Month: August 2018

Russian Opposition Leader Detained in Moscow

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained in Moscow, just two months after his release from prison for organizing protests against the government of President Vladimir Putin.

A spokeswoman for Navalny said Saturday the reason for the detention is unclear that and he was being held at the Danilovsky police station.

Navalny had posted on his blog Saturday that protests against the Putin government would take place September 9 in Moscow and “almost a hundred other cities.” The protests were against Putin’s pension reform plans.

September 9 is also the date of Moscow’s mayoral election.

Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, told radio station Ekho Moskvy that Navalny’s seizure by authorities is “probably linked” to the protest plans.

Navalny has faced a string of charges for his opposition activism. In March, he was barred from running in the country’s presidential election because of his criminal record.

 
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Zimbabwe Opposition Rejects Ruling and ‘False’ Inauguration

Posted on by SeeAF

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader said Saturday he respectfully rejects the court ruling upholding President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s narrow election win and he called the inauguration set for Sunday “false.”

Nelson Chamisa spoke a day after the Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the opposition’s claims of vote-rigging and said it did not bring “sufficient and credible evidence.”

Chamisa said “we have the right to peaceful protest” and that other routes will be pursued now that the legal one has reached an end. “Change is coming,” he said. “Political doors are going to be opened very soon.” He gave no details.

Last month’s peaceful election was seen as a chance for Zimbabwe to move on from Robert Mugabe’s repressive 37-year-rule. Now Chamisa alleges “a new persecution” after a deadly crackdown on the opposition.

The 40-year-old opposition leader again said he won the election and that the southern African nation needs fundamental reforms that cannot be resolved by five more years of “vacant leadership.”

The 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe enforcer who has tried to restyle himself as a reformer, appealed for calm after the court ruling and in a Twitter post told Chamisa “my door is open and my arms are outstretched.”

Chamisa responded with skepticism, saying the opposition had reached out to Mnangagwa for dialogue earlier but the president did not respond.

Zimbabwe’s electoral commission had declared Mnangagwa the winner of the July 30 balloting with 50.8 percent of the vote. It later revised it to 50.6 percent, citing an “error” but arguing it was not significant enough to invalidate the win. It said Chamisa received 44.3 percent.

‘Electoral theft of the century’

Chamisa’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change party late Friday issued an angry statement saying in the coming days it would announce a “vigorous program of action in response to this electoral theft of the century.”

Chamisa on Saturday, however, said he didn’t know where that statement came from. He said the party’s national council will meet next week on the way forward, and he did not directly respond to questions about the possibility of a government of national unity.

Mnangagwa, who took power in November after Mugabe stepped down under military pressure, called the election Zimbabwe’s most transparent and credible ever. The government badly needed a credible vote to help end its status as a global pariah, have international sanctions lifted and open the door to investment in an economy that collapsed under Mugabe.

Zimbabweans now await the final reports from dozens of Western observers invited into the country for the first time in nearly two decades. The observers noted few issues on election day but expressed concern over the harassment of the opposition that followed. Six people were killed two days after the vote when the military swept into the capital, Harare, to disperse protests.

Mnangagwa has said an inquiry would look into the deaths after his inauguration.

Chamisa indicated that he felt threatened as an opposition leader. “By challenging a dictatorship you are signing a death warrant,” he said. “We are ready for any eventuality.”

Meanwhile, the 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium was being prepared for Sunday’s inauguration, with soldiers drilling and workmen hanging colorful pro-Mnangagwa banners.

“Rest assured of a brighter tomorrow,” one banner said.

Chamisa said he would not attend.

 
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Austrian FM Defends Wedding Curtsy to Putin

Posted on by SeeEU

Austria’s foreign minister is defending a curtsy to Russian President Vladimir Putin at her wedding, saying that it was a traditional dance move and she doesn’t “submit” to anyone.

 

Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl invited Putin to her wedding last weekend, raising eyebrows at home and abroad. She told Oe1 radio Saturday it was a spontaneous decision made when Putin visited Vienna in June.

 

Video footage showed the bride dancing with Putin and making a deep curtsy at the end. Kneissl said that “if you’ve seen a ball opening, then you will have seen again and again that there is this curtsy at the end.”

 

She added “this was portrayed in commentaries as an act of submission, of prostration. And anyone who knows me knows that I submit to no one.”
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In Ireland, Pope Expresses Outrage Over ‘Grave Scandal’

Posted on by SeeEU

Pope Francis began the first papal visit to Ireland in almost 40 years Saturday, saying he shares the outrage of the Catholic community over the “repugnant crimes” committed by priests who raped and molested children, as well as over the failure of Church authorities to properly address the abuses.

“I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the Church charged with responsibility for their protection and education,” Francis told a state reception at Dublin Castle where some abuse survivors were in attendance.

“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – to adequately address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.”

Addressing global outrage over the abuse scandal, Francis noted measures taken by his predecessor, Pope Benedict, to deal with the crisis created through a system of cover-up, but offered no new plan for steps he would take to punish bishops and priests who failed to protect those entrusted to their care.

