Month: September 2018

Amnesty Calls Egypt an ‘Open-air Prison’ for Critics

Posted on by SeeEA

Amnesty International says Egypt’s crackdown on freedom of expression has reached “alarming” levels, calling for the unconditional release of Egyptians jailed for peacefully expressing their views.

The rights group launched a campaign called “Egypt, an Open-Air Prison for Critics” on Tuesday. It said in a statement it wants supporters around the world to show their solidarity with Egyptians detained for expressing their views by writing to the Cairo government to put an “end to the persecution.”

Egypt has launched the largest crackdown on critics in its modern history in the five years since the military ouster of the country’s first freely elected civilian president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The government has arrested thousands of his supporters along with iconic secular activists, placed the media under tight control and suppressed freedoms.

The government says security and improving the economy are top priorities.

 
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Florence Soaks Northeast as Southeastern US Struggles to Recover

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Residents in the eastern U.S. coastal states of North and South Carolina struggled to recover from Hurricane Florence Tuesday as the remnants of the storm moved up the eastern seaboard, dumping heavy rain that triggered new warnings of widespread flooding.

Wilmington, North Carolina, one of largest cities in the state, is still mostly cut off by floodwaters, which are expected to keep rising there and in other areas in the region.

Some 1,500 roads remained closed in North Carolina, where Florence dumped 91 centimeters of rain since Thursday, hindering relief efforts.

“Flooding is still going to be a concern into the weekend and into next week,” said National Weather Service forecaster Hal Austin.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation posted on Twitter Tuesday that “Road conditions are still changing” and “What’s open now may become impassable.”

Flash flood watches and warnings are posted from Virginia into Vermont and New Hampshire through Tuesday.

Florence is now what forecasters call a post-tropical cyclone, with top sustained winds of 35 kilometers per hour.

Several tornadoes damaged buildings in the Richmond, Virginia, area Monday afternoon, killing at least one person.

At least 32 deaths are blamed on the storm, the majority in North Carolina. One victim was a 1-year-old boy who was swept from his mother’s arms by floodwater.

Hundreds of thousands of homes remained without power on Monday.

President Donald Trump praised his administration’s recovery efforts and predicted Democratic politicians would try to discredit them.
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US General Eyes Laser Defense to Boost Air Tanker Security

Posted on by SeeUS

Lasers might soon be the newest line of defense for vulnerable aircraft that are key to keeping other military planes in battle. Air tankers are getting an upgrade next month with the introduction of the new Boeing KC-46 Pegasus. A top U.S. general wants one more feature that will let the tankers fly closer to the fight than ever before. Carla Babb has the details.
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Burkina Faso Arrests 30 Over Illegal Female Circumcisions

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Burkina Faso authorities have jailed more than 30 adults after they carried out botched female genital mutilation on nearly 60 infants and girls who have been hospitalized.

Viviane Ursule Sanou, head of the National Secretariat against Circumcision, said Tuesday the banned procedure was carried out on girls and young women ranging from 10 months to 24 years old in the capital, Ouagadougou, Kaya in the north and two towns in the central east.

She says because the practice is illegal, many people carry out the circumcisions in secret. All of the victims have been admitted to hospitals for treatment of hemorrhage and infection.

Burkina Faso adopted measures banning female circumcision in the early ’90s. The penal code adopted this year suggests up to 10 years in prison and severe fines.

 
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Niger Says Italian Priest Kidnapped Near Burkina Faso Border

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An Italian priest has been kidnapped in a part of Niger where a number of extremist groups are active, the West African nation said Tuesday.

Government spokesman Zakaria Abdourahmane said authorities had not been aware the priest was in the country’s southwest near the Burkina Faso border. He said investigations have begun to find the attackers and free the priest. No further details were immediately available.

The Rev. Pierluigi Maccalli is a member of the Society of African Missions religious order. In Niger he had promoted initiatives to encourage an end to the cultural practice of female genital mutilation, which had sparked some local opposition to him, according to the Fides missionary news agency in Rome.

In Rome, the Italian foreign ministry said it had asked local authorities in Niger’s capital, Niamey, to give “absolute priority” to resolving the kidnapping but asked that they avoid “any initiative that could put Father Maccalli at risk.”

Burkina Faso’s border with Niger and Mali is home to extremists who kidnap and kill officials, sometimes in connection with other Islamic extremist groups in West Africa’s vast Sahel region. Attacks have risen in the past year as young men frustrated by poverty become radicalized.

Niger for years has fought extremist groups linked to both al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization. Recently it has experienced a rise in kidnappings with ransom demands.

Earlier this month in the Diffa region, a 70-year-old woman who was the mother of a national deputy was abducted by armed men on motorcycles. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of 20 million FCFA ($35,000) but she was eventually released.

“We did not pay ransom, the kidnappers brought her back,” said her son, Boulou Boukar.

Other abductions have been reported in the Maradi Region, which neighbors Nigeria’s Zamfara state. A mixed patrol of Nigerien and Nigerian military has been set up for weeks along the border, according to Maradi governor Zakari Oumarou.

Nigeria’s Defense Minister Mansur Mohammed Dan Ali has been in Niger for two days discussing with President Mahamadou Issoufou the insecurity along Niger’s southern border with Nigeria, where Boko Haram is present.

“Our two heads of state have the same vision and we will continue to pool our resources in order to fight the resilience of Boko Haram,” Ali said after the meeting.
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Trump Accuses China of Trying to ‘Change’ US Election

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U.S. President Donald Trump accused China Tuesday of “actively trying to impact and change” the U.S. election and threatened “great and fast economic retaliation” if it retaliates with measures that would hurt American workers.

