India elections: Voting under way, reports of clashes - Aljazeera.com

Police broke up clashes between rival groups of voters in West Bengal on Monday as some of India's richest families and Bollywood stars also cast their ballots in Mumbai during the fourth phase of staggered general election.

More than 127 million people are eligible to vote in this round of the seven-phase election held across 71 seats in nine states.

In West Bengal, a populous eastern state crucial for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's re-election bid, supporters of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clashed with others from the regional Trinamool Congress, police said.

TV footage showed armed security forces chasing away people wielding sticks, although it was initially difficult to determine the scale of the clashes.

There were no immediate reports of any poll-related injuries in West Bengal, where at least one person was killed and three injured during the third phase of voting last week.

Many of the constituencies for Monday's election are in Uttar Pradesh state in the north and western India's Maharashtra, where the financial capital Mumbai is located.

Uttar Pradesh elects the most MPs, with Maharashtra next, and both states are ruled by the BJP. Prime Minister Modi's coalition won more than 75 percent of the seats in the previous election in 2014.

Bihar: 95 year old voter assisted by his relative to excercise right of franchise at #Bachwara in #Begusarai. #LokSabhaElections2019 #PollsWithAIR: K K Lal pic.twitter.com/rAkesWdezw

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) April 29, 2019

However, political analysts say the BJP may struggle to repeat its strong showing this time due mainly to a jobs shortage and weak farm prices, issues upon which the main opposition Congress party has seized.

"Jobs should be the priority for the new government," said Aaditya Nair, a hotel management student, as he stood in line outside a polling station in Mumbai.

First-time voter Ankita Bhavke, a college student in Mumbai, said she voted for economic development.

"I want the country to be at par with the best in the world," she said. "There's been some progress in the last five years." India's financial markets were closed on Monday for the election.

Mumbai, which has six seats, is India's wealthiest city but ageing and insufficient infrastructure is a major concern.

It is also home to the massive Hindi film industry, Bollywood, as well as Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and India's richest banker, Uday Kotak.

The seven-phase election, the world's biggest democratic exercise with about 900 million voters, started on April 11. The last phase of voting is on May 19, with results released four days later.

There are a total of 545 seats in parliament's lower house.

Modi has made national security as his main poll plank in the wake of tensions with neighbouring Pakistan over a deadly suicide attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Maidul Islam, a professor of political science at Kolkata's Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, said long queues outside polling stations would indicate whether Modi's national security pitch was working.

"Whenever there is a BJP kind of a wave, you see a higher voter turnout," he said. 

SOURCE: Reuters news agency

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2019-04-29 06:22:00Z
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Security ahead of coronation stepped up after knives found in Japanese prince's classroom - CNN

The knives were discovered on Friday in a classroom at the prestigious Ochanomizu University Junior High School, attended by Prince Hisahito.

The mysterious discovery comes just days before Hisahito's uncle, Crown Prince Naruhito, is due to ascend the throne, following the abdication of Emperor Akihito this Tuesday.

According to reports, Hisahito, who is third in line to the throne, but will become second in line after his uncle's ascension, was in a different part of the school building when the knives were discovered.

The two kitchen knives, which had been taped to either end of a stick and whose blades were reportedly painted pink, were discovered balanced between Hisahito's desk and his neighbor's, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported. Nothing indicating a motive, or a claim of responsibility was left with the contraption.

Each desk has the name of its occupant written on it, making the prince's desk easily identifiable, the newspaper said.

Security footage from the school appeared to show a middle-aged man, wearing the uniform and helmet of a construction worker, on school premises around the time that the knives were discovered.

The school addressed the incident with a statement on its website, pledging to review its security protocols.

"We deeply apologize to have caused the great concern to everyone with regards to the incident at Ochanomizu University Junior High School," the statement, attributed to the university's president, Kimiko Murofushi, says.

"Ochanomizu University will review security measures urgently, in coordination with the junior high school, and work to secure its safety so that this kind of incident will never happen again."

While Hisahito has a police detail, they do not accompany him into class, according to reports.

The 12-year-old prince began studying at the school last month, Japan's national broadcaster NHK reported, after graduating from the university's affiliated elementary school.

Epochal change

Emperor Akihito will step down from the Chrysanthemum Throne -- the first abdication from the Japanese throne in 200 years -- on Tuesday.

