous contribution to our infrastructure development, the Hambantota harbour project is an example. I have been given to understand that the project had been first offered to India, which had ‘dragged its feet’ on it and hence it had been offered to China, which had snapped it up. I am happy to learn that the Port City Project, with amendments, which seemed obviously necessary for certain concessions were not in our national interest and have been removed, and that work will recommence soon.

With the growing importance of the Indian Ocean and our strategic location and the fact that hundreds of ships pass through the Indian Ocean there is no doubt that the harbour would be an absolutely successful venture and would transform the South. I do hope that China would continue to assist us with our infrastructure development but NOT on commercial terms, for as has been often stated, love cannot be bought; India should also be invited to join as a partner and Lanka should become the ‘Friendship Bridge’ between India and China.

Two arrested with gold worth Rs. 34.5 mn in Jaffna

2016-03-07

Two persons were arrested by the Navy when they attempted to smuggle out 6.94 Kg of gold worth Rs. 34.5 million to India yesterday at Madugal, Jaffna.

Navy Spokesman Captain Akram Alavi said the suspects were attempting to transport the gold in a fishing boat disguised as fishermen.

“The navy was able to identify the racketeers in a raid and arrested the suspects who were resident of Jaffna with the five gold bars,” he said.

Captain Alavi said the suspects along with the gold were handed over to the Jaffna customs officials for further investigation.(DS)

Aspiring Palestinian journalist killed months before graduation

Iyad Sajadiyya (via Qalandiya Media Center)

The body of Iyad Sajadiyya, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, is carried through the alleys of Qalandiya refugee camp during his funeral on 1 March.Shadi HatemAPA images

Budour Youssef Hassan

7 March 2016

Iyad Sajadiyya had worked hard to make his way through college.

To pay his tuition fees, he had a job in a clothing store

serving Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. He was working there on Monday, 29 February, when two Israeli soldiers drove into the camp, reportedly by mistake.

“We immediately shut down the store to see what was happening,” said a coworker, who asked not to be named. “Later, we saw a massive number of troops storm the camp so we began marching through the camp’s market while chanting.”

Israel invoked the so-called Hannibal Directive after the soldiers were separated from their vehicle and it was attacked by some of the camp’s residents. Under that directive, the Israeli military is authorized to use huge firepower with the objective of preventing a soldier being captured alive.

Local youths were singing “Paradise, paradise, our homeland is paradise” when the clashes with the Israeli army began. Inspired by slogans used during protests in Syria five years ago, this song has become an anthem of the latest Palestinian uprising.

Iyad was being chased by the Israeli army that Monday evening when he and two friends knocked on the door of Um Muhammad, an elderly woman.

“I welcomed them in and gave them water and asked them to stay as long as they wanted,” she said. “If I knew that this skinny kid [Iyad] would be shot, I would have never allowed them to leave my home.”

After a short time in that house, Iyad and his friends climbed onto some nearby rooftops. They were hurling rocks at the Israeli military when Iyad was shot in the eye.

“This is heaven”

One friend had asked Iyad to be careful on the rooftops shortly before he was killed.

“He replied, ‘just look at the sky, look how beautiful the stars are and don’t be afraid of anything,’” the friend said. “He also told me: ‘from here we can see Jaffa and imagine ourselves lying on its wonderful beach, this is heaven.’”

It was not unusual for Iyad to rhapsodize about the coastal city Jaffa, which Palestinians in the West Bank are banned by Israel from accessing.

In drills, U.S., South Korea practice striking North’s nuclear plants, leaders

A South Korean amphibious assault vehicle, left, moves to a landing ship as a South Korean submarine, center, is seen from the southeastern port of Pohang on March 7. (AFP via Getty Images)

By Anna Fifield-March 7

TOKYO — The United States and South Korea kicked off major military exercises on Monday, including rehearsals of surgical strikes on North Korea’s main nuclear and missile facilities and “decapitation raids” by special forces targeting the North’s leadership.