Trump did not offer evidence to support his accusation nor did he specify whether it was the upcoming midterm elections China was allegedly targeting.

The accusation comes one day after China promised to take “countermeasures” against Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth Chinese imports.

The new duties, which take effect on September 24, will begin at 10 percent, then rise to 25 percent on January 1, 2019. The tariffs will be imposed on thousands of consumer goods, including electronics, food, tools and housewares.

The Trump administration exempted numerous other items from the new tariffs, including smart watches, Bluetooth devices, and infant car seats.

China’s Commerce Ministry issued a statement Tuesday warning that it would respond to the new U.S. tariffs “to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and the global free trade order.”

Beijing has previously released a list of $60 billion in American-made goods subject to its retaliatory tariffs.

In the statement announcing the new tariffs, Trump warned that “if China takes retaliatory action against our farmers or other industries, we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports.”

China has previously said it will welcome new trade talks with Washington, but also suggested it would not engage in more negotiations if the United States imposed the tariffs.

In recent months, Washington and Beijing imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods headed across each other’s borders.

Earlier Monday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told the Economic Club of New York that the United States is “ready to negotiate and talk with China any time that they are ready for serious and substantive negotiations toward free trade to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers, to open markets, to allow the most competitive economy in the world, ours, to export more and more goods and services to China.
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China Retaliates for $200 Billion in US Tariffs

Posted on by SeeUS

China says it has no choice but to retaliate to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, risking a further escalation of trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

On Tuesday, China announced a tariff hike on $60 billion of American products.

 

In a brief statement posted online Tuesday, China’s Commerce Ministry said, “To protect its legitimate rights and interests and order in international free trade, China is left with no choice but to retaliate simultaneously.”

 

On Monday, the Communist Party backed Global Times newspaper warned that if Trump went ahead with the tariffs, China would not just play defense.

 

At about the same time the Commerce Ministry statement was released, a research director for North America and the Pacific at the Commerce Ministry also delivered a commentary on China’s state-run CCTV news network.

 

The official said the latest round of tariffs have brought uncertainty to ongoing efforts for representatives from both countries to meet again and hold trade talks.

 

“Under the party’s strong central leadership, China has the resolve and confidence to press ahead and use deeper reforms and deeper opening up as well as the development of our domestic market to counter United States unilateralism,” Li Wei said.

 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily briefing Tuesday in Beijing that talks are the only correct way to resolve the issue and accused the United States of being insincere.  Last week, the United States extended an invitation to China’s top negotiator, Liu He, to resume talks later this month in Washington.

 

The $200 billion in U.S. tariffs go into effect in less than a week, on September 24, leaving the two sides little time to sit down.

 

On Monday, President Trump warned, in a statement announcing his move, if China retaliates against U.S. farmers or other industries, Washington “will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion in additional imports.”

The additional $267 billion in tariffs is expected to cover all Chinese imports to the United States.

American and European businesses operating in China say that if Washington presses ahead with more and more tariffs, it is likely to only add to the challenges businesses are already facing.

 

According to surveys conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the European Chamber of Commerce, trade tensions are already hitting and hurting supply chains of foreign businesses.  Some companies have begun to move manufacturing away from China and the United States to avoid the impact of growing trade tensions, the European Chamber said.

 

European Chamber President Mats Harborn said engagement on the part of Washington and Beijing is the answer.

 

He said that what the United States is doing now is “economic madness” that risks creating a vicious cycle for business that could have an impact in China and elsewhere.  But the root of the trade dispute is that China’s reform is lagging behind its development, creating a “reform deficit.”

 

“Closing the reform gap will create better private companies in China, foreign companies,” Harborn said.  “And reducing the reform deficit should also help reduce tensions in the ongoing trade war.”

 

In its annual position paper on European business in China, the chamber lists 828 recommendations for Chinese authorities to address that deficit.

 

One of the key hurdles both private Chinese enterprises and foreign companies face is the dominant position state owned enterprises (SOEs) enjoy.  State owned enterprises account for around 30 percent of the economy and yet enjoy nearly 70 percent of all financing, the report said.

 

Unfair trade practices and the way SOEs contribute to an unbalanced playing field in China are key elements of the investigation the Trump administration carried out prior to launching its first round of tariffs.

 

But how far China is willing to go to change is uncertain.  Later this month, a meeting on SOEs will be held that many are expecting will be an indicator of the future course China’s Communist Party leaders plan to chart.

 

“We hear that there is a move to make the SOEs stronger, bigger and better,” Harborn said.  “Such ambitions are hindering the further opening and development of the vibrant private Chinese sector.”

 

If reform of SOEs is not on the agenda at the meeting, that would be seen as a clear provocation, given the current climate, he said.  

 

 

 

 
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Survey: 2 Million US Teens Vaping Marijuana

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A school-based survey shows nearly 1 in 11 U.S. students have used marijuana in electronic cigarettes, heightening health concerns about the new popularity of vaping among teens.

E-cigarettes typically contain nicotine, but many of the battery-powered devices can vaporize other substances, including marijuana. Results published Monday mean 2.1 million middle and high school students have used them to get high.

Vaping is generally considered less dangerous than smoking, because burning tobacco or marijuana generates chemicals that are harmful to lungs. But there is little research on e-cigarettes’ long-term effects, including whether they help smokers quit. 

