Patriot publishers push secularism and peace

BEIRUT: When Erik Chiniara founded the analytical news website L’Echo du Cèdre (The Cedar's Echo), he hoped other young Lebanese abroad would rally to his message of secularism, modernity and peace.

“All we want is to get the message out there,” Chiniara told the Daily Star. “We are working for the Lebanon we dream of; one nation above sectarian tensions.”

The website is updated monthly in English and French, covering economic, social, cultural and political subjects of importance to Lebanon.

“We don’t want to be typical newspaper,” said Chiniara. “We take one subject and develop a profound and analytical article about it rather than simply reporting the news.”

Launched in 2012, the site’s editorial team is comprised of four young Lebanese writers living in Europe and North America. In addition to Chiniara, the team includes Cyril Ghanem, an undergraduate at ESSEC in Paris; Nour Chehabeddine, who studies international relations at the University of Toronto; and the site’s newest addition, Beatrice Shedid.

“L’Echo du Cèdre targets those students living overseas who are proud of their ancestry and who are willing to contribute time and effort to build a new and modern state,” said Chiniara, who studies at the Paris Institute for Political Science.

He said the site’s writers share a passion for secularism, democracy and economic liberty.

“These are the values we want to spread, because we believe they push the country toward progress and ensure the well being of its people,” Chiniara said.

He explained that in addition to having “progressive values,” the newspaper also advocates an optimistic view of Lebanon.

“We see Lebanon as a country full of great potential,” he said.

Chiniara considers himself a patriot whose “cause is Lebanon,” adding that he believes the country has a special role to play in the region building bridges between different cultures and religious groups. He dreams of the emergence of a unified Arab world that functions economically like the European Union.

“When I think about the regional conflicts, it reminds me of the old rivalries between European countries,” he said, suggesting that a peaceful settlement between Arab countries and Israel is possible and desirable.

In fact, he recently wrote a piece advocating for the establishment of a single bi-national state where Israelis and Palestinians enjoy equal rights as citizens.

Chiniara said his proposal, which is not unique but far from popular, is founded in his liberal, pacifist values.

“We aspire towards a Lebanon that lives in peace with its neighbors -- all its neighbors,” he said. “Without peace, neither the country nor the region will be able to achieve progress.”

The site works in cooperation with institutions including the Lebanese Diaspora Overseas, the Lebanese Emigration Research Center, the World Lebanese Cultural Union and UNESCO, but remains financially dependent on its core team, who volunteer their time and resources.

Chiniara said he was hesitant to seek outside support that might compromise the site’s integrity.

“We want to be free and independent,” he said. “If we can have funding from particular institutions that support our organization without affecting our writing, this would be excellent.”

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Audio for this story from Weekend Edition Sunday will be available at approximately 12:00 p.m. ET.

NPR's Arun Rath talks to political correspondent Mara Liasson the chances of a political agreement over how to handle the migration of thousands of Central American children.

INFLUENCE GAME: Shaping railroad safety rules

WASHINGTON -- A string of fiery train derailments across the country has triggered a high-stakes but behind-the-scenes campaign to shape how the government responds to calls for tighter safety rules.

Billions of dollars are riding on how these rules are written, and lobbyists from the railroads, tank car manufacturers and the oil, ethanol and chemical industries have met 13 times since March with officials at the White House and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Their universal message: Don't make us pay for increased safety because that's another industry's problem.

The pitches illustrate why government officials, who must show that safety benefits outweigh the economic costs of rules, often struggle for years, only to produce watered-down regulations.

The Association of American Railroads, for example, is pushing for tougher safety standards for tank cars than the current, voluntary standards agreed to by industry in 2011. Railroads, though, typically don't own or lease tank cars and so wouldn't have to buy new cars or retrofit existing ones. The oil and ethanol industries that own the cars want to stick with the voluntary standards, also known as "1232" tank cars.

The railroads argue that better tank cars are needed because the kind of crude oil being produced in the oil boom Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana and in some other parts of the country is more likely to ignite if a tank car is punctured or ruptured in an accident. They want regulators to require that cars for crude have a thicker shell, an outer layer to protect from heat exposure, an outer "jacket" on top of that, and a better venting valve, among other changes.

