Month: September 2017

Whole Foods Says Customer Payment Information Was Hacked

Posted on by SeeUS

Whole Foods says the credit and debit card information of customers who bought meals or drinks at its in-store restaurants or bars were exposed to hackers.

The grocer, which was recently acquired by Seattle-based online retailer Amazon.com Inc., says the data breach did not affect its main checkout registers or any Amazon.com shoppers.

Whole Foods did not say which of its 470 stores were affected, and a spokeswoman declined to answer any questions. The Whole Food stores that do have in-store restaurants and bars tend to be in or near cities.

Whole Foods says it is investigating the hack.
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UN Deploys Peacekeepers After DRC Clash

Posted on by SeeAF

U.N. peacekeepers have deployed to a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after clashes between armed groups and the Congolese army.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, said it sent troops to Uvira to protect civilians and deter any attack on the city, located near the Burundian border, on the northern end of Lake Tanganyika.

A reporter for VOA’s French to Africa service said a militia known as the Mai Mai Yakutumba sent four motorboats filled with armed men over the lake to attack a bridge early Thursday.

The head of the Uvira district, Sephanie Milenge Matundanya, said army troops drove the militiamen out of the city and several villages they had occupied.

A local resident said U.N. helicopters were in the area but that the city was calm later in the day.

Eastern Congo has been wracked by violence for years as the government and various militias fight for control of rich mines that produce gold and coltan, a material used in mobile phones.

Tensions have run even higher due to the failure of the DRC’s government to organize elections and President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to leave office at the end of his term last December.

MONUSCO said it has sent its deputy force commander to oversee the situation around Uvira.

The head of MONUSCO, Maman Sidikou, said in a statement he “urged the armed groups to immediately cease this hostility, including all forms of violence against constituted authority and innocent civilians.”

VOA’s French to Africa Service and Swahili Service contributed to this report.
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Trump Touts Puerto Rico Relief Effort as Critics Fault Washington’s Response

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President Donald Trump is touting his administration’s disaster response in Puerto Rico, even as officials in the U.S. territory warn that much more help will be needed to fend off mass hunger and disease on the hurricane ravaged island.

Adding to his running series of Twitter posts on the subject, Trump noted that Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello had praised Washington’s responsiveness to the island’s needs.

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello just stated: “The Administration and the President, every time we’ve spoken, they’ve delivered……

Puerto Rico is devastated. Phone system, electric grid many roads, gone. FEMA and First Responders are amazing. Governor said “great job!” 

But the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, hit back at stories about how well the relief efforts are going.

“This is a ‘people are dying’ story. This is a life or death story,” Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz told CNN.

Yulin Cruz was reacting to an earlier comment by acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke that the life-saving efforts of relief workers was a “good news story.”

“Maybe from where she’s standing it’s a good news story,” Cruz said after hearing Duke’s remarks. “It’s irresponsible,” she said, urging Duke to come to Puerto Rico to see for herself.  

Duke is likely to visit the U.S. island territory to see the recovery effort next Tuesday, along with President Trump. They also will stop at the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were also hard-hit by Hurricane Maria.

As he began a speech Friday to the National Association of Manufacturers, Trump said he was sending thoughts and prayers to people of Puerto Rico.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” he said, noting that Washington is sending 10,000 federal personnel, including 5,000 National Guard members.

 

“The recovery effort probably hasn’t been seen for something like this,” Trump said. “We want the people to be safe and sound, and we will be there every day until that happens.”

Speaking at a hotel a few blocks from the White House, Trump mentioned that Puerto Rico’s electrical grid and infrastructure had been in poor shape beforehand, saying, “we’re literally starting from scratch.”

 

The president said Puerto Rico’s government would have to work with Washington to determine how the cleanup will be funded and what to do with the tremendous amount of existing debt already on the island.

“We’ve closely coordinated with territorial and local governments which unfortunately aren’t able to handle this catastrophe on their own,” said the president.

A three-star general was named Thursday to head the relief effort, and a 1,000 bed hospital ship, the Comfort, was departing Friday from its home port in the U.S. state of Virginia to assist in the recovery. Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said 44 of Puerto Rico’s 69 hospitals have been restored to operation.

But critics say the response may prove to be a case of too little, too late.

Russel Honore, highly lauded for commanding the military response after another big storm, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said the military deployments to Puerto Rico should have begun at least four days earlier.

Honore told National Public Radio that because of its distance from the mainland and the loss of its power grid, Puerto Rico “is a bigger and tougher mission than Katrina.”

The head of the U.S. relief effort, Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan, said Thursday it would be a long term project. “We’re bringing in more,” Buchanan told CNN. “This is a very, very long duration.”
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IMF Chief tells Central Bankers to not Dismiss Bitcoin

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Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has a message for the world’s central bankers: Don’t be Luddites.

Addressing a conference in London on Friday, Lagarde said virtual currencies, which are created and exchanged without the involvement of banks or government, could in time be embraced by countries with unstable currencies or weak domestic institutions.

“In many ways, virtual currencies might just give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money,” she said. “The best response by central bankers is to continue running effective monetary policy, while being open to fresh ideas and new demands, as economies evolve.”

The most high-profile of these digital currencies is bitcoin, which like others can be converted to cash when deposited into accounts at prices set in online trading. Its price has been volatile, soaring over recent years but falling sharply earlier this month on reports that China will order all bitcoin exchanges to close and one of the world’s most high-profile investment bankers said bitcoin was a fraud.

For now, Lagarde said, digital currencies are unlikely to replace traditional ones, as they are “too volatile, too risky, too energy intensive and because the underlying technologies are not yet scalable.”

High-profile hacks have also not helped, she noted. One notable failure was that of the Mt. Gox exchange in Japan in February 2014, in which about 850,000 bitcoins were lost, possibly to hackers. Following that, Japan enacted new laws to regulate bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

But in time, she argued, technological innovations could address some of the issues that have kept a lid on the appeal of digital currencies.

“Not so long ago, some experts argued that personal computers would never be adopted, and that tablets would only be used as expensive coffee trays, so I think it may not be wise to dismiss virtual currencies,” Lagarde said.

Lagarde’s comments appear at odds with the views of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who this month described bitcoin as a fraud and said he’d fire any of his traders if they caught dealing in the digital currency.

In a speech laying out the potential changes wrought by financial innovations, Lagarde also said that over the next generation, “machines will almost certainly play a larger role” in helping policymakers, offering real-time forecasts, spotting bubbles, and uncovering complex financial linkages.

“As one of your fellow Londoners – Mary Poppins – might have said: bring along a pinch of imagination!”
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Kurdistan Region Iraq International Flights Canceled Amid Protests

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As the last international flights to and from the Kurdistan Region in Iraq were grounded Friday, hundreds of protesters wielding colorful balloons and signs with messages like “compassion” and “love” gathered outside the airport.  

Protesters say they are hoping Baghdad backs down on its decision to establish a no-fly zone over their region after a controversial independence vote passed by more than 92 percent.   