The rise in teenagers using e-cigarettes has alarmed health officials who worry kids will get addicted to nicotine, a stimulant, and be more likely to try cigarettes. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration gave the five largest e-cigarette makers 60 days to produce plans to stop underage use of their products.

Nearly 9 percent of students surveyed in 2016 said they used an e-cigarette device with marijuana, according to Monday’s report in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. That included one-third of those who ever used e-cigarettes.

The number is worrying “because cannabis use among youth can adversely affect learning and memory and may impair later academic achievement and education,” said lead researcher Katrina Trivers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Students who said they lived with a tobacco user were more likely than others to report vaping marijuana.

It’s unclear whether marijuana vaping is increasing among teens or holding steady. The devices have grown into a multi-billion industry, but they are relatively new.

In states where marijuana is legal, shoppers can buy cartridges of liquid containing THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets people high, that work with a number of devices. Juul, by far the most popular e-cigarette device, does not offer marijuana pods, but users can re-fill cartridges with cannabis oil. 

It was the first time a question about marijuana vaping was asked on this particular survey, which uses a nationally representative sample of students in public and private schools. More than 20,000 students took the survey in 2016.

A different survey from the University of Michigan in December found similar results when it asked for the first time about marijuana vaping. In that study, 8 percent of 10th graders said they vaped marijuana in the past year.

“The health risks of vaping reside not only in the vaping devices, but in the social environment that comes with it,” said University of Michigan researcher Richard Miech. Kids who vape are more likely to become known as drug users and make friends with drug users, he said, adding that “hanging out with drug users is a substantial risk factor for future drug use.”
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Bosnia Adopts EU-required Changes to Criminal Code After Delay

Posted on by SeeEU

The Bosnian parliament on Monday approved long-delayed changes to a criminal code aimed at bolstering the rule of law and the fight against crime and corruption, which is expected to speed up the country’s progress towards European Union membership.

Bosnia’s top court had given lawmakers a June deadline to bring the country’s criminal procedure code into line with international standards, a key EU requirement for Western Balkan nations aspiring to join the bloc.

But politicians from Bosnia’s three rival ethnic parties could not agree on changes drafted by the Justice Ministry which included the use of undercover police personnel, communications interception, surveillance and the use of informants.

The EU also considered the amendments proposed by the ministry to be too weak, and warned that Bosnian prosecutors would be deprived of one of the major tools to effectively fight against the most serious crime.

A compromise solution agreed under international pressure allows the duration of investigative processes to be cut to a maximum of one year from up to 10 years previously, and reduces the scope for granting immunity to alleged offenders and witnesses.

A majority of lawmakers in Bosnia’s multi-layered parliamentary system have enjoyed immunity from prosecution and analysts in the country, which is mired in corruption, said politicians had resisted major changes to the law in order to keep this privilege.

Disputes among Bosnia’s ethnic leaders have nearly halted the Balkan country’s progress towards the EU and NATO. Bosnia formally applied for EU membership in 2016 but the process of joining is expected to take at least a decade.
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Senior Boko Haram Leader Reportedly Killed by Allies   

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Mamman Nur, a senior figure in the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, reportedly has been killed by some of his own colleagues.

Nur’s men allegedly gunned him down Aug. 21 following an internal dispute, according to Nigerian media sources and others. News reports of the killing have trickled out in the last few days.

Gyade Abdalla, an Islamist scholar in the country’s northeast region where the group is based, has served as a trusted negotiator between Boko Haram leaders, as well as Nigerian government officials. He told VOA that Nur’s men believed the Boko Haram figure was too lenient.  

A key point of dispute was Nur’s decision to release schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeast Nigerian town of Dapchi, Abdalla said.

Boko Haram abducted 109 female students from a secondary school in Dapchi in February. Nearly all of the girls were returned safely to their homes about a month later. 

Boko Haram also made headlines in April 2014 when it abducted 276 schoolgirls from a secondary school in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok. According to #BringBackOurGirls, the social media campaign and organization that formed after the kidnapping, 112 girls are still missing. 

Nur led a faction of Boko Haram that broke away in 2014 from the militant group led by Abubakar Shekau. Nur’s faction, which selected Abubakar al-Barnawi as its emir, established its operational base around Lake Chad north of Nigeria’s Borno state.

The group pays allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Nur also has been much more willing than other Boko Haram leaders to negotiate with the government about issues such as releasing captives. 

A fluent Arabic speaker, Nur networked extensively with other Boko Haram factions operating around Lake Chad, including in Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Abdalla suggested that Nur’s death could weaken the Boko Haram faction. 

With no apparent successor to Nur, it could splinter further, Abdalla said. That would give an edge to the Nigerian government if it acted quickly to dislodge the group, he added.

Malam Ibrahim Damaturu, an Islamic studies lecturer at Yobe State University, told VOA that Nur’s killing was unsurprising because the entire Boko Haram organization was built on ignorance of Islam.

He said some militants joined the group to advance personal objectives, and their competing goals were bound to produce friction. He said even Muhammed Yusuf, who founded the group in 2002, had conflicts with some of the followers.

Aliyu Kontagora, a retired Nigerian army colonel now working as a security analyst in the capital, Abuja, said he believes Nur’s assassination might lead to an escalation of deadly attacks in the area, as militants try to demonstrate their strength.

Boko Haram, which promotes an extreme form of Islamist fundamentalism and opposes Western-style education, is blamed for the deaths of more than 30,000 people and for the dislocation of more than 2 million. 

