Month: January 2018

Protests in Tunisia Spur Government to Pledge Aid to Poor

Posted on by SeeAF

Tunisia plans to increase aid for poor families by $70.3 million, after nearly a week of protests over austerity measures, an official said Saturday.

“This will concern about 250,000 families,” Mohamed Trabelsi, minister of social affairs, said. “It will help the poor and middle class.”

President Beji Caid Essebsi was also scheduled to visit the poor district of Ettadhamen in the capital, Tunis, which was hit by protests.

Essebsi was set to give a speech and open a cultural center, Reuters reported. It was to be the president’s first visit to the district.

Several hundred protesters took to the streets Saturday in Sidi Bouzid, where a 2011 uprising began, touching off the Arab Spring protests. And on Friday, protesters in cities and towns across the country waved yellow cards — a warning sign to the government — and brandished loaves of bread, a symbol of the day-to-day struggle to afford basic goods.

Anger has been growing since the government introduced price hikes earlier this month, which came atop already soaring inflation.

WATCH: Protests Erupt Again in Tunisia, Cradle of 2011 Arab Spring

Since Monday, security forces have been deployed in Tunis and across the country. Several hundred people have been arrested, including opposition politicians, while dozens have been injured in clashes with police. A 55-year-old man died earlier this week, though the circumstances of his death remained unclear.

The scenes of protest are reminiscent of January 2011, when demonstrations swept across the country, eventually toppling dictator Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali before spreading across the region.

“Why did we do the revolution? For jobs, for freedom and for dignity. We obtained freedom, sure — but we’re going hungry,” unemployed protester Walid Bejaoui said Friday.

One of the main protest organizations is using the Arabic social media hashtag “Fesh Nestannew?” or “What Are We Waiting For?” The group is urging a return to the spirit of the 2011 revolt.

“We believe a dialogue is still possible and reforms are still possible. The yellow card is to say, ‘Attention: Today we have the same demands that we have been having for years. It’s time to tackle the real problems, the economic crisis, the high cost of living,’ ” said Henda Chennaoui, a Fesh Nestannew protester.

The government enacted a new law this month raising taxes to try to cut the deficit, a move largely driven by Tunisia’s obligations to its international creditors, said analyst Max Gallien of the London School of Economics.

“I think that this government feels that its ability to make its own economic policy or its ability to roll back these austerity reforms is very much limited by the demands of international financial institutions,” he said, “primarily the IMF,” or International Monetary Fund.

The government has condemned the violence but pledged to listen to the protesters.

“No matter what the government undertakes, its top priority — even during tough decisions — is improving the economic and social conditions of the people,” Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told reporters Thursday.

So could the region witness a repeat of 2011, with the protests gaining momentum?

“We’re looking at a different region now. But at the same time, there are similarities: the issue of austerity, of socioeconomic nationalization, of corruption and predation by elites,” analyst Gallien said.

The Tunisian government’s task is to address those deep-rooted problems before the protests spin out of control.
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IS Offshoot Claims 2017 Niger Attack on US Forces

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An Islamic State offshoot is claiming it carried out the October attack in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers and four Nigerien troops and sparked questions about U.S. military involvement in West Africa’s vast Sahel region.

The Mauritanian Nouakchott News Agency reported Friday that Abu al-Walid al-Sahrawi with the self-professed IS affiliate claimed responsibility for the October 4 ambush about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Niger’s capital, Niamey. The news agency has carried messages from the affiliate before, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites.

The U.S. Africa Command has been investigating the attack, which also wounded two U.S. and eight Nigerien troops. A final report is expected to be released this month.

A 12-member Army Special Forces unit was accompanying 30 Nigerien forces when they were attacked in a densely wooded area by as many as 50 militants traveling by vehicle and carrying small arms and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers.

The Pentagon has declined to release details about the commando team’s exact mission. U.S. officials have said the joint U.S.-Niger patrol had been asked to assist a second American commando team hunting for a senior IS member. The team had been asked to go to a location where the insurgent had last been seen.

Tip from villager

After completing that mission, the troops stopped in a village to get food and water, then left. The U.S. military thinks someone in the village may have tipped off the attackers.

The U.S. has approximately 800 troops in Niger, and U.S. Special Forces have been working with Niger’s forces in recent years, helping them to improve their abilities to fight extremists.

Multiple military efforts exist against extremist groups, including Boko Haram and al-Qaida affiliates, that roam the vast Sahel, the sprawling, largely barren zone south of the Sahara desert. The growing fight includes France’s largest overseas military operation, a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali and a five-nation regional force called the G5 Sahel that launched last year.

Officials have pointed out the danger and difficulty of hunting down an enemy in a region the size of Europe.

The Mauritanian news agency also reported that the extremists claimed responsibility for an attack Thursday on a French military convoy, and for a series of attacks in Niger and border areas with Mali and Burkina Faso.
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Zeman, Drahos Set for Runoff Vote in Czech Presidential Poll

Posted on by SeeEU

Czech President Milos Zeman has won the first round in the nation’s presidential election, and now must face Jiri Drahos, the former head of the country’s Academy of Sciences, in a runoff vote in two weeks.

Eight candidates were hoping to unseat the current controversy-courting 73-year-old leader, who is seeking another five-year term.

With 95 percent of ballots counted by the Czech Statistics Office, and a 61-percent turnout, Zeman was leading with 39.3 percent of the vote, followed by Drahos with 26.3 percent. A former diplomat, Pavel Fischer, placed third with 10.1 percent.

