Month: January 2018

Time After Time: Luxury Watchmaker to Sell Pre-owned Pieces

Posted on by SeeEU

Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet said it would launch a second-hand business this year, becoming the first big brand to announce plans to tap into a fast-growing market for pre-owned premium watches.

The company told Reuters it would launch the business at its outlets in Switzerland this year. If this proved successful, it would roll out the operation in the United States and Japan.

“Second-hand is the next big thing in the watch industry,” Chief Executive Francois-Henry Bennahmias told Reuters in an interview at the SIHH watch fair in Geneva this week.

Going to the ‘dark side’

Luxury watchmakers have hitherto eschewed the second-hand trade, fearing diluting the exclusivity of their brands and cannibalizing their sales. They have instead ceded the ground to third-party dealers.

But some are now looking to change tack, driven by an industry-wide sales slowdown combined with a second-hand market that is expanding rapidly, fuelled by online platforms like Chrono24 and The RealReal.

“At the moment, in watches, we leave it to what I call the ‘dark side’ to deal with demand for pre-owned pieces,” added Bennahmias, whose company is known for its octagonal Royal Oak timepieces that sell for 40,000 Swiss francs ($41,680) on average.

“Anybody but the brands (is selling second hand) — it’s an aberration commercially speaking,” he said.

Others may follow

Several smaller brands, including H.Moser & Cie and MB&F, have signaled interest in the second-hand trade.

“It is important to control the sale of second-hand watches to protect the owners and the value of watches already in the market by keeping the grey market in check,” H.Moser & Cie boss Edouard Meylan told Reuters.

MB&F, which plans to launch second-hand sales via its website this year, told Reuters it expected to typically give a 20-30 percent discount on second-hand watches. A spokesman said customers buying from established watch brands could feel confident they were getting genuine products in good working order and with a valid warranty.

Bigger brands Rolex, Patek Philippe, Swatch Group, Richemont and Breitling all declined to comment, when asked whether they planned to enter the second-hand market, while LVMH’s watch division was not immediately available.

Starting small

Audemars Piguet said it would initially allow customers to trade in old watches as part-exchange for new ones, and then sell the second-hand watches. It has not yet decided whether to buy second-hand watches for cash.

Experts say the second-hand luxury watches business, mostly done via online platforms or specialized retailers, is growing rapidly as a new generation of customers that values variety more than permanent ownership enters the luxury world.

In an example of the discounts offered online, a diamond-studded Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “with moderate scratches” sells for $9,450 on The RealReal, about a third of the estimated retail price.

Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox said he estimated the size of the second-hand market at $5 billion a year in revenue, including watches sold at auction, and that it had outperformed the market for new pieces in the last couple of years.

That is still dwarfed by a new luxury watch sector worth 37 billion euros ($45.3 billion), according to consultancy Bain & Cie. However Swiss watch exports fell 3.3 percent in 2015 and 9.9 percent in 2016 before posting a modest 2.8 percent rise in the first 11 months of 2017.

US top market for pre-owned

The United States, where sales of new watches have been falling for years, is the No. 1 market for pre-owned watches, followed by Britain and Japan, said U.S. retailer Danny Govberg, who sells new watches for Rolex and other brands, but also an increasing number of second-hand timepieces.

His company said its second-hand sales had grown by 37-40 percent year-on-year over the past five years. In an example of prices, it said it listed a second-hand Audemars Piguet Royal Oak for $24,950 compared with a $32,000 retail price.

Together with a partner in Hong Kong and a Singapore-based investor, Govberg recently launched global e-commerce platform WatchBox for buying and selling pre-owned luxury watches.

“People sell us watches by the bucket,” he said.

He said many people sold watches to buy a new one so the pre-owned market was actually driving new sales, like in the car market. 

“The brands are still trying to figure it out, they don’t have the solution yet,” he said.
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Peru’s Indigenous People Look for an Ally in Pope Francis

Posted on by SeeEU

After lengthy treks through the muddy Amazon, indigenous men, women and children will greet Pope Francis on Friday in a visit to the world’s largest rainforest that native leaders hope will mark a turning point for the increasingly threatened ecosystem.

Francis is expected to meet with several thousand indigenous people gathering in a coliseum in Puerto Maldonado, the scorching city considered a gateway to the Amazon, in the first full day of the pontiff’s visit to Peru.

Indigenous leaders, many sporting headdresses with brightly colored feathers and intricate beaded jewelry, said they are optimistic the pope can serve as a bridge with Peru’s government to help resolve long-standing issues like land rights.

“His desire to be with us signals a historic reconciliation with the Amazon’s indigenous communities,” said Edwin Vasquez, an indigenous leader who traveled to Puerto Maldonado to hear the pope. “We consider it a good step forward.”

​More mines, farms, roads, dams

Francis’ trip to the Amazon comes as the expansion of illegal gold mining and farming as well as new roads and dams have turned thousands of hectares of once lush green forest into barren, contaminated wasteland. Francis has previously called on world leaders to protect the Amazon, likening it to one of the “lungs of our planet,” and is widely expected to reiterate that message when he speaks in Puerto Maldonado Friday.

He is also using the trip to set the stage for a big church meeting next year on the Amazon and the native peoples who reside there.

A meeting with members of Chile’s indigenous Mapuche community was one of the highlights of the first-leg of the pope’s weeklong trip to the region. Francis urged Mapuche leaders to refrain from political violence and called on the Chilean government to better engage its indigenous communities.

