Peace activists arrive in Jerusalem after two-week march

Yahoo – AFP, October 8, 2017

Israeli and Palestinian activists from the Women Wage Peace movement demonstrate
 in Jerusalem on October 8, 2017 at the end of a two-week march to demand a
 peace deal (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian women arrived in Jerusalem Sunday at the end of a two-week march through Israel and the West Bank to demand a peace deal.

The Women Wage Peace movement organised the march, which began on September 24 and included participants who have themselves been affected by violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Several thousand activists joined the march over the two weeks.

Several thousand women, mostly Israelis, arrived in Jerusalem late on Sunday, mostly dressed in white and carrying placards calling for peace.

One of the organisers, Marie-Lyne Smadja, said the march was meant to "give voice to those tens of thousands of Israeli Jewish and Arab women of the left, centre and right, and their Palestinian partners, who hand in hand together took this road towards peace."

"Israeli women want to prevent the next war if possible and try as soon as possible to reach an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians," she said.

Israeli and Palestinian activists from the Women Wage Peace movement demonstrate 

in Jerusalem on October 8, 2017 at the end of a two-week march to demand a 

peace deal (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

Huda Abuarquob, another organiser and a Palestinian from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, said: "This march is not just another protest, but a way of saying that we want peace, and together we can obtain it."

The march comes at a time when many analysts see little hope for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is 82 and unpopular, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads what is seen as the most right-wing government in his country's history.

In 2015, Women Wage Peace members fasted in relays over 50 days, the length of the 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

"The men who have power believe only in war, but with the strength of women we can bring something else, something new," said Amira Zidan, an Arab Israeli mother of one of the organisation's founders.

Sunday's arrival in Jerusalem coincides with the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which commemorates the Jews' journey through the Sinai after their exodus from Egypt.

Earlier Sunday, thousands of Jews gathered at Jerusalem's Western Wall for a priestly blessing held during the holiday each year.

Israeli and Palestinian activists of the Women Wage Peace movement march in Jerusalem to demand a peace deal https://t.co/mLRu1fy3Ci pic.twitter.com/O7SYchG9Xi

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 8, 2017

Nobel Prize sends a nuclear message to Trump

Yahoo - AFP, Francesco FONTEMAGGI, 6 October 2017

The Nobel Peace Prize award to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons (ICAN) is seen as a message to US President Donald Trump

The Nobel committee spurned an opportunity to celebrate the Iran nuclear deal, but still found a way to send a message to US President Donald Trump.

Trump is a stern critic of the 2015 accord, and US officials say that he intends to tell the US Congress next week that Tehran is not honoring its side of the bargain.

He is also engaged in a perilous game of brinksmanship with nuclear-armed North Korea, threatening "fire and fury" and exchanging insults with young dictator Kim Jong-Un.

Some supporters of the deal had hoped the jury would honor the architects of the Iran deal and in doing so send a message to Trump about the power of diplomacy.

In the end the committee chose not to provoke Trump by handing prizes to Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif or former US secretary of state John Kerry.

But in celebrating the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) they sent a strong message about the world's concerns over nuclear escalation.

"The message that has been communicated is a more subtle indirect messaging," said Melissa Dalton, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It's potentially a message and an encouragement to uphold the JCPOA as a commitment that the US has made with allies to non-proliferation," she said, referring to the Iran deal.

ICAN is a global civil society movement pushing for a global treaty to ban nuclear arms, one that was signed by 122 countries -- although none with such weapons -- in July.

The US reacted coolly to the award, and a State Department spokesman said Washington has no plans to sign the treaty.

"This treaty will not make the world more peaceful, will not result in the elimination of a single nuclear weapon, and will not enhance any state's security," he told AFP.

Speaking in Geneva, ICAN head Beatrice Fihn made an explicit link between the award and concerns about Trump's attitude to the Iran deal and non-proliferation efforts.

Next week, Trump is expected to announce he is "decertifying" Iran's compliance with the 2015 agreement it signed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Officials insist this will not sink the deal itself but open the way for Congress to possibly develop new measures to punish other aspects of Iran's behavior.

