Women should not laugh in public: Turkish minister

ISTANBUL: A senior Turkish minister who caused an outcry by suggesting women should not laugh loudly in public waded into a new controversy today by attacking women who he said could not resist pole dancing.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, a co-founder of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), has strongly criticised in recent days what he sees as a decline of moral standards in Turkey.

His comment earlier this week that women should not laugh in public was ridiculed by secular Turks, with women taking to Twitter en masse to post pictures of themselves laughing deliriously.

Arinc said in televised comments today that those remarks had been taken out of context and he had wanted to comment on the "general rules of morality".

But he added, "There are women who leave on holiday without their husbands and others who don't have self control and can't stop themselves from climbing up a pole."

"Anyone can live like this. I can't be angry against you but I can just have pity for you," he said.

Arinc's latest remarks appear to have been prompted by the wife of a prominent Turkish footballer who posted a picture of herself pole dancing on Instagram with the slogan "when I see a pole, I just can't resist".

The woman, the wife of Caner Erkin, a prominent player for Istanbul giants Fenerbahce, has since deleted the image from her account.

Mimicking the Twitter campaign over Arinc's comments on laughing, bloggers posted pictures of their pets climbing up poles or flags proudly flying from poles.

Political tensions are riding high in Turkey as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to stand in presidential elections on August 10 with his critics accusing the government of seeking to erode the country's secular principles.

Turkey's liberal press slammed Arinc's latest remarks, with columnist Ismigul Simsek of the Bianet website telling him to go back to "watering the flowers".

"We know what kind of society, woman and morality you are trying to reconstruct. We are following it closely but we don't like it. And we don't choose it," she wrote.

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Sierra Leone declares Ebola emergency

FREETOWN: Sierra Leone has declared a state of public emergency to tackle the worst ever outbreak of Ebola and will call in security forces to quarantine epicentres of the deadly virus, President Ernest Bai Koroma said in a statement.

The measures resembled a tough anti-Ebola package announced by neighbouring Liberia on Wednesday evening. Koroma announced he was cancelling a visit to Washington for a US-Africa summit next week because of the crisis and would instead hold an emergency meeting with regional leaders in Guinea on Friday.

Highly infectious Ebola has been blamed for 672 deaths in the West Africa nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

"I hereby proclaim a State of Public Emergency to enable us take a more robust approach to deal with the Ebola outbreak," he said in a speech late on Wednesday, adding that the measures would initially last between 60 and 90 days. "All epicenters of the disease will be quarantined."

Koroma said that the police and the military would restrict movements to and from epicenters, and would provide support to health officers and NGOs to do their work unhindered, following a number of attacks on healthworkers by local communities.

He said that house-to-house searches would be implemented to trace Ebola victims and quarantine them. He also said that new protocols had been established for passengers arriving and departing Lungi International Airport outside Freetown, but he did not provide further details.

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Ebola outbreak: Sierra Leone declares health emergency

FREETOWN (Sierra Leone): The president of Sierra Leone declared a public health emergency as the Ebola crisis blamed for nearly 700 deaths deepened across West Africa, vowing to quarantine sick patients at home and conduct house-to-house searches for others who may have been exposed.

The announcement from President Ernest Bai Koroma late on Wednesday came as neighboring Liberia also ramped up its efforts to slow the virulent disease's spread, shutting down schools and ordering most public servants to stay home from work.

The US Peace Corps also was evacuating hundreds of its volunteers in the affected countries. Two Peace Corps workers are under isolation outside the US after having contact with a person who later died of the Ebola virus, a State Department official said.

Ebola has been blamed for more than 670 deaths in four West African countries this year, and has shown no signs of slowing down particularly in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Among the dead was the chief doctor treating Ebola in Sierra Leone, who was to be buried Thursday.

The government said Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan's death was "an irreparable loss of this son of the soil." The 39-year-old was a leading doctor on hemorrhagic fevers in a nation with very few medical resources.

Ebola cases first emerged in the nation of Guinea back in March, and later spread across the borders to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The outbreak is now the largest recorded in world history, and has infected three African capitals with international airports. Officials are trying to step up screening of passengers, though an American man was able to fly from Liberia to Nigeria, where authorities say he died days later from Ebola.

Ebola has no vaccine and no specific treatment, with a fatality rate of about 60 percent. But experts say the risk of travelers contracting it is considered low because it requires direct contact with bodily fluids or secretions such as urine, blood, sweat or saliva. Ebola can't be spread like flu through casual contact or breathing in the same air.

Patients are contagious only once the disease has progressed to the point they show symptoms, according to the World Health Organization. The most vulnerable are health care workers and relatives who come in much closer contact with the sick.

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Temporary ceasefire in fight for Tripoli airport

TRIPOLI: Rival militias fighting for control of Tripoli airport agreed on Wednesday to a temporary ceasefire to allow firefighters to try to control a huge blaze at a fuel depot hit by a rocket.

After a fortnight of the worst fighting since the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, most Western governments have followed the United States and United Nations, pulling their diplomats out of the North African country.

The French government said it had temporarily closed its embassy on Wednesday, and evacuated 30 French nationals from Tripoli just a few days after the US embassy evacuated its staff under heavy military escort across the Tunisian border.

Except for sporadic shelling away from the ceasefire zone around the fire near the capital's international airport, Wednesday was the quietest day in the capital Tripoli for two weeks, with less smoke seen from the blaze.

For two weeks, two brigades of former rebels, mainly allied to the towns of Zintan and Misrata, have pounded each other's positions in Tripoli with Grad rockets, artillery fire and cannons, turning the south of the capital into a battlefield.

"Many mediators have succeeded in convincing the militias to stop fighting, at least temporarily," government spokesman Ahmed Lamin said. "They are trying to get them to the negotiating table, we hope they will agree."

It was unclear if the blaze at the airport depot that supplies millions of litres of gasoline and gas to the capital Tripoli was under control on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC) which owns Brega Oil company which operates the tanks, said he did not yet have any update on the situation.

Three years after the fall of Gaddafi, Libya's government is unable to impose its authority on the brigades of former fighters who remain heavily armed and often challenge the state to make political demands.

On Wednesday, the eastern city of Benghazi was also quieter after Islamist fighters and allied militia forces overran a special forces army base in the city in a major blow to a military campaign against Islamist militants there.

The self-declared Benghazi Shura Council forces, which includes former rebels and militants from al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia, took over the base on Tuesday after fighting involving rockets and warplanes that killed at least 30 people.

Special forces troops and irregular forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a renegade former army general who had launched a campaign to clear Benghazi of Islamist militants, have withdrawn to an air base outside Benghazi, his spokesman said.

Benghazi's main police station was also completely abandoned on Wednesday morning, a Reuters reporter said.

Fighters from Ansar al Sharia, classified as a terrorist organisation by Washington, have been blamed by authorities for attacking the US consulate in Benghazi in 2012 when the US ambassador was killed.

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4-hour ceasefire in Gaza, 16 killed in attack on UN school

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel agreed on Wednesday to observe a four-hour lull in Gaza several hours after a deadly strike on a school killed 16, drawing a furious response from a UN refugee agency.

In a statement, the army said it had agreed to a humanitarian pause which was to begin at 1200 GMT.

But it said the lull would not apply in areas where the army was "currently operating" and warned those who had fled their homes not to return.

The announcement came as the Israeli security cabinet was meeting in Tel Aviv to discuss an Egyptian proposal for a more permanent ceasefire, army radio reported.

The temporary truce deal comes just hours after two Israel shells slammed into a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip where more than 3,000 people had sought shelter, killing at least 16 of them.

It was the second time in a week that a UN school had been hit, hiking the death toll in Gaza from 23 days of bloodshed to around 1,300 and drawing a furious denunciation from the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

"I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces," said UNRWA commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl, saying the school's location had been communicated to the Israeli army 17 times.

"No words to adequately express my anger and indignation," he wrote on his official Twitter account, saying that 3,300 people had been sheltering there at the time.

"I call on the international community to take deliberate international political action to put an immediate end to the continuing carnage," he said.

Violence in Gaza claimed more than 70 lives on Wednesday, with the worst strike at the school in Jabaliya refugee camp.

UN figures show up to 240,000 people have fled their homes in a territory which is home to 1.7 million Palestinians, leaving one in seven people homeless.

Most have sought refuge in more than 80 UN schools, although the agency has twice reported finding rockets stashed two of its uninhabited schools.

Inside the school yard, several horses and donkeys lay dead in pools of blood as other terrified animals cowered nearby.

Facing onto the yard was a classroom whose wall had been completely destroyed.

Inside, two young men wearing Palestinian boy scout scarves were engaged in the grisly task of collecting body parts. With no gloves, their hands were completely stained with blood as the picked up chunks of flesh and put them into thin plastic bags.

"They're bombing houses, homes, schools — there's no protection," said Moin al-Athamna, one of those staying at the school, saying everyone had been sleeping when the first shell hit.

"They were all kids in there, young people," said Hisham al-Masri. "Why would they do this? Where can people go?"

An AFP correspondent said the army had been pounding the area with tank fire for an hour prior to the incident.

