Firefighters try to put out a fire in a blazing high-rise building in Tehran, Iran January 19, 2017. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS--Fire breaks out in a high-rise building in Tehran, Iran January 19, 2017. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS
Smoke rises from a blazing high-rise building in Tehran, Iran January 19, 2017. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS
At least 20 firefighters were killed when a 17-storey Tehran commercial building collapsed on top of them as they tried to put out a blaze, Iranian state television quoted the city's mayor as saying on Thursday.
Soldiers, sniffer dogs and rescue workers were searching the ruins of the Plasco building after it crashed down in a giant cloud of dust. The collapse was shown live on state television and one witness described it as "like a horror movie".
"At least 20 firefighters who were trapped under rubble have died," Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said. "They are martyrs. They lost their lives when trying to help people."
But Tehran Fire Department spokesman Jalal Maleki told the broadcaster: "I cannot confirm the death of around 20 firefighters ... but some of them have been killed. The rescue operation continues."
Tehran’s Governor Hossein Hashemi told state TV rescue workers were opening three separate routes to access those trapped.
"One of those trapped in the building sent a text message saying five of them are alive," judiciary website Mizan reported.
State TV said at least 88 people, including 45 firefighters, were injured. Most were taken to hospital and many quickly discharged, it said.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency said troops had been sent to help dig through the ruins. It said one of the first firefighters to be reached had asked to be let back inside to save his colleagues.
The agency quoted an official in the Tehran governor's office as saying an electrical short-circuit had caused the fire, but there was no immediate confirmation of this.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani sent condolences to the families of those killed. Rouhani ordered an investigation and compensation for those affected, state TV reported.
SAFETY FEARS
Occupants of the building had been evacuated as firefighters tackled the blaze. State TV said the tenants included garment manufacturers, and it broadcast footage of business owners trying to re-enter the wreckage.
"I have lost everything. What am I going to do now. What should I tell my family?" owner of one of the 400 business units in the building, Mohsen Ghamisi, told Reuters by telephone.
Tasnim news agency reported that the business units and shops inside the building were not insured because of a lack of required safety measures.
Sniffer dogs searched for survivors buried under giant slabs of concrete and heaps of twisted metal. The rescue operation could last more than two days, state TV said.
The Plasco building, Iran's first private high-rise, was built more than 50 years ago by an Iranian-Jewish businessman who was arrested and sentenced to death for ties to Israel after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Maleki said: "We had repeatedly warned the building managers about the lack of safety."
The owner of a nearby grocery store, forced by police to leave the area, told Reuters by telephone: "It was like a horror movie. The building collapsed in front of me."
The semi-official Fars news agency said police had cordoned off the nearby British, German and Turkish embassies.
"The embassies are being protected by diplomatic police forces... All the security and safety measures have been taken," TV quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
West African troops have crossed the border into the Gambia as part of regional efforts to support the new democratically-elected president in a showdown with his predecessor, Yahya Jammeh.
“We have entered Gambia,” Col Abdou Ndiaye, a spokesman for the Senegalese army, wrote in a text message to Reuters on Thursday night, just hours after Adama Barrow was forced to hold his inauguration as president in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
The Nigerian military told the Guardian it was also deploying troops to the Gambia as part of a “standby” west African coalition force to enforce the result of the December election, which Barrow won.
Hours earlier, holding a Qur’an and looking solemn, Barrow was sworn in at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, where he has spent the past few days, and delivered his inaugural speech as president.
“This is a day no Gambian will ever forget,” he told a crowd of officials and diplomats. “This is the first time since the Gambia became independent in 1965 that the Gambia has changed the government through the ballot box.”
Jammeh, who ruled the west African nation for 22 years and tried to extend his tenure despite losing to Barrow, is still in State House in the capital and is attempting to make a last-minute deal to ease his way out, according to sources close to the government. Earlier this week, he imposed a state of emergency in a final attempt to hang on to power.