“This doesn’t just impact Kurdistan,” said the protest’s organizer, Rowand Hussien. “It impacts refugees, displaced families and all the forces fighting [Islamic State militants].”

The Iraqi government has called the referendum illegal, and has vowed to force the Kurdistan Region to remain united with the rest of the country. In recent days, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has received calls from leaders in France, Britain, Iran and Turkey expressing their support for Iraqi unity, according to his Twitter account.

“We will not compromise on Iraq’s unity or sovereignty. Iraq is strong. Some wanted to weaken it. They have miscalculated,” Abadi tweeted the day after the ballot.

Besides canceling international flights, Baghdad has ordered the Kurdistan Region to hand over land borders and oil revenues to federal authorities. In response, the Kurdish leadership has been defiant, calling for talks to negotiate the Kurdistan Region’s transition into an independent country.

At the protest, students gathered quietly, saying they support their leaders’ calls for dialogue but worry about the economic impact of isolation.

“This will impact Kurdish people,” said Amir, a 24-year-old business administration graduate. “But to create a new country, we will have to be patient and suffer a little.”

A new life

A few meters away from the protest, another crowd gathered dressed in gray, brown and black. They were waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to arrive on the last flights in from Turkey.

The body of Bangin Pirot, a journalist in his 30s, was among the dead. He died on a boat carrying more than 80 passengers attempting to get to Europe to apply for asylum. Pirot had a paralyzed leg, and he was seeking medical care.

“They just wanted a better life,” said Sarkar, his cousin, as they waited.

The young people protesting nearby said their dreams were not so different from those of the returning dead.

Kurdistan is a region that shares a culture, language and history but it overlaps the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. The referendum for independence was exclusively for Iraqi Kurdistan, already a semi-autonomous region.

Countries around the world objected to the referendum, especially Turkey, which faces an armed insurgency from Kurdish separatists at home. Turkey has threatened oil sanctions on the Kurdish Region, a move that could cripple its economy.

Other world powers, including the United States, have said the Kurdish independence movement in Iraq could destabilize the region and negatively impact the war with Islamic State militants.

But for the students at the airport, the century-old dream of Kurdish independence is more important than the potentially devastating consequences.

“We do not deserve this kind of ban,” said Vian, 21, “We deserve a country. We deserve a home.”

WATCH: Scenes from inside Irbil International Airport
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Zimbabwe Police, Ruling Party Break Up Protest

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Members of Zimbabwe’s opposition — mainly youths — sang, “We are tired of living on our knees, begging” as they marched Friday in Harare.

Promise Mkwananzi, the youth leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC party, said that was a message to President Robert Mugabe’s government. He said Zimbabweans want the government to alleviate cash shortages that are strangling the economy.

However, the protest was broken up by police and youths wearing ZANU-PF regalia, who were brought to the scene by vehicles adorned with the ZANU-PF logo.

Mkwananzi remained defiant.

“We were on our way to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,” he said. “The regime responded with heavy handedness on peaceful and law-abiding citizens. They have temporarily set us back.”

He said the MDC would gather and demonstrate until Zimbabwe’s economy has improved.

The southern African nation is going through its worst economic slump since the hyperinflation of 2008 led Zimbabwe to abandon its own dollar the following year. 

An acute shortage of American dollars and South African rand has prompted shops to hike the price of most commodities. Businesses say the cost of importing goods has gone up as they try to source foreign currency on the black market.

Bond notes, a surrogate currency introduced last year, officially trades on par with the U.S. dollar. Lately, however, it is trading at 50 percent of its official value.

Economist Prosper Chitambara says the bond notes are partly to blame for the current economic problems.

“Bond notes were never the solution, and they have actually even eroded the confidence of the market,” he said. “So those parallel markets have actually fed into the inflationary spiral, and that has also further eroded confidence on the market and also the confidence of consumers.”

Last week, many Zimbabweans stocked up on food following price hikes, fearing the return of hyperinflation. That prompted prominent pastor Evan Mawarire to call for demonstrations against the deteriorating economy.

Mawarire was quickly arrested and accused of subversion, but the charge was later dismissed in court. 
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What’s Driving Clashes Between Ethiopia’s Somali, Oromia Regions?

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Somaliland, a semi-autonomous region in the Horn of Africa, has displaced thousands of ethnic Oromos, according to Negeri Lencho, Ethiopia’s information minister.

The forced relocations are the latest fallout of simmering conflict along the border between Ethiopia’s Oromia and Somali regions. Those tensions have boiled over in recent weeks, resulting in hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of displacements, Lencho told reporters at a press conference on Monday.

The conflicts are the latest in a series of clashes that have ebbed and flowed for over 25 years. Some of the root causes remain unchanged, but new dynamics, including increased militia activity in the region and escalating tensions make solutions more elusive.

Close relations, longstanding tension

Oromia and Somali share Ethiopia’s longest interior border, a meandering line from Moyale in the south to Mulu in the east. Parts of the border follow the Ganale Doria River, but the regional boundary mostly stretches between the Oromia grasslands and Somali desert.

A common way of life has long connected Oromo and Somali people. The Oromia and Somali regions share language, religion and culture. In fact, some groups who speak the Oromo language identify as Somalis, and vice versa.

Despite these close relations, the two ethnic groups have experienced intermittent conflicts over resources, including land and water, over the past 25 years.

The tensions date back to the formation of Ethiopia’s unique brand of ethnic federalism. In 1991, politicians divided the country’s population — nearly 50 million people at the time — into nine regional states based, in large measure, on ethnicity.

Disagreements over exactly where the Oromia-Somali border should lie have resulted in several referenda, but full demarcation has never occurred, contributing to ongoing strains.

The border has great symbolic power: More than just an administrative boundary, it’s tied to identity — a political and ethnic differentiator between Ethiopia’s two largest regions.

Suspicions, accusations

Frictions along the border have been longstanding, but recent conflicts have taken a new, more ominous turn, experts on the region, including Human Rights Watch, say.

Exactly who’s behind the recent killings and displacements isn’t clear, however, even from within the country. Spokespeople from each regional government blame armed groups from the other side.

“We here in Ethiopia are also confused. It’s not easy to understand what’s going on with this long border,” said Fekadu Adugna, an assistant professor of social anthropology at Addis Ababa University.

Much of the confusion stems from the complex assortment of federal, regional, paramilitary and rebel groups engaged in armed conflict across Ethiopia. The Liyu police, a special police force based in Somali, have been accused of killing people in the Oromo ethnic group. But the Liyu have also fought the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist faction that seeks self-rule for Somalis.

Limited access to the conflict zones makes it difficult to prove accusations of who is behind the current attacks.

“A number of people have lost their lives,” Adugna said. But, in many cases, the exact circumstances of their deaths remain unclear.

Ethiopia’s powerful federal government, rather than controlling the conflict, has only fanned the flames of the ethnic division, according to some observers.

Felix Horne, a researcher with Human Rights Watch focused on the Horn of Africa, said Ethiopians interviewed by HRW have long felt bullied by the federal government.

