LOS ANGELES — Split, a thriller about a man who imprisons three teenage girls in an underground bunker, debuted as the top ticket seller at North American movie houses, preliminary Hollywood figures showed on Sunday.
The protagonist in the film is afflicted with a personality disorder, with one particularly violent alter ego known as “The Beast.”
The movie — directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the Indian American director also responsible for the Sixth Sense and other films in the horror genre — grossed an estimated $40.2 million, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.
A Vin Diesel action flick, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, opened in second place with about $20 million in anticipated box office receipts.
The car-chase, sex-laden vehicle is the third movie in the Xander Cage franchise and the second to star muscleman Diesel.
Hidden Figures, a story about three black women mathematicians who helped NASA put the first men in space, ended its two-week run as the number one film and was in third place this weekend, selling $16.25 million in tickets.
The Fox film, a biographical comedy-drama based on a book of the same name, stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae, whose characters must deal with workplace segregation in the 1950s and 1960s.
Universal’s animated musical Sing was in fourth place with a $9-million take over the weekend.
In fifth place was La La Land, a nostalgic tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals. It earned an estimated $8.4 million this weekend after garnering a boatload of accolades, including eight Golden Globes earlier this month.
Rounding out the Top 10 are: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($7 million); Monster Trucks ($7 million); Patriots Day ($6 million); The Founder ($3.8 million); Sleepless ($3.7 million). — AFP
POP SINGER Madonna, who said in a profanity-laced speech at Saturday’s Women’s March in Washington, DC, that she had thought about “blowing up the White House,” said on Sunday that she was speaking metaphorically.
Madonna’s speech, which was criticized on social media, led some television networks to abruptly stop their live feeds of the march, which drew hundreds of thousands of people in demonstrations across the United States to protest the election of Donald Trump as president.
“I am not a violent person,” the singer songwriter said on Instagram. “I spoke in metaphor and I shared two ways of looking at things — one was to be hopeful, and one was to feel anger and outrage, which I have personally felt.”
The 58-year-old led the crowd on Saturday in chants of, “Yes, we’re ready” to take on policies promoted by Trump, who alienated many women during the election campaign with comments’ about rivals’ attractiveness and promises to outlaw or diminish abortion rights.
Trump’s comments in a decade-old video declaring that women would allow him, as a celebrity, to kiss and grope them without their consent further outraged many women.
But Madonna preceded the chants with coarse words for critics of the march.
“To our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything, fuck you,” the pop star said. She then repeated the expletive.
Her words drew immediate criticism on social media. On YouTube, where the speech was posted live and in recorded formats, several users called the singer “evil.”
Others expressed outrage over her comment that she had thought about blowing up the White House. On Twitter, some users demanded that she be investigated for making terrorist threats.
Turnout for Saturday’s march was unprecedented, as organizers took credit for mobilizing 5 million marchers worldwide.
Official crowd estimates for the Washington centerpiece of the demonstration were not available, but turnout in the nation’s capital clearly exceeded the 200,000 projected in advance by organizers, filling long stretches of downtown Washington around the White House and the National Mall. — Reuters
VIACOM, INC.’s Paramount Pictures reached a co-financing agreement with Shanghai Film Group and Huahua Media that will help the money-losing studio pay for movie production over the next three years.
The deal could be worth as much as $1 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the terms are private. Shanghai Film and Huahua Media will co-finance Paramount’s full movie slate over the period, the companies said in a statement Thursday. They will open and jointly maintain an office on the Paramount lot starting this year, according to a statement.
The financing solves a long-term money problem for Paramount, whose parent Viacom had at one time considered selling a stake in the studio to Chinese bidders. The studio has struggled at the box office in recent years and posted a loss of $445 million in fiscal 2016.
“Shanghai Film Group’s long and successful history as a prolific studio, coupled with Huahua’s strong track-record in the Chinese market and its growing reach globally, make this a natural and powerful move for Paramount,” Brad Grey, Paramount’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.
The agreement underscores the continued interest in US film-making among Chinese companies. Dalian Wanda Group Co., led by China’s second richest man, owns Legendary Entertainment and controls AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc., the largest US theater chain.
Other studios have teamed up with Chinese partners to improve their access to China, soon to be the world’s biggest box office market. Sony Corp. recently struck a similar strategic partnership with Wanda.
