Month: May 2017

Moscow Protest Marks Five Years Since Bolotnaya Crackdown

Posted on by SeeEU

Thousands of Russian opposition activists held a rally in Moscow on May 6 to mark five years since the 2012 Bolotnaya Square antigovernment protest in Moscow.

Moscow authorities approved the rally on a section of Sakharov Avenue in the city center. But city authorities refused to allow an opposition march toward Bolotnaya Square itself.

Alec Luhn, a correspondent for The Guardian, tweeted that at least seven protesters were detained at Bolotnaya Square on May 6 after they held up placards with photographs of people who were jailed for taking part in the 2012 protest.

The latest May 6 protest in Moscow was named by the organizers: For Russia, Against Arbitrary Practices And Reprisals.

 

 

Participants chanted slogans like “Russia without Putin!” and “Putin is a thief!”

Organizers claimed as many as 10,000 protesters took to the streets for the anti-Putin rally. Independent observers estimated that about 3,000 people took part.

According to Russia’s Interior Ministry, about 1,000 people attended the rally, with participants listening to speeches and music.

“The police and Russian National Guard are ensuring public order and security,” the ministry said.

Sakharov Avenue was closed for traffic, while those entering the rally area had to walk through metal detectors.

Delay to protest

Meanwhile, the start of the demonstration was briefly delayed when municipal authorities and police tore down banners from a stage that had been set up for rally speakers.

Those banners contained slogans like “‘The Case Of May 6,” “Shame On Russia,” and “Enough With Kadyrov, Enough Despotism” — referring to Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Putin head of Russia’s Chechnya region.

Russian journalist Aleksandr Ryklin, a moderator of the rally, said municipal officials alleged that the banners were “subversive” and tore them down “because they believe that they contradict the purpose of our rally.”

Meanwhile, demonstrators carried Russian flags, posters, and other banners.

Many participants wore badges and ribbons reading: “Five Years Since The Bolotnaya.”

 

 

An 81-year-old rally participant named Alla told RFE/RL that she is “worried sick” about the things happening in Russia since Putin came into power.

“I became anxious since the very beginning when Mr. Putin came to power and the first thing he did was to shut down [independent] NTV,” Alla said. “It was very scary. Then I remember [the sinking of] the Kursk submarine. Then I remember Beslan [school siege]. I remember everything. I am doing everything [I can] to have this government changed.”

Another protester, who identified herself as Tatyana, told RFE/RL that the longer Russians accept living in an “isolated country, the harder our life will be in the future.”

Once the demonstration was under way, Russian opposition activist and former State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov told the crowd that Russia has become “internationally isolated” because of Putin’s policies.

“The country is in a deep economic and — actually — systemic crisis,” Gudkov said. “The system of our governance is good for nothing. The country is getting involved in ever new armed conflicts. We lost 42 million [people] during World War II. Do we want to risk our lives, the lives of our family members and loved ones, the future of our children again?”

Russian Yabloko Party leader Sergei Mitrokhin said “the main danger for Russia today is a weak, cowardly, and dangerous government.”

On May 6, 2012, several thousand Russians demonstrated on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow against Putin’s reelection, and there were clashes with police during the event.

Between 400 and 700 people were detained. Dozens have been prosecuted and many have spent time in pretrial detention or been sentenced to prison. Some remain behind bars.

Fearing persecution, several other people, who had not yet been officially accused, left Russia and were granted asylum in Spain, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, and Germany.

2012 protest

Participants in the 2012 protest blame police for the violence and say that the severity of the charges laid against demonstrators has been grossly disproportionate to their actions.

The reaction of Russian authorities after the 2012 demonstration also included a crackdown against the country’s opposition leaders.

Nikolai Kavkazsky, an opposition activist who was jailed after the 2012 Bolotnaya Square protest and only recently was released, told the Moscow rally on May 6 that “Kadyrov has been de facto waging genocide in Chechnya.”

“Should we allow this to happen, it will begin in other [Russian] regions as well, because Chechnya is a certain testing ground of totalitarianism,” Kavkazsky said. “Russia may be transformed into one big Chechnya in the future. I believe we must resist. We must help political prisoners. We need to stand up against all sorts of repression.”

This report contains information from Interfax, Reuters and Tass.
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US, Russian Generals Revive Agreement on Syrian Airspace

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Top U.S. and Russian military officials say they have agreed to revive a previous agreement intended to prevent midair incidents by warplanes from the two countries flying over Syria.

Statements in Washington and Moscow on Saturday said General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, had spoken by telephone with his Russian counterpart, General Valery Gerasimov, and that they had agreed to fully restore the agreement on using Syrian airspace that had been in force from late 2015 through most of last year.

The two senior generals also discussed the recent Astana agreement, in which Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed on a Kremlin-proposed plan to reduce the violence in Syria through “de-escalation zones” — areas of the war-torn country where clashes between Syrian rebels and forces of the Damascus government have been particularly intense.

No U.S. participation

The United States had a representative at the talks in Kazakhstan but did not participate in the negotiations, largely because of Iran’s involvement.

A Pentagon spokesman in Washington said Gerasimov and Dunford “affirmed their commitment to de-conflicting operations in Syria,” and that they also agreed to remain in contact.

Russian authorities said the de-escalation zones in Syria went into effect at midnight Friday (2100 UTC), and that those zones were now closed to aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition. No details of how the zones will operate or how aircraft exclusions will be enforced have been announced, and other reports quoted Russian officials as saying full details of the plan would not be available for at least a month.

Syrian, Russian, Turkish and U.S.-led coalition aircraft sometimes operate in the same area in Syria, and it is uncertain whether American aviators will agree to abide by the airspace restrictions Russia has declared.

Pentagon officials told The Washington Post the de-escalation measures would not affect the U.S.-led campaign against militants from the Islamic State group.

Separately, U.S. officials reported multiple airstrikes targeting Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq on Friday. A news release on the air assault said 18 strikes, consisting of 59 sorties by warplanes, were carried out. The strikes destroyed IS oil storage tanks, weapons systems, supply caches and a “factory” that assembled car bombs and truck bombs.

Russia, Turkey and Iran said they signed their Astana agreement on Thursday. It’s aimed at reducing bloodshed in Syria, where a six-year civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The four areas set for de-escalation are parts of Syria where rebels not associated with IS terrorists control significant territory. Representatives of the Syrian rebels who attended the Astana talks said in a statement early Saturday that truce efforts should be extended throughout all of Syria.

The rebels said they would not be bound by the Russian-Turkish-Iranian declaration, since they had no part in negotiating it. However, reports from Syria itself on Saturday — gathered from activist groups, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and news reporters — indicated there was relative calm in many areas, with fewer airstrikes and less shelling than in recent days.

U.S. cautious

The U.S. State Department said this week that “the United States supports any effort that can genuinely de-escalate the violence in Syria, ensure unhindered humanitarian access, focus energies on the defeat of [Islamic State] and other terrorists, and create conditions for a credible political resolution of the conflict.”

