The_Wall_Street_Journal_Asia__September_13_2016

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Tuesday, September 13, 2016 |A

WORLD NEWS

for Oct. 2, pitting center-left

candidate Alexander Van der

Bellen against Norbert Hofer

of the anti-immigrant Freedom

Party. Mr. Hofer, propelled by

a popular backlash against the

centrist government’s han-

dling of the refugee crisis, has

been running about even with

Mr. Van der Bellen in the polls.

Mr. Van der Bellen beat Mr.

Hofer by just over 30,

votes in a runoff election on

May 22. In July, the Constitu-

tional Court ordered a rerun

because of improprieties in

how some mail-in ballots were

processed. But in recent days,

reports emerged in Austrian

media that some mail-in ballot

envelopes for the rescheduled

vote were defective, raising

the prospect of yet another

bungled election.

“If a well-developed and

modern democracy such as the

one in Austria isn’t able to

guarantee regular elections,

then it is anything but funny,”

journalist Michael Völker

wrote in Der Standard news-

paper on Sunday.

“One could take this glue fi-

asco as a symbol of what Aus-

tria needs now: to stick to-

gether,” Mr. Van der Bellen

said Monday.

Three weeks before a

scheduled presidential election

that could install postwar Aus-

tria’s first right-wing populist

head of state, the country’s

top elections official said the

vote needed to be postponed.

The reason: Defective glue

has been causing some mail-in

ballot envelopes to open, ren-

dering the vote inside invalid.

“I must acknowledge that a

ballot-card production error is

the reason why we cannot

guarantee an election that is

irreproachably in conformity

with the law,” said Interior

Minister Wolfgang Sobotka,

who oversees elections, in Vi-

enna on Monday. “We cannot

estimate today how many and

which of these ballot cards

could still open.”

Mr. Sobotka said he would

submit a bill to parliament on

Tuesday to postpone the vote

until Dec. 4.

It was the latest embarrass-

ment for the Alpine country’s

government, which has been

struggling to execute a closely

watched election.

The runoff vote for the

mainly ceremonial post of

president had been scheduled

BYANTONTROIANOVSKI

Glue Snafu Delays

Austrian Election

The University of Oxford is one of several British universities that

say they aren’t expecting a decline in EU students this year.

OLI SCARFF/GETTY IMAGES

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka announcing on

Monday a two-month postponement of presidential elections.

CHRISTIAN BRUNA/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

quickly to assuage potential

concerns among incoming EU

students. Further, those arriv-

ing this year would have ap-

plied to study in the U.K. well

before the Brexit vote.

EU students currently are

charged the same fees as U.K.

students, which at £9,

($12,000) a year for most uni-

versities are lower than the

charges for those from outside

the bloc: The fees for non-EU

international undergraduates

range from £9,500 to £49,600,

depending on the type of de-

gree, according to the Com-

plete University Guide, a

higher-education data service.

Students from the EU also can

apply for grants and low-inter-

est student loans, a benefit

that isn’t extended to other in-

ternational students.

But the government hasn’t

guaranteed these benefits to

those enrolling in 2017 or be-

yond. Julia Goodfellow, presi-

dent of the lobbying group

Universities U.K., said there

was an urgent need to address

the issue to prevent a likely

decline in EU student applica-

tions for entry next academic

year.

That matters because

around 125,000 university stu-

dents in the U.K. are from an-

other EU member state,

around one in 20. At some

universities, that proportion is

as high as one in five.

Losing those students

“would create a huge intellec-

tual, cultural and creative

hole,” Prof. Arthur said.

“There’d be a lot missing.”

LONDON—Britain’s decision

to leave the European Union

doesn’t appear to have dented

the number of EU students

planning to start degrees in

the U.K. in the coming weeks,

though senior figures warn the

vote could take a more serious

toll next academic year.

EU students haven’t relin-

quished offers from U.K. uni-

versities any more than usual

this year, according to several

top institutions surveyed by

The Wall Street Journal.

“We’ve had no obvious indi-

cation at this stage there will

be a reduction in the number

of EU students,” said Paul Teu-

lon, director of admissions for

King’s College London. How-

ever, “we will only really know

where we stand towards the

end of September or beginning

of October.”

