Month: February 2018

Security Council to Vote on Yemen-Related Resolution That Would Condemn Iran

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Monday on a British-drafted resolution that would condemn Iran for violating a U.N. arms embargo by providing missiles and drones to Shiite rebels in Yemen — and commit to future action against Tehran.

Kuwait’s U.N. Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaiba is the current council president. He told reporters Saturday, “We are still working on the text, but the intention is to adopt it Monday morning.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said this week that he opposed the draft, saying it should be about renewing the work of experts monitoring sanctions against Yemen, not condemning Iran. 

The experts said in a January report that they’d identified Iranian missile remnants and other equipment introduced into Yemen after the 2015 arms embargo that were fired into Saudi Arabia. 
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French Farmers Heckle Macron at Agricultural Fair

Posted on by SeeEU

President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday faced heckles and whistles from French farmers angry with reforms to their sector, as he arrived for France’s annual agricultural fair.

For over 12 hours, Macron listened and responded to critics’ rebukes and questions — only to return home to the Elysee Palace with an adopted hen.

“I saw people 500 meters away, whistling at me,” Macron said, referring to a group of cereal growers protesting against a planned European Union free-trade pact with a South American bloc, and against the clampdown on weedkiller glyphosate.

“I broke with the plan and with the rules and headed straight to them, and they stopped whistling,” he told reporters.

“No one will be left without a solution,” he said.

Macron was seeking to appease farmers who believe they have no alternative to the widely used herbicide, which environmental activists say probably causes cancer.

Mercosur warning

He also wanted to calm fears after France’s biggest farm union warned Friday that more than 20,000 farms could go bankrupt if the deal with the Mercosur trade bloc (Brazil, which is the world’s top exporter of beef, plus Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) goes ahead.

Meanwhile, Macron was under pressure over a plan to allow the wolf population in the French countryside to grow, if only marginally.

“If you want me to commit to reinforce the means of protection … I will do that,” he responded.

And he called on farmers to accept a decision on minimum price rules for European farmers, “or else the market will decide for us.”

But it wasn’t all jeers and snarls for Macron at the fair.

He left the fairground with a red hen in his arms, a gift from a poultry farm owner.

“I’ll take it. We’ll just have to find a way to protect it from the dog,” he said, referring to his Labrador, Nemo.

It was a far cry from last year, when, as a presidential candidate not yet in office, Macron was hit on the head by an egg launched by a protester.
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Juncker Heads to Western Balkans to Discuss EU Strategy

Posted on by SeeEU

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is embarking on a Western Balkan tour to promote the EU’s new strategy for the region.

Juncker’s tour to the six Balkan countries that remain outside the European Union starts in Macedonia, where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the European Commission unveiled its new strategy to integrate Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.

Among the six countries, the commission considers Serbia and Montenegro as current front-runners toward accession and the new strategy says they could be allowed in by 2025 if they meet all the conditions.

Juncker has warned that this was an “indicative date; an encouragement so that the parties concerned work hard to follow that path.” 

“The EU door is open to further accessions when, and only when, the individual countries have met the criteria,” the EU road map said.

It insisted that the six countries still have many obstacles to overcome before joining the bloc, including regarding corruption, the rule of law, and relations with their neighbors.

EU member states Croatia and Slovenia are still locked in a border dispute stemming from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Macedonia and EU-member Greece are engaged in UN-mediated talks to resolve a 27-year-old dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav republic.

The EU-sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina has produced agreements in areas such as freedom of movement, justice, and the status of the Serbian minority in Kosovo — as well as enabling Serbia to start EU accession talks and Brussels to sign an Association Agreement with Kosovo.

Juncker’ strip to the Western Balkans comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov traveled to Belgrade this week for a two-day visit aimed at bolstering longstanding ties with Serbia.

During the visit, Lavrov welcomed Serbia’s drive to join the EU, but also vowed that Moscow would remain engaged with the Balkan country no matter what happens.

“We always wanted partners to have a free choice and develop their political ties,” Lavrov said at a news conference with President Aleksandar Vucic, who is leading Serbia through a delicate balancing act.

Although Serbia is seeking to join the EU, it continues to nurture close ties with Moscow and has said it will not join the EU’s economic sanctions against Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.
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Anti-Deportation Protests Continue in Tel Aviv

Posted on by SeeAF

About 15,000 protesters turned out Saturday on the streets of Tel Aviv to voice their opposition to the deportation of African asylum-seekers, many of them from Sudan and Eritrea.

The demonstration in south Tel Aviv was in the heart of the area where many Africans live after arriving in the city via the bus station there. Over the past 12 years, about 40,000 Africans are estimated to have entered Israel illegally.

Earlier this week, Israel began detaining African asylum-seekers who refuse to accept the deal Israel offers to encourage them to leave — $3,500 and a plane ticket to an African destination. Refusal to go could land them in jail indefinitely.

About a dozen such refugees were jailed this week.

The Israeli government considers these people economic migrants who have come to Israel to seek jobs rather than avoid persecution. But Saturday’s protesters — sympathetic Israelis, as well as asylum-seekers themselves — carried signs saying “No to deportation” and “We’re all humans.”

Earlier this week, some African migrants wrapped themselves in chains to protest, chanting, “We are refugees, we are not criminals!”

Most of the migrants say they prefer prison in Israel to returning to Africa, where their lives will be in danger.

The crackdown has been condemned by Israeli human rights groups, which say that since Israel was built by refugees from the Holocaust, it has a moral obligation to help those facing a similar fate.
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UN Security Council, With Russian Support, Demands 30-day Syria Cease-Fire

Posted on by SeeUS

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Saturday demanding a 30-day truce in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations with the support of Syrian ally Russia after a flurry of last-minute negotiations.

The vote comes as warplanes pounded eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria’s capital, for a seventh straight day.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Wednesday for an immediate end to “war activities” there.