“The vast majority tell us, ‘Look, it’s always been this way. There is always arbitrary arrest, you know,” said Horne. “There’s always abuse by police, but things have just gotten a little bit more intense in terms of the amount of arbitrary arrests.’”

Protests across Ethiopia roiled the country in 2016, resulting in a 10-month state of emergency and a concerted government crackdown that began last October.

The protests began when the government proposed expanding the boundaries of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, into Oromia. Hundreds died as unrest swept across the Oromia and Amhara regions.

Horne said the state of emergency silenced protesters without addressing their true concerns about land rights, political representation and freedom of expression, setting the stage for the most recent violence.

“What we found is that [the government] largely redefined the protesters’ grievances in terms that met their needs. They talked about corruption. They talked about the need for job creation; about improving good governance,” he said. “And these are all important things, obviously, but crucially these are not things that protesters routinely [were] raising on the streets.”

The state of emergency did stop protests and associated violence, said Margaux Pinaud, a researcher on political violence in Africa with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset, a body that produces real-time data for disaggregated conflict analysis and mapping.

At the same time, however, militant activity increased across the country, she said, particularly in regions most affected by the protests, including Oromia.

“The activity by ethnic militias in Ethiopia is the highest that it’s been since 1997,” Pinauld added. “And then activity by political militias, though usually it’s unidentified armed groups — but doing attacks against civilians or engaging in clashes with state forces — they’re also really, really high compared to the rest of the data that we look at.”

Increases in militant activity could suggest an escalation of the people’s movement, she said. That movement has increasingly become an armed struggle over grievances with the federal government, which many Ethiopians say doesn’t represent their interests.

Protesters previously committed to nonviolent resistance haven’t produced results, Horne said. “There’s lots of discussions about different options, which is obviously really, really worrying,” he added.

Border Depoliticization, de-ethnicization

Professor Adugna said the root of the conflict lies in a volatile combination: the symbolic meaning given the Oromia-Somali border, and its lack of an official demarcation.

The solution includes two parts, he said: Physically demarcate the border as soon as possible, and de-emphasize its significance.

For Adugna, that means focusing on the administrative functions of the border. The government “should depoliticize the border,” he said. “They should de-ethnicize the border.”

For this to work, he said people must be allowed to move freely from one side of the border to the other. Pastoral movement, in particular, should not be hindered since nomadic societies occupy both regions, particularly on the Somali side.

Equally important, Adugna said, people impacted by conflict, especially historically disenfranchised groups, should be consulted in the demarcation process.

Those groups include the Oromo who, despite being the country’s largest ethnic group, have enjoyed little political power under Ethiopia’s form of ethnic federalism. Religious leaders, not politicians, should guide the process, he said.

In the end, he said people want to live in peace. That in turn will enable a solution to the decades-old tensions that reached new heights in recent weeks.

“Bring the people together, the elders, the religious leaders and so on without the interference of the politicians,” Adugna said. “People can tell you how to solve it, how to demarcate the border. … When it is depoliticized, people can live in a friendly environment. The people do not want the conflict because they are the major losers.”
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US Pulls Diplomatic Personnel From Cuba Following ‘Health Attacks’

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The U.S. State Department has announced it is pulling all of its non-essential diplomatic personnel out of Cuba in response to “health attacks” on 21 American diplomats in Havana.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is en route to China, released a statement Friday saying the United States is maintaining diplomatic relations with Cuba, but must put the health and safety of American diplomats first.

 

“Until the Government of Cuba can ensure the safety of our diplomats in Cuba, our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel in order to minimize the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm,” Tillerson said.

 

Attacks unexplained

The secretary noted the nature of the attacks on U.S. diplomats remains unexplained.

 

“The affected individuals have exhibited a range of physical symptoms, including ear complaints, hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues, and difficulty sleeping,” Tillerson said in the statement. “Investigators have been unable to determine who is responsible or what is causing these attacks.”

 

In a conference call Friday, two senior State Department officials said the U.S. is also issuing a warning advising Americans not to travel to Cuba, because some of the attacks on U.S. employees happened at hotels in Havana. Other attacks reportedly occurred at diplomatic residences.  

 

The officials said until Cuba can guarantee the safety of Americans, the State Department has a travel warning in place.

 

Reporters on the call repeatedly inquired on the cause of the attacks, but the senior officials declined to comment, saying an investigation is ongoing.  

 

Asked if a third country might be behind the attacks, the officials said they could neither confirm nor rule it out. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters during a briefing Thursday the Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken the lead in the probe.

The decision to pull all non-essential American diplomatic personnel from Cuba comes two years after then-President Barack Obama restored full diplomatic relations with the island nation in 2015.

 

Obama was the first American president to travel to Havana in more than 50 years. U.S. airlines also resumed commercial flights to Cuba and tourism began to flourish. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump traveled to Little Havana in Miami to announce that he is reversing Obama’s opening to Cuba.

 

“I am canceling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” Trump said in June. “It’s hard to think of a policy that makes less sense than the prior administration’s terrible and misguided deal with the Castro regime.”

 

US Sanctions

The U.S. Treasury Department has not yet reinstated sanctions against Cuba. Not not much actually changed in U.S.-Cuban relations, until Friday’s announcement of the travel warning and reduction of U.S. embassy staff.  

Cuba says the decision is “hasty” and will affect bilateral ties.

 

Cuba had mounted a last-minute diplomatic push to try to avert any punitive action, saying Havana has no idea who is behind the attacks and offering to cooperate with the U.S. to investigate them.  

 

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, requested and held an urgent meeting with Secretary Tillerson at the State Department on Tuesday to try to avoid any U.S. actions.

 

Experts are puzzled as to what sort of device could have caused such an array of health symptoms without detection. Initial reports speculated about “sonic attacks” because some of the affected diplomats reported hearing loud noises.

 

The U.S. has thus far not blamed Cuba for carrying out the attacks, and has not announced any new expulsions of Cuban diplomats from the United States.  

U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio said on Twitter that the U.S. decision was “shameful.” He said it allows Cuba to keep as many of its diplomats in the United States as it wants.
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Kenyans Cycle Toward Healthier Hearts

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Cardiovascular disease is a growing health concern in Kenya and around Africa. In Nairobi, 100 motorcycle taxi drivers are riding stationary bicycles and being trained to provide emergency resuscitation using automatic electronic defibrillators. It’s all part of an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about heart health in Kenya. Lenny Ruvaga reports from Nairobi.
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Iraqi PM: Travel Ban Not Meant to ‘Starve’ Kurds

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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Friday his planned flight ban into and out of the Kurdish region isn’t meant to “starve” the Kurdish people.

On Friday at 6 p.m. local time, all international flights to the region are set to be cancelled — retaliation for the Kurdish independence referendum this week that passed with more than 92 percent of the vote.

Humanitarian workers say the flight cancellations could have a “dire impact” on the lives of the region’s 1.6 million refugees and displaced people.  

Abadi, though, in a written statement, said “central government control of air and land ports in the Kurdistan region is not meant to starve, besiege and prevent [the delivery of] supplies to the citizens in the region as alleged by some Kurdistan region officials.”