International efforts to broker an end to the bloody conflict have so far led nowhere, with current efforts focused on a top-level Palestinian delegation, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders, which was expected to visit Cairo in the coming days to discuss a new truce proposal. And the Israeli security cabinet was also locked in discussions over an Egyptian truce initiative, army radio said several hours after reporting that troops had made a "significant advance" into the narrow coastal enclave.

On Tuesday, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said it had garnered Hamas support for a 24-hour truce which would be discussed in Cairo.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had been in touch with exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Monday and Tuesday and had "proposed the 24-hour truce", senior official Nabil Shaath told AFP. "Meshaal and Hamas agreed."

But Hamas said it had not so far agreed to any new truce and was waiting for Israel to show its hand first.

"When we have an Israeli commitment ... on a humanitarian truce, we will look into it," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

And Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif released an audio statement saying there would be "no ceasefire without stopping the aggression and the end of the siege", referring to Israel's eight-year blockade on Gaza.

UN figures indicate that nearly three quarters of those killed were civilians and more than a fifth of them children.

At least seven children were killed during the morning, among them an 11-year-old disabled girl who died in a shelling in Gaza City, and a 16-year-old girl killed in a strike on central Gaza.

In Khan Yunis, an early strike killed nine members of one family, and several hours later, tank shelling killed seven members of another.

Yet another family of seven was killed in a strike on Tuffah in northeastern Gaza City, medics said.

The violence raised Wednesday's death toll to 67, with the overall number of people killed in Gaza now standing at more than 1,300.

On the Israeli side, the conflict has cost the lives of 53 soldiers, all of whom were killed since the ground operation began, as well as two civilians and a Thai worker who were killed by rocket fire.

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MH17 trial not likely at International Criminal Court: Report

AMSTERDAM: The Netherlands or Malaysia is likely to try those responsible for the downing in Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, not the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Dutch said on Wednesday.

Cases are only referred to the world's permanent war crimes court if countries involved are unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities, justice minister Ivo Opstelten wrote in a letter to parliament.

The Dutch are leading an international investigation into the crash and it is unlikely the nations involved "will not be able or willing to lead the investigation and prosecution," Opstelten wrote.

Pro-Russian separatists are widely believed to have used a surface-to-air missile to shoot down the plane on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the inquiry, this week, said that, it had received a large quantity of evidence from sources outside Ukraine and will not need access to the entire crash site, now inaccessible due to fighting.

The Netherlands, which had 195 nationals onboard the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, has universal jurisdiction for war crimes and can prosecute suspects in other countries.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) — the guardian of the Geneva Conventions setting down the rules of war — has made a confidential legal assessment that Ukraine is in a war, diplomats and officials said this month, opening the door to possible war crimes prosecutions, including over MH17.

Experts trying to recover remains of the victims in Ukraine were again unable to access the crash site on Wednesday due to clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the head of the Dutch mission said.

The world's legal capital, the Netherlands, is the home of several international courts, including the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. It also hosted the trial by British judges of two Libyan secret service agents over the 1988 bombing of Pam Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

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22 civilians reported killed in east Ukraine

KIEV: At least 22 civilians were killed on Tuesday by shelling in two conflict-stricken cities in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said.

The use of unguided rockets in fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels has been taking a noticeably heavier toll in recent weeks and been criticized by rights groups.

With turmoil raging across a wide swathe of the region, international investigators were again prevented Tuesday from visiting the site of the Malaysia Airlines jet shot down earlier this month.

City hall in Luhansk, which is controlled by separatist rebels, said Tuesday that five people were killed when an old people's home was struck by artillery fire. Russian television showed images of bodies in wheelchairs covered with blankets. 22 civilians reported killed in east Ukraine

Ukraine security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that rebels had blocked the railroad out of Luhansk, barring residents from leaving the city.

"If we were earlier able to organize additional trains to and from Luhansk, to Kiev, now they have completely blocked the railway line," Lysenko said.

Lysenko also accused separatist fighters of using children as human shields and stopping cars from leaving Luhansk. It was not immediately possible to confirm those claims.

In Horlivka, a city besieged by government troops, the mayor's office reported 17 people, including three children, dying as a result of shelling.

The mayor's office said there has been major damage to many homes and government offices in the center of the city. It also said the top floor of a school was destroyed as a result of direct hit from a shell.

Rebels accuse the government of indiscriminately using heavy artillery against residential neighborhoods in areas under their control.

A UN monitoring mission in Ukraine says there has been an alarming buildup of heavy weaponry in civilian areas of Donetsk and Luhansk — including artillery, tanks, rockets and missiles that are being used to inflict increasing casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.

The UN said in a report this week that use of such weaponry could amount to a violation of international humanitarian law.

"There is an increase in the use of heavy weaponry in areas that are basically surrounded by public buildings," said Gianni Magazzeni, head of the UN office's branch that oversees Ukraine. "All international law needs to be applied and fully respected."

Ukraine's government has stated that it has banned use of artillery in heavily resided areas and in turn accuses separatists of targeting civilians in an effort to discredit the army.

The overall death toll has been steadily rising. The UN has said that at least 1,129 people were killed between mid-April, when fighting began, and July 26.

Ukrainian troops have for several days encroached on the outskirts of Horlivka, which is just north of the regional center and the main rebel stronghold, Donetsk.

Heavy fighting has also spread to other areas in the region, including towns not far from the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Lysenko said on Tuesday that 10 soldiers were killed and another 55 wounded in fighting over the past day.

A team of Dutch and Australian police officers and forensic experts is currently stationed in Donetsk in the hope of traveling to the fields where the Boeing 777 came down.

For the third day running, the delegation has been forced to cancel plans to travel to the area of the wreckage.

There were also signs of the conflict spreading into Donetsk, which had so far only seen serious fighting only on its fringes.

A blast heard in the city center at lunchtime prompted members of the international police team sitting in their hotel restaurant to quickly seek shelter inside the building. It was not clear what caused the explosion.

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UK issues warning over potential Ebola outbreak

LONDON: Britain has issued a serious warning to British doctors to watch for signs of the Ebola virus arriving in the UK after an infected man was allowed to board multiple international flights.

Patrick Sawyer's death in Lagos, Nigeria has sparked fear in Britain that the deadly virus could soon travel and infect populations beyond West Africa.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening recently announced a new £2 million package of assistance to partners including the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Medecins Sans Frontieres that are operating in Sierra Leone and Liberia to tackle the outbreak.

Britain is now trying to establish whether any Briton or anyone who arrived in Britain recently sat near Sawyer or used the same toilet on one of the aircraft he took.

Sawyer flew from Liberia, stopped over in Ghana, took a transit flight in Togo and then died in Nigeria.

Experts are afraid that he must have passed on the deadly infection to anybody sitting next to him on any of those flights.

Dr Brian McCloskey, director of global health at Public Health England confirmed that UK is on red alert against anybody showing any symptoms of an Ebola infection.

The infection has already killed 90% of those it has infected and has no cure. Till now more than 670 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have died of it.

"It is the largest outbreak of this disease to date," Dr McCloskey said. "And it's clear the outbreak is not under control".

Dr McCloskey said the case of Sawyer is of serious concern and UK medical practitioners have been alerted and requested they remain vigilant for unexplained illness in those who have visited the affected area.

The World Health Organisation said it continues to monitor the evolution of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. It said the epidemic trend "remains precarious, with community and health-facility transmissions of infection still taking place".

Between 21 and 23 July 2014, 96 new cases and 7 deaths were reported from Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Guinea, 12 new cases and 5 deaths were reported during the same period. The surge in the number of new EVD cases in Guinea after weeks of low viral activity demonstrates that undetected chains of transmission existed in the community.

In addition, the Ministry of Health of Nigeria has reported the first probable case of EVD. According to the Nigeria authorities, the case is a 40-year-old Liberian male national who recently travelled to Nigeria where he presented in hospital with symptoms of EVD.

In an effort to accelerate the response to the current EVD outbreak in West Africa, the Director General of WHO held discussions with the donor community and development partners on July 24.

Meanwhile UK has confirmed it will provide medical support and supplies to contain the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

This latest funding will fill critical gaps in the front-line response by providing technical staff including epidemiologists, clinicians, information managers and logistics managers for six months, improve public understanding of the disease by increasing media messaging and direct engagement with communities, including women's groups, expand the investigation, tracing and treatment of new cases and provide safe and dignified burial to the deceased.

Justine Greening said "This Ebola outbreak poses a serious public health risk to West Africa. Britain is working with the countries affected and the international community to ensure that the outbreak is contained and help reaches those in need. This latest round of funding is in addition to support the UK has been providing since the outbreak of the disease in February 2014".

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German cops arrest teenager after synagogue attack

BERLIN: German police arrested an 18-year-old man after petrol bombs were thrown at a synagogue in the western town of Wuppertal overnight, they said in a statement on Wednesday.

"According to investigations, three suspects threw several incendiary devices at the entrance," police said. No one was hurt and it appears no damage was done to the synagogue, they said. A local resident had alerted them when she saw a fire close to the building.

Prosecutor Hans-Joachim Kiskel said the nationality of the arrested suspect was not clear but added that the man had told authorities he was Palestinian. The other two suspects fled.