This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.
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‘Years of Lead’ Haunt Italian Election as Political Street Skirmishes Return

Posted on by SeeEU

Italy has had 64 governments since the World War II and many more prime ministers, but even by its own chaotic standards the country is mired in one of the most divisive and increasingly violent parliamentary elections in recent years.

Rising political violence has prompted comparisons to the 1970s and early 1980s  — the “Years of Lead,” as they were known — when the country was engulfed in political and social turmoil and buffeted by domestic terrorism launched by extremists on the right and left of the political spectrum.

Twenty-one parties — and two highly unstable electoral alliances with shifting allegiances and sharp personal animosities, also darkened by intrigue worthy of the Borgia era — are competing in a race that has become shriller and more menacing with each passing day.

Tribal mood prevails

Politicians haven’t restrained their political rhetoric, hurling accusations with abandon at their rivals, smarting their characters and alleging treachery. The political language matches the grim, tribal mood of an electorate in the grip of anti-migrant fervor and furious with a political system seemingly incapable of grappling with key bread-and-butter issues.

 

Voters have become angrier as the election campaigning has unfolded, as well as more violent. This was demonstrated this week as police in several towns scuffled with bottle-throwing far-left protesters to block them from closing in on provocative anti-migrant and far-right rallies, where speakers call for the mass expulsion of the more than 600,000 migrants who have arrived in the country in the past two years.

On Friday, political violence plunged the center of the coastal city of Pisa into chaos and sent shoppers scurrying as left-wing protesters mounted a violent demonstration against Lega leader Matteo Salvini, who was speaking at a public rally and repeating his pledge to fight Brussels to ensure that “Italians come first.” Protesters threw smoke bombs, stones and bottles at blue-helmeted riot police.

In Turin, six police were hurt Thursday as they battled anti-fascists trying to reach a rally mounted by CasaPound, a neo-fascist grassroots group turned political party. The skirmish was described by local officials as “very serious.” They said the protesters clearly “intended to hurt” the police.

Anti-migrant fever

CasaPound itself has been eager in recent weeks to goad reaction from leftwing adversaries. It has been mounting highly provocative patrols in the multi-ethnic Esquilino neighborhood of Rome. This week group members in the district waved Italian flags and unfurled an anti-migrant banner emblazoned with the words: “Rape, theft, violence, enough degradation in this area.”

“Italians can no longer walk around this area peacefully, because of all the foreigners that continue to arrive end up here,” Carlomanno Adinolfi, a group member told reporters.

On Saturday police imposed a major security clampdown on Rome as political tensions mounted in the final days of the March 4 elections. A Mai piu fascismo (fascism never again) march drew thousands, and beforehand police warned demonstrators from carrying “blunt objects and rigid flag poles” and from wearing helmets and hard hats.

The tone for violence was set earlier this month when a onetime regional candidate for the right-wing populist Lega party, a key group in a right-wing alliance with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, shot and wounded half-a-dozen migrants in a central Italian town 200 kilometers from Rome.

Street skirmishes between neo-fascists and leftists — as well as racially motivated attacks on migrants — have increased ever since. In the central town of Perugia, a campaigner was reportedly stabbed and wounded midweek while putting up campaign posters for Potere al Popolo (Power to the People), a coalition of communist parties.

Politicians targeted, abducted, beaten

And politicians have been singled out for attack.

Candidates receive death threats on social media. Laura Boldrini, the speaker of the Italian Parliament, who has been a vehement opponent of racism, has received more than most — she also received a bullet in the mail. She is competing for reelection in Milan but is living in a secure house, the whereabouts of which are a closely-guard secret. Effigies of her and the country’s current left-wing prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, were burned last month by youth members of the Lega in the northern town of Varese.

On Wednesday, a regional leader of Forza Nuova, a stand-alone far-right party that blames migrants themselves for anti-migrant attacks, was abducted in Palermo, Sicily, by leftwing activists wearing balaclavas, who bound and beat him. The activists sent a video of the assault to news stations, accusing their victim, Massimo Ursino, of spreading hate and racism across Italy.

“We tied him up and beat him to show that Palermo is anti-fascist and there is no place for men like him here,’’ they said.

Palermo’s mayor, Leoluca Orlando, said the attack was a sign of the “shameful and disgraceful” state of Italian politics. “We can’t beat fascism with violence. We can’t beat fascism with fascist behavior,” he added. The rise of the far-right has prompted the rise of a new far-left, which appears determined to be muscular.

Homegrown dangers

The day before the Palermo attack, the Italian intelligence services released their annual security report detailing potential hazards to the country. They identified radical Islamic terrorism as the greatest of the security challenges facing Italy, but the agencies also noted that home-grown extremism and the increased presence in Italy of far-right groups, and “fierce Neo-Nazi networks” promulgating racism and intolerance, posed a grave risk, too.

The Italian security services also raised the possibility of cyber-campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion and the country’s political orientation in the run-up to the March 4 election, worrying such campaigns would seek to introduce “destabilizing elements” by exacerbating online Italy’s political, economic and social divisions.

Although Russia wasn’t mentioned by name, U.S. and Italian analysts have warned that European elections have been targets for Russian meddling. But La Stampa newspaper in an investigation has found scant evidence of Russian actors using social media and cyber-attacks to try to shape this election cycle in Italy.

The country’s domestic political actors have proven all too capable of poisoning the political atmosphere without a helping hand from overseas, analysts note.

“Political violence must be stopped,” said Pietro Grasso, leader of Free and Equal (LeU), a leftwing party contesting in the elections. A former anti-mafia prosecutor and Senate speaker, Grasso told a Facebook forum this week, “I condemn violence, from whatever side it comes. It must be condemned and it must be stopped, and we must try to nip in the bud all manifestations of violence linked to political ideology.”

