Month: March 2018

Hungary Defends Anti-immigration Stance at UN Rights Body

Posted on by SeeEU

Hungary defended its anti-immigration stance on Monday at the United Nations, saying it was determined to maintain a homogeneous, Christian society.

The U.N. Committee on Civil and Political Rights, composed of independent experts, began a two-day review of Hungary’s record, less than three weeks before a parliamentary election.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a rally last Thursday that voters must fight “external forces and international powers” who wanted to foist mass immigration on their country.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told the panel: “First and foremost, it is a firm conviction of the government that the Hungarian people have the right to live a life in security, without fear of terrorist atrocities.”

In 2015, Hungary had a “sad experience” when some 400,000 migrants passed through on their way to western Europe, “ignoring all rules,” he said.

Hungary responded with a border fence and rejection of European Union proposals to settle migrants in member states under a quota system. Most of the migrants were Muslims fleeing conflict in the Middle East.

“The Hungarian government has not admitted illegal migrants and will not admit them in future,” Szijjarto said. “We Hungarians have lived the past 1,000 years in a Christian society, in an integrated, homogenous society; that is what we consider invaluable, and we continue to insist on this.”

He said non-governmental organizations that lobby for more tolerance of immigration were not elected and did not represent the Hungarian people.
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US Supreme Court Rejects Republican Challenge to Pennsylvania Congressional Map 

Posted on by SeeUS

The Democrats’ chances of winning back the U.S. House got a boost Monday when the Supreme Court and a separate panel of federal judges rejected Republican efforts to block newly re-drawn congressional districts in Pennsylvania.

This means the November Congressional election in Pennsylvania will likely favor Democrats over Republicans.

The Supreme Court rejected the Republican challenge without comment. 

The federal judges in Pennsylvania said they had no authority to make a ruling because it was a matter for the state legislature. 

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in December that the old congressional map was unconstitutional because lawmakers deliberately drew it up to hurt Democrats. 

The court ordered the legislature to redraw the map. When it missed  the deadline for submitting a new plan, the court came up with its own map that analysts say would likely help Democrats.

Democrats need to win just 23 seats in this November’s election to take back control of the 435-member House of Representatives from the Republicans.

Last week, Democratic candidate Conor Lamb won a stunning upset over his Republican challenger in a special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional district — a district that has been in Republican hands since 2003 — which President Donald Trump won by 20 points in 2016.
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Turkish Police Seize Radioactive Material, Arrest Four in Ankara

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkish authorities have detained four men after they were found to have large quantities of a radioactive nuclear element in their car.

The element, known as Californium, was found when a car was searched in the Ankara suburb of Pursaklar on Monday during an anti-smuggling operation.

Police said the four were part of a criminal gang that intended to sell the rare material on the black market for more than $70 million. 

The Turkish press reported that the identity of the buyer of the nuclear material remains unclear.

The seized material was taken to the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) for further examination.  Neither the agency nor the police have revealed the origin of the highly radioactive material, which is now being safeguarded.

Californium is believed to be produced only in the U.S. and Russia. It is used in nuclear reactors, in portable metal detectors and also in medicine to treat some forms of cancer.
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White House Denies Trump Planning to Fire Special Counsel

Posted on by SeeUS

Despite intensifying criticism from the president, the White House is denying Donald Trump intends to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting a criminal investigation of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign’s links to Russia.

“There are no conversations or discussions about removing Mr. Mueller,” deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters Monday on Air Force One.

The spokesman acknowledged the president’s “well-established frustration” with the criminal investigation into whether Trump’s  campaign had improper contacts with the Russians.

“The president believes this is the biggest witch hunt in history,” Gidley said, echoing a tweet Trump issued earlier in the day.

In the tweets, Trump for the first time publicly attacked Mueller’s investigation, and accused James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, of political bias.

The targeting of Mueller on social media by Trump has raised concern the president could remove him, which could prompt a constitutional crisis for the United States, according to some lawmakers, legal analysts and presidential historians.

In a tweet to members of Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “If the President causes a constitutional crisis by firing Mueller, no one can credibly claim that they could not see it coming. The time to speak out, to defend our system of checks and balances, is now.”

Three Democratic Party U.S. senators, Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), Michael Bennet (Colorado) and Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire) in recent days have also warned of such a crisis if the president attempts to shut down the special counsel’s investigation.

Some prominent Republican lawmakers were cautioning the president not to take such action.

“Leave it alone,” was Sen. Orrin Hatch’s advice to Trump.

“He has the right to do it, but it would be tremendously bad publicity,” the Republican from the state of Utah said in response Monday to a question from VOA News. “And it’s not worth it. I mean, Mueller is an honest man. If he were doing things that are dishonest or improper, that’s another matter. But he hasn’t been.”

The second-highest ranking Republican in the senate, John Cornyn of Texas, agreed it would be a “mistake” for Trump to fire Mueller as it “would produce all sorts of unintended consequences.”

Reporters on the White House South Lawn shouted questions about the special counsel at Trump on Monday as he departed and returned on the Marine One helicopter, but he did not answer.

Trump also made no reference to the investigation during a speech in the state of New Hampshire about combating the opioid crisis in America.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers have given the special counsel’s office written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation, in hopes of curtailing the scope of a presidential interview, according to The Washington Post, citing two people familiar with the situation.

Trump’s attorneys, according to the Post, are worried that Trump, who has a penchant for making erroneous claims, would be vulnerable in an hours-long interview.

In one tweet Sunday recalling his 2016 election victory against Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump said, “Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added … does anyone think this is fair?  And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!”

Mueller has been a registered Republican and was named FBI director in 2001 by Republican President George W. Bush.

Mueller is generally viewed in Washington as an apolitical prosecutor, whose investigation of the Trump campaign is supported by Democrats and key Republicans, some of whom voiced their support on Sunday news shows for his handling of the probe.

