Month: August 2018

Iranian Sunnis Say Police Blocked Eid Prayers in Four Tehran Districts

Posted on by SeeEA

Iran’s minority Sunni Muslims say authorities of the Shiite-majority nation have prevented some Sunnis from holding communal prayers in the capital, Tehran, to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

The Council of Azeri Sunni Prayer Centers in Tehran and the neighboring province of Alborz issued a statement saying Sunnis were prevented from attending prayers for Wednesday’s holiday in four districts of the capital: Khalij-e-Fars, Punak, Resalat and Yaft Abad. The statement appeared in a Thursday report by Iranian state-affiliated news site Shafaqna.

The council said the problems faced by Tehran-based Sunnis wanting to join Eid prayer services were similar to those they have faced in previous years. But it said Iranian authorities permitted Eid services to go ahead in several Sunni prayer centers in Tehran and Alborz.

Iran’s main Sunni news site, Sunni Online, published a Thursday report saying Tehran police blocked Sunni prayers in the four above-mentioned districts by deploying at the entrances of the prayer centers and dispersing worshippers. Such centers often are in homes of Sunnis or in large rooms of other buildings.

Sunni Online quoted police as saying the order to block the entrances of the Sunni prayer centers came from Tehran’s provincial security council, which is under the authority of Iran’s interior ministry. There was no confirmation of such an order from Iranian officials in state media. But the Iranian government has ordered the closure of several Sunni prayer centers in the country in recent years, alleging they were engaged in extremist activity, an allegation rejected by Sunni community leaders.

Five to 10 percent of Iran’s 82 million people are Sunni Muslims, according to the CIA World Factbook. Iranian Sunnis, whose main concentrations are in the country’s southeast and northwest, long have complained of discrimination by Shiites who make up an estimated 90 to 95 percent of the population.

Iranian leaders reject charges of discrimination, pointing to the constitution that promises “full respect” to schools of Islam other than the official Twelver Ja’afari school, the nation’s dominant Shiite branch. The constitution lists several other Shiite and Sunni branches of Islam by name, but does not use the terms “Shiite” or “Sunni.”

Iranian state media also have asserted that Sunnis have nine mosques at which to pray in Tehran. But many Iranian Sunnis do not consider those to be “Sunni” mosques and long have sought to build a grand Sunni mosque in the capital. In its Thursday report, Sunni Online said Iran’s Shiite Islamist leaders long have denied Sunni requests to establish such a mosque, forcing Sunnis to lease rooms as prayer centers.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
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Resurgence of Crippling Black Lung Disease Seen in US Coal Miners

Posted on by SeeUS

Since the 1990s, annual numbers of U.S. coal miners with new, confirmed cases of an advanced form of so-called black lung disease known as progressive massive fibrosis have been steadily rising, according to a new study.

The resurgence is particularly strong among central Appalachian miners in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, the study authors note.

“It’s an entirely preventable disease, and every case is an important representation of a failure to prevent this disease,” said lead study author Kirsten Almberg of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Progressive massive fibrosis is the most severe form of pneumoconiosis, which is also known as black lung disease and is caused by overexposure to coal mine dust. The symptoms are debilitating and can lead to respiratory distress.

“Many people think black lung is a relic of the past,” she told Reuters Health in a phone interview. “But it shouldn’t fade from our attention.”

Almberg and colleagues looked at the number of progressive massive fibrosis cases among former U.S. coal miners applying for Federal Black Lung Program benefits between 1970 and 2016.Miners can apply for financial help and medical coverage if facing disabling lung impairment, and claims are accepted when medical tests and imaging verify the presence of disabling pulmonary impairment.

Progressive massive fibrosis is “by definition” considered totally disabling, the authors note in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

Among 314,000 miners who applied for benefits during the 46-year period, the research team found 4,679 cases of confirmed progressive massive fibrosis, with 2,474 of these representing claims filed since 1996.

The yearly number of cases fell from 404 in 1978 to 18 in 1988 but then began increasing each year, with 383 confirmed cases in 2014, the study found. At the same time, employment has declined from 250,000 miners in 1979 to 81,000 in 2016, the authors note.

“It’s pretty staggering that more than half of the cases were in the more recent period since 1996,” Almberg said. “These are our first snapshots of how big this problem really is.”

The increase has most dramatically impacted the Appalachian region. About 84 percent of miners with confirmed cases of progressive massive fibrosis last mined in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, although only 62 percent of claims originated in these states.

“Put simply, we still do not know exactly why severe disease has increased so much among miners in central Appalachia or when this trend may reverse,” said Emily Sarver, a mining and minerals engineer at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Future research should look at the different factors that may affect this ongoing increase in diagnoses, such as changes in the types of dust in mining environments, said Sarver, who works with mine partners to sample dust in active operations and characterize what’s in it and the size of particles.

“This is a real and very complex problem. Unlike safety issues, which are oftentimes apparent or can be identified and mitigated quickly, the exposure-response time with many health issues is quite long,” she said. “If I am exposed to hazardous dust today, for example, it may not impact my lungs for a decade or more, and I may experience a different outcome than another person exposed to the same dust.”

Similarly, Almberg and study co-author Robert Cohen of NIOSH and National Jewish Health and University of Colorado in Denver are working with mining engineers and pathologists to study coal mine dust in lung tissue samples to understand what causes progressive massive fibrosis to develop.

They’re comparing lung tissue samples from current cases to samples collected from autopsies of former miners, and want to understand whether new mining techniques may create smaller dust particles that drive the disease deeper into the lungs or whether more toxic carbon or coal dust is being expelled from mines.