None of the other candidates seeking the largely ceremonial post received a majority of first-round votes, which makes it possible for Drahos to advance to the second round.

Zeman was elected to the largely ceremonial post in 2013 during the country’s first direct presidential vote, a victory that returned the former left-leaning prime minister to power.

In office, he has become known for strong anti-migrant rhetoric that won him support from the populist far-right. He has divided the nation with his pro-Russian stance and his support for closer ties with China.

Zeman was one of the few European leaders to endorse Donald Trump’s bid for the White House. He flew the European Union flag at Prague Castle, but later used every opportunity to attack the 28-nation bloc.

“This looks hopeful,” he told reporters.

The run-off election will be held January 26 and January 27.
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Thousands Protest Austria’s New Right-wing Government

Posted on by SeeEU

Thousands of Austrians are protesting their country’s new right-wing government with a march in Vienna.

 

Police in the capital said about 20,000 people were attending the march on Saturday.

 

Some protesters carried placards reading “Never Again.” Others chanted slogans such as “Refugees should stay, drive out the Nazis.”

 

The new governing coalition made up of the conservative Austrian People’s Party and the nationalist Freedom Party has taken a hard line against migration.

 
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Brigitte Biography Says Young Macron Wrote Steamy Book About Their Romance

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A new biography of French first lady Brigitte Macron says her husband penned a racy novel inspired by their early romance, when he was still a teenager and she his married drama teacher.

President Emmanuel Macron, who turned 40 last month, fell for Brigitte during rehearsals for a school play at the Providence high school in Amiens, and defied his parents’ disapproval to pursue the relationship with a woman 24 years his

senior.

The book, “Brigitte Macron, The Liberated Woman”, to be published next week, quotes a family neighbor from Macron’s home town who says she typed up the 300-page manuscript.

“It was a daring novel, a little bit smutty. Of course, the names were not the same but I think he needed to express what he was feeling at the time,” the unnamed neighbor is quoted as saying in excerpts published by Closer magazine.

A spokeswoman for Macron’s office declined to comment.

In the excerpts, the typist said she had not kept a copy of the novel – perhaps sparing the blushes of a leader who has promised to clean up French politics and says he wants to restore the dignity of the presidency.

But Macron would not be the only current French politician to try his hand at adult literature.

In 2011, the prime minister, Edouard Philippe, co-authored ‘Dans l’ombre’ (In the Shadows), a political thriller laced with steamy encounters. The finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has written a novel entitled ‘Le Ministre’ (The Minister), which includes a steamy scene between the minister and his wife in Venice.

Macron’s literary ambitions as a young man are well known and he wrote at least two unpublished works before authoring a book entitled “Revolution” during his election campaign.

He told the weekly magazine Le Point last year that he had not sought a publisher for the earlier works “as I was not happy with them”.

In a separate article for the same magazine, asked by French author Philippe Besson if he regretted not becoming a writer himself, Macron replied: “My life isn’t finished yet.”

 
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UN Urges Saudi Arabia to Keep Yemen’s Sea Ports Open for Critical Aid

Posted on by SeeEA

The United Nations is calling for the permanent re-opening of all of Yemen’s sea ports to allow vital, life-saving humanitarian and commercial cargo to enter.

The Saudi-led coalition partially lifted its blockade of Yemen’s sea ports on December 20.  Since then, the U.N. reports 13 vessels have delivered food and much needed fuel to the war-torn country through the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah and Saleef.  

The U.N. welcomes this as a constructive step.  But, the spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, says it is not enough.  He noted Yemen imports about 90 percent of its staple food and nearly all its fuel and medicine.

“We call on the Coalition to continue allowing vessels into the Red Sea ports, and also for the Houthis (Iran-backed rebel group) to desist from threatening this vital access route.  The steady flow of imports is a lifeline for millions of vulnerable Yemeni people,” Laerke said.

Saudi Arabia imposed a total blockade on Yemen’s air and sea ports on November 6 in retaliation for a Houthi ballistic missile attack near the capital’s Riyadh airport.  

The United Nations considers Yemen one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.  It says 22 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance, with nearly eight million on the brink of famine.  Laerke told VOA the Yemen crisis is a manmade disaster.

“When we talk about 22 million people, that is almost the entirety of the population.  Then, it is critical, I think, to understand that it is manmade and we need a political solution and we welcome any and all efforts to find such a solution.  In the meantime … it is critical that these ports are kept open,” Laerke said.  

The Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen’s conflict in support of the country’s government in March 2015.  Since then, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and over 40,000 injured.  The U.N. and other human rights groups blame most of these casualties on the coalition’s aerial and ground campaign against the Houthi rebels.

 
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UN: Three-quarters of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Live Below Poverty Line

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A survey by three leading U.N. agencies – the U.N. refugee agency, U.N. Children’s Fund and World Food Program – finds that more than three-quarters of the more than 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living below the poverty line of less than $4 per day.

After nearly seven years of war, the U.N. survey finds Syrian refugees in Lebanon are poorer and finding it ever more difficult to make ends meet. It also shows refugee households on average spend $98 per person per month. Nearly half that sum goes toward food.

The U.N. agencies that conducted the survey report most of the refugees need to borrow money for food, to cover health expenses and pay rent. It says almost nine out of every 10 refugees end up in debt.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman William Spindler says that makes refugees vulnerable.

“Obtaining legal residency continues to be a challenge, leaving refugees exposed to an increased risk of arrest, hindering their ability to register their marriages and making it more difficult for them to find daily labor, send their children to school or access health care,” Spindler said.  

