OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (UPDATED) – Two Australians have been kidnapped in Burkina Faso, officials said Saturday, January 16, as a Malian Islamist group said the couple were in the hands of Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists.

The Burkina government said the pair were kidnapped in Baraboule, near the west African country's borders with Niger and Mali.

A Burkinabe intelligence source told Agence France-Presse the Australians were a couple in their 80s from the western city of Perth who had lived since 1972 in Djibo, near Baraboule.

News of the kidnapping came as a jihadist assault on an upmarket hotel in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou left at least 26 people dead, including many foreigners. 

Burkina Faso's Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou said Saturday the couple were Australian nationals, correcting an earlier interior ministry statement identifying them as Austrian.

A spokesman for Malian militant group Ansar Dine, Hamadou Ag Khallini, told Agence France-Presse in a brief phone message that the couple were being held by jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked "Emirate of the Sahara."

He said they were alive and more details would be released soon. 

The Australian department of foreign affairs said it was aware of the reports but declined to comment further when contacted by Agence France-Presse.

"Our post in Accra, Ghana, is working with local authorities on a suspected kidnapping. We will not comment further on the situation," it said.

A European diplomatic source confirmed they had received intelligence on Friday that a Western couple had been kidnapped in Burkina Faso, without giving their nationality.

"According to our information, the kidnappers' objective is to take the hostages towards Mali," the source added, declining to give further details.

A military base in the same region was attacked by militants in August last year, with one Burkinabe policeman killed.

The Emirate of the Sahara is a branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operating in northern Mali, according to experts.

AQIM has claimed responsibility for the hotel attack saying it was "revenge against France and the disbelieving West", according to a statement carried by US-based monitoring group SITE.

The attack and kidnapping will heighten concerns that jihadist groups are casting their net wider in search of targets in west Africa, two months after a siege at a luxury hotel in Mali where 20 people were killed, again mostly foreigners.

Ansar Dine is one of the jihadist groups that seized control of northern Mali in March and April 2012.

An international military intervention, launched in January 2013, largely drove the Islamists out, but areas of the north remain beyond the control of Malian and international forces. Jihadist attacks have spread since the beginning of 2015 towards central and southern Mali. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Four Supreme Court justices dissented with the majority opinion that dismissed petitions questioning the constitutionality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

Of the 4 dissenting magistrates, 3 came out with separate opinions – Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Arturo Brion, and Marvic Leonen. Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe merely said she was joining the dissenting opinions. The lengthiest opinion came from Brion, with 65 pages, followed by Leonen's 58, and De Castro's 28.  

The 3 opinions were one in saying that because EDCA has a far wider scope than earlier treaties like the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), it should be ratified by the Senate, as provided for in the Constitution.

Section 25, Article VXIII of the Constitution bans foreign military bases, troops, or facilities in the Philippines "except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate and, when the Congress so requires, ratified by a majority of the votes cast by the people in a national referendum held for that purpose, and recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State."

Beyond VFA

Arguing that EDCA, which was signed on April 28, 2014, is not a mere implementing agreement of the MDT or the VFA, Leonen said it "substantially modifies and amends the VFA" in at least the following aspects:

• It allows the temporary stationing on a rotational basis of US military personnel and their contractors on physical locations with permanent facilities and pre-positioned military materiel.
• It allows pre-positioning of military materiel, which can include various types of warships, fighter planes, bombers, land and amphibious vehicles, and their corresponding ammunition.
• It contemplates the entry of troops for various training exercises and allows our territory to be used by the US to launch military and paramilitary operations conducted in other states.
• It introduces new concepts not contemplated in the VFA: agreed locations, contractors, pre-positioning of military materiel, and operational control.
• It contains provisions that may affect various statutes including, among others, the jurisdiction of courts, local autonomy, and taxation.

De Castro also pointed out that under EDCA, US forces and contractors are permitted to stay in "agreed locations" to undertake military activities "without any clear limitation as to the duration of their stay." In addition, they are given "unimpeded access" to these locations to conduct activities that were not contemplated under the VFA.

She said in her opinion that EDCA is "entirely a new treaty, separate and distinct from the VFA and the MDT." It appears to be the "general framework" for access and use of the agreed locations by American forces and contractors "rather than an implementing instrument of both the MDT and the VFA."

Limits to presidential powers

For his part, Brion pointed out that while the majority opinion holds that the President's power and duty "to ensure the faithful execution of our laws include the defense of our country" as commander-in-chief, he cannot "by himself, usurp the prerogatives of a co-equal branch" to carry out what is necessary for the defense interests of the country.

Senate concurrence on EDCA is part of what he termed as "democratic safeguards that place the responsibility over national policy beyond the hands of a single official."

Without that concurrence, EDCA is "constitutionally deficient" and cannot be enforced. As a remedy, Brion recommended that the Court give the President 90 days from the service of its Decision – whether or not a motion for reconsideration is filed – the option to refer EDCA to the Senate for its consideration and concurrence.

Lessons of history

Leonen lamented, "Our collective memories are perilously short. Our sense of history is wanting." Although the MDT and the VFA were in effect when China transgressed Philippine territorial waters, "The Americans did not come to our aid."

Despite hosting US bases for decades, the Philippine Armed Forces remains ill-equipped. No US-made fighter jet exists in the Philippine Air Force, and the country is without a credible missile defense. "Our country's most powerful assets now include a destroyer that was decommissioned as a United States Coast Guard destroyer in the 1960s," he said.

The majority decision, according to Leonen, "darkens the colors of what is left of our sovereignty as defined in our Constitution. The majority's take is the aftermath of squandered opportunity. We surrender to the dual narrative of expediency and a hegemonic view of the world from the eyes of a single superpower."

De Castro ended her opinion, writing, "While it is true that the Philippines cannot stand alone and will need friends within and beyond this region of the world, still we cannot offend our Constitution and bargain away our sovereignty."

The High Court voted 10-4-1 to dismiss questions of constitutionality.

Read the full dissenting opinions below.

De Castro's concurring and dissenting opinion: 28 pages

{source}

<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/295723753/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" scrolling="no" id="doc_45481" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>

{/source}

Leonen's dissenting opinion: 58 pages

{source}

<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/295616242/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-E6pyp8ZqZO4vSoU67f9S&show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="0.6475233309404164" scrolling="no" id="doc_76518" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>

{/source}

Brion's dissenting opinion: 65 pages

{source}

<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/295615989/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" scrolling="no" id="doc_31277" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>

{/source}

– Chay Hofileña / Rappler.com

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (UPDATED) – At least 29 people, including 10 foreigners, were killed in an Al-Qaeda attack on a top hotel in Burkina Faso, an unprecedented strike in the capital illustrating the expanding reach of regional jihadists.

