World

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia has stepped up security at its borders in case Malaysian militant fighters try to return home after Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to take back the Daesh terror group stronghold of Mosul, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Tuesday.

Iraqi government forces launched a US-backed offensive on Monday to drive Daesh from the northern city of Mosul, the group’s last major stronghold in Iraq.

Around 4,000 to 8,000 militants, a mix of Iraqi and foreign fighters, are estimated to be in the city.

Ahmad Zahid told a news conference that Malaysian airport and border security had been increased, while illegal routes commonly used by smugglers were being monitored.

“We have been exchanging intel with international intelligence agencies, and we have a suspect list which includes names of those we believe have ties with Daesh,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid did not state how many Malaysians were currently in Mosul but police figures released last month showed that 90 Malaysians had joined Daesh in Syria and Iraq since 2013.

In August, Malaysia revoked the passports of 68 Malaysians who had been identified as leaving the country to join Daesh.

Returning fighters would be detained and sent for deradicalization, Ahmad Zahid said.

A total of 137 people have been arrested for either planning to join Daesh overseas, returning to Malaysia after joining the group, or sending funds to the group, he added.

Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein had said on Monday intelligence sources suggested that thousands of Daesh members would make their way back to their countries of origin, or find safe havens in regions such as Southeast Asia, if the Mosul offensive succeeds.

“We have to be very proactive,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

Authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have been on high alert since Daesh-linked militants carried out an armed attack in the capital of neighbouring Indonesia in January.

In June, eight people were injured when two Daesh supporters threw a grenade into a bar on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the first successful attack by the group in the Malaysia. 

ISLAMABAD — Two Taliban officials said on Tuesday that the militant movement held informal, secret peace talks with the Afghan government earlier this month in Qatar, but a Taliban spokesman denied they took place.

The Afghan Taliban officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said the talks had led to very little in terms of progress.

They added that US officials were part of the process, although they did not specify whether they were directly involved in talks.

Afghan and US officials demanded that the Taliban declared a ceasefire, laid down arms and started formal peace talks, said the official.

In response, he said, Taliban officials demanded that the group be officially recognised as a political movement, its leaders' names be removed from a UN blacklist and all prisoners be released.

"Like our previous meetings, it was a waste of time and resources, as we could not achieve anything from the meeting," said the official.

A spokesman at the US embassy in Kabul declined to comment on the issue, and referred questions to Washington.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid dismissed reports of the meeting, saying they were propaganda aimed at creating divisions within the insurgency.

He was responding to an article earlier on Tuesday by Britain's Guardian newspaper that cited anonymous sources saying the Taliban had held two rounds of discussions, some of which included US officials.

According to The Guardian, the officials said the talks were also attended by Mullah Abdul Manan, the brother of the Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died in 2013.

A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani would not confirm or deny any recent talks in Qatar when asked by Reuters, but added: "We will use all possible ways in order to reach a lasting peace in the country".

Previous Pakistan-brokered peace talks have yielded little progress, and ground to a halt when news of the death of Mullah Omar was confirmed in 2015.

Efforts to revive the talks collapsed when the United States killed former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a drone strike in Pakistan in May.

Under new Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, fighting has raged across Afghanistan, with the Taliban attacking the northern city of Kunduz and threatening Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah in the south.

No Pakistani official took part in the latest talks, according to The Guardian.

Relations between the governments in Kabul and Islamabad have deteriorated over the past year, with Afghanistan and the United States accusing Pakistan of harbouring the Taliban and not doing enough to bring the group to the negotiating table.

Pakistan denies providing the Taliban a safe haven.

The Taliban have gathered strength over the past two years, carrying out major attacks in Kabul and taking over large swathes of territory for the first time since being ousted by a US-led military intervention in 2001.

The United States has continued to provide air power and other military support to Kabul, preventing the Taliban from making more ground.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “no wonders” should be expected at talks on a stalled peace plan for eastern Ukraine which she will host on Wednesday with the leaders of Russia, France and Ukraine.

Other top officials, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, also dampened expectations of any breakthrough at the talks in Berlin on ending a conflict in which more than 9,600 people have been killed since 2014.

“One musn’t expect any wonders from tomorrow’s meeting but it is worth every endeavour on this issue to take efforts forward,” Merkel told a news conference on Tuesday.

