May 2018 - Page 21 of 24

US Trade Delegation to Brief Trump After Talks in China

Posted on 05/05/2018 by SeeUS

The U.S. and China ended the second day of high level talks Friday aimed at avoiding a possible trade war.

The U.S. delegation, headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, will brief President Donald Trump Saturday and “seek his decision on next steps,” the White House said in a statement, adding that the administration had “consensus” for “immediate attention” to change the U.S.-China trade and investment relationship.

“We will be meeting tomorrow to determine the results, but it is hard for China in that they have become very spoiled with U.S. trade wins!” Trump said in a Twitter post late Friday.

“Both sides recognize there are still big differences on some issues and that they need to continue to step up their work to make progress,” China said in a statement released by Xinhua state news agency.

An editorial Saturday by China’s ruling Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, however, said that “in the face of the U.S.’s fierce offensive of protectionism, China resolutely defends its national interest,” adding that Beijing “will never trade away its core interests and rejects the U.S.’s demand for an exorbitant price.”

The announcement followed comments by Mnuchin earlier in the day that the two sides were having “very good conversations.”

Trump has threatened to levy new tariffs on $150 billion of Chinese imports while Beijing shot back with a list of $50 billion in targeted U.S. goods.
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NASA Mission to Peer Into Mars’ Past

Posted on 05/05/2018 by SeeUS

A powerful Atlas 5 rocket was poised for liftoff early Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying to Mars the first robotic NASA lander designed entirely for exploring the deep interior of the red planet.

The Mars InSight probe was scheduled to blast off from the central California coast at 4:05 a.m. PDT (1105 GMT), creating a luminous predawn spectacle of the first U.S. interplanetary spacecraft to be launched over the Pacific.

The lander will be carried aloft for NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) atop a two-stage, 19-story Atlas 5 rocket from the fleet of United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co.

The payload will be released about 90 minutes after launch on a 301-million-mile (484 million km) flight to Mars. It is scheduled to reach its destination in six months, landing on a broad, smooth plain close to the planet’s equator called the Elysium Planitia.

InSight’s mission

That will put InSight roughly 373 miles (600 km) from the 2012 landing site of the car-sized Mars rover Curiosity. The new 800-pound (360-kg) spacecraft marks the 21st U.S.-launched Martian exploration, dating to the Mariner fly-by missions of the 1960s. Nearly two dozen other Mars missions have been launched by other nations.

Once settled, the solar-powered InSight will spend two years, about one Martian year, plumbing the depths of the planet’s interior for clues to how Mars took form and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets.

Measuring marsquakes

InSight’s primary instrument is a French-built seismometer, designed to detect the slightest vibrations from “marsquakes” around the planet. The device, to be placed on the surface by the lander’s robot arm, is so sensitive it can measure a seismic wave just one-half the radius of a hydrogen atom.

Scientists expect to see a dozen to 100 marsquakes over the course of the mission, producing data to help them deduce the depth, density and composition of the planet’s core, the rocky mantle surrounding it and the outermost layer, the crust.

The Viking probes of the mid-1970s were equipped with seismometers, too, but they were bolted to the top of the landers, a design that proved largely ineffective.

Apollo missions to the moon brought seismometers to the lunar surface as well, detecting thousands of moonquakes and meteorite impacts. But InSight is expected to yield the first meaningful data on planetary seismic tremors beyond Earth.

Insight also will be fitted with a German-made drill to burrow as much as 16 feet (5 meters) underground, pulling behind it a rope-like thermal probe to measure heat flowing from inside the planet.

Meanwhile, a special transmitter on the lander will send radio signals back to Earth, tracking Mars’ subtle rotational wobble to reveal the size of the planet’s core and possibly whether it remains molten.

Hitching a ride aboard the same rocket that launches InSight will be a pair of miniature satellites called CubeSats, which will fly to Mars on their own paths behind the lander in a first deep-space test of that technology.
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Djibouti Laser Incident Highlights US-China Military Tensions

Posted on 05/05/2018 by SeeUS

China’s foreign ministry is denying the Pentagon’s accusations that its forces targeted U.S. military aircraft with a high-powered laser near a Chinese military base in Djibouti. It’s the latest reported flare-up between the Chinese and U.S. militaries, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports.
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Kuwait Blocks UN Statement Criticizing Palestinian Leader

Posted on 05/05/2018 by SeeEA

Kuwait blocked the U.N. Security Council on Friday from issuing a U.S.-sponsored statement sharply criticizing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for what Washington called “vile anti-Semitic slurs and baseless conspiracy theories.”

Kuwait is the Arab representative on the 15-member council and two diplomats said it opposed the press statement on grounds that it was not comprehensive. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because consultations were private.

Abbas issued an apology earlier Friday over remarks in his speech Monday to the Palestine Liberation Organization parliament, which was sharply condemned as anti-Semitic by Israel, the U.S., U.N., European Union and others.

In the lengthy speech, he said it was the Jews’ “social function,” including money lending, which caused animosity toward them in Europe. He also described the creation of Israel as a European colonial project, saying “history tells us there is no basis for the Jewish homeland.”

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley was sharply critical of the Security Council’s failure to respond.

“Disgusting anti-Semitic statements from the Palestinian leadership obviously undermine the prospects for Middle East peace,” she said in a statement. “When the Security Council cannot reach consensus on denouncing such actions, it only further undermines the U.N.’s credibility in addressing this critical issue.”

The proposed statement, obtained by The Associated Press, would have expressed the Security Council’s “firm and unequivocal rejection of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial”and called on Abbas “to refrain from anti-Semitic comments.”

The draft would also have recalled “that anti-Semitism has historically contributed to threats to international peace and security, mass atrocities, and widespread violations of human rights.”

The U.S. circulated the statement Friday as several thousand Palestinians staged a sixth weekly protest on the Gaza-Israel border.

The protests every Friday are part of a campaign organized by Gaza’s Hamas rulers aimed, in part, at breaking a decade-old blockade of the territory that imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group took control there in 2007, and at 70 years of Israeli occupation of land the Palestinians want as their state.

Since late March, 40 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,700 wounded by Israeli army fire.

Last week, Haley accused Hamas of using women and children as human shields but made no mention of deaths or injuries to Palestinians by the Israeli military.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., said in a letter to the Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres late Friday that more casualties in the latest protests reinforce the “sense of despair and anger” in the face of what he called “this ruthless occupation.”

“As tensions continue to rise and humanitarian and security conditions to deteriorate, the urgency of addressing this dire situation and bringing it back from the brink thus cannot be understated,” he said. “Time is of the essence and the international community must act without delay.”
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US-Led Coalition to Reduce Forces in Iraq

Posted on 05/05/2018 by SeeEA

The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) said Friday that a small number of its forces might leave Iraq following a decision to shut down its ground forces command headquarters, known as the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command (CJFLCC).

