Month: May 2017

Cosby Says He Doesn’t Expect to Testify at Sex Assault Trial

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Bill Cosby says he doesn’t expect to testify at his Pennsylvania sexual assault trial.

 

The comedian spoke to Sirius radio host Michael Smerconish in an interview being broadcast Tuesday.

 

Smerconish says he agreed to air an uncut, 82-minute conversation between Cosby and his daughters in exchange for the interview.

 

Cosby says his lawyers won’t let him speak about the criminal case. But he says he has “never, never” lost the support of his wife.

 

Daughter Ensa Cosby says she believes “racism has played a role” in the accusations against her father.

 

Bill Cosby replies, “It could be.”

 

Cosby says his health is generally good, but glaucoma has left him legally blind.

 

Cosby says he isn’t trying to influence jurors, who will be selected next week for the June 5 trial.
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Plane With 4 on Board from New York Missing in Bahamas

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Authorities were searching Tuesday in the Bahamas for a small overdue plane with four people from New York aboard, including two children.

 

The U.S. Coast Guard says the twin-engine MU-2B was east of the island of Eleuthera on Monday when air traffic control in Miami lost radar and radio contact with the plane. It was en route from Puerto Rico and never made it to its destination of Titusville, along the northeastern coast of Florida.

 

The people on board the plane were identified as Nathan Ulrich and Jennifer Blumin of New York, along with her 4-year-old and 10-year-old sons.

 

Their plane was at about 24,000 feet when air traffic control lost contact. “There’s no indication of significant adverse weather at the time,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Kelly, a Coast Guard spokesman.

 

Coast Guard aircraft were searching along with Customs and Border Patrol and the Royal Bahamas Defense Force about 40 miles east of Eleuthera. A Coast Guard cutter was dispatched to the area and was expected to arrive later Tuesday to assist with the search.
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Cholera Outbreak Compounds Hunger Crisis in Southern Somalia

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A regional drought has displaced more than half a million people in Somalia and left the country at risk of famine. A cholera outbreak is further complicating relief efforts, in particular in the southern part of the country where some villages remain under al-Shabab control.

Bay Regional Hospital, the biggest in the southwest federal state, is filled with patients suffering from stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Cholera has sickened more than 40,000 people in Somalia since December. More than half of the cases have been in this state. Most of the victims have been malnourished children.

Five-year-old Fatuma was admitted to the cholera treatment ward last night. Her mother Bisharo Mohammed says she can not lose another child.

She says her eldest daughter was suffering from diarrhea, and she died two months ago in Busley village on the outskirts of Baidoa. She says the girl was seven years old.

Cholera treatment

Cholera is treatable. The World Health Organization recommends “prompt administration of oral rehydration salts.” Mohamed says Fatuma is already feeling better with treatment. They hope to be released soon.

But they will not be going home.

Aid agencies say the areas worst hit by cholera and hunger are villages like Busley which are under al-Shabab control. Accessing them is a challenge. Fatuma and her family are among the tens of thousands of people who have walked to government-controlled areas like Baidoa to seek help and are now living in makeshift camps.

World Health Organization cholera expert Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar says the outbreak is getting worse due to security challenges.

“If you look at Bay, Bakool, Middle Juba, Gedo some of those areas where none of us is able to access, the deaths and cases due to cholera is very high, and we expect the situation will get worse,” says Abubakar.

Rains this month in southern and central Somalia have contributed to a surge in cholera cases, according to Bay Regional Hospital cholera treatment ward deputy supervisor Salima Sheikh Shuaib.

She says “the cholera cases were going down, but the past three days we have seen an increase in cholera cases. This morning, we have received 16 cases and most of them are children under the age of five.”

Life in camps

More than 150,000 displaced people are living in the makeshift camps around Baidoa and more continue to arrive.

At the camps, many families do not have plastic tarps or covered places to sleep. Stagnant puddles and mud dot the walkways. There is no regular food provided. Clean water is available, but it is not enough.

Medics supported by UNICEF and the WHO are going to IDP camps around Baidoa to provide oral cholera vaccination to children.

But Abubakar of the WHO says it is hard to contain the spread of cholera so long as the general humanitarian situation is not improving.

“We cannot only solve cholera. We cannot only deal with cholera unless we deal with food insecurity, unless we deal with water issues, malnutrition and I think collectedly both the wash, the health, the nutrition, and the food security partners we are working closely and we are coordinating but again in Somalia one of the challenges. We are facing a shortage of resources to support all these interventions,” says Abubakar.

Somalia continues to report between 200 and 300 cases of cholera nationwide each day.
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Former President George H.W. Bush in Maine for the Summer

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It’s a sure sign that summer is on its way: Former President George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara are back in Maine.

 

A spokesman confirms they arrived at Walker’s Point on Monday, less than a month after the former president was released from a hospital in Texas.

 

Officials said last month that the 92-year-old Bush was treated for a mild case of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, but that it wouldn’t interfere with his summer plans.

 

Bush, the nation’s 41st president, has spent every summer in Kennebunkport, Maine, except during World War II, when he was a naval aviator. The Bushes spend the winter in Houston.

 
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Suspected al-Shabab Attack Kills Official in Kenya’s North

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Gunmen suspected to be al-Shabab Islamic extremists killed an administrative chief in an attack in Kenya’s north that left two police reservists missing, an official said Tuesday.

The attack took place in Omar Jillo in Mandera county on Monday night, Regional Coordinator Mohamud Saleh said. The county borders Somalia, where al-Shabab is based. Omar Jillo is among several towns in the area under dusk-to-dawn curfew over insecurity caused by the al-Qaida-linked extremists.

 

A police report seen by The Associated Press says four unknown men believed to be al-Shabab members broke into the compound of administrative chief Dekow Abbey Sirat and interrogated him before they shot him dead.

 

Mandera has been hardest hit in recent years by an al-Shabab campaign to avenge Kenyan troop presence in Somalia since 2011. Kenya’s troops are part of the African Union force in Somalia helping the fragile central government counter al-Shabab’s insurgency.

