Month: March 2018

Tillerson Reaffirms US Commitment to Africa

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has re-affirmed the U.S. commitment to Africa, two months after President Donald Trump’s reported derogatory comments about the continent.

“I think the United States commitment to Africa is quite clear in terms of the importance we place on the relationship,” said Tillerson at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “The president himself wrote a personal letter to the chairperson, reaffirming the importance of this relationship.”

Trump in January reportedly used an expletive to describe Haiti and some African countries. At the time, officials from the AU and several African nations said they were outraged by the reported comments.

On Thursday, Tillerson met with AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, who spoke of renewed ties.

“This incident is of the past,” Mahamat said during a joint news conference with the secretary in the Ethiopian capital. “With the visit of Secretary of State Tillerson, the evidence of the relations between Africa and the United States is personified through his visit.”

Tillerson said promoting peace and security, development and trade, and good governance, are three pillars of Washington’s approach to Africa.

His visit to Addis Ababa came after Ethiopia officials decided to impose a state of emergency. But protests in the restive Oromia region have continued.

The top U.S. diplomat said after Thursday’s meeting with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu the answer to political turmoil in Ethiopia is greater freedom. He said he hoped to see “the country move on past the state of emergency as quickly as possible.”

Tillerson added, “We firmly believe that democratic reform, economic growth, and lasting stability are best addressed through an inclusive political process, rather than through the imposition of restrictions.”

He noted the U.S. appreciated the statements on South Sudan made at the AU summit in January, where the African body raised the possibility of sanctions for the violation of cease-fires in the conflict-stricken nation.

Continental free trade

Meanwhile, the AU plans to sign a Continental Free Trade Agreement later this month aimed at economically integrating the continent, which has a population of 1.2 billion people and a combined estimated GDP of $3.5 trillion.

Tillerson said Washington supports “the African Union’s economic regional integration efforts to lower intra-trade barriers on the continent, boost more intra-regional trade, which we know has been a central goal of the negotiations around the constant Continental Free Trade Agreement, which we are quite supportive of.”

Fighting corruption

Leaders of the African Union, which represents 55 countries, also outlined an official theme of anti-corruption for the year of 2018 during its annual summit in January.

“We think these are all positive developments. So the continent is moving in one direction and we’re just hoping the current administration is taking noteand is also engaging this continent in a direction in which it’s trying to move,” said Brahima Coulibaly, Brookings Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative senior fellow.

Proposed cuts in aid

But the Trump administration is under criticism for a proposed 2018 budget cut on efforts to combat HIV and AIDS.

While Tillerson has announced nearly $533 million in new humanitarian assistance for food insecurity in some African nations, the Trump administration has not proposed a signature initiative to aid Africans.

“It is unusual for a secretary of state to make a trip like this and to have no deliverables, to have no initiative that they’re ready to announce,” said Witney Schneidman, the Brookings Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative nonresident fellow.

After more than a year since entering the White House, Trump still has not nominated a chief U.S. diplomat for Africa, and embassies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Africa and in five other African countries remain without ambassadors.

China in Africa

Speaking Tuesday before leaving for Africa, Tillerson said the United States is “eager” to lower barriers to trade and investment on the continent, whose largest trading partner by far is China.

He pointed up that the U.S. approach of “incentivizing good governance” contrasts sharply with China’s, “which encourages dependency, using opaque contracts, predatory loan practices and corrupt deals that mire nations in debt and undercut their sovereignty.”

Tillerson’s one-week, five-nation trip is focusing on counterterrorism, promoting peace, good governance and trade and investment. He is scheduled to meet with top officials in Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria — all of them U.S. allies in the war against terrorism and jihadist groups such as Boko Haram, al-Shabab and Islamic State.

Without partnerships to build infrastructure and achieve more economic development, Tillerson warned there will be “new ways for terrorists to exploit the next generation.”

The secretary of state also said U.S. and African leaders “must work to find long-term diplomatic solutions” to regional conflicts “that cause so much human suffering.”

VOA’s Wayne Lee contributed to this report.
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Cheers, Jeers on Capitol Hill for Lawsuit Targeting California’s ‘Sanctuary’ Policies

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Capitol Hill’s sharp divide on immigration extended to the Trump administration’s decision to sue California for shielding undocumented immigrants, with numerous Democratic lawmakers blasting the Justice Department’s action and many Republicans applauding it.

“It’s very disturbing,” California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told VOA on Thursday. “It’s all unnecessary.”

 

“The attorney general is doing something that’s long overdue and necessary,” the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, said.

 

Speaking Wednesday in Sacramento, California, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to force the state to abandon so-called “sanctuary” policies for undocumented immigrants.

 

“California is using every power it has — and some it doesn’t — to frustrate federal law enforcement. So you can be sure I’m going to use every power I have to stop them,” Sessions said. “We are fighting to make your jobs safer and to help you reduce crime in America. We are fighting to have a lawful system of immigration that serves Americans. And we intend to win this fight.”

 

California is one of several states, along with hundreds of municipalities across America, that do not alert U.S. immigration officials when an undocumented person is taken into custody or otherwise made known to local authorities.

 

Last year, California passed a set of laws the Department of Justice said obstruct federal immigration law and are unconstitutional, such as shielding companies’ employee files from immigration agents and prohibiting local law enforcement from alerting immigration agents when undocumented immigrants are released from custody.

 

Feinstein warned of draconian results if the administration’s lawsuit succeeds.

 

“Everyone in California is for law and order. What we’re not for are parents being picked up and deported when they bring their children to schools, or in the workplace,” the senator said.

 

“We know what the Trump administration’s goal is: to change the face of immigration in America,” Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said. “People across the United States are doing their best, within the law, to resist that change.”

 

Durbin added, “We embrace immigration as part of our birthright, as part of our history and part of our future. And we’re going to resist in every legal way possible this effort by the Trump administration.”

 

Cornyn told VOA the issue boils down to a basic constitutional concept: state and local governments cannot flout federal law.

 

“We are either a nation or we are a confederation of cities and states that have different laws and rules,” Cornyn said. “In the end, the sanctuary policies that many of these cities have adopted are really a threat to the safety and security of the populations where these folks [undocumented immigrants] end up embedding.”

 

“Arresting and deporting illegal immigrants shouldn’t be shocking,” California Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa said. “I commend Attorney General Sessions for taking action on California’s lawlessness.”

 

Last month, the Senate rejected a proposal to cut off federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.” The bill was named after Kate Steinle, a woman gunned down by an undocumented immigrant with a felony record who had been released from local custody in San Francisco in 2015.

