Month: September 2017

Ex-Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Living in Dubai

Posted on by SeeEA

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha says his predecessor, Yingluck Shinawatra, is in Dubai.

The prime minister revealed Yingluck’s whereabouts Thursday during a meeting with journalists, citing a report from the foreign ministry of her movements. Her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has lived in exile in Dubai since he was overthrown in a 2006 military coup.

Yingluck was convicted by Thailand’s Supreme Court Wednesday on charges of negligence in connection with a botched rice-buying scheme and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison. The verdict was initially to be issued last month, but Yingluck failed to appear for the hearing.

The government lost more than $1 billion in the scheme, which bought rice at above-market prices from poor farmers and aimed to resell it later at a higher price.

Yingluck has denied the charges, claiming they were politically motivated.

Yingluck was overthrown in 2014 in a military coup led by Prime Minister Prayuth, who was then the commander in chief of the Royal Thai Army. The coup capped a decade-long period of political turmoil that began when her brother was forced out of office in 2006 by the military, which backed Thailand’s Bangkok-based royalist-leaning, wealthy elite.
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Calming Cars, Human-scented Robots: Scientists Hail Smell Technology Advances

Posted on by SeeEU

Would you buy a car that sprayed soothing odors when you’re stuck in rush-hour traffic? Or how about a robot that smells like a human being?

Scientists say that new technology means we will soon be using devices like these in our everyday lives. At this month’s British Science Festival in Brighton, researchers from Britain’s University of Sussex offered a demonstration of the technology that could be just around the corner.

The 3D animations of Virtual Reality have become commonplace. Now scientists have created virtual worlds that even smell like the real thing. When users open a virtual door and step into a new world, in this case into a rainforest, diffusers spray the appropriate scent for added authenticity.

Immersive experience

“It is a really immersive experience that you have because you’re exploring this environment and you have smells that correspond with it,” festival visitor Suzanne Fisher-Murray told VOA.

Smell technology has been tried before, famously in the United States with Smell-O-vision movies in the 1960s. Multisensory researcher Emanuela Maggioni of the University of Sussex says it’s on the cusp of a comeback.

“The connection with emotions, memories, and the potential to use the sense of smell, the odors, under the threshold of our awareness — it is incredible what we can do with technology,” Maggioni said.

And not just for entertainment. In another corner of the room, a driving simulator has been fitted with a scent diffuser.

“In this demonstration, we wanted to deliver the smell of lavender every time the driver exceeds the speed limit. We chose lavender because it’s a very calming smell,” co-researcher Dmitrijs Dmitrenko said.

Scent and human behavior

Scientists are experimenting with using scent instead of audible or visual alerts on mobile phones. Businesses already are using scent to influence customers’ behavior.

“Not only for marketing in stores, so creating the logo brand. But on the other side, you can create and stimulate impulse buying. So you’re in a library and you smell coffee and actually you are unconsciously having the need to drink a coffee,” Maggioni said.

She adds that scent is vital in human interactions — for example, when men smell tears, levels of testosterone are reduced and they show more empathy. That physiological reaction can be applied to new technology.

“In the interaction with robots — how we can build trust with robots if the robots smell like us,” Maggioni said.

It portends an exciting, and perhaps for some, daunting future. Scientists say the sense of smell, until now largely unexploited, is about to stimulated by the march of technology.

 
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Senate Republicans Regroup After Health Care Defeat

Posted on by SeeUS

Republican leaders in the US Senate suffered setbacks this week that could spell trouble for President Donald Trump’s agenda and complicate Republican hopes of expanding or even holding their congressional majorities in midterm elections next year. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports that an anti-establishment firebrand won a Republican primary contest Tuesday hours after the latest attempt to repeal Obamacare was shelved and an influential Republican senator announced his retirement.
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Activists: Driving Augurs Further Expansion of Saudi Women’s Rights

Posted on by SeeEA

Women in Saudi Arabia have won their battle for the right to drive. Saudi King Salman made history Tuesday by issuing a royal decree “giving women the right to drive.” The ultra-conservative kingdom has been criticized for restricting women’s freedoms more than any other Muslim nation. It has been the only country barring women from getting behind the wheel. Activists who fought against this ban say they expect further expansion of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Crimean Tatar Leader to Appeal Harsh Sentence for ‘Separatism’

Posted on by SeeEU

Crimean Tatar leader Ilmi Umerov, sentenced to two years in a penal colony because of his opposition to Russia’s annexation of his homeland, said Wednesday he will appeal his conviction, even if it is a hopeless cause.

Speaking to VOA Russian reporter Danila Galperovich just after a court in Simferopol pronounced the sentence, Umerov said he had “no illusions” that there was any chance of overturning the verdict against him.

“Everything in this case, from opening a probe into it to ending it with this sentence, is an absolute hoax!” Umerov said during a telephone interview from Crimea. “Even prior to opening a probe into this, they started falsifying evidence, manipulating transactions and ascribing to me statements I never made.”