Adama Barrow, left, is sworn in as president of the Gambia. Photograph: AP
Nevertheless, celebrations in the Gambia began as soon as Barrow had made his speech, with drivers beeping their horns in elation and people leaning out of car windows, waving their arms, in scenes reminiscent of the outpouring of joy after the election result was announced, shortly before Jammeh rejected it.
Significantly, Barrow called on the UN to enforce his electoral win. “I hereby make a special appeal to Ecowas, AU [African Union] and the UN, particularly the security council, to support the government and people of the Gambia in enforcing their will, restore their sovereignty and constitutional legitimacy,” he said.
Supporters of Adama Barrow celebrate his inauguration in Dakar. Photograph: Thierry Gouegnon/Reuters
Soon after Barrow’s speech, the UN security council voted for a resolution that called “upon the countries in the region and the relevant regional organisation to cooperate with President Barrow in his efforts to realise the transition of power” – a statement that lent weight to Barrow but stopped short of explicitly sanctioning military intervention.
When the president of Mauritania arrived in the country on a final mediation mission on Wednesday night, Jammeh demanded that Barrow’s inauguration be delayed and that he be allowed to return to his farm in the Gambia, according to diplomatic sources. The sources also said Jammeh asked that Ecowas, the regional body that has been leading negotiations for the past month, be replaced as a mediator.
However, it is highly unlikely that Jammeh will be allowed any of these except a safe haven; one senior member of the coalition told the Guardian last month that Jammeh had “bunkers and treasure” at the farm and would start an insurgency if he were allowed to go back.
Barrow offered an olive branch to the country’s military, which has changed its allegiance several times over the past month, with the chief of defence staff saying most recently that as Jammeh paid his salary, he answered to him.
“I call on all civilian and military personnel of the state to support my presidency, since it is built on a constitutional foundation,” Barrow said. “They are assured that they will not be subjected to any injustice or discrimination but will be provided with better working conditions and terms of service.”
Halifa Sallah, the spokesman of the coalition, said he expected Jammeh to change his defiant position when he saw that the military were no longer with him, which he thought would happen imminently.
“Once the international community recognises Barrow, Jammeh will realise that he does not have legitimacy, and governability is also an impossibility, so he may decide to leave,” Sallah said.
The Nigerian foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, who was involved in mediation efforts, said: “There’s a bottom line. There’s a new president. He has to leave power. Ecowas is ready to take steps to ensure that the elected president is able to assume his mandate. The new president will have his say. He might not want necessarily to ride into Banjul on the tank of a foreign country.”
Earlier on Thursday, before the post-inauguration celebrations, an eery quiet descended on the country, as thousands of Gambians waited to see what would happen. Hiding in their homes, many spent the previous day stocking up on supplies and queuing at banks for cash.
Only a few tourists ventured out into the deserted streets and hundreds of British holidaymakers were flown home on Wednesday, amid chaotic scenes at the airport.
Human rights groups said that Barrow had made many vows that he now had to deliver. “We must not forget the big promises Adama Barrow has made to free political prisoners, remove repressive laws and bring Gambia back to theinternational criminal court,” said Amnesty International’s Sabrina Mahtani.
As well as the hard knock to the tourism industry, a vital source of revenue for the Gambia, Barrow will have to deal with an unfolding humanitarian situation just over the border: 25,000 people, half of them children, have fled the country in recent days.
Not everyone was on their way out of the country, however. One of Africa’s most famous writers, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, was in the Gambia for the inaugural Mboka festival of arts and stayed despite the evacuations.
He said that events in the tiny west African nation had a much wider resonance for the continent. “It’s very important for Africa. There is a sense that everyone is rooting for Gambia to go through this transition,” he said.
THE HANDOFF | This is part of a series examining the foreign policy challenges President-elect Donald Trump will inherit and how he might approach them. Read more.
Jan. 11, 2017
As Donald J. Trump prepares to take office, the Islamic State is on the defensive in three countries and has been all but wiped out in another. Military and diplomatic officials believe that a tactical defeat of the militants, at least in their major strongholds, is only a matter of time. But tens of thousands of fighters remain, and the group is already showing signs of reinventing itself once again as a potent terror movement.