The call for peace came as 11 firebombs damaged and in some cases burned churches to the ground in several parts of Chile during the pontiff’s visit. Investigators found pamphlets promoting the Mapuche cause at some of the churches.

​350 indigenous groups

The Amazon’s native peoples hail from about 350 indigenous groups, some of which live in voluntary isolation. In the centuries after Spanish colonization most traces of native spiritual beliefs were lost as missionaries converted indigenous Peruvians to Catholicism.

The Catholic Church maintains a strong presence in the region, though these days few indigenous men and women go to mass and most identify as evangelical, said Lizardo Cauper, president of the Amazon’s largest indigenous organization.

Many Peruvian native peoples are curious about why Francis wants to meet them, Cauper said, while also hoping he can serve as an influential messenger.

“We are hoping for a reflective message that will help those in power,” he said.

Land rights and a voice

In a letter sent to Francis this week, the leaders of three predominant indigenous groups called on Francis to back their call for the state to grant 20 million hectares in collective land rights to native peoples. They also want him to urge Peru’s government to clean up rivers tainted from illegal gold mining.

Rather than a halt on all mining and exploration in the Amazon, Vasquez said that what indigenous communities want is to be a part of any discussions that take place to decide where and how those activities are conducted.

Studies confirm that contamination from mining is having an impact on the health of many of those who live in the Amazon.

“They have lead in their blood,” Vasquez said. “Is that development?”

Cesar Yojaje, leader of the Palma Real indigenous group, was among the many trekking by boat to greet the pontiff Friday. After a three-hour journey along a brackish river he said he hoped to hear a forceful message from the pope.

He said he wants the state to return indigenous lands and publicly apologize “for robbing us of our lands and turning them into a park.”
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Ukraine Passes Bill to Restore Control Over Separatist-Held Areas

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukraine’s parliament has passed a bill governing state policy on areas in the east that are held by Russia-backed separatists.
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Social Media Companies Accelerate Removals of Online Hate Speech

Posted on by SeeEU

Social media companies Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube have greatly accelerated their removals of online hate speech, reviewing over two thirds of complaints within 24 hours, new EU figures show.

The European Union has piled pressure on social media firms to increase their efforts to fight the proliferation of extremist content and hate speech on their platforms, even threatening them with legislation.

Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube signed a code of conduct with the EU in May 2016 to review most complaints within a 24-hour timeframe.

The companies managed to meet that target in 81 percent of cases, EU figures seen by Reuters show, compared with 51 percent in May 2017 when the European Commission last monitored their compliance with the code of conduct.

EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova has said previously she does not want to see a removal rate of 100 percent as that could impinge on free speech. She has also said she is not in favor of legislating as Germany has done.

 A law providing for hefty fines for social media companies if they do not remove hate speech quickly enough went into force in Germany this year.

“I do not hide that I am not in favor of hard regulation because the freedom of speech for me is almost absolute,” Jourova told reporters in December.

“In case of doubt it should remain online because freedom of expression is [in a] privileged position.”

Of the hate speech flagged to the companies, almost half of it was found on Facebook, the figures show, while 24 percent was on YouTube and 26 percent on Twitter.

The most common ground for hatred identified by the Commission was ethnic origins, followed by anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia, including expressions of hatred against migrants and refugees.

Following pressure from several European governments, social media companies stepped up their efforts to tackle extremist content online, including through the use of artificial intelligence.

The Commission will likely issue a recommendation, a soft law instrument, on how companies should take down extremist content related to militant groups at the end of February, an official said, as it is less nuanced than hate speech and needs to be taken offline more quickly.
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Trump Visits Pentagon to Show Support for Military

Posted on by SeeUS

On a visit to the Pentagon, President Donald Trump has criticized Congress’ handling of the budget and cautioned that a potential government shutdown would be the “worst thing” for military development.

A short-term funding bill expires at midnight on Friday night, causing the federal government to shut down Saturday if Congressional Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on a new funding measure.

“The budget should be handled a lot differently than it’s been handled,” Trump said during a visit to the U.S. Defense Department Thursday. “If for any reason it [the government] shuts down, the worst thing is what happens to our military.”

Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told VOA the “primary focus of the president’s visit … is to discuss the impacts of a potential government shutdown and continuing resolution on the Department of Defense.”

She also said the president and Vice President Mike Pence would talk with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis about the National Defense Strategy that the secretary will present to the public Friday.

 

Trump said Thursday he was at the Pentagon to support the military, which would “lose big” without proper funding.

 

He added that the nation needed a strong military “almost more than at any time in the past.”

 
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Turkey Business Lobby Calls for end to Emergency Rule

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Turkey’s main business lobby on Thursday called on the government to end the state of emergency as parliament extended it for a sixth time since it was imposed after an attempted coup in 2016.

Emergency rule allows President Tayyip Erdogan and the government to bypass parliament in passing new laws and allows them to suspend rights and freedoms. More than 50,000 people have been arrested since its introduction and 150,000 have been sacked or suspended from their jobs.

The Turkish parliament on Thursday voted to extend the state of emergency, with the ruling AK Party and the nationalist opposition voting in favor.

Rights groups and some of Turkey’s Western allies fear Erdogan is using the crackdown to stifle dissent and crush his opponents. Freedom House, a Washington-based watchdog, downgraded Turkey to “not free” from “partly free” in an annual report this week.