The coalition announced the shutdown of the headquarters on Monday during a ceremony in Baghdad. It said the decision marked the end of major combat operations in Iraq and Syria against IS and a change in the responsibilities of the coalition.

“The efficiencies gained by headquarters consolidation will enable a slight reduction in personnel within the theater of operations,” U.S. Army Colonel Thomas Veale, a spokesman for the coalition, told VOA.

Veale said the change would consolidate the coalition’s missions to advise and assist the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) under a single headquarters.

“This reflects the coalition’s commitment to eliminate unnecessary command structures as the nature of its support to the ISF evolves from supporting and enabling combat operations to the training and development of self-sufficient Iraqi security-related capabilities,” he added.

5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq

The exact number of coalition forces in Iraq is unknown, but the U.S. has said it currently has an estimated 5,000 forces in the country.

Veale said that number “will gradually decrease over time as the ISF demonstrates increased capability and capacity.”

The Iraqi government declared victory over the Islamic State terror group last December when the militants lost control over their last pockets in western Anbar, near the border with Syria.

Comments about the withdrawal of coalition forces were made openly in February when Iraqi government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said “the battle against IS has ended and so the level of the American presence will be reduced.”

Shift in focus

At the same time, the coalition declared it was shifting its focus in Iraq away from supporting Iraqi combat operations to sustaining military gains against IS in the country.

Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, at that time told VOA that a “small number” of troops had shifted from Iraq to bolster a campaign against militants in Afghanistan.

More recently, Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency reported last week that an unknown number of French troops had left their positions in Iraq’s Nineveh province to go to northeastern Syria, where the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are engaged in an operation to oust IS remnants from their last strongholds in Deir el-Zour province.

The next phase

Emboldened by the achievements over IS, Iraqi officials say they have entered the next phase in their relations with the coalition and other allies who helped them defeat the terror group.

“The commitment and professionalism of all the men and women from all the coalition nations has been of the highest order, and Iraq is immensely grateful for their sacrifice and dedication in this task,” Iraqi Brigadier General Yahya Rasool Abdullah said during the coalition announcement Monday.

“We look forward to taking the partnership forward with the Combined Joint Task Force, and a friendship that will endure for years to come,” he added.
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Nigerian, Chinese Central Banks Agree to Currency Swap

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeAF

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) have agreed on a currency swap worth $2.5 billion to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar in bilateral trade.

CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele led Nigerian officials, while the PBoC governor, Yi Gang, led the Chinese team to the signing ceremony in Beijing last week.

The agreement is aimed at providing sufficient local currency liquidity for Nigerian and Chinese industrialists and other businesses and to reduce difficulties as they search for a third currency.

The deal, purely an exchange of currencies, also will make it easier for Chinese manufacturers seeking to buy raw materials from Nigeria to obtain naira, the Nigerian currency, from Chinese banks to pay for their imports.

According to Nigerian economist Yusha’u Aminu, excluding United States in the agreement would help to lower the exchange rates between both countries.

This report originated in VOA’s Hausa service.
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Navalny Backers Detained Ahead of Inauguration Protests

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEU

Russian police have detained supporters of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, raiding their homes and detaining them on the streets of various Russian cities ahead of Saturday protests against President Vladimir Putin, whose new term starts Monday.

“Activist Ilya Gantvarg was detained in St. Petersburg last night,” said an Open Russia Foundation press release reported by Interfax. “Ilya is an active participant in the actions held by Alexei Navalny’s staff.”

The Open Russia document also says one of its own members, Viktor Chirikov, was detained in Krasnodar, and that an employee of Navalny’s staff was detained in her own backyard in Krasnoyarsk.

“She was taken to a court right from home … tentatively [to be charged] in connection with the May 5 action,” the group said.

Navalny’s supporters have planned 90 anti-Putin rallies around the country Saturday, some of which have not been approved.

Crackdown warning

In a recent interview with VOA’s Russian service, Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff, warned that a crackdown was imminent.

“The authorities have been and continue to be afraid of protests,” he said. “They are trying everything they can — threats, warnings, promises to shatter [the opposition] — it’s always the same.”

While at least one smaller protest has been sanctioned, Volkov said it was approved largely to project the appearance of direct democracy in action.

“They’ll approve and coordinate one protest, something that looks moderately decent,” he said, explaining that the one demonstration usually occurs in a secure part of Moscow or St. Petersburg. Smaller cities are more tightly regulated so it doesn’t “seem like protests are being dispersed throughout the country.”

“It’s typical of this fascist police state,” he added, explaining that no grass-roots protests have been approved in major cities for at least three years. “Politically speaking, they just can’t afford to have a large-scale protest in Moscow.

“I think it’s very likely there will be more arrests,” he said. “This is part of their routine when it comes to threatening everyone, to try to lower the number of protesters. They do that before every protest — May 5th is no exception.”

Navalny office raided

Navalny, who branded Saturday’s protest “He’s Not Our Tsar,” saw his regional headquarters in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg raided early Friday. Police confiscated promotional materials for Saturday’s rally.

According to a report by Radio Free Europe, a Navalny organizer in the southern city of Volgograd tweeted that local students were “forced to sign papers acknowledging that they could face serious consequences, including expulsion, if they take part in the rally.”

Supporters were also detained in Cheboksary, Kemerovo, Tambov and Ryazan.

All detainees are to face charges of violating regulations for holding public gatherings.

Putin, who has been president or prime minister since 1999, is to be sworn in to a new six-year presidential term on Monday after winning a March 18 election that opponents said was marred by fraud and international observers said gave voters no real choice.

Navalny, who organized massive street protests to coincide with Putin’s 2012 re-election, was barred from the presidential ballot because of a conviction on financial crimes charges he contends were fabricated.

Some information in this report came from RFE.
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New UN Tool Aims to Stop Sexual Wrongdoers from Finding New Jobs in Aid World

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEU

The United Nations will launch a screening system to prevent former employees guilty of sexual misconduct from finding new jobs with its agencies or other charities, a senior official said Friday, part of an effort to address its #MeToo issue.

The tool will be an electronic registry of information to be available across the U.N.’s vast international reach and eventually to other groups, said Jan Beagle, U.N. under-secretary-general for management, following a high-level meeting in London.

Prominent U.N. bodies including the World Food Program (WFP) and refugee agency (UNHCR) fired several staff last year amid concerns raised that sexual misconduct was going unreported in a culture of silence and impunity at U.N. offices worldwide.

The wider aid sector was rocked by reports that some staff at Oxfam, one of the biggest disaster relief charities, paid for sex during a relief mission after a 2010 earthquake.

And in February, a high-level official at the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF resigned over inappropriate behavior toward women in his previous role as head of Save the Children UK.

Plans for the U.N. screening tool to register workers found guilty of sexual misconduct were announced at the gathering of its agency heads in London this week.