“Like any person, you should expect to be able to work for a full career and leave the workforce and still have your health and life ahead of you,” Almberg said. “Coal miners aren’t the only ones exposed to hazardous materials on the job, and we should be able to catch this early and prevent it from progressing to the severe stages of the disease.”
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Pence Reaffirms Vision for ‘American Dominance in Space’

Posted on by SeeUS

Vice President Mike Pence is in Houston, Texas, to reaffirm the Trump administration’s plans to establish an American Space Force by 2020, return Americans to the moon, and set its sight on Mars and beyond.

During a speech Thursday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Pence said that recent Pentagon reports have shown that China is “aggressively weaponizing space” and that Russia is developing weapons to “counter America’s space capabilities.”

Pence said the Department of Defense is moving forward to “strengthen American security in space” and that the administration will work with Congress to secure funding and authorization to establish Space Force as a new and separate branch of the armed forces.

Pence also highlighted efforts to move the Lunar Orbital Platform, formerly known as the Deep Space Gateway, from proposal phase to production. NASA, the main U.S. agency for space exploration, and several of its partners, have been developing plans for this lunar-orbit space station that would be used as a staging point for lunar exploration and would have several gateway-to-space features, including a propulsion system, a habitat for the crew, and docking capability.

In its 2019 budget, NASA has requested $504 million in funding for this project, which has yet to be approved by Congress.

There was little new detail in Pence’s speech other than reiterating the administration’s vision for “American dominance in space.” Space Force has been mentioned by Pence on several occasions, and a theme that President Donald Trump often returns to, including during his rally in Charleston, West Virginia, on Tuesday.

Trump first announced the creation of Space Force at the White House in June. He pledged to reclaim U.S. leadership in space, framing it as a national security issue, and saying he does not want “China and Russia and other countries leading us.”

Trump’s Space Force has triggered debate in military space exploration, as well as legal circles, including whether it may violate international law. The U.S. is a signatory and ratifier of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

The treaty prevents any nation from declaring sovereignty over space or heavenly bodies, and prohibits space-faring countries from blocking other nations from exploring space. There are further restrictions over military presence on heavenly bodies such as the moon, which according to the treaty “shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes.”

Last December, Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, a national space policy directing a government-private partnership with the goal of returning Americans to the moon, followed by missions to Mars and beyond.

The policy calls for the NASA administrator to “lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.”

Pence has been the leading spokesperson for the U.S. space program, delivering remarks about the country’s space ambitions on behalf of the president.
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Government Acts to Stop High-Tax States from Skirting $10K Cap 

Posted on by SeeUS

The Trump administration has laid down rules aimed at preventing residents in high-tax states from avoiding a new cap on widely popular state and local tax deductions. The action over the new Republican tax law pits the government against high-tax, heavily Democratic states in an election-year showdown. 

The Treasury Department’s rules released Thursday target moves by states like New York, New Jersey and California — where residents could see substantial increases in their federal tax bills next spring because of the $10,000 cap on state and local deductions. Experts say the issue likely will have to be resolved by the federal courts.

Four states — Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and New York — already have sued the federal government over the deduction cap, asserting it’s aimed at hurting a group of Democratic states and tramples on their constitutional budget-making authority.

A dozen states have taken or are considering measures to get around the cap. Most of the workarounds take advantage of federal deductions for charitable contributions — which aren’t capped — in place of the old deductions for paying state and local income taxes. So people’s state and local taxes exceeding $10,000, which can’t be deducted, are turned into deductible charitable donations. 

The new rules’ “dollar-for-dollar” limit also applies to many other states that already have charitable funds offering tax breaks, senior Treasury officials said. Those states include solidly Republican ones and others with relatively low taxes. In those programs, donors to schools, hospitals or land conservation programs can get their state taxes reduced in return — plus a charitable deduction on their federal tax returns. 

The limit means taxpayers only can deduct as a charitable contribution the portion of their donation for which they don’t also get a state tax credit. 

But some experts said the Treasury rules seem to be designed to protect those existing charitable programs in some states. An exception to the “dollar-for-dollar” requirement “plainly appears to be designed to protect certain … pre-existing state regimes,” said Daniel Rosen, a tax lawyer at Baker McKenzie who is a former IRS official.   

Treasury said it expects that only about 1 percent of all U.S. taxpayers would see a reduction of their tax credits for donations to private-school voucher fund. Several states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Montana and South Carolina — allow taxpayers who donate to private-school funds to get a 100 percent credit against their state taxes, according to data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

How do the limits work under the new rules?

Dollar-for-dollar: When a taxpayer receives a benefit in return for donating to charity, the taxpayer should only be able to deduct the net value of the donation as a charitable contribution, Treasury says. 

An example: You donate $1,000 to a charity in a state that offers a 70 percent tax credit, so $700 in this case. You would only be able to claim a $300 charitable deduction on your federal return.

There is an exception. If the state tax credits don’t exceed 15 percent of the amount donated, so up to a $150 state tax credit on a $1,000 donation, the taxpayer could claim the full amount as a charitable deduction.

Why is this important?

Taxpayers could have less incentive to donate without getting a deduction or having the deduction reduced.

All states rely on property and income taxes to fund an array of services such as education, health care and public safety. Advocates for restoring the full state and local deductions say that the reduced property tax deduction brings a decrease in the value of taxpayers’ homes, possibly spurring residents of high-tax states to move elsewhere and crimping funding for local programs.

What’s happening in the high-tax states? 

Measures designed to work around the $10,000 cap have been adopted in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Oregon, and introduced or explored publicly by officials in California, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has called the state-local deduction cap an “assault” on New York by Trump and Republican lawmakers in Washington.  

In some key “blue” states:

— Connecticut has a new law establishing a state charitable fund; donors can get tax credits in exchange for giving. 

— In New Jersey, where high local property taxes are the major issue, the state is allowing local schools and governments to use the charitable workaround. But so far, no towns have notified authorities that they’ve set up funds to receive contributions — because state regulators haven’t issued the necessary rules, experts say.

