Japanese reporter's bid to save friend led to IS abduction

(AsiaTimes.ga) - It is an unlikely friendship that ties the fates of war correspondent Kenji Goto and troubled loner Haruna Yukawa, the two Japanese hostages for whom Islamic State militants demanded a $200 million ransom this week.

Yukawa was captured in August outside the Syrian city of Aleppo. Goto, who had returned to Syria in late October to try to help his friend, has been missing since then.

For Yukawa, who dreamed of becoming a military contractor, traveling to Syria had been part of an effort to turn his life around after going bankrupt, losing his wife to cancer and attempting suicide, according to associates and his own accounts.

A unit at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been seeking information on him since August, people involved in that effort said. Goto’s disappearance had not been reported until Tuesday's video apparently showing him and Yukawa kneeling in orange t-shirts next to a masked Islamic State militant wielding a knife.

Yukawa first met Goto in Syria in April and asked him to take him to Iraq. He wanted to know how to operate in a conflict zone and they went together in June.

Yukawa returned to Syria in July on his own.

"He was hapless and didn't know what he was doing. He needed someone with experience to help him," Goto, 47, told Reuters in Tokyo in August.

Yukawa's abduction that month haunted Goto, who felt he had to do something to help the man, a few years his junior.

"I need to go there at least once and see my fixers and ask them what the current situation is. I need to talk to them face to face. I think that's necessary," Goto said, referring to locals who work freelance for foreign correspondents, setting up meetings and helping with the language.

Goto began working as a full-time war correspondent in 1996 and had established a reputation as a careful and reliable operator for Japanese broadcasters, including NHK.

"He understood what he had to do and he was cautious," said Naomi Toyoda, who reported with him from Jordan in the 1990s.

Goto, who converted to Christianity in 1997, also spoke of his faith in the context of his job.

"I have seen horrible places and have risked my life, but I know that somehow God will always save me," he said in a May article for the Japanese publication Christian Today. But he told the same publication that he never risked anything dangerous, citing a passage in the Bible, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."

In October, Goto's wife had a baby, the couple's second child. He has an older daughter from a previous marriage, people who know the family said.

Around the same time, he made plans to leave for Syria and uploaded several short video clips to his Twitter feed, one showing him with media credentials issued by anti-government rebels in Aleppo.

On Oct. 22, he emailed an acquaintance, a high school teacher, to say he planned to be back in Japan at the end of the month.

Goto told a business partner with whom he was working to create an online news application that he expected to be able to travel in territory held by the Islamic State because of his nationality.

"He said that as a Japanese journalist he expected to be treated differently than American or British journalists," Toshi Maeda said, recalling a conversation with Goto before his departure for Syria. "Japan has not participated in bombing and has only provided humanitarian aid. For that reason, he thought he could secure the cooperation of ISIS."

Friends say Goto traveled from Tokyo to Istanbul and traveled from there to Syria, sending a message on Oct. 25 that he had crossed the border and was safe.

"Whatever happens, this is my responsibility," Goto said on a video recorded shortly before he set out for Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State.

That was the last time he was seen before the IS video this week.

(Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo, Teppei Kasai and Mari Saito; Editing by Will Waterman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)(GA, Reuters)

Houthi official says Yemen presidential statement acceptable

(AsiaTimes.ga) - A senior official of Yemen's Houthi movement said on Thursday that a statement by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi aimed at defusing a political crisis was acceptable because it confirmed the terms of a power-sharing agreement signed in September.

Witnesses said Houthi fighters remained in position outside the presidential palace and Hadi's private residence, where the head of state actually lives. Hadi in his statement said the Houthis had agreed to remove their men from those places.

But Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi politburo, told Reuters the withdrawals of the gunmen, and the release of Hadi's office director, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, from Houthi detention could happen in one, two or three days, if the authorities committed to implementing the remaining items.

"The latest agreement is a series of timed measures to implement the peace and partnership accord, which shows that Ansarullah were not planning to undermine the political process," Bukhaiti told Reuters, referring to an accord signed in September after the Sanaa takeover that brought the Houthi group into the government. Ansarullah is the Houthi group's official name.

"The agreement is satisfactory because it confirms what is most important in the partnership agreement," he added.

Hadi's statement confirmed that the draft constitution was subject to amendments and said that all sides agreed that government and state institutions, schools and universities should rapidly return to work.

In the first sign that the government was returning to work, officials in the southern city of Aden said the air and sea ports had resumed work after a one day suspension due to the crisis in Sanaa.

(Reporting by Sami Aboudi, Editing by William Maclean and Dominic Evans)(GA, Reuters)

Egyptian liberals demand Mubarak face court over attack by supporters on camels

(AsiaTimes.ga) - Liberal Egyptian parties filed new judicial complaints against ousted former ruler Hosni Mubarak on Sunday, including over a deadly camel charge against protesters led by his supporters, after a string of court rulings in his favor.