“[It] is a screening tool so that when we have confirmed perpetrators of sexual harassment in the system, we can ensure that they are not able to move around,” Beagle told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting.

Beagle said groundwork for the system, which will be managed by the secretariat, is complete and it was expected to be fully operational by the summer.

“In due course when we have some experience with it, we would like to extend it to other partners,” Beagle said, referring to aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other groups.

#MeToo campaign

The plans come amid the #MeToo campaign, in which women around the world have taken to social media to share their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse. It was sparked by accusations made last year against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last year appointed Beagle to lead a special task force to address the issue.

At the London meeting, U.N. agencies also discussed setting up 24-hour help lines for workers, agreed on a common definition of harassment and were told to hire more specialized investigators, preferably women, to speed up probes, said Beagle.

“Most of our investigators are specialized in things like fraud, which is a different type of skill,” she said. The secretariat has already started the recruiting process, she added.

An exclusive survey by Reuters in February found more than 120 staff from leading global charities were fired or lost their jobs in 2017 over sexual misconduct.
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Iraqi Who Threw Shoes at Then-US President Bush Now Runs for Office

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEA

An Iraqi journalist who made headlines in 2008 for throwing his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush is running for office.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi told reporters Friday while campaigning for a seat in the Iraqi parliament that he wants the United States to apologize for the Iraq war and to compensate all Iraqi families affected by the occupation.

His campaign’s Facebook page prominently features the video of Zeidi throwing his two shoes at Bush’s head in quick succession in 2008 and shouting, “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”

Zeidi was immediately tackled by guards following the incident and was sentenced to three years in prison. He served nine months behind bars and then moved to Beirut, Lebanon and Europe. While he only recently returned to Iraq, his protest made him famous in his home country, as well as across the Arab world.

Zeidi, now 39, said Friday, “I really cannot say that hitting George Bush with a shoe will guarantee me votes or not, actually this is not my goal.” Zeidi said he is running on a platform that includes holding accountable politicians who supported Bush.

“They should be kicked out of Iraq just like we did with the U.S. occupying force. George Bush is gone, too — they all must leave Iraq, they can’t stay indefinitely,” he said.

In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. In 2003, Iraqis took off their shoes and used them to hit a statue of Saddam Hussein after U.S. Marines toppled it to the ground.

Iraqi’s national elections are scheduled for May 12.
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Dozens of Palestinians Wounded in 6th Weekly Gaza Protest

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEA

Black smoke from burning tires mixed with streaks of tear gas fired by Israeli forces Friday as several thousand Palestinians staged a sixth weekly protest on the Gaza-Israel border. At least 70 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire, the lowest casualty toll since the protests began.

Hundreds of demonstrators broke into the Gaza side of a cargo crossing with Israel, damaging pipelines that carry fuel and gas into Gaza, the Israeli military said. Photos on social media showed large flames near the Kerem Shalom crossing, near where the borders of Gaza, Israel and Egypt converge.

Palestinian officials said protesters smashed some equipment near the crossing but were unaware of any damage to pipelines. The Israeli military called the incident a “cynical act of terror” that harms Gaza civilians.

Elsewhere, witnesses said small Israeli drones faced off against flaming kites that were flown by Palestinians over the border fence in recent weeks to set ablaze dry wheat fields on the Israeli side. The witnesses said two kites with burning rags were brought down by the drones, while two other drones crashed after being hit by stones.

Blockade targeted

The protests are part of a weekly campaign organized by Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The marches each Friday are aimed, in part, at breaking a decade-old blockade of the territory that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group took control there in 2007.

The Islamic militant group Hamas has said the protests would culminate in a mass march on May 15, with some officials suggesting a possible border breach at the time and others saying the protests might continue beyond that date.

Israel has warned that it will prevent such a breach at any cost.

May 15 is the day Palestinians commemorate their mass uprooting in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from homes in what is now Israel. Two-thirds of Gaza’s residents are descendants of refugees.

Despite the risks faced by the protesters near the border, turnout has been sustained by the widespread desperation of blockade-linked hardships of life in Gaza. Virtually all of the territory’s 2 million people are barred from travel, about two-thirds of young people are unemployed and power is on only a few hours a day.

On Friday, 229 protesters were hospitalized, including 70 with bullet wounds, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Three of the wounded were in serious condition.

Since late March, 40 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,700 wounded by Israeli army fire. Friday marked the first weekly protest in which no Palestinians were reported killed by sundown.

Yehiyeh Amarin, 18, said he and his friends would keep going to the border until the blockade was lifted.

“If no solution happens by May 15, we will continue the protests or we die,” he said, as another protester behind him brandished a yellow wire cutter. “We will cut through the fence.”

’Tires unit’

He said he and his friends call themselves the “tires unit,” spending their weekdays collecting tires for the weekly demonstrations. “We want a dignified life and a return to our lands,” said Amarin, as he and others rolled tires toward the fence to set them ablaze.

The mounting casualty toll has led to growing criticism of Israel. Rights groups say Israeli open-fire regulations are unlawful because they permit troops to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters. Israel’s Supreme Court is currently weighing a petition by six rights groups to restrict or ban the use of live fire on the border.

The European Union and the United Nations have also criticized the use of lethal force.

Israel says it is defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and that soldiers target only instigators. It accuses Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests. It has said that some of those protesting at the border in recent weeks tried to damage the border fence or plant explosives along it.

Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking the border blockade and pressing for the “right of return” of displaced Palestinians and their descendants.
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Turkey’s Opposition Choose Candidates in Presidential Election

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEU

Turkey’s opposition parties have selected their candidates to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in next month’s snap election.

The main opposition CHP picked veteran deputy chairman Muharrem Ince, a fiery critic of Erdogan.

Addressing party supporters in Ankara, Ince removed his party badge, replacing it with one of a Turkish flag.

“I will be the president of 80 million, of rightists and leftists, of Alevis [an Islamic sect] and Sunnis, of Turks and Kurds,” he said. “I will be an impartial president.”

The 54-year-old former physics teacher is seen as a shrewd choice by CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Ince has built a reputation of having a common touch.

He is also social media savvy, being only second to Erdogan in Twitter followers. The announcement of his candidacy saw #İNCEdenDemokrasiGelecek (Democracy will come with İnce) becoming the second global trending topic, after #StarWarsDay.

In a sign of what possibly lies ahead, Erdogan supporters were quick to distribute across social media a photograph of Ince drinking a beer with his family, allegedly during the Islamic Holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Unbeaten in 15 years of elections, Erdogan, a devout Muslim, routinely portrays Ince’s pro-secular CHP as anti-religious. Turkey is an overwhelmingly conservative country, and the presidential elections will take place during Ramadan.

