World

WASHINGTON — A gunman shot dead at least 20 worshippers during Sunday morning services at a Baptist church in Texas, news media reported.

The gunman was killed after a short chase, CNN reported, quoting a sheriff's office spokesman in Guadalupe County. It was unclear whether the shooter died from a police bullet or at his own hand.

The worshippers were killed at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, a small rural community about 50 kilometres southeast of San Antonio, reports said.

Wilson County Commissioner Albert Gamez Jr. told AFP there were multiple fatalities and multiple people wounded, but he could not officially confirm the number. 

With details rapidly unfolding, some unnamed officials were quoted in media reports citing tolls as high as 27 dead and 20 or more wounded.

The shooter reportedly walked into the church shortly before noon — at a morning service that witnesses said was normally attended by some 50 people — and opened fire. A two-year-old was among the wounded, the Dallas Morning News website reported.

A spokeswoman for Connally Memorial Medical Centre in nearby Floresville told Fox News that "we have accepted a number of patients from the shooting". She gave no number.

Federal agents arriving 

A witness working at a gas station across the street said he heard at least 20 shots being fired in quick succession, CNN reported. Others nearby said the shooter appeared to have reloaded more than once.

Emergency personnel rushed to the scene, and some victims were evacuated by helicopter. Police formed a perimeter around the area, and tearful relatives and neighbors stood outside it, nervously awaiting news from inside the traditional, white-frame church.

Agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were heading to Sutherland Springs, a town of about 400, those agencies said.

President Donald Trump, who is in Japan on the first stop of a tour of Asian countries, tweeted: "May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan."

Texas Governor Greg Abbott offered his condolences.

"Our prayers are with all who were harmed by this evil act. Our thanks to law enforcement for their response," he tweeted, promising more details "soon". 

The shooting comes just over a month after a gunman in Las Vegas, firing down from a hotel room, killed 58 people and wounded hundreds attending an outdoor concert.

And it came just over two years after a white supremacist, Dylann Roof, entered a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and shot nine people to death.

CATANIA, Italy — Sicilians cast their ballots Sunday in a regional vote seen as a barometer for Italy’s general election next year, with the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) challenging a resurgent right as a divided left flounders.

“The vote is considered decisive not just by the party leaders pounding the streets of the main cities, and not just for the island’s future, but for the future of Italy and even Europe,” editorialist Marcello Sorgi wrote in La Stampa daily.

A victory in Sicily would give M5S its first region, a boost supporters say could propel it all the way to national leadership.

“The choice is simple: us or them, the future or the past, hope or failure, citizens or traditional political parties”, comedian Beppe Grillo, the movement’s outspoken founder, wrote on his blog.

M5S candidate Giancarlo Cancelleri, 42, is expected to have just one real challenger for the victory podium: Nello Musumeci, 62, who was leading the race in recent opinion polls and could snap up the region for the right.

A bitterly feuding left is expected to fail to get anyway near the top.

Analysts say the political dynamic on the Mediterranean island mirrors the situation nationally, and the vote is being closely watched in the eurozone’s third-largest economy for indications of how the general election, due before May, will go.

Polls close at 10 pm (2100 GMT) and votes will be counted on Monday.

“The polling stations open under a dark cloud, amid controversy over the risk of vote-rigging,” La Repubblica daily said, referring to claims the decision to wait overnight before beginning the count increased the chances of fraud.

The interior ministry was tightening controls in response to the fears, it said.

All eyes were on turnout figures, with low participation known to have rewarded M5S in the past. Only 47 per cent of Sicily’s eligible voters turned out for the last regional election in 2012, a record low.

By midday, only 10.8 per cent of voters had cast their ballots — down nearly half a
percentage point from the same time at the last election.

‘Enemies at the door’ 

A victory for Musumeci could be a boost for billionaire former premier Silvio Berlusconi, who recently shrugged off scandals to return to the political fray, portraying himself as a pro-European moderate and the only real defence against populism.

His centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy) Party joined forces with its traditional rightist allies the Northern League and the Brothers of Italy for the Sicily vote — a powerful combination which pollsters say could steal the show at the national elections.

The anti-immigrant Northern League, meanwhile, sees Sicily as a testing ground for expanding its reach beyond Italy’s northern regions.

But the ruling Democratic Party (PD) is braced for an embarrassing defeat that could have serious implications not just for the left nationally but also for Matteo Renzi, the former prime minister who wants his old job back.

“Renzi is preparing for the probable Sicilian nosedive like a man whose enemies are at the door and the supplies are running out,” political commentator Tommaso Ciriaco said in La Repubblica daily.

The 42-year old has been accused of causing a debilitating rift in the left, and has largely abandoned the party’s candidate, Fabrizio Micari, 54, on the campaign trail.

The worst case for the PD would see it beaten by Article 1 — Democratic and Progressive Movement (MDP), formed in early 2017 by a leftwing split.

The MDP’s Claudio Fava, 60, was nipping at Micari’s heels in the latest opinion polls, with just two per centage points between them.

SEOUL — North Korea ruled out talks and threatened to increase its nuclear arsenal in a fresh warning to Donald Trump’s administration Saturday as the US president set off on a tour of Asia.

Trump departed for his first presidential trip to Asia Friday, with tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats looming large. He is due to arrive in South Korea Tuesday, after first visiting Japan.

The North’s state-run KCNA news agency said in a commentary that the US should be disabused of the “absurd idea” that Pyongyang would succumb to international sanctions and give up its nuclear weapons, adding that it is in “the final stage for completing nuclear deterrence”.

“It had better stop day dreaming of denuclearisation talks with us”, said the commentary titled “Stop dreaming a day dream”.

“Our self-defensive nuclear treasure sword will be sharpened evermore unless the US hostile policy towards the DPRK is abolished once and for all”, it said, using an acronym for the official name of North Korea.

The White House said Trump will deliver a speech at South Korea’s National Assembly and urge “common resolve in the face of shared threat”.

But there is widespread concern in South Korea that the US president’s visit might worsen the situation if Trump fails to rein in his fierce rhetoric.

Trump and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un have traded insults and threats of war in recent months. 

“Because of his tendency to veer off the script, many Koreans are worried that he may let loose”, Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP.

Some 500 protesters took to the streets in Seoul Saturday, chanting slogans and waving banners as they accused Trump of bringing the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.

“No Trump, No War”, read one of the banners, while others portrayed the US president wearing a Nazi uniform.

Nearby, a rival group of some 100 Trump supporters, including many military veterans, chanted: “Welcome to Korea, We believe in Trump”.

Trump, who dismissed direct talks with Pyongyang as “waste of time”, will meet with President Moon Jae-in, who came to power early this year advocating for engagement with Pyongyang, a stance denounced as “appeasement” by Trump.

Professor Koh Yu-Hwan at Dongguk University, a leading policy adviser to the government, said Seoul expected Trump to avoid putting Moon in a quandary by renewing pugnacious threats against the North, particularly with South Korea hosting the Winter Olympics in February next year.

Moon has had to dial back his policy of engagement with the North in the face of Pyongyang’s persistent nuclear and missile tests.

NEW YORK — US President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his call that the Uzbek immigrant accused of killing eight people by speeding a rental truck down a New York City bike path should get the death penalty.

The suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, told investigators he was inspired by watching the Daesh terror group videos and began planning Tuesday’s attack a year ago, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court against him on Wednesday.

Saipov, 29, also said “he felt good about what he had done” and asked for permission to display the flag of Daesh in his hospital room, the complaint said.

Trump had suggested on Wednesday sending Saipov to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, where terrorism suspects apprehended overseas are held, but on Thursday he said doing this would have been too complicated.

“Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system...,” Trump said on Twitter on Thursday. In a subsequent tweet, he added, “... There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast.” 

Death penalty!

Saipov faces two charges, one of which carries the death penalty if the government chooses to seek it, acting US Attorney Joon Kim said. 

