UNITED NATIONS – A fact-finding mission by the UN chemical weapons watchdog has found that some people in Syria may have been exposed to sarin or a sarin-like gas, according to a report released Monday, January 4.

The mission by the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it was investigating 11 incidents of the use of toxic chemicals reported by the Syrian government.

The report did not say when the 11 incidents took place or specify any location.

"In one instance, the analysis of some blood samples indicates that individuals were at some point exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance," said the OPCW report sent to the Security Council last week.

"Further investigation would be necessary to determine when or under what circumstances such exposure might have occurred," said the report.

Previous fact-finding missions by the OPCW in Syria have pointed to the use of chlorine and mustard gas.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss Syria's chemical weapons use during a meeting on Tuesday, January 5.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebel forces have accused each other of using chemical agents in the nearly five-year war that has killed more than 250,000 people.

After an August 2013 sarin attack outside Damascus that much of the international community blamed on Assad's government, the regime agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal.

The report said that 99.6% of all declared chemical weapons in Syria had been destroyed. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – More than 1 million Filipino children in 3 regions with high incidence of dengue will be among the first recipients of anti-dengue vaccine in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Health Secretary Janette Garin said President Benigno Aquino III has approved the provision of dengue vaccine to 1,077,623 9-year-old Filipino children who are currently enrolled in government schools in the National Capital Region, Region III (Central Luzon), and Region IV-A (Calabarzon).

More than 92,000 dengue cases have been recorded in the country as of September 2015, with most of the cases – almost 50% – from these 3 regions.

Garin said the Philippines, which has been spending P16 billion every year to fight dengue, got a discount from the manufacturer of Dengvaxia, the world's first-ever dengue vaccine.

The funds for the purchase of the vaccine will be sourced from sin tax revenues.

In December 2015, the Philippines became the first Asian country to approve the sale of Dengvaxia, manufactured by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi. 

The Philippines is part of a 20-year trial for the vaccine. Three phases of the clinical trial were conducted in the country.

“The fact that the 3 phases of the clinical trial has been concluded in the Philippines is a reflection of the efficiency and capability of Filipino researchers. This shows that the world recognizes Philippine expertise in the area of research,” Garin said.

Citing an unpublished study done by Professor Hilton Lam of the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Health, the DOH said a nationwide annual vaccination of 9-year-olds starting this year will lead to an estimated 24.2% drop in dengue cases over 5 years.

This translates to 775,053 dengue cases avoided, as well as 502,000 hospitalizations, 22,010 deaths, and almost P21 billion cost to society.

In 2013, the DOH reported 204,906 dengue cases – the highest number recorded since the establishment of the National Dengue Prevention and Control Program in 1993.

While the number decreased slightly in 2014, the DOH said data from 2015 suggested an increasing trend in the coming years.

Dengue is a disease common in tropical and sub-tropical countries in the world, and is transmitted through the bite of the Aedes mosquito. (READ: What are the common rainy season diseases?)

The Philippines is one of 4 countries in the Western Pacific which reported the highest dengue incidence in recent years. – with reports from Jee Geronimo/Rappler.com

UNITED NATIONS – Saudi Arabia's mission to the United Nations on Monday, January 5, defended the execution of 47 men including a prominent Shiite cleric that outraged Iran, saying all of the accused had been granted fair trials.

"The kingdom of Saudi Arabia reiterates that all convicted persons were granted fair and just trials without any consideration to their intellectual, racial or sectarian affiliation and that the final rulings against them was reached based on their own criminal and illegal actions," said a statement from the Saudi mission.

Riyadh expressed "deep regret" over a statement from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said he was "deeply dismayed" by the executions.

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, January 3, after protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran over the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines (2nd UPDATE) – The Philippine government’s top lawyer, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, refused to defend the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the case filed by presidential aspirant Senator Grace Poe before the Supreme Court (SC).

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista on Tuesday, January 5, said the poll body is now left to defend itself.

“Sariling sikap na po ang Comelec diyan. Kami-kami na lang ang magdedepensa sa naging posisyon ng Comelec tungkol dito (The Comelec has to do this on its own. We ourselves will have to defend the position of the Comelec on this),” Bautista said in an interview on dzMM Tuesday morning.

This comes after the Office of the Solicitor General defended the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruling in favor of Poe. (READ: FULL TEXT: SolGen defends SET ruling in favor of Grace Poe)

The SET earlier junked a petition to disqualify Poe as senator, based on claims that she is not a natural-born Filipino.

Despite the SET ruling, the Comelec later barred Poe from running for president. This is because she is supposedly not a natural-born Filipino and also lacks the required number of years to live in the Philippines.

The SC on December 28 stopped the Comelec from implementing this ruling. 

The High Court scheduled oral arguments on Poe’s case on January 19.

Bautista said the SC also gave the Comelec a “non-extendible deadline” of January 7 to file its answer to Poe’s request.

5-day extension

He said the Comelec, which would discuss the matter in its regular meeting on Tuesday, had requested the SC for a 5-day extension.

On Tuesday, the High Court released a copy of the motion for extension filed by the Comelec  on January 4, asking that the deadline be extended from January 7 to January 12.

The Comelec said that its request “is not intended to delay the proceedings but based solely” on the grounds that it had stated in the motion, among them, that the Office of the Solicitor General filed on January 4 its manifestation that it cannot submit the required comment on behalf of the Comelec.

Meanwhile, Poe thanked Hilbay and the OSG for defending the SET ruling that she is a natural-born Filipino.

“Malaking bagay po sa amin na ang mga mismong tagapagtanggol ng bansa sa larangan ng international law ay pumanig sa aming katuwiran (It means a lot to us that even the very defenders of the country in the field of international law have sided with us)," Poe said.

Buo po ang aming paniniwala na ang batas ay nandiyan para siguruhin ang  pantay na karapatan ng bawat Pilipino, at nagtitiwala po kami na itataguyod ito ng Korte Suprema,” Poe said.

(We firmly believe that the law is there to ensure equal rights for all Filipinos, and we trust that this will be upheld by the Supreme Court.) – Rappler.com

CARACAS, Venezuela (UPDATED) – A tense struggle for control of Venezuela's legislature threatens to come to a head at a swearing-in ceremony Tuesday, January 5, as opposition lawmakers defy government efforts to weaken their majority.