However, a statement issued Thursday in Washington said U.S. diplomats would be cautious in assessing whether the Astana agreement could offer such hopes, “in light of the failures of past agreements.”

“We expect the [Damascus] regime to stop all attacks on civilians and opposition forces, something they have never done,” the U.S. statement said, adding that Washington expects Russia to ensure compliance by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government.

Iran’s involvement in the de-escalation effort together with Russia and Turkey is a particular concern, the U.S. statement noted: “Iran’s activities in Syria have only contributed to the violence, not stopped it, and Iran’s unquestioning support for the Assad regime has perpetuated the misery of ordinary Syrians.”
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Dozens of Nigerian Schoolgirls Kidnapped in 2014 Are Freed

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Boko Haram militants have released dozens of schoolgirls they kidnapped in 2014 in the town of Chibok, near Nigeria’s borders with Chad and Niger.

Nigerian government officials confirmed the girls had been freed, but details of what happened were still incomplete late Saturday. Authorities said many of the captives had not yet reached the safety of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

A government minister, asking not to be named, said 82 girls had been released. Accounts on social media said somewhere between 50 and 62 girls had been freed.

Reuters quoted an unnamed official as saying the girls had gained their freedom following negotiations between Boko Haram and government envoys. And U.N. officials said many other victims of Boko Haram abduction attacks were still missing.

Authorities say 276 girls were kidnapped from a government-run girls secondary school in Chibok on April 14, 2014. Nearly 60 girls who escaped during the first hours said their abductors forced them from dormitories into trucks that headed toward the bush.

Days later, a widely distributed video purported to show about 100 of the missing girls. Boko Haram claimed the captives had converted to Islam and said they would be released only in exchange for militants held by the Nigerian government.

At the time, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau vowed to sell the girls as slave brides.

The abductions triggered an international outcry, including condemnation from the U.N. Security Council. Michelle Obama, who was then the U.S. first lady, co-launched a media campaign to try to gain the girls’ release.

There was no sign of the Chibok schoolgirls for more than two years, until one girl — by then a mother with a young infant — turned up last May. Two other girls made their way to government-controlled areas later in the year, and a group of 21 captives was released in October.

However, Nigerian Defense Minister Manir Dan Ali told VOA’s Hausa service last month that it might take years to find all of the Chibok girls. He spoke as grieving families marked the third anniversary of the girls’ disappearance, and as government troops searched known Boko Haram hideouts in the Sambisa forest — a vast area extending into three states in Nigeria’s northeast.

Boko Haram, whose declared aim is to create an Islamic state, has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 2 million during its insurgency, now in its eighth year.

U.N. officials have stressed that the Chibok girls are not Boko Haram’s only victims.

The militants have seized at least 2,000 other girls and boys since 2014. Many of those captives were used as cooks, sex slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers, according to Amnesty International.

Boko Haram has increased its use of children as suicide bombers in the Lake Chad region, where 27 such attacks were recorded during the first three months of this year, three times as many as during the same period in 2016, according to the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.
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Trump Transition Team Raised Flags About Flynn, Russia Contacts

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In late November, a member of Donald Trump’s transition team approached national security officials in the Obama White House with a curious request: Could the incoming team get a copy of the classified CIA profile on Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States?

Marshall Billingslea, a former Pentagon and NATO official, wanted the information for his boss, Michael Flynn, who had been tapped by Trump to serve as White House national security adviser.

Billingslea knew Flynn would be speaking to Kislyak, according to two former Obama administration officials, and seemed concerned Flynn did not fully understand he was dealing with a man rumored to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies.

To the Obama White House, Billingslea’s concerns were startling: a member of Trump’s own team suggesting the incoming Trump administration might be in over its head in dealing with an adversary.

The request now stands out as a warning signal for Obama officials who would soon see Flynn’s contacts with the Russian spiral into a controversy that would cost him his job and lead to a series of shocking accusations hurled by Trump against his predecessor’s administration.

Grew distrustful

In the following weeks, the Obama White House would grow deeply distrustful of Trump’s dealing with the Kremlin and anxious about his team’s ties. The concern — compounded by surge of new intelligence, including evidence of multiple calls, texts and at least one in-person meeting between Flynn and Kislyak — would eventually grow so great Obama advisers delayed telling Trump’s team about plans to punish Russia for its election meddling.

Obama officials worried the incoming administration might tip off Moscow, according to one Obama adviser.

The Trump White House declined to comment.

This account of the closing days of the Obama administration is based on interviews with 11 current and former U.S. officials, including seven with key roles in the Obama administration.

The officials reveal an administration gripped by mounting anxiety over Russia’s election meddling and racing to grasp the Trump team’s possible involvement before exiting the White House. Most of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive national security information.

The Obama White House’s role in the Russia controversy will come under fresh scrutiny Monday.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates are slated to testify before lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of three committees investigating Trump’s associates links to Moscow.

Trump has said he has no nefarious ties to Russia and isn’t aware of any involvement by his aides in Moscow’s interference in the election. He’s dismissed an FBI and congressional investigations into his campaign’s possible ties to the election meddling as a “hoax” driven by Democrats bitter over losing the White House.

To testify

Yates, an Obama administration official who carried over into the Trump administration, is expected to tell lawmakers that she expressed alarm to the Trump White House about Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Trump fired Yates days later, after she told the Justice Department to not enforce the new president’s travel and immigration ban. Flynn was forced to resign three weeks later for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about the content of his discussions with Kislyak.

Yates’s warnings about Flynn in January capped weeks of building concern among top Obama officials.

The president himself that month told one of his closest advisers that the FBI, which by then had been investigating Trump associates’ possible ties to Russia for about six months, seemed particularly focused on Flynn.

Obama aides described Flynn as notably dismissive of the threat Russia posed to the United States when discussing policy in transition meetings with outgoing national security adviser Susan Rice and other top officials.

Officials also found it curious that Billingslea only ever asked Obama’s National Security Council for one classified leadership profile to give to Flynn: the internal document on Kislyak.

The CIA compiles classified biographies of foreign officials, known as leadership profiles. The profiles include U.S. intelligence assessments about the officials, in addition to biographical information.

Refused to comment

When reached by the AP, Billingslea refused to comment. Last month, Trump announced his intention to nominate Billingslea to serve as assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the Treasury Department.

Trump has accused Obama officials of illegally leaking classified information about Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak. He’s also contended, without evidence, that Rice asked for the names of Trump officials caught up in routine intelligence monitoring to be improperly revealed, a charge Rice has denied.

The distrust in the other camp was clear months earlier. In late December, as the White House prepared to levy sanctions and oust Russians living in the in the U.S. in retaliation for the hacks, Obama officials did not brief the Trump team on the decision until shortly before it was announced publicly.

The timing was chosen in part because they feared the transition team might give Moscow lead time to clear information out of two compounds the U.S. was shuttering, one official said.

While it’s not inappropriate for someone in Flynn’s position to have contact with a diplomat, Obama officials said the frequency of his discussions raised enough red flags that aides discussed the possibility Trump was trying to establish a one-to-one line of communication — a so-called back channel — with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Obama aides say they never determined why Flynn was in close contact with the ambassador.

