Month: December 2017

Trump to Announce US Recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli Capital, Move Embassy

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President Donald Trump plans to announce Wednesday that the United States is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv.

The decision is likely to cause an uproar throughout the Arab world. But the White House says Trump is merely recognizing what it calls a historic and modern reality.

To soften what could be a hard blow, Trump telephoned five Middle East leaders Tuesday to brief them on his decision — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

A White House statement gave few details of the conversations except to say, “The leaders also discussed potential decisions regarding Jerusalem.” It added that Trump reaffirmed his commitment to advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

White House officials said late Tuesday that Trump recognized Jerusalem is not only the historic capital of the Jewish people, it has been the seat of the Israeli government since the founding of modern Israel in 1948.

The officials said the president would order the State Department to start making plans to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv. They said it would take years to find a site, secure funding and construct a new building. Until then, Trump will sign the usual waiver postponing the relocation.

Under a law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995, the embassy must be relocated to Jerusalem unless the president signs a waiver every six months stating that moving the embassy would threaten U.S. national security. Every president since Clinton has signed the waiver, including Trump.

Dennis Ross was U.S. point man on the Middle East peace process under three presidents and worked with Israelis and Palestinians to reach the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1995. He said Tuesday that Trump appeared to be leaving a lot of room for both Israelis and Arabs to maneuver in the new environment.

“It’s very important for the president to create a lot of ‘handles’ or ‘hooks’ for our friends to say, fundamentally, this does not change the ability of Palestinians, the Arabs who tend to see Jerusalem not just (as) a Palestinian issue but a regional issue, that their position, their concern, their claim still has to be part of the negotiation process and that hasn’t been pre-empted,” Ross said in a briefing for reporters. “That seems to me to be the key to this.”

Some officials in Washington expressed concern about the potential for a violent backlash against Israel and American interests in the region as a result of Trump’s announcement.

Input from Tillerson

When asked whether Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “on board” with a decision that could put U.S. citizens and troops in the Middle East at risk, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the secretary “has made his positions clear to the White House. I think the Department of Defense has as well. But it is ultimately the president’s decision to make. He is in charge.”

In a security message released Tuesday, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, noting widespread calls for demonstrations this week, barred personal travel by American government workers and their families in Jerusalem’s Old City and West Bank, including Bethlehem and Jericho, until further notice.

U.S. embassies worldwide also were ordered to increase security.

White House officials said that in recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, Trump would be fulfilling a major campaign promise. They said the physical location of the U.S. Embassy was no impediment toward negotiating a final peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. 

The officials said by moving the embassy, the president is not making a decision on any boundaries or sovereignty in Jerusalem. Those are matters to be negotiated as part of a two-state solution — something the officials say Trump believes is within reach.

The officials said Trump was encouraged by the progress made my his Middle East peace team, even if whatever progress has been made may not be apparent. 

Seized in 1967

Israel seized control over Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. It later annexed East Jerusalem. Israel has always said an undivided Jerusalem is its eternal capital. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Jerusalem is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest place in Islam. For Jews, it is the Temple Mount, the holiest site of all.

Arab and Muslim states have warned that any decision to move the U.S. Embassy could inflame tensions in the region and destroy U.S. efforts to reach an Arab-Israeli peace agreement.

Senior Palestinian leader Nabil Shaath said Trump would no longer be seen as a credible mediator. “The Palestinian Authority does not condone violence, but it may not be able to control the street and prevent a third Palestinian uprising,” he said, speaking in Arabic.

Gerald Feierstein, director for Gulf affairs and government relations at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the level of anger the announcement might provoke depends greatly on how Trump presents the issue.

“If the president just says, ‘We recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,’ without trying to define it further and without actually beginning the process of moving the embassy, then it’s a big nothingburger,” he told VOA.

Feierstein, who served as U.S. ambassador to Yemen, and later as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs under former President Barack Obama, said if Trump went any further, it could trigger a backlash and deal a crushing blow to peace efforts.

“If what he says is perceived as, or is in fact, a recognition of all of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and he is no longer maintaining the international position that Jerusalem is to be divided and that East Jerusalem is to become the capital of the Palestinian state once there is an agreement, then that is going to have a very negative effect on the peace process,” Feierstein said.

“So the devil is in the details about how significant this is going to be,” he said.

VOA’s Cindy Saine at the State Department contributed to this report.
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VOA Interview: Former US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley Weighs In on Middle East, North Korea

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Former US National Security Adviser to George W. Bush, Stephen Hadley, says the new Saudi crown prince is doing things that “American policymakers have been waiting decades for a Saudi leader to do.” In an interview with VOA Contributor Greta Van Susteren, Hadley said Mohammed bin Salman is a “visionary who is impatient” and will “break a lot of eggs” to get the country where he wants it to be.
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Germany Train Crash Injures Nearly 50

Posted on by SeeEU

Nearly 50 people were injured Tuesday near Duesseldorf, Germany,  when a passenger train collided with a freight train in the suburb of Meerbusch.