 
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Turkey: Musician, Journalists Sentenced for ‘Terror’ Links

Posted on by SeeEU

A court on Thursday convicted a musician-turned-newspaper columnist of “knowingly and willingly” aiding the network led by U.S.-based Mulim cleric Fethullah Gulen and sentenced him to three years and one month in prison, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported.

 

Singer Atilla Tas, who wrote a newspaper column and became a social media phenomenon for posting satirical tweets about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was on trial along with 28 other defendants – mostly journalists – accused of having links to Gulen, whom Turkey blames for a 2016 failed coup attempt. Gulen rejects the accusation.

The court in Istanbul also convicted journalist Murat Aksoy of aiding Gulen’s group and sentenced him to two years and one month in prison. Other defendants were convicted of membership in a “terror organization” and were given prison sentences ranging between six and seven-and-a-half years, Anadolu Agency reported.

 

One defendant was acquitted while no verdict was issued against three defendants who are on the run and were on trial in absentia. They include Said Sefa who allegedly used the pseudonym Fuat Avni on Twitter to post taunting anti-Erdogan tweets and provided alleged insider information on the government.

 

The defendants, many of whom worked for media companies associated with Gulen, were expected to appeal the court’s ruling.

 

Tas, who has already served jail time, was not expected to return to prison.

 

The singer said on Twitter: “The judicial process has not ended. I believe that I will be acquitted in the end, you should believe it too. I did nothing other than oppose [the government].”

 

Turkey declared a state of emergency following the July 15, 2016, attempted coup and proceeded to crack down on Gulen’s movements and other government critics.

 

More than 100 journalists were imprisoned and some 150 media outlets closed down. Tens of thousands of people are in jail and mass trials are being held. More than 110,000 others have been sacked from government jobs.

 

Erdogan’s government says the crackdown is necessary to restore stability in Turkey.

 

Last month, prominent journalists Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak were sentenced to life in prison without parole, accused of involvement in the coup attempt.

 

The Reporters Without Borders group has ranked Turkey 151st out of 180 countries on its press freedom index.
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Israel, US Troops Train Together to Counter Missile Threats

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If war breaks out in the Middle East, U.S. and Israeli forces are preparing to one day fight alongside one another to defend Israel against missile attacks from across the region.

 

Nearly 5,000 Israeli and American troops have been training together in Israel for that very scenario. The “Juniper Cobra” exercise includes field training, computer simulations and live-fire drills of sophisticated missile-defense systems.

 

“We will practice, train shoulder to shoulder, the same as we will fight in crisis times,” Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, chief of Israel’s air defense command, told reporters at a briefing at the dusty Hatzor air base in southern Israel.

 

Israel has made missile defense a priority since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein bombarded the country with 39 Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War.

 

Today, the threat is far more formidable. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is now believed to possess well over 100,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking virtually anywhere in Israel.

 

Hezbollah and Iranian forces are also active in neighboring Syria, backing President Bashar Assad. Gaza’s Hamas rulers have a vast arsenal of rockets, and Iran has developed long-range missiles that can reach Israel.

 

These threats are concrete. Hezbollah rained some 4,000 rockets into Israel during a monthlong war in 2006, while Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza have fired thousands of rockets into Israel from the south. Last month, Israel intercepted an Iranian drone launched from Syria during a clash that caused an Israeli F-16 warplane to crash, and Israel shot down a Syrian anti-aircraft missile last year.

 

Haimovich said Juniper Cobra is not aimed at any particular adversary. Instead, it is meant to simulate “very complex scenarios” that include simultaneous attacks from enemy countries and militant groups.

 

“We practice that because this is a real scenario,” he said.

 

He said the threats include multiple salvos, more accurate rockets and missiles and a “multidirectional threat.”

 

“Those are our main assumptions,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s from south, north, east or others.”

 

Israel, in cooperation with the U.S., has developed a multilayer system of missile defense. This includes the “Arrow” system, which can intercept long-range missiles before they enter the atmosphere, the “David’s Sling” system for medium-range threats and the “Iron Dome,” which has been successful at intercepting short-range rocket fire. Israel also uses the American-made “Patriot” system.

 

While Israel takes pride in its ability to defend itself, Haimovich said the cooperation with the Americans provides additional depth to its “tool box.” About 2,500 American forces are participating in the drill, which began on March 4 and will run through the end of the month.

 

Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, commander of the U.S. troops, said American forces are ready to deploy in Israel at Israel’s request. Once Israel gives the green light, he said American forces could start moving from Europe within two or three days.

 

Juniper Cobra has taken place every two years since 2001, adjusting each time to cope with ever-shifting battlefield.

 

With literally “thousands of threats” to prepare for, Clark said the drill is an opportunity for the two allies to improve communication and coordination.

 

“The ballistic missile defense mission is a very difficult one, very technical one, and it requires precise integrated effort to make it work, and that’s what we’re developing here,” he said.

 

 
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Trump Has ‘Feeling’ Departing Aide Cohn Will Be Back

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President Donald Trump is joking about Gary Cohn as he bids farewell to his departing economic adviser.

 

Trump says at a Cabinet meeting that will be Cohn’s last that the former Goldman Sachs executive “may be a globalist but I still like him.”

 

The president says Cohn may one day return to the White House after leaving to make what Trump’s calling another couple hundred million dollars.

 

Cohn announced this week that he’d be leaving the administration in the coming weeks. That announcement came amid a wave of staff departures and after Cohn failed to convince Trump that he should reconsider imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump told Cohn: “I have a feeling you’ll be back.”
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Turkey Eyes Refugees Returning to Afrin, Syria

Posted on by SeeEU

Questions about the fate of Syrian refugees in Turkey are emerging as its forces in Syria’s Afrin province fight a Kurdish militia linked to a long-running insurgency within Turkish borders.

Ankara has said the goal of its military offensive is to secure the Turkish border against terrorist threats posed by the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG, which the United States supports in the fight against Islamic State militants.

But a second goal is emerging: the return of Syrian refugees.

In recent weeks, Turkey’s political leadership has been saying that with victory in the operation, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees could be sent to Afrin.

“We are not in a position to continue hosting 3.5 million refugees forever,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech to village and provincial leaders. “We’ll solve the Afrin incident, we’ll solve Idlib, and we would like our refugee brothers and sisters to return to their own country,” added Erdogan. Idlib borders Afrin and is one of the last remaining enclaves where Syrian rebel forces backed by Turkey are based.

Ankara has suggested between 350,000 to 500,000 refugees could be sent to Afrin.

