Month: March 2018

Former South African President to Appear in Court on Corruption Charges

Posted on by SeeAF

Former South African President Jacob Zuma is to appear in court on April 6 to face corruption charges.

Police said Zuma was issued a summons Monday, continuing a dramatic fall for the former president who was forced to leave office last month after his party turned against him.

South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority said earlier this month it would seek to prosecute Zuma on 16 charges, including fraud, racketeering, corruption and money laundering.

The charges relate to an arms deal in the 1990s and were originally thrown out nearly a decade ago before Zuma successfully ran for president in 2009.

Zuma was deputy president at the time of the arms deal. His former financial adviser, Schabir Shaikh, was found guilty in 2005 of trying to solicit brides for Zuma from a French arms company. Zuma has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Lawyers for Zuma said they will appeal the reinstatement of the charges.

Zuma’s presidency was marred by scandals, allegations of corruption and an economic slowdown, leading to his forced resignation Feb. 14.  
…

your ad here

Egypt Vote Overshadowed by Missing Contenders

Posted on by SeeAF

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is running virtually unopposed in this week’s elections after a series of potentially serious candidates were arrested or withdrew from the race under pressure.

The vote will be the least competitive of the three presidential elections held in Egypt since the 2011 uprising ended Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year reign and raised hopes of democratic change.

El-Sissi’s only opponent is Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician who supports the president and has made almost no effort to campaign against him.

Here is a look at more serious contenders who failed to make the ballot.

AHMED SHAFIQ

A former air force general and Mubarak’s last prime minister, Shafiq lived in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates since shortly after finishing a close second in the 2012 presidential election won by the Islamist Mohammed Morsi. In December, he was deported from the Emirates, a close Egyptian ally, and flown back to Cairo after he announced he intended to run. He was met at the airport by unidentified security men and whisked away to a suburban hotel. Government representatives persuaded him to abandon his presidential ambitions, raising the specter of legal proceedings over alleged corruption during his tenure as civil aviation minister, according to numerous, unconfirmed reports. In January, he said did not believe himself to be the “ideal” man to lead the country at this stage.

SAMI ANNAN

The former general quietly served as the military’s chief of staff under Mubarak, drawing national attention only in the 17 months of military rule after Mubarak’s ouster. As the deputy head of the then-ruling Supreme Military Council, he negotiated the transfer of power to Morsi in June 2012. Two months later, Morsi removed him. In January, he announced his intent to challenge el-Sissi and posted a video on social media that berated the president for involving the military in civilian affairs and urging civilian and military institutions to stay neutral in the race. On Jan. 23, the military detained him over charges that included incitement against the armed forces and forgery.

KHALED ALI

The prominent rights lawyer was the last potentially serious challenger until Jan. 24, when he announced he was quitting the race. He complained that authorities targeted his supporters and that poor Egyptians had been bribed by el-Sissi loyalists to sign documents supporting his candidacy. His own supporters faced delays and intimidation at notary offices, where they needed to register 25,000 “recommendations” for him to qualify as a candidate. A key left-leaning figure in the 2011 uprising, Ali had the potential to win protest votes and revive interest in street politics by fellow “revolutionaries” whose ranks have been depleted by imprisonment, exile or marginalization.

MOHAMMED ANWAR SADAT

The former lawmaker said he quit the race because the climate was not conducive for campaigning and because he feared for the safety of his supporters. A nephew of Egypt’s assassinated leader Anwar Sadat, he was thrown out of parliament amid allegations of leaking sensitive documents to foreign diplomats.

AHMED KONSOWA

The army colonel declared his intention to run, only to be court-martialed and convicted of breaching military regulations prohibiting political activism. He was sentenced to six years in prison in December.

 
…

your ad here

Ousted Catalan Leader Appears in German Court

Posted on by SeeEU

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont appeared in a German court Monday after he was arrested in compliance with an international arrest warrant issued by Spain over his region’s campaign for independence.

German lawyers said that the court’s decision on whether to extradite Puigdemont to Spain could take days.

Puigdemont spent the night in jail after he was arrested by German police Sunday while crossing the border from Denmark.

Puigdemont’s lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, confirmed the arrest on Twitter, adding Puigdemont was traveling to Belgium, where he initially fled after an arrest warrant was issued against him for his role in an independence referendum in October.

Sunday was also marked by violent protests in the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia, where nearly 100 people were treated for minor injuries following clashes between pro-separatists protesters and riot police.

The arrest follows a Spanish Supreme Court decision Friday to charge 13 Catalan separatist leaders with rebellion and other crimes for their attempt to declare independence from Spain last year.  The ousted Catalan leader could face up to 25 years in Spanish prison.

Madrid invoked special powers to take over the regional government after the Catalan administration declared independence in October.

 
…

your ad here

Many EU Nations Join US in Expelling Russian Diplomats

Posted on by SeeEU

Many European Union countries joined the U.S. Monday in expelling dozens of Russian diplomats in a coordinated retaliation for the March 4 nerve-agent poisoning in Britain of a former Russian spy, which the British government blames on Russia and has accused the Kremlin of having approved.

The coordinated expulsions — unprecedented since the Cold War — drew instant condemnation from the Kremlin, which warned it would respond in kind and order like-for-like expulsions. The first expulsions announced were in Washington, with the Trump administration ordering 60 Russian diplomats to leave, closely followed by Germany, which gave four their marching orders.

The Netherlands expelled two Russian diplomats; Estonia ordered out the Russian defense attache; the Czech Republic announced it was expelling three Russian embassy staff.

Lithuania said it is expelling three Russian diplomats and banning 44 other Russian officials from entering the country. Latvia said it was ejecting one Russian diplomat. France said it is also expelling four Russian diplomats. Poland’s foreign minister said four Russian diplomats in the country have been expelled.

In Brussels, European Council president Donald Tusk said a total of 14 members of the EU were participating in the collective reprisal. He said further action could be taken in the coming days.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said: “We welcome today’s actions by our allies, which clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law.” She described move as the biggest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.

And British foreign secretary Boris Johnson tweeted: “Today’s extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity.”

Tony Brenton, a former British envoy to Moscow, said he thought the expulsions would have shocked Moscow, arguing the Kremlin appeared to have calculated that British would get rhetorical support from allies but not much more.

By the evening in Moscow more than 100 Russian diplomats had received their marching orders.

On Facebook, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova launched a rhetorical preemptive strike to the expulsions, disdainfully describing Western states as behaving “like loyal subjects” eager to do the bidding of London.

Kremlin officials said Putin would decide how to respond but that it would be “symmetrical.”

Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, told state-run RIA news agency that Putin would respond by ordering out at least 60 staff from U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia.

Privately, some Russian officials admitted they were surprised by the scale of the action, complaining the British hadn’t yet proved the Kremlin was involved in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian spy who had been recruited by Britain’s MI6, and his daughter.

After the British won unexpected strong diplomatic support last week at a meeting of EU leaders, who agreed with the British position that Russia was “highly likely” to have been behind the nerve-agent poisoning, the odds of collective reprisal increased.

Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning, and Russia responded by ejecting the same number of British diplomats.

Eager to shield their relations with Russia, several other countries, including Austria, Greece and Italy, indicated their reluctance to participate in collective retaliation. Splits within the EU’s own bureaucracy was on show last week when EU council president, Donald Tusk, withheld congratulations to Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian president, while European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker sent Putin a note of congratulations.

As the explosions unfolded, Britain’s defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, said Western backing of Britain was “itself a defeat for President Putin.” Speaking while visiting British soldiers stationed in Estonia, he said: “The world’s patience is rather wearing thin with President Putin and his actions, and the fact that right across the NATO alliance, right across the European Union, nations have stood up in support of the United Kingdom.  I actually think that is the very best response that we could have.”

The Russian government hit back, saying Britain’s accusations over the nerve-agent attack on the former spy “border on banditry.”

In January 2017, Putin ordered the expulsion of 755 U.S. diplomats after Congress passed legislation increasing sanctions against Russia for its annexation of the Crimea, and for interfering in the U.S. election.

Russia’s embassy in the U.S. capital Sunday tried to stave off U.S. action, urging the White House not to believe what is said was British propaganda about the Skripal poisoning.
…

your ad here

Witness in Mueller Probe Aided United Arab Emirates Agenda in Congress

Posted on by SeeUS

A top fundraiser for President Donald Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to U.S. lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAE’s chief rival in the Persian Gulf, an Associated Press investigation has found.

George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in the U.S. special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. They said Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the U.S. to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE.

A month after he received the money, Broidy sponsored a conference on Qatar’s alleged ties to Islamic extremism. During the event, Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar as a terrorist-supporting state.

In July 2017, two months after Royce introduced the bill, Broidy gave the California congressman $5,400 in campaign gifts — the maximum allowed by law. The donations were part of just under $600,000 that Broidy has given to GOP members of Congress and Republican political committees since he began the push for the legislation fingering Qatar, according to an AP analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.

Broidy said in a statement to AP that he has been outspoken for years about militant groups, including Hamas.

“I’ve both raised money for, and contributed my own money to, efforts by think tanks to bring the facts into the open, since Qatar is spreading millions of dollars around Washington to whitewash its image as a terror-sponsoring state,” he said. “I’ve also spoken to like-minded members of Congress, like Royce, about how to make sure Qatar’s lobbying money does not blind lawmakers to the facts about its record in supporting terrorist groups.”

While Washington is awash with political donations from all manner of interest groups and individuals, there are strict restrictions on foreign donations for political activity. Agents of foreign governments are also required to register before lobbying so that there is a public record of foreign influence.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, said that his boss had long criticized the “destabilizing role of extremist elements in Qatar.” He pointed to comments to that effect going back to 2014. “Any attempts to influence these longstanding views would have been unsuccessful,” he said.

In October, Broidy also raised the issue of Qatar at the White House in meetings with Trump and senior aides.

The details of Broidy’s advocacy on U.S. legislation have not been previously reported. The AP found no evidence that Broidy used Nader’s funds for the campaign donations or broke any laws. At the time of the advocacy work, his company, Circinus, did not have business with the UAE, but was awarded a more than $200 million contract in January.

The sanctions bill was approved by Royce’s committee in late 2017. It remains alive in the House of Representatives, awaiting a review by the House Financial Services Committee.

Meetings probed

The backstory of the legislative push is emerging amid continuing concerns about efforts by foreign governments or their proxies to influence American politics. While reports about possible Russian links to Trump’s campaign and his presidential administration have been making headlines since 2016, questions are now arising about efforts during the Trump era to influence U.S. policy in the Middle East.

The U.S. has long been friendly with Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well as Qatar, which is home to a massive American air base that the U.S. has used in its fight against the Islamic State. But as political rifts in the Gulf have widened, the Saudis and Emiratis have sought to undercut American ties with Qatar.

Qatar and UAE have also exchanged allegations of politically motivated hacks. Scores of Broidy’s emails and documents have leaked to news organizations, drawing attention to his relationship with Nader. Broidy has alleged that the hack was done by Qatari agents and has reported the breach to the FBI.

“It’s no surprise that Qatar would see me as an obstacle and come after me in the way it has,” he said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Qatari embassy, Jassim Mansour Jabr Al Thani, denied the charges, calling them “diversionary tactics.” Representatives of the UAE did not respond to requests for comment.

The timeline of the influx of cash wired by Nader, an adviser to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the de facto leader of the UAE, may provide grist for U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team as it probes the activities of Trump and his associates during the 2016 campaign and beyond. However, it is not clear that Mueller has expanded his investigation in that direction.

Mueller’s investigators are looking into two meetings close to Trump’s inauguration attended by Nader and bin Zayed. The pair joined a meeting at New York’s Trump Tower in December 2016 that included presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, who was Trump’s chief strategist at the time. A month later, Nader and bin Zayed were a world away on the Seychelles island chain in the Indian Ocean, meeting with Erik Prince, the founder of the security company Blackwater, and the Kremlin-connected head of a large Russian sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev.

Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team after investigators stopped him at Dulles International Airport, according to a person familiar with his case.

That person and others who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity said they could not be identified because of the sensitivity of the issues surrounding the Mueller investigation.

A lawyer for Nader declined to comment for this story.

Policy push

Broidy and Nader first met at Trump’s presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Both men have checkered legal histories. Nader was convicted in a Czech Republic court in 2003 of multiple counts of sexually abusing minors. Broidy, a businessmen and prolific Republican fundraiser, was sidelined for a few years after he pleaded guilty to bribery in a case stemming from an investment scheme involving New York state’s employee pension fund.

Broidy later re-emerged as a player in GOP politics. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he raised money for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz. After Cruz bowed out of the race, Broidy signed on to help Trump during the 2016 election and beyond, co-hosting fundraisers across the country.

The meeting between Broidy and Nader at the dawn of Trump’s presidency soon led the two to work together in an effort to shift U.S. policies on the Middle East.

On April 2, 2017, Nader asked Broidy to invoice his Dubai-based company for $2.5 million, according to someone familiar with the transaction who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the same day, Broidy attached an invoice for that amount from Xiemen Investments Limited, a Canadian company directed by a friend. The money was forwarded to his own account in Los Angeles from the Canadian account, the person said. It was marked for consulting, marketing and advisory services, but was actually intended to fund Broidy’s Washington advocacy regarding Qatar, two people familiar with the transaction said. The financial transaction and the White House meetings were first reported by The New York Times.

It was on May 23, 2017, when Royce, a 13-term Congressman, appeared at a conference on Qatar’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and announced that he was introducing the sanctions bill that would name Qatar a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank that hosted the conference, said Broidy had approached it about organizing the event. Broidy bankrolled that conference and contributed to the financing of a second conference hosted on a similar theme in October by another think tank, the Hudson Institute.