Francis did say he was committed to vetting the church of this “scourge” regardless of the moral cost or amount of suffering.Ireland has changed greatly since Pope John Paul II visited in 1979, becoming much more secular following clerical sexual abuse scandals that began to surface in 2005.

Calls for concrete action

Francis’ visit comes at a time when recent sexual abuse crises in the United States, Chile and Australia have reminded the Irish people of similar scandals at the hands of Irish priests and bishops.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to turn out to see the pope, but demonstrations are planned as well.

Many abuse victims, their families and supporters are calling on the pope to do more than just hold a private meeting with a select group of survivors. Protesters will gather in Dublin while the pope says Mass on Sunday, urging him to take concrete action against sex abuse.

 

A prominent Irish abuse survivor, Marie Collins, told a Vatican-sponsored conference on Friday that the Catholic Church must put in place “robust structures” to hold abusive clergy accountable.

 

“Anyone in the Vatican who would stand in the way of proper protection of children should be accountable as well,” said Collins, a former member of Pope Francis’ abuse advisory board.

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will be meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse and says he will also visit Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Dublin to pray for victims.

 

‘Hard to change a culture’

The Vatican’s chief spokesman Greg Burke told Irish broadcaster RTE on Friday that the sexual abuse scandal is the result of a “cultural problem” that will take time to remedy.

 

He suggested that the pope would not be announcing specific measures during his trip.

 

“I think in 36 hours – or 32 hours on the ground – it’s hard to change a culture,” he said.

 

“In terms of moving to actions, that will happen. But it doesn’t happen overnight … Let’s first listen to the pope, and that in itself is an important part of this,” Burke said.

This past week, the pope wrote a letter to the world’s Catholics, stressing that “no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”

The Catholic Church is much less dominant in public life in Ireland than it once was. The country has recently voted to legalize same-sex marriage and abortion, and has put a gay prime minister in office.

 

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he is glad the church is less influential.

 

“I think it still has a place in our society but not one that determines public policy or determines our laws,” he said.

 

Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland was originally meant to focus on attending and closing the World Meeting of Families, which is held once every three years to discuss matters of importance to the family unit. The highlight of Francis’ trip to Ireland will be an outdoor Mass in the city’s Phoenix Park on Sunday, expected to draw a half-million people.

However, the latest abuse scandals around the world have shifted the focus, in part, to how the Vatican will respond to the matter.

 

Two U.S. cardinals —  Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the pope’s top adviser on clerical sexual abuse, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington — were scheduled to attend the conference in Dublin but will be absent due to further revelations of clerical sexual abuse in America.

Another U.S. cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, was recently forced to resign due to allegations of abuse and misconduct.

Sabina Castelfranco contributed to this report.
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Glass Harpist Awes Tourists With Sassy Tunes

Posted on by SeeUS

Musician Jamey Turner chose an unconventional career path by becoming a glass harpist. He plays music with glasses filled with water. He uses his fingertips to rub the rim of the glasses to create a range of musical tones. VOA’s Deborah Block watched Turner play the glass harp in Alexandria, Virginia, where people seemed to be awestruck by the sounds he created.
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Iran’s New Warplane Seen Limited as Weapon, Useful for Training

Posted on by SeeEA

Iran’s unveiling this week of a domestically made fighter jet resembling an obsolete U.S. warplane has drawn Western derision about its efficacy as a weapon, but also appreciation of its training potential.

“This is almost a laughable event,” said Michael Pregent, a Middle East analyst at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, in a VOA Persian interview. He was referring to Tuesday’s Iranian state TV report about what it called a fourth-generation Iranian-produced “Kowsar” warplane with “advanced avionics.”

In the broadcast, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sat in the cockpit as he inspected the fighter jet.

Iranian state TV later showed a takeoff of the warplane and an in-flight video apparently filmed from inside the cockpit. Some Western and Israeli aviation analysts were quick to note the Kowsar’s visual resemblance to the U.S. F-5 Tiger jet that the U.S. military began using in the 1960s. Iran purchased at least 140 F-5 Tigers from the U.S. in the 1970s, before the 1979 revolution that brought to power Tehran’s anti-American Islamist leadership.

“This is an aircraft that we have not used in 20 years, except for training other countries in how to fly American aircraft,” Pregent said. “This dated technology is not intimidating.”

Pregent said the Kowsar’s limitations as a modern-day warplane could hurt Iran more than help.

“Iran wants to be able to project an offensive (aerial) capability in the Strait of Hormuz and to at least demonstrate a similar capability to attack American forces in Iraq and Syria,” he said. “But I think (the Kowsar’s launch) will backfire, because the U.S. will increase its defensive posture in Iraq and Syria and make it very easy to shoot one of them down.”

Any Iranian warplanes crossing into Iraq or Syria could face the U.S. military’s advanced F-16 jets and F-22 stealth jets that have been flying over both nations as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, a U.S.-led coalition operation against the Islamic State militant group.

But the Kowsar may serve one useful purpose for Iran. In a Tuesday report, Iranian state-run news agency Fars said the warplane’s main function is for training missions.