The charges are one count of violence and destruction of motor vehicles causing the deaths of eight people and one count of providing material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation — Daesh, also known as ISIS.

The maximum penalty for the first is death; the maximum for the second life in prison, Kim said.

Death penalty

Saipov faces the possibility of execution because he was charged under federal law; had he been charged in a state court he would not have faced this risk as New York state laws do not allow for execution.

When asked by reporters whether he thought Saipov should be executed if convicted, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he categorically opposes the death penalty.

“I’m not someone who believes in the death penalty in general, I just don’t,” de Blasio told a press conference near the site of Saipov’s attack. “I believe this is an individual who should rot in prison for the rest of his life.”

 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving member of a pair of ethnic Chechen brothers who killed three people and injured more than 260 when they bombed the 2013 Boston Marathon in an attack inspired by the Al Qaeda militant group, was sentenced to death in 2015. He is the only inmate among the 61 people on federal death row convicted for an act charged as terrorism.

Enemy combatant?

US Senator Lindsay Graham, a Republican, on Thursday criticised the Justice Department for charging Saipov in the courts, rather than treating him as an enemy combatant.

“I’m dumbfounded as to why the Trump Administration still follows the Obama playbook when it comes to dealing with terror suspects,” Graham said in a statement.

Declaring Saipov an enemy combatant would have allowed investigators to interrogate him without having a lawyer present. The suspect waived his right to remain silent or have an attorney when he agreed to speak to investigators from his bed at Bellevue Hospital Centre in Manhattan, where he was being treated after being shot by a police officer, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint said he was particularly motivated by a video where Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi — the leader of Daesh — exhorted Muslims in the United States and elsewhere to support the group’s cause.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it had located another Uzbek man, Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, 32, wanted for questioning as a person of interest in the attack. 

US law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, told Reuters that Saipov had been in contact with Kadirov and another person of interest in the investigation.

Five Argentine tourists, a Belgian, a New Yorker and a New Jersey man were killed in Tuesday’s attack. It was deadliest in New York City since the September 11, 2001, attack when hijackers crashed two passenger planes into the World Trade Centre, killing more than 2,600 people.

Saipov, who lived in Paterson, New Jersey, allegedly used a pickup truck rented from a New Jersey Home Depot to run down pedestrians and cyclists along a 20-block stretch of the Manhattan bike path, before slamming into a school bus.

NEW YORK — An Uzbek immigrant suspected of killing eight people in New York City followed plans laid out by the Daesh terror group and planned the attack weeks in advance, US investigators said on Wednesday.

Police said they had interviewed Sayfullo Saipov, 29, who was shot and arrested by police moments after the rampage in lower Manhattan on Tuesday, in which a rental truck was driven down a riverfront bike path.

"It appears that Mr. Saipov had been planning this for a number of weeks," New York Deputy Police Commissioner John Miller told a news conference.

"He did this in the name of ISIS [Daesh] and along with other items recovered at the scene were some notes that indicate that," said Miller. "He appears to have followed almost exactly the instructions that ISIS [Daesh] has put out on its social media channels to its followers."

The attack was the deadliest on New York City since September 11, 2001, when suicide hijackers crashed two jetliners into the World Trade Centre, killing more than 2,600 people. A further 12 people were injured, some critically, in Tuesday's attack. 

Similar assaults using vehicles as weapons took place in Spain in August and in France and Germany last year.

The suspect allegedly swerved the pickup onto a path filled with pedestrians and bicyclists on a sunny autumn afternoon, mowing down people in his path before slamming into the side of a school bus.

He then exited the vehicle brandishing what turned out to be a paint-ball gun and a pellet gun before a police officer shot him in the abdomen.

The suspect underwent surgery for gunshot wounds at Bellevue Hospital, where he has been interviewed by police, Miller said.

Saipov reportedly lived in Paterson, New Jersey, a one-time industrial hub about 40km northwest of lower Manhattan.