 

On Friday, suspected al-Shabab extremists killed two quarry workers in Mandera. It was the third attack on quarry workers, the majority of whom are not Muslim, in the county since 2014.

 

Separately on Tuesday, an improvised explosive device that officials said was planted by al-Shabab to target a police car instead struck a Toyota Land Cruiser near the Somalia border. A senior police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give media the information, said all four occupants of the vehicle were killed, including a child, in the attack near Liboi town.

 

Kenya has managed to stop the frequency of al-Shabab attacks in its capital, Nairobi, and major towns, but human rights groups say the government uses methods such as extrajudicial killings that can fuel revenge attacks.
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UN Security Council Rips North Korea Missile Test, Threatens New Sanctions

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The U.N. Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test, in a lengthy statement that also threatens to impose fresh sanctions on the North for its “flagrant and provocative defiance” of earlier demands to end all nuclear testing.

In a unanimous statement late Monday backed by China, the Council voiced “utmost concern” about Sunday’s launch, described by Pyongyang as a mid-to-long range missile that traveled 787 kilometers (490 miles) before plunging into the Sea of Japan.

The Council statement called the launch “highly destabilizing behavior” that “is greatly increasing tension in the [East Asia] region and beyond.” It further called on all countries to implement the six North Korean sanctions resolutions already adopted by the world body “in an expeditious and serious manner.”

South Korean president deploys envoys

Earlier Monday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he is sending special envoys around the world in a push to strengthen Seoul’s global ties in the wake of the launch. The president said the envoys will meet with high-ranking officials to exchange ideas and explain the new South Korean government’s policy plans.

North Korea boasted early Monday that the latest launch was personally supervised by leader Kim Jong Un. The official North Korean news agency KCNA said the launch aimed at showing the technical capability to carry a “large scale heavy nuclear warhead.”

KCNA also quoted Kim as accusing the United States of “browbeating” countries that “have no nukes,” and said Kim warned Washington “not to misjudge the reality that its mainland is in the North’s sighting range for [a] strike.”

International reaction

Russian President Vladimir Putin called North Korea’s latest missile test “counter-productive, harmful and dangerous.”

Speaking Monday in Beijing, Putin said, “We are categorically against the expansion of the club of nuclear powers.” He also urged other world leaders to “stop intimidating North Korea and find a peaceful solution to the problem.”

The test, according to a White House statement, should “serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday it is time for many nations to “send a strong, unified message that this is unacceptable, and I think you’ll see the international community do that.” She said the United States will continue to “tighten the screws” against Pyongyang.

U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month he would be “honored” to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “under the right circumstances,” but Haley said that “having a missile test is not the way to sit down with the president, because he’s absolutely not going to do it.”

History of defiance

Pyongyang conducted two unauthorized nuclear test explosions last year and about two dozen rocket launches, in a years-long push to expand its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities.

North Korean leader Kim declared in a speech on New Year’s Day that his country’s program to build intercontinental ballistic missiles had “reached its final stage.”

Pyongyang has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006, along with an international arms embargo aimed at slowing the development of its banned nuclear and missile programs.

Since then, Washington and a host of world governments have repeatedly demanded that the North denuclearize the Korean peninsula. World leaders, however, have yet to devise a plan that would either compel the North to cooperate or create incentives for it to do so.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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Hillary Clinton Unveils New Political Action Committee

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Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday announced her new political action committee, which she said she hopes will encourage people to get involved and even run for office.

“In recent months, we’ve seen what’s possible when people come together to resist bullying, hate, falsehoods and divisiveness, and to stand up for a fairer, more inclusive America,” Clinton tweeted.

Her new PAC, called “Onward Together,” will use Clinton’s fundraising skills to provide support for groups that support Democrats.

They include Color of Change, which fights for voting and policy reforms to end discrimination against African Americans.

Clinton did not mention Donald Trump by name in her tweets. But she did note that she won 66 million votes in the November election, which is more than Trump, who won the Electoral College and the White House.

“This year hasn’t been what I envisioned,” Clinton wrote. “But I know what I am still fighting for: a kinder, big hearted, inclusive America. Onward.”
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White House Denies Trump Leaked Highly Classified Intelligence to Russian Officials

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U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and other members of the Trump administration have denied the accuracy of published reports that the president revealed highly classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office.

The original story, first reported by the Washington Post, “is false,” McMaster told reporters on the White House grounds late Monday. “At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operation that was not already publicly known,” he added.

“I was there. It didn’t happen,” McMaster concluded, then turned around and re-entered the West Wing without answering reporters’ questions.

Tillerson backs up McMasters

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said he also attended the May 10 meeting with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador, backed up McMaster’s characterization of the conversation, adding in a statement that “a broad range of subjects were discussed, among which were common efforts and threats regarding counterterrorism.”

Several U.S. news organizations reported that the president, in the Oval Office meeting, disclosed information considered highly classified.

The information Trump revealed could jeopardize a critical source of intelligence about Islamic State and the manner in which it was collected, according to reports by the Post, the New York Times and others.

A U.S. president has the power to declassify nearly any information, so what Trump did does not appear to be illegal. But intelligence officials, quoted by the newspapers, expressed concern that the information, provided by a U.S. partner government, could harm crucial relationships.

The Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency declined immediate comment when contacted by VOA.

Alarm from Capitol Hill

The president, in the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, appeared to be boasting about inside knowledge of a looming threat to aviation, according to the Washington Post.

The information, which was deemed to be especially sensitive, had not even been shared widely within the U.S. government or shared with other allies, according to the New York Times.

Those reports prompted immediate bipartisan alarm on Capitol Hill.

“I am shocked by reports that President Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian diplomats last week. This certainly raises questions about whether the president recognizes the serious implications of disclosing such sensitive information to an adversary,” said Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, the ranking member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “I will be meeting later this week with National Security Adviser McMaster in a classified session, and will seek answers about what was revealed and how it could damage American national security.”