 

On Saturday, Trump’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, suggested that deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel, “bring an end” to Mueller’s investigation, resulting in media speculation about Trump’s next move regarding the probe.

 

Trump also attacked Comey, who was fired by Trump last May, and former deputy director Andrew McCabe, dismissed at Trump’s urging late Friday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, 26 hours before McCabe was set to retire and collect his full pension.

 

Trump contends that Comey’s and McCabe’s personal written recollections of their conversations with him are fabricated.

VOA’s Michael Bowman on Capitol Hill contributed to this story.
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White House: Trump Not Scheduled to Congratulate Putin on Re-election

Posted on by SeeUS

Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin won re-election, White House officials said his victory was no surprise, and they have no plans for President Trump to call Putin to congratulate him on the victory. 

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said the United States will work with Russia where it can.  

“We will work to cultivate the relationship with Russia and we will impose costs when Russia threatens our interests, but we will also look for places to work together when it serves our interests,” Gidley said.

Official results Monday show Putin won his fourth term with 77 percent of the vote.The election “lacked real competition” according to International Observers in Moscow, including Ambassador Jan Petersen of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. 

Observers also said the election campaign was flawed by “restrictions on the fundamental freedoms of assembly, association and expression as well as on candidate registration and those have limited the space for political engagement.”

Putin’s most popular and formidable opponent, Alexei Navanly was barred from the ballot after organizing nationwide protests again Putin. Navalny said there were unprecedented violations, and that all over the country, the Russian government drove people to the polls to make sure turnout was high.

“You can see that the turnout, for the first time in Russian history, has moved to the morning. So most of the voters came to polls at 8 a.m. Well, it’s unlikely that any sane person could say it’s a normal course of voting. All of them were driven there. Well, we understand that happened, it was a true (organized) re-election of Putin.”

Video surfaced from a number of different polling places in Russia of people stuffing multiple ballots into boxes.

Alexander Vershbow is a former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and a fellow at the Atlantic Council. He agreed that there was no real competition for the election.

“Candidates obviously played their roles in this political theater, so that it all looks like a competition, but it’s more of a farce than real elections. It’s a masquerade, of course.” Vershbow added: “I will be really disappointed if President Trump congratulates Putin with his win in this so-called election.”
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AP FACT CHECK: Trump Tests Reality in Blasting Russia Probe

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump’s latest barrage of tweets attacking investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election stretched the bounds of credulity, from false claims that “no crime” had been uncovered to assertions that his campaign had been cleared of collusion with Russia. His charge that the probe is politically biased also falls short.

That’s what The Associated Press found when scrutinizing an assortment of statements he made last week.

 

Trump left out important context in weekend tweets rejoicing over the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, once a leader of the bureau’s investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s email practices.

 

Meanwhile, Trump told a fanciful story of Japanese regulatory authorities dropping bowling balls as part of a plot to keep cars out of the Japanese market, and, after finding himself without enough information in a trade discussion with Canada’s prime minister, simply made stuff up.

 

A sampling of how Trump’s statements don’t hold up:

 

TRUMP:  “The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!” — tweet Saturday.

 

THE FACTS:  Key context is missing in Trump’s claim of political bias by McCabe because of his ties to Democratic donations. Trump himself is a former registered Democrat who, along with his son Donald Trump Jr., previously contributed thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton on various occasions from 2002 to 2007, according to state and federal disclosure records. Clinton, whom Trump now brands as “Crooked H,” at the time was a senator from New York.

 

Trump also has donated at least $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to the non-profit group, and his daughter Ivanka is listed as a donor who gave at least $5,000.

 

As to McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, this is true: She ran as a Democrat for the Virginia state Senate in 2015, and the political action committee of Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe gave her campaign $500,000 during her race. McAuliffe is a longtime associate of Hillary Clinton. Jill McCabe lost the race.

 

Trump’s complaint, as he spelled it out in the past, is that Clinton-linked money went to “the wife of the FBI agent who was in charge of her investigation.” But that timeline is wrong. Andrew McCabe was elevated to deputy FBI director and didn’t become involved in the Clinton email probe until after his wife’s bid for office was over. The FBI said McCabe’s promotion and supervisory position in the email investigation happened three months after the campaign.

 

The bureau also said in a statement at the time that McCabe sought guidance from agency ethics officers and recused himself from “all FBI investigative matters involving Virginia politics” throughout his wife’s campaign.

 

TRUMP: “The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!” — tweet Saturday.

 

THE FACTS: He’s wrong to say “no crime” was found.

 

So far, four former Trump campaign aides have been charged with financial crimes or with lying to the FBI, and three of them have pleaded guilty and agreed to assist in Mueller’s investigation.

 

In all, six people — including the four Trump campaign aides — have been charged, along with 13 Russians accused in a hidden but powerful social media campaign to meddle in the American election.

 

Trump’s claim that the Russia probe was based on a “fake dossier” is also inaccurate. The FBI’s investigation began months before it received a dossier of anti-Trump research funded by the Democratic Party and Clinton’s campaign. The FBI probe’s origins were based on other evidence — not the existence of the dossier.

 

TRUMP: “Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!” — tweet Sunday.

 

THE FACTS: Trump’s claim of political bias lacks important context.

 

Several members of Mueller’s team have made political contributions to Democratic candidates, including Clinton. But Mueller, who is a longtime Republican, could not have barred them from serving on the team. Federal regulations and Justice Department policy prohibit the consideration of political affiliation in hiring and other personnel actions involving career attorneys.

 

Mueller reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, an ex-U.S. attorney under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama who was named to the Justice Department post by Trump. Rosenstein serves under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Trump appointee to the Cabinet.

 

TRUMP: “As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State.” — tweet Saturday.