The drills always elicit an angry response from Pyongyang, but Monday’s statement was particularly ferocious, accusing the United States and South Korea of planning a “beheading operation” aimed at removing Kim Jong Un’s regime. The North Korean army and people “will take military counteraction for preemptive attack so that they may deal merciless deadly blows at the enemies,” the North’s powerful National Defense Commission said in a statement.

[U.N. adopts sweeping new sanctions on North Korea]

The exercises come at a particularly tense time, with the international community — especially the United States and South Korea — looking to punish Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test and missile launch. The United Nations last week imposed its toughest sanctions yet on the North, and South Korean President Park Geun-hye is expected to unveil further, unilateral sanctions on Tuesday.

About 17,000 American forces and 300,000 South Korean personnel — a one-third increase from last spring’s drills — will take part in 11 days of computer-simulated training and eight weeks of field exercises, which will involve ground, air, naval and special operations services.

The Death Blow to Turkey’s Media

BY NATE SCHENKKAN-MARCH 4, 2016

Earlier today, a Turkish court gave the green light to a government-approved takeover of media group Feza Journalism. The company owns Zaman, the country’s largest-circulation newspaper, and one of its top private news agencies. Crowds have gathered outside Zaman’s headquarters in Istanbul to protect the journalists from eviction by the police, who areeven now attempting to clear a path through them with water cannons. But if previous events are any indication, the friends of press freedom are unlikely to prove much help.

Though life has been hard for critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his administration lately, this wholesale assault on one of Turkey’s most powerful independent voices is a watershed.The government is signaling that there are no boundaries left in its crackdown on dissent.

Erdogan’s animus toward Zaman has its roots in the rivalry between the president’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Gulen movement, a secretive Islamist network that once facilitated the party’s rise. Zaman has long played a key role in the far-flung Gulen business empire, and it has become an increasingly prominent voice in the chorus of Erdogan’s critics in recent years. The intensity of the bad feeling on both sides undoubtedly has much to do with the fact that they used to be allies.

As the AKP established its dominance in the early 2000s and began purging secular civil servants from the state bureaucracy, the Gulen movement — which is led by Fethullah Gulen, an exiled cleric now living in the U.S. — provided the manpower to replace them. In two high-profile trials launched in 2008 and 2010, Gulen-affiliated police and prosecutors put secular and military officials on trial for alleged coup attempts. Many outside analystspointed out flaws in those cases that indicated that the charges had been trumped up for political reasons.

Apple-FBI case could have serious global ramifications for human rights: Zeid

GENEVA (4 March 2016) -- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Friday urged the US authorities to proceed with great caution in the ongoing legal process involving the Apple computer company and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), given its potentially negative ramifications for the human rights of people all over the world.

“In order to address a security-related issue related to encryption in one case, the authorities risk unlocking a Pandora’s Box that could have extremely damaging implications for the human rights of many millions of people, including their physical and financial security,” Zeid said. “I recognize this case is far from reaching a conclusion in the US courts, and urge all concerned to look not just at the merits of the case itself but also at its potential wider impact.”

“The FBI deserves everyone’s full support in its investigation into the San Bernardino killings,” Zeid said. “This was an abominable crime, and no one involved in aiding or abetting it should escape the law. But this case is not about a company – and its supporters -- seeking to protect criminals and terrorists, it is about where a key red line necessary to safeguard all of us from criminals and repression should be set.”

“There are many ways to investigate whether or not these killers had accomplices besides forcing Apple to create software to undermine the security features of their own phones. This is not just about one case and one IT company in one country. It will have tremendous ramifications for the future of individuals’ security in a digital world which is increasingly inextricably meshed with the actual world we live in.”

“A successful case against Apple in the US will set a precedent that may make it impossible for Apple or any other major international IT company to safeguard their clients’ privacy anywhere in the world,” the UN Human Rights Chief said. “It is potentially a gift to authoritarian regimes, as well as to criminal hackers. There have already been a number of concerted efforts by authorities in other States to force IT and communications companies such as Google and Blackberry to expose their customers to mass surveillance.”