Even with the suspicion, the officials said they did not withhold information.

The outgoing White House also became concerned about the Trump team’s handling of classified information.

Documents copied, removed

After learning that highly sensitive documents from a secure room at the transition’s Washington headquarters were being copied and removed from the facility, Obama’s national security team decided to only allow the transition officials to view some information at the White House, including documents on the government’s contingency plans for crises.

Some White House advisers now privately concede that the administration moved too slowly during the election to publicly blame Russia for the hack and explore possible ties to the Trump campaign.

Others say it was only after the election, once Obama ordered a comprehensive review of the election interference, that the full scope of Russia’s interference and potential Trump ties become clearer.
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Last Hindenburg Survivor, 88, Recalls: ‘The Air Was on Fire’

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Thunderstorms and wind had delayed the Hindenburg’s arrival in New Jersey from Germany on May 6, 1937. The father of 8-year-old Werner Doehner headed to his cabin after using his movie camera to shoot some scenes of Lakehurst Naval Air Station from the airship’s dining room.

“We didn’t see him again,” recalled Doehner, now 88 and the only person left of the 62 passengers and crew who survived the fire that killed his father, sister and 34 other souls 80 years ago Saturday.

Doehner and his parents, older brother and sister were returning from a vacation in Germany and planned to travel on the 804-foot-long Hindenburg to Lakehurst, then fly to Newark and board a train in nearby New York City to take them home to Mexico City, where Doehner’s father was a pharmaceutical executive.

The children would have preferred the decks and public rooms of an ocean liner because space was tight on the airship, Doehner said in a rare telephone interview this week with The Associated Press from his home in Parachute, Colorado.

Their mother brought games to keep the children busy. They toured the control car and the catwalks inside the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg. They could see an ice field as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean, he remembered.

As the Hindenburg arrived at its destination, flames began to flicker on top of the ship.

Hydrogen, exposed to air, fueled an inferno. The front section of the Hindenburg pitched up and the back section pitched down.

“Suddenly the air was on fire,” Doehner said.

“We were close to a window, and my mother took my brother and threw him out. She grabbed me and fell back and then threw me out,” he said.

“She tried to get my sister, but she was too heavy, and my mother decided to get out by the time the zeppelin was nearly on the ground.”

His mother had broken her hip.

“I remember lying on the ground, and my brother told me to get up and to get out of there.” Their mother joined them and asked a steward to get her daughter, whom he carried out of the burning wreckage.

A bus took the survivors to an infirmary, where, Doehner said, a nurse gave him a needle to burst his blisters.

From there, the family was taken to Point Pleasant Hospital. Doehner had burns to his face, both hands and down his right leg from the knee. His mother had burns to her face, both legs and both hands. His brother had several burns on his face and right hand.

His sister died early in the morning.

He would remain in the hospital for three months before going to a hospital in New York City in August for skin grafts. He was discharged in January, and the boy, a German speaker, had learned some English.

“Burns take a long time to heal,” he said.

The family returned to Mexico City, where funerals were held for Doehner’s father and sister, who were among the 35 fatalities of the 97 passengers and crew aboard the airship. A worker on the ground also died.

The U.S. Commerce Department determined the accident was caused by a leak of the hydrogen that kept the airship aloft. It mixed with air, causing a fire. “The theory that a brush discharge ignited such mixture appears most probable,” the department’s report said.

Eight decades later, Doehner is the only one left to remember what it was like on the Hindenburg that night. A ceremony commemorating the disaster will take place at the crash site Saturday night.

“Only two others who ever flew on the airship are alive,” said Carl Jablonski, president of the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society. “But they weren’t on the last flight.”

Interest in the disaster remains strong as ever, Jablonski said.

“The internet and social media has exposed and attracted the interest of a younger generation,” he said.

The Hindenburg, Doehner said, is “something you don’t forget.”
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Al-Shabab Allegedly Beheads 2 Captured Somali Soldiers Near Mahaday

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Al-Shabab insurgents in Somalia have beheaded two government soldiers they captured on Saturday near the town of Mahaday, 35 kilometers north of Jowhar, and the provincial capital of Middle Shabelle region, officials and witnesses told VOA.

The head of the Somali National Army 30th contingent, which operates in the region, Lt. Col. Omar Ali Adow, told VOA’s Somali service about the soldiers’ beheadings.

“The militants intercepted a civilian passenger vehicle in which the two government soldiers were traveling. They [the soldiers] were off duty, un-uniformed and unarmed. They [the militants] forced them to get out off the car, took them to a nearby village and beheaded them,” Adow said.

He added that the soldiers left a government military camp in Biya Ade village and headed to Jowhar for family emergencies. He identified them as Mowlid Hussien and Ahmed Ya’qub.

The executions took place early Saturday morning at Qura’a Madobe village, where dozens of residents, mostly women and children, watched as the militants beheaded the soldiers.

“They brought the men in front of a tea restaurant in the village. They told the residents they were captured enemy soldiers. One of the militants read a Quranic verse, and then two knife-wielding militants dressed in military camouflage got off a vehicle and beheaded the two men,” a witness told VOA on the condition of the anonymity.

The beheadings came a day after the militants killed a member of U.S. Special Forces and wounded three other members of an American team assisting Somali soldiers.

The Navy SEAL who died in the operation against al-Shabab was the first American service member killed in combat in the country since a battle in 1993 that inspired the book and movie Black Hawk Down.
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White House Proposes Deep Cuts to Drug Control Office

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is proposing to dramatically slash funding for the White House drug control office, after Trump campaigned to fix the nation’s growing opioid abuse crisis.

A preliminary 2018 budget document from the Office of Management and Budget would reduce funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) by 95 percent, from $364 million to just $24 million.

The proposal calls for eliminating ONDCP’s drug-free communities and high-intensity drug trafficking programs, both of which have bipartisan congressional support.

Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, said “We have a heroin and prescription drug crisis in this country and we should be supporting efforts to reverse this tide, not proposing drastic cuts to those who serve on the front lines of this epidemic.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said no final decision has been made about the office’s budget, but reiterated “The president has made very clear that the opioid epidemic in this country is a huge priority for him.”

The document says the administration believes the programs duplicate other federal and state initiatives and the proposed budget would result in a “more streamlined organization that can more effectively address drug control issues.”

Critics maintain the proposed cuts are the latest in a series of administration actions that may hinder the government’s ability to fight the opioid epidemic. The administration’s Obamacare repeal legislation would result in the loss of health insurance for millions of Americans, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Trump also fired surgeon general Vivek Murthy who led a groundbreaking study of the opioid crisis.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised to fight an opioid epidemic that is killing over 47,000 Americans each year.

The crisis has ravaged many of the rural areas and small towns where Trump received strong support.

In March Trump created a new drug addiction task force and appointed friend and former rival New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to lead the panel. The commission will collaborate with local law, medical and other officials and addicts to improve treatment options and prevent addiction.

