U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says President Donald Trump’s plan to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides “an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of history on the Korean Peninsula.” Pompeo was formally sworn in as the 70th U.S. secretary of state in a ceremony attended by Trump. As VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department, the secretary has been preparing for the summit and dealing with Iran and other foreign policy challenges.
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Month: May 2018
About Half of Caravan of Asylum Seekers in US
At least 88 Central American asylum seekers from a caravan through Mexico had crossed into the United States by Wednesday, a movement that prompted U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to beef up legal resources on the border.
Dozens more remain just outside the entrance to the port of entry in a makeshift camp, waiting to plead their case.
Women, children and transgender people were among those who waited for hours inside the walkway to the U.S. gate before being allowed to pass through to begin the asylum process.
Those remaining wandered among boxes of cereal and diapers in a labyrinth of giant tents, near-luxury conditions for the bedraggled migrants, compared with the scarcity they had endured for weeks on their journey through Mexico to the U.S. border.
Dramatic uptick
On Wednesday, U.S. officials let in three groups totaling 63 migrants, a dramatic uptick from the trickle permitted since Monday.
Border officials had allowed through only a few at a time, saying the busy San Ysidro crossing to San Diego was saturated and the rest must wait their turn.
In response, the Justice Department was sending 35 additional assistant U.S. attorneys and 18 immigration judges to the border, Sessions said, linking the decision to the caravan.
“We are sending a message worldwide: Don’t come illegally. Make your claim to enter America in the lawful way and wait your turn,” he said, adding that he would not let the country be “overwhelmed.”
Despite unusual attention on the annual, awareness-raising caravan after President Donald Trump took issue with it last month, the most recent data through December does not show a dramatic change in the number of Central Americans seeking asylum.
Apprehensions of people crossing to the United States illegally from Mexico were at their highest in March since December 2016, before Trump took office.
More than 100 members of the caravan, most from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, have been camped in the square near the entrance of the San Ysidro pedestrian bridge from Mexico to the United States, waiting for their turn to enter the checkpoint.
Pleading their case
At least 28 migrants who made it into the United States Wednesday had anxiously filed through the walkway to the U.S. gate the night before. Two by two, they walked up to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer standing in the gate to ask if they might pass through.
First to try was a man and his small nephew, a football under his arm; then a mother and child; then a woman with her grandsons.
Throughout the caravan’s 2,000-mile (3,220-km) odyssey from southern Mexico, its members maintained hope they would ultimately get the chance to plead their case for asylum in the United States, all the while knowing that U.S. officials might reject them.
The Trump administration cites a more than tenfold rise in asylum claims versus 2011 and growing numbers of families and children, who are more likely to be allowed to remain while their cases await hearing, as signs that people are fraudulently taking advantage of the system.
Trump wants to tighten laws to make it harder for people to claim asylum. For now, though, despite his orders to keep such migrant caravans out of the country, international and U.S. law obliges the government to listen to people’s stories and decide whether they deserve shelter.
The U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday it had launched prosecutions against 11 “suspected” caravan members on charges of crossing the border illegally.
Nicole Ramos, an attorney advising caravan members in Mexico, said she did not believe the individuals facing U.S. criminal charges were part of the caravan group.
“Quite a few people have claimed to be part of the caravan, including a sizeable contingent of Guatemalan men who were never part,” Ramos said.
your ad hereMosque Bombing Suspects, 1 Other Face Additional Charges
A federal grand jury in central Illinois on Wednesday returned a superseding indictment that brings additional charges against four men previously indicted on weapons charges – three of whom are awaiting trial in a Minnesota mosque bombing case.
Michael Hari, 47, Michael McWhorter, 29, Joe Morris, 22, and Ellis Mack, 18, now are also charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats and violence. Hari, McWhorter and Morris also are charged with attempted arson, and Hari is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.
It wasn’t immediately known if the men have lawyers representing them on the new charges.
Hari, McWhorter and Morris are charged in Minnesota with bombing the Dar al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington last August. The explosion caused fire damage, but no injuries.
The indictment from the grand jury in Springfield alleges the three men and Mack conspired from August 2017 to March 10, 2018, to affect commerce by robbery and extortion. The men allegedly robbed or attempted to rob Walmart stores in Illinois, attempted to extort Canadian National Railway by threatening to damage tracks in Illinois if the railroad didn’t pay ransom, and robbed or attempted to rob individuals in Indiana suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.
The indictment also alleges that in November 2017, Hari, McWhorter and Morris attempted to damage the Women’s Health Practice in Champaign, Illinois, using fire and explosives.
Prosecutors contend the four formed a militia group that eventually identified itself as the “White Rabbits.” According to the indictment, the group obtained materials used to make explosives, provided weapons and uniforms to group members, and assigned ranks to its members. Prosecutors allege the materials and other items belonging to the group were kept in a building in Clarence, Illinois.
Hari, Morris, McWhorter and Mack are all from Clarence. All four have been ordered to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
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Russian Olympic Committee President Zhukov to Step Down
The head of the Russian Olympic Committee is stepping down from his post, three months after athletes from his country were forced to compete at the Pyeongchang Games as neutral athletes.
Alexander Zhukov said he wants to focus on his political career as a deputy speaker of parliament for the ruling United Russia party.
Zhukov has led the ROC since 2010 and spent much of that time battling allegations of widespread doping in Russian sport.
“In the complex situation which has occurred in international sport in recent times, it is very important that the leader who will take charge of the Russian Olympic Committee works at the ROC on a full-time basis,” Zhukov said in a statement issued by the ROC.
His intention to leave paves the way for vice president Stanislav Pozdnyakov to take charge at scheduled elections May 29. Pozdnyakov is the only confirmed candidate.
Pozdnyakov led the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” delegation in February, when the country’s official team was banned because of doping.
Pozdnyakov, like International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, is a former fencer who won an Olympic gold medal.