Justin Bronk, an aerial-combat analyst at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the Business Insider news site that Iran has faced a shortage of fighter pilots.

“Iran has been relying for a long time on basically a bunch of increasingly old veteran pilots, a lot of whom were trained by — or were trained by those who were trained by — the U.S. before the revolution,” Bronk said.

Using the Kowsar to train a younger generation of Iranian pilots is not a bad idea, in Bronk’s view. 

“It makes the most of the limited technology options they have,” he said.

Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report, which was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
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When It Comes to Presidential Wrongdoing, the Remedy Is Often Political

Posted on by SeeUS

In the United States, it is often said that no one is above the law, even the president. But what happens when the president is implicated in criminal wrongdoing?

The question took on new relevance this week after President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws, which he says was done at the direction of then-candidate Trump.

​Defiant Trump

At a campaign style rally in West Virginia Wednesday, Trump ignored his legal difficulties and rallied his base.

“Under our administration, America is winning again and America is being respected again all over the world. It is America first,” Trump said to cheers.

But the Cohen guilty plea combined with the fraud conviction of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort have handed Democrats a new political weapon just in time for the midterm congressional election campaign.

“Consideration of country and Constitution aside, if my Republican colleagues remain silent, the party is becoming a co-conspirator in the culture of corruption that surrounds this president,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

 

WATCH: When It Comes to Presidential Wrongdoing, Remedy Often Political

Legal jeopardy

Legal analysts said this week that Trump’s possible involvement in the campaign violations admitted to by Cohen could put the president in legal jeopardy.

“He is potentially now an unindicted co-conspirator and could be indicted,” George Washington University Law Professor Paul Schiff Berman via Skype. “Now there is an open question as to whether a sitting president can be indicted for criminal wrongdoing. Obviously he could be impeached, but that is not going to happen as long as Republicans hold the House and the Senate.”

If the president eventually faces charges of specific criminal wrongdoing, impeachment may be a more likely remedy than going through the courts.

Justice Department guidance

The Justice Department has longstanding internal guidance that likely bar a sitting president from being indicted while in office. Although never tested in court, the guidance held sway during the impeachment inquiries involving former Presidents Bill Clinton in 1998-99 and Richard Nixon in 1974.

But there is no constitutional bar to seeking an indictment of a president once out of office.

Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for lying about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, but was acquitted in a trial in the Senate.

Nixon did not fare as well. He became the first president to resign after the House began impeachment proceedings in 1974.

​Impeachment politics

The Senate remains in Republican hands and could protect Trump even if Democrats win back a House majority in the November midterms. The House can impeach the president with a simple majority vote. But removing a president from office requires a trial in the Senate.

“In the Senate, you need two-thirds of the Senate to convict a president and that has never happened before,” said University of Virginia legal analyst Saikrishna Prakash via Skype. “Two presidents have been impeached, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. No president has actually been removed (from office).”

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was quick to dismiss any thoughts that the president was worried about impeachment.

“I think impeachment would be totally horrible. I mean there is no reason,” Giuliani told reporters during a visit to Britain. “He did not collude with the Russians. He did not obstruct justice. Everything Cohen says has been disproved. You would only impeach him for political reasons and the American people would revolt against that.”

Politics and the law

Prakash also said that history has shown that when it comes to presidential wrongdoing, there is often a balance between legal and political remedies.

“The fact that he might not be able to be prosecuted while president might cause some people to think that the president is above the law. But of course when you are designing a system, you have to decide, do you want to subject the president to possible prosecution while he is president?”

The founders of the American republic sought to find a middle ground where Congress could hold a president accountable without undermining the basic concept of the separation of powers among the three branches of government: the executive, the legislative and the judicial. There was also a concern that a president could face numerous frivolous lawsuits and legal challenges while in office that would distract his or her attention from the pressing issues of the day.

Ultimately, if President Trump is accused of any criminal wrongdoing, his fate will likely be decided by Congress and the public, not a judge and jury.
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When It Comes to Presidential Wrongdoing, Remedy Often Political

Posted on by SeeUS

In the United States, it is said no one is above the law. But what happens when a president is implicated in criminal wrongdoing? The question resonated this week after President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws, he says at the direction of then-candidate Trump. Historically, dealing with possible criminal activity in the Oval Office has been a mix of the legal and the political, as we hear from VOA National correspondent Jim Malone.
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US Navy Revives 2nd Fleet to Counter Russia in North Atlantic

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Navy Friday formally re-established its 2nd Fleet, intensifying its focus on the North Atlantic Ocean where the Russian military is operating at a pace not seen since the end of the Cold War.

The change is mostly organizational. It revives an admiral-level command dedicated to overseeing American warships as they deploy between the U.S. East Coast and the Barents Sea, off the coasts of Norway and Russia.

The revived fleet also reflects a broader change in U.S. military strategy. The nation’s primary concern is shifting from terrorism in the Middle East to America’s growing competition with Russia and China.

“We’re not looking for a fight,” Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in Norfolk, Virginia. “But the best way to avoid a fight is develop the most powerful and deadly and competitive Navy possible,” he said.