 
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Turkey: Early Opening of Jerusalem US Embassy ‘Extremely Worrying’

Posted on by SeeUS

The Turkish government called it “extremely worrying” the U.S. will open an embassy in Jerusalem this coning May instead of by the end of next year as had been previously announced.

“This decision shows the U.S. administration’s insistence on damaging the grounds for peace by trampling over international law, resolutions of the United Nations Security Council on Jerusalem,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday in a statement.

Vice President Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament last month the move of the mission from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would take place at the end of 2019, but the State Department said Friday the administration would open the embassy in May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding.

President Donald Trump announced U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December, angering Washington’s Arab allies and Palestinians, who claim the eastern part of the Old City as their capital.

“Turkey will continue its effort to protect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian public … against this extremely worrying decision by the U.S.,” the ministry said.

The Palestinian leadership said Friday moving the embassy a year earlier than originally announced was a “provocation to Arabs.”

Jerusalem is considered holy by Christians, Jews and Muslims and is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The move further strains relations between the U.S. and Turkey, already at odds on a number of issues, including Turkey’s latest military offensive against a U.S.-supported Kurdish militia in Syria.

The U.S. is the only country to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that has also created dissension between the U.S. and the European Union over peace efforts in the Middle East.

 
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Thousands of Children Displaced by Ethnic Violence in DRC’s Ituri Province

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.N. children’s fund reports at least 90,000 children have been forced to flee their homes in the face of escalating inter-communal violence in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri Province.

Ituri’s Djugu territory in northeastern D.R.C. has been the scene of recent carnage and displacement, with tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes in fear of their lives.

The U.N. children’s fund reports ethnic violence in this province has displaced an estimated 66,000 children internally and sent another 25,000 seeking refuge in neighboring Uganda.  

Violent disputes between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups over cattle and grazing issues erupted in December, after lying relatively dormant over the past two decades. Conflict between the two groups intensified early this month with destructive force.

UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac says more than 70 villages have been burned down. He says more than 76 people have been shot dead, a majority women and children.

Boulierac says at least three health centers and seven schools have been pillaged and/or set on fire, depriving children of an education. He adds that education has been interrupted for some 30,000 children in more than 100 schools throughout the region.

UNICEF warns that thousands of children risk falling ill from diarrhea, cholera and other diseases because of exposure to bad weather, lack of food and safe water. The agency says it and other aid agencies are distributing blankets, soap, safe water and other essential relief to this needy population.

UNICEF is calling for a peaceful resolution to this conflict, noting an end to violence is the only way to protect children from the many dangers facing them.

 
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Mogadishu Blasts Death Toll Rises to 38

Posted on by SeeAF

The death toll from two suicide car bomb blasts that ripped through the Somali capital of Mogadishu Friday, has risen to at least 38 people, according to government sources.

Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan of the Aamin Ambulance Service said the bombings targeted the presidential palace and a hotel. At least 30 other people were wounded. Adan said that most of the victims were civilians.

The first blast occurred near the country’s intelligence headquarters. Minutes later, another car bomb hit a checkpoint about 300 meters from Somalia’s presidential palace.

The al-Shabab Islamist militant group claimed responsibility in a statement posted online, saying it was targeting the government and security services.

A Somali intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told VOA that suspected al-Shabab militants in a vehicle were stopped at the checkpoint, and began firing before the car exploded.

He said militants trying to escape were fighting Somali security officials pursuing them in the vicinity.

“We heard two big explosions and gunfire is still echoing in two different directions of the city,” Mogadishu resident Nur Abdulle told VOA. “After [the] blasts, we could see a huge cloud of smoke [go up] into the air.”

Al-Shabab has attacked dozens of government buildings, hotels, restaurants, and other targets in Mogadishu in recent years.

 
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US Men Win First Olympic Gold Medal in Curling

Posted on by SeeUS

The American men have won the Olympic gold medal in curling in a decisive upset of Sweden.

 

John Shuster skipped the United States to a 10-7 victory Saturday for the second curling medal in U.S. history. Shuster was part of the other one, too, as the lead thrower on Pete Fenson’s bronze-medal team at the 2006 Turin Games.

 

The Americans received a good luck call from Mr. T before the match. The King of Sweden was there, as was U.S. presidential daughter Ivanka Trump.

They saw Shuster convert a double-takeout for a five-ender in the eighth — an exceedingly rare score that made it 10-5 and essentially clinched the win.

Sweden retained the last-rock advantage known as the hammer for the ninth end, and scored two. 

But that gave the hammer to the Americans for the 10th and final end. Shuster played it safe, throwing away one stone intentionally to keep the target area clear and avoid the traffic that can lead to big scores. The remaining rocks were used to methodically pick off Sweden’s until there weren’t enough left to catch up. 

With two stones apiece left, Swedish skip Niklas Edin pushed off with a spin and a smile, and then conceded defeat. (Although Sweden had two stones in the house, the end does not count in the score).

Sweden is the reigning world champion silver medalist and finished first in pool play with a 7-2 record. The Americans barely squeaked into the playoffs with a 5-4 record after losing four of their first six games to move to the brink of elimination. 

But Shuster, American curling’s only four-time Olympian, guided his team to three straight victories to advance to the playoffs and then a semifinal win over three-time defending gold medalist Canada. No U.S. curling team, men’s or women’s, had ever beaten Canada at the Olympics.

This year’s team — Shuster, Tyler George, Matt Hamilton, John Landsteiner and alternate Joe Polo — did it twice in one week.

 

Sweden took the silver medal. Switzerland beat Canada in the third-place game on Friday for bronze. 
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More US Companies End Marketing Programs With National Rifle Association

Posted on by SeeUS

Three more companies say they have ended marketing programs with the National Rifle Association (NRA), as gun control advocates stepped up pressure on firms to cut ties to the gun industry following last week’s school shooting in Florida.

Activists have posted petitions online, identifying businesses that offer discounts to NRA members, in a push to pressure the companies to cut ties to the gun rights organization.