Authorities say the train carrying 155 people hit the freight train Tuesday evening, west of Duesseldorf, causing serious injuries to at least three people, moderate injury to three more, and minor injuries to at least 41 other people. Rescue personnel are on the scene.

The initial estimates of injury were lower; Deutsche Bahn rail company, which operated the passenger train, first estimated only five people had been hurt, then raised the estimate to nearly 50.

The train was a commuter train run by a subsidiary of the British-owned National Express. National Express’s first estimate of the number of injured was 20. The reason for the difference in estimates is not yet clear.
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3 Charged in Malta in Slaying of Anti-corruption Journalist

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Three men were charged in Malta on Tuesday with murder in connection with a car bomb blast that killed anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, a statement read in court said.

Caruana Galizia, 53, died instantly when her car was blown up as she drove out of her home on October 16, a killing that shocked Malta and raised concern within the European Union about the rule of law on the tiny Mediterranean island.

 

The three men charged, Vince Muscat and brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, all pleaded not guilty. It was not immediately clear whether police thought they had acted on their own or were hitmen working for others.

Caruana Galizia wrote a popular blog in which she relentlessly highlighted cases of alleged graft targeting politicians of all colors, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Vince Muscat was not a relative.

Police arrested 10 men on Monday in connection with the investigation into the killing. It was not clear whether the remaining seven suspects would be released or be charged later. 

A close friend of Caruana Galizia told Reuters that she did not think the journalist had ever investigated the three men charged Tuesday.
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Coalition Says Fewer Than 3,000 IS Fighters Remain in Iraq and Syria

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The United States-led international coalition fighting Islamic State estimates that fewer than 3,000 fighters belonging to the hardline Sunni militant group remain in Iraq and Syria, its spokesman said on Tuesday.

Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate has crumbled this year in Syria and Iraq, with the group losing the cities of Mosul, Raqqa and swaths of other territory.

“Current estimates are that there are less than 3,000 #Daesh fighters left — they still remain a threat, but we will continue to support our partner forces to defeat them,” U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon tweeted, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Dillon’s tweet was part of his responses to an online question and answer session in which he also said the coalition had trained 125,000 members of Iraqi security forces, 22,000 of which were Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

When asked if the United States planned to build permanent military bases in Iraq or Syria with the defeat of Islamic State, Dillon said it would not. “No — the Government of #Iraq knows where and how many from Coalition are here to support operation to defeat #Daesh; all bases are #Iraqi led,” he tweeted.

 
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Jobless Senegalese Migrants Likely to Head for Europe Again

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Thousands of migrants flown back from Libya are likely to attempt the perilous journey to Europe again unless they find jobs at home, Senegal said Tuesday, after reports that slave traders were selling Africans in markets.

The West African country has some of the highest numbers of young men who get trafficked, imprisoned and sold in lawless Libya while trying to reach Europe, according to the United Nations migration agency.

“If we don’t provide for their needs, they’ll leave again,” said Mariama Cisse, who coordinates government programs for returnees, including job training, loans and community projects.

“At the moment we cannot cover all the needs,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The trafficking and enslavement of African migrants has been in the spotlight after footage broadcast by CNN last month appeared to show Africans being sold in Libya, sparking a global outcry and protests across Europe and Africa.

Since then, countries such as Senegal have pushed to bring their nationals home.

Senegal is a stable democracy, but its rural villages have emptied of young men who are unemployed and see Europe as the only means to a better life.

“I cannot stay in this country and watch my parents suffer,” said Djiby Diouf, one of 162 migrants who returned from Libya on Tuesday on a charter flight organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the government.

Tortured, burned

The 25-year-old electrician had hoped to find a job in Europe and send money back home. But he was tortured in Libyan detention centers for a year and suffered severe burns from gasoline that spilled on him in a boat that capsized while crossing the Mediterranean, he said.

Diouf plans to stay home only long enough to recover from his injuries.

“If the state doesn’t help us, I will leave again,” he said.

Other migrants on the flight said they were unsure of their plans, while several said that they would be content to stay in Senegal and try to get by.

To stem the tide of departures, the European Union has given Senegal over 160 million euros ($189 million) for youth opportunities, reintegration and development projects, IOM’s chief of mission in Senegal, Jo-Lind Roberts, said.

But returnees in need of assistance are increasing, with many more expected in the coming months, she said.

More than 2,600 Senegalese migrants have flown home this year with IOM’s voluntary repatriation scheme, compared with about 1,800 in all of 2016.

“It would be ideal for additional support for reintegration programs to be set up,” Roberts said.
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Somalia’s Puntland Region Declares State of Emergency Over Drought

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Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland declared a state of emergency Tuesday and appealed for food and water because of shortages triggered by a severe drought.

Drought has gripped large parts of the Horn of Africa country this year and the United Nations says children face acute malnutrition.

The crisis is compounded by al-Shabab’s Islamist insurgency that seeks to topple the central government that is backed by African Union peacekeepers and the West.