UNICEF reported that Boko Haram, intent on destroying schools, had kidnapped more than 1,000 children in northeastern Nigeria as of April. 

This report originated in VOA’s Hausa service. Hassan Maina Kaina is a stringer in northeast Nigeria. Salihu Garba reports from VOA’s Washington headquarters. 
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Remnants of Florence Soaking Mid-Atlantic, Posing New Flood Threats     

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What is left of tropical storm Florence is soaking the mid-Atlantic with buckets of rain as it drifts toward New England, leaving death and destruction behind in the Carolinas.

Flash flood watches and warnings are posted from southern Virginia into Vermont and New Hampshire through Tuesday.

Several tornadoes damaged buildings in the Richmond, Virginia, area Monday afternoon, with tornado watches posted for parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. 

Florence is now a what forecasters call a post-tropical cyclone, with top sustained winds of 35 kilometers per hour (22 mph). But the storm’s slow speed as it approached the Carolina coast late last week allowed it to pick up a huge amount of moisture.

Authorities continue to worry about more floods, breached dams and landslides, particularly as Florence makes its way across mountainous regions.

At least 20 deaths are blamed on the storm. 

“Unfortunately, we’ve still got several days to go. People fail to heed warnings and get out, or they get into the floodwaters trying to escape their home. And that’s where you start to see deaths escalate,” Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told U.S. television networks. 

Some parts of North Carolina have already gotten about 100 centimeters (39 inches) of rain. All of that rain is swelling streams and rivers and creating what the National Hurricane Center called “prolonged significant river flooding.”

Floods have cut off entire towns and cities in North Carolina, making helicopters the only way to get into these places and help the stranded. More than 700,000 homes have no power.

One of the hardest hit cities in North Carolina was New Bern, a riverfront city not far from the Atlantic coast. Mayor Dana Outlaw said the city was hit by a three-meter (10 feet) storm surge at the height of the hurricane Friday. He said 4,200 homes were damaged.

The White House said President Donald Trump would visit the storm-ravaged region in the coming days, but only after it is determined his arrival would not disrupt continuing rescue and recovery efforts.

WATCH: N. Carolina Gov. Cooper speaks on Hurricane Florence
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Air Force: Launching Space Force Will Cost $13 Billion Over 5 Years

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The military’s new Space Force, if approved by Congress, will initially consist of 13,000 personnel and cost nearly $13 billion over five years, according to a U.S. Air Force memo obtained on Monday by VOA.

The Air Force, which currently oversees the bulk of military space assets, estimated in the memo that Space Force’s creation will cost more than $3 billion in its first year and an additional $10 billion over the four following years. 

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson wrote in the memo, dated Sept. 14, that strategic competition with Russian and China is the military’s “top priority, [and] nowhere is this more evident than in space.”

Her plan, she added, acts quickly to counter competitors’ attempts to “erode” U.S. military advantages in space by establishing a Space Force Headquarters in 2020 and transitioning all programs to the new department through proposed Congressional legislation and funding in 2021.

The Air Force Secretary pushed back on some of the initial Space Force proposals by Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, such as the need to create a Space Development Agency to oversee satellite acquisition and the creation of a new top-level position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

“Establishing an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space or new defense bureaucracy, or moving programs to a temporary holding organization, is not in line with the President’s intent,” she said.

She instead planned to use an already-established asset, the Air Force Space Rapid Capabilities Office, to oversee satellite purchases.

The Pentagon will include legislation to create the president’s desired Space Force in the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2020 budget proposal, which is expected to be sent to Congress in early 2019.

President Donald Trump repeatedly has called for the creation of a space force as a new military branch that he says is needed to ensure U.S. dominance in space. 

Vice President Mike Pence formally announced some of the steps underway to create the new force last month after the Pentagon submitted a report to Congress detailing its space management changes.  

About 18,000 people across the Department of Defense work in the field of space, with tasks that include protecting about 140 military satellites that generate trillions of dollars of economic output, according to senior military officials.
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US Air Force Seeks Sharp Growth to Stay Ahead of China, Russia

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The U.S. Air Force is predicting it will need to grow sharply over the next decade or so, boosting the number of operational squadrons by nearly a quarter to stay ahead of increasingly muscular militaries in China and Russia, officials said.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters that the preliminary analysis drew partly from classified intelligence about possible threats in the 2025 to 2030 time frame, showing that the service, at its current size, would be unable to preserve America’s edge.

“The Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking us to do,” Wilson told a small group of reporters ahead of a speech on Monday that will lay out her arguments.

The Air Force analysis did not include a price tag and Wilson declined to speculate on costs. But such growth could conceivably cost billions of dollars, given the need to hire more personnel and buy substantially more aircraft, from refueling tankers and fighter jets to bombers, made by companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Wilson estimated the Air Force would need about more 40,000 personnel as part of the plan to have a total of 386 operational squadrons, up 24 percent from the 312 today. The increase would bring the Air Force to about 717,000 personnel, including the Guard and Reserve.

The U.S. Air Force had 401 squadrons in 1987, at the peak of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Usually commanded by a lieutenant colonel, squadrons are the core fighting units of the Air Force and are often composed of about 18 to 24 aircraft.

The Air Force estimate is likely to set the stage for greater debate about military spending priorities, including within the Pentagon, where branches of the world’s most powerful military already fiercely vie for resources.

That competition is set to grow if President Donald Trump succeeds in creating a new “Space Force” as the sixth branch of the military, something he hopes to do by 2020.