Richardson added that if called upon, the Norfolk-based 2nd Fleet “will conduct decisive combat operations to defeat any enemy.”

​China, Russia expand navies

Both China and Russia are building larger navies as they try to expand their global influence. And Russia in particular has been increasing its submarine patrols, among other military activities.

In 2017, Russian Adm. Vladimir Korolyov said his nation’s submarine crews had spent more than 3,000 days on patrol in the last year, matching the Soviet-era operational tempo. It’s unclear how many days Russian subs had been on patrol in previous years.

“It’s an excellent level,” he said in remarks carried by state RIA Novosti news agency.

Information and airspace concerns

Concerns about information warfare have also emerged among U.S. lawmakers and American allies as Russian ships linger near undersea communications cables.

Encounters between Russian and NATO warplanes have also become increasingly frequent.

In January, Britain’s Royal Air Force scrambled two fighter jets to intercept Russian strategic bombers near U.K. airspace.

2nd Fleet is back

The original 2nd Fleet was created in 1950 as a response to the growing threat of the Soviet Union. It played an integral role in events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It was eliminated and merged with Fleet Forces Command in 2011 to save costs.

Having a 2nd Fleet allows the U.S. to work more closely and effectively with its NATO allies, retired U.S. Navy Admiral Gary Roughead said in an interview. And they will be better prepared to respond to potential Russian aggression.

Roughead said he fully expects the Russian military to increase its presence in the Atlantic in the coming years. One critical area will be the waters between the United Kingdom, Iceland and Greenland.

“Clearly, the Russian fleet is not the size that the Soviet fleet used to be, and nor is our fleet,” Roughead said, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a former chief of naval operations. “But I think the reactivation is a very wise thing to do.”
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Russian Artist Builds Cameras out of Wood

Posted on by SeeEU

A Russian artist is going back to the roots of photography, rejecting the digital trappings and the assembly-line convenience of the modern age, by designing and creating wooden cameras the way they were built a hundred years ago. Combining craftsmanship with the principles of old school photography, some consider his creations art forms in themselves. And as VOA’s Julie Taboh reports, his wooden cameras, and the unique photographs he takes with them, are attracting buyers from around the world.
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US Envoy: EU Aid to Iran Sends ‘Wrong Message’

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The top U.S. envoy on Iran criticized a European Union decision to give $20.7 million in aid to Tehran on Friday, saying it sent “the wrong message at the wrong time,” and he urged Brussels to help Washington end the Iranian threat to global stability.

“Foreign aid from European taxpayers perpetuates the regime’s ability to neglect the needs of its people and stifles meaningful policy changes,” Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, said in a statement.

“The Iranian people face very real economic pressures caused by their government’s corruption, mismanagement, and deep investment in terrorism and foreign conflicts,” he added. “The United States and the European Union should be working together instead to find lasting solutions that truly support Iran’s people and end the regime’s threats to regional and global stability.”

The EU decision on Thursday to provide 18 million euros ($20.7 million) in aid to Iran was aimed at offsetting the impact of U.S. sanctions as European countries try to salvage the 2015 agreement that saw Tehran limit its nuclear ambitions.

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal in May and is reimposing sanctions on Tehran, even as other parties to the accord are trying to find ways to save the agreement.

The EU funding is part of a wider package of 50 million euros earmarked in the EU budget for Iran, which has threatened to stop complying with the nuclear accord if it fails to see the economic benefit of relief from sanctions.

The United States is pressing other countries to comply with its sanctions.

“More money in the hands of the ayatollah means more money to conduct assassinations in those very European countries,” Hook said in his statement.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told Reuters during a visit to Israel earlier this week that the return of U.S. sanctions was having a strong effect on Iran’s economy and popular opinion.

The U.S. sanctions dusted off this month targeted Iran’s car industry, trade in gold and other precious metals, and purchases of U.S. dollars crucial to international financing and investment and trade relations. Farther-reaching sanctions are to follow in November on Iran’s banking sector and oil exports.
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Huge Wildfire Southwest of Berlin Sets off WWII Arms Blasts

Posted on by SeeEU

Firefighters struggled Friday to tame a wildfire southwest of Berlin but had to maneuver carefully as the blaze set off old World War II ammunition that is still buried in the forests around the German capital.

Flames forced the evacuation of several nearby villages and sent clouds of acrid smoke toward the German capital. 

The fire, which was the size of 500 soccer fields, has already set off several detonations of old ammunition, according to local lawmaker Christian Stein. Firefighters were not allowed to enter suspicious areas. 

“The ammunition is very dangerous, because one cannot step on the ground, and therefore one cannot get close to the fire” to extinguish it, Brandenburg state’s governor, Dietmar Woidke, told reporters. 

The fire started Thursday afternoon and spread quickly through the dry pine forests in the Treuenbrietzen region, 50 kilometers (30 miles) outside of Berlin in the eastern state of Brandenburg. By evening, authorities had evacuated 500 people from the villages of Frohnsdorf, Klausdorf and Tiefenbrunnen.