Since 2008, there have been 10 significant derailments in the U.S. and Canada in which crude oil has spilled from ruptured tank cars, often resulting in huge fireballs. A year ago this month, a runaway train with 72 tank cars of crude en route from the Bakken to a refinery in Canada hurtled into the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, exploded and killed 47 people.

The American Petroleum Institute, however, says Bakken crude is no different from other light, sweet crude oils and doesn't need special containers. The institute wants the government to adopt what are now the voluntary standards even though "1232" tank cars have ruptured in several accidents.

"We have billions invested in tank cars," said Bob Greco, a senior official with the American Petroleum Institute. "Every day new, modern 1232 tank cars are coming into service." By the end of next year, about 60 percent of the oil industry's 74,000 tank cars will be 1232s, each bought with the expectation that they would be in use for decades, he said.

The ethanol industry faces a similar quandary. It would cost about $3 billion to retrofit or replace the industry's 30,000 tank cars to make them tougher, said Bob Dinneen, head of the Renewable Fuels Association.

From 2006 to 2012, there were seven train derailments in which tank cars carrying ethanol ruptured. Several crashes caused spectacular fires that emergency responders were powerless to put out, including one near Cherry Valley, Illinois, that consumed a van with a family inside. A woman was killed, her husband suffered burned and their pregnant adult daughter miscarried.

The ethanol industry, including agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, has told regulators that if tank car standards must be strengthened, the new requirements should apply only to crude oil, Dinneen said. He blamed poor communication by railroads for the Cherry Valley accident.

The chemical industry, which ships both flammable and nonflammable liquids in tank cars, has told regulators that if they propose a new tank car standard, it should be phased in, starting with oil shipments. Deadlines for chemical shipments would come later. The industry also questions whether the safety benefits justify the cost of upgrading existing tank cars to meet new standards.

Rather than new rules for tank cars, the oil and ethanol industries want regulators to turn their attention to whether railroads should do more to prevent accidents. "Keep these cars on the tracks and nobody has a problem," Dinneen said.

The government may try to do just that.

Edward Hamberger, head of the Association of American Railroads, said he is dismayed that regulators are considering lowering oil train speeds to 30 mph. Railroads already have voluntarily lowered speeds from 50 mph to 40 mph in urban areas, he said.

Lowering the speed of oil trains, some of which are 100 cars long, would slow overall freight traffic by about 10 percent and reduce the capacity of the nation's freight network by the same amount, Hamberger said. That's because 83 percent of the network is single track, with passing tracks located from 5 miles to 50 miles apart. Virtually every industry that ships freight by rail would be affected, he said, along with Amtrak, which widely uses freight tracks.

Burlington Northern-Santa Fe estimated that reducing speeds to 30 mph on just one portion of its network — its Aurora, Illinois, to Spokane, Washington, line — would cost the company $800 million.

Shippers that use a combination of trains and trucks to move products may switch to trucks, Hamberger said, putting more of those on the road.

Railroads also worry that regulators will require trains to have electronically controlled brakes that would cost the industry $12 billion to $21 billion, according to a CSX estimate.

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Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://bit.ly/1nyMjSr

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Online:

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration: http://bit.ly/1mLyoe5

Association of American Railroads: http://bit.ly/1owgMzW

Renewable Fuels Association: http://bit.ly/1mLyoe7

EDITOR'S NOTE - An occasional look at how behind-the-scenes influence is exercised in Washington.

Congress' Latest Death Match Involves A Bank You've Never Heard Of

i i

hide captionA worker stacks traffic safety poles at Pexco's manufacturing center in Fife, Wash. The small company ships products all over the world, with the help of federal insurance from the Export-Import Bank.

Drew Perine/MCT/Landov

A worker stacks traffic safety poles at Pexco's manufacturing center in Fife, Wash. The small company ships products all over the world, with the help of federal insurance from the Export-Import Bank.