Corporations that ended their discount programs with NRA members on Friday included insurance company MetLife, car rental company Hertz, and Symantec Corp., the software company that makes Norton Antivirus technology.

The move comes after several other companies cut their ties to the NRA earlier this week, including car rental company Enterprise, First National Bank of Omaha, Wyndham Hotels and Best Western hotels.

The NRA is one of the country’s most powerful lobbying groups for gun rights and claims 5 million members.

Florida shooting renews debate

Last week’s shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has renewed the national debate about gun control.

Gun control activists have been mounting a campaign on Twitter, including using the hashtag #BoycottNRA as well as using social media to pressure streaming platforms, including Amazon, to drop the online video channel NRATV, which features gun-friendly programming produced by the NRA.

On Thursday, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that those advocating for stricter gun control are exploiting the Florida shooting.

Receiving a rousing reception, LaPierre said, “There is no greater personal individual freedom than the right to keep and bear arms, the right to protect yourself and the right to survive.”

Arming teachers

On Friday, President Donald Trump reiterated to CPAC for the third time this week the need to arm teachers with concealed weapons to prevent more shootings in U.S. schools.

“It’s time to make our schools a much harder target for attackers. We don’t want them in our schools,” Trump said.

Trump has also proposed raising the age to buy assault-style rifles from 18 to 21, which is opposed by the NRA.

In his speech to CPAC, Trump indicated he does not intend to battle the powerful organization.

“They’re friends of mine,” Trump said of the NRA, which gave more than $11 million to his presidential campaign in 2016 and spent nearly $20 million attacking his Democratic Party general election challenger, Hillary Clinton.

The mass shooting in Florida on Feb. 14 has sparked a wave of rallies in Florida, Washington and in other areas of the United States in an attempt to force local and national leaders to take action to prevent such attacks.

 
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Zimbabwe’s Opposition Names Acting Leader 

Posted on by SeeAF

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party says its acting leader will stay at the helm following the death of former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai earlier this month. But signs of internal division remain, something analysts say could handicap the opposition with elections just months away.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) goes into this year’s election without its founding leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who died in South Africa two weeks ago after a battle with colon cancer.

Since then, the MDC’s three vice presidents have been fighting for the top post.

One of them, Nelson Chamisa, said Friday that MDC leaders have chosen him to be the party’s acting head for the next 12 months.

“There is a lot of noise in the cockpit, yes. This is just turbulences. It is a difficult transition. We had giant who was our head, our leader, and all of a sudden that giant is no longer there,” Chamisa said.

“Obviously, the small giants would want to fit in the shoes. But you can be assured that it will be resolved,” he added. “Don’t listen to too much noise. Listen to the music coming from the cockpit, and the music is that we are going to win the election.”

A coalition of opposition parties is expected to back Chamisa as their presidential candidate in the coming elections.

For the first time, the MDC will not be facing off against Robert Mugabe. The longtime president was forced to resign under military pressure in November, after 37 years in power.

Some in the opposition see opportunity in this time of transition in Zimbabwe, but independent analyst Rejoice Ngwenya says time is running out.

“Elections are really about being organized,” Ngwenya said. “If I were to advise them now, I would tell the opposition that it is too late to start re-aligning their governance and constitutional issues now. They need to compromise and focus on the candidate who is the best to bring votes into their kit. The issues of governance and constitutional issues should have been solved two years ago, it is too late now.”

The ruling ZANU-PF party has selected its top candidate, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from Mugabe in November.
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EU Top Diplomat: Donors Raised $510 Million for G5 Sahel Force

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As Europe seeks to stop migrants and militants reaching its shores, EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said Friday that international donors have raised more than $500 million for a multinational military force in West Africa’s Sahel region. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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Trump Pushes to Arm Some Teachers in Wake of Florida School Shooting

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U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his call to arm some teachers in the wake of the high school shooting in Florida. Trump spoke before a conservative group near Washington. He is the latest in a series of U.S. presidents forced to deal with the impact of a mass school shooting and with the question of what can be done to prevent them. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone reports that presidents have often been frustrated when trying to bridge the great divide over guns in the United States.
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US Gymnasts Tell AP Sport Rife With Verbal, Emotional Abuse

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They were little girls with dreams of Olympic gold when they started in gymnastics. Now they’re women with lifelong injuries, suffocating anxiety and debilitating eating disorders. 

They are the other victims of USA Gymnastics. 

Thirteen former U.S. gymnasts and three coaches interviewed by The Associated Press described a win-at-all-cost culture rife with verbal and emotional abuse in which girls were forced to train on broken bones and other injuries. That culture was tacitly endorsed by the sport’s governing body and institutionalized by Bela and Martha Karolyi, the husband-and-wife duo who coached America’s top female gymnasts for three decades.

The gymnasts agreed to speak to AP, some for the first time, after the recent courtroom revelations about USA Gymnastics’ former team doctor, Larry Nassar, who recently was sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting young athletes for years under the guise of medical treatment.

The Karolyis’ oppressive style created a toxic environment in which a predator like Nassar was able to thrive, according to witness statements in Nassar’s criminal case and a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics, the Karolyis and others. Girls were afraid to challenge authority, Nassar was able to prey on vulnerable girls and, at the same time, he didn’t challenge the couple’s harsh training methods.

“He was their little puppet,” Jeanette Antolin, a former member of the U.S. national team who trained with the Karolyis, said. “He let us train on injuries. They got what they wanted. He got what he wanted.”

Young girls were virtually starved, constantly body shamed and forced to train with broken bones or other injuries, according to interviews and the lawsuit. Their meager diets and extreme training often delayed puberty, which some coaches believed was such a detriment that they ridiculed girls who started their menstrual cycles.

USA Gymnastics declined to answer questions for this story, and the Karolyis didn’t reply to requests for comment. The Karolyis’ Houston attorney, Gary Jewell, said the Karolyis didn’t abuse anyone.

