Month: April 2018

Jailed Ex-Catalan Separatist Leader: ‘We Are Not Criminals’

Posted on by SeeEU

Jailed former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont insisted those who want independence for the northern Spanish region are not criminals.

“We want to decide our own future — is that a crime? We used ballot boxes — is that a crime?”  Puigdemont asked during a jail cell interview by a German news website.

“We were elected by the people, so what is the problem with the Spanish authorities? Why don’t they start politics in order to solve a political problem?”

German police arrested Puigdemont on a Spanish warrant last week. He is wanted in Spain on charges of inciting rebellion by defying the central government and going ahead with a Catalan independence referendum in October, leading to a violent police crackdown.

Puigdemont initially fled to Belgium to avoid arrest.

The French News Agency reported Puigdemont’s attorney has appealed the Supreme Court’s decision to prosecute him on the rebellion charges. The lawyer argued the charge implies Puigdemont advocated an uprising by violence. He said any violence that followed the October referendum was isolated and does not justify the charges.

Twenty-four other Catalan separatist leaders are also facing rebellion charges.

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

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

Catalan separatists call the region a powerful economic engine that drives Spain, and they have demanded more autonomy.

Those who want to stay united with Spain fear the region will sink into an economic abyss without the central government, its ties to the European Union, and its numerous existing bilateral relations.
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‘Kill or Capture’ Mission Led to Deaths of US, British Special Forces

Posted on by SeeEA

Two coalition special forces soldiers killed near Manbij, Syria were on a “kill or capture” mission for a high-value operative from the Islamic State terror group.

U.S. Army Master Sergeant Jonathan Dunbar and British Sergeant Matt Tonroe died after they were hit by an improvised explosive device Thursday, March 29.

The U.S. military initially had said only that the attack took place while Dunbar, Tonroe and other coalition forces were involved in a combat operation.  But the coalition confirmed Monday that the two special forces soldiers were going after a high profile IS operative.

“Coalition forces, in an advise, assist and accompany capacity with our partners, were conducting a mission to kill or capture a known ISIS member when they were struck by an improvised explosive device,” said Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, Col. Ryan Dillon, using an acronym for the terror group.

“We know ISIS has gone into hiding and are attempting to regroup and reorganize,” Dillon said. “We are supporting our partners to eliminate ISIS remnants throughout Iraq and Syria.”

The coalition did not say whether the mission had been successful, or whether it was completed.  It also would not say which group it believed was responsible for the IED attack.

IS fighters in hiding

Coalition officials estimate IS has lost approximately 98 percent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria at the height of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate.

Still, the U.S. estimates as many as 1,000 to 3,000 IS fighters remain active in Syria and Iraq, many hiding in pockets in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, which extends from Raqqa, Syria, to the Iraq border.

And while much of the terror group’s senior leadership has been killed over the past few years, new leaders have risen to take their place.  Coalition forces have also yet to determine the fate of the group’s self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is thought to be in hiding, possibly in Syria.

Manbij, the location of the coalition’s capture or kill mission, also has been a source of tension between the U.S. and Turkey.

US troops stationed in Syria

Turkish officials have threatened to move into the Manbij area as part of their military campaign in Syria against Kurdish forces aligned with the PKK terror group.

The U.S. has about 2,000 troops in Syria, some stationed in Manbij, where they have been working with the largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces to eradicate IS.

Turkey says some of the Kurdish forces are connected to the PKK, a charge the U.S. denies.

Last week, the U.S. began moving additional special operations forces into the Manbij area as part of an effort to better protect U.S. forces in the area.

Turkey sits tights

So far, though, Turkey has not made good on its threats to enter Manbij.

“There has been no move against Manbij,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon last week. “We continue our dialogue with the Turkish authorities about how do we sort this out.”

Mattis and other top U.S. officials have criticized Turkey’s military campaign in northern Syria, saying it has distracted from anti-IS efforts.

“We are no longer in an offensive effort on the ground against them as this has drawn off the attention,” Mattis said.
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Israel Suspends Plan to Deport Thousands of African Migrants

Posted on by SeeEA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he was putting on hold an agreement with the U.N. refugee agency to relocate thousands of African migrants to Western countries.

Hours after announcing the deal Netanyahu posted a message on his Facebook page saying he was putting it on hold until further review.

Under the agreement some 16,250 migrants would have been resettled in Western nations, including Canada, Italy and Germany, Netanyahu announced earlier Monday.  The same number will be given residency in Israel, he said.

But soon after the announcement, officials at the German Interior Ministry and Italian Foreign Ministry said they were unaware of any plans to resettle African migrants in their countries.

Jean-Nicolas Beuze of the UNHCR in Ottawa told CBC News that Canada has not made any formal commitment but things are “being discussed.”

Israel is home to roughly 35,000 African migrants, most of them from Eritrea, which has one of the world’s worst human rights records, or war-torn Sudan. The migrants say they are asylum-seekers fleeing danger and persecution, while Israeli leaders have claimed they are merely job seekers.

 Netanyahu’s right-wing government rejects claims by the Africans that they are refugees, describing them as “infiltrators” and economic migrants.

The migrants also have become a political issue, with religious and conservative politicians portraying the presence of Muslim and Christian Africans as a threat to Israel’s Jewish character.

A group of residents of southern Tel Aviv, where many of the migrants have settled, immediately denounced the new plan in a statement, calling it “a shame for the state of Israel”.

Netanyahu said he would meet on Tuesday with residents of southern Tel Aviv.
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Egyptian Election Results Give President Sissi Landslide Victory

Posted on by SeeEA

Egypt’s incumbent president Abdel Fattah el-Sissi was declared the overwhelming victor in last week’s three-day presidential election.

Lachin Ibrahim, head of the National Election Authority, announced Monday that Sissi won a second term after capturing 21.8 million votes, or just under 98 percent of all valid ballots.

His opponent, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, who entered the race at the last moment, won 2 percent of the vote.

Ibrahim told a nationally televised press conference that the election met international standards of transparency, and he thanked judges and polling station chiefs for supervising the vote. Ibrahim also thanked international observers from the Arab League, African Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for sending teams of observers.