Both organizations said Broidy said that no money from foreign governments was involved. FDD says it does not accept money from foreign governments and Hudson only accepts money from Democratic countries allied with the U.S.

“As is our funding policy, we asked if his funding was connected to any foreign governments or if he had business contracts in the Gulf. He assured us that he did not,” FDD said in a statement.

Broidy donated millions of his own money to efforts to fight Qatar, in addition to the $2.5 million from Nader, according to someone close to him, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Broidy’s private finances.

Broidy’s behind-the-scenes efforts unfolded as animosity was growing between the UAE and Qatar. These tensions came to a head when the UAE and Saudi Arabia launched an embargo with travel and trade restrictions against Qatar less than two weeks after Royce introduced the sanctions legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Weeks later, Trump himself waded into the fracas, accusing Qatar of funding extremism in tweets on June 6.

Royce and a staff member met with Broidy at Washington’s Capitol Hill Club to discuss the bill, according to someone who was at the meeting. An associate, who Broidy paid for some of the work, also had frequent contact with congressional staff.

Strong language

Broidy’s effort to cultivate allies in Congress extended beyond Royce.

Broidy has personally given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans over the past decade or more. But he gave nothing during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles and just $13,500 during the 2016 cycle. Things changed after Trump’s election as Broidy ramped up his advocacy on Middle East policy. Broidy has given nearly $600,000 to GOP candidates and causes since the beginning of last year when he began his advocacy push— more than in the previous 14 years combined.

Campaign finance records going back two decades show Broidy had not given any money to Royce — until he gave the lawmaker a pair of $2,700 donations on July 31, 2017.

By then, the sanctions bill was on a fast track.

The original draft considered by the Foreign Affairs Committee contained language singling out Qatar as a supporter of Hamas, a Palestinian organization that has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.

“Hamas has received significant financial and military support from Qatar,” the draft bill states.

Soon Qatar was lobbying hard to have that language excised. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, declared in a statement to the committee that Qatar does not fund Hamas.

According to two people familiar with the committee deliberations, both Republican and Democratic staff members reached a consensus that because of the tensions in the Gulf, the language would look like the lawmakers were taking sides. They agreed to take it out of the bill.

Qatari officials and lobbyists thought the matter had been settled, according to one lobbyist and a committee staffer. But just before the bill was to be put up for debate ahead of the committee’s vote, Royce ordered the language on Qatar not only reinstated, but strengthened, they say. The bill was approved by the committee in November with the stronger language on Qatar intact.

A Royce aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, denied that Royce had ever considered removing the Qatar language.

In January, Royce announced that he would not seek re-election, saying that he wanted to focus on his committee in the last year of his chairmanship rather than a political campaign.

In the same month, Broidy’s company signed the hefty contract with the UAE government for gathering intelligence, according to someone familiar with the work.

 
…

your ad here

US Expelling Russian Diplomats in Response to Ex-Spy Poisoning

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States on Monday ordered 60 Russian diplomats it accuses of being spies to leave the country within a week. A dozen allies, including France, Germany and Poland, also are making similar moves in a concerted response to the March 4 nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Salisbury in Britain.

The U.S. move, along with the closure of a Russian consulate in the country, is in response to Moscow’s “outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law,” according to the State Department.

Britain and several other countries and NATO also blame Russia for carrying out the chemical attack.

Russia has been sounding “a drum beat of destabilizing and aggressive actions,” said a senior U.S. official, explaining the White House actions.

The United States is ordering the closure, by April 2, of Russia’s consulate in the Pacific port city of Seattle in the state of Washington, noting its close proximity to the Boeing aircraft plant and the Kitsap Naval Base, the home port for U.S. Navy nuclear submarines.

The consulate is “part of this broader problem of an unacceptably high number of Russian operatives in the United States and “we are prepared to take additional steps, if necessary,” a senior administration official told reporters shortly before Monday morning’s announcement.

“The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia’s use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement.

“The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian government’s behavior,” Huckabee Sanders added in her statement.

 

President Donald Trump, who spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Tuesday, has been involved in the discussions to expel the diplomats, according to officials.

“This is absolutely his decision,” emphasized a senior U.S. official in Monday’s call with reporters.

Trump had not called Putin to inform him of the action, but rather Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov was told of it on Monday morning by the State Department, according to the official.

The expulsion order covers 48 Russians at embassies and consulates in the United States and 12 assigned to Moscow’s mission at the United Nations in New York City who “abused their privilege of residence,” according to a senior U.S. official.

“Our actions are consistent with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement,” said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley in a statement.

All of those being expelled are considered spies who “hide behind the veneer of diplomatic immunity while engaging in espionage activities,” according to a senior administration official.

If Russia retaliates against the United States for the expulsions, Washington could take further action, according to a senior U.S. official, hinting that some of the dozens of other suspected Russian spies allowed to remain in the country could face similar action.

Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in the English town of Salisbury and rushed to the hospital, where they remain in serious condition.

British Prime Minister Theresa May announced a series of reprisals against Russia over the poisoning, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats.  

Moscow denies any involvement and expelled an equal number of British officials from Moscow.

Germany and Poland both say they have asked four Russian diplomats to leave, while in Lithuania, three Russian diplomats were ordered to leave.  British Prime Minister May said Monday at total of 18 countries have announced they are expelling more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in response to the nerve agent attack.

 

 
…

your ad here

Porn Star Says She Was Threatened to Stay Silent on Trump Affair

Posted on by SeeUS

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump before he was elected president, told the CBS news show 60 Minutes that she was threatened when she tried to tell her story and accepted hush money through a Trump attorney because she was scared for her family.

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said in the highly anticipated interview Sunday that she was on her way to a fitness class with her infant daughter when she was approached by  a stranger.

“A guy walked up on me and said to me, Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’ ” Daniels told journalist Anderson Cooper. “And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”

The incident, in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, occurred shortly after she first tried to sell her story to a tabloid magazine.  She said the incident made her fearful for years and that she thought she was doing the right thing when she accepted $130,000 from Trump attorney Michael Cohen to stay quiet.

After The Wall Street Journal reported on the payment, Daniels told Cooper that she lied when she signed a statement denying the affair.  When asked why, Daniels said she was bullied into it. “They made it sound like I had no choice,” she said. While there was not any threat of physical violence at the time, she said, she was worried about other repercussions. “The exact sentence used was, ‘They can make your life hell in many different ways.'”

She said she didn’t know who could make her life hell, but that she believed “it to be Michael Cohen.”  

Cohen has denied threatening Daniels, and refused a request to appear on 60 Minutes.

Daniels’ appearance represents back-to-back trouble for Trump after an interview broadcast last week on CNN with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who described a 10-month long affair with Trump starting in 2006.

McDougal has sued to break free of a confidentiality agreement that was struck in the months before the 2016 election, for which she was paid $150,000.

Daniels sued the president on March 6, stating Trump never signed an agreement for her to keep quiet about their relationship.   

Both women say their relationships with Trump began in 2006 and ended in 2007 and that they were paid for their silence in the months before the 2016 presidential election.