Hisahito's uncle, Crown Prince Naruhito, will become the country's 126th emperor when he is crowned in a ceremony on Wednesday.

The 12-year-old is the only male grandchild of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. Given Japan's male-only hereditary laws, he will become second in line to the throne after his father becomes the crown prince and successor this week, when Naruhito ascends.

In August 2016, Akihito gave a rare televised address, where he said his age and fitness level could make it "difficult" to carry out his duties in the future, a plea many took as a request to step aside.

Following that speech, the Japanese parliament in June passed into law a historic bill to allow 83-year-old Akihito to abdicate. Japan is the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world, dating back 14 centuries.

Akihito himself is a direct descendant of Japan's first Emperor, Jimmu, believed to have reigned around 660 BC.

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2019-04-29 08:34:00Z
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Security ahead of coronation stepped up after knives found in Japanese prince's classroom - CNN

The knives were discovered on Friday in a classroom at the prestigious Ochanomizu University Junior High School, attended by Prince Hisahito.

The mysterious discovery comes just days before Hisahito's uncle, Crown Prince Naurhito, is due to ascend the throne, following the abdication of Emperor Akihito thisTuesday.

According to reports, Hisahito, who is third in line to the throne, but will become second in line after his father's ascension, was in a different part of the school building when the knives were discovered.

The two kitchen knives, which had been taped to either end of a stick and whose blades were reportedly painted pink, were discovered balanced between Hisahito's desk and his neighbor's, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported. Nothing indicating a motive, or a claim of responsibility was left with the contraption.

Each desk has the name of its occupant written on it, making the prince's desk easily identifiable, the newspaper said.

Security footage from the school appeared to show a middle-aged man, wearing the uniform and helmet of a construction worker, on school premises around the time that the knives were discovered.

The school addressed the incident with a statement on its website, pledging to review its security protocols.

"We deeply apologize to have caused the great concern to everyone with regards to the incident at Ochanomizu University Junior High School," the statement, attributed to the university's president, Kimiko Murofushi, says.

"Ochanomizu University will review security measures urgently, in coordination with the junior high school, and work to secure its safety so that this kind of incident will never happen again."

While Hisahito has a police detail, they do not accompany him into class, according to reports.

The 12-year-old prince began studying at the school last month, Japan's national broadcaster NHK reported, after graduating from the university's affiliated elementary school.

Epochal change

Emperor Akihito will step down from the Chrysanthemum Throne -- the first abdication from the Japanese throne in 200 years -- on Tuesday.

Hisahito's uncle, Crown Prince Naruhito, will become the country's 126th emperor when he is crowned in a ceremony on Wednesday.

The 12-year-old is the only male grandchild of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. Given Japan's male-only hereditary laws, he will become second in line to the throne after his father becomes the crown prince and successor this week, when Naruhito ascends.

In August 2016, Akihito gave a rare televised address, where he said his age and fitness level could make it "difficult" to carry out his duties in the future, a plea many took as a request to step aside.

Following that speech, the Japanese parliament in June passed into law a historic bill to allow 83-year-old Akihito to abdicate. Japan is the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world, dating back 14 centuries.

Akihito himself is a direct descendant of Japan's first Emperor, Jimmu, believed to have reigned around 660 BC.

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2019-04-29 05:37:00Z
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Spain braces for results of contentious snap election - The Washington Post

MADRID — Spain’s Socialist party stood poised to win the lion’s share of votes in a contentious snap election Sunday that will determine the future of the country’s legislature in a moment of bitter political polarization.

The Socialists, the party of incumbent prime minister Pedro Sánchez, had won 123 parliamentary seats with over 70 percent of the vote counted. While the traditional center-right Popular Party appeared to suffer heavy losses, Vox, the extreme right, was on course to enter parliament for the first time.

Turnout was also at a record high: 75 percent, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.

Strictly speaking, Sunday’s election was triggered by Sánchez’s failure to pass a 2019 budget. But deeper challenges overshadowed the contest: a general frustration with the status quo that echoes public discontent elsewhere in Western Europe and widespread anger over the Catalan independence crisis, which many say the left-wing government has failed to adequately handle.

The results, while a victory for Sánchez, were more a testament to fragmentation, and it remains unclear how the prime minister will be able to form a governing coalition in the weeks ahead.

