International

Mohamed Fahmy attends a news conference with his wife Marwa Omara, hosted by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) at the Ryerson University School of Journalism in Toronto. REUTERS Reuters/TorontoMohamed Fahmy, the Al Jazeera journalist pardoned last month after spending over 400 days in an Egyptian jail, said on Tuesday that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have worked much harder to secure his release. Fahmy's return to Canada just a week ahead of a tightly-contested federal election due on Oct. 19 could prove embarrassing for Harper and his Conservative government, with the journalist meeting both of Harper's main opponents to thank them for their support. Fahmy, a naturalized Canadian who gave up his Egyptian citizenship during his imprisonment, said he felt "betrayed and abandoned" by Harper, who he said dispatched envoys who lacked the clout to influence Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. "There are no words to describe how it feels when you are wrongly convicted and sitting in a cold cell, infested with insects, nurturing a broken shoulder," Fahmy told a news conference. "Sitting in that prison cell, it was difficult not to feel betrayed and abandoned by Prime Minister Harper," he said. Fahmy, along with Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste, was sentenced to three years in prison in an August retrial for operating without a press license and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt. The three Al Jazeera journalists had previously been sentenced to between seven and 10 years in jail on charges including spreading lies to help a "terrorist organization", in reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Greste was deported in February, while Sisi pardoned Fahmy and Mohamed just ahead of an Islamic celebration last month. He also lashed out at Harper for his attempt to ban women from wearing the Muslim face-veil during citizenship ceremonies, which has proven pivotal in the election race. "What he's doing with the niqab issue is unacceptable," he said. Fahmy met Liberal leader Justin Trudeau on Monday and was due to meet New Democrat leader Thomas Mulcair later on Tuesday, but said that he was not going to endorse either one. Both candidates are to the left of Harper politically.

Reuters/Toronto A giant panda at the Toronto Zoo gave birth to twin cubs on Tuesday, the first baby pandas born in Canada since the zoo accepted two pandas on loan from China in 2013. Er Shun gave birth to the cubs 13 minutes apart shortly after 3 a.m. ET, the zoo said in a statement. The cubs weighed 188 grams and 115 grams at birth and their sex has not yet been determined. "Er Shun is demonstrating excellent maternal instincts and began cleaning and cradling the first cub soon after its birth," the zoo said in the statement. "While this is wonderful news, the tiny cubs are very vulnerable at this size, so the next several hours and days will be critical to their survival." The cubs, about the size of a guinea pig, were conceived through artificial insemination using sperm from her Toronto Zoo partner Da Mao as well as the frozen sperm from two giant pandas living in China. The paternity of the cubs may not be known for several months, the zoo said. The cubs, born pink with sparse white hair, will be cared for in a maternity area of the giant panda house for several months, and "twin-swapped" between an incubator and their mother so they have time to bond with Er Shun. Er Shun and Da Mao are on loan from China for 10 years as part of a long-term breeding program. They will remain at the Toronto zoo until 2018 and then relocate to the Calgary Zoo for five years.  

Canada's PM Harper takes part in a news conference at Rideau Hall after asking GG Johnston to dissolve Parliament, beginning the longest federal election campaign in recent history, in Ottawa. ReutersAFP/Ottawa Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday called general elections for October 19, kicking off a campaign for a fourth straight term in power amid a sluggish economy. Harper, in power since 2006, dissolved parliament after meeting with Governor General David Johnston, the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Canada's nominal head of state in this Commonwealth country. Voters will be choosing all 338 members of the House of Commons, 30 more than in the last election because of redistricting. Harper said the election was about "leadership on the big issues that affect us all, our economy and our nation's security." "It's an election about who will protect our economy in instability and ensure Canada's future prosperity. The national election is not a popularity contest," he added. The economy is expected to be declared officially in recession in September when second quarter GDP figures are released. But Central Bank Governor Stephen Poloz already said this month the economy was in fact in recession. Harper had planned to present himself as one of the first G7 leaders to post a balanced budget since the global financial crisis, bolstering his image as a strong fiscal manager. But that was dinged by massive job losses and lower royalties due to a drop in oil prices over the past year, and growing uncertainty about Canada's economic future. Boosting national security is also likely to factor into campaigns, after attacks on Canadian soil last October.  The incidents -- in one case a gunman shot dead a ceremonial guard and stormed parliament, and in another two soldiers were run over in rural Quebec, one fatally -- provided Harper with an opportunity to show his mettle on security. But instead he has reaped scorn for dramatically expanding the powers and reach of Canada's spy agency in the biggest overhaul of the nation's anti-terrorism legislation since 2001. "This election is also about security," he said. He added that Canada must confront "the violent global jihadist movement that possesses a direct threat to our friends, allies and to us here at home." Harper is taking on Thomas Mulcair of the left-leaning New Democrats and Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal party and son of Pierre Trudeau, who ruled as prime minister for 15 years. Trudeau will try to lead the Liberals back into power for the first time since ceding power to the Conservatives in 2006. In the latest polls Harper's Conservatives and the New Democrats are neck and neck at about 32 percent of voter intention, with the Liberals at 25 percent. The Green Party and the Bloc Quebecois are also in the race.  The 79-day campaign will be one of the longest in Canadian history.