Representatives of Trump have dismissed the allegations of McDougal and Daniels, saying that the affairs never happened and that Trump had no knowledge of any payments.

Ahead of the interview, the president and first lady have opted to be in different states. Trump returned to Washington from Palm Beach on Sunday, while Melania will remain in Florida on a pre-scheduled spring break, her communicators director said.
…

your ad here

Facebook Questioned About Pulling Android Call, Text Data

Posted on by SeeUS

On the same day Facebook bought ads in U.S. and British newspapers to apologize for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the social media site faced new questions about collecting phone numbers and text messages from Android devices.

The website Ars Technica reported that users who checked data gathered by Facebook on them found that it had years of contact names, telephone numbers, call lengths and text messages.

Facebook said Sunday the information is uploaded to secure servers and comes only from Android users who opt-in to allow it. Spokeswomen say the data is not sold or shared with users’ friends or outside apps. They say the data is used “to improve people’s experience across Facebook” by helping to connect with others.

The company also says in a website posting that it does not collect the content of text messages or calls. A spokeswoman told the Associated Press that Facebook uses the information to rank contacts in Messenger so they are easier to find, and to suggest people to call.

Users get the option to allow data collection when they sign up for Messenger or Facebook Lite, the Facebook posting said. “If you chose to turn this feature on, we will begin to continuously log this information,” the posting said.

The data collection can be turned off in a user’s settings, and all previously collected call and text history shared on the app will be deleted, Facebook said.

The feature was first introduced on Facebook Messenger in 2015 and added later on Facebook Lite.

Messages were left Sunday seeking comment about security from Google officials, who make the Android operating system.

Reports of the data collection came as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took out ads in multiple U.S. and British Sunday newspapers to apologize for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The ads say the social media platform doesn’t deserve to hold personal information if it can’t protect it.

According to the ads, a quiz app built by a Cambridge University researcher leaked Facebook data of millions of people four years ago. Zuckerberg said this was a “breach of trust” and that Facebook is taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Facebook’s privacy practices have come under fire after Cambridge Analytica, a Trump-affiliated political consulting firm, got data inappropriately. The social media platform’s stock value has dropped over $70 billion since the revelations were first published.

Among the newspapers with the ads were The New York Times and The Washington Post in the U.S., and The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph in the United Kingdom.

The ads said Facebook is limiting the data apps received when users sign in. It’s also investigating every app that had access to large amounts of data. “We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected,” the ads stated.

Cambridge Analytica got the data from a researcher who paid 270,000 Facebook users to complete a psychological profile quiz back in 2014. But the quiz gathered information on their friends as well, bringing the total number of people affected to about 50 million.

The Trump campaign paid the firm $6 million during the 2016 election, although it has since distanced itself from Cambridge.
…

your ad here

Saudi Media: Houthi Rebel Missile Fragment Kills 1, Wounds 2 in Riyadh

Posted on by SeeEA

A fragment from a barrage of ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia, allegedly by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, has killed one person and wounded two in Riyadh, Saudi media reports.

.

The victims are Egyptian nationals who were in a residential neighborhood of the Saudi capital.

The Saudi Air Force says it intercepted and destroyed seven missiles shot over Riyadh and three other cities.

Witnesses on the ground said they heard loud explosions and saw bright flashes in the sky.

The Houthis have fired a number of missiles into Saudi Arabia since late last year, including one on the international airport in Riyadh, which United Nations experts determined was Iranian-made.

Saudi officials said at the time that the attack “may amount to an act of war.”

Iran has admitted supporting the rebel Houthis, but denies arming them.

Sunday’s missile launch coincides with the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition that has launched airstrikes and a ground operation to try and push the Houthis out of Yemen.

Human rights groups said the Saudi rockets have obliterated entire civilian neighborhoods in and around Sana’a. It has also compounded Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, including thousands of civilian deaths, a looming famine, fuel shortages, and a cholera epidemic.

The Houthis seized the capital in 2014, sending the Yemeni government into exile in Saudi Arabia.

U.N. peace talks have been unsuccessful.
…

your ad here

37 Dead, 69 Missing in Russian Shopping Center Fire

Posted on by SeeEU

A devastating fire at a shopping center in a Siberian city killed 37 people and left 69 others missing Sunday, many of them children, a Russian state news agency reported.

The Tass agency quoted firefighters as saying that 40 of the missing at the four-story Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo were children. An additional 43 people were injured in the blaze, the report said.

There has been no immediate information on the cause of the fire at the mall, which is about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow. But Tass reported that the fire started on the top floor and consumed an area of about 1,500 square meters (16,150 square feet).

The reports didn’t say if the victims died from burns or smoke inhalation.

The shopping mall, which opened in 2013, has a cinema, petting zoo, children’s center and bowling, Tass reported.
…

your ad here

Abducted Nigerian Schoolgirls Reunited with Parents

Posted on by SeeAF

More than 100 Nigerian girls recently released by the extremist group Boko Haram have been reunited with their parents.

The jihadist group abducted the girls from the town of Dapchi in February.

After their release Wednesday and a brief emotional meeting with their parents, the schoolgirls spent three days in the national capital Abuja where they met with President Muhammadu Buhari.

The girls were among 111 seized last month, of whom five died during the ordeal.  One girl, Leah Sharibu, still remains in the hands of the kidnappers because she is a Christian and refused to convert to Islam.   

Buhari on Friday pledged to do “everything in our power” to obtain Leah’s freedom.

Buhari’s administration had been under pressure to resolve the Dapchi abduction, which revived painful memories of the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from the town of Chibok.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was criticized for his handling of the abductions from a Chibok school, some 275 kilometers south-east of Dapchi.

More than half of those girls have been returned but 100 remain missing.
…

your ad here

China Warns Trade War Will Set off a ‘Greater Conflict’

Posted on by SeeUS

A senior Chinese official is warning that a trade war would hurt all sides and set off a “greater conflict.”

“A trade war serves the interests of none. It will only lead to serious consequences and negative impact,” Vice Premier Han Zheng said at a development forum in Beijing Sunday. “We believe trade protectionism, against the trend, will lead to nowhere.”

Han did not mention the United States or President Donald Trump by name, whose announcement of stiff tariffs on imported Chinese steel and aluminum was answered with tariffs and duties on a list of U.S. imports.

Han appealed to all global trading partners to “cooperate with each other like passengers in the same boat … make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all.”

Fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies have sent world markets tumbling.

The United States has accused China of unfair trade practices, including intellectual property theft and dumping Chinese goods on the global marketplace to make U.S. goods appear more expensive.

China has denied the U.S. charges, and Vice Premier Liu He told U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a telephone call Saturday that China is ready to defend its interests.
…

your ad here

Trump Is Staffing – or – Casting From Fox

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump’s favorite TV network is increasingly serving as a West Wing casting call, as the president reshapes his administration with camera-ready personalities.

