New research shows there is no safe level of smoking. VOA’s Health Correspondent Carol Pearson reports there’s movement to raise the age for Americans to legally buy cigarettes.
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Month: January 2018
First Wave of Emotional Residents Return to California Mudslide Area
Taking stock of their lives and remembering those who were lost, emotional residents Thursday trickled back to the California coastal town that was devastated two weeks ago by mudslides that killed at least 21 people and destroyed more than a hundred homes.
Santa Barbara County officials finally lifted evacuation orders this week for about 1,600 people in the hillside enclave of Montecito, while thousands of others waited for word that it was safe to return.
Sheriff’s deputies drove vans full of evacuees back to their homes. The owners of those that were heavily damaged or destroyed were allowed to briefly search the rubble for precious belongings.
‘It’s just stuff’
Curtis Skene fought back tears as firefighters uncovered old photographs of his father in the ruins of his home.
“You have to be grateful you’re OK,” Skene said. “It’s just stuff.”
Eric and Pamela Arneson found their home still standing. While he dug through their refrigerator, throwing away spoiled food and chuckling at how bad it smelled, she took notes on each item to submit to their insurance company.
The couple initially remained in their home after the mudslides but later stayed with friends and in a hotel when their electricity was shut off a few days later.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Our lives are OK. Our house is OK,” Eric Arneson said.
The couple bought their home in 1972 and had attended church with John McManigal, who died in the mudslides.
“He was the rock of our church,” Pamela Arneson said.
Gradually allowed back
Authorities warned that the returns would be gradual and many people would have to stay out until at least the end of the month.
The town’s narrow streets were clogged with bulldozers and utility trucks as crews remove mud and boulders and rebuild drainage pipes and power lines. Utility workers are also busy restoring water and sewage pipes, gas service and electricity.
Montecito was hit by debris-laden flash floods Jan. 9 when downpours from a storm hit mountain slopes burned bare by a huge wildfire. Hundreds of homes were damaged. A 17-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl remain missing.
The majority of residents and businesses in and around the town of about 9,000 people have yet to receive an all-clear advisory.
Lawsuits filed
On Thursday attorneys announced a class-action lawsuit they have filed on behalf of a group of Montecito residents and business owners. They are suing the utility Southern California Edison, saying it had a role in starting the fire that led to the subsequent displacement and devastation. It comes after a similar lawsuit filed last week that names Edison and a Montecito local utility.
Officials have not given a cause of the fire, and Edison says it’s premature to speculate on the litigation before the investigation is completed.
Village Service Station reopened shortly after the mudslides, providing fuel, food and restrooms for emergency responders.
Owner Keith Slocum said Thursday that “it looked like a Third World country” in the days after the disaster but since then crews have made significant progress clearing roads. He’s eager to learn when neighboring businesses will be allowed to reopen.
“We really could use something definitive,” he said. “I don’t know what the benchmarks are for why they open some parts and don’t open others.”
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Pennsylvania Congressman Won’t Seek Re-election
A Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who settled a former aide’s sexual harassment complaint with taxpayer money informed party and campaign officials Thursday that he will not seek re-election, a decision that came as party officials had begun to search for a replacement candidate.
The complaint by a former aide three decades younger than U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan came to light Jan. 20 in a New York Times report, citing unnamed people. The accuser’s lawyer, Alexis Ronickher, called the allegations “well-grounded” and a “serious sexual harassment claim.”
Meehan, 62, is a four-term congressman and former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia. In an effort to fend off the accusation, the married father of three had described the woman in an interview as a “soul mate,” and acknowledged that he had lashed out when he discovered she had begun dating another man. But he contended that he had done nothing wrong and had never sought a romantic relationship with her.
Calls to resign
Meehan’s decision came as he faced calls from Democrats and rallies outside his district office demanding his resignation, and as Republicans began to lose confidence that Meehan could win re-election in the closely divided district in moderate southeastern Pennsylvania where Republicans fear an anti-Trump wave. On Wednesday night, the comedian Stephen Colbert skewered Meehan in a four-minute monologue on his show.
“Unfortunately, recent events concerning my office and the settlement of certain harassment allegations have become a major distraction,” he wrote in a letter to his campaign chairman. “I need to own it because it is my own conduct that fueled the matter.”
The Times report spurred Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan to call for an Ethics Committee investigation and Meehan’s removal from the committee. Ryan also told Meehan to repay the money and the Ethics Committee opened an investigation into whether Meehan sexually harassed the woman and misused official resources.
Fifth congressman
Meehan is the fifth member of Congress to resign or say he won’t run again amid a national reckoning over sexual misconduct in the workplace.
The former aide made the complaint last summer to the congressional Office of Compliance after Meehan became hostile toward her when she did not reciprocate his romantic interest in her, and she left the job, the Times reported.
The settlement had been kept secret, and Meehan has continually refused to say how much taxpayer money he paid as part of the agreement. Meehan said he followed the advice of House lawyers and Ethics Committee guidance in agreeing to the payment.
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South Sudan Envoy to Russia Resigns
Telar Ring Deng, South Sudan’s ambassador to Russia, tendered his resignation Thursday in a letter to President Salva Kiir.
In an exclusive interview with VOA’s South Sudan in Focus, Deng confirmed that he’d quit his job. “The letter is authentic. I read it and I signed it myself,” he said.
Deng was appointed head of mission in Russia in 2014 after the South Sudan National Legislative Assembly rejected his first appointment, as minister for justice.
Deng declined to give reasons for his decision to leave his Moscow post. He said he would like to work toward peace in South Sudan as a private citizen.
“The subject matter is that I have resigned as ambassador representing South Sudan in Moscow. I still remain an ambassador, and I will go to the headquarters [in South Sudan],” he said.
South Sudan in Focus obtained a copy of a letter dated January 25 from South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Deng Alor Kuol, recalling Deng to report to Juba within 72 hours for “consultations.”
Deng said he resigned before receiving the letter.
Not related
“To be recalled to go to the headquarters [Juba] for consultations is not a sufficient reason for one to resign. In actual fact, I have been speculating to resign for a long time. So the two are not interelated,” he said.
In June last year, South Sudan recalled its top diplomats from seven countries, but said the recalls had nothing to do with the country’s economic crisis. The crisis, sparked by four years of civil war, has left South Sudan’s government strapped for cash, and most of the country’s envoys around the world have not received salaries for up to one year.
Deng said he had not been paid for many months. “We have not been paid for 10 months, but that is not the reason for my resignation,” he said.
Deng has been Kiir’s right-hand man since the country separated from Sudan in 2011. Kiir appointed Deng as his legal adviser in 2012.
“I will not turn my back to my country, I will utilize talents in other areas as a private citizen. I will work towards peace for our people. Our people have suffered for the last four years,” Deng said.
He rejected rumors that he was joining the various rebel groups that have been battling the Kiir government since 2013. He called the president his “good friend” and said he would continue to maintain that relationship.
“I did not discuss with him my decision to resign, but we will still be friends,” Deng said. “We have been friends for a long time, since 1984.The fact that I pulled out as an ambassador to Russia does not destroy our relationship.”
Private contributions
Deng said he would not join the various groups gathering in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for South Sudan peace negotiations. He said he would lobby for peace in his capacity as a private citizen.