Until recently, political leaders made few references to returning refugees. Instead, the government chose to use its refugee policy to enhance its humanitarian credentials, while at the same time castigating European countries for failing to match the country’s humanitarian commitments.

The prospect of even citizenship to millions of Syrians was once touted. “Turkey is also your homeland…We are going to help our Syrian friends in offering them the chance, if they want it, to acquire Turkish nationality,” Erdogan said in July 2016. But in a rare case of Erdogan misreading public sentiment, studies and opinion polls indicate strong opposition to his Syrian refugee policy.

“You look at survey upon survey…Turks resent Syrians. Up to 80 percent of survey participants express a negative opinion against Syrians,” points out analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. Yesilada said that sentiment “is understandable, for the same reason Germans don’t like Muslim refugees, Turks don’t like Arab refugees. There is a mistaken impression they take jobs, they undermine social order.”

Refugee policy

In a politically polarized country, a rare consensus is found over opposition to refugees. A recent comprehensive study by Istanbul’s Bilgi University recorded two-thirds of respondents, including 45 percent of Erdogan voters, said the government’s policies toward Syrians are wrong.

The government has spent more than $30 billion in hosting refugees, including providing health and education, such as at the university level, something not available for Turks. Additionally, 75 percent of respondents said Turkish and Syrian communities could not live in peace.

In the past year, numerous clashes between Turks and Syrians have been reported across Turkey. Last July, more than 100 Syrian and Afghan families were evacuated from an Istanbul suburb, following two days of violence after Syrian youths allegedly killed a Turkish teenager.

With general and presidential elections due within 18 months, and surveys revealing the presence of Syrian refugees and terrorism as key issues of voter concern, analysts suggest the ongoing military offensive against the Kurdish militia in Afrin offers Erdogan an opportunity.

“So whatever territory Turkey occupies, it is going to be used to send back the Syrian refugees, largely Sunni Arabs. There is going to be ethnic dilution; it’s a lose, lose for Kurds,” said analyst Yesilada. “It’s a very neat solution; as with all neat solutions, it’s clever, but not ethical or moral.”

Relocation

Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party has accused the government of seeking to change the demographic makeup ofthe predominantly Kurdish Syrian Afrin enclave. It is a policy the HDP says has been used in the past against Kurds living in the region.

Erdogan has dismissed such accusations, maintaining that he merely wants to right an injustice. “The whole issue is this: 55 percent of Afrin is Arab, 35 percent are the Kurds who were later relocated, and about 7 percent are Turkmen. [We aim] to give Afrin back to its rightful owners,” the Turkish president said at a rally in the Bursa province.

With the majority of Syrian refugees dispersed across Turkey and many already carving out a life for themselves, questions are being raised as to whether talk of the mass return of Syrians is just electioneering by Erdogan.

“It’s clear this kind of talk, is rhetoric, is intended for internal consumption for elections. It’s a pipe dream; nothing of this kind [will] happen, for a number of reasons. Will these [Syrian] people – would they like to go and live there? [Afrin]. The Kurds will object to it, the Syrians will object to it, Russians will object it, the Iranians will object to it, the Arabs will object it, the entire world will object to it,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar. “What Erdogan may do, he may relocate [pro-Turkish] Arab [militia] proxies, a kind of border force inside Syria; this is a very old tactic.”
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International Women’s Day

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March 8 is International Women’s Day around the world.  Rallies are being held to celebrate both the day and to demand an end to exploitation, discrimination and violence that women continue to face. The following photos taken around the globe, highlight some of the issues women are facing.
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Sierra Leone Roiled by Unrest After Polls Close

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Sierra Leone’s main opposition leader called for calm Wednesday night after his supporters engaged in running street battles with police, resulting in at least one injury at the end of an otherwise peaceful day of polling in the West African nation.

“I want every Sierra Leonean to behave themselves in a very peaceful manner so that we can have a peaceful election once in our lifetime,” Julius Maada Bio told reporters at Sierra Leone People’s Party headquarters in Freetown’s posh Goderich neighborhood, where he was holed up at dusk after his supporters clashed with police on the street.

“We hope this does not mar the whole election, which has been relatively smooth,” said Bio, a retired general who briefly seized power in a 1996 coup before handing power to civilian authorities.

Sierra Leone held general elections Wednesday in what analysts said was one of the most hotly contested races in the country’s history. Bio was running for president against Samura Kamara of the ruling All People’s Congress and 14 other candidates. The current president, Ernest Bai Koromo of the APC, must step down after serving two terms.

The vote went mostly smoothly across the country, but after polls closed, tensions rose in Goderich following an alleged incident outside the SLPP headquarters, where party officials said they were conducting a vote tally.

Bio accused police of trying to enter the compound without a warrant and putting him under “siege.” He said police accused him of “hacking” and threatened to use tear gas and force to enter. Bio rejected the hacking allegation.

SLPP supporters then amassed in the streets, facing off against police carrying shields who had deployed. Police used pepper spray and electric shocks to disperse the growing crowd, and SLPP supporters then began throwing rocks and glass bottles at police. Police responded by throwing rocks back, prompting running battles.

At least one SLPP supporter was injured.

Claude Robert, with a gash on his forehead, said police hit him as he tried to block them from entering the SLPP compound.

A few armed soldiers were also on the scene but did not participate in the melee.

VOA was unable to reach police for comment, but officers withdrew from outside SLPP headquarters after the skirmishes.

As the clashes died down, Bio met with police and election observers, including former Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, head of the African Union observer mission to Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone has enjoyed relative peace since its bloody civil war ended 15 years ago, but the country has been hit by crises recently, including the devastating 2014 Ebola outbreak and a deadly mudslide last year.

The APC has been accused of responding poorly to those disasters and of corruption. The party’s supporters point to newly built roads and electricity connections during Koromo’s decade in power.
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Florida Lawmakers Pass Gun-School Safety Bill 3 Weeks After Massacre

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Florida state lawmakers gave final passage on Wednesday to a gun-safety package that raises the legal age for buying rifles and imposes a three-day waiting period on all firearms sales, while also allowing the arming of some public school personnel.

The bill was spurred by the shooting rampage three weeks ago that left 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and led to an extraordinary lobbying campaign by young survivors of the massacre.

But the legislation, while containing a number of provisions student activists and their parents had embraced, left out one of their chief demands – a ban on assault-style weapons like the one used in the February 14 massacre.

Supporters have defended the bill saying most school shootings are committed with handguns.