The German government last week reassured Jews living in Germany that they should feel safe in the face of anti-Semitic chants and threats heard at some of the protests against Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, and said such behaviour would not be tolerated.

German media have expressed shock at the tenor of anti-Israel chants at some of the demonstrations, in a country which is ultra-sensitive about anti-Semitism because of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis.

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South Korean teens tell how they were left to escape ferry

ANSAN, South Korea: Six teenagers who survived South Korea's worst maritime disaster in 44 years told on Monday how classmates helped them float free as water flooded their cabins despite crew instructions to stay put even as their ferry sank, killing more than 300 people.

The teenagers, whose names were withheld to protect their privacy, were giving testimony at the trial of 15 crew members, who face charges ranging from homicide to negligence for abandoning the sinking ship.

"We were waiting and, when the water started coming in, the class rep told everyone to put on the life vests ... the door was above our heads, so she said we'll float and go through the door and that's how we came out," one of the teenagers said.

"Other kids who got out before us pulled us out."

The ferry Sewol sank on April 16, killing 304 people, as many as 250 of them school children on a field trip. Twelve of their teachers were also killed.

The ferry was on a routine trip from the port of Incheon south to Jeju island, carrying students and teachers from the Danwon High School on the outskirts of Seoul as well as other passengers and cargo.

Another of the teenagers told how crew members had told passengers, "specifically the students of Danwon High School", to stay in their cabins.

"Water started to fill in and friends helped us move out," the student said.

Others described how coast guard officers waited outside the stricken ferry for passengers to swim out rather than go into the ship to try and rescue them.

"They were outside. They pulled us (onto boats) but they didn't come inside to help," one said.

"We said to ourselves, 'why aren't they coming in?'."

"MORE FISHERMEN THAN RESCUERS"

Another student said it appeared there were more fishermen involved in the rescue than coast guard. Like others, she said the crew should be punished severely for their actions.

"More than that, I want to know the fundamental reason why my friends had to end up like that," she said.

The six teenage survivors described how there were repeated orders not to move from their cabins. Orders to put on their life vests came much later and without any information about what was happening to the ship as it began to list sharply.

They were the first of 75 children who survived due to give evidence in the trial at the Gwangju court, which has been moved to Ansan south of Seoul to accommodate the students.

Five of them gave their evidence facing away from the court. One testified from another room via closed-circuit television.

The crew members on trial, including the captain, Lee Joon-seok, have said they thought it was the coastguard's job to evacuate passengers. Video footage of their escape triggered outrage across South Korea.

Two musicians from the Philippines who had been working on the ship testified that the crew appeared to be in a state of panic as they gathered on the ship's bridge as it started to list, making no effort to get passengers off the vessel.

"I remember them panicked and worried," one of the pair, who was identified only by her first name, Alex, told the court.

She said the captain was crouched and holding onto a metal bar, apparently shaking with fear, and a junior ship's officer at the helm when the vessel started to list was crying loudly.

The government of President Park Geun-hye was heavily criticized over the slow and ineffective handling of the rescue operation. Park has vowed to break up the coast guard and streamline rescue operations, which are now split between the police, coast guard and others, into a single national agency.

The disaster also sparked South Korea's biggest manhunt as authorities searched for Yoo Byung-un, the man at the head of a family business that operated the doomed ferry.

Yoo's badly decomposed body was identified last week after it was found by a farmer at an orchard last month.

Earlier on Monday, a close associate of Yoo, a woman identified by police only by her last name of Kim, was arrested after handing herself in. It was believed she helped him elude police after the disaster.

Another woman, the wife of Yoo's driver who was thought to have been with him during his final days at large, also turned herself in to police.

Kim's arrest came three days after police stormed an apartment on the outskirts of Seoul and found Yoo's elder son, Dae-gyun, who was wanted for embezzlement.

Yoo Dae-gyun was not believed to have been as actively involved in management of the family business as his younger brother, who is believed to be in the United States. He said he only learned of his father's death from police.

Extensive decomposition of Yoo Byung-un's body meant it was not possible to determine the cause of his death despite forensic and DNA tests, authorities said last week.

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Huge oil depot blaze puts Libya's Tripoli under threat

TRIPOLI: Firefighters on Monday failed to extinguish a blaze at an oil depot on the outskirts of Tripoli, sparking fears of a huge fireball that could cause carnage over a wide area.

The authorities rushed to evacuate people from their homes in the area along the road to the airport, where rival militias have been fighting each other for the past two weeks.

The depot, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Libyan capital, caught fire on Sunday when it was hit by rockets fired by the combatants, who are jostling for control of the airport.

Containing six million litres of fuel, the plant was burning steadily and the authorities feared the blaze could spread to a natural gas reservoir in the same plant, run by state-owned National Oil Corp, where 90 million litres are stored.

"There is a risk of a massive explosion which could cause damage over a radius of three to five kilometres," spokesman Mohamed al-Hrari said.

"Firefighters have been trying for hours to put out the blaze but to no avail. Their water reserves finally ran out and they've had to leave."

He said the only option left was "intervention by air", as the government said several countries had offered to send fire-fighting aircraft in response to an appeal for international aid.

Fighting in the area has claimed the lives of 97 people and left more than 400 injured, according to the latest figures released by the health ministry.

On Monday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a huge pall of black smoke hung over the plant and explosions could be heard at regular intervals.

An AFP photographer said projectiles had fallen close to the plant.

While the oil burns, in Tripoli itself motorists are suffering a severe petrol shortage, as service stations have closed over fears for the safety of staff in the light of the fighting.

As the lawlessness spreads, several countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Egypt have all warned their citizens not to travel to Libya, while the United States evacuated its embassy over the weekend.

Other countries, among them the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Tuurkey have advised their nationals to leave the country immediately.

Italy and Malta have sent aircraft in the past few days to the Miitiga military airport to airlift their nationsls out of Libya.

The exodus of foreign workers will further hit the strife-torn country, while the health ministry warned of a shortage of medical staff after the Philippines announced it was withdrawing its citizens, including 3,000 doctors and other healthcare workers.

Armed assault on airport

The Tripoli clashes, the most violent since a 2011 armed revolt which overthrew longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, started with a July 13 assault on the airport by armed groups, mainly Islamists.

The attackers are battling to flush out fellow former rebels from the hill town of Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, who have controlled the airport for the past three years.

Washington evacuated its embassy staff on Saturday, with Secretary of State John Kerry warning the mission had faced a "real risk" from the fighting.

The spiralling violence which has also hit the eastern city of Benghazi, birthplace of the 2011 revolution, where fighting over the weekend between army special forces and Islamists killed 28 people, mostly soldiers, officials said.

The fighting erupted on Saturday when Islamist groups launched an assault on the headquarters of a special forces unit near the city centre.

Near-daily clashes take place in Benghazi, parts of which have become strongholds for Islamist groups since the fall of Kadhafi.

Libya, meanwhile, on Monday denied claims from Cairo that Egyptian nationals were among those killed in a rocket attack on a house in Tripoli at the weekend.

Egypt's foreign ministry had said a rocket hit a house in the capital on Saturday, killing 23 people, including several Egyptians.

But Libyan interior ministry spokesman Rami Kaal dismissed the claim. "News reported in the press about this incident is completely wrong," he said.

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Muslims mark sombre Eid amid MH17, Gaza conflict

KUALA LUMPUR: Muslims in Asia marked a grim Eid al-Fitr on Monday, overshadowed by several air tragedies, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, and conflicts in Gaza and Pakistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai in his message for Eid, the most important festival for Muslims marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, said the Islamic world was suffering.

"Hundreds of people are being killed every day in Islamic countries," he said, highlighting the plight of those in war-torn Gaza.

"The Afghan people are sad about the situation of people in Gaza Palestine, they are being killed ruthlessly day and night... we hope for peace, stability, development and happiness for them."

Festivities in Muslim-majority Malaysia were also muted, with government officials cancelling their usual hosting of Eid feasts for the public, following the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17.

Two other passenger planes,TransAsia Airways in Taiwan and Air Algerie in Mali, also crashed last week. The aviation disasters come after the mysterious, as yet unsolved March disappearance of another Malaysia Airlines jet, MH370.

In his Eid message telecast late on Sunday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak expressed his "extreme sadness, most profound sympathy and deepest condolences" to MH17 and MH370 victims' families, who struggle with their loss.

Diyana Yazeera, daughter of MH17 chief stewardess Dora Shahila Kassim, posted on Twitter late on Sunday that Eid, referring to it in the Malay language as Raya, would not be the same.

"Mummy, this year's raya and the upcoming ones, well will not be raya. Im not gonna celebrate it without you," she posted. "Stop asking me to be strong. Its so hard to do."

In neighbouring Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, instead of celebrating, the family of MH17 passenger Ninik Yuriani were preparing to fly to Amsterdam, where victims' remains have been brought for identification.

"What was supposed to be a happy feast turned to deep sadness," her sister Enny Nuraheni, 54, told AFP. "We can plan all we want, but everything is in God's hands."

Yuriani, 57, who lived in Amsterdam, had planned to fly to Jakarta and then to her small village in central Java to celebrate Eid with her family.