Zhukov has been an IOC member and his departure from the ROC would leave Russia with two members instead of three, unless the IOC votes to add his successor.
Zhukov will remain a member until the May 29 election to replace him, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Wednesday.
That membership was suspended for almost three months until the Russian Olympic body was reinstated after the Pyeongchang Games. Zhukov, therefore, lost his position chairing an IOC panel overseeing preparations for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
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Protesters Are There, But Spirit of May ’68 Missing on France’s Streets
As France marks the half-century anniversary of May 1968, a profound period of social upheaval, protesters are back on the streets, venting their anger against reforms being pushed through by the year-old centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron. But from Paris, Lisa Bryant reports the spirit today is very different from that watershed year that left an indelible mark on French politics and society.
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Palestinian Leader’s Remarks Spark Israeli, US, EU Outrage
U.S., EU and Israeli officials on Wednesday slammed remarks by the Palestinian president about the causes of 20th century anti-Semitism in Europe.
In rambling remarks that were part of a lengthy speech to the Palestine Liberation Organization parliament on Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said it was the Jews’ “social function,” including money lending, that caused animosity toward them in Europe, citing what he said were books by Jewish authors. He also portrayed the creation of Israel as a European colonial project, saying “history tells us there is no basis for the Jewish homeland.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, as well as Israel’s prime minister, lashed out at Abbas over his remarks.
“Abu Mazen has reached a new low,” Ambassador David Friedman tweeted early Wednesday, referring to Abbas by his nickname. “To all those who think Israel is the reason that we don’t have peace, think again.”
President Donald Trump’s special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt also responded to the remarks, calling them “very distressing and terribly disheartening.”
The rhetoric reflects the escalating tensions between the Palestinians and the Trump administration. Ties have been strained since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last year, prompting the Palestinians to suspend contacts with the administration. Friedman and Abbas have sparred before. In March, Abbas called Friedman a “son of a dog” in an angry rant. Friedman suggested the remark was anti-Semitic.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remarks were “the pinnacle of ignorance” and that the Palestinian leader was “again reciting the most disgraceful anti-Semitic slogans.”
The European Union said in a statement that the Palestinian president’s speech “contained unacceptable remarks concerning the origins of the Holocaust and Israel’s legitimacy.” It warned that “such rhetoric will only play into the hands of those who do not want a two-state solution, which President Abbas has repeatedly advocated.”
The statement said that “anti-Semitism is not only a threat for Jews but a fundamental menace to our open and liberal societies.”
Abbas’ office declined to comment.
your ad hereRussian Censors Struggling to Block Telegram App
The Russian government is struggling to block messaging app Telegram, and its bid to cut access to the instant messenger platform is causing widespread disruption to an array of websites and online services in Russia that have nothing to do with Telegram.
For three weeks, Russian regulators have been floundering in their efforts to block the app after a court imposed a ban on Telegram April 13 for its refusal to hand the security agencies encryption keys enabling them access to users’ private messages.
Telegram’s defiant founder, Pavel Durov, a Russian entrepreneur in self-imposed exile, has boasted that the user count hasn’t suffered since the Kremlin sought to ban the app. Russian intelligence chiefs say they need access to Telegram messages sent by terrorists and criminals.
While the censors’ efforts have not caused many problems for Telegram, they have resulted in access being blocked to a host of other websites and online services, intermittently affecting Russians’ ability to buy via the internet everything from movie tickets to car insurance.
Widespread disruption
Access to some news sites also has been impaired, and users of Gmail say they have not been able to check their accounts. Online gamers also say they are encountering disruption.
Following the crackdown, owners of several different smart TV models have been unable to connect their sets to the Internet, and owners of fitness trackers and blood-pressure-monitors also have been experiencing problems, according to Mikhail Klimarev, director of the Society for Internet Protection. He says parents are complaining that GPS watches for tracking the location of their children have been failing.
One of the country’s most popular online car-sharing services, Delimobil, says its app has stopped displaying crucial maps thanks to the censorship. The flight search and ticketing service Kupibilet notified customers that “some ticketing systems are having problems.”
Russia’s Federal Service for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, known as Roskomnadzor, denies the outages are being caused by its decision to block 15.8 million IP addresses on Amazon and Google’s cloud platforms in its bid to snuff out Telegram. But the widespread disruption has been reported since Roskomnadzor launched its censorship.
On Monday, more than 7,000 people rallied in Moscow to complain about the ban on Telegram — more than the number who took to the streets of Moscow after the re-election of Russian leader Vladimir Putin in April. They threw paper planes — the messaging service’s logo.
Advocating freedom
Russia’s best-known opposition activist, Alexei Navalny, told the crowd, “Our country is destitute, it’s a really poor country, where nobody has any prospects. The only sector that has developed in recent years by itself — without the state, or subsidies, or favors — is the internet. And those people say, ‘You’re behaving badly on your internet, so we’ll gobble it up.’”
Telegram’s Durov praised the protesters. “Thousands of young and progressive people are now protesting in defense of internet freedom in Moscow — this is unprecedented,” he wrote on his page on VKontakte, the Russian version of Facebook.
Protest organizers say they want the repeal of “repressive Internet laws” and the dissolution of Roskomnadzor. “Our rights regarding secrecy of correspondence, freedom of speech and conscience are guaranteed by the constitution and cannot be restricted either by law or by conscience,” they said in a statement.
Of even greater embarrassment for the federal censors, they appear to be losing the support of some Kremlin officials and pro-Putin lawmakers, who also are voicing frustration with the ban.
Natalya Timakova, spokeswoman of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, inadvertently publicized her irritation, and on Facebook recommended online tools to bypass any problems encountered when accessing Telegram. In a response to a lawmaker’s frustration, Timakova advised her to “install VPN,” a virtual private network that allows users to circumvent online restrictions.
The lawmaker, Natalya Kostenko, subsequently changed the settings on her Facebook account, so that only friends and family could view her page after the exchange with Timakova was picked up by news outlets.