“After many years of instability and uncertainty, it’s important that today we send a clear, defined message about the Spain we want,” Sánchez told reporters earlier Sunday at a polling station. “And, from there, a broad parliamentary majority must be built that can support a stable government.”

The vote marked the third time Spaniards have gone to the polls in less than four years, and the results are likely to further divide a two-party political culture that has traded power since the country’s post-Franco transition to democracy in the late 1970s. Voters chose between five parties. For the first time since Spain’s democratic transition, a far-right faction, known as Vox, is expected to enter parliament.

“The main catalyst of this is probably Catalonia,” said William Chislett, an analyst at Madrid’s Elcano Royal think tank.

[Spain’s elections may further divide the country]

In October 2017, Catalan leaders staged an illegal referendum on independence in open defiance of the constitution. Although 12 Catalan leaders are standing trial in Madrid on charges of rebellion, sedition and the misuse of public funds, Sánchez’s minority Socialist government was ultimately able to assume power only after aligning with Catalan separatist factions.

His critics on the right have accused Sánchez of being too soft on the Catalan issue, and tens of thousands of right-wing protesters took to the streets in Madrid earlier this year to demand a snap election.

“Would Vox have emerged without Catalonia? I suspect it would have,” Chislett said. “But with the vengeance it has now? I suspect not.”

As has been the case elsewhere in Europe, the emergence of a right-wing fringe faction has pushed Spain’s traditional, mainstream right-wing parties farther to the right. Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, has taunted the typically center-right Popular Party (PP) as the “cowardly little right.” The PP’s leader, Pablo Casado, seems determined to prove Abascal wrong, pursuing an anti-Catalan, anti-immigrant hard-line that none of his predecessors pursued.

Then there is Ciudadanos, a nominally centrist party that typically supports legislative reform but has cast its decisive support to the right on the Catalan question. The party’s Catalan origins give its staunch opposition to regional independence legitimacy with voters in favor of Spanish unity.

“All of this rests on a great lie, which is that the Socialists have caved in and would have eventually granted Catalan independence, which is simply not the case,” Chislett said. “But it’s a drum that’s been beaten here constantly. And the more you beat a drum, the more people start to listen.

“The language is much more vicious here than it’s ever been before, especially from the right, disqualifying their opponents as traitors and liars.”

[Can Spain’s elections on Sunday deliver a functioning government?]

This rhetoric was on display during nationally televised debates among the contenders last week. Both Casado and Albert Rivera, the leader of Ciudadanos, demanded that Sánchez say whether he would pardon the Catalan separatists on trial if they are found guilty.

Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias of the far-left, anti-austerity Podemos party insisted on the need for further dialogue to resolve the Catalan situation. The prime minister then refused to discuss what he called “preventive pardons” and insisted there would be “no referendum nor independence” in Catalonia and invited the separatists to “return to the framework of the statute and the constitution.”

Outside Madrid on Sunday, however, the right-wing rhetoric had already convinced some previously moderate voters.

“I like Ciudadanos’s Rivera,” said 64-year-old Donata Ruano, who said she had voted for Ciudadanos in the previous elections. “I think he is serious and smart, but I switched to Vox this time because Rivera seems a bit tender for the current situation. We need someone who is stronger.”

Mariano Collado, 75, also switched his vote to Vox from the Popular Party. As he put it: “Spain is for Spaniards first, then afterward we can welcome immigrants. It’s very sad to say it that harshly, but first I feed my children and then I can be generous.”

“I have a neighbor who can’t find work, and that is the problem in this country. Are there other issues? Yes. I don’t know if the guy from Vox will do a good job. If not, I won’t vote for him again. But, first things first. Spain needs to be strong again.”

Most projections still show Sánchez winning the largest number of seats, but the makeup of a possible governing coalition is anyone’s guess.

“This election is about the country’s ability to continue advancing, particularly in social reform, education, health care and personal liberties. We are very concerned about the rise of the far right,” Maria Isabel Gómez said after casting her ballot for the Socialist party.

“VOX doesn’t have a program or ideas. We don’t know what they will really do, but they don’t see democracy the same way we do.”

“Trump is coming,” chimed in her husband, José López, 70, referring to Vox. “They just wrap themselves in the flag and say, ‘We support Spain.’ ”

Read more

Spain’s new cabinet is majority female. Here’s why that’s unusual.

U.S. authorities make first arrest in mysterious raid of North Korea’s embassy in Spain

Is the Catalan separatist trial in Spain about law or politics?