But in a move to reach conservative voters, Ince pledged to hold meetings every night at 1:30 a.m. to coincide with the time that fasters rise to eat before sunrise.

Political observers claim if Ince is to have any chance of success, he will need to make inroads into Erdogan’s normally loyal conservative religious base.

Critics claim the CHP should have chosen a nonpartisan, conservative candidate.

“With a presidential candidate that has zero appeal outside its own 25-percent usual voter base, Turkey’s main opposition CHP has shown once again that it has no vision to win elections,” tweeted Mustafa Akyol, a conservative writer on Turkish politics.

But the CHP has taken steps to reach out to religious voters. In a groundbreaking move ahead of parliamentary elections due to be held simultaneously with presidential polls, the CHP formed an electoral pact with the Islamist Sa’adet Party as part of a four-way party alliance.

Temel Karamollaoglu

Sa’adet’s leader, Temel Karamollaoglu, has also declared himself a presidential candidate. With Sa’adet outside parliament, Karamollaoglu needs to secure 100,000 nominations. In a goodwill gesture, the CHP leader, Kilicdaroglu, has called on his members to support Karamollaoglu’s nomination.

Securing Karamollaoglu’s backing in a presidential runoff is seen as offering Ince his best chance of luring away conservative voters from Erdogan.

Kurdish vote

But the potential kingmaker is Turkey’s Kurdish voter base, which accounts for around 20 percent of the electorate.

Friday the pro-Kurdish HDP, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party, announced its imprisoned former leader Selahattin Demirtas as its candidate. The declaration was made in simultaneous events in Istanbul and Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey’s predominately Kurdish southeast.

“The dignified stance of millions whose hearts beat with mine against all pressure has proven that a [prison] cell that can fit 6 million people has not been built yet. I have tried to represent the values of freedom, democracy, equality, and justice here in your name,” Demirtas declared in a statement read by HDP leader Pervin Buldan to supporters in Diyarbakir.

Demirtas is facing more than 100 years in jail on terrorism charges under Turkey’s emergency rule, introduced after the failed 2016 coup.

Even though he is in jail, he can still run in presidential elections under the election laws — until convicted. Demirtas has a court hearing on June 8, when prosecutors are expected to press for a verdict.

Analysts say because other opposition parties have excluded the HDP from an electoral alliance in parliamentary elections, the exclusion of Demirtas from the presidential elections could lead to calls for a boycott by HDP voters.

“Kurds and Kurdish HDP are openly excluded from the [electoral] alliance,” political scientist Cengiz Aktar said. “By doing so, frankly, the opposition actually tells everybody their stance towards the Kurds is little different from the AKP.”

The CHP voted in favor of lifting Demirtas’s parliamentary immunity, opening the door to his prosecution and jailing. But Ince was among a number of dissident deputies that voted against the move — a stance praised among HDP supporters.

With the HDP having around 10 percent of the vote, their support, analysts say, is vital for any candidate seeking to defeat Erdogan, who remains the clear front-runner.

But observers say with the opposition parties all fielding strong candidates, Erdogan for the first time, faces challenges from across the political spectrum.

“Erdogan is facing the prospect of a complex electoral map, something he has not faced before. It will be more challenging,” said political analyst Atilla Yesilada, of Global Source Partners.
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US to China: ‘Consequences’ for Militarization of South China Sea

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeUS

The United States is warning China of “consequences” regarding its militarization in the South China Sea, amid reports of new weapons deployments there.

The Trump administration is also increasing the pace and frequency of patrols in the disputed waters to challenge what it says are overly broad maritime claims by nations, under its Asia policy, the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.”

“We’ve raised concerns directly with the Chinese about this. And there will be near-term and long-term consequences,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Thursday, in response to a question from VOA.

Her remarks come amid media reports that China has deployed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying denied such a deployment has anything to do with militarization.

“China’s peace-building activities in the Spratly Islands — which are China’s own territories, including the deployment of essential national defense facilities, are necessary to safeguard China’s sovereignty and security, as well as the natural rights enjoyed by sovereign states,” said Hua during a press briefing.

Disputed waters

China claims more than 90 percent of the 3.5 million square kilometer South China Sea, which is rich in fisheries, oil and natural gas and important for shipping lanes.

Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines also claim parts of the of the sea as their own.

In July of 2016, The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled China’s territorial claims had no legal validity.

Washington said the ruling is binding, but Beijing said it would not recognize its legality.

While the United States is not a claimant to the sovereignty of disputed islands in the South China Sea, Washington has said China’s efforts to militarize outposts in the contested waters endanger the free flow of trade and undermine regional stability, a claim that Beijing rebuts.

Trump’s ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy’

The Trump administration’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” has replaced the Obama era policy of “rebalancing” toward Asia

U.S. officials say the Trump administration is seeking an open Indo-Pacific where all nations are “free from coercion” and can pursue paths forward in a sovereign manner. Open sea lines of communication and open airways are said to be a vital part of this thinking.

Pentagon officials said Thursday the U.S. has asked China to understand it is “in their interest” to ensure “there is a free navigation of international waters” in the South China Sea.

“They cannot and should not be hostile and understand that the Pacific is a place in which much commerce goes through,” Pentagon spokesperson Dana White told reporters.

Notably, the Trump administration is intensifying the frequency of Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) by the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea, according to the Congressional Research Service and maritime experts.

“The administration has done a nice job of conducting more freedom of navigation operations,” said American Enterprise Institute research fellow Zack Cooper, adding Washington has been low-key about such operations.

U.S. officials tell VOA these patrols mark a legal challenge to overly broad maritime claims by nations.

“FONOPs challenge excessive maritime claims that restrict rights and freedoms provided to all nations under international law,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA, on condition of anonymity. “They do not threaten the lawful security interests of coastal states.”

Chinese militarization

The Obama administration’s “pivot” to East Asia policy did not stop China’s militarization in disputed islands in the South China Sea, and experts say the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy is also unlikely to reverse course.

“China made a bet that the U.S. would not risk war over uninhabited rocks and reefs on which it has no claim,” said Atlantic Council senior fellow Robert Manning.

Top U.S. military officials and maritime experts warn that China is establishing control over the disputed sea.

Intelligence gathered by the United States during patrols suggest Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had placed communication jamming devices on some of the artificial islands they built in the South China Sea.

“China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios, short of war with the United States,” according to U.S. Navy Admiral Philip Davidson, who was nominated to be the next Commander of the Pacific Command.

“If current trends continue, the U.S. Navy will continue to sail through the South China Sea, but those presence operations or freedom of navigation operations will be largely hollow as the waters will effectively be a Chinese lake,” Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told VOA.
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500-Year-Old Skeletons Headed for Native American Tribes

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeUS

Two 500-year-old skeletons discovered in Idaho’s high desert plains will be turned over to Native American tribes.