Spindler told VOA the precarious situation facing Syrian refugees is pushing them into adopting negative coping mechanisms, such as early marriage and child labor.

“Many families cannot afford to make ends meet without the support of the wages earned by children. One thing that is particularly worrying is the fact that some employers prefer to hire children because they pay them lower wages than adults,” he said.

Spindler said the impoverished Syrian refugees in Lebanon are increasingly dependent on humanitarian aid for survival. Unfortunately, he said, aid agencies are suffering from a serious funding shortfall. He noted that $2.7 billion is required to meet humanitarian needs in Lebanon this year.
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3 Dead, 48 Injured in Bus Crash Near Czech Capital

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Authorities say three people have died after a bus collided with a car near the Czech capital.

 

Prague firefighters say a total of 48 people were injured in the accident that took place Friday near the town of Horomerice, just northwest of Prague.

 

 Authorities say the municipal bus veered off the road and into a tree after it was hit by the car. The bus driver, the driver of the car and one bus passenger died in the crash.

 

Prague rescue service says 12 teenagers were among the injured.
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Saudi Binladin Group Denies Takeover by Government

Posted on by SeeEA

A Saudi Arabian construction giant says it “remains a private sector company,” but admits that “some of the shareholders may have agreed to a settlement,” allowing for the transfer of some shares to the government “against outstanding debts.”

The Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) said in a statement that it sees the move as a “positive step.”

SBG Chairman Bakr Bin Laden has been detained in Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on corruption.  Dozens of princes and other elite businessmen were swept up in the arrests late last year ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Saudi officials say they are negotiating with the detainees to collect as much as $100 billion for state coffers.

SBG was established in 1931 by Mohammed Binladin.  The company grew quickly after the Kingdom contracted the firm in the 1950s to work on mosques in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.  In 1964, SBG was commissioned to do the re-cladding on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

In recent years, however, SBG has encountered some difficulties and has laid off thousands of employees.

SBG belongs to the family of the former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, killed in Pakistan in 2011 by U.S. special forces.

 
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Awash in Corn, Soybeans, US Farmers Focus on Trade Deals

Posted on by SeeUS

For Illinois farmer Garry Niemeyer, it’s a slow time of year, spent indoors fixing equipment, not outdoors tending his fields, which now lie empty.

All of his corn and soybeans were harvested in what has turned out to be a good year.

“This is the largest amount of corn we’ve had ever,” he said.

And this bounty is not limited to Niemeyer’s farm. It can be seen throughout the United States.

“We’re talking 14½ billion bushels of corn,” Niemeyer told VOA. “That’s a lot of production.”

WATCH: Awash in Corn, Soybeans, US Farmers Focus on Trade Deals

Piles of corn, soybeans

That production is easy to see at nearby elevators, where large piles of corn under white plastic wrap extend into the sky. There is more corn and soybeans than existing storage facilities can hold.

“You can drive by just about any elevator out here in the country and see some pretty large piles of corn that are covered outside of the bins,” said Mark Gebhards, executive director of Governmental Affairs and Commodities for the Illinois Farm Bureau. “That is a direct result of a lot of carry-over from last year; i.e., we need to move this and create market demand to get the product moving.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports record harvests of corn and soybeans in the United States in 2017, with stocks overflowing at elevators and storage bins across the country.

In Illinois, Gebhards notes that up to half of the state’s corn supply, and even more soybeans, will eventually reach foreign shores.

“Usually we say every other row of beans is going into the export market,” Gebhards said.

But Niemeyer wants even more of his crop to find a market overseas.

“We have overproduced for our domestic market,” he told VOA. “Our profits will lie in the amount of exports we are able to secure in the future.”

​The NAFTA question

Which is why the Illinois farmer is looking for some indication from U.S. President Donald Trump on the current efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

“NAFTA is huge,” Niemeyer said. “NAFTA consumes $43 billion worth of our crops and livestock and other things we exported out of this country in 2016.”

Niemeyer is pleased with Trump’s efforts to roll back environmental regulations and institute tax reform. But there was little hint of NAFTA’s fate during Trump’s Jan. 8 speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

“If anything was maybe left as an area of concern, it’s still what’s going to happen to that trade agreement,” said Gebhards, who warns the U.S. withdrawing from NAFTA could impact prices.

“On the livestock side, it’s estimated you would see $18 per hog or $71 per cow if we were to withdraw. It’s estimated that we would see potentially a $0.30 per bushel decrease in the corn price and $0.15 on the soybean side.”

Prices are a factor growers like Niemeyer maintain a close watch on.

“(The) price of corn is about $3.30 a bushel, so $3 corn, it’s hard to make anything work, even with a large yield,” which, Niemeyer said, is why many farmers are holding on to what they have.

“Everybody’s sitting still, that’s the reason you aren’t seeing much corn move right today because the price has done absolutely nothing,” he said.

Niemeyer wants a final NAFTA agreement soon, so negotiators can focus on new trade agreements that could help create more demand, improve prices and ultimately move the supply that has piled up in the U.S.

Gebhards said the world is watching the negotiations for clues on how reliable the U.S. is as a trading partner under Trump.

“It’s a short term issue for us not to lose ground as we try to renegotiate NAFTA,” Gebhards said. “But I think the long term is what kind of a signal do you send as a reliable trading partner to the rest of the world that if you enter into this agreement with the United States you know that you will be able to get that product that you’ve agreed to buy.”