The bill also overcame strenuous objections to provisions permitting school staff to carry guns on the job – a measure critics see as posing a particular risk to minority students who they say as more likely to be shot in the heat of a disciplinary situation or if mistaken as an intruder.

Swift action in the Republican-controlled statehouse, where the National Rifle Association (NRA) has long held sway, signaled a possible turning point in the national debate between gun control advocates and proponents of firearms rights enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The measure narrowly cleared the state Senate on Monday and was sent to the desk of Governor Rick Scott, also a Republican, on Wednesday’s 67-50 vote in the Florida House of Representatives.

The bill automatically becomes law within 15 days unless the governor vetoes it. A spokeswoman for Scott said on Tuesday he had not yet decided whether to support the bill. As legislators debated in Tallahassee, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos visited Stoneman Douglas on the first full day of classes since the shooting.

 
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Putin Praises Trump, Says US Political System Eating Itself

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, interviewed by Russian state television, lavished praise on President Donald Trump but added that he was sorely disappointed with the U.S. political system, saying that it has been “eating itself up.”

Speaking in a series of interviews that were included in a documentary released Wednesday, Putin described Trump as a great communicator.

“I have no disappointment at all,” Putin said when asked about the U.S. president. “Moreover, on a personal level he made a very good impression on me.”

The two leaders met on the sidelines of international summits last year. Putin praised Trump as a “balanced” man, who easily gets into the gist of various issues and listens to his interlocutor.

“It’s possible to negotiate with him, to search for compromises,” Putin added.

He also noted that he spent some time talking to Melania Trump when he sat next to her during an official dinner at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July. The Russian leader said he told her and the wife of the Italian premier “about Siberia and Kamchatka, about fishing … about bears on Kamchatka and tigers in the Far East.”

‘You can’t help exaggerating’

“I made some exaggerations,” the action-loving Russian leader said with a grin. “When you talk about fishing, you can’t help exaggerating.”

Asked jokingly by the interviewer if he was trying to recruit the women, the KGB veteran responded by saying: “No, I stopped dealing with that a long time ago.”

He added with a smile: “But I liked doing that. It was my job for many years.”

Venting his frustration with the U.S. political system, Putin said “it has demonstrated its inefficiency and has been eating itself up.”

“It’s quite difficult to interact with such a system, because it’s unpredictable,” Putin said.

Russia-U.S. ties long have been strained by the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other issues, and Moscow’s hopes for better ties with the U.S. under Trump haven’t materialized. Tensions have escalated further amid the ongoing congressional and FBI investigations into allegations of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. 

Speaking about the Russia-West rift, Putin said it has been rooted in Western efforts to contain and weaken Russia. 

“We are a great power, and no one likes competition,” he said.

He said he was particularly dismayed by what he described as the U.S. role in the ouster of Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president in February 2014 amid massive protests.

US ‘cheated’ Russia, he says

Putin charged that the U.S. had asked Russia to help persuade then-president Viktor Yanukovych not to use force against protesters and then “rudely and blatantly” cheated Russia, sponsoring what he called a “coup.”

Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. 

“Few expected us to act so quickly and so resolutely, not to say daringly,” Putin said.

He described the Western sanctions over Crimea and the insurgency in eastern Ukraine as part of “illegitimate and unfair” efforts to contain Russia, adding that “we will win in the long run.”

“Those who serve us with poison will eventually swallow it and poison themselves,” he said. 

Putin wasn’t speaking in the context of a former Russian spy who was left in critical condition, along with his daughter, after coming into contact with a mysterious substance in Britain. Some have suggested it was a poisoning in which Russia may have had a hand, even though British authorities haven’t revealed what the substance was and are still investigating. Moscow has denied any involvement.

Responding to a question about Russia’s growing global leverage, Putin responded: “If we play strongly with weak cards, it means the others are just poor players, they aren’t as strong as it seemed, they must be lacking something.”

Ready to retaliate

Putin, who presented a sweeping array of new Russian nuclear weapons last week, voiced hope that nuclear weapons will never be used — but warned that Russia will retaliate in kind if it comes under a nuclear attack.

“The decision to use nuclear weapons can only be made if our early-warning system not only detects a missile launch but clearly forecasts its flight path and the time when warheads reach the Russian territory,” he said. “If someone makes a decision to destroy Russia, then we have a legitimate right to respond.”

He added starkly: “Yes, it will mean a global catastrophe for mankind, for the entire world. But as a citizen of Russia and the head of Russian state I would ask: What is such a world for, if there were no Russia?”
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Netanyahu Warns Israel May Face Early Elections

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Israel may face early elections due to a coalition crisis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned during a visit to the U.S. on Wednesday, and he lashed out against police for drafting state witnesses against him in a corruption case at home.

Speaking at the Economic Club in Washington, Netanyahu said he wants his government to complete its term in November 2019.

“If all parties in this coalition … agree that’s what we do, and if not then we will go to elections now,” he said.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has said his Kulanu party will bolt the coalition if the budget doesn’t pass in the next few weeks. Coalition partners are feuding over whether to include military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Netanyahu also made light of the slew of corruption investigations against him back home.

When asked what the pleasure of his job is, Netanyahu jokingly replied “investigations.”

Netanyahu later took to Facebook to lash out at the “state witness industry.”

“They take people whom they claim committed some crime,” Netanyahu said. “They place them under detention, terrify them, tell them ‘Your life is over, your family’s lives are over, we will take everything from you including your freedom. You want to get out of this? There is one way only, smear Netanyahu. It’s not important if you tell delusional lies as long as you smear Netanyahu,”‘ he said.

This week another former Netanyahu aide, Nir Hefetz, agreed to turn state’s witness in a burgeoning corruption case engulfing the prime minister.

The longtime Netanyahu family spokesman was arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of helping promote regulation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel’s Bezeq telecom company in return for favorable coverage of Netanyahu and his family by the company’s popular news website.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and has not been named a suspect in the case, but he was questioned by police on Friday ahead of his trip to Washington.

Israeli police have already recommended indicting Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two separate cases. Netanyahu is suspected of accepting lavish gifts from billionaire friends, and promising to promote legislation to help a major Israeli newspaper against its free rival in exchange for favorable coverage.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases, saying he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt aimed at toppling him. He has repeatedly said that nothing will come out of the investigations.

Netanyahu said in his Facebook clip that the “obsessive chase” after state witnesses “is the best proof that there is nothing here.”
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4 Seriously Wounded in Vienna Knife Attacks

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Four people were seriously injured Wednesday in two knife attacks in Vienna, Austrian police said.