However, Sissi’s landslide win did not take into account over a million-and-a-half ballots which were either spoiled or cast for candidates not listed.

Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and former Army Chief of Staff Sami Anan either withdrew or were forced to withdraw from the election on technical grounds.

About 40 percent of the country’s 60 million eligible voters turned out to cast ballots, down from 47 percent in 2014. A number of opposition parties, including the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, called on voters to boycott the election. It was not clear how many people heeded the call.

Egyptian television showed Moussa watching the electoral commission announce Sissi’s victory. Moussa later told reporters that he would “not contest the results,” given what he called “President Sissi’s popularity.”

Sissi ran on promises to improve the economy by building new factories and seeking investment from other Arab countries. He also promised to restore calm to the country and “show no mercy” in the battle against terrorism.

Last November, Islamic State militants bombed a mosque in the Sinai Peninsula and opened fire on fleeing worshippers, killing more than 300 people. Officials said it was the deadliest terrorist attack in Egyptian history.
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AFRICOM: US Airstrike in Somalia Kills 5 Militants

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.S. military says an airstrike in central Somalia has killed five al-Shabab militants and destroyed a vehicle.

 

A statement from the U.S. Africa Command on Monday says the strike happened near the town of el-Bur in the Galmudug region. Local residents pinpointed the attack to the village of Da.

 

Al-Shabab said civilians were killed in the attack, including a poet, Yusuf Dhegey. Government officials said Dhegey used his poems to incite violence and help al-Shabab recruit.

 

The attack is the seventh airstrike conducted by the U.S. in Somalia this year which it says have killed 22 militants in total.

 

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed seven people in Somalia’s central Hiran region on Monday, officials said. The victims died after the donkey cart they were riding was hit by the blast near the town of Bulobarde.

 

The mayor of Bulobarde, Abdi Dahir Gure, told VOA Somali that the cart was carrying a mother, four children, the woman’s nephew and a Qur’an teacher. “All have died on the spot. This is a very painful, to see a whole family just gone,” he said.

 

The father of the children, Hassan Kahiyow Ahmed, said the mother was taking the children to Bulobarde to buy clothes. “She was a princess, may Allah bless her soul,” he told VOA.

 

Authorities blamed the al-Shabab for planting the roadside explosive device. Gure said it was possible that al-Shabab intended the landmine for Somali and African Union troops who conduct patrols around the town from time to time.

 

But al-Shabab has in the past targeted donkeys and donkey carts it suspected of taking food and goods to towns besieged by the group. Al-Shabab has besieged Bulobarde since 2014.

 

Earlier this year, al-Shabab militants shot and killed nine donkeys they said were transporting goods to the government-controlled town of Wajid in the Bakool region.

 

 

 
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Martin Luther King Jr.’s Work Still Resonates Across Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

Streets. Schools. A bridge in Burkina Faso. The name of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. can be found across Africa, a measure of the global influence of the American civil rights leader who was shot dead 50 years ago after speaking out against injustices at home and abroad.

A school for poor children that is named after King in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, took as its motto, “Have a Dream,” borrowing a line from one of King’s most famous speeches.

“Martin Luther King stood for human rights and equality, so we wanted a way of inspiring and motivating our students,” said Robert Mpala, the school’s founder.

In rural Liberia, a West African nation founded by freed American slaves, one official spoke proudly of a privately owned Martin Luther King School. “Martin Luther King was a great man. We still follow his dream,” said J. Maxime Bleetahn, director of communications at the Ministry of Education.

Africa’s push for independence from colonialism, which mirrored King’s own movement for racial equality in America, attracted the civil rights leader’s attention and support.

King first set foot on the continent in March 1957 to attend celebrations marking the West African nation of Ghana’s independence from Britain.

After he returned to Africa in November 1960 to attend the inauguration of Nigeria’s first president, King said African leaders had told him “in no uncertain terms that racism and colonialism must go, for they see the two as based on the same principle.”

The parallels between King’s efforts and Africans’ quest for independence were perhaps strongest in apartheid-era South Africa, where racist laws oppressed the majority black community for decades.

In December 1965 King delivered a speech in New York denouncing South Africa’s white rulers as “spectacular savages and brutes” and called on the U.S. and Europe to boycott the nation, a strategy the West eventually embraced and that helped end white rule.

King was unable to visit South Africa after being denied a visa. But years later a bust of King was slipped secretly — by diplomatic pouch — into a South Africa still in the grip of apartheid.

American sculptor Zenos Frudakis said the U.S. government approached him about creating a bust of King that would be installed in South Africa for “political impact.” As it was barred by South Africa’s government from being displayed in a public space, the sculpture was dedicated in 1989 at the U.S. Embassy, visible to people outside the embassy fence.

People who were part of the struggle against apartheid spoke at the sculpture’s dedication, and Frudakis said he was impressed “as they were risking their lives to bring equality and freedom to everyone in South Africa.”

Today, the bust of King remains on display in a vastly different South Africa, which was transformed after anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in 1990 and elected the country’s first black president four years later.

Mandela was keenly aware of King’s contribution to equal rights and mentioned him when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize along with South Africa’s last apartheid-era president, F.W. de Klerk, in 1993.

“Let the strivings of us all prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war,” Mandela said. The Nelson Mandela Foundation plans to mark the anniversary of King’s assassination.

King’s inspirational speeches on love and justice, as well as his insistence on non-violent resistance, continue to resonate among some intellectuals and political activists in Africa, where many countries are now ruled by strongmen or democracy is in decline.

The civil rights leader was frequently cited by Ugandan activists last year as lawmakers moved to pass a bill that could keep the longtime president in power for many years more.

“We as a nation must recognize what Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the `the fierce urgency of now,”‘ one opposition activist, Mugisha Muntu, said at the time. “We too must make our voices heard.”
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Sierra Leone Opposition SLPP Says Wins Presidential Run-off Poll

Posted on by SeeAF

Sierra Leone’s opposition SLPP party said on Monday its candidate Julius Maada Bio had won a presidential run-off election according to its own compilation of results.

