The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Obama offers military support to ‘friends’ threatened by Russia
Unveils ‘European Reassurance Initiative’ for members of NATO alliance

Warsaw, June 3
US President Barack Obama promised on Tuesday to beef up military support for eastern European members of the NATO alliance who fear they could be next in the firing line after the Kremlin’s intervention in Ukraine. Under fire from critics at home who say his leadership on the world stage has not been muscular enough, Obama unveiled plans to spend up to $1 billion in supporting and training the armed forces of NATO states on Russia’s borders.

The White House also said it would review permanent troop deployments in Europe in the light of the Ukraine crisis, though that fell short of a firm commitment to put troops on the ground that Poland and some of its neighbours had sought.

Stationing troops permanently in eastern Europe would be tricky: many NATO members in Western Europe would baulk at the cost, and a big increase in US forces could prompt reciprocal steps by Moscow and spiral into an arms race.

“We need to make sure that the collective defense ... is robust, it is ready, it is properly equipped,” Obama told a joint news conference with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski in Warsaw at the start of a four-day visit to Europe. “The United States is proud to bear its share of the defense of the transatlantic alliance,” he said after their talks in Warsaw. “It is the cornerstone of our security.” But he also said other NATO states - many of which lag far behind the alliance’s target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defence - needed to do their share as well. “We can’t do it alone,” the US leader said. As they met, fighting raged in eastern Ukraine for a second straight day as Kiev’s army pressed an offensive against pro-Russian separatists holding the city of Slaviansk and said it had inflicted losses on the rebels.

Obama was to meet Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko in Warsaw later on Wednesday and will attend celebrations in France with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to mark the 70th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day landings.

The Kremlin said Putin would hold private meetings on the sidelines with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron, but the Russian leader had no plans to meet Obama.

Obama said he had no interest in threatening Russia, but that it must respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, rein in separatist fighters there, and work together with Poroshenko. If Russia did not more sanctions have been prepared. “Mr Putin has a choice to make,” Obama said. — Reuters

Muscular response

The military assistance proposed by the White House, called the European Reassurance Initiative, is to include greater US participation in training and exercises, deploying US military planners, and more persistent naval deployments in the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, on Russia’s doorstep

The White House said in a statement it would help build the defence capacity of Ukraine and two other Western-leaning states on Russia’s borders, Georgia and Moldova.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he appreciated Washington’s leadership in taking measures to reassure NATO allies.

Obama calls on Putin to meet Ukraine’s Poroshenko

Warsaw: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday called on Russia's President Vladimir Putin to meet the next leader of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. Obama said he would give that message to Putin when he sees him this week in France for D-Day 70th anniversary celebrations, and called on the Russian leader to recognise the Ukrainian election as "legitimate".

India to evacuate 1,150 students from Ukrainian city

New Delhi: The government has made arrangements for evacuation of close to 1,150 Indian students, 60 of whom are from Punjab and 25 from Jammu and Kashmir, from violence-hit Lugansk region in Ukraine.

MQM chief held in UK for money laundering

London/Karachi, June 3
Pakistan's powerful MQM leader Altaf Hussain was today arrested in London on charges of money laundering, sparking panic in his power base of Karachi where gunshots were fired, vehicles set ablaze and British diplomatic facilities closed down.

"Officers have this morning arrested a 60-year-old man on suspicion of money laundering. The arrest took place at a residential address in north-west London. He has since been taken into custody at a central London police station and enquiries continue," the Scotland Yard said without disclosing the exact identity of the individual for "legal reasons".

Officers were searching the politician's home in Edgware area of north London. Hussain, the chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has lived in the UK since claiming asylum in the 1990s but has maintained a tight grip on Karachi.

The MQM is the single largest party in Karachi and has since the late eighties dominated the city's political landscape at the local and provincial level. Hussain's arrest was confirmed by MQM officials in London.

A spokesman for the British High Commission said the UK's consulate in Karachi has been temporarily closed down.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that the issue of Hussain's arrest was of an extremely sensitive nature and the government would take all legal angles into account. He directed that the Parliament be taken into confidence over the matter.