Trump has recently suggested a deadline extension for modernizing NAFTA, which means the uncertainty for farmers like Niemeyer could extend into March or April, when he is preparing to put a new crop in the ground.
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Unpacking What Remains of Iran Sanctions

Posted on by SeeUS

On Friday, President Donald Trump waived economic sanctions on Iran, the second time he’s issued a sanctions waiver under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers.

The agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, restricted Iran’s controversial nuclear program in exchange for broad relief from international sanctions.

While the United States, the United Nations and the European Union have lifted most nuclear-related sanctions, unilaterally imposed U.S. sanctions going back decades remain in place. These restrictions were levied because of Iran’s human rights violations, support of terrorism, and pursuit of a ballistic missile program.

Sorting out the myriad sanctions requires “a team of lawyers,” said Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute in Washington.

“It’s a maze, in many ways,” Vatanka said.

Here is the status of key sanctions on Iran, based largely on a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, as well as those with the Treasury and State departments:

​What sanctions relief Iran has received under the nuclear deal

As part of the deal, the U.S. released Iranian assets frozen because of Iran’s nuclear deal. The CRS report puts the figure around $1.7 billion.

The U.S. waived all provisions of the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), a 1996 law that imposed sanctions on foreign investment in Iran’s energy sector. Among other things, the sweeping legislation mandated penalties on persons and entities that invested more than $20 million in one year in Iran’s energy sector.

The U.S. waived the Iran sanctions provisions of the fiscal year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Among its other stipulations, the law targeted foreign banks that conducted transactions with Iran’s central bank.

The U.S. waived all provisions of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (ITRSHR) of 2012 except for those that applied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliates. The law had imposed sanctions on companies that provided insurance or reinsurance services for Iran’s national oil company and national tanker company.

The U.S. waived the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA), a 2012 law that penalized companies that did business with Iran’s energy, shipbuilding and shipping sectors, exported precious metals to Iran, and allowed Iran to deal in U.S. banknotes.

The president revoked a 2012 presidential executive order that slapped sanctions on companies that purchased oil from Iran, conducted transactions with its national oil company or helped Iran buy previous metals and U.S. banknotes.

The president revoked a 2013 executive order that punished companies that do business with Iran’s automotive sector, expanded penalties on sales of precious metals to Iran, and prohibited regional banks that conduct business in the Iranian currency from holding U.S. bank accounts.

​What sanctions remain in place

The 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the Iran nuclear deal left intact sanctions on Iran’s development of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles as well as Iran’s arms exports and imports.

U.S. and EU sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, its affiliates and commanders remain in place.

The Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act of 1992 remain intact. The act imposes penalties on companies that provide Iran with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) technology or advanced conventional weaponry.

Under JCPOA, the U.S. relaxed a ban on imports of Iranian luxury goods, such as carpets and caviar, but most U.S. restrictions on trade with and investment with Iran remain in place, according to the CRS report.

A ban on U.S. financial institutions doing business with Iranian banks remains in place.

The Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISDA) of 2010 and a related executive order punishing Iranian human rights violators have survived the nuclear deal.

The legislation allows the Treasury Secretary to imposes travel bans and other sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities accused of human rights violations and other abuses. The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it had designated 14 Iranian individuals and entities under the executive order.

More than $3.7 billion worth of Iranian assets, blocked because of Iran’s human rights record, support for terrorism and missile technology, remain frozen, according to the Congressional Research Service report.
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Russia Sends Division of Surface-to-air Missiles to Crimea

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Russia deployed a new division of S-400 surface-to-air missiles in Crimea on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported, in an escalation of military tensions on the Crimean peninsula.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, triggering economic sanctions by the European Union and United States and a tense standoff in the region.

The U.S. said in December it planned to provide Ukraine with “enhanced defensive capabilities,” which officials said included Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Moscow’s latest deployment represents the second division armed with S-400 air defense systems on the peninsula, after the first in the spring of 2017 near the port town of Feodosia.

The new division will be based next to the town of Sevastopol and will control the airspace over the border with Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported.

The new air defense system, designed to defend Russia’s borders, can be turned into combat mode in less than five minutes, Interfax news agency quoted Viktor Sevostyanov, a commander with Russia’s air forces, as saying.

Russia’s defense ministry says the S-400 systems, known as “Triumph,” can bring down airborne targets at a range of 400 kilometers and ballistic missiles at a range of 60 kilometers.

They were first introduced to the Russian military’s arsenal in 2007, the ministry said.
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Awash in Corn, Soybeans, U.S. Farmers Focus on Trade Deals

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The United States Department of Agriculture reports record harvests of corn and soybeans in the United States in 2017, with stocks overflowing at elevators and storage bins across the country. But as VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, record yields don’t necessarily translate into stronger bottom lines for farmers, who increasingly depend on international trade to move their product and improve their prices.
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Iran to Trump: No Changes to Nuclear Deal

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Iran has warned Washington the nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers “is not renegotiable.”

The foreign ministry said in a statement that Iran “will not accept any change in the deal, neither now nor in the future” and it will “not take any action beyond its commitments.”

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter that U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday that he is willing to approve new sanctions on Iran is a “desperate attempt to undermine a solid multilateral agreement.”

Sanctions waived

Trump stopped short for a third time of re-imposing harsh sanctions intended to push Tehran to give up its nuclear weapons research.

He said he was waiving the sanctions for the last time in order to give Congress and European allies 120 days to improve the agreement or face U.S. abandonment of the pact.