Some female gymnasts in the U.S. were subjected to abusive training methods before the Karolyis defected from their native Romania in 1981. But other coaches and former gymnasts say the Karolyis’ early successes — starting with Romania’s Nadia Comaneci becoming the first woman gymnast awarded a perfect score in competition — validated the cutthroat attitudes that fostered widespread mistreatment of American athletes at the highest levels of women’s gymnastics.

The Karolyis, who helped USA Gymnastics win 41 Olympic medals, including 13 gold over three decades, trained hundreds of gymnasts at their complex in rural Huntsville, Texas, known as “the ranch.” They selected gymnasts for the national team and earned millions from USA Gymnastics. 

A congressional committee investigating the gymnastics scandal said in Feb. 8 letters to the Karolyis, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee that they were all “at the center of many of these failures” that allowed Nassar’s sexual abuse to persist for more than two decades.

It’s unclear what the Karolyis knew about Nassar’s sexual abuse and whether they took any action to stop it.

Martha Karolyi, in a deposition given last year as part of the lawsuit against the Karolyis and numerous others, acknowledged that “in or around June 2015” she received a phone call from the then-head of the national gymnastics organization, Steve Penny, informing her that the organization had received a complaint that Nassar had “molested a national team gymnast at the ranch.”

The deposition was included in a Feb. 14 letter to two U.S. senators from John Manly, an attorney representing Nassar victims in a lawsuit that seeks monetary damages and court oversight of USA Gymnastics.

Manly cited the deposition in accusing the sport’s governing body of lying to Congress. 

In a timeline submitted to a congressional committee investigating the scandal, the organization said it was told in mid-June of an athlete “uncomfortable” with Nassar’s treatment, but that it was not until late July 2015 that it decided to notify law enforcement “with concerns of potential sexual misconduct.”

Penny, the former USA Gymnastics chief, said in a statement that Martha Karolyi was mistaken about the timing of his call.

Texas has one of the strongest child abuse reporting laws in the nation, requiring anyone who has reason to believe abuse has occurred to immediately alert authorities. Failure to do so is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time and a fine.

In the deposition, Martha Karolyi said she did not discuss what she learned about Nassar with anyone but her husband, her lawyers and the USA Gymnastics official who called her. 

Jewell, the Karolyis’ attorney, said the couple didn’t know about any sexual assault complaints involving Nassar until Martha Karolyi was contacted by a USA Gymnastics official in the summer of 2015.
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California Parents Face New Charges in Kids’ Torture Case

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A Southern California couple suspected of starving and shackling some of their 13 children pleaded not guilty Friday to new charges of child abuse.

David and Louise Turpin previously entered not-guilty pleas to torture and a raft of other charges and are being held on $12 million bail.

Louise Turpin also pleaded not guilty to a new count of felony assault.

Louise Turpin, dressed in a blouse and blazer, looked intently at more than a dozen reporters in the courtroom. David Turpin, wearing a blazer, tie and black-rimmed glasses, kept his eyes on the judge during the hearing. Both said little except to agree to a May preliminary hearing.

Shocking discovery

The couple was arrested last month after their 17-year-old daughter escaped from the family’s home in Perris, California, and called 9-1-1. Authorities said the home reeked of human waste and evidence of starvation was obvious, with the oldest sibling weighing only 82 pounds.

The case drew international media attention and shocked neighbors who said they rarely saw the children, who appeared to be skinny, pale and reserved.

Authorities said the abuse was so long-running the children’s growth was stunted. They said the couple shackled the children to furniture as punishment and had them live a nocturnal lifestyle.

The children, who range in age from 2 to 29, were hospitalized immediately after their rescue and since then Riverside County authorities, who obtained temporary conservatorship over the adults, have declined to discuss their whereabouts or condition.

Finding their voice

Attorneys representing the adult siblings told CBS News, however, that the seven are living at Corona Medical Center, where they have an outdoor area for sports and exercise, and are making decisions on their own for the first time.

“That in itself is a new experience for them, understanding that they do have rights and they do have a voice,” attorney Jack Osborn said.

He said that making daily decisions such as what to read or wear is empowering.

“I just want you to understand just what special individuals they are,” Osborn said. “They all have their own aspirations and their own interests and now they may have an opportunity to address those, which is really exciting.”

The attorneys said the older siblings want to do things such as go to the beach, the mountains and to movies, as well as attend college and have careers.

CBS reported that the adults communicate by Skype with the younger siblings, who are being cared for separately.

Corona Mayor Karen Spiegel, who works closely with the siblings’ nurses, told CBS that the nurses “talk about how warm and loving these kids are, and so appreciative.”
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Trump Recites Inflammatory, Anti-immigrant ‘Snake’ Song

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday recited the lyrics of a song seen as anti-immigration called “The Snake” to drive home his point about restricting immigration — an inflammatory move that harkened back to his days on the campaign trail.

In a speech to conservatives at a convention outside Washington, he also bashed opposition Democrats for failing to back his proposal for putting 1.8 million so-called Dreamer immigrants on a pathway to citizenship in exchange for tightening border security and severely restricting legal immigration.

During his hourlong address, Trump pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read “The Snake,” a ballad by Al Wilson about a reptile who repays a “tender woman” that nurses it back to health with a deadly bite.

During his campaign, as well as in a speech early in his presidency, Trump used the song, based on one of Aesop’s fables, as a less-than-subtle allegory about immigrants entering the United States. 

Some Republicans recoil

On Friday, he made no secret about the comparison he was making.

“Think of it in terms of immigration,” he urged attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he launched into the song.

“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in,” he said, reading the final line of the song, before returning to his speech.

“And that’s what we’re doing with our country, folks — we’re letting people in, and it’s going to be a lot of people. It’s only going to be worse.”

Some mainstream Republicans have recoiled at Trump’s continued recitation of the lyrics.