The stabbings occurred in the Leopoldstadt district near Vienna’s famous Prater Park. The attacker fled the scene, and a manhunt was underway.

In the first attack, a man with a knife stabbed a couple and their daughter outside a restaurant, police said. “The three persons suffered heavy to life-threatening injuries and are currently in a hospital,” police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer said. 

A few minutes later, a fourth person was attacked nearby. Police said they were trying to determine whether the two incidents were linked. That victim also had life-threatening injuries.

Police said they knew “absolutely nothing” about the suspect, except that they were searching for a male. 
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Canada, Mexico, Others Could Be Spared From US Tariffs on Metals

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Some countries are now likely to be spared from planned tariffs on metals advocated by U.S. President Donald Trump. 

“We expect that the president will sign something by the end of the week, and there are potential carve-outs for Mexico and Canada, based on national security, and possibly other countries as well, based on that process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday. 

Sources at the White House also said Trump’s controversial tariff plan could be put into action at a signing ceremony at 3:30 p.m. EDT (2030 UTC) Thursday.

Reuters quoted a senior U.S. official as saying the measures would take effect about two weeks after Trump signed the proclamation. 

Meanwhile Wednesday, U.S. Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, and other House members wrote a letter to Trump urging him to minimize negative consequences if he goes through with the tariff plan.

Brady, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, joined with Representative Dave Reichert, a Washington state Republican who chairs the Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, led the lawmakers who warned the president about the drawbacks to his tariff plan.

The letter said “tariffs are taxes that make U.S. businesses less competitive and U.S. consumers poorer,” and “any tariffs that are imposed should be designed to address specific distortions caused by unfair trade practices in a targeted way while minimizing negative consequences in American businesses and consumers.”

The lawmakers recommended that Trump exclude fairly traded products and products that do not pose a national security threat; announce a process for U.S. companies to petition for duty-free access to imports unavailable from U.S. sources; and allow exemptions for existing contracts for steel and aluminum purchases. They also recommended doing a short-term review of the effects of the tariffs on the economy to decide whether the approach is working.

The tariffs are expected to impose a duty of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports that Trump says undermine U.S. industry with their low prices.

The comment that some Canada and Mexico may be spared in the tariffs plan resulted in key stock indexes and the U.S. dollar paring losses in afternoon trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average, after falling more than 300 points during the session, closed off 83 points, a drop of one-third of a percent. 

Market players said the sell-off was sparked by the previous day’s announcement that the president’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, was resigning. The former Goldman Sachs investment bank president had opposed the sweeping tariffs for foreign steel and aluminum.

‘Easy to win’

Trump boasted last week that trade wars “are good and easy to win” after his surprise announcement he planned to impose the tariffs on imports of the two metals. That prompted widespread criticism from his normal Republican colleagues in Congress and America’s allies. 

The president, according to staffers, acted on recommendations made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, formerly a billionaire investor, and Peter Navarro, an economist who is director of the White House National Trade Council. 

​’Easy to win’

Trump boasted last week that trade wars “are good and easy to win” after his surprise announcement he planned to impose a 25 percent U.S. tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent levy on aluminum imports. That prompted widespread criticism from his normal Republican colleagues in Congress and America’s allies. 

The president, according to staffers, acted on recommendations made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, formerly a billionaire investor, and Peter Navarro, an economist who is director of the White House National Trade Council. 

Ross said the planned steel and aluminum tariffs were “thought through. We’re not looking for a trade war.”

The tariffs proposal also won support from economic nationalists in the United States and some Democratic lawmakers in manufacturing states whose fortunes could be boosted by the tariffs protecting their metal industries.

The chief of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, on Wednesday in a European radio interview, warned of a global trade war, predicting the U.S. tariffs could lead to “a drop in growth, a drop in trade, and it will be fearsome.”

Warning that there would be no victors in such a trade war, Lagarde urged “the sides to reach agreements, hold negotiations, consultations.”

‘Easy to lose’

European Council President Donald Tusk echoed Lagarde’s stance, saying, “The truth is quite the opposite: Trade wars are bad and easy to lose. For this reason, I strongly believe that now is the time for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to act responsibly.”

The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, detailed retaliatory tariffs it plans to impose on prominent U.S. products if Trump carries out his plan to impose the metal tariffs, taxing Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon, blue jeans, cranberries, orange juice and peanut butter.

Moody’s Investors Service said the planned tariffs “raise the risk of a deterioration in global trade relations.”

Trump said on Twitter that since former President George H.W. Bush was in the White House 30 years ago, “our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars.”

“Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!” Trump also said on Twitter. 

Trump claimed the United States last year had a trade deficit of “almost 800 Billion Dollars,” significantly overstating the actual figure of $566 billion, which still was the biggest U.S. trade deficit in nine years. 

A new report Wednesday said the U.S. trade deficit in January — the amount its imports exceeded its exports — reached $56.6 billion, the highest monthly total since October 2008.
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US Appeals Court Refuses to Dismiss Unusual Global Warming Lawsuit

Posted on by SeeUS

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Wednesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the U.S. government by 21 young people who say climate change deprives them of their constitutional rights.

The youngsters, between the ages of 10 and 21, sued the Obama administration in 2015. They have carried their case over to the Trump administration, which is seeking to have it tossed out.

The three-judge panel ruled Wednesday that the administration failed to meet what they call the “high bar” under federal law to have the case dismissed.

The group said U.S. administrations as far back as Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s have ignored the dangers caused by carbon emissions and pollution — including climate change — taking away from their constitutional right to life, liberty and the ability to pursue wealth.

U.S. attorneys argue the case could lead to long and complicated litigation and a “constitutional crisis” involving the federal courts and the White House.

Chief Judge Sidney Thomas disagreed. “Litigation burdens are part of our legal system,” he wrote. “Claims and remedies often are vastly narrowed as litigation proceeds. We have no reason to assume this case will be any different.”

The Justice Department has not yet responded to the appeals court’s decision.

An attorney representing the young people called it “very exciting. It will be the first time that climate science and the federal government’s role in creating the dangers will go on trial in a U.S. court.”
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Another Snowstorm Hits US Northeast, Threatens More Outages

Posted on by SeeUS

The second big, blustery storm to hit the Northeast in less than a week brought wet, heavy snow Wednesday to a corner of the country where tens of thousands of people were still waiting for the power to come back on from the previous bout.

The nor’easter closed schools, businesses and government offices, grounded thousands of flights and raised fears of another round of fallen trees and electrical outages as it made its way up the East Coast.

It also produced “thundersnow,” with flashes of lightning and booming thunder from the Philadelphia area to New York City.