The hours-long drama saw Burkinabe troops, backed by French special forces, battle militants – including two women fighters – who stormed the 4-star Splendid Hotel, which is popular with foreigners and United Nations staff, and took more than a hundred people hostage.

Burkina Faso declared 3 days of national mourning following the attack, which mirrored another Al-Qaeda attack on a luxury hotel in neighboring Mali where 20 people were killed, mostly foreigners.

"The Burkinabe nation is in shock," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office just last month, said in a radio and television address.

"For the first time in its history, our country has fallen victim to a series of barbaric terrorist attacks," he said, adding that the people of Burkina would nevertheless "emerge victorious".

The attack began around 7:45 pm on Friday, January 15, when an unknown number of attackers stormed the 147-room Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou.

An Agence France-Presse reporter saw 3 gunmen wearing turbans firing on Avenue Kwame Nkrumah, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Another witness reported seeing 4 assailants.

The hotel and its surrounding area turned into a battleground as Burkina Faso troops, backed by French forces based in the city under a regional counterterrorism initiative, launched an attempt to retake the hotel around 2 am.

'Blood everywhere'

A total of 29 people were killed in the attack on the hotel and a nearby restaurant, including 6 Canadians and two French and two Swiss nationals.

Interior Minister Simon Compaore said the bodies of three "very young" jihadists had been identified, all of them men. A security source said earlier that at least four attackers had been killed, two of them women. 

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed the attack on behalf of an affiliate, saying the strike on the former French colony was in "revenge against France and the disbelieving West", according to a statement carried by US-based monitoring group SITE.

AQIM said the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of notorious Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

The attack will heighten concerns that jihadist groups are casting their net wider in search of targets in west Africa, two months after the hotel siege in Mali.

The US, which has a small military contingent in Burkina Faso, meanwhile said it supported French forces in the operation to retake the Splendid Hotel.

Several guests managed to escape from the hotel through side entrances, including labour minister Clement Sawadogo, who emerged unscathed.

"It was horrible... there was blood everywhere. They were firing at people at close range," Yannick Sawadogo, one of those who escaped, told Agence France-Presse.

"They were walking around people and firing at people who were not dead."

The scene was cordoned off by yellow police tape on Saturday, January 16, while officials carried off corpses in blue plastic bags.

'Symbol of progress'

Campaore told Agence France-Presse that 10 bodies were discovered on the terrace of the Cappucino restaurant, which lies next to the hotel.

French President Francois Hollande led international condemnation of what he described as an "odious and cowardly attack".

Also on Saturday, the Burkina government said that two Australians were kidnapped Friday in the northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali.

Malian militant group Ansar Dine told Agence France-Presse the couple were being held by jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked "Emirate of the Sahara".

Australia said it was aware of the reports, but did not give further details.

The attack in Ouagadougou was unprecedented in Burkina Faso and comes as people were enjoying a return to stability after the November elections which ended a shaky transitional period since veteran leader Blaise Compaore's 2014 ouster, including a failed coup.

"The elections went off well," said Cynthia Ohayon, a security analyst with the International Crisis Group. "That makes the country a symbol of progress, which is what those people want to destroy."

Al-Murabitoun had already begun to move into the impoverished country of around 17 million. In April last year, the group claimed the abduction of the Romanian security chief of a mine in the country's north. – Romaric Ollo Hien, AFP / Rappler.com

UNITED NATIONS – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord Saturday, January 16, and voiced hope that the success will boost regional stability.

"This is a significant milestone that reflects the good faith effort by all parties to fulfil their agreed commitments," Ban said in a statement.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certified earlier that Iran had carried out all of its commitments under the historic deal, clearing the way for the lifting of international sanctions.

Ban voiced hope that "the success of this agreement contributes to greater regional and international cooperation for peace, security and stability in the region and beyond."

The UN chief also welcomed the release of 5 Americans including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian.

He said he was "heartened by the lifting of sanctions on Iran."

The UN Security Council has imposed 4 sets of sanctions on Iran from 2006 to 2010, but these resolutions will be scrapped with the entry into force of the accord.

The council in July adopted a new resolution that maintains some restrictions in place on Iran such as a ban on missile technology transfers.

US Ambassador Samantha Power said work was "far from over" on implementing the nuclear deal and that Iran must "continue to abide by its commitments."

The United States will work to make sure restrictions that remain in place against Iran are "fully enforced," she said.

Progress on the Iran nuclear deal came as the United Nations was pushing for breakthroughs in Syria and Yemen, two conflicts where Iran is a key player.

Ban stressed the "need for all concerned in the region to make the world a safer place through dialogue and peaceful means."

The UN sanctions blacklist for Iran has 43 individuals and 78 entities that are subject to a global travel ban and an assets freeze. – Rappler.com

VIENNA, Austria – Iran took a huge step to ending its international isolation Saturday, January 16, as sanctions on the Islamic republic were lifted following the entry into force of last July's momentous nuclear deal with major powers.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, whose 2013 election helped launch the Herculean diplomatic effort towards the July 14 Vienna deal, said it was a "glorious victory" for the "patient nation of Iran."

"Implementation Day" for the accord came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its "inspectors on the ground verified that Iran has carried out all measures" agreed under the deal.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, representing the 6 world powers, said that as a result "multilateral and national economic and financial sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted."

These will include sanctions on Iran's lifeblood oil exports and open up the 80-million-strong country to business. Rouhani has predicted a "year of prosperity" for his country.

"This achievement clearly demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues," Mogherini said in Vienna in a joint statement with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The announcement also followed news of a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States in another sign of thawing relations between the two foes since the agreement was struck.

The steps taken by Iran, combined with ultra-close IAEA inspections, extend to at least a year – from a few months previously – how long Iran would need to make one nuclear bomb's worth of fissile material.

They include slashing by 2/3 its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium – enough before the deal for several bombs – and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.

Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

"Today... the United States, our friends and allies in the Middle East, and the entire world are safer because the threat of the nuclear weapon has been reduced," US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Vienna.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was a "significant milestone that reflects the good faith effort by all parties to fulfil their agreed commitments."