Amal Clooney says Canadian diplomats have made only "sheepish whimpers" to Cairo. AFP/Montreal Prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney lashed out at the Canadian government on Thursday, accusing Ottawa of "woefully inadequate" efforts to secure the repatriation of Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy from Egypt. In a scathing rebuke of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, Clooney said diplomats had made only "sheepish whimpers" to Cairo instead of the required concerted efforts to secure her client's return. Canadian reporter Fahmy faces a fresh trial in Egypt over accusations that he supported the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood movement in his news coverage with colleagues, a charge he has rejected as absurd. A court freed Fahmy, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed and other defendants on bail earlier this month after they spent more than 400 days in prison. One of the defendants, Australian Peter Greste, was deported under a recent law that allows the transfer of foreigners on trial to their home countries. Clooney, who is married to Hollywood star George Clooney, said she had expected Canada to negotiate a similar repatriation deal with Egypt for her client. Canada had previously indicated that Fahmy's release and return was "imminent" but it had not happened, Clooney said in a statement. "So what did Canado do? It published a short written statement by a junior minister calling the situation 'unacceptable' and asking for Fahmy's 'full and immediate release' and 'consideration of a general amnesty'," Clooney wrote. "Such sheepish whimpers are woefully inadequate when it comes to enforcing an agreement reached with a sovereign state regarding a citizen's release from detention," she added. "Canada should now begin real advocacy to ensure that Egypt honours its agreement to release Mr Fahmy from Egypt. There is no legal impediment to his immediate transfer to Canada. "Yet calls from Canadian society and politicians for Prime Minister Harper to pick up the phone to personally intervene in the case have so far fallen on deaf ears." Fahmy, Greste and the other defendants had initially been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. An appeals court ordered a retrial in January, saying the verdicts had not been supported by evidence. The journalists were arrested in December 2013 during a crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

AFP/TorontoForeign affairs minister John Baird, who carved out a more assertive role for Canada on major international issues, announced yesterday he is stepping down and will not stand in upcoming elections. The surprise departure of one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s most trusted lieutenants is a major loss as the Conservative leader seeks a fourth mandate to govern in October elections. Baird told parliament he spoke to Harper Monday night and “informed him I was standing down from cabinet”. “I expressed my intention not to run in the next general election... and I also expressed my intention to stand down as member of parliament... in the weeks ahead,” he said. The 45-year-old Baird gave no reason for his decision to step down after a 20-year career in Canadian politics in which he held 10 ministerial posts at both the federal level and in Ontario. “John has always been willing to do a lot of heavy lifting in my various cabinets and has assumed daunting new responsibilities with unsurpassed energy, commitment and professionalism, never losing sight of the fact that he was serving the Canadian people,” Harper said in a statement. As foreign minister, Baird firmed up Ottawa’s staunch support of Israel, expanded Canada’s military reach abroad and aligned development aid with the nation’s trade priorities. He also has taken on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, the Islamic State and the Ebola crises. Most recently he worked for the release of Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy from an Egyptian jail—which Baird said Monday was “imminent”. A successor was not immediately announced. Possible contenders include jobs minister Jason Kenney or transport minister Lisa Raitt. Baird’s departure from the cabinet follows that of finance minister Jim Flaherty last year, who died a short time later.Their absence leaves Harper without two close collaborators as his party faces elections in October. Baird urged pundits not to underestimate Harper, however. “When many others counted him out, I believed in this prime minister and I continue to believe in him today, all these years later,” he said. “There is no better person to lead our country into its 150th year. He is one of our country’s great leaders,” he added. A former environment and transport minister, Baird had been in Parliament since 2006. Friends and foes in the House called him “Rusty”. In the press he earned the nickname “Bulldog” for his ardent and eloquent defence of government policies. “I was perhaps just a little naive, driven by ideology, defined by partisanship, at the age of 25” at the start of his political career. He said he has since learned, “You need, instead, to be defined by your values.” Baird did not say what he planned to do next, but it was widely assumed he would take a job in the private sector.

