Saturday, October 29, 2016

In South Africa, a private army is fighting rhino poachers

A new class of anti-poaching guards at Rood’s academy go through military-style drills. (Krista Mahr/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST)

By Krista Mahr October 29 at 3:00 AM

MARKEN, South Africa — There was a time when hunters paid good money to hunt animals like antelope and buffalo at Simon Rood’s wild-game reserve. But on a recent day, Rood watched as one of his staff stared into a tangle of dried-out trees and waited to load his rifle during a training exercise. The quarry was something different.

“What do we eradicate?” barked Rood.

“Poachers!” shouted his employee.

Poaching has taken a devastating toll on iconic African wildlife, like the rhinoceros. In the early 20th century, there were about half a million rhinos in the wild internationally; today, there are less than 30,000 across Asia and Africa. The vast majority live in South Africa.

Protecting those animals has become a serious business. Rood decided several years ago to get out of the hunting industry and start a security company aimed at conserving wildlife. Now he uses his land to train anti-poaching guards that his firm, Nkwe Wildlife and Security Services, sends to work at private reserves.

“You can’t stop the poaching — that’s a pie in the sky. It’s about bringing the poaching to acceptable levels,” said Rood.

The slaughter has become an emergency for national parks as well as for South Africa’s private game reserves, where tourists come to stay at luxurious lodges and catch a glimpse of the “Big Five” — lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and rhinos.

As of last year, 6,200 rhinos — roughly a third of the country’s rhino population — were living on private reserves, according to the Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA). So far, most of the slain rhinos have been killed in Kruger National Park, the largest game reserve in South Africa. But as the government has ramped up the famous park’s security, poachers have started looking elsewhere.

[How the fate of an entire subspecies of rhino was left to one elderly male]

South Africa’s private security industry already employs nearly 500,000 guards in homes, malls and offices to supplement a police force overwhelmed by high crime. In recent years, the anti-poaching industry has trained hundreds more guards to take on the menace in the country’s game parks.

“We’re talking about a global criminal syndicate, and it’s not getting smaller, it’s getting bigger,” says Karl Miller, chairman and CEO of the GES Group, whose subsidiary in South Africa provides anti-poaching rangers and security personnel to look after 1,600 rhinos across the country. “They’re very well funded, and they’re very heavily armed.”

Between 2007 and 2014, the recorded number of rhinos poached in South Africa soared from 13 to 1,215, according to the government. The animals are killed for their horns, which can fetch thousands of dollars per pound on the black market in Asia. In recent years, there has been a spike in demand in Vietnam, where the horns are used in what some locals believe are cures for maladies as diverse as cancer and hangovers, as well as for such high-end ornaments as cups and bracelets.

The South African government has declared rhino poaching to be a “national priority crime,” and has rolled out a raft of initiatives to combat the problem, including boosting security in national parks and moving rhinos to safer areas. In the first eight months of 2016, more than 400 alleged poachers were arrested, according to the government, compared with 343 arrests in 2013 and 267 in 2012.

Although police investigate poaching crimes that occur on public and private land, landowners largely furnish their own security. “Before, we could get away with having a couple of guys, not formally trained,” says Pelham Jones, chairman of the rhino owners’ association. “We are all now required to provide armed anti-poaching units.”

Albi Modise, a spokesman for the country’s Department of Environmental Affairs, said “the security industry plays an important role when it comes to protection of rhino on private game reserves.”

Since 2009, South Africa’s private rhino owners have spent $115 million on security to protect the rhinos, Jones said.

He said that in the past seven years, there have been at least 20 armed attacksby poaching groups on park management or staff. One member of an anti-poaching unit was killed, he said.

[One man’s idea for saving rhinos: Airlift them to Australia]

On a private game reserve not far from Kruger, a wooden barricade encloses a small security officers’ camp, one corner of the fence bashed in by a curious elephant. The reserve pays Protrack Anti-Poaching Unit, another security firm, to provide guards.