Drew Perine/MCT/Landov

It sits in an imposing building just across Lafayette Square from the White House. Yet the Export-Import Bank, which has been offering credit to foreign purchasers of U.S. goods for 80 years, could start shutting down operations within a matter of weeks.

"There's about a 50-50 chance," says Dan Ikenson, who directs a trade policy center at the Cato Institute.

The bank has become a prime target of the Tea Party movement and other conservatives who view it as practicing the worst kind of government interference in the marketplace.

"There is probably no better poster child of the Washington insider economy and corporate welfare than the Export-Import Bank," Jeb Hensarling, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation — itself among the groups pushing for the bank's demise.

With Hensarling and other top House Republican leaders ready to kill the bank, it may be difficult for the bank to get the votes it needs to stay in business.

Virginia Republican Eric Cantor, the recently ousted House majority leader, was a major backer of the bank. His successor, Kevin McCarthy of California, says it's time for the bank to go.

This has set up a confrontation between the Tea Party and the GOP's business backers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are putting on a full-court press, calling on small business owners around the country to convince their members of Congress of the bank's continuing importance.

"The business community is pushing this very hard right now," says Christopher Wenk, senior director of international policy for the Chamber of Commerce. "What really matters is members of Congress hearing from their constituents."

What The Bank Does

Since 1934, the Export-Import Bank has been doling out loans and guarantees to foreign entities that want to buy American products. If a Russian car company wants to buy steel from the U.S., say, the bank might step in to help with credit when private lenders won't.

"Banks do not want to lend for Caterpillar to sell tractors to Nigeria," says Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which supports the Ex-Im Bank, as it's sometimes called. "You don't have to Google very much about Nigeria to know how unstable that country is."

Export-Import Controversy Gives Rise To A Tale Of Two Washingtons

Conservative Critics Lobby For An Early End To Export-Import Bank

The Ex-Im Bank does a tiny amount of the lending involved in exporting U.S. goods — maybe 2 percent. But Hufbauer says it helps fill crucial gaps, aiding in sales of heavy equipment such as power turbines and MRI machines.

Such goods last a long time and private banks are sometimes dubious they'll be paid back through the 30-year life of a tractor.

"If you look most recently, $37 billion worth of U.S. exports in 2013 were supported by Ex-Im," says Wenk, the Chamber official. "That may not be a whole lot in an economy with $2.3 trillion worth of exports, but at the end of the day, that's $37 billion worth of exports that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the Ex-Im Bank."

Shifting Resources

If the bank's boosters consider it an important tool for keeping U.S. companies competitive in the global marketplace, critics say it's an example of the government playing favorites in ways it shouldn't.

"You can't allocate resources to certain firms and industries without diverting resources from other firms and industries," says Daniel Boudreaux, an economist at George Mason University.

Helping foreign competitors buy U.S. goods at a discounted rate gives them an unfair advantage over U.S. companies that might use the same products or raw materials, Boudreaux says.

The example critics often site is Delta Air Lines, which competes with Air India on certain routes and is angry that Air India gets favorable terms through the Export-Import Bank when it buys Boeing aircraft.

The fact that Boeing itself accounts for an outsized share of Ex-Im lending is also seen by critics as an unwarranted subsidy. Boeing says Ex-Im help will support $10 billion worth of sales this year.

"In my camp, the Export-Import Bank has always been a prime example of unjustified, inefficient corporate welfare," Boudreaux says. "The fact that there's a Tea Party movement now, that's what gives opposition to the Export-Import Bank some legs to stand on now."

Political Opportunity

Supporters of the bank have one big advantage. They have been arranging news conferences all across the country with restaurant equipment makers and medical office designers and other small companies whose owners can talk about specific numbers of workers they've hired thanks to help from the bank.

The idea that some companies worry foreign competitors might be gaining a slight advantage through financing help is a bit more abstract.

The fact that the Export-Import Bank has been self-supporting since 2008 — taking in more through fees from borrowers than it costs to run — has also led most editorial writers to call for its continuation.