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Armenian Opposition Leader’s Supporters Protest in Yerevan
Protesters took to the streets of the Armenian capital of Yerevan Wednesday as opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan called for a national strike to pressure the ruling party to relinquish control of the country.
Demonstrators blocked the road from Yerevan to Zvartnots Airport and blocked several subway stations and government buildings.
Former government officials and citizens have expressed reservations about the ruling party’s decision to block a bid by Pashinyan to become prime minister, setting up a standoff between Armenia’s leadership, which has run the country for more than a decade, and thousands of Pashinyan’s supporters camped on the streets.
On Tuesday, Armenia’s parliament voted 45-to-55 against Pashinyan, leaving him short of the votes needed to capture the South Caucasian nation’s most powerful office.
Armenia’s former defense minister, Seyran Ohanyan, told VOA’s Armenian Service he expected to see Pashinyan elected prime minister, which he said would have resolved the unfolding political crisis.
“Nikol Pashinyan indeed deserved to be the prime minister in this new situation and implement changes expected and demanded by people,” said Ohanyan.
He also stressed that the ruling party’s stated rationale for not appointing Pashinyan — that electing an opposition figure as prime minister at this time would imperil national security — should be questioned.
“Otherwise, we will never have any political changes!” Ohanyan told VOA. “Just the opposite, political changes are the major pillar of the military strength of our country, which is linked to the economy. Whoever raises the economy, will also help the army.”
While observers have expressed fear that any unexpected political turmoil resulting from Tuesday’s parliamentary sessions could destabilize the Moscow-allied nation, which has been locked in a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan for decades, Pashinyan had met Sunday with Russian lawmakers, telling them his premiership would not threaten Yerevan’s close ties with Moscow.
Stepan Demirchyan, Armenia’s former opposition leader 2004 presidential candidate, however, said Pashinyan’s “movement can’t be stopped.”
“This is a continuation of the previous struggle, and it should reach its logical goal,” he told VOA. “I have no doubts Nikol Pashinyan will eventually become a prime minister. Yet, the major goal is to have snap and fair elections in our country.”
Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich, the former top U.S. diplomat to Azerbaijan, told VOA he thinks the Armenian people should have the right to decide their own fate by themselves.
The more external powers involved, he said, the higher the level of uncertainty.
“The outside powers, in particular, Moscow and Washington, need to stand back from this process, and that will be easier to do for Washington than for Moscow,” he said.
People on the streets of Yerevan, people who did not want to share their names, seemed to echo these opinions.
“There is no alternative. Nikol should sit on the prime minister chair,” said one pub patron as he watched the political coverage on television.
“The people’s candidate should be the prime minister,” said a woman sitting nearby.
Pashinyan, who addressed a rally of his supporters immediately after the vote, vowed to continue his movement.
On Monday, Pashinyan promised to stage nationwide strikes if the legislature failed to appoint him.
The 42-year-old opposition lawmaker, who had led 11 days of street demonstrations over an alleged power grab by former prime minister Serzh Sargsyan that threw the former Soviet republic into a political crisis, was widely expected to receive the 53 votes required to secure the post from the 105-member parliament.
As the only candidate officially nominated for prime minister, Pashinyan, a member of the Yelk or “Way Out”-led alliance, which holds 47 votes among its loosely allied opposition constituents, had secured assurances of further support from Sargsyan’s ruling Republican Party.
Sargsyan, who was elected prime minister by parliament on April 17—some eight days after his two-term presidency ended due to term limits—previously had said he would not seek to become prime minister after recently implemented constitutional changes, which he championed during his presidency, made the office of prime minister more powerful than that of the presidency he was forced to vacate.
According to statistics by the United Nations, more than 11 percent of Armenians live below the poverty line, earning less than 1,530 Armenian drams ($3.20 dollars) per day, and as Bloomberg reports, emigre remittances from Armenia’s 8-million-strong diaspora comprise 14 percent of national GDP.
Under Sargsyan, Armenia barely recovered from a GDP decline of 14 percent in 2009, only to witness a 7.5-percent surge of economic growth in 2017.
By the end of last year, however, the economy faced deflation and extremely weak domestic demand.
The government has grappled with constant budget deficits, and the unemployment rate remains above 16 percent.
This story originated in VOA’s Armenian Service.
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Basque Group ETA Announces it Has ‘Completely Dissolved’
The Basque militant group ETA has announced that it has “completely dissolved all its structures,” in a letter sent to Basque institutions and civil society groups.
In the letter, dated April 16 but only made public on Wednesday in Spanish online newspaper eldiario.es, ETA says it acknowledges its responsibility in failing to solve the Basque “political conflict.”
ETA, whose initials stand for “Euskadi ta Askatasuna” _ or “Basque Homeland and Freedom” _ killed 853 people in its armed campaign to create an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.
Responding to the announcement, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido vowed to keep investigating unresolved crimes attributed to ETA. He said police will “continue to pursue the terrorists, wherever they may be.”
“ETA obtained nothing through its promise to stop killing, and it will obtain nothing by announcing what they call dissolution,” he told reporters.
The decision, ETA said in the letter, “doesn’t overcome the conflict that the Basque Country maintains with Spain and with France.”
“The Basque Country is now before a new opportunity to finally close the conflict and build a collective future,” the organization says. “Let’s not repeat the errors, let’s not allow for problems to rot.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why the letter had been dated two weeks earlier.
Founded in the midst of Gen. Francisco Franco’s regime, the group grabbed global headlines when it killed the dictator’s anointed successor, Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco, in 1973. But it remained active long after Franco’s own death in 1975.
The group became bloodiest as Spain transitioned from dictatorship to democracy in the early 80s, targeting not only members of the military and police forces but also politicians, entrepreneurs, civilians and some of its own, repentant militants who wanted to leave ETA.
At least 60 other people were also killed at the hands of death squads set up by members of Spain’s security forces.