The president’s proposals to “fix the deal’s disastrous flaws” include Iran’s agreement to open all sites immediately to international inspectors and an assurance from Tehran that it will never develop a nuclear weapon.

According to the White House, any new Iran deal would have to cover Iran’s ballistic missiles and limit its nuclear breakout period indefinitely.

“In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately,” Trump said in a statement.

Red lines crossed

Additionally, the Treasury Department imposed new measures that target Iranian businesses and individuals for human rights abuses. They were imposed on 14 Iranian entities and individuals, the most prominent of whom is the head of the country’s judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani. The department has linked Larijani to “the commission of serious human rights abuses” against Iranian people.

Iran’s foreign ministry said “The Trump regime’s hostile action [against Larijani] … crossed all red lines of conduct in the international community and is a violation of international law and will surely be answered by a serious reaction of the Islamic Republic.”

The cyber unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the Trump administration maintains has stifled social media networks that demonstrators can use to communicate, was also blacklisted.

Diplomacy Works, a pressure group founded by former U.S. secretary of state John Kerry to defend the 2015 deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, gave a biting evaluation of Trump’s move, saying “ … the president’s plan includes bullying our allies into fundamentally altering the terms of a deal that they know is working for our mutual security and have publicly stated they have no interest in amending.”

A Trump administration official said the sanctions are part of a broader effort to counter Iran’s “reckless” and “destabilizing behavior,” including actions related to the crackdown on protesters, at least 21 of whom have been killed this month.

“The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. “We are targeting the head of Iranian regime, including the head of Iran’s judiciary for the appalling treatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned only for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest of their government.”

By law, the administration must certify to Congress every 90 days whether Iran is complying with a 2015 agreement it signed with the international community to limit its nuclear program.
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Tragedy, Frustration Grow in California Mudslide Town

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Frustrations and dark discoveries mounted for a California town ravaged by a deadly and destructive mudslide.

Most of the people of Montecito, a town usually known for its serenity and luxury, were under orders to leave as gas and power were expected to be shut off Saturday for repairs.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown on Thursday expanded what was known as the public safety exclusion zone to incorporate most of the town. That meant even those who had stayed behind would have to leave and those who entered the zone would be subject to arrest.

“It is a little frustrating,” said Sarah Ettman, whose home was undamaged and whose section of town still had gas and electricity. “It’s martial law here, basically.”

However, with most utilities about to be cut off and sewage running into the nearby creek, she decided to heed the order to leave.

“I mean you’re losing all your basic health and sanitation services,” she said. “When those go down, you have to leave.”

​First fire, then flood

It was another difficult turn for those living in the Southern California town that has been subject to repeated evacuation orders in recent weeks, first because of a monster wildfire last month, then because of downpours and mudslides.

Cia Monroe said her family was lucky their home wasn’t ruined and they were all healthy and safe, though her daughter lost one of her best friends.

But Monroe said it was stressful after evacuating three times during the wildfire to be packing up a fourth time. A family had offered them a room to stay overnight, but then they were looking at spending up to $3,000 a week for a hotel.

“Where do you go when you’re a family of four and you don’t have a second house?” Monroe asked, noting that some residents of town have third and fourth homes. “Financially that’s a burden.”

While Montecito is best known as a getaway for the rich and famous, the median home price among current listings is more than $4 million, there are also working families living in modest houses and apartments.

Search for missing continues

More than 1,200 workers taking part in the search and cleanup effort flooded into the town with a population of about 9,000.

A backhoe scooped up mud and rocks around buckled and flattened homes, while bulldozers cleared roads of tangled trees, muck and boulders. Tanker trucks were being used to haul off floodwaters sucked up from U.S. Highway 101, the crippled coastal route connecting Santa Barbara to Ventura.

Brown said the recovery effort has been hindered by residents who had stayed behind or tried to check on damage in neighborhoods where homes were leveled and car-size boulders blocked roads and littered properties.

Rescuers were busy probing thick muck, swollen creeks and tangled trees with poles in search of seven missing people while dogs sniffed for bodies.

Toll: 18 dead, 7 missing

A crew found the body of the 18th victim, Joseph Bleckel, 87, before noon in his home near Romero Canyon, Brown said. It was the first death discovered since Wednesday.

The cause of Bleckel’s death wasn’t announced, but all other victims died from multiple traumatic injuries due to a flash flood and mudslides.

The seven missing people included Fabiola Benitez, the mother of Jonathan Benitez, a 10-year-old killed in the flooding.

Drenching rains that unleashed the deadly torrents managed to finally contain the largest wildfire in state history, which burned for weeks above Montecito and stripped the steep hills of vegetation, making it prone to mudslides. The U.S. Forest Service announced Friday that the fire that burned 440 square miles (1,140 square kilometers) was fully contained.
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Trump Under Fire From Countries He Reportedly Deemed ‘S—holes’

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The U.S. president is in hot water once again — this time on an international stage — following his reported use of a vulgarity that disparaged poorer nations during a discussion on immigration reform. Global leaders and citizens have been swift and unequivocal in their condemnation. VOA’s Ramon Taylor reports.
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Protests Erupt Again in Tunisia, Cradle of 2011 Arab Spring

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Protesters took to the streets in towns and cities across Tunisia for a fourth day Friday, as anger grows over price hikes introduced by the government. Demonstrations in 2011 in Tunisia grew into the revolution that overthrew the government and triggered a wave of uprisings across the Arab world. Seven years on, the dictatorship may have gone but, as Henry Ridgwell reports, lingering social and economic problems are driving the anger, raising the prospect that the unrest could spread.
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With North Korea in Mind, Japan’s Abe Strengthens Ties to Europe

Posted on by SeeEU

Japan’s prime minister Friday landed in Estonia, his first stop on a tour of the Baltic states and other European nations as he seeks to drum up support for his hawkish stance on North Korea.