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, one of the 6 powers with the US, Russia, China, France and Germany, said that "years of patient and persistent diplomacy... have borne fruit".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the implementation of the nuclear deal "a historic success for diplomacy".

White-knuckle ride

In what was hailed last July as a momentous diplomatic breakthrough, the Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following the moderate Rouhani's June 2013 election.

The highly complex deal drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action.

In addition it put Iran and the United States on the road to better relations some 35 years after the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, and at a particularly explosive time in the Middle East.

The five detainees to be freed by Iran included Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho, a senior US official said Saturday.

In exchange Washington said it had granted clemency to 7 Iranians, 6 of whom were dual US-Iranian citizens, and dropped charges against 14 more.

Daggers drawn

The agreement, heralded as US President Barack Obama's biggest major foreign policy triumph, has by no means been universally cheered, however.

Obama's Republican opponents charge that it fails to do enough to ensure Iran will never get the bomb, a complaint shared by Israel, Iran's arch foe widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Iran "has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilise the Middle East and spread terror throughout the world."

"Today, the Obama administration will begin lifting economic sanctions on the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said.

Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran's other great regional rival, is also alarmed at the prospect of warmer US-Iran ties and of predominantly Shiite Iran, newly flush with oil revenues, increasing its influence.

Already Saudi Arabia and Iran, fighting a proxy war in Yemen and key players in the Syrian conflict, are at daggers drawn following Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shiite cleric in early January and the subsequent ransacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Iran's imminent return to the oil market has also contributed to the sharp slide in the price of crude to 12-year lows of under $30 per barrel this week, putting Saudi Arabia's public finances under strain – and meaning that Iran's oil bonanza will be less lucrative than it had hoped for.

'Snapback'

The deal has more than a decade to run, which is likely to be a bumpy road, experts say, not least if more hardline governments take power in Tehran or Washington.

A "snapback" mechanism ensures that many of the sanctions can be swiftly reimposed, and a special joint commission is meant to handle any misunderstandings.

Iran "has kept its word, and we will continue to do the same. But we will also remain vigilant in verifying Iran’s compliance every hour of every day in the years ahead," Kerry said. – Simon Sturdee with Arthur MacMillan in Tehran, Iran, AFP / Rappler.com

RENNES, France – French authorities launched 3 investigations Saturday, January 16, at a research laboratory in the northwestern city of Rennes into a drug trial that left one person brain-dead and three others facing potentially irreversible brain damage.

Judicial police late Friday, January 15, carried out the first searches at the Biotrial lab which had performed the trial on behalf of Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial.

On Saturday they were joined by representatives of France's social affairs inspectorate general (IGAS) and the national drug safety agency (ANSM).

The probes are seeking to determine if the tragedy was caused by an error in the trial's procedures or in the substance tested, a new drug meant to treat mood disorders such as anxiety.

A total of 90 volunteers – healthy men aged between 28 and 48 – were given the experimental drug in the Phase I trial. Six of them were taken to hospital last week.

Pierre-Gilles Edan, head of the neurology department at the hospital in Rennes where the volunteers were taken, said Friday that aside from the man who was brain-dead, 3 others were suffering a "handicap that could be irreversible" and another also had neurological problems.

The sixth volunteer had no symptoms but was being monitored.

'Tragic situation'

The CHU university hospital in Rennes, where the 6 are being treated, on Saturday said they remained in a stable condition, adding that its staff were "fully and constantly mobilised" to attend to the victims and their families.

"Social and psychological care has also been put in place," the hospital added in a statement, noting that legal support has also been offered to the victims and their relatives.

"All of the volunteers are being contacted," it said.

The head of Biotrial said Saturday the lab was cooperating with the investigators.

"Our thoughts remain with the victims and their families but our energy this morning is entirely committed to assisting the investigators and to fully cooperating in the investigations under way," Francois Peaucelle told journalists at a press briefing at the site.

The investigators and inspectors "are trying to understand... what could have happened and how it could have resulted in such a tragic situation," he said.

Representatives from Bial were also on site and taking part in the probes with "total transparency", according to Peaucelle.

The Portuguese firm issued a statement on Friday insisting it had followed "international best practice" in developing the drug and said it would cooperate with the investigation to "determine in a rigorous and exhaustive manner" what had happened.

France's national drug safety body confirmed it was the worst ever incident to have taken place in a drugs trial in the country.

Each year thousands of volunteers participate in clinical drugs trials and experts point out that tragic results are rare.

But the incident in Rennes has raised concerns about such experiments.

A university teacher in Rennes who has participated in such trials told Agence France-Presse he would not do it again.

"I will not do it any more and I'm going to advise against it," said the 33-year-old, who requested anonymity. 

He admitted to being attracted by the "easy money" participants received and that he had taken part in about 15 trials at the Biotrial lab since 2005. – Alexandra Turcat, AFP / Rappler.com

LONDON, United Kingdom – A new opinion poll published Sunday, January 17, showed the number of Britons wanting to leave the European Union rising in the wake of the Paris terror attacks and Cologne assaults.

The poll put the EU exit camp in the lead by 53% to 47% ahead of a referendum promised by the end of 2017, but which could take place as early as June.

The Survation poll for the center-right, euroskeptic, Mail on Sunday newspaper excludes undecided voters. 

If they are included, 42% are in favor of leaving, 38% for remaining with 20% yet to make up their mind.

The survey, which was conducted online on January 15 and 16 and had 1,004 respondents, had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Survation's last poll published in September showed 49% in favor of staying, and 51% for leaving when undecided voters were excluded.

Some 34% said November's Paris terror attacks made them more likely to vote to leave the EU, as opposed to 12% who said it would influence them to vote to stay in.

And 38% said reports that women were sexually assaulted as part of during Cologne's New Year celebrations meant it was more likely they would vote to leave, as opposed to 8% who said it would encourage them to remain.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will campaign to stay in the European Union only as long as he can negotiate a series of EU reforms intended to restore more sovereignty powers to Britain.

Cameron has said he is reasonably confident of a deal in February on the changes he is seeking in four key areas. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – During a recent trip, Vice President Jejomar Binay sought support from his fraternity brothers based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Binay, who is running for president, spoke at the General Membership Meeting and Fellowship Night of the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) in the UAE on Wednesday, January 13.

He called on his fellow APO members to help uplift the lives of Filipinos.