Al-Shabab militants carry out bombings in the capital Mogadishu and other regions. Militants killed more than 500 people in the capital in an attack last month.

Puntland’s government said 34,000 households across the region are affected by the drought due to the failure of successive rainy seasons.

Puntland “launched a wide-ranging humanitarian appeal to secure food, water and other resources for the affected region,” a government statement said. It said 70 percent of the area faced extreme drought and was unlikely to receive rain for five months.

Militant attacks in Puntland are rare compared to the rest of Somalia mainly because its security forces are relatively regularly paid and receive substantial U.S. assistance.

But this year there has been an upsurge in violence as al-Shabab and a splinter group linked to Islamic State have attacked government troops.
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US Africa Command Official Discusses Mission, Threats in Africa

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The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) is responsible for U.S. military operations in, and relations with, the 53 nations on the African continent. Through multinational exercises and military-to-military engagements, AFRICOM is intended to strengthen relationships with its African partner nations to build the defense capabilities of their security forces. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb spoke with one of AFRICOM’s senior officials.
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Saakashvili Detained After Apartment Search in Kyiv

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Ukrainian security forces stormed Mikheil Saakashvili’s Kyiv apartment and arrested the former Odesa governor, now an adamant opponent of President Petro Poroshenko, accusing him of criminal ties with ousted ex-leader Viktor Yanukovych.

Police used tear gas or pepper spray on protesters and Saakashvili appeared on the roof of the building during the drama, shaking his fist and accusing Poroshenko of being a traitor and a thief before being dragged away by security forces.

As the events unfolded in the street, Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko alleged at a briefing that an “organized crime” group led by Yanukovych, who is in exile in Russia, have financed protests organized by Saakashvili.

Saakashvili’s detainment prompted clashes between law enforcement officers in riot gear and supporters of the former Georgian president, who urged “all Ukrainians to take to the streets and drive out the thieves.”

“Do not let lawlessness happen. Do not let chaos happen. Do not let Poroshenko and his gang continue the robbery,” he said. “Ukraine is under a real threat. These people have completely usurped power.”

Shouting and shoving matches ensued, and after police hauled Saakashvili into a blue van, supporters attempted to lie in the street to keep him from being taken away.

Hours later, more than 1,000 supporters were on the scene, along with dozens of police, and cars were wedged close together in an effort to keep the van from moving away. The street was blocked with a makeshift barricade.

The commotion began shortly after 7 a.m. and was first made public by Saakashvili associate David Sakvarelidze.

“They’re breaking down the door at Mikheil Saakashvili’s home!” he wrote on Facebook, giving the address and apartment number.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said that Saakashvili’s residence was being searched as part of a criminal inquiry conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

“Investigative procedures are indeed taking place. SBU officers are providing investigative support to a criminal inquiry of the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office,” SBU spokeswoman Olena Hitlyanska told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service.

 

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Hitlyanska did not specify the nature of the criminal inquiry, but the SBU later said Saakashvili was accused of “complicity with members of criminal organizations and concealing their activity by providing premises and by other means.”

At a news briefing, Lutsenko alleged that Saakashvili has held protests financed by allies of Yanukovych, who was pushed from power by pro-European protests in February 2014 and fled to Russia.

The prosecutor-general said the alleged Yanukovych allies included Serhiy Kurchenko, a businessman who also fled to Russia, and claimed that Saakashvili had received $500,000 in a bank transfer from Russia.

As the search unfolded, live videos shared on social media showed a chaotic and sometimes violent scene outside Saakashvili’s building, steps away from Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square — the focal point of the Euromaidan protests.

A shoving match between law enforcement agents and supporters of Saakashvili ensued as the latter tried to push their way into the apartment.

Saakashvili appeared on the roof, and officers quickly seized him and moved him away from the ledge before bringing him out of the building.

Video on Facebook showed dozens of riot police around the apartment building preventing people from entering.

 

Live at the Saakashvili showdown in Kyiv. Turning violent. Police using tear gas on provocative protesters. https://t.co/tg0eNGaZCU

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 5, 2017

 

The search of Saakashvili’s home was conducted two days after his Movement of New Forces party organized a rally in Kyiv calling for Poroshenko’s impeachment and for legislation that would allow it to take place. Poroshenko has accused the protest organizers of seeking to destabilize Ukraine, which is struggling with economic troubles and a deadly conflict with Russia-backed separatists in two eastern provinces.

Saakashvili was swept to power in Georgia’s peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003 and served as president of Georgia from 2004-13. He conducted major reforms and fought corruption in the former Soviet republic but was accused of abusing his power and is wanted in his home country on suspicion of trying to organize a coup there after leaving office, an allegation he denies.

In the wake of the Euromaidan protests that brought a pro-Western government to power in Ukraine, Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili — an acquaintance from university days — as governor of the Odesa region in 2015. Saakashvili surrendered his Georgian citizenship to take the post.

But Saakashvili resigned in November 2016, saying his reform efforts had been blocked by Poroshenko’s allies, and went into the opposition. Saakashvili was then stripped of Ukrainian citizenship by Poroshenko while he was in the United States in June 2017, a move he is challenging in court.