— New York is offering three options: One like Connecticut’s, one like New Jersey’s and another to let employers pay payroll taxes for employees, who would receive credits to cancel out the income taxes they would have paid otherwise.

— In Maryland, about 500,000 residents — over 18 percent of state taxpayers — will together lose $6.5 billion in state and local deductions, according to state estimates.
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US State Department Softens Travel Advisory on Cuba

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States on Thursday revised its travel advisory on Cuba to “exercise increased caution,” from “reconsider travel,” a move that some in the tourism sector hope could help reverse a decline in American visitors to the Caribbean island.

The U.S. State Department had warned its citizens last year not to visit the country because of a spate of still unexplained illnesses among its embassy personnel in Havana.

The new U.S. travel advisory acknowledges, however, that these so-called “attacks” seemed to target those personnel and not private citizens, and therefore simply advises travelers to “exercise increased caution in Cuba.”

Cuba and many analysts have branded the warning on travel to the Communist-run island as politically motivated. Republican U.S. President Donald Trump had announced in 2017 he would partially roll back a detente with Havana by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

The State Department reported similar illnesses this year among U.S. Embassy staff in China, but did not issue a warning on travel to that country.

The warning on travel to Cuba along with tighter restrictions issued last year that made it more difficult for Americans to travel there independently have dampened a recent boom in U.S. visitors to the island.

That has particularly hurt those Cubans running bed-and-breakfasts and home-based restaurants in the fledgling private sector.

“There are lots of [Americans] interested in traveling to Cuba, but when they see the restrictions and difficulties they think about it more than twice,” said Mauricio Alonso, who rents rooms in his house overlooking the sea.

Alonso said business had been impacted by the travel warning, but he hoped it would pick up now. Others acknowledged the revised travel advisory was only one step of several needed to improve the mood of U.S. travelers concerning Cuba.

The number of U.S. visitors to Cuba for the first half of the year — not including Cuban-Americans — slumped 24 percent to 266,000, three different sources with access to Cuban tourism industry data told Reuters in July.
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US-China Trade Talks End with No Breakthrough

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. and Chinese negotiators have ended two days of meetings without reaching a breakthrough in a trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies that has disrupted global commerce.

The delegations “exchanged views on how to achieve fairness, balance and reciprocity in the economic relationship,” Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, says in a statement that doesn’t mention further talks.

The dispute over China’s high-tech industrial policy has escalated, with the U.S. and China taxing an additional $16 billion of each other’s goods. This follows a U.S. move last month to slap tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese products, after which Beijing responded in kind.

The U.S. is readying tariffs on $200 billion more of Chinese products, and China has vowed to counterpunch by targeting $60 billion in American goods.
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After ‘Encouraging’ US Talks, Macedonian FM Turns to Referendum

Posted on by SeeEU

Following a three-day swing through the United States, Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov says he will return home to lock in domestic support for the upcoming name referendum on which the small Balkan nation’s EU-NATO integration depends.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed up talks with Dimitrov by expressing strong support for the deal, signed this summer, in which Macedonia agreed to change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia.

Greece and Macedonia have been feuding over who gets to use the name since Macedonia’s independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Many Greeks say allowing the neighboring country to use the name insults Greek history and implies a claim on the Greek territory also known as Macedonia, a key province in Alexander the Great’s ancient empire.

As a result, Greece has blocked Macedonian efforts to join the EU and NATO. Despite recognition by 137 countries, Macedonia is officially known at the United Nations as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

“It’s a great day for Macedonian diplomacy,” Dimitrov said of his meeting with Pompeo, which he described as “very encouraging.”

“We are now focused on our homework — we need to win a referendum to get our people to stand behind the name agreement that we have reached with our friends in Greece that unlocks the doors for the future,” he said. “And here the support and friendship of our American partners is extremely important. So, I go back to Macedonia greatly encouraged.”

September 30 referendum

Full implementation of the deal hinges on the name referendum that Macedonia’s parliament set for September 30 in a measure approved with 68 votes in the 120-seat parliament. Opposition members boycotted the vote.

“The Secretary [of State] noted the referendum presented an opportunity for citizens to voice their opinions on an issue of vital importance to the future of Macedonia,” the State Department wrote.

Staunch U.S. support for passage of the referendum, which would secure the country’s Euro-Atlantic future, draws from a longstanding U.S. interest in a politically stabilized Balkans, one of Europe’s most impoverished and politically turbulent regions, one where U.S. lawmakers have called for substantially strengthened commitments to counter Russian efforts to influence elections and discourage NATO membership.

Dimitrov’s meeting with Pompeo, his second with the top U.S. diplomat since November, underscored that point, he said.

“The main reason for [U.S. support for the referendum] lies in the fact that it will wrap up the long process of preparations for the country to join NATO, and that will bring stability in the region,” Dimitrov told VOA’s Macedonian Service.

His primary objective now, he said, is to make sure all Macedonians have the facts to make an informed decision at the polls next month.

“I am planning to devote maximum time to do just that,” he said. “I will talk to people, go to markets and elsewhere, to explain the agreement with Greece, and to assure them that I understand their concerns. In these circumstances, there is no other alternative,” he said.

The referendum question that parliament approved in July does not explicitly mention changing the country’s name. It says only: “Are you for EU and NATO membership by accepting the agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Greece?”

Macedonia’s nationalist opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, criticized the wording of the referendum question as manipulative.

Members of the opposition have not yet said whether they will call upon supporters to participate in the referendum, which would significantly increase the likelihood of achieving the 50 percent threshold required for ratification.

Some smaller political parties and nationalist groups who say the name change would compromise national identity have been campaigning to boycott the referendum.