Trump’s new national security adviser, John Bolton, is a former U.N. ambassador, a White House veteran – and perhaps most importantly a Fox News channel talking head. Bolton’s appointment, rushed out late Thursday, follows Trump’s recent attempt to recruit Fox guest Joseph diGenova for his legal team.

Bolton went on Fox to discuss his selection and said it had happened so quickly that “I think I’m still a Fox News contributor.”

Another recent TV-land addition to the Trump White House is veteran CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow as top economic adviser. Other Fox faces on Trump’s team: rising State Department star Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor; communications adviser Mercedes Schlapp and Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh. The latter two are both former Fox commentators.

“He’s looking for people who are ready to be part of that television White House,” said Kendall Phillips, a communication and rhetorical studies professor at Syracuse University. “This is the Fox television presidency all the way up and down.”

DiGenova, who has accused FBI officials of trying to “frame” Trump for nonexistent crimes, will not be joining the legal team because of “conflicts,” said Trump counsel Jay Sekulow on Sunday. Sekulow, however, said diGenova and his wife, attorney Victoria Toensing, also a frequent commentator on Fox, would not be prevented from helping Trump “in other legal matters.”

Trump’s affinity for Fox News is by now well-documented. He has bestowed more interviews on the network than any other news outlet and is an avid viewer. People close to the president say he thinks Fox provides the best coverage of his untraditional presidency. It also provides him a window into conservative thinking, with commentary from Republican lawmakers and right-wing thinkers – many of who are speaking directly to the audience in the Oval Office.

On-air personalities Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are favorites of the president, who also speaks to them privately. This past week Trump promoted Hannity on Twitter, saying: “@seanhannity on @foxandfriends now! Great! 8:18 A.M.”

The president’s early-morning tweets often appear to be reaction to Fox programming. On Friday, for example, Trump tweeted he was “considering” a veto of a massive spending bill needed to keep the government open not long after it was assailed on “Fox and Friends” as a “swamp budget.”

The critic in question was contributor Pete Hegseth, a favorite of the president who has been rumored to be a possible replacement for embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.

Fox News came in for criticism this past week from CNN chief Jeff Zucker, who on Thursday attacked the rival network by saying it has become a propaganda machine that is “doing an incredible disservice to the country.”

Zucker spoke at the Financial Times Future of News conference two days after a former Fox military analyst quit, claiming he was ashamed at the way the network’s opinion hosts were backing Trump. Zucker said that analyst, Ralph Peters, voiced what a lot of people have been thinking about Fox in the post-Roger Ailes era.

Still, in Trump’s Washington, lawmakers and influence-seekers know that the best way to get in Trump’s ear is often to get on Fox. Legislators routinely seek to get airtime when they are trying to push legislation or policy ideas, said congressional aides who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private thinking.

“A year ago, everyone was trying to figure out how to get into the building; now everyone is trying to figure out how to get on TV,” said Republican consultant Alex Conant.

This past week, for example, conservative lawmakers unhappy with the spending bill moving through Congress took to Fox. “This may be the worst bill I have seen in my time in Congress,” said Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Wednesday.

And when the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, prompted a national conversation on gun laws, Fox contributor Geraldo Rivera used his platform to urge the president to support raising the age requirement to buy assault-type weapons.

“You’ve gotta let me give my pitch,” he said on “Fox and Friends” several weeks ago, noting that he would see Trump that night. “Here in Florida and most states a kid cannot buy a beer … and yet he could buy an AR-15 legally.”

The hosts quickly pushed back. “Tell him to let the teachers carry concealed,” said one.

While the coverage varies by show, “Fox and Friends” tends to be Trump-friendly, with the chipper morning show spotlighting his achievements and bashing the “mainstream media.” On Friday, they featured a teen from the Florida high school where the shooting occurred who opposes gun control efforts, as well as a young conservative activist who interviewed Trump at a White House event the day before.

Also appearing Friday was White House counselor Kellyanne Conway – herself a constant presence on cable news – who pushed back at the idea Trump was focused on hiring TV personalities.

“The irony is not lost on me that you have a lot of quote ‘TV stars’ calling Larry Kudlow and John Bolton ‘TV stars,'” Conway said.
…

your ad here

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Apologizes for ‘Breach of Trust’ in Disclosure of Users’ Data

Posted on by SeeUS

Facebook co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg apologized Sunday in full-page ads in nine major British and U.S. newspapers for the massive “breach of trust” at the social media giant that revealed personal information of millions of Facebook users.

Zuckerberg did not mention the British firm accused of using the data, the voter profiling company Cambridge Analytica that obtained the cache of information from British researcher Alexsandr Kogan, who had been authorized by Facebook to collect the data as part of an academic study.

Cambridge Analytica was paid $6 million by President Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign for the White House to develop voter profiles.

Zuckerberg said in the ads, “This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time” when Kogan developed an app on which 270,000 Facebook users supplied information about themselves. “We’re now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

In all, because of extensive links of friends and associates to the 270,000 Facebook users, 50 million Facebook users may have had their personal data compromised.

“We have a responsibility to protect your information,” Zuckerberg said. “If we can’t, we don’t deserve it.”

The ads ran in six British national newspapers, including the best-selling Mail, The Sunday Times and The Observer, along with The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal in the U.S.

Zuckerberg said Facebook, with 2.2 billion users worldwide, is also investigating “every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.”

A new Reuters-Ipsos poll in the U.S. released Sunday showed that 41 percent of Americans trust Facebook to obey laws that protect their personal information, compared to 66 percent of trust in Amazon; 62 percent in Google; 60 percent in Microsoft and 47 percent in Yahoo.
…

your ad here

Egypt Says Expelled British Reporter Had Expired Credentials

Posted on by SeeEU

A British journalist expelled from the country last month did not have valid accreditation and was filming without a permit, Egyptian authorities said Sunday.

The State Information Service said in a statement that The Times of London correspondent Bel Trew, expelled after being threatened with military trial, also covered Egypt unfairly and published false information.

The move comes as part of a heavy crackdown on media ahead of this week’s presidential election, which general-turned-President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is set to win after all serious competitors were arrested or intimidated into dropping out.

Trew, who had been in Egypt for seven years, was expelled in late February after being arrested while reporting in Shoubra, a central Cairo district. The SIS said she had not applied for a temporary press card while awaiting her annual one.

Neither The Times nor Trew did not immediately had responses to the claim. The SIS said that authorities had issued Trew with credentials allowing her to cover the election but did not clarify how she could return to the country after being expelled.

It also took aim at reporters who wrote about the expulsion, saying they did not ask authorities for their version of events.

Trew said in an account on The Times’ website that she has been listed as a persona non-grata and that Cairo authorities threatened to re-arrest her if she attempts to return.

She said her reporting in Shoubra was part of a story on a migrant boat that disappeared two years ago. An informer seems to have reported her to the police, she added. She was stopped shortly after she left a cafe where she was conducting an interview.