Weeks later, Saakashvili forced his way back into Ukraine and was found guilty of violating the state border. He paid a fine and has since been touring the country, speaking out against Poroshenko and trying to garner support for his fledgling political party, Movement of New Forces.

Saakashvili has indicated he wants to be Ukraine’s next prime minister, a post that he could theoretically hold as it is a position appointed by the president upon ratification by parliament. With his citizenship status in flux, under current law he is forbidden from officially running for president.

While well-known across Ukraine, Saakashvili and his party enjoy little public support, with nearly all polls showing putting them at around 1-2 percent.

Saakashvili recently claimed that Poroshenko was planning to force him to flee to another country to avoid extradition to Georgia.

During the rally on December 3, Saakashvili alleged in comments to Georgia’s Rustavi-2 television that Poroshenko and former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili have “agreed that a sentence on trumped-up charges will be quickly issued next week.”

Poroshenko’s office has not commented on the allegations or Saakashvili’s detention on December 5.
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Protected but Stifled, a Pakistani Minority Feels Imprisoned in its Own Community

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Ali Haris dreamed of getting a college degree and a well-paid job. Instead, he had to quit his education after high school. Going to Balochistan University, the only public university in the area that he could afford, would require him to travel through areas unsafe for him, putting his life at risk.

“At that time, around 2013-14, there was no chance that if we went there we would come back alive,” he said. He wasn’t alone in giving up the prospects of a comfortable future.

“Out of my class in school, almost 70-80 percent quit higher education,” he added. Some who could afford it migrated to other cities or other countries. The ones left behind were doing odd jobs in the area.

The 21-year-old belonged to the Hazara community, a minority Shiite sect that primarily resides in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. For years, Sunni militant groups in Pakistan have targeted Shiites across the country for their faith, but the Hazaras seem to have an extra-large target blazed on their backs, and for good reason.

While it is usually hard to physically distinguish between Shiites and Sunnis, the Hazaras are an exception. Their distinctive facial features, a mixture of Mongolian and Central Asian ancestry, make them easily identifiable. In addition, many of them live in two large clusters in Quetta, the capital city of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, making attacks easier to plan.

Over the last ten or so years, hundreds have been killed in suicide bombings or targeted attacks. Stories of near death experiences are aplenty.

“We were saved just because the car took a turn. If we were a few seconds late, we would be gone,” said Daud Changezi, describing the day when a massive blast ripped through Quetta’s Alamdar road, killing more than 90 people. In the car with Changezi were his wife and four kids.

He now works from home, consulting for various NGOs, but feels his professional growth has stagnated.

“The favorite part of my job was field work. Now I can’t go out,” he said, although he still feels he is one of the luckier ones—at least he has a job. Many of his friends were less fortunate. 

“My friend Abdul had a mobile phone shop in the main bazaar, but he closed his business and left the country. He is now in Indonesia, in a transit center for refugees,” Changezi said.

Protection for Hazaras 

After several particularly heinous attacks in 2013, the government started providing Hazaras extra protection. A paramilitary force called the Frontier Corps set up check posts at main entrances to Hazara areas. Anyone going inside is now stopped, their identity documents checked. Peripheral entrances are blocked by thick walls.

While these measures have helped stem attacks on Hazaras, they have also stifled the community’s social and economic life. The designated safe areas for Hazaras mean the rest of the city is inherently unsafe for them.

“We’ve been economically strangled. We had a lot of shops around town. Now there are none. We had a successful transport business across town. Now we are limited to our own areas,” said Ahmed Ali Kohzad, a politician and a member of the Hazara Democratic Party.

Many have left their jobs because they feel unsafe traveling to work. Haris recalled how one of his friends was called for a job interview. It could be a lucrative career in a government office. But he was the only son and the family decided against sending him.

Others, like a local journalist Qadir Nayel, complained of social isolation.

“While the city is multi-cultural, our kids are learning only one culture and one language. They are not getting ready for the world,” he said. 

The government says it has taken remedial steps and the situation has significantly improved as a result.

Since the beginning of the violence, several thousand Hazaras from Pakistan have tried to migrate to other countries, sometimes illegally. Several thousands of them are languishing, along with Hazaras from Afghanistan and Iran, in transit camps in Indonesia, waiting, sometimes for years, for the UNHCR to help them settle in another country. Meanwhile, since Indonesia does not recognize refugees, they cannot enroll in a school, work, or travel.

Meanwhile back in Pakistan, the young Hazara men who once hoped to support families are now struggling to support themselves.

“Right now I am working here as a laborer, Haris said. “The dreams I had, the prospects of income I imagined, they’re all gone.”
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Southern California Fire Forces Thousands to Evacuate

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Ferocious winds in Southern California whipped up an explosive wildfire that forced thousands of homes to evacuate and could soon threaten a city of more than 100,000, authorities said.