Reuters/Ottawa/WashingtonCanada did not share some intelligence with the US about two men who mounted fatal attacks last week because of a 2013 court ruling limiting the transfer of personal data, a Canadian official said on Saturday. US authorities therefore knew little about Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who killed a soldier on Wednesday before attacking Parliament in the capital Ottawa. They also did not realise that Canada had withdrawn the passport of Martin Rouleau, who ran over and killed a soldier in Quebec on Monday. The US and Canada share the world’s largest undefended border and for decades have also exchanged information about people deemed to be high risks. Along with Australia, New Zealand and Britain, the two nations belong to the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network. But a court ruling last year said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy agency was breaking personal privacy laws by passing on data about Canadian citizens. “That’s why CSIS could not share information on this guy, Zehaf-Bibeau, and others with the Five Eyes,” the official told Reuters. “The US was not aware that the Rouleau passport had been revoked because he was a Canadian national so CSIS couldn’t share this information,” said the official, who spoke on the grounds of anonymity. The court ruling last year said Ottawa would have to create legislation if it wanted to allow CSIS to pass on data. Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said this week that he would address the issue by amending the act of Parliament that governs CSIS. Pressed as to whether the US had complained about the lack of intelligence-sharing, the official replied: “I’m not aware of that.” US security officials defended the Canadian record of exchanging counter-terrorism data and said Canada was regarded as a fully participating partner in the Five Eyes group. “It is unfair to say that the Canadians were slow in providing information about the incident or the individual once he was identified,” a US security official said about the attack on Wednesday. “Everybody knew this was a fluid situation, and the information was shared in a reasonable time frame.” Several US officials say they were told by Canadian counterparts that Zehaf-Bibeau was an alias and that the shooter had been born Michael Joseph Hall. The officials say this information turned out to be incorrect. And a US source familiar with the security file said some government agencies had been frustrated by what they saw as Canada’s reluctance to share information on suspects on occasion. The source made clear they were not talking about the two recent attacks.

Mayor of Lac-Megantic Colette Roy-Laroche (left), Quebec’s Premier Philippe Couillard (second left), Quebec’s Lieutenant Governor Pierre Duchesne (third left), Canada’s Governor General David Johnston (third right), his wife Sharon (second right) and Canada’s Minister of International Development Christian Paradis (right) attend a memorial mass at the Sainte-Agnes church in Lac-Megantic yesterday. The mass was held to commemorate the first anniversary of the crude-oil train explosion that killed 47 people on the morning of July 6, 2013. Reuters/Lac-Megantic, QuebecThousands of people gathered in the small town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec yesterday to remember the victims of a fiery crude oil train crash that killed 47 people and destroyed dozens of buildings in the picturesque lakeside village. In the early morning hours, survivors and family marched in silence along a newly-built boardwalk, past construction rubble and across the train tracks, where exactly one year earlier the runaway train derailed and exploded into a wall of fire. Hours later, politicians and dignitaries, including Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, joined local residents in the St. Agnes church for the official memorial ceremony. Hundreds more, including an honour guard of emergency responders, lined the square outside to watch the service on screens. “On the first anniversary of this tragedy, we express again the suffering that we live with and the pain that is still very present,” said Luc Cyr, Archbishop of Sherbrooke, leading the service in the French-speaking town. “But in the middle of that personal and communal destruction, there is a rebirth underway, for this town and for its people.” It was in the early hours of July 6, 2013 that the brakes failed on a 72-car train parked uphill from Lac-Megantic, a quaint town nestled in Quebec’s hilly Eastern Township region. Unattended, the train rolled downhill 11km (7 miles), hit a curve and derailed near the waterfront. The subsequent explosions leveled more than 30 buildings, including the popular Musi-Cafe bar, which was packed with late-night revelers and a live band. The fiery blast also destroyed homes, killing families in their beds. One year later, a swath of Lac-Megantic’s downtown core is still in rubble, with the slow pace of recovery frustrating residents, entrepreneurs and public officials. At the epicenter of the crash site, where thousands of liters of oil leaked from crushed tanker cars into the soil, the ground remains too polluted for reconstruction. Displaced businesses are slowly being rebuilt a short distance away. The community, shattered by the tragedy, is also slowly rebuilding. On Saturday, locals released young fish into the lake, planted flowers along the train tracks and set free hundreds of butterflies, according to media reports. And a new monument bearing the names of all 47 victims was unveiled on Sunday, with Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche urging her community to find peace in each other and the natural beauty of their town, founded in 1884 on the shores of its namesake lake. “To each and every one of you, I wish that you may continue to hope, and that you may continue to believe that we can rebuild our town and make it better than ever before,” she said. In the aftermath of the train crash, regulators in both Canada and the US moved to shore up safety with a slew of new rules. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said on Friday that its final report would be released in the next few months. The investigation has already led to criminal charges against the conductor and two other employees of the now-defunct Montreal, Maine & Atlantic (MMA) railway, and has also prompted Canada to adopt numerous safety measures, including the phasing out of older DOT-111 tanker cars by 2016.