But opponents of the bank have an ace up their sleeve. Killing the bank isn't like trying to abolish the Affordable Care Act, say, or funding highway construction — decisions that would require all the political branches to agree and then take action. The bank's authorization will simply expire on Sept. 30, unless Congress takes an affirmative vote to keep it going.

It's not like its building would then be padlocked on Oct. 1. It would continue to service existing loans, without issuing any new ones. It would be like a single-agency shutdown, with a skeleton crew hanging around to oversee the bank's slow death.

The business lobby is pushing hard to prevent that. A Senate bill to keep the bank in business is expected to be introduced any day and should have enough support to pass.

A group of 41 House Republicans last month signed a letter calling for the bank's reauthorization. But many members of their caucus are bound to resist holding a vote to extend the bank, which would likely pass with largely Democratic support.

"I believe it is a defining issue for our party and our movement," Hensarling said in his Heritage speech.

And, if Congress has shown itself capable of anything lately, it's not voting on something.

"It's action through inaction," says Ikenson, the Cato scholar.

Chinese officials will buy more electric cars

BEIJING -- At least 30 percent of newly purchased government cars will be electric and other types of "new energy vehicles," China's official news agency reported Sunday, as the country attempts to tackle air pollution and encourage the electric car market.

A joint plan from five government ministries and departments calls for about a third of cars bought for state use from 2014 to 2016 to rely on clean energy, and the percentage will be raised year by year after that, the Xinhua News Agency said.

New energy vehicles include electric cars, plug-in hybrids, fuel-cell and solar-powered cars.

China is the world's biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold.

AP News in Brief at 5:58 a.m. EDT

Kerry arrives in Vienna as world powers, Iran appear set for nuclear talks extension

VIENNA (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and fellow foreign ministers are adding their diplomatic muscle to nuclear talks with Iran, with a target date only a week away for a pact meant to curb programs Tehran could turn to making atomic arms.

Deep differences separate the two sides and six world powers and Iran appear set to extend their talks past July 20. That would give more time to negotiate a deal that would limit the scope of such programs in exchange for a full lifting of nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Tehran.

Kerry arrived Sunday. Britain, France and Germany also sent their foreign ministers to Austria's capital for talks over the next few days, as has Iran. But the top diplomats from China and Russia are sending lower-ranking officials instead. That may reflect their view that an extension is unavoidable.

Still, the most important disputes over how deeply Iran must cut its nuclear program are between Washington and Tehran, so Kerry's presence is crucial. He will be able to talk directly to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is at the Vienna negotiations.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke Saturday of "huge and deep" differences. But he told Iranian TV that "if no breakthrough is achieved, it doesn't mean that (the) talks have failed."

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Israel calls for north Gaza residents to evacuate after brief ground raid as offensive widens

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel briefly deployed ground troops inside the Gaza Strip for the first time early Sunday as its military warned northern Gaza residents to evacuate their homes, part of a widening campaign against militant rocket fire that's killed more than 160 Palestinians.

Neither Israel nor Palestinian militants show signs of agreeing to a cease-fire, despite calls by the United Nations Security Council and others to end the increasingly bloody six-day offensive. With Israel massing tanks and soldiers at Gaza's borders, some fear that could signal a wider ground offensive that would cause heavy casualties.

Early Sunday, Israeli troops launched a brief raid into northern Gaza to destroy what it described as a rocket-launching site, an operation the military said left four soldiers slightly wounded.

The Israeli air force later dropped leaflets warning residents to evacuate their homes ahead of what Israel's military spokesman described as a "short and temporary" campaign against northern Gaza to begin sometime after 12 p.m. (0900 GMT). The area is home to some 100,000 people.

It was not clear whether the attack would be confined to stepped-up airstrikes or whether it might include a sizeable ground offensive — something that Israel has so far been reluctant to undertake.

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NYC-bound Delta flight from Israel has mechanical problem, returns to Tel Aviv; lands safely

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York-bound Delta Air Lines flight from Israel declared an emergency and returned to Tel Aviv early Sunday after developing a mechanical problem, vexing passengers already on edge as Palestinian militants launched rocket attacks on the city.