Republican Congressman Tom Marino was in line to be appointed to lead ONDCP but withdrew his name on Thursday, citing a family illness.

 

 
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Rain Could Play Major Role in Already Unpredictable Kentucky Derby

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The U.S. Kentucky Derby, the first of three major yearly horse races in the United States, will take place on Saturday with rain in the forecast, adding another variable to an already unpredictable race.

The 20-horse field lacks a clear dominant horse following winter preparatory races, and the 40 percent chance of rain predicted for Saturday could create a sloppy track ripe for an underdog victory.

The last four Derby races have all been won by the favorite. However, without a dominant runner in the race, spectators and betters are also looking at the possibility of a long-shot win this year.

Classic Empire, at odds of 4-1, is the narrow pre-race favorite in the opener of the U.S. Triple Crown, held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

Two horses, Always Dreaming and McCraken, are the co-second choices at 5-1.

The underdogs include Patch, rated 30-1, a one-eyed horse who drew starting gate number 20, the farthest outside gate. Patch will not be able to see any of his competition at the start of the race because of his left eye patch and lane draw.  

Patch’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, also has two other horses in the race, 5-1 shot Always Dreaming, and 20-1 odds Tapwrit.

Another trainer, Steve Asmussen also has three horses in the race, all long shots.

Bob Baffert, a four-time derby winner not competing in this year’s event, told the Associated Press there is “a lot of parity” in this year’s race, but it was hard for him to pick a winner.

“I think Classic Empire is probably the best horse in the race. Todd’s horse has brilliance, Always Dreaming. If they can get him figured out, he could steal it. The rest are bombers,” he said.

 
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Dozens Killed in Tanzanian School Bus Crash

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At least 34 people were killed Saturday when a bus carrying students and teachers in Tanzania crashed, according to local police.

Arusha Region Police Commander Charles Mkumbo also said that four others were injured in the accident in Karatu.

The bus was carrying students and teachers from Lucky Vincent Primary School in Arusha to take an examination on Saturday.

Innocent Mushi, the director of the school, said 12 boys and 17 girls were among those killed.

“We lost 29 students and two of our staff, and the driver died too,” he said, as reported by the French Press Agency.

Police said authorities are still trying to recover bodies from the bus, which is stuck in trees where it crashed.

 
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Iraqis Starve Waiting for Troops to Push IS From Mosul

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Aliyah Hussein and the 25 family members sheltering with her in Mosul’s western Mahatta neighborhood are surviving by picking wild greens growing in a park near their home. Hussein mixes the vegetables with small amounts of rice and tomato paste to make a thin soup that is often her family’s only meal. 

 

Her cousin Zuhair Abdul Karim said on a recent day that even with the wild greens, the food ran out. 

 

“I swear to God, we are hungry. (The Islamic State group) made us hungry. They didn’t leave anything for us, they even stole our food,” Hussein said. Her home sits just a few hundred yards (meters) from the front line in the battle for western Mosul.

Food running low

 

As Iraqi forces continue to make slow progress in the fight against IS in the city, clawing back territory house by house and block by block, food supplies are running dangerously low for civilians trapped inside militant-held territory and those inside recently retaken neighborhoods. For families like Hussein’s, safety concerns make them unreachable for most humanitarian groups. 

 

Although Hussein has technically been liberated, her neighborhood is still too dangerous for most humanitarian groups to reach. In the past week she said she received only one box of food consisting of rice, oil and tomato paste, barely enough to feed her entire family even for a single day.

 

“The women didn’t have lunch. Only the children and men have eaten,” Abdul Karim said, explaining that he and his family are now living meal to meal. “We don’t know if we’ll have dinner,” he said, “maybe or maybe not.”

No savings, no work, no aid

 

Some families walk several kilometers (miles) to markets that have sprung up in neighborhoods that have been under Iraqi military control longer. But prices there are high. Most families have exhausted their savings and work is almost non-existent in Mosul, a city now been ripped apart by war. 

 

“The humanitarian world needs to realize that there is a huge gap between people who are in the safe zone and people who are actually trapped in the no man’s land between the Iraqi controlled areas and … Daesh controlled areas,” said Alto Labetubun with Norwegian People Aid, one of the few groups operating in neighborhoods close to the front line. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

 

Some 300,000 to 500,000 people remain beyond anyone’s reach, trapped in IS-held Mosul neighborhoods, according to the United Nations. For those civilians, siege-like conditions have prevented food supplies from reaching them for more than six months. 

 

Most of those civilians are estimated to be in Mosul’s old city, where the final battles of the operation are expected to play out. If the fighting there lasts many more weeks, the U.N. warns the consequences for civilians will be catastrophic. 

 

“We know we have a problem because when people reach our camps the first thing they ask for is food,” said Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq. She said it’s impossible to measure exactly how many families are facing what she described as “serious hunger” inside Mosul, but the conditions of the people fleeing the city paint a grim picture of those who remain trapped. 

Malnutrition in children

 

Hundreds of infants and young children who recently fled Mosul are being treated for malnutrition, Grande said. Separately, she added that the U.N. had received reports that even baby formula in IS-held neighborhoods is now no longer available,

 

“If the battle goes beyond (the next few weeks), then we have a catastrophic problem,” she said.

 

In the Wadi al-Hajar neighborhood hundreds of people queue for food boxes delivered by Norwegian People Aid. But most of them are turned away because there aren’t enough supplies to go around. A small crowd of women begged the aid workers for food after the last boxes were handed out. 

 

Ibrahim Khalil, also turned away, said his hunger was so intense, he felt like he was starving. 

 

“Didn’t they claim they’d liberate us from Daesh?!” he said referring to the Iraqi government, “and they’d change our lives from misery to happiness?”
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Smog Tracker Highlights Pollution Hotspots

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In Rome, residents concerned about air quality may soon be able to use a smog tracker to monitor pollution levels as they travel around the city. A device is being tested that indicates which parts of the city have good or bad air quality. VOA’s Deborah Block has more.
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Children from 25 countries Become Adorable American Citizens

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Graduation season is officially underway across the U.S. In New York City, that honor extends to American flag-waving children from 25 countries who recently took the Pledge of Allegiance and became naturalized citizens. VOA takes you to the ceremony and celebration.
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Oldest US Olympic Gold Medalist Dies

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Adolph Kiefer, the 100-meter backstroke champion at the 1936 Berlin Games who was America’s oldest living Olympic gold medalist in any sport, has died. He was 98.

 

He died Friday at his home in Wadsworth, Illinois, about 50 miles north of Chicago, according to grandson Robin Kiefer. 

 

Olympic champion at 17

Kiefer had been hospitalized with pneumonia in recent months. He had neuropathy that kept him confined to a wheelchair later in life, but he continued swimming because he could still stand in the water, Robin Kiefer said.

 

Kiefer became an Olympic champion as a 17-year-old in an Olympic-record time that stood for 20 years. He was also the first man to break 1 minute in the 100 backstroke, doing so as a high school swimmer in Illinois. He later competed for the University of Texas.

 

As a child he disliked getting water up his nose, so he swam on his back. 

