Week #9 (3/28-4/1)- Pakistan PM vows to fight terror after 70 died in Lahore (Associated Press)

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Women try to comfort a mother who lost her son in bomb attack in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, March... Read more

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's prime minister on Monday vowed to eliminate perpetrators of terror attacks such as the massive suicide bombing that targeted Christians gathered for Easter the previous day in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 70 people.

The attack underscored both the militants' ability to stage large-scale attacks despite a months-long government offensive against them and the precarious position of Pakistan's minority Christians. A breakaway Taliban faction, which publicly supports the Islamic State group, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, in the capital of Islamabad, extremists protested for a second day outside Parliament and other key buildings in the city center. The demonstrators set cars on fire, demanding that authorities impose Islamic law or Sharia. The army, which was deployed Sunday to contain the rioters, remained out on the streets.

The military reported raids in eastern Punjab province, where several deadly militant organizations are headquartered, and said dozens were arrested. Also Monday, Pakistan started observing a three-day mourning period declared after the Lahore attack.

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The Lahore bombing took place in a park that was crowded with families, with many women and children among the victims. At least 300 people were wounded in the bombing.

Even though a breakaway Taliban group, known as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, said it specifically targeted Pakistan's Christian community, most of those killed in Lahore were Muslims, who were also gathered in the park for the Sunday weekend holiday. The park is a popular spot in the heart of Lahore.

Of the dead, 14 have been identified as Christians and 44 as Muslim, according to Lahore Police Superintendent Mohammed Iqbal. Another 12 bodies have not yet been identified, he said.

Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the breakaway Taliban faction, told The Associated Press late Sunday that along with striking Christians celebrating Easter, the attack also meant to protest Pakistan's military operation in the tribal regions. The same militant group also took responsibility for the twin bombings of a Christian Church in Lahore last year.

In recent weeks, Pakistan's Islamist parties have been threatening widespread demonstration to protest what they say is Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's pro-Western stance. They have also denounced provincial draft legislation in Punjab outlawing violence against women.

Sharif had earlier this month officially recognized holidays celebrated by the country's minority religions, the Hindu festival of Holi and the Christian holiday of Easter.

After a meeting with his security officials Monday, the prime minister called the perpetrators of the Lahore attack "cowards" and vowed to defeat the "extremist mindset." Sharif also cancelled a planned trip to Great Britain.

In Lahore, dozens of families were bidding final farewell to their slain kin during funeral ceremonies Monday.

Shama Pervez, widowed mother of 11-year-old Sahil Pervez who died in the blast, was inconsolable during funeral prayers. Her son, a fifth grader at a local Catholic school, had pleaded with her to go to the park rather than stay home on Sunday, and she said she finally gave in.

On the outskirts of Lahore, in the Christian area of Youhanabad, mourners crowded into a church that was targeted in an attack a year ago.

"How long will we have to go on burying our children," said Aerial Masih, the uncle of Junaid Yousaf, one of the victims in Sunday's bombing.

Ten members of Qasim Ali's family were killed Sunday in the park, all Muslims. His 10 year-old nephew Fahad Ali lay in a a bed in is home, his battered body almost completely damaged. He had lost his parents and a sister, another two sisters were badly injured.

"I don't know how I will be able to do anything, to continue at school," he cried.

Forensic experts sifted through the debris in the park. The suicide bomb had been a crude devise loaded with ball bearings, designed to rip through the bodies of its victims to cause maximum damage, said counter-terrorism official Rana Tufail. He identified the suicide bomber as Mohammed Yusuf, saying he was known as a militant recruiter.

Malala Yousafzai, a young Nobel Peace Laureate and champion of girls' education — herself a survivor of a horrific Taliban shooting — said she was "devastated by the senseless killing of innocent people in Lahore."

"My heart goes out to the victims and their families and friends," she said. "Every life is precious and must be respected and protected."

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Lahore bombing, saying that in targeting a park filled with children, the attack "revealed the face of terror, which knows no limits and values."

France expressed its "solidarity in these difficult moments" to the authorities and the people of Pakistan and underlined "the inflexible will of our country to continue to battle terrorism everywhere."

Analyst and prominent author of books on militants in Pakistan, Zahid Hussain, said Sunday's violence was a coordinated show of strength by the country's religious extremists, angered over what they see as efforts to undermine their influence.

The military launched an all-out offensive against militants in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan in June 2014. The operation, called Zarb-e-Azb, has seen over 3,000 militants killed, according to the army. In December 2014 , the Taliban retaliated with one of the worst terror assaults in Pakistan, attacking a school in northwestern city of Peshawar and killing 150 people, mainly children.