About one-sixth of U.S. federal spending goes to defense, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Although some lawmakers complain the Pentagon gets too big a share of U.S. resources, defense spending enjoys broad support in Congress.

Growing Risk

Trump last month signed a massive, $716 billion defense policy bill meant to help address shortcomings in the U.S. military, which is trying to shift its focus to challenges posed by countries like China and Russia after nearly 17 years fighting militants in places like Afghanistan.

Wilson declined to get into details about classified analysis of future military threats.

But she pointed to events already making global headlines, like how Russia staged its largest military exercise this month since the fall of the Soviet Union, mobilizing 300,000 troops.

Pentagon officials believe the bigger challenge, however, will be staying ahead of China’s rapidly expanding military capabilities.

“The threat is growing,” Wilson said. “We have to be clear-eyed about the world in which we live.”

Wilson acknowledged that the Air Force’s estimates would be further refined in the weeks and months ahead. The latest analysis would be among the reports submitted to Congress in March next year that seek to address a basic question: What kind of Air Force America does America need?

Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein noted that was different from the typical question of what is the best Air Force that the United States can afford, given current budget priorities.

Wilson said: “We also know that there will be a debate about what we can afford – and that’s fair.”

“But I think we have to be clear on what is needed to protect our vital national interest in this country,” she said.
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US to Sharply Cut Cap on Refugees to 30,000 for 2019

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday the United States would cap the number of refugees allowed into the country at 30,000 for fiscal year 2019, a sharp drop from a limit of 45,000 it set for 2018.

“We proposed resettling up to 30,000 refugees under the new refugee ceiling as well as processing more than 280,000 asylum seekers,” Pompeo said in an announcement at the State Department, calling the United States “the most generous nation in the world when it comes to protection-based immigration.”

“This year’s proposed refugee ceiling must be considered in the context of the many other forms of protection and assistance offered by the United States,” he said.

Refugee advocates quickly condemned the lower cap.

“Today’s announcement is a shameful abdication of our humanity in the face of the worst refugee crisis in history,” Jennifer Quigley, of Human Rights First, said in a statement.

Pompeo said the new limit reflected the administration’s preference for settling refugees closer to their home countries, something President Donald Trump has said would be cheaper than admitting them to the United States.

Pompeo said the decision was also based on security concerns.

“We must continue to responsibly vet applicants to prevent the entry of those who might do harm to our country,” he said.

Officials at the State Department and the Pentagon initially supported maintaining the cap at 45,000, according to one former and one current official. It was unclear whether they changed their position as the debate proceeded or failed to persuade the White House.

The refugee ceiling of 45,000 set last year was the lowest since 1980, when the modern refugee program was established. The United States is on track to admit only 22,000 refugees this year, about half the maximum allowed.

Trump campaigned in 2016 promising tight restrictions on immigration, and his administration has sharply reduced refugee admissions through executive orders and closed-door decisions in the past year and a half.

In the last year, the administration has tightened security vetting procedures that current and former officials say have slowed admission of refugees.

Ryan Mace, a refugee specialist at Amnesty International USA, urged Congress to oppose the decision as it finalizes fiscal year 2019 appropriations.

“The Trump administration is abandoning this country’s promise to refugees,” said Mace. “Today’s announcement demonstrates another undeniable political attack against people who have been forced to flee their homes.”

In addition to far lower admissions overall, the type of refugee admitted has changed under Trump, a Reuters analysis of government data shows. The percentage who are Muslim is now a third what it was two years ago; the percentage who are Europeans has tripled.

The shift has led to striking imbalances. Refugees admitted to the United States from the small European country of Moldova, for example, now outnumber those from Syria by three to one, although the number of Syrian refugees worldwide outnumbers the total population of Moldova.
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Trump Declassifies Documents Related to FBI Russia Probe

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Donald Trump on Monday declassified a trove of documents related to the early days of the FBI’s Russia investigation, including portions of a secret surveillance warrant and former FBI Director James Comey’s text messages.

 

Trump made the extraordinary move in response to calls from his allies in Congress who say they believe the Russia investigation was tainted by anti-Trump bias within the ranks of the FBI and Justice Department. It also came as Trump continued his efforts to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe in the wake of the guilty plea of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and amid the ongoing grand jury investigation into a longtime associate, Roger Stone.

 

Trump’s decision will result in the release of text messages and documents involving several top Justice Department and FBI officials who Trump has repeatedly attacked over the last year.

 

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Trump’s decision in a written statement, saying the president had directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department to declassify the documents “at the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency.”

 

According to the statement, Trump declassified about 20 pages of the warrant obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and FBI interviews conducted to secure that warrant.

He also is declassifying all FBI reports documenting interviews with senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who was in contact with ex-British spy Christopher Steele. Steele was a longtime FBI informant whose Democratic-funded research into Trump ties to Russia was compiled into a dossier that has become a partisan lightning rod since its publication in January 2017.

 

According to Sanders’ statement, Trump also directed the Justice Department to publicly release in full the text messages of Comey, Ohr, former FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and former FBI special agent Peter Strzok.
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Aid Agency: Greece Must Move Vulnerable Migrants from Island

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Greece should urgently move children and other vulnerable migrants and refugees from its most overcrowded island camp to the mainland or to other EU countries for the sake of their mental and physical health, the MSF aid agency said on Monday.

The appeal from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) came days after the governor of the region where the Moria camp is based said it should be closed next month unless authorities clean up “uncontrollable amounts of waste.”

