Month: October 2018

Ethiopian Marathoner who Made Rio Protest Returns from Exile

Posted on by SeeAF

The Ethiopian marathon runner who made global headlines with an anti-government gesture at the Rio Olympics finish line returned from exile on Sunday after sports officials assured him he will not face prosecution.

Feyisa Lilesa’s return from the United States came several months after a reformist prime minister took office and announced sweeping political reforms. He received a warm welcome at the airport from the foreign minister and other senior officials.

 

Feyisa said the new government is “a result of the struggle by the people” and he hopes it will address concerns after years of repression in Africa’s second most populous nation.

 

The silver medalist crossed his wrists at the finish line in 2016 in solidarity with protesters in his home region, Oromia, who like many across Ethiopia were demanding wider freedoms.

 

Feyisa later said he feared he would be imprisoned or killed if he returned home. But he became a symbol of resistance for many youth until the pressure on the government led to a change of power, with 42-year-old Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed taking office in April. Abiy is the country’s first leader from the Oromia-based Oromo ethnic group.

 

Ethiopia’s government did not immediately comment Sunday on the runner’s return.

 

Asked by The Associated Press if he has any political ambitions, Feyisa said: “I don’t have any ambition in politics! Actually I didn’t get close to politics, politics gets close to me.”

 

Feyisa broke down in tears while speaking about youth who lost their lives during the years of protests. “I will continue to remember those who lost their lives for the cause. Many people lost their lives for it.”

 

Turning his attention to running, he said his next race will be the Dubai Marathon in January.

 

“My training while I was in exile was not good, so it has affected my performance,” Feyisa said. He missed two races in recent weeks as he prepared to return to Ethiopia. “I will resume my regular training after a week.”
…

your ad here

UNHCR: People Seeking Asylum Have Legal Right to Enter US

Posted on by SeeUS

The UN refugee agency indicates Washington is on shaky legal ground in barring Central American asylum seekers from entering the United States. The UNHCR reports people fleeing persecution and violence have a right to international protection.

The UN refugee agency does not question the sovereign right of any nation to control its borders. But, it does say international law governs the way countries must behave toward refugees and asylum seekers.

The UNHCR says it recognizes the arrival of thousands of Honduran migrants in the caravan at the U.S. borders will be overwhelming. But, Spokesman Charlie Yaxlie says closing the border to the caravan is not a solution and will likely cause harm to those who have a legitimate fear for their lives.

“We wish to reiterate and underline that any individuals within that group that are fleeing persecution and violence, they need to be given access to territory and they need to be allowed to exercise their fundamental human rights to seek asylum and have access to refugee status determination procedures,” he said.

Yaxlie says this principle is not only set out in international law but is also part of the national legislation of all countries concerned. He says it is important for governments to follow the law. He tells VOA the U.S. has not always stuck to the letter of refugee law.

“I think there has been well documented some of their issues around the separation of children in the U.S. We have repeatedly called for families not to be separated and for detention not to be used,” he said.

Yaxlie says the UNHCR continues to work with the United States on ensuring their operations are in line with their obligations under international law.

In the meantime, the Geneva-based International Red Cross Federation reports Red Cross volunteers across Central America are accompanying the migrants along their journey. It says they are providing first aid and water and working to reunite families who have become separated along the way.

 

 

 
…

your ad here

Angola Says 380,000 Illegal Migrants Exit in weeks

Posted on by SeeAF

About 380,000 illegal migrants, mostly from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, have left Angola in less than a month during a massive operation targeting diamond smuggling, a minister said Saturday.

On a visit to Dundo in northern Angola on the border with DR Congo, Pedro Sebastiao dismissed allegations that the migrants had been violently expelled and often beaten by police.

Sebastiao, a state minister and the head of presidential security who is in charge of the operation, told traveling reporters that diamonds worth more than $1 million had been seized.

He said that the migrants had all left voluntarily, and 231 premises for illegal diamond trading had been closed and 59 weapons seized.

“Angola is a democratic and lawful state,” he said. “It must be made clear that ‘Operation Transparency’ is not based on any xenophobic sentiment against citizens of neighboring countries or any other nationality.”

Speaking at the Chitato border post, he said the crackdown across northern and western Angola was “legitimate” and was to ensure that the country’s diamond reserves were correctly exploited.

There was “illegal immigration and the plundering of our natural resources without any contribution to the treasury,” he said, adding the operation was scheduled to continue for two years.

