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page 38 SYRIA At least 60,000 dead’ in Syria regime prisons At least 60,000 people have died in Syrian government prisons over the past five years from torture or due to dire humanitarian conditions, including a lack of food, a monitor said. The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, Rami Abdel […]

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SYRIA

At least 60,000 dead’ in Syria regime prisons

At least 60,000 people have died in Syrian government prisons over the past five years from torture or due to dire humanitarian conditions, including a lack of food, a monitor said.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman, said he compiled the toll from regime sources.

“Since March 2011, at least 60,000 people lost their lives to torture or to horrible conditions, notably the lack of medication or food, in regime detention centres,” Abdel Rahman said.

He said the highest number of deaths had been recorded in the infamous Saydnaya prison as well as detention centres run by Syria’s notorious air force intelligence and state security forces.

Thousands of prisoners are held in the military-run Saydnaya prison, one of the country’s largest detention centres located 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Damascus.

Rights groups have accused Syria’s government of systematically using torture and inhumane practices in its detention centres.

EGYPT

Submarine joins hunt for EgyptAir black box recorders

Egypt deployed a submarine on Sunday to hunt for the black box flight recorders of the EgyptAir plane that crashed in some of the deepest waters of the Mediterranean Sea with 66 people on board, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said.

Ships scouring the sea north of Alexandria for three days have found body parts, personal belongings and wreckage from the Airbus 320, but are still trying to locate the recorders which could shed light on the cause of Thursday’s crash.

Sisi said that underwater equipment from Egypt’s offshore oil industry was being brought in to help the search.

“They have a submarine that can reach 3,000 meters under water,” he said in a televised speech. “It moved today in the direction of the plane crash site because we are working hard to salvage the black boxes.”

UK

Cameron repeats criticism of Trump’s ‘dangerous’ Muslim ban

David Cameron has said Donald Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslims arriving in the US is “dangerous”, and he is not willing to withdraw his criticism of it.

The British prime minister said he was sticking to his earlier claim that the proposal was “divisive, stupid and wrong” but he would be happy to meet the presumptive Republican presidential candidate if he travelled to the UK before the US election.

“American presidential candidates have made a habit of coming through Europe and through the UK, so if that happens I would be very happy to,” he said.

He added that the original statement from Trump was “a very dangerous thing to say … as well as a divisive and wrong one”.

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban leader killed in US drone strike

The Afghan government and a senior Taliban commander confirmed Sunday that the extremist group’s leader, Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour, has been killed in a U.S. drone strike.

Mullah Abdul Rauf, who recently reconciled with Mansour after initially rebelling against his ascension to the leadership, said Mansour died in the strike late Friday “in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.”

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency announced that Mansour had been killed in an air attack Saturday afternoon.

In a statement, the National Directorate of Security, as the secret service is known, said the attack took place in Baluchistan province, in southwestern Pakistan.

It is believed to have been the first drone strike on Baluchistan, which could explain why Mansour was traveling in an unarmoured car without a convoy, decoys or bodyguards.

Ahead of the official confirmation of Mansour’s death, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Myanmar Sunday, repeatedly referred to him in the past tense.

Mansour, he said “posed a continuing imminent threat to U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, Afghan civilians, Afghan security forces” and members of the U.S./NATO coalition.

AUSTRIA

Austria presidential vote: Run-off race too close to call

Partial results in Austria’s run-off presidential election, which pitches the far right against an independent, suggest it is too close to call.

Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party appeared to be in the lead initially, but Alexander Van der Bellen has moved ahead with nearly 80% of votes counted.

For the first time since World War Two, both the main centrist parties were knocked out in the first round.

A key issue in the campaign was Europe’s migrant crisis.

About 90,000 people claimed asylum in Austria last year, equivalent to about 1% of the Austrian population, and the Freedom Party ran an anti-immigration campaign.

The presidency is a largely ceremonial post, but a Hofer victory could be the springboard for Freedom Party success in the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2018.

TAJIKISTAN

Tajiks vote on allowing president to rule for life

Polls closed in ex-Soviet Tajikistan on Sunday in a referendum on constitutional changes almost certain to strengthen the hold of long-time President Emomali Rahmon and his family over the Central Asian state.

The country’s electoral commission, which declared the vote valid, said some 88.3 percent of the roughly 4.3 million eligible voters had cast ballots by 1300 GMT.

The 63-year-old leader has ruled Tajikistan for nearly a quarter of a century, demonstrating what critics say is an increased disregard for religious freedoms, civil society and political pluralism in recent years.

Many residents of the Tajik capital appeared enthusiastic in their support for Rahmon, who led the country out of a five-year civil war that began in 1992, less than a year after independence.

BURUNDI

Peace talks open in Tanzania with opposition criticism

Tanzania opened peace talks on Saturday in a bid to end a political crisis in Burundi, but some opponents said the absence of several leading opposition groups made it more like a “monologue” by the government, undermining the process.

Senior government officials are attending the talks. But opponents said some major opposition groups were excluded, including CNARED, an umbrella group that includes politicians in exile opposed to the third term.

The government has said CNARED is not a registered party.

“For us, there is no dialogue, it is rather a monologue, a time wasting because dialogue or talks should be between two parties in conflict,” said CNARED spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye in a statement.

TURKEY

Erdogan loyalist elected leader of ruling AK Party

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim was unanimously elected on Sunday as the new leader of the ruling AK Party and therefore the prime minister.

One of the co-founders of the AK Party along with Erdogan, Yildirim, 60, won all the votes from the 1,405 delegates at an extraordinary party congress.

He was the sole candidate at the congress, which was announced after Ahmet Davutoglu said earlier this month he was stepping down following an increasingly public rift with Erdogan.

Davutoglu had served as foreign minister, but after Erdogan became president and he prime minister, conflict began to emerge and, in recent months, the two men disagreed on several issues, including negotiations with the European Union.

CHILE

Violent protests erupt during president’s speech

Violent protests have broken out in Chile during the state-of-the-nation address by President Michelle Bachelet.

Demonstrators set up barricades and hurled firebombs in Valparaiso, where Chile’s Congress meets. Police fired tear gas and water cannon.

A security guard died from fume inhalation when masked protestors burned a pharmacy and supermarket.

Chileans are angry because of an economic downturn and a corruption scandal involving Ms Bachelet’s family.

Some of the fires continued burning for hours and smoke could be seen rising from several places in the city.

Ms Bachelet, who was elected in 2013 promising to reduce inequality, said the country was on a path of reform “from which there is no turning back”.

INDONESIA

Seven killed in volcano eruption

Seven people have been killed after a volcano in western Indonesia erupted, blasting clouds of volcanic ash 3km (2 miles) into the sky.

The victims were farming in an area that was declared unsafe because of its close proximity to Mount Sinabung.

The volcano was still spewing ash on Sunday, hampering rescue operations.

More than a dozen people were killed when it erupted in 2014. It also erupted in 2010, after having been dormant for 400 years.

Rescue teams are still scouring the area, looking for more victims who may have been killed or badly burned by the hot gas and ash clouds released in the eruption.