‘Inexcusable’

The vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Democrat Mark Warner, said on Twitter that “risking sources and methods is inexcusable, particularly with the Russians.”

Trump’s comments, if true, are a “slap in the face” to the U.S. intelligence community, Warner added.

“The White House has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and in order,” the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Bob Corker, told reporters. “Obviously they’re in a downward spiral right now and they have to figure out ways to come to grips with all that’s happening.”

The story broke as the White House remains embroiled in controversy over last week’s firing by the president of FBI Director James Comey. That occurred one day prior to the Oval Office meeting with the Russians.

FBI probe looks at link

The FBI is investigating alleged links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

In a joint statement, the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, Elijah Cumming and John Conyers, called for the release of any audio recordings of Trump’s meeting last week with the Russians.

“After an unprecedented week in which many thought it would be impossible for President Trump to be any more irresponsible, he now may have sunk to a dangerous new low,” the two Democrats concluded.

Jeff Seldin and Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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Killer Gets 49 Years in First Federal Hate Crime Involving a Transgender Victim

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A U.S. judge sentenced a Mississippi street gang member to 49 years in prison in the first federal hate crime trial involving a transgender victim.

Josh Vallum is already serving life in prison on state murder charges for killing Mercedes Williamson.

Vallum apologized for killing her, saying there is no excuse for what he did.

But federal judge Louis Guirola said killing someone because of sexual orientation “is particularly heinous and can’t be tolerated by an enlightened society.”

The 29-year-old Vallum pleaded guilty to the murder in December, saying he was afraid his fellow gang members would kill him if they found out he was dating a woman who was born a male.

Vallum apparently did not know the 17-year-old Williamson had male genitalia until the two started dating.
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Trump Downplays Comey Controversy, Says Search for New FBI Director ‘Moving Rapidly’

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White House officials on Monday continued to deflect criticism of President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey and insisted the search to name his successor was moving quickly.

Six days after Trump fired Comey, the firestorm over the decision raged on in Washington, with Democrats ramping up their calls for a special prosecutor to look into possible Russia-Trump ties.

Although the extent of the political fallout remained unclear, the decision to fire Comey has become a distraction from the president’s legislative agenda, which already was facing major roadblocks.

Before being fired, Comey was overseeing an investigation into alleged Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election, as well as into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Many Democrats think the firing amounted to obstruction of justice, and Trump himself acknowledged that he had the Russia investigation in mind when he fired Comey.

 

Not ‘up to the job’

On Monday, White House officials again dismissed the controversy as a partisan attack.

“The president has every right to fire a person because he believed Director Comey lacked the judgment and the decision-making skills and wasn’t up to the job,” White House ppess secretary Sean Spicer said at his daily briefing.

For a second consecutive briefing, Spicer also refused to clarify a tweet from last week in which the president appeared to threaten Comey into silence.

“I was very clear. The president has nothing further on that,” said Spicer.  

Trump, meanwhile, spent much of Monday immersed in presidential ceremony, surrounding himself with police and laying a wreath during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol to honor slain officers.

His only public mention of the firing of his FBI chief came during a meeting with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Trump said the process to name Comey’s successor was “moving rapidly.”

Democrats’ stance

Some opposition Democratic senators said they would not confirm Comey’s successor until a special prosecutor was appointed to carry out an independent investigation of Russian interference in the election, which was aimed at helping Trump defeat his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But White House spokesman Spicer said there was “frankly no need for a special prosecutor,” because the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Comey headed and committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives already were conducting probes of Russia’s involvement.

The Trump administration has interviewed at least eight candidates for the top FBI job, and Trump has said a decision could come before he leaves Friday on his first overseas trip as president.

Even some of Trump’s supporters have criticized the firing of Comey, especially after the White House offered changing explanations for the decision. They also were put off by an ominous tweet by the president that said the ousted FBI leader had better hope there were no “tapes” of their conversations.

‘You can’t be cute’

On Sunday, lawmakers urged Trump to turn over any tapes of conversations with Comey. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the White House must “clear the air” about whether there are any taped conversations. “You can’t be cute about tapes. If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over,” Graham told NBC’s Meet the Press.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday found 29 percent of Americans approved of Comey’s firing, while 78 percent supported an independent commission or special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s interference in the election.
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What Drives Anti-Iranian Militant Group ‘Army of Justice?’

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Tehran has warned Islamabad that it would hit bases inside Pakistan if the government does not confront Sunni militants who carry out cross-border attacks.

An anti-Iran Sunni Muslim militant group called Jaish-ul-Adl (JA), which calls itself the Army of Justice, took credit for an April 26 ambush in which 10 border guards were killed in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan. Tehran said the militants crossed into Iran from neighboring Baluchistan province in Pakistan.

Here’s what is known about the group:

What is Jaish-ul-Adl?

Jaish-ul-Adl — known as JA — is a Sunni insurgent group in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province and fights Iranian security forces in the region.

The group was founded in April 2012 by Abdul Rahim Mollazehi, a Baluch militant, after the Iranian regime captured and executed Abdul Malek Rigi, former leader of the insurgent Jundullah group that claimed to be fighting for “equal rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran,” in June 2010.

JA was first comprised of members of a weakened Jundullah. JA’s first attack killed at least 10 members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Forces (IRGC), days after the group formed.

Where is JA based?

JA operates primarily in the Sistan-Baluchistan province, but it also operates from bases in neighboring Baluchistan province in Pakistan where it gets support from local Baluch tribes.  

 

“Most militant groups in Baluchistan are based on tribal connections,” said Abdullah Haqyar, who told VOA he is a former JA member. “These tribes have a tradition of helping and harboring members of allied tribes. Many tribes in Pakistani Baluchistan support their oppressed brothers in Iran.”

Local tribes control large swaths of the region and neither Iranian nor Pakistani security forces have a permanent presence in the region.

What does JA fight for?

The group describes itself as a “political-military” movement and claims to be fighting to achieve justice for the “oppressed Sunni Baluch” people.