“If I have contributions for the next round of talks, I will give them as a private citizen,” he said.
Deng is the second top South Sudanese envoy to resign since the country gained independence. In June 2014, Francis Nazario resigned as South Sudan’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, citing a failure by the Kiir government to amicably resolve the country’s ongoing conflict.
A South Sudanese diplomat said Wednesday that his country’s embassy in London had been closed because of a failure to pay the rent since August. VOA’s South Sudan in Focus reporter confirmed that South Sudan’s embassy was closed Tuesday.
But a spokesman for South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisted his government had not received official notice from its landlord in London.
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Corruption Trial Underway for Ambitious Dakar Mayor
The mayor of Dakar is standing trial for corruption. The case is politically charged, as Khalifa Sall, who has been in jail for almost a year, was still elected to a seat in the National Assembly in July and is seen as a presidential contender in 2019. Now all eyes are of the courthouse, where Sall’s trial began this week.
Crowds of people elbowed their way into Dakar’s main courthouse, the Palais de Justice, Tuesday to witness the arrival of Khalifa Sall, the city’s popular mayor and now defendant in a high-profile corruption case.
Sall has been behind bars since March of last year. He is charged with embezzling about $34 million in public funds between 2011 and 2015. He is also charged with criminal conspiracy, falsification of records, money laundering and fraud. Requests for bail have been denied.
State officials say Sall’s arrest was part of an ongoing push against corruption. But the mayor’s supporters like Anta Diop have a different take.
“Khalifa has ambitions to become president,” she says, “and we are here to support him. This is why President Macky Sall has locked him up,” said Diop.
The courtroom was packed and security tight as the trial opened with heated debates.
Sall’s lawyers denounced the proceedings, claiming a series of fundamental rights were violated.
Maitre Seydou Diagne, one of Khalifa Sall’s attorneys, says
the mayor was refused access to lawyers during preliminary investigations and has been denied his right to parliamentary immunity. Diagne says “There is a set of international standards that make a trial fair, and Senegal must guarantee these standards.”
State prosecutor Maitre Papa Moussa Felix Sow dismisses the accusations.
He says “white-collar criminals are used to discrediting procedures and to making people believe their human rights are not being respected.”
So far, one could argue that Khalifa Sall’s incarceration has not tarnished his image. His party made use of it during the legislative elections last July, winning seven seats in the National Assembly.
Stark posters dotted the capital with slogans like “Dakar in chains” and “Khalifa in prison. Khalifa in our hearts. Khalifa in our voting boxes.”
Moussa Tine, the president of the Pencoo Democratic Alliance, a political party in Sall’s coalition, says the state is now rushing Sall’s trial to reach a verdict by June, when the electoral period for the 2019 presidential poll kicks off. “It is a political tactic to neutralize a rival,” says Tine.
But for Maitre Sow, the state prosecutor, seeking to delay the proceedings is just as political.
He says “the attorneys are clearly doing everything possible for Khalifa not to be convicted before the elections. So I ask you, who is doing politics here?”
Sall’s trial is the second high-profile case against corruption since President Macky Sall took office in 2012.
In 2015, Karim Wade, a former government minister and the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, was sentenced to six years in prison for illegal enrichment. He served half of his sentence before receiving a presidential pardon.
Supporters of Karim Wade are also urging him to run for president, but his legal status remains unclear, meaning the constitutional council would need to rule on his eligibility.
Khalifa Sall’s trial is set to take months, and there could be an appeal following the verdict. However it ends up, the case could have important implications for the 2019 presidential race.
your ad hereSouth Sudan First VP Vows to Stay on If Machar Returns
South Sudan First Vice President Taban Deng Gai said he will not step aside if rebel leader Riek Machar returns to Juba, reversing his earlier stance on the matter.
Gai told journalists in Juba on Wednesday former VP Machar is not interested in bringing peace to South Sudan.
“I don’t think Riek Machar has a place in the Transitional Government of National Unity. He will say that he wants to come back with a huge army, he wants to have two parallel armies in Juba,” said Gai.
During Gai’s swearing-in ceremony in 2016, he said he would gladly step aside in favor of Machar, who had fled Juba after his forces clashed with government troops in the capital that July.
“I am only filling a vacancy according to directives and dictation of my leadership. If situation dictates itself again, that Riek Machar comes back to this position, I don’t think it will be me … to be an obstacle if that can bring peace to my country,” Gai said at the time.
Critics have suggested both President Salva Kiir and Machar should get out of politics, arguing that is the only way to restore lasting peace in the country. Gai doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t predict Salva Kiir leaving power because he is the equilibrium of the SPLM [ruling] party. He is the equilibrium of the nation,” said Gai.
Gai called a news conference in Juba to talk about his recent tour of five South Sudanese states, which he said was aimed at convincing communities in the region to end child abductions and cattle raids.
He said the national government is determined to put an end to such violence in 2018.
“Let us use a maximum force of the government to stop these criminals from not allowing our citizens to be peaceful,” he said. “Actually we may even use the gunship, even the planes, we can bomb them. And we are going to do this.”
While he said the government will provide humanitarian assistance to South Sudan’s millions of vulnerable people as best it could, Gai called on donors to come to the rescue.
“We are going to continue appealing very much to our partners,” he said. “If they love South Sudan, they want peace in this country, we must provide peace dividend.Donors must support the government to provide more services as peace dividend.”
SPLM-IO
The SPLM In Opposition has accused Gai of violating last month’s cease-fire agreement by traveling to Jonglei state with a large number of troops two weeks ago. The government has denied Gai was in violation.
Meanwhile, the east Africa bloc IGAD has urged all parties in South Sudan’s conflict to comply with the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities (ACOH) signed last month in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
The IGAD Council of Ministers, meeting on the sidelines of the African Union summit, released a statement Thursday calling on the warring parties to acknowledge the ongoing violations, including killings, sexual violence, recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, and looting by both government troops and rebels in various parts of South Sudan.
The ministers urged warring parties to take immediate action to demobilize all child soldiers and return them to their homes.
The Washington-based Enough Protect released a report Thursday criticizing the African Union for repeated lack of action against what the activist group called ‘spoilers of the peace process in South Sudan.”
It argued the lack of action against violators of peace agreements have emboldened the leaders of the warring parties to continue the escalation of armed conflict.
The Enough Project recommended the African Union impose sanctions on the chief of defense staff for the South Sudan army, Lieutenant General James Ajongo, and the SPLM-IO’s chief of defense staff, Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual.
‘Beyond these two figures, other military and political officials who share decision-making responsibilities with Ajongo and Gatwech should also be subject to targeted sanctions, visa bans, and investigations into money laundering through regional banking institutions,” the Enough Project said.
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US Envoy to UN: Abbas Lacks Courage to Seek Peace With Israel
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley took aim at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday, saying he lacks the courage to seek peace with Israel. Her comments come after President Donald Trump threatened to cut aid to the Palestinians if they do not pursue peace with Israel.
Ambassador Haley’s remarks, at a regular Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian situation, focused on the Palestinian leader.
“Real peace requires leaders who are willing to step forward, acknowledge hard truths, and make compromises,” Haley said. “It requires leaders who look to the future, rather than dwell on past resentments. Above all, such leaders require courage.”