Bio took 54.11 percent of votes in the March 31 poll compared to 45.89 percent for the ruling APC’s Samura Kamara, the tabulation distributed at an SLPP news conference in the capital Freetown showed.

 
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Winnie Mandela Dies

Posted on by SeeAF

Hailed as mother of the ‘new’ South Africa, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy as an anti-apartheid heroine was undone when she was revealed to be a ruthless ideologue prepared to sacrifice laws and lives in pursuit of revolution and redress.

Her uncompromising methods and refusal to forgive contrasted sharply with the reconciliation espoused by her husband Nelson Mandela as he worked to forge a stable, pluralistic democracy from the racial division and oppression of apartheid.

The contradiction helped kill their marriage and destroyed the esteem in which she was held by many South Africans, although the firebrand activist retained the support of radical black nationalists to the end.

In her twilight years, Madikizela-Mandela, who died on Monday aged 81, had frequent run-ins with authority that further undermined her reputation as a fighter against the white-minority regime that ran Africa’s most advanced economy from 1948 to 1994.

During her husband’s 27-year incarceration, Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for his release and for the rights of black South Africans, suffering years of detention, banishment and arrest by the white authorities.

She remained steadfast and unbowed throughout, emerging to punch the air triumphantly in the clenched-fist salute of black power as she walked hand-in-hand with Mandela out of Cape Town’s Victor Vester prison on Feb. 11, 1990.

For husband and wife, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.

‘Horribly wrong’

But for Madikizela-Mandela, the end of apartheid marked the start of a string of legal and political troubles that, accompanied by tales of her glamorous living, kept her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

As evidence emerged in the dying years of apartheid of the brutality of her Soweto enforcers, the “Mandela United Football Club” (MUFC), her soubriquet switched from ‘Mother of the Nation’ to ‘Mugger’.

Blamed for the killing of activist Stompie Seipei, who was found near her Soweto home with his throat cut, she was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assaulting the 14-year-old because he was suspected of being an informer.

Her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine.

She and Mandela separated in 1992 and her reputation slipped further when he sacked her from his cabinet in 1995 after allegations of corruption. The couple divorced a year later, after which she adopted the surname Madikizela-Mandela.

Appearing at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up to unearth atrocities committed by both sides in the anti-apartheid struggle, Madikizela-Mandela refused to show remorse for abductions and murders carried out in her name.

Only after pleading from anguished TRC chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu did she admit grudgingly that “things went horribly wrong”.

In its final report, the TRC ruled that Madikizela-Mandela was “politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the MUFC”.

Four years later, she was back in court, facing fraud and theft charges in relation to an elaborate bank loan scheme.

“Somewhere it seems that something went wrong,” magistrate Peet Johnson said as he sentenced her to five years in jail, later overturned on appeal. “You should set the example for all of us.”

Married to the struggle

Born on Sept. 26, 1936, in Bizana, Eastern Cape province, Madikizela-Mandela became politicised at an early age in her job as a hospital social worker.

“I started to realize the abject poverty under which most people were forced to live, the appalling conditions created by the inequalities of the system,” she once said.

Strikingly attractive and with a steely air – her given name, Nomzamo, means ‘one who strives’ – the 22-year-old Winnie caught the eye of Mandela at a Soweto bus-stop in 1957, starting a whirlwind romance that led to their marriage a year later.

But with husband and wife pouring their energies into the fight against apartheid, the relationship struggled before being torn apart after six years when Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

Madikizela-Mandela later described her marriage as a sham and the birth of their two daughters, Zindzi and Zenani, as “quite coincidental” to her one true love – the struggle against white rule.

“I was married to the ANC. It was the best marriage I ever had,” she often said.

Graca Machel, who stepped into her shoes as South Africa’s first lady when she married Mandela in 1998, paid tribute to her predecessor in the years after her union.

“It’s unfortunate that in our lives we don’t interact very easily but I want to state very clearly that Winnie is my hero. Winnie is someone I respect highly,” Machel once said.

‘I’m not sorry’

As the years passed and Madikizela-Mandela’s public standing plummeted, her relationship with the party she loved soured. She bore the air of a troublemaker, arriving late at rallies and haranguing comrades, including Thabo Mbeki, Mandela’s successor as president.

In 2001, a television camera caught Mbeki brushing Madikizela-Mandela away and knocking off her hat after she arrived an hour late for a rally to commemorate a 1976 anti-apartheid uprising by Soweto schoolchildren and students.

Years later, she clashed with the next president, Jacob Zuma, becoming a political patron of renegade ANC youth leader Julius Malema, who quit the century-old movement to found his own ultra-leftist political party.

Confirming her support for Malema and his calls for seizure of white-owned farms and banks, Madikizela-Mandela revealed her contempt in 2010 for the deal her ex-husband struck with South Africa’s white minority nearly two decades before.

In a London newspaper interview, she attacked Mandela, who died in December 2013, saying he had gone soft in prison and sold out the black cause.

“Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out,” she said. “Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks.”

She also dismissed Tutu, post-apartheid South Africa’s moral fulcrum, as a “cretin” and rubbished his attempts at national healing as a “religious circus”.

“I told him a few home truths. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle and me – because of the things I and people like me had done to get freedom,” she said. “I am not sorry. I will never be sorry,” she concluded. “I would do everything I did again if I had to. Everything.”

 
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Syria says Rebels Leaving Last Opposition Area of Eastern Ghouta

Posted on by SeeEA

Syrian state media said Monday the largest rebel group in the eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus began evacuating the last part of the area still under rebel control.

The reports said buses carrying members of the Army of Islam were taking people from the besieged town of Douma to Jarablus in northern Syria.

Recapturing Douma would put eastern Ghouta fully back under control of President Bashar al-Assad’s government for the first time since 2012.

The evacuations are similar to those that have taken place in other parts of Syria throughout the country’s conflict with rebel fighters and families able to leave areas besieged by government forces and go to places still held by the opposition.

In addition to the years-long siege of eastern Ghouta, pro-government forces have carried out a six-week offensive to reclaim the area that has killed as many as 1,600 civilians.

