Morocco votes after five years under Islamists

Morocco will elect a parliament on Friday for the first time since an Islamist-led government took office following Arab Spring uprisings that toppled leaders across the region.
The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) came to power in 2011 after swelling protests prompted concessions from King Mohammed VI, the scion of a monarchy that has ruled the North African country for 350 years.
A new constitution reduced some, though not all, of the king’s near-absolute powers as autocratic regimes fell in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane’s PJD says a second term would allow it to continue its limited economic and social reforms.
Heading a coalition that includes communists, liberals and conservatives, it retains considerable support among the urban middle classes that have largely abandoned the left in favour of Islamist parties.
But it has been weakened by rising unemployment and what critics say is a failure to deal with corruption.

Duterte’s popularity soars with Philippine crime war

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s popularity has soared during his first three months in office, an independent survey showed Thursday, in an apparent endorsement by Filipinos of his brutal crime crackdown.
The unprecedented purge has left more than 3,000 people dead and raised fears of mass extrajudicial killings, triggering global condemnation from defence ally the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
However 76 percent of Filipinos polled by Social Weather Stations said they were “satisfied” with Duterte’s performance, with just 11 percent reporting being “dissatisfied” and the rest undecided.
“The president seems to be off on a very good start,” his spokesman, Ernesto Abella, told reporters as he assessed the survey. “The people trust what he is doing.”
The Manila-based polling group surveyed 1,200 adults nationwide from September 24-27, asking them simply about Duterte’s performance as president without reference to the drug war.

Colombia’s ex-president says peace deal was ‘weak’

Former Colombian President Alavaro Uribe has described the failed peace deal with leftist rebels as “weak” following a meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos.
Uribe, who led the campaign against the accord, said the deal had to be for everyone not half the population.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have held marches urging the government and Farc not to go back to war.
Colombians narrowly rejected the deal in a referendum on Sunday.
President Santos is scrambling to salvage the deal, which opponents said was too soft on the Farc guerrillas.
Government negotiators have already returned to Havana for further talks with Farc leaders.

Typhoon Chaba kills five in S’Korea, heads to Japan

At least five people have been killed after Typhoon Chaba battered South Korea with strong winds and heavy rain.
The southern cities of Busan and Ulsan were worst affected, as well as the resort island of Jeju.

Kenya electoral commissioners resign after deadly protests

A senior government official says all members of Kenya’s electoral commission have resigned ahead of next year’s presidential election, after waves of opposition protests called for them to go.
Joseph Kinyua, the president’s chief of staff, said on Wednesday that President Uhuru Kenyatta

Trump backs off from praising Putin after VP debate

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has backed off from praising Vladimir Putin, saying he was unsure of his relationship with the Russian president who he has described as a better leader than President Barack Obama.
On Wednesday, just one day after his running mate Mike Pence appeared to break ranks during a vice presidential debate and called Putin “a small and bullying leader”, Trump adjusted his own previously warm rhetoric towards the Russian leader.
“I don’t love [Putin], I don’t hate. We’ll see how it works. We’ll see,” Trump told supporters during a campaign stop in the swing state of Nevada. “Maybe we’ll have a good relationship. Maybe we’ll have a horrible relationship. Maybe we’ll have a relationship right in the middle.”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has appealed to anti-Russian sentiments in the US by criticising Trump, who often praises Putin, as being too cozy with the Kremlin leader and

Italian police find fugitive mafia boss hiding behind wardrobe

Italian police arrested on Wednesday a fugitive Calabrian mafia boss who had been hiding in a secret room in his own home, five years after he escaped the clutches of the law.
‘Ndrangheta boss Antonio Pelle, considered one of the country’s most dangerous fugitives, had been hiding in a secret room in his home in Benestare, a small town near the southern city of Reggio Calabria, authorities said.
Police footage of the capture shows the 54-year-old boss known as “la Mamma” (the mom, referring to the fact that he was the head of the San Luca mafia clan), peaking out from the top of a large wardrobe after being discovered.
Pelle had been silently lying in a niche built behind the wardrobe during the police search until he was discovered, police said. From the outside, the room, only big enough to fit a mattress and a fan, looked like a regular house safe concealed by wallpaper.

South Africa’s Zuma appoints new anti-graft chief as probe looms

South African President Jacob Zuma approved a new anti-graft watchdog on Thursday, hours before the outgoing investigator will question him about allegations his wealthy business friends influenced political appointments.
Zuma signed off on parliament’s choice of Busisiwe Mkhwebane as the next public protector, replacing Thuli Madonsela, whose high-profile investigation into improper state spending on Zuma’s private home has won her popular respect. Her term ends this month.
Madonsela will quiz Zuma on Thursday over accusations the Gupta family played a role in

White House accuses Israel of betraying trust

The White House accused Israel of a betrayal of trust Wednesday, in an unusually sharp rebuke over its plans to build hundreds of new settlement homes deep in the West Bank.
Days after President Barack Obama approved a $38 billion Israeli military aid package and attended former president Shimon Peres’s funeral in Jerusalem, the White House railed at the construction of 300 housing units on land “far closer to Jordan than Israel.”
Warning that the decision jeopardizes the already distant prospect of Middle East peace as well as Israel’s own security, press secretary Josh Earnest said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s word had been called into question.
“We did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement,” he said.
“I guess when we’re talking about how good friends treat one another, that’s a source of serious concern as well.”

Oromo protests: Ethiopia unrest resurges after stampede

Often violent protests in which rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed by security forces have flared again in Ethiopia, with a US citizen among the latest deaths.
Protests reignited in the Oromia region – the main focus of a wave of anti-government demonstrations that began in November – in recent days after at least 55 people were killed in a stampede over the weekend, sparked by police firing tear gas and warning shots at a huge crowd of protesters at a religious festival.
Fifty-five is the official death toll given by the government, though opposition activists and rights groups say they believe more than 100 people died as they fled security forces, falling into ditches that dotted the area. Ethiopian radio said excavators had to be used to remove some of the bodies.
The demonstrations started among the Oromo, Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, and later spread to the Amhara, the second most populous group. Though they initially began over land rights they later broadened into calls for more political, economic and cultural rights.
Both groups say that a multi-ethnic ruling coalition and the security forces are dominated by the Tigray ethnic group, which makes up about six percent of the population.