Security boosted for Paris Fashion

PARIS, France - Security is being bolstered at the Paris fashion shows which open on Wednesday following the deadly Islamist attacks in the French capital and European swoops on other suspected jihadists.

Celebrities and others attending the event were reported to be skittish over security at the globally mediatised shows, which run to January 29.

Several fashion-watching outlets were rattled by a report on the New York Post's Page Six website that cited anonymous organizers saying that "security issues" were keeping VIPs away from the catwalks' front-row seats.

Middle Eastern clients who often spend big on Paris's Haute Couture creations were said to be especially reluctant.

The Federation Francaise de la Couture, the body behind the Paris fashion shows, did not respond directly to AFP queries on the issue.

But a statement given to the fashion houses taking part said "simple logistical measures" must be implemented "to reassure those attending the shows and those participating in them".

They included heightened checks on those holding invitations for the shows and bag inspections.

Thousands of police and soldiers have been deployed across Paris to reinforce security in the wake of the attacks in the city.

Paris on high alert

French authorities and counterparts in Belgium and Germany have in the past few days arrested dozens of Islamist suspects.

There are concerns that some of the thousands of radicalized young Europeans believed to have gone to Iraq, Syria and Yemen to fight alongside the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda linked groups could return to their home countries to launch attacks.

Those fears were renewed by a gunbattle between police and well-armed suspected jihadists in Belgium on Friday that left two of the suspects dead and a third wounded.

Britain was considering extra measures to give its police better protection.

The Paris fashion shows are seen as a high point of the European catwalk calendars, following shows in London and Milan.

The event usually attracts high-profile showbusiness names. Last year actresses Liv Tyler and Marion Cotillard put in appearances, while reality star Kim Kardashian and her husband Kanye West stole a lot of attention.

The shows start on Wednesday with five days of menswear collections unveiled by the likes of Valentino, Louis Vuitton, Kenzo and Hermes.

Then on January 26, events kick into top gear with four more days of Haute Couture fashion including the latest from top brands Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior.

Gaultier and his staff put a picture online of them holding up the "Je Suis Charlie" ("I Am Charlie") sign expressing solidarity and defiance after the January 7 attack on the satirical French weekly that killed 12 people.

The flamboyant French designer's latest show will be his first since he bowed out of ready-to-wear fashion last September in order to concentrate on couture.

Fashion industry journal Women's Wear Daily, meanwhile, quoted Chanel stylist Karl Lagerfeld saying that French authorities will have to cope with people viewing Paris as a more dangerous place.

"I think it's very bad for the image of Paris," Lagerfeld told the site. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Obama won't let Islamic militants create caliphate – NYT

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said he was willing to consider broader use of military strikes in Iraq to beat back Islamist militants, but Iraqi political leaders must first figure out a way to work with each other, the New York Times reported.

In a wide-ranging interview conducted on Friday, Obama also expressed regrets over not doing more to help Libya, pessimism about prospects for Middle East peace, concerns that Russia could invade Ukraine, and frustration that fellow economic superpower China has not stepped up to help.

Obama on Thursday authorized the U.S. military to conduct targeted strikes on Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq, a limited operation designed to prevent what he called a potential "genocide" of a religious sect and also protect American officials working in the country.

But in the interview with Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Obama said the United States may eventually do more to help Iraq repel the militant group, which seeks to control its own state.

"We're not going to let them create some caliphate through Syria and Iraq," Obama said in the interview, excerpts of which the Times posted on its website late on Friday.

"But we can only do that if we know that we have got partners on the ground who are capable of filling the void," he said.

He praised officials from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region for being "functional" and "tolerant of other sects and religions" and said the United States wanted to help.

"But, more broadly, what I've indicated is that I don't want to be in the business of being the Iraqi air force," he said.

Obama has faced growing criticism for being too reluctant to intervene in thorny foreign policy issues which have piled up under his watch.

He quipped that he sometimes wished the United States was more like China: a superpower that no one expects to intervene.

"They are free riders, and they've been free riders for the last 30 years, and it's worked really well for them," Obama said.

He told the Times that he regretted his government did not do more to help rebuild Libya after NATO-led air strikes in 2011 that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. The nation has been wracked by fighting and chaos.

"So that's a lesson that I now apply every time I ask the question, 'Should we intervene militarily?'" Obama said. "Do we have an answer the day after?"

Obama's administration has also been trying to encourage ceasefires in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians, and applying economic sanctions against Russia to try to get Moscow to stop supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine.

He expressed doubts about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could come to the kind of longer term peace deal that former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was able to broker, and that former Israeli prime ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin accepted.

"In some ways Bibi's too strong, in some ways Abbas is too weak to bring them together and make the kind of bold decisions that a Sadat or a Begin or a Rabin were willing to make," Obama said.

Obama said he feared that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not back down from eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has supported separatists.

"He could invade," Obama said. — Reuters

6 Pinoys among workers killed in Algeria hostage crisis — DFA

Six Filipinos were among those killed while four others were reported missing in the hostage crisis that rocked Algeria last week, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

"Based on reports received from team in Algeria and embassy in London, 16 OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) accounted for and confirmed alive, six were confirmed dead, four were still unaccounted for," said DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez at a press briefing Monday.

He said the 26 Filipinos were working at the gas facility that was attacked by Islamic militants last week.

"The DFA is now notifying next of kin of the six confirmed dead and coordinating shipment of their remains. We are locating whereabouts of the unaccounted four," Hernandez said.

He said all the Filipino fatalities, who were killed "mostly by gunshot wounds and the effects of explosion" were male and were "mostly from Japanese companies."

It was not clear, however, if the six Filipinos were executed by the militants or were killed when Algerian authorities staged an assault on the facility to end the hostage crisis.

16 accounted for

Hernandez said of the 16 OFWs who were accounted for, four were in Al-Azhar clinic in Algiers, four were billeted in Mercure Hotel awaiting repatriation, four were repatriated and were on their way home, and four were vacationing in the Philippines when the hostage-taking incident happened.

On Sunday, dozens of Filipinos arrived home after being sent home by their employer in Algeria due to security fears following an Islamic militant attack at a remote gas plant.

A Reuters report Monday morning said Algerian troops found 25 bodies of hostages at the bomb-littered gas plant deep in the Sahara desert on Sunday, a day after ending the four-day siege. This raised the death toll of militants and their captives to at least 80.

Around 30 foreigners — including American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian and Romanian citizens — are among those missing or confirmed dead after the siege, one of the worst international hostage crises in decades.

Algeria had given a preliminary death toll of 55 people killed — 23 hostages and 32 militants — on Saturday and said it would rise as more bodies were found.

Deployment ban?

Despite the incident, the Philippine government has yet to discuss whether a deployment ban will be implemented in Algeria.

"There are no discussions on that yet," Hernandez said. "As you all know deployment bans are decided upon by the POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) governing board upon the recommendation of the DFA and our people on the ground." — KBK, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com