Haley praised slain Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and the late King Hussein of Jordan as two such courageous leaders.
Both men signed peace deals with Israel. In Sadat’s case, the 1979 peace agreement became a contributing factor in his assassination two years later.
“I ask here today, where is the Palestinian King Hussein? Where is the Palestinian Anwar Sadat? If President Abbas demonstrates he can be that type of leader, we would welcome it. His recent actions demonstrate the total opposite,” she said.
President Abbas has rejected the Trump administration’s December 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the U.S. embassy there. He cancelled a meeting this month with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who was in the region and has said the U.S. can no longer be an acceptable mediator in the peace process.
Haley said the United States would not “chase after” a Palestinian leadership lacking what is necessary to achieve peace. She added that the United States remains “fully prepared and eager” to pursue a peace deal.
your ad hereMelinda Gates Launches Initiative to Reduce Poverty With New Technology
Melinda Gates has launched a high-level international commission to spark new thinking on how developing countries can best harness new technologies to reduce poverty. The wife of Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates spoke at the launch of the commission in Nairobi on Thursday.
The 11-member commission aims to promote use of technology to fight poverty across Africa and provide opportunities for the poor.
Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said the newly launched commission would create opportunities for everyone.
“Let us unleash the opportunity here of all the amazing entrepreneurs, because they are the ones. The markets then will scale these great ideas and so we want to make sure that part of this world we are thinking about everybody, not just the people in the capital cities,” she said.
The commission will be co-chaired by Mrs. Gates, former Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Zimbabwean philanthropist Strive Masiywa.
The team with the help of researchers will deliberate new ideas like robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology and blockchain to reduce poverty. They will also push for policy recommendations to help government navigate the ever changing technology.
According to the United Nations, half of the world poorest people live in Africa, and by 2030 about 400 million people in Africa will be poor.
The United Nations estimates 10 million people in Africa every year enter the job market. Experts note the continent needs more economic growth and employment to bring poverty down.
Strive Masiyiwa, who is founder of Econet Group, a telecommunications company, says Africa will have to create a better environment to benefit from the opportunities presented by technology.
“If we create the right incentives, we can begin to create African venture capitalists who support entrepreneurs on the ground, but they will require incentives, the entrepreneurs themselves need support we need to open our markets constantly deregulate. Deregulation must be a continuous process,” says Masiyiwa.
The everyday use of technology has spread in Africa, marked by an increase in mobile money marking and greater use of the internet.
But some experts question whether this progress has enhanced economic growth and improved people’s lives.
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At Davos Forum, Trump Threatens to Cut Aid to Palestinians
U.S. President Donald Trump has questioned whether peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians will ever resume.
Trump made the remarks in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he accused the Palestinians of disrespecting the United States after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during his recent visit to the region.
Trump threatened Thursday to cut aid to the Palestinians.
“That money is on the table and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace,” he told reporters. “Because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace, and they’re going to have to want to make peace too, or we’re going to have nothing to do with it any longer.”
WATCH: Trump on Palestinians
According to State Department figures, the U.S. provided slightly more than $290 million in foreign assistance for the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2016. Separately, Washington contributed an additional $355 million to the U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. But this year, the U.S. has significantly cut its assistance to UNRWA, announcing a $60 million contribution.
Only a portion of U.S. funds go directly to the Palestinian Authority, with much of the assistance routed to nongovernmental groups and humanitarian partners working there.
By contrast, in 2016, Washington provided Israel with $3.1 billion in military aid. Under a 10-year bilateral military aid package signed under President Barack Obama in 2016, that amount will increase to $3.8 billion a year starting in 2019.
“No price tag can be put on the rights and dignity of any people,” Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour said Thursday in New York. “They cannot be quashed by threats, intimidation or punitive action, and such attempts must be rejected by all who seek peace and justice and who truly believe in international law as the path for their realization.”
Mansour’s comments came during a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East.
WATCH: US to Link Palestinian Aid to Peace Talks
During the session, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed President Abbas as lacking the courage to forge peace with Israel.
“We will not chase after a Palestinian leadership that lacks what is needed to achieve peace,” Haley said. “To get historic results, we need courageous leaders.”
Atlantic ties
Earlier in Davos, Trump rejected what he called “false rumors” of differences with British Prime Minister Theresa May and promised to boost trade after Britain’s EU exit.
“I look forward to the discussions that will be taking place are going to lead to tremendous increases in trade between our two countries which is great for both in terms of jobs,” he said, adding that Britain and the United States are “joined at the hip when it comes to the military.”
There is nervousness that Trump’s “America First” diplomacy is about to shake-up the global system that underpins the Davos summit. Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said many Europeans are hoping for a positive message.
“I hope he will send a message, of course it will be ‘America First’, but if he could add on ‘But not alone’, or ‘But America First and we need cooperation with the rest of the world’ or whatever, that could be nice, because I think everybody needs to realize, whether you are a leader from a small or medium-sized or big countries, that you can’t achieve what you want on your own. The world is faced with a lot of challenges, which can only be solved with close international cooperation,” Rasmussen said Thursday.
Wealth distribution questioned
The general mood in Davos is upbeat, with the IMF forecasting synchronized global growth across 2018. But behind the many closed doors, there is talk of danger ahead. The background report to the WEF summit is titled “Fractures, Fears and Failures,” a reflection of growing global tension, says Inderjeet Parmar, professor of international politics at City University London.
“Even though international wealth and the wealth of states and the levels of economic growth and the GDPs of states have grown, the inequality of the distribution is having large scale political effects.”
The fortunes of the world’s wealthiest 500 billionaires rose by a quarter last year, while the poorest 50 percent of the world’s population did not increase their income.
Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, in Davos for the summit, says it’s time for action. “I’m here to tell big business and politicians that this is not natural, that it’s their actions and their policies that have caused it, and they can reverse it.”
Trump is due to give the closing speech to the conference Friday.
“President Trump will be speaking to two audiences, the ones assembled in front of him, and his voter base at home. And I have a strong feeling that he is going to give some strong words in order to show people back home that he has gone to the belly of the beast itself, of globalization, and told them that he stands for America and the American people,” said analyst Parmar.
Davos is braced for what could be a dramatic finale Friday.
Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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Iraq’s Shunned Islamic State Families
Houla, 25, has no children, so technically she can return to her village, where the children of Islamic State militants are not welcome, no matter how young. But as a militant’s widow, she says, her presence at home could put her whole family in danger.
“If I go home they will be attacked,” she explains.
Instead, she lives in a tent in one of Iraq’s bleak desert camps, where families continue to arrive daily, despite the war’s official end more than a month ago.
Even the most conservative estimates of the number of Iraqi IS militants killed or captured in recent years reaches tens of thousands. Many of their families now live in camps like this one, shunned by their neighbors and relatives, who are often also victims of IS’s brutal crimes.
“Families of IS members are still coming here to be safe from retribution” says Zyad Khalad, an information officer at the camp, about 60 kilometers south of Mosul.
Officials say forcing IS families to return home would inflame sectarian tensions, which are already deep, and often deadly.
Widows like Houla don’t deny their husband’s crimes. But they say, in their conservative society women have little choice as to who they marry, and no say over their husbands’ decisions.
“I told him not to join the militants but he refused me,” adds Hoda, 23, Houla’s former neighbor, and a mother of three. “I knew he would get killed, and we would be left with nothing.”