ACCESS TO CHINA
Paramount also said in the statement it will pursue Chinese coproductions, which allow US studios to keep a greater share of ticket sales in China. The company previously sold stakes in individual big budget films to Chinese companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Paramount has also partnered with Huahua Media on several films, including Transformers: the Age of Extinction. Shanghai Film Group is an investor on Paramount’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, which came out in October.
Earlier this week, China Film Co., the nation’s largest movie distributor, approved plans to invest in Universal Picture’s franchise film installment Fast and Furious 8. — Bloomberg
CBS CORP. and Paramount Pictures Corp. settled their copyright-infringement lawsuit against a die-hard Star Trek fan who had channeled his obsession with an obscure character from the original TV series into a professional 20-minute YouTube hit.
The studios and filmmaker Alec Peters announced the agreement Friday, 11 days before the case was set for trial in Los Angeles. The deal follows a federal judge’s ruling this month that bolstered CBS and Paramount’s claims by rejecting Peters’s argument that his Prelude to Axanar was fair use of the Star Trek material. The judge said Peters had mined the studios’ copyrighted works down to “excruciating detail.”
“Axanar and Mr. Peters have agreed to make substantial changes to Axanar to resolve this litigation,” according to a joint statement. Peters has “also assured the copyright holders that any future Star Trek fan films produced by Axanar or Mr. Peters will be in accordance with the “Guidelines for Fan Films” distributed by CBS and Paramount in June 2016.”
The case is a rare instance of movie and TV-rights owners throwing the book at one of their own fans. CBS and Paramount alleged Peters has ripped off the plot, characters, costumes and spaceship design from their 50-year-old science fiction franchise. Peters claimed his movie, crowd-funded with $100,000 raised on Kickstarter, was an original work of satire and parody. He has been raising money for a feature-length film budgeted at $1.3 million.
US District Judge R. Gary Klausner said in a Jan. 3 ruling it was difficult to see how the film qualifies for protection as a “criticism” of the Star Trek works.
VULCAN, STARFLEET
“This is not surprising since defendants set out to create films that stay faithful to the Star Trek canon and appeal to Star Trek fans,” Klausner said in the decision.
Peters and his Axanar Productions, Inc. got caught in the studios’ crosshairs after the YouTube success of his 2014 documentary-style short that recounts a confrontation between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. The short film has been viewed about 2.8 million times on YouTube.
Prelude to Axanar features interviews with Starfleet commanders played by professional actors, including the same actor who played Vulcan Ambassador Soval in the Star Trek: Enterprise series reprising his role. The planned full-length movie will tell the story of Garth of Izar, a Starfleet captain who appeared in the original TV series as an inmate at an insane asylum and a hero of Captain Kirk’s.
As part of the settlement, Peters can make a longer movie and post it as two 15-minute segments on YouTube, without ads, Axanar Productions said in a separate statement. The original film can also remain on YouTube commercial-free.
“Over a year ago, we have expressed our desire to address the concerns of the studios, and our willingness to make necessary changes, as long as we could reasonably meet our commitments to Axanar’s over 14,000 donors, fans and supporters,” Peters said in the statement. “We are now able to do exactly that.”
The case is Paramount Pictures Corp. v. Axanar Productions, Inc., 15-cv-09938, US District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles). — Bloomberg
SYDNEY — Grieving relatives of MH370 passengers will appeal for the hunt for the missing airliner to continue at a meeting between the Australian and Malaysian transport ministers in Perth on Sunday.
A relative of missing Chinese passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared on March 8, 2014 cries before a meeting in Beijing on January 18, 2017, a day after authorities announced the suspension of search operations for the aircraft. Australia’s transport minister on January 18 defended the suspension of the undersea search for MH370, after relatives of passengers slammed the decision, and added that it could resume if “credible new evidence” emerges. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR
Australia, Malaysia and China on Tuesday suspended the deep sea hunt in the southern Indian Ocean almost three years after the Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board.
“The MH370 next-of-kin implore the government of Malaysia to use this opportunity to urgently consult and reconsider the decision to suspend the search for MH370,” campaign group Voice370 said in a statement.
“Personal letters appealing for a continuation of search from many family members are to be delivered personally to the Malaysia Minister of Transport during his visit to Perth.”
No trace of the plane has been found in the 120,000 square-kilometer (46,000 square miles) designated search zone.
But three fragments recovered on western Indian Ocean shorelines have been confirmed as coming from MH370.
“I understand the disappointment and frustration felt by the families,” Australia’s Transport Minister Darren Chester said in a statement.