When the park guests settle in for “sundowners,” or cocktails, the anti-poaching units are on high alert, sunset being a popular time for poachers to shoot rhinos and flee the property under the cover of darkness.

A short drive from the guards’ camp, the remains of a rhino carcass lay near a watering hole, only a few joints of bone and desiccated hide left. In September, Godfrey, a 25-year-old guard, was patrolling the area and came across the rhino after poachers had killed it and hacked off its horn.

“When we found it, it was still bleeding,” says Godfrey, who only uses one name. “We could see a few footprints. They went that way,” he says, pointing into the bush and making a whoosh noise. Gone.

What Godfrey would have done had he caught them presents its own complications. Armed anti-poaching units working on private land must be registered with the government, as must their guns. They can legally use weapons on duty, but if they kill a poacher in self-defense, they can be charged with murder, according to security firm owners.

Miller, of GES, said rangers in the private industry sometimes won’t aim their weapons at poachers they encounter, for fear of legal repercussions, and will shoot over their heads instead. Although his staff workers are trained to respond to armed poachers, he says, some guards are less prepared, and that can embolden poachers. “If it’s an ill-equipped, small unit, the poachers are going to see the soft spots.”

In Protrack’s headquarters in Hoedspruit, a tourist town in Limpopo province, dozens of blue folders are stacked in the office of Vincent Barkas, the company’s founder. Each includes images of a poaching crime scene and rhino autopsy. Barkas says he shares the files with police but that only a handful have led to arrests.

Coordination with police and authorities is improving, Barkas says, but he said he thinks the overall effort to stop rhino poaching remains too disjointed and that, ultimately, it’s the global trafficking syndicates that have the upper hand.

“They call it a rhino war, but we can’t fight a war,” says Barkas. “We’ve got labor laws. We’ve got to pay overtime. We’ve got all these different rules to follow, and the poacher’s got no rules.”

Even though he’s making money from his firm, Barkas worries that the escalating fight is polarizing an already polarized country. The people hired by poaching kingpins to go after the animals are often desperately poor. If an anti-poaching guard kills one of those men, that can create animosity toward security companies and the conservation effort in general.

“Unfortunately, being South Africans, we are throwing more guns, more weapons at this problem, and we’re not doing anything about education and awareness,” he says. “It might be too late for the rhino now.”

India offers to buy 200 foreign combat jets - if they're Made-in-India

An Indian Air Force (IAF) light combat aircraft 'Tejas' performs during the Indian Air Force Day celebrations at the Hindon Air Force Station on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, October 8, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

By Sanjeev Miglani- Sat Oct 29, 2016

India is offering to buy hundreds of fighter planes from foreign manufacturers - as long as the jets are made in India and with a local partner, air force officials say.

A deal for 200 single-engine planes produced in India - which the air force says could rise to 300 as it fully phases out ageing Soviet-era aircraft - could be worth anything from $13-$15 billion, experts say, potentially one of the country's biggest military aircraft deals.

After a deal to buy high-end Rafale planes from France's Dassault was scaled back to just 36 jets last month, the Indian Air Force is desperately trying to speed up other acquisitions and arrest a fall in operational strength, now a third less than required to face both China and Pakistan.

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration wants any further military planes to be built in India with an Indian partner to kickstart a domestic aircraft industry, and end an expensive addiction to imports.

Lockheed Martin said it is interested in setting up a production line for its F-16 plane in India for not just the Indian military, but also for export.

And Sweden's Saab has offered a rival production line for its Gripen aircraft, setting up an early contest for one of the biggest military plane deals in play.

"The immediate shortfall is 200. That would be the minimum we would be looking at," said an air officer briefed on the Make-in-India plans under which a foreign manufacturer will partner local firms to build the aircraft with technology transfer.

India's defence ministry has written to several companies asking if they would be willing to set up an assembly line for single-engine fighter planes in India and the amount of technology transfer that would happen, another government source said.