Poor health and harsh sentence

Umerov was charged with “public calls for separatism,” which was outlawed in Crimea after Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory. While in detention he was forced to undergo a compulsory psychiatric examination. The sentence he received, two years in a penal colony, is considered a dangerous burden for a 60-year-old man who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.

The deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatars’ Mejlis, the community’s representative body, said he believed his harsh sentence was handed down in reaction to a United Nations report this week that noted a sharp deterioration in human rights in Crimea since Russia annexed the Ukrainian Peninsula on the Black Sea in March 2014.

“If I say that they are punishing me for my opinion, for my position, then it would be a little trite,” said Umerov, who has been vocal and outspoken in his opposition to Russia’s occupation of Crimea. “In general, I think this is a reaction to the document that was adopted two days ago at the U.N. General Assembly, on the situation with human rights in Crimea. It mentions many crimes that this occupation regime in Crimea is committing.”

The report he cited, released Monday by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, recounted arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment with no accountability since Russia asserted control over Crimea.

Ukraine crisis

Russia’s seizure of its neighbor’s territory and its ongoing military support for separatists in eastern Ukraine has triggered the biggest crisis between the Kremlin and the West since the end of the Cold War. Western sanctions have been imposed on Russia ever since.

Crimea’s inviolable borders “have been accepted in the world and by agreements between the two countries, Ukraine and Russia,” Umerov told VOA. “Russia, through its act of aggression, by annexing a part of the Ukrainian territory, violated its own law in the first place. And this must not remain unpunished.”

Rights groups have condemned Umerov’s treatment, conviction and sentence.

Latest case of rights violations

Amnesty International said Umerov’s case was the latest encroachment on fundamental rights and freedoms on the Crimean Peninsula, and should be immediately canceled.

“The sentence of 60-year-old Ilmi Umerov, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, demonstrates yet another stage of the continuing persecution by the de facto authorities of the peninsula,” said Oksana Pokalchuk, director of Amnesty’s Ukrainian branch. “The decision to deprive him of his freedom,” she said, is typical “of the politically motivated trials, arbitrary arrests and intimidation of critics by Russian authorities in Crimea.

“This is a clear violation of freedom of speech.”

Umerov’s daughter, Ayshe Umerova, predicted opposition to the Russian authorities’ verdict will grow.

“I think that the reaction will continue to grow like a snowball,” she told VOA Russian reporter Taras Burnos, for the sake of her father’s fragile health.

“The Russian system has once again surpassed itself,” Umerova said. 
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California Seeks More Sway by Moving Up Presidential Primary

Posted on by SeeUS

Super Tuesday, the jam-packed day of presidential primary voting every four years, may get supercharged in 2020 with California joining the pack, bringing along its prize of the most delegates.

 

Gov. Jerry Brown gave his stamp of approval Wednesday to a measure jumping California’s primary up to the beginning of March, three months earlier than its contest in 2016, when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had already captured the major parties’ nominations.

 

“The Golden State will no longer be relegated to last place in the presidential nominating process,” Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla said. “Candidates will not be able to ignore the largest, most diverse state in the nation as they seek our country’s highest office.”

More sway in selecting nominees 

Bumping the primary up is designed to give the nation’s most populous state more sway in choosing the Republican and Democratic nominees.

 

 And it could seriously shake up the nominating contest.

 

 California, home to 11 media markets, is an expensive state to campaign in, potentially giving well-funded candidates an edge.

Puts state in spotlight

Democratic leaders said the bill gives California the spotlight it deserves given its record of pushing the national conversation around immigration and other issues.

 

“With all due respect to our brothers and sisters in Iowa and New Hampshire, California is the beating heart of the national resistance to Trump,” Eric Bauman, chairman of the California Democratic Party, said in a statement. “When it comes to deciding the Democratic nominee, our voices need to be heard early in the process.”

Iowa and New Hampshire will still have their early say.

 

The measure puts the state’s primary on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March, often known as “Super Tuesday,” when as many as a dozen states hold nominating contests. It will still fall after the earliest caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Moved to February in 2008

In 2016, California held its primary in June when Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump were already the major party nominees. California typically awards the most delegates.

 

The state moved its presidential primary to February in 2008, but the shift did not exert influence on the Democratic side. Clinton won the state’s primary, but Barack Obama went on to capture the party’s nomination.

 

The change also pushes California’s primary for state offices to March.

 

The Democratic and Republican national committees have not set rules for the 2020 contest yet. The parties set a calendar as well as how many delegates each state is awarded.

 

California received extra delegates for holding a late primary in 2016 and likewise could be punished in 2020 for moving up the election.

 
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Simpson Could Be Released From Prison Next Week

Posted on by SeeUS

O.J. Simpson could be released on parole as soon as Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada, prison officials said Wednesday.