AFP/OttawaToronto Mayor Rob Ford told a Canadian newspaper yesterday that “rehab is amazing,” adding that it’s a lot like the football summer camp he attended as a child. Ford, 44, took a leave of absence from city hall in the middle of his re-election campaign last week to enter rehab for drug and alcohol abuse after another video surfaced showing him allegedly smoking crack recently. “I feel great,” he told the Toronto Sun. “Rehab is amazing. It reminds me of football camp. Kind of like the Washington Redskins camp I went to as a kid.” The mayor described daily meetings with four to eight people, including “two doctors, a captain of industry and a professional athlete,” and “then there is a meal before we have some one-on-one sessions.” “There are terrific people in my group. We are all supporting each other. We are connecting in a weird way,” he said, while refusing to say where he is receiving treatment after reportedly being turned away by US customs agents in Chicago. “I am working out every day and I am learning about myself, my past and things like that.” He described learning to deal with the anger he has often directed at political opponents. “It’s not an excuse to play the victim and it’s not an excuse to drink,” he said. Ford said he is also coming to terms with the fallout of his substance abuse. Ford burst into international headlines last year when an alleged drug dealer tried to sell a video of the mayor smoking crack to media outlets in Canada and the US. At first, Ford denied using crack cocaine but later acknowledged he had smoked the drug while in a “drunken stupor” but insisted he was not an addict. Since then Ford has been filmed numerous times in public behaving erratically. Toronto City Council stripped the mayor of most of his powers in November over his misconduct. The latest video showing him allegedly smoking crack was filmed less than two weeks ago in the early hours of April 26. “At first, I was mad. I was mad at myself and saying, ‘Why me?’” he told the Sun. “But then I realised it could have been a whole lot worse,” adding that he could have ended up in jail or worse - dead. “I do feel bad about what happened, but it might have been the best thing that happened because I am working on getting better,” he told the newspaper. As for his political future, once he’s completed rehab, Ford said, “I am coming back...” Toronto residents will head to the polls in October.

AFP/MontrealCanada’s Quebec province voted out a separatist government on Monday, choosing a former neurosurgeon and his federalist Liberal party to lead a promised economic rally. Television networks predicted a Liberal victory soon after the polls closed. Preliminary results at 10pm (0200 GMT yesterday) showed Philippe Couillard’s Liberals in the lead with 34% of votes cast, followed by the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) with 22%. The conservative Coalition Avenir Quebec and the leftist Quebec Solidaire rounded up 21% and 6% support, respectively. Quebec’s first female premier, PQ leader Pauline Marois, also lost her seat in the contest, and resigned her post with the PQ. Marois had called the snap elections 18 months into her first mandate, hoping to gain seats to form a majority government. The main opposition Liberals’ new leader was untested and its usual economic platform was in shambles. But what at first looked like a sure win for the PQ quickly turned round during one of the nastiest campaigns in Canadian history, with the Liberals jumping into the lead in the final stretch. In order to form a majority government, a party needed to win at least 63 of the 125 seats in the Quebec legislature. At 10pm (0200 GMT), the Liberals had won or were leading in 70 electoral districts, up 21 seats from before the election, while the PQ was at 30. “All of Quebec has won by choosing a stable government,” Couillard, 56, said in a victory speech. “Henceforth Quebec’s priorities are the economy and jobs. It has chosen unity and (a policy of) openness.” “As premier of Quebec, I will lead a thriving and the only majority francophone society in North America,” he said, pledging to fight for “Quebec’s interests, and its attachment to the Canadian federation.” Marois had kicked off the campaign pitching a secular values charter, which would ban public sector workers from wearing religious apparel, including headscarves, turbans and yarmulkes. But the fight for the province’s 6mn voters suddenly turned to focus on whether a majority PQ government would hold a third referendum on Quebec independence in the next four years. Quebecers rejected splitting from the rest of Canada in 1980 and 1995 referendums. And recent polling shows two out of three Quebecers do not want to reopen the thorny debate. During the campaign, Couillard, warned of economic and social turmoil should a majority PQ government bent on Quebec independence win. At the same time, he touted his party as best to spur a sluggish Quebec economy that has trailed other Canadian provinces in emerging from the Great Recession. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: “The (election) results clearly demonstrate that Quebecers have rejected the idea of a referendum and want a government that will be focused on the economy and job creation.”