Hussain had been ill for some time and was scheduled to be shifted to a hospital today when the police arrived at his residence, MQM's Nadeem Nusrat said while addressing journalists via telephone from London.

The impact of Hussain's arrest could be immediately felt in his home city Karachi as choas and fear prevailed. Within a matter of hours, fear and panic spread with markets, petrol pumps, banks closing down and people rushing home fearing violence.

Pakistan Railways stopped all operations to Karachi following Hussain's arrest. Even as the MQM appealed to the people through the media to remain calm and peaceful, many incidents of firing and setting ablaze vehicles were reported in Karachi. — PTI

The Karachi ‘king’

Altaf Hussain has lived in the UK since claiming asylum in the 1990s but has maintained a tight grip on Karachi

Hussain’s hold on Karachi is so strong that he is capable of shutting down entire neighbourhoods of the city of 18 million

The MQM, formed in 1984, largely represents descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants from India who settled in Pakistan when it was created in 1947.

Anti-royalists take to streets in Spain
Demand referendum on monarchy’s survival after king’s abdication

Madrid, June 3
Thousands of anti-royalists took to the streets across Spain calling for a vote on the monarchy’s survival after the abdication of King Juan Carlos. Rather than hand over the throne to Crown Prince Felipe, to be known as King Felipe VI, protesters demanded a referendum on the very survival of the institution.

Late into the night after the king’s abdication announcement yesterday, thousands of people filled Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square as rallies were called in major cities around the country. Protesters filled the square and police closed access to the royal palace just a short walk away from the demonstration.

“Tomorrow, Spain will be a republic!”, chanted crowds of demonstrators brandishing placards reading: “No more kings, a referendum”; “A royal transition... without a king”; and “Bourbons up for election”.

“I think now would be a good time to proclaim a republic,” said Paola Torija, a 24-year-old therapist for the disabled, following the king’s abdication announcement.\/”He had his moment of glory but today it is a bit archaic, a bit useless, an extra cost especially in the crisis we are living in,” she said.

Republican sentiment remains widespread in Spain, which only restored the monarchy in 1975 after the death of General Francisco Franco, who had ruled for four decades.

Juan Carlos won widespread personal respect for his role in guiding post-Franco Spain to democracy, most famously appearing on national television to halt an attempted military coup in February 1981.

But many Spaniards were angered when they discovered the king took a luxury African elephant-hunting safari in 2012 while they suffered at home from a crisis that left one in four people unemployed.

Resentment grew as the king’s elder daughter Cristina was formally named a suspect in a judicial investigation into her husband Inaki Urdangarin’s allegedly corrupt business practices.

In a study by pollster Sigma Dos published in January 2014, support for the king fell to 41 percent while those wanting him to abdicate in favour of Felipe surged to 62 percent.

Most worryingly for royalists, the same survey found only 49 percent approved of the monarchy itself.

Three small leftist parties — Podemos, United Left and the Equo green party which together won 20 percent of the vote in May 25 elections for seats in the European Parliament — called for a referendum on the monarchy. — AFP

Thai junta warns against three-fingered salute

Taking on junta: Anti-coup protesters flash a three-fingered salute during a gathering in downtown Bangkok. AFP

Bangkok, June 3
Thailand’s military rulers say they are monitoring a new form of silent resistance to the coup, a three-fingered salute borrowed from “The Hunger Games”, and will arrest those in large groups who ignore warnings to lower their arms.

The raised arm salute has become an unofficial symbol of opposition to Thailand’s May 22 coup, and a creative response to several bans the ruling junta has placed on freedom of expression.

“At this point we are monitoring the movement,” said Col Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a spokesman for the junta. “If it is an obvious form of resistance, then we have to control it so it doesn’t cause any disorder in the country.”

Since staging its bloodless coup, the military has prohibited political gatherings of more than five people and tried to enforce a ban on criticism of the coup. — AFP