Global opinion

Trump has called the deal an "embarrassment to the United States" but rather than scrap it he is exploring a risky middle path to turn up the pressure on Iran.

Ever scornful of the record of his Nobel laureate predecessor Barack Obama, the US leader is unlikely at this stage to be influenced by a Norwegian committee.

But the timing of the award underlines the extent to which his hostility to the pact is out of step with global opinion, including with US allies in Europe.

And even if, as is now expected, the accord survives Trump's Washington maneuvers, his position may have weakened his ability to negotiate with another foe: North Korea.

The US strategy to deal with Kim's nuclear bravado is to use sanctions and diplomacy -- backed by a credible military posture -- to bring him to the negotiating table.

But doubts hanging over the Iran deal make success less likely, say observers, including Jung Pak of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.

"Even if North Korea and the US came to an agreement, Kim has no reason to think that an agreement would stick from one US administration to the next," he warned.

"The message is loud and clear, the US cannot be trusted."

Washington's European allies are also nervous that Trump's criticism of the deal will encourage US hardliners to undermine the entire agreement.

"We told the administration: certification or not, that's not our problem, this is an American domestic issue," one Western diplomat told reporters.

"But beware of a demarche that would endanger the agreement. Our concern now is what the Congress will do if Trump doesn't certify," he said.

There are some hawks in Washington who will seize on any opportunity to toughen the US stance -- despite the international solidarity symbolized by the Nobel award.

Influential conservative Senator Tom Cotton is known to have Trump's ear and he advises pushing ahead with both decertification and new sanctions.

"If anything, certifying the disastrous deal with Iran will show the North Koreans that we lack the will to confront them," he said, arguing that Kim would respect a strong stance.

"Isn't it curious that North Korea's nuclear and missile tests have accelerated so rapidly since we agreed to the Iran deal?"

World map showing organisations in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) pic.twitter.com/Lq3CpSSEQP

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 7, 2017

A huge dome is shown in 1980 covering a crater left by one of the 43

nuclear blasts on Runit Island, in the Marshall Islands, the fallout from

which is expected to last 25,000 years (US Defence Nuclear Agency/AFP)

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“.. Westerwelle told journalists that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the international Nuclear Test Ban Treaty should be adopted by all countries, adding that the production and mining of all fissile material for nuclear weapons should be banned internationally. He called for resuscitating the Geneva Disarmament Convention.

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"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution and a warning about nuclear  (> 20 Min)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”

Canada to compensate indigenous children taken from families

Yahoo – AFP, Michel COMTE, October 6, 2017

A Canadian flag flies in front of the peace tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa,
Canada (AFP Photo/GEOFF ROBINS)

Ottawa (AFP) - An estimated 20,000 indigenous children taken from their families starting in the 1960s and placed for adoption or fostering will share in a Can$800 million (US$640 million) payout, the government announced Friday.

The so-called "Sixties Scoop" saw them placed with primarily white middle-class families in Canada, the United States and overseas.

In recent years, as the children grew into adults and became aware of their past, several lawsuits and class actions were filed over their loss of aboriginal identity, claiming in court documents that it resulted in psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, unemployment, violence and suicides.

"People affected by the '60s Scoop have told us that the loss of their culture and language are among the worst kinds of harm that they suffered," Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett told a press conference, flanked by Scoop survivors.

"That is why our government is responding directly to remedy the ill-advised (policies) of the past."

Stolen identities

A visibly moved Bennett introduced four Scoop survivors who were raised in the United States, another who now speaks with a Scottish accent and a sixth who had been taken from her home in the Arctic and placed with a family in Nova Scotia province, more than 6,000 kilometers (3,725 miles) away.

"Their stories are heartbreaking," Bennett said, describing firsthand accounts of their "identity being stolen" and "about not really feeling that you belong anywhere."

"I have great hope," said lead plaintiff and Beaverhouse First Nations chief Marcia Brown Martel, "that this will never, ever happen in Canada again."

The Sixties Scoop, which actually continued into the 1980s, is just the latest historical wrong suffered by Canada's indigenous peoples that Ottawa has sought to redress.