The blaze broke out Monday and grew wildly to more than 15 square miles in the hours that followed, consuming vegetation that hasn’t burned in decades, Ventura County Fire Sgt. Eric Buschow said.

The winds were pushing it toward Santa Paula, a city of some 30,000 people about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Most of the evacuated homes were in that city.

Authorities said that the city of Ventura, which is 12 miles southwest and has 106,000 residents, was likely to feel the effects soon.

“The fire growth is just absolutely exponential,” Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said. “All that firefighters can do when we have winds like this is get out ahead, evacuate people, and protect structures.”

Thomas Aquinas College, a school with about 350 students, has also been evacuated, with students going to their own homes or to those of faculty and staff, the college said in a statement.

One person was killed in an auto accident associated with the fire, officials said. They gave no further details.

At least two structures have burned so far, sheriff’s officials said.

Winds exceeding 40 mph and gusts over 60 mph have been reported in the area and are expected to continue, the National Weather Service said.

Firefighters and aircraft from neighboring Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties were pouring in to help, though the darkness and winds forced the grounding of planes late Monday night.

Thousands of homes were without power in the area.
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UN Official Begins Rare Diplomatic Mission to North Korea

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A high-ranking United Nations official has arrived in North Korea to help lower tensions over the secretive regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile testing programs.

Jeffrey Feltman, the world body’s undersecretary-general for political affairs, left for Pyongyang Tuesday after a stopover in Beijing the day before. Feltman is the first U.N. official holding that rank to visit the isolated regime since his predecessor, Lynn Pascoe, in 2010.  

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday that Feltman will discuss “issues of mutual interest and concern” with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Minister Pak Myong Guk during his visit, which ends on Friday.  

Feltman’s visit comes less than a week after Pyongyang announced it had successfully test fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the U.S. mainland. The launch heightened tensions between the North and the United States, highlighted by months of insults between the regime and President Donald Trump.  

The visit also coincides with a joint U.S.-South Korea air force exercise that began Monday.

Dujarric said Pyongyang issued an invitation for Feltman to visit back in September, during the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.  

Feltman will also meet with the heads of various U.N. humanitarian programs operating in North Korea, including UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the U.N. Population Fund.  But Dujarric would not say if Feltman would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his trip. 
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Concerns Deepen in Yemen With Killing of Former President Saleh

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The United Nation’s envoy for Yemen is due to brief members of the Security Council on Tuesday, a day after rebels killed the country’s former president and their former ally, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and following a spike in violence in the capital with the dissolution of their alliance.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters he expected envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed to discuss the political implications of Saleh’s killing.

“It obviously adds an extreme level of complexity to already a very difficult political situation,” Dujarric said. He reiterated that the world body stands ready to broker a negotiated halt to the conflict that has left 10,000 people dead and millions in desperate need of humanitarian aid in Yemen since 2014.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, called for a humanitarian cease-fire on Tuesday to allow civilians to seek assistance.

“The streets of Sana’a city have become battlegrounds and people are trapped in their homes, unable to move out in search of safety and medical care and to access basic supplies such as food, fuel and safe water,” McGoldrick said in a statement.

Saleh ruled Yemen for more than three decades before he was ousted under popular and political pressure in 2012, but continued to wield power behind the scenes, forming an alliance with the Iran-backed Houthis as they seized control of Sana’a in 2014 and forced President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi into exile.

Saleh’s death Monday capped a dramatic stretch of days that followed him denouncing the Houthis and suggesting restoring ties with Saudi Arabia, which for two years has led a military coalition in support of Hadi.

“He was martyred in the defense of the republic,” said Faiqa al-Sayyid, a leader of the General People’s Congress, blaming Houthi rebels for Saleh’s killing in south Sana’a.

The rebels said Saleh was on his way to Saudi Arabia when he was killed, calling his death the foiling of what they claim was his attempt at a “coup” against “an alliance he never believed in.”

In a televised speech, Houthi leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi called Saleh’s killing a “dark day for the forces of the coalition.”

Hadi, in his own address from Saudi Arabia, called on Yemeni people in Houthi-controlled areas to rise up against the rebels.

Clashes between fighters loyal to Saleh and the Houthis first erupted last week when Saleh accused the rebels of storming his giant mosque in Sana’a and attacking his nephew, the powerful commander of the special forces, Tarek Saleh.

Middle East Institute scholar Zubair Iqbal told VOA that Saleh went too far in supporting the group led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and wrongly expected those countries to provide forces to reinforce his own.

“Now the Houthis will never agree to anything that comes from the side of Saleh or his family or his friends,” Iqbal said.

Victor Beattie in Washington contributed to this report
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Russia Designates 9 US Media Outlets as Foreign Agents

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Russia’s justice ministry on Tuesday designated nine U.S. media outlets, including the Voice Of America, as “foreign agents.”

The ministry also listed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and several of its affiliates, after warning last month they could be affected.  