After pouring across the border in recent weeks, many Congolese have described being brutally thrown out of Angola after sometimes living there for more than 10 years.

‘Left with almost nothing’

Migrants who had crossed back to the frontier town of Kamako told AFP this week that their houses had been burnt by police and gangs of Angolan youths, and some had been attacked with machetes and beaten as they fled.

With 1,000 arrivals crossing some border posts every hour, many have been left in DRC Congo without shelter and adequate food and water as authorities struggle to cope.

“During displacement, DRC nationals have experienced violence and human rights abuses, and many have arrived with almost nothing,” ACAPS, an humanitarian crisis group, said in a briefing note.

“Although the Angolan government claims all returns are voluntary, there have been reports of forced returns,” it added.

This week DR Congo threatened to take international action against Angola over the allegedly violent expulsions.

Clashes have been reported between Congolese, Angolan security forces and local Angolans in several provinces especially in Lunda Norte, which borders on DRC.

Local media and an NGO reported that several migrants have been killed.

Oil-rich Angola attracts hordes of Congolese as it is relatively stable and offers better employment prospects.

DR Congo has an abundance of mineral wealth but is rocked by unrest unleashed by rebel groups and militias from within and neighboring nations such as Uganda and Rwanda.   

Angola and DR Congo share a 2,500-kilometer (1,550-mile) land border, the longest in Africa.
…

your ad here

Saudi Official: Chokehold Killed Journalist; Body Carried Out in Rug

Posted on by SeeEA

As Saudi Arabia faced intensifying international skepticism over its story about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a senior government official laid out a new version of the death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that in key respects contradicts previous explanations.

The latest account, provided by a Saudi official who requested anonymity, includes details on how the team of 15 Saudi nationals sent to confront Khashoggi on Oct. 2 had threatened him with being drugged and kidnapped and then killed him in a chokehold when he resisted. A member of the team then dressed in Khashoggi’s clothes to make it appear as if he had left the consulate.

After denying any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi, 59, for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning said he had died in a fistfight at the consulate. An hour later, another Saudi official attributed the death to a chokehold, which the senior official reiterated.

Turkish officials suspect the body of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was dismembered, but the Saudi official said it was rolled up in a rug and given to a “local cooperator” for disposal. Asked about allegations that Khashoggi had been tortured and beheaded, he said preliminary results of the investigation did not suggest that.

The Saudi official presented what he said were Saudi internal intelligence documents that appeared to show the initiative to bring back dissidents as well as the specific one involving Khashoggi. He also showed testimony from those involved in what he described as the 15-man team’s cover-up, and the initial results of an internal probe. He did not provide proof to substantiate the findings of the investigation and the other evidence.

​Changing narratives

This narrative is the latest Saudi account that has changed multiple times. The authorities initially dismissed reports that Khashoggi had gone missing inside the consulate as false and said he had left the building soon after entering. When the media reported a few days later that he had been killed there, they called the accusations “baseless.”

Asked by Reuters why the government’s version of Khashoggi’s death kept changing, the official said the government initial account was based on “false information reported internally at the time.”

“Once it became clear these initial mission reports were false, it launched an internal investigation and refrained from further public comment,” the official said, adding that the investigation is continuing.

Turkish sources say the authorities have an audio recording purportedly documenting Khashoggi’s murder inside the consulate but have not released it.

Riyadh dispatched a high-level delegation to Istanbul on Tuesday and ordered an internal investigation, but U.S. President Donald Trump said n Saturday he is not satisfied with Saudi Arabia’s handling of Khashoggi’s death and said questions remain unanswered. Germany and France on Saturday called Saudi Arabia’s explanation of how Khashoggi died incomplete.

​Latest version of events

According to the latest version of the death, the government wanted to convince Khashoggi, who moved to Washington a year ago fearing reprisals for his views, to return to the kingdom as part of a campaign to prevent Saudi dissidents from being recruited by the country’s enemies, the official said.

To that end, the official said, the deputy head of the General Intelligence Presidency, Ahmed al-Asiri, put together a 15-member team from the intelligence and security forces to go to Istanbul, meet Khashoggi at the consulate and try to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia.

“There is a standing order to negotiate the return of dissidents peacefully; which gives them the authority to act without going back to the leadership,” the official said. “Asiri is the one who formed the team and asked for an employee who worked with (Saud) al-Qahtani and who knew Jamal from the time they both worked at the embassy in London,” he said.