Hussain said the government has been sending mixed signals to Islamic extremists — on the one hand allowing banned radical groups to operate unhindered under new names and radical leaders to openly give inciting speeches, while on the other hanging convicts like Qadri and promising to tackle honor killings and attacks against women.

"It is one step forward and two steps backward," says Hussain. "The political leadership has to assert itself and say 'no' to extremism once and for all."

Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif promised Pakistan "will never allow these savage non-humans to over run our life and liberty."

The local Punjab government announced it will give roughly $3,000 compensation to the seriously wounded and $1,500 to those with minor injuries from Sunday's bombing.

In Islamabad, extremists had marched into the city on Sunday in protest of the hanging of policeman Mumtaz Qadri in February. Qadri was convicted for the 2011 murder of governor Salman Taseer, who was defending a Christian woman jailed on blasphemy charges. Taseer had also criticized Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws and campaigned against them.

They rallied anew Monday, demanding that the Christian woman also be hanged and that authorities impose Islamic law or Sharia. The woman, Aasia Bibi, is still in jail facing blasphemy charges.

The army deployed Pakistan paramilitary Rangers as well as about 800 additional soldiers from neighboring Rawalpindi to Islamabad, to protect the center, which houses main government buildings and diplomatic missions.

In Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, the Press Club was ransacked by pro-Qadri supporters on Sunday. Several Pakistani journalists were roughed up and some equipment was damaged. Extremists were regrouping in Karachi ahead of rallies Monday in the country's financial center.

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Gannon reported from Islamabad. Associated Press Writers Asif Shahzad and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, also contributed to this report.

Week #9 (3/28-4/1)- Fidel Castro to Obama: We don't need your 'presents' (Associated Press)

 

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FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2016, file photo, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro meets Russian Orthodox... Read more

HAVANA (AP) — Fidel Castro responded Monday to President Barack Obama's historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter recounting the history of U.S. aggression against Cuba, writing that "we don't need the empire to give us any presents."

The 1,500-word letter in state media titled "Brother Obama" was Castro's first response to the president's three-day visit last week, in which the American president said he had come to bury the two countries' history of Cold War hostility. Obama did not meet with the 89-year-old Fidel Castro on the trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother Raul Castro, the current Cuban president.

Obama's visit was intended to build irreversible momentum behind his opening with Cuba and to convince the Cuban people and the Cuban government that a half-century of U.S. attempts to overthrow the Communist government had ended, allowing Cuban to reform its economy and political system without the threat of U.S. interference.

Fidel Castro writes of Obama: "My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn't try to develop theories about Cuban politics."

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Castro, who led Cuba for decades before handing power to his brother in 2008, was legendary for his hours-long, all-encompassing speeches. His letter reflects that style, presenting a sharp contrast with Obama's tightly focused speech in Havana. Castro's letter opens with descriptions of environmental abuse under the Spaniards and reviews the historical roles of Cuban independence heroes Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez.

Castro then goes over crucial sections of Obama's speech line by line, engaging in an ex-post-facto dialogue with the American president with pointed critiques of perceived slights and insults, including Obama's failure to give credit to indigenous Cubans and Castro's prohibition of racial segregation after coming to power in 1959.

Quoting Obama's declaration that "it is time, now, for us to leave the past behind," the man who shaped Cuba during the second half of the 20th century writes that "I imagine that any one of us ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the President of the United States."

Castro then returns to a review of a half-century of U.S. aggression against Cuba. Those events include the decades-long U.S. trade embargo against the island; the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack and the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner backed by exiles who took refuge in the U.S.

He ends with a dig at the Obama administration's drive to increase business ties with Cuba. The Obama administration says re-establishing economic ties with the U.S. will be a boon for Cuba, whose centrally planned economy has struggled to escape from over-dependence on imports and a chronic shortage of hard currency.

The focus on U.S-Cuba business ties appears to have particularly rankled Castro, who nationalized U.S. companies after coming to power in 1959 and establishing the communist system into which his brother is now introducing gradual market-based reforms.

"No one should pretend that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights," Fidel Castro wrote. "We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need with with work and intelligence of our people."

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Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Week #9 (3/28-4/1)- Georgia Gov. Says He Will Veto Controversial 'Religious Liberty' Bill (NPR)

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Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal speaks during a press conference Monday in Atlanta to announce his rejection of a controversial "religious liberty" bill. He said: "I have examined the protections that this bill proposes to provide to the faith-based community and I can find no examples of any of those circumstances occurring in our state."