"Hindi ako natitinag sa aking paniniwala na kayong mga kapatid ko sa APO ay walang alinlangang tutugon at iaalay ang inyong mga sarili para sa ating pangarap na mai-angat ang kalidad ng buhay ng bawat Pilipino – sila man ay nasa loob o labas ng ating bayan. Ito ang pamana ng ating kapatiran," the Vice President said.

(I am steadfast in my belief that you, my APO brothers, will answer my call without hesitations and offer yourselves for our dream to improve the quality of life of each Filipino – whether they are in the Philippines or overseas. This is the legacy of our brotherhood.)

Binay, who was once presidential adviser on OFW concerns until his resignation in June 2015, said it is his dream that no Filipino will be forced to work abroad.

"Hangad kong katulad ninyo, ang mga Pilipinong mangingibang-bansa ay aalis lamang upang lalo pang malinang ang kanilang mga kakayahan," the Vice President added.

(I hope that like you, Filipinos going abroad will only leave because they want to improve their skills further.)

In a press statement, Binay's camp said the Vice President credits APO as one of the reasons for his victory in the 2010 elections. Binay joined the fraternity while he was in college at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Aside from talking to his fraternity brothers, Binay also met with Filipino workers in Abu Dhabi, as well as with UAE's crown prince and labor minister.

The Vice President returned home on Friday, January 15, with 5 abused OFWs. Binay said he, with help from friends and supporters, shouldered the cost of the OFWs' plane tickets.

On the same day of his return, a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on voters' preference was released, showing Binay ranked first, followed by his opponents Senator Grace Poe, administration standard-bearer Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

In response to that survey, administration coalition spokesperson Representative Ibarra Gutierrez took a swipe at Binay, saying he had been "campaigning" for the presidency ever since he was elected in 2010.

The Vice President has faced a string of corruption allegations stemming from infrastructure projects in Makati, alleged dummies, "rigged" biddings, and supposed ownership of a vast estate in Batangas province. 

Binay has insisted he is merely a victim of political persecution. (READ: Binay's strategy of silence) – Rappler.com

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Sunday, January 17, that Israel would not allow it to obtain nuclear weapons, after sanctions were lifted under Tehran's historic nuclear deal with global powers.

"Israel's policy has been and will remain exactly what has been followed: to not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting, according to his office.

Netanyahu strongly opposed the nuclear deal with Israel's arch-foe Iran and argued that it would not prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. 

He has also said that the lifting of sanctions will allow Iran to further back proxy militants in the region, including Israeli enemies Hezbollah.

Israel has not ruled out military force in order to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons, though analysts say unilateral action would be highly unlikely. 

Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday that "Iran has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons" and pledged to "warn of any violation" of the agreement.

The UN's atomic watchdog late on Saturday confirmed that Iran had complied with its obligations under last summer's accord and the United States and European Union announced they were lifting the sanctions that have for years crippled the country's economy.

The highly complex deal drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action.

In addition the nuclear talks put Iran and the United States on the road to better relations, more than three decades after the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.

Netanyahu's harsh opposition to the accord, including in a speech to the US Congress, led to troubled ties with the United States, Israel's most important ally. He has scaled back his public comments on the deal in recent weeks. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Franklin Drilon said on Sunday, January 17, that the Senate "will waste no time" in working on the passage of remaining priority bills as plenary sessions resume on Monday, January 18.

“Even with the elections drawing close, we have much work to do in the Senate,” he said in a statement. “We intend to make a good on our promise to the Filipino people on the start of the 16^th Congress that we will help the poor, widen the delivery of education and other social services and improve the economy.”

These priority bills include the Bangsamoro Basic Law and the Public-Private Partnership Act.

The Senate and the House of Representatives failed to meet the deadline for the passage of the BBL. They earlier set the deadline to December 16 but were only able to finish the period of interpellations before Congress adjourned its last regular session in December. (READ: House misses Bangsamoro bill deadline)

Aside from promising to work on the priority bills, Drilon added that the upper chamber will not be let up with the tight schedule and is "making huge strides" as it is set to pass 34 measures before the 16th Congress ends in July 2016.

"The Senate will continue to be a working Senate,” he said. “We will maximize our remaining time to continue our mandate and work on relevant, important and much-needed laws for our people.”

Measures to be approved by the Senate include the Salary Standardization Law IV and the Customs and Tariff Modernization Act (CTMA), among others.

The Salary Standardization Law IV, Drilon said, seeks to attract professionals into the public sector with compensation that is “competitive with those doing comparable work in the private sector.”

The CTMA, meanwhile, will introduce full automation of procedures in the Bureau of Customs, and also aims to strengthen the agency's risk management, revenue collection, and enforcement systems. – Rappler.com

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka's prime minister Sunday, January 17, announced officials would use social media to seek public opinion on a proposed new constitution aimed at preventing a return to ethnic war.

Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka will use social media to help draft a new statute to devolve more powers to minority Tamils and ensure unity after decades of war.

"Sri Lanka could be the first country to get views expressed on social media (to contribute to) drafting a new constitution," he said. "We want to seek the view and opinions of young people. Participate in this process."

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter played a key role in supporting Wickremesinghe's election in August as well as during the January 2015 presidential election at which he supported Maithripala Sirisena.

Since coming to power, the new government has set up free wi-fi zones in many public places to encourage the use of web-based services.

The government is opening a new office in Colombo Monday to start receiving written proposals from the public for the new constitution.

Wickremesinghe travelled to the former wartorn zone of Jaffna in the north Friday to pledge to devolve political power to minority Tamils.

He has also promised to prosecute both state forces and Tamil rebels accused of war crimes in the final stages of the island's 37-year-old separatist war, in line with pledges to the UN Human Rights Council last year.

Sri Lanka's year-old government has begun drafting a new constitution aimed at resolving the drawn-out ethnic conflict which ended in 2009 and claimed 100,000 lives.

The issue has been fraught, however, with hardline members of the Sinhalese majority opposing a federal system that would ensure more political power for minority Tamils.

Some minorities fear a "unitary" constitution would see them lose out while moderate Tamils who want to remain in a single union have pressed for greater power in areas where they are in the majority. – Rappler.com

TEHRAN, Iran – Mohammad Ehsani has just about had enough. A trader in Tehran's ancient Grand Bazaar, he doesn't think the lifting of international sanctions on Iran will benefit him at all.