Under the plan, still being finalized, the former football player, actor and TV pitchman would move from the Lovelock Correctional Center in northern Nevada to High Desert State Prison outside Las Vegas, where he would be freed.

Simpson has spent nine years behind bars on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping following a 2008 confrontation between Simpson and two sports memorabilia dealers at a hotel in Las Vegas. He had been ordered to spend up to 33 years in prison, but a state parole board ruled earlier this year that he could be released after October 1.

The 70-year-old former football player was acquitted in 1995 of murder charges arising from the stabbing deaths a year earlier of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently lost a civil suit brought by the Goldman family; he was found liable for the killings and ordered to pay relatives tens of millions of dollars — a sum that since grown to more than $65 million, including interest.
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Carmakers Welcome Arrival of Saudi Women Behind the Wheel

Posted on by SeeEA

Saudi Arabia’s decision to lift its ban on women driving cars may help to restore sales growth in an auto market dented by the economic fallout from weak oil prices, handing an opportunity to importers of luxury cars and sport utility vehicles.

Carmakers joined governments in welcoming the order by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman that new rules allowing women to drive be drawn up within 30 days and implemented by June 2018, removing a stain on the country’s international image.

“Congratulations to all Saudi women who will now be able to drive,” Nissan said in a Twitter post depicting a license plate bearing the registration “2018 GRL.” BMW, whose X5 SUV is the group’s Middle East top-seller, also saluted the move.

 

WATCH: Activists: Driving Augurs Further Expansion of Saudi Women’s Rights

Midrange brands dominate the Saudi market, with Toyota, Hyundai-Kia and Nissan together commanding a 71 percent share of sales.

Market had shrunk

That market has shrunk by about a quarter from a peak of 858,000 light vehicles in 2015 to an expected 644,000 this year, reflecting the broader economic slowdown. But the rule change adds almost 9 million potential drivers, including 2.7 million resident non-Saudi women, Merrill Lynch has calculated.

“We expect demand to rise again on news that women will be allowed to drive,” said a senior executive at Jeddah-based auto distributor Naghi Motors, whose brand portfolio includes BMW, Mini, Hyundai, Rolls Royce and Jaguar Land Rover models.

The arrival of women drivers could lift Saudi car sales by 15-20 percent annually, leading forecaster LMC Automotive predicts, as the kingdom’s “car density” of 220 vehicles per 1,000 adults rises to about 300 in 2025, closing the gap with the neighboring United Arab Emirates.

A middle- to upper-class Saudi family typically has two vehicles, one driven by the man of the house and a second car in which a full-time chauffeur transports his wife and children.

The rule change could spell bad news for some of the 1.3 million men employed as chauffeurs in the kingdom, including a large share of its migrant workforce, while boosting upscale car sales as households upgrade for their new drivers.

Entire market likely to benefit

“The move to allow women to drive is set to benefit the entire market,” LMC analyst David Oakley said. “But we might expect to see a disproportionately positive impact on super-premium brands.”

Luxury brands including Lamborghini and Bentley are about to launch SUVs, a vehicle category that has proved popular among women and accounts for more than 1 in 5 cars sold in Saudi Arabia.

Welcoming the announcement, British-based Aston Martin said it was well timed for the arrival of the James Bond-associated sports car maker’s DBX model, due in 2019.

“The SUV crossover boom across all segments has been powered by women,” spokesman Simon Sproule said.
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US Will Phase Out Program for Central American Child Refugees

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump’s administration is ending a program that allowed children fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to apply for refugee status in the United States before leaving home.

The administration will phase out the Central American Minors (CAM) program during fiscal year 2018, according to a report provided to Congress and obtained by Reuters. That report also sets the overall refugee cap for the year at its lowest level in decades.

The CAM program started at the end of 2014 under the administration of former President Barack Obama as a response to tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum in the United States.

Dangerous trip avoided

The program allowed vulnerable young people with parents in the United States to process their applications in their home region and avoid making the dangerous trip through Mexico to the U.S. border on their own, said Karen Musalo, the director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at University of California-Hastings.

“I think there is very little interest in understanding on the part of this administration as to who are refugees and our country’s commitment to protect people fleeing persecution,” Musalo said.

The report said it was ending CAM “because the vast majority of individuals accessing the program were not eligible for refugee resettlement.”

The government will instead focus on “more targeted” refugee processing in Central America, working with the government of Costa Rica, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration, the report said.

The U.S. had already said in August it was ending one element of the program.

Trump order sparks review of program

An executive order on border security signed by Trump days after he took office in January triggered a review of the program, putting on hold the applications of more than 2,700 children who had been conditionally approved for entry into the United States. Those applications — the bulk of which were for children from El Salvador — have been canceled.