In Pakistan's northwestern town of Bannu, where most of those driven from their homes by a military operation against Taliban militants have fled, 3,000 people offered Eid prayers at a park.

Cricketer-turned-opposition leader Imran Khan visited the town to distribute sweets, saying on Twitter that he was "determined" to be with those driven from their homes.

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85 Syria troops killed in jihadist takeover

BEIRUT: At least 85 Syrian soldiers were killed, some of them beheaded, as the jihadist Islamic State took over a base in the northern province of Raqa, a monitoring group said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fate of around 200 other soldiers remained unknown, as the IS assault forced the army to pull back late on Friday.

The division 17 base in Raqa has fallen but the jihadists have not yet moved into all its buildings "for fear of air strikes", said the Britain-based group's director, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The IS lost at least 28 jihadist fighters, he said. The Observatory said more than 50 troops were summarily executed, 19 more were killed in a double suicide attack and at least 16 others had died in the IS assault launched early Thursday.

"Hundreds of troops surviving withdrew on Friday to safe places — either to nearby villages whose residents oppose IS or to nearby Brigade 93 — but the fate of some 200 remains unknown," said Abdel Rahman.

"Some of the executed troops were beheaded, and their bodies and severed heads put on display in Raqa city," stronghold of the feared IS, he said.

Nearly all of Raqa province is now under IS control, except for Brigade 93 and Tabaqa military airport, still held by the army.

An activist in Raqa, Abu Ibrahim, said on Facebook that three army helicopters were being used to transport the surviving troops out of Brigade 93.

Video shot by jihadists and distributed on YouTube, meanwhile, showed IS fighters apparently inside Division 17 living quarters burning a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad.

One jihadist behind the camera shows bottles of alcohol and stashes of cigarettes.

Elsewhere, the IS killed at least 30 troops and pro-regime paramilitary in an overnight ambush in the northern province of Aleppo, the Observatory said.

The flareups come less than two weeks after the IS killed 270 security guards, employees and members of the paramilitary National Defence Forces during an assault on a gas field in Homs, central Syria.

On Friday, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said IS fighters accused of atrocities were expected to be added to a UN list of possible war crime indictees.

Some Western-backed rebels seeking Assad's ouster initially welcomed IS as a potential ally. But the extremist group's abuses and quest for domination has turned the opposition against it.

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US evacuates embassy in Libya amid clashes

WASHINGTON: The United States shut down its embassy in Libya on Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under US military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said.

"Due to the ongoing violence resulting from clashes between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the US Embassy in Tripoli, we have temporarily relocated all of our personnel out of Libya," spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

The withdrawal underscored the Obama administration's concern about the heightened risk to American diplomats abroad, particularly in Libya where memories of the deadly 2012 attack on the US mission in the eastern city of Benghazi are still vivid and the political uproar over it remain fresh ahead of a new congressional investigation into the incident.

"Securing our facilities and ensuring the safety of our personnel are top department priorities, and we did not make this decision lightly," Harf said. "Security has to come first. Regrettably, we had to take this step because the location of our embassy is in very close proximity to intense fighting and ongoing violence between armed Libyan factions."

The evacuation was accompanied by the release of a new State Department travel warning for Libya urging Americans not to go to the country and recommending that those already there leave immediately. "The Libyan government has not been able to adequately build its military and police forces and improve security," it said. "Many military-grade weapons remain in the hands of private individuals, including antiaircraft weapons that may be used against civilian aviation."

American personnel at the Tripoli embassy, which had already been operating with limited staffing, left the capital around dawn and traveled by road to neighboring Tunisia, according to Harf. As the evacuation was underway, residents of the city reported in real time on social media that American military aircraft flew overhead while US soldiers escorted a convoy of vehicles out of town. The State Department would not confirm the evacuation until all staffers were safely in Tunisia.

The department said embassy operations will be suspended until a determination is made that the security situation has improved, it said. Tripoli has been embroiled for weeks in inter-militia violence that has killed and wounded dozens on all sides. The fighting has been particularly intense at the city's airport.

"We are committed to supporting the Libyan people during this challenging time, and are currently exploring options for a permanent return to Tripoli as soon as the security situation on the ground improves. In the interim, staff will operate from Washington and other posts in the region," Harf said. The evacuated staffers will continue to work on Libya issues in Tunis, elsewhere in North Africa and Washington.

The move marks the second time in a little more than three years that Washington has closed its embassy in Libya. In Feb 2011, the embassy suspended operations amid the uprising that eventually toppled longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. After the formation of a transitional government in July, 2011, the embassy reopened in September. Gadhafi was killed in October of 2011.

The Obama administration has been particularly sensitive about security of US government employees in Libya since the Sept 11, 2012, attack on the US mission in the country's second largest city of Benghazi that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The administration is still fending off criticism from Republicans and others that it did not either enhance security in Benghazi or evacuate the mission due to rising violence in that city in the months prior to the attack.

The Benghazi mission was abandoned after that attack and never reopened. The embassy In Tripoli has been operating with reduced staff since but has remained open even as the violence intensified.

On Friday, US Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones appealed for fighting near the embassy to stop. "We have not been attacked but our neighborhood a bit 2 close to the action," she tweeted. "Diplomatic missions 2 B avoided pls." On Sunday, Jones tweeted about "heavy shelling and other exchanges" of fire in the vicinity of the embassy and speculation about the potential evacuation had been rife at the State Department for more than a week.

Libya is now witnessing one of its worst spasms of violence since Gadhafi's ouster. In Tripoli, the militias are fighting mostly for control of the airport. They are on the government's payroll since authorities have depended on them to restore order.

The US is just latest in a number of countries to have closed down their diplomatic operations in Libya. Turkey on Friday announced that it had closed down its embassy and militia clashes in Benghazi have prompted the United Nations, aid groups and foreign envoys to leave.

In Tripoli, clashes near the international airport have forced residents to evacuate their homes nearby after they were hit by shells. On Friday, the official Libyan news agency LANA reported that explosions were heard early in the day near the airport area and continued into the afternoon.

The battle in Tripoli began earlier this month when Islamist-led militias — mostly from the western city of Misrata — launched a surprise assault on the airport, under control of rival militias from the western mountain town of Zintan. On Monday, a $113 million Airbus A330 passenger jet for Libya's state-owned Afriqiyah Airways was destroyed in the fighting.

The rival militias, made up largely of former anti-Gadhafi rebels, have forced a weeklong closure of gas stations and government offices. In recent days, armed men have attacked vehicles carrying money from the Central Bank to local banks, forcing their closure.

Libyan government officials and activists have increasingly been targeted in the violence. Gunmen kidnapped two lawmakers in the western suburbs of Tripoli a week ago and on Friday armed men abducted Abdel-Moaz Banoun, a well-known Libyan political activist in Tripoli, according to his father.

An umbrella group for Islamist militias, called the Operation Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, said in a brief statement on its Facebook page on Friday that "troops arrested Abdel-Moaz over allegations that he served under Gadhafi" and "instigated rallies against" the Islamists.

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Malaysian prime minister to travel to Netherlands

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will travel to the Netherlands on Wednesday to discuss the downed Malaysia Airlines jet with his Dutch counterpart.

Najib said in a statement on Saturday that he and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will discuss securing full access to the crash site and whether Malaysian pathologists can be of assistance in "expediting the process of identifying the human remains."

There were 193 Dutch and 43 Malaysians on Flight 17 when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board.

The plane crashed in territory controlled by pro-Russia rebels, who have been blamed by many in the international community for shooting it down.

Najib reached an agreement with rebel leader Alexander Borodai on Monday to secure the handing over of the plane's black boxes and the remains of the victims, as well as to ensure safe access to the crash site.

"The first two conditions have been met," Najib said. "My priority now is to ensure the third part of the deal is honoured, and that international investigators are given full and secure access to the site. This will require the cooperation of those in control of the crash site and the Ukrainian armed forces."

A team of three Malaysian investigators has visited the crash site three times so far, according to the statement.

Joined by three Dutch investigators and one from the International Civil Aviation Organization, they managed to observe some of the crash site, and take notes and photographs. "However, given its large size, they have been unable to visit the entire crash site," the statement said.

The Malaysian team believes at least more 30 investigators are needed to cover the entire site. "Unfortunately, events on the ground, including ongoing fighting between Ukrainian and separatist forces, prevent such a large contingent of investigators being deployed," the statement said.

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Gaza death toll tops 800

GAZA CITY (Palestinian Territories): Israeli fire on Friday pushed the Palestinian death toll in Gaza to above 800, as Washington pressed Israel and Hamas to agree to a weeklong humanitarian ceasefire and thrash out a durable truce.

In the West Bank, Palestinian factions declared a "Day of Rage" after a night of clashes over Israel's Gaza offensive, with one Palestinian killed.

Among those killed in an air strike on Gaza on Friday were two women, one of them pregnant, adding to a spiralling toll of Palestinian civilian casualties from Israel's military operation, now in its 18th day, aimed at halting militant rocket fire.

An incident on Thursday, in which Israeli shelling of a UN facility sheltering displaced Gazans killed at least 15 civilians, has drawn widespread international condemnation.

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said he was "appalled" at the shelling which "underscores the imperative for the killing to stop — and to stop now".

