RED DEER ADVOCATE Wednesday, July 30, 2014 A7
Massive blaze rages as militias battle BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CAIRO, Egypt — Heavy gunfire between warring militias prevented firefighters from battling a massive inferno in Libya’s capital Tuesday, despite calls for a cease-fire to end the worst violence in the capital since the country’s 2011 civil war. The blaze engulfing oil depots started earlier in the crossfire of militias fighting over Tripoli’s international airport, a weekslong battle between rivals mirroring the violence that’s plagued Libya since the downfall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In the eastern city of Benghazi, Islamist-led militias said they also seized bases of a renegade general fighting against them Tuesday as a jet fighter crashed. The violence has impeded the country’s democratic transition and its escalation is the biggest challenge facing Libya’s newly elected 200-member parliament, which will take office in August. Earlier this month, a militia composed of fighters from the western city of Misrata backed by others stationed in the capital carried a surprise attack on the airport, held for the last three years by a militia from the mountain town of Zintan. The fighting forced authorities to shut down the airport after it was devastated in shelling. The Health Ministry said that 97 people have been killed and more than 400 have been wounded in the fighting. The violence prompted many diplomats and foreigners to flee the country, including the U.S. ambassador in Libya and United Nations staff. A Spanish military plane also evacuated 60 people from Libya, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
LIBYA
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Shocked into action by the downing of the Malaysian airliner and the resulting deaths of more than 200 Europeans, the European Union approved dramatically tougher economic sanctions Tuesday against Russia, to be followed swiftly by similar punitive measures from the U.S. The new sanctions adopted by the Europeans over the uprising in Ukraine include an arms embargo on Moscow and a ban on the unapproved sale to the Russians of technology that has dual military and civilian uses or is sensitive, such as advanced equipment used in deep-sea and Arctic oil drilling, EU officials said. To restrict Russia’s access to Europe’s capital markets, EU citizens and banks will be barred from purchasing certain bonds or stocks issued by state-owned Russian banks, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make public statements. European Union President Herman Van Rompuy and the head of the EU’s executive, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said the 28-nation bloc meant to send a “strong warn-
WORLD
BRIEFS
Cousin of Afghan President Karzai assassinated KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful cousin of outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai was assassinated by a suicide bomber hiding explosives in his cap on Tuesday, a provincial official said. It was the latest attack targeting Afghan power brokers and govern-
WEST AFRICAN AIRLINE SUSPENDS FLIGHTS TO TWO CITIES BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Saturday, July 26, 2014, frame grab from video obtained from a freelance journalist traveling with the Misarata brigade, shows an airplane on the tarmac of the airport belching black smoke into the air during fighting between the Islamist Misarata brigade and a powerful rival militia, in Tripoli, Libya. The Spanish ambassador will remain in Tripoli with a reduced staff. A cease-fire deal over the airport fighting mediated by Tripoli’s City Council fell apart hours after they declared it late Monday, leaving council members pleading with the militias to withdraw from at least a 3-kilometre (1.86 mile) radius to allow firefighters to fight the blaze. The government ordered firefighters to withdraw amid new clashes. Gunfire struck a fourth oil tank
Tuesday, but it didn’t catch on fire, said Samir Kamal, a senior official with Libya’s state-run oil company. Kamal said up to 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of oil and liquid natural gas are in the area, as well as gas cylinders used for cooking. “We are afraid that if fire sweeps the whole area ... (there will be) huge explosions that can impact lives of residents living in a 5-kilometre (3.11mile) radius of the tanks,” he said.
EU adopts tough sanctions on Russia BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Top doctor dies from Ebola
ing” to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the “illegal annexation” of Crimea and Russia’s destabilization of Ukraine cannot be tolerated. “Furthermore, when the violence created spirals out of control and leads to the killing of almost 300 innocent civilians in their flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia, the situation requires urgent and determined response,” the two top EU officials said in a statement. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was blown out of the sky by a missile over eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people aboard, most of them Europeans. The Obama administration has blamed separatists armed and supported by Russia. The new EU sanctions bring Europe in sync with the U.S., which has been pressing the bloc to take a harder line against Moscow. Europe, which has a much larger trade relationship with Russia than the U.S. does, had hesitated to take actions as strong as Washington’s for fear among some leaders that sanctions could boomerang against their own economies. Germany, for example, imports one-third of its gas from Russia, while France has a contract to deliver two warships.