This story originated in VOA’s Macedonian Service
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Four Troops Killed, 7 Wounded in Fighting in Eastern Ukraine

Posted on by SeeEU

An outbreak of fighting in Ukraine’s rebel-held east has killed four troops and left another seven wounded, officials said Thursday.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the losses were the biggest in months and followed fighting that lasted five hours.

The ministry said the fighting erupted when the rebels began to shell government troops with mortars, trying to break through the front line in the east of the Luhansk region.

The rebels in Luhansk, however, accused government troops of attacking them first. They said they fired back when the Ukrainian troops launched an offensive in a bid to seize some ground near the village of Zhelobok.

The separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 10,000 since it began in April 2014. A 2015 peace agreement has helped reduce hostilities, but clashes have continued. The warring parties blamed each other for the failure to observe the truce.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday apologized to the country for his 2014 promise to quickly end the conflict in the east.

“People perceived it as an opportunity to end the war quickly,” Poroshenko said. “I am sorry to have created inflated expectations. I sincerely apologize for giving you hope that has not come true.”
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British Airways, Air France to Halt Flights to Iran as of Next Month

Posted on by SeeEU

British Airways and Air France said on Thursday they would halt flights to Iran from September for business reasons, months after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

British Airways said it was suspending its London to Tehran service “as the operation is currently not commercially viable.”

BA, which is owned by Spanish-registered IAG, said its last outbound flight from London to Tehran will be on September 22 and the last inbound flight from Tehran will be on September 23.

Air France will stop flights from Paris to Tehran from September 18 because of “the line’s weak performance,” an airline spokesman said.

“As the number of business customers flying to Iran has fallen, the connection is not profitable any more,” the spokesman said.

German airline Lufthansa said it had no plans to stop flying to Tehran.

“We are closely monitoring the developments … For the time being, Lufthansa will continue to fly to Tehran as scheduled and no changes are envisaged,” it said in an emailed statement.

The European Union has tried to keep an international deal on the Iranian nuclear program alive despite Trump’s decision in May to withdraw the United States from the agreement.

Some new U.S. sanctions on Iran took effect this month. The EU, which is working to maintain trade with Tehran, agreed 18 million euros ($20.6 million) in aid for Iran on Thursday, including for the private sector, to help offset the impact of U.S. sanctions.

Despite this, a number of European companies have announced they are pulling out of projects or scrapping investment plans in Iran.

Air France is the French arm of Franco-Dutch airlines group Air France KLM. KLM, the group’s Dutch arm, had previously announced it was halting flights to Tehran.

The airlines’ decision was welcomed by Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

“Today we learned that three major carriers, BA, KLM, and Air France, have discontinued their activities in Iran. That is good, more should follow, more will follow, because Iran should not be rewarded for its aggression in the region, for its attempts to spread terrorism far and wide …,” he told a news conference during a visit to Lithuania.

The BA route was reinstated in the wake of the 2015 accord between western powers and Iran under which most international sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs on the country’s nuclear program.

Air France had re-opened the Paris-Tehran route in 2016. Iran’s ambassador to Britain expressed regret at BA’s decision.

“Considering the high demand … the decision by the airline is regrettable,” Hamid Baeidinejad wrote on his official Twitter account.

($1 = 0.8744 euros)
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South Africa Calls Out Trump Over Tweet on White Farmer Killings

Posted on by SeeAF

South Africa has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of stoking racial tensions after he said white farmers in the African country were being killed and forced off their land.

The South African government responded Thursday to a tweet in which Trump said his administration would look into farm seizures and what he termed the “large scale killing of farmers.” Trump also said the South African government “is now seizing land from white farmers” and that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study” the subject.

A government spokeswoman said Trump was “misinformed,” while the minister of international relations, Lindiwe Sisulu, described Trump’s words as “regrettable” and “based on false information.”

 

WATCH: US: Expropriation of Land Without Compensation Would Send South Africa Down Wrong Path

Sisulu said she would reach out to Pompeo “through diplomatic channels,” in what many analysts interpreted as criticism of Trump’s use of social media to discuss diplomatic policy. The government said Trump’s tweet reflected a “narrow perception” that seeks to divide the nation and brings back memories of the colonial past.

Land reform is a touchy issue in a nation still smarting from the deep wounds inflicted by the now-defunct apartheid system, which disenfranchised and impoverished most black South Africans. While figures vary, it is estimated that white South Africans, who are a demographic minority, own the majority of private land.

Claims that white farmers have been targeted or killed at alarming numbers have been roundly debunked, with the nation’s largest farmers’ association, AgriSA, reporting that killings of farmers are at a two-decade low. 

Earlier this month, South African government officials announced they plan to take initial steps that could someday enable the expropriation of land in an effort to redress past wrongs; but, officials denied that the government is “seizing” land at this time.

​’I’d give him an F’

As South Africa woke up to Trump’s words, conflict erupted — on Twitter, and among academics who have spent years carefully studying this sensitive issue.

If an undergraduate wrote those same words in a paper, “I’d give him an F,” said John Stremlau, a professor of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand. 

Stremlau said Trump’s statements were both untrue and inflammatory. 

“We all know that land is overwhelmingly in the hands of whites and traditional chiefs and government ownership, but that it has to be sorted out as part of addressing the historic inequalities in this non-racial democracy of South Africa,” he said. “And that’s what [President} Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to do, and he deserves our careful thought and support and questioning, if we feel motivated, but not a Twitter storm.”

Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said the issue of land dispossession can be addressed by the country’s constitution, adding, “Fear mongering by international leaders adds no value to this important debate.” 

Cape Town-based political analyst Daniel Silke said Trump’s comments show how local politics have become global. 