“Something like that, we didn’t even experience during the war,” 76-year-old Anita Biedermann told the dpa news agency as police told her to grab her jacket, ID and medication from her home before taking her to a nearby gym for the night.

Firefighters were trying to douse the flames in areas they could not enter with water-bearing helicopters and water cannons.

“The fire continues to be a big threat,” Woidke said. “But we will do everything to protect people’s property.”

Overnight, winds blew the smoke to Berlin, where people in some neighborhoods were told to keep their windows closed. In some cases the smell of smoke was so strong that residents called Berlin emergency services.

More than 600 firefighters and soldiers were brought in to battle the wildfire, cutting trees to make long firebreaks. Several roads were closed and local trains halted service in the area close to the fire.

Stein said the fact that the fire broke out in several places simultaneously suggested it could have been arson, but Brandenburg’s Interior Ministry said it was still investigating the cause of the fire.

Germany has seen a long, hot summer with almost no rain, and large parts of the country are on high alert regarding possible wildfires. 

Raimund Engel, who is in charge of forests in the state of Brandenburg, said 400 wildfires have already been reported this year.

“I hope the weather will play along and the winds won’t increase again,” Stein said. “We are yearning for rain.” 
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Victims of Clergy Sex Abuse Urge Pope to Do More Than Meet Survivors

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Victims of the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandal are calling on Pope Francis to take a strong stance against predator priests during his visit to Ireland.

The pope Saturday begins the first papal visit in nearly 40 years to Ireland. The country has changed greatly since Pope John Paul II visited in 1989, becoming much more secular following clerical sexual abuse scandals that began to surface in 2005.

Pope Francis’ visit comes at a time when recent sexual abuse crises in the United States, Chile, and Australia have reminded the Irish people of similar scandals at the hands of Irish priests and bishops.

 

Many abuse victims, their families and supporters are calling on the pope to do more than just hold a private meeting with a select group of survivors. Protesters will gather in Dublin while the pope says Mass on Sunday urging him to take concrete action against sex abuse.

A prominent Irish abuse survivor, Marie Collins, told a Vatican-sponsored conference on Friday that the Catholic Church must put in place “robust structures” to hold abusive clergy accountable.

“Anyone in the Vatican who would stand in the way of proper protection of children should be accountable as well,” said Collins, a former member of Pope Francis’ abuse advisory board.

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will be meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse and says he will also visit Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Dublin to pray for victims.

 

The Vatican’s chief spokesman Greg Burke told Irish broadcaster RTE on Friday that the sexual abuse scandal is the result of a “cultural problem” that will take time to remedy.

He suggested that the pope would not be announcing specific measures during his trip.

 

“I think in 36 hours — or 32 hours on the ground — it’s hard to change a culture,” he said.

“In terms of moving to actions, that will happen. But it doesn’t happen overnight … Let’s first listen to the pope, and that in itself is an important part of this,” Burke said.

This past week, the pope wrote a letter to the world’s Catholics, stressing that, “No effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”

 

The Catholic Church is much less dominant in public life in Ireland than it once was. The country has recently voted to legalize same-sex marriage and abortion, and has put a gay prime minister in office.

 

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he is glad the Church is less influential.

 

“I think it still has a place in our society but not one that determines public policy or determines our laws,” he said.

Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland was originally meant to focus on attending and closing the World Meeting of Families, which is held once every three years to discuss matters of importance to the family unit. However, the latest abuse scandals around the world have shifted the focus, in part, to how the Vatican will respond to the matter.

Two U.S. cardinals were scheduled to attend the conference in Dublin but will be absent due to further revelations of clerical sexual abuse at home. They are Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the pope’s top adviser on clerical sexual abuse, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington. Another U.S. cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, was recently forced to resign due to allegations of abuse and misconduct.

Sabina Castelfranco in Rome contributed.
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Cameroon’s Village Defenders Turn to Crime

Posted on by SeeAF

Cameroon’s village defenders — local groups armed to fight off Boko Haram militants — are being accused of turning to crime. As the threat of terrorism and support for self-defense groups declines, many of the armed men villages depended on for security are looking for new ways to make a living.

Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria has in recent years been preoccupied with the threat from Boko Haram. But, earlier this month police arrested 14 members of village defender groups accused of harassing, robbing, and abducting people for ransom.

Ahminu Youssoufa, with the Mora Criminal Research Brigadean armed police group, said as the threat from Boko Haram declined, some defenders formed gangs that prey on locals and business travelers crossing the Nigeria border.

He said authorities are still detaining five individuals who are now helping them with the investigations. They believe it is just a matter of time for the military to dismantle, what he called an entire network.

The self-defense groups were created in 2014 to patrol villages and remote border areas where the military has little or no presence.

They earned no pay but were given supplies of food, money, and equipment from donors and the authorities — that is, until Cameroon started winning the war against Boko Haram.

Gaibai Ousmanou, head of the Village Defender Committee for Mora, said when large-scale attacks by Boko Haram started fading out in 2017, assistance to the groups also dropped off.