Merkel said she and French President Francois Hollande would also discuss what she called the worsening humanitarian disaster in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Given this situation, I believe no option — including that of sanctions — can be taken off the table,” Merkel said, adding that the first priority was to alleviate human suffering in Syria.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was important to maintain pressure on Russia over Syria.

Ayrault said the meeting on Ukraine would aim to establish a timetable for elections in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and discuss further military disengagement along the line of conflict.

Poroshenko, speaking in Oslo, cautioned against setting “very high expectations” for the meeting. The Kremlin has criticised Ukraine for not respecting its obligations under the Minsk ceasefire deal.

A ceasefire agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk in February 2015 stemmed heavy fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels, but violence routinely flares along a demarcation line.

“Am I very optimistic? Yes. I am very optimistic about the future of Ukraine but unfortunately not so much about tomorrow’s meeting, but I would be very happy to be surprised,” Poroshenko said.

The talks will take place just over a year after the four leaders last met in the so-called “Normandy Format”, and against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Russia, Europe and the United States about Moscow’s military role in Syria.

Ayrault, speaking in Paris, said there was no alternative to continuing to work on the Minsk agreement.

“I told the Ukrainians there was no plan B to the Minsk accords. Some think there is a plan B, which is confronting Russia, which we don’t want.”

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it made sense to “compare notes” about implementation of the Minsk accord, but it was not possible to talk about any concrete agreements.

“Indeed, the security situation along the demarcation line leaves a lot to be desired, provocations are ongoing,” Peskov said. “Of course, all this does not promote the process of achieving the implementation of the Minsk agreements.”

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — Afghan government troops say they have fought Taliban forces to a standstill outside the capital of southern Helmand province, but the city remains surrounded after the insurgents launched one of their most brazen offensives.

A centre of illicit opium production as well as a traditional Taliban stronghold, Helmand has been one of the areas that suffered the most violence in the insurgents' battle to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul.

In recent weeks, Taliban fighters battled their way into the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, in an attack that was only blunted after hundreds of Afghan commandos were airlifted into the area.

Now officials on both sides say heavy casualties have forced the Taliban to regroup.

"Our forces, backed by foreigners, have killed hundreds of Taliban fighters during night raids in the last 24 hours," said General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, commander of the army's 215th Corps in Helmand.

Afghan soldiers and police, in some cases aided by American air strikes and special forces advisers, are now working to try to push the Taliban back from the city limits, said senior police official Mohammad Hakim Hangaar.

The Taliban does not have a new plan to overrun the city, but intends to "keep it under siege as long as possible", said one Taliban commander, who asked not to be named for his own security.

Taliban leaders threw into the attack on the city hundreds of fighters from neighbouring provinces, but many of them were killed or injured in weeks of heavy fighting, said another Taliban commander.

Afghan forces have also suffered heavy casualties however, leaving Lashkar Gah effectively under siege.

Last week up to 100 soldiers and police were killed in a series of ambushes as they tried to escape to the provincial capital from positions encircled by the Taliban for days.

The NATO-led military coalition has several hundred troops based in Helmand. The troops, mostly American, are largely confined to an advisory role but US air strikes have been used to help the Afghans.

General John Nicholson, the top commander of US and coalition troops in Afghanistan, has vowed to do everything to keep Lashkar Gah from falling to the Taliban.

But some Afghan elders have questioned if the efforts are sufficient, as thousands of residents have fled the latest fighting and Taliban control or contest most of the province.

WASHINGTON — Republican candidate Donald Trump said on Monday he expected widespread voter fraud in the November 8 US presidential election, ramping up his warning of a rigged election despite considerable evidence that shows the electoral system is sound.

Trump has tried to whip up fears of a flawed election as he has fallen back in opinion polls against Democrat Hillary Clinton. He is also strongly denying allegations from multiple women that he has sexually assaulted or otherwise behaved inappropriately with them.

“Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!” Trump said on Twitter on Monday.

Trump, a New York businessman making his first run for public office, has not provided any evidence to back the allegations of fraud and a number of Republicans are chafing. Some of them have urged him publicly to show proof or drop the claims. Early voting and voting by mail have begun in many states.

While Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, and his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, have tried to reshape the candidate’s comments as being aimed at an unfair news media, Trump’s own words have targeted the legitimacy of the election system.

Even after Pence said in a televised interview on Sunday that Trump would accept the results of next month’s election, Trump tweeted that the “election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary — but also at many polling places — SAD”.