Despite a recent cooling of tensions in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, Shinzo Abe has insisted on “maximizing pressure” on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

In the Estonian capital Tallinn, Abe met with President Kersti Kaljulaid and Prime Minister Juri Ratas and discussed bilateral cooperation on cybersecurity, a topic that digital-savvy Estonia has championed since being hit by one of the first major cyberattacks a decade ago.

Abe will then visit fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania, before continuing on to Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. He is the first sitting Japanese leader to visit these countries.

Abe told reporters that he and Ratas had “agreed that we would not accept nuclear armament of North Korea, and that it was necessary to maximize pressure on North Korea.”

Cyberdefense

The leaders also said their countries would start working together on cyberdefense, and a Japanese spokesperson later said Tokyo would cooperate with NATO countries including Estonia on cybersecurity.

“Estonia and Japan are separated by thousands of kilometers, but tightly connected by a digital umbilical cord,” Ratas said, adding that “Japan will soon become a contributing participant with regard to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence, which is located in Tallinn.”

Tokyo and NATO

Japan’s foreign ministry press secretary Norio Maruyama told reporters in Tallinn that “step by step we understand which way NATO can be a useful entity for Japan and in which area can Japan be useful for NATO.”

Maruyama added that given the threats posed by cyberterrorism “we need to have closer coordination among the countries that share the same values.

“I think that the NATO center provides us with a kind of information and a way we can cooperate together,” he added.

Representatives from more than 30 companies would accompany Abe to develop business ties in the region.

Japan is keen to raise its profile in the region as China bolsters its ties there.

All six nations Abe is visiting are among the 16 Central and Eastern European countries that hold an annual summit meeting with China.

China has been pushing its massive $1 trillion “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa in a revival of ancient Silk Road trading routes.

Abe is scheduled to return to Japan on Wednesday.
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Greek Riot Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters   

Posted on by SeeEU

Riot police used tear gas on protesters in Athens, Greece, on Friday, as thousands of people gathered in the streets to demonstrate against a new austerity bill coming up for a vote Monday.

The police deployed tear gas when a small group of demonstrators tried to enter the parliament building. No arrests or injuries were reported.

The bill, which has triggered demonstrations all week in the Greek capital, is expected to be one of the last major packages of cuts before the end of Greece’s EU bailout package in August. It would limit workers’ rights to strike and speed up property foreclosures.

Friday’s strike involved a disruption in Athens public transport. On Monday, the protest is expected to continue with a work stoppage by air traffic controllers from noon to 3 p.m. local time. The public transport strike is expected to continue, along with stoppages by hospital workers. 

The General Confederation of Greek Workers union (GSEE) said the bill “deals a killing blow to to workers, pensioners and the unemployed … effectively eliminating even constitutionally safeguarded rights, such as the right to strike,” according to the French news agency AFP.

Since the bailout, Greece’s economic prospects have improved, increasing the country’s chances of functioning effectively without its EU safety net for the first time in nine years.
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US-Turkish Tensions Flare Over Travel Advisories

Posted on by SeeEU

In the latest tit for tat between NATO allies Turkey and the United States, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued a travel advisory urging the country’s citizens to reconsider visiting the U.S., citing security concerns.

“We observe an increasing number of terror plots and acts of violence in the U.S.,” said the Foreign Ministry on its website. The advisory listed a series of incidents that have occurred since 2016, including at Ohio State University, the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport in Florida, the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Minnesota and a church in Texas.

The Foreign Ministry also warned of the danger of vehicles ramming pedestrians and armed terrorists launching attacks, saying these incidents might occur in city centers, cultural activity areas, metro stations, public buildings, prayer centers and even on school campuses.

The travel advisory cited the risk posed by far right and racist groups, and it urged Turkish citizens to take precautionary measures.

Similar U.S. advisory

The advisory mirrors one issued Friday by the State Department in which U.S. officials urge Americans to reconsider traveling to Turkey. The warning, in part, cited two specific risks, “terrorism and arbitrary detentions.” The advisory included a long list of towns and cities to avoid in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish region, where an insurgency along the Syrian border is ongoing.

Several U.S. citizens are currently detained in Turkey under a state of emergency. They are accused of links to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania and is blamed for a 2016 attempted coup in Turkey. He denies involvement. The U.S. has refused Turkish demands for his extradition.

On Thursday, Ankara-based U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Philip Kosnett was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to receive an official protest over the categorization of Turkey as a country with an increased security risk, along with Sudan, Pakistan and Guatemala.

“These are not good things,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Friday. “Creating the perception that Turkey is an insecure country will harm Turkey-U.S. relations.”

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, on a trip to Los Angeles on Friday, said the U.S. travel advisory was “unnecessary.”

The diplomatic dispute came after the two NATO allies resolved a dispute over visas.

Issuance suspended

Last year, Washington suspended the issuance of nearly all visas in Turkey, in response to the detention of two of its local employees. Ankara retaliated with similar measures. The dispute was resolved in December following intense diplomatic talks, with Washington saying it had received guarantees for its local employees regarding any future investigations against them.

Bilateral relations are also strained over other issues. They include U.S. support of a Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, which Ankara accuses of being linked to an insurgency in Turkey. On Tuesday, Kosnett received an official protest about U.S. military support to the YPG. 