And columnist Darrel Bristow-Bovey had what appeared to be a cynical response to the issue, implying it was a good day to ignore the news.

​AfriForum, a group that has advanced the narrative of a rise in killings of white farmers, however, said it welcomed Trump’s announcement of a U.S. investigation into what the group called “expropriation” in South Africa.

South Africa’s government said in a statement that Trump’s words would not adversely affect U.S.-South African relations.

Stremlau, however, said the relationship has already been tested by Trump’s earlier tweets that Stremlau says imperiled the African Growth and Opportunities Act.  The measure allows African nations to export some items duty-free to the U.S. and affects some 250,000 South African workers, many in the automotive sector.

“If you’re going to go down that road, and Trump could use this excuse to put some sort of executive action on automobiles and raise the tariff, or try to negate AGOA by executive action, that would have a huge negative impact,” he said.

Stremlau, like other Trump critics, postulated that the president’s words were meant to be a distraction from domestic troubles. Former U.S. ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard echoed those sentiments.

The administration has yet to appoint a new ambassador to South Africa to replace Gaspard, who left the job in 2017.
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Uganda Simmering as Treason Charge Brought Against Opposition Lawmaker

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Tensions are high in Uganda after days of bloodshed, arrests and protests over treason charges brought against opposition lawmakers — including on Thursday against musician Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine. Authorities say the lawmakers and rowdy youth threatened President Yoweri Museveni’s life by throwing stones at his car. However, analysts say the clashes show any real opposition to the 32-year rule of Museveni will be met with force. Halima Athumani reports from Kampala.
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1 Dead in Inter-Communal Fighting at South Sudan UN Camp

Posted on by SeeAF

One person was killed and three others critically wounded just outside South Sudan’s capital in the latest fighting between internally displaced persons at a United Nations-run Protection of Civilians (POC) site.

Displaced people said fighting that between two communities from the former Unity State that initially erupted a week ago, resumed Wednesday at the camp.

Camp resident Reat Kuajin told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that the fighting was a continuation of an argument that started nine days ago at POC 3.

“It was only fighting between two boys and it has led to communal fighting. So for these nine days there has been mediation between the two groups to try make sure that they come together. Unfortunately early [Wednesday] fighting has resumed,” said Kuajin.

Tek Chan Nhial, IDP and deputy camp chairman of POC 3, confirmed one person was killed in the clashes and three others were listed in critical condition after gunshots were fired in the camp. He said the fighters also used stones, spears, and grenades.

Chan said calm returned Wednesday at the POC camp, but tensions remain high. Chan called on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to quickly intervene.

More than 36,000 IDPs are camping at the POC site in Juba. All fled their homes due to fighting over the past five years.

In an email to South Sudan in Focus, UNMISS spokesperson Francesca Mold called on the groups to end the violence so aid workers can safely deliver food, water and other essential services to vulnerable civilians living inside the POCcamp.

The statement said UNMISS peacekeepers, soldiers and police have intensified their presence in and around the site to protect civilians and separate the fighting groups.

Mold said UNMISS will continue to engage closely with camp and community leaders to help the communities negotiate an amicable solution.
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Zimbabwe Awaits Friday Court Ruling on Election Challenge

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This was supposed to be the poll that set Zimbabwe free: free from the longtime, increasingly oppressive rule of Robert Mugabe.  Free from the suspicions and violence that have come to characterize elections, and free from the expectation that, yet again, the powerful ruling party would prevail, as it has since this nation won independence in 1980.   

But the July 30 poll has only produced protests, then violent outbursts, in which security forces fatally shot at least six people.  Now, a legal challenge is seeking the election to be overturned in the nation’s highest court.  That ruling is expected Friday.

 

Opposition presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa has filed suit in the Constitutional Court, claiming his reported 44 percent share of the vote, which put him behind incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa’s razor-thin 50.8 percent victory, was inaccurate, and that he won.

International election observers have said the vote suffered from irregularities.  On Wednesday, Chamisa’s lawyers presented what they said was clear evidence that the results had been falsified.

 

The nation anxiously awaits with the gnawing fear that yet again, nothing will change.

Zimbabwean author and academic Ibbo Mandaza said he agrees with the opposition.  But like many of the nation’s top analysts, he expects the court to dismiss the election challenge on Friday.

Once the court rules, the constitution says the presidential inauguration must be held within 48 hours.  On Thursday, the eve of the ruling, air force jets conducted flyovers in Harare in what appeared to be preparations for an event.

 

Dented legitimacy

Mandaza said he and many other Zimbabweans feel the election results were decided by officials long before citizens went to the polls.

 

“It’s an indictment on the African state,” Mandaza told VOA. “It’s a cynical response to the population, to the people of Zimbabwe.  I am disgusted.”

Zanu-PF’s secretary for legal affairs Paul Mangwana said he would not comment on an ongoing case.  But he and other party brass have repeatedly expressed confidence in the poll. This was Mnangagwa’s first presidential run — he took power in November after Mugabe resigned under pressure from the military.

“We’ve prepared well for our case,” Mangwana said. “The rest is for the judges.”

This was Mnangagwa’s first presidential run. He took power in November after Mugabe resigned under pressure from the military.

“We’ve prepared well for our case. The rest is for the judges,” said Mangwana.

Opposition lawyer Dali Mpofu, one of two South African lawyers who were denied work permits and barred from the court, says what happens inside the court isn’t the only challenge ahead for Zimbabwe.

“We can only say that the freeness and fairness of an election is not only determined on election day. These issues of climate and atmosphere, such as what is happening now, obviously contribute and the only good thing is that the international community is watching. Because although we are here as lawyers to talk about legality, there are also issues of legitimacy which are not in our hands,” said Mpofu.

Mandaza believes the court’s ruling will not be the end of the story.