Flight 469 — a Boeing 747 with 370 passengers and 17 crew members aboard — landed safely back at Ben Gurion Airport around 2:30 a.m. local time after flaps on the jumbo jet failed to retract properly on takeoff about two hours earlier, the airline said.

Delta spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said the crew made the emergency landing "out of an abundance of caution." She said there was no indication the plane's problem was related to the Israeli-Palestine conflict or terrorism.

Passenger Michael Simon said the crew disclosed an unspecified problem with the plane about a half-hour into the flight. The mood on board, he said, "was not so much panic as bewilderment and frustration."

"Obviously it has been a tense week in Tel Aviv," he said.

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Massachusetts Sen. Warren becoming prized campaigner as Democrats hope to keep Senate control

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is quickly becoming a top Democratic fundraising and campaigning powerhouse, hitting the road on behalf of candidates in key races the party will need to win to retain control of the U.S. Senate in November.

Since March, the Massachusetts Democrat has stumped for candidates in Ohio, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Kentucky and has trips planned this week for West Virginia and Michigan. It's a hefty schedule for a freshman senator who not long ago was teaching law at Harvard.

Along the way, Warren has found her brand of economic populism resonating far from her home in the liberal enclave of Cambridge, Mass.

Part of Warren's economic pitch is legislation she sponsored that would let college graduates refinance their student loans at lower interest rates, an effort blocked by Senate Republicans.

Warren found a receptive crowd during a recent campaign stop at the University of Louisville with Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state hoping to unseat Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

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North Korea launches 2 ballistic missiles into the sea, the latest in a series of test-firings

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday, South Korea said, the latest in a series of test-firings seen as expressions of anger over the North's failure to win talks on receiving outside aid, and over U.S.-South Korean military drills.

The missiles, believed to be of Scud variations, were fired from the North Korean city of Kaesong near the border with the South and had a range of about 500 kilometers (311 miles), said a South Korean military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules.

North Korea experts said it was highly unusual for Pyongyang to fire missiles from a city just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the heavily fortified border separating the two Koreas. The North usually test-fires missiles launched from its eastern port city of Wonsan, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the border.

"It is remarkable that missiles were fired from Kaesong, a symbol of North-South cooperation," said professor Yang Moo-jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies. The jointly-run Kaesong Industrial Complex brings together South Korean-owned companies with North Korean labor. "Such action can mount tensions as it suggests that these missiles ... can target the entire Korean Peninsula. "

North Korea regularly conducts test-firings, but this year has seen an unusually large number of launches. South Korean officials have confirmed about 90 test-firings of missiles, artillery and rockets by the North since Feb. 21. More than 10 of them have been ballistic launches.

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Iraq's Sunnis say they have agreed on a candidate for parliament speaker as lawmakers to meet

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi parliament's Sunni blocs have agreed on a candidate for the post of parliament speaker, paving the way for the legislature to take the first formal step toward forming a new government.

The legislature is scheduled to meet Sunday amid pressure to quickly agree on new leadership that can hold the country together in the face of a Sunni militant offensive. Lawmakers failed to make any progress in parliament's first session on electing a new speaker, president and prime minister, and deadlock prompted the second session to be postponed until Sunday.

Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Karbooli said in a statement late Saturday that Sunni parties decided on Salim al-Jubouri as their nominee for speaker. He said al-Jubouri promised not to support a third term for embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is under pressure to step aside.

Under an informal arrangement that took hold after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the speaker's chair goes to a Sunni, the presidency to a Kurd and the prime minister's post to a Shiite.

If parliament has a quorum Sunday, it could vote on al-Jubouri's nomination.

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Romania: ex-communist prison commander to go on trial for 1st time for crimes against humanity

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — For the first time since communism collapsed in Romania 25 years ago, a former prison commander goes on trial Monday charged with being responsible for the torture and murdering prisoners considered a threat to the country's old order.