Sectarian tensions
At first they didn’t know IS was responsible for mass murders, slavery, beheadings, torture, wide-spread floggings and other crimes, says Houla. She does, however, admit to a long-held fear of a Shi’ite-led military known as Hashd Shaaby, or Popular Mobilization Units.
Sunni-Shia tensions fueled by political disputes are often at the heart of the ongoing violence in Iraq. When IS came to power, they won favor among portions of the population by stoking those tensions. With the militants in charge, says Houla, they believed they were safer than the alternative IS presented to them, an imminent Hashd Shaaby attack.
IS told people under their rule the Hashd Shabby were murderers and rapists, while simultaneously slaughtering and displacing Shia families. As a result, some people on both sides wanted revenge and many, like Houla, are still afraid.
“My husband was killed as Iraqi forces were battling for the city,” she says. “We ran because we thought Shia soldiers would attack us.”
Impossible dilemma
And in post IS Iraq, the presence of IS families has created yet another crack in the complex, multi-ethnic society. Victims and families of IS victims of any religion often believe the wives and children support IS ideology, even if they are not accused of any crimes.
And with little formal rehabilitation in place to measure opinions, they may be correct.
“There were some things that made sense,” says Safa, 18, in a tent in the sand a few rows from Houla and Hoda. She is one of the few students who admits to having attended an IS-led school.
Safa’s family fled Tal Afar, one of IS’s last strongholds in Iraq, after her father, an IS militant, vowed to fight to the death before being arrested. “For example, they said smoking is a sin. It is. It’s bad for you and it says so in the Koran.”
But other IS rules, she adds, like strict dress codes and whippings as a punishment for small infractions, were clearly wrong in her opinion. “Nobody hated the religious police more than me,” she insists.
Surrounded by her family, Safa defends her father as a loving and progressive man. A neighbor, Abdulkareem, overhears the conversation and jumps in with far broader-held views of IS.
“As soon as they had full control, they started blowing up churches and government buildings,” he says, appearing angered by Safa’s defense of her father. “They used children as suicide bombers.”
Most wives of dead or captured militants deny ever supporting IS, or their extremist views. But Hoda, the mother of three, says her lack of support will not help her find a home.
She and her family moved many times while her husband was a militant, and after he died, she tried to go home. When she arrived, village leaders ordered her to leave and take the children, all under 11 years old, with her. With no job skills and no husband, a camp was her only option then, and now appears to be her only future.
“Maybe some men would marry a woman with children,” she says. “But no one will marry a wife of IS.”
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US to Turkey: De-escalate Tensions in Northern Syria, Focus on Fighting Islamic State
The United States is urging Turkey to de-escalate tensions over its military operations in Syria and focus on the fight to defeat the Islamic State militants, amid a growing distrust between two NATO allies.
Meanwhile, Turkey is pressing the U.S. to stop its support for Kurdish fighters or risk confronting Turkish forces on the ground in Syria.
U.S.-Turkish relations have suffered another blow, with Ankara and Washington disputing each other’s version of a telephone call Wednesday between the U.S. and Turkish presidents aimed at defusing tensions over Turkish-led forces’ intervention in Syria.
Ankara has rejected Washington’s account of what U.S. President Donald Trump said to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, denying there was any call by Trump to de-escalate the military operation against the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG in Syria’s Afrin enclave.
But Washington said it stands by Trump’s “firm” and “tough” stand during his phone call with Erdogan.
“We stand by the president’s assertion of cautioning Turkey about the escalation of tensions in Afrin area,” said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert on Thursday.
“We certainly hope they [Turkish leaders] will listen,” said Nauert, “that would be a good thing.”
The White House reported Trump said the Turkish operation “risks undercutting our shared goals in Syria,” and “urged Turkey to de-escalate, limit its military actions, and avoid civilian casualties and increases to displaced persons and refugees.”
The dispute over the contents of the telephone call is exacerbating a lack of trust between the two NATO allies.
The United States has supported the YPG militia in the war against Islamic State. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.
In Ankara, a governmental official said anyone supporting the YPG militia will become “a target.”
“The United States needs to review its soldiers and elements giving support to terrorists on the ground in such a way as to avoid a confrontation with Turkey,” said Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag on Thursday.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also launched a verbal attack on Washington.
Yildirim said, “This country we call a NATO ally is in cahoots with terror organizations.” He called it a grave and very painful situation, accusing the United States of working with terrorist organizations. He said Turkey will never accept this.
The prime minister’s latest comment is fueling expectations Ankara will carry out its threat to expand its operation against the Syrian Kurdish militia to Manbij. U.S. forces are deployed in the Syrian town with the YPG militia.
At the Pentagon, a spokesperson said the U.S. has not seen any indication that Turkish forces are moving toward Manbij on Thursday.
Ankara’s lack of trust in Washington is now becoming a major obstacle to resolving the Syria crisis.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu ruled out a proposal he said was made by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to create a 30-kilometer security zone inside Syria to protect Turkey’s southern border. Cavusoglu said until trust is restored, no deal can be made.
But Tillerson later denied he made such proposal.
“We discussed a number of possible options, but we didn’t propose anything,” said Tillerson on Thursday at Davos when asked if he proposed a safe zone inside Syria to Cavusoglu when the two top diplomats met one day earlier in Paris.
Ankara is at odds with Washington on issues besides Syria.
Turkey is calling for the extradition of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016. The cleric, who lives in self-imposed exile in the state of Pennsylvania, denies the accusation.
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities are reportedly in the process of considering a massive fine against the Turkish state-owned lender Halkbank in connection with Iran sanctions busting, following a conviction in New York of one of its senior executives.
Erdogan has alleged the executive’s conviction in the federal case is the latest attempt by the FBI and CIA to unseat him.
Dorian Jones contributed to this story from Istanbul.
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NAACP Sues Homeland Security Over Haitian TPS
The civil rights group NAACP is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over its decision to end nearly 60,000 Haitian migrants’ participation in a provisional U.S. residency program that shields them from deportation.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, as the Miami Herald first reported Wednesday. It said the group – formerly known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – contends the decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti in July 2019 is “irrational and discriminatory.”
The suit was filed on behalf of the NAACP and its Haitian members. It alleges that Homeland Security did not follow its “normal decision making process in regards to whether or not Haitians should still receive the humanitarian protection,” thus blocking Haitians from exercising their constitutional right to due process and equal protection, the Herald reported.
The department’s acting secretary, Elaine Duke, announced her termination decision in November. The department, Duke and new DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen all are named defendants.
The NAACP suit also cited what it called President Donald Trump’s “public hostility toward immigrants of color,” the Herald reported.
In discussing immigration with a small group of lawmakers earlier this month, the president reportedly questioned including Haitians in a proposed deal. “Why do we want people from Haiti here?” he reportedly asked.
U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who was in that meeting, also reported Trump as describing Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “s—hole” countries.
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Trump Willing to Answer Special Counsel’s Questions
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is willing to answer any questions under oath as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“I am looking forward to it,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding, “I would love to do it.”
Months ago, Trump said he would “100 percent” agree to meet with Mueller’s investigators, but more recently questioned why any interview would be needed since there was “no collusion.”