Sistan-Baluchistan, which is home to many Sunni Baluch and Sistani Persians, is one of the most underdeveloped and poverty-stricken areas in the country. The minority Sunnis in Iran are highly underprivileged and have been deprived of political and economic opportunities.

According to Iranian lawmaker Hamid Reza Pashang, over 70 percent of the province population lives in “absolute poverty.”

JA says it must fight the Shi’ite-dominated regime in Iran because it persecutes the Sunni minority.

“Since this regime only uses the language of force and humiliation, we have no other means but to fight back,” JA said in a video statement in late 2012.

JA also said it opposes Iran’s military involvement in Syria where elite Iranian forces and the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah are supporting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.

Who are JA fighters?

According to a statement on the group’s website, JA is “composed of young Iranian Sunnis who have come together to defend the oppressed to the divine command.”

The exact number of JA members is unknown, but according to some reports, it has over 500 members and followers. The number of active fighters is said to be over 100. Some of its fighters are seasonal, including some from Pakistan, who are called upon for occasional operations against Iranian security forces.

How many attacks has JA conducted?

Since 2012, JA has claimed responsibility for conducting more than 200 attacks and killing and abducting more than 150 Iranian security forces members.

In its attacks, JA has taken credit for shooting down a military helicopter and destroying dozens of army vehicles. Iranian authorities have confirmed some of the JA claims.  

In addition to the April 26 ambush, which killed 10 border guards, JA claimed responsibility for attacks that killed eight border guards in April 2015 and 14 in October 2013 near the Pakistani border.
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Israeli TV: US Tells Israeli Officials Western Wall is ‘Not Your Territory’

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Israeli officials are reported to be shocked and “astonished” after a U.S. official allegedly told them the Western Wall — Judaism’s holiest site — is in the West Bank and “not your territory.”

The exchange, reported by Israel’s Channel 2 television, is threatening to create a fierce diplomatic storm as Israel gets ready for a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump later this week.

According to Channel 2, Netanyahu’s team asked the U.S. official if the prime minister could join Trump at praying at the Western Wall.

The American reportedly shot back “no” because this is “not your territory” and said it is part of the West Bank, sparking a shouting match between the Israeli and American teams.

A White House spokesperson told VOA “these comments were not authorized by the White House. They do not reflect the U.S. position and certainly not the president’s position.”

The Western Wall, in east Jerusalem’s Old City, is the remnant of the ancient temple, destroyed more than 2,000 years ago. It is Judaism’s holiest religious site.

The area is also home to the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site.

Israel captured the Old City and east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it to the rest of the city — a move the international community does not recognize.

The issue of the wall and the mosque is one of the most sensitive issues surrounding the Middle East peace process. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as a capital of a future state.

The diplomatic controversy erupted on the day the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, arrived to take up his new post.

Friedman’s first stop was the Western Wall, where he said he “prayed for the president. I wished him success, especially on his upcoming trip.”

Friedman is an orthodox Jew and a strong supporter of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.

But Trump has said Jewish settlements “don’t help the [peace] process.”

VOA’s Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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Study: Most Effective Measures Identified for Containing Ebola

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A small outbreak of Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of the Congo is causing alarm among public health officials. A new study outlining containment strategies may help prevent an epidemic similar to the one that engulfed a number of western African countries two years ago.  

In the timely report, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers culled 37 studies for the most effective containment strategies.

           

Pennsylvania State University biology professor Katriona Shea, co-author of the study, said, “The best strategy that we found out of the five that we looked at were funeral containment and public information campaigns [for the] sort of care in the community.”

Ebola virus is spread through coming into contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals.

Shea said investigators found the No. 1 way to prevent transmission was for loved ones to avoid washing bodies of the deceased prior to burial.  

Shea said that information is best conveyed through public health campaigns that also stress the importance of handwashing, personal hygiene and self-quarantine in high-transmission areas.

Don’t wait to get treatment

People suspected of being infected with Ebola, the report found, should also not hesitate to go to the hospital or clinic for evaluation and treatment. But researchers concluded building more hospitals in response to an epidemic to be the least effective way to prevent spread of Ebola within communities.

Shea said investigators undertook the study in response to the Ebola epidemic of 2014-2015, when 28,646 people became infected. Of these, 11,323 people died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone died as of March 2016, according to the report.

Forty cases of the disease were also reported in the DRC.

Using the prevention strategies outlined in the study and the incidence data from the epidemic, researchers estimated that there would have been a reduction of 3,266 cases of Ebola and 1,633 lives saved.

No consensus on containment

At the height of the epidemic, Shea said there was no consensus on the best ways to contain the Ebola epidemic, and that’s why researchers decided to look into the matter.

“We really wanted to try to do something. Many of us have children, and were moved by stories, individual horrors and so forth,” she said. “Others of us felt something we did scientifically might contribute to making the future outbreaks less horrific.”

There are now three confirmed Ebola deaths in a remote part of the DRC. Public health officials are reportedly investigating a total of nine suspicious cases of the deadly viral infection.

With the virus once again threatening to become a public health menace, Shea said it’s not too early to begin taking aggressive measures to prevent another Ebola epidemic.
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Deportations of Africans Rise, But Still Fall Below Other Immigrant Groups

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With the deportation of 67 people last week, the U.S. has now removed about 326 Somali nationals since January, more than the total for all of 2016. This makes it the third year in a row that the number of Somalis removed from the U.S. has increased, stoking fears of raids, detentions and deportations.

The Somali citizens are part of a broader trend. In the first three months of 2017, the U.S. ordered the deportation of more than 1,200 Africans, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Citizens of Ghana, Nigeria, Somalia and Kenya have so far received the most removal orders.

Recent deportation orders reverse a decade-long trend. From 2006 to 2016, the number of Africans deported annually from the U.S. fell from 2,100 to just over 1,000. By the end of this year, the deportation rate will surpass 2016 numbers fourfold, if current rates hold.