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Kanye West Criticized by Campaigners for ‘Unhelpful’ Stance on Slavery
Rapper Kanye West’s remarks about slavery being a choice were criticised on Wednesday by campaigners as disrespectful to victims and damaging to global efforts to eradicate the crime.
The U.S. award-winning musician’s comments on the transatlantic slave trade came in a video interview on Tuesday at the California offices of celebrity website TMZ.com.
During the TMZ interview, shown on its website and shared widely on social media, West says: “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.”
Amid outrage, he later said on Twitter: “Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will. “My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved.”
Yet his initial remarks belittle the nature of modern slavery, said Justine Currell, executive director of British charity Unseen.
“Suggesting anyone chooses a life of abuse and exploitation is incredibly unhelpful and disrespectful to those who have experienced slavery and those who are still being treated in this way,” Currell told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Estimates vary widely, but as many as 28 million Africans are believed to have been shipped across the Atlantic and enslaved in the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries.
About 40 million people are now thought to be trapped in forced labour and forced marriages, with women and girls making up 70 percent of victims, according to a landmark joint estimate by the United Nations and rights group Walk Free Foundation.
“More people are enslaved today than at any other point in history,” said David Westlake, chief executive of the International Justice Mission UK, an anti-trafficking charity. “Just like slavery was not a choice for people sold during the transatlantic slave trade, slavery is not a choice today.”
Following a year’s Twitter silence, the rapper and fashion designer, has posted a series of startling interviews, tweets and videos, saying he may run for U.S. president, promising four new albums and comparing himself to Henry Ford and Walt Disney.
While condemning his comments, British anti-trafficking charity The Salvation Army said the global attention on West could cast a wider spotlight on the issue of modern slavery.
“That we are talking about slavery today because someone in the public eye has referenced it, may help to remind people that it is still going on right now in every community,” said Anne Read, director of anti-trafficking and slavery at the charity.
your ad hereMilitants Attack Libyan Election Commission, 6 Killed
A suicide bomber and other militants attacked Libya’s election commission in the capital on Wednesday, killing at least six people, the Health Ministry said.
The suicide bomber blew himself up inside the building and other militants set fire to it, Health Ministry spokeswoman Wedad Abu Niran told The Associated Press. Videos posted on social media showed thick black smoke billowing from the building.
The ministry said in a statement that six people were killed and another four were wounded.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Islamic extremists are opposed to democratic elections and have targeted them in other countries.
Libya was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, and is now split between rival governments, each backed by an array of militias. A U.N.-backed government is based in Tripoli.
Earlier this week, the international Quartet trying to help bring order to Libya said it supports holding presidential and parliamentary elections this year, and will provide observers and electoral assistance to ensure the voting is free and fair.
In a joint statement following a meeting in Cairo on Monday, the European Union, the African Union, the Arab League and the United Nations said Libyans must commit in advance to respect and abide by the results and avoid violence or intimidation.
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Militants Attack Libyan Election Commission, 12 Killed
Libyan officials say an attack on the country’s electoral commission in the capital Tripoli has killed at least 12 people.
At least one of the attackers blew himself up inside while other militants stormed the building.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“[It] is a clear manifestation of everything that is wrong with the current shortsighted narrative of fake security and ‘progress,”’ said Hanan Salah of Human Rights Watch in a post on social media. Her group has underlined how elections will be difficult while Libya remains dominated by a patchwork of armed groups who continue extra-judicial killings, property confiscation, forced disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture.
Libya has been in chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and killed in 2011. The country is now split between rival governments, each backed by an array of militias. An internationally recognized administration has been set up in the western capital of Tripoli.
The uncertainty in Libya has opened the door to terror groups such as IS to set up camps.
Some information in this report was provided by Associated Press
your ad hereTrump to Make First Visit to State Department
President Donald Trump makes his first visit to the State Department Wednesday for a ceremonial swearing in of his new secretary of state.
“It’s an important day for the president’s first trip to this important place,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday while speaking to personnel who gathered as he arrived for his first full day at the State Department.
Pompeo, the former CIA director, has vowed to bring back the “swagger” to the State Department.
“The United States diplomatic corps need to be in every corner, every stretch of the world, executing missions on behalf of this country, and it is my humble, noble undertaking to help you achieve that,” said Pompeo on Tuesday.
Pompeo takes the helm of the State Department after Trump fired then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March, hours after Tillerson had returned from a trip to Africa.
Unlike with Tillerson, Trump is said to have a close working relationship with Pompeo. The president and several Cabinet members will be on-hand on Wednesday for Pompeo’s ceremonial swearing-in, a clear sign that Pompeo enjoys the trust and backing of the president.
“Mike Pompeo is someone who I think has the close ear of the president,” said Nile Gardiner of the conservative-leaning Washington-based think-tank, The Heritage Foundation.
Tuesday, Pompeo took selfies with several State Department employees, vowing to reach out to as many staff members as he could.
“I’ll spend as little time on the 7th floor” and meet people in “many parts of this organization,” said the new secretary of state.
A U.S. foreign service officer, who did not want to be named, told VOA he hopes Pompeo’s experiences in Congress, the U.S. military, and the intelligence community “highlight that the United States faces real adversaries abroad, and that the [State] Department’s career employees are resources — not the enemy.”
Tillerson was under fire at the State Department for leaving many senior vacancies unfilled and proposing dramatic budget cuts, lowering the morale of the diplomatic workforce.
Pompeo, who was confirmed last week, boarded a plane just hours after being sworn in Thursday, traveling to the NATO foreign ministerial in Brussels. He continued on to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Jordan.
“I do think he is going to be a far bigger presence on the world stage than Rex Tillerson was,” said The Heritage Foundation’s Gardiner.
And while former Secretary of State Tillerson brought just one reporter on his first foreign trip to Asia, Pompeo left Washington with six journalists on his plane last week. He picked up two more reporters as he continued his overseas trip to the Middle East, before returning to Washington on Monday.
“I think I have the record for the longest trip on the first day of work,” Pompeo joked on Tuesday.