U.S. officials in a series of notices starting Friday say the remains of the young adult and child will be given to the interrelated Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in eastern Idaho and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes in southern Idaho and northern Nevada.

The notices start a process allowing other tribes to make claims until June 28. The remains, currently being held in a secured federal facility in Boise, will be transferred to the selected tribes if no other tribes come forward.

“We’ve always pointed out that we’ve been here for thousands of years,” Shoshone-Paiute Tribes Chairman Ted Howard said in an interview before U.S. officials announced his tribe would receive the remains. “For our tribe and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, those are the remains of our people, our ancestors. That’s how we feel.”

Other tribes that expressed an interest in the remains were northern Idaho’s Nez Perce Tribe, the Burns Paiute Tribe of eastern Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of the Warms Springs Reservation in central Oregon, and the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation in Nevada and Oregon.

Those tribes didn’t respond to inquiries from The Associated Press. U.S. officials said those tribes deferred to the tribes selected to receive the remains but declined to elaborate, citing the confidentiality of the government-to-government communications.

“We recognize that this is a sensitive situation for them,” said Amanda Hoffman, manager of the 760-square-mile (1,970-square-kilometer) Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. The remains were found on the conservation area, which contains several notable Native American rock art sites dating back centuries.

The skeletons were discovered in dry sagebrush steppe in April 2017, by an Idaho Department of Fish and Game worker checking ground squirrel hunters’ licenses about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the small city of Mountain Home. A badger digging into the squirrels’ burrows apparently exposed some bones.

The bones were in such good condition that Idaho authorities initially treated the southwestern Snake River Plain site as a possible crime scene. Authorities said they were either dealing with a double homicide that had happened in recent decades, bones from pioneers who died in the 19th century while traveling along the nearby Oregon Trail or the remains of Native Americans from that era or earlier.

Five days after the initial discovery, law enforcement officials as well as archaeologists returned and did a more thorough examination and discovered additional remains. Officials said they found no cultural items to indicate the remains belonged to Native Americans.

But carbon dating tests from a lab in Florida found the young adult and the child or teen lived sometime during the 1400s to 1600s. Elmore County investigators were so surprised that they sent bone samples to be checked at another lab in Arizona, which returned similar results.

U.S. officials in the public notices give the approximate range of the remains from 1436 to 1522 and said that’s based on overlapping dates from the two sets of remains. Testing on the remains stopped after their age became known. The cause of death isn’t known.

Following the carbon dating, the U.S Bureau of Land Management took possession of the remains and began a process spelled out in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to return the remains to a tribe.

That is expected to occur sometime this summer if no other tribes object.
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Former US Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Wife, Amy, Expecting 5th Child

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeUS

Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy and his wife are expecting a fifth child.

The Kennedy family appeared Friday to promote the Democrat’s signature issue, better mental health care.

The baby is due Memorial Day weekend, and he and his wife, Amy, don’t yet know whether it’s a boy or a girl.

Kennedy now lives in New Jersey. He joked to the crowd that he was hoping Amy might give birth in Rhode Island so that the baby would be “a real Rhode Islander” and have a political future in the state.

Their other children are 10-year-old Harper Petigout (PET’-ih-goo), 6-year-old Owen, 4-year-old Nora and 2-year-old Nell.

Kennedy was elected in 1994 and chose not to run again in 2010, the year after his father, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, died.
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Smithsonian to Honor Native American Veterans With National Memorial

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeUS

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has announced the five finalists for the design of a National Native American Veterans Memorial, slated to open in Washington in 2020.

“The significance of such a memorial on the National Mall is obvious,” said NMAI director Kevin Gover in 2013, shortly after the U.S. Congress charged the museum with creating a memorial to allow all Americans “to learn of the proud and courageous tradition of service of Native Americans” in the U.S. armed forces, and “to accord these veterans the honor they have earned.”

Native Americans have participated in every U.S. war and conflict since colonial times:

During the Revolutionary War, members of several Native tribes living in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, served in a militia against the British.
Choctaw, Creeks and Cherokee participated in the War of 1812 and in a series of “Indian wars” against other tribes and the 1840s war with Mexico.
More than 28,000 Native Americans participated on both sides of the Civil War of the 1860s.













From 1866 to 1912, Native Americans served as Indian Scouts, aiding the U.S. Army in fighting and subjugating Western tribes.
About 12,000 Native Americans served during World War I.
More than 44,000 Native Americans served in World War II.
In World War II, Navajo soldiers used their language to transmit messages that could not be understood by the enemy; and in World War I, Choctaw soldiers used languages to communicate secret messages by telephone.

More than 10,000 American Indians served during the Korean War.
More than 42,000 American Indians served during the Vietnam era, between 1965 and 1975.
3,000 served in the Gulf War.
As of 2017, there were more than 31,000 American Indian and Alaska Native men and women on active duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

Native Americans serve at a higher rate per capita than any other ethnic group in the U.S., and this begs the question of why they would put their lives on the line for a government that historically oppressed them, consigned them to reservations and forced them to assimilate into the dominant white culture.

Douglas Good Feather said the answer is rooted in spiritually and culturally significant warrior traditions. He is the executive director of the Lakota Way Healing Center in Mead, Colorado. It is a nonprofit group that draws on Lakota spirituality to help people heal from trauma and addiction. An Army veteran, he served two tours in Iraq.

“In the old days, we had rites of passage,” he said. “They basically taught you there were different steps in your life and you changed with time. Rites of passage helped you from one age to the next. They gave you identity and helped you understand the next stage of your life. One of those rites of passage was to be accepted into the warrior societies.

“We don’t have the old ways anymore,” he continued. “So many of us go into the military to fulfill that rite of passage.”

More importantly, he stressed that Native Americans are patriotic.

“This is our country. Our blood comes from here and no place else. We join the military because we love this country, so we’re going to defend it for our children.”

Revered status

Oklahoma native Harvey Pratt, Cheyenne/Arapaho, is among the five artists whose designs for the Native Veterans memorial are under consideration.

“I served in Vietnam in the Marine Corps with the third Marine recon unit [Reconnaissance Battalion],” he said. “I grew up with people who knew all the old ways and what we did with warriors.”

One of those relatives was his aunt, Laura Birdwoman, born in Oklahoma around 1880. “I had three older sisters, and once they went to Aunt Laura and asked, ‘Why do you treat the boys better than us?’

“And Aunt Laura told my sisters, ‘Those boys are going to have to die for you some day. They’re going to have to defend you in battle.’”

In point of fact, in many tribes, women served as warriors in the past, and today, Native American women enlist in greater numbers than Native American men.

In Native communities today, warrior status is as revered as it was in history; every pow wow opens with a grand parade led by veterans carrying the U.S. flag to honor tribe members who have fought for their country, and memorials to veterans stand in many reservations today. Video (below) shows the grand entry of the 65th Annual Navajo Nation Fair, in Window Rock, Arizona, September 5, 2011.