“Encryption tools are widely used around the world, including by human rights defenders, civil society, journalists, whistle-blowers and political dissidents facing persecution and harassment,” Zeid said. “Encryption and anonymity are needed as enablers of both freedom of expression and opinion, and the right to privacy. It is neither fanciful nor an exaggeration to say that, without encryption tools, lives may be endangered. In the worst cases, a Government’s ability to break into its citizens’ phones may lead to the persecution of individuals who are simply exercising their fundamental human rights.”

“There is, unfortunately, no shortage of security forces around the world who will take advantage of the ability to break into people’s phones if they can,” the High Commissioner said. “And there is no shortage of criminals intent on committing economic crimes by accessing other people’s data. Personal contacts and calendars, financial information and health data, and many other rightfully private information need to be protected from criminals, hackers and unscrupulous governments who may use them against people for the wrong reasons. In an age when we store so much of our personal and professional lives on our smart phones and other devices, how is it going to be possible to protect that information without fail-safe encryption systems?”

“So, in essence, what we have here is an issue of proportionality: in order to possibly – but by no means certainly -- gain extra information about the dreadful crime committed by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife in San Bernardino, we may end up enabling a multitude of other crimes all across the world, including in the United States. The debate around encryption is too focused on one side of the security coin, in particular its potential use for criminal purposes in times of terrorism. The other side of the security coin, is that weakening encryption protections may bring even bigger dangers to national and international security.”

The UN human rights chief noted the decision earlier this week by a federal magistrate judge, in a separate case in New York, to reject a Government request to compel Apple to help it extract information from an iPhone belonging to a suspect in a drugs case.

He urged States to take inspiration from the Apple-FBI cases to hold a much-needed profound examination of the highly complex and constantly evolving issues relating to privacy and security in the digital age, given the importance of strong encryption in safeguarding security and human rights. Recalling a ground-breaking report on encryption by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression David Kaye,* which concluded that encryption deserves strong protection, and an earlier report on ‘Privacy in the Digital Age’ produced by the UN Human Rights Office,** Zeid called on the 47-Member State Human Rights Council in particular to continue to examine the dramatic impact digital and other new technologies are having, and will continue to have, on human rights across the globe.

ENDS
* 22 May 2015 report on encryption and anonymity by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/29/32. Drawing from research on international and national norms and jurisprudence, and the input of States and civil society, the report concludes that encryption and anonymity enable individuals to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression in the digital age and, as such, deserve strong protection.
** See: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session28/Documents/A_HRC_28_39_E

Mexican president compares Trump rhetoric to Hitler and Mussolini

Peña Nieto warns that ‘strident’ words have led to ‘very ominous situations’
President says Mexico will not pay for proposed border wall
President Enrique Peña Nieto: ‘That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in: they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps … after an economic crisis.’ Photograph: Carlos Tischler/Rex/Shutterstock
David Agren in Mexico City-Monday 7 March 2016

Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto has said that comments by US presidential candidate Donald Trump have damaged relationships between the two countries, and compared Trump’s “strident” tone to those of fascist leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

In his most outspoken comments so far on the GOP frontrunner, Peña Nieto also denied that Mexico would cover the cost of Trump’s proposed border wall.

“There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of strident rhetoric have led to very ominous situations,” Peña Nieto told the Mexican newspaper Excélsior in an interview published on Monday. “That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in: they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis.”

Peña Nieto’s pronouncements are the most forceful so far against Trump, whose rise to the top of the Republican primary races has spooked Mexicans of all social strata.

Until now, the president had been somewhat vague in his comments, with broad warnings against populism – interpreted in Mexico as also alluding to leftwing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a contender for the 2018 presidential elections.

When asked is there was a scenario in which Mexico would pay for a border wall, he responded: “There is no scenario.”

In another interview published on Monday with the newspaper El Universal, Peña Nieto was asked if he “worried” about Trump making it to the White House. He responded, “I don’t think so,” then continued: “Those that insult or end up speaking badly of Mexico do so because they don’t know Mexico. Those that speak badly of Mexicans do so because they don’t know Mexicans.”

Mexicans have taken to mocking Trump with memes on social media sites and beating piñatas resembling the real estate mogul-turned-politician. Politicians are speaking out, too, most notably ex-president Vicente Fox, who told Fusion, “I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall.”