But he insisted the groups are still needed for protection. He said although Boko Haram has not staged a full-scale attack with heavy weapons for more than a year, the presence of self-defense groups prevents followers of the Islamist group, who are still present in their communities, from attacking.

Local churches and mosques are taking up some of the slack in supporting the village defenders, said Ousmanou. But that support barely keeps them going, he said, and helps explain why some defenders use arms against those they were supposed to protect.

The governor of Cameroon’s far north region, Midjiyawa Bakari, denies a lack of official support. He said  the government will continue to assist them by providing motorcycles, bicycles, communication equipment, money and food, to enable them to intercept all those who have decided not to respect the laws.

However, he said just as Boko Haram fighters and suicide bombers were stopped, those defecting to create or join groups of robbers will also be stopped.

As he headed out on patrol, village defender Njibri Bakao acknowledged his gorup now has to defend the area against some of its own.
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Mount Etna Roars Into Action With Ash and Lava

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Mount Etna in Sicily has roared back into spectacular volcanic action, sending up plumes of ash and spewing lava.

Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) says the volcano, which initially “re-awoke” in late July, sprang into fuller action Thursday evening by shooting up chunks of flaming lava as high as 150 meters (500 feet) almost constantly.

On Friday, INGV said the action was continuing, feeding ash plumes several hundred meters (yards) into the air above the crater.

No evacuations of towns on Etna’s slopes were reported.

Sicilians farm on the fertile soils of the slopes of Etna. The volcano is also a popular destination for hikers on the Mediterranean island.
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Trump Calls Off Pompeo’s Planned Trip to North Korea

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he had canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s planned trip to North Korea because “we are not making sufficient progress” toward the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

Trump said in a message on Twitter that Pompeo’s visit, which was set for next week, now would likely not take place until after Washington has resolved its trade dispute with China. Trump said China was no longer helping on the North Korea issue.

It was a dramatic shift of tone for Trump, who had previously hailed his June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a success and said the North Korean nuclear threat was over.

Negotiations have stalled since the June summit in Singapore. Pompeo is pressing for tangible steps toward North Korea’s abandonment of its nuclear arsenal while Pyongyang is demanding that Washington first make concessions of its own.

Trump’s statement came just a day after Pompeo announced he would again visit North Korea and would take his new U.S. special representative, Stephen Biegun, with him in an attempt to break the deadlock.

But Trump asked Pompeo not to go to North Korea during a meeting at the White House on Friday afternoon, a senior White House official said.

“Because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the UN Sanctions which are in place),” Trump tweeted.

“Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved,” Trump wrote. “In the meantime I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim. I look forward to seeing him soon!”
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Taliban Accuse US of Airstrikes Against Fighters Battling IS

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The Taliban insurgency claimed Friday that U.S. airstrikes killed 16 of its fighters in eastern Afghanistan who were battling militants loyal to the rival Islamic State.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, asserted Friday that Taliban fighters were carrying out attacks against Islamic State bases in eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar, when they came under fire by U.S. drones.  He said the U.S. repeatedly bombed “our positions, vehicles and defense lines” and inflicted casualties on the Taliban fighters.

The Pentagon has not commented on the claim.  

The accusations came a day after Russia alleged “unidentified” helicopters were ferrying ammunition and arms to Islamic State fighters in a northern province of Afghanistan and demanded explanations from local as well as their NATO-led foreign military partners.

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that “unidentified” helicopters are conducting military missions in support of terrorists linked to the Islamic State faction in the northern Afghan province of Sar-e-Pul.

“We note that this is happening in the direct vicinity of Central Asian states’ borders and many ISIS (Islamic State) militants in Afghanistan hail from these countries,” said Maria Zakharova.

She said that Moscow was awaiting a reaction from Afghan security agencies and the U.S.-led international forces deployed in the country.

The Taliban and Russia have accused the U.S. military of helping Islamic State fighters in the past, charges that Washington has rejected as “completely untrue.” Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai first suggested in 2009 that the United States was secretly helping the Taliban in an effort to prolong the war. The allegation came at a time of fraying relations between Karzai’s government and Washington, and U.S. officials have long said there is no basis for the claim.

U.S. officials have also criticized Moscow for maintaining ties with the Taliban on the pretext of fighting terrorist groups in Afghanistan, saying Moscow’s policy undermines international gains in the war-shattered country.

Moscow conference on Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Russian officials have urged Kabul to attend next month’s multi-nation consultative conference in Moscow on the future of Afghanistan, where Taliban envoys will also be in attendance.

The Afghan government has refused to participate in the meeting unless Taliban negotiators agree to direct bilateral talks with its delegates on the sidelines of the September 4 gathering in the Russian capital.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry defended the event as an important step toward a comprehensive Afghan settlement.

“The purpose of inviting Taliban representatives to the Moscow meeting is to deliver a collective appeal to restore peace in Afghanistan directly to the armed Afghan opposition.… We expect representatives of Kabul to take part in the Moscow format meeting,” it said.  