Calling the vote “unconstitutional,” Iraq’s parliament on Wednesday also asked Abadi to send troops to the oil-producing, Kurdish-held region of Kirkuk to take control of its lucrative oil fields.

It told the 34 countries that have diplomatic missions in Kurdistan to shut them down, and it urged Abadi to enforce a decision to fire Kirkuk Gov. Najmaldin Karim for holding the vote.

The parliament also called for the deployment of forces to areas that were under Iraqi government control before the fall of Mosul to Islamic State more than three years ago.

 

“We will enforce federal authority in the Kurdistan region, and we already have starting doing that,” Abadi said.

The director of Irbil airport, Talar Saleh, said he was confused by the order from Baghdad to hand over the airport and unsure of how he should comply.

“We didn’t understand what it meant,” she said. “An airport isn’t an item that can be handed over to someone.”

She said authorities in Baghdad never responded to her requests for clarification.

Saleh said military, humanitarian and diplomatic flights will continue from the airport.

 
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Trump’s November Asia Trip to Include 1st China Visit

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U.S. President Donald Trump will embark on a trip to Asia in November with the goal of garnering global support against the North Korean threat, while attending regional summits and discussing trade, the White House announced Friday.

“The president’s engagements will strengthen the international resolve to confront the North Korean threat and ensure the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said.

The trip will include the president’s first visit to China, North Korea’s closest ally and number one trade partner.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will pave the way for Trump’s trip to China on his second trip to the country next week by seeking Beijing’s cooperation on a “maximum pressure” campaign against North Korea’s nuclear aggression, amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.S. is conferring closely with Chinese officials on Beijing’s commitment to curbing imports of North Korean coal, iron, iron ore, lead and lead ore, and seafood.  

If fully implemented, the ban on those items could substantially reduce North Korea’s revenues this year, after earning $1.5 billion from the export of these items to China in 2016, according to the U.S. State Department.

Trump will attend the U.S.- Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and the East Asia summit in the Philippines. His travels also will take him to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia, the U.S.-ASEAN relationship is a “strategic partnership” and that ASEAN has “promoted prosperity and security” not only among member nations, but also throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The exchange of goods and services between the countries also will be a priority for Trump. The White House said the president will stress “the importance of fair and reciprocal economic ties with America’s trade partners.”

Trump’s November 3-14 trip will include visits to South Korea, Japan and Hawaii.

 
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Istanbul Taxi Cameras Prompt Surveillance Concerns

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In Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, cameras are being installed inside taxis in a move city authorities claim will provide security for both drivers and passengers. But with the ongoing crackdown over last year’s failed coup locking up more than 60,000 people and purging nearly 200,000 from their jobs, fears are growing that the measure is the latest effort to extend surveillance and control over the people.

An advertisement touts the benefits of Istanbul’s Itaxi. New taxis will be fitted with GPS tracking to allow drivers to find the quickest and cheapest route, as well as equipment to pay by credit card – all measures, the advert assures, aimed at enhancing passengers’ experiences.

The new taxis were announced to great fanfare. But the installation of a large digital camera in each vehicle, which authorities say will protect both drivers and passengers, is sparking controversy.

When you get in a taxi, the camera is clearly visible. What is unclear is whether it records sound as well as images, and where the images go. A driver VOA spoke to was more than happy with the device, although he admits he does not know who is watching.

” The new system is what is needed. I had an incident on Sunday night. I was attacked by a customer. If this system had been active, I would have been saved right away or the attacker wouldn’t have dared to attack,” the driver said. “There is a camera system and a panic button now.”

Not everyone in Istanbul appears so convinced. Another person VOA talked to questioned the motives behind the initiative.

“Some bad guys are stealing money from the taxi drivers or taxi drivers sometimes do violence against the women in the cabs, things like that, I think,” said the person who did not want to be identified. “If they do this for the real criminals then it’s not a bad idea. But we have doubts about [whether] our government, or policemen are doing this about the real criminals or not. A witch hunt is happening in Turkey now. So if they are using [this] for things like that, then of course it’s not a good idea to have things like that in the cabs.”

Failed coup attempt

Nearly every week there are trials for people accused of being involved in last year’s failed coup. Currently over 60,000 people languish in jail on coup plotting charges. Last year, 4,000 were prosecuted for defaming the president. Under emergency powers introduced following the botched military takeover, sweeping new electronic surveillance has been introduced, according to law professor Yaman Akdeniz of Istanbul’s Bilgi University. He has been studying the rise of surveillance culture, and warns concerns over the new taxis may be well-founded.

“Nowadays, something like this looks very suspicious because we have no idea where the data is transferred to or whether they have face recognition technology or voice recognition technology,” Akdeniz said. ” A lot of people are being investigated and prosecuted for allegedly defaming the president of Turkey. Because increasingly people are under surveillance and people don’t know what sort of technology or what sort of things are deployed by the government to monitor the citizens and it will get worse.”

There is a growing sense of concern seeping into Turkish society regarding surveillance. With the ongoing government crackdown and continuing prosecutions for insulting the president, any new innovation involving surveillance technology seems destined to be viewed with suspicion.
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Mattis Reassures India, Afghanistan, Qatar of US Support

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U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis returned to the U.S. Thursday, after stops in India, Afghanistan and Qatar intended to solidify relations with U.S. partners in the region.

Mattis said in a statement about his stop in Qatar: “In the midst of its own challenges, Qatar and the U.S. maintain excellent military to military relations.”

Mattis arrived at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, Thursday, days after Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani renewed a call for “unconditional dialogue” to end a crisis involving his country and four Arab states, during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with Qatar in June over its close ties to Iran and its alleged support for extremists. Qatar has denied supporting extremism, saying the crisis is politically motivated.

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Qatar’s emir on the sidelines of the General Assembly last week, telling reporters he had a “very strong feeling” the dispute would be solved “pretty quickly.” Trump has offered to mediate the crisis.

Afghanistan

Earlier Thursday, Mattis and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, where they held a town hall with 250 U.S. and NATO military personnel on the Kandahar air base.

“In Afghanistan,” the secretary said in a statement, “Stoltenberg and I reaffirmed the alliance’s commitment to support the Afghan government to end the conflict and force the Taliban to negotiate a political solution.”

Next week, the first group of Afghan pilots at the base will begin training to fly Black Hawk helicopters.

The United States is donating about 160 refurbished Black Hawks to the Afghan military over the next seven years as part of a new Afghan air force modernization program. In seven years, U.S. officials hope to expand the Afghan air force to twice its current size and increase its personnel by 50 percent.

India

Mattis took steps to reinforce a quickly growing defense partnership with India on Tuesday, declaring the relationship has “never been stronger.”