Starting in 1874, 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis children in Canada were forcibly enrolled in 139 boarding schools run by Christian churches -- including the Catholic Church -- on behalf of the federal government in an effort to integrate them into society.

Many survivors alleged abuse by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language.

At least 3,200 students never returned home.

The experience has been blamed for gross poverty and desperation in native communities that bred abuse, suicide and crime.

Apology

Ottawa formally apologized in 2008 for the "cultural genocide," as part of a Can$1.9 billion (US$1.5 billion) settlement with former students.

The government also launched an inquiry last year into the disproportionately high rate of killings and disappearances of indigenous women and girls in Canada.

Indigenous women represent four percent of Canada's population but 16 percent of homicide victims. More than 1,200 were murdered or have gone missing over the past three decades.

Bennett was at a loss to explain Canada's past assimilation policies.

"I don't know what people were thinking," said the former pediatrician. "I don't know how governments thought they could do a better job (at raising children) than their parents, their village, their community."

Bennett said an official apology would be forthcoming.

She also said there may still be a need to "totally overhaul the child welfare system as it is right now."

"Too many children are still being taken from their families," the minister said.

The settlement, which still requires court approval, will be split between Scoop survivors and a reconciliation foundation that will help them to reaquire their language and culture, with Can$750 million going directly to the survivors.

A small number of lawsuits launched by other survivors remain outstanding and are not included in the settlement, but Bennett said she would "work with them" toward a resolution.

Those individuals who were sent abroad to live with foreign families will also be invited to return to Canada, if they wish.

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Saudi king, Putin clinch billion-dollar energy, arms deals on landmark Russia visit

Yahoo – AFP, Victoria LOGUINOVA-YAKOVLEVA, October 5, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz
Al Saud walk during a welcoming ceremony ahead of their talks at the Kremlin in
Moscow on October 5, 2017 (AFP Photo/Yuri KADOBNOV)

Moscow (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's King Salman, on a landmark visit to Russia, and President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a slew of arms and energy deals as the key US ally seeks to deepen cooperation with Moscow.

The leaders of the world's largest energy exporters discussed an extension of an OPEC agreement to cap oil output and oversaw the signing of deals which officials said were worth billions of dollars.

Saudi Arabia signed preliminary agreements to buy Russia's S-400 air defence systems and anti-tank guided missile systems and receive "cutting edge technologies," said the Sunni state's military firm, Saudi Arabian Military Industries.

The two countries also signed a series of multi-billion dollar investment deals including one to create a $1 billion fund to pursue energy projects.

"This is the first visit by a Saudi Arabian monarch in the history of our relations and that in itself is a landmark event," Putin said as he welcomed 81-year-old King Salman to Moscow in an ornate gilded Kremlin hall.

"I'm sure your visit will boost the ties between our countries," Putin added.

"We aim to strengthen our relations in the interests of peace and security, in the interests of developing the world economy," the Saudi king responded.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told journalists that "relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia have reached a historic moment."

"Today we alone as the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced deals worth $2.1 billion," said Kirill Dmitriyev, the head of the fund set up to attract investment.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said agreements came in the fields of "energy -- not only traditional but also nuclear power -- and also in cooperation in space exploration (and) agroindustry and infrastructure projects."

'Diversifying risks'

Saudi Arabia is the country that buys the most US arms and Washington and Riyadh in May announced a $110 billion deal to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia.

But Saudi, a long-standing ally of Washington, is keen to boost ties with Moscow as a major player in the Syrian conflict and a fellow oil producer with shared interests in supporting energy prices.

"We are certain that further strengthening of relations will have a positive effect on strengthening stability and security in the world," his Saudi counterpart Jubeir stressed.

Fyodor Lukyanov, the Kremlin-connected chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, said Riyadh saw closer ties with Moscow as expedient for the moment, and was "diversifying risks" by buying arms from both Moscow and the US.

"Saudi Arabia has recognised Russia as a significant player in a region that is important to it," he told AFP.

"They respect Russia more now. But you shouldn't think it's forever."

Oil cap for 'stability'

The leaders of the world's largest energy exporters also discussed the OPEC agreement to cap oil output.