“The tripartite decision to suspend the search in the absence of any credible new evidence leading to the specific location of the aircraft was not taken lightly,” he added.
The meeting with his Malaysian counterpart Liow Tiong Lai was informal, according to the statement.
Both ministers are set to meet the crew of Fugro Equator — the last ship to leave the search area off Australia’s west coast in Perth on Monday.
Mr. Chester has left the door open for future operations, saying Wednesday the search could be revived if there is “credible new evidence” pinpointing MH370’s location.
The relative group’s statement pointed out that the $150-million price tag of the underwater hunt was still less than the cost of the Boeing 777-200. — AFP
A relative of missing Chinese passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared on March 8, 2014 cries before a meeting in Beijing on January 18, 2017, a day after authorities announced the suspension of search operations for the aircraft. — AFP
BEIJING — China’s military will carry out drills regardless of foreign provocations and pressure, the Communist Party’s paper said on Sunday, adding that exercises far out at sea like those conducted recently by its sole aircraft carrier will become normal.
This aerial photo taken on January 2, 2017 shows a Chinese navy formation, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning (C), during military drills in the South China Sea. AFP PHOTO / STR / China OUT
China caused unease among some countries in the region last month when the carrier the Liaoning, accompanied by several warships, cruised around self-ruled Taiwan and into the Pacific for what China called routine drills.
Earlier this month, Taiwan scrambled fighter jets and navy ships as the Liaoning then passed through the narrow waterway separating China from the island Beijing claims as its own.
For its part, China was alarmed this month when US President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state Rex Tillerson said China should be denied access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea.
The People’s Daily said no amount of “word bombs,” such as Tillerson’s South China Sea remarks, could stop China’s military drills.
“These provocations, pressure, fantasies and over-exaggerations will not prevent the normal drills of the Chinese military,” the paper said in a commentary.
“The meddling and disruption of countries from outside the region can only run counter to the consensus of common interests that accords with this region and the world,” it added.
“Henceforth, the Chinese military’s exercises far out at sea will become a kind of normal, extremely normal drills,” the paper said.
China has invested billions of dollars in an ambitious military modernization program, especially its navy.
The Chinese navy has been exercising in waters far from home more often as it seeks to hone its operational abilities, and it has joined international anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia.
In 2015, five Chinese ships carried out exercises in international waters in the Bering Sea off the US state of Alaska.
China says it has a legitimate need to develop its “blue water” naval capabilities to protect the trade lanes on which the country’s economy depends, to defend the interests of its citizens overseas and uphold its global obligations.
In 2015, a Chinese naval frigate evacuated foreign citizens from strife-torn Yemen, marking the first time that China’s military has helped other countries evacuate their people during an international crisis. — Reuters
This aerial photo taken on January 2, 2017 shows a Chinese navy formation, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning (C), during military drills in the South China Sea. — AFP[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
SYDNEY — A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea Sunday, shaking homes and sparking a tsunami alert, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.
The tsunami warning for the Pacific island nation and its neighbors was later canceled.
The tremor struck 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Panguna on Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville island at a depth of 153 kilometers at 3:30 p.m. local time (0430 GMT), the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
No reports of damage or injuries have emerged so far, said the PNG Geophysical Observatory in the capital Port Moresby.
“But we know that given such a depth at which the earthquake happened, the chances of any major damage or casualties are not highly likely,” Spokesman Mathew Moihoi told AFP.
“Had there been any major disturbances or damage, we would have known by now,” he said, adding that the area where the quake struck was sparsely populated.
USGS’s preliminary assessment was that light to moderate damage was possible on Bougainville island. The quake was revised down from 8.0-magnitude to 7.9.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said waves of between 0.3 and one meter (1-3 feet) above tide level were possible for some coastal areas of PNG and the neighboring Solomon Islands.
The center issued another statement about an hour later to say that threat had passed.
“Even though it is quite deep at 150 kilometers, because it is such a large earthquake, it will produce shaking on the surface,” Geoscience Australia seismologist Spiro Spiliopoulos told AFP earlier.
Earthquakes are common near Papua New Guinea, which lies on the 4,000-kilometer-long Pacific Australia plate. It forms part of the “Ring of Fire,” a hot spot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
In 2013, the Solomon Islands were hit by a devastating tsunami after an 8.0-magnitude quake rattled the region. That tsunami left at least 10 people dead, destroyed hundreds of homes and left thousands of people homeless. — AFP
PENNE, ITALY — Rescuers combing the wreckage of an Italian hotel in a bid to find survivors of a devastating avalanche detected no signs of life overnight, officials said Sunday.