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Young Nigerians Say It Is Their Turn to Lead
On a Saturday afternoon, a few dozen people gathered in a hotel in Kafanchan, a town in Nigeria’s Kaduna state.
Something unprecedented was happening there: A 28-year-old woman named Ndi Kato was declaring her intent to represent her community at state parliament.
“I came to run for an election. I came to win an election,” Kato told the crowd, responding to a question about the seriousness of her political campaign. The crowd responded with boisterous applause.
Kato has been active in community projects, humanitarian work, youth and women empowerment, and she hopes she’s built enough clout to give her a win in this year’s primaries.
But there’s a problem.
She’s too young. Candidates vying for state parliaments in Nigeria have to be at least 30.
Kato is part of a new generation of Nigerian activists under the banner “Not Too Young To Run,” striving to take their place in the halls of power.
“I’m part of a group of young troublemakers that are creating change in the nation as we speak,” Kato told VOA.
Recent university graduate Ehi Enabulele said she was captivated by Kato’s interview on a local TV channel.
“The way she was talking, and how passionate she was, and what she was saying — she just resonated with me as a person,” Enabulele told VOA. “Ndi represents an idea that young people are not burdened by their age. It’s an advantage, if you ask me.”
A few days ago, Enabulele packed her bags and left the commercial hub of Lagos to volunteer in Kato’s political campaign.
It’s this recent wave of youthful enthusiasm that is driving Nigeria’s largest social movement to engage young people in politics.
More than 180 million people live in Nigeria, and more than half of them are below the age of 30. Yet, they are barely represented in political offices.
‘Politically malnourished’
The Not Too Young To Run campaign has generated thousands of impressions on social media with its hashtag. Street demonstrations attended by prominent activists have given the movement the push it needed to gain widespread acceptance, though it was initially viewed with suspicion among elected officials.
“They felt threatened that young people would take over their seats, particularly parliamentarians,” said 28-year-old Hamzat Lawal, one of the founders of Not Too Young To Run.
“My generation has been malnourished politically. Over the years, we’ve been promised a lot but nothing has been given, so our generation is a generation of broken promises. And I felt that is our responsibility as activists and campaigners to bring that voice to the front burner.”
The campaign was able to gain parliament passage of a bill to reduce the age qualification for president from 40 years to 30, governor from 35 to 30, senator from 35 to 30, and House of Representative member from 30 to 25 years.
Having been passed by federal lawmakers and 35 out of Nigeria’s 36 states, the bill — sponsored by the Honorable Tony Nwulu in the Nigerian parliament’s lower house — is now waiting to be sent to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I’m very confident that Mr. President will assent to the bill,” Nwulu, one of the bill’s sponsors, told VOA. “One, it addresses the injustice against the young people. Two, it reinforces or reemphasizes his commitment or his belief in the youth of this country. Thirdly, it is nothing but a compensation also for the young people who trooped out to support him in 2015.”
Backlash against Buhari
But many Nigerians are questioning Buhari’s commitment to empower youth. Speaking at a business forum in London earlier this month, Buhari said that a lot of Nigerians below the age of 30 have not been to school and “are claiming that Nigeria is an oil producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing, and get housing, health care, education, free.”
The comment spurred backlash and the #NigeriansAreNotLazy hashtag was generated a few weeks ago in response to Buhari’s comments and has been heavily used on Twitter. The 75-year-old president announced his bid for a second term, but he is losing support among the young.
Hamza Haruna was among the millions of young people who campaigned for Buhari in 2015 but said Buhari would not get his vote in 2019.
“Actually, he’s not encouraging the youth. Even if a lot of the youth did not go to school, what has the presidency done with regards to the education of the youth?” Haruna, a student leader at a university in northern Nigeria, said.
Nigeria has the largest number of school-aged children out of school — at least 10 million, according to UNICEF.
“He has failed in his fight against corruption. He has failed in regards to security. And he has failed the youth,” former Buhari-supporter and political analyst Murtala Abubakar told VOA.
Buhari has been accused of not fulfilling his promise to pay a monthly stipend to unemployed university graduates. The administration adamantly claims that Buhari never made such a promise.
Poverty is increasing across Nigeria, and many blame Buhari for the country’s economic woes. Kato believes she can help solve some of these problems.
“If the president does not sign this bill, everything we are building, everything everybody is leaning on right now, is going to go to flames,” she said.
Movement spreading
What began in Nigeria is now spreading. Other African countries – namely Zimbabwe, Gambia and Kenya – are looking at their own age requirements for political offices. The Office of the U.N. Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, in partnership with the European Youth Forum, UNDP, and other organizations, initiated the global campaign, crediting Nigeria.
Lawal said he plans to re-visit the matter to advocate reducing the age requirement further to 18 years across the board.
“If you can vote at 18, then you should also be allowed to contest for the highest office in the land at 18,” he said.
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Watchdog: Global Military Spending up by 1.1 Percent
A Swedish arms watchdog says global military spending rose to $1.739 trillion last year, a 1.1 percent increase on 2016.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says China continued its upward trend that has lasted for more than two decades, Russian expenditure fell for the first time since 1998, and the United States’ military spending remained constant for the second consecutive year.
SIPRI chairman Jan Eliasson, presenting the report Wednesday, said that “continuing high world military expenditure is a cause for serious concern,” adding that “it undermines the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world.”
Nan Tian, a SIPRI researcher, added that, globally speaking, “the weight of military spending is clearly shifting away from the Euro-Atlantic region.”
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Earthquake Rattles Southern Iran, 31 Injured
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck a remote, mountainous region in southern Iran on Wednesday, injuring at least 31 people and disrupting power and communication lines, state media reported.
It says the temblor rocked the town of Sisakht, some 700 kilometers (430 miles) south of Tehran, causing people to rush out into the streets. The town has a population of 10,000. Footage showed cracks in the walls of buildings.