Washington has also declined an invitation to attend the Moscow conference because U.S. officials maintain any peace and reconciliation effort will have to be led by the Afghan government.

VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.

 
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Fighters From New Rebel Group Attack Chad Troops at Libya Border

Posted on by SeeAF

Rebels in northern Chad attacked government forces this week at the border with Libya, the fighters and two military sources said on Friday, although the government denied an attack had taken place.

A fledgling rebel movement, the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR), says it seeks to overthrow President Idriss Deby, as Chad faces threats from jihadists and is trying to prevent the influx of militants fleeing the Libyan conflict.

Deby has been an ally of the West in the fight against Islamist militants in West Africa. He has faced several rebellions since coming to power in 1990 at the head of an insurrection that toppled then president Hissene Habre, but there has been relative calm since 2009.

The CCMSR, which says it has 4,500 fighters, was founded in 2014 and fought its first battle against government forces earlier this month in the mining town of Kouri Bougoudi. Its ranks include former rebels from the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan and former political allies of ex-president Habre, who is serving a life sentence in a Senegalese prison for

war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The CCMSR said its fighters attacked Chadian soldiers again in Kouri Bougoudi early on Tuesday morning.

“The valiant fighters … attacked the enemy once again in the most brutal manner,” it said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the enemy preferred to flee in total disarray, leaving behind sheep carcasses and other heaps of food.”

Security Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir denied that the rebels had attacked the army, but two Chadian military sources told Reuters there had been fighting. Neither the CCMSR nor the sources provided any information about casualties.

The nascent rebellion is the latest security headache for Chad which closed the border with Libya in January in the hope of barring its militants from entering.

Chad also faces threats from groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, which operate across the lawless, semi-arid Sahel band, and from Nigeria-based Boko Haram militants. Deby, 66, has won election five times since coming to power, often amid accusations of fraud. Parliament approved a new constitution in April that expands his powers and could allow him to stay in office until 2033.
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Troops on Border Mark Next Issue for Ethiopia-Eritrea Peace

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Ethiopia and Eritrea have taken major steps toward peace in the past month, resuming flights, reopening telephone links, and allowing families to meet after more than 20 years of separation.

But the Horn of Africa neighbors still have issues on the security front, especially in regard to the troops stationed along their 1,000-kilometer-long shared border.

In July, Eritrean media said troops have withdrawn from the border, but that has yet to be independently confirmed.

Political expert Awol Allo says the issue can be resolved if the two governments can muster enough political will.

“Well, that’s two countries that were on a war footing for the last 30 or 20 years. It is one of the most complex security problems you can imagine,” he said. “But, at the same time, it is really a security problem that can easily be resolved — in the sense that once the underlying political disagreements and political problems are addressed, the security problems are not that complicated.”

Between 1998 and 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a war over disputed territory on the border that claimed an estimated 70,000 lives.

Since the war, the East Africa neighbors have accused each other of supporting rebel movements and opposition groups in each other’s territory.

But in June, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his government was ready to respect a 2002 boundaries commission ruling that gave the disputed town of Badme to Eritrea.

However, the countries are still wary of each other, says Meressa Dessu, a senior researcher with the Institute of Security Studies.

“It’s a cautious relation among them,” Dessu said.

The strength of the newfound peace will be judged by how the countries can manage their border issues, according to Allo.

“Security, as I said, is the primary [issue] … and demilitarizing the border is one of the key … measure[s] by which people can judge that the two countries are moving forward,” Allo said.

Before the border war, Eritrea fought a long war for independence from Ethiopia, which it achieved in 1993.
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Senate Democrats Seek Translator’s Notes From Trump-Putin Summit

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Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to provide the panel with the translator’s notes and other materials from President Donald Trump’s Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The senators have requested any cable traffic, memos, notes and policy directives related to the July summit, when Trump and Putin met privately for more than two hours with only translators present. The White House has not provided information on what was said, and even Trump’s director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, has said he does not know what happened in the room.

In a letter sent to the State Department Friday morning, the Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said the situation requires “urgent congressional oversight.”

“Russian officials have taken advantage of the lack of communication by the White House to circulate their own, possibly false, readouts of what occurred in this private meeting,” the senators wrote.

Trump drew widespread criticism from Republican and Democratic leaders for his performance in Helsinki on July 16. At a joint press conference with Putin, Trump spoke favorably of the Russian leader and denied U.S. intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Trump’s statements fueled calls from Democrats for testimony from the American translator who was in the private meeting. Republicans shot down the idea and in the House blocked a Democratic request to issue a subpoena.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said seeking the translator’s testimony “does not seem to be to me the appropriate place for us to go.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on July 18 said they had not been able to find a precedent for an interpreter being called to testify.
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Bolton: US Sanctions to Stay Until Russia Changes Its Behavior

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Friday that U.S. sanctions against Russia would remain in place until Moscow changed its behavior.

Bolton was in Kyiv to show Washington’s support for Ukraine which celebrated the 27th anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union with a military parade on Friday.

The United States has imposed sanctions against Russia to punish it for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, something Moscow denies.