The official said Qahtani had signed off on one of his employees conducting the negotiations.

​Chokehold 

According to the plan, the team could hold Khashoggi in a safe house outside Istanbul for “a period of time” but then release him if he ultimately refused to return to Saudi Arabia, the official said.

Things went wrong from the start as the team overstepped their orders and quickly employed violence, the official said.

Khashoggi was ushered into the consul general’s office where an operative named Maher Mutreb spoke to him about returning to Saudi Arabia, according to the government’s account. Khashoggi refused and told Mutreb that someone was waiting outside for him and would contact the Turkish authorities if he did not reappear within an hour, the official said.

Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, has told Reuters he had handed her his two mobile phones and left instructions that she should wait for him and call an aide to Turkey’s president if he did not reappear.

Back inside the consul’s office, according to the official’s account, Khashoggi told Mutreb he was violating diplomatic norms and said, “What are you going to do with me? Do you intend to kidnap me?”

Mutreb replied, “Yes, we will drug you and kidnap you,” in what the official said was an attempt at intimidation that violated the mission’s objective.

When Khashoggi raised his voice, the team panicked. They moved to restrain him, placing him in a chokehold and covering his mouth, according to the government’s account.

“They tried to prevent him from shouting but he died,” the official said. “The intention was not to kill him.”

Asked if the team had smothered Khashoggi, the official said: “If you put someone of Jamal’s age in this position, he would probably die.”

Where is his body?

To cover up their misdeed, the team rolled up Khashoggi’s body in a rug, took it out in a consular vehicle and handed it over to a “local cooperator” for disposal, the official said.

Forensic expert Salah Tubaigy tried to remove any trace of the incident, the official said.

Turkish officials have told Reuters that Khashoggi’s killers may have dumped his remains in Belgrad Forest adjacent to Istanbul, and at a rural location near the city of Yalova, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Istanbul.

Turkish investigators are likely to find out what happened to the body “before long,” a senior official said.

The Saudi official said the local cooperator is an Istanbul resident but would not reveal his nationality. The official said investigators were trying to determine where the body ended up.

Meanwhile, operative Mustafa Madani donned Khashoggi’s clothes, eyeglasses and Apple watch and left through the back door of the consulate in an attempt to make it look as if Khashoggi had walked out of the building. Madani went to the Sultanahmet district where he disposed of the belongings.

The official said the team then wrote a false report for superiors saying they had allowed Khashoggi to leave once he warned that Turkish authorities could get involved and that they had promptly left the country before they could be discovered.

​Many questions

Skeptics have asked why so many people, including military officers and a forensics expert specializing in autopsies, were part of the operation if the objective was to persuade Khashoggi to return home of his own volition.

The disappearance of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider turned critic, has snowballed into a massive crisis for the kingdom, forcing the 82-year-old monarch, King Salman, to personally get involved. 

It has threatened the kingdom’s business relationships, with several senior executives and government officials shunning an investor conference in Riyadh scheduled for next week and some U.S. lawmakers putting pressure on Trump to impose sanctions and stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

The official said all 15 team members had been detained and placed under investigation, along with three other local suspects.
…

your ad here

Saudi Official: Chokehold Killed Writer, Body Carried Out in Rug

Posted on by SeeUS

As Saudi Arabia faced intensifying international skepticism over its story about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a senior government official laid out a new version of the death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that in key respects contradicts previous explanations.

The latest account, provided by a Saudi official who requested anonymity, includes details on how the team of 15 Saudi nationals sent to confront Khashoggi on Oct. 2 had threatened him with being drugged and kidnapped and then killed him in a chokehold when he resisted. A member of the team then dressed in Khashoggi’s clothes to make it appear as if he had left the consulate.

After denying any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi, 59, for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning said he had died in a fistfight at the consulate. An hour later, another Saudi official attributed the death to a chokehold, which the senior official reiterated.

Turkish officials suspect the body of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was dismembered, but the Saudi official said it was rolled up in a rug and given to a “local cooperator” for disposal. Asked about allegations that Khashoggi had been tortured and beheaded, he said preliminary results of the investigation did not suggest that.