Douma was one of the Syrian cities that gave birth to the anti-Assad protests in 2011. The protests grew into the current civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, devastated Syrian cities, and helped stoke Cold War-style tension between the United States and pro-Syria Russia.

Pope Francis used part of his Easter message Sunday to again call for the end of what he calls the “carnage” in Syria.

 
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Spies on Campus Pose Threat to Academia

Posted on by SeeUS

It’s a typical scene at college campuses across the country — students with their noses buried in books, engaged in the pursuit of knowledge and hoping to one day make their mark on the world.

 

It’s not the first place one would imagine finding government spies, but investigative reporter Dan Golden said you would be surprised.

 

“There’s an awful lot more international students, international professors at American universities. Some of them are here to gather information for their countries, scientific secrets or cultivate sources,” said Golden, author of “Spy Schools.”

 

Golden discusses various instances of espionage in academia and said the free flow of ideas and cultural exchange fostered by universities make them vulnerable to acts of espionage.

 

At the FBI’s field office in New York, Charlie McGonigal, a special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division, said espionage on campus is a big problem.

 

“In the United States, our academic institutions are very open,” said McGonigal. “There’s a lot of research and development at major universities in the United States that a foreign government would look to exploit by sending students to study at these universities.”

 

Americans studying abroad can also become targets of foreign governments. In 2014, the FBI commissioned a film based on the real-life exploits of Glenn Shriver, an American student recruited to spy for China.

 

“Students are recruited by those governments, and then they’re asked to go and apply for employment with the U.S. government or in a sensitive private sector area where we know those governments are targeting that type of specific information,” said McGonigal.

 

Going both ways

But spy efforts are a two-way street, and the United States is no stranger to intelligence-gathering operations in academia, either. Alex van Schaick was a Fulbright scholar researching organized labor movements in Bolivia when he met a U.S. government official for what he presumed to be a customary security briefing.

 

Van Schaick was troubled by the request from the official. “He said, ‘Oh, and if you’re out doing field work out in the countryside, if you run into any Cuban doctors or Venezuelan officials, we’d like you to report their whereabouts back to the U.S. embassy, because we know they’re out there, and we want to keep tabs on them.’”

 

“My first thinking was, ‘Whoa, this person just kind of asked me to spy for the U.S. government.’ And I’m here as part of a program that is supposed to encourage solidarity and people-to-people exchange,” added van Schaick.

 

McGonigal contends that these kinds of recruitment efforts are rare.

 

“We do periodically enter in that type of agreement, but it’s not as prevalent or nefarious as what you see from our students being exploited by the Chinese government or Russian government,” McGonigal said.

 

Golden said raising awareness about the prevalence of espionage is key, citing the 2010 case of Russian sleeper agents who for years posed as ordinary Americans.

 

“The vast majority of them were going to American colleges and universities, or had gone to them. That seemed to be something that Russia regarded as a crucial part of legitimizing a spy, an American college degree,” Golden said.

 
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Promises, Promises: Facebook’s History with Privacy

Posted on by SeeUS

“We’ve made a bunch of mistakes.” “Everyone needs complete control over who they share with at all times.” “Not one day goes by when I don’t think about what it means for us to be the stewards of this community and their trust.”

 

Sound familiar? It’s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressing a major privacy breach — seven years ago.

 

Lawmakers in many countries may be focused on Cambridge Analytica’s alleged improper use of Facebook data, but the social network’s privacy problems back more than a decade. Here are some of the company’s most notable missteps and promises around privacy.

2007

 

The social media darling unveils its Facebook Platform to great fanfare. Zuckerberg says app developers can now access the web of connections between users and their friends, a set of connections Facebook calls the “social graph.”

 

“The social graph is changing the way the world works,” he says.

That November, Facebook launches Beacon, which shares what users are doing on other websites with their Facebook friends. Many users find it intrusive and difficult to disable. Massachusetts resident Sean Lane buys his wife a diamond ring for Christmas on Overstock.com, but Facebook ruins the surprise , an incident leading to a class-action lawsuit.

 

In December, Zuckerberg apologizes and enables users to shut off Beacon. “I know we can do better,” he says .

 

2008

 

Facebook launches Facebook Connect , aiming to correct Beacon’s mistakes by requiring users to take deliberate action before they share activity from other websites when logged in using Facebook. More than 100 websites use the tool at launch, including CNN and TripAdvisor.

 

2009

 

Facebook announces “privacy improvements” after a yearlong review by Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner found that it geared its default privacy settings toward openness, failed to inform users their data would be used to serve ads, and leaked data to third party developers, including when their friends used apps. Facebook vows to encourage “users to review their privacy settings” but does not agree to all the recommendations.

 

Beacon is officially shut down, settling Lane’s class action lawsuit.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union warns people that Facebook’s default settings mean that when a friend uses an app or takes a quiz, the quiz- or app-maker can peer into your profile, even if you’ve made it private.

 

2010

 

App-makers exhibit a sophisticated grasp of data they can scoop from Facebook’s social graph.

 

The Wall Street Journal reports that many popular apps are transmitting personalized Facebook data to dozens of advertising and internet companies, among them, Zynga’s breakout game FarmVille. Facebook responds by shutting down some apps.

 

Prior to the Journal report, Facebook says it has redesigned its privacy tools, giving its 400 million users “the power to control exactly who can see the information and content they share.”

 

2011

 

The Federal Trade Commission reaches a consent decree with Facebook after an investigation of its broken privacy promises to consumers.

 

The FTC alleges, among other things, that:

 

  • Facebook made its users’ friend lists public in December 2009, even if they had been set to private, without telling them.

 

  • Even if users limited data sharing to “friends only,” data was actually shared with third party apps that friends used.

 

  • Facebook failed to verify the security of apps it put on a “verified apps” list.

 

  • Facebook promised not to share personal information with advertisers, but did.

 

Facebook promises to submit to a privacy audit every two years for the next 20 years, and Zuckerberg owns up to mistakes.

 

2012

 

Facebook introduces new methods to help advertisers reach people in ways “that protect your privacy,” including an encryption tool called Custom Audiences that lets marketers match the email addresses of sales leads to the addresses that Facebook users used to set up their accounts.