Washington said it was "deeply saddened and concerned about the tragic incident", without explicitly blaming its ally Israel.

Amid intense international pressure on both sides to ceasefire, Israel's security cabinet was to meet on Friday to discuss a truce proposal passed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by US secretary of state John Kerry, media reported.

It proposes a weeklong humanitarian ceasefire that would allow Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza, to save face after having rejected an Egyptian initiative last week that proposed a lasting truce first and negotiations later.

According to Western and Palestinian officials, once a humanitarian lull takes hold, delegations from Israel and Hamas would arrive in Cairo — which has mediated past conflicts between the two — for indirect talks that could lead to a lasting truce.

"The way it's going is there will be a humanitarian truce declared for seven days, and then everyone comes to Cairo for the talks," said an official with president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Kerry on Thursday reached out to Hamas allies Turkey and Qatar and was joined in Cairo by UN chief Ban and British foreign secretary Philip Hammond to push forward the plan, diplomats said.

Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, however, told the BBC in an interview on Thursday that any truce must include a guaranteed end to Israel's eight-year blockade of Gaza.

"We want a ceasefire as soon as possible, that's parallel with the lifting of the siege of Gaza," he said.

The latest truce efforts came on the last the Friday of Ramzan, as Israeli braced for West Bank and east Jerusalem unrest after Palestinian factions declared a "Day of Rage" in the West Bank and Israeli police restricted entry to the Al Aqsa compound to men aged 50 and above.

One Palestinian was killed and 150 injured in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank, Palestinian medics said, with Israeli police arresting 29 in east Jerusalem.

In Gaza, an Israeli air strike on Khan Yunis killed Salah Hasanein, a local leader for Islamic Jihad, and his nephew, security sources said.

Attacks on a house in the southern Gaza town of Deir el-Balah killed a woman of 26 and another aged 23 who was pregnant, Palestinian emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Two other people wounded earlier in shelling of Khan Yunis died of their wounds, Qudra said, bringing the number of Gazans killed in the Israeli campaign to 807.

Thursday's strike hit a UN school sheltering some of the 100,000 Palestinians driven from their homes after weeks of deadly fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

The shell hit a courtyard where people were camped, killing least 15 people and wounding more than 200.

"Many have been killed — including women and children, as well as UN staff," Ban said.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that before the strike it had been trying to coordinate with the army to evacuate civilians, without success.

Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner suggested rocket-firing militants near the school could have caused the deaths.

He also disputed the claim that Israel had rejected a humanitarian truce around the school, saying it had implemented a fourhour window for evacuations.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has said more than 80 per cent of the casualties so far have been civilians, a quarter of them children, triggering growing international alarm.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos expressed deep concern over the mounting civilian casualties, saying it was "almost impossible" for Palestinians to shelter from Israeli air strikes in the densely populated territory.

A military spokeswoman told AFP that militants had fired two rockets at southern Israel early Friday, bringing the number of rockets and mortar rounds from Gaza that hit Israel since July 8 to 1,850, with another 470 intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system.

Thirty-two Israeli soldiers have been killed, and Hamas rocket attacks have killed two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker.

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Australia to ship Tamil asylum seekers to mainland

SYDNEY: Australia will transfer 157 Tamil asylum seekers it has been holding at sea for nearly a month to a mainland detention centre, the immigration minister said on Friday, in an apparent setback for the government's policies.

Australia has provided little information about the asylum seekers, detained by customs after setting sail from India. Their case was due to be heard by the high court next month.

Immigration minister Scott Morrison struck a combative tone, refusing to answer questions about the condition of the asylum seekers or the potential impact the move could have on policy.

He insisted, however, that the government was not backing down from a regime that he says prevented thousands of boat arrivals per month the country experienced during much of 2013 and the resultant spike in deaths at sea.

"They will not be resettled in Australia. That is the policy of the Australian government and there is no change to our policy on any front and more importantly there is no change to our resolve," he said.

Australia uses offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru to process would-be refugees trying to reach the country, often in unsafe boats after paying people smugglers in Indonesia.

A government source who spoke under the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter said that this group of asylum seekers would be transferred to the remote Curtin Detention Centre in outback Western Australia.

Under a tough policy brought in by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party, no one attempting to arrive in Australia by boat to claim asylum can ever be settled in the country, regardless of the final status they get.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the opposition Greens Party blasted Morrison over the announcement, dismissed the move in a statement as "illegal" and a "debacle".

"The immigration minister is a spectacular failure by his own measure, as well as the measure of the international community and decent, caring Australians," she said.

Deal with India

Morrison said a deal had been reached with India during a visit there this week to grant consular access detention centre with the goal of identifying Indian nationals who could then be returned to their home country.

"The minister for home affairs has confirmed to the Australian government that in addition to India's standing policy of receiving returns of any Indian citizens, he indicated to me at our meeting that they will also consider the return of those who may be Sri Lankan nationals," Morrison said.

Amnesty International, among several human rights groups to criticize the decision, denounced the move as "completely unacceptable" as no one would have a claim for asylum assessed and Indian residents would be sent back.

"This doesn't remove the risk of the asylum seekers being returned to Sri Lanka, where they may face a risk of persecution or even death," spokesman Graeme McGregor said in a statement.

Abbott's government has boasted of its success in deterring asylum seekers from taking the journey, issuing updates on how long it has been since the last boat arrival in Australia.

About 16,000 asylum seekers came on 220 boats to Australia in the first seven months of last year, but the government says there have been no illegal boat arrivals since December 2013.

But the policies have been facing growing international scrutiny from rights groups, The New York Times editorial board and the United Nations, as well as legal challenges in Australia's courts.

Another 41 Sri Lankan asylum seekers picked up from a separate boat were handed to Sri Lanka in a secret operation last month, igniting fresh criticism from rights groups.

That led the UN high commissioner for refugees to express "profound concern" about the policy, which it said might place Australia in violation of international laws barring the return of a person to a country where he or she had a well-founded fear of persecution.

It was not immediately clear if their case would still proceed to the high court for a hearing scheduled for next week.

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Hamas says it fired three rockets at Israel airport

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said Friday it fired three rockets at Tel Aviv airport, a day after US and some European airlines had resumed flights after a two-day suspension.

"At 11:45 am (0845 GMT), the Qassam Brigades bombarded Ben Gurion airport with three M75 rockets," a statement from Hamas's armed wing said.

READ ALSO: Why does war keep breaking out in Gaza?

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed rocket fire from Gaza, though she declined to specify how close it had come to Ben Gurion.

"We can confirm two rockets were shot down over metropolitan Tel Aviv," she told AFP.

EU and US authorities had ordered all commercial flights suspended after a rocket struck near runways on Tuesday, effectively shutting Israeli air links to the outside world in what Hamas claimed as a "victory" in a deadly conflict now in its 18th day.

On Thursday, US, Russian and some European carriers resumed flights to Israel after the two-day freeze, with the US Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency lifting the recommendations that flights avoid the airport.

The FAA warned however that the situation remained "very fluid," and some carriers continued to suspend their flights into Friday morning.

Palestinian children take refuge at a United Nations school in the northern Gaza Strip (Reuters Photo)

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US calls for truce in Gaza as toll rises to 657

GAZA CITY, (Gaza Strip): Israeli troops battled Hamas militants on Wednesday near a southern Gaza Strip town as the US secretary of state reported progress in efforts to broker a truce in the conflict that has so far killed at least 657 Palestinians and 31 Israelis.

Trapped by an escalation of fighting in Khan Younis, a town on the edge of the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinian families scrambled to flee the area.

John Kerry flew into Tel Aviv despite a Federal Aviation Administration ban following a Hamas rocket that hit near the airport the day before, reflecting his determination to achieve a cease-fire agreement between the warring sides.

Kerry was to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem and Ramallah in what appeared to be a crucial day in the flailing talks. US officials have downplayed expectations for an immediate, lasting truce between Israel and the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza.

In Jerusalem, Kerry said negotiations toward a Gaza cease-fire agreement were making some progress after days of a deadly impasse between Israel and Hamas militants. He was not specific in describing what he called steps forward in the negotiations as he met for a second time this week with United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.

"We certainly have made steps forward," Kerry said, adding, "There's still work to be done."

Meanwhile, a foreign worker in Israel was killed when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. She did not immediately know the worker's nationality.

Israel also reported that two more of its soldiers have died in the conflict, bringing the military's death toll to 29, but did not elaborate on the circumstances of the latest casualties. Two Israeli civilians have also died in the 15-day fighting

A Palestinian health official said eight Hamas fighters died in the ferocious battle near Khan Younis, from where the Palestinian Red Crescent was trying to evacuate about 250. Khan Younis has been under Israeli tank shelling and drone strikes since early Wednesday.

The Red Crescent said Hamas fighters in the area were deploying rocket propelled grenades and light weapons, including machine guns, against the Israelis.

Hundreds of residents of eastern Khan Younis were seen fleeing their homes as the battle unfolded, flooding into the streets with what few belongings they could carry, many with children in tow. They said they were seeking shelter in nearby UN schools.

"The airplanes and airstrikes are all around us," said Aziza Msabah, a resident of Khan Younis. "They are hitting the houses, which are collapsing upon us."