The new Gorillaz song attacks the powerful role of money in society, with multiple references to Donald Trump
Benjamin Clementine sings the new Gorillaz song 'Hallelujah Money' (Screenshot from the video)
Thursday 19 January 2017
Virtual rockers Gorillaz made a surprise return on Thursday to take on President-elect Donald Trump on the eve of his inauguration, in a trippy track that attacks money and exclusion.
Gorillaz - a side project, led by Blur's Damon Albarn, which had not released music in six years - collaborated on the track with Benjamin Clementine, the Mercury Prize-winning singer known for his rich, wide-ranging voice.
Entitled "Hallelujah Money," the song is driven by a trip-hop beat and a maze of electronic effects, as Clementine sings of a tree as a metaphor for Trump's America.
"When you go to bed / Scarecrows from the far east come to eat its tender fruits / And I thought the best way to perfect our tree / Is by building walls," he said, in likely references to Trump's tough stance on immigration.
In a video for the song, Clementine enters a golden elevator in what resembles Trump Tower, rising above a slideshow of images from marching Ku Klux Klan members to African village dancers.
The song's chorus attacks the powerful role of money in society, and Clementine sings, "Don't worry, my friend / If this be the end, then so shall it be."
Gorillaz, created by Albarn with comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, consist of virtual members represented by cartoons. The group frequently brings in guest collaborators.
While Albarn is the musical force behind Gorillaz, the sound is generally more experimental than Blur, flag-bearers of Britpop.
In a Facebook posting, Gorillaz referred to the new song with ironic drama as a "lightning bolt of truth in a black night".
The band also indicated that it was working on a fifth album, which would be the first since 2011's "The Fall," featuring members of punk legends The Clash.
A wide array of musicians wrote songs to attack Trump during the election, a sharp contrast to celebrities' embrace of outgoing President Barack Obama.
Every minute brings Donald Trump closer to putting his hand on the Lincoln Bible, and a group of 41 men closer to a lifetime of internment at the U.S. military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
But lawyers and Obama administration officials are working down to the wire to get remaining detainees out of Guantánamo before Trump throws away the key, potentially for good. With less than 24-hours remaining beforePresident-elect Trump becomes president, Foreign Policy has learned that the White House has made four more transfers, the last of Obama’s administration. The Pentagon will announce their names and destinations on Thursday evening.
In a letter on his last full day in office, President Obama urged House Speaker Paul Ryan one last time to close the detention center.
“If this were easy, we would have closed Guantánamo years ago,” Obama wrote. “But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to bring it to a responsible end.”
The White House publicly acknowledged for the first time this week what has long been the grim reality for the legal teams representing the detainees and the administration officials charged with their fate: Obama would not be able to make good on his campaign promise and executive order to close Guantánamo, issued almost eight years ago to the day.
In defiance of Trump’s Twitter edict not to make any more transfers, the Pentagon sent 10 detainees to Oman on Monday, and the last four midnight-hour moves come just hours from the moment Trump takes the oath of office on Friday. The 10 men moved on Monday, as well as five others, have been cleared by six national security agencies as no longer posing a threat to the United States, and several of them, the government has admitted, were cases of mistaken identity.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter did not sign off on the transfers of several of the remaining cleared detainees in time for the legally-required 30-day congressional notification. Legal teams for two detainees on this list — a Moroccan and an Algerian — filed emergency motions with federal courts to grant their repatriation before Friday. But the Obama administration opposed the moves, despite judicial orders to prepare the detainees to be moved immediately in case of a favorable ruling. On Wednesday night, the court ruled against the Algerian, and on Thursday afternoon, the Moroccan’s request was shot down.
Of the 41 men who remain as of Thursday, only 10 have been charged with war crimes. The vast majority have been detained for more than a decade,and none were captured by the U.S. military.