Numerous studies have shown that voter fraud in US elections is rare, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. In a report titled “The Truth About Voter Fraud”, the centre cited voter fraud incident rates between 0.00004 per cent and 0.0009 per cent.

An August study by The Washington Post found 31 credible cases of impersonation fraud out of more than 1 billion votes cast in elections from 2000 to 2014. Arizona State University studies in 2012 and 2016 found similarly low rates.

“Despite this overwhelming evidence, claims that voter fraud is rampant consistently garner media attention, because perceived threats to electoral integrity — even those with no basis in fact — frighten voters by striking at the core of our democracy,” Brennan Centre counsel Jennifer Clark wrote in a blog last month.

Trump supporter Steve King, a Republican congressman from Iowa, was pressed Monday on CNN about whether Trump was making an unsubstantiated claim in saying the election would be illegitimate.

“I wouldn’t say it’s completely unsubstantiated,” King said. “Partially unsubstantiated — I would agree with that.”

 Trump’s campaign has been struggling with sexual misconduct allegations from several women since a 2005 videotape emerged on October 7 showing him boasting about groping and making other unwanted sexual advances on women.

“Can’t believe these totally phony stories, 100% made up by women (many already proven false) and pushed big time by press, have impact!” Trump said in another Twitter post on Monday.

Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations but has not provided any proof they are false.

On Sunday night Trump blamed “animals representing Hillary Clinton” and Democrats in North Carolina for an overnight attack on a local Republican Party headquarters in Hillsborough.

Local, state and federal investigators were sifting through evidence on Monday, trying to narrow the time frame of the incident and looking for clues about who was behind the attack.

Clinton leads Trump in national opinion polls and is also ahead in the race to win the Electoral College, the tally of wins from states that decides the White House election. After a brutal week for Trump, Clinton maintained a substantial projected advantage in the Electoral College race, according to the latest results from the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project released on Saturday.

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said US claims Russia had directed cyber attacks against Washington sought to “distract” American voters from domestic problems.

Washington last week formally accused the Russian government of trying to “interfere” in the 2016 White House race by hacking US political institutions, charges the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed. 

“There are lots of problems [in the United States],” Putin said in a televised press conference on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in India. 

“And in these conditions, many resort to tried-and-tested methods to distract voters’ attention from their own problems.”

 The Kremlin strongman accused US officials of portraying Russia as an “enemy” in order to “unite a country in the fight” against it.

“This card is being played actively,” he said. 

The Kremlin on Saturday slammed Washington for its “unprecedented” threats after US Vice President Joe Biden told NBC that Putin would receive a “message” over the alleged hacking. 

Biden said Washington would respond to the alleged attacks “at the time of our choosing and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact”.

NBC later reported that the CIA was preparing a retaliatory cyber attack “designed to harass and ‘embarrass’ the Kremlin leadership”.

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told CNN earlier this week that the hacking claims were “flattering” but baseless, with not a “single fact” to back them up. 

Striking a more conciliatory note, Putin said on Sunday he hoped Moscow and Washington could improve their relations once “this difficult period in the political life of the United States will pass”. 

The Kremlin was propelled to the heart of American politics in July after Hillary Clinton’s campaign blamed Russia for an embarrassing leak of e-mails from the Democratic National Committee.

Russia has been accused of favouring Republican candidate Donald Trump — who has praised Putin and called for better ties with Moscow — over the more hawkish Clinton. 

Russia’s relations with the United States have fallen to their post-Cold War nadir over the conflict in Ukraine and stalled efforts to end the five-year Syrian war.

GOA, India — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi branded Pakistan a “mothership of terrorism” at a summit of the BRICS nations on Sunday, testing the cohesion of a group whose heavyweight member China is a close ally of India’s archrival.

Modi’s remarks to a meeting of leaders from the BRICS — which include Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa — escalated his diplomatic drive to isolate Pakistan, which India accuses of sponsoring cross-border terrorism.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been running high since a September 18 attack on an army base in Kashmir, near the disputed frontier with Pakistan, killed 19 Indian soldiers in the worst such assault in 14 years.

India later said it had carried out retaliatory “surgical strikes” across the de facto border that inflicted significant casualties. Pakistan denied any role in the attack on the Uri army base, and said the Indian operation had not even happened, dismissing it as typical cross-border firing.

“In our own region, terrorism poses a grave threat to peace, security and development,” Modi said in remarks to BRICS leaders who met at a resort hotel in the western state of Goa.