RFE/RL president Tom Kent said in a statement that the Russian Ministry of Justice indicated the new designation will involve more “limitations” on the work of its company in Russia.  He added that  “the full nature of these limitations is unknown,”  but vowed that the network remains “committed to continuing our journalistic work, in the interests of providing accurate and objective news to our Russian-speaking audiences.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law in November empowering the government to designate media outlets receiving funding from abroad as “foreign agents” and impose sanctions against them.

Russian officials have called the new legislation a “symmetrical response” to what they describe as U.S. pressure on Russian media. On November 13, Russian state-funded television channel  RT registered as a foreign agent in the United States under a decades-old law called the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman said FARA is aimed at promoting transparency but does not restrict the television network’s operation in the United States.

The U.S. State Department has condemned Russia’s law, saying it obstructs press freedom.

“New Russian legislation that allows the Ministry of Justice to label media outlets as ‘foreign agents’ and to monitor or block certain internet activity presents yet another threat to free media in Russia,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement last month.

 
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Trump Shrinks Two National Monuments In Utah

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U.S. President Donald Trump has reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, despite the objections of Native American and other groups who want the land to remain under the federal government protection. In a speech Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah, Trump announced he is returning more than 80 percent of Bears Ears land and close to 50 percent of Grand Stairs-Escalante to the state control. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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For Opioid Addicts, Recovery Is a Long Hard Road

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The opioid crisis in the U.S. has destroyed the lives of thousands of people, tearing apart families and communities. For addicts, the road to recovery is long and hard and often fraught with many setbacks. It is estimated just three percent of substance abusers manage to stay clean for a lifetime. Jeff Swicord profiles one opioid user who is battling for her sobriety at a residential rehabilitation center in Miami, Florida
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Syria Says it Shot Down 3 Israeli Missiles Near Damascus

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Syria’s state news agency says Syrian air defense has shot down three Israeli missiles that were targeting a military post near the capital, Damascus.

SANA says the attack occurred early on Tuesday but hasn’t said whether there were casualties.

The attack comes three days after Syria said Israel fired several surface-to-surface missiles at a military post near Damascus, causing material damage but no casualties.

There was no Israeli comment on the incident.

The opposition’s Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was an Israeli airstrike on the Damascus suburb of Jamraya, which is home to a government research center.

Israel has carried out a number of airstrikes against suspected arms shipments believed to be bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces.
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Trump Delays Announcement on Whether US Embassy to Be Moved to Jerusalem

Posted on by SeeEA

President Donald Trump will not announce a decision on Monday on whether he will again delay moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a White House spokesman said, despite Monday’s deadline for doing so.

An announcement on the decision will be made “in coming days,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One as Trump was returning from a trip to Utah.

Temporary order expected

Trump had been due to decide whether to sign a waiver that would hold off relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv for another six months, as every U.S. president has done since Congress passed a law on the issue in 1995.

Senior U.S. officials have said that Trump is expected to issue a temporary order, the second since he took office, to delay moving the embassy despite his campaign pledge to go ahead with the controversial action.

No final decision yet  

But the officials have said Trump is likely to give a speech on Wednesday unilaterally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a step that would break with decades of U.S. policy and could fuel violence in the Middle East. They have said, however, that no final decisions have been made.

“The president has been clear on this issue from the get-go; that it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when,” Gidley said.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the international community does not recognize Israel’s claim on all of the city, home to sites holy to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religions.

 
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Mission Chief: Somalia’s Peacekeeping Mission Could Be Hurt by Cut in Force Size

Posted on by SeeAF

The African Union’s plan to trim its Somalia peacekeeping force (AMISOM) will hurt the mission unless extra equipment is found to offset the troop decrease, the mission’s leader told Reuters on Monday.

The force of 22,000 deployed a decade ago is set to lose 1,000 soldiers this year as part of a long-term plan to pull out of the country and hand security to the Somali army.

AMISOM is confronting the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, whose ranks have been swelled by Islamic State fighters fleeing military setbacks in Libya and Syria.

Militants killed more than 500 people in an attack in the capital Mogadishu last month. It was the deadliest such attack in the country’s recent history.

AMISOM deployed to help secure the government of a country that since 1991 has struggled to establish central control. The peacekeepers helped push al Shabaab out of Mogadishu but the group still frequently attacks civilian and military targets.

“Unless we have a proportionate forces multiplier in terms of equipment … intelligence, electronic intelligence, that (withdrawal) will have a very considerable effect on our mission,” AMISOM head Fransisco Madeira told Reuters.

“We believe the U.N. will find ways and means of covering or making up the gap that might result.”

The diplomat from Mozambique was speaking on the sidelines of a security conference in Mogadishu. He said it was hard to estimate the number of al-Shabab fighters.

Somalia’s minister of internal security Mohamed Abukar Islow told Reuters the government wants the lifting of an arms embargo “so that our forces get enough weapons and military equipment.”

The United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Somalia shortly after the nation plunged into civil war in the early 1990s. It partially lifted the ban in 2013 to help equip government forces.
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Iraq Child Marriage Bill Draws UN Ire

Posted on by SeeEA

A proposed law that could allow marriage for children as young as 9 years old in Iraq would rob boys and girls already scarred by war of their childhoods, top U.N. officials said Monday.