"Business will become even worse," he said, as one of his few customers haggled for a $2 towel to be sold even cheaper.

His frustration obvious, Ehsani surrendered, selling the item at a barely break-even price. To him, an opening up of Iran's economy after the nuclear deal with the West spells disaster.

"It will take a couple of years and a lot of local companies will go bankrupt during the transition," he said, complaining of taxes of $7,000 a year, against sales of around $100 a day.

"Customers will seek foreign brands. Domestic goods don't have a chance. I plan to quit."

Nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were lifted Saturday, January 16, in Vienna, after UN inspectors said the Islamic republic had met commitments given under a deal last July to scale back its atomic programme.

With 79 million people, Iran's economy has much potential if it becomes more accessible, as promised by President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate elected in 2013 on a pledge to end the nuclear crisis.

The United Nations first imposed economic sanctions in 2006 after Iran was suspected of trying to develop an atomic bomb under the guise of civilian energy production, something it has always denied.

'Doesn't mean anything'

Not only did sanctions bar many companies it also stifled those who did business from operating freely. In 2012, the United States and the European Union ratcheted up the pressure, slapping punitive measures on Iran's energy and banking sectors.

Re-admission to the SWIFT system of international transactions is likely to be transformational for liquidity -- being shut out caused the economy to tank as cash dried up.

But talk of a boom -- foreign business delegations, particularly from Europe, surged after July's final nuclear deal -- seems a world away to Ehsan Ahmadi, a 30-year-old salesman, browsing in the bazaar.

"Removing sanctions will only benefit the government," he said.

"It doesn't mean anything to us. It's the people who feel the pain because prices will never go back to what they were."

Inflation has been slashed to 13 percent during Rouhani's presidency. It hit more than 40 percent under his hardline predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, eroding people's savings and spending power.

But the possibilities remain vast, according to Faranak Asgari, chief executive of tourism business ToIran.com, which is aiming to cash in on an influx of foreign travellers.

"This is the best news Iran has had in 37 years," she said, a reference to the Islamic revolution of 1979, which ushered in clerical rule and a changed political and business environment.

"Right now we have very low international investment. It may take a few years but it brings great opportunities for a large untapped market like ours. It will help the people economically," she said.

'They are terrorists'

The lifting of sanctions, the main reason Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backed Rouhani's government in the nuclear talks, could also mark a psychological shift among sceptical foreigners.

"When under sanctions people think 'they are terrorists'," Asgari said of some perceptions of Iran. "The world is afraid. Sanctions are not just economic. They also intimidate people."

Deep problems, however, must be addressed. Iran needs billions of dollars of investment. Plummeting oil prices -- gross domestic product fell to $415 billion in 2014 from $576 billion in 2011 -- has led Rouhani to seek a less oil-based economy. Only 25 percent of next year's budget is forecast to come from selling crude.   

But last November the government outlined 50 oil and gas projects, inviting international oil and gas companies to invest $25 billion under improved contractual terms.

Other industries in need of Western technology and modernisation, such as aviation, auto production and tourism, are expected to make similar offers.

A Western diplomat based in Brussels insisted the nuclear deal was a security decision and not business based, yet it aimed to ensure there are no legal barriers to investing in Iran.

"But we have to be realistic, and not expect that on the first day everything will be smooth," he said.

Saaed Laylaz, a leading economist in Tehran, said the nuclear deal provides a foundation for Rouhani to reform an economy long-plagued by allegations of cronyism among elites.

"I am relatively optimistic," he said. "The supreme leader and the president are on the same page in the need for a stronger economy.

"The private sector should now come to the fore. It must happen," he added. – Ali Noorani, AFP/Rappler.com

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to Saudi Arabia and Iran this week to try to ease tension between the Muslim countries, a minister said Sunday, January 17.

Information minister Pervez Rashid told Agence France-Presse Sharif would travel to Riyadh on Monday and Tehran on Tuesday, January 19, and would meet Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. 

Foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said Sharif would exchange views on regional and international issues and try to reduce tension between the two countries.

"Pakistan is deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tensions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran," the spokesman said in a statement.

He said the prime minister has called for the peaceful settlement of differences in the larger interests of Muslim unity.

"The purpose of the visit is to mediate and to end the standoff between the two countries," a third government official told Agence France-Presse, requesting anonymity.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are already fighting a proxy war in Yemen and support opposing sides in the Syrian conflict. But tensions have reached new heights in the past two weeks.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its Sunni Arab allies cut diplomatic ties with Iran after protesters angry at Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric on January 2 sacked its embassy in Tehran.

Local media said Pakistan's powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif would accompany Premier Sharif.

Pakistan is a majority Sunni country but 20 percent of the population are Shiite.

Its decision this month to join Saudi Arabia's 34-country coalition against extremism sparked a domestic protest by the main opposition parties, who called for negotiations between Riyadh and Tehran and put Islamabad  under pressure to mediate. – Rappler.com

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Czech President Milos Zeman, known for his fiery anti-migrant comments, said on Sunday. January 17, that it was almost impossible to integrate the Muslim community into European society.

"The experience of Western European countries which have ghettos and excluded localities shows that the integration of the Muslim community is practically impossible," Zeman said in a televised interview.

"Let them have their culture in their countries and not take it to Europe, otherwise it will end up like Cologne," he added, referring to the mass New Year's Eve assaults on women in Germany and elsewhere.

"Integration is possible with cultures that are similar, and the similarities may vary," pointing out that the Vietnamese and Ukrainian communities had been able to integrate into Czech society.

Zeman, a 71-year-old leftwinger and the first-ever directly elected president of the Czech Republic, has repeatedly spoken out against the surge of migrant and refugee arrivals in Europe.

Earlier this month, Zeman claimed the influx was masterminded by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood which uses money from several states to finance it in a bid to "gradually control Europe".

Late last year, Zeman called the surge in refugee numbers "an organised invasion," urging young men from Iraq and Syria to "take up arms" against the Islamic State (IS) group instead of running away.

More than one million migrants reached Europe in 2015, most of them refugees fleeing war and violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

But few asylum seekers have chosen to stay in the largely secular Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.5 million people, with the majority heading to wealthier Germany and other western EU states. – Rappler.com

TEHRAN, Iran – Four Iranian-American citizens freed by Iran in a prisoner swap with the United States have left Tehran and are flying to Bern in Switzerland, Iranian state television reported Sunday, January 17.