During meetings with senior Indian officials, including Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Mattis stressed that the U.S. and India are “natural strategic partners who share common values and interests.”
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As Germany Vows to Speed Integration, Refugees Unfazed by Rise of Far Right

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The influx of more than a million asylum-seekers into Germany in 2015 is widely seen as driving the upsurge of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany or AfD party, which gained 13 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election. The government hopes to stem that rise by integrating the refugees as quickly as possible. Henry Ridgwell visited Berlin and spoke to some of the newcomers about their experience settling in Germany and their feelings over the success of the AfD.
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North Korean Workers Overseas Feeling Sanctions’ Squeeze

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North Korean overseas workers are feeling the heat as countries are stepping up their efforts to implement U.N. sanctions against their motherland.

On Wednesday, the Polish foreign ministry told VOA’s Korea Service that Poland does not intend to issue new work permits to North Korean workers to comply with the two latest U.N. Security Council resolutions. These measures were passed in response to the Kim Jong Un regime’s long-range intercontinental ballistic missile launches and sixth nuclear test.

“The Ministry of the Family, Labour and Social Policy has sent out a communication to voivodship [provincial] offices asking them to withhold all decisions regarding applications for work permits concerning [North Korean] citizens,” the foreign ministry said in an email to VOA, “until the process of transposition and development of a common position by European Union member states regarding the scope and method of implementing the resolution is completed.”

Fewer North Koreans working in Poland

With not one work visa being issued to a North Korean national in 2016 and 2017, the number of North Koreans employed in Poland stood at about 400 as of January this year, a decline from 550 in July last year, according to the Polish government’s estimates. In 2014, the Polish consul in Pyongyang issued 147 work visas, and in 2015, 129 such visas were issued.

The Polish foreign ministry said Poland, which is one of the European Union countries that hires many North Korean laborers, does not have any systemic measures in place that would prevent citizens of other countries, including North Koreans, from taking up work in the country, imposing a work ban would represent “an unequivocal demonstration of discrimination on the grounds of nationality.”

“In this context, we welcomed Resolution 2371 of 5 August 2017 and 2375 of 11 September 2017, the first to refer to the employment of [North Korean] citizens abroad in so decisive terms,” the ministry said.

Since North Korea has long been accused of using money paid to its overseas workers to finance its weapons programs, the two latest U.N. resolutions for the first time included restrictive measures on North Korean laborers abroad, first banning the hiring of additional North Korean workers, then barring the renewal of their work contracts when they expire.

Residency permits not renewed

Similar action was taken by Kuwaiti authorities, who have stopped issuing entry visas of any kind to North Korean nationals and forbidding them from transferring their residency permits from one company to another, according to the country’s implementation report on U.N. Security Council resolution 2371 submitted to the council in late August.

“Expired residency permits are not renewed, and permit holders are requested to leave the country promptly once the permit has expired,” reads the report.

Also taking heed of the Security Council resolutions on North Korea are Senegal and Qatar. Senegal suspended the issuance of entry and short-stay visas to North Korean workers. Qatar discontinued issuing the approvals of employment requests and the renewal of residence of workers.

Jenny Lee contributed to this report.
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Tillerson Heads to China Amid North Korea Nuclear Escalation

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson embarks Thursday on his second trip to China, seeking Beijing’s cooperation on a “maximum pressure” campaign against North Korea’s nuclear aggression amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Thursday, the top U.S. diplomat is seeking China’s cooperation to curb North Korea’s nuclear provocations and to pave the way for President Donald Trump’s first visit to China in November.

“We’ll continue our discussions on a number of other issues that are important, and certainly North Korea will be on the table for discussion,” Tillerson said before the first round of U.S.-China Social and Cultural Dialogue that’s aimed at promoting people-to-people ties.

The U.S. is conferring closely with Chinese officials on Beijing’s commitment to curb imports of North Korean coal, iron, iron ore, lead and lead ore, and seafood.

If fully implemented, the ban on those items could substantially reduce North Korea’s revenues this year. North Korea earned $1.5 billion from the export of these items to China in 2016, according to the State Department.

​No. 1 trading partner

China is North Korea’s No. 1 trading partner. Washington says bringing China on board is key to cutting off Pyongyang’s ability to earn hard currency.

“We’ve been rolling out sanctions on various entities in China,” acting Assistant Secretary of State for Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton told U.S. lawmakers Thursday.

“All of these designations target North Korean trade, North Korean entities, North Korean illicit proliferation,” Thornton said, adding that those measures will reduce Pyongyang’s ability to earn hard currency and increase pressure on the regime.

Trade and investment also are high on the agenda for Tillerson’s visit to Beijing. It follows one by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who has said China needs to provide fair and reciprocal treatment for American companies.

“We’re working with China to rebalance our trade and our lopsided relationship in that realm, and ensure that China provides fair treatment to U.S. companies in ways that create U.S. jobs,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Thursday.

​Energy embargo unlikely

Experts say China is very unlikely to completely cut off energy supplies to North Korea, but Beijing appears ready to cut down oil supplies.

Atlantic Council senior fellow Robert Manning said China can do a number of things, including closing a border bridge or permitting 24/7 U.N. monitoring of traffic to and from the road.

“The U.S. has intelligence that Pyongyang is either importing or exporting nuclear and/or missile components or other sensitive items; Beijing can and should cooperate in intercepting them,” Manning told VOA.

But Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Asia Program director Douglas Paal said China’s influence over North Korea is limited.

“The North is very reluctant to take instructions from China. It will exploit whatever it can get from China, but it doesn’t look for political guidance from China. So this is a problem we [the U.S.] and South Korea are going to have to handle directly with North Korea as we go forward,” Paal told VOA.

Trump’s tweets

North Korean intermediaries reportedly approached Paal to help to decipher President Trump’s tweets.

“In January, the North Koreans had to see Trump’s tweet, which was criticizing South Korea and talking about possible talks, meetings, and discussing issues with the North Korea leader. So they probably were looking for some clues of what this all means. Since then, of course, most of the tweets had turned very negative on North Korea,” Paal said.

“They probably could use some help to understand what the real policy of the Trump administration is. So it’s reasonable for them to be out asking,” Paal added.
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UN Chief Urges ‘Swift Action’ to Alleviate Suffering of Myanmar Muslims

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Thursday for “swift action” to halt the deteriorating situation in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State, where a half million mostly Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the past month.

“The situation has spiraled into the world’s fastest developing refugee emergency; a humanitarian and human rights nightmare,” Guterres told an open meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

The council has privately discussed the situation three times in the past month, but Thursday’s session was the first time since 2009 that it has publicly discussed Myanmar.

Guterres called for an end to the military’s operations; unhindered aid access; and the safe and voluntary return of refugees to their areas of origin.

“There seems to be a deeply disturbing pattern to the violence and ensuing large movements of an ethnic group from their homes,” Guterres said.

Guterres and his human rights commissioner have both expressed concerns that what is happening in Rakhine State is ethnic cleansing.

The secretary-general said the core problem is the prolonged statelessness of the Rohingya and its associated discrimination. “The Muslims of Rakhine State should be granted nationality,” Guterres said.

The Rohingya are one of many ethnic minorities in the Buddhist-majority nation. They are considered to be economic migrants from Bangladesh and have been denied citizenship, even though most can show that their families have been in the country for generations.

