Mes: agosto 2019

TUNIS, Tunisia — More than 8,000 Tunisians marched Saturday through the capital denouncing violence committed by ultraconservative Islamist groups in recent months. Since the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s secular dictatorship in a popular uprising a year ago, small groups of ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafists have risen in Tunisia calling for greater piety, attacking unveiled women and secular intellectuals and 경상북도출장마사지 occupying universities. Organized by two leftist opposition parties, the demonstration was one of the largest marches in the country since a moderate Islamist party swept elections last year. Not far away, several hundred Islamists held a counter-protest. “Make a common front against fanaticism,” read one of the posters carried by demonstrators in the main rally, many of whom were women. “We got rid of totalitarianism, and we don’t want it back,” read another banner. More in After the Arab Spring Tunisia’s long-oppressed moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, won October’s elections and formed a government with two secular parties. Ennahda has taken pains to calm the fears of Tunisia’s secular elite that it would turn the country into an Islamic state. The party has been repeatedly embarrassed by the actions of the Salafists, who appear to be justifying the warnings of secular parties such as the Progressive Democratic Party that radical Islamists are trying to change the country. PDP leader Maya Jribi attended the demonstration and called...

(AP) WASHINGTON – The U.S. is ramping up its presence at Syria’s Turkish border, sending more spies and 괴산출장안마 diplomats to help advise the rebel forces in their mismatched fight against the better armed Syrian regime, and to watch for possible al Qaeda infiltration of rebel ranks. U.S. officials briefed on the plan said the modest surge in U.S. personnel in the past few weeks — estimated at fewer than a dozen people — has helped improve rebels’ political organizing skills as well as their military organization. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly. It’s part of a two-pronged effort by the Obama administration to bolster the rebels militarily without actually contributing weapons to the fight, and politically, to help them stave off internal power challenges by the well-organized and often better-funded hardline Islamic militants who have flowed into the country from Iraq and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region. The increased intelligence gathered is intended to help the White House decide whether its current policy of providing only non-lethal aid is enough to keep momentum building in the nearly 18-month revolt against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. More in After the Arab Spring Spokesmen for the Pentagon and White House declined to comment Thursday. The diplomats and intelligence operatives from the CIA and other agencies stay outside war-torn Syria...

Hurricane Florence, which had strengthened into the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, weakened to a Category 1 storm Thursday as it moved on a path toward Bermuda. As of 5 p.m. ET Thursday, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph but was expected to reintensify Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.  Large swells from Florence are expected to hit Bermuda starting Friday, and portions of the U.S. East Coast over the weekend. Life-threatening surf and rip tides are possible.  There is great uncertainty about Florence’s track beyond day 5. The eye of the hurricane was located 1,050 miles east-southeast of Bermuda as of 5 p.m. ET Thursday and the storm is moving northwest at 10 mph.  Sustained winds have decreased from 130 mph Wednesday when Florence was classified as a Category 4 hurricane.  If Florence continues its current track across the Atlantic, it is likely to hit Bermuda. It should also miss Puerto Rico – located nearly 1,600 miles southwest – which started the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season with its electrical grid and other infrastructure still under repairs from Hurricane Maria last year. The situation was recently criticized in a federal report.  The National Hurricane Center has not yet issued any coastal watches or warnings as of their 5 p.m. ET advisory. But Florence is expected to generate potentially dangerous surf swells and rip...