As of Aug. 4, more than 1,500 children and eligible family members had arrived in the United States as refugees under the CAM program since it began in December 2014, according to the State Department. More than 13,000 people have applied for the program since it began, it said.
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Iraq, Turkey Move to Punish Kurdistan for Referendum Vote

Posted on by SeeEU

Even as Kurds celebrated the overwhelming approval of an independence referendum, Iraq took actions to punish the would-be breakaway state, vowing to shut down its airspace and join Turkey in holding military exercises.

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

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 Governor Najmaldin Karim for holding the vote and deploy forces to areas that were under Iraqi government control before the fall of Mosul to Islamic State over three years ago.

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

The referendum isn’t binding, but it is the first step in a process that clearly leads in that direction, despite strong criticism from Iraq, its neighbors — particularly Iran and Turkey — and the United States.

These nations have described it as destabilizing at a time when all sides are still fighting against IS militants.

Turkish troops are conducting military exercises at the Iraqi border, and Iraqi soldiers joined in four kilometers from the Habur border gate between the two countries. National and international media observed the exercises from the main highway leading to the border gate.

Turkey, which has its own restive Kurdish minority, is particularly concerned about the independence movement sweeping into its territory. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that all military and economic measures are on the table against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), calling the decision to go ahead with the vote a “betrayal to Turkey.”

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Omer Merani, the Ankara representative of Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party, has been asked to not return to Turkey.

“If the KDP’s representative were here, we would ask him to leave the country,” Cavusoglu said. “We have instead said, ‘Don’t come back,’ because he is currently in Irbil.”

The Kurds, who have ruled over an autonomous region within Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, consider Monday’s referendum to be a historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own. It was approved by 92.7 percent of voters, and residents headed to Kirkuk’s citadel to celebrate late Wednesday after the results were released.

Iraq said it would close international airspace Friday over Kurdistan’s two airports — Irbil and Sulaimani — at 6 p.m. Domestic flights were allowed to continue. Most of Iraq’s neighbors, including Turkey, Egypt and Iran, said they would abide by the restriction and suspend flights there.

Qatar Airways will continue operations “as long as airways are open and we can transport our passengers safely,” according to CEO Akbar Al Baker, Reuters reported.

Maulood Bawa Murad, Kurdistan’s transportation minister, said Baghdad’s efforts to take over the airports would hurt the U.S. support missions for the fight against IS and that it would bode badly for the possibility of negotiations with Iraq.

“If this decision is meant to punish the people of Kurdistan for holding a referendum on its independence and deciding its fate, no talks with [Baghdad] will reach a conclusion,” Murad said.

While opposing the referendum, the U.S. said Iraq’s moves weren’t “constructive” to resolving the situation.

Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee who was recently in Kurdistan, said he was disappointed with the decision to hold the vote despite calls for a delay. He said he hoped officials there would proceed in a “cautious and thoughtful manner.”

“I don’t like the destabilizing effects it could have on Iraq and the elections that will take place next year,” Corker said. “It’s going to bring a lot of issues. The Kurdish people have been great friends of our country. They’ve helped so much to fight against ISIS.”

VOA’s Kurdish, Turkish and Urdu services contributed to this report.
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Ohio Coroner: US Student Held in North Korea Died of Oxygen-starved Brain

Posted on by SeeUS

An American student who had been imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months died from lack of oxygen and blood to the brain, an Ohio coroner said on Wednesday.

Otto Warmbier’s death on June 19 was due to an unknown injury that occurred more than a year before his death, Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said at a news conference.

“We don’t know what happened to him and that’s the bottom line,” Sammarco said.

Warmbier’s parents could not be reached for comment on the coroner’s report.

The University of Virginia student was held by North Korea from January 2016 until his release on June 15. Warmbier, 22, returned to the United States in a coma.

Both the investigator and the coroner’s report cited complications of chronic deficiency of oxygen and blood supply to the brain in Warmbier’s death. Only an external examination of the body rather than a full autopsy was completed at the request of Warmbier’s family.

North Korea previously blamed botulism and the ingestion of a sleeping pill for Otto Warmbier’s problems, and it dismissed torture claims.

The release of the autopsy report comes at a time of high tension between the United States and North Korea, which is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

When Warmbier was brought back to the United States, U.S. doctors said he had suffered extensive brain damage, and he died days later. The native of Wyoming, Ohio, near Cincinnati, was arrested during a tourist visit to the reclusive communist country.

Warmbier was traveling with a tour group when he was arrested at the airport as he prepared to depart from North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.

He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korean state media said.

Warmbier’s parents appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, calling North Korea “terrorists” who tortured their son.

“It looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth,” Fred Warmbier told Fox.

“Great interview on @foxandfriends with the parents of Otto Warmbier: 1994 – 2017. Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea,” President Donald Trump said on Twitter following the interview’s broadcast.

However, the coroner’s report said Warmbier’s teeth were “natural and in good repair.”