‘Brutal, sustained campaign’

Violence erupted in Rakhine on Aug. 25, after attacks by Rohingya militants on state security forces led to military reprisals.

U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley said the military response has been “disproportionate and indiscriminate” and has dwarfed the original rebel attacks in the scope of its violence. She called for a suspension of arms sales to the military until sufficient accountability measures are in place.

The military has been accused of the widespread burning of Rohingya villages, rape, killings, looting and the laying of landmines to prevent people returning to their homes.

“We cannot be afraid to call the actions of the Burmese authorities what they appear to be: a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority,” Haley said, referring to Myanmar by its other name.

“And it should shame senior Burmese leaders who have sacrificed so much for an open, democratic Burma,” she said in an apparent reference to the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced international criticism for remaining silent on the situation until last week.

‘Excessive pressure’ discouraged

Haley said the United States has provided $95 million in humanitarian aid to Myanmar and Bangladesh, but acknowledged it would not be enough for the growing emergency.

“As we speak, the situation on the ground is beginning to move toward stability,” China’s Deputy U.N. envoy Wu Haitao declared.

Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia discouraged “excessive pressure” on Myanmar’s authorities, which he said could only aggravate the situation. “We need to be very careful when we wield such notions as genocide and ethnic cleansing,” he added.

Most council members expressed their concern that the crisis could spill over into the region, causing broader instability and the potential radicalization of the disenfranchised. There was also broad consensus among members that the violence must stop, humanitarian agencies must be allowed in, and root causes of the conflict should be addressed.

Claim of ethnic cleansing disputed

Myanmar’s national security adviser, Thaung Tun, disputed that ethnic cleansing is taking place.

“I wish to stress there is no ethnic cleansing and no genocide in Myanmar,” he told council members. “Ethnic cleansing and genocide are serious charges and they should not be used lightly.”

He said the country is fighting terrorists, adding that no armed clashes or clearance operations have taken place since Sept. 5.

“Despite claims otherwise, violence has not ceased in northern Rakhine State, neither has the exodus of Rohingyas to Bangladesh,” that country’s U.N. ambassador Masud Bin Momen said. “Only last night an additional 20,000 entered into Bangladesh,” he noted.

The envoy said the situation is untenable and reiterated his prime minister’s call for U.N. supervised safe zones inside Myanmar for the Rohingya.

Advisory commission

Myanmar’s National Security Adviser also noted that his government views the recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission as a “viable road map” forward.

The Commission was chaired by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and had six local and three international experts. Members traveled extensively in Rakhine State during the past year and submitted their final report to the national authorities on Aug. 23.

The commission’s recommendations include urging the government to provide full and unhindered humanitarian access; addressing the issue of citizenship, including reviewing the 1982 citizenship law; and guaranteeing freedom of movement for all people in Rakhine, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or citizenship status.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said that Kofi Annan has agreed to brief the council next month in an informal session.

Thursday’s Security Council session follows two high-level meetings on the sidelines of last week’s gathering of leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) met at the ministerial level to discuss the growing humanitarian crisis, and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson brought together his counterparts from several countries, including the United States. They called for an end to the military campaign.

UN officials to visit Myanmar

The heads of U.N. agencies in Myanmar were due to visit Rahkine State on Thursday on a government-arranged trip, but it was postponed due to inclement weather conditions. The Myanmar National Security Adviser said the visit would go ahead on Monday. He also said the government has invited U.N. chief Guterres to visit the area.

Aid agencies have been unable to work in Rakhine since violence erupted last month, but they are working in Bangladesh, where the refugees are fleeing.

A boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsized there Thursday in the Bay of Bengal, killing at least nine children and five women.

The U.N. refugee agency said 27 women and children survived the accident, but it was not clear how many people were on the boat before it tipped over. The agency said there are unconfirmed reports that a second boat is missing.

Appeal for emergency funds

The U.N. has appealed for $77 million to meet emergency needs of the refugees. It has received nearly half that amount, but will be calling for additional funds as the scale of the emergency has far surpassed initial projections.

On Oct. 9, the U.N. Refugee agency, the humanitarian affairs office and the International Organization for Migration will convene a donor’s conference, the secretary-general said.

Myanmar has also reached out to the regional bloc ASEAN for humanitarian assistance.

Human rights groups call for ‘urgent action’

Separately, a coalition of nearly 90 human rights groups called Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to consider measures including an arms embargo against Myanmar’s military and targeted financial sanctions against individuals responsible for crimes and serious abuses.

“As more evidence emerges, it is clear that the atrocities committed by Myanmar state security forces amount to crimes against humanity,” the coalition said. “The United Nations and its member states need to take urgent action,” their statement read.

“If governments, U.N. officials and diplomats simply hold meetings and make speeches as atrocities continue in Myanmar, they bear the risk of failing to use every diplomatic tool at their disposal to stop the ethnic cleansing campaign and further crimes against humanity,” the rights groups warned.
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More US Strikes Kill Several IS Fighters in Libya

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U.S. airstrikes have killed more Islamic State fighters in Libya — the second such attack in the North African nation in less than a week.

“In coordination with the Libyan Government of National Accord [GNA], U.S. forces conducted two precision airstrikes in Libya against ISIS militants on Tuesday, September 26, at approximately 2:50 p.m. local time, killing several ISIS militants,” U.S. Africa Command, which overseas American military operations on the continent, announced Thursday in a statement.

The strike occurred approximately 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Sirte, a former stronghold of the terror group, according to the statement.

Four days earlier, six U.S. precision strikes targeted a camp used to move Islamic State fighters in and out of the country, killing 17 militants and destroying three IS vehicles.

U.S. Africa Command said the camp, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southeast of Sirte, also was used to plot attacks and stockpile weapons.
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Advocates for Muslims Sue Trump Administration for Denying Visas to Syrian Family

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An American woman and her Syrian family are suing the Trump administration for denying them visas to come to the U.S. after their applications were approved.

The Washington-based group Muslim Advocates and a Washington law firm are representing the family, whose names have not been made public.

The group is blaming President Donald Trump’s travel ban against several Muslim-majority countries, including Syria.

“This family’s life has been severely disrupted because of the chaotic and discriminatory Muslim ban,” Muslim Advocates legal director Johnathan Smith said.

The American woman, who is a U.S. citizen, petitioned the government to bring her sister and her sister’s husband and four children from Syria to the United States in 2004.

According to Muslim Advocates, the family’s visas were finally approved this past February, just before the Trump travel ban took effect. They were told they could travel to Lebanon to collect their visas

The couple quit their jobs and took the children out of school, only to be told that the visa approvals had been canceled.

The family is now stuck in what Muslim Advocates calls administrative limbo.

No U.S. official has explained to the family why the approved visas were rescinded.

The group is not legally challenging the Trump travel ban; it’s contesting the way it is being applied to the family.

“They should never have been turned away,” Smith said. “They should be working and studying in the United States, not left to suffer in a war-torn country.”