“I think Mnangagwa’s legitimacy is dented even more than ever before. If the intention was to sanitize and legitimize the coup, I think it has failed, dismally. The crisis continues,” he said.

The court rules Friday afternoon, and according to the constitution, the presidential inauguration will be held within 48 hours.
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Former German Spy Chief Warns of Perils of Intel Sharing With Austria

Posted on by SeeEU

A former German intelligence chief says NATO secrets aren’t safe to share with Austria, adding his alarm to growing concern among Western intelligence agencies about close ties between senior Austrian ministers and Russia.

Fears have mounted about the security trustworthiness of Austria since a police raid last February on the headquarters of the country’s domestic intelligence agency, during which classified files were seized. The raid prompted allegations that Austria’s far-right government ordered it for political reasons.

“There is, of course, extreme caution when sharing information,” August Hanning, a former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, told the German newspaper Bild. “It is essential for international intelligence-sharing that all sides can be sure their sensitive information is secure with a partner service. Secrecy must be maintained. That is, of course, incredibly difficult when you have such a situation in Austria,” he added.

Senior figures in the Freedom Party, which is in a coalition government with the conservative Austrian People’s Party, or OVP, have called for the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia, imposed for the 2014 annexation by Russia of Ukraine’s Crimea. Austria shunned the coordinated Western expulsions of Russian diplomats following the poisoning earlier this year of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain, which has been blamed on the Kremlin.

The increasing closeness between the Freedom Party and the Kremlin was underlined last week when Russian leader Vladimir Putin was the star guest at the wedding of Austria’s foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, held at a vineyard in the picturesque Styrian hills of southern Austria. Putin’s attendance transformed the private event into a highly political one and prompted a storm of media criticism for Kneissl for curtseying before the Russian president.

“Kneissl’s kneeling in front of Putin is a disgrace,” the Austrian daily Der Standard said, adding: “The foreign minister has lost all credibility by the way she handled Vladimir Putin.”

The Washington Post reported last week, the day before Kneissl’s wedding, that several Western intelligence agencies had stopped sharing sensitive information with their Austrian counterparts, alarmed that their secrets could be shared with Moscow. Police officers during the February raid removed classified documents packed in crates and plastic bags.

Warming ties

The anti-immigrant Freedom Party, which was founded by former SS officers in the 1950s, entered government at the end of last year. The party signed a formal cooperation agreement with Putin’s United Russia party in 2016. In June, Putin highlighted the warming ties between Vienna and Moscow when he chose Austria for his first official working visit abroad after being re-elected in March.

The February raid on Austria’s domestic intelligence agency, the BVT, was officially undertaken as part of a joint operation with South Korea as part of a probe into the printing in Austria of false North Korean passports, according to government officials. But Austrian intelligence insiders believe the raid had a more sinister purpose, possibly part of an effort to find grounds to replace current officials with Freedom Party loyalists.

Putin on Wednesday insisted his presence at Kneissl’s wedding was purely a personal matter. But he told reporters in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that during the celebrations “we were able to speak both to the foreign minister and to the Austrian chancellor.” He praised Austria for “arranging dialogue between Russia and the European Union.”

Austria, a NATO partner, isn’t the only country that’s causing alarm to Western spy chiefs amid the rise of Kremlin-friendly populist parties across Europe. In March, VOA reported U.S. security agencies were assessing what intelligence could be shared with Italian counterparts following the formation in Rome of a coalition government featuring the right-wing Lega and anti-establishment Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S). Like the Freedom Party, Italy’s Lega has a formal cooperation pact with United Russia.

U.S. intelligence officials told VOA that they feared leaks to Moscow. “Security risks would increase obviously,” one said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “There would be a sharp downgrading of what we give the Italians, although this wouldn’t affect our exchanges when it comes to jihadists or terrorist threats,” a U.S. counterintelligence official said.

M5S and Lega oppose Western sanctions on Russia, saying the sanctions have harmed Italy as much as Russia. In 2016, several Lega-controlled regions in Italy’s north adopted resolutions calling on the government in Rome to endorse Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and to recognize the peninsula as part of Russia.

Relations between U.S. and Italian intelligence agencies are not as close as they are with some other Western and NATO countries. Intelligence relations between the United States and Italy were impaired in 2009 when an Italian court convicted in absentia a former CIA station chief and 22 other Americans, almost all agency operatives, for their involvement in the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003 and his transfer to Egypt.
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Bolton Says He Warned Russia Against Meddling in November Elections

Posted on by SeeEU

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton says he warned his Russian counterpart not to interfere in the U.S. mid-term elections in November.

Bolton said he made it clear the United States is “prepared to take necessary steps to prevent it from happening.”

He spoke at a news conference in Geneva, where met with Russian national security council director Nikolai Patrushev.

Bolton said the issue prevented the issuance of a joint statement at the conclusion of the meeting, the first high-level meeting since U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held talks in Helsinki last month.

The U.S. has already imposed economic sanctions against Russia over it’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded Russia meddled in the election, a finding Russia denies.

Patrushev told reporters he and Bolton agreed to re-open communication lines between U.S. and Russian foreign and defense ministries, according to Russia’s RIA news agency.

Patrushev also said the two agreed on resuming contacts between the two countries’ army chiefs-of-staff, and that he invited Bolton and other U.S. officials to Russia for more talks at an undetermined date.

The two men also discussed Iran. Bolton said the Trump administration’s goal is to “put maximum pressure on the regime” with more extensive and effective sanctions. The Trump administration previously withdrew from a 2015 global agreement aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program.

With respect to Iran’s role in Syria, Bolton said “our objective is that all Iranian forces return to Iran” and said a “variety of ways” were discussed to achieve that goal.
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Man Kills Mother, Sister; IS Claims Attack

Posted on by SeeEU

A man with severe psychiatric problems killed his mother and sister and seriously injured another woman in a knife attack Thursday in a Paris-region town, officials said.