 

THE FACTS: Trump’s statement is inaccurate. That conclusion came from Republicans on the committee; it was not a committee finding. Democrats on the committee sharply dispute the Republican conclusions and will issue their own.

 

Whatever the findings of the committee, Mueller is leading the key investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Russian contacts with the Trump campaign. The probe has produced a number of charges and convictions, none to date alleging criminal collusion. But Mueller continues to explore whether collusion occurred and whether Trump or others may have obstructed justice.

 

Trump did not specify what he meant in accusing the agencies of corruption. McCabe was fired ahead of the release of an inspector general’s report that’s expected to conclude he was not forthcoming about matters related to the FBI investigation of Clinton’s emails.

TRUMP, on how Japanese authorities stopped a U.S. car from being approved for sale in their country: “They were ready to approve it and they said, ‘No, no, we have to do one more test.’ It’s called the bowling ball test. Do you know what that is? That’s where they take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and they drop it on the hood of the car. And if the hood dents, then the car doesn’t qualify. Well, guess what? The roof dented a little bit, and they said, ‘Nope, this car doesn’t qualify.’ It’s horrible, the way we’re treated.” — remarks to a closed Missouri fundraiser Wednesday, leaked to The Washington Post and other organizations.

 

THE FACTS: That “test” didn’t happen. “He’s joking about this particular test,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.

 

Possible inspiration for Trump’s story: a fanciful old Nissan ad showing its SUV miraculously escaping damage as bowling bowls cascade down an urban street, trashing other vehicles.

 

TRUMP, on a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “Nice guy, good-looking, comes in — Donald, we have no trade deficit … I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. Josh, I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid. … And I thought they were smart.” — remarks at the Missouri fundraiser, held for GOP Senate candidate Josh Hawley.

 

THE FACTS: The facts of this meeting are not established; Canadian officials won’t comment on whether it happened as Trump described it. Trudeau visited Trump in October and the two have spoken by phone on multiple occasions about trade and other matters as Trump pushes a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

 

In his hard-to-follow account, Trump is making this point: He insisted the U.S. is running a trade deficit with Canada while Trudeau asserted the opposite — that the U.S. has a trade surplus with Canada. Trump is saying that while he did not have the facts to back him up, his belief that American officials have been “stupid” about trade and Canadians have been “smart” led him to assert that the U.S. must have a deficit with Canada. He went on to say that his position was ultimately vindicated when officials took a closer look at the statistics.

 

U.S. statistics don’t support Trump. They show the U.S. runs a trade surplus with Canada — $2.8 billion in 2017, $12.5 billion in 2016. A U.S. deficit in trade of goods is overcome by a surplus in trade of services for an overall balance in favor of the U.S.

 

Trump ignores services in his rhetoric.

 

TRUMP on the effects of a nuclear weapons test by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: “He had a test, they had a test of a nuclear weapon about a year ago, and it registered as an 8.6. Now, you heard of that, on the Richter scale, right? So they said, man, there was an earthquake. Eight point six someplace in Asia. Where was it? Oh it was in North Korea.” — from fundraiser.

 

THE FACTS: North Korea had no earthquake last year approaching that level of severity.

 

North Korea tested what it called a hydrogen bomb in September, causing an underground blast so big it registered as a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Other nuclear tests last year were associated with smaller seismic events.

 

An 8.6 quake would be 200 times bigger — and release 2,818 times more energy — than a 6.3.

TRUMP on his proposed border wall with Mexico: “It will save thousands and thousands of lives, save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars by reducing crime, drug flow, welfare fraud and burdens on schools and hospitals. The wall will save hundreds of billions of dollars — many, many times what it is going to cost. … We have a lousy wall over here now but at least it stops 90, 95 percent. When we put up the real wall, we’re going to stop 99 percent, maybe more than that.” — remarks last week in San Diego, while visiting prototypes of the wall.

 

THE FACTS: There are no measures of how well walls work.

 

Congress’ main watchdog found that the government does not have a way to show how barriers prevent illegal crossings from Mexico. A Government Accountability Office report last year said U.S. Customs and Border Protection “cannot measure the contribution of fencing to border security operations along the southwest border because it has not developed metrics for this assessment.”

 

That’s after the government spent $2.3 billion from 2007 to 2015 to extend fences across 654 miles (1,052 kilometers) of border and more to repair them.

 

Without knowing how many crossers will be deterred by a wall, it is impossible to know how much money taxpayers might save in schools, hospital spending and other services.

TRUMP: “By the way, the state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas. They don’t tell you that, and we said no, we won’t do it until we build the whole wall.” — remarks last week in California.

 

THE FACTS: Trump made a similar claim last month on Twitter but has yet to say who in California wants the wall. The state unsuccessfully sued to prevent construction of Trump’s wall, claiming he was wrong to forgo environmental reviews.

 

Census Bureau on U.S.-Canada trade

 

U.S. Trade Representative on 2016 trade with Canada

 

Earthquake magnitude calculator

 

Federal study on border wall

 

Read more AP Fact Checks.
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Dunford Visits Afghanistan to Review US Military Campaign

Posted on by SeeUS

The top U.S. military officer visited Afghanistan on Monday to evaluate the military campaign and ensure new American advisory teams and an upgraded Afghan Air Force are on target as the next fighting season with the Taliban looms.

 

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he wants to understand the goals for the coming months so the U.S.-led coalition can develop ways to measure progress in the fight.

 

Dunford told reporters traveling with him that he seeks “a discussion about measures of effectiveness.” A key question, Dunford said, is how the U.S. will know that it’s where it needs to be in implementing what is, in actuality, the Afghans’ plan.

 

The idea of benchmarks for progress in the Afghan war has been simmering for several months as the Pentagon looks to end America’s longest war. Measuring success will be a key part of White House discussions this summer when President Donald Trump looks for a one-year assessment of his new regional strategy. Last August, a reluctant Trump had to be persuaded to inject new U.S. troops to the conflict, which is now in its 17th year.