Opponents and loyalists alike of the country's Socialist leadership have called on their supporters to rally at the National Assembly as an opposition majority takes over for the first time in 17 years.

Facing the toughest challenge yet to his authority from the new assembly, President Nicolas Maduro moved to calm tensions late Monday, January 4, by saying he had ordered the security forces to ensure the investiture goes ahead peacefully.

He said authorities and the opposition discussed safety measures so that demonstrators "can go out, sing their songs and chant their slogans with enough space so that access to the National Assembly is not obstructed."

The call for rallies raised fears of fresh unrest in the oil-rich, crisis-hit country, where street violence sparked by anti-government protests left 43 people dead in 2014.

The tension around Tuesday's proceedings "underlines the climate of political confrontation and government instability," wrote Diego Moya-Ocampos, a Venezuelan analyst at research group IHS.

"The armed forces will play a key role behind the scenes."

Maduro also said he would try to get the assembly to support a new economic emergency plan. That could set the stage for yet another serious political clash.

'No coups or violence'

The opposition coalition MUD won a majority in the assembly in elections on December 6, for the first time since 1999, when late socialist president Hugo Chavez came to power.

His successor Maduro has taken judicial steps to reduce the opposition's two-thirds supermajority.

It has appointed new judges to the 32-member Supreme Court, which has granted his request to suspend the swearing-in of three incoming lawmakers over alleged voting fraud.

Losing those 3 deputies would take away the opposition's supermajority of 112 of the 167 seats in the assembly.

The opposition wants to take constitutional steps to get rid of Maduro, but would be much less likely to succeed without a supermajority.

The MUD insisted its legislators would all turn up to be sworn in on Tuesday, setting up a tense standoff.

Hardline grassroots pro-government groups vowed to take to the streets.

The new opposition lawmakers voted in one of their senior figureheads, Henry Ramos Allup, as the new assembly speaker on Sunday.

He said his side had received assurances from the military that they would prevent "violent groups" from carrying out "acts of intimidation" around the assembly on Tuesday.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino responded that the military should not be drawn into the controversy by those with "political" interests.

"The armed forces are not an institution for subverting constitutional order or disregarding democratic institutions, let alone for launching coups d'etat," he wrote on Twitter.

Oil-rich and unstable

Workers at the congressional television channel were being prevented from broadcasting Tuesday's proceedings, said one of the channel's journalists, Betzaida Amaro.

Ramos Allup insisted: "That doesn't matter because we will guarantee that private media can broadcast an event that belongs to all of Venezuela."

The MUD has called for international support to resist what it called a "judicial coup" against its deputies.

Venezuela has the world's biggest known oil reserves but has suffered from a fall in the price of the crude on which its government relies.

It is in deep recession and citizens are suffering shortages of basic goods.

Now its troubles are heightened by political instability.

"The government is not used to having a counterweight to its power and is trying to avoid that at all costs," said analyst Luis Vicente Leon, president of pollster Datanalisis.

"But it is also true that the opposition, after so many years without having power, has forgotten how to use it -- and strike a balance." – Maria Isabel Sanchez, AFP / Rappler.com

UNITED NATIONS – The UN Security Council on Monday, January 4, strongly condemned an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran by protesters angry over Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

The statement by the 15-member council made no mention of the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and called on Iran to protect diplomatic personnel and property.

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, January 3, after protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad.

"The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, and its Consulate General in Mashhad in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in intrusions into the diplomatic and consular premises, causing serious damage," said the council statement.

Expressing "deep concern" over the attacks, the council "called on the Iranian authorities to protect diplomatic and consular property and personnel, and to respect fully their international obligations in this regard."

Council members urged the sides to "maintain dialogue and take steps to reduce tensions in the region."

Saudi Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi had earlier urged the council to "take all appropriate measures to ensure the inviolability of diplomatic facilities and the protection of all Saudi diplomats in Iran."

Riyadh also defended the execution of 47 men including Nimr, saying in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that they were "granted fair and just trials without any consideration to their intellectual, racial or sectarian affiliation."

International fears were growing that the Saudi-Iranian rift would derail peace efforts in Syria and Yemen and two UN envoys were dispatched to Riyadh to keep diplomatic gains afloat.

At Russia's request, the council on Tuesday will discuss the conflict in Yemen after the Saudi-led coalition ended a ceasefire with Iran-backed rebels in the country. – Rappler.com

OREGON, USA – Dozens of armed men occupying a wildlife reserve in Oregon since the weekend reflect a long tradition of anti-federal government fervor in America, stirred up recently by western ranchers.

The activists began their protest Saturday, January 2, at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge over the jailing of Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven, 46. They were convicted of arson for damaging federal land after lighting what they said was a controlled fire on their ranch more than a decade ago.

But the blaze spread and consumed 139 acres (56 hectares) of federal land. The two men were convicted in 2012, and in October of last year a jury sentenced them each to 5 years in prison.

That angered people close to the ranchers and activists who are fiercely opposed to federal control of their land. 

What is the origin of this clash?

This anti-government movement stems from debate in America on the powers of the federal government in its dealings with local authorities.

The debate goes way back to the so-called Whisky Rebellion, shortly after the US Constitution was passed in 1789. In debt after the War of Independence, the government imposed taxes on alcoholic beverages including whisky. This infuriated merchants, who said the federal government had too much power.

Two centuries later, in the late 1960s, white supremacists opposed to the civil rights movement in the United States joined forces in a far right social movement called Posse Comitatus, or force of the county. It was founded in Oregon, of all places.

Its supporters see the county as the ultimate holder of political power. The federal government, which defends minorities and collects taxes, is seen by them as a foreign occupying force.

Some adherents went so far as to argue that the government was in the hands of socialist elements, or "Jewish lobby" that goes against the traditions of Christian America. In the 1970s, Congress passed laws to retake control of lands in the west. That irked farmers, among others, who gradually joined the movement, which serves as a source of armed militia.