Mueller is looking to interview Trump about his firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey and onetime National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Mueller is investigating whether Trump obstructed justice when, as Comey says, Trump in early 2017 asked him to drop his probe of Flynn’s contacts with Russia’s then-ambassador to Washington in the weeks before Trump took office a year ago, and then months later fired Comey, who at the time was heading the FBI’s Russia probe.
U.S. news accounts say it is not known whether Trump, who repeatedly has rejected suggestions his campaign colluded with Russian interests to help win the election, will agree to the interview, when it might occur, or in what format it be might conducted, with written questions or an in-person, question-and-answer session.
Mueller’s request to Trump’s lawyers to ask Trump about his dismissal of Flynn for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, his talks with Comey about the Flynn investigation, and his later ouster of Comey suggest Mueller is now focused on the obstruction issue.
U.S. law makes it a crime to obstruct justice or hinder an “official proceeding.”
Legal experts say that while a sitting president can’t be prosecuted for obstruction of justice or any other crime, the charge of obstruction can be used by Congress to impeach a president, if it decides to pursue such a case.
Former President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, in part for obstruction of justice, while one of three articles of impeachment brought against Richard Nixon in 1974 alleged obstruction of justice. Clinton was acquitted in a Senate trial, while Nixon resigned as the corruption case mounted against him.
Russia probe
Mueller’s investigation into the Russian election interference now has reached into Trump’s Cabinet, with the interview of Sessions, who himself met with Kislyak while he was a U.S. senator and a Trump campaign advocate, and later played a role in Comey’s firing. Comey was interviewed weeks ago.
Trump has responded the Mueller investigation and congressional probes into the Russian election meddling are a hoax perpetrated by Democrats looking to explain his upset victory over his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Trump and Republican colleagues in Congress increasingly have accused the FBI of bias in pursuing the Trump investigation and their dropping without charges of a 2016 probe into Clinton’s handling of classified material on a private email server while she was the country’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that shortly after Trump ousted Comey, the president had a get-to-know-you meeting with Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s acting director, and asked him whom he voted for in the 2016 election.
McCabe said he didn’t vote in the election. But the Post said Trump “vented his anger” at McCabe, a longtime FBI official, for the fact that his wife had received $700,000 in campaign donations for her unsuccessful 2015 state Senate race in Virginia from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Clinton.
Trump has complained in Twitter comments about McCabe and his wife’s Democratic Party fundraising.
your ad hereNorth Korea Missile Threat Revives Talk of ‘Star Wars’
Scientists and NASA officials who spearheaded development of a space-based missile defense system in the 1980s are urging its revival to counter emerging nuclear threats from North Korea and other rogue states.
False alarms over a North Korean missile attack on Hawaii this month indicate how Pyongyang’s nuclear capability has taken center stage as America’s main security concern since the North Korean government’s recent testing of ICBMs capable of reaching the United States.
The controversial U.S. Space Defense Initiative (SDI), started under President Ronald Reagan, was often ridiculed as “Star Wars” by critics in the U.S. Congress and media who balked at its high cost.
Many also questioned its effectiveness against the Soviet Union’s massive and sophisticated nuclear arsenal.
Back on the drawing board?
The program never got past the drawing board and was largely abandoned at the end of the Cold War.
“Everybody lost interest in SDI when the Soviet Union collapsed, but vast technological advances over the past 30 years and the emerging nuclear threat from North Korea revive its need and feasibility,” says Robert Scheder, a systems analyst with the RAND Corp. who designed the original model for space-based defense.
He conducted early simulations with a weapon system consisting of orbiting rockets equipped with sensor technology designed to intercept attacking missiles at the “boost phase,” or immediately after launch, before they can release decoys and countermeasures.
But there were significant technological shortcomings.
The fleet of satellite interceptor systems, also known as Brilliant Pebbles or Smart Rocks, could not entirely neutralize a Russian first strike involving thousands of nuclear warheads, according to Scheder.
They could, however, provide fail-safe protection against the threat now posed by North Korea, which can only launch a maximum of three or four missiles at a time, he told VOA in an interview from his home in Spain.
Critics: It’s still lacking
Thomas Roberts, a critic of space-based defense at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says that even a small salvo of missiles could penetrate the space shield.
“The enemy can first launch a decoy to make a gap through the interceptor shield and then launch a salvo through that gap, which the Pentagon cannot close fast enough,” Roberts said.
At least 1,600 killer satellites would be needed to fully cover the Earth, costing defense dollars that could be just as effectively spent in deploying more conventional interceptor missiles and launching more satellites to track, surveil and identify incoming enemy missiles.
The calculated $100 billion cost for placing thousands of Brilliant Pebbles in orbit would have absorbed the entire U.S. defense budget in the 1980s.
“But the much smaller size of satellites and advances in miniaturization technology would limit the cost substantially in today’s terms,” Scheder said.
Commercially available space technology currently produced by Tesla and other contractors would also lower development costs and shorten deployment time, according to NASA experts.
The former SDI director, retired U.S. Air Force General James Abrahamson, has placed the current cost of Brilliant Pebbles at $20 billion.
Roberts said it would be at least $70 billion.
Congressional interest
SDI was shelved by President Bill Clinton and plans to revive it under successor George W. Bush were sidelined as counterterrorism and land wars in Afghanistan and Iraq took priority following the 9/11 terror attacks.
Growing concern with North Korea has moved the U.S. Congress to request new funding for space weapons research, according to a recent letter from the House Armed Services Committee to the White House.
The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Donald Trump last month mandates the Missile Defense Agency to “begin research on space-based interceptors and re-establish the space test bed for demonstrating the relevant technologies.”
Abrahamson has said that the land-based anti-ballistic missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, that currently employs Patriot surface-to-air batteries, cannot provide guaranteed protection against a rogue attack.
Simulations have shown that THAAD and the Navy’s AEGIS system have a 50 percent probability of intercepting ICBMs at terminal phases when they re-enter the atmosphere.
“They are tactical weapons designed to protect points in a set piece battle scenario,” Scheder said. But effective protection for entire countries or regions under threat by unstable regimes like Kim Jung Un’s can only be provided by satellite-operated area defense.
Questions remain
Critics of space-based weapons point to the possibility of satellite error in detecting a hostile launch.
Brilliant Pebbles impactors might also disintegrate upon re-entering the atmosphere in pursuit of an attacking missile before hitting it.
SDI proponents say that triangulations among Earth-based systems, mother satellites at upper orbits, and smart rocks at low orbit need to be tightened.
Scheder also says that the Smart Rock is a solid impactor designed to destroy a rocket with no explosive charge, so its collateral damage would be limited.
“An ICBM has about a 20-minute trajectory through space in which it’s vulnerable to a Smart Rock,” Scheder said. “Once it’s re-entered the atmosphere, land-based missiles have only seconds in which to hit it.”
Some weapon systems conceived for SDI, like laser or electromagnetic guns, could not provide adequate protection, according to the RAND expert.
Missiles can be painted to deflect laser rays and the heavy lift required for electromagnetic guns would complicate their placement in space.
There is a theoretical danger that a rogue nation or group with highly developed cyber war capacity could hack into a Brilliant Pebbles network and direct it against the U.S. or its allies.