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Turkey would not extradite any suspects to the United States until Gulen was sent back.

“We have given the United States 12 terrorists so far, but they have not given us back the one we want. They made up excuses from thin air,” Erdogan said at a meeting at the presidential palace.”If you’re not giving him to us, then sorry, but from now on whenever you ask us for another terrorist, for as long as I hold office, you will not get them.”

January’s conviction in New York of Turkish state banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran has added to the tensions. Erdogan alleged the conviction was part of a conspiracy by the FBI and CIA against him and his government.

Despite the diplomatic dust-ups and increasingly angry rhetoric from Ankara, analysts predict self-interest will contain the current tensions. 

“The relations keep getting worse and worse, but I don’t think we are at a breaking point,” said political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website. “We know all this is going down very badly in Washington, but Washington has bases in Turkey, Washington has strategic listening posts in Turkey, Washington has logistical military infrastructure in Turkey, so it has to balance these things out, and this is what Ankara is banking on.”
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Police Fire Warning Shots at Kabila Protest in Kinshasa

Posted on by SeeAF

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo fired warning shots Friday to disperse churchgoers who had gathered to mourn seven people killed during recent protests against President Joseph Kabila.

A reporter for VOA’s French to Africa service said police acted after people leaving a mass at Kinshasa cathedral began shouting slogans considered hostile to Kabila. Officers fired tear gas, followed by warning shots.

Two people were wounded, and the crowd began running in all directions.

During the mass Friday, Catholic Church leaders urged Kabila to honor a 2016 church-mediated political deal that called for the president to hold elections and step down.

Kabila has stayed in office more than a year past the end of his second term, the maximum allowed by the DRC’s constitution. Security forces fired on anti-Kabila rallies in the capital on New Year’s Eve, killing seven protesters.

In an interview Thursday with VOA’s French to Africa service, Kabila adviser Julien Lubunga criticized the church for siding against the president.

“It is not up to the church to identify with a certain category of politicians, especially the opposition,” Lubunga said. “You see, today, in Kinshasa Cathedral, masses are celebrated in the presence of the members of the opposition, whereas the church should gather all the politicians and not to say that there are good people on one side and bad one on the other.”

The church and opposition have voiced concern that Kabila, who has ruled the DRC since 2001, will attempt to remove term limits from the constitution or otherwise maneuver to stay in power.

Lubunga denied this, saying Kabila has stated many times “that he will comply with the constitution and that after his two terms, he will cede power to an elected president.”

The DRC government recently said the long-delayed polls will take place on December 23. Lubunga said opposition parties “are afraid to go to the elections” and accused Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo of going against the views of his own church members.

The body of Catholic dioceses in Congo, known as CENCO, said Thursday the government is mounting a campaign of misinformation and defamation against the church.

“Do not be deceived. They just want to manipulate people to believe that the church is divided,” CENCO spokesman Donatien Nshole told VOA on Thursday.
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Ranking Iranian-American Official Heartened’ by Iran Protests

Posted on by SeeUS

The Trump administration’s highest-ranking Iranian-American, who serves as its top antitrust regulator, has welcomed recent anti-government protests in Iran as a “heartening” development.

In an interview with VOA Persian this month, Makan Delrahim described the weeklong anti-government protest movement as a “natural progression” for Iranian people, whom he said desire freedoms that have been denied to them by “oppressive” Islamist clerics who have ruled Iran for almost 40 years.

“It is heartening to watch the Iranian people go through this [protest movement],” Delrahim said. “You hope for the best at the end of it, [but] who knows what happens.”

Delrahim has served as U.S. assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s antitrust division since September. In that role, he enforces U.S. antitrust laws in cases of mergers and acquisitions that raise concerns about anti-competitive business practices.

His office is engaged in a high-profile federal lawsuit to try to block U.S. telecom giant AT&T’s proposed takeover of American media conglomerate Time Warner. AT&T has vowed to fight the lawsuit in a court hearing scheduled for March.

Prior to the Trump administration, the 48-year-old Delrahim worked on antitrust issues for former President George W. Bush’s administration, and spent time in corporate law as an attorney for several major technology companies including Google.

In his conversation with VOA Persian, Delrahim expressed disappointment with the Iranian government’s efforts to block people from using digital communication tools as part of its crackdown on the nationwide protests, which began on December 28.

“I think any country that tries to limit people’s access to technologies that improve their lives, does that to their own ultimate disadvantage,” Delrahim said.

He compared such restrictive practices to the U.S., where he said people have intellectual freedom to express themselves, creating an environment that makes innovation and commerce possible.

“I would hope that it would be different in Iran … so that people have the ability to express their views, whatever they might be,” he said.

Iranian leaders declared an end to the protest movement last week, after deploying thousands of security personnel and mobilizing thousands of their own supporters on streets around the country. Authorities said at least 21 people were killed as some confrontations between anti-government protesters and security forces turned violent.

Earlier this week, Iranian lawmakers said one of the hundreds of protesters detained in the unrest had died in custody. The circumstances of 22-year-old Sina Ghanbari’s death were not clear.

Delrahim also spoke about Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military force whose corporate ownership of key Iranian industries has led critics to portray it as a monopoly that hurts the economy.

“[This] is not something that touches on the issue of antitrust law, but I do have some personal views,” he said, in reference to the economic power of the IRGC.