Anti-federal tragedies mount

Some analysts see this new extremism as emerging after a bloody siege in Waco, Texas, in 1993, when members of a sect called the Branch Davidians, suspected of weapons violations, waged a 51-day standoff with federal authorities. The FBI eventually launched an assault and used tear gas. Fire engulfed the sect's compound and 76 people died. 

These events have been cited as the motivation behind one Timothy McVeigh's truck bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City exactly two years later. It killed 168 people and marked the deadliest act of domestic extremism in US history. 

Ranchers respond?

The agricultural underpinnings of the "posse comitatus" movement can be seen in a 2014 confrontation in Nevada involving militiamen loyal to a rancher named Cliven Bundy, who refused to pay more than a million dollars in back taxes for grazing rights on public lands. 

In Africa, access to water or pasture land can trigger clashes between clans or tribes. In the Bundy case it was one man's land claims that sparked conflict with the federal government. The ongoing standoff in Oregon is led by Bundy's 40-year-old son Ammon. 

How many militia are there in US?

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SLC), the Bundy case further fueled an extremist movement stirred by Barack Obama's election as president in 2008. It says militia groups have grown from 150 in 2009 to more than 1,000 today. 

They call themselves patriots who oppose the federal government but are adamant about certain articles of the federal constitution such as the right to bear arms. It is hard to say how many people belong to such groups or at least support them. 

But the movement could become more popular among rightwing voters – conservative or libertarian – as Obama is planning new measures to tighten US gun control laws.  – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – It’s a good promise for the country’s 160-000 strong police force, but Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento has his apprehensions over the proposal of presidential aspirant Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano to increase the salaries of police personnel to P75,000-P100,000 each within 3 years.

In a chance interview with reporters on Tuesday, January 5, Sarmiento said he “understands” the proposal but emphasized the need for “balance.”

“For the past so many decades, ang ating Capital Expenditures napakababa. Ngayon lang po tayo lumuwang, yung Capital Expenditures natin, pero naghahabol po tayo eh. Naghahabol tayo. Kailangan nating mag-invest nang mag-iinvest para tayo makahabol at hopefully matamaan natin ang ika nga, ang gusto nating makamit na inclusive growth,” he said.

(Our Capital Expenditure has been very low. It’s only now that we’ve had space for our Capital Expenditures but we’re playing catch-up. We need to invest so we can catch up and hopefully hit our goal of inclusive growth.)

Duterte and Cayetano are banking on the promise of judicial reform and curbing crime and corruption for their campaign, among other things. The proposal to increase the salary of police personnel was unveiled by Cayetano in a press briefing on Monday, January 4. (READ: A look at state of crime, drugs in PH)

Sarmiento, who has been Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) chief since September last year, said the current administration takes the needs of its personnel into consideration while looking at the “big picture.”

“May SSL (Salary Standardization Law) 4 tayo na tinitignan din naman ang mga pangangailangan ng ating mga empleyado. Gaya ito ng isang pamilya eh. Ang isang pamilya, marami pang dapat magawa sa isang pamamahay… napakaimportante na tignan po natin ang kabuuan kasi baka mamaya sasabihin natin na ganito, eh papaano yan kapag hindi natin ma-sustain at mapabayaan naman natin ang iba nating pangangailangan so kailangan pag-aralan ng mabuti,” he said.

(There’s the SSL 4 that looks at the needs of our employees. We’re like a family. In a family, there are a lot of things that need to happen. It’s important to look at the big picture because we can say that we want to this but what if we’re unable to sustain it and end up leaving behind other needs. So it’s something that must be studied well.)

Huge salary bump

Prior to assuming his Cabinet post, Sarmiento represented Western Samar in Congress and was a member of the House of Representatives’ appropriations committee. He is a member of the ruling Liberal Party (LP), which is fielding former DILG Secretary Manuel Roxas II as its standard-bearer in 2016.

As it stands the lowest-raking police personnel, a Police Officer 1 (PO1), gets roughly P14,834 ($315) as his monthly base pay. Depending on where he or she is assigned, a PO1’s salary can reach up to P20,000, according to police officials in Camp Crame.

The PNP’s highest-ranking officer, a director general, gets roughly P67,500 ($1,400) a month as base pay but that salary can inch closer to P100,000 given various allowances.

Duterte's and Cayetano’s proposal would mean that even PO1s get more than what the current Director General is earning.

The 2015 budget allocated over P60.6 billion for PNP personnel’s salaries. The tandem wants to spend P135.5 billion to P180.7 billion on uniformed personnel alone should they win. Cayetano, speaking to media, explained that their proposal to increase PNP pay would not require new taxes, citing the “normal increase of revenues” every year. – Rappler.com

BACOLOR, Pampanga – Vice President Jejomar Binay visits the family of executed overseas Filipino worker Joselito Zapanta on Tuesday, January 5.

Zapanta was executed in Saudi Arabia in December for murder and robbery of a Sudanese national in 2009.

His mother Mona thinks the Department of Foreign Affairs did not do enough for her son.

Mara Cepeda files this VLOG.– Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Former elections chief Sixto Brillantes Jr on Tuesday, January 5, said it is not unusual for the Philippine government’s top lawyer to refuse to represent the poll body before the Supreme Court (SC).

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista on Tuesday said the poll body is left to defend itself after the Solicitor General (SolGen) decided not to represent the poll body in the case involving the candidacy of Senator Grace Poe.

Brillantes said in an interview on dzMM: “Nangyayari naman ‘yan. Noong nandoon ako sa Comelec, sinasabi ng SolGen, ‘E kontra ang posisyon namin sa inyo so kayo na ang bahala.’”

(Those things happen. When I was in the Comelec, the SolGen would say, “Our position is contrary to yours so you can handle this yourself.”)

The SolGen previously defended the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) ruling in favor of Poe. The Comelec's decision is contrary to that of the SET.

Brillantes also brushed aside speculations that President Benigno Aquino III influenced Solicitor General Florin Hilbay to support the SET position.

“He’s a very young lawyer, he’s a very intelligent lawyer. He really knows what he’s doing,” the former Comelec chairman said in a mix of English and Filipino. 

“He’s taking the position that protects his client,” he added, referring to the SET as Hilbay’s client.

According to Brillantes, the Comelec now has to rely on its own law department to defend itself before the SC.