The Israeli military did not respond to Associated Press inquiries as to why such heavy fighting was concentrated in Khan Younis, saying only it was conducting operations throughout the Gaza Strip. The fighting was centered on an agricultural area, which Israel has claimed is a site for Hamas tunnels going under the border into Israel.

The Palestinians say Israel is randomly deploying a wide array of modern weaponry against Gaza's 1.7 million people, inflicting a heavy civilian death toll and destroying large amounts of property there. By mid-day Wednesday, the Palestinian death toll stood at 657, according to Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra, most of them civilians.

Israel says it began the Gaza operation to halt Hamas rocket fire into Israel — more than 2,100 have been fired since the conflict erupted — and to destroy a network of tunnels leading from Gaza to Israel that are intended to allow Hamas militants to carry out attacks against Israelis.

As the Gaza death toll mounted, a 34-year-old Palestinian man was killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers near the West Bank City of Bethlehem, a potentially ominous development in an area that has so far been relatively free of violence, despite the Gaza fighting.

Mahmoud Hamamreh was killed in stone throwing clashes in the village of Husan early Wednesday, doctors said.

On Tuesday, US and European airlines quickly canceled flights to Israel after a Hamas rocket hit near the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, dealing a blow to Israel's lucrative tourist industry.

The conflict is also starting to strain the Israeli economy. Military and finance ministry officials have said that the first 10 days of the operation had direct costs of about 2 billion shekels — about $585 million.

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3 Pak nationals arrested with fake Indian currency

BANGKOK: Three Pakistani nationals, including head of one of the largest Bangkok-based fake Indian currency syndicate, have been arrested with counterfeit notes with a face value of Rs 100,000 outside the Pakistan embassy here.

"We arrested three Pakistanis with fake Indian money of Rs 100,000 in 1000 rupee notes denomination in a trap set up by the police," Tawatchai Narinrat, investigator in the immigration department, told.

The three were nabbed last night when they were coming out of the Pakistan Embassy after apparently exchanging the fake currency for 12,000 baht (Rs 24,000).

Among the arrested was Mohammad Sajjad Noor alias Multan, who is reportedly the head of one of the largest Bangkok-based fake Indian currency notes syndicate.

The other two were identified as Noor Sahid and Ali Mohammad Hafiz.

This is the third seizure of fake Indian currency by the Thai police in recent months.

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26/11 trial in Pak adjourned for 7th time in a row

LAHORE: For the seventh time in a row, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court trying the seven accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks case adjourned the hearing on Wednesday till September 3 as the judge has gone on a summer vacation.

The court office notified that ATC Rawalpindi Judge Attiquer Rehman has gone on a summer vacation.

The last hearing in the case and the one on June 25 could not be held because the judge was on leave.

The case proceedings have not been held on a regular basis following the absence of the prosecution lawyers.

In the May 28, June 4, June 18 and July 2 hearings, the prosecution lawyers had not appeared in the ATC Rawalpindi primarily owing to security concerns.

The prosecution lawyers had drawn the court's attention to ensure their security in the face of threats they received allegedly from Jamaat-ud-Dawah activists.

Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in India's financial capital that killed 166 people in November, 2008.

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'I no longer talk to Obama': Turkey's Erdogan

ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped talking to US President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and the Gaza conflict.

Turkey, a fierce opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an open supporter of armed rebel fighters, felt betrayed when the United States backed away from military action against Damascus in September.

"In the past, I was calling him (Obama) directly. Because I can't get the expected results on Syria, our foreign ministers are now talking to each other," Erdogan said in a live interview on pro-government ATV channel late Monday.

"And I have talked to (US vice-president Joe) Biden. He calls me and I call him.

"I expect justice in this process. I couldn't imagine something like this from those who are championing justice," Erdogan added without elaborating, in an apparent jibe at Washington.

US President Barack Obama (R) and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey speak to the media at the White House on May 16, 2013 in Washington.

The last phone conversation between the two leaders took place on February 20 after which the White House released a statement accusing Erdogan of misrepresenting the content of the conversation.

A staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause, Erdogan has recently been at loggerheads with Washington over Israel's offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip that has killed more than 580 Palestinians in two weeks.

Erdogan accused the Jewish state of carrying out "state terrorism" and a "genocide" of Palestinians and criticized the United States for defending Israel's "disproportionate" tactics.

The US State Department branded his comments on Israel "offensive and wrong" but the prime minister hit back by saying the United States needed to engage in "self-criticism".

Erdogan is standing in August 10 presidential elections that he is expected to win, with analysts awaiting a more assertive foreign policy from Ankara if he becomes head of state.

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'I no longer talk to Obama': Turkey's Erdogan

ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped talking to US President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and the Gaza conflict.

Turkey, a fierce opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an open supporter of armed rebel fighters, felt betrayed when the United States backed away from military action against Damascus in September.

"In the past, I was calling him (Obama) directly. Because I can't get the expected results on Syria, our foreign ministers are now talking to each other," Erdogan said in a live interview on pro-government ATV channel late Monday.

"And I have talked to (US vice-president Joe) Biden. He calls me and I call him.

"I expect justice in this process. I couldn't imagine something like this from those who are championing justice," Erdogan added without elaborating, in an apparent jibe at Washington.

US President Barack Obama (R) and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey speak to the media at the White House on May 16, 2013 in Washington.

The last phone conversation between the two leaders took place on February 20 after which the White House released a statement accusing Erdogan of misrepresenting the content of the conversation.

A staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause, Erdogan has recently been at loggerheads with Washington over Israel's offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip that has killed more than 580 Palestinians in two weeks.

Erdogan accused the Jewish state of carrying out "state terrorism" and a "genocide" of Palestinians and criticized the United States for defending Israel's "disproportionate" tactics.

The US State Department branded his comments on Israel "offensive and wrong" but the prime minister hit back by saying the United States needed to engage in "self-criticism".

Erdogan is standing in August 10 presidential elections that he is expected to win, with analysts awaiting a more assertive foreign policy from Ankara if he becomes head of state.

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Cameron calls on Europe to impose 'hard-hitting sanctions' on Russia

LONDON: In what is the sternest statement since the Malaysia Airlines disaster, British Prime Minister David Cameron has called on Europe to impose "hard-hitting sanctions" on Russia which should include restrictions on Russian banks and airlines and asset freezes on the "oligarchs and cronies" who support Vladimir Putin.

Britain has called for a blanket ban on arms sales to Russia with Cameron invoking the spectre of the Second World War and compared Russia's aggression to that of Nazi Germany.

Cameron also expressed his serious frustration at European Union countries, including France and Germany for failing to back his calls for the toughest possible sanctions against Moscow.

Referring to Putin's "bluster and obfuscation", Cameron has told parliament that if he does not change his approach to Ukraine in this then Europe and the West must fundamentally change our approach to Russia. "Those of us in Europe should not need to be reminded of the consequences of turning a blind eye when big countries bully smaller countries." he said.

Cameron said there is evidence that Russia has been providing training to separatist fighters at a facility in South West Russia, including training on air defence systems. Seconds before flight MH17 dropped out of contact, a surface-to-air missile launch was detected from a separatist-controlled area in south-eastern Ukraine. According to expert analysis, an SA-11 is the most likely missile type.

"In an intercepted conversation, a known separatist leader was overheard claiming that a separatist faction had downed an aircraft. There is no evidence that Ukrainian forces have fired a single surface to air missile during the conflict and no Ukrainian air defence systems appear to have been within range of the crash. By contrast pro-Russian separatist fighters have downed more than a dozen Ukrainian aircraft over the past few months, including two transport aircraft. The picture is becoming clearer and the weight of evidence is pointing in one direction: MH17 was shot down by a SA-11 missile fired by separatists," Cameron added.

Cameron also warned that with the world watching, President Putin faces a clear choice in how he decides to respond to this appalling tragedy.

"I hope that he will use this moment to find a path out of this festering and dangerous crisis by ending Russia's support for the separatists. But if he does not change his approach to Ukraine in this way then Europe and the West must fundamentally change our approach to Russia. Those of us in Europe should not need to be reminded of the consequences of turning a blind eye when big countries bully smaller countries. We should not shrink from standing up for the principles that govern conduct between independent nations in Europe, and which ultimately keep the peace on our continent."

"For too long there has been reluctance on the part of too many European countries to face up to the implications of what is happening in Eastern Ukraine. It is time to make our power, influence and resources felt. And if Russia does not change course, then we must be clear that Europe must keep increasing pressure," Cameron said.

Cameron however clarified that "no one is saying that President Putin intended flight MH17 to be shot down. It is unlikely that even the separatists wanted this to happen. But we should be absolutely clear about what caused this terrible tragedy to happen. The context for this tragedy is Russia's attempt to destabilise a sovereign state, violate its territorial integrity and arm and train thuggish militias."

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Iran complying with nuclear deal: UN watchdog

VIENNA: Iran has diluted its entire stock of medium-enriched uranium as required under a November deal with world powers, the UN atomic agency said in its latest report seen by AFP on Monday.

Even as talks to reach a nuclear deal with Iran were extended beyond an initial July 20 deadline, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tehran was standing by its international commitments.