A senior US administration official confirmed that "our detained US citizens have been released and that those who wished to depart Iran have left."

The Iranian report said those on board the "special Swiss plane" -- Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Tehran correspondent; Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor; former US Marine Amir Hekmati; and Nosratollah Khosravi -- departed "on a special Swiss plane."

The US official did not say who was aboard the plane, but the Washington Post said that those leaving included Rezaian,  who has been held for nearly 18 months.

The Post reported that the flight out of Iran was delayed because Rezaian's mother Mary and wife Yeganeh, who also were on the airplane, initially did not appear on the flight manifest.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters traveling with him from Vienna to Washington that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif resolved the problem.

"Zarif had no question about it," Kerry was quoted as saying. "It was part of the agreement, it was clearly stated. The problem was, one of the guys on the ground, at a military base, didn’t have it on the manifest."

Iran announced their release on Saturday, just hours before Tehran's historic nuclear deal with world powers was implemented, in exchange for Washington pardoning seven Iranians accused of sanctions-busting.

State television said the seven Iranians -- Nader Modanlou, Baharam Mechanic, Khosrow Afghahi, Arash Ghahreman, Tooraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh, and Ali Saboonchi -- "will be freed today."

A 5th American was also released in a separate process, a US official has said.

Amir Hekmati, a former US Marine who faced a death sentence as an alleged spy, also was released, his family said, adding that they were officially told he was on a plane leaving Iran.

"It is hard to put into words what our family feels right now. But we remain in hopeful anticipation until Amir is in our arms."

Post 'relieved'

Washington Post publisher Frederick Ryan said in a statement: "We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over."

The 39-year-old Rezaian, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in California, was detained in Iran on July 22, 2014.

The Post statement said the paper was "enormously grateful to all who played a role" in securing Rezaian's release, and the paper thanked those "around the world who have spoken out on Jason's behalf and against the harsh confinement that was so wrongly imposed upon him."

Rezaian "will be reunited with his family, including his brother Ali, his most effective and tireless advocate," the Post said.

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Gholam Ali Khoshroo, said on Saturday that Switzerland played a "positive role" in the prisoner swap.

The UN nuclear watchdog announced late Saturday that Iran had complied with its side of the July 2015 accord, allowing the lifting of sanctions. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – I knew the neighborhood of last week’s Jakarta attacks well because for nearly 20 years, I  worked in that building. That was “our” Starbucks. 

I set up CNN’s bureau there in 1995 because it was a central location. To the left, Sarinah is Jakarta’s oldest mall (their Tesoro’s, the best place to get Indonesian batik and native goods). Across the street is the UN building. Next door to the right is the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel. Down the road is the National Monument (Monas) - surrounded by government ministry offices, and further down is Istana, the presidential palace.

In the late 90’s because of threats we received, we thought of how to minimise the impact of potential attacks. One of our measures was to put a special heavy-duty coating on our windows on the 6th floor that would prevent the glass from shattering in case of gunfire or an explosion. 

That seemed prescient after the attack on the Philippine ambassador’s house in 2000, the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005, the bombings of the JW Marriott hotel in 2003 and 2009, and the Australian embassy in 2004. 

I offer friends a terrorism tour of Jakarta because it’s indelibly etched in me. I lived behind the Australian embassy, and inevitably, when the explosions happened, I heard and felt them and rushed to report them. 

There are 4 waves for Islamist terrorism in Indonesia:

• First, the nationalist movement for an Islamic state – the Darul Islam movement from 1948 to 1992.
• Second, the global jihad – when Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) was infected with the jihadi virus from al-Qaeda and, in turn, infected regional groups, acting as an umbrella organisation for regional terrorist attacks from 1993 to 2005.
• Third, the JI social movement, with a weakened JI merging with other extremist groups and splintering into an alphabet soup of smaller groups, still united by the same virulent ideology but now lacking central leadership.
• Fourth, partly to escape the police dragnet that aimed to eliminate the extremist network, Indonesians were inspired by the call of ISIS - and to leave for Syria and Iraq. 

Here are 4 reasons why last week’s attacks mark a significant development in the threat landscape of Southeast Asia:

1. Incompetent but deadly, powered by the same virulent ideology yearning for an Islamic state

Jemaah Islamiyah or JI, the al-Qaeda network that carried out the deadliest bombings in Indonesia, was largely degraded in the mid-to-late 2000s. Indonesian authorities arrested or killed the top and middle rank leadership, but the virulent ideology remained and burrowed deeper into Indonesia’s extremist ideologues, who have long wanted an Islamic state ruled by sharia law. 

The Afghan war veterans had expert training, and when they came home, they carried out meticulously planned attacks with funding and training from al-Qaeda. The mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, worked closely with Hambali, the Indonesian operations chief of JI. It took money, time and training to carry out the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.

By 2011, the terror networks had disintegrated, and police operations were so effective that many chose to flee the dragnet, some to the southern Philippines. Each cell was left to fend for itself: each cell tried to do what it could to live up to its ideology. 

Some randomly killed police officers, like Yuli Harsono, a former soldier, who galvanized highly educated young men together. They began with what they knew. Yuli walked into a place station and shot the officer on duty. His group repeated this a few times before he was killed in an operation. The police had done such a good job that the jihadists, looking for revenge, began to target the police.

Around 2011, the terrorists switched tactics by necessity – from bombings to targeted attacks and assassinations. This was all they could do without central training and coordination. 

That was around the time the extremists recruited into the vestiges of the terrorist network did suicide bombing attacks that killed only the bomber (this happened at least twice). 

Last week’s attacks killed fewer than 202 people in Bali in 2002. The contrast between these two attacks show the difference between a top down, centralised command strategy and the bottom up, inspirational approach of ISIS. 

The majority of the eight killed on January 14 were the bombers themselves. One Jakarta-based analyst tweeted: “I have to say that this is a dumb terrorist group.”

{source}

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I have to say that this is a dumb terrorist group.</p>&mdash; Yohanes Sulaiman (@YohanesSulaiman) <a href="https://twitter.com/YohanesSulaiman/status/687497587562123264">January 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

{/source}

Dumb or not, here’s the warning: it shows Indonesians are still prepared to kill themselves for this virulent ideology. While they may lack capability, the intent for mass casualty attacks remain.

2. More and more of less and less 

After 9/11, we watched security forces around the world grapple with the switch from Cold War tactics of defense against state actors to a non-state threat like al-Qaeda. It took nearly two years to establish new structures. 