 

Facebook also rolls out new privacy tools aimed at simplifying its convoluted and confusing privacy controls. Among other things, it narrows the scope of app permissions so they don’t suck in as much user data automatically.

 

2013

 

Facebook shares two-year-old anonymized data on billions of friendships between countries with Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan and co-authors a research paper with him (published in 2015).

 

Kogan creates a quiz app, installed by around 300,000 people , giving him access to tens of millions of their friends’ data.

 

2014

 

Facebook says it dramatically limits the access apps have to friend data, preventing the type of data scoop Kogan and others were capable of. It also requires developers to get approval from Facebook before accessing sensitive data.

 

2015

 

Facebook says it learns from Guardian journalists that Kogan has shared data with Cambridge Analytica in violation of its policies. It bans the app and asks Kogan and Cambridge Analytica to certify they had deleted the data.

 

It rolls out “Security Checkup,” a new tool aimed at simplifying its convoluted and confusing privacy controls.

 

2017

 

Facebook introduces “Privacy Basics,” a Frequently Asked Questions site aimed at simplifying its convoluted and confusing privacy controls.

 

2018

 

Facebook says it learns from The Guardian and other media outlets that Cambridge Analytica did not delete improperly obtained Facebook data and suspends the company, Kogan, and whistleblower Christopher Wylie from its service.

Zuckerberg tells CNN that “I’m really sorry that this happened.” He promises to audit app makers that gathered massive amounts of data prior to 2014 and to notify affected users. Amid calls for investigations in the U.S. and U.K., the FTC begins investigating whether Facebook broke its 2011 consent decree.

 

“Our responsibility now is to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Zuckerberg says.

 

Facebook redesigns its privacy settings menu on mobile devices and says in a blog post, “It’s time to make our privacy tools easier to find.”
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Downscaled US-South Korea Military Drills Could Be Part of Nuclear Deal

Posted on by SeeUS

Permanently ending the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises that began this week could become a key factor in the nuclear talks with North Korea to come. 

The annual combined military drills had been delayed to keep the peace during the Olympics in the South and reduced in scope to facilitate talks to end the North’s nuclear program.

WATCH: Brian Padden’s video report

This year’s Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises will be similar to those in the past, with over 23,000 U.S. troops and 300,000 South Korean forces involved in both battlefield maneuvers, and responding to computer-simulated attacks from North Korea.

However this year, the defensive nature of the exercises are being emphasized, rather than offensive operations to target the leadership in Pyongyang that were practiced in the past. U.S. nuclear capable bombers and aircraft carriers are also not expected to participate this time around. And the training period has been shortened.

“The period has actually been reduced into half. Although it was announced that it is at the same level as in normal years, we see that it is reduced in size compared to other years,” said Kim Tae-woo, a military analyst with Konyang University, and formerly with the South’s Korea Institute of Defense Analyses.

K-pop diplomacy

On Monday, the Seoul government barely acknowledged commencement of the military exercises. The Unification Ministry focused instead on the continued improvement of inter-Korean relations that was highlighted by South Korean K-pop singers preforming in Pyongyang on Sunday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s attendance at the concert was seen as a reciprocal gesture of goodwill after South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a North Korean orchestra in Seoul that was part of the North’s PyeongChang Olympics delegation.

“The fact that the leaders of both Koreas watched the North and South Korea’s art troupe performance is leading to a good atmosphere like a spring breeze for the successful hosting of the inter-Korean summit,” said Baik Tae-hyun, the spokesman for the Ministry of Unification .

The two Koreas last week agreed to hold the Kim/Moon summit on April 27.

Bargaining chip

The downscaling of the exercises seems to be a temporary concession to maintain diplomatic momentum with North Korea that recently shifted away from conducting threatening missile and nuclear tests, to instead engage in upcoming denuclearization talks with South Korea and the U.S.

However there are concerns that further restricting and phasing out the joint drills could become a key focus of the nuclear negotiations.

“In order to make progress in the denuclearization front, South Korea will somehow have to downscale or even cancel the joint military exercise going down the road,” said Go Myong-Hyun, a North Korea analyst with the Asan Institute For Policy Studies in Seoul.

The North Korean leader dropped his objection to the joint exercises that Pyongyang in the past called rehearsals for invasion, when he met recently with South Korean diplomatic envoy Chung Eui-yong. 

However Kim also said ending the military threat against the North, a demand that in the past meant ending the U.S. military presence in Korea, would be a key condition for its nuclear disarmament.

“North Korea made a clear point of view for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and said that there was no need to keep its nuclear program as long as there was no military threat against it, and the safety of its regime was secured,” said Chung, who is President Moon’s National Security Adviser.

Maximum pressure

The South Korean president has so far tried to balance outreach to the North with maintaining his country’s military alliance with the U.S. However, his perceived willingness to downgrade national security measures to advance his diplomatic agenda runs the risk of undermining the U.S. “maximum pressure” campaign.

“Seen from the perspective of the U.S., our ally, it can be a measure to lower the trust of the alliance,” said Professor Kim.

For now, U.S. President Donald Trump, who has promised to maintain sanctions against the North and remain ready to use military force if needed, has shown flexibility both in agreeing to meet with Kim, and in going along with Moon’s request to downscale the joint exercises, to give diplomacy a chance.

Lee Yoon-jee in Seoul contributed to this report.
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China Raises Tariffs on US Pork, Fruit in Trade Dispute

Posted on by SeeUS

China raised import duties on a $3 billion list of U.S. pork, fruit and other products Monday in an escalating tariff dispute with President Donald Trump that companies worry might depress global commerce.

The Finance Ministry said it was responding to a U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum that took effect March 23. But a bigger clash looms over Trump’s approval of possible higher duties on nearly $50 billion of Chinese goods in a separate argument over technology policy.

The tariff spat is one aspect of wide-ranging tensions between Washington and Beijing over China’s multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States and its policies on technology, industry development and access to its state-dominated economy.

Forecasters say the immediate impact should be limited, but investors worry the global recovery might be set back if it prompts other governments to raise import barriers. Those fears temporarily depressed financial markets, though stocks have recovered some of their losses.