In order to preserve its international reputation, Turkey needs to start normalizing rapidly, Erol Bilecik, the head of the TUSIAD business lobby said.

“The first step in that regard is bringing an end to the state of emergency,” he told a meeting in Istanbul.

Parliament was due to extend emergency rule after the national security council on Wednesday recommended it do so.

The state of emergency has negatively impacted foreign investors’ decisions, another senior TUSIAD executive said.

“As Turkey takes steps towards becoming a state of law, direct investments will increase, growth will accelerate, more jobs will be created,” Tuncay Ozilhan said, adding that he hoped this would be the last extension of emergency rule.

The government says its measures are necessary to confront multiple security challenges and root out supporters of the cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for the coup attempt. Gulen has denied any involvement.

But critics fear Erdogan is pushing the NATO member towards greater authoritarianism.

Some 30 emergency decrees have been published since the failed coup. They contain 1,194 articles and cover defense, security, the judiciary, education and health, widely restructuring the relationship between the state and the citizen.

A total of 2,271 private educational institutions have been shut down in the crackdown, as well as 19 labor unions, 15 universities, 49 hospitals and 148 media outlets.

The two co-heads of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party, parliament’s third-largest, are in jail on terrorism charges, as are several of the parties deputies.

The Turkish Journalists’ Association says about 160 journalists are in jail, most held since the failed coup. Last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists called Turkey the world’s top jailer of journalists.
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US Rejects Accusations It Gave Rise to IS in Afghanistan

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The United States reiterated its resolve Thursday to help local forces eliminate Islamic State from Afghanistan and strongly refuted accusations Washington was behind the emergence of the terrorist group in the war-shattered country.

The remarks by the U.S. ambassador to Kabul, John Bass, are the first formal reaction to the repeated accusations in recent months by some Afghans, including former President Hamid Karzai, along with Russia, that U.S. troops are aiding IS militants in Afghanistan.

“Let me take this opportunity, since these rumors continue to circulate, to emphatically state that the United States has not brought Daesh to Afghanistan. The United States has not ever supported Daesh, its creation, its horrible attacks in any form, or fashion,” said Bass, while addressing his first news conference in Kabul.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for IS.

In a series of interviews to media groups, including VOA, late last year, Karzai called IS a “tool” of the U.S. The former Afghan president repeated his allegations Thursday in India, saying it was up to the United States to explain the rise of Daesh and extremism in his country.

“Some of Afghanistan’s problems are foreign. Extremism is the product of U.S.-Pakistan cooperation, and Afghanistan has to face implications. The U.S. must explain,” Karzai said in New Delhi while taking part in a geopolitical conference known as the Raisina Dialogue.

U.S. Ambassador Bass said there was “absolutely no way” to work out peace or reconciliation with Daesh in Afghanistan.

“The only way to deal with Daesh is through sustained determined efforts on the battlefield to either kill them or capture them and to remove them to prevent them from being able to conduct attacks,” said Bass.

The U.S. ambassador said that was the approach the U.S. and other coalition members undertook in Iraq and Syria in partnership with the Iraqi government and with Syrian groups that were committed to defending their part of Syria.

IS operates in Afghanistan under the name Khorasan Province. The terrorist group launched its operations in early 2015 from eastern volatile Afghan regions, mainly Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan.

Since then, the group has extended its activities to other parts of the country, including northern Afghan provinces bordering central Asian states, which is raising alarms in Russia.

IS has claimed responsibility for some of the recent deadly suicide bombings in Afghanistan, particularly in the capital, Kabul.

The violence has left scores of Afghans dead, mostly members of the minority Shi’ite community. U.S. military commanders say former members of the Pakistani Taliban comprise a majority of IS fighters in Afghanistan.

Pakistan alleges IS bases in Afghan border also are behind terrorist attacks against the country. Afghan officials deny the allegations and say IS militants receive support from Pakistan.
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Italy Breaks up Chinese Crime Ring Involved in Drugs, Prostitution

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Italy ordered the arrest of 33 people on Thursday on suspicion of running a Chinese mafia group involved in gambling, prostitution, and drugs and which dominated the transport of Chinese goods across Europe.

The group’s base was in Prato, near Florence, a hub for the textile industry where many factories are owned and run by Chinese, police said in a statement. But the network had members in other parts of Italy and across Europe, with arrests sought in Rome, Milan, Padua, Paris, Madrid and Neuss, Germany, the statement said. Police did not say how many had been arrested so far.

They are accused of being members of a mafia organization and other crimes.

The suspected boss, Zhang Nai Zhong, was based in Rome. He used profit from illegal activities to build a massive transport company that dominated the trucking of goods for thousands of Chinese companies, police said.

Zhong had won a near-monopoly in distribution through threats and violence against Chinese company owners, anti-mafia prosecutors said. The investigation, called “China Truck”, began in 2011.

The operation broke up “a dangerous organization that had used force to take control of trucking, and was financed by its illegal activities,” Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said in a statement.

Italy has a long history of home-grown organized crime, including the Sicilian Mafia and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, but immigration to Europe has opened the way for foreign crime groups to take root, including the Nigerian and Chinese mafias.

“Being able to shed light on mafia character of this group is almost incredible,” Federico Cafiero De Raho, Italy’s chief anti-mafia prosecutor, told a news conference. “It’s quite unusual to be able to identify a complex Chinese mafia organization.”