He had rented the pickup from a Home Depot Inc hardware store which was located in Passaic, just south of Paterson.

US Senator Lindsey Graham urged authorities to treat Saipov as an enemy combatant, a move that would allow investigators to question the man without him having a lawyer present.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that Saipov had been radicalised while living in the United States.

“He is a depraved coward, is what he is, and he was associated with ISIS, and he was radicalised domestically,” Cuomo said in an interview with CNN.

The majority of the 18 Daesh-inspired attacks carried out in the United States since September 2014 were the work of attackers who developed radical views while living in the United States, said Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, research director at George Washington University’s Programme on Extremism.

Argentine friends among dead

Six victims were pronounced dead at the scene and two more at a nearby hospital, Police Commissioner James O’Neill said.

Five of the dead were Argentine tourists, visiting New York as part of a group of friends celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation, the government there said.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said police will be out in force to protect the city’s marathon on Sunday, one of the world’s top road races, which draws some 51,000 runners from around the globe.

A US law enforcement official described the suspect as a US immigrant born in Uzbekistan, a predominantly Muslim country in Central Asia that was once part of the former Soviet Union. Police said he entered the United States in 2010.

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said his government would do all it could to help investigate the “extremely brutal” attack.

CNN and other media outlets, citing police officials, reported that the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is greatest” — when he jumped out of his truck.

Although authorities from the mayor’s office to the US Department of Homeland Security all swiftly branded the attack an act of terrorism, Cuomo stressed that the suspect was believed to have acted alone.

The New York Times said Saipov had come to the attention of law enforcement in the past. It cited three officials as saying federal authorities knew of Saipov from an unrelated probe, although it was unclear whether that was because he had ties to someone who was under scrutiny or because he was the target of an investigation.

Last week, an Uzbekistan citizen living in Brooklyn was sentenced to 15 years in prison for conspiring to support Daesh.

US President Donald Trump, who has pressed for a ban on travellers entering the United States from some predominantly Muslim countries, said on Twitter that he had ordered Homeland Security officials to “step up our already Extreme Vetting Programme. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!”

 He also criticised the US visa system, blaming Democrats and saying that he wanted a ‘merit based’ programme for immigrants to the United States.

TOKYO — A newly reelected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday pledged increasing pressure on North Korea to force the nuclear-armed country to the negotiating table, days before a visit by US President Donald Trump expected to be dominated by the threat from Pyongyang.

Kicking off a fresh term in office after he was formally re-elected by parliament, Abe hailed his recent thumping election victory as a means to further squeeze a North Korean regime that has alarmed the region with missile launches and a sixth nuclear test in recent months.

“A strong mandate from the people is a source of strong diplomacy,” Abe told a press conference on Wednesday, adding that a tough line could persuade Pyongyang to ask for negotiations.

“When President Trump visits Japan, we will spend sufficient time analysing the latest North Korean issues and discussing ways to deal with them,” Abe said.

Signs of any message by Trump to the North will be closely watched during his Asian tour, which begins at the weekend and will see him visit Tokyo from Sunday through Tuesday. Trump will also visit South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

During his election campaign Abe, a staunch conservative, stressed the need for strong leadership to deal with what he called Japan’s “twin crises”: a shrinking birth rate and the actions of a belligerent and nuclear-armed North Korea, which has sent missiles over northern Japan in recent months.

Abe’s super majority 

Abe’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party  swept to a two-thirds “super majority” in the 465-seat lower house on October 22. He was reinstated as premier by a huge majority on Wednesday and then reappointed all of his Cabinet ministers.

The 63-year-old is now on track to become Japan’s longest-serving premier.

Abe now has the parliamentary numbers to start a process to change Japan’s pacifist constitution — an ambition he has long cherished.

But he told reporters he will move cautiously on the divisive issue, saying that he will first seek an open discussion on the subject.

Abe also said he will improve the nation’s productivity, offer free early childhood education and expand childcare support.