"We are testing the waters, testing the foreign firms' willingness to move production here and to find out their expectations," the person said.

OPERATIONAL GAPS

India's air force originally planned for 126 Rafale twin-engine fighters from Dassault, but the two sides could not agree on the terms of local production with a state-run Indian firm and settled for 36 planes in a fly-away condition.

Adding to the military's problems is India's three-decade effort to build a single-engine fighter of its own which was meant to be the backbone of the air force. Only two of those Light Combat Aircraft, called Tejas, have been delivered to the air force which has ordered 140 of them.

The Indian Air Force is down to 32 operational squadrons compared with the 45 it has said are necessary, and in March the vice chief Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa told parliament's defence committee that it didn't have the operational strength to fight a two front war against China and Pakistan.

JET MAKERS RESPOND

Saab said it was ready to not only produce its frontline Gripen fighter in India, but help build a local aviation industry base.

"We are very experienced in transfer of technology – our way of working involves extensive cooperation with our partners to establish a complete ecosystem, not just an assembly line," said Jan Widerström, Chairman and Managing Director, Saab India Technologies.

He confirmed Saab had received the letter from the Indian government seeking a fourth generation fighter. A source close to the company said that while there was no minimum order set in stone for it to lay down a production line, they would expect to build at least 100 planes at the facility.

Lockheed Martin said it had responded to the defence ministry's letter with an offer to transfer the entire production of its F-16 fighter to India.

"Exclusive F-16 production in India would make India home to the world's only F-16 production facility, a leading exporter of advanced fighter aircraft, and offer Indian industry the opportunity to become an integral part of the world's largest fighter aircraft supply chain," Abhay Paranjape, National Executive for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Business Development in India said in an email.

U.S. TOP SUPPLIER

Lockheed's offer comes on the back of expanding U.S.-India military ties in which Washington has emerged as India's top arms supplier in recent years, ousting old ally Russia.

Earlier this year Boeing also offered India its twin-engine F/A-18 Hornets, but the level of technology transfer was not clear.

India has never previously attempted to build a modern aircraft production line, whether military or civilian. State-run Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has assembled Russian combat jets including the Su-30, but these are under licensed production.

"We have never had control over technology. This represents the most serious attempt to build a domestic base. A full or a near-full tech transfer lays the ground for further development," said retired Indian air marshal M. Matheswaran, a former adviser at HAL.

He said the Indian government would be looking at producing at least 200 fighters, and then probably some more, to make up for the decades of delay in modernising the air force.

(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, with additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes in NEW DELHI; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

Britain under siege from all sides

by Musa Khan Jalalzai

( October 28, 2016, Islamabad, Sri Lanka Guardian) Terrorists do not carry out attacks to undermine military installations alone, but also aim to spread fear, uncertainty, disruption, and harassment in society. There is no doubt that the threat from domestic and international terrorism in Britain is real, and it requires proportionate strategies to tackle it. During the last 15 years of war on terrorism, we experienced countless terror-related incidents in which extremist forces targeted both public and government installations. Britain is under siege from all sides as terrorist organisations from the Middle East, Pakistan, Central Asia, Bangladesh and Europe have established strong networks in every corner of the country, challenging the authority of law enforcement agencies.

These groups are highly professional, and their collaboration with foreign intelligence networks is even more disturbing. There are several channels that finance terrorism across Europe, while with the emergence of Daesh in the Gulf region terror finance models have become more complex and sophisticated. Technological innovations have also facilitated terrorist groups to successfully strike against government installations.

Last week, some harrowing incidents across the country created panic when terrorists tried to attack public and government installations with chemical and biological weapons to create fear and uncertainty in London, but security agencies responded with professional means. Before these incidents, the Scotland Yard police had already deployed hundreds of highly armed commandos on Britain’s streets as a part of plans to beef up security following a spate of deadly terrorist attacks in Europe. These 600 Hercules officers were entrusted with the task of security of major landmarks across London, but the question is notwithstanding the deployment in sensitive places, why terrorists succeeded in striking at airport and other public places. No doubt, the force has been equipped with massive machine guns, heavy-duty military-grade equipments and Kevlar body armour, but for tackling ever-changing terror tactics, a technical approach is needed to understand the evolving dynamics of a security environment.

