Saturday, 2 December 2017
Alpine skiing: Shiffrin gets first World Cup downhill win at Lake Louise
Dec 2, 2017; Lake Louise, Alberta, CAN; Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States during women’s downhill race in the 2017 FIS alpine skiing World Cup at Lake Louise Ski Resort. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
December 2, 2017
By Rory Carroll
(Reuters) – American Mikaela Shiffrin notched up her first career World Cup win in downhill at Canada’s Lake Louise on Saturday, one day after reaching her first ever podium in the discipline.
The 22-year-old skiing prodigy completed the course in one minute 27.55 seconds in just her fourth career downhill race.
Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, in 1:27.68, finished second and Michelle Gisin (1:27.72) of Switzerland was third.
Shiffrin now leads the women’s overall World Cup standings as well as the downhill standings with just over two months to go until the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
The win comes less than a week after Shiffrin won the World Cup slalom for the second year in a row at Killington in Vermont. She now has 33 career World Cup wins.
A day after suffering a nasty crash toward the end of her run, fellow American Lindsey Vonn (1:28.48) took a conservative approach to the course, where she is an 18-time champion.
The veteran Vonn, who skied with a brace on her right knee, finished tied in 12th with Italy’s Verena Stuffer and was almost a second behind Shiffrin.
While Vonn completed the course without incident, her team mate Breezy Johnson was not so lucky.
The 21-year-old American slid out after hitting a bump during a turn but skied off the course under her own power.
The start of Saturday’s race was delayed by an hour and 15 minutes due to a power outage at the resort caused by a fire at a substation.
The outage meant the skiers had to ride in snowcats or get towed to the top of the hill for the start.
Speed events continue at Lake Louise on Sunday with the first women’s super-G of the season.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
source https://capitalisthq.com/alpine-skiing-shiffrin-gets-first-world-cup-downhill-win-at-lake-louise/
Middle East leaders paint ‘dark picture’ at Rome conference
FILE PHOTO: Qatar’s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani attends the 36th Session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
December 2, 2017
By Crispian Balmer
ROME (Reuters) – When Italy organized a conference focused on the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa, it promised to look beyond the turmoil roiling the region and instead promote a “positive agenda”.
But many of the 45 heads of state, ministers and business leaders who attended the event over the past three days saw little future cheer.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, captured the gloom, bemoaning “a lack of wisdom” in the region, with “no hope” on hand for ordinary people hoping for an end to years of conflict, upheaval and sectarianism.
“Maybe I have presented a dark picture, but it is not as dark as I have explained, it is darker,” said Thani, whose country is suffering an economic blockade by its Arab neighbors, which accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism.
Qatar denies the accusations and the crisis has pushed the tiny, gas-rich state closer to Shi’ite Muslim Iran, the regional rival to Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia.
The foreign ministers of both Iran and Saudi Arabia addressed the conference, taking turns to trade barbs.
“Since 1979, the Iranians have literally got away with murder in our region, and this has to stop,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Friday, accusing Tehran of interfering in the affairs of numerous Arab states, including Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
A day earlier, on the same stage, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Saudi Arabia of blocking ceasefire efforts in Syria, “suffocating” Qatar, destabilizing Lebanon and supporting Islamic State.
He also dismissed suggestions that Tehran was meddling in the affairs of its troubled neighbors or that it should stop supporting militia groups, like Hezbollah in Lebanon.
DESTRUCTION
Casting around for reasons to be positive, most speakers pointed to the defeat of Islamic State, which used to rule over millions of people in Iraq and Syria, but now controls just small pockets of land after months of fierce military assaults.
However, officials warned the group would not die easily.
“It has been defeated as a military force on the ground, but it is likely to go back to cities to create destruction and terror,” said Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, predicting the militant group could still be around in 10 years.
Iraq’s foreign minister bemoaned the destruction it had left in its wake, and called on the world to unite to help rebuild his country in the same way they had come together to fight IS.
“The world owes this to us,” said Ibrahim al-Jaafari. “A lot of destruction demands a lot of reconstruction. Mosul is not at all what it was like before. It used to be beautiful. It had a university. Now it is just ruins.”
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that IS fighters fleeing Syria and Iraq had come to his country, where an attack on a mosque in Sinai last month had killed more than 300 people. They were also heading to lawless Libya, he said.
Amidst all the talk of war and chaos, there was little mention of diplomatic efforts to restore peace to the region.
“At a time when you have so many sources of tension, so many fuses, so many humanitarian catastrophes, you also have so little diplomacy,” said Robert Malley, vice president for policy at the non-governmental International Crisis Group.