 

“The intent really is to get my own assessment of what we can expect over the next couple months,” said Dunford, who commanded U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan from February 2013 to August 2014. He said a major focus will be ensuring Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has the resources he needs.

 

Dunford’s visit comes on the heels of a two-day stop in Afghanistan last week by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis amid talk of a renewed push to get Taliban fighters to the peace table with the Afghan government. The increased U.S. military campaign is seen as part of that effort. It includes hundreds of additional Army trainers and advisers who will work with Afghan troops closer to the fight, with the goal of turning the corner on what has been a stubborn stalemate with the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

 

About five weeks ago, the Army’s new training brigade deployed to Afghanistan with about 1,000 soldiers. It included close to 600 trainers and advisers and hundreds of security forces and other support personnel. The so-called Security Force Assistance Brigade is part of the broad new strategy that has pushed the Afghan conflict back to the top of the Pentagon’s war-fighting priority list.

 

In addition to troops, the U.S. has also sent more intelligence and surveillance aircraft, A-10 attack planes, and combat search and rescue aircraft to the fight. Many of those resources have been shifted from Iraq and Syria, where the battle against Islamic State group militants is waning. The U.S. also is providing more fighter aircraft and other support to the Afghan Air Force while increasing the number of American forces on the ground to more than 14,000.

 

The growth in the Afghan Air Force has long been a goal but has come along slowly. Dunford said he wants to hear from U.S. and Afghan leaders that the introduction of the aircraft and the needed maintenance and other support is on the right path.

 

Last month, Air Force Maj. Gen. James Hecker, the commander of coalition air forces in Afghanistan, said the Afghans are now conducting more airstrike missions than the Americans.

 

Dunford was last in Afghanistan in December before the additional troops and aircraft arrived.
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UN: $1.7 Billion Needed for DRC Humanitarian Crisis

Posted on by SeeAF

International donors will meet next month in Geneva to address the growing humanitarian disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the lack of funding for 13 million people in dire need.

“Humanitarian needs, caused by internal conflict, have doubled over the last year,” U.N. Humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told Security Council members on Monday.

The United Nations is hoping to receive commitments for $1.7 billion for this year, nearly four times the amount requested in 2017, at the April 13 pledging conference.

“Under funding is the single largest impediment to the humanitarian response in DRC,” Lowcock said.

4.6 million children at risk

The aid chief, who visited DRC last week, said more than 4.6 million children are acutely malnourished and the country is facing its worst cholera outbreak in 15 years. 

The DRC has also become the continent’s largest displacement crisis, with 4.5 million internally displaced people and another 746,000 who have fled to neighboring countries.

Eastern Congo is experiencing a surge in violence in several provinces caused by armed groups and inter-communal fighting. Repeated delays in holding the presidential election is also adding to the insecurity. 

“There is despair, but there is also hope,” he said.  “The people of DRC are resilient and resourceful,” Lowcock said.

Political will needed

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green said the United States and the international community should be ready to respond to the crisis.

“But none of us should believe that merely expanding humanitarian assistance is actually addressing the country’s greatest needs or principle causes of suffering,” Green told council members.  “Boosting assistance without insisting on concrete, measurable action from the (President Joseph) Kabila government is the opposite of compassion.”

He said the international community must demand that credible elections take place this year, Kabila has repeatedly delayed them, and if elections do not take place as scheduled in December, then “we must rethink our support and our approach.” 

Green said the Kabila government must also take steps to allow citizens to freely express their will and choose their own future. 

The United Nations condemned the government’s use of excessive and lethal force against anti-government protesters in a report issued Monday as “unlawful, unjustified and disproportionate.”
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Zimbabwe’s Leader Calls Out Those Stashing Millions of Dollars Overseas

Posted on by SeeAF

Zimbabwe’s new leader has publicly named more than 1,800 companies and individuals accused of illegally stashing hundreds of millions of dollars overseas and not bringing the money home under a now-expired amnesty deal.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to fight corruption after the dramatic resignation in November of longtime leader Robert Mugabe, whose government was accused of widespread mismanagement of the once-prosperous country.

Mnangagwa in December announced the amnesty deal, which expired Friday. He now says $591 million of the $1.2 billion suspected to be illegally stashed overseas has been returned.

The president says those on the list should “take heed of the importance of good corporate governance and the legal obligations of citizenry” or face prosecution.

His list shows China as the main destination for “funds externalized to foreign banks in cash or under spurious transactions.”

Four Zimbabwe state-owned diamond-mining firms are among those accused of moving the most money abroad in “illicit financial flows.” The four firms, which mined in fields that once courted controversy over alleged army killings of illegal artisanal miners and looting, are accused of failing to repatriate over $111 million in export proceeds.

Mugabe previously claimed the firms spirited out $15 billion from the diamond fields, where the Chinese were major players until Zimbabwe’s government cancelled all licenses to make way for a state monopoly in 2016.

Also Monday, a government gazette notice said the government has repealed sections of an indigenization law that limited foreign ownership of businesses to 49 percent, though diamonds and platinum are still reserved for majority ownership by the state. The move also had been promised by the new president.
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Canada Announces Peacekeeping Mission in Mali

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Canada has announced a peacekeeping effort in the West African country of Mali that includes six helicopters and some support troops.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday the deployment will be 12 months.

The mission will include two Chinook helicopters for airlift operations and four armed Griffon helicopters for escort purposes. The number of troops has not been determined yet.

Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the country’s president of a decade. The power vacuum that was created ultimately fueled an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013. But insurgents remain active in the region.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to return Canada to peacekeeping after more than a decade of dwindling participation.
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UN Condemns Congo’s ‘Unlawful’ Crackdown on Protests

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The United Nations on Monday condemned Congolese security forces for killing at least 47 people, including women and children, in “unlawful and

unjustified” crackdowns on protests during 2017 and early this

year.