“The law department of the Comelec knows what it’s doing. They are experienced lawyers already,” he said. 

‘SolGen can still represent Comelec’

A veteran election lawyer like Brillantes, Romulo Macalintal also weighed in on the issue on Tuesday. 

Macalintal pointed out that the SolGen “might not represent Comelec at the SC” as the SolGen’s position in the separate Poe case decided by the SET “would be inconsistent with the Comelec decision.” 

The SET earlier junked a petition to disqualify Poe on the basis of claims that Poe is not a natural-born Filipino. 

But Macalintal noted that the SET ruling revolves “only on the issue of citizenship.” 

He said the SolGen “could still lawyer for Comelec on Poe’s residency case.”

The Comelec earlier ruled to bar Poe from running for president because she failed to meet a 10-year residency requirement, aside from the fact that she is not a natural-born citizen.

“But if in both issues, the SolGen declines representation of Comelec, then Comelec has to get its own lawyer from the Commission, either one of its commissioners or the head of its law department,” Macalintal said.

He said Bautista “may not lawyer for Comelec because he dissented from the majority decision of the poll body.”

Reacting to the SET decision, Akbayan Representative Ibarra Gutierrez also said the SolGen’s decision not to back the Comelec is not surprising.

“We have to remember, the SolGen is the lawyer of the government, and that means all government agencies,” said Gutierrez, the spokesman of Poe’s rival, administration standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II.

He said that in a way, the SolGen serves government agencies on a “first come, first served” basis.

Poe’s case before the SET came before the Comelec cancelled her candidacy. – Rappler.com

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkish authorities on Tuesday found the bodies of at least 21 migrants, including several children, washed up on beaches and floating in the sea off its western coast after their boats sank while crossing the Aegean Sea to EU member Greece.

The tragedies, the deadliest so far reported in the Aegean in 2016, come as the EU seeks to push Turkey to halt the flow of migrants across its borders in exchange for financial help.

Twenty-two migrants seeking to reach the Greek island of Lesbos set out before dawn aboard a rubber boat but it capsized in bad weather and high seas, the Dogan news agency reported.

The bodies of fourteen people were found either washed up on the beach near the resort of Ayvalik or in the sea nearby, Dogan said. Eight more migrants were rescued.

Among those found dead was a woman who was six months pregnant. 

Images published by Dogan showed the small corpses of children, fully dressed and wearing shoes, lying on the beach with their life-jackets still on.

Video footage showed Turkish security forces lifting other bodies from the waves in the shallows on the shore.

In a second disaster, seven migrants were found dead off the resort of Dikili just to the south, it added. The victims there also included women and children, Dogan said.

Over million reach Europe

The tragedies are the latest involving migrants fleeing war and misery in the hope of finding a new life in Europe.

The images of the small lifeless bodies on the sand echo those of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi, pictures of whose corpse lying face down on a Turkish beach in September 2015 spurred Europe into greater action on the migrant crisis.

A drowned two-year-old boy became the first known migrant casualty of the year on Saturday after the crowded dinghy he was traveling in slammed into rocks off Greece's Agathonisi island, the coastguard said.

Turkey, which is home to some 2.2 million refugees from Syria's civil war, has become a hub for migrants seeking to reach Europe, many of whom pay people smugglers thousands of dollars for the risky crossing.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 1,004,356 migrants and refugees reached Europe in 2015, almost five times the previous year’s total of 219,000. 

The IOM also said Tuesday that 3,771 migrants and refugees died crossing the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe in 2015, making the past year the deadliest on record.

It said 77 percent of the deaths occurred in the central Mediterranean route mostly used by smugglers operating from Libyan shores. But it noted a surge in the numbers who died in the eastern Mediterranean around Turkey and Greece.

"In 2015, 21 percent of deaths occurred in the eastern Mediterranean compared to only 1 percent in 2014," the IOM said.

Ankara reached an agreement with the EU in November to stem the flow of refugees heading to Europe, in return for financial assistance. 

Brussels vowed to provide three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in cash as well as political concessions to Ankara in return for its cooperation in tackling Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War II.

But onset of winter and rougher sea conditions do not appear to have deterred the migrants, with boats still arriving on the Greek islands daily.

The IOM said it estimated that in the first three days of 2016 alone just over 5,000 migrants and refugees crossed into Greece.

Citizens of Syria and Afghanistan accounted for almost 80 percent of these migrants with others coming from Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian Territories, it said.–Stuart Williams, AFP/Rappler.com 

PARIS, France – French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday kicked off a week of commemorations marking the jihadist rampage in Paris that began with an assault on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and lasted three days, claiming 17 lives.

Hollande, flanked by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, unveiled a plaque at Charlie Hebdo's former offices, where cartoonists who were household names in France, nicknamed Cabu, Wolinski and Charb, were killed along with nine others.

The January 7-9, 2015, attacks by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, dubbed "France's 9/11", marked the start of a string of jihadist strikes in the country that culminated in the November 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 dead.

The massacre at Charlie Hebdo unleashed an outpouring of solidarity for freedom of expression, with the rallying cry "Je Suis Charlie" taken up around the world.

After the sombre ceremony in a light drizzle, Hollande could be seen embracing Georges Wolinski's widow Maryse.

Red-faced authorities admitted later that they had misspelled Wolinski's name, promising to correct the plaque "within the hour".

The president and mayor unveiled a separate plaque nearby at the site where one of the jihadist gunmen fleeing the scene shot police officer Ahmed Merabet as he lay on the pavement.

The entourage, limited in size at the request of the victims' families, also included Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

'Remembrance tree' 

They went on to unveil a third plaque at the Hyper Cacher, a kosher supermarket in an eastern suburb where four Jews -- three shoppers and an employee -- were killed during a horrifying hostage drama.

Hollande could be seen greeting Lassana Bathily, the Muslim worker at the supermarket credited with saving many shoppers' lives by helping them hide in the store's underground cold room and later aiding police in the logistics of their raid.

The French leader will return to the supermarket on Saturday for another ceremony organized by the Jewish umbrella group CRIF.