MSF said it had witnessed an unprecedented health crisis in the camp, Greece’s biggest and home to some 9,000 migrants, a third of whom are children. It said many teenagers had attempted to commit suicide or were harming themselves on a weekly basis.

Other children suffer from elective mutism, panic attacks and anxiety, it said in a statement.

“This is the third year that MSF has been calling on the Greek authorities and the EU to take responsibility for their collective failures,” the agency said. “It is time to immediately evacuate the most vulnerable to safe accommodation in other European countries.”

The migrants in the camp, which is on the island of Lesbos, are housed in shipping containers and flimsy tents in conditions widely criticised as falling short of basic standards.

Greece is a gateway into the European Union for hundreds of thousands of refugees who have arrived since 2015 from Syria and other war-ravaged countries in the Middle East and from Africa.

Athens, which exited the biggest bailout in economic history in August, is struggling to handle the thousands of refugees who are stranded on its islands.

It has criticised Europe’s handling of the refugee crisis and some EU member states for being reluctant to share their burden.

Last week, 19 non-governmental organizations urged Greece to take action to alleviate the plight of refugees in all its island camps, not just Moria, to render them more fit for human habitation. 

The total number of migrants and refugees holed up in the island camps exceeds 17,000.
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Slovak Authorities Identify Possible Witness in Journalist’s Murder

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Slovak authorities have identified a possible witness in the murder of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak, whose killing last February led mass protests that forced the government to resign, a state prosecutor said on Monday.

It was the first development in the case in the six months since the murder.

“This person may have been present at or close to the crime scene around the time the crime was committed and may have information about the crime,” the prosecutor overseeing the case told a news conference.

He declined to answer questions on whether that person was a suspect or just a witness.

Kuciak, who had written about political corruption in Slovakia, was found shot dead along with his fiancee Martina Kusnirova at their home outside Bratislava in February. They were both 27.

The murder – which police have called a profesional hit – raised fears over media freedom in ex-communist Eastern Europe, and led to mass protests across the nation that forced the departure of previous police chief Tibor Gaspar as well as Prime Minister Robert Fico and interior minister Robert Kalinak.

The cabinet was reshuffled with Fico’s deputy Peter Pellegrini taking over as prime minister but the three-party center-left coalition stayed in power.

The prosecutor, who declined to give his name, said authorities had also whittled down possible motives to two.

He held up a sketch of the possible witness depicting a white man with a beard and dark hair who appeared to be in his late 20s to early 30s. He provided no other details.

“Despite initial mistakes in investigation, we have narrowed down possible motives from 30 to two,” the prosecutor said. “I believe we will be successful in the end.”

The update on Monday came after more than 300 Slovak journalists and publishers last month criticized police for the lack of progress in the murder investigation and alleged corruption described by Kuciak.

“As no fundamental changes to the police or to the prosecutorial bodies have taken place, we have doubts about the independence of the investigation,” they said in a statement.

Kuciak had covered Slovak businessmen mentioned in the Panama Papers and also probed fraud cases involving businessmen with Slovak political ties. He had also been looking into suspected mafia links of Italians with businesses in Slovakia.
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Survey Finds Support in Europe for Some Restrictions on Muslim Clothing   

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Most Western Europeans favor at least some restrictions on the religious clothing that Muslim women can wear in public, according to research released Monday by the Pew Research Center.

A median 50 percent of non-Muslim adults in the 15 countries surveyed said Muslim women should be allowed to wear religious clothing unless it covers their face. A median of 23 percent said that Muslim women should not be allowed to wear any religious clothing at all. Only 25 percent said they supported no such restrictions.

Portugal stood out as the only country where a majority of respondents said Muslim women should face no restrictions, at 52 percent.

Sixty six percent of respondents said they would accept a Muslim as a family member. But even in this group, a majority of 55 percent supported banning facial coverings.

“This is not a small group of people,” survey conductor Scott Gardner told VOA News. “Even though the majority have open and positive feelings towards Muslims, even those who say they would accept a Muslim as a family member favor at least some restrictions.”

Portugal was again unique in this category, with 60 percent of those who would accept a Muslim family member saying they supported having no restrictions on clothing.

The survey reflects government policy across the region. Last August, Denmark made it illegal for Muslim to wear facial coverings such as niqabs and burqas in public. Similar policies have been in enacted in Austria, Belgium, and France in recent years as Muslim immigrants have flocked to Europe in large numbers, escaping violence in Syria and other majority-Muslim nations.

The influx of Muslims into European countries has led to the rise of populist anti-immigration political movements in many of the countries surveyed, led by figures like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen in France. 
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Russian Communists Say Election Stolen by Pro-Putin Candidate

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Hundreds of Russian Communist Party supporters took to the central square of Vladivostok on Monday to protest against what they said was the brazen rigging of a regional election in favor of a politician backed by President Vladimir Putin.

With just under 99 percent of votes counted on Sunday night, Kremlin-backed incumbent Andrei Tarasenko was trailing his Communist rival by over 2 percentage points.

But on Monday, the election commission said Tarasenko had won by just over 1 percentage point, with results showing he had received almost every one of the almost 20,000 final votes counted, an unlikely turnaround that the Communists called evidence of rigging.

Galina, a 44-year-old state employee, said she was not a supporter of the Communists, but had gone to vote for the first time in 10 years — for their candidate Andrei Ishchenko — because she wanted change.

“What’s the point of voting if everything has already been decided for us?” she said, declining to give her surname.