The Saudi official presented what he said were Saudi internal intelligence documents that appeared to show the initiative to bring back dissidents as well as the specific one involving Khashoggi. He also showed testimony from those involved in what he described as the 15-man team’s cover-up, and the initial results of an internal probe. He did not provide proof to substantiate the findings of the investigation and the other evidence.

​Changing narratives

This narrative is the latest Saudi account that has changed multiple times. The authorities initially dismissed reports that Khashoggi had gone missing inside the consulate as false and said he had left the building soon after entering. When the media reported a few days later that he had been killed there, they called the accusations “baseless.”

Asked by Reuters why the government’s version of Khashoggi’s death kept changing, the official said the government initial account was based on “false information reported internally at the time.”

“Once it became clear these initial mission reports were false, it launched an internal investigation and refrained from further public comment,” the official said, adding that the investigation is continuing.

Turkish sources say the authorities have an audio recording purportedly documenting Khashoggi’s murder inside the consulate but have not released it.

Riyadh dispatched a high-level delegation to Istanbul on Tuesday and ordered an internal investigation, but U.S. President Donald Trump said n Saturday he is not satisfied with Saudi Arabia’s handling of Khashoggi’s death and said questions remain unanswered. Germany and France on Saturday called Saudi Arabia’s explanation of how Khashoggi died incomplete.

​Latest version of events

According to the latest version of the death, the government wanted to convince Khashoggi, who moved to Washington a year ago fearing reprisals for his views, to return to the kingdom as part of a campaign to prevent Saudi dissidents from being recruited by the country’s enemies, the official said.

To that end, the official said, the deputy head of the General Intelligence Presidency, Ahmed al-Asiri, put together a 15-member team from the intelligence and security forces to go to Istanbul, meet Khashoggi at the consulate and try to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia.

“There is a standing order to negotiate the return of dissidents peacefully; which gives them the authority to act without going back to the leadership,” the official said. “Asiri is the one who formed the team and asked for an employee who worked with (Saud) al-Qahtani and who knew Jamal from the time they both worked at the embassy in London,” he said.

The official said Qahtani had signed off on one of his employees conducting the negotiations.

​Chokehold 

According to the plan, the team could hold Khashoggi in a safe house outside Istanbul for “a period of time” but then release him if he ultimately refused to return to Saudi Arabia, the official said.

Things went wrong from the start as the team overstepped their orders and quickly employed violence, the official said.

Khashoggi was ushered into the consul general’s office where an operative named Maher Mutreb spoke to him about returning to Saudi Arabia, according to the government’s account. Khashoggi refused and told Mutreb that someone was waiting outside for him and would contact the Turkish authorities if he did not reappear within an hour, the official said.

Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, has told Reuters he had handed her his two mobile phones and left instructions that she should wait for him and call an aide to Turkey’s president if he did not reappear.

Back inside the consul’s office, according to the official’s account, Khashoggi told Mutreb he was violating diplomatic norms and said, “What are you going to do with me? Do you intend to kidnap me?”

Mutreb replied, “Yes, we will drug you and kidnap you,” in what the official said was an attempt at intimidation that violated the mission’s objective.

When Khashoggi raised his voice, the team panicked. They moved to restrain him, placing him in a chokehold and covering his mouth, according to the government’s account.

“They tried to prevent him from shouting but he died,” the official said. “The intention was not to kill him.”

Asked if the team had smothered Khashoggi, the official said: “If you put someone of Jamal’s age in this position, he would probably die.”

Where is his body?

To cover up their misdeed, the team rolled up Khashoggi’s body in a rug, took it out in a consular vehicle and handed it over to a “local cooperator” for disposal, the official said.

Forensic expert Salah Tubaigy tried to remove any trace of the incident, the official said.

Turkish officials have told Reuters that Khashoggi’s killers may have dumped his remains in Belgrad Forest adjacent to Istanbul, and at a rural location near the city of Yalova, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Istanbul.

Turkish investigators are likely to find out what happened to the body “before long,” a senior official said.

The Saudi official said the local cooperator is an Istanbul resident but would not reveal his nationality. The official said investigators were trying to determine where the body ended up.

Meanwhile, operative Mustafa Madani donned Khashoggi’s clothes, eyeglasses and Apple watch and left through the back door of the consulate in an attempt to make it look as if Khashoggi had walked out of the building. Madani went to the Sultanahmet district where he disposed of the belongings.

The official said the team then wrote a false report for superiors saying they had allowed Khashoggi to leave once he warned that Turkish authorities could get involved and that they had promptly left the country before they could be discovered.