The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Jalal Pouranfard, the head of provincial emergency services, as saying 18 people were transferred to medical centers and another 13 received treatment.
Iran is prone to near-daily earthquakes as it sits on major fault lines. In November, a magnitude 7.2 quake hit western Iran, killing more than 600. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people.
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S. Korea Wants US Troops to Stay After Any Peace Deal
South Korea said on Wednesday the issue of U.S. troops stationed in the South is unrelated to any future peace treaty with North Korea and that American forces should stay even if such an agreement is signed.
“U.S. troops stationed in South Korea are an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States. It has nothing to do with signing peace treaties,” said Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House, citing President Moon Jae-in.
The Blue House was responding to media questions about a column written by South Korean presidential adviser and academic Moon Chung-in that was published earlier this week. Moon Chung-in said it would be difficult to justify the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea if a peace treaty was signed after the two Koreas agreed at an historic summit last week to put an end to the Korean conflict.
However, Seoul wants the troops to stay because U.S. forces in South Korea play the role of a mediator in military confrontations between neighboring superpowers like China and Japan, another presidential official told reporters on condition of anonymity earlier on Wednesday.
Presidential adviser Moon Chung-in was asked not to create confusion regarding the president’s stance, Kim said. The United States currently has around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, which North Korea has long demanded be removed as one of the conditions for giving up its nuclear and missile programs.
However, there was no mention in last week’s declaration by Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea. Kim and Moon Jae-in pledged to work for the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula.
U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea since the Korean War, which ended in 1953 in an armistice that left the two Koreas technically still at war. Moon Jae-in and Kim have said they want to put an end to the Korean conflict, promising there will be “no more war” on the Korean peninsula.
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US Centenarian Record Runner Publishes Inspiring Memoir
A 102-year-old woman from New York, who set a world record as a runner only seven years ago, has published a memoir documenting the achievements and tribulations of her challenging life. Ida Keeling’s newly published book is titled Can’t Nothing Bring Me Down. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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Female Cabbies Hit Nairobi’s Roads as Taxi-Hailing Apps Mushroom
With their manicured nails, immaculate makeup and matching handbags and
stilettos, you would be forgiven for mistaking the five women seated in the cafe of the upscale Nairobi hotel for a group of senior female executives.
Sipping white hot chocolate from delicate porcelain cups, they discuss their long working hours and challenges in finding time with their children, and share strategies on networking and dealing with difficult clients.
But these Kenyan women aren’t company directors, finance professionals or corporate lawyers — they are part of a new breed of women who are breaking into the male-dominated taxi sector and hitting Nairobi’s roads as e-cabbies.
“Taxi driving is not something I would have considered before, but after driving for a taxi app service, I think it’s a really good job for women,” said Lydia Muchiri, 29, in a knee-length fitted white dress with floral print.
“It’s convenient, easy and safe — much better than sitting at home and depending on handouts,” she said, as the other women, in their 20s and 30s, nodded in agreement.
As taxi-hailing apps mushroom to fill a hole in Nairobi’s poor public transport system, rising numbers of women are taking up jobs as drivers — citing benefits such as flexible working hours, the ability to select passengers, and guaranteed payment.
Online female cabbies currently make up only about 3 percent of the city’s estimated 12,000 e-taxi drivers, but industry officials say their numbers are growing exponentially.
Little Cabs, one of Nairobi’s popular ride-sharing platforms, and the only app offering riders the choice of a male or female driver, has witnessed a 13-fold increase in the number of female drivers over the last two years.
“There were 27 women drivers registered with Little Cabs when we first started in June 2016, now there are 381. We aim to have 1,000 women drivers by the end of this year,” said Jefferson Aluda, operations manager for Little Cabs.
“Many people think taxi driving is a man’s job, but that view is changing. Customers tell us that women are careful drivers and very professional. Through our recruitment campaigns, we expect more women to join.”
Empowering
Kenya’s economy has grown on average by 5 percent annually over the last decade, but the benefits have not been equally distributed — and women remain disadvantaged socially, economically and politically.
Women make up only a third of the 2.5 million people employed in the formal sector and own only 1 percent of agricultural land, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
Despite global criticism that the sharing economy lowers wages, encourages tax evasion and provides little protections to users, the emergence of platforms such as taxi-hailing apps in Kenya is in fact helping to empower women.
In the last three years, at least a dozen e-cab apps have launched to meet the demands of a growing smartphone-armed middle class seeking an affordable and safer alternative to the city’s reckless overcrowded matatus, or minivans.
Drivers earn a minimum of 30 Kenyan shillings ($0.30) per minute and companies take up to 25 percent their earnings, but female drivers still welcome the opportunity provided by firms such as Uber, Taxify, Little Cabs and Pewin.
Minus the company fee, fuel and car rental costs, drivers working 12 hours daily can earn on average 60,000 shillings ($600) in a month, say industry sources.
Faridah Khamis, a single mother of five children, decided to become an online taxi driver in February last year after chatting with a male driver who encouraged her to apply.
“The rates are low and I have to work 12 hours daily — when my children are at school and at night when they are asleep. But it’s better money than an office job these days,” said the 36-year-old woman standing beside her silver Mazda.
“I also think it’s very safe for women. I choose when I work, where I work, and which clients I work with. If I was a regular taxi driver, I would be on the roads looking for passengers. The app means I can find customers from my home.”
The women choose riders with higher ratings and opt for locations in populated rather than isolated areas. Their companies also track them via GPS, and they have an alert/SOS button on their apps for support if they need help.
Not always a smooth ride
Uber officials say ride-sharing apps can provide a great economic opportunity for women, particularly in developing nations such as Kenya.
“We think apps like Uber can help break down global, structural barriers that keep women from fully participating in the economy,” Uber’s East Africa spokeswoman Janet Kemboi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“These include social biases, security risks, financial and digital inclusion, and access to vehicles and other assets.”