Also Saturday, a fourth plaque is to be unveiled at the site in the southern suburb of Montrouge where Amedy Coulibaly, who later attacked the Jewish supermarket, gunned down a policewoman.

Commemorations will culminate in a public event Sunday in the Place de la Republique, the vast square that has become the rallying point for "Je Suis Charlie" solidarity -- as well as the November 13 carnage.

An oak "remembrance tree" standing some 10 meters (35 feet) tall will be planted in the square.

Veteran rocker Johnny Hallyday will perform "Un Dimanche de Janvier" (One January Sunday), a song recalling the vast mobilization that saw 1.6 million people march in Paris on January 11, 2015.

Dozens of world leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the march.

Charlie Hebdo had been a target for jihadist attack since publishing Mohammed cartoons in 2006, and saw its offices firebombed in 2011.

Ingrid Brinsolaro, the widow of cartoonist Charb's bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro who was shot dead in the attack, has filed a lawsuit claiming that her husband was left vulnerable because Charlie Hebdo was inadequately protected.

Cazeneuve on Tuesday defended the decision to reduce security at the magazine's offices before the attack, telling French radio that authorities had determined that jihadists had shifted to targeting soldiers and police.– Gina Dogget and Bertrand Pinon, AFP/Rappler.com

GENEVA, Switzerland – At least 81 civilians were killed in Yemen last month, most of them in Saudi-led airstrikes, despite a short-lived and repeatedly violated ceasefire, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"During the month of December, at least 62 civilians were reported to have been killed by airstrikes attributed to the coalition forces," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights agency, told reporters.

That number, he pointed out, was more than double the 29 civilians reported killed in such strikes a month earlier.

The number of civilians killed by the Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies was meanwhile cut by two thirds to at least 11 in December from 32 a month earlier, Colville said.

The remaining eight civilian deaths last month have not yet been conclusively attributed to either side, he told AFP. 

The dramatic increase in the number of civilians killed in airstrikes came despite a ceasefire declared on December 15, at the same time as UN-backed peace talks between the warring sides began in Switzerland.

But the talks ended five days later with no major breakthrough, and the ceasefire collapsed on January 2 after being violated on a daily basis. 

Colville pointed out that UN rights agency staff had begun receiving reports of violations "within minutes of the ceasefire beginning."

Limited access to food

The ceasefire certainly did little to shield civilians.

On December 18, he pointed out, 18 civilians were allegedly killed when two airstrikes hit a civilian house in Wadi Kena, in Saada, and two days later, six civilians, including three children, were killed in strikes on a residential neighborhood in Al Hudayhda City.

The airstrikes have continued into the new year, with some 11 strikes taking place in Sanaa on Sunday and Monday alone, with reports of further airstrikes Tuesday morning, Colville said, pointing to reports indicating that civilian buildings had been hit in densely populated areas of Sanaa.

Colville also decried "alarming information" that coalition forces used cluster bombs in Hajjah governorate, saying that a field visit by UN rights office staff last month had found remnants of 29 cluster submunitions near banana plantations in the village of al-Odair in Haradh district.

He said other villages and other districts also appeared to have been affected.

Colville also voiced particular concern at the humanitarian situation in violence-wracked Taez, lamenting that "strict control of all entry points into the city by the popular committees affiliated with the Houthis has resulted in limited access to essential items, including food."

Yemen's conflict erupted in September 2014, when the Houthis advanced from their northern strongholds to occupy the capital Sanaa.

Since the conflict escalated dramatically when the Saudi-led air strikes began in March, at least 2,795 civilians have been killed and 5,324 wounded, Colville said.

A new round of peace talks have been scheduled for January 14 in an unspecified location.

And UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed is set to visit Riyadh on Wednesday amid fears that a diplomatic storm unleased by Saudi Arabia's break in relations with Iran could thwart the efforts to end Yemen's conflict.–Rappler.com 

BAGHDAD, Iraq – At least 25 Iraqi fighters have been killed repelling a major three-day offensive by the Islamic State group in the western region of Haditha, security sources said Tuesday.

"We have given 25 martyrs in 72 hours," a tribal commander, Sheikh Abdallah Atallah, told AFP by phone from Haditha, an area that includes a key dam and has held off IS since 2014.

"It was one of the biggest offensives we have seen. It came from three directions," he said, adding that dozens were also wounded.

The mayor of Haditha, located in Anbar province about 200 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Baghdad, confirmed the casualty toll.

"We have more than 20 martyrs and more than 50 wounded. They are from the army, CTS (the counter-terrorism service), the police and the tribal fighters," Mabrouk Hamid said.

"Haditha was targeted Sunday by a massive offensive involving more than 40 vehicles, all armored and some explosives-laden," Hamid said.

"They were destroyed by coalition and Iraqi air strikes," he said.

Both the mayor and tribal commander said IS had lost very large numbers of fighters in their failed assault.

The US-led coalition confirmed it provided support to the Iraqi forces defending Haditha, a strategic area where Sunni tribal fighters opposed to IS have resisted several previous waves of attacks.

"There have been several ISIL (IS) attacks near Haditha. None of these attacks have been successful" thanks to stronger aerial support, US-led coalition spokesman Colonel Steve Warren wrote on social media.

Civilians trapped

The jihadists appeared to make an offensive on Haditha - one of the most coveted prizes for the group in Iraq - their priority after losing control of the provincial capital of Ramadi a week ago.

Senior military commanders said when the security forces launched their offensive on central Ramadi late last month that IS had redeployed some of its assets further west in Anbar.

In the course of their latest offensive on Haditha and the neighboring towns of Barwana and Haqlaniyah, further south along the Euphrates, IS was nonetheless able to seize a village called Sakrana, several sources told AFP.

"Daesh controls the village of Sakrana... but they are surrounded by our forces and we should clear it within hours," Atallah said, using an Arab acronym for IS.

"They used 20 suicide car bombs just for Sakrana - this is why they were able to take it," he said.

Hamid also confirmed that IS fighters were inside the village, east of Haditha.

The dam north of the city of Haditha is the country's second largest after the Mosul dam.

Both sources also said families were trapped in a district just north of Barwana called Al-Shay, which IS fighters were able to seize.