Democratic Republic of Congo is facing growing public unrest since President Joseph Kabila refused to step down after his mandate expired at the end of December 2016, and after repeated delays to an election meant to replace him.

Security forces shot dead at least six people and wounded dozens others during an anti-Kabila protest organized by the Catholic church in January this year. A similar incident in December 2017 left at least seven dead.

A report U.N. Human Rights Office said that Congolese authorities used lethal force on protesters and attempted to cover up rights abuses by hiding dead bodies after protests calling for Kabila to arrange long delayed elections.

“It is particularly disturbing that security services and defense forces carry out this violence with almost full impunity,” said Special Representative of the U.N.

Secretary-General in the DRC Leila Zerrougui in the report.

Another two people were killed by security forces during church-led demonstrations against the government last month.

Kabila has denied accusations of excessive force, rejecting charges against his security forces during a press conference in January.

The opposition accuses him of pushing back the election date in order to cling to power. The polls, which were initially scheduled for November 2016, are now set to take place in December this year. But the electoral commission has since said they may not be possible until at least April 2019.
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Turkish-backed Forces Claim Victory in Afrin

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Turkish-backed forces in Syria have taken full control of the Afrin enclave that has been held by Syrian Kurds. Turkish soldiers and local militias entered the center of Afrin Sunday after a two-month offensive. Kurds protest the offensive calling it ethnic cleansing and vow to continue the fight to keep their ancestral lands in Syria. Turkey says it is fighting the YPG militia. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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MS-13 Origins – Part 1 of VOA Series

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President Donald Trump referred to MS-13 in his State of the Union address as “the most violent and murderous gang in the US.” He claims the gang’s violent activities are a consequence of a broken US immigration system. But who and what is MS-13? VOA Spanish Service correspondent Cristina Caicedo Smit explains the origins of the gang known in El Salvador as “Mara Salvatrucha”
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Trump Fumes Over Special Counsel Mueller’s Probe

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Intrigue and uproar has spiked yet again in Washington regarding the Russia probe, with renewed questions arising about the future of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, days after the FBI’s deputy director was fired, U.S. lawmakers are warning President Donald Trump against any intention he may have to instigate Mueller’s dismissal.
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Northeast Snowstorms Give Ski Areas Late Season Powder Blast

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Back-to-back nor’easters that have pounded New England have given ski resorts a late-season blast of their life’s blood, luring skiers and snowboarders to the slopes, and allowing smaller ski areas that rely on natural snow to stay open. 

From Vermont to Maine, skiers and riders were cheering the mounds of snow. 

“It’s amazing,” said Tim Austin, of Brentwood, New Hampshire, as he waited Thursday to board the single person chairlift at Mad River Glen in Fayston, Vermont.

March storms have dumped over 5 feet of snow on Vermont resorts, with Mount Snow in southern Vermont living up to its name; 66 inches have fallen just this month there, according to the Vermont Ski Association. 

“It’s the best March in years,” said skier Gregg Fitzgerald, of Starksboro, Vermont, as he took a break at Mad River on Thursday.

And resorts have the added benefit of snow in the region’s down-country cities that gets people thinking about heading to the slopes to ski. 

In coastal Maine, Camden Snow Bowl ordinarily stays open until mid-March, said General Manager Beth Ward. But this year, it will likely stay open until April for the second time in the 13 winters that Ward has been there. More than 2 feet of snow fell recently.

“As long as we have the snow, and people are coming, we’ll stay open as long as we can,” she said.

It’s the first time this year that Whaleback Mountain in Enfield, New Hampshire, has had 100 percent of its 30 trails open for more than a day and that’s due to the significant snowfall, said general manager Adam Kaufman. The atmosphere also is more fun since people “are more excited about skiing the fresh powder,” he said. 

Whaleback plans to stay open several weeks longer than planned with this bumper crop of snow.

“With these storms, it’s tempting to stay open as long as people are coming skiing,” he said. 

At the same time, the National Weather Service and Vermont officials are warning back-country skiers and ice climbers about the increased threat of avalanches.

An avalanche struck six U.S. Army soldiers undergoing mountain-warfare training near Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s tallest peak. 

Vermont state police, resort ski patrols and volunteer and rescue groups have received dozens of calls for assistance in recent days, the department said. Over 30 skiers and snowboarders at Bolton Valley and Killington needed to be rescued over the course of a week, the department said Wednesday.
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StoryCorps: To RP Salazar, with Love

Posted on by SeeUS

A typo in an email address helps two people on different continents meet – and fall in love.
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Facebook’s Zuckerberg Comes Under Fire From UK, US Lawmakers

Posted on by SeeUS

Lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic criticized Facebook and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, after reports surfaced that another company, Cambridge Analytica, improperly harvested information from 50 million Facebook users.

A British lawmaker accused Facebook on Sunday of misleading officials by downplaying the risk of users’ data being shared without their consent.

Conservative legislator Damian Collins, who heads the British Parliament’s media committee, said he would ask Zuckerberg or another Facebook executive to appear before his panel, which is investigating disinformation and “fake news.”

Collins said Facebook has “consistently understated” the risk of data leaks and gave misleading answers to the committee.

“Someone has to take responsibility for this,” he said. “It’s time for Mark Zuckerberg to stop hiding behind his Facebook page.”

Collins also accused the head of the U.K.-based data firm Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, of lying. Nix told the committee last month that his firm had not received data from a researcher accused of obtaining millions of Facebook users’ personal information.

In Washington, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said on Twitter that Zuckerberg “needs to testify before Senate Judiciary.”

“This is a major breach that must be investigated,” Klobuchar, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said. “It’s clear these platforms can’t police themselves.”

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, echoed Klobuchar’s complaint.