“Tragically, the mothership of terrorism is a country in India’s neighbourhood,” the 66-year-old prime minister said, without directly naming Pakistan, in a series of tweets of his remarks issued by the foreign ministry.

Modi’s hostile comments were not, however, reflected in a closing statement he read out to reporters.

“We were unanimous in recognising the threat that terrorism, extremism and radicalisation presents, not just to the regional and global peace, stability and prosperity,” he said. “But, also to our society, our way of life and humanity as a whole.”

No immediate reaction was available from Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

Modi’s posturing overshadowed the gathering of a group that was set up to boost economic cooperation, and made it possible for the nationalist leader to present himself at home as tough on national security.

“Modi is aware that such language wouldn’t get the consensus necessary to make it into the final communique. Including it in his speech ensures it gets wide circulation anyway,” said South Asia expert Shashank Joshi.

The summit achievements were incremental, and included establishing an agricultural research institute and speeding up work on creating a joint credit ratings agency.

Also on Sunday’s programme was an outreach session with leaders from a little-known group of countries from the Bay of Bengal region whose key attribute, from India’s point of view, is that Pakistan is not a member.

Lack of strategic restraint

Modi’s hard line on Pakistan marks a departure from India’s tradition of strategic restraint, and New Delhi has won expressions of support from both the West and Russia over the army base attack.

Yet China, a longstanding ally of Pakistan that plans to build a $46 billion export corridor to the Arabian Sea coast, has been cautious in its comments.

Modi and President Xi Jinping held a bilateral meeting on Saturday evening and accounts of their conversation emerging from both sides pointed to clear differences of opinion.

In one remark reported by the state Xinhua news agency, Xi said that China and India should “support each other in participating in regional affairs and enhance cooperation within multilateral frameworks”.

The dispatch went on to refer to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. This grouping includes Pakistan, which was to have hosted a summit in November that collapsed after India and other members pulled out.

The final summit declaration repeated earlier condemnations of “terrorism in all its forms” and devoted several paragraphs to joint effort to fight terrorism. It did not, however, level any blame over the tensions between India and Pakistan.

“So far, we haven’t seen any indication at all that China is softening its public support for Pakistan. India did not expect differently,” said Joshi, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

KIGALI — Representatives from almost 200 countries reached an agreement on Saturday on the phase-out of potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners, a major step in curbing global warming, a Rwandan minister hosting the talks announced.

“The amendment and decisions are adopted,” said Rwanda’s Minister of Natural Resources Vincent Biruta, who presided over the talks, held in the country’s capital Kigali, on ending the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

“This is a huge win for the climate. We have taken a major concrete step in delivering on the promises we made in Paris last December,” said Miguel Arias Canete, a commissioner with the European Union in a statement ahead of the adoption of the agreement.

“The global phase-down we have agreed today could knock off up to half a degree of warming by the end of the century.”

 Tough negotiations had seen major developing nations such as India put up a fight over the timeline to phase out the use of HFCs and the financing of the transition.

HFCs were introduced in the 1990s to replace chemicals that had been found to erode the ozone layer, but turned out to be catastrophic for global warming.

However, swapping HFCs for alternatives such as ammonia, water or gases called hydrofluoroolefins could prove costly for developing countries with sweltering summer temperatures, such as India.

HFCs’ predecessors, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), were discontinued under the 1987 Montreal Protocol when scientists realised they were destroying the ozone layer.

This blanket of gas in the upper stratosphere protects Earth from the Sun’s dangerous ultraviolet rays.

But it emerged that HFCs, while safe for the now-healing ozone, are thousands of times worse for trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

According to the Berkeley National Laboratory, air conditioning is the cause of the largest growth in HFCs — and the world is likely to have another 700 million air conditioners by 2030. 

Last year’s Paris climate agreement aims to keep global warming below 2^oC, compared with pre-industrial levels. 

But continued use of HFCs could prove a serious stumbling block to attaining the goal.

HFCs — though they are greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — are not dealt with under the Paris Agreement but under the Montreal Protocol.

BANGKOK — Prem Tinsulanonda, the regent who will be caretaker of Thailand’s monarchy following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is a sprightly 96-year-old known as the face of the country’s traditionalist establishment.

The regency is necessary after the government said Bhumibol’s son and heir apparent, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, did not want to be immediately named king to give the nation time to mourn his father’s death. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said that Thailand’s constitution mandates that the head of the Privy Council, an advisory body to the monarch, becomes regent.