OPEC members have joined with Russia and other countries in cutting crude output in a pact that has helped prop up prices.

"We strive to continue the positive cooperation between our countries to achieve stability on world oil markets which promotes the growth of the world's economy," Salman said.

Russia and Saudi Arabia are heavily dependent on oil exports and the global plunge of the price of crude that began in 2014 lashed both their economies.

Putin said on Wednesday it was possible to extend an OPEC deal to cap oil output "at least until the end of 2018".

Focus on Syria, Yemen

While Russia and Saudi Arabia are partners on the oil market, they are at loggerheads on Syria, where Moscow supports President Bashar al-Assad and Riyadh backs the opposition.

Lavrov said the Saudi monarch and Putin's meeting saw a "particular focus on Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen."

The two sides said they had common ground in a desire to rally Syrian opposition forces to take part in UN-backed peace talks.

Jubeir said that the countries "closely cooperate... on uniting the Syrian opposition and broadening its framework, in order to start the political process" at Geneva peace talks.

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First global pact backing indigenous land rights launched

MSN – AFP, Marlowe HOOD, 3 October 2017

Provided by AFP Brazilian natives demonstrate in front of the Planalto Palace in
Brasilia, during the National Mobilization Week to protest and demand their rights, in 2015

Native peoples struggling to retain or regain stewardship of forests that sustained them for countless generations may finally have backing from an organisation with both swag and sway.

The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility -- the first and only global institution dedicated to securing the land rights of indigenous communities worldwide -- was formally launched in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Funded by Sweden, Norway and the Ford Foundation, a major US philanthropy, the Tenure Facility has already provided grants and guidance for pilot projects in Peru, Mali, and Indonesia, helping local communities leverage rarely enforced laws to protect their land and resources.

Disputes over land rights in tropical forests teeming with exploitable resources -- from hard woods to precious stones to oil -- can quickly escalate into deadly conflict, and local peoples more often than not wind up on the losing end.

More than 200 environmental campaigners, nearly half from indigenous tribes, were murdered around the world in 2016 alone, according to watchdog NGO Global Witness.

Restoring some measure of control to the original inhabitants of forests appropriated by corrupt governments or extraction industries has also proven an effective bulkhead against global warming, according to a 2014 global survey by the US-based World Resources Institute, a think tank.

In Brazil, for example, deforestation in indigenous community forests from 2000 to 2012 was less than 1 percent, compared with 7 percent outside those areas.

'Unrelenting conflicts'

Provided by AFP Representatives of indigenous communities and activists protest
in front of the Chinese Embassy in Lima, Peru, on September 22, 2017, to support the
Achuar, Kichwa and Quechua Amazonic tribes affected by oil industry activities on their
ancestral lands

Tropical vegetation soaks up planet-warming CO2 emitted by the burning of fossil fuels.

Destroying these forests outright not only reduces the area available to absorb carbon dioxide, it also releases CO2 into the atmosphere, accounting in recent decades -- along with agriculture and livestock -- for more than a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"We see climate change and inequality as two of the greatest existential threats facing the planet," said Ford Foundation president Darren Walker.

"Creating mechanisms that allow indigenous peoples and local communities to gain tenure over their land or forests is a way to tackle both these problems," he told AFP ahead of a conference keyed to the launch.

Walker has pledged five million dollars, and expects -- based on other grants in the pipeline -- the facility to have 100 million within a year.

The project aims over the span of a decade to boost forestland properly titled to indigenous peoples by 40 million hectares, an area twice the size of Spain.

Such efforts, they calculate, would prevent deforestation of one million hectares and the release of 500 million tonnes of CO2, more than the annual emissions of Britain or Brazil.

"The Tenure Facility provides a powerful solution to save the world's forests from the ground up," said Carin Jamtin, director general of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, a key funder.

Corruption and abuses

More than two billion people live on and manage half the world's land area in customary or traditional systems, yet indigenous communities have formal legal ownership of only 10 percent.

And even where they do have title, corruption and abuses have led to protracted conflicts with local and national governments, companies and migrant workers.

Native populations can even run afoul of major green initiatives to fight climate change or stem biodiversity loss.