The success of the police and military after 9/11 revolved around attacking al-Qaeda’s central command, isolating and pushing Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants further and further away from the people they were trying to recruit. 

While the hard-core military option killed the top and middle rank leadership of al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, its arm in Southeast Asia, the ideology remained, and a new radicalized generation grew up.

Since 2014, ISIS issued a clarion call far more effective than al-Qaeda because it didn’t require expertise or even extended training. 

Like the Internet and social media which give ISIS its power to recruit and train its converts online, its power comes from exponential growth driven by “more and more of less and less” - more and more groups with the same intent carrying out smaller attacks with less and less skill and expertise. 

Moving away from iconic attacks of mass casualty like 9/11 to the Mumbai attacks in 2008 to Paris and San Bernardino in the last few months. In the last week alone, ISIS – through its proxies – carried out attacks in Istanbul, Jakarta, Pakistan, and of course, Iraq. 

It’s death by a thousand cuts. 

3.  Same geographical focal points, same network, same goal

The Indonesian police declared the attacks were either inspired or directly powered by ISIS, and identified Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian believed to be in Syria, as its mastermind. 

ISIS has a Southeast Asian military unit formed in September 2014 called Katibah Nusantara, a Bahasa speaking unit with about 450 to 500 Indonesians and Malaysians, including children and women. It has translated ISIS materials from Arabic into Bahasa Indonesia, publishing as many as 20 videos a month under ISIS’ Al-Hayat Media Centre.

Bahrun Naim works for one of the 3 key leaders of Katibah Nusantara and allegedly funded several foiled bomb plots in Solo, Central Java, targeting a Buddhist temple, a church and police stations in August 2015. 

Rappler reporter Febriana Firdaus visited Bahrun’s home base in Solo, ground zero of Islamic radicalism in Indonesia, and many she spoke with told her they considered the attack "small" but that "the time still hasn't come."

She visited the Pondok Ngruki school in Solo, founded in the late 70s by Jemaah Islamiyah emir Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, who splintered off the more violent arm of JI as JAT - Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid - in 2008. Although in prison, he has publicly stated his support of ISIS. 

A satellite school of Pondok Ngruki is in Lamongan, East Java, and it plays a crucial role in events today. It’s another hub of JI activities - the home of 3 of the Bali bombers (all brothers and teachers of the school). In March last year, Lamongan hit the news again after two sisters-in-law were deported from Turkey with their children after they tried to join ISIS in Syria. 

The Lamongan network, with Poso as its training ground and centre of operations, hit the ISIS spotlight after Santoso, a former JI leader (who also spent time in the Philippines), was featured in an ISIS video. Santoso is the leader of Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT) or the Mujahideen of Eastern Indonesia. He pledged loyalty to ISIS in July 2014. MIT was designated a terrorist organization by the US in September 2015. (READ: 4 things you need to know about ISIS in Indonesia)

Its MIT that’s been the target of police operations since last December. Indonesian police say MIT has received “logistical assistance” from ISIS. At least 16 terrorist suspects were arrested across Indonesia after police announced they had foiled an attack planned for the new year celebration.

They’re all connected: Abu Jandal, one of ISIS’ 3 Indonesian commanders in Katibah Nusantara, is part of the Lamongan network and actively recruits fighters for ISIS from East Java. A former member of AQAP (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) in Yemen, he left to join ISIS and has helped lay the travel routes for Indonesians wanting to join the jihad in Syria and Iraq. In 2013 and again in 2014, he has physically taken Indonesians from East Java to Syria. (There are an estimated 500 to 700 Indonesians, including women and children, who have joined ISIS).

Abu Jandal was in several “unofficial” ISIS videos that threatened to free 2 key ideological leaders from prison: Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Aman Abdurrahman, who is Indonesia's main translator for ISIS and even from prison, can command 200 men.

Abdurrahman has given spiritual guidance to Bahrun Naim, Santoso, and Abu Jandal, and heads Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an umbrella organisation that unites extremist groups in Indonesia under ISIS. 

Naim, according to Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian, wants to pull together groups across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

“In order to get credit from ISIS, he needs to prove his leadership capabilities,” Tito told Rappler.

4.  Southeast Asian rivalry for ISIS

Now place all this within the context of a potential Southeast Asian rivalry. 

Nearly a week before the Jakarta attacks, 4 groups in the southern Philippines united, formed a leadership shura, and selected their governor or commander, Isnilon Hapilon. The video included Malaysian commanders. (READ AND WATCH: ISIS to declare a province in Mindanao?)

According to ISIS’ weekly magazine, Dabiq, it’s the last step before ISIS declares a wilayat or province. (READ AND WATCH: Experts warn PH: Don’t underestimate ISIS) 

After reaching this step, other groups have carried out mass casualty attacks to prove their capability and intent. 

Gen. Tito Karnavian, Jakarta police chief and former head of counterterrorism task force Densus 88, talked about a rivalry for leadership, but it’s unclear whether it’s a rivalry among Indonesians - which would pit Bahrun Naim against Abu Jundal - or Southeast Asians - which pits Naim against Filipino Isnilon Hapilon. 

What’s at stake? A new lease on life of a network that’s lost its global support and funding. The ability to inspire new recruits. A global stage to create larger ripples that ultimately come back to reshaping the jihadists’ home turf. 

The Bali bombings happened after the Afghan war veterans returned home and put what they learned in the training camps to use. What happens when the ISIS veterans from Syria and Iraq return home? 

Jakarta’s attacks are only the tip of the iceberg – as Southeast Asia swings deeper into the fourth wave of Islamist terrorism. – Rappler.com

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – Security forces were hunting Sunday, January 17, for any possible surviving gunmen from an attack on a top hotel in Burkina Faso that left at least 29 people dead and showed the expanding reach of regional jihadists in west Africa.

The drama saw Burkinabe troops, backed by French special forces, battle militants who stormed the four-star Splendid Hotel, which is popular with foreigners and United Nations staff.

At least 13 foreigners are among the dead, according to a government toll.

Burkina Faso has declared 3 days of national mourning following the onslaught, which echoed another Al-Qaeda attack last year on a luxury hotel in neighbouring Mali where 20 people were killed, mostly foreigners.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed the latest attack on behalf of an affiliate, saying the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of notorious one-eyed Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

It is still not clear how many attackers took part in the onslaught -- the bodies of three have been identified, but some witnesses reported seeing more. 