 

Police shot and killed the man soon afterward. The Islamic State group, which has a history of opportunistic claims, swiftly claimed responsibility.

 

French prosecutors weren’t treating the attack in Trappes, west of Paris, as a terrorism case, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. He noted the attacker suffered from serious mental health issues although he had also been flagged for glorifying terrorism.

 

Collomb said that the man killed his mother at her home and stabbed the other women outside. Still wielding the knife, he then ignored police warnings and was shot and killed, the minister said after meeting officers and prosecutors in Trappes.

 

He described the man as “unstable, rather than someone who was engaged, someone who could respond, for example, to orders and instructions from a terrorist organization, in particular from Daesh.” Daesh is another name for IS.

A long-time friend of the attacker named him as Kamel Salhi, 36. The friend, Said Segreg, said Salhi had no obvious problems, didn’t abuse drugs or alcohol and wasn’t fervently religious.

 

A government official confirmed Salhi’s name and age. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss such details publicly.

 

Salhi was divorced and living with his mother, said Adama Traore, another of his acquaintances in Trappes.

 

The Islamic State group, via its Aamaq news agency, claimed responsibility. The agency said the attack was motivated by calls from the IS leadership to attack civilians in countries at war with the extremist group. Hours earlier, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged followers to attack enemies everywhere.

 

The Islamic State group, which has lost most of the territories it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, has been known to make opportunistic claims in the past, even when there was no established link between an attacker and the extremist group.
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South Africa Responds to Trump Tweet: He’s Misinformed

Posted on by SeeAF

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study South African “land and farm seizures” and “killing of farmers,” prompting Pretoria to accuse Trump of stoking racial divisions.

Trump’s comments have inflamed an already high-octane debate over land in South Africa, a country that remains deeply racially divided and unequal nearly a quarter of a century after Nelson Mandela swept to power at the end of apartheid.

The rand currency dropped more than 1.5 percent against the U.S. dollar in early trading Thursday after Trump’s tweet had circulated in South Africa.

​South Africa to seek clarification

South Africa’s foreign ministry will seek clarification of Trump’s comments from the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokeswoman said, adding that Trump was “misinformed.”

“South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past,” a tweet from South Africa’s official government account said in response to Trump’s comments. 

The U.S. State Department was not immediately available for comment on Trump’s tweet.

Ramaphosa announced Aug. 1 that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) plans to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation, as whites still own most of South Africa’s land.

Ramaphosa has said any land reform will be conducted without an impact on economic growth or food security. No land has been “seized” since the reform plans were announced, the ANC says. 

​Violent crime

Trump’s tweet appeared to be a response to a Fox News report Wednesday that focused on South Africa’s land issue and murders of white farmers.

Violent crime is a serious problem across South Africa, and 47 farmers were killed in 2017-28, according to statistics from AgriSA, an association of agricultural associations. However, farm murders are at a 20-year low.

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC has followed a “willing-seller, willing-buyer” model under which the government buys white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.

Progress has been slow and most South Africans believe something has to be done to accelerate change, providing it does not hurt the economy or stoke unrest.

“Reforming the land distribution and ownership will be good for South Africa,” said political analyst Nic Borain.

“That there will be instability and worries about property rights is inevitable, but we don’t expect that the government will act in a way that radically destabilizes investor security.”

First lady to travel to Africa

Trump’s tweet came days after it was announced that his wife, Melania, would travel to Africa in October for her first major solo international trip as first lady.

In January, South Africa protested to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria about reported remarks by Trump that some immigrants from Africa and Haiti came from “s***hole” countries.

South Africa’s foreign ministry called the remarks, which sources said Trump made during a meeting on immigration legislation, “crude and offensive” and said Trump’s subsequent denial was not categorical.

AfriForum, an organization that mostly represents white South Africans who have described land expropriation as “catastrophic,” traveled to the United States earlier this year to lobby the Senate and other officials.
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Ugandan Musician-Lawmaker Charged With Treason

Posted on by SeeAF

A Ugandan pop star-turned-opposition lawmaker is now facing charges of treason, after authorities dropped an illegal weapons charge.

The legal merry-go-round for Robert Kyagulanyi, also known by his stage name Bobi Wine, began Thursday when he appeared before a military court in the northern town of Gulu to face the weapons charges.  The court dismissed those charges, but he was immediately arrested by civilian police and charged with treason.  

The judge ordered Kyagulanyi to remain in custody until August 30.

Kyagulanyi was arrested last week along with four other lawmakers in connection with an incident involving an attack on President Yoweri Museveni’s motorcade in the northwestern town of Arua. Protesters allegedly pelted Museveni’s motorcade with stones while he was campaigning during a local parliamentary by-election. Kyagulanyi was in the region campaigning for an opposition candidate.

After the attack on the presidential motorcade, Kyagulanyi’s driver was shot dead as police fired live rounds to disperse crowds.

WATCH: Pressure Builds on Uganda to Release ‘Bobi Wine’

 

Thirty-three other people arrested the same day have also been charged with treason.

The 36-year-old Kyagulanyi has been a vocal critic of the 74-year-old Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.  Kyagulanyi has opposed a bill passed in July that removed the presidential age limit of 75, allowing Museveni to run in the next general election in 2021.

Kyagulanyi’s arrest has sparked outrage both in Uganda and aboard, especially among a cross-section of musicians, artists and human rights activists.

Human Rights Watch called for the lawmaker’s release and said, “The circumstances of his arrest during the by-election campaigns, his effective disappearance for three days, his brutal mistreatment, and detention by the military call into serious doubt whether there is any merit in the government’s allegations against him.”