A national monument honoring Native veterans, said Pratt, is long overdue, and regardless of whatever design is selected, he said he is honored to have been part of this effort.

The four other finalists are: James Dinh, Daniel SaSuWeh Jones (Ponca) and Enoch Kelly Haney (Seminole), Harvey Pratt (Cheyenne/Arapaho), Stefanie Rocknak, and Leroy Transfield (Maori: Ngai Tahu/Ngati Toa).

The NMAI will announce the winner of the design competition July 4, the day America celebrates its independence.
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Trump: Giuliani Must Get ‘Facts Straight’ on Porn Star

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday new legal team member Rudy Giuliani needs to “get his facts straight” about the hush money paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in 2016, and maintained “we’re not changing any stories” after a series of revised explanations that have clouded the settlement.

Trump told reporters Friday at the White House that Giuliani, who joined Trump’s team of personal attorneys, is “a great guy but he just started a day ago” and was still “learning the subject matter.”

Giuliani upended the previous White House defense of the settlement by saying on Wednesday that Trump was aware of personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s payments to Daniels.

In a statement issued later Friday, Giuliani said the payment did not violate U.S. campaign laws, and he added it would have been made even if Trump was not running for president.

“The payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the president’s family,” he said. “It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders acknowledged on Thursday she first learned Wednesday night, along with the rest of America, that Trump compensated Cohen for the payoff to Daniels just before the 2016 election when Giuliani made the comment on a Fox News Channel program Wednesday night.

Sanders was pressed on whether she lied or was kept in the dark when she had previously told reporters that the president was not aware of the payments.

“I’ve given the best information that I had at the time,” she replied.

Trump confirmed earlier Thursday on Twitter what Giuliani said on the television program: that Cohen was reimbursed by the president for the payment made to Daniels.

This directly contradicted Trump’s earlier comments.

On Air Force One a month ago, the president responded “no” after a reporter asked if he knew about the payment Cohen had made to Daniels, and Trump also said he did not know why his attorney had made the payment.

The pornographic actress and director, whose real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford, has alleged a one-night affair in 2006 in a Nevada hotel with Trump. The president, and his attorneys, maintained Thursday there was no such sexual encounter and that no campaign funds were involved in the payments made to Daniels.

Trump maintains the non-disclosure agreement reached with Daniels was “very common among celebrities and people of wealth” and said it “will be used in arbitration for damages” against Daniels since in recent weeks she has given interviews about the purported affair.

Daniels has claimed the no-talk agreement is not valid because Trump never signed it.

Trump said the non-disclosure agreement “was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair, despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair,” a statement Daniels said she signed under duress and subsequently has disavowed.

Giuliani, who is a former mayor of New York City, first disclosed the monthly reimbursements by Trump to Cohen in a Fox News interview Wednesday with program host Sean Hannity. Hannity is a strong on-air defender of the president and frequently speaks with him.

Giuliani told Hannity that Trump “didn’t know about the specifics of [the payments], as far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this. Like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along.”

On Thursday, in another interview on Fox, Giuliani said the payment to quiet Daniels came at a sensitive time in Trump’s campaign, just before the Nov. 8, 2016, election against his Democratic challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Giuliani told the Fox & Friends show Thursday. “Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”

Giuliani, who also is a former federal prosecutor, said the president did not know full details about the payments until about 10 days ago.

After Giuliani’s disclosure of the payment to Daniels, her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said Americans “should be outraged.”

Cohen, under federal investigation for business deals said to be unrelated to his legal work for the president, acknowledges he received a personal loan to make the payment to Daniels through a corporation he created.

The ultimate source of the funds is an important legal distinction. The $130,000 payment far exceeds the allowable size of personal campaign donations that Cohen could have made, although Trump could make sizable donations to his own campaign. Daniels-related expenses have not been reported as campaign donations.

Trump “appears to have violated federal law” by failing to disclose he owed Cohen for the hush money payment, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which has filed complaints with the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics about the matter.

“There is now more than enough evidence for the DOJ to investigate whether President Trump intentionally omitted the Stormy Daniels liability from his personal financial disclosures,” CREW Board Chairman Norman Eisen said. “This is a very serious matter, including because there can be criminal penalties for false statements.”
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Dhlakama’s Death Sparks Concern for Mozambique Peace Deal

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeAF

The sudden death of Mozambique’s longtime rebel leader and opposition chief has caused shock and concern in the southern African nation and in the region, analysts say.

Afonso Dhlakama, who died Thursday at the age of 65, was never far from the action in Mozambique. He led the Renamo rebel group through a bruising 16-year civil war that ended in 1992. He then led Renamo’s transformation into a political party, and ran for president, unsuccessfully, five times.

In 2013, frustrated with what he said were attempts by the ruling Frelimo party to stymie the opposition, Dhlakama retreated to the bush in northern Mozambique and led his supporters in a low-level insurgency. In the months before his death, he and President Filipe Nyusi were making progress on a peace deal.

Nyusi confirmed Dhlakama’s death on national television late Thursday. Nyusi said he had been told Dhlakama was ill, and had attempted to send him abroad for treatment the day before he died. Nyusi did not provide details on the illness.

’Untimely death’

Journalist and commentator Fernando Lima said the nation was stunned by the news.

“To lose such a person, such a kind of energizing person, is a big, big loss,” he told VOA. “And so I would say that we are, in terms of the country, we are almost in a state of coma, in shock.”

Analyst Liesl Louw-Vaudran of the Institute for Security Studies said Dhlakama’s death also leaves unanswered many serious questions. Dhlakama led Renamo since 1979, and did not leave a clear successor.

“His death — his untimely death, really — puts a question mark over this peace deal and whether it will not be implemented,” she told VOA.

Accusations

The U.S. State Department, among others, accused Renamo of committing crimes against humanity, including mass killings, mutilations, forced labor and recruitment of child soldiers, in its war effort.

But Lima said that Dhlakama’s legacy is ultimately a positive one, despite the serious allegations.

“If it would not be for a person such as Dhlakama, the civil liberties in this country would be much more jeopardized,” he said. “I cannot have the media I have and the freedom I have if it would not be for Dhlakama and what he has done for this country, despite [the fact that] he carried this message through a really violent and bloody insurgency, but we have those achievements, and everybody benefits from those achievements.”

Louw-Vaudran said economic implications are at stake in the wake of Dhlakama’s death, as Mozambique’s natural gas wealth is being developed.

“Much of this political strife these last couple of years should also be seen in that context, where here you have an expectation of new wealth in Mozambique, but you have a lot of corruption — the Frelimo government has been racked by one scandal after the other — so within that backdrop, it really is very important for stability to return to Mozambique,” she said.
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Meghan Markle’s Parents to Visit Queen, Have Wedding Roles

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEU

Meghan Markle’s divorced parents will meet with Queen Elizabeth II and other royals before her May 19 wedding to Prince Harry and will have special roles in their daughter’s wedding, a palace spokesman said Friday.