Burkina Faso's Interior Minister Simon Compaore said search security forces were carrying out careful searches, while at the scene of the attack a security cordon was widened on Sunday.

Investigators wearing white protective gloves were seen in the streets around the Splendid and the Cappuccino cafe, which was also attacked.

"People are afraid. Anyone who's not afraid isn't normal -- this is guys with guns," said Souleymane Ouedraogo, who lives near the scene of the violence. 

Violence spreading

Until recently Burkina Faso had largely escaped the tide of Islamist violence spreading in the restive Sahel region and the hotel assault will heighten fears that jihadist groups are casting their net wider in search of targets in west Africa.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office just last month, said Saturday that the country was in shock.

"For the first time in its history, our country has fallen victim to a series of barbaric terrorist attacks," he said, adding that the people of Burkina would nevertheless "emerge victorious".

The attack began around 7:45 pm on Friday when an unknown number of attackers stormed the 147-room Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou.

The hotel and surrounding area became a battleground as Burkina Faso troops, backed by French forces based in the city under a regional counterterrorism initiative, launched an attempt to retake the hotel around 2:00 am.

Among those killed were six Canadians, two French nationals, two Swiss, an American, a Portuguese and a Dutch person, according to the prosecutor's office.

Interior minister Compaore said the bodies of three "very young" jihadists had been identified, all of them men. 

Several guests managed to escape from the hotel through side entrances, including labour minister Clement Sawadogo, who emerged unscathed.

"It was horrible... there was blood everywhere. They were firing at people at close range," Yannick Sawadogo, one of those who escaped, told Agence France-Presse.

Australians kidnapped

Highlighting the fragile security situation in Burkina Faso, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in the northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali.

Malian militant group Ansar Dine told Agence France-Presse the couple were being held by jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked "Emirate of the Sahara".

The pair had been running a surgical clinic in the north of the country since 1972, and no reason has been given for their kidnapping, a statement from their family said.

The hotel attack was the first of its kind in Ouagadougou and came as people were tentatively enjoying a return to stability after November elections which ended a shaky transitional period since veteran leader Blaise Compaore's 2014 ouster, including a failed coup.

Al-Murabitoun had already begun to move into the impoverished country of around 17 million. In April, it claimed the abduction of the Romanian security chief of a mine in the country's north. – Romallic Ollo Hien, AFP/Rappler.com

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Sunday, January 17, welcomed 5,000 migrant worshippers at a special mass at St Peter's to mark the world day of migrants and refugees, urging them to treasure their "culture and precious values".

"Your presence here at this square is a sign of hope in God. Don't let yourselves be stripped of this hope and joy of living," he said at the close of his weekly Angelus prayer.

Francis has repeatedly called on European states to welcome people fleeing war and misery amid the continent's worst migrant crisis since World War II.

After the prayer, the pope hailed "with great affection the ethnic communities present" in the Vatican City and "the people who help and welcome" the migrants.

"Dear migrants and refugees, each of you carries a story, a culture and precious values," Francis said.

"Alas, many of you have experienced misery, oppression and fear."

The event was part of the Catholic church's Jubilee Year, which Francis on Sunday called "the jubilee of migrants."

Meanwhile the pope also called on the worshippers to pray for the four victims of Thursday's Jakarta attack and the 29 killed in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, in a jihadist assault on Friday night.

After the prayer, thousands of migrants were set to enter the basilica through one of the "holy doors" opened for the special year which is dedicated to the theme of mercy.

The Lampedusa crucifix, a cross made from the wood of a boat used by migrants, was brought to Rome for the occasion.

Francis also thanked three prisoners serving sentences for murder in a prison near Milan for making the communion wafers for the mass. – Rappler.com

TEHRAN, Iran – President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday, January 17, that sceptics who said a nuclear deal with world powers would not bring benefits to Iran "were all proven wrong".

"Within a few hours" of the nuclear deal being implemented and sanctions lifted "1,000 lines of credit were opened by various banks," Rouhani told reporters in Tehran.

"This showed that those who used to say, 'do not believe' were mistaken," he said, stressing the deal would now make it easier for Iranian businesses to operate after years of being frozen out of the international financial system.

"Today we are in an atmosphere where we can have political, economic and legal interaction with the world to the benefit of our national interests," the president said.

"We believe in our national strength. We believe in our nation's success," he added.

The remarks were a riposte to doubters who say that the diplomatic success of the nuclear deal will not translate into concrete economic benefits for Iran's economy.

Rouhani staked his presidency on the nuclear talks, deepening the diplomacy which involved Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany after taking office in August 2013.

Only last week he said Iranians should look forward to a "year of prosperity" after sanctions are lifted. – Rappler.com

MADRID, Spain – Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has defended Hollywood actor Sean Penn's meeting with Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, saying in an interview published Sunday, January 17, that the US star "had every right" to look for the kingpin.

"I understand Sean Penn. He has been an activist for 30 years. And has written many articles. He has great curiosity and is attracted to controversial figures," Inarritu, who won the best director Oscar for his dark comedy "Birdman" in 2015, told daily Spanish newspaper El Pais.

"He has every right to look for El Chapo. He wrote a fantastic column about how he reached him and, unfortunately, a not very successful interview because of what he could not ask. The news value is poor; the experience, very rich," he added.

Penn has faced a barrage of criticism for agreeing to let Guzman greenlight the article published in Rolling Stone magazine on January 9. 

The interview was published a day after Mexican authorities arrested "El Chapo", who had escaped from a prison in July through an underground tunnel.

While the Oscar-winning actor met Guzman for several hours in October, he had to send questions that the drug lord answered in a video later on, which prevented Penn from making follow-up questions.

Critics have also accused Penn, 55, of seeming to glorify -- or at least go easy on -- a man blamed for thousands of deaths in Mexico's drug-related violence and contributing to drug addiction in America in his article which describes "El Chapo" as a "humble, rural Mexican".

The actor has become known in Latin America region for befriending leftist leaders, including late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales in Bolivia. 

In 2008, he interviewed Cuban President Raul Castro for The Nation magazine.

Inarritu, 52, could become the third director in history to win the Oscar for best director two years in a row. He was nominated on Thursday for the award for "The Revenant", an epic survival thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film is up for 12 Oscars in total.

The Oscars will be awarded in Los Angeles on February 28. – Rappler.com