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

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2019-04-28 20:11:05Z
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Bolton denies US paid North Korea $2M to release Otto Warmbier - New York Post

National security adviser John Bolton denied that the Trump administration paid North Korea $2 million after the release of comatose Otto Warmbier but acknowledged that a US envoy did sign a pledge to pay.

“Absolutely not. And I think that’s the key point. The president’s been very successful in getting 20-plus hostages released from imprisonment around the world and hasn’t paid anything for any of them,” Bolton told “Fox News Sunday.”

Bolton admitted that Joseph Yun, a State Department envoy sent to North Korea in 2017 to get Warmbier, signed a document pledging the US would pay for his release.

“Bottom line,” said host Chris Wallace. Did the US pay any money after the release “however it was disguised?”

“It’s very clear to me from my looking into it over the past few days – no money was paid. That is clear,” Bolton replied.

North Korea presented a $2 million bill for the medical care of Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who was released by the regime while in a coma and died days after returning to his home in Ohio, the Washington Post reported last week.

Warmbier was sentenced to 15-years of hard labor in North Korea in 2016 and fell into a coma soon after.

President Trump also denied paying North Korea for Warmbier.

“We did not pay money for our great Otto,” Trump said at the White House last Friday, adding that the story was fake news.

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2019-04-28 16:01:00Z
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Sri Lanka attacks: Relatives of key suspect Zahran Hashim killed - BBC News

The father and two brothers of the alleged organiser of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, Zahran Hashim, were killed in a security forces operation on Friday, police say.

Hashim, who blew himself up at a hotel in the capital Colombo, is said to have been the leader of an Islamist group, the NTJ, which has now been banned.

Police have raided the group's HQ in the eastern town of Kattankudy.

The attacks targeted churches and hotels, killing at least 250 people.

Sunday church services are cancelled across the country as a precaution.

However, worshippers in the capital gathered to pray outside St Anthony's, which was badly damaged in the attacks.

The country's president and prime minister attended a televised Christian ceremony.

'Safe house' discovered by chance

By Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC News, Sainthamaruthu

When I entered the house where the Islamists and their families were killed on Friday evening, the smell of death was unbearable. The fact that the Islamists blew themselves up along with their children beggars belief.

A close relative of the radical preacher Zahran Hashim's family confirmed to me that the father and two brothers of Hashim were the individuals who appeared in a video just before they killed themselves. A police officer at the site also said Zahran Hashim's mother was also believed to be among the victims.

Security forces have been conducting raids across the country but this safe house was discovered by chance, when the suspicious house owner and local people alerted the police.

Every day, police are making arrests, seizing weapons, explosives and jihadist material suggesting the radicalisation process, however small it may be, has been happening over a period of time. If the security agencies had missed this, then it is a colossal failure.

The ongoing raids and discovery of weapons and material are gradually building up tensions among the communities. A hotel owner said she was worried because she was a Catholic. Muslims say they are nervous to visit Sinhala-majority areas. Some foreign governments have warned that there is a possibility of further attacks and if those happen, fragile ethnic relations could be further strained.

What happened on Easter Sunday?

As well as St Anthony's Shrine, bombers struck churches in Negombo and the eastern city of Batticaloa, and hotels in Colombo.

• 'I invited the bomber into the church'
• The victims of the attacks

Most of those killed were Sri Lankan, but dozens of foreign citizens were also among the dead.

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While the authorities have blamed the NTJ for the attacks, they say they must have had help from a larger network.

The Islamic State group, which carried out mass attacks on civilians in Paris and other locations in recent years, has said it was involved, but has not given details.

How are the victims being remembered?

Christians in Sri Lanka prayed at home while the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, held a televised Mass, attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

He called the attacks an "insult to humanity" in the service, broadcast from a chapel in his residence.

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"Today during this Mass we are paying attention to last Sunday's tragedy and we try to understand it," he said.

"We pray that in this country there will be peace and co-existence and understanding each other without division."

Scores of people gathered for the public service outside St Anthony's, where Buddhist monks joined Catholic priests in a show of solidarity with the Christian community.

Crowds of people watched the heavily-guarded church from behind a barricade, with some singing hymns and passing rosary beads through their hands.

Many lit candles and placed them in a makeshift memorial for the victims.