The travel ban expires next month, to be replaced by a series of new measures that still restrict immigration from North Korea and six Muslim-majority states — Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
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US: Coalition Strikes Kill 3 Islamic State Drone Experts in Syria

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The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria said Thursday that three of the terror group’s drone experts were killed in Syria this month.

U.S. Army Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the counter-Islamic State coalition, said Abu Muadh al-Tunisi was killed on September 12 and Sajid Farooq Babar was killed on September 13 by coalition airstrikes near Mayadin, Syria, in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.

Speaking to reporters via videoconference from Baghdad, Dillon said the two Islamic State fighters “were responsible for manufacturing and modifying commercially produced drones.”

Separately, on September 14, two airstrikes in Syria targeted Islamic State drone developer Abu Salman near Mayadin and destroyed his research lab in Ashara, Syria.

Salman and “a terrorist associate” were killed while traveling in a vehicle from Mayadin to Ashara, according to Dillon.

“The removal of these three highly skilled ISIS officials disrupts and degrades ISIS’s ability to modify and employ drone platforms as reconnaissance and direct-fire weapons on the battlefield,” Dillon said, using an acronym for the terror group.
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New Travel Ban Leaves Iranian-Americans in Limbo

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U.S. Navy veteran Mohammed Jahanfar has traveled overseas four times in the last year to visit his Iranian fiancee, most recently hoping to complete government paperwork that would allow her to come live with him in the United States.

But the 39-year-old now fears they will be forever separated after President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out new restrictions blocking most Iranians from traveling to America. The new restrictions covering citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen — and some Venezuelan government officials and their families — are to go into effect October 18.

“It is devastating,” said Jahanfar, who works as a salesman in Long Beach, California, and has lived in the United States for three decades. “There should be no reason why my fiancee, who is an educated person in Iran, who has a master’s degree, why we cannot be with each other. I cannot wrap my head around it.”

This is the Trump administration’s third measure to limit travel following a broad ban that sparked chaos at U.S. airports in January and a temporary order issued months later that was challenged in the courts and expired last weekend.

Jahanfar is among 385,000 Iranian immigrants in the United States, according to the Census Bureau, more than any of the other countries covered by the travel restrictions issued last weekend.

The U.S. has a many-layered history with Iran, a Middle Eastern ally until the pro-American shah was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The shah came to the U.S. and so did tens of thousands of other Iranians.

Now, the U.S. and Iranian governments have no diplomatic relations. Even so, many Iranians and Iranian-Americans have been able to regularly travel back and forth and kept close family ties.

The new restrictions range from an indefinite ban on visas for citizens of Syria to more targeted limitations. Iranians will not be eligible for immigrant, tourism or business visas but remain eligible for student and cultural exchange visas if they undergo additional scrutiny.

The measures target countries that the Department of Homeland Security says fail to share sufficient information with the U.S. or haven’t taken necessary security precautions.

Iranian-American advocates said they’ve been fielding phone calls from frantic community members who fear they will remain separated from family or their dreams. Already, many Iranian visa applicants find themselves caught up in lengthy security checks, delaying their travel plans.

“People don’t know what to do,” said Ally Bolour, an immigration attorney in Los Angeles. “If you are from one of these banned countries, there is just so much going on already. This just adds another layer, and people are just petrified.”

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said the ban seems aimed at punishing mainly Muslim countries.

“This process does not start with, `OK, where does the threat emanate from, and what can we do about it?”’ Parsi said. “It started with, `What are the countries we have bad relations with and what can we do there?”’

The new rules permit, but do not guarantee, case-by-case waivers for citizens of the affected countries who meet certain criteria. It’s unclear, however, how difficult it will be to obtain a waiver, and consular officers have broad discretion over these applications, said Diane Rish, associate director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The rules have also dampened some Iranians’ desire to be here. Hanieh, who did not want her last name used fearing reprisals from officials in the U.S. or Iran, said she is finishing her doctorate in the United States but seeking jobs in Canada due to uncertainty about whether she will be able to work here and what she sees as growing anti-Iranian sentiment.

She said her parents received word from U.S. consular officials this week they will not be able to travel for her graduation because of the ban.

Jahanfar, whose family left Iran after the country’s revolution, said he doesn’t know what he will do. He proposed to his fiancee last year after the pair, who met as children in Iran, had reconnected.

He applied for a fiancee visa in January and traveled to Abu Dhabi earlier this month for an interview with U.S. consular officials but was told it would be delayed.

Now, he said their lives are in limbo.

“It is pointless,” he said. “One person can decide something — they don’t understand how many lives they’ll affect with one decision they make.”
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Baghdad Flight Ban for Iraqi Kurdistan Expected to Impact Aid to Region

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“If we had less here, we wouldn’t have food or medicine at all,” said Jassim Ahmed, 32, a former Iraqi police officer living in a desert refugee camp about 30 kilometers from Mosul. “For large families, the food it is not even enough now.”

Beginning Friday, Baghdad is shutting down international flights to Iraq’s Kurdistan region in retaliation for the Kurdish independence referendum this week that passed with more than 92 percent of the vote. Humanitarian workers say the flight cancellations could have a “dire impact” on the lives of the region’s 1.6 million refugees and displaced people.

Ahmed is living in one of 52 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that house refugees from Syria, and families internally displaced by the war with Islamic State.

Like many families, Ahmed’s is twice displaced. He once was forced to move to Mosul by IS militants who needed human shields to flee U.S.-led coalition-backed forces. Later he fled bombs and starvation in Mosul. Now, he relies solely on humanitarian organizations to feed his family.

Local aid organizations need international support to operate fully, according to Mousa Ahmed, the president of the Barzani Charity Foundation, which runs 14 of the camps and several other large humanitarian projects in the Kurdistan Region. And most of that support — supplies and funding — comes through the region’s international airports.

“Since the battles began, Kurdistan has been a home for people who need a safe place,” he said. “Some of the punishment the Iraqi government is talking about will harm their own people.”

International flights will be canceled as of 6 p.m. local time on Friday, Sept. 29, and will remain so until Dec. 29, according to a statement released Thursday by the Irbil International Airport.

“We would appeal to Baghdad to step back from its proposed actions and consider the consequences for the war against ISIS, the care of so many displaced people and the real impact on the Kurdish people.” said Talar Faik, the director general of the Irbil International Airport, in the statement.

Nowhere to go

As the region’s brutally hot summer subsides, many displaced families that can return home already have done so, or currently are trying to go. But many people have no options.

“My cousin went home, and when she opened the door, her house blew up,” said Maryam Hussien, a 43-year-old mother of 10 from Mosul at the Hassan Sham camp, which is managed by the Barzani Charity Organization and Kurdish authorities and funded by local and international aid. “There are bombs everywhere in our neighborhood.”

More than three-quarters of a million people have been displaced since the offensive to retake all of Iraq from IS began nearly a year ago, and many have been forced into that position several times. Aid workers say families continue to flee insecurity and extreme poverty in areas controlled by Iraqi forces, as well as the roughly 500 villages and four cities still controlled by IS.