As agreed under a so-called Joint Plan of Action reached in November, the Islamic Republic has cut half of its stock of 20-percent enriched uranium down to five-percent purity.

The rest was being converted into uranium oxide.

Tehran also refrained from enriching above the five-percent level at any of its nuclear facilities, the IAEA report said.

Iran and world powers have been trying to reach a crucial nuclear deal to alleviate international fears that Tehran is seeking a nuclear weapon.

Early Saturday, they agreed to give themselves four more months after marathon talks in Vienna.

Iran has, however, always insisted its nuclear programme was solely for peaceful purposes.

Uranium must be enriched to 90 percent to make an atomic bomb but 20-percent purity levels are just a short step from producing weapons-grade material.

Under the November interim deal, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany agreed that Tehran would freeze certain nuclear activities for six months in return for some sanctions relief.

The West's goal is to expand the time needed for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, giving the world ample warning of any such "breakout" push.

Talks were due to resume in the coming weeks, with November 24 as the new deadline for a lasting deal, diplomats said in Vienna.

Lead negotiator and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton spoke of "tangible progress" in the talks so far but noted that "significant gaps on some core issues" remained.

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Suicide bombing kills 2 in south Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan: An Afghan official said that a suicide bomber targeted a police convoy in the southern province of Helmand, killing two people, a policeman and a civilian.

Omar Zwak, the spokesman for the provincial governor, says the attack took place on Monday morning in Lashkar Gah, the province's capital.

Zwak also says the explosion wounded 15 people — eight policemen and seven civilians. He says the police convoy was en route to the district of Sangin for an operation there.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which comes amid a Taliban spring offensive that is seeking to undermine the Western-backed government in Kabul.

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Prince George starts walking ahead of first birthday

LONDON: Prince George shows he has got the hang of walking in a new picture released by his parents Prince William and Kate to mark the future king's first birthday on Tuesday.

The little boy, wearing striped dungaree shorts over a navy blue top, is pictured confidently on his feet with his arms outstretched and his eyes fixed on his destination.

The photograph was taken a few weeks ago at London's Natural History Museum, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took their son to visit the sensational butterflies outdoor exhibition.

"Prince George was very lively and very sure of himself and confident — a very determined young boy," said John Stillwell, a photographer with the Press Association wire service who took the picture.

"When you have children yourself you don't realise they grow up in such a short space of time — it's always other people saying how big they've grown. So having seen him soon after he was born and at his christening three months later, he's now gone from a baby at his christening to a toddler, that's the biggest change. And who does he look like? I'd have to say his dad, William."

George has become something of a style icon and his outfit of dungarees by French label Petit Bateau, worn over a polo shirt-style top and with shoes and socks, is likely to be copied around the world.

(Picture courtesy: Getty Images)

George, who is third in line to the throne after his grandfather Prince Charles and father Prince William, will spend his birthday at home in Kensington Palace.

"The family are going to be marking it privately with close family and friends at Kensington Palace," a spokeswoman said.

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Arab League calls Israeli attack in Gaza 'war crime'

CAIRO: The Arab League described Israeli attacks on Gaza that have killed at least 60 Palestinians on Sunday as a "war crime".

Nabil el-Araby, the head of the Cairo-based Arab League, considers Israeli shelling and ground attacks in Shejaia in northeast Gaza a "war crime" against Palestinian civilians which Israel is responsible for, according to statement issued on Sunday.

Palestinian witnesses and officials said at least 62 Palestinians were killed in shelling of the Gaza neighbourhood that left bodies strewn in the streets and thousands fleeing for shelter.

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Islamists mount 'heaviest' assault on Libya airport

TRIPOLI: Islamist militia launched their heaviest assault so far on Libya's main airport on Sunday, two days after a truce with the rival ex-rebels that control it collapsed, a security official said.

"The airport was attacked this morning with mortar rounds, rockets and tank fire. It was the most intense bombardment so far," airport security official Al-Jilani Al-Dahesh said.

Islamist militia first attacked the airport last Sunday, forcing a halt to all flights.

Their continued offensive has caused extensive damage to planes and airport infrastructure that aviation officials say will keep it closed for months.

Pictures posted on social media showed a Libyan Airlines plane on fire as plumes of smoke billowed over the airport.

Dahesh said the militia who control the airport, based in the hill town of Zintan southwest of the capital and derided by their opponents as the armed wing of liberals within the government, had responded with heavy fire.

He had no immediate word on any casualties. Residents of the Qasr Bin Gheshir district close to the airport spoke of heavy exchanges with both sides deploying tanks.

The Islamists have been reinforced by other militia from Libya's third city Misrata, one of the key battlefields of the Nato-backed uprising of 2011 that toppled and killed veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

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Airstrikes kill 28 in Pak's North Waziristan

BANNU: Pakistan's military Sunday bombed six militant boltholes in a lawless tribal district, killing at least 28 insurgents, officials said.

The airstrikes targeted Shawal village in the troubled North Waziristan region, where militants fleeing a military offensive in other parts of the district had taken refuge.

"At least 28 local and foreign terrorists were killed in today's airstrikes and their six hideouts were destroyed," a senior military official told AFP.

Local security officials confirmed the account, but it was not possible to independently verify the casualties as the offensive is ongoing and media are banned from the area.

Pakistani jets and artillery began hitting rebel targets in North Waziristan in mid-June to try to regain full control of the district and ground forces moved in on June 30.

The assault by Pakistan's military was launched after a dramatic attack by militants on Karachi airport which killed dozens of people and marked the end of a faltering peace process with the Pakistani Taliban.

More than 400 militants and 25 soldiers have been killed in the assault so far, according to the military.

There have been fears that many top militants also fled, including fighters from the feared Haqqani network which is blamed for numerous bloody attacks in Afghanistan.

More than 800,000 people have been forced to flee from North Waziristan by the assault, with most ending up in the nearby town of Bannu.

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Bombings kill at least 24 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: A series of bombings, including three over a span of less than 10 minutes, killed at least 24 people across Baghdad on Saturday, shaking the fragile sense of security the capital has maintained despite the Sunni militant offensive raging across northern and western Iraq.

The attacks are among the most significant in Baghdad since insurgents led by the Islamic State extremist group captured Iraq's second-largest city Mosul last month at the start of its blitz across Iraq. After Mosul's fall, the government moved aggressively to try to secure Baghdad amid fears it might fall as well, and the city has seen few major attacks in recent weeks.

Saturday's deadliest bombing took place in the Shiite neighborhood of Abu Dashir, where a suicide attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a checkpoint, killing at least nine people and wounding 19, officials said. Four policemen were among the dead, a police officer said.

Later in the day, three car bombs in different neighborhoods of Baghdad went off in less than 10 minutes, hitting the districts of Bayaa, Jihad and Khazimiyah. The attacks killed at least 15 people and wounded another 42, police officials said.

Hospital officials in Baghdad confirmed the casualty figures in all four attacks.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

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Typhoon Rammasun kills eight in China

BEIJING: The strongest storm to hit southern China in more than 40 years has killed at least eight people there, state media said Saturday, after causing devastation in the Philippines.

Rammasun first made landfall in China on Friday afternoon as a super typhoon, packing winds exceeding 200 kilometres (124 miles) an hour and leaving five dead and 99 injured in Hainan province, Xinhua reported.

Rammasun, meaning "Thunder God" in Thai, then lashed Guangdong province and the neighbouring Guangxi region where three people died, the official news agency added.

The storm had earlier sliced through the Philippines, killing 77 people at the latest count and wrecking more than 111,000 homes.

Rammasun was the most powerful storm to strike China's southern areas since 1973, the country's National Meteorological Center (NMC) said, and brought torrential rains.

The NMC had issued its highest "red alert" for the typhoon, the first such declaration this year. More than 70,000 people evacuated their homes.

Television pictures showed roads littered with debris including uprooted trees and rooftops while dozens of flights and rail links were suspended.

Rammasun was downgraded from a super typhoon to a severe typhoon on Saturday, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

seb/pdh

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Pakistan economy improved despite terrorism

KARACHI: Despite problems of terrorism and energy crisis, the economic outlook of Pakistan improved last fiscal with inflation remaining in single digit and foreign remittances showing a rise, the State Bank of Pakistan said today. Pakistan follows a financial year beginning July 1-June 30. Unveiling its bi-monthly monetary policy for the new fiscal, the Bank kept the key interest rate unchanged at 10 per cent and forecast a CPI inflation rate of 7.5-8.5 per cent during the year.

Governor State bank, Ashraf Mehmood Wathra told a news conference that despite the problems of energy crisis and terrorism in the country the economic outlook had improved in the last fiscal year. This he said was due to improved foreign remittances, better tax returns and reduced government borrowing from the banks.

"But more tax reforms have to be undertaken to overcome the budget deficit and also improve the overall economic scenario," he said.

Wathra said the government borrowing from banks had decreased in the last fiscal year while private sector had availed loans of 329 billion rupees during the period. This was a positive indicator of development taking place in private sector.

He said that rate of inflation remained below 10 percent in the last fiscal year and was expected to remain unchanged in next two months.