 

He went on to start a swimming equipment company in 1947 with his wife, Joyce, that invented several performance and safety products, such as the first nylon swimsuit, which was used by the U.S. Olympic team, and a patent for the first design of the nonturbulent racing lane line. 

 

“He was the dreamer and she was the one who nailed the dream back down to a foundation that was based in reality,” Robin Kiefer told The Associated Press by phone from Bend, Oregon.

 

High-tech too much

In recent years, the advent of high-tech body suits rocked the sport and led to numerous world records before they were banned. The suits cost as much as $300.

 

“He didn’t like the level of technology being applied to what he thought was a pretty pure sport,” Robin Kiefer said. “The prices of the suits he thought were crazy.”

 

Kiefer’s self-named company was widely recognized as an industry leader, producing lane lines, starting blocks, lifeguard equipment and apparel. Kiefer served as CEO from the company’s founding until he retired in 2011.

 

“There will never be another like Adolph Kiefer,” said Bruce Wigo, president of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. “Not only was he a great swimmer and businessman, but he was a great human being, husband and father whose memory will live on as a model and inspiration for future generations of swimmers and non-swimmers alike.”

 

Life-saving training

In 1944, Kiefer enlisted in the Navy when it was losing thousands of lives to drownings. Kiefer was appointed to establish a safety curriculum and train officers how to survive in the water. His “victory backstroke” was credited with helping save thousands of lives in the final years of World War II and later was adopted by the American Red Cross.

 

“He considers it to be his greatest achievement, hands-down,” Robin Kiefer said.

 

Robin Kiefer recalled his family’s vacations as a child always involved water, whether it was scuba diving or sailing. He said his grandfather’s four children and their offspring all learned to swim and observe water safety.

 

Kiefer was inducted into the inaugural class of the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965. He served on the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition for three presidents.

 

He was preceded in death by his wife, who died of cancer in 2015. They were married for 73 years. He is survived by their four children, Dale, Cathy, Jack and Gail; 14 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
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White Texas Police Officer Charged With Murder in Killing of Black Teen

Posted on by SeeUS

A white police officer in the southern U.S. state of Texas who shot into a car of teenagers, killing a 15-year-old African-American boy, has been charged with murder.

Roy Oliver of the Balch Springs Police Department turned himself in to authorities Friday after a warrant was issued for his arrest, police officials said.

Oliver had been fired from his job earlier in the week in connection with the shooting of Jordan Edwards on April 29.

Several teens in the car

Edwards and his two brothers, along with two other teenagers were leaving a rowdy party in Balch Springs when Oliver opened fire on their car.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement the warrant for Oliver’s arrest was based on evidence that Oliver “intended to cause serious bodily injury and commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death.”

Oliver said the car was backing up aggressively on him, but video of the incident contradicted his story.

Shooting one of several

The fatal shooting is the latest in a string of shootings of African Americans by white police officers across the U.S. in recent years that have stirred outrage and protests.

A statement from the Edwards’ family lawyer asked supporters to avoid holding any protests or vigils until the teenager is buried.
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Children From 25 Countries Take Oath, Become American Citizens

Posted on by SeeUS

A torrential downpour at New York City’s Bronx Zoo meant a day with few tourists for the park’s 4,000 animals.

But inside the Schiff Family Great Hall, across from the “Madagascar!” exhibit, the soggy morning did nothing to dampen a celebration of 32 impeccably dressed children — from 25 countries — from becoming U.S. citizens.

Watch: Children from 25 countries Become Adorable American Citizens

“See this flag?” U.S. Representative José Serrano, the ceremony’s keynote speaker, asked the seated children, each equipped with a miniature banner of stars and stripes.

“Don’t let anyone tell you: ‘You weren’t born here, this flag is not yours,’ ” Serrano said. “No, this flag belongs to you and me. It is our flag.”

Excited, nervous … citizens

The children, ranging in age from 5 to 13, were mostly excited, sometimes nervous. But after the Oath of Allegiance was administered, all became citizens.

“It makes me feel proud that I can be part of the United States,” 8-year-old Sara from Morocco said. “I’m going to celebrate by turning on my TV and put[ting] on a movie, and my mom will cook something for us to eat to celebrate.”

“I feel excited and good, because I never even noticed that here we have a lot of things that we can do,” 8-year-old Luz Estrella Luna, a Dominican-American whose full name means “light, star, moon,” added.

Luz’s father, Luís, who became a citizen himself six years ago, said it was wonderful to witness his daughter’s ceremony, along with everything she has accomplished while living in this country.

“My daughter is an honors student in school, and improving every single day,” Luis Luna added, in Spanish, while embracing his daughter.

‘New American family’

While a U.S. citizenship ceremony for children is purely symbolic, it often represents something greater for their parents.

“The parents have already become citizens, and getting the children a citizenship certificate is really the last step,” said Katie Tichacek, public affairs officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “We hope that this sort of ends the process for them and begins their experience as a new American family.”

As for the kids’ responsibilities, Tichacek added, “they have to show up at the ceremony and look cute, basically.”

For parents, access to a good education and employment are among the most important benefits of citizenship, including for Igor Volkov of Russia, whose son came to the United States as a toddler.

“He knows only United States, and now he is a citizen,” Volkov said, referring to his son Vlad, now 7. “He can feel he has 100 percent opportunity for all — for school, college, work. He is 100 percent citizen.”
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US Lawmakers Include Several Measures Targeting Russia in Spending Bill

Posted on by SeeUS

In the trillion-dollar budget signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, Congress has authorized a new $100 million effort to counter “Russian influence and aggression” and to support civil society organizations in Europe and Eurasia.

U.S. lawmakers also backed a measure imposing new restrictions and oversight on Russian diplomats in the United States — a measure that Moscow had angrily warned Washington against. 

 

Both efforts were included in the $1.1 trillion budget to fund the federal government for 2017 that was approved by Congress earlier this week and signed by the president on Friday.

Perceived interference

The $100 million fund is the product of several proposals that have circulated in the House and Senate in recent months as lawmakers looked to push back against Russia’s perceived interference in Europe and elsewhere. 

A growing number of Democrats and Republicans have pointed to the spread of fake news, foreign funding of political parties, outright propaganda, and other covert activities as indications of an aggressive Russian effort to meddle in or subvert governments seen as hostile to Moscow. 

Election campaigns in France and Germany have been shadowed by suspicions of Russian involvement, as well as last year’s presidential election in the United States.

The $100 million allocation, called the Countering Russian Influence Fund, is aimed specifically at Europe, earmarked for “civil society groups involved in rule of law, media, cyber, and other programs that strengthen democratic institutions and processes, and counter Russian influence and aggression,” according to the legislation. 

The money will go to “support democracy programs in the Russian Federation, including to promote Internet freedom, and shall also be made available to support the democracy and rule of law strategy” under State Department policies. 

The legislation also directs the money be made available to so-called Eastern Partnership countries — a European Union program with the ex-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. 