Investigators said Zhong emerged the winner of a conflict between rival Chinese gangs in which some 40 people were thought to have been murdered between 2005-2010. They estimated the group’s business activities were worth “hundreds of millions of Euros.”

Apart from the arrests, prosecutors seized eight companies and an equal number of vehicles and “a few” millions of euros.
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Even Without El Nino Last Year, Earth Keeps on Warming

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Earth last year wasn’t quite as hot as 2016’s record-shattering mark, but it ranked second or third, depending on who was counting.

Either way, scientists say it showed a clear signal of man-made global warming because it was the hottest year they’ve seen without an El Nino boosting temperatures naturally.   

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United Kingdom’s meteorological office on Thursday announced that 2017 was the third hottest year on record. At the same time, NASA and researchers from a nonprofit in Berkeley, California, called it the second.

 

The agencies slightly differ because of how much they count an overheating Arctic, where there are gaps in the data.   

 

The global average temperature in 2017 was 14.7 degrees Celsius (58.51 degrees Fahrenheit), which is 0.84 Celsius (1.51 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average and just behind 2016 and 2015, NOAA said.  Other agencies’ figures were close but not quite the same.

 

Earlier, European forecasters called 2017 the second hottest year, while the Japanese Meteorological Agency called it the third hottest. Two other scientific groups that use satellite, not ground, measurements split on 2017 being second or third hottest. With four teams calling it the second hottest year and four teams calling it third, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization termed 2017 a tie for second with 2015.  

“This is human-caused climate change in action,” said Nobel Prize winning chemist Mario Molina of the University of California San Diego, who wasn’t part of any of the measuring teams. “Climate is not weather, [which] can go up and down from year to year. What counts is the longer-term change, which is clearly upwards.”

Which year is first, second or third doesn’t really matter much, said Princeton University climate scientist Gabriel Vecchi. What really matters is the clear warming trend, he said.

 

NOAA’s five hottest years have been from 2010 on.

 

During an El Nino year – when a warming of the central Pacific changes weather worldwide – the globe’s annual temperature can spike, naturally, by a tenth or two of a degree, scientists said.  There was a strong El Nino during 2015 and 2016.

But 2017 finished with a La Nina, the cousin of El Nino that lowers temperatures. Had there been no man-made warming, 2017 would have been average or slightly cooler than normal, said National Center for Atmospheric Research climate scientist Ben Sanderson.

 

On the other hand, NASA calculated if the temperature contributions of El Nino and El Nina were removed from the global data through the years, 2017 would go down as the hottest year on record, NASA chief climate scientist Gavin Schmidt said.

 

Carbon pollution is like putting the Earth on an escalator of rising temperatures, with natural variation such as El Nino or the cooling effect of volcanoes like hopping up or down a step or two on that escalator, scientists said. Not every year will be warmer than the last because of natural variations, but the trend over years will be rising temperatures, they said.

 

The observed warming has been predicted within a few tenths of a degree in computer simulations going back to the 1970s and 1980s, several scientists said.

 

It has been 33 years since the last month that the globe was cooler than normal, according to NOAA.

 

Northern Illinois University climate scientist Victor Gensini has never lived through a month or year that wasn’t hotter than normal.

“I look at pictures of the great winters of the late `70s from my parents and wonder if I’ll ever experience anything like that in my lifetime,” said Gebsini, who’s 31.

 
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Trump, US Lawmakers Facing Government Shutdown Threat

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House Republicans plan to go ahead with a vote on a temporary spending measure aimed at keeping the U.S. federal government open after a midnight Friday deadline.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday a partial shutdown in government operations, the first since 2013, “could happen.”

Trump threw the House of Representatives vote into doubt with a tweet that indicated his opposition to part of the plan, but the White House and House Speaker Paul Ryan said later that the short-term measure has the president’s support. Trump said it was up to opposition Democratic lawmakers to decide whether to vote to keep the government funded.

The White House and lawmakers have yet to reach accord on either a one-month temporary spending measure, which would be the fourth in recent months, or on a budget that funds operations through the end of the 2018 fiscal year on September 30.

Republican leaders in Congress, even though they control both the Senate and the House, have been struggling to cobble together support for a one-month spending measure extending funding to February 16. They have encountered opposition from conservative Republicans who want more spending for defense programs and some lawmakers who are reluctant to again support temporary funding legislation.

Trump tweeted his opposition to part of the package that would extend the children’s health insurance program for six years, a priority for Democratic lawmakers. Republican leaders had hoped to win some Democratic votes for the overall spending package with inclusion of the insurance to offset any Republican votes they could lose.

Trump said on Twitter that he opposes including tens of billions of dollars for the health insurance program in the short-term budget. He said the children’s health insurance “should be part of a long term solution.”

“The president likes to do things in an unconventional way and he does it with his phone, but, he actually is helpful with our (Republican) members,” Ryan commented.

And then there’s immigration

Immigration issues also are complicating the budget negotiations. Numerous Democratic lawmakers have said they will not vote for any funding plan unless it includes protection against deportation for about 800,000 young immigrants, who years ago were brought illegally to the United States by their parents.

Trump last year ended the program protecting them from deportation, but gave Congress until March 5 to weigh in on the issue.

At her Thursday press briefing, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi reiterated that Democrats would not be supporting the temporary spending bill, but said the immigrants, called Dreamers by their advocates, are not the only hold up.

“Even if not one Dreamer ever existed, we would still have a problem,” she said, adding that the real issue with the budget negotiations is the “lack of willingness of Reps ((Republicans)) to support a domestic agenda increase.”