Sudden spikes

Last week’s deportation was the third such removal of Somali citizens in 2017. Despite recent spikes, however, the rate at which Somalis are deported from the U.S. is less than half the average for all immigrants. And, overall, immigrants from African countries are far less likely to be removed from the U.S. than other immigrant groups.

African citizens represented less than 0.4 percent of all deportations from the U.S. in 2016. That’s partly because most immigrants coming to the U.S. are from non-African countries. In 2015, less than 5 percent of all immigrants in the U.S. were from Africa, according to Pew Research.

But Africans are also deported at far lower rates. Compared to all nationalities, citizens of African countries are about 10 times less likely to be deported. In 2016, one out of every 1,087 African immigrants was deported. That same year, one out of every 94 foreign nationals was deported, based on data from Pew Research Center, the Migration Policy Institute, and the U.S. Census.

Depending on their country of origin, some African immigrants are more likely to be deported, though these rates are still well below the overall average. The African countries with the highest deportation rates in 2016 were Somalia (one out of every 217 immigrants deported), Nigeria (one out of every 728 immigrants deported) and Ghana (one out of every 889 immigrants deported).

Almost 5,000 Somali nationals have received final orders of removal from the United States, according to ICE spokesman Brendan Raedy. The U.S. had held off on deporting Somalis because of a civil war in the country but in 2012, the situation was considered stable enough that deportations were resumed.

“As of April 1, 2017, there were 4,801 Somali nationals with final orders of removal,” ICE spokesman Brendan Raedy said last week.

Rejected asylum applications

Immigrants face deportation when they commit crimes, but non-criminal deportations are even more common. Last week’s removals, for instance, included individuals whose asylum applications were denied.

According to an ICE official, “An immigration judge presided over full and fair immigration proceedings for each individual. After considering the merits of each case, the judge found them ineligible for any form of relief and ordered them removed. ICE effectuated their orders of removal in accordance with applicable U.S. law.”

However, hundreds of African refugees have been resettled in the U.S. this year, including 1,679 Somali refugees and 334 Sudanese refugees, according to U.S. State Department data from the Refugee Processing Center. Both countries are included in President Donald Trump’s executive orders limiting travelers and immigrants from some majority-Muslim countries for 90 days. The current travel order has been halted by the courts and is now on appeal in two higher courts.

Fears, perceptions

Overall, removal rates may remain comparatively low, but that doesn’t change the impression of African immigrants living in fear of deportation.

Recent research published in Frontiers of Public Health suggests that anti-immigration policies, heated rhetoric, and persistent stereotypes can undermine the well-being of all immigrants, even those not facing deportation.

Despite African immigrants’ high levels of education and an English proficiency rate that trails only immigrants from Europe and Canada, only 26 percent of Americans have positive views of African immigrants, according to a 2015 report by the Pew Research Center. Perceptions about immigrants’ impacts on crime and the economy fueled this low rate, Pew found.

Victoria Macchi contributed to this report
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Cholera Outbreak Kills at Least 180 in Yemen

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A cholera outbreak in Yemen has killed at least 180 people since April 27, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday.

Two years into a war between Houthi rebels and government forces allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, which has killed more than 8,000 people, Yemen has declared a state of emergency in the capital Sana’a over the outbreak.

Fighting has taken a toll on medical facilities in the war-torn country, as more than half of Yemen’s facilities, which are now operated by Houthi rebels, no longer function.

The U.N. says some 17 million of Yemen’s 26 million people lack sufficient food and at least three million malnourished children are in “grave peril.”

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick and other international officials met with the health ministry in the Houthi-run capital of Sana’a, urging aid donors to assist to avoid an “unprecedented disaster.”

Yemen, which is the Arab world’s poorest nation, is now classified by the World Health Organization as a level three emergency, alongside Syria, South Sudan, Nigeria and Iraq.

Cholera is highly contagious and can be contracted from ingesting contaminated food and water.
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US Accuses Syria of Mass Killings, Use of Crematorium to Burn Bodies

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States accused Syria on Monday of carrying out mass killings of prisoners on a daily basis and then burning their bodies in a large crematorium outside the capital of Damascus.

The U.S. State Department said as many as 50 prisoners a day are being hanged at the Saydnaya prison. It alleged that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad then is using the crematorium to hide evidence of the extent of the mass killings.

The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Stuart Jones, said the Damascus regime “has sunk to a new level of depravity,” with the continuing military assistance of Russia and Iran, two countries that have supported the Assad government’s six-year fight against various rebel groups attempting to overthrow it. About 400,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

 

Russia’s role in question

Jones stopped short of accusing Moscow of involvement with the crematorium, saying the State Department had not presented evidence of the mass killings to Russian officials.

But he said the U.S. has “an ongoing conversation with the Russians, talking about the problem that their failure to condemn Syrian atrocities and their apparent tolerance of Syrian atrocities has created. And we have urged … the Russian government to hold the regime responsible for these atrocities.”

U.S. President Donald Trump last month ordered a missile attack on Syria after the Damascus regime’s alleged chemical weapons assault on civilians.

Asked whether the U.S. is considering a new attack to destroy the crematorium, Jones said that as Trump has said, the U.S. is “not going to signal what we are going to do and what we’re not going to do. At this point, we are talking about this evidence and bringing it forward to the international community, which we hope will put pressure on this regime to change its behavior.”

Soldiers, civilians treated same

The State Department official said that “since Syria’s civil conflict began in 2011, the Assad regime has treated opposition forces and unarmed civilians as one and the same — committing widespread violations of international law, including the law of armed conflict and human rights law.

“Although the regime’s many atrocities are well documented,” Jones said, “we believe that the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of the mass murders taking place in Saydnaya.”

He said the U.S. claim is based on information from credible humanitarian groups and its intelligence community.

Amnesty International report

Jones did not give an official estimate for the total number killed at the Saydnaya facility. But he cited an Amnesty International report that between 5,000 and 11,000 had died at the prison between 2011 and 2015.