“Trump’s snake story is vicious, disgraceful, utterly racist and profoundly un-American,” tweeted Steve Schmidt, a former campaign aide for president George W Bush.

Democrats ‘totally unresponsive’

In his wide-ranging speech, Trump warned that efforts to reach a deal on the status of undocumented migrants brought to the US illegally as children could fail — and blamed his opponents.

“The Democrats are being totally unresponsive. They don’t want to do anything about DACA, I’m telling you,” he said, referring to negotiations on Capitol Hill on replacing an expiring program that defers deportation for some undocumented migrants.

“It’s very possible that DACA won’t happen.”

Former president Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, whose recipients were given legal permission to work, live and go to school in the United States. 

DACA-related bills

Last September, Trump announced he was rescinding DACA and called on Congress to craft a solution before March 5, setting off months of bipartisan negotiations.

The Senate held votes on several DACA-related bills last week, but none of them advanced. 

Many conservatives in Congress including Senator Ted Cruz have been outspoken in their opposition to any legislation that provides “amnesty” to people who are in the United States illegally. 
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US Defense Secretary Mattis Sends Transgender Guidance to Trump

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U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has sent guidance to President Donald Trump on whether transgender troops should serve in the U.S. military, two days after a Defense Department deadline.

Pentagon spokesman Major Dave Eastburn has confirmed to VOA that the secretary’s recommendation was sent to the president early Friday. He would not discuss details of the guidance because it was a “private matter” between Mattis and Trump.

Eastburn said the Pentagon expects Trump’s policy announcement on transgender service members “no later than March 23.”

During Thursday’s briefing, chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told VOA the issue of transgender military service was “complex” and that the secretary was “taking his time” to review the information given to him.

The Pentagon said last September that it began studying how to implement a directive by Trump to prohibit transgender individuals from serving.

Trump expressed his desire to ban transgender people from serving in the military in a string of Twitter comments in July. He said he was ordering the armed forces to stop allowing transgender individuals to serve, after consulting generals and military experts.

“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” the president tweeted.

Hours later, the U.S. military’s top general stressed to Pentagon leaders that there had been no change to the military’s policy on transgender personnel despite Trump’s announcement on Twitter.

“There will be no modifications to the current policy until the president’s direction has been received by the secretary of defense [Mattis] and the secretary has issued implementation guidance,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, wrote in a memo obtained by VOA.

Federal courts rejected parts of Trump’s proposed ban, which sought to overturn an Obama administration policy that said transgender troops could apply to join the military, serve openly and seek medical care.

Recruiting of transgender service members began January 1, after Trump’s administration decided not to appeal federal court rulings that rejected the administration’s request to put on hold a judge’s orders requiring the military to begin accepting transgender recruits.

The RAND Corporation has estimated that the number of transgender individuals currently serving in the active component of the U.S. military is between 1,320 and 6,630 out of a total of about 1.3 million service members. 
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With Rates Still Low, Fed Officials Fret Over Next US Recession

Posted on by SeeUS

Federal Reserve policymakers fretted on Friday that they could face the next U.S. recession with virtually the same arsenal of policies used in the last downturn and, with interest rates still relatively low, those will not pack the same punch.

In the midst of an unprecedented leadership transition, Fed officials are publicly debating whether to scrap their approach to inflation targeting, how much of its bond portfolio to retain, and how much longer they can raise interest rates in the face of an unexpectedly large boost from tax cuts and government spending.

After years of near-zero rates and $3.5 trillion in bond purchases all meant to stimulate the economy in the wake of the 2007-09 recession, the Fed has gradually tightened policy since late 2015. Its key rate is now in the range of 1.25 to 1.5 percent, and while the Fed plans to hike three more times this

year it has also forecast that it is about halfway to its goal.

That could leave little room to provide stimulus when the world’s largest economy, which is heating up, eventually turns around.

“We would be better off, rather than thinking about what we would do next time when we hit zero, making sure that we don’t get back there. We just don’t want to be there,” Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren told a conference of economists and the majority of his colleagues at the central bank.

Rosengren, one of only a few sitting policymakers who also served during the last downturn, said the expanding U.S. deficits could further erode the government’s ability to help curb any future recession. “With the deficits we are running up, it’s not likely [fiscal policy] will be helpful in the next

recession either,” he said.

Since mid-December, the Republican-controlled Congress and U.S. President Donald Trump aggressively cut taxes and boosted spending limits, two fiscal moves that are expected to push the annual budget deficit above $1 trillion next year and expand the $20 trillion national debt.

Overheating

That stimulus, combined with synchronized global growth, signs of U.S. inflation perking up, and unemployment near a 17-year low could set the stage for overheating that ends one of the longest economic expansions ever.

“We want more shock absorbers out there and really … the main shock absorber is the ability to reduce the fed funds rate, which means that you want to get to a higher inflation rate so that the pre-shock fed funds rate is 4 and not 2,” said Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at City University of New York.

In a speech to the conference hosted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Krugman said every recession since 1982 has been caused by “private sector over-reach” and not Fed tightening, as in decades past.

The conference’s main research paper argued the central bank should focus on cutting rates in the next recession and avoid relying on asset purchases that are less effective in stimulating investment and growth than previously thought.

In October the Fed began trimming some of its assets and it has yet to decide how far it will go. William Dudley, president of the New York Fed, told the conference that, to be sure, the ability to again purchase bonds if and when rates hit zero “seems like a good tool to have.”

The Fed’s approach to any economic slowdown would likely be to cut rates, pledge further stimulus, and only then buy bonds.

Rosengren and others dismissed the possibility of adopting negative interest rates, as some other central banks have done.

Yet five years of below-target inflation, combined with an aging population and slowdown in labor force growth, has sparked a debate over ditching a long-standing 2 percent price target.