At the wedding, the royal couple also plan to honor the memory of the late Princess Diana, Harry’s mother, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997.

Officials didn’t predict the weather — springtime in England can be glorious or horrid, sometimes on the same day — but they outlined plans for a celebration designed to spread from the privileged environs of Windsor Castle throughout Britain and the world, via television and the internet.

Here are some of the plans disclosed by Harry’s press secretary, Jason Knauf, during a briefing at Buckingham Palace:

Meghan’s parents to meet the queen, take part in wedding

Markle’s parents, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, will arrive during the week before the May 19 wedding so they have time to meet Harry’s family.

Knauf says they will visit with the queen, her husband Prince Philip, Harry’s father Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and with Harry’s brother Prince William and his sister-in-law Kate.

Ragland will travel with her daughter by car to Windsor Castle on May 19 and Thomas Markle will walk his daughter down the aisle of St. George’s Chapel for the ceremony.

Knauf says Markle is “delighted” that her parents will be by her side. He did not say whether Markle’s half brother and half sister will attend the wedding.

Princess Diana’s family will have a role as well

The press secretary says Harry is “keen to involve his mother’s family in the wedding” and that all three of Diana’s siblings will be present. One of Diana’s two older sisters, Jane Fellowes, will give a reading during the ceremony to represent Diana’s family.

No Maid of Honor

Markle, an American actress who came to prominence in the TV series “Suits,” will not have a maid of honor during the ceremony.

Harry has chosen William as his best man.

Young bridesmaids and page boys

Knauf says all the bridesmaids and page boys will be children. That may mean a role for Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 3, the children of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. But don’t bother looking for Prince Louis — born in late April — as the youngest prince will not attend the wedding.

Don’t ask about the dress

Palace officials are determined that the style and designer of Markle’s wedding gown will be kept secret until the moment she gets out of the car to walk into the chapel. They say this tradition is very important — but that won’t keep speculators from trying to guess who has received the most important dressmaking assignment of the year.

Separated the night before

The press secretary says Harry and Markle will spend the night before the wedding apart. They have been living together in recent months since announcing their engagement. They will spend their first night as a married couple in Windsor Castle.

Good wishes for Prince Philip’s health

Palace officials say they’re hopeful that 96-year-old Prince Philip, Harry’s grandfather, will be well enough to attend the wedding festivities . The queen’s husband has been recovering from hip replacement surgery and has not participated in any public events since being discharged from the hospital in mid-April.

Follow the wedding at home

The palace plans to publish the Order of Service on its website the morning of the wedding so people watching it on television will be better able to follow what’s taking place inside the church.

Delayed honeymoon

Knauf would not reveal where the newest royal couple will spend their honeymoon, but he said they won’t be leaving right after the wedding. Instead they plan to make their first public appearance as a married couple during the week following the ceremony. In the past, they have traveled in Africa together.

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Campaigning Underway in Burundi Ahead of Referendum

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeAF

Burundi has officially kicked off campaigning ahead of the May 17 referendum, with government officials telling people to vote “yes” to the constitutional changes.

Officials say the amendments would provide a much-needed update to the country’s political system. However, critics say the initiative is all about extending the current president’s rule.

President Pierre Nkurunziza has made clear his opinion on the proposed constitutional changes. Speaking at a rally in the second largest city, Gitega, Wednesday, he warned those who want to vote “no.”

“I would like to declare this to Burundians and those who are not — whoever opposes this constitutional changes will meet God’s power,” he declared.

The most controversial proposed amendment deals with presidential term limits — a topic that led to deadly unrest Burundi in recent years.

The current term is five years, but the new amendment would give the president a seven-year mandate. The constitution limits the president to two terms, but it is argued that the change would reset the clock for Nkrunziza to run twice more. He has been in office since 2005.

If the referendum passes, Nkurunziza could potentially stay in power until 2034. He told VOA there are threats everywhere

Agathon Rwasa, a former presidential candidate and vice president of the National Assembly, is campaigning for “no.”

“There are threats,” he told VOA. “If they hire to our group, they will be banned, so it’s a big challenge. But we do hope these threats won’t be effective.”

The government has insisted the changes are aimed at strengthening the country’s laws to bring an end to political upheaval.

But human rights groups have expressed concern over the political environment in which the referendum is being held. They say the ruling party youth wing, known as Imobonerakure, is targeting those suspected to be campaigning or are planning to vote against their party’s wishes.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says opponents of the referendum have faced beatings and arrest in the run-up to the vote. HRW researcher Lewis Mudge says it will be difficult to get a fair result.

“It’s happening in the context of state killings of people who are against Nkurunziza’s third mandate, which we saw significantly in 2015,” he said. “It’s happening in the context in which journalists and civil society have either been locked up or kicked out of the country and in which opposition internally is either muzzled or ceases to exist. So it’s a very worrying perspective in terms of medium and long term.”

VOA, BBC ban

At least 1,200 people have lost their lives since Nkrunziza announced his bid for a third term in 2015, and more than 400,000 Burundians have fled the country.

On Friday, Burundi’s National Communications Council announced a six-month ban on broadcasts by Voice of America and the BBC. The Council said the broadcasters have broken the country’s media laws and engaged in “unethical conduct.”

The United States was a strong critic of the president’s decision to seek a third term in 2015, and more recently denounced the alleged acts of violence against opponents of the referendum.
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Summit in France Marks End to Basque Separatist Group ETA

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEU

International negotiators held a peace conference Friday to mark the dissolution of the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), after its 60-year fight for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy commended the victims of the Basque separatist group during an address in Madrid.

“Now that ETA has at last announced its disappearance, our first thought must be for the victims, for all of them without exception, without distinctions,” Rajoy said.

ETA released an open letter Thursday to the Basque people, saying it had “completely dismantled all of its structures” and “will no longer express political positions, promote initiatives or interact with other stakeholders.”

ETA, whose full name translates to “Basque Homeland and Freedom” in the Basque language, is responsible for around 850 deaths in its decades-long campaign against Spain. Victim groups rejected the dissolution as propaganda and the Spanish government said it would continue to prosecute anyone involved in past violence.

“Convictions will continue to be executed,” Rajoy said. “There will be no impunity” for crimes committed by former ETA members.

One of the mediators of the years-long peace process, South African attorney Brian Currin, told the conference in the southwestern French town of Cambo-les-Baines the decision to disband is “a commitment to take part in the democratic process” which would “require reconciliation.”

Basque militants founded the group in response to Spain’s military dictator Francisco Franco, who banned the Basque language in public.