"The area is only about two square kilometers. All the rest of the city and the main checkpoints are controlled by us," said Atallah, from the Jughaifi clan which has spearheaded tribal resistance to IS in the Haditha area.

"Several families, including children, are besieged there," he said.

"Iraqi security forces are currently trying to rescue them," said Ziad al-Nimrawi, from Barwana police.

They were not able to say exactly how many civilians were trapped in Al-Shay.–Rappler.com 

ANKARA, Turkey – Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday, January 5, said Turkey was ready to do everything it could to help calm flaring tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

"We expect all countries in the region to show common sense and take steps aimed at easing the tensions in the region," Davutoglu told his ruling party in a speech in Ankara. 

"As Turkey, we are ready to make any effort to solve the problems between the two countries," he said, without specifying what this could entail.

The crisis began at the weekend when Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shiite cleric and activist Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as well as 46 other convicts, prompting a furious reaction from Tehran.

Iranian protesters then ransacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Riyadh, Bahrain and Sudan severed relations with Tehran while Kuwait recalled its ambassador.

Davutoglu said Turkey strongly condemned attacks against embassies. "Whatever the reason, such attacks are unacceptable," he said.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said late Monday that the hostility between the two major Muslim powers would only further escalate problems in a "powder keg" region.

"Enough is enough. We need our peace in the region," he said.

Turkey's relations with fellow mainly Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia have warmed considerably in recent months. Relations had been damaged by Saudi's role in the 2013 ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Ankara.

In December, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Riyadh for talks with King Salman as well as key decision-makers crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef and deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia share the same vision over the conflict in Syria where they believe only the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad can bring an end to almost five years of civil war.

As Turkish ties with Riyadh have warmed, Ankara's relations with Tehran have grown more tense, notably over Iran's role in Syria – where the Islamic republic supports Assad's regime - and over its burgeoning relations with Russia.

But in a rare public criticism of Saudi Arabia, Kurtulmus emphasized that Turkey, which abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its bid to join the EU, was opposed to capital punishment. – Rappler.com 

MANILA, Philippines – At the core of the disqualification cases filed against Grace Poe as senator and presidential candidate is the question of whether foundlings like her are natural-born citizens of the Philippines.

Five out of 9 members of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) said Poe is a natural-born Filipino, while all 7 members of the Commission on Election (Comelec) en banc said she is not.

For advocates of children's rights, pronouncements on Poe's citizenship made by Comelec commissioners and the Supreme Court (SC) justices who dissented in the SET decision are not only "absurd, illogical, and unreasonable" – they also threaten progress that has been achieved in advancing children's rights in the country.

"It's back to the Dark Ages, when you say foundlings are stateless," Noel del Prado, lawyer and board member of non-governmental organization Child Justice League, told Rappler on Tuesday, January 5.

The NGO hosted the Adoptees, Adoptive Families and Foundling Conference on Tuesday afternoon, bringing together lawyers, adoptive families, social workers, women's groups, and representatives from child-caring agencies to discuss the state of foundlings in the country.

Del Prado and Child Justice League founder Eric Mallonga had previously worked with Poe: the former said he was Poe's chief of staff during the 2013 senatorial elections, while the latter said Poe is a friend and his former boss at the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

Their organization also spearheaded the "In Defense of the Foundling" newspaper advertisement that came out in November 2015. But the two clarified that their fight for foundlings goes beyond the senator and her bid for higher office. 

"Kulang pa nga ginagawa natin, tapos (We still have a lot more to do, then) now you're saying we take a step back several hundred years?" del Prado said.

He was referring to SC Associate Justice Arturo Brion, who said in his dissenting opinion on the SET case that Poe "cannot be a Philippine citizen" since she has not met any of the conditions under Article IV, Section 1 of the 1935 Constitution.

Implications

During Tuesday's conference, Child Justice League founder Mallonga, a lawyer, echoed the SET majority in saying it was not the intention of the framers of the 1935 Constitution to discriminate against foundlings.

"We stress, our Constitution clearly provides that natural-born citizens are persons who do not have to perform any act to acquire or perfect citizenship. This definition encompasses foundlings, who have been legally presumed throughout the history of this nation as natural-born citizens," he said.

He also raised his concerns on the implications of declaring foundlings as stateless: they can't, for instance, enter the police force, be public servants, or even study at the Philippine Science High School.

In an interview with Rappler after the conference, Mallonga explained: "Now, children who are foundlings cannot be adopted because according to one of the justices in the Senate Electoral Tribunal, they are stateless, and therefore they should be deported. So in other words, they cannot be adopted because the DSWD has no right whatsoever to declare them legally available for adoption."

"I'm not really here to push [for] the candidacy of Senator Grace Poe. I'm here to push for the rights of foundlings because there is already substantial, not just collateral, damage to the rights of [children who are] foundlings," said Mallonga, who also runs an orphanage for abandoned, neglected, orphaned, and abused children.

Del Prado agreed: "This is larger than Grace Poe, larger than just a mere election issue. This involves the lives of the children, and if you work with these children, you will see their lifelong struggles. It doesn't end with them being adopted. It's a lifelong journey: even as professionals, even as adults, they deal with a lot of baggage and stress of not knowing who their parents are."

Before the conference ended Tuesday, Mallonga urged other groups present to join their plan to march from Comelec to the SC to express their disappointment and to defend foundlings in the country. 

"There seems to be no outcry in the past few months, and we have only been in the sidelines. Now we want our voices to be heard," he said. 

The High Court will hear oral arguments on the SET case and the Comelec cases on January 19. – Rappler.com

TEHRAN, Iran – Saudi Arabia should not respond to criticism of its regime by beheading people, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

He was referring to the execution for "terrorism" Saturday of Nimr al-Nimr, who had been behind anti-government protests among Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslim minority.

Officials have not said how Nimr was put to death, but beheading is common in the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom, which has since cut diplomatic ties with predominantly Shiite Iran.

"One does not respond to criticism by cutting off heads," Rouhani said as he welcomed visiting Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen to Tehran.

"I hope that European countries who always react on human rights matters will meet their duties."

Human rights groups frequently criticize use of the death penalty in Iran, where hanging is employed.