The funds will help “advance the implementation of Association Agreements and trade agreements with the European Union, and to reduce their vulnerability to external economic and political pressure from the Russian Federation.”

Intelligence measure

Also tacked onto the budget legislation passed by the Senate was an intelligence authorization measure that tightens oversight of Russian diplomats in the United States.

The section requires the State Department, the FBI, and the Director of National Intelligence to set up a procedure that would essentially obligate Russian diplomats to give the FBI advance warning about travels beyond the embassy and consulates’ immediate geographic territory.

Last year, when word first emerged that U.S. lawmakers were contemplating such restrictions, Russia’s Foreign Ministry complained loudly and threatened retaliation against U.S. diplomats in Russia. 

The Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, charged at the time that the legislation was part of a “witch hunt” against Russia by outgoing President Barack Obama’s administration.

Privately, U.S. officials brushed off the threats of retaliation by Moscow, saying the movements of U.S. diplomats in Russia had already been severely curtailed for some time. 

The intelligence measure also calls for the creation of a new interagency committee to counter what it calls Russian efforts to manipulate foreign opinion. That is a reflection of the growing bipartisan consensus that emerged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, when the intelligence community concluded that Moscow actively meddled in the election campaign in support of Trump. 

The Senate Intelligence Committee, which originally drafted the measures, is one of several House and Senate panels investigating those Russia efforts.
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Kosovo Border Crisis Deepens Into No-Confidence Vote

Posted on by SeeEU

Opposition parties in Kosovo have filed a motion of no confidence in the government, potentially deepening an 18-month political crisis over legislation to draw a border with Montenegro that is needed to ease travel to the EU.

More than 40 deputies, including 12 from parties that are part of the ruling coalition and some independent MPs, signed the motion, which accuses the government of failing to meet its campaign pledges and creating public distrust.

Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, whose conservative LDK is the second-largest party in the 120-seat parliament, has enough votes to survive the no-confidence motion provided all or most coalition lawmakers support him. Parliament’s largest party, the center-right PDK, has yet to give its backing, however.

The parliament will debate the motion May 10.

The motion noted that the parliament “very often … was not able to have a quorum to vote” because of disruptive actions inside and outside the building by opponents of the border legislation. These have included street riots, opposition deputies throwing teargas and the firing of a rocket-propelled grenade at parliament.

“The situation in Kosovo is not good, I am not happy, people are not happy,” said PDK leader Kadri Veseli, who is also the speaker of parliament. Veseli said he would discuss the motion with the prime minister.

Border law

The government dropped plans in September for a parliamentary vote on the bitterly contested law to establish a definitive border with Montenegro after lawmakers from Mustafa’s ethnic Serb coalition ally stayed away from the session.

A two-thirds majority would have been needed to force through the measure, which the European Union has said is crucial if Kosovars are to join their former Yugoslav neighbors in enjoying visa-free travel to the bloc.

Mustafa has said he will call a snap election if the border deal is not passed soon.

“We cannot continue with this situation, in one way or another the government will soon be brought down,” a senior government official told Reuters Friday.

Another source said an election was likely to be held in June, a year ahead of schedule.

Opposition parties say the border deal would see some 8,000 hectares of territory, mostly forested highland, transferred to Montenegro, although the government and others, including the United States, say this is not the case.

Kosovo, Serbia ties

The opposition also objects to an EU-brokered deal to improve ties with another neighbor, Serbia.

Kosovo broke with Serbia in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign halted a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” directed against ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces trying to stamp out a two-year insurgency and declared independence in 2008.

It has been recognized by more than 100 countries, including Western powers, but not by Serbia and its ally Russia or several EU members such as Spain.
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Czech PM Drops Plan to Resign, Aims to Fire Finance Minister

Posted on by SeeEU

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka abruptly changed tack in his battle to remove Finance Minister Andrej Babis on Friday, taking back a pledge to resign and instead seeking only the dismissal of his main political rival.

The country is in political crisis over Babis, a billionaire who faces questions over past business practices but is also the most popular party leader before an election due in October.

The battle pits Sobotka’s center-left Social Democrats not only against Babis’s ANO party but also President Milos Zeman who took Babis’s side, something Sobotka said could be overstepping the constitutional powers of the presidency.

Babis has had good relations with Zeman and they both see Sobotka as their prime adversary.

The president’s spokesman, Jiri Ovcacek, tweeted: “A desperate prime minister is trying to pull the entire country into mud.”

He also indicated the stalemate is likely to drag on, telling a Czechoslovakia news website  that Zeman would consider the dismissal request only upon his return from a trip to China on May 18.

Making ‘a joke’ of the constitution

Earlier this week, Sobotka said he would resign along with his whole government as a way to dislodge Babis. But he changed his mind after Zeman indicated he would treat the resignation as Sobotka’s own, not the departure of the entire cabinet.

“In such a situation my resignation does not make any sense. The finance minister, burdened by extensive scandals, would remain in the government,” Sobotka told reporters. He accused the president of making “a joke” of the constitution.

Sobotka said Babis, worth $3.4 billion according to Forbes, had failed to clear suspicions he avoided tax by buying tax-free bonds from his chemicals and food conglomerate Agrofert.

He has also been under investigation over whether he manipulated ownership of a conference center to unfairly qualify for a 2 million euro subsidy meant for small businesses.

Babis says he did not break any laws. He transferred Agrofert, which owns two national newspapers, to a trust this year to comply with new conflict of interest legislation.

Dispute may end up in court

While a number of lawyers said the constitution implied that if the prime minister resigns the entire cabinet falls, some said it was possible to interpret it so that such a resignation, without a cabinet vote, might mean only the departure of the prime minister.

The constitution says the president dismisses ministers at the request of the prime minister, giving the head of state narrow room to maneuver.

Babis told Reuters the decision was in the president’s hands.

“If the president accepts this, then we will see what happens next. Of course it (Sobotka’s decision) is a breach of the coalition agreement,” Babis said.

If Zeman refuses to dismiss Babis, the dispute may end up at the constitutional court.

“There is no deadline, but otherwise (the constitution says that) the president dismisses a government member if the prime minister proposes it, there is no arbitrary power,” constitutional law professor Ales Gerloch told Reuters.

 
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Report: Turkey Sacks 107 Judges, Prosecutors Over Links to Failed Coup

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkey dismissed 107 judges and prosecutors over alleged links to a failed coup in July last year, Turkish television reported Friday, in the third major purge since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was granted sweeping new powers.

Turkey has now fired about 145,000 civil servants, security personnel and academics, local media reported. The number of ousted judges and prosecutors has reached 4,238.

Ankara has blamed the network of the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for a coup attempt last July in which he has denied all involvement.

Detention warrants were issued for the dismissed judges and prosecutors, Turkish TV said. More than 40,000 were arrested in the aftermath of the failed putsch, in which 240 people were killed, mostly civilians.

Rights groups and some Western allies say a referendum in April brought Turkey, a NATO member and European Union candidate, closer to one-man rule.
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Macron’s French Presidential Campaign Emails Leaked Online

Posted on by SeeEU

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign said on Friday it had been the target of a “massive” computer hack that dumped its campaign mails online 1-1/2 days before voters go to the polls to choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of it was genuine.