Warmbier’s body had multiple scars varying in size, including a large irregular one measuring 11.5 by 4 cm (4.3 by 1.6 inches) on the right foot, the report said.
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Mercosur Could Seek Trade Deals With Canada, Australia, New Zealand

Posted on by SeeEU

The South American trade bloc Mercosur could seek trade deals with Canada, Australia and New Zealand this year, an Argentine official said Wednesday, as largest members Brazil and Argentina seek to open their economies.

Mercosur, which also includes Uruguay and Paraguay, is working with the European Union to finalize the political framework for a trade deal this year, at a time when the United States under President Donald Trump has been shying away from trade.

“There is a possibility that Mercosur starts negotiations with Canada, Australia and New Zealand this year,” Argentine Commerce Secretary Miguel Braun said at the Thomson Reuters Economic and Business forum in Buenos Aires.

“Integrating ourselves with these countries takes us in the direction we want to go,” he said, pointing to developed economies with high salaries. Argentina alone is seeking a trade agreement with Mexico, and Braun said it was also working on a trade agreement with Chile that would “deepen what we already have.”

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said in New York last week that Santiago was finishing a trade liberalization agreement with Buenos Aires to boost trade and open opportunities for investors.
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Facebook Says Deleted Many Fake Accounts in German Campaign

Posted on by SeeEU

Facebook said on Wednesday its efforts to fight fake news during Germany’s national elections included taking down tens of thousands of fake profiles in the final month of the campaign.

Richard Allan, Facebook’s vice president of public policy for Europe, Middle East Africa, said the Silicon Valley-based company mounted an array of efforts to ensure the social media network was not used as a platform to manipulate public opinion.

“These actions did not eliminate misinformation entirely in this election but they did make it harder to spread, and less likely to appear in people’s News Feeds,” the Facebook executive said in a statement. News feed is the central feature in user profiles whereby they can see updates from people they follow.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union secured victory in Sunday’s balloting with fewer votes than expected, forcing her to enter complicated coalition talks with various parties to form a new government.

The company said it made a stronger push to remove fake accounts when it observed suspicious activity following widely reported foreign interference in the French and U.S. presidential elections over the past year.

Besides seeking to encourage civic participation and voter education efforts, it also worked closely with authorities, including the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), to monitor security threats during the campaign.

A variety of German political experts and social media watchers had given the campaign largely a clean bill of health in terms of any wide-scale efforts to swing votes in the run-up to voting day.

 
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Samakuva to Step Down as UNITA Opposition Party Leader in Angola

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The veteran leader of Angola’s largest opposition party said  Wednesday that he would step down to allow someone else to keep the new government of President Joao Lourenco to account.

Isaias Samakuva, who has led UNITA since 2003, said a new leader should take the party forward through the “new political cycle.”

He announced his departure a day after Lourenco was sworn in as only the third president of Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975, ending 38 years of rule by Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Samakuva had previously said he planned to step aside but appeared to seesaw on the decision in recent months.

“During the campaign, I said I would leave the presidency of UNITA to serve the party in another function. I maintain and reaffirm that decision,” Samakuva told a meeting of the party.

Samakuva took over the leadership of UNITA — the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola — after the death of founder Jonas Savimbi, who led the movement during 27 years of civil war.

Savimbi’s death brought peace and the transition of UNITA into a political party.

Under Samakuva’s leadership, UNITA increased its proportion of the national vote from 10 percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2017.

Among possible successors are Adalberto da Costa, who was the party’s leader in parliament under the previous administration; Rafael Massanga Savimbi, son of UNITA’s founder; and Lukamba Paulo, a former secretary-general of the party who lost a leadership election against Samakuva in 2003.
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Kenya’s Electoral Commission and Its Controversial History

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Kenya’s electoral commission remains in the hot seat as the country heads to a re-run of the presidential poll on October 26. The opposition has launched what it says will be regular protests until the country’s electoral commission officials, including the CEO, are replaced. VOA’s Jill Craig reports from Nairobi that the controversy surrounding the IEBC goes back several years.
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Rights Groups: Freedom of the Press Under Fire in Tanzania

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Human rights organizations accuse Tanzania’s government of using repressive legislation to muzzle the media, civil society and opposition politicians critical of the institution. The critics say cyber crime laws, which took effect two years ago, have been used against nine media organizations, with the Mwanahalisi newspaper the latest to be banned. Rights groups are calling on the government to align its laws with the practices and standards of the international community.

Mwanahalisi is the second newspaper to be banned in Tanzania in one year.

The government said the paper had violated previous warnings about articles criticizing President John Magufuli.

In a statement, the government points to five stories it considered offensive and called on the paper to retract some of them.

Mwanahalisi news editor Saed Kubenea says the paper has done nothing wrong.

“Mwanahalisi newspaper has never written a story that is inciteful. We report facts that are liked by many readers and we point out where the government is going wrong. That’s our policy since the start of this newspaper,” he said.