Pelosi said an agreement on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is possible before the deadline Friday. “The president told us [Wednesday]…he wants to get DACA done. We want to do what the president wants to do.” She added it would be helpful if Trump provided “a little more clarity.”

Trump has said that any immigration provision that protects the immigrants also must include several provisions, including money for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart more illegal migration, a key Trump campaign vow in the 2016 election.

Shutdown

In another Thursday tweet, Trump said, “A government shutdown will be devastating to our military,” which he contended that opposition Democratic lawmakers “care very little about!”

Even if the temporary spending measure is approved in the House, its passage in the Senate is far from certain.

Republicans hold only a 51-49 majority in the Senate and two Republicans have already announced their opposition, meaning Republican leaders will have to convince numerous Democrats to support it in order to reach the required 60-vote supermajority to approve the spending plan.

A partial U.S. government shutdown last occurred in 2013, a standoff over health care policies that lasted 16 days, furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers and curtailed government services throughout the country.
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Turkey Votes to Extend State of Emergency

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Turkey’s parliament voted Thursday in favor of extending a state of emergency in place since a failed coup in the summer 2016, Turkish media reported.

The sixth extension will become effective from Friday at 1.00 a.m., Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported. According to Turkey’s constitution, a state of emergency can be declared for a maximum of six months.

Turkey will have spent a year and a half under emergency rule after the latest extension, during which time the president and government are allowed to bypass parliament in passing new laws and suspend rights and freedoms.

Roughly 50,000 people have been jailed and over 110,000 dismissed or removed from their jobs in Turkey since the state of emergency was first declared in 2016.

 
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Zimbabweans Living Outside Their Country Seek to Cast Vote

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Some Zimbabweans living outside their country have taken the government to court, seeking the diaspora’s right to take part in planned elections. Chief Justice Luke Malaba has said the matter will be heard by a “full bench” at a date to be determined.

Ahead of a Thursday hearing at the Constitutional Court, visiting President Emmerson Mnangagwa, told Zimbabweans in neighboring Mozambique to come home and register to vote in elections which he said will be held in the next five months.

But the exiled Zimbabweans want to be able to vote from where they are. One of them is United Kingdom-based Ruvimbo Chigwedere, who is bitter that Mnangagwa’s government says it has no money to help Zimbabweans vote.

“We saw it coming. It will take long time anyway. It is not about money, it is about [Mnangagwa government] policies: we are enemies of the state and that will take time to change. We are counted when it benefits [them]. But when it comes to the proper benefit for us we don’t really matter,” said Chigwe,dere

Zimbabweans living abroad sent home about $750 million last year, according to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe estimates.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights filed the petition to allow the diaspora to vote. Diplomats are the only Zimbabweans outside the country who can currently cast ballots. As many as three million people are left unable to vote.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Acting Chairperson Emmanuel Magade says his organization is not to blame for that.

“Our position as ZEC is that we would want every eligible Zimbabwean to vote, but everything has to be done in accordance with the law,” he said. “As of now, people in the diaspora are ineligible to vote. It’s incumbent upon the parliamentary parties to change the law. We are in servitude of the law. We will follow the law dutifully and faithfully.”

It remains to be seen whether parliament or the Constitutional Court will change the law in time for the next elections.
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Uganda’s Leader to Sign Death Warrants Again After 19 Years

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Uganda’s president says he will sign the death warrants of “a few” prisoners to create fear among criminals in the East African country.

 

President Yoweri Museveni said Thursday he had not ordered executions in 19 years but was changing his mind because people were taking advantage of the “leniency.”

He said: “I am going to revise this and hang a few…. if you see how they kill people, they deserve to be killed.”

 

He spoke at a graduation ceremony for prison wardens in the capital, Kampala.

 

Museveni last signed death warrants in 1999, when 28 people were executed.

 

The Uganda Prisons Service says 278 prisoners are on death row.

 

The executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Livingstone Ssewanyana, says that “executing prisoners won’t end crime.”

 
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Pope Defends Chilean Bishop Accused of Covering Up Pedophile Priest Case

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Francis says he will speak when there is proof Bishop Juan Barros concealed abuse of minors
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Duterte Threatens to Ban Deployment of Workers to Kuwait

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened Thursday to impose a total ban on sending workers to Kuwait because of sexual abuses that have forced some Filipino women to kill themselves.

Duterte said he wanted Filipino officials to hold talks with Kuwait and tell them the abuses are unacceptable and that the Philippines may ban Filipinos from working there unless the abuses end.

“I do not want a quarrel with Kuwait. I respect their leaders but they have to do something about this because many Filipinas will commit suicide,” Duterte said in a speech at the launching of a Manila bank for Filipinos abroad.

“We have lost about four Filipino women in the last few months. It’s always in Kuwait,” Duterte said, without providing details.

Discussing the problem with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano recently, Duterte said: “My advice is, we talk to them, state the truth and just tell them that it’s not acceptable anymore. Either we impose a total ban or we can have this corrected.”

More than 250,000 Filipinos work in the Arab nation. The Philippines is a major labor exporter with about a tenth of more than 100 million Filipinos working abroad. The earnings they send home have bolstered the Philippine economy for decades.

Workers endure the threat of abuses, including rape, in some countries to be able to send money home and keep their children in school. But with their parents working abroad, some children end up being sexually abused or become drug addicts, Duterte said, explaining his anger over drug dealers.