In a statement, Macron’s political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.

“The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information,” the statement said.

An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules which forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, and which took effect at midnight French time on Friday (2200 GMT).

Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began.

The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close on Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday’s second round of voting, in what is seen to be France’s most important election in decades.

The latest surveys show him winning with about 62 percent of the vote.

Former economy minister Macron’s team has complained in the past about attempts to hack its emails during a fraught campaign, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a series of attempts to steal email credentials since January, but that the perpetrators had so far failed to compromise any campaign data.

In February, the Kremlin denied that it was behind any such attacks, even though Macron’s camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers’ group operating in Ukraine.

In its statement on Friday, En Marche! said that the documents released online showed only the normal functionings of a presidential campaign, but that authentic documents had been mixed on social media with fake ones to sow “doubt and misinformation.”

“The seriousness of this event is certain and we shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk,” it added.

The French presidential election campaign is not the first to be overshadowed by accusations of manipulation via computer hacking and cyber-attacks.

U.S. intelligence agencies said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic campaign to influence the election on behalf of Donald Trump, her Republican rival who went on to win the U.S. presidency.

On Friday night as the #Macronleaks hashtag buzzed around social media, Florian Philippot, deputy leader of the National Front, asked on Twitter; “Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately killed?”

Macron spokesman Sylvain Fort, in a response on Twitter, called Philippot’s tweet “vile.”
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Chinese Navy Hands Over Notorious Pirate Leader

Posted on by SeeAF

The Chinese navy on Friday handed over a notorious pirate leader captured last month after a failed hijack attempt.

Abdikarim Salah “Aw Koombe” and two other pirates are now in the custody of Puntland security officials at the Red Sea port of Bosaso.

The three, who were in handcuffs and wearing flotation jackets, were brought to the port in small rubber boats.

Colonel Yasin Ali Nur, commander of security forces at Bosaso port, told VOA Somali reporter Fadumo Yasin Jama, the three will be tried on piracy-related charges.

“These three prisoners, their weapons, will be kept here at the prison at the port until they are transferred to the central prison, until they appear before a court,” Nur said.

Dozens of hijackings

One of the three prisoners was involved in up to 26 hijackings, said Abdimajid Samatar, director of Regional Ministry of Ports and Marine Transport which overseas anti-piracy activities in Puntland. It’s believed Samatar was referring to Aw Koombe.

The pirates attacked the Tuvalu-flagged ship on April 8 off Socorta Island. The crew had locked themselves in a safe room making it impossible for the pirates to steer the ship toward the Somali shores.

Chinese and Indian navy ships reached the scene and rescued the ship.

Pirate leader Aw Koombe spoke candidly about what happened on the ship in an exclusive interview with VOA after his handover by the Chinese navy.

He told VOA that three of them boarded the ship in an attempt to hijack it. He said they ran into difficulties after the crew locked themselves in the safety room.

To avoid being captured by Chinese crewmen who were deployed on the ship by helicopter, Aw Koombe said he and the two others hid on the ship.

“I was sleeping 12 hours throughout the night. The next day, they [the Chinese navy] heard a bit a of noise. They find out where we were hiding, then they apprehended us,” he said.

“I’m back home, the sight is pleasant, my mind is good, I’m back with my people, I’m not missing anything,” he said.

Poverty blamed

Aw Koombe is a well-known pirate leader who authorities say was involved in many maritime attacks against ships over the years. But, in a VOA interview, he denied being involved in any other attacks.

Asked what drove him to try to hijack this ship, he said: “Whatever reasons that were given … poverty. Is there any other reason?”

A report released this week by the maritime group Oceans Beyond Piracy said declining vigilance is giving pirates an opening to renew their attacks on ships traveling near the Somalian coast.

The report said after several years of decreased pirate activity, ships are sailing closer to shore and the number of naval vessels patrolling the waters near Somalia has dropped.

Fadumo Yasin Jama contributed to this report from Bosaso, Somalia.
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US Special-forces Member Killed in Clash With Somali Militants

Posted on by SeeAF

Al-Shabab militants in Somalia killed a member of U.S. special forces Friday and wounded three other members of an American team assisting Somali soldiers, U.S. officials said.

The Navy SEAL who died in the operation against al-Shabab was the first American service member killed in combat in the war-torn country since a deadly battle in 1993 — the clash that inspired the movie Black Hawk Down.

White House officials said President Donald Trump sent his deepest condolences to the family of the victim, along with his appreciation for the efforts of all men and women in the U.S. military.

Small-arms fire killed the Navy SEAL in a small village 65 kilometers west of Mogadishu. A U.S. military official told VOA at least two other Navy SEALs and an interpreter were wounded in the attack in the village of Barire, west of Afgoye.

U.S. Africa Command, responsible for all American military operations on the continent, said the U.S. forces came under attack during an advise-and-assist mission alongside members of the Somali National Army.

“This was a Somali mission,” Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Friday. American forces were “operating in support of” the Somali units, in an attack targeting a compound associated with attacks on nearby facilities used by both U.S. and Somali forces, he added.

A senior official in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region said soldiers raided a building that houses Radio Andalus, al-Shabab’s official radio station. The attack killed eight al-Shabab fighters, the official said, adding that radio-station equipment reportedly was seized.

“We helped bring [the Somali soldiers] in with our aircraft, and we were there maintaining a distance back as they conducted the operation,” Davis said at the Pentagon. “That’s when our forces came under fire.”

WATCH: ‘Deepest Condolences, Appreciation’  to Soldier, Family

‘Deepest sympathies’ from Trump

Al-Shabab said its fighters “foiled” an attack by U.S. troops and killed an unspecified number of “enemy soldiers” Friday. The group’s military spokesman, Abdulaziz Abu Musab, told Radio Andalus the militants knew about the attack in advance and were prepared for it.

At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters the president was fully briefed on the action in Somalia by his national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster.

“First and foremost [we] want to express our deepest condolences and our deepest appreciation for all of the men and women in the military and the ultimate sacrifice that they paid — particularly this soldier and all of the others,” Sanders said.

“The president has made it certainly a major priority to protect the men and women who protect us. That’s one of the reasons he wanted to put so much emphasis on rebuilding the military, and that was a priority for him in the budget. And again, our deepest sympathies and condolences go out to all of the men and women in uniform and, particularly, this family.”

Details of clash from Somali sources

Security sources and officials in the Lower Shabelle region say Friday’s attack was led by Somalia’s Danab commando team, accompanied by U.S. special forces.

The team attacked a target in Dar es Salam village, located between the small towns of Barire and Mubarak, both controlled by al-Shabab, the Somali sources said. The area is said to be mostly farmland with large banana and pawpaw crops.

One official told VOA’s Somali service that helicopters carried the commandos and special forces from Ballidogle airport, a known base for U.S. trainers working with Somali forces, to a point near Barire, and the soldiers then walked to Dar es Salam village. A Somali ground force from the town of Afgoye supported the raid, which began overnight Friday.