A girl, who was confirmed as the first person in the Chinese capital to be infected with the H7N9 strain, arrives for a news conference in Beijing yesterday.Reuters/Geneva/BeijingThe World Health Organization said yesterday that a number of people who have tested positive for a new strain of bird flu in China have had no history of contact with poultry, adding to the mystery about a virus that has killed 16 people to date.Chinese authorities have slaughtered thousands of birds and closed some live poultry markets to try and stem the rate of human infection, but many questions remain unsolved, including whether the H7N9 strain is being transmitted between people.WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl confirmed that “there are people who have no history of contact with poultry”, after a top Chinese scientist was quoted as saying about 40% of those with the H7N9 flu had had no such contact.“This is one of the puzzles still (to) be solved and therefore argues for a wide investigation net,” Hartl said in e-mailed comments, though he did not know the exact percentage.Hartl said several avenues should be explored by an international team of experts going to China soon, including the possibility that the virus can be spread between people, although there is “no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission”.“It might be because of dust at the wet markets, it could be another animal source beside poultry, it could also be human-to-human transmission,” he said by telephone.Wendy Barclay, an influenza expert at Imperial College London, said it was likely to be very difficult to determine or rule out people’s exact exposure to poultry - or to wild birds, which could also be a possible source of infection.“The incubation time might be quite long, so visiting a market even 14 days before might have resulted in infection,” she said.Two new suspected cases of possible human-to-human transmission are being investigated, Hartl said.The first is a couple in Shanghai who tested positive, Hartl said, adding that the wife had died and husband was still sick. A seven-year-old girl in Beijing was the first case in the capital at the weekend and the boy next door has also tested positive, but is not showing symptoms.Previously the WHO reported two suspected family “clusters”, but later said the virus was found not to have infected anyone in the first. Tests in the second were inconclusive and experts say the poor quality samples may make it impossible to know.China has warned that the number of infections could rise from the current 77. The majority of the cases have been in China’s commercial capital Shanghai, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.China reported three new bird flu outbreaks to the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) this week, bringing the total number of places to 11, the OIE said on its website.Samples have tested positive in some poultry markets that remain the focus of investigation by China and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.Zeng Guang, the chief scientist in charge of epidemiology at the China Disease Prevention and Control Centre (CDPCC), said about 40% of human victims had no clear history of poultry exposure, the Beijing News reported yesterday.A study published last week showed the H7N9 strain was a so-called “triple reassortant” virus with a mixture of genes from three other flu strains found in birds in Asia. One of those three strains is thought to have come from a brambling, a type of small wild bird.“We can’t rule out that this ... has passed through poultry but then been reintroduced to a wild bird population from which some spread to humans might be occurring,” Barclay said.China’s poultry sector has recorded losses of more than 10bn yuan ($1.6bn) since reports emerged of the strain two weeks ago, while authorities have slaughtered thousands of birds and closed live poultry markets in Shanghai and Beijing.China said on Sunday the virus had spread outside the Yangtze River delta region in eastern China, with cases reported in Beijing and the central province of Henan.Beijing H7N9 bird flu victim leaves hospitalA seven-year-old girl who contracted the H7N9 strain of bird flu left hospital yesterday and appeared before media in an apparent bid by health authorities to cool concerns about the deadly virus. The daughter of poultry traders was Beijing’s first confirmed human case of the virus, which has killed 16 people and infected scores of people hundreds of kilometres away in eastern China over the past few weeks. Wearing a bright blue coat and pink backpack, she said she was feeling “much better”, at a press conference held by hospital authorities. “I miss home... I want to return home and play,” she told AFP. She wore a face mask, in what hospital authorities said was a measure to protect her identity rather than her health. They said that she recovered after seven days of treatment combining Western and Chinese medicine. No vaccine to protect against the virus currently exists. The girl’s mother and father, who had been quarantined for observation, left hospital with their daughter.