In view of this intensifying security environment in the country, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe unveiled a plan to put more highly visible patrols, fully armed, to positively respond to the revolving national security threats. Sir Hogan-Howe said that many terror-related attacks were foiled due to the collaboration between the police and MI5 and MI6, which helped intercepting terrorist attacks on Britain. The deployment of the latest highly trained force means the terror threat has intensified as foreign espionage and intelligence networks are operating with a greater offensive mood in our cities and towns challenging the authority of law enforcement agencies. Incidents at the London City Airport and other places forced government to keep the threat level as severe.

Recent studies confirmed that the contradictory counter-radicalisation approach of the British government causes many problems as the minority communities complain about the harrowing tactics of police surveillance. Experts say that it has proved to be potentially counterproductive, but the Home Office insists that the Prevent strategy is working properly and it does not harm residents and businesses. Minister of State for Security Ben Wallace recently said that the threat from radicalisation was real, which means Muslims are posing a threat to the security of the country because the majority of the ministers and government officials perceive radicalisation as a product of Muslim communities in the UK.

One cannot deny the sincere efforts of Britain law enforcement agencies in countering terrorism and radicalisation across the country, but one thing is clear that the non-technical approach and security lapses prompted the emergence of over 3,000 criminal gangs, and foreign intelligence and terrorist networks, which pose a precarious threat to the national security of the country. In our multicultural society, the relationship between police and communities presents some of the more enduring and complex problems. Moreover, that relationship has become deeply complicated, as the two do not fully cooperate with one another in dealing with street crimes and major national security challenges. The conventional wisdom says that minorities face many problems with the policing agencies during their operations.

Britain maintains a professional law enforcement infrastructure and intelligence networks, and collects every piece of intelligence information with care, but during the last decade, many things have not been going in the right direction.

The current terror-related incidents also spotlighted the weaknesses and contradictory national security approach and counterterrorism measures of Britain’s agencies. War in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq and the Brexit politics gave birth to many complicated and disturbing events that left negative impacts on the security environment. The failure to professionally mange its population, ethnic imbalance and law enforcement mechanism made the UK government and its law enforcement agencies suspicious in the eyes of minority communities. From search and stop to watchdog and secret monitoring systems, all policing and law enforcement strategies have failed to restore the confidence of communities as foreign intelligence agencies and criminal gangs spread to all cities and small towns, making the job of our police and intelligence agencies complex. Police have failed to tackle thousands of local and European criminal gangs and their modern tactics, while MI5 and other agencies are in deep trouble to effectively counter the exponentially growing foreign espionage networks across the country.

The relationship between communities and government is deteriorating by the day as several heads of state institutions issued strong statements against Muslims during the last three years. These and other irresponsible statements deeply impacted the multicultural traditions of the country. Attacks on Muslim children in schools and their mothers in buses, streets and works places indicate that all counter-racism, discrimination and extremism policies of government have failed to address these issues by social and technical means. International terrorism is going out of control while the spectre of domestic security revolves in the opposite direction.

The EU and UK relationship is not friendlier, while the country’s involvement in several ethnic and sectarian conflicts in South Asia and the Middle East enraged communities across the country. Britain’s financial sector and nuclear assets are under a constant threat from cyber terrorists and state-sponsored terrorism. The threat of nuclear terrorism and the use of biological bombs in parts of Europe and the UK created panic; this kind of terrorism can cause huge fatalities. Last year, the MI5 had estimated that more than 3,000 people in Britain were posing a terrorist threat while all but 1,000 had travelled to Iraq and Syria.