But it’s not always a smooth ride for Kenya’s female e-cabbies. They occasionally face discrimination and abuse — from difficulties renting cars due to biased perceptions that women are bad drivers, to fending off drunken male passengers.
And with their phone numbers accessible to customers through the app, the women also endure daily “follow-up calls” from former customers who want to date them after the trip is over.
The female cabbies say they also face sexist comments where people perceive them to be sex workers simply because they are well-dressed, working at night, and doing a “man’s job.”
But such instances are rare, say the female drivers, and working in the taxi sector has inspired some of them to one day have their own fleet of taxis — for women, driven by women.
“There is a demand for women taxi drivers. Customers appreciate our appearance and professionalism. Some say we drive safer and our cars are cleaner than [those of] male drivers,” said Muchiri.
“We take pride in ourselves and in our job. We are no less than someone who works in an office. We see our car as our office and believe that once we are in the car, we must behave like a professional.”
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British Children Learn the ABCs of FGM to Help End Harmful Practice
As teacher Tanya Mathiason flicked through a slideshow to display diagrams of male and female genitalia to primary school children in northwest London, no one flinched or giggled.
Instead, the students eagerly discussed the meaning of the words: female, genital and mutilation.
“Break those words down: What does female mean? What does genital mean? What does mutilation mean?” said Mathiason, the head of pastoral care at Norbury School in the culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhood of Harrow.
“It means when someone cuts off stuff?” replied one student.
“Harm?” said another.
By the time they leave Norbury School, all 640 students — both boys and girls — will have learned about female genital mutilation (FGM), a ritual that usually involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia including the clitoris.
An estimated 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales have undergone FGM, according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
FGM can cause chronic pain, menstrual problems, recurrent urinary tract infections, cysts and infertility. Some girls hemorrhage to death or die from infections. It can also cause fatal childbirth complications in later life.
Young age
As FGM is mostly carried out between infancy and age 15, school principal Louise Browning said she wanted the students to start learning about it in the third year, at about seven years old.
“I became more aware that FGM was happening to girls at a much younger age than I thought,” Browning told Reuters.
“Who’s to say that we don’t have survivors in our school? I felt I was letting down my girls by not raising this. Our end goal is for this practice to stop.”
Browning and her team worked with the National FGM Centre, run by children’s charity Barnado’s and the Local Government Association, to devise age-appropriate lessons, which they began teaching in Norbury School in 2015.
It is one of only a handful of primary schools in the country that teaches students about FGM, but raising awareness among parents and children was necessary, she said.
FGM mostly affects immigrant communities from various countries including Somalia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria and Egypt — a demographic that is well-represented in the Harrow school.
“Many of our families, our children, come from FGM-practicing communities so it is really important that they have this knowledge, that they leave here at 11 [years old] knowing what this practice is about,” said pastoral manager Mathiason.
Shocking
FGM is performed by Muslims and Christians and by followers of some indigenous religions. People often believe FGM is required by religion, but it is not mentioned in the Koran or the Bible.
“Most people who do it think it’s in their religion … but no religion actually tells you to do that,” said 11-year-old Khadija, who has learned about FGM since she was seven.
“It’s just shocking because it’s most likely to be parents who would do it. They’re the ones who love you and care about you, but instead they want to harm you,” she added.
In March, a London solicitor accused of forcing his daughter to be circumcised was acquitted, increasing pressure on police and prosecutors who have yet to secure a conviction for FGM more than 30 years after it was outlawed.
The prosecution was only the second to be brought under FGM legislation introduced in 1985.
FGM is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality, but beliefs around the practice vary enormously. Many believe it purifies the girl, brings her status in the community and prevents promiscuity. Uncut girls risk being ostracized.
Sonita Pobi, head of training at the National FGM Center, said the lessons helped children make sense of the practice and know who to turn to for help, regardless of their cultural background or religion.
“It’s about giving children the vocabulary to speak up when something is wrong. It’s about making children aware about the hidden form of abuse that may happen to them,” Pobi said.
After learning about FGM at Norbury School, 11-year-old Oliver said he felt empowered to help classmates and friends.
“When I first learnt about it, I was quite scared because it was happening. But once I knew quite a bit about it, I knew that I couldn’t really sort out the situation, but I would know who to speak to,” he said.
His classmate Naylen, also 11, agreed.
“I think the FGM lessons are good for children to learn because … we could make a change to all of these harmful activities,” he said.
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Volatile Oil Prices Prompt Algerian Agricultural Drive
Algerian farmer Hassen Miri trudges through mud to inspect his durum wheat field, helping the oil-producing nation in its efforts to boost agricultural output and reduce food imports.
“Things are moving slowly but better than in past years,” said Miri, who has fields of cereals and vegetables in Bourkika, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Algiers.
“I’m optimistic,” he said, after weeks of heavy rain relieved a long period of drought in the North African country.
Algeria, a member of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has long neglected its farmers and focused on its oil and gas industry, which generates about 60 percent of state revenues.
But a crash in oil prices from above $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016 left the nation struggling to fund its $50 billion annual import bill and has prompted the government to look for ways to ease the strain on its coffers.
Emphasis on local production
With 20 percent of the import bill going toward food, the government has launched a drive to increase local production, seeking to encourage farmers with incentives such as low-interest loans and free vaccinations for livestock.
It is also expanding the use of irrigation to cover 2 million hectares in 2019 (7,720 square miles) from 1.3 million hectares now (5,020 square miles), officials say, helping farmers who rely on rains that can fail.
The government is building 15 new dams to add to the 80 existing ones to water cereals covering an area of 600,000 hectares (2,315 square miles), up from just 60,000 hectares now.
“Now Algeria is offering the agricultural sector with great support, with huge funds to help the production and to provide food for all Algerians,” said Mohamed Djahed, head of the parliamentary agriculture committee.
The government wants to boost output of wheat — one of the main items on the food import bill — to 5.3 million tons by 2022 from 3.5 million tons in 2017.