David Goldman/AP

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, facing mounting pressure from corporations with interests in his state, said Monday that he will veto a controversial "religious liberties" bill.

As we reported, the measure that state legislators passed earlier this month "allows religious officials and faith-based organizations to deny services when doing so would violate a 'sincerely held religious belief.' Critics say it enshrines discrimination against gays and lesbians."

Deal, who is a Republican, told reporters at a press conference Monday:

"Georgia is a welcoming state. It is full of loving, kind and generous people. And that is what we should want. They choose to worship God in the way they see fit in a myriad of ways, in a variety of different settings. I believe that that is our best side. And our people, every day, work side by side without regard to the color of their skin of their fellow mate. Or the religion that their co-worker might adhere to. They are simply trying to make life better for themselves, their families and their communities. That is the character of Georgia. I intend to do my part to keep it that way."

"For that reason," he added, "I will veto House Bill 757."

Deal also said: "I do not think that we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia, of which I and my family have been a part of for all of our lives."

You can read Deal's full remarks here.

AJC reports the governor's decision comes after an intense fight:

"The two-term Republican has been besieged by all sides over the controversial measure, and his office has received thousands of emails and hundreds of calls on the debate. The tension was amplified by a steady stream of corporate titans who urged him to veto the bill — and threatened to pull investments from Georgia if it became law.

"The governor's planned veto will likely infuriate religious conservatives who considered the measure, House Bill 757, their top priority. This is the third legislative session they've sought to strengthen legal protections from opponents of gay marriage, but last year's Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex weddings galvanized their efforts."

Disney and its Marvel subsidiary had threatened to boycott the state, and a range of companies including Apple, Dell and Time Warner had urged the governor to veto the legislation.

AMC Networks, which films its hit show The Walking Dead in the state, had also called for a veto.

Georgia has a burgeoning film industry, drawing scores of TV and film shoots yearly due to attractive tax incentives. The Los Angeles Times, citing the Georgia Department of Economic Development, reported that "248 film and television productions shot in the Peach State" in 2015, "representing $1.7 billion in spending."

Week #8 (3/14-3/18)- Strikes and workers’ protests multiply in China, testing party authority (Washington Post)

Workers at a steel factory in Guangzhou, China, gather Monday during a strike to press for pension benefits. (Billy H.C. Kwok/For The Washington Post)

By Simon Denyer February 25  

GUANGZHOU, China — In the Chinese region nicknamed “the world’s factory,” many workers are angry and disillusioned.

Strikes and other labor protests have spiked across the country as manufacturing plants lay off workers and reduce wages in the face of mounting economic head winds. But the unrest is particularly intense in the southern province of Guangdong, the vast urban sprawl bordering Hong Kong that is the heart of China’s export industry — and its economic success story.

The upsurge in industrial action represents a challenge for a Communist Party that bases much of its legitimacy on its ability to manage the economy. Experts say it is not about to threaten the party’s vice-like grip on power, but it will ring alarm bells for local officials whose careers often depend on their ability to stamp out stirrings of social unrest.

In December, Guangdong police arrested a handful of labor activists who have tried to defend workers’ rights and negotiate peaceful settlements to some of the disputes.

In the latest confrontation, hundreds of workers faced off against police in riot gear this week at a stainless steel factory in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, protesting wage cuts, layoffs and efforts to force many to resign without proper compensation.

“To me, the company was like a big family, but now it’s treating its employees so badly we have no sense of belonging,” said 32-year-old Chen, who has worked there for nearly seven years. “It is so cold-blooded.”

Chen asked to be referred to only by his family name for fear of retaliation. Other strike organizers and workers who have spoken out have been fired, or harassed by police.

Problems began when the factory’s Taiwanese owners sold the business to a Chinese state-owned company last year, workers said. Shortly afterward, Chen said, he was told he was being demoted from a lower-level leadership job and would see his salary cut, along with many others.

“We didn’t complain because we understood the company was in trouble,” he said. “But now . . . we found out our base salary had been halved, to 2,200 yuan ($335) a month.”

Colleagues had been placed on leave and given less than the minimum wage, he said.

“You just can’t live in Guangzhou on the money they are paying,” he said. “If you were to get a bowl and beg under the overpass, you would earn more.”

China Labour Bulletin (CLB), a Hong Kong-based group that supports workers’ rights, says it recorded 2,774 strikes or protests in China last year, twice as many as in 2014. It says the rise may be partly accounted for by better tracking of strikes on social media but called the upsurge obvious and massive.