The writer is the author of Fixing the EU Intel Crisis, and can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com

South Korea: president orders 10 staff members to resign amid worsening crisis

Park Geun-hye under investigation over claims she let an old friend and daughter of a religious cult leader interfere in important state affairs

Citizens hold placards during a protest, demanding President Park Geun-hye to step down. Photograph: YONHAP/EPA

Saturday 29 October 2016

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has ordered 10 of her senior secretaries to resign after she admitted letting an old friend and daughter of a religious cult leader to interfere in important state affairs.

The announcement by Park’s office came on the eve of large anti-government protests planned in Seoul on Saturday over the scandal that is likely to deepen the president’s lame duck status ahead of next year’s elections.

Park has been facing calls to reshuffle her office after she admitted on Tuesday that she provided longtime friend Choi Soon-sil drafts of her speeches for editing. Her televised apology sparked huge criticism about her mismanagement of national information and heavy-handed leadership style many see as lacking in transparency.

There’s also media speculation that Choi, who holds no government job, meddled in government decisions on personnel and policy and exploited her ties with the president to misappropriate funds from nonprofit organisations.

The saga, triggered by weeks of media reports, has sent Park’s approval ratings to record lows and the minority opposition Justice party has called for her to resign.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has offered a public apology after a South Korean TV network reported reported that Choi Soon-sil, who has no official governmental position, was informally involved in editing some of Park’s key speeches. Photograph: Handout/Getty Images

In the last few days, prosecutors widened their investigation by raiding the homes and offices belonging to Choi and some of her associates and also the offices of two nonprofit foundations she supposedly controlled.

Park’s aides on the way out include Woo Byung-woo, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, and Ahn Jong-bom, senior secretary for economic affairs. Lee Won-jong, Park’s chief of staff, tendered his resignation on Wednesday.

Woo has been blamed for failing to prevent Choi from influencing state affairs and has also been embroiled in separate corruption allegations surrounding his family.

Ahn is under suspicion that he helped Choi pressure South Korean companies into making large donations to the Mir and K-Sports foundations, launched in October last year and January this year, respectively. Choi reportedly masterminded the creation of the two nonprofits, which managed to gather around $70m in corporate donations over a short period of time, and is suspected of misappropriating some of these funds for personal use.

Park’s office said she plans to announce a new lineup of senior secretaries soon.

Choi’s lawyer Lee Gyeong-jae told reporters on Friday that she is currently in Germany and is willing to return to South Korea if prosecutors summon her. In an interview with a South Korean newspaper earlier this week, Choi admitted receiving presidential documents in advance, but denied intervening in state affairs or pressuring companies into donating to the foundations.

Choi and Park reportedly became friends in the 1970s when Choi’s late father, Choi Tae-min, a shadowy religious figure who was a Buddhist monk, cult leader and Christian pastor at different points of his life, emerged as Park’s mentor.

At the time, Park was serving as acting first lady after her mother was killed in 1974 by a man trying to assassinate her father, military strongman Park Chung-hee, who would be murdered by his own spy chief five years later.

Kim Jae-gyu, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency director who was later executed, told a court that one of his motives for assassinating Park Chung-hee was his refusal to look into the elder Choi’s corrupt activities and keep Choi away from Park’s daughter.

Park’s ties with the Choi family have haunted her political career even after Choi Tae-min’s 1994 death. Local media reports alleged that the Choi clan used their relationship with Park to take bribes from government officials and businesspeople.

Is the International Criminal Court Crumbling Before Our Eyes?

With three African countries giving notice that they intend to abandon the ICC, a coordinated exodus might soon be coming.
Is the International Criminal Court Crumbling Before Our Eyes?

BY DAVID BOSCO-OCTOBER 26, 2016

In April, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands ceremonially openedthe International Criminal Court’s new headquarters, nestled on the outskirts of The Hague near the North Sea dunes. The building project, which cost more than $240 million, aimed to provide the court’s 800 employees a permanent space to pursue their mission of prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The ceremony featured speeches celebrating the court’s journey from a lofty idea to a concrete reality.