Despite his October poll victory, Abe’s popularity ratings are relatively low and most observers attribute his election success to a weak and fractured opposition.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP), effectively disbanded after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike launched a new conservative group and vowed to do away with “old school politics”.

Several DP lawmakers defected to Koike’s new “Party of Hope” and the more left-leaning MPs formed a new party, the Constitutional Democrats.

In the end, Koike’s support imploded, mainly because she failed to stand herself in the election — confusing voters who did not know who would be premier if she won.

The Party of Hope finished with a mere 50 seats while the Constitutional Democrats won 55.

They were both dwarfed by Abe’s conservative coalition, which secured 313 lower house seats, obtaining the “super majority” required to change the constitution.

NEW YORK — A pickup truck struck down multiple people on a bike path in lower Manhattan, killing several and injuring numerous others on Tuesday afternoon, before the driver was shot and taken into custody, the New York City police said.

The pickup truck crashed into another vehicle after striking bicyclists and pedestrians, and the driver got out wielding what police later said were “imitation” guns. The driver was shot by police before being taken into custody, the New York City Police Department said in a posting on its Twitter account.

The Federal government was treating it as a terrorist attack, two US government officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A police spokesman posted a photo showing a white pickup truck on the bike path with its front end mangled and the hood crumpled. The truck was adorned with logos of the Home Depot hardware store chain. 

Mangled and flattened bicycles littered the bike path, which runs parallel to the West Side Highway on the western edge of Manhattan along the Hudson River.

One witness, John Williams, a 22-year-old student, told reporters at the scene that he heard about five gunshots before seeing a large man with curly being taken into custody.

“He seemed very calm,” Williams said. “He was not putting up a fight.”

The police have not confirmed any gunfire besides shots fired by officers.

A witness told ABC Channel 7 that he saw a white pick-up truck drive south on the bike path at full speed and hit several people. The witness, who was identified only as Eugene, said bodies were lying outside Stuyvesant High School, one of the city’s elite public schools.

A video apparently filmed at the scene and circulated online showed scattered bikes on the bike path and at least two people lying on the ground.

Both US President Donald President and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had been briefed about the incident, their offices said. The office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the governor was heading to the scene.

SYDNEY — Australian private security on Tuesday vacated an asylum seeker detention centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG) ahead of its planned closure, detainees said, leaving about 600 refugees and asylum seekers barricaded inside and refusing to move.

Detainees are defying attempts by Australia and PNG to close the controversial Manus Island centre, saying they fear violent reprisals from the local community if they move to a transit centre.

Despite threats that water and power supply to the camp would be cut by 5pm (0700 GMT), asylum seekers told Reuters after the deadline that half of the camp still had power at 10.30pm (1230 GMT), along with access to water. 

The Manus centre has been a key part of Australia's controversial "Sovereign Borders" immigration policy. The country refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, detaining them in camps in PNG and Nauru in the South Pacific.

Lawyers for some of the 600 men filed a last-minute lawsuit in PNG to prevent the camp's closure and allow the men to be relocated to a third country. A ruling is expected on Wednesday.

The detainees were left alone for the first time in more than four years after camp staff all left on Tuesday morning, Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz told Reuters.

"The water and electricity are still on but we are vulnerable now after the staff left us all alone," Aziz said.

Impending closure

The camp's impending closure is part of an Australian government plan to push refugees and asylum seekers to return to their home country, settle in PNG or move elsewhere, so dismantling part of the costly and controversial offshore detention programme.

The United Nations and rights groups have for years cited human rights abuses among detainees in the centres.

Detainees have consistently raised concerns over how they are treated by locals and authorities in PNG, a country that ranks 154th out of 185 on the United Nation's Human Development Index.

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton refused to comment on the departure of the Australian-employed security staff on Manus, but said the camp's closure would proceed.

"All have been informed for a considerable period of time that there is safe and secure alternate accommodation where health and other services will be maintained," Dutton said in an e-mailed statement.

Australia has already said it would spend up to A$250 million ($195 million) to house the men for the next 12 months. Just under 200 men have already been moved. 