If the rest do not make it onto a military plane by Friday, lawyers say, they will likely die at Guantánamo along with the 26 other men known as “forever prisoners” — including the alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks — the U.S. has determined will be detained indefinitely. The 26 are eligible for their cases to be periodically reviewed.
Many of the detainees are deeply involved in their own defense, and they are aware that Trump’s victory has raised the stakes, according to legal teams who represent them. In recent conversations they’ve expressed their concern if they don’t make it out before Trump enters the Oval Office, they’ll be stuck.
Trump made his own campaign pledges to “load [Guantánamo] up with some really bad dudes,” and “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” While he’s since toned down his vows to return to illegal government torture — at the behest of retired Gen. James Mattis, expected to be confirmed as defense secretary on Friday, who told him torture wasn’t effective — he hasn’t ruled it out. He’s never backed off his plan to keep Guantánamo open, and has doubled down on expanding it, even suggesting he may try U.S. citizens in military commissions there.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said his team is planning executive orders for Friday and Monday, including his own, as well as rescinding Obama’s prior dictates. In his “100 Day Action Plan” the New York businessman vowed to do so.
Spicer declined to comment as to whether Trump will issue his own orders for Guantánamo, but given his strong public stances, he is likely to move early to undo the four executive orders on U.S. detention and interrogation policy that Obama issued on his first day in office.
One promise Obama did keep was not to add a single detainee to the population at Guantánamo, relying largely on the federal justice system and foreign partners to deal with the handful of terrorist suspects captured on global battlefields since 2009. For the rest: lethal drone strikes, according to analysts.
Barred by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress from closing Guantánamo and moving the remaining “worst of the worst” detainees to a maximum-security facility on U.S. soil, Obama administration officials have steadily chipped away at the population through the transfers to third-party countries. Trump has echoed lawmakers’ concerns that Obama has been releasing dangerous terrorists who could return to the fight alongside Islamic State.
In contrast to a lengthy process that Obama’s own supporters and officials have criticized as unnecessarily onerous, President George W. Bush released hundreds of prisoners with few measures in place to protect against terrorist recidivism, and most of the detainees that the intelligence community believes have returned to terrorism were released under Bush.
Theresa May always takes a pause before speaking. I wonder if it’s something she learnt from her father as he waited for the congregation to settle.
At Davos, after that brief pause, she preached to the very “citizens of nowhere” she had castigated in her 2016 Tory Conference speech and she delivered a rebuke for past sins and a lesson of inclusion. The global elite couldn’t carry on the way it had, taking all the cream and failing to play by fair rules, sharing proceeds and paying their dues.
Theresa May took on the mantle of telling the privileged elites they needed to wake up and step up to their responsibilities at her very first international gathering when she attended the G20 in Hangzhou in September last year. Volatile politics was a wake-up call to business and political leaders she said back then and, at greater length, this morning in Davos.
We have yet to see the meat of Mrs May’s own programme for dealing with this new crisis of capitalism. The Prime Minister has talked big but we still await promised reforms on housing and the new industrial strategy (a green paper expected next week) and much else. And it is a struggle to see right now how they will measure up to the rhetoric.
Any sermon on “inclusion” in Western liberal democracies traditionally calls for more state-administered redistribution, more tax and spend. Talk to those who’ve chatted through where she wants to take the country and you repeatedly hear that Mrs May’s mantra in private is the need for government to get more from less.
Some talk of signs of a tension between the more drastic language and solutions favoured by her massively influential Joint Chief of Staff Nick Timothy and her own instincts. Some see an echo of David Cameron’s intellectual tendresse for Steve Hilton’s drastic proto-Trumpian take on government which was strained and then eventually broken by his sense of what was actually feasible. There’s absolutely no sign of a breach between Mrs May and her senior adviser but could it come as a gap develops between what she feels she should say to match the needs of the moment and what she actually feels comfortable delivering.