The Democratic Current coalition filed the complaints to the public prosecutor, requesting an investigation of possible links between Mubarak and some of the most dramatic violence of the revolt.

Government supporters on horses and camels charged into crowds gathered in Tahrir Square, triggering a battle that was seen as a crucial moment in the 18-day uprising against Mubarak's three decades of iron-fisted rule. Around a dozen people died in the attack.



The dismissal of the most high profile charges against Mubarak, that he conspired to kill hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that toppled him, has deepened fears among activists that the old guard is making a comeback.

It is not clear when the public prosecutor will decide on the request.

Twenty-five officials and Mubarak allies were charged with murder and other crimes in relation to the incident. One of them died and the rest were acquitted.

"We're making these complaints not for revenge against Mubarak or his family," said Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for the liberal Dostour party, at the steps of the public prosecutor's office.

"We want to stress the principle that young Egyptian people should not be killed without accountability."

A court in November dropped charges that Mubarak conspired to murder protesters during the 18 days of the uprising that started on Jan. 25, and also found him innocent in a graft case.

This month, a court ordered a retrial in a separate corruption case, opening the possibility that Mubarak could walk free after being jailed since 2011.

Egypt's economy was hit by upheaval triggered by Mubarak's fall but it has started to recover. Sisi has restored some stability and taken bold steps on the economy praised by foreign investors such as reducing fuel subsidies.

(Editing by Michael Georgy and Jon Boyle)(GA, Reuters, Asia Times)

Anti-Charlie rally in Pakistan draws 5,000

(AsiaTimes.ga) - Around 5,000 people rallied against French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on Sunday, and the founder of a group banned for militant links urged protesters to boycott French products.

Hafiz Saeed, who founded Lashkar-e-Taiba, an organization banned for launching attacks in neighboring India, told protesters: "We will launch a movement against the insulting caricatures of our beloved prophet."

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a picture of the Prophet Muhammad weeping on its cover last week after two gunmen stormed its offices and killed 12 people. The gunmen said their attack was revenge for previous cartoons the magazine had published mocking Islam.

Saeed urged traders to stop importing French products and for Pakistani leaders to try to get an international law against blasphemy passed.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan.

On Friday, protesters trying to storm the French consulate in the southern city of Karachi shot and injured a photographer working for French news agency AFP.

Saeed called for more rallies next Friday. He says he has no links to militancy these days and only runs a charity, which is banned by the U.S. government for suspected militant links. The U.S. government has offered $10 million for information leading to Saeed's conviction.

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Clelia Oziel)(GA, Reuters, Asia Times)

Three months of fighting in Libya's Benghazi kills 600, say medics

(AsiaTimes.ga) - About 600 people have been killed in three months of heavy fighting between Libyan pro-government forces and Islamist groups in Libya's second-largest city Benghazi, medical staff said on Sunday.

Backed by forces led by a former general, army special forces in mid-October launched an offensive against Islamists in Benghazi, expelling them from the airport area and from several camps the army had lost during the summer.

The fighting is part of a wider struggle in the oil producer where two governments and parliaments, allied to armed groups, are vying for control almost four year after the ousting of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

For two months the army has been trying to take the port area and two other districts where pro-government forces say fighters from the Islamist group of Ansar al-Sharia are holed up. The port has had to close.

Since the start of January, 34 people have been killed, most of them soldiers, and 23 wounded, hospital medics said.

"The total death toll is around 600," one medic said, asking not to be named. One hospital had 71 bodies in its morgue which had not been claimed by relatives, he said.

A Reuters reporter taken on tour by the army saw most parts of the city were controlled by special forces and allies loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar. Some districts had suffered heavy destruction from aircraft and artillery fire.

"We control 90 percent of the city," said Mohamed El Hejazi, spokesman for Haftar and the army.

Haftar have been using war planes to bomb Islamists in Benghazi. His opponents say he is backed by Egypt which is worried about the spread of militants. Haftar and Cairo deny this though analysts.

GROWING INFLUENCE

The army in the east is loyal to Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni who was forced to leave Tripoli in August for the eastern city of Bayda when a group called Libya Dawn seized the capital.

The new rulers in Tripoli set up their own government and parliament, but these have not been recognized by the United Nations. Both sides fight each other on several fronts.

Libya has failed to build up a national army and efficient state institutions since Gaddafi's ousting as the country is effectively run by former rebel brigades who use their weapons to fight for control.

Thinni is accusing Libya Dawn of relying on Islamist armed groups but has allied himself with Haftar, a Gaddafi-era officer commanding his own irregular forces.

Haftar's forces have now become part of the official army in the east, a move analysts say might complicate building up state institutions as his own political goals are unclear.

In a sign that Haftar's officers are increasingly dominating the army in the east, the House of Representatives appointed his air force commander Saqer al-Joroushi as the army's official air force head, he and lawmakers told Reuters.

(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Jon Boyle)(GA, Reuters, Asia Times)