​Many questions

Skeptics have asked why so many people, including military officers and a forensics expert specializing in autopsies, were part of the operation if the objective was to persuade Khashoggi to return home of his own volition.

The disappearance of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider turned critic, has snowballed into a massive crisis for the kingdom, forcing the 82-year-old monarch, King Salman, to personally get involved. 

It has threatened the kingdom’s business relationships, with several senior executives and government officials shunning an investor conference in Riyadh scheduled for next week and some U.S. lawmakers putting pressure on Trump to impose sanctions and stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

The official said all 15 team members had been detained and placed under investigation, along with three other local suspects.
…

your ad here

An Art Mecca in Cleveland Warehouse

Posted on by SeeUS

78th Street in Cleveland, Ohio, has been transformed from an industrial area into an art mecca. Once home to a car manufacturer, its old metal doors and freight elevators serve as a setting for bright paintings and abstract sculptures. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.
…

your ad here

Depression-Era ‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’ a Symbol of American Optimism

Posted on by SeeUS

It’s been a mystery in the United States since the Great Depression: Who are the 11 men pictured in a famous photograph called “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper”? In the 1932 photo, the construction workers are enjoying their lunch break on a metal beam, 256 meters up in the air above New York City streets. That skyscraper is now part of the Rockefeller Center complex, and that’s where Boris Koltsov went in search of answers. Anna Rice narrates his report.
…

your ad here

America’s Oldest Restaurant Serves Seafood and History

Posted on by SeeUS

There are more than 650,000 restaurants in the United States, enough to satisfy the pickiest eater. New venues open every day, yet staying in business with such tremendous competition is no easy task. One restaurant has been able to stay open for nearly 200 years. Karina Bafradzhian takes us to an oyster house in Boston, Massachusetts, that stakes its claim as the oldest restaurant in the U.S.
…

your ad here

Minister: Comoros Army Regains Control in Anjouan

Posted on by SeeAF

The Comoros military Saturday regained control of Mutsamudu’s old city center on the island of Anjouan, a minister told AFP, after armed rebels staged an uprising earlier this week.

Soldiers and rebels opposed to President Azali Assoumani had fought in the narrow lanes of the medina quarter in Mutsamudu since Monday, with at least three people killed.

Tensions in Comoros, a coup-prone Indian Ocean archipelago, have mounted in recent months as Assoumani bids to extend term limits through constitutional changes that could see him rule for 11 more years.

“The army has retaken the medina,” Education Minister Mahamoud Salim Hafi, who has led the government response to the rebels, said as soldiers patrolled the streets.

No fighting was reported during the day and there was no evidence of rebels being present.

Residents emerge

AFP reporters saw civilians emerge from their houses, some for the first time in six days.

“It was difficult to eat, except with the help of neighbors … but most difficult was that we were deprived of water and electricity,” Djamou Houkoum said.

As soldiers passed in single file, Salma Mohamed Dossar opened her door.

“Difficult days — everyone fled. I refused to leave, they told me was crazy, but I will never give up my house,” she said, smiling.

Presidency rotation

One square was littered with debris of stones and tear gas grenades.

A weapons’ amnesty deal signed between the main opposition Juwa party and government Friday appeared to have been rejected by the rebels, who were estimated to be about 40 strong.

Assoumani won a widely criticized referendum in July allowing him to scrap the rotation of the presidency between Comoros’ three main islands, disadvantaging opposition-leaning Anjouan, which was next in line.

The government had sent in reinforcements to quell the unrest in the old quarter of Mutsamudu after rebels erected barricades and repelled attempts by the security forces to regain control.

The president, who came to power in a military coup and was elected in 2016, has indicated that he plans to stage polls next year which would allow him to reset his term limits and theoretically rule until 2029.

The Comoros islands — Anjouan, Grande Comore and Moheli — are between Mozambique and Madagascar.

The fourth Comoros island, Mayotte, remains French.

President blames opposition

Assoumani’s government accuses the opposition Juwa party of being behind the unrest on Anjouan.

Former president Ahmed Abdallah Sambi who leads Juwa, is from Anjouan. He has been under house arrest since May.

Earlier this week, Interior Minister Mohamed Daoudou blamed “terrorists, as well as drug addicts and alcoholics” for the rebellion.