Gennady Zyuganov, the veteran leader of the Communist Party, called the situation “criminal lawlessness” and said planned nationwide protests by his party on Saturday would make the rigged election one of their central issues.

“… They stopped the vote count for four hours and started stuffing the ballot boxes using special bandit methods,” Zyuganov told a news briefing in Moscow, calling the imbroglio “a political Chernobyl.”

The scandal is awkward for Putin whose own ratings are under pressure from plans to raise the pension age.

Putin met Tarasenko, who is formally an independent but is widely seen as the ruling United Russia’s candidate, a week ago, ahead of Sunday’s second round, and told him that “everything will be OK,” according to a Kremlin transcript of the meeting.

The comment was widely seen as a personal endorsement of Tarasenko, whom Putin appointed acting governor last year.

Ella Pamfilova, head of the central election commission, told Ekho Moskvy radio her officials were analyzing the vote and that she would send a special commission to investigate.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Kremlin was watching the situation and would be guided by Pamfilova.

Tarasenko failed to pass the 50-percent threshold for an outright win in the first round in the Primorsky Region, which includes the Pacific port of Vladivostok, 6,400 km (4,000 miles) east of Moscow.

That, and three other reversals in elections to select regional governors, amounted to the worst showing for Kremlin-backed candidates since 2012. Though there is no immediate threat to the United Russia party’s grip on power, it suggests growing discontent over living standards.

Protest call

Ishchenko told a crowd of hundreds of people in central Vladivostok on Monday that the vote count had been rigged, and urged supporters to protest every evening until the result was overturned.

“At least 30,000 votes were stolen from us,” he told the crowd, saying the results had been rewritten overnight. “We shouldn’t stand for it. We have gathered here today to show the authorities that we are the power here, that we decide what happens.”

Ishchenko had earlier said he would go on hunger strike until the result was annulled.

The crowd, some of whom were waving red Communist Party flags with the hammer and sickle, booed United Russia and shouted for Tarasenko to resign.

United Russia accused the Communists of buying votes during the campaign, something the Communists deny.

Standing outside local government headquarters on Monday to protest, Viktoria, a 29-year-old businesswoman who voted for Ishchenko, said she had started celebrating his win the previous night, then woken up to a result she had not expected.

“After this vote, I feel like a nobody. Like I don’t count, someone who doesn’t have the right to vote,” she said.
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Uganda Protests Alleged ‘Foreign Interference’

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The Ugandan government says the European parliament is trying to interfere in the country’s politics.  Last week, the EU parliament passed a resolution condemning acts by Ugandan security forces, including the arrests of members of parliament, the violent repression of protests, and alleged acts of torture.

  The Ugandan government says the move by the European Parliament is calculated to undermine the progress Uganda has made over the years.

Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said Monday the resolution is meant to bolster a few Ugandan leaders who want to act with impunity merely because they are elected.

The EU Parliament resolution, among other things, states the arrest of members of parliament is a serious violation of their right to immunity and thereby an attack on the independence of the Ugandan parliament.

It also calls for the immediate release of all the suspects detained illegally, and for criminal proceedings against police officers suspected to have shot dead two civilians.

Opondo characterized the resolution as a show of support for Uganda’s opposition. 

“Uganda takes objection to the tacit approval of indisciplined behavior by the EU leaders and some of their institutions of Uganda’s opposition politicians in the country,” Opondo said. “Could [the] EU parliament and those who actively promote impunity in other people’s nations have some humility in this area?”

Four legislators and 29 others face charges of treason for allegedly pelting President Yoweri Museveni’s convoy with stones and damaging property during election-related violence in the Arua district in August. 

In his address to the nation on the Arua chaos, Museveni said the protesters had been paid by unidentified non-government organizations to disrupt the country. 

Museveni said opposition politicians accused of terrorism, conspiracy to commit arson, and treason are telling lies to foreign governments.

“Interfering in the internal affairs of other countries is morally and practically wrong,” Museveni said. “Morally wrong because the question is, what superior intelligence do you have to think that you can understand the problem in my house better than we the occupants?  If there is a problem in my house, we the occupants will solve it, keep out.”

The government insists an opposition member who is unhappy with the decisions of government must use peaceful methods to challenge it. 

Opondo says they are now waiting for the EU parliament to formally furnish the resolution.  When that happens, he said, the Uganda minister of foreign affairs will make a diplomatic response.
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Nigeria’s Disasters Agency Says 100 People Killed in Floods

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Floods in much of central and southern Nigeria have killed 100 people across 10 states, the country’s emergency and disasters agency said on Monday.

Such flooding tends to occur every year in the rainy season, exacerbated by poor infrastructure and lack of planning to protect against inundation, but this year the destruction has been the worst since 2012.

“Based on the data available, 100 people have so far died in 10 states,” said Sani Datti, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), following heavy rain over the past days.

He said a national disaster has been declared in four states – Kogi, Niger, Anambra and Delta, meaning the federal government had taken over the search, rescue and rehabilitation of victims.

Delta is an oil-producing state in the Niger Delta region, home to Africa’s biggest energy industry, where the Niger river fans into creeks before emptying into the Atlantic. There has been no reported impact on crude oil production from the floods.

Kogi and Niger are states in the center of the country whereas the other two are in southern regions.

Floods partially submerged houses in Lokoja, capital of Kogi. The city lies at the confluence of the Benue and the Niger, Africa’s third-longest river, making it particularly vulnerable.