 
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Kenya Rights Activists Demand Bobi Wine’s Release

Posted on by SeeAF

Rights activists in Kenya are demanding officials in neighboring Uganda release Robert Kyagulanyi, a Ugandan politician and musician popularly known as Bobi Wine. 

Kyagulanyi has been held by Ugandan authorities since his August 14 arrest in the northwestern town of Arua, where campaigning was taking place for the municipality parliamentary by-election. Kyagulanyi, who represents the Kyadondo East political region, had been campaigning for an opposition candidate. 

In the violence, Uganda’s presidential motorcade was attacked and Kyagulanyi’s driver was shot dead. Kyagulanyi was charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition at a military court in Gulu, Uganda. 

His arrest and detention at a military camp at Makindye, on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, has caused outrage across East Africa.

Tuesday in Nairobi, the Law Society of Kenya advocacy group held a news conference demanding the politician’s release.

“We hereby call on the government of the Republic of Uganda to launch a thorough independent and impartial (investigation) including appropriate forensic investigations into how Yassin Kawuma was killed with a shot to his head. There must be accountability for this death. (There must be) an immediate and unconditional release of Kyagulanyi, otherwise known as Bobi Wine, from military incarceration,” said Charles Kanjama of the Law Society of Kenya.

After the attack on the presidential motorcade, Kyagulanyi’s driver was shot dead as police fired live rounds to disperse crowds.

Thirty-three other people were arrested the same day and were arraigned in court and charged with treason.

Before his arrest, Kyagulanyi suggested on Twitter that the killing was a case of mistaken identity, and that he was the target.

The Law Society of Kenya called on its members to wear red ribbons in a weeklong campaign for solidarity with those in Uganda subjected to human rights violations.

“We urge the government of the Republic of Uganda to respect the rule of law and recognize that all power belongs to the people,” Kanjama said. “The people of Uganda want peace and stability and the ongoing crackdown on opposition dissidents will do nothing but worsen the situation.”

 

WATCH: Pressure Builds on Uganda Government to Release ‘Bobi Wine’

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, is one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, having ascended to power in 1986 after the ouster of Idi Amin Dada. He was elected to a fifth term in February 2016 amid allegations of fraud.

The Ugandan parliament passed a bill in July that removed the presidential age limit. Previous laws required presidential contenders to be younger than 75 and would have prevented Museveni from running in the next general election in 2021.

Kyagulanyi was a leading critic of the ruling party’s move to scrap the presidential age limit. The Afro beats music star has in the past used his music to critique the Ugandan government on issues of corruption and injustice.

At Nairobi’s Pawa 254 organization, musicians, artists and right activists turned up for a free concert to support the detained politician.

Al Amin Kimathi is part of the organizing team.

“We did not know the turnout would be this big,” Kithmathi said. “We didn’t know the kind of traction that it would gain around the country. We are happy that it is gathering that traction around the country and we hope that the message is getting home that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is getting the message from the young people of Kenya.”

Rights activists, together with the Law Society of Kenya have planned a march to the Ugandan Embassy in Nairobi Thursday to demand the politician’s release
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Pressure Builds on Uganda Government to Release ‘Bobi Wine’

Posted on by SeeAF

Rights activists in Kenya are demanding officials in neighboring Uganda release Robert Kyagulanyi, a Ugandan politician and musician popularly known as Bobi Wine. He has been held by Ugandan authorities since his Aug. 14 arrest in the northwestern town of Arua after Uganda’s presidential motorcade was attacked and Kyagulanyi’s driver was shot dead. Kyagulanyi was charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition at a military court in Gulu, Uganda. Rael Ombuor reports from Nairobi.
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US, China Raise Tariffs in New Round of Trade Dispute

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States and China imposed more tariff hikes on billions of dollars of each other’s automobiles, factory machinery and other goods Thursday in an escalation of a battle over Beijing’s technology policy that companies worry will chill global economic growth.

The 25 percent increases took effect as envoys from both sides held their first high-level talks in two months in Washington. No details were released about the two-day meeting that started Wednesday.

The penalties, previously announced, apply to $16 billion of goods from both sides including automobiles and metal scrap from the United States and Chinese-made factory machinery and electronic components. They follow last month’s first round of tariff increases of the same size by both sides on $34 billion of each other’s imports.

The Chinese government criticized the U.S. increase as a violation of World Trade Organization rules and said it would file a legal challenge. 

Beijing has rejected U.S. demands to scale back plans for state-led technology development that its trading partners say violate its market-opening commitments and American officials worry might erode the United States’ industrial leadership.

With no settlement in sight, economists warn the conflict could spread and knock up to 0.5 percentage points off global economic growth through 2020.
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Malawi’s Film Industry Winning Awards Despite No Cinemas

Posted on by SeeAF

The southeast African country of Malawi has no film schools and no cinemas. But self-taught Malawi directors have still won international prizes for their films, seven of which are nominated for the African Movie Academy Awards this September in Rwanda. As Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre, Malawi’s filmmakers are working hard to build their own “Mollywood” film industry.
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An Airman Killed in Afghanistan Receives Medal of Honor For Bravery

Posted on by SeeUS

A U.S. Airman has been honored posthumously for his extraordinary bravery that helped save the lives of his teammates while fighting al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan. U.S. President Donald Trump hosted an award ceremony for Air Force Technical Sergeant John Chapman at the White House Wednesday. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Legal Blows From Cohen and Manafort Add to Trump’s Political Woes

Posted on by SeeUS

The White House went on the defensive Wednesday, one day after two former close associates of President Donald Trump became convicted felons. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance law violations. And former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted of fraud charges not related to the 2016 campaign. As VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports, the legal bombshells are likely to add to President Trump’s political woes ahead of congressional elections.
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