The bill, which would allow religious leaders to govern marriage contracts and wed children, has prompted public demonstrations by women’s rights groups and activists in Iraq.

“The boys and girls of Iraq, already victims of grave violations resulting from years of conflict, are now at risk of being deprived of their childhood,” Virginia Gamba, U.N. children and armed conflict envoy, said in a statement.

“The government of Iraq must take all necessary actions to protect every child by preventing the adoption of policies that can harm children already exposed to armed conflict,” she said.

About one in five girls is married before turning 18 in Iraq, where the legal age for marriage is 18 but girls can wed at 15 with parental consent, according to the United Nations’ children’s agency (UNICEF) and global charity Girls Not Brides.

Around the world, 15 million girls are married before the age of 18 every year, according to Girls Not Brides. The proposal in Iraq, which opponents say could allow the marriage of children as young as 9 or at puberty in some religious sects, has been approved in principle by the Council of Representatives, the country’s legislature, local media says.

The draft amendment to Iraq’s personal status law could fuel infighting as the nation deals with the scars of Islamic State and conflict-related sexual violence, said Gamba and Pramila Patten, U.N. special envoy on sexual violence in conflict.

They called for a law setting a minimum age for marriage of 18.
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One of World’s Largest Diamonds Fetches $6.5M to Aid Sierra Leone

Posted on by SeeAF

One of the world’s largest diamonds was sold for $6.5 million by Sierra Leone on Monday to fund local development projects, dealing a blow to smugglers in the West African nation.

The egg-sized, 709-carat diamond found by a Christian pastor was bought at auction in New York by Laurence Graff, a British billionaire and jeweler, according to the Rapaport Group, an international diamond trading network that handled the sale.

Of the proceeds of the stone dubbed the “Peace Diamond,” the government will get 59 percent or about $3.9 million in tax revenue to fund clean water, electricity, schools, health centers and roads, said Martin Rapaport of the Rapaport Group.

“As a government, particularly in Africa, it has always been the narration of corruption, and the mineral wealth is not benefiting the people,” said Abdulai Bayraytay, a spokesman for Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, at a news conference.

The auction marked the first time a diamond found in Sierra Leone was put up for public sale, and state officials said they hope it will be a step toward ending the illicit diamond trade.

Diamonds fueled civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, when rebels forced civilians to mine the stones and bought weapons with the proceeds, leading to the term ‘blood diamonds.’

The United Nations lifted a ban on diamond exports from Sierra Leone in 2003, but the multi-million dollar sector is still plagued by smuggling.

The balance of the proceeds will go to a local group overseeing the development projects, the pastor and other miners who found the gem and gave it to the government, Rapaport said.

“It will encourage all the diggers back home,” Chief Paul Ngaba Saquee, head of Sierra Leone’s eastern Kono district, where the diamond was found in March, told the news conference.

“Instead of being ripped off in some dark corners when they find their diamonds, that they will bring it and put it on the table in front of the government,” he said in New York. “Maybe this is going to be the beginning of a new day in Sierra Leone.”

A first effort to sell the diamond failed in May when Sierra Leone rejected the highest bid of $7.8 million.

This time, the stone was shown to some 70 potential buyers and seven bids were submitted, according to Rapaport.
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Mali: Saudis Pledge $100M to African Anti-jihadist Force 

Posted on by SeeAF

Mali: Saudis Pledge $100M to African Anti-jihadist Force 

 

Saudi Arabia has pledged $100 million to a new regional military force battling jihadist groups in West Africa’s Sahel region, force member Mali said on Monday.

The contribution would be a major boost to the cash-strapped force and bring pledged commitments to more than half the roughly $500 million the G5 Sahel says it needs for its first year of operations.

The G5 Sahel — composed of the armies of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad — launched its first military campaign in October amid growing unrest in the Sahel, whose porous borders are regularly crossed by jihadists, including affiliates of al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Those groups have stepped up attacks on civilian and military targets, including tourist attractions in regional capitals, raising fears the zone will become a new breeding ground for militants.

Mali’s foreign ministry said Saudi Arabian authorities made the pledge during a visit to the kingdom late last month by Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom is competing with its main rival, Shi’ite power Iran, for influence across West Africa and other parts of the Muslim world. Donors from both countries have given money to mosques and other causes there.

France, the G5’s most vocal foreign backer, has pressed Saudi Arabia to take concrete actions to fight Islamist militants. French President Emmanuel Macron asked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to contribute to the G5 when he saw him in Riyadh last month.

The European Union, France, the United States and each of the G5 countries have also promised to fund the force. 
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Report: Governments Must Act to Help Adolescents Tackle HIV Stigma

Posted on by SeeAF

Governments must do far more to include the needs of young people in the global fight against HIV and AIDS, according to a new report. Despite progress in tackling the disease, it is estimated that 1,700 new HIV infections occur every day among young people around the world, and the problem is particularly acute in Africa.