Underscoring this point, no one from the White House administration took part in the conference — a signal some diplomats put down to a general disengagement from the Middle East by President Donald Trump. Last year, the then secretary of state, John Kerry, participated.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Ros Russell)
source https://capitalisthq.com/middle-east-leaders-paint-dark-picture-at-rome-conference/
White House, State Department Vigorously Deny Rex Tillerson Departure Is Imminent
The State Department and President Trump have maintained a united front in the face of reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on his way out.
Tillerson is the subject of several reports claiming he is to be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has been floated as a candidate to replace Pompeo in an administration double-switch. Tillerson himself called the reports “laughable” Friday when asked by CNN.
In her press conference Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert fended off reporters’ questions about Tillerson’s future. She referenced a statement from the White House denying reports of his ouster:
You saw the White House statement earlier today. The White House statement confirmed that there will be no personnel changes. It is a fact that Secretary Tillerson serves at the pleasure of the president, as we all do, as does every political appointee and Cabinet member. Secretary Tillerson enjoys this job.
On Friday, Trump backed up the earlier White House statement with a tweet claiming the reports were “fake news.”
Nauert repeatedly tried to turn talk back to the State Department’s policy goals, but the press were persistent in asking about Tillerson’s future. “The reason I’m telling you about sort of all these comings and goings of the secretary is that he remains, as I have been told, committed to doing this job. He does serve at the pleasure of the president. This is a job that he enjoys,” she related.
Asked if Tillerson felt as though he were under pressure, Nauert responded:
I think what he feels is that Washington can be a tough game of politics. You have heard him reference that before, that he’s not from Washington, he’s not a person of Washington, and he doesn’t always understand and accept exactly how Washington works with anonymous sources, things of that nature. That’s not who he is. That’s not the world that he comes from, okay?
Much of the controversy over Tillerson’s future focuses on two administration figures: White House chief of staff John Kelly and Jared Kushner, White House senior adviser. Kelly, CNN claimed Friday, has turned on Tillerson and is now advising the president to drop him. CNN’s source alleges that the turning point was the public revelation that Tillerson called the president a “moron” at a closed-door meeting. Kelly had once been a strong Tillerson supporter.
Nauert pushed back on this suggestion Thursday. Before the CNN report, she told reporters Kelly and Tillerson had seen each other at the White House that morning, but she declined to provide details beyond saying, “I was told that it was normal, the same as usual, that the secretary was treated the same as he always is.”
Kushner’s attitude towards Tillerson is also the subject of several reports. The Washington Examiner cited a source saying he and his wife, fellow White House adviser Ivanka Trump, had turned against the secretary of state after he refused to send a senior State Department delegation to accompany Ivanka on her trip to India.
These reports got a boost Friday as Bloomberg reported that Kushner was actively trying to exclude Tillerson from his plans for negotiations in the Middle East.
This is also not the first round of speculation about Tillerson’s future. In early October, after the “moron” remark was reported, Tillerson denied that Vice President Mike Pence had to “intervene” to keep Tillerson from resigning then.
source https://capitalisthq.com/white-house-state-department-vigorously-deny-rex-tillerson-departure-is-imminent/
Cambodian PM pulls back on threat to shut rights group founded by rival
December 2, 2017
By Prak Chan Thul
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has pulled back from a threat to close a human rights group founded by the detained opposition leader Kem Sokha, a pro-government website said on Saturday.
The move follows a visit by Hun Sen to Cambodia’s main ally China and comes as the veteran leader is under fire from Western donors for a crackdown on the opposition.
The rights group, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, was founded in 2002 by Kem Sokha, who was arrested in September and charged with treason for an alleged plot to take power with American help.
“The government decided to keep (CCHR) so it continues to serve human rights activities in Cambodia, and as a result of the Ministry of Interior’s finding, there are no illegal acts,” Hun Sen was quoted as saying by Freshnews.
Kem Sokha has rejected the charges against him, which the opposition calls a ploy to ensure Hun Sen extends his more than three decades in power at next year’s election.
Kem Sokha’s party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was dissolved on Nov. 16 by the Supreme Court, acting at the government’s request.
In response to the crackdown, the United States has stopped funding for the election and the European Union has raised a potential threat to Cambodia’s duty free access if it does not respect human rights.
The statement was released as Hun Sen held a two-day ceremony at the famed Angkor Wat temple to pray for peace and stability in Cambodia. He sat beside his wife Bun Rany and pressed his hands together while Buddhist monks chanted prayers.
Mu Sochua, a deputy to Kem Sokha who fled the crackdown in Cambodia, said the nation’s deep divisions could not be healed in one ceremony.
“Peace for Cambodia can not be achieved through just a ceremony. Peace is about full respect of human rights, freedoms, liberties and rule of law,” Mu Sochua told Reuters.
Chak Sopheap, executive director of the rights group CCHR, said she and other staffs were “incredibly relieved” by the news.
“With this investigation out of the way, we can get back to focusing on our core mission, the work of promoting respect for human rights in Cambodia,” Chak Sopheap said in a Facebook post.