A handout picture released on January 21, 2017 by the Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico (CNSAS) shows a rescuer digging at by the avalanche-hit Hotel Rigopiano, near the village of Farindola, on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain on January 19, 2017. Italian rescuers pulled four survivors from the hotel and said they remained hopeful of finding alive at least some of the 23 people still trapped under the ruins. / AFP PHOTO / CNSAS / Handout / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / CNSAS ” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
As the painstaking rescue operation entered a fourth day, firefighters and mountain rescue experts again had to battle extreme weather conditions as they tried to locate the 23 people thought to be trapped under a vast pile of snow and the mangled ruins of the Hotel Rigopiano.
Nine people have been pulled alive from the rubble since rescuers first reached the remote hotel in the mountains of central Italy early on Thursday.
All of them were located on Friday and no other potential survivors have been identified since then.
But with scores of them working round the clock, the rescuers were refusing to give up hope that more people could still be clinging to life somewhere under the wreckage.
Five bodies have been recovered so far and there were two other survivors who were outside the hotel when the avalanche struck at nightfall on Wednesday.
It followed a series of powerful earthquakes in the region earlier in the day and some 36 hours of heavy snow. — AFP
A handout picture released on January 21, 2017 by the Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico (CNSAS) shows a rescuer digging at by the avalanche-hit Hotel Rigopiano, near the village of Farindola, on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain on January 19, 2017. — AFP
UGANDA — A team of Ugandan engineers has invented a “smart jacket” that diagnoses pneumonia faster than a doctor, offering hope against a disease which kills more children worldwide than any other.
Telecommunications engineer Olivia Koburongo presents the mama-ope kit at the Makerere University of Public Health in Kampala on January 16, 2017. A team of Ugandan engineers has invented a “smart jacket” that diagnoses pneumonia faster than a doctor, offering hope against a disease which kills more children worldwide than any other. / AFP PHOTO / ISAAC KASAMANI
The idea came to Olivia Koburongo, 26, after her grandmother fell ill, and was moved from hospital to hospital before being properly diagnosed with pneumonia.
“It was now too late to save her,” said Ms. Koburongo.
“It was too hard to keep track of her vitals, of how she’s doing, and that is how I thought of a way to automate the whole process and keep track of her health.”
Ms. Koburongo took her idea to fellow telecommunications engineering graduate Brian Turyabagye, 24, and together with a team of doctors they came up with the “Mama-Ope” (Mother’s Hope) kit made up of a biomedical smart jacket and a mobile phone application which does the diagnosis.
Pneumonia — a severe lung infection — kills up to 24,000 Ugandan children under the age of five per year, many of whom are misdiagnosed as having malaria, according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
A lack of access to laboratory testing and infrastructure in poor communities means health workers often have to rely on simple clinical examinations to make their diagnoses.
BLUETOOTH DIAGNOSIS
With the easy-to-use Mama-Ope kit, health workers merely have to slip the jacket onto the child, and its sensors will pick up sound patterns from the lungs, temperature and breathing rate.
“The processed information is sent to a mobile phone app (via Bluetooth) which analyses the information in comparison to known data so as to get an estimate of the strength of the disease,” said Mr. Turyabagye.
The jacket, which is still only a prototype, can diagnose pneumonia up to three times faster than a doctor and reduces human error, according to studies done by its inventors.
Traditionally doctors use a stethoscope to listen for abnormal crackling or bubbling sounds in the lungs, however, if medics suspect malaria or tuberculosis — which also include respiratory distress — the time lost treating those rather than pneumonia could prove deadly for their patient.
“The problem we’re trying to solve is diagnosing pneumonia at an early stage before it gets severe and we’re also trying to solve the problem of not enough manpower in hospitals because currently we have a doctor to patient ratio which is one to 24,000 in the country,” said Ms. Koburongo.
GLOBAL AMBITION
Mr. Turyabagye said plans were underway to have the kit piloted in Uganda’s referral hospitals and then trickle down to remote health centers.
The team is also working on patenting the kit, which is short-listed for the 2017 Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize.