He alleged that the Assad regime had detained between 65,000 and 117,000 people over the same four-year period.

The State Department released newly declassified commercial satellite photos of what it said is a building at the prison used as the crematorium.

The latest photo dated to January 2015, more than two years ago, taken during the administration of former President Barack Obama. It was not immediately clear why the United States waited to present its evidence.
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Macron Calls for EU Reforms, Vows to Work Closely with Germany

Posted on by SeeEU

French President Emmanuel Macron spent his first full day in office traveling to Germany, telling Chancellor Angela Merkel he wants to work closely with her to create “deep reforms” to the European Union.

Macron said in Berlin Monday there must be a “less bureaucratic” Europe and that he is ready to change EU treaties if needed.

He also said France will push for economic reforms in the country to bring down unemployment and implement a reform agenda “not because Europe requests it, but because France needs it.”

Macron said he does not favor European countries taking joint responsibility for old debts and that he has never pushed for jointly issued eurobonds. Germany, which has Europe’s largest economy, has always opposed taking direct responsibility for weaker EU countries’ debts.

Merkel told Macron “Europe will only do well if there is a strong France, and I am committed to that.”

The German chancellor said she and Macron agreed to develop a medium-term road map on how to deepen European Union integration. She said Germany would also be willing to change EU treaties if the changes make sense. But the two countries should first work on what they want to reform, she added.

She said the French and German governments would hold a meeting on key issues in July.

The visit to Germany marked Macron’s first foreign trip after his inauguration on Sunday, continuing a tradition of French presidents making their first international trip to Germany.

In his inaugural address, Macron vowed to restore France’s place in Europe and the world.

Macron, a centrist, was elected last week, defeating anti-EU, anti-immigrant candidate Marine Le Pen. The campaign exposed deep splits in France over the country’s role in Europe.
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Cameroon Communities, Refugees at Odds Over Food Shortages

Posted on by SeeAF

Food shortages in northern Cameroon are raising tensions between local communities and Nigerian refugees displaced by the Boko Haram conflict.

As a quarrel erupted between hawkers at the food market near the Minawao refugee camp, 17-year old Paul Sibane accused a Nigerian refugee of stealing his money. He said he would rather settle the issue himself because he believes police are biased in favor of refugees.

At the local police post, officers said they were not authorized to comment, but they added that disputes between refugees and local residents are growing more common.

U.N. aid agencies have been carrying out activities to sensitize refugees and host communities, and to promote peaceful conflict resolution, but tensions remain.

Njenabu Jani lives in Aramba village, six kilometers from the refugee camp. She said she lost six of her goats in the past month. She suspects refugees who visit a nearby stream for water.

She said local authorities have not pursued the villagers’ complaints and that the villagers have decided to beat any refugees caught stealing.

Meanwhile, the refugees say they are struggling as local water and food resources are stretched thin.

The Minawao camp and surrounding communities are home to about 75,000 Nigerians who fled Boko Haram violence. The conflict spilled over into northern Cameroon more than two years ago. The insecurity has hurt farming and trade.

In January, funding shortfalls forced the U.N. World Food Program to cut rations for refugees at Minawao by 25 percent. U.N. staff told VOA the reduced rations are expected to continue until new funding arrives in June.

Falmata Moustapha, who has lived at the camp with her four children since 2015, said after rations were cut, she decided to pull her two oldest children from school to send them to nearby wild bushes and farms to forage for food and water. She said they are eating just one meal a day and they are very hungry.

Aid workers and educators at the Minawao camp said they have seen as much as a 50 percent drop in school attendance.

Nigerian-born teacher Moussa Lava leads his class in their lessons.

“They do not participate in the class because they are facing some problems like lack of clothes, lack of something to satisfy their needs at home,” he said. “You can see children, 40 in the class today. Tomorrow you will see them 20 or 15 only. And that one is a challenge to the teacher.”

The government says just one third of the $690 million needed to meet the needs of displaced people and host communities this year has been received.
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South Africa Constitutional Court Hears Arguments on Secret Ballot on Zuma

Posted on by SeeAF

In South Africa on Monday, the Constitutional Court heard arguments on whether the upcoming parliamentary vote of no-confidence against President Jacob Zuma should be a secret ballot. The court’s ruling could have political consequences.

Lawyers representing the opposition parties argued in favor of their petition before a full bench of the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

“The core submission is that the function of the court is to create conditions in which members of the National Assembly can carry out their constitutional duty of oversight and that the only way to create that condition is to allow a secret ballot,” said Geoff Budlender, a legal representative of the opposition. “The fear is that if there is an open ballot, you will be expelled from the party and expelled from parliament through that mechanism. That is why there needs to be a secret ballot.”

Lawyers representing President Jacob Zuma and the speaker of parliament countered that no-confidence votes have never taken place in secret. They argued the constitution does not allow the courts to tell parliament how to conduct its business.

Outside the court, members of other opposition parties, civil society organizations, and religious groups demonstrated in support of a secret ballot.

Zuma has faced mounting criticism following several corruption scandals in the past year and a controversial Cabinet reorganization last month. Members of his ruling coalition have been among those calling on him to step down.

While the questions before the Constitutional Court are legal, the stakes are highly political.

The opposition needs to garner a two-thirds majority in parliament to vote Zuma out. To get it, the opposition would need some ANC lawmakers to break ranks.

The ruling African National Congress has already instructed its MPs to back Zuma.

Speaking to reporters last month, ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said a secret ballot will not change the way the ANC lawmakers vote.

“There will be no ANC member who will vote in either way for a motion of the opposition. We are members of the ANC in a party political system and we will not vote against the ANC,” said Mantashe.

Once the court delivers its judgment on how the vote can be conducted, parliament is expected to set a date to consider the motion of no confidence. Zuma’s second elected mandate does not expire until 2019.
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Nearly 30 Years Ago, Soviet Union Extricated Itself From Afghan Conflict

Posted on by SeeEU

On May 15, 1988, the Soviet Union began withdrawing from Afghanistan after eight years of military intervention that cost an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Soviet soldiers their lives and killed or displaced millions of Afghans.