Other places once held by IS still have no water, electricity or other city services, added Shekha, a 37-year-old mother of eight in a tent across the dusty camp road. Security in former-IS held areas also is spotty, with ‘sleeper cells’ still hiding out in some places, while other areas remain unexplored by bomb experts.

“There is no security, no work and no way to feed my family there,” she said. Shekha fled her home during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and then again this year as Iraqi forces pushed IS out Mosul.

Like other families in the camp, Shekha said they have just enough food, water and electricity to get by. A reduction of aid would push them to the brink of survival, added her husband, Mohammad Ahmed, 38.

“We ran from starvation and now we may starve again,” he said, holding one of his three-month-old twin sons. “How is this right?”

 
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Rights Groups, Rebels Warn Syria’s Idlib Province Now a ‘Kill Box’

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With his hair and face caked in dust, the little boy appears ghostly. Syrian emergency workers known as White Helmets say the toddler, appearing in a tweeted photo, had just been rescued from the rubble of a building hit in an airstrike in the northern Syria province of Idlib.  

“He laughed and said, ‘I still alive,’” according to the tweet, of a first responder, posted just hours before Russia on Thursday denied widespread allegations from monitoring groups that its warplanes have killed more than 150 civilians in airstrikes in Idlib over the past few days.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its warplanes do not target civilian areas.

The denial is vehemently disputed by emergency workers and rebels, who have been battling to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for more than six years. They say Idlib and the neighboring province of Hama have been turned into what rebel commanders describe as a “kill box” with airstrikes coming thick and fast without discriminating between civilians and combatants.   

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which receives its information from a network of monitors inside Syria, says the air raids have steadily increased since September 19, “killing and injuring more people every time they raid.”

The monitoring group said some airstrikes have been targeting the bases of Islamic and rebel factions, but in many cases civilian property and infrastructure have been hit, too – including clinics and schools.

Mounting casualties

The Observatory says it has documented more than 1,280 airstrikes in the past seven days with 156 civilian casualties, including 38 children below the age of 18 and 29 women over the age of 18. It also claimed to have documented “at least 394 people injured with different severity, some of whom suffered permanent disabilities, others still seriously injured.”

The death toll has been high also for Islamic and rebel factions with at least 165 fighters killed, about a third of them from al Qaida-connected Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham.

Free Syrian Army-aligned rebel commanders have argued for nearly a year – since Russian-backed regime forces last December captured insurgent districts in Aleppo city – that Idlib was being readied to become a “kill box,” an area in which foes are funneled and targeted for final defeat.

Western military tacticians suspected also that was the game plan of Russian and Iranian commanders, who have been overseeing the regime’s war machine.

Syria’s notoriously divisive rebel factions faced a stark choice in the wake of their demoralizing defeat in eastern Aleppo: unify and have a chance of survival or continue to squabble and risk the regime finishing off the revolution.

Rifts, though, persisted. Some factions, desperate for arms and supplies, which were reduced substantially and then cut by the U.S., were diverted from the fight against Assad and teamed up with Turkey in the Euphrates Shield operation, an Ankara initiative focused on driving Kurdish fighters and the Islamic State terror group away from the border with Turkey.

Some factions joined the U.S.-backed Kurdish-dominated force battling to capture Raqqa, Syria from the Islamic State terror group.

And others, including some moderate Islamic factions, decided to hang on in Idlib, where they have lost military clout to the hardline Islamists of Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham.

The crisis of the armed Syrian revolution has been prolonged — the air blitz of Idlib is another chapter in the long drawn out endgame, fear rebel commanders and Idlib residents.

One resident, Maher Abu Hassan, issued via social media a sardonic appeal Monday to the United Nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others, asking for Idlib to be spared a slow death and instead to be wiped out quickly in a nuclear strike. “We call on all of you to drop a tactical nuclear bomb, one whose impact covers the entirety of Idlib, end to end, to mercifully spare us from this slow death. We’d like to die all at once, one death,” he said.

Britain’s special representative for Syria, Gareth Bayley, condemned the regime airstrikes, saying the reports of civilian casualties and the targeting of clinics and schools are credible. He accused the regime and Russia of being “in contravention of international humanitarian law.”

“This is appalling,” he added.

​Muted criticism

Condemnation by Western powers of the airstrikes on Idlib have been muted in comparison to the outcry regarding the regime’s bombing of Aleppo last year. There is deep anger among rebels, residents and humanitarian workers at the scant attention the air blitz has been receiving internationally – a sign, they say, of the West having given up on the revolution.

“While the world may be forgetting the Syria war, the war is not forgetting Syrians,” tweeted James Denselow of the charity Save the Children.

A European diplomat told VOA on condition of anonymity that a full-blown Western condemnation of the air blitz is “more difficult now than a year ago” — as some Western powers themselves are more compromised. “We are also involved in heavy airstrikes on the Islamic State in Raqqa and elsewhere, and although, I think, we take greater care to minimize civilian deaths than Assad or the Russians, we are certainly killing civilians as well.”

On Wednesday, the U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, announced he hoped to convene the eighth round of peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in around a month. “I am calling on both sides to assess the situation with realism and responsibility to the people of Syria and to prepare seriously to participate in the Geneva talks,” de Mistura said at the U.N. Security Council.

The previous seven rounds of talks in Geneva failed to make any progress with Assad’s fate one of the main obstacles. Syrian opposition groups and various, albeit a dwindling number, of Western powers insist that Assad must go. But with the battlefield having turned to his favor — thanks to Russian and Iranian support — he has little motive to make any concessions.

A second process of negotiations overseen by Russia in the Kazakh capital, Astana, has led to the establishment of multiple ‘de-escalation zones.’ De Mistura says these zones should be a precursor “to a truly nationwide cease-fire.”

But there are no signs that the regime or Russia would be serious about Idlib becoming a de-escalation zone — not at this stage.
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Rights Group: 24 Egyptians Facing Jail Terms for ‘Insulting’ Judiciary

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Twenty-four people are facing jail terms in Egypt for “insulting” the judiciary, Amnesty International said Thursday.

North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty International Najia Bounaim said, “This trial is an attempt to silence criticism of a judiciary that has itself become a source of human rights violations.  ‘Insulting’ public institutions or officials is not a criminal offense under international law, and no one should stand trial, let alone face imprisonment, for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

The fates of the 24 are to be decided by a court on September 30.

Alaa Abdel Fattah, a blogger and human rights activist who rose to prominence during the 2011 Arab Spring, could face up to four years in prison for a tweet in which he criticized the judiciary.  Fattah is currently serving a five-year term for violating a law on protests in 2013.

“Alaa is one of thousands losing years of their lives in Egypt’s prisons while President Abdelfattah al-Sisi is received warmly by governments across the world, with few questions raised about the rights violations committed by his regime,” Alaa Abdel Fattah’s sister, Mona Seif, told Amnesty International.

A campaign on Twitter using the hashtag “#FreeAlaa” has resurged as he faces additional jail time for the new violation.

 
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