The relocation of the men is designed as a temporary measure, allowing the United States time to complete vetting of refugees as part of a refugee swap deal.

Asylum seekers said several unidentified local men had arrived at the camp and taken away furniture from common areas. Videos images shot by the refugees and sent to Reuters show vans loaded with furniture departing, though it is not clear where the vehicles were from.

Supplies run low

Conditions for the refugees were unbearable, said Nick McKim, a senator with the Australian Greens Party who is on Manus. 

"I can only describe what is happening on Manus now as a humanitarian emergency," McKim told Reuters. "It is 31ºC today and drinking water will be cut off."

 PNG has sent paramilitary services to oversee the closure. 

PNG's High Court ruled last year that the Manus centre, first opened in 2001, was illegal.

Most of the detainees come from war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Syria.

Australia's tough offshore detention policies are backed by its two biggest political parties, although community opinion is divided.

"I would be absolutely terrified to be in that situation and I cannot understand why the government just simply will not say enough is enough ... we need to bring them here to Australia," said refugee advocate Dr Barri Phatarfod, who joined in a small protest against refugee policies in Sydney on Tuesday.

KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh — The Rohingya boys and girls shrieked with delight as the clowns juggled hoops and somersaulted, their red-nosed antics provoking a sound rarely heard in the world's largest refugee camp — children's laughter.

The clowns have been providing much-needed levity in the crowded Bangladesh camps, where hundreds of thousands of traumatised Rohingya children spend long days in bleak and difficult conditions.

Mohammad Noor lives with his mother and three siblings in a makeshift shanty in the teeming Kutupalong camp, where a lack of food and water means a constant struggle to survive.

The 10-year-old fled Myanmar last month after his father was killed in brutal violence by the army that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing.

The impromptu circus in a dusty clearing is a welcome distraction from the horror at home.

"It is hilarious. I have never seen anything like it. My friends and I were just laughing and laughing," he told AFP, as a quartet of painted clowns performed skits before a huge gathered crowd.

Theatre groups in Bangladesh have a record of using "drama therapy" to lift spirits in the most depressing of circumstances.

One troupe performed for the survivors of a factory collapse in 2013 that killed 1100 garment workers, while another hosted shows in a small village in Bangladesh's south that lost nearly 50 children in a tragic road accident.

In the Rohingya camps, where many lie sick or injured mourning the death of family and loss of their homelands, laughter is sorely needed.

"Our sole aim is to bring laughter to the Rohingya," said Rina Akter Putul, a veteran acrobat and the lone female member of the group.

"Making people laugh is a tough job, especially for those who lost their parents in the conflict."

 Laughter as medicine 

The UN estimates 60 per cent of the more than 600,000 refugees to arrive in Bangladesh since late August are children.

Many crossed the border alone from their villages in Myanmar's westernmost Rakhine State after their parents were murdered and communities driven out by state-sanctioned violence.

Charities on the ground say children are in dire need of emotional and mental support after enduring such trauma on their difficult journeys.

"I am sure our show will live in their memory for some time. It won't erase their scars, but it will boost their confidence," said Faker Ali, an acrobat who has worked in drama therapy for more than two decades.

But it is not just the children who benefit from the visiting performers.

Among the spectators who flocked to a recent show were countless elderly Rohingya refugees, clapping and smiling as the acrobats whirred rings and bars.

Life has been a gruelling quest to survive for older generations of the stateless Muslim minority. Many have escaped past pogroms in Rakhine and lost family and friends in bitter cycles of ethnic violence.

Rohingya are a reviled minority in Myanmar and are denied citizenship, education and opportunity by the Buddhist-majority government that regards them as illegal outsiders.

Most have enjoyed few if any luxuries in their lives — making the circus performance all the more thrilling.

"We hardly have any fun," said Nesar Ahmed, 38. Even during major Islamic festivals and weddings, there is little in the way of entertainment, he added.