He said the foreign remittances had increased in the last six months with forex reserves with the central bank at USD 9.6 billion.

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Italy court clears Berlusconi in sex trial

MILAN: An Italian appeals court on Friday overturned Silvio Berlusconi's conviction on charges of abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor, in a significant legal victory for the former prime minister.

The Milan court unexpectedly threw out the guilty verdict handed down by a lower tribunal last year, which had sentenced Berlusconi to seven years in jail and banned him from holding public office.

Berlusconi was accused of paying for sex with former nightclub dancer Kharima El Mahroug, better known under her stage name "Ruby the Heartstealer", when she was under 18, and of abusing his authority to get her released from police custody over unrelated theft accusations.

In a brief statement read out in court, the judges fully acquitted 77-year old Berlusconi on both charges. They will release their motivations in 90 days.

"A verdict that goes beyond our rosiest expectations," Berlusconi's lawyer Franco Coppi told reporters.

The four-times prime minister, still the most influential politician on the centre right, had always denied the charges, accusing the Milan magistrates of hounding him for political reasons.

"Finally justice has been done," said Simone Furlan of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party in a statement. "Now, let's all focus on good politics to relaunch Forza Italia, tightly knit around our great leader Silvio Berlusconi."

Friday's verdict in the most sensational trial faced by Berlusconi is not definitive as prosecutors could lodge an appeal with Italy's top court.

The final ruling in the so-called Ruby trial could have implications for Berlusconi and his freedom to engage in political activity beyond the case itself.

As well as its implications for Berlusconi himself, the verdict removes a potential threat to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's constitutional reform drive, which depends on an accord with the centre-right. That accord could have been threatened had Berlusconi's conviction been upheld.

Berlusconi received a definitive conviction for tax fraud last year and was stripped of his seat in parliament. He was given a four-year jail sentence, but that was commuted to a year's community service under a general amnesty, leaving him largely free to campaign in elections and play a political role.

However, a second definitive conviction in a criminal trial would violate the terms of the amnesty. That could mean Berlusconi would have to serve time under house arrest.

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World celebrates 1st Mandela Day since icon's death

JOHANNESBURG: People around the world celebrated "Mandela Day" Friday for the first time since the iconic South African leader's death by doing good deeds on what would have been his 96th birthday.

For the past five years millions have volunteered 67 minutes of their time on July 18 for the common good to mark Nelson Mandela's 67 years of activism for South Africa's freedom.

Mandela died on December 5 last year aged 95 after a lengthy illness. Tens of thousands of mourners, including world leaders, attended memorial services leading up to his funeral.

The call to do good deeds in his name started in Johannesburg and New York in 2009, and has expanded to 126 countries this year.

READ ALSO: Google doodle honours former South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary on the 96 anniversary of his birth

For the first Mandela Day after his death, events were planned in Paris, New York, Dallas, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, while a film portraying his life was to premiere in China.

In South Africa itself, suggested tasks for citizens ranged from cleaning a school to adopting a penguin.

Young girls raise their hand in a salute to Nelson Mandela during a performance by a dance troupe in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, South Africa. (EPA Photo)

Newspapers have also weighed in with suggestions to volunteer in orphanages, donate books to schools or blankets to the homeless, or even to sterilise stray cats.

President Jacob Zuma called on South Africans to bring out their brooms and mops and help spruce up their country.

"This year, we have decided to honour Madiba's memory through a massive 'Operation Clean Up for Madiba' campaign," he said, using a respectful tribal name to refer to the country's first black president.

"We should demonstrate our love for our beautiful country by cleaning our surroundings, together" -- prompting some grumbles from taxpayers complaining that it should be the government's job.

Zuma himself participated in cleaning a school in Mvezo in the Eastern Cape, the village where Mandela was born July 18, 1918. He was then due to unveil a statue of the liberation hero.

Another theme for this year is food security in a nation where a quarter of the population goes hungry.

Citizen activist group LeadSA encouraged South Africans to plant vegetable gardens and donate food to feeding schemes "in the true spirit of active citizenship".

And in a country notorious for high crime rates, one person even offered a 67-minute course in self-defence.

Among the international tributes, Google honoured Mandela through its famous logo, while in Glasgow his granddaughter Tukwini Mandela was the guest of honor at a ceremony in memory of her grandfather.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison during his struggle against white-minority rule, but forgave his former oppressors when the apartheid regime ended with free elections in 1994.

His actions to reconcile his country's divided people earned him global respect and the Nobel Peace prize.

"His extraordinary compassion after 27 years in prison showed that human rights and equality are stronger than discrimination and hate," said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week.

In the days leading up to Mandela Day on July 18, people were urged to ask friends and colleagues to post pictures of their good deeds on social media.

Politicians have also capitalised on the event to polish their own image, announcing where they will be rolling up their sleeves in the hope of media coverage.

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Interview with Lithuania's first woman president Dalia Grybauskaite

Lithuania's tremendously popular president Dalia Grybauskaite made history recently by becoming the first ever to be re-elected into the top office. Lithuania had never elected a president for a second term before. The 58-year-old former European Union commissioner is also a karate black belt whose approval ratings have risen through the years. She is an economist who served as Lithuania's finance minister and EU budget commissioner before becoming her country's first female president in 2009. In her first ever interview to the Indian media, Grybauskaite tells TOI's Kounteya Sinha her plans for India and why more women should follow her path into politics.

India just recently saw a landmark election that made Narendra Modi its new prime minister. What is Lithuania's opinion of Mr Modi? What is Lithuania's expectations from Mr Modi?

The people of India chose Mr Modi to lead their country in a democratic election. Lithuania trusts and respects their choice. For over two decades we have enjoyed good bilateral relations with India. Naturally we expect that our cooperation will continue.

How important is India as a strategic partner for Lithuania and why? Specifically, what are the areas that you would like to explore with India?

India is one of the most dynamic economies of the world. It is an important partner for Lithuania offering new investment and business opportunities. In recent years we have witnessed a sharp increase in bilateral trade volume — by over 40%, the emergence of joint business, academic, cultural initiatives. These are clear signs that we have a mutual interest in developing our partnership further.

Both Lithuania and India have a vast intellectual potential. We should not hesitate to act upon it. At present laser technologies developed by Lithuanian scientists can be found in almost 20 Indian universities. Last year more than 200 students from India decided to pursue higher education in Lithuania. This year we expect this number to increase even more. Lithuania is also becoming an attractive destination for foreign film makers. And I know that Indian directors often choose Europe as a film shooting location. So this is another area of cooperation that should be explored further.

These are just a few examples. But they demonstrate that cooperation in matters as diverse as high technologies, trade, science, and arts benefits both of our societies.

And our partnership is not limited to economic ties. Both Lithuania and India regained their independence through peaceful resistance. We share cultural links that include remarkable similarities in the Lithuanian and Sanskrit languages. Indian cinema and art, culinary and Ayurvedic traditions are becoming increasingly popular in Lithuania. These are the things that help us to understand each other better and that encourage our friendship.

Very few women head countries across the world as president or prime minister. Women MPs accounted for only 21.8% of all parliamentarians by the end of 2013 globally. Since 2011, the average percentage of women MPs have risen by just 0.5%. Why do you think women stay away from politics?

I am glad that in Lithuania the situation allows for more optimism. In the previous government we had a number of women holding key positions — not only that of the President, but also of the speaker of Parliament, ministers of finance and defence. And this trend continues.

However, we still live in a world where most women are expected to make a choice between their family and career. This is not a question of priorities, but of possibilities. Women often carry a disproportionate burden of providing for their families. It prevents them from getting involved in politics. And that should concern us deeply.

Politics is more than just a career. It is the right of every citizen to shape the future of their country. And if we look at the European example, we can see that the role of women politicians has been extremely important during the financial crisis. In Germany, Slovenia and Denmark women took the lead when the most difficult decisions had to be taken.

So it is important for women to find their voice in politics — local, national and global. Institutional quotas for women politicians are not enough. A real solution requires determination and effort both from women and societies at large. We cannot expect to have democracy in the full sense of the word if women remain excluded.

You possess a black belt in karate? There has been a spate of sexual attacks on women in India recently. How according to you can India protect its women? Should self-defence classes be made mandatory in India for women in schools and colleges where they can be taught techniques like karate?

Karate is not simply a martial art. It is a philosophy, an exercise of self-discipline and a way of life. Of course it can be used as a means of self-defence. But it is important to realize that sexual assaults are not the only kind of violence that women face. Lack of economic opportunities and social exclusion can be as violent as physical aggression. Violence against women is not exclusive to a single country. It is an issue of global concern.

Self-defence classes can be beneficial but they will not solve the problem. We need to work together, globally and in local communities, to improve the livelihood of women, and men. We need to develop and uphold a culture of respect to each other and to our differences. That is the only way to ensure the safety of women.

Is there any Indian who has inspired you?

I have always admired Mahatma Gandhi. His personal strength and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of the people is an inspiration.

Will you push India to start a consulate in Vilnius, something which has been pending for a long time?

Of course, Lithuania welcomes the initiative of opening an Indian consulate in Vilnius. It would help to further consolidate our diplomatic relations and encourage Lithuanian and Indian citizens to cooperate even closer.

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