Thousands of mostly poor suspects have been killed in Duterte’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs since he took power in 2016, alarming Western governments and human rights groups.

Duterte has denied he condones extrajudicial killings, although he has openly threatened drug dealers with death for years.

He credits his harsh approach to crime for the improvement in law and order in southern Davao city, where he served as mayor for more than two decades before becoming president.

He said about 600 criminals were killed during his time as mayor, but added “It was all legit.”

“I never ordered the killing of anybody kneeling in front of me,” he said. “You have to kill to make your city peaceful.”
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Chibok Girls Changed by Shame, Stockholm Syndrome

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Connections formed by years of captivity and shame at marrying militants might explain why some Chibok girls have chosen not to return home from their Boko Haram ordeal, experts say.

Their militant Islamist captors released a video on Monday showing some of the remaining girls — who were kidnapped from the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok — appearing to relish their new life and disavow their old.

More than 200 girls were abducted in 2014 and 106 have been found or freed. They are now undergoing a special course at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola. One more girl was found this month and 100 are still believed to be in captivity.

A group of about 12 girls, some carrying babies, are seen in the 21-minute Boko Haram video, which security experts described as a propaganda coup that showed backing for the Islamists.

“We are the Chibok girls. We are the ones you are crying about for us to come back. By the grace of Allah, we are never coming back,” said one of the girls.

The chairman of the abducted girls’ parents association, Yakubu Nkeki, confirmed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation that at least two of the girls in the video are among the missing.

Stockholm syndrome

“In any human relationship, healthy or unhealthy, when you live with someone for years, connections are formed,” wrote psychologist Somiari Demm in an email to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Stockholm Syndrome — where hostages or kidnap victims can develop a strong alliance with their captors — is a condition that has been identified by psychologists in a range of crises.

It is more often cited in the imprisonment of women — be it Californian heiress Patty Hearst or Austrian abductee Natascha Kampusch — and took its name from a botched Swedish bank siege, where captives bonded with captors during a six-day standoff.

If such a bond can be cemented in days, experts said it was little wonder that connections ran deep after many years.

“These men, and the small community or people around them are the only contact they have had for almost four years. The isolation creates the perfect setting for brainwashing, religious indoctrination, radicalization, lies,” said Demm, who works with the freed Chibok girls studying in Yola.

Some of the freed girls have said in interviews they could choose whether or not to marry the militants. Those who refused were starved and beaten regularly, with many then succumbing.

Other girls opted to marry after they were wounded in Nigerian military airstrikes, unable to walk or hear well.

Shame

A Boko Haram wife would be more vulnerable to indoctrination than a girl who had not wed, said psychologist Fatima Akilu.

“Some might have agreed [to marry] because they were fearful or because they thought they might get better treatment,” said Akilu, head of the Neem Foundation, a non-profit group aimed at countering extremism in Nigeria.

“Some might have agreed because they thought they might never see their families. But now that they have made those decisions and had children, they might be ashamed that society might not accept them,” added Akilu, who has run programs to deradicalize Boko Haram militants and their former captives.

Life in captivity could also have become the girls’ greater reality, especially if they were treated better than at home.

“So, although they have been beaten, tortured, raped, starved, etc., all ‘acts of kindness’ such as food, power, favoritism are all viewed as good intentions by their victimizers,” Demm said. “There’s an unwarranted level of gratitude extended for still being alive.”

To dissuade those who wanted to go home when negotiations for their release were made known, the militants took them to a store packed with rice, oil and provisions, according to one of the freed girls who spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“They asked us if this is the life we want or if we would prefer one with no food. They gave us a week to think about it,” said the girl, who requested that her name not be used.

Pressure also came from some of the wives, she said, as former classmates urged the unwed to stick with the militants.

“They told us that it is better that we accept Boko Haram and get married and join them…’Can’t you see that they give us spaghetti, slaughter cows for us? If you go home, it is only miyan kuka [soup] you will eat, without meat. Even Nigerians, with time, they are going to accept BH [Boko Haram],'” she said.

 

 
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Kenyan President’s Office Warns Opposition Leader on Exile Government Threat

Posted on by SeeAF

A spokesman for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned opposition leader Raila Odinga not to carry out a plan to inaugurate himself as the “people’s president” or form a rival government in exile. Odinga, who disputes the October presidential election results, told VOA’s Swahili service this week he would conduct a so-called “inauguration ceremony” and form a government.

Kenya’s presidential spokesman, Eric Kiraithe, on Thursday responded to opposition leader Raila Odinga’s threat to form a government in exile with a warning.

“Acts against the Kenyan law, done either within or outside the country, will be treated accordingly. We have systems to deal with… actions when done outside the country – they are treated as actions against Kenya. When done within the country, we have the criminal law,” said Kiraithe.

Odinga’s National Super Alliance (NASA) has rejected the results of October’s re-run election and defiantly pledged to inaugurate him as the ‘people’s president’ on January 30.

In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Swahili service Tuesday, Odinga repeated the “swearing in” plan and raised the possibility of forming a government.

He said an illegitimate government is in office, but the people’s government is out of office and we will work as a government. We will appoint a Cabinet; it can be a government in exile, that is out of the country. It has happened in other countries, said Odinga. But us, we are saying, Kenyans will not accept to be governed by an illegitimate government that wasn’t voted for by the people.