But difficulties in countering a U.S. space shield could convince rogue powers of the futility of costly nuclear programs, according to Scheder.
He credits “Star Wars” with the Soviet Union’s decision to fold its arms race.
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Improving Inter-Korean Ties Could Strain US Alliance
North Korea’s conciliatory message sent out Thursday may indicate South Korea’s Olympic outreach is working, but there are concerns that improving inter-Korean relations could undermine the U.S. maximum pressure strategy.
Following a joint meeting of the country’s political parties, the Kim Jong Un government issued a statement that urged all Koreans “at home and abroad” to “rapidly improve the north-south relations” and work toward a “breakthrough for independent reunification.” The message also endorsed defusing military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and promoting increased cooperation and exchange programs.
The peaceful overture from Pyongyang is the latest positive development to come out of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s efforts to persuade North Korea to participate in the Olympics as a way to restart inter-Korean dialogue and reduce tensions.
The Kim Jong Un government’s agreement to send a large delegation to South Korea for the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics Winter Games has achieved a temporary pause in North Korea’s ongoing efforts to develop a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Moon also was able to get the U.S. to delay annual joint military exercises with South Korea, which the North views as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
Peace offensive
North Korea’s sudden accommodating attitude has left many analysts skeptical.
“I would like somehow the Olympic experience to transform North Korean behavior and that they become a more cooperative state, (but) I don’t think that’s going to be the case,” said security analyst Daniel Pinkston, who is a lecturer in international relations with Troy University in Seoul.
The Moon administration’s goal is to persuade Pyongyang to return to international talks to dismantle its nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief and security guarantees.
But North Korea has taken an uncompromising position in declaring itself a nuclear state, justifying its need for nuclear weapons to defend against a U.S. invasion and refusing to discuss the prospect of denuclearization.
The U.S. is skeptical of Pyongyang’s claim that its nuclear weapons are for self-defense only. CIA Director Mike Pompeo this week said North Korea is prepared to use its nuclear capability for “coercive” purposes to ultimately reunify the Korean Peninsula under Kim’s rule.
Washington also views the North’s long-range nuclear missile development as an existential threat and has demanded Pyongyang agree to give up its nuclear weapons before any formal talks can proceed.
Negotiation window
This Olympic truce may open a window of opportunity to seek a peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff. There is speculation that if inter-Korean cooperation continues, President Moon will seek to cancel this years’ joint drills in the spring to provide even more diplomatic space.
It is not clear if Washington would agree to further postponing joint exercises that it says are needed for military deterrence readiness. And there is some concern in the U.S. that President Moon may waver in his support for the U.S. “maximum pressure” policy to impose crippling sanctions on North Korea, and instead agree to ease economic pressure for further inter-Korean cooperation.
“If they decide to go to the other path and give into some of North Korea’s demands, I think that will create a definite fissure between us and the Moon administration,” said former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry, at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) security forum in Washington on Wednesday.
South Korean opposition groups have also criticized Moon for accommodating the North’s Olympic participation, which they say is part of a propaganda good will campaign to seek sanctions relief.
However, Terry, a senior fellow with CSIS, said she did not believe the Moon administration would undermine its U.S. alliance by renewing economic cooperation with Pyongyang at this time.
“They told us that they learned from history in dealing with North Korea, that they are not going to make unilateral concessions to the North Koreans,” Terry said.
Noting that North Korea’s Olympics cooperation is a “good thing,” South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Thursday her government is prepared for further provocations as well, during an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
While calling for improved relations with the South, Pyongyang is also preparing for a massive military parade likely to be held Feb. 8, the day before the Olympics opening ceremony, which the government recently announced as a holiday to honor the founding of the country’s armed forces.
In Seoul, Youmi Kim contributed to this report.
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Arab Spring’s Costs Still Being Counted
Revolutions have a nasty habit of taking off in unexpected directions, Friedrich Engels noted more than a century ago. The morning after, people realize “the revolution they made was nothing like the one they had wanted to make.”
The 19th century political philosopher’s words seem especially apt for the Arab Spring uprisings. Seven years after a wave of protests erupted across the Middle East and North Africa, turning the region upside down, none have met the hopes of the revolutionaries, mainly ordinary Arabs seeking an escape from stagnation and corruption.
Nor have they fulfilled the expectations of Western onlookers and enablers.
Once celebrated in Western capitals, and inspiring progressive dreams of many young Arabs, the uprisings within months, turned nasty, souring the optimism of those who believed that overthrowing autocrats and holding elections would herald a more stable region less given to eruptions and brutal repression.
Benghazi attack
For the West, the first moment of real doubt came with the jihadist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound and a nearby intelligence annex in Libya’s Benghazi, which claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, a champion of the Arab Spring, and three other Americans.
That attack underscored how chaotic and unruly the Middle East had become and how easily jihadists could foment upheaval.
Ordinary Arabs didn’t like what they had woken up to just months into what they had hoped would be a new era of individual dignity, personal autonomy and improved living standards.
Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria
In Egypt, a high-handed Islamist government enraged both progressives and “deep state” loyalists, prompting a popular backlash the army hijacked to install into power General Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, a copycat of ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak.
This week el-Sissi ordered the arrest of a former Egyptian army general who planned to run against him in forthcoming elections, the fourth potential challenger to be detained in what appears to be a coordinated state campaign to drive would-be candidates from the race and to manage the campaign. Analysts say Egypt’s latest strongman and his allies in the military and security services appear determined to ensure a trouble-free re-election, a move that makes a mockery of the 2011 uprising, activists say.
In Libya, in the wake of the ouster of its leader, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, a series of prime ministers floundered in their efforts to establish order and to decommission ideological and town-based militias, fracturing the North African country. An Islamic State affiliate emerged, beheading Christians and foes as it seized coastal territory.
Yemen descended into brutal civil war and starvation, inviting in outside powers Saudi Arabia and Iran and empowering extremists.
In Syria, the heart of the Middle East, vicious repression of non-violent reform protests featuring systematic rape, mass detentions and torture, gave way to an armed revolt, which again encouraged the intervention of outside powers, including Russia, the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.The revolt was quickly distorted by the emergence of the Islamic State terror group and rivalry between Islamists and moderates.With hundreds of thousands of dead, there still is no end in sight.
Where did West go wrong?
With the collapse of governments and the break up of Arab states, religious visionaries and fanatics, from Sunni jihadists and Islamists to militant Shiites, filled the void. Progressives and moderates were ill-equipped to cope, and a confused West lost hope, analysts say.
Skeptics like John Bradley, author of the book After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts, argued early on the West and local progressives were guilty of wishful thinking and were too quick to hail the stirrings of the Arab Spring and draw parallels to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
Others maintain the Arab Spring could have worked out. The choice wasn’t binary argued Matthew Partridge in a review of Bradley’s book. “America and Europe need to lead from the front — not from behind,” he said as the Arab Spring’s consequences unfolded.
Another expert, Bill Lawrence, a former analyst at the International Crisis Group, a New York and Brussels-based research organization, has said the West was as much onlooker as participant, arguing “a big mix of forces came together in the region to express rage over hopeless economics, corruption and abusive government.”
The demographics of the region suggest that one cause of the Arab spring turbulence, jobless young men, will long remain. All the Arab spring countries share at least two things: They have very young populations and they are unable to create jobs.