The United Nations and African Union have called for restraint from all sides and for stalled talks between rival parties to resume.
…

your ad here

Vivid Battle Memories Return to Egypt With British Veterans

Posted on by SeeAF

For Bill Blackburn, the memories that returned were the flies, the thirst, and the power of the artillery barrage that opened the battle of El Alamein.

Blackburn was one of six British World War II veterans to visit the desert battlefield on the 76th anniversary of the decisive Allied victory that marked an important step toward the eventual defeat of German and Italian forces in Africa in May 1943.

Those who fought are now in their late 90s, and may not return again.

Montgomery vs Rommel

The battle began on the night of Oct. 23 1942, when Commonwealth forces from General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army began driving back Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika, which had threatened to sweep across Egypt and into the Middle East.

“The night sky was lit up with gun flashes and bangs, and we got a few shells thrown back at us but nothing compared to what we threw at the Germans,” said Blackburn, 98, from West Yorkshire, England.

“After the barrage ceased we were dug in and we were there for several days before the breakthrough, and then we moved forward,” he added.

​Never expected to return

The veterans returned to the battle site because the British government paid for the trip for the first time, using the proceeds of fines levied on banks over the manipulation of the Libor interbank interest rate.

Joe Peel, also 98, was a gunner at El Alamein whose hearing was badly damaged by German bombing and said he had never expected to return.

“It’s marvelous to be back here just to see what we did here. But it’s changed quite a lot,” he said, speaking Saturday at a ceremony at the Commonwealth war cemetery, where the nearby desert and Mediterranean coast is rapidly being developed amid a construction boom.

Across the coastal road is a German war memorial commemorating more than 4,300 German and Austrian dead, where a joint ceremony was held Saturday for the first time.

Terrible battle, casualties

Casualty rates on both sides were especially high at El Alamein. The battle was terrible, Peel said.

“You couldn’t see nothing hardly, because the dust and the sand were blowing up with the shells and goodness knows what,” he said.

El Alamein was seen as key for boosting Allied morale, despite more than 13,500 dead, wounded or missing over about 10 days of fighting as Commonwealth forces broke through poorly supplied German lines.

Blackburn’s Royal Artillery regiment eventually advanced through Tunisia before crossing to Italy.

“It was pretty tough really, whenever you had a meal you were eating flies and couldn’t get rid of them. It was pretty rough but we got through it,” Peel said.
…

your ad here

Rebels Kill Congolese Army Health Workers Fighting Ebola

Posted on by SeeAF

Congo’s health minister called it a “dark day” for everyone fighting the deadly Ebola outbreak after rebels shot and killed two medical agents with the Congolese army who had been assisting health officials.

It appeared to be the first time health workers have been killed by rebels in this outbreak, which is taking place in what has been compared to a war zone. Multiple rebel groups are active in Congo’s far northeast.

Premeditated attack

The health ministry statement late Saturday said Mai Mai rebels surged from the forest and opened fire on the unarmed agents with the army’s rapid intervention medical unit at an entrance to Butembo city.

The daytime attack appeared premeditated, with civilians present left unharmed, the statement said. The medical agents had been placed in “dangerous zones” to assist national border health officials.

Health workers in this outbreak have described hearing gunshots daily, carrying out Ebola containment work under armed escort and having to end their work by sundown to lower the risk of attack.

​Cases double

The number of confirmed Ebola cases has now reached 200, including 117 deaths. Aid groups expressed alarm after the insecurity and sometimes hostile community resistance led the rate of new cases to more than double this month.

Congo’s health ministry has reported “numerous aggressions” against health workers, and two Red Cross volunteers were severely injured in one confrontation with wary community members in a region traumatized by decades of fighting and facing an Ebola outbreak for the first time.

“Health agents are not a target for armed groups,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga said Saturday. “Our agents will continue to go into the field each day to fulfill the mission entrusted to them. They are true heroes and we will continue to take all necessary measures so that they can do their job safely.”

A deadly rebel attack against civilians in Beni late last month forced the suspension of Ebola containment efforts for days, and the effects are still being seen. Many of the new confirmed cases this month, including six reported Saturday, have been in Beni, which is where most of the Ebola work in this outbreak is based.

Not a global emergency

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said it was “deeply concerned” by the ongoing outbreak but that the situation does not yet warrant being declared a global emergency. To warrant being declared a global emergency, an outbreak must be “an extraordinary event” that might cross borders, requiring a coordinated response.