“The taxi had just pulled away from the café … when a minibus of plain-clothes police officers cut us off. Five men jumped out and took me to a nearby police station,” she said, adding that she provided the authorities with the audio recording of the interview. “It was either ignored and not listened to – or listened to and ignored,” she said.

Egypt has often detained, jailed and prosecuted journalists under el-Sissi, who led the military’s 2013 overthrow of the country’s first freely elected civilian President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, after mass protests against his one-year divisive rule.

Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt as 161 out of 180 countries on their 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
…

your ad here

Nigeria says Talking to Boko Haram About Possible Cease-fire

Posted on by SeeAF

Nigeria’s government is in talks with Islamist militant group Boko Haram about a possible cease-fire and the talks have been going on for some time, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Sunday.

It is the first time in years the government has said it was talking to Boko Haram about a cease-fire. President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has previously said it was willing to hold talks with the group but has given no details.

Boko Haram has waged an insurgency in northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries since 2009 and aims to create an Islamic state. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, more than 2 million displaced and thousands abducted.

Mohammed made his statement in an email to Reuters outlining the background to the release of more than 100 schoolgirls freed last week by the group after being kidnapped on Feb. 19 from the northeastern town of Dapchi.

It was the biggest mass abduction since more than 270 girls were taken from the town of Chibok in 2014.

Boko Haram fighters stunned Dapchi’s residents on Wednesday when they drove into the town and released the girls, who said five of their group died in captivity and one had not been freed.

“Unknown to many, we have been in wider cessation-of-hostility talks with the insurgents for some time now,” said Mohammed. “We were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted.”

Mohammed said a week-long ceasefire, starting on March 19, had been agreed to enable the group to drop off the girls.

Mohammed said 111 girls were taken from the school — one more than previously thought — and six remained unaccounted for.

 
…

your ad here

Raw video: Several People Dead After Two Mogadishu Car Bombings

Posted on by SeeAF

A VOA photographer captured this video after two car bombs in the Somali capital killed six people and injured at least five others witnesses said.
…

your ad here

Portraits of Egypt’s Leader Fill Iconic Cairo Square

Posted on by SeeAF

Seven years ago, Cairo’s Tahrir Square was filled with tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding change. Now it is plastered with portraits of the president, vowing continuity.

Almost all traces of the popular revolt that overthrew longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 are now gone. Instead there are banners and posters – dozens of them – showing a beaming Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the general-turned-president who’s running for re-election this week in a vote widely dismissed as a farce.

“What happened in Tahrir was the biggest threat to the network of corruption and theft throughout Egypt’s modern history,” said Wael Eskandar, a blogger and activist who took part in the protests that brought down Mubarak. “Tahrir symbolizes that threat and is a reminder that people can awaken and ask for their rights. That’s why el-Sissi and his regime insist on appropriating it to erase a nation’s memory.”

The election, which begins Monday with voting staggered over three days, nearly ended up as a one-man referendum, after all serious challengers were arrested or pressured into withdrawing. The only other candidate to make the ballot, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, is a little-known politician who supports el-Sissi and has made almost no effort to campaign against him.

Banners extolling el-Sissi, often bearing the names of local businessmen or organizations advertising their support, have proliferated across Egypt, prompting mockery from some critics. But it is in Tahrir Square, where mass protests raised hopes of democratic change in the Arab world’s most populous country, that the effect is most jarring.

In February 2011, protesters who had clashed with police and camped out in the square for 18 days erupted into cheers as the end of Mubarak’s 29-year-rule was announced on a giant screen. Now, a massive LCD monitor plays pro-Sissi videos on a perpetual loop.

“Everyone loves him,” said Hossam, as he left a store plastered with pro-el-Sissi posters. “Times are tight but we’re betting on him. He saved the country,” he said. He asked that his full name not be used, fearing reprisals for talking to foreign journalists, who are regularly vilified by Egypt’s pro-government media.

The 2011 uprising ushered in a period of instability, as Egypt’s military, the Muslim Brotherhood group and other Islamists, and a loose coalition of liberal parties vied for power. Egypt’s first freely elected president, the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, proved divisive, and in the summer of 2013 tens of thousands of people returned to Tahrir Square, demanding his resignation.

The military, under the leadership of el-Sissi, removed Morsi from power and launched a massive crackdown on the Brotherhood, which won a series of elections held after the 2011 uprising but is now outlawed as a terrorist group. Authorities have jailed thousands of Islamists as well as several well-known secular activists, including many who played a leading role in the 2011 uprising. The media is dominated by pro-government commentators, and hundreds of websites have been blocked.

El-Sissi has said such measures are necessary to restore stability and revive the economy in a country of 100 million, one that is grappling with widespread poverty and confronting an Islamic State-led insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.

He has also enacted a series of long-overdue economic measures, such as cutting subsidies and floating the local currency, and has championed mega-projects aimed at improving infrastructure and providing jobs. The economy is showing signs of improvement, but the austerity measures have made it even harder for Egyptians to make ends meet in a country where more than a fourth of the population lives below the poverty line.

With heavy restrictions on public opinion polling and an absence of critical voices in the media, it’s impossible to know whether el-Sissi is as popular as the posters suggest. The best indication may come from turnout, which the government hopes will bolster the election’s legitimacy.

Mohammed, a deliveryman who asked that his full name not be published for fear of reprisal, didn’t know the name of the candidate running against el-Sissi and doesn’t plan on voting.

“Normal people don’t want [el-Sissi] to win. They would vote for any alternative, but there is no one,” he said. “People with money, of course, want him to stay. He defends their interests. That’s why they’re putting up all these posters.”
…

your ad here

What Does John Bolton’s Security Adviser Role Mean for Africa?

Posted on by SeeAF

As President Donald Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton will help shape America’s response to conflicts around the globe, including those in Africa. He’ll have the President’s ear and the autonomy to work outside the United Nations, an organization Bolton has often criticized.

In 2005 and 2006, Bolton was U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and spent some of his time on conflicts in Africa, but appeared to have little impact. His efforts to change the international organization were largely unsuccessful. He left the post with no more faith in the U.N.’s ability to shape the world than when he began, and his statements and writing since then continue to reflect the belief that the U.S. must deal with threats unilaterally.

Conflict in Africa has morphed since Bolton’s last stint in government. When he was ambassador, al-Shabab hadn’t yet formed, and Boko Haram was still in its infancy. But entrenched conflicts persist throughout the continent, and Bolton’s time at the U.N. holds some clues for what his new appointment could mean for Africa.

New players, old conflicts

In his year and half as ambassador to the U.N., Bolton dealt with a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a violent insurgency in Somalia, and a years-long war in Darfur that spiraled into a full-blown humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths.

Those conflicts continue to reverberate, and terrorism deaths have spiked in the intervening years.

The U.S. also had a less formal military presence on the continent during Bolton’s ambassadorship. The U.S. Africa Command, which works with African partners to strengthen security and stability, had not been established. Overall, thousands of U.S. troops are now deployed across the continent, mostly in the Horn of Africa.