Rouhani also accused the Middle East's top Sunni Arab power of using the row over Nimr, which led a mob to ransack and set fire to the kingdom's embassy in Tehran, as an excuse to sever ties.

Saudi Arabia's consulate in second city Mashhad was also torched.

"Saudi Arabia cannot cover its crime of having cut off the head of a cleric by cutting relations," he said.

The violence was condemned by Rouhani, and Iran's judiciary has said 50 people involved in the incidents, including ringleaders, have been arrested and will face legal action.

Iran's mission at the United Nations also expressed "regret" at the fire-raising and disobedience in a letter to the UN Security Council.

Trade ties limited 

Before Rouhani spoke, a government spokesman, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, said cutting diplomatic relations would not hurt Iran or damage its development.

Bahrain and Sudan also broke ties with Iran, and a number of other Arab countries have recalled their envoys, in sympathy with Riyadh.

Commerce between Iran and the countries that have severed relations is low, according to official figures released Tuesday by economic daily Donaye Eghtesad.

Bilateral trade between Iran and Saudi Arabia reached $172.5 million (159.7 million euros) during the first eight months of the Iranian year that began on March 20, 2015.

It comprised $132.2 million of Iranian exports, particularly fruit and steel, and $40.2 million of imports from Saudi Arabia, mainly fabrics and packaging products.

In the same period Iran exported $63.6 million of goods to Bahrain while buying only $60,000 worth from the Gulf state.

The tension with Saudi Arabia "will have no impact on Iran's national development," Nobakht said.

Instead, "it is Saudi Arabia that will suffer", he argued, reiterating Tehran's harsh criticism of Nimr's killing but condemning the violence by protesters as unjustified actions "beneath the dignity of the Iranian people".

And he compared Riyadh's "immature reaction" to the attacks with Iran's "restraint" after 464 Iranian pilgrims died in a stampede at the hajj in Saudi Arabia in September.

Nobahkt also said: "We condemn the inhumane, barbaric and Daesh-like execution of the cleric Sheikh Nimr," using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

He said Riyadh is trying to compensate for its political failures in regional conflicts, naming Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran have long competed for influence in the region.

Even before Nimr's execution, relations were strained over the two nations' backing opposing factions in Syria and Yemen. – Ali Noorani, AFP/Rappler.com 

The latest crisis between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia deepened Tuesday, four days after it erupted with the execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. 

A snapshot of events so far:

January 2 

Riyadh announces the execution of Nimr, 56, who had voiced bitter opposition to the Saudi royal family, and 46 other "terrorists." 

Demonstrators rally in Qatif, eastern Saudi Arabia, where most of the Shiite minority live. Nimr was arrested in 2012, three years after calling for Eastern Province's Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and unite with Bahrain.

Tehran warns that Riyadh would "pay a high price" for the execution, but the Saudis call Iran "a state that sponsors terror." 

Diplomatic envoys from both countries are recalled.

Gulf monarchies express support for Saudi Arabia, in particular Bahrain which faces chronic unrest among its Shiite minority, and where police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Indignation floods the Shiite world. In Iraq, hundreds demonstrate in the holy Shiite city of Karbala and prominent Shiite lawmaker Khalaf Abdelsamad calls for the closure of Riyadh's newly reopened embassy in Baghdad after a 25-year hiatus.

In Tehran, hundreds of demonstrators set fire to the Saudi embassy and police make 40 arrests. In Mashhad, northeastern Iran, four are arrested after a crowd torches a Saudi consulate.

January 3

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns that Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" for executing Nimr. President Hassan Rouhani denounces attacks on the Saudi embassy and consulate as "totally unjustifiable." 

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah slams the Riyadh government as "criminal and terrorist." "This is not something we can ignore," he warns.

Thousands of Shiites demonstrate in Pakistan and violence breaks out in Bahrain and Indian Kashmir.

Saudi Arabia announces the rupture of diplomatic relations with Iran and gives Tehran's diplomats 48 hours to leave.

January 4

Iran accuses Riyadh of seeking to stoke regional tensions.

Thousands of supporters of prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protest to demand that Baghdad sever ties with Riyadh. Blasts rock two Sunni mosques in central Iraq killing one man, while a muezzin is gunned down south of Baghdad.

Bahrain and Sudan cut diplomatic ties with Iran and the United Arab Emirates downgrades its relations. 

In Tehran, 3,000 people protest against the Saudi royal family, and burn Israeli and US flags.

Saudi Arabia cuts all air links with Iran.

Russia offers to mediate and US Secretary of State John Kerry calls both countries' foreign ministers to urge calm.

January 5 

Riyadh says the crisis should not affect peace efforts in Syria and Yemen.

A UN Security Council statement strongly condemns the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran but makes no mention of Nimr's execution.

Iran says Saudi Arabia's severance of diplomatic relations will not hurt it or damage its development.

Iranian President Rouhani says Saudi Arabia should not respond to criticism of its regime by beheading people.

Kuwait recalls its ambassador to Tehran, the fifth Arab country to cut or downgrade relations with Iran.

UN Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura holds talks in Saudi Arabia before a visit to Iran.

Turkey says it is ready to help calm tensions.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, of which only Oman has not yet reacted, calls a foreign ministers' meeting for Saturday, a day before an Arab League meeting in Cairo. – Rappler.com 

WASHINGTON DC, USA (UPDATED) – US President Barack Obama shed tears Tuesday, January 5, as he announced limited measures to tackle rampant US gun violence and called on Americans to punish lawmakers who oppose more meaningful reforms.

Flanked by survivors of the gun violence that kills around 30,000 Americans every year, and relatives of those killed, Obama became emotional as he remembered 20 elementary school children shot dead three years ago in Newtown, Connecticut.

"Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad," the president said, struggling to collect himself. "So all of us need to demand a Congress brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby's lies."

In the face of Congressional opposition, Obama formally unveiled a handful of executive measures that will make it harder to buy and sell weapons, but which he admitted would not stop the scourge of mass shootings.

"We know we can't stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence," he said. 

There are thought to be substantially more than 300 million guns in circulation in the United States, more than one per person.

Speaking in the East Room of the White House, Obama invoked the words of his hero, Martin Luther King, as he called for urgency in a generational struggle akin to the fight for women's, African-American, or gay rights.