Just six months later, the ground appears to be crumbling under the court. South Africa’s decision last week to abandon the court stunned the international community. That decision came hot on the heels of a vote by Burundi’s parliament to leave the court. How did the ICC fall so far, so fast? And could its very existence be in doubt?

The nightmare scenario for the court is that the departure of a prominent power like South Africa will spark a coordinated exodus that some skeptical African leaders have long advocated. It’s not hard to identify likely candidates for the exits. Kenya has had poor relations with the court since 2011, when the prosecutor filed charges against several prominent politicians, including two who would become president and deputy president. The case against President Uhuru Kenyatta eventually collapsed, but the Kenyan parliament has already urged the government to withdraw from the court, and there are signs it may finally do so.

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has also become vitriolic toward the court. At his inauguration in May, he called the ICC a “bunch of useless people,” which prompted some Western diplomats to walk out of the ceremony. Museveni’s animosity has been painfully ironic in The Hague because he asked the court to investigate abuses by the Lord’s Resistance Army in 2003, an invitation that led to the court’s first indictments. This week, authorities in Gambia also set in motion the withdrawal process, lambasting the ICC as the “International Caucasian Court.”

Further departures would diminish the court’s legitimacy and limit the scope for future investigations.Absent a resolution from the U.N. Security Council — tough to get in the best of times — the court can only investigate when states give it jurisdiction over their territory and nationals. Exiting states aren’t merely expressing displeasure; they are shrinking the court’s room to operate and undermining the court’s claim to be a bulwark against atrocities.

Even if the nightmare of large-scale African withdrawals materializes, the court could still function. International organizations are hard to kill, and there’s no reason to think that the dozens of ICC members in Europe and Latin America would follow the African lead. But an ICC with few African states would be a shell of its former self. And the governments that provide the bulk of the court’s funding, including Germany, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom, would likely question whether their millions of dollars in annual dues are being well spent. They may shift their money and energy toward regional courts and ad hoc tribunals or toward encouraging domestic accountability. And the loss of interest by major financial contributors could force the court to hemorrhage staff and scale back existing investigations.

The court’s fate may therefore hinge on coming deliberations of the African Union, the regional organization that has already passed a series of resolutions critical of the court and its prosecutor. The AU has repeatedly asked the ICC and the U.N. Security Council to defer charges against African heads of state and has been frustrated as those attempts have been rebuffed. In January, the AU tasked a committee headed by Ethiopia’s foreign minister with “the urgent development of a comprehensive strategy including collective withdrawal from the ICC.” South Africa has no doubt boosted that initiative, and a regional dynamic could emerge in which AU members feel compelled to demonstrate their anti-ICC bona fides.

But it’s not a given that African capitals will fall in step with South Africa. Kenya has been attempting to coordinate African withdrawals for several years, with little success. Individual African governments have reached different conclusions about the utility of the international court. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has been muted in its criticisms of the court despite being the subject of a preliminary inquiry. And the ICC still has a few stalwart allies on the continent, including Botswana.

Even African governments with no love for the court might balk at leaving. The South African government is facing domestic blowback for its decision, and ICC supporters have filed court action contending that the decision was unconstitutional. Even absent such resistance, leaving the court would require many member states to change domestic legislation. For many African governments, particularly those that see little immediate danger from The Hague, exiting the ICC may be more hassle than it’s worth.

Given these obstacles, the most likely outcome is that a handful of additional African states will depart. (A few non-African states could also leave; the prosecutor recently warned the Philippines about a wave of extrajudicial killings, and firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte would surprise no one if he pulled up stakes.) Even a few additional departures would be a stiff rebuff, but it’s likely that the court will avoid a crippling exodus.

Can the court do anything at this point to help its own cause?

The principal African complaints have been the diplomatic complications of prosecuting senior political leaders and perceived bias against African countries.