“This is more evidence that the online political advertising market is essentially the Wild West,” he said. “It’s clear that, left unregulated, this market will continue to be prone to deception and lacking in transparency.”

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said on Twitter that “Massachusetts residents deserve answers” and announced that her office will investigate.

The officials reacted to reports in The New York Times and The Guardian of London that Cambridge Analytica, which is best known for working on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, had improperly obtained Facebook user data and retained it after claiming it had deleted the information.

Former Cambridge Analytica employee Chris Wylie said that the company obtained information from 50 million Facebook users, using it to build psychological profiles so voters could be targeted with ads and stories.

Wylie told Britain’s Channel 4 news that the company was able to amass a huge database very quickly from an app developed by an academic that vacuumed up data from Facebook users who agreed to fill out a survey, as well as their friends and contacts – a process of which most were unaware.

“Imagine I go and ask you: I say, ‘Hey, if I give you a dollar, two dollars, could you fill up this survey for me, just do it on this app’, and you say, ‘Fine,'” he said. “I don’t just capture what your responses are, I capture all of the information about you from Facebook. But also this app then crawls through your social network and captures all of that data also.”

Wylie said that allowed the company to get roughly “50 million plus” Facebook records in several months and he criticized Facebook for facilitating the process.

“Why Facebook didn’t make more inquiries when they started seeing that, you know, tens of millions of records were being pulled this way, I don’t know,” he said.

Lawmaker Collins said he would summon Nix to reappear before the Parliament committee.

“It seems clear that he has deliberately misled the committee and Parliament by giving false statements,” Collins said.
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Russia’s Putin Wins by Big Margin

Posted on by SeeEU

Vladimir Putin will lead Russia for another six years, after securing an expected victory in the presidential election. With 40% of the vote counted he had 74.8% of the vote, the central election commission said.The main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race. Addressing a rally in Moscow after the early results were declared, Mr Putin said voters had “recognised the achievements of the last few years”. VOA’s Jamie Dettmer has more from Moscow
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Preliminary Results Project Putin’s Re-election, Amid Allegations of Voter Fraud

Posted on by SeeEU

Russians turned up at polling stations Sunday in an election few voters had any doubts about who would emerge the winner.

Soon after the polls closed in the enclave of Kaliningrad, preliminary results indicated incumbent President Vladimir Putin had secured victory in an election critics say was stage-managed.

According to Russia’s election commission, Putin was heading to secure 71.9 percent of the vote, but it was unclear whether voter turnout had reached 70 percent, a Kremlin goal. But Kremlin aides insisted the final result would show it had.

There were reports of hundreds of ballot violations at polling stations across the country, which Russian election officials downplayed but said they were investigating.

Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin was Putin’s nearest rival, securing a likely 15.9 percent, according to preliminary results.

Facing weak candidates — some likely encouraged to run by a Kremlin eager to give the election a veneer of competitiveness — Putin, who has held power since succeeding Boris Yeltsin in 1999, had always been guaranteed victory in an election timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Putin’s only credible challenger, blogger and activist Boris Navalny, was barred from running because of a fraud conviction he said was designed to exclude him from electoral politics. Navalny and his supporters said Sunday voters had been bussed in across Russia to the polls.

The deputy chairman of Russia’s Central Election Commission dismissed allegations of irregularities, tweeting: “There is not a single other country in the world that has the level of transparency that we are demonstrating today.”

Nonetheless, activists posted videos online showing blatant violations. In a polling station in the republic of Sakha, an official is seen stuffing the ballot box, as genuine voters waited patiently in line to cast their votes. In Dagestan, an observer was beaten after refusing to stop filming ineligible voters. In another video, a young woman is seen stuffing a box while observers are distracted.

The big question as Russians headed to polling stations was: What percentage of the population would turn out to vote?

Kremlin officials clearly had been determined to produce an outsized vote for Putin as a demonstration of his legitimacy — and by lunchtime, seven hours before the polls closed, election officials projected the turnout would be 70 percent.

Kremlin insiders said before polling day the desired outcome would be 70/70 — 70 percent of the vote for Putin from a 70 percent turnout.

At 5 p.m. Moscow time, the Central Election Commission declared over half of all Russian adults had already voted, with authorities reporting a higher turnout than the last election in 2012.

Some analysts said the March 4 nerve-agent poisoning on British soil of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, which the British blame on Russia, was timed to engineer a confrontation with the West and boost a patriotic turnout for Putin.

That suggestion was vehemently denied in the run-up to the polls by Putin aides, who said Russia was not involved in the nerve-agent attack. Some officials allege the British made up the incident.

Some voters had the rupture in Anglo-Russian relations on their minds. At a polling station at Moscow’s School 1520,  private business owner Alexei said, “I think the British government has made all of the allegations up. I think that no one has poisoned Skripal. Our country hasn’t poisoned anyone.”

Across from the school, police milled around to deter any flash protests, which had been promised in the capital but did not materialize. They stood outside the Barbershop School of Moscow with its marketing slogan, “Ideal Place for an Ideal Man.”

Most voters encountered by VOA in Moscow said Putin was the ideal candidate. Some voters said they backed him because he had restored Russian strength, transforming the country from being a regional power to a global one.

Putin emphasized in the run-up to the polls that Russia’s power had been restored, notably in his annual state of the nation address in which he said the world was now forced to listen to Russia.

Other voters were focused on domestic issues, saying things had improved since the 1990s under Putin’s leadership.

“Foreign policy is hard for me to understand, and I don’t want to go into that,” said Galiaya, a mother of two and a businesswoman at School 2123.

“We have voted for Putin,” she said, including her 13-year-old daughter who stood smiling by her side. “At the moment, it seems he represents stability without anarchy. I am more afraid of anarchy, instability and war. I don’t want either. I think he will stabilize the situation in the country, improve the economy and politics.”