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev described the Afghan intervention, which began in  late 1979, as a costly drain on the Soviet economy with no clear victory in sight.

Soviet troops entered Afghanistan en masse in December 1979, following infighting involving communist factions that had culminated with the ouster of the country’s president, Nur Mohammad Taraki, by supporters of a more radical rival, Hafizullah Amin. The invading Soviet forces killed Amin and replaced him with a Soviet loyalist from a rival faction.

The intervention came at the height of the Cold War, with the Soviets seizing large swaths of the country. The Soviet occupation further strained relations with the United States.  

President Jimmy Carter responded by implementing economic and other sanctions against the Soviet Union, as well as holding up arms control talks and barring American athletes from attending the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

The U.S. armed the Mujahideen, along with other interested countries, among them Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China.

For Afghanistan, the Soviet withdrawal did not mean an end to the fighting, however. By 1996, the strict Islamic rebels known as the Taliban, who had been trained in religious schools across the border in Pakistan, took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

In a twist of historical irony, the very Afghan rebels the United States armed to oust the Soviets would ultimately harbor al-Qaida, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden, that orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington. 
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Iraqi Families Feel Forgotten in Wake of Battle for Mosul

Posted on by SeeEA

Flies buzz around thin cushions placed in the center of the cement yard. Hannah, 25, doesn’t brush them away as she sits with her mother-in-law, whose swollen leg juts off the pillows. The elder lady doesn’t appear to notice the swarm, and two flies perch on her forehead.

“All the flies in the neighborhood are here,” says Sabhan, Hannah’s husband, joking as he joins the women in the yard. “They think we are food.”

The other families of this Mosul suburb fled the area as Iraqi forces beat Islamic State militants deeper into the city a few weeks ago. Sabhan and his family stayed because his mother was too sick to travel.  Their neighbors now are Iraqi soldiers and the Tigris River, their only source of water.

Mohanad, the couple’s three-year-old son, is sick from drinking river water. They have no electricity, cooking gas or income.

Sabhan jokes easily, but his smile fades just as fast. “This is liberation?” he asks. “I don’t feel liberated.”

Like many families in the ruins of Mosul, they thought the fall of IS would mean more than just the absence of the militants’ brutality. They thought Iraqi forces would be followed by aid organizations and government assistance. They thought freedom would mean food.

“With IS in charge we had nothing. We were eating only tomato paste and bread,” Sabhan says. “But now there is still no help.” 

Soldiers bunked in an abandoned house nearby share their water and food, he says; but as the war moves on, so too do the fighters and the small spare provisions they have. Sabhan and his wife ask an Iraqi translator if he thinks they would be better off at one of the refugee camps surrounding Mosul.

“It’s hot and crowded and you have to live in a tent in the desert,” he says, encouraging the family to stay put. “Here, at least you have your house.”

Building economies

A few kilometers away, 40 families still live in their homes in Damerche, a dusty village on the outskirts of Mosul with crumbling homes, some bombed in recent battles.

A Red Crescent truck stops in the center of town, and skinny children line up to collect bread, rice and bottles of water. It’s never enough, the children say, but it is all they have.

“We don’t have anything to eat but what they give us,” says 10-year-old Amina. “The last time anyone brought us anything was two weeks ago.”   

Damerche has always been a farming community, with most of its meager wealth in sheep; but, under IS, the economy collapsed as community members with government jobs stopped getting paid. The cement factory nearby closed down. 

Islamic State militants also confiscated some sheep, claiming farmers had a religious duty to give up a percentage of their livestock. 

With little outside help, and no sign that Baghdad salaries will soon inject cash into tiny economies like Damerche, farmers here say they are trying to build businesses on their own, but it will be a long time before they will be able to feed themselves.

In areas still held by IS militants, the situation is more dire. When Iraqi and coalition forces announced the Mosul offensive in October, families across the city stored away as much food and water as they could. Seven months into the battle, Damerche residents say their relatives still trapped inside are starving.

“They are boiling leaves on the trees for soup,” says Moseer, a 29-year-old farmer with three children and 150 sheep. “My uncle says they are paying [money] … for weeds from the ground.”
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Trump Taps Callista Gingrich to be Ambassador to Vatican

Posted on by SeeEU

The Trump administration has tapped the wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to be the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, days before President Donald Trump embarks on his first foreign trip.

 

Trump will nominate Callista Gingrich for the post, two people with direct knowledge of the discussions said Monday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly before an official announcement.

 

Trump’s foreign trip this month includes a stop at the Vatican.

 

Callista Gingrich is president of Gingrich Productions and has produced a number of documentaries, including one about Pope John Paul II.

 

She also served on the House Committee on Agriculture, where she worked as chief clerk until 2007. She was a key figure in her husband’s 2012 bid for the Republican nomination.

 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Trump’s vision for foreign relations and diplomacy has been starkly different to that promoted by the vastly popular Pope Francis. Francis has spoken of the need for bridges between nations, while Trump has advocated for walls and travel restrictions as a means of national security.

 

Francis has previously remarked that anyone who wants to build walls to keep migrants out is “not Christian.”

 

Francis also has called for an end to the use of fossil fuels, while Trump has pledged to cancel payments to U.N. climate change programs and pull out of the Paris climate accord.

 

But both share a populist appeal and speak with a down-to-earth simplicity that has endeared them to their bases of supporters. And both share a common concern about the plight of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of Islamic militants.

 

Speaking to reporters while traveling home Saturday from a trip to Portugal, Francis said he would listen respectfully to what Trump has to say when the two meet later this month. Trump will call on Francis mid-way through his first foreign trip, after visiting Saudi Arabia and Israel and before attending a NATO summit in Brussels and a G7 summit in Italy.

 

“I never make a judgment about a person without hearing him out,” the pope said.