Ineffective UN

Bolton has expressed frustration at the U.N.’s approach to solving conflicts in Africa, which he characterized as inattentive and ineffective in his 2007 book, “Surrender Is Not An Option: Defending America at the United Nations.”

His efforts as ambassador produced, by his own account, mixed results. At the end of his tenure, some conflicts in Africa were contained but unresolved, and others had festered.

Bolton attributes these shortcomings to flawed interventions. U.N. missions, Bolton said, linger long after their purpose has been fulfilled.

Bolton framed these issues in terms of African autonomy. “Africa needs a concept for ‘graduation’ from peacekeeping operations, which many African diplomats recognize, to reassert its abilities to resolve its own problems,” Bolton wrote.

He blames Europe for a preoccupation with moral righteousness.

“Former European colonial powers are all too willing to lead a new interventionism in their former colonies, helpfully financed largely by others, to show their High Minded ‘concern,’ and to maintain at least some of their past influence,” Bolton wrote in “Surrender Is Not An Option.”

The Trump administration has also been eager to pull back from engagement with the U.N., according to Paul Williams, an associate professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. The U.S. makes mandatory assessed contributions of about $2 billion a year to the U.N.’s peacekeeping budget, Williams said.

Bolton has long advocated replacing assessed contributions with voluntary contributions, but that would require legal changes. The workaround, Williams said, is to shrink the overall budget.

“The current administration and Nikki Haley at the U.N. have said that’s what they want to do — they want to reduce the overall U.N. peacekeeping expenditure by closing up some missions,” Williams said.

Somalia

Bolton’s experiences dealing with the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia – a confederation of Sharia courts that formed a rival legal authority to that country’s government — are indicative of much of his work across Africa.

In early December 2006, in one of Bolton’s last acts as ambassador, the U.S. introduced a resolution to deploy an Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peacekeeping force to Somalia and lift some sanctions against the country to help the government fight the ICU, which Bolton said threatened the country’s stability.

Bolton characterized the force as “a key element in preventing conflict.”

Some questioned the merits of the plan. In response, Bolton said, “People criticize us when we take action on the ground, that our taking action makes the situation worse. Okay, so what is the answer, not to take action?”

Ultimately, the resolution passed, but little changed in the days that followed — until Ethiopia, with U.S. air support, mounted a decisive offensive that decimated the ICU, giving the transitional government room to coalesce.

The ICU rapidly lost ground in the ensuing weeks, and its leaders conceded defeat by the end of the month. Some members went into hiding but others splintered off into even more hard-line groups, including al-Shabab.

More US involvement

While Bolton may not have much faith in the U.N.’s capacity to mitigate terrorism and other conflict in Africa and elsewhere, he does see a role for the U.S., especially as China and a resurgent Russia attempt to assert more global influence.

In an opinion column published in The Hill early this year, he warned that Latin America and Africa are two regions with “simmering controversies” that could erupt in the next year. While neither region has ranked high as U.S. foreign policy priorities, Bolton said, such eruptions could threaten American security interests.

“In both of these critical regions,” Bolton wrote, “we need greater U.S. involvement, hopefully guided by more comprehensive thinking rather than ad hoc responses to erupting crises.”

But unilateral moves have limitations. If Bolton seeks to resolve conflicts in Africa and elsewhere without the U.N., long-term solutions may prove more elusive.

That’s because U.N. peacekeeping isn’t just about troops on the ground, said Aditi Gorur, the director of the Protecting Civilians in Conflict program at the Stimson Center, a think tank that focuses on international efforts to make peace.

“There are other parts of the U.N. that are working on trying to address some of those root causes, so it’s really about trying to contain the violence and creating the space for political dialogue to happen,” Gorur said.
…

your ad here

Ex-Catalan Leader Puigdemont Arrested in Germany

Posted on by SeeEU

Pro-separatist marchers clashed with riot police in Barcelona, Spain during a demonstration Sunday against the arrest of Catalonia’s former president Carles Puigdemont.

Police swung batons to stop protesters from marching on the Spanish government offices. The marchers threw garbage and other objects at the officers. At least 50 people were hurt.

Thousands filled the streets of the Catalan capital in support of the ousted president and separatist leader who was picked up on an international arrest warrant in Germany Sunday. He had just crossed the border from Denmark.

Puigdemont is expected to appear in court in Schleswig Monday while German prosecutors consider Spain’s extradition request.

Puigdemont is wanted in Spain on charges of treason and inciting violence. He fled Spain for Belgium in October.

He defied the warnings of the central Spanish government in Madrid and held a referendum on Catalonian secession.

The Catalan parliament declared independence, leading to a violent crackdown by police and a takeover of the Catalan government by Madrid.

Pro-independence lawmakers won a slim majority in December’s parliamentary elections in Catalonia. But parliament has been unable to name a new president and the future of independence is murky.

Puigdemont had urged the Catalan parliament to choose pro-independence ally Jordi Sanchez as the new regional president.

But Sanchez is in jail in Madrid while prosecutors mull over whether to also formally charge him with sedition and rebellion.

The Spanish Supreme Court decided Friday to charge 13 Catalan separatist leaders with rebellion.

Catalonia, in northeast Spain, and its capital Barcelona are major tourist magnets. It has his own language and distinct culture. But the separatist crisis has hurt tourism and the regional economy.

Catalan separatists say the region is a powerful economic engine that drives Spain and have demanded more autonomy.

Those who want to stay united with Spain are afraid the region will sink into an economic abyss without the central government, its ties to the European Union, and its numerous existing bilateral relations.

 
…

your ad here

French Bishop Pays Tribute to Police Officer Who Died in Hostage Incident

Posted on by SeeEU

Survivors and families of victims of Friday’s terror attack in France attended a special mass to honor the four killed and three wounded, including an officer who swapped himself with a hostage in a supermarket in the southwestern town of Trebes.

The Bishop of Carcassonne and Narbonne Alain Planet celebrated mass, during which he praised the “extraordinary devotion” of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame.

“I am here to share in people’s mourning, but also to warm myself to their profound solidarity. This event was also an opportunity to see an extraordinary act, extraordinary devotion by [Lieutenant] Colonel Arnaud Beltrame,” he said. “The whole of France has been touched by this, we were too, especially the Christian community, as he was one of ours. And at the start of this holy week, when we look at Christ take our place to save us from death, well his act takes on a whole new meaning and I’m sure he was aware of that when he did what he did.”

Planet said Friday’s events offered an opportunity to reflect on the suffering felt by countless people around the world.

After French President Emmanuel Macron said evidence suggested the gunman’s actions were considered terrorism, the Islamic State militant group’s propaganda arm claimed responsibility.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said counterterrorism authorities have assumed control of the investigation.

French authorities say two people have been arrested in connection with the shootings, including a woman who is reported to have been close to the assailant.

Islamic State extremist attacks have killed more than 200 people since 2015.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump denounced Friday’s attack in France in a message on Twitter Saturday.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the horrible attack in France yesterday, and we grieve the nation’s loss,” the president wrote, adding “We also condemn the violent actions of the attacker and anyone who would provide him support. We are with you @EmmanuelMacron!”