But on Monday, in a rare videoconference call with President Barack Obama, the leaders of Britain, Germany, Italy and France expressed their willingness to slap new sanctions on Russia in co-ordination with the U.S. Up to now, the EU had only targeted specific individuals, businesses or rebel organizations accused of undermining Ukraine. “Unlike the Americans, we always have to get 28 countries together,” German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in an interview with ARD television. “And the interests are very different. All the same, I think that we — at the latest with the shooting-down of this plane — have a situation in which we cannot simply carry on in the same way.” The U.S. hailed the Europeans’ harder line. “We welcome these early indications that European countries are going to take additional steps today,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. He said further U.S. penalties would be announced as early as Tuesday. The West has accused Russia of supplying weapons and fighters to Ukraine’s pro-Moscow separatists in the uprising that has killed more than 1,000 people since mid-April.
ment officials as insurgents and political factions struggle for power ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat forces by the end of this year. Hashmat Khalil Karzai was a staunch supporter of the president and had played an active role in the campaign to choose his cousin’s successor. The attacker blew himself up while bowing to kiss Karzai’s hand following morning prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in a reception room at the Karzai family home in the southern province of Kandahar, a provincial government spokesman said. It was similar to the September 2011 killing of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who at the time was the leader of a government-
appointed peace council seeking reconciliation with militants. President Karzai condemned the attack. “Just like all other Afghans who are the daily targets of terrorist attacks, our family too is no exception
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — A leading doctor who risked his own life to treat dozens of Ebola patients died Tuesday from the disease, officials said, as a major regional airline announced it was suspending flights to the cities hardest hit by an outbreak that has killed more than 670 people. Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, who was praised as a national hero for treating the disease in Sierra Leone, was confirmed dead by health ministry officials there. He had been hospitalized in quarantine. Health workers have been especially vulnerable to contracting Ebola, which is spread through bodily fluids such as saliva, sweat, blood and urine. Two American health workers are currently hospitalized with Ebola in neighbouring Liberia. The Ebola outbreak is the largest in history with deaths blamed on the disease not only in Sierra Leone and Liberia, but also Guinea and Nigeria. The disease has no vaccine and no specific treatment, with a fatality rate of at least 60 per cent. Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority board, said police are now present at the airport in Monrovia to enforce screening of passengers. “So if you have a flight and you are not complying with the rules, we will not allow you to board,” he said. In a statement released Tuesday, airline ASKY said it was temporarily halting flights not only to Monrovia but also to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Flights will continue to the capital of the third major country where people have died — Guinea — though passengers departing from there will be “screened for signs of the virus.” Passengers at the airline’s hub in Lome, Togo also will be screened by medical teams, it said. “ASKY is determined to keep its passengers and staff safe during this unsettling time,” the statement said. The measures follow the death Friday of a 40-year-old American man of Liberian descent, who had taken several flights on ASKY, causing widespread fear at a time when the outbreak shows no signs of slowing in West Africa. Patrick Sawyer, who worked for the West African nation’s Finance Ministry, took an ASKY Airlines flight from Liberia to Ghana, then on to Togo and eventually to Nigeria where he was immediately taken into quarantine until his death. His sister had died of Ebola though he maintained he had not had close physical contact with her when she was sick. At the time, Liberian authorities said they had not been requiring health checks of departing passengers in Monrovia. The World Health Organization says the risk of travellers contracting Ebola is considered low because it requires direct contact with bodily fluids or secretions such as urine, blood, sweat or saliva, experts say.
and as every other Afghan, we too will have to bear it,” he said in a statement. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, which comes at a sensitive time in Afghanistan.
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