 
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EU Renews Call for Venezuelan Peace Talks

Posted on by SeeEU

The European Union is pressing Venezuela’s government and opposition groups to resume negotiations toward peacefully resolving the political crisis that has convulsed the country for nearly two months.    

In a statement issued Monday, the EU repeated concerns it had expressed last July seeking “an urgent, constructive and effective dialogue.”

The EU’s current statement calls for “all Venezuelan political actors and institutions to work in a constructive manner” and to “avoid violent acts.” Since early April, at least 38 people have died and many more have been injured in clashes between opponents and backers of President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The EU statement called for investigating “all incidents of violence.”

Dissatisfied Venezuelans have taken to the streets to demand that the socialist Maduro schedule long-delayed elections, release political prisoners and permit the delivery of humanitarian aid. Their demonstrations, and those of Maduro’s backers, have escalated since the government-friendly Venezuelan Supreme Court’s late-March attempt to strip the National Assembly of its legislative powers and since Maduro’s May 1 call for a new constitution.

The EU has a direct stake in the conflict, its statement noted, “with more than 600,000 European citizens” living in Venezuela. The EU said it “reiterates its readiness to cooperate with the Venezuelan authorities” to ensure their safety.

Protests continue

On Monday, responding to a call for a nationwide sit-in, activists again barricaded streets and highways with lawn chairs, tree limbs and garbage.

“I’m here for the full 12 hours” of the sit-in, which started at 7 a.m., human resources worker Anelin Rojas, 30, told Reuters news service while perched cross-legged with a novel in the middle of Caracas’ main highway. “And I’ll be back every day there’s a protest, for as long as is necessary. Unfortunately, we are up against a dictatorship.”

Appeals to troops

Maduro repeatedly has accused the United States of leading an attempt to overthrow his government. He has ordered troops to block opposition marches, using equipment including tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons.  

On Sunday, Maduro opponents sought to win over the troops to their way of thinking.

Dozens of women in black converged on the National Guard’s headquarters in Caracas, in a Mother’s Day appeal to the country’s armed forces to “listen to your mothers” and set aside weapons.

“Today, Venezuelan mothers have come to talk to the soldiers, to the National Guard, at all the barracks in Venezuela,” said former National Assembly lawmaker Maria Corina Machado, according to Reuters. These women are telling soldiers “not to obey orders from the dictatorship, from the dictator who has robbed food and brought blood to his country. Listen to your mothers!”

Separately, the head of the opposition-led National Assembly also urged security forces toward conversation, not combat.

Maduro “is pushing you as an institution to ignore the constitutional order of Venezuela and you have to stop that situation,” Julio Borges, the lawmaker, said at a news conference Sunday.

VOA Spanish Service correspondent Alvaro Algarra contributed to this report from Caracas.
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Global Cyberattacks Appear to Ease, Except in Asia

Posted on by SeeEU

The worldwide ransomware cyberattacks appeared to ease Monday, although thousands more computers, mostly in Asia, were hit as people signed in at work for the first time since the infections spread to 150 countries three days ago.

Health officials in Britain, where surgeries and doctors’ appointments in its national health care system had been severely impacted Friday, were still having problems Monday.  But health minister Jeremy Hunt said it was “encouraging” that a second wave of attacks had not materialized.

He said “the level of criminal activity is at the lower end of the range that we had anticipated.”

 

 

In the United States, Tom Bossert, a homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump, told the ABC television network the global cybersecurity attack is something that “for right now, we’ve got under control.”

He told reporters at the White House that “less than $70,000” has been paid as ransom to those carrying out the attacks. He urged all computer users to make sure they install software patches to protect themselves against further cyberattacks.

In the television interview, Bossert described the malware that paralyzed 200,000 computers running factories, banks, government agencies, hospitals and transportation systems across the globe as an “extremely serious threat.”

Cybersecurity experts say the unknown hackers behind the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks, who demanded $300 payments to decrypt files locked by the malware, used a vulnerability that came from U.S. government documents leaked online. The attacks exploited known vulnerabilities in older Microsoft computer operating systems.

During the weekend, Microsoft president Brad Smith said the clandestine U.S. National Security Agency had developed the code used in the attack.

Bossert said “criminals,” not the U.S. government, are responsible for the attacks. Like Bossert, experts believe Microsoft’s security patch released in March should protect networks if companies and individual users install it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country had nothing to do with the attack and cited the Microsoft statement blaming the NSA for causing the worldwide cyberattack.

“A genie let out of a bottle of this kind, especially created by secret services, can then cause damage to its authors and creators,” Putin said while attending an international summit in Beijing. He said that while there was “no significant damage” to Russian institutions from the cyberattack, the incident was “worrisome.”

“There is nothing good in this and calls for concern,” he said.

Even though there appeared to be a diminished number of attacks Monday, computer outages still affected segments of life across the globe, especially in Asia, where Friday’s attacks occurred after business hours.

China

China said 29,000 institutions had been affected, along with hundreds of thousands of devices. Japan’s computer emergency response team said 2,000 computers at 600 locations were affected there.

Universities and other educational institutions appeared to be the hardest hit in China. China’s Xinhua News Agency said railway stations, mail delivery, gas stations, hospitals, office buildings, shopping malls and government services also were affected.

Elsewhere, Britain said seven of the 47 trusts that run its national health care system were still affected, with some surgeries and outpatient appointments canceled as a result. In France, auto manufacturer Renault said one of its plants that employs 3,500 workers stayed shut Monday as technicians dealt with the aftermath of the Friday attacks.

 

 

Security patches

Computer security experts have assured individual computer users who have kept their operating systems updated that they are relatively safe, but urged companies and governments to make sure they apply security patches or upgrade to newer systems.

They advised those whose networks have been effectively shut down by the ransomware attack not to make the payment demanded, the equivalent of $300, paid in the digital currency bitcoin.  

However, the authors of the “WannaCry” ransomware attack told their victims the amount they must pay will double if they do not comply within three days of the original infection, by Monday in most cases. The hackers warned that they will delete all files on infected systems if no payment is received within seven days.
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