Reuters/AFP/New York/Calgary A mile-long train hauling oil from Canada derailed, spilling 30,000 gallons of crude in western Minnesota on Wednesday, as debate rages over the environmental risks of transporting tar sands across the border. The major spill, the first since the start of a boom in North American crude-by-rail transport three years ago, came when 14 cars on a 94-car Canadian Pacific train left the tracks about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis near the town of Parkers Prairie, the Otter Tail Sheriff’s Department said. No injuries were reported as a result of the derailment, the county sheriff’s office said. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (CP), the country’s second-largest railroad, said only one 26,000-gallon tank car had ruptured, adding it was a mixed freight train. CP spokesman Ed Greenberg said he did not know if the crude was from Canada’s tar sands or from conventional oil fields. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Dan Olson said up to three tank cars were ruptured and an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 gallons – or 475 to 715 barrels – leaked out. Cold weather had made the crude thicker, hindering the ability to recover the oil, Olson said, adding the initial clean-up was expected to continue for a day or two. “We are focusing on drawing up the loose (oil) ... and once that has been taken up, they will then pump up the remaining oil in the tanks,” Olson said. “Because of the winter conditions, the ground is frozen and there is not any damage to surface water or ground water. After the initial recovery we will see if the oil has soaked into the soil at all.” In an updated statement, CP said just one car was compromised and other two cars leaked while being moved during the response to the derailment and were contained. Greenburg said that the clean-up efforts were progressing well and without concern. “There have been reports that clean-up has been challenging. Our crews are taking appropriate steps in ensuring clean-up is conducted appropriately.” A photo provided by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency showed several large tank cars lying at the side of the railroad tracks in snow-covered fields, as clean-up crews examined the spill and maneuvered pump trucks into position. “We have options to reroute traffic, so we’ve been able to continue to move trains while we do the thorough job of cleaning up the area,” said Greenberg. A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration said two representatives of the US rail regulator are investigating the incident. There has been a rapid increase in rail transport of crude in the last three years as booming North American oil production has outgrown existing pipeline capacity. Canada is the top exporter of crude to the US, due to rising output of crude from its vast tar sands deposits. Around 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) on average were shipped to the US in 2012, according to data from Canada’s National Energy Board. Suncor Energy Incorporated, Canada’s largest oil company, pulled the plug on its long-delayed and partially built Voyageur oil sands upgrading project in northern Alberta on Wednesday, citing surging volumes of crude from the Bakken. Environmentalists have complained about the impact of developing the reserves, and have sought to block TransCanada Corp’s controversial Keystone XL project, which would carry oil produced from the oil sands to the US Gulf Coast refining centre. Some experts have argued oil-by-rail carries a higher risk of accidents and spills. “It is good business for the rails and bad safety for the public,” said Jim Hall, a transportation consultant and former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. “Railroads travel through population centers. The safest form of transport for this type of product is a pipeline. This accident could – and ought to – raise the issue for discussion.” Others noted that spills from rail cars are rare, and crude-by-rail has opened up opportunities for companies to develop huge volumes of oil production in places like the Bakken shale fields in North Dakota, which are not well served by pipelines. Total shipments of petroleum on US railroads rose more than 46% last year to 540,000 carloads, the Association of American Railroads said in January. “It’s not very good publicity, but railroads are incredibly safe, they don’t spill often,” said Tony Hatch, independent transportation analyst with ABH Consulting in New York who has done work for major railroads. “It should not change the opportunity railroads have to make us more energy independent.” Supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline were quick to jump on the derailment as a reason to build the pipeline. “It should be clear that we need to move more oil by pipeline rather than by rail or truck,” said Don Canton, spokesman for North Dakota Senator John Hoeven, who has been one of the chief political proponents of the line. “This is why we need the Keystone XL.” Hoeven has supported the line as it would help carry oil produced in North Dakota to higher priced refining centres on the coast, and could help further expand production in the state that now pumps more oil than Alaska.

By Brahma Chellaney/New DelhiPresident Barack Obama’s first foreign trip since winning a second term highlights Asia’s new centrality to America’s economy and security. But Obama’s Asian tour also underscores the main question about American policy in the region: Will the US’ “pivot” to Asia acquire concrete strategic content, or will it remain largely a rhetorical repackaging of old policies?The US, quick to capitalise on regional concerns triggered by China’s increasingly muscular self-assertion, has strengthened its military ties with its existing Asian allies and forged security relationships with new friends. But the heady glow of America’s return to centrestage in Asia has obscured key challenges in remaining the region’s principal security anchor in the face of China’s strategic ambitions.One challenge is the need to arrest the erosion of America’s relative power, which in turn requires comprehensive domestic renewal, including fiscal consolidation. But the need for spending cuts also raises the prospect that the US might be unable to finance a military shift toward the Asia-Pacific region – or, worse, that it will be forced to retrench there.The US under Obama has increasingly ceded ground to China, a trend that admittedly began when the Bush administration became preoccupied with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This has spurred doubts about America’s ability to provide strategic heft to its “pivot” by sustaining a higher level of commitment in the Asia-Pacific region, where it already maintains 320,000 troops. The proposed deployment of an additional 2,500 Marines in Australia is largely symbolic.In fact, after raising Asians’ expectations of a more robust US response to China’s growing assertiveness, the Obama administration has started to tamp down the military aspects of its “pivot,” emphasising instead greater US economic engagement. That change has come as a relief to those in the region who fear being forced to choose between the US and China. But, for the countries bearing the brunt of China’s recalcitrant approach to territorial and maritime disputes, this emphasis raises new doubts about America’s commitment.In fact, the economic reorientation of the US “pivot” corrects a policy that had overemphasised the military component and put the US on a path toward conflict with China. It was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who signalled a more hawkish US stance on China with her tough talk at the 2010 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Regional Forum in Hanoi; now she is moderating that position by promoting trade and investment during her visits to Asian countries.Obama, too, is highlighting the economic aspects of the US “pivot”, portraying his Asia tour as an effort to generate more domestic manufacturing jobs through higher exports to “the most rapidly growing and dynamic region in the world”. Even his historic visit to Myanmar – the first ever by a US president – is as much about trade as it is about weaning a strategically located, resource-rich country from Chinese influence.The refocus on trade and economic issues has also prompted Washington to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which aims to create a new Asia-Pacific free-trade group that excludes China. Moreover, the US is emphasising the importance of the East Asia Summit and Asean, whose summit overlaps with the EAS meeting in Phnom Penh that Obama will be attending.The US course correction is being dictated by another consideration as well: America has nothing to gain from taking sides in China’s disputes with its neighbours – unless, of course, US interests are directly at stake, as in the South China Sea, where Chinese maritime claims threaten freedom of navigation in some of the world’s most heavily trafficked shipping lanes.Concern for its own national interest explains why America has charted a course of tacit neutrality regarding the revival of Sino-Indian territorial disputes, including China’s sudden resurrection of a claim to the large Himalayan Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Similarly, the US has urged both China and Japan to resolve peacefully their dispute over the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. America’s main goal is to prevent the standoff from escalating to the point that it would be forced – against its own interests – to take Japan’s side.When US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China in September, he got “an earful” that the US should stay out of the Sino-Japanese dispute. Indeed, amid the orchestrated anti-Japanese protests in China in September, Panetta – instead of advising China to rein in the often-violent demonstrations – publicly reiterated America’s neutrality in the struggle over control of the islands.The correction in US policy actually extends even to terminology. American diplomats have now abandoned the term “pivot” altogether, owing to its military connotation, in favour of “rebalancing”.Whatever one calls it, the new policy approach is all about China, with America bolstering alliances and friendships with countries around China’s periphery, including India, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and South Korea. Yet the Obama administration continues to deny that China is at the centre of its strategy. In fact, it is reluctant to say or do anything publicly that might raise China’s hackles. - Project Syndicatel Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, is the author of Asian Juggernaut and Water: Asia’s New Battleground.