Previous bans

This is the second time the newspaper has been banned in less than five years. The news outlet was banned in 2012 for publishing stories that allegedly threatened national security. After a three-year court battle, the ban was lifted.

Kubenea says they are hopeful they will get a similar ruling.

“Without a doubt, we will go to court to challenge this decision to ban our newspaper, and we believe the court will listen and give us justice,” he said.

Earlier this year, another newspaper, Mawio, was banned for two years after linking two retired presidents to dubious mining contracts. Rights groups criticized the ban as an attack on freedom of expression, which has been restricted since President Magufuli came to power in 2015.

In 2015 and 2016 the government adopted four pieces of legislation that rights groups say have been used to suppress the media and dissenting voices.

Similar concerns have been voiced by opposition politician Peter Msigwa, who was arrested this week for allegedly linking police to a gun attack on another opposition member earlier in the month.

“I spoke about how this government reacts when it’s criticized just like Tundu Lisu used to do it. As Chadema party, we feel that the international community has interest on this case,” he said. “I also spoke about the Magufuli administration that shows signs of dictatorship. It doesn’t want to be criticized and advised and they said what I said was inciteful.”

Tundu Lisu is another opposition lawmaker and a government critic. He was shot by unknown gunmen in Tanzania earlier this month.

The legislator has been arrested by police several times and charged with incitement.

Henry Maina is head of the East Africa office of Article 19, a global non-governmental organization that promotes freedom of expression and information worldwide. He says the silencing of the critics is not good for democracy.

“We are going to have a situation where the media, the civil society, and the opposition can no longer raise their voices to hold the government to account because the instruments of power are clearly being used to incarceration, jail and in ornately open cases,” he said.

 

In the 2015 election, President Magufuli received 58 percent of the vote, compared to previous elections in which 80 percent of Tanzanians voted for the ruling CCM party.

The East African nation is considered stable compared to its neighbors.

 
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Kosovo Not Ready For Border Demarcation With Montenegro

Posted on by SeeEU

Kosovo’s new prime minister said Wednesday his government has no set deadline for resolving the impasse over the ratification of a border demarcation deal with Montenegro.

 

Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, speaking in Albania on his first trip abroad since taking the post earlier this month, said his Cabinet was working on the issue and would talk with Montenegro “when we have a clearer situation of our findings.”

 

Last week Haradinaj named a new government commission on border demarcation and maintenance.

 

The border agreement was signed in 2015, but has not enjoyed sufficient parliamentary support from the previous opposition, in which Haradinaj’s party was a member, saying the deal meant a loss of territory.

 

The former opposition political parties, which are now split between the government coalition and the opposition in the new parliament, claimed the deal meant Kosovo would lose over 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of land. The former Cabinet, international experts and the country’s Western backers dispute that claim.

 

The European Union insists Kosovo must approve the border demarcation deal before its citizens enjoy visa-free travel within the Schengen zone.

 

Montenegro has recognized Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, but Serbia vehemently opposes it.
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Recovering Congressman Steve Scalise Talks to CBS ’60 Minutes’

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CBS says “60 Minutes” has landed the first television interview with House Majority Whip Steve Scalise since he was shot at a congressional baseball team practice in June.

 

The network said Wednesday that Scalise will speak to Norah O’Donnell for the news magazine’s episode this Sunday.

 

He’ll recount the attack from his vantage point and will talk about what his medical ordeal has been since then.

 

Four Republicans were shot in the June 14 attack by an Illinois man, James Hodgkinson. He was killed in a shootout with police.
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Poachers Target Africa’s Lions, Vultures With Poison

Posted on by SeeAF

Hundreds of vultures in Namibia died after feeding on an elephant carcass that poachers had poisoned. Poachers in Zimbabwe used cyanide to kill dozens of elephants for their ivory tusks. In Mozambique three lions died after eating bait infused with a crop pesticide.

Poisoning Africa’s wildlife is an old practice, but conservationists fear such incidents are escalating in some areas, saying relatively easy access to agricultural chemicals and the surging illegal market for animal parts are increasing pressure on a number of already beleaguered species. The threat is compounded by the indiscriminate nature of killing with poison, in which a single contaminated carcass can take down a range of animals, particularly scavengers such as vultures.

This month, a continent-wide database was launched to gather data on wildlife poisoning and better understand a phenomenon that has been widely documented in southern Africa, where a reported 70 lions have been fatally poisoned in the last 18 months, according to managers. While the African Wildlife Poisoning Database lacks records from underreported areas including Central Africa, it dates to 1961 and lists nearly 300 poisoning incidents in 15 African countries that killed more than 8,000 animals from dozens of species, including leopards, hyenas, impalas, cranes and storks.