The same is true for Uni-

versity College London, ac-

cording to its provost, Michael

Arthur. Representatives of Im-

perial College London, the

London School of Economics

and Political Science, and the

universities of Oxford, Bristol,

Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow,

Nottingham and Southampton

also said they didn’t expect a

fall in EU students enrolling

this year.

That is partly due to reas-

surances from the U.K. govern-

ment soon after the Brexit

vote that nothing would

change for those enrolling this

academic year. Several univer-

sities themselves moved

BYDENISEROLAND

Brexit Doesn’t Keep

EU Students Away

turned to government control

after a four-year siege by Mr.

Assad’s forces. The president

also joined local officials in a

local mosque for prayers on

the Muslim holiday of Eid al-

Adha.

It was a rare public appear-

ance for Mr. Assad, timed to

coincide with the beginning at

sundown of a cease-fire ham-

mered out by the U.S. and

Russia and announced late

Friday by U.S. Secretary of

State John Kerry and Russian

Foreign Minister Sergei Lav-

rov.

Hours after the government

leader’s visit to Daraya, Syria’s

mainstream political opposi-

tion, the High Negotiations

Committee, and several rebel

factions called for “guaran-

tees” on the implementation

of the cease-fire agreement

before endorsing it.

Few details of the deal have

been shared with the opposi-

tion, an opposition political

official in contact with rebel

groups said. In particular, the

opposition was seeking clarifi-

cation on sanctions for gov-

ernment breaches of the

cease-fire, the official said.

Syria’s armed and political

opposition have criticized pre-

vious truces, claiming they fa-

vor the regime by allowing it

to continue laying siege to op-

position-controlled communi-

ties across Syria to force their

surrender.

Iran and the Lebanese Shi-

ite movement Hezbollah, two

close allies of Mr. Assad, de-

clared their support for the

cease-fire accord over the

weekend.

Opponents of Mr. Assad

criticized his government for

agreeing to the deal only after

it succeeded in reimposing a

siege over opposition-held dis-

tricts of Aleppo, once the

country’s largest city and eco-

nomic powerhouse.

Fighting intensified be-

tween rebels and government

forces there and elsewhere

across the country following

late Friday’s announcement of

the cease-fire in Geneva, as

each side sought to set what-

ever terms on the ground they

could ahead of the truce’s

scheduled start late Monday.

Rebel groups launched

rocket attacks against govern-

ment areas in Aleppo and

across other parts of north-

west Syria on Monday, while

regime helicopters dropped

barrel bombs on opposition-

held areas of the city.

BEIRUT—Syrian President

Bashar al-Assad vowed to keep

fighting what he called “ter-

rorists” and take back rebel-

controlled territory, just hours

before a U.S.-Russian brokered

cease-fire was set to begin.

“The Syrian state is deter-

mined to retake every area

from the terrorists, and re-

store security and safety,” said

Mr. Assad on Monday, employ-

ing a term he and his govern-

ment routinely use to describe

the opponents who are seek-

ing to unseat him.

The Syrian president made

his comments to reporters for

state-run media as he walked

through the streets of Daraya,

a Damascus suburb that sur-

rendered last month and re-

BYMARIAABI-HABIB

ANDNOAMRAYDAN

Syrian Leader Assad Vows

To Fight Despite Cease-Fire

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, center, walking with officials on Monday in Daraya, a formerly rebel-controlled suburb of Damascus.

SANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

“The leaders of South Su-

dan’s warring parties manipu-

late and exploit ethnic divi-

sions in order to drum up

support for a conflict that

serves the interests only of the

top leaders of these two klep-

tocratic networks and, ulti-

mately, the international facili-

tators whose services the

networks utilize and on which

they rely,” it says.

A spokesman for Mr. Kiir

didn’t immediately reply to

calls and messages requesting

comment. A spokesman for

Mr. Machar said he would

study the report and respond

to it later. Messrs. Clooney

and Prendergast said Monday

they would meet with U.S.

President Barack Obama, State

Secretary John Kerry and

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew

to present the investigation

and lobby for the use of anti-

terrorism and anti-money-

laundering rules to seize the

South Sudanese leaders’ as-

sets.