Algeria, one of the world’s biggest wheat importers, is expected to consume 10.55 million tons of the grain in the 2018-19 season, the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service said.
Algeria also wants to double output for other products such as potatoes, milk and meat over four years.
In addition to promoting Algerian production, the government has drawn up a list of 851 items that it now bans from being imported, including some food products.
Bureaucracy’s effects
But government initiatives are taking time to feed through.
Official figures show the overall value of food imports fell by just 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018 compared with a year earlier, while the value of cereal and milk imports rose.
“Algeria has all the tools needed to promote production,” said an economics professor at the University of Algiers, asking not to be identified. “But, as usual, the implementation will take time because of bureaucracy.”
Nevertheless, farmers are responding to the government push.
Mohamed Amine Abid, who breeds dairy cattle, has increased his herd to 70 cows from 40 since starting up in 2013, helped by state aid that included an extra piece of land.
“Our objective is to develop the Algerian cow. We want it to be born in and raised in Algeria to get used to our climate,” he said.
The state budget is still stretched, even as oil prices have been recovering, so some government initiatives have been scrapped. But Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said agriculture spending, worth about $2 billion this year, would not be cut in 2019.
However, analysts say providing aid is not sufficient to achieve the government’s goal of increasing agriculture’s share of economic output from 12 percent now, as long as youths are losing interest in the land and looking elsewhere for jobs.
“We need to win the food security battle,” said farmer Ahmed Moussaoui, 50.
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Drop in Spending Could Affect Russian Military, Think Tank Says
Russian military spending fell by a fifth last year, its first decline in nearly two decades, with tighter purse strings likely to affect Moscow’s military activity ahead, a report by defense think tank SIPRI showed Wednesday.
Russia has flexed its military muscles during the last few years with its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and deep involvement in the Syrian conflict serving as examples of its more belligerent stance.
But while global military spending rose 1 percent to $1.739 billion last year, Russia’s fell 20 percent in real terms to $66.3 billion, the report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed.
It was the first fall since 1998, a year of a major crisis when Russia’s economy collapsed and it defaulted on domestic debt. The following year Vladimir Putin took power as prime minister and, on New Year’s Eve, president.
Based on the government’s spending plan until 2020, defense costs are expected to stay flat from 2017 or possibly even fall somewhat adjusted for inflation, said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher in the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Program.
“Very clearly that has a direct impact on procurement and on operations. Those are the quickest things to cut,” Wezeman told Reuters.
In fourth place
Russia dropped to fourth place in the ranking of the world’s biggest military spenders, overtaken by Saudi Arabia.
“Russia definitely has a very clear feeling it has to show that it is still a major power, and you show that by undertaking operations, in for example, Syria, by showing up on the Atlantic Ocean with your navy,” Wezeman said. “But I am sure that there will be serious cost cuts to those.”
Russia’s finances are still fragile following a two-year economic downturn brought on by Western sanctions and a collapse in global oil prices. Higher crude prices helped the economy return to growth of 1.5 percent last year, short of a government target of 2 percent.
The export-dependent economy has now got accustomed to lower commodity prices than before 2014, and the budget is likely to post a small deficit or even a surplus in 2018.
Putin has also called for higher living standards and higher spending on social infrastructure, such as health care and education. Some government officials have called for lower military spending to free up funds for such initiatives.
The Kremlin said in March that Russia would cut its military budget to less than 3 percent of gross domestic product within the next five years.
The United States remains the world’s biggest military spender by far, accounting for 35 percent of global expenditures, more than the next seven highest-spending countries combined. Its military budget was unchanged in 2016 and 2017 but a significant rise is expected this year.
China’s spending as a share of world military expenditure rose to 13 percent last year from 5.8 percent in 2008.
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Malawi Pushes New Biometric Voter Registration, Despite Doubts
Malawi has always relied on paper registration for voters, but electoral authorities say that hasn’t worked so well.
“We used to have a lot of problems in the past” with the passports and driver’s licenses used for registration “because photographs may fall off” or names may get misspelled, said Yahya Mmadi, a member of the Malawi Electoral Commission.
But the southeast African country’s recently unveiled biometric system, being put in place before the 2019 general elections, “will be 100 percent correct,” he said. It relies on unique markers such as fingerprints.
The new system has another advantage, according to Mmadi: It is faster, so people will spend less time on registration than when passports and driver’s licenses had to be verified and checked.
The commission wants to see the national ID card — which uses biometric data and is issued by the National Registration Bureau (NRB) — as the only acceptable document for voter registration.
There’s one problem: Only about 9 million of 16 million Malawians have registered for the national ID card.
Plan of action
Mmadi said the electoral commission is working on that.
“What is going to happen is that we will go out with members of NRB to the registration centers,” he said. “Those without registration cards will actually be advised to go and get registered with the NRB.”
Some voting rights groups are concerned about the change. Steve Duwa, chairman of the Malawi National Electoral Support Network, said he expected a legal challenge to the new system.
“The law, as it stands now, allows different forms of identification apart from the national ID,” Duwa said. The electoral commission promotes biometric voter registration “as easier to implement and therefore would love as much as possible for the prospective voters to only use the national ID. But the question is: What will happen to the law?”
The commission already has asked the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to amend the law so that the national ID will be the only document used to identify eligible voters.
Malawi is expected to start the voter registration campaign next month.
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Gunmen Kill at Least Eight Civilians North of Baghdad
Militants opened fire on unarmed Iraqi civilians on Tuesday, killing at least eight and wounding three in a town 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, a security source said.
Security forces were searching the area in Tarmiya where the shooting took place, the military said in a statement which did not specify a death toll.
“Security forces stopped this terrorist gang,” the military later said in a second statement.
It was not immediately clear how many people were killed, with local news media reports putting the toll at between five and 20. One witness told Reuters 16 people were killed and three were wounded.
Iraq declared victory in December over Islamic State, which had seized control of nearly a third of the country in 2014.
However, the group continues to carry out attacks and bombings in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.
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