According to UNICEF, most of the 900,000 annual deaths of children under five due to pneumonia occur in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
This is more than other causes of childhood death such as diarrhoea, malaria, meningitis or HIV/AIDS. — AFP
Telecommunications engineer Olivia Koburongo presents the mama-ope kit at the Makerere University of Public Health in Kampala on Jan. 16. — AFP
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump told the CIA Saturday it had his full support as he paid a visit to mend fences after publicly rejecting its assessment that Russia tried to help him win the US election.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
“I am with you 1,000 percent,” Mr. Trump said in a short address to CIA staff after his visit to the agency headquarters in Virginia.
In his first full day in office, Mr. Trump moved swiftly to confront simmering tensions left by US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the US election to try to tip the outcome in Trump’s favor.
“I love you, I respect you,” he told members of the US intelligence community.
“We’re all on the same wavelength, right?” he asked, referring in particular to the fight against the Islamic State group.
“We have not used the real abilities that we have. We’ve been restrained. We have to get rid of ISIS.”
Mike Pompeo, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, has not yet been confirmed by the US Senate.
A Republican lawmaker, Mr. Pompeo is considered a foreign policy hawk and was an ardent opponent of former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan had stern words for Mr. Trump last Sunday, saying he needed to be more “disciplined” in his public comments.
“I don’t think he has a full appreciation of Russian capabilities, Russia’s intentions and actions,” Mr. Brennan said of Mr. Trump on Fox News Sunday.
Mr. Trump, likening US intelligence to Nazis, suggested Mr. Brennan himself may have leaked an unsubstantiated report that the Russians had gathered damaging salacious personal information about him.
The intelligence agencies had given both Messrs. Trump and Obama a summary of the dossier, which later was published in full by BuzzFeed.
Mr. Brennan said the US intelligence chiefs considered it their responsibility to make Mr. Trump aware that it was in circulation. — AFP
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 11, 2017. — Reuters.
WASHINGTON — More than two million people flooded US cities on Saturday as women opposed to Donald Trump led a peaceful, stunning rebuke against the new US president that was echoed in sister protests around the world.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the Inaugural luncheon at the National Statuary Hall after being sworn-in on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S, January 20, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
As a sea of demonstrators brought downtown Washington to a standstill, streaming past the White House in a joyous parade of pink “pussyhats,” Mr. Trump launched a withering attack on the media, accusing it of downplaying attendance at his swearing-in a day earlier.
Mr. Trump did not acknowledge the mass protests that marked his first full day in office.
But their scale illustrated the depth of resistance to the Republican hardliner, who many fear will roll back the rights of women, immigrants and minorities.
Although the US capital does not release crowd counts, organizers of the main protest, the Women’s March on Washington, told AFP they estimated turnout at one million — quadrupling initial expectations — with some 600 sister protests held around the globe.
A demonstrator has her mouth covered with tape and is handcuffed during the Women’s March on January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. Hundreds of thousands of protesters spearheaded by women’s rights groups demonstrated across the US to send a defiant message to US President Donald Trump. / AFP PHOTO / Joshua LOTT
“I’m part of history, and one day will tell my children about this,” said 16-year-old Maria Iman, who traveled to Washington with fellow high school students from Illinois. “It feels amazing.”
A tide of women and men teens, pensioners, parents with toddlers on their shoulders — swelled into the streets around the National Mall for hours before flowing towards the White House in a determined show of unity.
“Women won’t back down,” “Women’s rights are human rights” and “Thank you Trump — you turned me into an activist,” read some of the thousands of handmade signs held aloft in the capital.
Educator Tanya Gaxiola, 39, who flew in from Tucson, Arizona, expressed concern that Mr. Trump will seek to restrict abortion laws and otherwise clamp down on women’s rights.
“He’s a narcissist and seeks approval, and this is a big display of disapproval,” Ms. Gaxiola said. “Hopefully, it catches his attention.”
More than half a million people packed the streets of Los Angeles, according to police there, and similar numbers gathered in New York. Other marches took place in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, St. Louis, Denver and elsewhere.
‘FIGHT BACK!’
In Boston, where up to 175,000 people demonstrated, fiery Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren took aim at Mr. Trump’s campaign of “attacks” on women and minorities.
“We can whimper. We can whine. Or we can fight back!” Ms. Warren said to a loud roar.
Saturday’s rallying cry was heard far beyond America’s shores, with protests held from Paris to Prague, Sydney to Johannesburg, and in some 20 cities across Canada.