A press release from Odinga’s political party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), tried to walk back his comments on forming a government in exile. According to the ODM, Odinga said that he would only take such a move if authorities tried to stop his “swearing-in” ceremony.

VOA’s Swahili service maintains the opposition leader made no such comments during the interview.

The 73-year-old Odinga did hint that his “inauguration” plan could change if Kenyatta’s ruling Jubilee Party agrees to talks.

“If we cannot talk by 30th of October, I mean of January, we are going to be sworn in. And we will then release our program thereafter,” he said.

Presidential spokesman Kiraithe on Thursday repeated that the president was open to dialogue on development issues such as land ownership, health care, and water but not on the legitimacy of his government.

“The dialogue the government has insisted on is that it must be based on the law and the constitution,” he said.

Odinga told VOA that he was not interested in talking to Kenyatta about his development agenda.

Kenya was plunged into political crisis when the Supreme Court voided the August election results and Odinga and his supporters boycotted a second round in October.

Kenyatta was declared the winner with 98 percent of the vote; but, low voter turnout of 39 percent led many to question if he had a mandate to lead.

Kenya’s attorney general warned in December that if Odinga declares himself president, it could be considered treason, a charge punishable by death.
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US Pacific Military Chief Calls China a Disruptive Force

Posted on by SeeUS

The head of the U.S. military’s Pacific command called China a disruptive power in the Indo-Pacific region on Thursday and urged countries in the area to build capabilities and work together to ensure free and open seas.

Admiral Harry Harris, known for his combative views on Beijing’s South China Sea expansion, was speaking at a security conference sponsored by the Indian government, where he was joined by the chief of staff, joint staff of Japan and the head of the Indian navy.

The three countries — the United States, Japan and India — have grown increasingly concerned about China’s assertive military posture in the region and sought to draw closer, with Australia, in a “quad” of liberal democracies.

“I believe the reality is that China is a disruptive transitional force in the Indo-Pacific, they are owner of the ‘trust deficit’ that we all have spent the last hour talking about,” Harris said referring to the discussions of the panel.

The United States has criticized China’s construction of islands and build-up of military facilities in the South China Sea, saying they could be used to restrict free nautical movement.

China says there is no issue with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and opposes efforts to use it as an “excuse” to infringe on China’s sovereignty and security interests.

Harris said China’s actions had cause disquiet in countries stretching from the Philippines to Malaysia and Vietnam. He said it was time countries took firmer measures to ensure maritime stability.

“We must be willing to take the tough decisions to ensure the Indo-Pacific region and the Indian Ocean remain free, open and prosperous,” he said. “This requires like-minded nations to develop capacities, leverage each other’s capabilities.”

Harris had earlier proposed joint patrols with the Indian navy in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi, worried about a backlash from China, said no such actions were planned.

But India has begun holding trilateral naval exercises with the U.S. and Japan that military experts say could eventually include Australia as well.

Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, editing by Larry King.
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Somali General Shot Dead in Capital Mogadishu

Posted on by SeeAF

A Somali general was shot in the head and killed in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday and a colonel who was his deputy has been arrested for the murder, senior army sources said.

The killing of Marine general Saiid Aden Yusuf in what was apparently an internal dispute is a fresh sign of problems facing the army as it battles an insurgency by Islamist militant group al-Shabaab with the help of African Union peacekeepers.

“Our marine general was killed by his deputy at Mogadishu seaport today. The murderer was seized. It was unfortunate and unexpected. An investigation goes on,” marine officer Ahmed Ali told Reuters.

Mogadishu resident Nur Mohamed told Reuters the colonel fired several shots from his pistol and hit the general in the head.

“I was chatting with the general shortly before he was killed …. I heard the gunshots and when I ran to the scene I was shocked to see the general lying on the ground, bleeding,” he said, adding that Yusuf died on the scene from bullet wounds.

Marine officer Ahmed Ali said the colonel was arrested.

Al Shabaab is fighting to oust the government and establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islam’s sharia law.

The group has been pushed out of most of its urban strongholds but it is able to mount deadly attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Somalia has faced violence and lacked a strong central government since President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
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Russia to Create Bank for Sanctions-Hit Defense Industry

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia announced Thursday the creation of a state-owned bank to finance its defense industry which has encountered difficulties in obtaining financing due to US sanctions.

In a statement the Russian Finance Ministry said the bank would specialize in “conducting operations related to state defense orders and large state contracts.”

Russian media have presented the opening of such a bank as a means to protect the country’s other lenders from Western sanctions on Russia’s military-industrial complex over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, including recently tightened U.S. measures.

At the end of December, one of Russia’s leading private banks, Alfa, said it would stop working with firms in the defense sector because of the U.S. sanctions.

Russian media have said the bank could be created on the base of an existing medium-sized bank.

Without mentioning any details, the Finance Ministry said in its statement the bank would soon become the property of the state.

 
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UAE Protests to UN Over Qatar Flight ‘Interceptions’

Posted on by SeeEA

The UAE said Thursday said it has filed a complaint with the United Nations over Qatar’s “interception” of two passenger planes en route to Bahrain this week.

Protests have been filed over “Qatar’s threat to the lives of civilians through its interception of two UAE aircraft on a routine flight to Bahrain via internationally accredited airlines, and with all necessary approvals and permits,” the official news agency WAM reported.