But Basques say they were marginalized and suppressed for decades before Franco seized power in 1939.
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Burundi Suspends VOA, BBC Broadcasts Ahead of Referendum

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeAF

Burundi has announced a six-month ban on broadcasts by Voice of America and the BBC, two weeks before the country votes on proposed amendments to the constitution, including changes in presidential term limits.

The ban was announced Friday by Burundi’s National Communications Council, which accused VOA and the BBC of breaching laws regulating the media and engaging in “unethical conduct.” The statement said the ban would begin Monday.

The council issued a warning to Radio France Internationale (RFI), accusing it of dishonest reporting about possible reprisals against those calling for a “no” vote in the referendum.

In a statement Friday, VOA Director Amanda Bennett denounced the council’s action.

“We are dismayed by the actions taken today by the Burundi National Communications Council to ban VOA from broadcasting its news and information programs,” Bennett said. “Our audience members count on VOA to provide factual, unbiased and objective coverage of current events, so this ban deprives the citizens of Burundi of a trusted news source during a critical time in that country.

“This is even more distressing coming only one day after World Press Freedom Day – a day calling for governments to remove, not impose, restrictions on the media.”

VOA content will continue to be available in Kirundi and Kinyarwanda via shortwave channels, on the Internet and on FM transmitters located in neighboring countries.

Nkurunziza until 2034?

Burundi is holding a May 17 constitutional referendum that would extend presidential terms from five years to seven. The constitution would continue to limit presidents to two terms, but supporters of incumbent Pierre Nkurunziza say a “yes” vote would reset the clock and allow him to run for an additional two terms.

Nkurunziza has led the central African country since 2005.

The United States strongly criticized the president for seeking a third term in 2015, and this week the State Department denounced alleged acts of violence and intimidation against opponents of the constitutional referendum.

“We call on the government to respect Burundi’s international legal obligations regarding the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.

Accusation of censorship

Reporters Without Borders also criticized the VOA and BBC suspensions, saying they were “intended to tighten the East African country’s gag on the media…”

“Banning two major international broadcasters just days ahead of a referendum on constitutional amendments clearly indicates a desire by the Burundian authorities to censor the public debate and trample on the right to information,” said a statement from Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk.

Joanne Lomas, the British high commissioner to Rwanda and non-resident ambassador to Burundi, took to social media to express her concern.

“Very disappointed to hear BBC and others banned in Burundi for 6 months. Free press an essential part of any election process. Another backward step,” she wrote.

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Some Parents More Wary of Vaccines Than Diseases They Prevent

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEA

Dr. Paul Offit is an infectious disease specialist and an expert in vaccines. He’s been at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia since 1992. Since then he says not a year has gone by when he has not seen a child die from a vaccine-preventable disease. It’s largely, he says, because the parents chose not to vaccinate their child.

Far from Philadelphia, along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, health workers are desperately trying to vaccinate every child against polio so no child will ever again suffer the crippling effects of this disease. If they can complete this task, polio will be a disease of the past.

Offit says the difference between parents in this mountainous border region of southcentral Asia and those in the U.S. is that in Pakistan and Afghanistan, people know the devastating consequences of polio. He says previous generations in the U.S. did, too.

WAYCH: Some Parents More Wary of Vaccines Than the Diseases Vaccines Prevent

“For my parents, who were children of the 1920s and 1930s, they saw diphtheria as a routine killer of teenagers. They saw polio as a common crippler of children and young adults, so you didn’t have to convince them to vaccinate me, my brother and sister.”

Offit says parents in his generation were also quick to vaccinate their children.

“I had measles. I had mumps. I had German measles (rubella). I had the chickenpox so I know what those diseases felt like, and it was miserable,” he said.

23 viruses, two cancers

Vaccines can prevent 23 viruses and two types of cancer, and more vaccines are in the works, including one for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Offit is the co-inventor of a life-saving rotavirus vaccine.

But some parents are not getting their children vaccinated. Last year there were more than 14,000 cases of measles in Europe, mostly in Romania. Nearly 40 children died. It exasperates health officials like Miljana Grbic, head of the World Health Assembly in Romania.

“We cannot fight this disease if we do not increase vaccination coverage,” she said. “… But we also have to understand why vaccination coverage is going down.”

For some parents, it’s the inconvenience of the trip to the doctor’s office. Others think good hygiene and nutrition are all children need to stay healthy. Still others believe vaccines can give their children autism, diabetes and other diseases.

Offit says persuading these parents to vaccinate their children is hard.

“It’s hard to compel people to vaccinate against something that they don’t fear,” he said. “And when they don’t fear that, what they’ll do is, they’ll fear the vaccines, and I think that’s where we’re at.”

Vaccine refusal spreads

A study published in BMJ suggests that in the U.S., vaccine refusal is contagious. It spreads from communities with a high number of parents who oppose vaccines to other communities nearby when parents who oppose vaccines talk to their friends and parents of their children’s schoolmates.

“Collectively, this factor is driving vaccine refusal and delay,” said Professor Tony Yang, one of the principal authors of the study.

Yang, from George Mason University, and his co-authors looked at the number of non-medical exemptions for vaccines from 2000 to 2013. They found these exemptions increased in geographical clusters.

Some governments are now making it harder for parents not to immunize their children. After a measles outbreak, California passed more restrictive laws. Yang says parents trust their pediatricians, so health care providers need to be more pro-active in getting children vaccinated.

Australia HPV work

Despite hesitancy in some parts of the world, some countries are leading the way in promoting vaccines. Australia has provided the HPV vaccine to school-aged girls since 2007.

The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) causes cervical cancer, the second most common type of cancer in women worldwide. It also causes head and neck cancers and genital warts.

By 2013, a study showed a significant reduction in the number of young women with abnormal cells of the cervix and a 90 percent decline in genital warts in young women.

Cervical cancer takes 20 to 30 years to develop. By 2035, Australia expects to see up to a 45 percent decline in deaths from cervical cancer all because of a vaccine and the government’s policy.
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No Nobel Prize in Literature This Year

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeEU

The Swedish Academy says the Nobel Prize in literature will be not awarded this year following sex-abuse allegations and other issues within its ranks that have tarnished the body’s reputation.

The academy said Friday the 2018 prize will be given in 2019. The decision was made at a weekly meeting in Stockholm on the grounds that the academy is in no shape to pick a winner after a string of sex abuse allegations and financial crimes scandals.

In a statement, the academy said the decision “was arrived at in view of the currently diminished Academy and the reduced public confidence in the Academy.”

It will be the first time since wartime 1943 that the prestigious award is not handed out.
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Experts: South Sudan Refugee Crisis, a ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

Posted on 05/04/2018 by SeeAF

South Sudan’s five-year civil war has forced many of its citizens, including unaccompanied children, to flee to neighboring Uganda. With more than half of these young refugees younger than 18, experts warn the situation is a “ticking time bomb” for a generation at risk of being lost. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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