Theresa May has already sanctioned Philip Hammond to talk about looking again at ring-fenced benefits for older citizens. Simon Stevens at NHS England vented his frustration last week at the PM’s resistance to demands for more money. Privately, one close to her said, she wonders whether the growth rates we’ve known in the past will return. No wonder she wants business leaders gathered in Davos to dip into their own money sacks and share more dosh. Judging by the muted applause after her speech in Davos, they’ll take some gettyconvincing. President Xi, I’m told, got a much warmer reception. As Margaret Thatcher (no fan of industrial strategies herself) said to the Cabinet in 1990, “it’s a funny old world.”
Being a Hazara I am continuously facing serious threats to my personal and professional life. I have survived three suicide-bombing attacks outside the court building. Each day of my life I am at serious risk of being harmed by religious extremists and also by influential groups who are bitter opponent of women’s liberty, education, and political freedom.
by Jalila Haider Karmal-
( January 18, 2017, Quetta, Sri Lanka Guardian) It seems like yesterday when my senior lawyers, colleagues, and mentors were smiling, giggling, taunting, and guiding; it was business as usual at the District Courts in Balochistan. This business as usual was all taken away from me suddenly. The morning of 8 August 2016 brought dramatic changes to my life; on that day 56 lawyers of the Balochistan Bar Council and Balochistan Bar Association got killed in a split second in a suicide attack.
Things have changed drastically and it seems now as if no one is left amongst us – neither a classical interpreter of statues nor defenders of human rights. The terrorists have virtually killed an entire generation of educated people of Balochistan. The voices for recovery of missing persons and the champions of the rule of law have been silenced forever.
Born in Balochistan Province of Pakistan, I hail from an extremely victimized ethnic minority group of the Province, known as ‘Hazara’, which is a sub sect of the Shia sect of Islam. I am the first female lawyer from my community and practicing with a law firm. It was very difficult to pursue a career in law given the persisting male-dominated environment around me, but I successfully met this challenge despite all odds.
Being a Female Lawyer in an Androcentric Culture
In 2011, I joined Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which is a prestigious forum in defending Human rights violations. In 2012, I joined National Commission for Justice and Peace, addressing the issues of non-Muslims of Pakistan, especially the Hindu community, against their forced conversion to Islam. As a policy-making member of National Commission for Justice and Peace, after three years of efforts, finally, the Hindu Marriage Bill 2016 is introduced in Parliament to help eliminate enforced conversion of Hindu Girls.
In the year 2013, I became a working member of American Bar Association (ROLI), promoting Rule of Law in the context of domestic practice of International Human Rights Laws, and represented Pakistan in Nepal. I offered several lectures on fair trial, torture, preventive detention, and death penalty.
In the year 2014, I was selected for Emerging Leaders of Pakistan fellowship, a project of Atlantic Council and Meridian International in USA. Since last year, I am engaged with Inclusive Security, a project of the United States Institute of Peace, on drafting policy on counter violent terrorism with inclusion of women.
I believe it is through law that an effective and just social contract can be realized, where deprived, under-served, and victimized people can be helped, and equal rights and opportunities can be obtained peacefully and democratically.
In addition to being a lawyer, I am also a political activist raising voice for democratic and constitutional rights of women and other oppressed groups. As an active member of Balochistan Youth Forum (BYF), in collaboration with Center for Research and Security Studies, I have struggled to promote secularism, the rule of law, and harmony among the youth of Balochistan and in other provinces.
As a member of the Balochistan Youth Forum, I have advocated for the national rights of the people of Balochistan and have highlighted issues concerning provincial autonomy, fair justice for missing persons, and extrajudicial killings of the Baloch people.
Women Rights in Pakistan
The situation of women rights in Pakistan is dismal. Being a woman rights defender, I provide free legal aid and counseling to poverty-affected women on issues that include honor killing, domestic violence, marriage disputes, sexual harassment, property rights, etc. I also deal with the cases of missing persons or victims of forced disappearance. The biggest achievement has been safe recovery of three missing Baloch girls in 2015. As a result of civil society efforts, all three girls were recovered by law enforcement agencies in a short period of three days.