The UAE on Monday said Qatari fighter jets had flown within two miles (1.2 kilometers) of two flights descending towards Bahrain’s international airport, drawing a swift denial from Doha.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have clashed over alleged airspace violations in recent weeks, as a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf enters its eighth month.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut all ties with Qatar in June over Qatar’s alleged ties to Islamist extremists and Shiite Iran.

Qatar, which denies the accusations, is banned from using the airspace of the four states under the boycott, although UAE airlines continue to operate flights through Qatari airspace.

Abu Dhabi is now looking at re-routing flights to Bahrain to avoid Qatari airspace.

Bahrain has also said it plans to file a complaint over Monday’s incident to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations.

For its part, Qatar has accused UAE fighter jets of violating its airspace both in December and this month, and it has filed formal complaints with the UN.
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5 Detained Over Fire Bombs Thrown at Tunisia Synagogues

Posted on by SeeEA

A judge in Tunisia has ordered the detention of five people suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at two synagogues during protests over price hikes.

 

A court spokesman told The Associated Press on Thursday that the judge in Medenine ordered the suspects held pending trial. The suspects all are between 19 and 22 years old.

 

The Medenine court spokesman says early evidence makes authorities think the incident on the island of Djerba wasn’t terror-related. It happened during days of protests and rioting across Tunisia last week.

 

Djerba is home to Tunisia’s main Jewish community. The 2,500-year-old Ghriba synagogue, which was targeted in a 2002 extremist attack, is located on the island. The fire bombs were thrown at smaller prayer sites.

 

 
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Embassy in Baghdad: US Opposes Delay in Iraqi Elections

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States supports holding Iraqi parliamentary elections on May 12 as planned by Iraq’s government, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said on Thursday, criticizing calls to postpone the vote.

“Postponing the elections would set a dangerous precedent, undermining the constitution and damaging Iraq’s long-term democratic development,” the embassy said in a statement.

The statement was published as Iraqi lawmakers were debating whether to hold the vote as planned or postpone it in order to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced people to return home to cast their ballots.

The session will resume on Saturday, according to parliamentary Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, when MPs may vote on the election date.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is seeking re-election, is pushing for the vote to be held on May 12.

Abadi’s popularity among Iraq’s majority Shi‘ite Arab community has risen after he successfully led a three-year fight against Islamic State militants, supported by a U.S.-led coalition.

Washington also showed understanding for Abadi’s move to dislodge Kurdish fighters from the oil rich northern region of Kirkuk in October, even though the Kurds are traditional allies of the United States.

“The United States is providing assistance that will help ensure that all Iraqi voices are heard and counted, including the approximately 2.6 million Iraqis who remain displaced from their homes in the liberated areas”, taken from Islamic State, the U.S. embassy statement said.

The role of prime minister is reserved for the Shi‘ite Arabs under a power-sharing system set up after the 2003 U.S-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab.

The largely ceremonial office of president is reserved for a Kurdish member of parliament, while the speaker of parliament is drawn from among Sunni Arab MPs.

Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Catherine Evans.
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Israeli PM Unveils Memorial at Mumbai Jewish Center to Terror Victims

Posted on by SeeEA

Standing beside an 11-year-old Jewish boy orphaned in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday unveiled a memorial to the 166 victims killed by militants at the city’s Chabad Center.

 

Moshe Holtzberg’s parents were among six people gunned down at the Jewish center, which was one of the targets of the 10 Muslim militants who rampaged through India’s financial capital for three days nearly a decade ago.

 

The boy, then just two years old, was saved by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel, who grabbed him and fled the building that the militants had stormed. Samuel said she had found him standing over the unconscious bodies of his parents.

 

The rescue of “Baby Moshe” as he came to be known in India, was one of the positive stories to emerge from the attacks and at Thursday’s ceremony, Samuel received a big round of applause from the audience.

The young, bespectacled boy, who now lives in Israel with his maternal grandparents, said he was happy to return to the place where he was born. He is in Mumbai with his relatives and Samuel, as part of the delegation of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is wrapping up a visit to India. The nanny, who was given Israeli citizenship, also lives in Israel.

 

Thursday’s ceremony was an emotional flashback to the horrific strikes in Mumbai with Netanyahu patting and kissing the young boy.

 

The Israeli prime minister said the place represents both hatred of Israel by terrorists and love — the center served as a place where Jews from the world over were welcomed. He said light would spread from the memorial to make the world a better place.

 

Parts of the Chabad Center are being converted into a memorial for victims of the attack, which also targeted a main railroad station, posh hotels and a cafe.

 

The attacks were blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and underlined common concerns about terrorist attacks in both countries.

Speaking at a news conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Netanyahu said India and Israel are challenged by terrorism. “We are talking about cooperation in defense so that our people are always safe and always secure. Indians and Israelis know too well the pain of terrorist attacks; we remember the horrific savagery in Mumbai.”

 

Ties between India and Israel had been improving since they established diplomatic relations 25 years ago, but the relationship has acquired new momentum since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel six months ago.

Prime Minister Netanyahu also met Indian business leaders during his visit to Mumbai. And one of his last stops before returning to Israel is a meeting with top Bollywood luminaries — it is part of recent efforts by Israel to woo Bollywood filmmakers to shoot movies in the country.

 

Israel is the latest in dozens of countries that have been courting Indian film producers by offering cheap locations and production facilities. The reason: Bollywood films help boost tourism by triggering interest about the country among India’s vast movie audiences.

 

 

 

 
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