“The water started coming this month and after a while it appeared behind our houses and continued without let-up until last week when the water surrounded our houses,” said Angulu Atodo, a retiree in Lokoja. “I didn’t have anywhere to go to. They carried us off to a place far away and we have been there without any food or anything.”

Around the city, residents used canoes to make their way between houses. Nearby, flood control walls being built by the government remained incomplete.

Flooding in recent years has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest energy producer and most populous country.
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Merkel, Algerian Officials Discuss Migration, Libya

Posted on by SeeEA

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Monday during a one-day visit to the country to discuss migration and the situation in neighboring Libya.

Algeria’s official APS news agency reported the meeting happened in the presence Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and other government members.

The discussions take on particular significance before April’s presidential election in Algeria. No candidate has yet emerged because everyone is waiting to learn whether Bouteflika, 81, partially paralyzed from a stroke and rarely seen in public, will seek a fifth term.

Bouteflika traveled to Switzerland earlier this month for medical check-ups.

Algerian television channels showed images of Merkel and Bouteflika talking together.

In a joint news conference, Merkel and Ouyahia said they agreed on a process to send about 700 Algerian migrants identified as illegally staying in Germany back to their country.

Ouyahia suggested that German airline Lufthansa should help with their transfer in addition to Air Algeria. Algerian authorities requested that no special flight is chartered, he said.

“Algeria will take back its children staying irregularly in Germany,” he said.

Merkel said they also discussed the situation in neighboring Mali and Libya, without providing details.

Before the talks, Merkel visited the hilltop memorial to “martyrs” who died in Algeria’s war of independence with France that ended in 1962.

Germany was Algeria’s fourth-largest commercial partner in 2017, with 200 German companies working in various sectors in the North African country.

This was Merkel’s first visit to Algeria in a decade. Initially set for February 2017, it was postponed because Bouteflika was stricken with the flu.

Both countries also sought to deepen their economic cooperation.

Mohamed Saidj, professor of political science in Algiers, told The Associated Press that Merkel’s meeting with Bouteflika provided the Algerian president an occasion to “show his adversaries that he keeps assuming normally the prerogatives of his office.”

Saidj stressed that Algeria has strong economic links with Germany especially in mechanical engineering, the auto industry, renewable energy, the chemical sector and pharmaceuticals.
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 Syrian Government Vows to ‘Liberate’ Idlib from ‘Terrorists’

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Syria appears to be rejecting urgent calls to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in its northern Idlib enclave, the country’s last rebel-held area. Despite appeals by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria, the government says it is determined to do whatever it takes to root out “terrorists.”

Military attacks by Syria and its Russian ally against Idlib have been increasing in frequency and intensity during the past weeks.

The United Nations reports dozens of people, including women and children, have been killed and wounded, and several hospitals and schools have been attacked and taken out of service. 

The United Nations warns an offensive to retake Idlib, where nearly three million civilians reside, would trigger the biggest massacre of this century.

In a presentation to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Commission of Inquiry on Syria Chairman Paulo Pinheiro notes unlike previous battles in Dara’a or eastern Ghouta civilians in Idlib have nowhere left to flee.  War in Idlib, he says, would generate a humanitarian catastrophe.

“We call on all parties to urge restraint, to prioritize meaningful political dialogue, and to refrain from embarking on such a tragic repetition,” Pinheiro said. “To spare the civilian population in Idlib, parties must come to the table and engage in genuine and constructive political dialogue.” 

In response, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Hussam Edin Aala, said his government respects all rules of international humanitarian law and has taken all necessary measures to protect civilians during operations to liberate areas from terrorist groups. 

“Regarding Idlib province, the Syrian state is determined to liberate Idlib from terrorist entities and organizations, namely the al-Nusra front, classified by the Security Council as a terrorist entity,” Aala said.  “We are also determined to recover the state’s sovereignty.”   

The United Nations estimates about 10,000 rebels are intertwined among the civilians.  The commission says risking the lives of so many innocent people in a battle to defeat a relative handful of armed fighters is too high a price to pay.
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UN: Widespread Violations in Burundi May Amount to Crimes Against Humanity

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The Commission of Inquiry on Burundi accused the country of persistent and widespread violations of human rights, some of which it says constitute crimes against humanity.

The Commission presented its final report on the situation in Burundi to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. It says violations — which include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture, and sexual violence — are used by the government and its allies to bend the Burundian people to its will.

The Commission accuses members of the National Intelligence Service, including senior officials and the police, of serious violations. It also expresses concern about the growing role played by the youth militia, the Imbonerakure, in controlling the population.

Commission member Francoise Hampson says the Burundian state is to blame for the wrongful acts committed by the Imbonerakure, since it exercises overall effective control.

“The climate of disregard for human rights in Burundi continues to be fomented by repeated calls for hatred and violence by authorities, including the head of state … and by an overall context of impunity,” she said. “The judiciary in Burundi is not independent, and has not been so for several years.” 

The government of Burundi has refused to cooperate with the Commission, declaring its members persona non grata. The Commission has collected more than 400 testimonial accounts from victims and witnesses in neighboring countries, as well as remotely from Burundians residing in the country.

The Commission is appealing to the U.N. Council to renew its mandate for one more year, especially in light of the preparation for the 2020 elections. It notes the number of serious human rights violations that occurred in 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for and won a controversial third term.

Burundi’s Ambassador to the U.N. Renovat Tabu rejected the report, calling it false, politically motivated, insulting and derogatory. He says the report is scandalous and a flagrant violation of Burundi’s sovereignty.
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