The jump began after last August’s currency devaluation and stock market crash and continued to build during the last quarter of last year, mainly in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and most markedly in Guangdong.

[Stock market crash punches a hole in Xi’s dream]

“There is a growing sense of insecurity among workers, particularly in Guangdong,” said Jonathan Isaacs, a labor specialist and partner at Baker and McKenzie, a law firm in Hong Kong. “A lot of factories have shut down, relocated to cheaper areas or implemented mass layoffs.”

Many of the underlying problems predate the last quarter, according to Albert Park, director of the Institute for Emerging Market Studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

A survey by HKUST and Beijing’s Tsinghua University of nearly 600 factories in Guangdong conducted last August found that, although the profits picture was mixed, companies had trimmed their workforce by 3.7 percent in 2014. Labor-intensive sectors were the hardest hit, with employment in textiles falling more than 10 percent.

The main problem firms cited was rising wages: Guangdong is, in a sense, a victim of its own success, and now many factory owners are eyeing cheaper locations in Southeast Asia.

But the global economic slowdown was also having an impact, with low market demand cited as the second-biggest problem, Park said.

Industrial unrest, though, has mainly been fueled by owners’ failure to offer workers proper compensation for layoffs, pay them wages they were due or keep social security payments up to date, experts said.

CLB said two-thirds of the disputes recorded last year related to the nonpayment of wages. “The economic slowdown only partially explains the increase in labor disputes,” it wrote. “The fundamental cause has been the systematic failure of employers to respect the basic rights of employees.”

China has labor laws that are supposed to protect workers’ rights, but local governments regularly fail to enforce them, experts say.

[Complacency, protectionism: Why China won’t shut under-used factories]

Unions also do little to help. The All China Federation of Trade Unions is the largest in the world, with 280 million members and 918,000 full-time employees, but is firmly under Communist Party control, critics say.

At the Ansteel Lianzhong factory in Guangzhou, workers said the union leader had been appointed by the company and backed the management’s position.

“We wouldn’t even know who the union chairman was if it wasn’t for this strike,” Chen said. “It’s laughable. Anyone with any common sense would know the union leader must be elected.”

Given the vacuum left by the unions, a small network of labor activists has sprung up in Guangdong, seeking to educate workers about their legal rights and settle labor disputes through collective bargaining.

In December, dozens of activists were called in for questioning, and seven were detained. Three remain behind bars, the most prominent being Zeng Feiyang, who has been charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.”

Denied access to his attorney, Zeng has been denounced by state media in what critics say amounts to a “smear campaign” that gives him no chance of a fair trial.

The top U.N. human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, and the International Trade Union Confederation are among those who have expressed concern or called for the activists’ release. Writing in The Washington Post in January, three leading American legal scholars also denounced what they called the “cruel irony” of a Communist Party stamping out labor activism.

“The authorities don’t know how to deal with the situation, so their only response was to target the people who are actually helping,” said Geoffrey Crothall, communications director for CLB, which helps fund Zeng’s small labor organization.

Andrew Polk, resident economist at the Conference Board China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing, said there will probably be a rise in structural unemployment as China’s economy transitions away from heavy industry and toward services. “You can’t have a coal miner suddenly becoming a bank teller,” he said.

But a rise in joblessness and any further labor unrest is unlikely to significantly undermine one-party rule, he said, suggesting that the authorities might have to bolster social welfare payments, as they did during another economic transition around the turn of the millennium. “It is something government policy will have to address,” he said, “but I think the government is quite capable of dealing with the issue.”

At the Guangdong factory, Monday’s face-off ended without violence, although workers said all their banners, with slogans calling for better pay and conditions, were confiscated.

On Tuesday, the seventh day of the strike, police issued a notice saying workers had been “incited and seduced” by a small number of people and warning of arrests if the “illegal” gathering continued.

“We have called local media, but they didn’t dare cover this,” complained Luo Yebin, 31. “We posted on social media, uploaded videos, but they were deleted. We feel powerless, oppressed and infuriated.”

Many employees returned to work Wednesday after the police warning and after the company promised to restore their wages to previous levels, although some said they would still pursue legal action. Others said they feared retaliation and would seek work elsewhere.

Chen said he had been forced to leave his 3-year-old son with his parents back in his home town while he worked in Guangzhou, often reducing his wife to tears. Now, he wonders if all his heartbreak and hard work were worth it.

“I thought if I could keep working hard, I could get a decent job and have my kid with me,” he said. “My dream is just to be together with my family. But now even that dream is clouded with uncertainty.”

Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report.