But not all voters were as enthusiastic at School 2123. Some who voted for Putin said they did so reluctantly because there was no real alternative.

“Of course, I voted for Sobchak,” said a pensioner who declined to give his name. He was referring to 37-year-old Ksenia Sobchak, a former socialite and broadcaster, once famous for a raunchy reality television show. She was one of Putin’s seven electoral challengers.

“Let the young people start running the country. We don’t want another war, and with Sobchak, there won’t be a war,” he said.

The pensioner said he didn’t like the way some Russians referred to Putin as “father.”

“I have never in my life pronounced the word father.’ I was born in 1938, and my father was killed in 1942. I was three years old. I have never had a father.”

He said he hoped Sobchak, who some Putin critics suspect was encouraged by the Russian president to run, would form a new party after the election.

Elsewhere, the independent monitoring group Golos said there had been reports of voters being pressured to vote. Several villages in Kamchatka and Chukotka reported turnout of 100 percent. The group said it received more than 2,000 alleged violations, including claims ballot boxes had been positioned out of sight of observation cameras.

Sunday’s election spanned 11 time zones, starting with the Far East, and ending with the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, where Friday police arrested several people for trying to organize election boycott rallies. There were other arrests reported in St. Petersburg and Sochi.

Nearly 109 million people were registered to cast ballots. State-owned polling company VCIOM projected a turnout of 71 percent. But the Russian nongovernmental research organization, Levada Center, conducted a survey in December that indicated 58 percent of voters planned to boycott the elections.

Casting his ballot in Moscow Sunday, Putin said “any” result that allowed him to continue as president would be a “success.”

“I am sure the program I am offering is the right one,” he told reporters.

Putin has been in power either as president or prime minister for more than 18 years. He switched between the two roles once to circumvent a law banning him from serving more than two consecutive terms as president.

Now, the question is: What will happen when his new term expires in six years? Will someone else take the helm, or will he change the constitution?

Some analysts say the uncertainty could trigger power struggles within the Kremlin, as possible successors jockey and maneuver against each other in case Putin decides to name a successor.
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Bundesbank’s Buch Adds to Calls for Cryptocurrency Regulation

Posted on by SeeEU

Regulation of cryptocurrencies must be considered, Bundesbank vice president Claudia Buch told Reuters, even though she does not believe they pose a threat to financial stability.

Buch said that speculation on volatile virtual tokens does not pose a systemic threat because it is not financed through credit, but she said that regulators should look at introducing rules to protect consumers, given that such speculation could prove costly for investors.

“The role of crypto tokens in money laundering and criminal activity must also be closely examined,” Buch said.

“I don’t see a threat for financial stability at the moment as the speculations are generally not financed with loans and the relevant markets are rather small.”

The issue of how to regulate cryptocurrencies is likely to be high on the agenda at a March 19-20 meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders in Argentina.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christi ne Lagarde has urged governments and central banks to develop regulations for such assets to prevent them from becoming a newvehicle for money laundering and terrorist financing.

Japan has also urged its G20 partners to act on preventing cryptocurrencies from becoming a vehicle to finance criminal activities.
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Nigeria Skips African Summit in Blow to Free Trade Deal

Posted on by SeeAF

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will not attend the African Union summit in Rwanda this week, an official statement said Sunday, in a blow to plans to launch a major free trade treaty across 54 countries.

The meeting in Kigali is intended to formally launch the African Continental Free Trade Area Treaty, which Nigeria’s cabinet endorsed last Wednesday.

Buhari was scheduled to leave Abuja on Monday ahead of Wednesday’s launch but pulled out to allow for more consultations.

“Mr. President will no longer be traveling to Kigali for the event because certain key stakeholders in Nigeria indicated that they had not been consulted, for which reasons they had some concerns on the provisions of the treaty,” the statement said.

“Consequently, Mr. President’s decision is to allow time for broader consultations on the issue.”

The organized labor union, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), urged Buhari not to sign the deal.

“We at the Nigeria Labour Congress are shocked by the sheer impunity or blatant lack of consultation in the process that has led to this,” said NLC President Ayuba Wabba.

“We have no doubt this policy initiative will spell the death knell of the Nigerian economy.”

The AU decided to go ahead with the treaty in 2012 aiming to establish a single liberalized market for trade in goods and services.

The agreement sets up a negotiated rules-based system in order to expand intra-African trade from its very low base of 14 percent, the Nigerian presidency said.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and with a population of 190 million, is a massive market.

But the fall in the price of oil sparked recession and Buhari has resorted to a protectionist economic policy with a long list of products banned from importation.
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Armed Anglophone Separatists in Cameroon Kidnap 40

Posted on by SeeAF

Armed separatists in Cameroon have abducted 40 people, including a government official. The abductions occurred as President Paul Biya dispatched a minister to the troubled English speaking regions on a peace building mission.

Cameroon businessman Angelbert Etoga has returned to his home town, Yaounde, 24 hours after he was abducted and released by armed separatist groups.

He says he and about 36 others were on a bus traveling to Lebialem in southwestern Cameroon to attend a political rally when armed men attacked and seized the vehicle.

Etoga says they were detained for several hours and some were asked to leave after being told they had to respect the territorial integrity of the English speaking regions of Cameroon, which the kidnappers said was now a state called Ambazonia.

Etoga says it is very possible there is some cooperation among some of the population, traditional rulers, and separatist groups. He says he is very certain that many people are adhering to separatist ideologies.

Etoga says he does not know how many people were freed or held back, but he found his way out of the bush and returned to Yaounde.

The most senior government official in Lebialem, Zachary Ugitoh, says Professor Ivo Leke Tambo, a former secretary general of Cameroon’s Secondary Education Ministry and now chair of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board, was also abducted.