Agencies/New Delhi     A powerful liquor baron and his brother died in a shootout yesterday on the outskirts of New Delhi, police said, as a feud over family property turned fatal. Ponty Chadha, dubbed the “Baron of Booze” by the media, and his younger brother, Harvinder, were discussing how to divide the family’s assets a year after the death of their tycoon father when the shooting took place, a family lawyer said. “The two brothers are dead and we are looking into the circumstances,” a police official said. The exact circumstances of the shooting at the luxury family farmhouse were unclear, but police said Harvinder shot Ponty first, leading to an exchange of fire in which Ponty’s guard was injured and Ponty and Harvinder both died. “There was a lot of ill-will between the two brothers,” family lawyer Gaurang Kanth told CNN-IBN television network. “It is a shock for everybody - nobody expected it to escalate to this level.” Ponty, who was in his mid-50s, had estimated the value of his liquor business alone at Rs60bn ($1.1bn). His other interests stretched from real estate to malls, sugar mills and film production. “There were a lot of problems regarding the property settlement” after the 2011 death of their father Kulwant Singh Chadha, who founded the Chadha Group business, said Kanth, adding Ponty had wanted to retain control of the family empire. The whereabouts of the third brother, Rajinder, were not immediately known. “Hardvinder called on his brother Ponty at around 11.30am today to discuss about a real estate deal. The two had an argument, which turned into an altercation, following which the firing took place resulting in the death of both,” a senior police official said. “Gurpreet Singh Chadha alias Ponty Chadha and Hardvinder Chadha were brought dead to Fortis Hospital in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj and later both the bodies were taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for postmortem examination,” a police official said. Ponty, whose formal name was Gurdeep Singh Chadha, ruled the liquor business in Uttar Pradesh after being given the sole distribution licence. He also had big liquor interests in other northern states. A steady stream of friends and relatives flocked to the high-fenced property where the shooting took place as police swarmed the residence. Television footage showed empty cartridges on the ground outside. Chadha used to sell snacks with his father in front of a liquor shop as a boy. He was known to be close to both Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and the Samajwadi Party, which is now ruling Uttar Pradesh.