 

.
…

your ad here

Pope Urges Youth to Speak Out

Posted on by SeeEU

Pope Francis marked Palm Sunday in Saint Peter’s Square urging young people not to let themselves be manipulated. A large crowd turned out at the Vatican to listen to the pope’s words and receive his blessing on the first of Holy Week services leading up to Easter.

Pope Francis and cardinals dressed in red robes marked Palm Sunday with a long and solemn ceremony in Saint Peter’s Square attended by a large crowd, which included many young people who turned out to celebrate the Catholic Church’s World Day of Youth.

Carrying a woven palm branch, Pope Francis first led a procession in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica to commemorate the day Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as a savior, before his crucifixion five days later.

Palm fronds and olive branches surrounded the altar. In his homily, Pope Francis told young people that the temptation to silence them has always existed.

The pope said: “There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive.”

Pope Francis urged young people to keep shouting and not allow the older generations to silence their voices. He urged youth to be like the people who welcomed Jesus with palms rather than those who shouted for his crucifixion only days later.

Palm Sunday is the start of one of the busiest weeks for the pope in the Christian calendar. On Holy Thursday he is due to preside at two services, including one in which he will wash the feet of 12 inmates at a Rome prison to commemorate Jesus Christ’s gesture of humility towards his apostles the night before he died.

       

On Good Friday, he is due to lead a solemn Way of the Cross procession at Rome’s ancient Colosseum. Then, on Saturday night he is scheduled to lead an Easter vigil service before delivering his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” message and blessing on Easter Sunday.

 
…

your ad here

Young Syrian Refugee Invents Life-Saving Life-Jacket

Posted on by SeeEU

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. Even more so, when the invention is something a loved one needs. That was the case for a young Syrian woman who invented a GPS-equipped life vest. VOA’s Faith Lapidus reports.
…

your ad here

Blacks in Silicon Valley Share Lessons on Pursuing Unicorns or Gazelles

Posted on by SeeUS

What does it take to build a thriving technology company – and an environment in which black techies, their financial backers and their markets can flourish?

That question underpins the new VOA documentary “Beyond the Unicorn.”  Subtitled “Africans Making IT in Silicon Valley,” it explores how some Africans and African-Americans are finding their way in the tech sector’s global capital in California.

The 26-minute documentary profiles several entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and how they overcome hurdles. Its screening Wednesday evening, at a VOA event at the San Francisco campus of the French university INSEEC U., served as a springboard for a panel discussion spanning market potential, funding gaps and hiring disparities.

First, a definition for the uninitiated. A unicorn is a private startup technology firm valued at $1 billion or more. Once rare, such companies have proliferated in the last few years, with almost 200 globally as of last May, according to Forbes.

Silicon Valley has spawned herds of unicorns, such as Uber and Airbnb.  

Africa hasn’t. With less readily available investment funding, “a unicorn might be quite unrealistic for an entrepreneur in Africa to build very quickly,” said venture capitalist Mbwana Alliy, who appears in the documentary. He suggested its counterpart might be a “zebracorn.”           

“Does that mean it’s a $100 million startup? Maybe that’s more achievable for an entrepreneur,” said Alliy, founder of the Africa-focused Savannah Fund. “And it’s still a major outcome.”   

Panelist Stephen Ozoigbo proposed another term: gazelle, “something real and indigenous.”

“If it’s a gazelle, then you’re sure it would outrun, it would outhustle” the competition, said Ozoigbo, CEO of the African Technology Foundation.   

​Market potential

The continent has some fast-growing economies – think Ethiopia and Nigeria – and the world’s fastest-growing population. More than half of its countries are expected to double their head counts by 2050, the United Nations reports.

No wonder investment in African tech ventures is surging.

Figures vary: The Disrupt Africa news portal says African tech startups raised more than $195 million last year, up from almost $130 million in 2016.

Partech Ventures reports even stronger growth. The global venture capital firm, which has offices in San Francisco and Dakar, Senegal, reports that 124 tech startups drew $560 million in equity in 2017, up from almost $367 million for 74 startups the previous year.

Still, Africa gets only a very tiny share of global private equity capital, said Andile Ngcaba, a panelist and founder of the African tech investment management fund Convergence Partners.

That’s just one of the challenges for Africans and African-Americans in tech.

Lack of diversity

Blacks account for just 3 percent of the workforce among Silicon Valley’s top 75 tech companies, an underrepresentation so striking that it has drawn public condemnation and scrutiny by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a 2016 report.

The male-dominated tech sector can be even less welcoming to black females.

“Being an African woman in Silicon Valley … has been very difficult. I actually had an easier time in Nigeria,” said Bukola Akinfaderin, a senior developer – and the only black female mobile engineer – for the genealogy website Ancestry.com. She said her homeland’s tech sector has less of a gender imbalance.

Akinfaderin, featured in the documentary, finds support in groups such as dev/color, a nonprofit for black software engineers.

She gets encouragement to revive Jandus Radio, her app enabling the African diaspora to hear live radio from the continent. It had as many as 500,000 users by 2016, when the hosting company’s server malfunctioned and deleted the app’s database. She plans to reboot the app as KinFolk.

Akinfaderin touts the value of being an African woman engineer working in Silicon Valley. “When you’re building a product – especially if it’s a consumer-facing product, one that’s international – you are going to need perspective from everyone.”

Need for helping hands

Mentoring and networking can make all the difference in finding opportunities, said Nate Yohannes, a Microsoft business development director for artificial intelligence – and the evening’s keynote speaker.

“Coming to the United States as a child of [Eritrean] refugees,” he said, he couldn’t always rely on his parents’ guidance because of their unfamiliarity with the new setting. So, he sought out mentors, who helped shape his trajectory from law school to a Wall Street job to the U.S. Small Business Association to Microsoft.

“It’s on us” to help each other and connect the continents, Yohannes told the scores of people, including other Africans, in the screening room.

Other concerns

Africa’s rapid population growth heightens the need to educate African youths so they can compete for work globally, said Convergence Partners’ Ngcaba. He added that those aspiring to the tech sector will need training in, say, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

“That’s the only way we can position ourselves in the global landscape,” Ngcaba said.

Skills, opportunity and capital are vital for entrepreneurs, agreed Yonas Beshawred, founder and CEO of StackShare, an online marketplace for comparing engineering tools and software.

But, he added, “I think the most important thing is that you have something that you’re passionate about and you start working on it … instead of just talking.”

A VOA showcase

The “Unicorn” screening event also served as a showcase for VOA’s commitment to “telling America’s story” along with providing accurate news and information to countries without independent media, VOA director Amanda Bennett said. 

“And what is more American than the American diaspora, the people who come here from places around the world looking for something and looking to give something, looking to be someone? And what is more American than technology?” she asked rhetorically in her introductory remarks, pointing out that VOA opened a Silicon Valley office last spring.
…

your ad here