Some see this month’s succession of Fed Chair Janet Yellen by Jerome Powell as ideal timing to consider new frameworks that could help drive inflation, and rates, higher. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, whom the White House is considering for Fed vice chair, told the conference the central bank could begin to reassess the framework later this year, though she added that the threshold for change should be high.
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South African Gets Death Penalty in South Sudan

Posted on by SeeAF

A judge in South Sudan has sentenced South African citizen William John Endley to death by hanging, after he was charged with spying, illegal entry to South Sudan and conspiracy to overthrow President Salva Kiir’s government.

Endley worked for rebel leader Riek Machar as a security adviser and was arrested in August 2016, days after fighting flared between government forces and Machar’s bodyguards.

At the end of Endley’s five-month trial, presiding Judge Ladu Armenio read his final ruling in Arabic and a court official translated it into English.

Armenio sentenced Endley to serve two consecutive prison terms of nine years and four months each, after which he will be hanged.

Endley has 17 days to appeal.

During the proceedings, it was reported to the court that Endley served as a major general while working for Machar’s group, the SPLA-IO, and that he came to Juba with Machar in 2016 when Machar became first vice president, after the previous year’s peace agreement.

The prosecution also told the court that Endley procured firearms and ammunition and helped the rebel movement with military expertise, which according to the court is a violation of the South Sudan National Security Act 2014 and South Sudan’s Criminal Procedure Act.

Armenio said Endley’s actions endangered state security and South Sudan’s economy.

Endley’s attorney, Gar Adel, rejected the court’s ruling, noting that Endley’s previous attorney had withdrawn from the case. 

“The state was supposed to assign a lawyer temporarily. … But he [Endley] had attended two sessions without a lawyer. When I came in, I lodged an application so that I was given time to talk to my client and to familiarize myself with the records, [but] the court refused,” Adel told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.

Endley’s first defense team was led by Monyluak Kuol Alor, who withdrew from the case a month ago, arguing that Endley should be freed under Article 8 of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, which was signed in December by the warring parties. The clause requires all sides in South Sudan to release prisoners of war and political detainees.

Endley first appeared in court in October with co-defendant James Gatdet Dak, Machar’s spokesman. Two weeks ago, the court sentenced Gatdet to a 21-year jail term to be followed by death by hanging, sparking immediate condemnation from national and international human rights groups.

U.N. Mission in South Sudan chief David Shearer condemned the death sentences for Endley and Gatdet.

Family’s reaction

Endley’s sister, Charmaine Quinn, said her family in Cape Town was devastated by the news.

“We didn’t expect this and we really are feeling very tired emotionally. We are really feeling so helpless,” Quinn told South Sudan in Focus.

Quinn said she has not received any word from the South African Embassy in Juba regarding her brother’s sentence.

She said her family has lodged concerns with the government in Johannesburg, which said the government would be releasing a statement soon, but that “it was just waiting for some information to come back.”

Quinn said that in the beginning, when her brother was arrested, the family felt it was not getting enough assistance from the government. “Then they were able to help us establish that he was still alive and there was some assistance offered to us when he was ill, and we were able to send money to him and get parcels to him,” she said.

She said she also has received phone calls from her brother.

Now that her brother’s sentence has been finalized, Quinn said she is trying to stay positive that “the government will come on board and give us the assistance we have been asking for.”

Quinn told VOA the family feels “the sentence is very unfair and we would like them to have the death penalty lifted, and with the appeal we would like to have him extradited back to South Africa” for a new trial.
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EU Leaders Draw Up Battle Lines for Post-Brexit Budget

Posted on by SeeEU

European Union leaders staked out opening positions Friday for a battle over EU budgets that many conceded they are unlikely to resolve before Britain leaves next year, blowing a hole in Brussels’ finances.

At a summit to launch discussion on the size and shape of a seven-year budget package to run from 2021, ex-communist states urged wealthier neighbors to plug a nearly 10 percent annual revenue gap being left by Britain, while the Dutch led a group of small, rich countries refusing to chip in any more to the EU.

Germany and France, the biggest economies and the bloc’s driving duo as Britain prepares to leave in March 2019, renewed offers to increase their own contributions, though both set out conditions for that, including new priorities and less waste.

Underlining that a divide between east and west runs deeper than money, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized what he said were poor countries abusing EU funds designed to narrow the gap in living standards after the Cold War to shore up their own popularity while ignoring EU values on civil rights or to undercut Western economies by slashing tax and labor rules.

Noting the history of EU “cohesion” and other funding for poor regions as a tool of economic “convergence,” Macron told reporters: “I will reject a European budget which is used to finance divergence, on tax, on labor or on values.”

Poland and Hungary, heavyweights among the ex-communist states which joined the EU this century, are run by right-wing governments at daggers drawn with Brussels over their efforts to influence courts, media and other independent institutions.

The European Commission, the executive which will propose a detailed budget in May, has said it will aim to satisfy calls for “conditionality” that will link getting some EU funding to meeting treaty commitments on democratic standards such as properly functioning courts able to settle economic disputes.

But its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned on Friday against deepening “the rift between east and west” and some in the poorer nations see complaints about authoritarian tendencies as a convenient excuse to avoid paying in more to Brussels.

At around 140 billion euros ($170 billion) a year, the EU budget represents about 1 percent of economic output in the bloc or some 2 percent of public spending, but for all that it remains one of the bloodiest subjects of debate for members.

Focus on payments

The Commission has suggested that the next package should be increased by about 10 percent, but there was little sign Friday that the governments with cash are willing to pay that.

“When the UK leaves the EU, then that part of the budget should drop out,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who leads a group of hawks including Sweden, Denmark and Austria.

“In any case, we do not want our contribution to rise and we want modernization,” he added, saying that meant reconsidering the EU’s major spending on agriculture and regional cohesion in order to do more in defense, research and controlling migration.

On the other side, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said his priorities were “sufficient financing of cohesion policy” a good deal for businesses from the EU’s agricultural subsidies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there had been broad agreement that new priorities such as in defense, migration and research should get new funding and she called for a “debureaucratization” of traditional EU spending programs.