“It’s still a big work in progress,” said Darcy Ogada, a Kenya-based database coordinator and assistant director of Africa programs at The Peregrine Fund, a conservation group. The goal, Ogada said, is to get governments to pay more attention to the “underground world” of wildlife poisoning that also threatens livestock, water sources and people who eat meat from birds and other poisoned animals.

Poachers with guns have killed hundreds of thousands of elephants and thousands of rhinos in Africa in past years, but wildlife traffickers have increasingly laced carcasses with poison to target vultures that circle overhead and can draw the attention of anti-poaching rangers. Previously, poisons such as strychnine were primarily used by farmers to kill jackals, wild dogs and other predators that attack livestock, though some landowners and communities have responded positively to anti-poison campaigns.

In 2013, between 400 and 600 vultures died after feeding on the poisoned carcass of an elephant that was killed for its ivory in Namibia’s Zambezi area, said Andre Botha, a poisoning database manager and special projects manager at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a South African group.

“This is the highest number of vultures killed in a single poisoning incident that we have on the database to date,” Botha said.

Some of Africa’s species of vulture, whose body parts are also precious in traditional medicine in parts of the continent, are listed as critically endangered. South Asian vulture populations are a fraction of what they were, largely because of feeding on carcasses of livestock treated with diclofenac, a veterinary drug that is toxic to vultures. Government bans on the drug, however, helped level those declines.

African lions are in peril partly because of human encroachment on habitats and the poaching of animals for food, which deprives lions of prey. The killing of lions by poison, once largely a result of livestock owners trying to protect their herds, appears to reflect growing local and Asian demand for lion claws, bones and other parts used in traditional medicine, according to Botha.

“What we see now is people purposely going out and targeting lions,” he said. Some 70 were poisoned in southern Africa since last year, Botha said. The database reports a total of 51 lion poisonings between 1980 and 2015.

In July, officials in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park on the border with South Africa found poacher tracks, bait laced with poison, and the carcasses of three lions and a hyena, according to the Peace Parks Foundation, which develops cross-border conservation areas. It said authorities believe poachers used a substance containing the pesticide aldicarb, which South Africa banned because of its environmental threat.

Another pesticide, carbofuran, is the “abused product of choice” in countries including Botswana, Tanzania and Kenya, said Tim Snow, a South African conservationist who helps train southern African rangers in how to deal with poisoning sites by wearing surgical gloves for their own safety and collecting samples for study in a laboratory.

He said poachers in Zimbabwe have killed more than 90 elephants since 2015 by poisoning water sources with cyanide, a chemical used to extract gold from ore. Authorities have seized cyanide stashes from vehicles at police roadblocks and a warehouse in Bulawayo city, Snow said.

Educating communities about the environmental fallout from poisoning wildlife is key, said Mark Anderson, CEO of BirdLife South Africa. Banning poisons, he said, has a limited impact because “there’s an unlimited supply and variety of poisons that can be used.”
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British Banker Convicted of Double Murder in Hong Kong to Appeal

Posted on by SeeEU

A British banker convicted last year for the gruesome murders of two Indonesian women is planning to appeal his life sentence.

The lawyer for Rurik Jutting says a hearing on his client’s appeal has been scheduled for December 12.

A jury found Jutting guilty of the 2014 murders of Sumarti Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih in his luxury apartment. Jurors were shown graphic video Jutting took on his cellphone of him torturing Sumarti and snorting cocaine. The body of one of the murdered women was discovered stuffed in a suitcase.

The court rejected Jutting’s attempt to plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility from alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual disorders.

Jutting’s lawyer says the appeal focuses on the directions given to the jury by the deputy judge.

 

 
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Interpol Approves Palestinian Membership; new Blow to Israel

Posted on by SeeEU

International police agency Interpol voted Wednesday to include Palestine as a member state, in a new boost to Palestinian efforts for international recognition and influence amid long-stalled negotiations with Israel for full statehood.

Interpol announced the inclusion of the “State of Palestine” as well as the Solomon Islands on Twitter and its website Wednesday after a vote by its general assembly in Beijing.

With the new votes, Interpol will have 192 member countries. Interpol didn’t immediately announce how many members supported Palestinian membership.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki hailed the vote as a “victory for law enforcement” and “voice of confidence in the capacity of law enforcement in Palestine.” He promised to uphold Palestinian commitments to combating crime and strengthening the rule of law.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office didn’t immediately comment on the vote, which comes after Palestinians won recognition in other world bodies. Opponents say recognizing Palestine in international organizations undermines negotiations with Israel for full statehood.

Zeev Elkin, Israel’s Minister of Environmental Protection and a close associate of Netanyahu, said in retaliation for the Palestinians joining Interpol, Israel should cancel gestures granted to the Palestinians, including work and entry permits, and special travel permits for Palestinian leaders.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called it “another failure” for Netanyahu.

The U.N. General Assembly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012. UNESCO approved it as a full member in 2011, prompting the U.S. and Israel to suspend funding of the U.N. cultural agency.