On Monday, stock market indexes in Tokyo and Shanghai were up 0.5 percent at midmorning.

Beijing faces complaints by Washington, the European Union and other trading partners that it hampers market access despite its free-trading pledges and is flooding global markets with improperly low-priced steel and aluminum. But the EU, Japan and other governments criticized Trump’s unilateral move as disruptive.

The United States buys little Chinese steel and aluminum following earlier tariff hikes to offset what Washington says is improper subsidies. Still, economists expected Beijing to respond to avoid looking weak in a high-profile dispute.

Effective Monday, Beijing raised tariffs on pork, aluminum scrap and some other products by 25 percent, the Finance Ministry said. A 15 percent tariff was imposed on apples, almonds and some other goods.

The tariff hike has “has seriously damaged our interests,” said a Finance Ministry statement. 

“Our country advocates and supports the multilateral trading system,” said the statement. China’s tariff increase “is a proper measure adopted by our country using World Trade Organization rules to protect our interests.”

The White House didn’t respond to a message from The Associated Press on Sunday seeking comment.

China’s government said earlier its imports of those goods last year totaled $3 billion.

The latest Chinese move targets farm areas, many of which voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

U.S. farmers sent nearly $20 billion of goods to China in 2017. The American pork industry sent $1.1 billion in products, making China the No. 3 market for U.S. pork.

“American politicians better realize sooner rather than later that China would never submit if the U.S. launched a trade war,” said the Global Times, a newspaper published by the ruling Communist Party.

Washington granted EU, South Korea and some other exporters, but not ally Japan, exemptions to the steel and aluminum tariffs on March 22. European governments had threatened to retaliate by raising duties on American bourbon, peanut butter and other goods.

Beijing has yet to say how it might respond to Trump’s March 22 order approving possible tariff hikes in response to complaints China steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.

Trump ordered U.S. trade officials to bring a WTO case challenging Chinese technology licensing. It proposed 25 percent tariffs on Chinese products including aerospace, communications technology and machinery and said Washington will step up restrictions on Chinese investment in key U.S. technology sectors.

Trump administration officials have identified as potential targets 1,300 product lines worth about $48 billion. That list will then be open to a 30-day comment period for businesses.

Beijing reported a trade surplus of $275.8 billion with the United States last year, or two-thirds of its global total. Washington reports different figures that put the gap at a record $375.2 billion.
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Turkish, Israeli Leader Trade Barbs Over Palestinians Killed in Gaza Clash

Posted on by SeeEA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of being “a terrorist” after the Israeli prime minister rejected Ankara’s criticism over the death of Palestinian protesters in Gaza Friday. In a speech in the southern Turkish city of Adana on Sunday Erdogan called the Israeli leader “an occupier” and said the Israeli people are not comfortable with what he is doing. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Trump Fuels Questions About US Role in Syria

Posted on by SeeEA

Questions have emerged in Washington over the future of America’s role in Syria after President Donald Trump noted progress in the fight against Islamic State and predicted a U.S. withdrawal from the Syrian conflict “very soon.” VOA’s Michael Bowman has this report.
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Trump Nixes DACA Deal, Citing ‘Caravans’ of Illegal Immigrants

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump called for tougher immigration laws Sunday, vowing that there would be no deal for DACA recipients.

“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release,” Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday morning.

“Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

“These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!” he said in a follow-up tweet.

Commentary on the Fox news channel earlier Sunday had used a headline referring to “caravans” of illegal immigrants to the U.S.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was enacted under the Obama administration and had allowed children brought illegally to the United States to remain here and legally study and work.

The Trump administration ended the program in September, but gave Congress six months to come up with a permanent plan for the program recipients.

Despite Democrats’ efforts, the recent spending $1.3 trillion spending bill, signed by Trump last week, made no mention of protections for these so-called Dreamers. Democrats had called on Republican leaders to bring to a vote on the House floor a range of proposals to fix DACA. Meanwhile, federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to keep in place certain parts of DACA while legal challenges make their way through the court system.

Trump had initially said that he would agree on protections for DACA recipients if Congress approved funding for a proposed wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

In another tweet Sunday morning, Trump blamed Mexico for “doing very little, if not NOTHING” to stop the flow of migrants into the United States, threatening to “stop” the North American Free Trade Agreement.

 

Officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico are supposed to meet in the United States next month for the eighth round of talks about NAFTA, although Washington has not announced dates yet.

 
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StoryCorps: A Good Man

Posted on by SeeUS

A man raised in a strict, religious home talks about what it was like to reconnect with his siblings years after their dad kicked him out of the home for being gay.
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Zambia Asks Cuba to Recall Ambassador for Backing New Opposition Party

Posted on by SeeAF

Zambia has asked Cuba to recall its ambassador for openly supporting the newly launched opposition Socialist Party, the president’s spokesman said on Sunday.

Amos Chanda said ambassador Nelson Pages Vilas spoke at the party’s launch on Saturday.

Political tensions were rekindled in Zambia last month when the count ry’s main opposition party, the United Party for National Development (UPND), filed a motion seeking to impeachPresident Edgar Lungu over accusations of breaching the constitution.

The UPND challenged Lungu’s 2016 election victory in court, alleging fraud, arguing that that obliged him to hand over power to parliament’s speaker until the court considered its petition.

Lungu has denied electoral fraud.

He directed that the Cuban ambassador be recalled “for behavior unbecoming of a diplomat,” Chanda told a media briefing, adding that diplomatic ties with Cuba would be retained. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the ambassador for comment.
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Extremists Attack African Union Base in Southern Somalia

Posted on by SeeAF

Al-Shabab fighters launched coordinated attacks on five military camps in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, killing at least 12 militants and a civilian,  witnesses and officials say.

Somali officials says two suicide trucks filled with explosives blew up Sunday at the AMISOM military camp in Bula Marer, 110 km south of Mogadishu and one of the main towns in the region.  This was followed by al-Shabab infantry attack on the camp.  

Moments later a bomb-laden mini-bus approached another AMISOM base in the nearby Golweyn village and exploded.