“I don’t think I’m ready for this to happen again,” Caprice Dantzler, 32, said as she walked through Philadelphia’s snowy, rainy Rittenhouse Square. She said many trees that crashed into cars and homes and blocked streets during the last storm had yet to be removed.

A mix of snow and light rain fell before daybreak in many areas, then turned to all snow, making driving treacherous. Pennsylvania and New York banned big rigs from some major highways as officials warned of a hazardous evening commute and urged people to stay off the roads.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning into Thursday morning from the Philadelphia area through most of New England. Forecasters said Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the New York City area could get a foot or more of snow.

More than 2,400 flights across the region — about 1,900 in the New York metro area alone — were canceled as conditions deteriorated.

“I’m not looking forward to another round of this, but it is what it is,” Chris Martin said as he prepared to leave his Toms River, New Jersey, home and head to work at an information technology firm in Philadelphia. “All in all, it hasn’t been a terrible winter.”

Martin had already arranged to stay in Philadelphia overnight.

“If Mother Nature wants to give us one last blast of winter, that’s up to her,” he said. 

Heavy, wet snow and gusting winds could take down trees already weakened by last Friday’s storm and snap power lines, to the distress of customers who have gone days without power.

Utility workers took advantage of milder temperatures and sunshine Tuesday in their scramble to restore electricity around the Northeast. More than 90,000 homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday, mostly in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

Ten people were taken to hospitals with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator inside a home in North White Plains, New York, police said. All were expected to survive.

The storm dumped snow at a rate of 2 or 3 inches an hour, with some places in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the New York City area getting up to 10 inches by mid-afternoon.

Gusts of up to 60 mph were forecast on Cape Cod, 45 mph at the Jersey shore and 30 mph around suburban Philadelphia.

Amtrak canceled some train service, and commuter trains in Philadelphia and New Jersey were put on an abbreviated schedule.

School districts and municipal operations from Delaware to Connecticut closed. The governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania declared states of emergency.

Officials warned homeowners of the danger of heart attacks from shoveling heavy snow.

One slight consolation: The storm was not expected to bring coastal flooding like the one last week. Some New England and New Jersey shoreline communities were still dealing with the effects of that storm.
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DACA Stalemate Continues on Capitol Hill

Posted on by SeeUS

One day after hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants formally lost temporary protection from deportation, Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona attempted to revive U.S. Senate debate on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which had provided temporary work and study permits to beneficiaries.

“There are teachers, students and members of the military who are DACA recipients. They are friends and colleagues who represent the very best ideas of America,” Flake said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to extend DACA protections for three years and provide for three years of increased border funding.”

Another Republican, James Lankford of Oklahoma, objected to Flake’s motion, shelving the issue once again.

“If Congress does a temporary patch once, it’ll do it 20 times again,” Lankford said.

Last year, President Donald Trump set a March 5 expiration date for DACA, an Obama administration program protecting immigrants brought illegally into the country as children. Trump challenged Congress to enact a permanent fix granting the immigrants legal status. Lawmakers of both political parties back the goal, but Congress has yet to act.

In the meantime, federal court battles over Trump’s DACA order have prevented deportations from going forward — a reprieve for so-called “Dreamers” that could end at any time.

“It’s a politically tricky issue for Republicans,” said political analyst Molly Reynolds of the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan “are really hesitant to expose those divides within the party. I also think they are hesitant to be seen as giving a win to Democrats,” she added.

On Twitter and in recent public speeches, Trump has blamed Democrats for Washington’s inaction.

“We’re trying to have a DACA victory for everybody, by the way, and the Democrats are nowhere to be found,” the president said Wednesday in an address to Hispanic business leaders.

Democrats insist they remain ready to make a deal with Republicans on immigration and border security, noting it was Trump who, in January, appeared to endorse a bipartisan proposal with a DACA fix, then rejected it days later.

“This humanitarian crisis in this country, and I call it that, was created by President Trump on September 5,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said. “He has failed to agree to six different bipartisan proposals to solve the problem he created. And now these lives hang in the balance.”

Observers note that, while Democrats are in the minority in Congress, they are not without clout, especially in the Senate, where a three-fifths majority is required for most legislation to advance.

“It’s a matter of, do Democrats want to keep pushing the issue?” Reynolds said.

Democrats could apply pressure for action on immigration by withholding votes later this month on a yearlong government funding bill. They already used that tactic earlier this year, causing a brief federal shutdown, and Democratic leaders have shown little appetite for a repeat.

“We’re going to keep fighting hard for DACA, but we need to hear something from Republicans, because they’re the ones who have thwarted it time and time again,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

Court challenges to Trump’s DACA decision have, in effect, extended the deadline for Congress to act. Political analysts believe that makes it more likely that Dreamers will remain in legal limbo through the November midterm elections.
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European Clocks Slowed by Lag in Continent’s Power Grid

Posted on by SeeEU

Millions of Europeans who arrived late to work or school Wednesday had a good excuse – an unprecedented lag in the continent’s electricity grid that’s slowing down some clocks.

The problem is caused by a political dispute between Serbia and Kosovo that’s sapping a small amount of energy from the local grid, causing a domino effect across the 25-nation network spanning the continent from Portugal to Poland and Greece to Germany.

“Since the European system is interconnected … when there is an imbalance somewhere the frequency slightly drops,” said Claire Camus, a spokeswoman for the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.

The Brussels-based organization, known as ENTSO-E, said in a separate statement that “this average frequency deviation, that has never happened in any similar way in the Continental European power system, must cease.”

The deviation from Europe’s standard 50 Hz frequency has been enough to cause electric clocks that keep time by the power system’s frequency, rather than built-in quartz crystals, to fall behind by about six minutes since mid-January. The problem mostly affects radio alarms, oven clocks or clocks used to program heating systems.

ENTSO-E said it’s working on a technical solution that could bring the system back to normal within “a few weeks,” but urged European authorities and national governments to address the political problem at the heart of the issue.

“This is beyond the technical world. Now there needs to be an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo about this lack of energy in the Kosovo system. You need to solve it politically and then technically,” Camus told The Associated Press.

The friction between Serbia and Kosovo is part of a broader dispute that goes back almost 20 years. Since the war in Kosovo ended in 1999, the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo that remains loyal to Belgrade, haven’t paid the Kosovo government for the energy they consume.

A 2015 agreement was meant to resolve the dispute, but Serbia has blocked its implementation.

Serbia’s power grid company EMS blamed the problem on Kosovo, claiming that in January and February the country “was uninterruptedly withdrawing, in an unauthorized manner, uncontracted electric energy from the Continental Europe synchronous area.”