“It is a shame because it limits the ability of the Iranian economy to grow into the 21st century,” he said. “Iran has the intellectual resources and capacity to be one of the great countries, with some of the best medicine, technological innovations, software companies, medical devices and manufacturing — if they [the Iranian leadership] would allow that. Anytime you have limitations on that [economic potential], I am sure it is good for some of those folks who probably are doing very well, but really at the cost of the people of Iran.”

Iran’s GDP

An International Monetary Fund report published in December said Iran’s real gross domestic product is forecast to grow by 4.2 percent in 2017/2018. It said Iranian economic growth could be “sustained or rise toward 4.5 percent over the medium-term if financial sector reform takes hold.”

The IMF report said “removal of obstacles to private sector development would allow growth to become more diversified, resilient and job intensive.” It also said Iran “needs to reduce red tape, reform state-owned enterprises and improve transparency about corporate beneficial ownership to attract investment and develop the private sector.”

Delrahim was born in Iran to a Persian-Jewish family and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 10. He said Iranian immigrants to the U.S. in recent decades have included entrepreneurs and scientists whom he said would have been “phenomenal treasures” for Iran if they had stayed in their homeland and had the ability to travel freely between the two countries.

“As somebody who has a desire to go back and experience the culture and history of the country once again,” he said, “it is an exciting time to watch [Iran’s latest anti-government protests].”
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World Reacts to Trump’s Vulgar Immigration Comment    

Posted on by SeeAF

President Donald Trump’s vulgar comments to U.S. lawmakers explaining his opposition to Haitian and African migrants has sparked outrage and condemnation at home and abroad.

U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville called the comments racist. “It’s about opening the door wider to humanity’s worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy the lives of many people,” he said.

Trump reportedly said migrants from Africa come from “s—hole countries,” a remark Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois confirmed that Trump used during a meeting on immigration.

WATCH: Trump Under Fire From Countries He Reportedly Deemed ‘S—holes’

Friday, the African Union Mission in Washington issued a statement expressing “infuriation, disappointment and outrage over the unfortunate statement” made by Trump.

“The African Union Mission condemns the comments in the strongest terms and demands a retraction of the comment as well as an apology to not only to the Africans but to all people of African descent around the globe,” the group said.

The mission said there is a “serious need for dialogue between the U.S. administration and the African countries” to address the administration’s “huge misunderstanding of the African continent and its people.”

The African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party, said Trump’s remarks were “extremely offensive.”

Raoul Peck, a Haitian-born director and former Haitian minister of culture, said he was “shocked, appalled and outraged” by Trump’s remark.

“The responsibility of being the president of this great country is not a game nor a reality show,” Peck tweeted. “It demands basic education, basic insight, a dose of humanity and some intelligence. Mr Trump does not and cannot pass any of these grades.”

U.S. diplomats summoned

State Department officials said Friday that American diplomats in Haiti and in Botswana had been summoned by government officials to explain the remarks. Botswana issued a formal statement, seeking clarification on whether the United States truly regards the African country in the derogatory way reported.

Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S., Paul G. Altidor, also condemned Trump’s remarks.

“In the spirit of the people of Haiti we feel in the statements, if they were made, the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people,” Altidor said in a written statement.

The State Department confirmed Friday that U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley had stepped down, saying his resignation was in the works for some time. Reuters said Feeley wrote in his resignation letter that he could no longer serve under Trump in an apolitical fashion.

Asked about the ambassador’s letter Friday, Undersecretary Steve Goldstein told reporters, “Everyone has a line they cannot cross. If that was his line, he was right to resign.”

Goldstein said career U.S. diplomats care deeply about the people in the countries they serve. He added that Foreign Service officers continue their work as usual, though he acknowledged that job might be a little harder today after the controversy surrounding Trump’s comments.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who spoke to new civil services employees on Friday, did not directly address the president’s comments.

U.S. lawmakers speak out

In Congress, Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and fellow Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York said Friday that they planned to introduce a censure resolution next week to allow lawmakers to “speak with one voice” and “condemn President Trump for his racist statements.”

Earlier in the day, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin told a forum that he found the president’s remarks “unfortunate and unhelpful” and said the U.S. should support the contributions of immigrants.

On Thursday, U.S. Republican Representative Mia Love, whose family came from Haiti, said the president’s comments were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values,” and she called on Trump to apologize.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida said it was “incomprehensible” a U.S. president would utter such remarks.

Minnesota state Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who in 2016 became the first Somali-American elected to a state legislative office in the United States, said she was “disturbed” by the president’s words.

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican, tweeted late Thursday, “My ancestors came from countries not nearly as prosperous as the one we live in today. I’m glad that they were welcomed here.”

The White House released a statement Thursday that defended the president’s views, without referencing his specific comments.

“Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation. He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.”

VOA correspondents Margaret Besheer, Steve Herman, Michael Bowman and Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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Official: Trump OKs New Iran Sanctions, Forgoes Re-imposing Harsher Ones

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President Donald Trump approved new sanctions on Iran Friday, while stopping short for a third time of re-imposing harsh sanctions intended to push Tehran to give up nuclear weapons research, according to a senior administration official.

 

Trump gave Congress and European allies 120 days to improve the agreement or face U.S. abandonment of the pact, and imposed new measures that target Iranian businesses and individuals.

 

The administration official said the sanctions are part of a broader effort to counter Iran’s “reckless” and “destabilizing behavior,” including actions related to the crackdown on protesters, at least 21 of whom have been killed.

 

“The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice,” the official said. “We are targeting the head of Iranian regime, including the head of Iran’s judiciary for the appalling treatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned only for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest of their government.”
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