One of the largest was in London, where tens of thousands of women, men and children marched chanting “Dump Trump.”
The human tide flooding Washington appeared to dwarf the throngs of Mr. Trump supporters in red “Make America Great Again!” caps who had cheered his swearing-in.
The knitted “pink pussyhats” they wore were an allusion to Mr. Trump’s videotaped boasts of being able to grab women’s genitals with impunity.
Mr. Trump’s defeated rival Hillary Clinton tweeted her support to the protesters, while former secretary of state John Kerry was spotted in the crowd — a day after leaving office — with his dog on a pink leash.
Celebrities Scarlett Johansson and Michael Moore were among the speakers, and pop diva Madonna made an impromptu appearance on the Washington protest stage to deliver an expletive-laden indictment of the president.
“Welcome to the revolution of love,” the 58-year-old intoned, wearing her own black pussyhat. “To the rebellion. To our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny.”
The Women’s March began with a simple Facebook post from Hawaii grandmother and retired lawyer Teresa Shook to about 40 friends — but word traveled quickly and the event took on a life of its own. — AFP
This photo combination shows US President Donald Trump speaking during the Inaugural luncheon at the National Statuary Hall after being sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Jan. 20 — AFP
A demonstrator with her mouth covered with tape and is handcuffed during the Women’s March on Jan. 21. — AFP
ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN — Syria’s government and rebel fighters will on Monday sit down at the negotiating table for the first time in nearly six years of war, the latest diplomatic push to end the hostilities.
A general view shows Nur-Astana mosque in Astana on January 22, 2017. The so-called Astana peace talks, set to begin on Monday, will be the first time a delegation composed exclusively of rebel groups will negotiate with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. / AFP PHOTO / Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV
Hosted in the Kazakh capital Astana, the talks will see an opposition delegation composed exclusively of rebel groups negotiating with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in an initiative sponsored by rebel backer Turkey and regime allies Russia and Iran.
Though the talks have been welcomed by all parties in the conflict, delegates from both sides are heading to Kazakhstan with apparently opposing ideas about the goals, with Mr. Assad insisting Thursday that rebels lay down their arms in exchange for an amnesty deal.
Although Mr. Assad said the talks would prioritize reaching a cease-fire, Damascus has insisted it will seek a “comprehensive” political solution to the conflict that has killed more than 300,000 and displaced over half of the country’s population.
The rebels, meanwhile, say they will focus solely on reinforcing a frail nationwide truce brokered by Moscow and Ankara last month.
The talks, which could last days, come a month after the Syrian regime, bolstered by its allies, took full control of second city Aleppo from rebels in its biggest victory in more than four years of fighting.
With stakes high and outcomes unclear, the Syrian opposition is wary that the regime could use the rebel groups’ inexperience in political talks to its advantage in Astana, a European diplomatic source told AFP.
“There is genuine worry in the opposition that the representatives of rebel groups, which are not at all used to these types of international negotiations, will be dragged into a political solution that will play into the hand of the regime,” the source said.
US REPRESENTED
The United States under new President Donald Trump will also be represented — with the US ambassador to Astana taking part.
A key negotiator in previous cease-fire agreements, Washington was last month sidelined from sponsoring the nationwide truce brokered by Russia and Turkey after months of disengagement from the conflict.
After overcoming a rift in relations following Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane in Syria in November 2015, the two countries this week conducted their first joint strikes against Islamic State group targets in an operation Moscow hailed as “highly effective.”
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview aired Saturday on Russian state television that deals that could help end the conflict in Syria were “unlikely” to be struck in Astana because “too many parties are involved in the process.”
Iran, the talks’ third sponsor, will be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaber Ansari, the country’s Isna news agency reported.
Analysts say Iran, a longtime ally of Mr. Assad, views the Astana talks as an opportunity to increase its influence in the region after playing a crucial role in the symbolic recapture of Aleppo.
France, Britain and the European Union will also send their ambassadors as representatives at the talks.
A STEPPING STONE?
Divergent agendas and the absence of some key players and high-level officials cast uncertainty on how the Astana talks could serve as a building block for next month’s Geneva negotiations.
“The success or failure of Astana is not predetermined,” Russian Middle East expert Boris Dolgov told AFP.
“If something can be achieved in Astana, I think that a portion of the armed opposition will participate in the Geneva talks.” — AFP
A general view shows Nur-Astana mosque in Astana on January 22, 2017. — AFP