But analysts say Peña Nieto – whose government plans to counteract negative perceptions of Mexico with an information campaign – is in a tough spot with any Trump response, which will probably end up as fodder for another campaign attack and make Mexico appear to be supporting the Democratic party.

“Why would you egg him on? Anything Mexico says is bound to play in his favour,” said Federico Estévez, political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. “If you punch back … there you are aligned with the Democrats and you get nothing [in the bilateral relationship] as a result.”

Peña Nieto, who spent much the interviews defending his government’s reform agendas and the much-criticised investigation into the 2104 disappearance of 43 students, emphasised that his government was not meddling in internal US politics.

“Mexico, I repeat, and my government, will be absolutely a witness and respectful of the process that the United States has,” he said.

China corruption crackdown 'netted 300,000 in 2015'

A clerk places a souvenir plate bearing the images of China's President Xi Jinping on a shelf at a shop near the Great Hall of the People

President Xi Jinping has made a campaign against corruption a centrepiece of his agenda

China's ruling Communist Party says it punished nearly 300,000 officials last year for corruption.

7 March 2016

Some 200,000 officials were given what was called "light punishment", while more severe penalties were taken against a further 80,000.

President Xi Jinping has made a campaign against corruption a centrepiece of his governing agenda.

Many high-profile political figures have been jailed after being caught up in the net.

There are almost daily reports in the state media of officials being investigated or punished over allegations of bribery, abuse of power or other corrupt practices.

The reporting body - the Central Committee for Discipline Inspection - rarely explains its methodology or what evidence it considers, and no other details were given in its brief statement about the punishments.

The number of those caught in 2015 was released during China's annual parliamentary session.

BBC China analyst Michael Bristow says this was no doubt a reminder to delegates gathered in Beijing that the Communist Party will continue pursuing corrupt officials.

Some observers see the anti-corruption campaign as a way for the Party to rein in officials seeing as becoming too influential, or of pursuing personal vendettas.

Migrants: EU leaders discuss closure of Balkan route

EU leaders meeting in Brussels are discussing the closure of the Balkan route migrants and refugees have been using to reach Germany and other European countries.

MONDAY 07 MARCH 2016

Although some countries want the route from Greece to Germany barred to migrants, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is insisting that it remains open to Syrian and Iraqi refugees fleeing violence and war.

A draft EU statement says "this route is now closed", but this can be modified.

More than one million people, mainly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, entered Europe last year, with most ending up in Germany. Tens of thousands of migrants are stranded at Greece's border with Macedonia, which is limiting the numbers it is allowing to cross.

EU leaders are holding talks with Turkey in the hope of curbing the migrant flow, with Ankara using the crisis to lobby for EU membership.

Mrs Merkel and other leaders are offering Greece help to house migrants, who have been arriving from Turkey on a daily basis.

They are also seeking assurances from Turkey that it will do more, with Nato support, to combat the people smugglers involved in the transport of migrants in the Aegean.

Turkey is being offered 3bn euros in aid to re-admit migrants who have passed through its territory.

'Turkey ready to join EU'

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: "I am sure these challenges will be solved through our cooperation and Turkey is ready to work with the EU.

"Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well. Today I hope this summit will not just focus on irregular migration, but also the Turkish accession process to the EU."

Mrs Merkel, who has faced criticism in Germany for the welcome she has given to migrants and refugees, requested the emergency summit to show voters the EU is acting to resolve the crisis.

Her finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said on Sunday that Berlin had major doubts about whether Turkey should become a member of the EU.

Authoritarian

Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been accused of moving in an authoritarian direction, with the government's recent seizure of a critical newspaper exacerbating those fears.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said he had told Mr Davutoglu that media freedom was "a non-negotiable element of our European identity".

But EU leaders are wary of alienating Turkey because they need Ankara's help to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Europe.

In Brussels, David Cameron said Britain would not sign up to an EU common asylum policy. "We have an absolutely rock solid opt-out from these things. There's no prospect of Britain joining a common asylum process in Europe," he said.