A controversial UN-backed programme, for example, known as REDD+ -- Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation -- creates incentives to keep forests intact, paid for by rich nations or companies seeking to offset pollution under carbon trading schemes.

But the projects that REDD+ finances can push aside the needs and rights of indigenous peoples who are often most directly affected by the changes set in motion, critics say.

A peer-reviewed 2013 study -- one of the few to examine the impacts on local communities -- concluded that less than half of 50-odd projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia did anything to alleviate the poverty of forest-dependent peoples.

But many did enhance their land tenure rights, they concluded.

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Interpol approves Palestinian membership bid

Yahoo – AFP, Ludovic EHRET, 27 September 2017

Interpol approved the Palestinian application along with a bid by the Solomon

Islands during its annual general assembly in Beijing

Interpol on Wednesday approved the Palestinian Authority's membership bid, a new victory in its drive for international representation despite strong Israeli opposition.

Israel lobbies hard against Palestinian efforts to join global organisations to advance their goal of statehood. It claimed victory last year when the Palestinian bid to join the global police body was suspended.

Interpol approved the Palestinian application along with a bid by the Solomon Islands during its annual general assembly in Beijing.

"New member countries State of Palestine and Solomon Islands bring INTERPOL's membership to 192," it said on its Twitter account.

It did not detail the voting but candidacies require the approval of a two-thirds majority of countries present at the general assembly, excluding abstentions.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation's negotiations affairs department said on Twitter they had received more than 75 percent of the vote.

"Palestine's membership is the outcome of members defending this organisation's raison d'etre and advancing its core values, and a clear rejection of attempts at cynical manipulation and political bullying," Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said in a statement.

Israel's foreign ministry did not immediately comment.

Palestine gained observer status at the United Nations in 2012 and since then has joined more than 50 international organisations and agreements, according to the Palestinian foreign ministry.

Among them are the International Criminal Court and the United Nations heritage body UNESCO.

Interpol, which is based in the French city of Lyon, eases the exchange of information between police forces and issues "red notices" -- non-binding notifications of arrest warrants -- at the request of a member state or an international tribunal.

'Israel blocks progress'

Senior Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub had told AFP on Sunday that "we're looking to be in all of the international institutions, including Interpol, as an organised state."

"We are looking for the Palestinian state to be a positive contributor toward security and stability in the region and in the international community," he said.

Regarding Israel's opposition, he said: "They don't want any progress toward a Palestinian state."

"Israel does not want us to be in FIFA. How would they want us to be in Interpol?" he said.

Alan Baker, a former senior Israeli diplomat and legal expert, said the membership application was "just a political PR move" on the part of the Palestinians.

"Because they're not interested in negotiating (with Israel) they're trying to achieve the end result, which is a state, through international organisations," he said ahead of Wednesday's vote.

Baker rejected the notion that Palestinians would be able to initiate arrest warrants at will against Israelis by joining Interpol.

He said the attempt by the Palestinians "to politicise what is a super-professional organisation is very harmful to Interpol".

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas kisses the Palestinian flag as Secretary 

General Ban Ki-moon looks during the flag raising ceremony on September 30, 

2015 at the UN in New York (AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary)

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Angela Merkel, Germany's 'eternal chancellor'

Yahoo – AFP, Frank ZELLER, September 24, 2017

Dubbed "the eternal chancellor", Angela Merkel is widely expected to win reelection
when Germany votes on Sunday (AFP Photo/TOBIAS SCHWARZ)

Berlin (AFP) - Angela Merkel has been derided as Europe's "austerity queen", cheered as a saviour by refugees and hailed as the new "leader of the free world".

But as the pastor's daughter raised behind the Iron Curtain just won a fourth term at the helm of Europe's biggest economy, many Germans simply call her the "eternal chancellor".

Related Searches

Angela Merkel BiographyAngela Merkel Young

"Mutti" (Mummy) Merkel, with her pragmatic, modest and reassuringly bland style, has perfected the art of staying in power in a wealthy, ageing nation that tends to favour continuity over change.