U.S.: Militants ‘neutralized’

Pentagon spokesman Davis said U.S. and Somali forces “quickly neutralized” enemy forces on the ground, and evacuated the wounded aboard helicopters.

VOA Somalia reported al-Shabab later sealed off an area around Dar es Salam village, where the firefight took place. The militants claimed they also deployed large numbers of reinforcements.

U.S. special forces and Somali commandos have been conducting joint operations for more than a year as part of the U.S. effort to help the Somali government combat al-Shabab. Joint operations have taken place in Lower Shabelle and Lower Juba, two regions where al-Shabab has a large presence, and especially in the strategic agricultural area west of Afgoye where Friday’s action took place.

The U.S. says military personnel advise and assist Somali security forces, but local officials say U.S. troops also provide helicopters and intelligence gathering.

Last month, dozens of American soldiers deployed to Mogadishu for a separate mission to train and equip Somali and AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) forces fighting extremism in Somalia, U.S. military officials told VOA.

Somali officials say more than 500 Somalia commandos have been trained by the U.S., and the Somali government has said it wants to increase the number of trained commandos to 4,000.

18 Americans died in ‘Black Hawk’ disaster

In the early 1990s, the United Nations attempted to provide and secure humanitarian relief in Somalia while monitoring a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in the Somali civil war. The U.S. deployed thousands of American troops to carry out the peacekeeping mission, which by late 1993 had expanded to try to restore a government in Somalia.

Two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in October 1993. Rescue squads sent in to try to remove soldiers from the crash sites became pinned down, and a 15-hour battle ensued that killed 18 Americans and hundreds of Somalis.

Days later, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that he would remove all American combat forces from Somalia by March 1994, and the United States also withdrew from the peacekeeping missions in the East African country.
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Trump Optimistic on Israeli-Palestinian Peace, Without Endorsing Two States

Posted on by SeeEA

President Donald Trump may be confident he can help mediate a historic peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. But don’t ask him what that deal looks like, because apparently he’s not saying.

During his meeting this week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Trump repeatedly expressed hope for an “agreement,” a “deal,” or more generally an arrangement resulting in “peace” between the two sides.

Conspicuously absent from Trump’s remarks was any reference to a two-state solution or the notion of a Palestinian state, which the U.S. has long seen as the desired outcome of the Mideast peace negotiations.

The omission did not go unrecognized.

“He made sure he never mentioned Palestine — you noticed that, yes?” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, told VOA. “I think he’s departing in some ways from long-standing American policy on the two-state solution.”

U.S. officials insist Trump is not opposed to two states; they say he is simply keeping all options open and is allowing the Israelis and Palestinians to decide for themselves what the result of peace talks will be.

But Trump’s reluctance to even mention the idea of a Palestinian state risks sending mixed messages at a sensitive moment, as the White House tries to restart peace talks, and could further the perception among many Palestinians that the U.S. is not an impartial broker in the dispute.

 

A pattern of wavering

It’s not the first time the question has been raised. During a meeting in February with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump explicitly said he would consider alternatives to the two-state framework.

“I’m looking at two-state and one-state,” said Trump, alongside Netanyahu. “I’m very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”

It’s not clear what Trump meant by “one-state,” since the U.S., Israel, and most Palestinian leaders have long opposed the creation of a single, democratic state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.

Although the comment created headlines, U.S. State Department officials deny it reflects a fundamental shift in U.S. policy.

“The administration is not casting aside the two-state solution,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA. “It still remains a possibility if both parties agree that a two-state solution is their preferred approach, and in such an event the president will strongly support them in moving toward that goal. This is not our choice to make — it is theirs to make together.”

 

Palestinian support

As far as the Palestinian Authority is concerned, an independent state based on pre-1967 borders remains the only solution.

“Our strategic choice is to bring about peace based on the vision of the two-state,” Abbas, who heads the West Bank-based PA, told Trump.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, this week also took steps toward accepting a two-state framework, issuing a political document that omitted the group’s previous call for Israel’s destruction.

For Israel’s part, Netanyahu first endorsed the principle of a two-state solution in 2009. But he has at times backed away from the idea, such as during the 2015 election, when he said he would never permit a Palestinian state to be established under his watch.

Complicating matters, most Israeli cabinet ministers in Netanyahu’s right-wing government oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.

Trump offering a favor?

That could help explain why Trump is unwilling to even say the words “two-state solution” or “Palestinian state,” said Dan Shapiro, U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama, in an interview with VOA.

“At the moment, it’s politically difficult for Netanyahu to utter those formulas. So I think Trump is trying to do him a favor by finding other formulas,” said Shapiro, now a fellow at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies.

But if you read between the lines of what Trump is proposing — a peace deal achieved through direct talks that both sides can accept and that Arab countries will support — a two-state solution is the only option, Shapiro said.

Backing up that theory, White House negotiators have privately reassured Palestinian officials of their support for two states, according to various news reports.

But as Palestinians prepare next month to mark the 50-year anniversary of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, land Palestinians want for an independent state, few see reasons for optimism about the Trump-led peace process.

“Let’s just say I’m extremely realistic,” said Ashrawi, the Palestinian lawmaker, laughing. “It’ll take a lot to convince me that there is a peacemaker now in the White House who knows how to make a deal that is based on international law and justice.”

VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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Nigeria’s Buhari Reappears Amid Continuing Health Concerns

Posted on by SeeAF

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari attended weekly prayers Friday, a development that eased but did not eliminate concerns about his poor health and its impact on the country.

This was the first time in three weeks that Buhari came to worship in the mosque, located inside the presidential villa in Abuja.The president had earlier missed three consecutive Wednesday cabinet meetings.

 

VOA’s Hausa Service reporter, Umar Farouk Musa, said Buhari appeared hearty and cheerful as he greeted other worshippers at the end of prayers Friday.

Isiayku Ibrahim, an influential northern politician who sat next to Buhari in the mosque, said the president’s ability to recognize and chat with individuals during the interaction indicates that he is still in control of his senses.

A national lawmaker from Buhari’s own Katsina state, Senator Abu Ibrahim, who also attended the prayer service, cautioned against reaching quick decisions on the president’s health. He said reports that Buhari was incapacitated in any way have now been proved wrong.

Despite the assurances, Nigerians continue to express concern over the president’s health.

In mid-January, Buhari turned over power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and flew to London, where he spent nearly two months being treated for an unspecified illness. When he returned to Abuja in March, he warned Nigerians that he may be forced to rest from time to time.

Lately, there have been calls from lawmakers, opposition governors and critics for the president to return to Britain for medical care. Some have called on him to resign or be impeached due to his inability to govern effectively.

 

The reluctance of Nigerian government officials to speak about Buhari’s health has only heightened the concern.

Information minister Lai Mohammed stated that the president was “resting and working from home.” The minister also said the president was doing this “on the orders of his doctors.”

Buhari’s wife, Aisha, announced last week on her Twitter page that the president’s situation was not “as bad as it was made to look.”
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