Al-Shabab militants also attacked a third AMISOM base in Barawe with mortars.  The militants also launched infantry attacks on two Somali government positions in Qoryoley and Mashallay.

Deputy Governor of Lower Shabelle region Ali Nur Mohamed told VOA Somali that AMISOM and Somali troops have repulsed all attacks.

“There was one main attack on Bulo Marer, all the other attacks were intended to distract troops in those camps from reinforcing and helping Bulo Marer,” Mohamed said.

In Bulo Marer they detonated two trucks and then militants attacked the camp from the back in attempt to enter amid the chaos, but troops fought them off.”   At least 10 Al-Shabab fighters were killed in Bulo Marer fighting, security sources told VOA Somali, on condition of anonymity.

In Golweyn village, a minibus filled with exposed tried to hit the entrance of the camp, but AMISOM troops destroyed the bus with a rocket propelled grenade, according to Mohamed.

Mohamed said AMISOM in Bulo Marer and Golweyn are relatively close to the main highway linking Mogadishu to the Southern regions of the country, which allowed militant trucks to get closer to checkpoints controlled by AMISOM forces.

“The suicide trucks just get off the main road and headed for the AMISOM camp, but soldiers identified the threat and that they were suicidal vehicle and prevented penetration,” he said.

A civilian man who was guarding the offices of a local phone company was killed and seven others civilians were injured in the explosions in Bulo Marer, Mohamed said.  Residents say the civilian death toll could rise.

Residents also reported hearing sporadic gunfire on farms near the AMISOM base.

Residents in Bulo Marer say there are casualties among AMISOM forces, but could not give details because AMISOM cordoned off the area.  An AMISOM spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Al-Shabab militants have also attacked Somali government positions in Mashallay and Qoryoley, but Somali forces have repulsed these attacks too.  A resident in Qoryoley told VOA Somali that two militants were killed in the clash.  The figure was confirmed by Mohamed.

Al-Shabab claims 59 Ugandan soldiers and 14 Al-Shabab militants were killed in the attacks.  That claim has not been independently verified.

Mohamed says Al-Shabab is marauding in the region without major counter attack from AMISOM and Somali government forces.  He says for four years AMISOM and Somali troops have not launched a major operation aimed at decreasing and destroying Al-Shabab threat.  He says political friction in Mogadishu are turning attention from a region where Al-Shabab carries out most attacks against Somali and AU forces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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State Media: Syrian Rebels Begin to Leave Last Bastion in Eastern Ghouta

Posted on by SeeEA

The first fighters from the last rebel bastion in eastern Ghouta left on Sunday for insurgent-held territory in the country’s northwest, state media said, raising hopes of an end to conflict in the enclave.

The withdrawal, the first of its kind from besieged Douma, involves fighters of Failaq al-Rahman, which evacuated most of the towns under its control inside the enclave on Saturday.

The dominant rebel group in Douma is Jaish al-Islam, which is still negotiating a deal with Russia over surrender terms giving its fighters the option of leaving the enclave or making peace with Syrian authorities.

Negotiators reached a deal late on Saturday to evacuate wounded Jaish al-Islam civilians and fighters to Idlib in the northwest.

It was not clear if it was part of a broader deal including the pullout of fighters, though state television said information indicated an agreement had been reached.

The Syrian army command said on Saturday it had regained most of the towns and villages in eastern Ghouta and was pressing military operations in Douma, the largest urban center in the enclave outside Damascus.

Failaq al Rahman reached a deal last month with the Syrian army under Russian auspices to give up a string of towns in eastern Ghouta they had controlled, in exchange for safe passage to Idlib.

Douma’s fall would seal the rebels’ worst defeat since 2016, driving them from their last big stronghold near the capital.

The once bustling commercial hub was the main center of street protests in the Damascus suburbs against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule that ignited the conflict seven years ago.
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German Minister Wants to Rebuild Trust With Russia After Spy Standoff

Posted on by SeeEU

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wants to resume dialogue with Russia and gradually improve ties after diplomatic expulsions over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England that Britain blames on Russia, he said on Sunday.

Conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Maas have joined the United States and other European countries in standing with Britain in a major standoff over the attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Maas, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) who are split on how tough to be on Moscow, told Bild am Sonntag much trust had been lost in the last few years due to Russia’s behavior.

“At the same time, we need Russia as a partner to settle regional conflicts, for disarmament and as an important pillar of multilateralism,” he was quoted as saying in the paper.

“We are therefore open for dialogue and are trying to rebuild trust bit by bit if Russia is ready.”

He also, however, defended the decision to expel diplomats, “to show solidarity with Britain but also as a signal of unity.”

In the last week, as part of mass expulsions on both sides, Germany expelled four Russian diplomats and Moscow has reciprocated with the same number, prompting talk of a crisis in relations between Russia and the West.

Some Social Democrats have urged the ‘grand coalition’ of their party and Merkel’s conservatives to ensure a new Cold War does not start, and business groups are also worried.

Germany relies on Russia for roughly a third of the gas it uses and, before Western states imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis, Europe’s biggest economy exported about 38 billion euros of goods to Russia.

London accuses Moscow of being responsible for the first known use of a military-grade nerve agent on European soil since World War II and Germany has repeatedly called on Moscow to cooperate more with the investigations.
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New President Looks to Wean Botswana off Dependence on Diamonds

Posted on by SeeAF

Botswana’s new president, sworn in on Sunday as the landlocked country’s fifth post-colonial leader, said he would give priority to tackling youth unemployment and diversifying its economy.

Retired teacher Mokgweetsi Masisi, who takes over from former army general Ian Khama, inherits a state with a reputation as one of Africa’s rare political and economic success stories.

But he faces a huge task in attempting to reduce its dependence on the diamond trade while creating more jobs after collapsing commodity prices tipped it into recession in 2015.

“We still seek to build a Botswana in which sustained development is underpinned by economic diversification,” Masisi told a cheering crowd in parliament. “One of my top priorities … will be to address the problem of unemployment especially amongst the young.”

Botswana, with a population of some 2 million, has a jobless rate of around 20 percent, with youth unemployment thought to be much higher.