"We do have to feel a sense of urgency about it. In Dr. King's words, we need to feel the fierce urgency of now, because people are dying," he said. "And the constant excuses for inaction no longer do."

"Yes, it will be hard. And it won't happen overnight. It won't happen during this Congress. It won't happen during my presidency," he said.

"But a lot of things don't happen overnight. A woman's right to vote didn't happen overnight. The liberation of African-Americans didn't happen overnight. LGBT rights, that was decades worth of work."

Gun lobby 'can't hold America hostage'

Taking on Republicans and the National Rifle Association directly, he decried the pro-gun lobby's grip on Washington.

"The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they can't hold America hostage," he said.

The NRA hit back at Obama's "emotional, condescending lecture."

"The timing of this announcement, in the eighth and final year of his presidency, demonstrates not only political exploitation but a fundamental lack of seriousness," said Chris Cox, a senior NRA official.

A legal challenge is likely.

Polls have shown most Americans back tougher gun laws. 

But that support has ebbed recently amid concerns about the Islamic State (ISIS) group and the wider threat from terrorism.

Republicans, who have long championed gun owners, quickly castigated Obama for trampling on the constitutional right to bear arms.

"His words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty," said the speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan.

"No matter what President Obama says, his word does not trump the Second Amendment. We will conduct vigilant oversight. His executive order will no doubt be challenged in the courts."

The measures would tighten rules on who must register as a gun dealer, narrow a "gun show" loophole that allows buyers to dodge background checks, and crack down on "straw purchases" of weapons through intermediaries.

It would also encourage the Pentagon, with its vast buying power, to procure weapons from manufacturers who invest in "gun safety technology," such as fingerprint scanners that could be applied to commercial weapons.

Obama's remarks and recourse to controversial executive actions during an election year ensure that gun control will feature prominently in the 2016 race for the White House.

In the past, both Democrats and Republicans have used the issue to invigorate supporters and raise campaign funds.

Gun manufacturers frequently see sales surge each time tighter gun controls are proposed or a mass shooting occurs.

According to FBI figures, requests for background checks jumped by a third to over three million in December.

Gunmaker Smith and Wesson on Monday, January 4, hiked its earnings estimates for the year ending in April, citing data which point to increased sales. – Andrew Beatty, AFP / Rappler.com

BERLIN, Germany – German leaders expressed shock over dozens of apparently coordinated sexual assaults against women on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne blamed on "Arab-looking men," but warned against anti-migrant scapegoating.

Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a thorough investigation of the "repugnant" attacks, ranging from groping to at least one reported rape, allegedly committed in a large crowd of revellers during year-end festivities outside the city's main train station and its famed Gothic cathedral.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said she had called Cologne's mayor, Henriette Reker, to express her "outrage" over the violence, which she said required "a tough response from the state".

"Everything must be done to find as many of the perpetrators as possible as quickly as possible and bring them to justice, regardless of their origin or background," Seibert quoted Merkel as saying. 

Police in Cologne said they had received 90 criminal complaints by Tuesday, January 5, and quoted witnesses as saying that groups of 20-30 young men "who appeared to be of Arab or North African origin" had surrounded victims, assaulted them and in several cases robbed them.

Germany took in around one million asylum seekers in 2015, many of them fleeing war-ravaged Syria.

A plain-clothes policewoman was reportedly among those attacked.

"We assume more people will come forward," police chief Wolfgang Albers told reporters.

The northern port city of Hamburg also reported around 10 similar attacks.

On Tuesday evening 200-300 people, according to police estimates, gathered in front of Cologne cathedral calling for more respect for women.

One female demonstrator held a sign reading: "Mrs. Merkel, what are you doing? This is scary".

Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere lashed out at Cologne police for failing to stop the assaults.

"The police cannot work in this way," de Maziere told public TV channel ARD.

Police said they evacuated the area because of fears people could be injured by fireworks – and admitted the assaults then began without them realising what was happening.

"It is not acceptable that the square could be evacuated and then (the attacks) take place" in the same location, with officers "waiting for complaints" from victims before taking action, de Maziere said.

"I am urgently demanding clarification."

'Exploitation' of refugee issue

Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the assaults represented "a new dimension of crime that we will have to get to grips with," adding that they had appeared to be "coordinated".

Asked by a journalist whether refugees were behind the rampage, Maas said police were still working to identify the attackers.

"This is not about where someone is from but what they did," he said.

"Making an issue out of it, lumping it together with the refugee issue, is nothing but exploitation. Now is the time to determine the facts and then decide on the necessary consequences."

Meanwhile the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which hopes to gain seats in 3 regional elections in March, seized on the attacks as "a result of unchecked immigration".

"Here we see the appalling consequences of catastrophic asylum and migration policies on Germany's everyday reality," party leader Frauke Petry said.

The Cologne daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger said many of the suspects were already known to police due to a rash of pickpocketing and muggings near the railway station.

'It was terrible'

Victims described terrifying scenes in the marauding mob.

Katja L., 28, said she was with 3 friends outside the station when they encountered a group of "foreign-looking men".

"Suddenly I felt a hand on my bottom, then on my breasts, then I was groped everywhere," she told Cologne tabloid Express.

"It was horrible. Although we screamed and flailed about, the guys didn't stop. I was beside myself and think that I was touched about 100 times across around 200 metres (yards)."

A woman in her 30s interviewed on rolling news channel N24 said she was groped by a group of "Arab-looking men".

"They didn't look at me aggressively, they seemed more curious than anything, and a little drunk," she said.

"I was furious."

Reker, who was stabbed in the neck in October in an attack apparently over her welcoming stance toward refugees, called a crisis meeting with political officials and police Tuesday after the case made national headlines.

She pledged to step up security and violence-prevention measures ahead of next month's raucous Cologne Carnival, which draws hundreds of thousands to party in the city's streets.

Albers said security cameras and better lighting would be installed for the February 4-10 event, including around the main rail station.

Merkel in her televised New Year's address called on Germans to continue to welcome refugees despite mounting criticism and to reject far-right ideologues whipping up anti-migrant sentiment. – Deborah Cole, AFP / Rappler.com