Prem is a former prime minister who has headed the Privy Council since 1998. He has a reputation for clean governance and for favouring compromise over confrontation.

He became prime minister reluctantly in 1980, and stayed at the helm for eight years, guiding the country through economic problems and a series of military challenges, including two coup attempts.

At a time when Thailand was a frontline state in the Cold War, and seemingly threatened by Soviet-backed Vietnamese expansion, Prem kept the country on a pro-West course, but also forged closer relations with China.

He came up through the ranks of the powerful military and first achieved national prominence in 1974 when, as army commander in Thailand’s rural northeast, he favoured development and civic action instead of military might against communist insurgents. He later became army commander-in-chief and defence minister before parliament installed him as prime minister as the only viable candidate at a time of political turmoil.

In later life, his career has been defined by his relationship to two men: Bhumibol, to whom he was unswervingly loyal, and Thaksin Shinawatra, a twice-elected prime minister. Thaksin’s supporters believe that Prem instigated the coup that removed the populist prime minister from power in 2006.

On one occasion, Prem’s house was the focal point for pro-Thaksin protests that turned violent, with demonstrators battling with police late into the night.

Prem turned 96 in August. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who seized power in a 2014 coup, led the Cabinet in wishing the elder statesman well on his birthday.

One of his last public appearances before the death of Bhumibol was on October 7, when he spoke on one of his keynote subjects, anti-corruption, urging that people need to set an example to the younger generations.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The UN General Assembly on Thursday appointed Antonio Guterres as the new secretary general of the United Nations, in a shift towards a more high-profile leadership of the world body.

The 193 member states adopted by consensus a resolution formally naming the former prime minister of Portugal as UN chief for a five-year term beginning January 1.

The socialist politician, who also served as UN refugee chief for a decade, is expected to play a more prominent role as the world’s diplomat-in-chief than Ban Ki-moon, the South Korean who will step down after two five-year terms.

His appointment comes at a time of global anxiety over the ongoing war in Syria, the refugee crisis and raging conflicts in South Sudan and Yemen.

Guterres was greeted by loud applause as he entered the packed hall following the vote and told the assembly he was “fully aware of the challenges the UN faces and the limitations of the secretary-general”.

 The 67-year-old polyglot pledged to work as a “convener, a mediator, a bridge-builder and an honest broker” to confront global crises.

On Syria, the most pressing crisis on the UN agenda, Guterres said it was time for world powers to overcome divisions over ending the war, just as the key players were gearing up for a new round of talks at the weekend.

“Whatever divisions might exist, now it’s more important to unite,” Guterres told reporters after the vote. “It’s high time to fight for peace.”

 The United States and Russia are to host a meeting of the countries involved in the Syrian conflict in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Saturday, and Washington will then hold talks with its European partners in London on Sunday.

The Security Council is deadlocked over Syria after two draft resolutions were defeated in separate votes, one of which was vetoed by Damascus ally Russia.

Fighting terrorists and populists 

The first former head of government to become UN chief also called for determined action to confront terrorists and populists who “reinforce each other” in their extremism.

“We must make sure that we are able to break these alliances between all those terrorist groups or violent extremists on one side, and the expression of populism and xenophobia on the other side,” he said.

The remarks were directed at the rise of European far-right politicians and also US presidential contender Donald Trump whose anti-immigrant platform has triggered global alarm.

Guterres campaigned on a pledge to promote human rights and enact reforms within the UN system, seen as clunky and too slow to respond to unfolding disasters.

US Ambassador Samantha Power praised Guterres as “supremely qualified” to be secretary-general and stressed he was chosen at a time when the world looks to the United Nations to “do more than it has ever done before”.

 She called on him to act as a peacemaker, a reformer and an advocate and declared that he brings “both head and heart” to what has been described as the most impossible job in the world.

Ban told the assembly that Guterres was well-known in diplomatic circles as a man of compassion during his decade as UN high commissioner for refugees.

“He is perhaps best known where it counts most — on the frontlines of armed conflict and humanitarian suffering,” said Ban.

“His political instincts are those of the United Nations — cooperation for the common good, and shared responsibility for people and the planet.”

 Guterres is set to move into his new office with his transition team in downtown Manhattan, just across from UN headquarters, until he formally takes up the job on January 1.