Survivors say the delay in bringing perpetrators to justice was a cynical tactic by Romania's new rulers, some of whom held senior positions under the communist regime, to avoid accountability.

"These criminals were left in peace on purpose and most died in their beds. now they are bringing some of the crimes to light and it is important," said Octav Bjoza, director of the Association of Former Political Prisoners in an interview with The Associated Press.

Alexandru Visinescu, 88, goes on trial charged with crimes against humanity for deaths that happened under his command at Ramnicu Sarat prison from 1956 to 1963. Since authorities brought charges against him, Visinescu says people in the street have shoved him to the ground and called him a criminal. He has pleaded not guilty and calls himself a scapegoat.

"I only followed orders. They should ask those that gave the orders," he told the AP on Friday. "I am convinced they will do anything to take revenge.

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Anybody home? Exodus from Niue, other Pacific islands raises prospect of vanishing cultures

ALOFI, Niue (AP) — It was a school once, but there are no children here anymore. The lonely building on this remote Pacific island now contains only a punching bag that someone has strung from the classroom rafters, and a note scrawled on the chalkboard in Niuean: "Keep this place clean," it says, "so it stays beautiful."

While much of the world worries about how it will accommodate rapidly growing populations, some islands in the Pacific face the opposite dilemma: how to stop everybody from leaving.

The population decline on Niue, a lush coral atoll about the size of Baltimore, has been steady and relentless. In the 1960s, there were more than 5,000 people living here; today, there are fewer than 1,600. Fifteen times as many Niueans, some 24,000, now live across the ocean in New Zealand, 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) away.

The stories, songs and language that developed into the Niuean culture over more than 1,000 years are at risk of vanishing.

Speedo Hetutu, 54, attended the old school in the town of Avatele before it was abandoned and later used for workouts. There used to be six primary schools on the island; now there is only one. Other buildings where people used to work, pray or live now sit empty and in disrepair.

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Ukraine government denies president will be at World Cup final in Brazil

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko won't be attending the World Cup final in Brazil on Sunday, a government statement said, denying assertions by Brazilian officials that he would be there.

On Saturday, a Brazilian official said Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin would be in a VIP area at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro for the match pitting Argentina against Germany — a situation that could have paved the way for an encounter for renewed peace talks on ending the conflict between pro-Russian and pro-Western forces in Ukraine.

But while Ukraine's official presidential website said Poroshenko was invited by Brazil's president, like other heads of state, it said he wouldn't be going.

"However, considering the situation that Ukraine now finds itself in, the head of state believes it is not possible to attend the final of the World Cup," the statement said.

A Brazilian government official had earlier said Poroshenko was persuaded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to fly to Rio and watch the match with her. Merkel, along with French leader Francois Hollande, are the key European leaders trying to broker peace in Ukraine.

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Expected World Cup protests fizzled out, but anger remains over Brazil's economic woes

IRAJA, Brazil (AP) — The protesters who many feared would wreck Brazil's World Cup party failed to show up. While the national team fell short of claiming the coveted championship, the country at least can say the tournament that wraps up with Sunday's title game has gone off with only scattered demonstrations.

Brazil avoided a repeat of last year's Confederations Cup when violent protests broke out in several cities and more than a million people took to the streets on just one night to demand the government spend on improvements for education and other public services instead of soccer. But the absence of conflict during the World Cup came less from dissipated anger than attention being glued to the games and police cracking down on even small demonstrations.

Paulo Cavalcante, a 50-year-old public servant, shouted himself hoarse during last year's protests, even bringing his teenage daughter along on the marches. But during the World Cup, like many other Brazilians, he chose to stay home.

"The police had orders to break the demonstrators," he said, referring to the early days of the monthlong tournament when officers turned tear gas and powerful stun guns on even small crowds of protesters. "I couldn't put my family in harm's way."

For Sunday's final between Argentina and Germany in Rio de Janeiro, authorities ordered the deployment of more than 25,000 officers and soldiers, the largest security detail in Brazil's history. On Saturday, police arrested 19 people suspected of vandalism and seized gas masks, fireworks and firearms, according to local media reports.