The birthplace of the Arab Spring, Tunisia, has managed a relatively peaceful transition from an authoritarian regime to a functioning democracy.
But this month and in December a new round of austerity measures, with higher prices for basic foods, fuel and energy, sparked street protests. Police and protesters drawn from the youth movement Fesh Nestannew, which means “What are we waiting for?” supported by youngsters from working class areas, clashed. Like the 2011 protesters, they are demanding better lives.
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Mnuchin ‘Not Concerned’ About Short-term Value of Dollar
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the U.S is “not concerned” about the value of the dollar in the short-term.
At a press briefing at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, Mnuchin said the short-term value of the dollar is dependent on many factors in what is a very liquid market.
In the longer-term, he said, the U.S. currency’s value will be determined by the underlying strength of the U.S. economy.
On Wednesday, Mnuchin sparked a big dollar sell-off when he said the recent fall in the value of the dollar was “good” for trade. The euro, for example, spiked to a three-year high.
Mnuchin insisted Thursday that his comment on the dollar was “balanced and consistent.”
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Sierra Leone: Women Helping Women Out of Prostitution
In Sierra Leone, as elsewhere, commercial sex work is still stigmatized. Sex workers there say they face assault and routine intimidation by police, clients and others. Local activists are working to provide greater opportunity and protection for women in the sex trade.
On the outskirts of Freetown, Mariatu Sesay runs a small roadside cafe. But it is more than a place to get a cold drink or a warm meal.
Sesay spends much of her time training any sex trade worker who wants to learn how to cook and run a small business.
Sesay says she has helped over 40 women get out of the sex industry.
“I have a passion for this job … since I was around 7 years old … I used to see plenty of women doing sex work, they used to come in our compound. They’d wash there, leave their things there,” Sesay said. “At times, I saw how the beach boys used to beat them for money.”
Sesay has her own story, too.
During Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war, rebels killed Sesay’s parents and captured her. She was 11 years old and forced to become a sex slave. The war ended in 2002 and she was eventually able to go back to school.
Others haven’t been so lucky. Many girls became orphans struggling to survive on the streets after the civil war.
And that is one reason the sex trade is prevalent in Sierra Leone
It’s estimated there could be up to 300,000 female commercial sex workers in Sierra Leone, according to 2013 figures from the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat; however, it is believed that number has increased due to the Ebola epidemic, which ended in 2016.
Julie Sesay — no relation to Mariatu Sesay — is a program manager for Advocaid, a legal aid group that helps vulnerable women.
“The increase is due to the fact that many families lost parents and after the loss of both or single parents, there is very high likelihood there will be increase in poverty and if there is increase in poverty, no education; then what do you expect a young girl to do?” Julie Sesay said. “It’s to plunge themselves into sex work.”
The laws in Sierra Leone are ambiguous on prostitution. Selling sex is not illegal in and of itself.
Julie Sesay says female sex workers are arrested for offenses such as loitering. And they have been arrested for working in a public place.
Advocaid says the women are rarely convicted on these charges and the state is wasting resources.
One sex worker in Freetown, who asked VOA not to share her name due to stigma, described her recent arrest.
The woman says she lived with an aunt who was abusing her, so she ran away and began selling sex. She was eventually arrested for loitering. She says the police beat her and when she had no money for bail, they asked for sex instead. She refused and spent a month in jail before Advocaid intervened and got her released.
Advocaid says this is a common scenario, one the group also highlighted in a recent documentary.
Police told VOA they are investigating the allegations.
Ibrahim Samura is the public relations officer for the Sierra Leone police.
“It is our duty to look into those allegations, and it’s our duty to engage our personnel, sensitize them and tell them that disciplinary measures will be taken if any police officer is found wanting of any of the allegations raised,” Samura said.
Meanwhile, at the roadside cafe, Mariatu Sesay stocks up on Star beer for evening clients with one of her trainees, Mary Aruna, a former sex worker.
Speaking in her native Krio, Aruna said she has learned to save money and believe in herself again.
As for Mariatu Sesay, she says she will remain an ally for sex workers and continue to empower them.
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US Military Probes Twitter Post Claiming to Show US Troops Killed in Niger
The U.S. military is reviewing images posted on the social media site Twitter that claim to show dead American soldiers killed during an ambush in Niger last year.
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said Wednesday it is “aware of the post on Twitter” and is reviewing it to determine “the veracity of the tweet and the assertions that there is an associated video.”
The post says the images are from a more than 10-minute-long video broadcast by an affiliate of the Islamic State in Mali. The post adds that the video shows a wounded American soldier and the bodies of the three other U.S. soldiers who were killed in the October 4 ambush.
The militant attack near the village of Tongo Tongo killed four American soldiers, four Nigerian soldiers and a Nigerian interpreter.
A formal investigation into the deadly ambush in Niger is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
A group of 12 members of a U.S. Special Operations Task Force accompanied 30 Nigerian forces on a reconnaissance mission from the capital city of Niamey to an area near Tongo Tongo.
Members of the team had just completed a meeting with local leaders and were walking back to their vehicles when they were attacked, U.S. officials told VOA.
Some 1,300 U.S. military personnel work in the Lake Chad Basin — Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad — to help strengthen local militaries and counter Boko Haram, al-Qaida, IS and other extremist groups.
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UN: 1.5 Million South Sudanese on Brink of Famine
The United Nations warned Wednesday that 1.5 million South Sudanese are on the brink of famine and 20,000 are already in famine conditions.
“The next lean season, which begins in March, is likely to see food security worsen, and could see famine conditions spread to several new locations across the country,” deputy U.N. humanitarian chief Ursula Mueller warned.
Mueller told Security Council members that more than 5 million South Sudanese nearly half its population of 12 million are believed to be severely food insecure.
The U.N. has asked for $1.7 billion for 2018 to meet rising humanitarian needs there.
Mueller said the worsening food situation is linked to the population’s inability to plant or harvest because of conflict, displacement and destruction of assets.
Aid workers face constant challenges in reaching vulnerable populations, including threats to their own lives, kidnappings, extortion, excessive checkpoints, harassment and intimidation. Last year, at least 28 humanitarian workers were killed while working in South Sudan.
But despite the dangers, the U.N. and its partners reached more than 5.4 million South Sudanese in 2017, providing critical assistance.
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UN: Al-Shabab in Decline, But Still a Threat
The top U.N. official for Somalia said Wednesday that while al-Shabab remains a serious threat, the terror group is on the decline, and the continued deployment of African Union troops in Somalia is essential to its ultimate defeat.
“Al-Shabab remains a potent threat, despite — or perhaps precisely because — it is on the back foot as a result of financial pressures, counterterrorism operations and airstrikes,” U.N. envoy Michael Keating told Security Council members.
A truck bomb attack Oct. 14 in the capital city of Mogadishu killed more than 500 civilians and demonstrated the al-Qaida-linked group’s ability to stage a large-scale attack, despite an intensive military offensive against them.
Keating said defeating the group requires both a military and political strategy and serious efforts to address issues that terrorists exploit, such as corruption and the lack of jobs and education opportunities for youth.
The more than 22,000-strong African Union force, known as AMISOM, receives a logistical support package from the United Nations, and gets additional funding from the European Union.