Summit chair Donald Tusk praised the 27 leaders — Prime Minister Theresa May was not invited as Britain will have left before the new budget round starts — for approaching the issue “with open minds, rather than red lines.” But despite them all wanting to speed up the process, a deal this year was unlikely.

Quick deal unlikely

Although all agree it would be good to avoid a repeat of the 11th-hour wrangling ahead of the 2014-20 package, many sounded doubtful of a quick deal even early next year.

“It could go on for ages,” Rutte said. He added that it would be “nice” to finish by the May 2019 EU election: “But that’s very tight.”

Among the touchiest subjects will be accounting for the mass arrival of asylum-seekers in recent years. Aggrieved that some eastern states refuse to take in mainly Muslim migrants, some in the west have suggested penalizing them via the EU budget.

Merkel has proposed that regions which are taking in and trying to integrate refugees should have that rewarded in the allocation of EU funding — a less obviously penal approach but one which she had to defend on Friday against criticism in the east. It was not meant as a threat, the chancellor insisted.

In other business at a summit which reached no formal legal conclusions, leaders broadly agreed on some issues relating to next year’s elections to the European Parliament and to the accompanying appointment of a new Commission for five years.

They pushed back against efforts, notably from lawmakers, to limit their choice of nominee to succeed Juncker to a candidate who leads one of the pan-EU parties in the May 2019 vote. They approved Parliament’s plan to reallocate some British seats and to cut others altogether and also, barring Hungary, agreed to a Macron proposal to launch “consultations” with their citizens this year on what they want from the EU.
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US to Move Embassy to Jerusalem in May

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States says it will open a new embassy in Jerusalem in May to coincide with Israel’s 70th anniversary.

The State Department said Friday that the new embassy would be located in a building that currently houses the U.S. consular operations in Jerusalem, before moving to a separate annex by the end of 2019.

The move followed a December announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and planned to move the U.S. Embassy there.

The embassy has been located in Tel Aviv.

The choice of the date, which is a year earlier than originally forecast, sparked an angry response from the Palestinians, who said the founding of Israel on May 14, 1948, is mourned by Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”

“The American administration [decision] to choose the date of the Palestinian catastrophe — the Nakba — on which to move the embassy, and to take this move in this expeditious fashion, reflects their total insensitivities to what goes on in this region,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Palestinians claim the eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Israeli intelligence minister Israel Katz quickly welcomed the opening date.

“There is no greater gift than that! The most just and correct move. Thanks friend!” he wrote on his Twitter account.

U.S. officials said most embassy employees would remain in Tel Aviv until the building in Jerusalem can be expanded. They said U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, who lobbied Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, along with one or two of his aides, would be the first to move to the new embassy.

The State Department said the next phase of the plan would be to search for a secure location to build a new embassy in Jerusalem, which it said would be “a longer-term undertaking.”

The embassy move comes earlier than expected. Just last month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament the move would take place by the end of 2019.

In a speech on Friday to a gathering of conservatives outside Washington, Trump said of his decision to move the embassy, “It’s the right thing to do.”

No other country has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump’s decision has sparked anger from Washington’s Arab allies and led to weeks of violent protests by Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech at the United Nations this week, called moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem “unlawful.”
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UN Envoy Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire in Syria

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The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is calling for an immediate cease-fire in Syria to stop the relentless bombing by the Syrian government, with support by its Russian ally, of civilians trapped in the besieged city of eastern Ghouta. 

Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, has been subjected to what the U.N. special envoy for Syria calls horrific bombardment for the past six days. 

A U.N. spokeswoman in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, says de Mistura is urging a cease-fire to stop both the heavy airstrikes in this besieged city of nearly 400,000 inhabitants and the indiscriminate mortar shelling of Damascus by rebels on the ground in eastern Ghouta.

“The cease-fire needs to be followed by immediate unhindered, humanitarian access and the facilitated evacuation of medical cases out of eastern Ghouta,” Vellucci said. “The special envoy calls again upon Astana guarantors to hold an urgent meeting to reinstall the de-escalation. He warns that this situation cannot be a repeat of Aleppo.”  

Last May, Russia, Turkey and Iran signed an agreement in the Kazakh capital, Astana, aimed at reducing violence between rebels and Syrian government forces in four so-called de-escalation zones in mainly opposition territories.  

This cessation of hostilities agreement appears to have run its course. Syrian activists report more than 420 civilians in eastern Ghouta have been killed this past week. The United Nations reports at least seven health facilities have been hit, putting several out of service.  

U.N. Security Council efforts to pass a resolution mandating a 30-day cease-fire, so far, have hit an obstacle. Western diplomats accuse Russia of delaying a vote on an agreement to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s move to regain control of rebel-held eastern Ghouta.  

 
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18 Killed in Mogadishu Blasts 

Posted on by SeeAF

Two car bombs exploded Friday in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, killing at least 18 people, the head of an ambulance service said.

Dr. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan told VOA’s Somali service that another 20 people had been wounded. He said most of the victims were civilians.

Adan’s casualty totals came from the site of the first blast, near Somalia’s intelligence headquarters in the city’s Abdulaziz neighborhood. Minutes later, another car bomb hit a checkpoint about 300 meters from Somalia’s presidential palace.

“We heard two big explosions, and gunfire is still echoing in two different directions of the city,” Mogadishu resident Nur Abdulle told VOA. “After blasts, we could see a huge cloud of smoke into the air.”

A Somali intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told VOA that suspected al-Shabab militants in a vehicle had been stopped at the checkpoint and began firing before the car exploded.

He said Somali security officials were pursuing militants who had escaped.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the blasts, but they had the hallmarks of al-Shabab, which has attacked dozens of government buildings, hotels, restaurants and other targets in Mogadishu in recent years.
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