In the turbulent times of Trump, Brexit and multiple global crises, the 63-year-old has become the bedrock in a country concerned with maintaining its enviable growth and employment rates.

If there is one conviction Merkel holds dear, it is a lesson from her upbringing in communist East Germany -- a firm belief that Germany and Europe must stay competitive and debt-free in a rapidly changing global economy.

Germans have thanked her by keeping her in power ever since she became their youngest and first female chancellor in 2005, a contemporary of long-gone leaders George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac.

Seemingly devoid of vanity and indifferent to the trappings of power, she lives in a Berlin flat with her media-shy scientist husband Joachim Sauer, shops in a local supermarket and spends holidays hiking in the Alps.

When international newspapers, after Trump's surprise victory last year, declared Merkel the new torch-bearer of liberal democracy, she waved off the accolade as "grotesque and absurd".

Angela Merkel was both hailed and derided for her bold decision in 

2015 to open Germany's borders to more than a million asylum 

seekers, with TIME Magazine crowning her its person of the 

year (AFP Photo/HO)

'Sphinx, diva, queen'

Though frequently criticised for sitting out tough challenges, Merkel has punctuated her reign with bold and surprising decisions -- from scrapping nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster to opening German borders to more than a million asylum seekers since 2015.

The migrant influx cost her dearly, both with voters and EU neighbours, and led many to predict her demise.

But as the number of new arrivals eased off and her government pushed through tougher asylum policies, her poll ratings edged back up to pre-crisis levels.

So strong is her support that German media reports tend to ridicule her centre-left challengers as luckless operators on political suicide missions, destined to be roadkill as the Merkel juggernaut powers forward.

Merkel herself usually refuses to mention her rivals by name or engage in spirited political dialogue, which lent a slightly dreamy atmosphere to the election campaigns and infuriated her shadow-boxing opponents.

Martin Schulz, her temperamental challenger, lashed out in June, labelling Merkel's apparent tactic of keeping politics as unexciting as possible "an attack on democracy" -- a comment that earned him stern rebukes from legions of the chancellor's supporters.

But many political commentators also charge that Merkel has plunged Germany into an apolitical slumber while seeming to grow ever more remote.

Der Spiegel's Alexander Osang recently labelled her the "woman in amber", as impenetrable "as a sphinx, diva or queen", whose speeches were akin to "mass hypnosis".

Growing up in a police state taught Angela Merkel to hide her true thoughts

behind a poker face, biographers say (AFP Photo/Tobias SCHWARZ)

'Merkelvellian'

Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner in 1954 in the port city of Hamburg.

Weeks later her father, a leftist Lutheran clergyman, moved the family to a small town in the communist East at a time when most people were headed the other way.

Biographers say life in a police state taught Merkel to hide her true thoughts behind a poker face.

Like most students, she joined the state's socialist youth movement but rejected an offer to inform for the Stasi secret police while also staying clear of risky pro-democracy activism.

A top student, she excelled in Russian, which would later help her keep up the dialogue with President Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB officer in Dresden when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

During that momentous upheaval, Merkel joined the nascent Democratic Awakening group, which later merged with the Christian Democrats (CDU) of then-chancellor Helmut Kohl, who fondly if patronisingly dubbed Merkel his "girl".

But Merkel's mentor was not the last politician to underestimate her and pay the price.

When Kohl became embroiled in a campaign finance scandal in 1999, Merkel openly urged her party to drop the self-declared "old warhorse".

The move, which has been described as "Merkelvellian", kicked off her meteoric rise.

As an outsider, she remade the CDU, anchoring it in the political centre by pushing progressive social policies, abolishing compulsory military service and scrapping nuclear power.

She emerged as Europe's go-to leader during the debt crisis, though she was derided as a puritanical "austerity queen" in the worst-hit southern countries.

As she starts her fourth term, there is no challenger in sight, but plenty of challenges ahead for Merkel, whom New Yorker magazine just labelled "the most powerful woman in a world filled with unstable men".

Angela Merkel, Germany's "eternal chancellor" wins fourth term https://t.co/IiAnJ1HQmf #BTW2017 pic.twitter.com/Pk5qJxYUGu

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 24, 2017