Kadri Kadriu, deputy manager of Kosovo’s grid operator KOSTT, acknowledged that electricity from elsewhere was diverted to the Serb minority in the north, but said consumers there hadn’t paid for their electricity, causing considerable financial burden to the company.

ENTSO-E warned that “if no solution can be found at political level, a deviation risk could remain.”

So far the only consequence seems to be the effect on clocks.

“The system is built in such a way that all your basic needs are really secured by the distribution and the transmission system operators,” Camus said. “Frankly, there is no risk other than those clocks running behind.”
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Resettlement Program Suspended for African Refugees in Niger

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.N. refugee agency says it has been forced to temporarily suspend an operation to resettle African refugees evacuated from Libya to Niger because too few countries have agreed to accept them.

In November, Niger agreed to accept, on a transit basis, Africans evacuated by the U.N. refugee agency from Libya for resettlement in third countries. The UNHCR says it has managed to evacuate 1,400 from Libya since December.  

The African refugees had been held under terrible conditions in detention centers run by the Libyan government of national accord.  

Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s special envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation, says his organization would like to evacuate more people from Libya, but the government of Niger has suspended the operation because there are too few resettlement departures. For now, Cochetel says, the UNHCR has no solution to this problem because only 30 resettlement locations are available. He says that is not enough.

“So, we have been calling on resettlement states to do more to evacuate very quickly the thousands of people that are going to Niger because, unless we have this space, people will have to continue to rot in appalling conditions in detention centers. We have no other solution available to us,”  Cochetel said.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa make the dangerous trek to Libya in hopes of reaching Europe and a better life. Currently, the U.N. migration agency estimates more than 700,000 migrants, including at least 47,000 refugees, in need of protection, are in Libya.  

Many never make it to Italy, the main port of call, because they are held in detention centers run by Libyan authorities or by smugglers and human traffickers who kidnap and torture migrants for ransom.

The UNHCR is appealing for nearly $227 million for humanitarian operations in the central Mediterranean this year. Cochetel says some of the funds could be used to try to deter refugees from making the desperate journey to Libya by offering alternate options for asylum in countries they pass through en route to Libya.

 
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Iraq Video Diary: Touring the Shattered North

Posted on by SeeEA

Four months after Iraq declared victory in its fight against Islamic State militants, the north of the country is still reeling, with some cities nearly abandoned and others trying to rebuild with almost no resources. In this video diary, VOA’s Heather Murdock tours the region with Iraqi authorities who are trying to assess the damage and the prospects for recovery.
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Tensions Re-Emerge Ahead of Key Turkey-US Talks

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkish and U.S. officials are scheduled to meet Thursday to resolve unprecedented bilateral tensions between the NATO allies.

The talks are part of a series of meetings to address differences between the countries. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned the outcome of the talks would determine the future of bilateral relations.

The talks are part of a process formed after last month’s U.S. diplomatic efforts, as bilateral relations hit a crisis point.

“The establishment of the mechanism to at least speak about the disputes, if not to solve them immediately, is a step in the right direction,” said international relations lecturer Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. “Hopefully, the two sides will manage to speak the same language.”

Thursday’s meeting is expected to focus on one main point of contention — U.S. support of the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, in its fight against Islamic State. Ankara accused the militia of being terrorists linked to a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey.

‘Amicable settlement’ sought

Experts warned that Thursday’s talks were complicated by Washington’s various stances toward the YPG.

“Whereas the State Department is more cognizant of the damage that this relationship does to the overall Turkey-U.S. relationship, this is going to be as much a negotiation between Turkey and the U.S. as really an interagency negotiation within the U.S. administration,” said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar with Carnegie Europe.

Ulgen said Ankara is looking to U.S. President Donald Trump to find a resolution to the conflict.

“There is an expectation that the U.S. president, through the National Security Council, will impress upon the need to find an amicable settlement that would satisfy Turkey,” Ulgen said.

Turkish diplomatic and presidential sources blame the Pentagon for bilateral tensions and believe Trump offers the best chance of resolving ongoing differences.

Turkey’s ongoing military operation in Syria’s Afrin enclave against the YPG Kurdish militia is further aggravating bilateral tensions. Washington opposes the offensive, called “Operation Olive Branch,” warning it would undermine the war against IS.

Those fears appeared well-founded this week, with the U.S. confirming ground operations against the jihadists had been temporarily suspended. On Tuesday, the Syrian Defense Forces, the umbrella organization under which the YPG fights, announced it was sending 1,700 of its fighters to Afrin. Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged some SDF fighters abandoning operations against IS.

Ankara turned up the pressure on the U.S. Department of Defense Wednesday, stating, “It is particularly expected [by Turkey] that the U.S. must certainly step in and halt the shifting of YPG/PYD forces, which moves under its control in [the city of] Manbij to Afrin,” said Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.

Incompatible interests?

Thursday’s talks in Washington are expected to focus on Turkey’s ongoing offensive. Ankara has warned that the next target of Operation Olive Branch is the Syrian City of Manbij, where U.S. forces are deployed with the YPG militia. Turkish ministers have warned that U.S. forces could be targeted if they remained deployed with the YPG.

“I believe there can be a deal to position some sort of liaison office of the Turkish armed forces in Manbij and further de-conflict the situation by extracting YPG elements out of Manbij,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Iraq and Washington.

 

For now, the YPG has ruled out any withdrawal from Manbij, while Ankara is demanding Washington cut all ties with the Kurdish militia.

“The U.S. will never abandon the Kurds,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “They are simply too important for their interests in the region. That is something Ankara has to understand.”

Thursday’s talks are just the start of the process, with further meetings scheduled for later in March and April aimed at addressing the myriad of differences between the countries.

“These meetings may be rolling the can down the road, but there are some very serious issues needing to be resolved. You cannot forever deflect those or delay them forever,” Ozel said. “My sense [is] the most fundamental problem is that Turkish interests in the Middle East and American interests in the Middle East are not the same. Are they totally incompatible? I am not sure.”

 
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Somalia: Roadside Bomb Kills 4, Including 2 Officials

Posted on by SeeAF

A roadside bomb struck a car Wednesday southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing two government officials and two of their bodyguards, regional officials said.

The blast occurred on the main tarmac road linking Mogadishu to southwestern regions, near Afgoye, about 40 kilometers southwest of the capital, villagers told VOA.

“The state minister for security of the Southwest Regional State and a state lawmaker from Hirshabelle Regional State and two of their guards were killed in the attack,” said Mohamed Sidow Abdirahman, the Wanlaweyne District Commissioner.