“AMISOM’s continued presence will therefore be essential,” Keating said. “Premature drawdown of AMISOM forces will be a gift to al-Shabab and risks undermining the gains that have been made, at great human and financial cost, over the last decade.”
But Keating acknowledged that it is not viable for the force to stay indefinitely, and said the Somali security sector needs to prepare for a gradual handover of responsibility.
Somalia’s U.N. envoy, Abukar Dahir Osman, urged council members to ease the arms embargo in place for more than two decades on the country.
“The existing arms embargo framework on Somalia is a major obstacle to an effective implementation of our ambitious security sector reform,” Osman said.
The government has previously argued that the embargo needs to be fully lifted so the army can get the heavy weapons it needs to defeat al-Shabab.
Keating also warned of potential violence between two autonomous regions in the country.
“There is a serious danger that long-standing disputes between Puntland and Somaliland, and in particular an armed standoff in Sool, could erupt into violence in the coming days, with potentially grave consequences,” he said.
Both regions claim Sool as their own, which has previously led to violence.
The country is also grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis. Persistent drought and conflict have left 6.2 million people in need of assistance. More than 2 million people have been displaced from their homes.
“The risk of famine still looms,” Keating warned.
The U.N. is seeking $1.6 billion to cope with the crisis this year.
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US Imposes New Sanctions on North Korea
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions Wednesday aimed at halting North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs.
The Department of Treasury placed sanctions on nine entities, including two China-based trading firms that helped export millions of dollars’ worth of metals and other materials used in Pyongyang’s defense sector.
Sixteen individuals were also targeted, including members of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, who conduct business in China, Russia and the region of Abkhazia, a partially recognized state south of Russia and northwest of Georgia. The Treasury Department urged those countries to expel the individuals, who are prohibited from dealing with Americans.
Ten China- and Russian-based representatives of the Korean Ryonbong General Corporation were among those targeted. The company supports Pyongyang’s defense industry and is already under U.S. and U.N. sanctions.
Five North Korean shipping companies and six vessels were also among the blacklisted entities.
“Treasury continues to systematically target individuals and entities financing the Kim [Jong-un] regime and its weapons programs, including officials complicit in North Korean sanctions evasion schemes,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The latest sanctions come as the global community has resorted to an economic crackdown to curb the aggression of Kim’s regime. But the U.S. and other countries have cited continuous violations of the sanctions meant to deter the North’s nuclear and missile development programs.
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Former US Olympics Doctor Gets up to 175 Yrs Prison Time for Sexual Abuse
Former USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar has been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing female gymnasts, some as young as 10 years old.
A Michigan judge handed down the sentence Wednesday. Nassar had pleaded guilty in November to 10 counts of first-degree sex assault.
He is already serving a 60-year term on child pornography convictions.
About 160 of Nassar’s victims gave emotional statements at his sentencing hearing in a circuit court in Lansing, Michigan since it began on Jan. 16.
U.S. Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney are among athletes who have said in recent months they were assaulted by Nassar during medical treatment.
Many victims have accused USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body in the U.S., of ignoring their complaints and the governing body of concealing them in an effort to avoid negative publicity.
Three high-ranking board members quit Monday amid ongoing criticism, following the resignation last March of the organization’s president and chief executive.
The 54-year-old Nassar served as the USA Gymnastics physician in four Olympic Games. Nassar was also the team physician for the Michigan State University gymnastics and women’s crew teams, and an associate professor at the university’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.
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US Special Counsel Looking to Interview Trump in Russia Probe
Special counsel Robert Mueller is now looking to interview U.S. President Donald Trump about his firing last year of former FBI director James Comey and one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn – as part of Mueller’s ongoing criminal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Mueller is investigating whether Trump obstructed justice when, as Comey says, Trump in early 2017 asked him to drop his probe of Flynn’s contacts with Russia’s then-ambassador to Washington in the weeks before Trump took office a year ago, and then months later fired Comey, who at the time was heading the FBI’s Russia probe.
U.S. news accounts say it is not known whether Trump, who repeatedly has rejected suggestions his campaign colluded with Russian interests to help win the election, will agree to the interview, when it might occur, or in what format it be might conducted, with written questions or an in-person, question-and-answer session.
Months ago, Trump said he would “100 percent” agree to meet with Mueller’s investigators, but more recently questioned why any interview would be needed since there was “no collusion.”
Mueller’s request to Trump’s lawyers to ask Trump about his dismissal of Flynn for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, his talks with Comey about dropping the Flynn investigation, and his later ouster of Comey suggest that Mueller is now focused on the obstruction issue.
Trump has denied making the demand of Comey to drop his Flynn investigation, calling it a “lie.”
U.S. law makes it a crime to obstruct justice, or hinder an “official proceeding.”
Legal experts say that while a sitting president can’t be prosecuted for obstruction of justice or any other crime, the charge of obstruction can be used by Congress to impeach a president, if it decides to pursue such a case. Former President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, in part for obstruction of justice, while one of three articles of impeachment brought against Richard Nixon in 1974 alleged obstruction of justice. Clinton was acquitted in a Senate trial, while Nixon resigned as the corruption case mounted against him.
A day after Trump fired Comey last May, the U.S. leader told Russian officials in a White House meeting that Comey was “crazy, a real nut job” and that he had relieved “great pressure” on himself with Comey’s dismissal. Days later, Trump told a television interviewer he ousted the FBI chief because of “this Russia thing.”
But shortly thereafter, Mueller, over Trump’s objections, was appointed to take control of the Russia probe.
Cabinet-level interviews
Mueller’s investigation into the Russian election interference now has reached into Trump’s Cabinet. Investigators last week interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who himself met with Kislyak while he was a U.S. senator and a Trump campaign advocate, and later played a role in Comey’s firing. Comey was interviewed weeks ago.
Trump has alleged that the Mueller investigation and congressional probes into the Russian meddling in an effort to help him defeat former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are a hoax perpetrated by Democrats looking to explain his upset victory.
Trump and Republican colleagues in Congress increasingly have accused the FBI of bias in pursuing the Trump investigation and their dropping without charges of a 2016 probe into Clinton’s handling of classified material on a private email server while she was the country’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that shortly after Trump ousted Comey, the president had a get-to-know-you meeting with Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s acting director, and asked him whom he voted for in the 2016 election.
McCabe said he didn’t vote in the election. But Trump also vented his anger at McCabe, a long-time FBI official, for the fact that his wife had received $700,000 in campaign donations for her unsuccessful 2015 state Senate race in Virginia from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Clinton.
The head of the Republican National Committee, Ronna Romney McDaniel, dismissed concern over Trump’s question to McCabe about his 2016 vote. “I think it’s just a conversation,” she told CNN.
McCabe is retiring in March, but the Axios news website reported this week the White House and Sessions pressured the new FBI director, Christopher Wray, to dismiss high-level FBI officials, such as McCabe, who served under Comey.
Axios said Wray threatened to resign over the demand, but then the White House backed off.
Trump, who has complained in Twitter comments about McCabe and his wife’s Democratic fundraising, denied Wray had threatened to quit.
“No, he didn’t at all. Not even a little bit. Nope,” the president said when asked about it during an Oval Office event in the White House. “And he’s going to do a good job.”
Congressional correspondent Michael Bowman contributed to this report
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