“I call first and foremost the population of Lewo, the traditional rulers of Lewo to, in fact, put in place whatever means to ensure that Professor Leke Tambo is safe,” he said. “They should go out and look for him, he is a venerated elite of that village and if they open their hands together, I think we can be able to get those who have taken him hostage. In the meantime, security here is not going to sleep while waiting for reinforcement from hierarchy.”

Ugitoh called for the traditional rulers of Lewo to ensure Professor Tambo’s safety and work to ensure his release. He said security measures would be increased in the meantime.

In a video circulated by suspected armed separatists on social media Tambo is seen stripped almost naked in the presence of disguised gunmen.

Two other government officials were abducted last month and have not been found.

The abductions took place the day the first English speaking Cameroonian to be appointed minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, was visiting English speaking towns in northwestern Cameroon in an effort to find solutions to the separatist crisis.

Nji says President Biya is committed to win the war he declared against armed anglophone separatists.

“The head-of-state his excellency Paul Biya, commander-in-chief of armed forces told me to tell all the forces of law and order that they can count on him. That he will give them all the resources which will permit them to accomplish their mission,” he said.

The crisis in the English speaking regions of Cameroon began in late 2016 with English teachers and lawyers protesting what they called the overbearing use of French in the English speaking zones of the bilingual country and degenerated with separatists calls for independence.

The government says hundreds of people including 30 policemen and soldiers have died in violence since January, when Nigeria detained and then extradited separatist leader Ayuk Tabe Julius and 46 other alleged separatists to Cameroon.

The separatist groups are demanding the 47 detainees, who have not been seen in public, be released.
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Ethnic Violence in Congo’s Northeast Displaces 60,000

Posted on by SeeAF

The assailants attacked under cover of darkness, slaughtering Nguli Nzafi ‘s wife and three children with machetes and arrows.

The 71-year-old, who also lost all 40 of his cattle in the violence, was forced to flee on foot some 90 kilometers (56 miles) to safety in the town of Bunia.

“I have lost everything because I no longer have my wife nor my children,” he says. “I cannot eat nor sleep. I’m afraid that this fighting is as bad as the war in 1996-2002.”

Violence between Nzafi’s Hema community and the Lendu ethnic group in Congo’s northeast has now killed at least 150 people and has forced more than 32,000 people to flee to Bunia, where humanitarian assistance is strained and the suffering are eager for improved conditions.

 

Another 28,000 have also fled into Uganda, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

There is a long history of tensions between the Lendu and Hema groups, whose ongoing battles since 1999 already have killed thousands and led the U.N. to deploy a peacekeeping force in the area. Much of it is rooted in economic tensions over land, as the Lendu historically have been farmers on stationery plots of land while the Hema have raised animals and moved throughout the year to good grazing areas.

Once those disputes erupted into violence, the cycle of tit-for-tat attacks caused a mounting death toll.

The instability here in Ituri province presents yet another challenge for the Congolese military and U.N. peacekeeping force who are already grappling with the threats posed by rebel groups, and with ongoing unrest in the Kasai provinces.

The latest round of fighting began in December, Djugu deputy administrator Willy Maese told The Associated Press.

“The Lendu had asked the Hema to give them part of their crops. Following their refusals, the Lendu launched attacks directly on the Hemas,” he said.

Despite a reprieve when authorities came, fighting intensified in February leading to a wave of displacements, he said.

 

Kpadyu Londri, a 26-year-old from Djugu, said the Lendu came to steal cows and ravage fields. They killed his five brothers and a woman, he said.

 

He has found safety in Bunia, 75 kilometers (47 miles) from his home village, but he said conditions are bad.

 

“There are no tents so the rain falls on us, no beds, blankets … we have already lost seven displaced [people], who have died as a result of starvation and dirty hands disease,” he said, referring to outbreaks of cholera.

Beatrice Ngave, 23, lost her daughter to malaria. She called on international organizations to build more latrines and accommodations to prevent the spread of cholera and other diseases. Right now, she said, the camp has only two latrines.

 

Last week, youths in Bunia invaded the office of the governor of the Ituri province, with sticks and machetes, demanding the government to take action, said youth leader Joseph Tibasima.

Celestin Tawara Angaika, the president of the Lendu community in Bunia, last week asked the Congolese government for the protection of its members.

 

Congo’s Deputy Prime Minister of Interior Security Henri Mova Sakanyi has promised “to strengthen the presence of the Congolese army and the police” in the Djugu and Blukwa villages.
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From Paris with Love: Depardieu votes in Russian Election

Posted on by SeeEU

One of Russia’s most famous citizens, French film star Gerard Depardieu, joined the millions who cast ballots in Sunday’s presidential election.

Depardieu, a friend of President Vladimir Putin who presented him with a Russian passport in 2013 during a tax row between the actor and French authorities, voted at the Russian Embassy in Paris.

The embassy tweeted a picture of the 69-year-old, wearing a coat with fur trim and sunglasses perched on his head, popping his ballot in the box.

“Gerard Depardieu voted in the Russian presidential election at a polling station at the Russian embassy in France. Come!,” it tweeted, urging other Russians in France to follow suit.

A video of the moment, tweeted by a reporter from Russian broadcaster RT, was widely circulated on French news sites, where it triggered a tide of mostly contemptuous responses.

“I don’t like insults but for me this man is a sellout,” one person tweeted in French. Another posted a GIF of a man vomiting.

Depardieu caused an uproar in 2012 when he declared he would hand back his French passport and move to Belgium to avoid a tax hike by the then Socialist government.

His popularity slumped further after he accepted a Russian passport — and a bear hug — from Putin.

The larger-than-life star of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and the Asterix & Obelix franchise, who is still a French citizen, has since become a staunch defender of the Kremlin’s policies, including its annexation of Crimea.

“I’m a citizen of the world,” he told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in 2016. “France is likely to become a Disneyland for foreigners, populated by imbeciles making wine and stinky cheese for tourists.”
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