He said the officials were returning from talks attended by the Southwest Regional State president, former parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, senior Somali military officials and advisers for U.S. forces in Somalia.

The talks at Baledogle airfield centered on plans to reopen the road linking Mogadishu and the town of Baidoa, according to Abdirahman.

Somali officials say the Baledogle airfield is where U.S. military experts train Somali forces and help them launch attacks on al-Shabab positions.

Other government officials told VOA that Wednesday’s meeting concluded preparations for a major military operation aimed at opening main supply routes to ease access to humanitarian aid in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa nation.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although al-Shabab has carried out similar attacks on the road, targeting government officials, civilians and forces of the African Union mission in Somalia, AMISOM.

In April 2013, AMISOM troops backing the Somali National Army recaptured the main road from Mogadishu to Baidoa from al-Shabab, forcing them out of main towns, but the militant Islamic group continued to control most villages and rural areas around the road.

Since 2015, the road has remained completely cut, after heavily armed al-Shabab militants over ran an AMISOM base in the Leego district, killing more than 70 Burundian soldiers.
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US Senators Ask Vote Machine Vendors about Russian Access to Source Code

Posted on by SeeEU

Two Democratic senators on Wednesday asked major vendors of U.S. voting equipment whether they have allowed Russian entities to scrutinize their software, saying the practice could allow Moscow to hack into American elections infrastructure.

The letter from Senators Amy Klobuchar and Jeanne Shaheen followed a series of Reuters reports saying that several major global technology providers have allowed Russian authorities to hunt for vulnerabilities in software deeply embedded across the U.S. government.

The senators requested that the three largest election equipment vendors — Election Systems & Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart Intercivic — answer whether they have shared source code, or inner workings, or other sensitive data about their technology with any Russian entity.
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Former Minister’s Reported Death Highlights Eritrea’s Secret Prisons

Posted on by SeeAF

The reported death of an Eritrean political prisoner has shined a spotlight on the country’s secret prison system, where some of the nation’s founders have been held without trial for more than 16 years.

In February, news began circulating on social media that Haile “Durue” Woldensae, a fighter in Eritrea’s liberation struggle and the country’s former foreign minister, had died. Woldensae was imprisoned in 2001 and has not been seen since. In a 2010 interview with al-Jazeera, a prison guard who escaped the country said that Woldensae was alive but “blind and emaciated.”

A post on an anonymous Facebook page in February said that Woldensae died on January 25 and was buried on the premises of the Eirairo prison, where he had reportedly been detained. The claims have not been independently verified, and press freedom in Eritrea is severely restricted, making it difficult to confirm information that comes out of the country.

Woldensae’s brother Senegal told VOA that the family still doesn’t know whether he is alive or dead, but they have long believed the worst.

“All prisons in Eritrea are like Enda Hawya — a place where you can see people go in but never come out,” he said, referring to a village in a grim Eritrean fairy tale.

Woldensae was arrested in a roundup that targeted dissidents in Eritrea’s ruling political party, journalists and others. The group of dissidents had called for the implementation of the country’s 1994 charter and demanded a democratic form of government. They became known as the G15.

“They wanted to fight the good fight, and they said, ‘Enough is enough. It’s time to change,'” Senegal said. “So, they said, ‘With our people, we will fight this wrong direction that the country has taken.’ That’s how they started. Therefore, they knew that they were going to be harassed, mistreated, suppressed and even killed. They knew what they were getting themselves into.”

Most of the political prisoners have not been heard from since their arrest. Pleas from family members and human rights organizations for access to the detainees have gone unanswered.

The Eritrean government’s last direct word on the G15 came in June 2016, when current Foreign Minister Osman Saleh said Woldensae and the other G15 members were all still alive.

“The government is looking for their safety. They are in good hands, in prison. They are political prisoners and the government is dealing with them,” he told Radio France International.

He said the 15 men would be tried “when the government decides.”

​10,000 political prisoners

President Isaias Afwerki has ruled Eritrea with an iron hand since the country won independence in 1993. A 2013 report by Amnesty International identified 34 prisons in the country, both secret and recognized. The report said Eritrea’s government was responsible for the arrest of 10,000 political prisoners, although none had ever been charged with a crime or faced trial.

Reports from inside the country describe inhumane conditions where prisoners are held in shipping crates in the desert where temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day. Rumors of prisoner deaths due to illness and suicide have been widely circulated, though never confirmed.

Fisseha Tekle, a Horn of Africa researcher at Amnesty International, said families of those jailed are desperate for information. He believes the government owes it to these families to account for the imprisoned.

“What we would like to call for is for the government to let everyone know their whereabouts, the conditions they are being held in, how they are treated. The families should be allowed to know this,” Tekle said. “They need to be in front of a free court and have a fair trial. They should be given credit for the time they have already served. The government needs to issue a statement counting clearly how many years they have spent in prison. If they are dead, there needs to be a clear statement on that.”

‘Our pride and honor’

Woldensae’s family has accepted that they likely will never see him again, but they believe, if he died, that it was because he stood up for his beliefs.

“Haile and his comrades sacrificed their lives when they decided to fight for freedom in the beginning, so their sacrifice is our honor because they stood their ground, and that’s how they fell,” Senegal said. “We are glad that they’re not like those who are licking the boots of this regime, and we are glad that they are not part of a shameful history. So, they are our pride and honor.”
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Presidential Election Takes Place in Sierra Leone

Posted on by SeeAF

Voters in Sierra Leone are heading to the polls Wednesday to choose a new president they hope will lead the west African nation out of an economy left in shambles from the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak.

Sixteen people are running to succeed outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma, who has served his constitutionally allowed two five-year terms in office. The two leading candidates are Samura Kamara of President Koroma’s ruling All People’s Congress, and Julius Maada Bio, the leader of the Sierra Leone People’s Party. The APC and SLPP have alternately ruled the small nation since it gained independence from Britain in 1961.

But the newly formed National Grand Coalition party, led by former United Nations diplomat Kandeh Yumkella, has attracted the support of younger voters who are not loyal to either the APC or SLPP.

The large field of candidates may increase the possibility of a runoff election if no candidate gets 55 percent of the votes. 

Sierra Leone has been mired in deep poverty thanks to the two-year outbreak of the deadly Ebola crisis and falling global commodity prices that affected iron ore, the country’s key export. 

And Sierra Leone continues its struggle to recover from the horrific 1991-2002 civil war that killed tens of thousands of people.
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