Confirmed cases in this outbreak have been found near the heavily traveled border with Uganda.
…

your ad here

New York Witches to Aim Hex at Justice Kavanaugh

Posted on by SeeUS

Melissa Madara was not surprised to receive death threats Friday as her Brooklyn witchcraft store prepared to host a public hexing of newly confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh this weekend.

The planned casting of an anti-Kavanaugh spell, one of the more striking instances of politically disgruntled Americans turning to the supernatural when frustrated by democracy, has drawn backlash from some Christian groups but support from like-minded witch covens.

“It gives the people who are seeking agency a little bit of chance to have that back,” Madara said. The ritual was to be livestreamed on Facebook and Instagram at 8 p.m. EDT Saturday (1200 GMT Sunday).

Seated at a desk phone among bird skulls and crystal balls at Catland Books, the occult shop she co-owns, Madara said the Kavanaugh hex is expected to be the most popular event the store has hosted since its 2013 opening, including spells aimed at President Donald Trump. Madara declined to provide details of what the latest ritual will entail.

More than 15,000 people who have seen Catland Books promotions on Facebook have expressed interest in attending the event, vastly exceeding the shop’s 60-person capacity.

​Irate, threatening calls

Not everyone is a witchcraft fan. Madara said she had fielded numerous irate calls from critics, with at least one threatening violence. 

“Every time we host something like this there’s always people who like to call in with death threats or read us scripture,” she said.

As far as supporters go, some are sexual assault survivors still angry that the U.S. Senate confirmed Kavanaugh’s lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court despite accusations that he had sexually assaulted multiple women.

Kavanaugh has denied the allegations, and an FBI investigation failed to corroborate his accusers’ accounts.

Democrats hope lingering outrage over Kavanaugh, particularly among women, will translate into election gains for them Nov. 6. Republicans are likewise trying to seize on anger among conservatives at how they perceive Kavanaugh was mistreated.

Counter hexes and prayers

Believers in mysticism on both sides of the political divide are taking matters into their own hands.

Plans for the Catland Books event have sparked “counter hexes” around the country by those seeking to undo the spell that the Brooklyn witches cast against Kavanaugh, Madara said.

Even mainstream clergy was joining the fray. Rev. Gary Thomas of the Diocese of San Jose in California said Friday that he would include Kavanaugh in his prayers at Saturday mass.
…

your ad here

Tanzania Arrests 104 for Plotting ‘Radical Camps’ in Mozambique

Posted on by SeeAF

Tanzanian police have arrested 104 suspected militants planning to establish bases in neighboring Mozambique, where scores of people have been killed

in Islamist attacks over the last year, a senior official said.

Forty attacks have been carried out since October 2017 in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, an area near the Tanzanian border close to where companies are developing one of the biggest natural gas finds in a decade.

More than 100 people have been killed, often by decapitation.

At a news conference on Friday, Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro said security forces had launched operations over the last few months against “criminals” in eastern and southern areas, but that some of them had managed to flee.

“During that operation, some criminals were arrested and some … died, and a few escaped. Those who escaped are the ones trying to cross the border to Mozambique to establish a base,” he told reporters.

“After questioning them, they said they were going there to join radical camps,” Sirro added.

Earlier this month, Mozambique put 189 people, including foreigners, on trial on accusations of involvement in Islamist attacks in Cabo Delgado.

The province is near one of the world’s biggest untapped offshore natural gas fields, and Anadarko Petroleum is seeking to raise $14 billion to $15 billion for a liquefied natural gas project in the region.

In June, President Filipe Nyusi vowed to be relentless and firm in detaining those responsible for the attacks.

Mozambique has no history of Islamist militancy, and authorities have been reluctant to ascribe the attacks to Islamists. About 30 percent of Mozambique’s 30 million people are Roman Catholics, while 18 percent are Muslim.
…

your ad here

55 People Killed in Violence in Northern Nigeria

Posted on by SeeAF

Fifty-five people were killed in northern Nigeria this week after clashes between young Christians and Muslims, officials confirmed Saturday.

The fight on Thursday began after a dispute between Muslim and Christian youths at a market in north-central Kaduna state, residents told media.

In a statement Saturday, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari said the president “has condemned the latest communal violence in Kasuwan Magani in Kaduna state, which claimed 55 lives.”