The church's bells tolled at 08:45 (03:15 GMT) - the exact moment a bomber detonated his device one week ago.

The hands of its damaged clock tower are still stuck at that time.

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2019-04-28 14:28:35Z
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Sri Lanka bomb suspect's sister fears 18 relatives dead after attacks - CNN

More than 250 people were killed and at least 500 injured in a series of coordinated suicide bombings at churches and hotels across the island April 21.

A week on, the country is still on high alert with warnings there could be more attacks in the coming days, MPs told CNN Sunday.

Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya is the sister of Mohamed Zahran Hashim, the man Sri Lankan authorities believe was one of the leaders of the attacks.

He appeared in a video released by an ISIS-linked news agency before blowing himself up on Easter Sunday.

Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Mathaniya said she identified her brother from photographs of his body parts at the police station earlier in the week.

"Five men went missing after the attacks (on Sunday). They were my three brothers, my father, and my sister's husband," she said.

Suspected militants raided on Friday

On Friday night, 10 civilians -- including six children -- were killed along with six suspected terrorists after a shootout between police and alleged militants in the town of Sainthamaruthu on Sri Lanka's eastern coast.

At daybreak Saturday, a gruesome scene was revealed at the raided house -- charred bodies and a roof blown off during three explosions.

One of the militants killed in that raid has been identified as Mohamed Niyas, a prominent member of the local extremist group National Tawheed Jamath and Mathaniya's brother-in-law.

"It did not hit me until I saw the bodies of the men and women. When they said six children, I thought whether they could be the people related to me," Mathaniya told CNN.

"Among the women, there were five women there in the house. The wives of my three brothers, my younger sister, and my mother. There were altogether seven children."

Witnesses told CNN one explosion during the raid turned the Sainthamaruthu house "into fire."

Mathaniya said her brother Zahran Hashim's wife and daughter are currently in the hospital. Police confirmed that after Friday's house raid, a woman and child with life-threatening injuries were taken to hospital.

Authorities continue investigations

One wounded suspect fled Friday's shootout on a motorbike, and another suspected terrorist could be on the run as well, Sri Lanka's military said.

Earlier Friday, authorities had seized a large cache of explosives, 100,000 ball bearings and ISIS uniforms and flags from a garage a few miles from the raided property.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday attacks, but a link between the attackers and the terror group has not been proven. Authorities blame National Tawheed Jamath, which has not claimed the attacks.

Warnings of more attacks

The raids are part of a nationwide hunt for the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday attacks. In the last 24 hours, at least 48 suspects have been arrested, National Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said Sunday.

Meanwhile three MPs told CNN that their personal security officers have received an internal memo from the VIP Security Division of the Sri Lankan police, warning that there could be more attacks in the coming days.

The memo said the possible attacks were planned by the "same perpetrators" as those thought to be behind the Easter Sunday bombings.

Sister of bomber identifies 3 family members in video

Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya also identified her father and two brothers in a video purportedly taken minutes before Friday's shootout.

The video, widely circulated on Sri Lankan social media, shows three men saying in Tamil that they will "teach a lesson" to those who "are destroying Muslims who have come to this part of the country."

The men urge people to leave their jobs to take up jihad. CNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

Mathiniya said the three men in the video were her father, Mohammed Hashim, and her brothers, Mohamed Hashim Rilwan and Mohamed Hashim Zainy.

India warned preacher was planning attacks

Weeks before the Easter Sunday bombings, India's intelligence service warned its Sri Lankan counterpart that Zahran was planning an attack on churches and hotels.

The radical Islamist preacher was known to the authorities and local Muslim community for years as a dangerous and violent figure.

In videos Zahran posted online, he preached hate and violence and called for attacks on other Muslims, Buddhists and Christians.

Both Christianity and Islam are minority religions in Sri Lanka, with each accounting for under 10% of the population. The vast majority of Sri Lankans identify as Buddhist.

In his hometown of Kattankudy -- about an hour's drive north from Sainthamaruthu -- locals told CNN they were terrified of Zahran, even after police had confirmed his death in the attacks.

They painted a portrait of a community that was growing increasingly radical, in part due to an influx of foreign money for mosques and schools, as moderate Muslims were the subject of harassment and even violence from and supporters of the preacher.

CNN's James Griffiths, Susannah Cullinane, Sheena McKenzie and Jo Shelley contributed to this report.

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2019-04-28 14:16:00Z
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