Critics of Trump have accused him of being soft on Russia and there is a bipartisan push in Congress to impose more sanctions on Moscow.

Bolton, speaking before a new round of sanctions announced by the State Department took effect, set out what he cast as a tough approach by the administration to sanctions.

“The sanctions remain in force and will remain in force until the required change in Russian behavior,” Bolton told a news conference after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

“I underlined what President Trump said in Helsinki to President [Vladimir] Putin that it was the position of the United States that we did not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea,” he said, referring to a U.S.-Russia summit in Finland last month.

“Our view and our policy remain as they have been.”

‘More tension’

The Russian ruble has been pushed steadily lower by U.S. sanctions, the latest of which take effect on Monday, according to a notice posted on Friday in the U.S. Federal Register.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the new sanctions, announced earlier this month over a nerve agent attack in Britain, would only create more tension in bilateral relations, the RIA news agency reported.

In comments likely to anger Moscow, Bolton said that Kyiv had made progress in its efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and advised Ukraine to look for alternatives to Russian natural gas.

 

Russia strongly opposes NATO expansion towards its western borders and moved to annex Crimea in 2014 after Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president, was toppled in a popular revolution.

Bolton said it was important to resolve the Ukraine crisis and that it would be dangerous to leave the situation as it was in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has backed separatists in their conflict with Kyiv.

Ukraine stopped buying gas from Russia in November 2015 and now imports gas mostly via Slovakia. Ukrainian energy firm Naftohaz says the gas is “European in origin.” Moscow says the gas is still Russian despite Slovakia’s intermediary role.

Bolton mentioned U.S. liquefied natural gas and other possible replacements to Russian supplies.

He said he had told Poroshenko that Moscow should not meddle in Ukraine’s presidential vote next year.

“President Poroshenko and I agreed that we will look at steps that the United States and Ukraine could take to look at election meddling here,” he said.

 
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Report: Prosecutors Grant Trump Organization CFO Immunity

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Federal prosecutors have granted immunity to Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg in a probe involving President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Weisselberg was called to testify before a federal grand jury earlier this year, the Journal said.

Cohen, who arranged hush-money payments before the 2016 U.S. presidential election to at least two women who had alleged having sex with Trump, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to campaign finance violations and other charges. He said Trump directed him to arrange the payments.

Two executives at American Media Inc, which publishes the National Enquirer, a tabloid reportedly involved in making the payments, have also been granted immunity in the investigation, according to news media reports. One of the executives is American Media Chief Executive David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend, according to the reports.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, which has been leading the Cohen investigation, declined to comment. The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Alan Futerfas, an outside lawyer for the organization, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Weisselberg was mentioned by Cohen on a secret recording the lawyer made in which Cohen and Trump appeared to discuss reimbursing American Media for a hush-money payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who has said she had an affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair. Trump has also denied having sex with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
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Ugandan Police Say Protester Shot ‘in Self-Defense’

Posted on by SeeAF

One person has died after being shot by a policeman during a protest over the ongoing detention of pop star-turned-MP Robert Kyagulanyi, a police official said Friday.

Regional police chief Francis Chemusto said officers were responding on Thursday night to a protest in the home town of the MP, who is better known as Bobi Wine, in Bukalamuli, some 120km (74 miles) west of Kampala.

“Protesters were burning tires in the middle of the road. When our officers reached the scene they ordered the protesters to stop but one man rushed into his house and picked up an axe and a panga [machete] and charged towards our officer, who shot in self-defense and injured him,” said Chemusto.

“The man was rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds but has unfortunately died,” Chemusto said, adding the officer involved had been arrested.

Kyagulanyi moved from Bukalamuli to a poor neighborhood of the capital where he began a music career, becoming known as the Ghetto President, and became an MP in a by-election last year.

For many, he embodies the struggles, frustrations and hopes of the young, poor and marginalized in a youthful nation whose often elderly rulers can seem dismissive of their plight.

The protester is the third person to be killed since August 14, when a rowdy crowd allegedly led by Kyagulanyi smashed the windscreen of President Yoweri Museveni’s car during campaigning for a hard-fought by-election in the town of Arua.

In the ensuing chaos, police fired live rounds to disperse the crowd. Kyagulanyi’s driver was shot dead during the events, but police say they have yet to establish who killed him.

The 36-year-old pop star was arrested alongside four other MPs including opposition lawmaker Francis Zaake.

Police opened fire on a protest by Zaake’s supporters on Sunday, killing a man traveling in a bus carrying football fans who were not involved in the demonstration.

Kyagulanyi detention has sparked protests in Kampala, and outside the capital, with small demonstrations also taking place in Nairobi, London, Washington and Tokyo.

The singer was on Thursday charged with treason.
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US: Expropriation of Land Without Compensation Would Send South Africa Down Wrong Path

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The U.S. State Department says that U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have discussed South Africa’s land reform. A spokesperson said Thursday that the president asked Pompeo to investigate reports that the South African government is expropriating land owned by white farmers without compensation. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Pretoria has reacted angrily to Trump’s tweet citing “large scale killing of farmers.”
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