(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Ros Russell)
source https://capitalisthq.com/cambodian-pm-pulls-back-on-threat-to-shut-rights-group-founded-by-rival/
Friday, 1 December 2017
Honduran army enforces curfew to stem violence after delayed vote count
Supporters of Salvador Nasralla, presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, stand near a burning barricade settled to block road during a protest caused by the delayed vote count for the presidential election in Tegucigalpa, Honduras December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera
December 2, 2017
By Gustavo Palencia
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras suspended the right to free movement on Friday, imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew and giving the army and police extended powers after looting and protests triggered by a contested election killed at least one person.
Five days after polls closed, no clear winner has emerged from Sunday’s vote. President Juan Orlando Hernandez has clawed back a thin lead over his challenger, but thousands of disputed votes could still swing the outcome.
At least one protester has died, over 20 people were injured and more than 100 others were arrested for looting after opposition leaders accused the government of trying to steal the election by manipulating the vote count.
“The suspension of constitutional guarantees was approved so that the armed forces and the national police can contain this wave of violence that has engulfed the country,” said Ebal Diaz, member of the council of ministers.
International concern has grown about the electoral crisis in the poor Central American country, which struggles with violent drug gangs and one of the world’s highest murder rates. Honduras is the source of waves of poor migrants to the United States and sits on major cocaine trafficking routes.
The nationwide curfew will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. for 10 days starting on Friday night, government minister Jorge Ramon Hernandez read out in a statement simultaneously broadcast to TV and radio stations.
Under the decree, all local authorities must submit to the authority of the army and national police, which are authorized to break up blockades of roads, bridges and public buildings.
In the widely criticized vote count, TV-host’s Salvador Nasralla’s early lead on Monday was later reversed in favor of President Hernandez, leading Nasralla to call for protests.
One of the four magistrates on the electoral tribunal on Thursday flagged “serious doubts” about the counting process.
Nasralla, who heads a center-left coalition, said government infiltrators had started the looting and violence to justify a military curfew.
“The people doing acts of vandalism are not from the opposition Alliance, they are from the government,” Nasralla said on his Facebook page. “These are government operations to spread panic, create chaos and make you believe that the Alliance is causing the destruction.”
Both Hernandez and Nasralla claimed victory after the election. The 64-year-old Nasralla is one of Honduras’ best-known faces and backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, a leftist ousted in a coup in 2009.
LOOTING, PROTESTS
Businesses closed early and Hondurans lined up for panic purchases as groups of looters carried off TVs and washing machines from shopping centers, television images showed.
Plumes of smoke from burning tires at barricades drifted over the San Pedro Sula, the country’s second city. Police used tear gas to disperse crowds.
Police sources said at least one man had been shot and killed at a protest in the city of La Ceiba, while about 12 members of the military and police force had been injured in demonstrations that snarled traffic outside Honduras’ main port on Friday and around the country.
At least 10 protesters were injured in the capital of Tegucigalpa, according to the city’s Hospital Escuela.
More than 100 people were also arrested on suspicion of looting in San Pedro Sula on Friday, a police spokesman said, and local media carried footage of shops being plundered with no security forces in sight.
People flocked to supermarkets on Friday, stocking up on food and provisions as major roads and supply routes were blocked across the country by angry protesters.
“I’m filling the tank with gas in case anything happens, the situation looks bad and there are protests all over the city,” said Carlos Valle, a 61-year-old pensioner, as he joined a long line of vehicles waiting at a fuel pump in Tegucigalpa.
VOTE COUNT DELAYS
Honduras was due to publish the final result of the election at 9 p.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Friday, the electoral tribunal said, but opposition complaints about the count impeded that.
Election results initially had Nasralla leading by five points with more than half the votes counted. They then swung in favor of U.S.-backed center-right Hernandez after the count came to a halt on Monday and resumed over a day later, sparking protests.
The tribunal has said it will hand-count some 1,031 outstanding ballot boxes with irregularities – or nearly 6 percent of the total – after the count halted with Hernandez ahead by less than 50,000 votes, or about 1.5 percentage points.
However, Nasralla’s center-left alliance has called for votes to be recounted in three of Honduras’ 18 departments, or regions, and refused to recognize the tribunal’s special count until its demands for a wider review were met.
“If Juan Orlando wins, we’re ready to accept that, but we know that wasn’t the case, we know that Salvador won and that’s why they’re refusing the transparency demands,” said Marlon Ochoa, campaign manager of Nasralla’s alliance.
(Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Ana Isabel Martinez, Adriana Barrera and Daina Beth Solomon; Writing by Dave Graham and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Michael Perry)
source https://capitalisthq.com/honduran-army-enforces-curfew-to-stem-violence-after-delayed-vote-count/