The Palestinian prime minister applied for Interpol membership in 2015, and submitted a formal letter this July promising not to use the organization “for any political, military, racial or religious interventions or activities” and promising to cooperate with Interpol activities, according to minutes of the Interpol meeting.

The approval vote requires the Palestinians to pay membership dues worth 0.03 percent of the Interpol budget.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, is an international clearing house for arrest warrants and police cooperation against cross-border terrorism, trafficking and other crime.
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Lawsuit Filed Against Houston Officials for Rape Kit Backlog

Posted on by SeeUS

Women and minors whose rape kits languished in Houston Police Department storage rooms have filed a class action lawsuit against current and former Houston officials, alleging that the delay in testing the kits undermined their legal cases and allowed accused perpetrators to remain free.

 

In a complaint filed Sunday, named plaintiff Dejenay Beckwith said that if the rape kits of prior victims of her assailant had been promptly tested, she may not have been raped in 2011.

 

No arrest was made until 2016, when Beckwith’s rape kit was finally tested and matched the DNA of her assailant, David Lee Cooper.

 

In late 2016, Cooper pleaded guilty to the 2002 sexual assault of a child, a 2009 sex assault and Beckwith’s assault in 2011.

 

Houston police discovered a large cache of about 6,600 untested rape kits — some dating to the 1980s — in 2009, as it prepared to transfer materials to a newly built storage facility.

 

Rape kits are a series of DNA samplings and other evidence secured via medical procedures conducted immediately after an attack. Experts say testing them promptly and comparing them to federal DNA databases for hits is crucial because as many as half of all sex offenders are serial rapists who sometimes travel.

 

“When you test a kit, you not only get information about the case that’s being reported to you right now,” said Chris Kaiser, director of public policy and general counsel at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault. “You start getting DNA profiles that in fact match John Doe profiles that have been in the DNA databases from years back.”

 

In Houston, the backlog was cleared with help from a grant from the National Institute of Justice. The project, which cost about $6 million, turned up 850 matches in a national DNA database.

 

The Houston Forensic Science Center, which took over the city’s forensic testing operations in 2014, “has worked ceaselessly to eliminate backlogs, decrease turnaround times and provide the justice system with the right answer at the right time,” chief executive Dr. Peter Stout, who along with the center is named in the lawsuit, said in a statement Tuesday.

 

Stout added that staffers are working to sustain a 30-day turnaround time for sex assault and all other evidence.

 

The suit seeks unspecified compensation for victims and a jury trial.

 

 
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Climate Change May Spell Hotter Summers for Southern Europe

Posted on by SeeEU

Researchers say the likelihood of scorching summer temperatures in southern Europe is increasing because of man-made climate change.

Hotter-than-usual temperatures in the Mediterranean region – including an August heatwave in Italy and the Balkans dubbed ‘Lucifer’ – resulted in higher hospital admissions, numerous forest fires and widespread economic losses this summer.

The World Weather Attribution team says it combined temperature measurements and computer simulations, concluding that greenhouse gas emissions linked to human activity have increased the chances of such heatwaves four-to-tenfold.

They warned Wednesday that summers like this one could become the norm in the Euro-Mediterranean region by 2050 if emissions continue to rise.

The team’s techniques are widely accepted among scientists as a means of determining whether climate change plays a role in extreme events.
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Perpetrators of Crimes in DRC Escape Justice

Posted on by SeeAF

In a scathing report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, a senior U.N. official accuses the Democratic Republic of Congo of turning a blind eye to systematic and gross violations of human rights committed by its security forces.

The report describes a justice system that shows no independence and allows impunity to flourish, leading to further violence against the people of Democratic Republic of Congo.

In her presentation to the Council, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore criticized the government of President Joseph Kabila for failing to live up to an agreement to pave the way for presidential elections this year and a peaceful transfer of power.

Instead of showing greater respect for human rights and freedom of expression, she says the government has become more repressive.

“What followed was a general ban on the activities of the opposition and on the activities of civil society. What followed was continued targeting of political opponents, of human rights defenders and of journalists — relentless targeting,” she said.

Gilmore says insecurity has increased across the country. She says violence has erupted in North and South Kivu and Tanganyika and in the southern provinces of the Kasai region on a scale not seen for many years.

“As a consequence of the country’s conflicts, there are scattered across the Democratic Republic of Congo a staggering 3.8 million Internally Displaced Persons — the highest number in all of Africa,” she said.

Earlier this year, the U.N.’s call for an international investigation into widespread human rights violations, including 42 mass graves in the Kasai region, was rejected by the DRC.

In what appears to be a turnabout, the DRC’s Minister of Human Rights, Marie-Ange Mushobekwa, told the Council her government would welcome investigations in the Kasai region by the international team of experts appointed by the Council.

 

 

 
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