It is time policymakers recognized that HIV-positive adolescents face unique challenges, says the report from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, alongside the charity Sentebale.

Among the recommendations are that young people receive adequate psychosocial support; a human rights-based approach to testing and care, and finding ways to sensitively discuss sex and relationships for adolescents living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

​Professor Rashida Ferrand, who co-authored the research, says too many barriers are in place.

“We really need to be thinking about all the barriers at every step in that broad environment, both at facility level in clinics et cetera, but also recognizing the fact that most of the time young people do not spend in facilities. So, we have to think of modifying the environments and the barriers that those environments place,” Ferrand said.

Campaigners say many adolescents in Africa are unaware of their HIV status and are afraid to get tested.

‘Every single day I face stigma’

Twenty-three-year-old Masedi Kewamodimo was born with HIV. Both her parents died from AIDS. Growing up in her native Botswana, Masedi grew frustrated with the barriers she faced and decided to reveal her HIV status in order to campaign for better treatment.

“It is one of the most difficult things I have faced in my whole life. Every single day I face stigma.  People talk about it because one they fear it; two, they assume certain people within our society have it; and three, they feel like they cannot welcome people who are living with HIV and AIDS,” Kewamodimo told VOA.

The charity Sentebale, which helped put together the policy recommendations, was co-founded by Prince Harry, who is newly engaged to American actress Meghan Markle. She has also campaigned on health issues in Africa.

Earlier this year, the prince chaired a meeting in London on adolescents with HIV, titled “Let Youth Lead,” and called for a change in global education on the disease.

“Young people, the first time they know of the first time they hear anything about HIV and AIDS is probably by the time it is too late.  Whether it is in the education system here in the UK, whether it is across Africa, whether it is across the world, HIV needs to be treated exactly the same as any other disease,” Prince Harry said.

Campaigners hope the royal couple’s star power will help them spread the vital message that young people’s needs and fears must be addressed in the global drive to tackle HIV and AIDS.
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Apple, Google at China Internet Fest Shows Lure of Market

Posted on by SeeUS

The high-profile attendance of the leaders of Apple and Google at a Chinese conference promoting Beijing’s vision of a censored internet highlights the dilemma for Western tech companies trying to expand in an increasingly lucrative but restricted market.

 

The event in Wuzhen, a historic canal town outside Shanghai, marked the first time chiefs of two of the world’s biggest tech companies have attended the annual state-run World Internet Conference.

 

Apple CEO Tim Cook told the gathering as the conference opened Sunday that his company was proud to work with Chinese partners to build a “common future in cyberspace.”

 

His and Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s presence along with other business leaders, diplomats and other experts, some analysts say, helped bestow credibility on Beijing’s preferred version of an internet sharply at odds with Silicon Valley’s dedication to unfettered access.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed, in remarks to the conference conveyed by an official, that “China’s door to the world will never close, but will only open wider.”

 

As in previous years, organizers allowed attendees unrestricted access to the internet, contrary to official policy under which internet users face extensive monitoring and censorship and are blocked from accessing many overseas sites by the so-called Great Firewall of China.

 

Since Xi came to power in 2013, he has tightened controls and further stifled free expression, activists say.

 

Beijing’s restraints also extend to Western companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook, which have largely been shut out from the market, leaving it to homegrown internet giants like Tencent.

Apple has a large production base in China, which is one of its biggest markets, though domestic smartphone makers are catching up.

 

It has been criticized by some app developers for complying with Chinese censorship demands. In July, companies that let people get around the government’s internet filters – known as virtual private network providers – said their programs had been removed from Apple’s app store in China. One such company, ExpressVPN, said Apple was “aiding China’s censorship effort.”

 

Apple said that China began requiring this year that developers of virtual-private networks have a government license. The California-based tech giant said it had removed apps “in China that do not meet the new regulations.” Two Apple spokeswomen couldn’t be reached by phone for comment.

 

“The problem is that these companies are between a rock and a hard place,” said Rogier Creemers, a China researcher at Leiden University who attended the conference. They covet China’s huge market but if they do make it in, as in Apple’s case, local law “requires things that Western observers generally are uncomfortable with,” he said.

 

Cook’s speech drew a big crowd. He said the company supports more than 5 million jobs in China, including 1.8 million software developers who have earned more than 112 billion yuan ($17 billion).

 

It’s Apple’s responsibility to ensure that “technology is infused with humanity,” he said, avoiding mention of any sensitive topics.

 

Google shut the Chinese version of its search engine in 2010 over censorship concerns. Pichai has talked about wanting to re-enter China, and he told a panel discussion in Wuzhen that small and mid-sized Chinese businesses use Google services to get their products to other countries, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. A Google spokesman declined to comment.

 

The tech giants may have chosen to appear at the conference because the current political climate in the United States encourages a pragmatic approach in pursuing business regardless of other concerns, said Jonathan Sullivan, director of the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute.

 

“There has never been a time when an American company is less likely to be called out by the White House for pursuing a business-first approach,” said Sullivan.
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