"Life in Arakan [Rakhine] is grim," Khairul Amin, a 63-year-old grandfather, told AFP as a boisterous crowd, young and old, jostled to meet the visiting clowns.

"There is no television and no cinema or theatre. And there is this constant fear you'll be killed or arrested by the military."

 Seated for the show with her youngest child on her lap, Rehana smiled and laughed, saying: "Never in my life have I have seen such fun."

REYKJAVIK — Iceland’s conservative prime minister won a snap election despite a string of scandals, final results confirmed on Sunday, but it remained unclear whether he could form a viable coalition.

Bjarni Benediktsson, 47, was accused named last year in the “Panama Papers” worldwide tax-evasion leaks. He has also been accused of wrongdoing during Iceland’s financial collapse in 2008.

Nevertheless his Independence Party beat its rivals in Saturday’s election, according to final results published on Sunday.

It won 16 seats in the 63-seat parliament. Turnout was 81 per cent.

No party won a majority. It could take months before Iceland has a new government in place as thorny coalition negotiations await.

PM ‘optimistic’ 

Benediktsson fended off a challenge from the Left Green Movement and its potential allies, the Social Democratic Alliance and the anti-establishment Pirate Party.

The Left-Green Movement came in second with 11 seats, the Social Democratic Alliance with seven seats, and the Pirates with six seats.

Under the Icelandic system, the president tasks the leader of the biggest party with forming a government.

“I am optimistic that we can form a government,” Benediktsson told AFP after early results on Saturday showed him in the lead.

The prime minister called the snap election in response to various allegations of wrongdoing, which he denied.

The Independence Party lost five seats in parliament, according to Sunday’s results.

But it still came out on top — apparently helped by Iceland’s thriving economy, fuelled by a flourishing tourism sector.

Long talks ahead 

The party has been involved in almost every government in Iceland since 1980.

But growing public distrust of the elite has spawned several anti-establishment parties.

They have splintered the political landscape and made it increasingly difficult to form a stable government.

Eight parties won seats in parliament.

Benediktsson’s main rival, the Left-Green Movement won fewer votes than expected.

It will need at least five allies to form a 32-seat majority to dethrone the conservatives.

If it managed to do so, it would form only the second left-leaning government in Iceland since the country’s proclamation as a republic in 1944. 

“I’m worried that we may have to face up to the likelihood of long, drawn-out discussions and attempts to form a government,” Arnar Thor Jonsson, a law professor at Reykjavik University, told AFP.

Negotiations to form a coalition after the October 2016 election took three months.

Some voters are tired. It was Iceland’s fourth election since 2008 and the second in a year.

“I hope we will have more stable politics now... but I’m rather pessimistic about it,” Einar Orn Thorlacius, a lawyer in Reykjavik, told AFP.

Benediktsson called Saturday’s election after a junior member of his centre-right coalition pulled out over a legal controversy involving the prime minister’s father.

Benediktsson is a former lawyer and businessman, whose family is one of the richest and most influential in Iceland.

He has been implicated in several financial scandals and was mentioned in the Panama Papers — leaked documents that exposed offshore tax havens.

That scandal forced the resignation of then prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson.

Gunnlaugsson made a come-back to lead one of the new parties that ran in Saturday’s election.

Despite the scandals, many voters view Independence as the main force for economic stability and growth. Nearly half of the country’s post-war prime ministers came from that party.

Analysts said the strongest possible government would be a three-party coalition comprising the two biggest parties, the Independence and the Left-Greens -- but their clashing ideologies make such a collaboration unlikely.

“The Left-Greens would have to swallow their pride. That could probably be the most stable government,” said Egill Helgasson, a political commentator at public broadcaster RUV.

Left-Green leader Katrin Jakobsdottir, 41, told AFP on election night she was keeping all options open.

“We have eight parties in parliament and right now there doesn’t seem to be any obvious majority. All parties are open for discussion,” she said.

Her campaign promises included investing in social infrastructure and ensuring that Iceland’s economic prosperity reaches the health care and education sectors.