Khama, 65, and a son of the country first president Seretse, bowed out after two five-year terms in a scripted succession that compelled him to hand over power to his deputy.

Masisi becomes only Botswana’s third leader outside the Khama dynasty since its independence from Britain in 1966.

As part of efforts to branch out of diamonds, he also said his government would scale up access to technical education and set up initiatives in tourism, mining, beef and financial services.

Challenging times

But the country’s opposition predicted little change, saying Masisi as deputy president was instrumental in an economic strategy that had failed to adapt the economy to the needs of a new generation of finance and science graduates.

“There is no need to celebrate, the change of guard will just be cosmetic. As vice president he… failed even at the time he was at the ministry of education,” said a spokesman for the UDC opposition coalition, Moeti Mohwasa.

After working for United Nations Children’s Fund, Masisi became a lawmaker in 2009. He served as a minister of public affairs from 2011 to 2014, when Khama named him minister of education and, later the same year, also vice president.

Viewed by the markets as more business-friendly than his predecessor, Masisi will serve as leader until national elections in October 2019, for which the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is expected to name him as its presidential candidate.

The BDP has governed the country since independence but for the first time won less than 50 percent of the vote for the legislature in the previous election in 2014. Polls suggest its share will fall further in next year’s ballot.
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Medical Ethics: UK Uses Data from Doctors to Find Migrants

Posted on by SeeEU

To track down people in Britain who may have broken immigration rules, the government is turning to a new and controversial source of information: doctors.

In letters made public last month, politicians sparred with immigration officials over a data-sharing agreement quietly signed in 2016 that gives the government access to personal information collected by the country’s family doctors. Medical details are excluded.

 

A parliamentary health committee condemned the situation as “unacceptable,” calling for the agreement to be suspended. But Britain’s immigration department has dismissed those concerns, arguing that such data sharing allows the U.K. to remove people “who might pose a danger to the public.”

Doctors who work with refugees and asylum-seekers have described it as a major breach of medical ethics, saying it isn’t up to physicians to enforce immigration rules.

 

“We understand the government has a job to do, but going into health records to get patient information is not OK,” said Lucy Jones, director of programs at Doctors of the World U.K. “The idea that any patient information is being shared with a government body immediately breaks their trust in a doctor-patient relationship.”

Several leading medical organizations, including the Royal College of General Practitioners, Public Health England and the General Medical Council, have all slammed the data-sharing deal, saying it could worsen the health of vulnerable people and drive disease outbreaks underground, hurting health care for all.

Dalia Omer, a refugee from Sudan who was granted asylum in the U.K. in February after nearly two years, sought medical help several times while awaiting the government’s decision. She said had she known about the data sharing arrangement, she would not have been as forthcoming.

 

“If I knew the doctors could share information with the Home Office, I would not tell them everything,” she said, referring to the British department that oversees immigration and security. She said she might even lie about certain details to protect herself.

 

Dr. Kitty Worthing, a London-based doctor with the group Docs Not Cops, said “the cornerstone of the doctor-patient relationship is confidentiality and this data-sharing is a direct breach of that.” She said when she’s advised people that their personal information could be shared with immigration officials “their reaction is always fear.”

Elsewhere in Europe, many countries have a strict firewall that stops information gathered by health services from being disclosed to other government agencies. Germany’s data protection office said regulations prohibit any blanket sharing of such information. In France, no data obtained by doctors is shared with the Interior Ministry.

 

Some health experts said it was critical that some types of health care are available to everyone in the U.K., regardless of their immigration status.

 

“With HIV treatment, it makes much more sense to treat everybody with HIV, because treatment lowers the level of virus in your blood so you can’t pass it on,” said Kat Smithson of the National AIDS Trust. “If people are not diagnosed because they’re not accessing health care, they’re not aware they’re living with HIV, which means they’re far more likely to pass it on to somebody else.”

The British government, however, says protecting its borders outweighs those concerns.

 

“We believe that the release of (patient) information is lawful and proportionate action in pursuit of the effective enforcement of the U.K.’s immigration policy,” wrote Caroline Noakes, the minister of state for immigration and James O’Shaughnessy, parliamentary undersecretary of state for health, responding to lawmaker’s concerns.

They cited the case of a Pakistani citizen who overstayed a visitor’s visa. After the Pakistani was refused residency in 2013, contact with the Home Office was broken off. Immigration officials sent a request to health services, which revealed a new address.

“The Home Office visited the address and arrested the individual, a convicted sex offender, who is now complying with the Home Office and will leave the U.K.,” Noakes and O’Shaughnessy wrote, describing patients’ non-medical data as being “at the lower end of the privacy spectrum.”

From last November to January, health officials agreed to nearly 1,300 requests for information. Of those, health officials found 501 cases where patients had a different address from the one in Home Office records.

Some Londoners said it was OK for immigration officials to get data from doctors under certain conditions.

“If the Home Office needs the information for a good reason, I guess it’s OK, but they should ask the people for permission,” said Farooq, outside an east London clinic that provides health care largely for migrants. He declined to give his last name because he was worried about the immigration status of his father, originally from Afghanistan.

 

Farooq said data sharing could make migrants nervous about getting medical attention.

“It could put people in a risky situation if they’re worried about their visa and they need to see a doctor,” he said.
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Christians Celebrate Easter

Posted on by SeeEU

Christians around the world Sunday are celebrating Easter —

the day they believe Jesus arose from the dead. It is the holiest day of the Christian calendar.

Easter is Christianity’s “moveable feast,” falling on a different date each year. Western Christian churches celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox.

Thousands of the faithful gathered in the Vatican’s Saint Peter’s Square to hear Pope Francis deliver the annual “Urbi et Orbi” — “to the city and to the world” — Easter address.

Easter marks the end of Holy Week, which is the week before Easter and includes Maundy Thursday, the day of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. Holy Week also includes Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified.

The Eastern Orthodox church celebrates Easter next Sunday, April 8.

The two Easters are usually weeks apart with the Western Christian church following the Gregorian calendar, while the Eastern Orthodox uses the older Julian calendar. Last year, however, Easter was celebrated on the same day in both traditions.

 
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