The principal African complaints have been the diplomatic complications of prosecuting senior political leaders and perceived bias against African countries. In theory, there are ways that chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda could adjust on both fronts. The prosecutor has almost complete discretion about which individuals to prosecute and could decide to focus future investigations on mid-level perpetrators and away from senior leaders. Recent court documents have hinted that such a strategy could already be in motion.

The regional imbalance in prosecutions will be more difficult for Bensouda to address. Nine of 10 active court investigations are in Africa (the one exception is Georgia). The court has “preliminary examinations” ongoing in non-African countries, but several of them, including Afghanistan and Palestine, pose daunting political and investigative complications of their own. Investigations in Afghanistan or Palestine, for example, might provoke a new crisis in the positive but fragile U.S. relationship with the court. The U.S. Congress could respond to scrutiny of American or Israeli forces by forbidding even the modest support the United States now offers the court. In any case, tweaks to prosecutorial strategies might come too late to influence the fast-moving African dynamic.

Ten years from now, the sparkling new ICC headquarters will almost certainly still be the headquarters of international justice. But its occupants will have to become content with a much more limited role in international politics than its founders had imagined.

Photo credit: ONESPHORE NIBIGIRA/AFP/Getty Images

US orders families of Istanbul consulate staff to leave Turkey

Security information indicates 'extremist groups' making aggressive efforts to attack US citizens in Istanbul

Increased threats seen in Istanbul, according to US State Department (AFP/file photo)

Saturday 29 October 2016 22:17 UTC

The United States ordered the relatives of staff members in its consulate in Istanbul to leave the country on Saturday, warning that "extremist groups" are targeting American citizens for attack.

The order was announced in the second travel warning that the State Department issued for Americans in Turkey in less than a week, reflecting US concerns about "increased threats from terrorist groups."

The decision to evacuate the families of staff was made "based on security information indicating extremist groups are continuing aggressive efforts to attack US citizens in areas of Istanbul where they reside or frequent."

On Monday, the State Department had advised US citizens to "carefully consider the need to travel to Turkey at this time." There is also a long-standing warning against travel to the southeast of the country.

"Foreign and US tourists have been explicitly targeted by international and indigenous terrorist organizations in Turkey," both recent travel warnings said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has placed Turkey under a state of emergency in the wake of a 15 July coup attempt by disaffected military officers that triggered a crackdown on suspected dissidents.

Even before the failed but bloody putsch, Turkey was already fighting a renewed insurgency by Kurdish separatists and dealing with the fallout of the war in neighboring Syria, including attacks by the Islamic State group.

In recent months there have been bomb attacks blamed on various groups in Turkish cities, and tensions are running high as Erdogan purges his government of alleged supporters of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Turkish media have also been stoking anti-American sentiment, accusing Washington of harboring Gulen in Pennsylvania while he allegedly plots the overthrow of Erdogan's government.

The US has agreed to study an extradition request for the preacher, who denies any link to the coup, but has warned it must meet American "evidentiary standards."

Employees to Indian billionaire light up with joy after receiving Diwali bonus of cars and flats

The fleet of over 400 cars from the 2014 Diwali bonus to employees of Hare Krishna Exports. Image via dailyamin.com

29th October 2016

THIS year, over 1,700 hard-working employees for wealthy diamond trader Savji Dholakia will be celebrating a merry Diwali indeed, as he has gifted them with up to 400 apartments and 1,260 cars for the annual bonus.

While it is common for bosses in India to give out bonuses in honor of Diwali, the largest Hindu festival, most are unable to match Dholakia, who is known for his generosity.

Last year, the owner and chairman of Hare Krishna Exports gave away 491 cars and 200 flats, while the year before that, he awarded employees a total of Rs500 million ($7.5 million) as an incentive.

SEE ALSO: AP PHOTOS: India glitters ahead of Diwali

In an announcement regarding this year’s bonuses, Dholakia said: “Our aim is that each employee must have his own home and car in the next five years. So we have decided to gift cars, homes, and jewellery to employees.”