A weak justice system and lack of public confidence contribute to the cycle of rising violence and extremism. For this purpose, one of my initiatives includes free legal aid to poor men, women, and children of my district, i.e. Quetta, through my non-profit organization ‘We The Humans’. These cases have been decided and I have won all of them.
As a Human Rights defender, I appointed myself as a pauper counsel for 15 children below the age of 12 who were accused of terrorism in different areas of the City in the year 2014; the case is still pending before Anti Terrorism Court of Quetta, Balochistan. My legal aid services have helped them seek justice, which otherwise would not have been possible for them due to their impoverished economic conditions. I believe that the inability of this weak and overburdened system can fuel and support alternative justice systems, ranging from strict versions of Islamic law, to individuals who will take the law into their own hands.
Choosing human rights and rule of law as part of my struggle in legal procedure and practice is not based upon an idealist approach but is being done keeping in view the realistic need of my country and its people. Pakistan has been facing a crisis of leadership for decades. Military and civilian leadership that has had the chance to rule the country has not been able to put the country on the track of democratic values, where ruling parties influence justice. The main reasons for this state of affairs includes lack of democratic culture and attitudes, the rule of law, and corruption.
Lawyer and human rights defenders in Pakistan should be sensitive to the issues and problems of the people and be smart enough to seek their solutions and motivate people to rise up for implementation of the solutions. The most important quality consists in having a correct vision and facing all the challenges in the way with integrity, perseverance, and resoluteness. This can be attained when one has good command over interpretation and practice of their rights guaranteed by the law of the land. For this purpose, I struggle for the right to fair trail and access to justice for everyone and struggle to end the practices of enforced disappearance in Pakistan. One of the examples of raising voice for missing persons was the safe recovery of writer Wahid Baloch in 2016; I was also part of the campaign for his recovery.
Hazara Community
Being a Hazara I am continuously facing serious threats to my personal and professional life. I have survived three suicide-bombing attacks outside the court building. Each day of my life I am at serious risk of being harmed by religious extremists and also by influential groups who are bitter opponent of women’s liberty, education, and political freedom. I have always faced and overcome these grave challenges by constantly reminding myself that one should never give up before the forces of regression, backwardness, and bigotry. One should always bravely take up challenges no matter how hard they are, if one possesses the desire to lead his people and fellow-beings ahead in the direction of progress, development, and well-being.
For my services to human rights I have received Emerging Young Women Leader Award 2015 from renowned Nobel Laureate Ms. Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman.
‘The News Woman Power 50’ named me, along with fifty other women, amongst the most powerful and influential woman of Pakistan in 2015. My service for the community was recognized by Rajiv Circle fellowship and I was invited as the first batch of Pakistani fellows in 2015 and represented Pakistan in Silicon Valley USA.
Importance of Negotiations and dialogues
In the year 2016, I have become Young Connectors of Future Fellow of the Swedish Institute and represented Pakistan in Sweden. In 2015, As a Human Rights Defender I was a youth delegate from Pakistan as part of Global Unites family in Sri Lanka. I am also nominated as Dukhtar-e-Pakistan (daughter of Pakistan) Award winner in January 2017.
Inspired by Martin Luther King and Gandhi, I believe that the grave challenges of the country call for immediate and resolute policy and the principle strategy of promoting the rule of law, respect for human rights and dignities, and conflict resolution with all stakeholders on-board.
Negotiations and dialogues should be promoted, as the only way to seek solutions to the problems, while safeguarding ones legal, social, and political rights in the country. I believe that the rule of law and democracy is the only way to overcome the legal, political and social problems of the country. Practical efforts can be taken to resolve those problems and elevate the people to take the ladder of social and legal progress.
Such dreams can become true if we try to affect the change before the change affect us; nothing is permanent except change itself and the universal truth is that change is inevitable.
About the Writer: Jalila Haider Karmal is the lawyer and human rights activist based in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province, she can be reached at; jalila.h.karmal@gmail.com .This article was originally published by the Asian Human Rights Commission, a Hong Kong-based Human Rights monitoring, documenting, and advocating body.