Mr. Kiir’s presidential sal-

ary is about $60,000 annually.

Mr. Machar drew a govern-

ment salary $54,000 annually

until he was ousted in July af-

ter the collapse of a power-

sharing agreement. He is now

in neighboring Sudan.

Foreign donors sponsored

South Sudan’s independence

declaration in 2011 and have

supplied billions of dollars in

aid since the two political ri-

vals pitted their tribes and

armies against each other

nearly three years ago.

The conflict has cost thou-

sands of lives since. About 1.

million of South Sudan’s 12

million people have been

forced to flee their homes.

NAIROBI, Kenya—South Su-

dan’s leaders have transferred

millions of dollars of ill-gotten

wealth outside the country

while waging a civil war that

has left nearly half the coun-

try’s people homeless or in ur-

gent need of humanitarian aid,

a nongovernmental group said

Monday.

President Salva Kiir and

some his top associates, along

with Riek Machar, the coun-

try’s former vice president,

have invested millions of dol-

lars in real estate in Kenya,

Uganda and Australia, accord-

ing to a report by The Sentry,

which investigates corruption

and organized crime in Africa,

following a two-year probe.

The watchdog group was

founded by Hollywood actor

George Clooney and John

Prendergast, a former official

in the Clinton administration.

According to the report,

these powerful political fig-

ures and their immediate rela-

tives have large ownership in-

terests in local oil,

construction, security and

gambling businesses—in viola-

tion of South Sudanese law

barring officeholders from en-

gaging in commercial activity.

The report accuses the two

leaders of perpetuating con-

flict in South Sudan, the

world’s youngest nation, to

amass personal wealth.

BYMATINASTEVIS

Report Blasts South Sudan Leaders

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir with U.N. and U.S. officials in the capital of Juba this month.

JUSTIN LYNCH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

caped further into the hospital

before being killed by security

forces about an hour later, a

spokesman for the Kandahar

governor said. Angry families

outside protested to be allowed

into the compound to rescue

trapped relatives as the gunfire

rang out across Afghanistan’s

second-largest city.

An Afghan intelligence offi-

cer and a policemen were also

killed in the attack, a foreign

official in the country said. Af-

ghan authorities didn’t con-

firm their deaths.

No group immediately

claimed for the attack.

The ICRC employs some 50

Afghan and international staff-

ers at the Mirwais Hospital in

Kandahar. No ICRC staff mem-

bers were present during

Monday’s raid due to this

week’s Muslim religious holi-

day Eid al-Adha, said ICRC

spokeswoman Jessica Barry.

The attack was the latest in

a string of incidents that have

struck aid workers in Afghani-

stan, despite repeated pleas by

humanitarian agencies to re-

spect their neutrality.

Hospitals in Afghanistan

have repeatedly been attacked

or caught in the crossfire in

recent years, making the coun-

try one of the most dangerous

places for aid workers to oper-

ate.

An October U.S. precision

airstrike on a Doctors Without

Borders hospital in Kunduz

killed 42 civilians, even

though the facility’s coordi-

nates were on a list of pro-

tected locations.

The Kandahar militants

were likely targeting Kanda-

har’s deputy governor, who

had been scheduled to visit

the hospital for the holiday

Monday but canceled his ap-

pearance after being warned

of an impending attack, an Af-

ghan official said.

“The deputy governor with

a convoy of several provincial

officials were on their way to

the hospital when we got re-

ports of a security incident,”

said the governor’s spokes-

man, Samim Khapalwak.

KABUL—Two militants

dressed as doctors raided a

hospital in Kandahar sup-

ported by the International

Committee of the Red Cross,

killing at least one emergency

room patient in an hour fire-

fight, Afghan officials said.

The men, armed with pistols

and suicide vests, wounded

two other people before being

shot dead by Afghan security

forces, the officials said. The

firefight took place in patient

wards, they said.

The first militant was

quickly shot by an intelligence

agent, while the second es-

BYEHSANULLAHAMIRI

ANDJESSICADONATI

Militants Attack Hospital in Kandahar

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