“We are arranging for houses for those who already own cars, while those who don’t have a four-wheeler will get one,” he added, as reported by Hindustan Times.

The lucky few were chosen out of 5,500 staff members employed by Hare Krishna Exports for showing exceptional “loyalty, skills and value addition” over the past year, Dholakia told CNNMoney, adding that the total amount for this year’s bonuses is estimated to cost around $7.7 million.

“We have exports worth [$700 million] across more than 70 countries, but nothing is more valuable than our employees,” he said.

SEE ALSO: WATCH: Manager spanks Chinese bank employees onstage over ‘poor performance’

However, nothing comes for free: according to Dholakia, the company will cover the initial burden by paying off the home and car installments for the first five years, while deducting a monthly sum from employees to cover future installments.

The apartments, measuring at 1,100-sq ft each, come under the company’s own housing scheme.

“The flats would come dirt cheap at Rs15 lakh [Rs1.5 million], while the monthly installment, which the employee will start paying after five years, will be Rs11,000 ($165),” he explained, as quoted by local news agency IANS.

Earlier this year, the diamond tycoon made headlines when he sent his 21-year-old son to the southern Indian state of Kerala to work for a month with only three sets of clothes and a modest sum of cash to teach his son “the value of money”.

Vet has animal tuberculosis scare

JONATHAN CRANSTONE

By James Gallagher-27 October 2016

"If this is it, what am I going to do with my remaining few months?" wondered vet Jonathan Cranston while lying in a hospital bed.

He's one of more than 100,000 people who catch tuberculosis from animals each year - an issue the World Health Organization says has been ignored for decades.

The brutal infection led to him losing nearly 7.5kg in weight as it settled in his chest.

Jonathan was testing stress levels in wildebeest near Kruger National Park in South Africa in 2013 when he thinks he was infected.

"Six weeks later [back in the UK] I remember waking up in the middle of the night and struggling for breath with acute chest pain, then I had horrendous night sweats - literally my pyjamas and bed were drenched.

"As a vet, looking back in hindsight, I should have realised what was happening, but I'd just got a new mattress and I thought 'this isn't breathing'."

He described himself as fairly fit before the bacterial infection, but even walking the dog up a short hill became a struggle.

He was given a course of antibiotics after a GP said he probably had pneumonia.

Yet Jonathan developed a really bad fever and one morning while swimming he could manage only two lengths before struggling and having to drag himself out of the pool.

At a hospital appointment for an ultrasound, doctors refused to let him leave.

"My right lung was virtually non-existent - they drained 2.5 litres of fluid from my right pleural space [the area around the lungs]," Jonathan said.

JONATHAN CRANSTONE

He added: "I knew there was something serious going on and I started to plan my last few months.

"I started putting together places I wanted to go, I love travelling to see animals.

"I was 32 at the time, I'd had a pretty fun life and was hoping it was going to be longer!"

While he was in hospital he encountered one of the great challenges with animal TB - it is often confused with human TB.

Despite the symptoms looking similar, the diseases are caused by different bacteria. Animal TB is caused by Mycobacterium bovis while human TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The Cheltenham-based vet added: "I was pretty convinced it was animal TB, but the consultant said he was not convinced - it was three months later that they realised it was bovine TB.

"With all due respect they didn't have a clue about it and they didn't really know what to do with me. They just went though the standard protocol for TB."

Animal or zoonotic TB can be more serious and harder to treat than conventional, human tuberculosis.

It is inherently resistant to one of the key drugs used to treat human TB, so using the wrong combination of antibiotics risks the infection developing resistance to the drugs that do work.

Jonathan was eventually given the all-clear in November 2014.

Be he warns: "There needs to be a greater awareness about zoonotic TB. It is getting momentum and that is a great thing, so more research is done and it can be diagnosed and treated more quickly."

How to tackle animal tuberculosis is one of the themes of the Union World Conference on Lung Health taking place this week.