IANS/Mumbai     You loved him, you hated him, but you never could ignore him. That was Bal Keshav Thackeray, a fierce proponent of Hindu supremacism in a secular India who built his chauvinistic politics around the emotive cause of regional pride of 112mn people of Maharashtra, the country’s most industrialised state and home to its world renowned film and entertainment industry. He was 86. Views on Bal Thackeray, known as Balasaheb, were as polarised as the politics he practiced. Known for his caustic tongue, he was idolised by his followers in the Shiv Sena and scorned in equal measure by liberal and secular Indians for his communal, divisive politics that didn’t stop with radical expression of views against Muslims and violent action against those opposed to his extreme righwing ideas - including being firmly opposed to the visit of the Pakistani cricket team to India. The cartoonist-turned politician was often portrayed as a roaring tiger, the much cherished logo of his party Shiv Sena, which he formed to accord dignity to Maharashtrians but which became known as a party of restless youngsters out for trouble. Re-naming Bombay as Mumbai in 1995, after a local deity and city landmarks, was seen as an attempt to rid the city of its British colonial past and emphasise its Marathi roots. He was a demagogue whose strong views polarised the polity at the state and the national level, but he never flinched from expressing himself with conviction despite opposition. The poster boy of rightwing Hindu and Marathi chauvinism, he never plunged into electoral politics and never contested any polls. He never made it to the national stage either but remained an active, acidic voice, commenting on any and every issue through the party mouthpiece Saamna. The party is virtually orphaned but the canny Thackeray had anointed son Uddhav as the next boss well in advance. In 2011, he even placed grandson Aditya as the next in line for the family legacy. Born on January 23, 1926, in Pune, in then Bombay Presidency, Thackeray started his career as a political cartoonist with the Free Press Journal (FPJ) group of newspapers in the early 1950s, a contemporary of the legendary R K Laxman, who too was with the FPJ at the time. He used his cartoons to promote the Samyukta Maharashtra (United Maharashtra) movement, launched in the mid-1950s to crusade for the formation of Maharashtra. His father Prabodhankar Keshav Sitaram Thackeray was one of the five leaders who spearheaded the movement. In 1960, he quit his FPJ job and began taking interest in politics. As a tool to cash in on the strong anti-migrant sentiments among the locals, he launched the Marathi humour weekly Marmik in August 1960, ironically released by then Congress chief minister Y B Chavan. Two months later, in October of 1960, he addressed the first Dussehra rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, a ritual that continued virtually uninterrupted for 46 years. Shaping his political agenda through Marmik, Thackeray initially targeted the communists and their influential trade unions, followed by south Indians who he said got preferential treatment over locals in jobs in Mumbai and other big cities. Guided by his father, Thackeray finally plunged into politics by launching the Shiv Sena on June 19, 1966. As the Sainiks vigorously espoused the cause of Marathi Asmita (pride) and targeted south Indian migrants the party’s support swelled among the poor, lower middle class and middle class Marathis. Spurred by this, Thackeray harped on emotive issues like “Mumbai for Marathis” and “jobs for sons of soil” through the dreaded Sthanik Lokadhikar Samitis - but nobody knows how many jobs it finally translated into. The situation was volatile. There were regular riots that led to Thackeray’s arrest in February 1969 - the one and only time he ever saw the inside of a jail. Political power came when Sena candidates won in the 1967 Thane and 1968 Bombay municipal elections - the latter being the state’s cash cow and the country’s financial power house. In 1973, it controlled the BMC in alliance with other parties, including the Muslim League and also bagged the mayor’s post. It captured the BMC in 1985 - and continues to rule it until today. After south Indians, the volatile Sena took up movements against Gujaratis, north Indians and Muslims. Its anti-Muslim agitation, a perpetual one on one of its burners - either the front or the back - was among its shrillest. Thackeray’s famous comment to Time magazine after the demolition of the Babri Masjid was a vituperative “Kick’em out!” The anti-Muslim stance fuelled by the demolition led to Mumbai’s worst-ever riots in December 1992-January 1993. It continued for another two months in some small pockets, followed by the retaliatory March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts in the city. These incidents were largely responsible for catapulting the Shiv Sena to power in Maharashtra in the 1995 assembly elections.

Michael Applebaum, 59, was voted in as interim mayor by fellow city councillors in a secret ballot after his predecessor Gerald Tremblay resigned amid corruption allegations. Although English is his first language, Applebaum is also fluent in French. Applebaum will be inaugurated tomorrow and lead Montreal, which is located in the largely French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec and has a population of 3.8mn, until the next scheduled municipal election in November 2013. Tremblay’s former right-hand man had sought to distance himself from his old boss by quitting the ex-mayor’s once dominant Union Montreal party this week and forming alliances with opposition parties to vote against UM’s chosen candidate to succeed Tremblay. Tremblay resigned as leader of Canada’s second-largest city on November 5 after witnesses linked him to illegal party financing skimmed from city construction contracts as part of an alleged mafia scheme. A commission headed by Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau had heard that the mayor’s political party received kickbacks from construction bids. Witnesses also told the commission investigating alleged graft, bid-rigging and kickbacks in the awarding of government construction contracts that the mayor was aware of illegal party financing and campaign spending. Tremblay flatly rejected the accusations. The Charbonneau commission was launched after a leaked police report pointed to evidence that construction companies were banding together to keep prices high - and possibly had links to organized crime. It will release its findings next year.