Kaduna state police Commissioner Ahmad Abdur-Rahman said Friday that 22 people had been arrested in connection with the violence.

Nigeria is mostly split along religious lines with Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

In his statement, Buhari said Nigerians too frequently resort to violence over misunderstandings.

“No culture and religion supports the disregard for the sanctity of life,” he said, adding that “peaceful coexistence is necessary for the progress of any society and its well-being.”

“Violence cannot be an alternative to peace. On the contrary, reliance on violence leads to ultimate self-destruction. Violence is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Embracing peace is a necessity,” he said.

Kaduna state officials told the AFP news agency a round-the-clock curfew had been imposed in Kasuwan Magani, the site of the violence.
…

your ad here

Trump Administration Rethinks Foreign Aid With Eye Toward China

Posted on by SeeAF

A gleaming new $3.2 billion railway cuts in half the travel time from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to the coast. Major investments in transportation, energy and maritime infrastructure are turning Pakistan into a major economic corridor. A new industrial zone in Thailand boasts solar, rubber and industrial manufacturing plants and is slated to host 500 companies by 2021.

All are parts of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, featuring billions of dollars in infrastructure investment across Asia, Africa and the Pacific. The global impact is forcing the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to rethink elements of its plan to cut back on foreign assistance under an “America First” strategy.

When “very senior people” in the administration traveled abroad and “saw that China was eating our lunch, they thought to themselves, ‘We have to do something,’ ” said Daniel Runde, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

And in a number of quiet moves affecting private investment, humanitarian aid and women’s empowerment abroad, the administration and the U.S. Congress have been doing just that.

Major policy reversal

In what is being seen as a major policy reversal, Trump this month signed the so-called BUILD Act, described by the nonpartisan CSIS as “the most important piece of U.S. soft power legislation in more than a decade.”

The new law merges and boosts agencies and programs that had once been targeted for deep budget cuts, creating a new entity tasked with providing loans, political-risk insurance and equity stakes to U.S. firms investing in developing countries, from Afghanistan to Zambia.

The agency will be known as the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., or USIDFC, and have a $60 billion budget. It will absorb the existing Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) and more than double that agency’s current budget of $29 billion.

The USIDFC is “a much-needed instrument of commercial diplomacy that the U.S. has been sorely lacking,” said Witney Schneidman, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, in a recent blog post for the Brookings Institution.

In a follow-up phone interview, Schneidman said he thought the new agency would help “get U.S. companies interested in Africa on its own merit. … It does put the U.S. on level with the Chinese” by matching Beijing’s policy of making equity investments in companies seeking to do business overseas.

​Dwarfed by China

Even at $60 billion, the new U.S. program will be dwarfed by Chinese investments in Asia and Africa. But Brookings analyst George Ingram said its impact can be magnified by partnering with other international lending organizations.

“The French, the British, the Scandinavians – they all have similar organizations,” Ingram said. “And now that the [USIDFC] has equity authority, this new entity will be able to be a much more effective partner than OPIC could be.”

The BUILD Act has its critics, especially among free-market conservatives who believe the government should not get involved in private business decisions.

“The idea of equity participation was kind of sold politically that it was going to be the U.S. responding to China’s One Belt, One Road [initiative] and yet there was no mention of China in the legislation at all,” James M. Roberts, an editor for the Washington-based Heritage Foundation’s annual “Index of Economic Freedom,” told VOA in an interview.

By ensuring equity stakes, “that means the government is going to be a shareholder in foreign companies,” added Roberts, who has listed a potential for “cronyism and misallocation of capital” among his concerns.

Advocates of the plan include Mark Green, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, whose Development Credit Authority is being folded into the USIDFC. By encouraging U.S. private investment abroad, he has said, the new enterprise will “spur economic growth in less developed countries and advance the foreign policy interests of the United States.”

Interviewed last week for VOA’s “Plugged In With Greta Van Susteren,” Green, a former Republican congressman who later served as ambassador to Tanzania, said there’s a “fundamental difference” between U.S. and Chinese approaches to development abroad.

China favors loans that can include “unsustainable financing that mortgages a country’s future,” he said. In contrast, USAID expects recipients to implement reforms. 

“We ask them to respect certain rights and values. What we want for them is to become eventual trading partners, but equal partners,” Green added.

Other measures

The Trump administration has demonstrated a renewed openness to international aid in other ways as well, including a recent five-year extension to an anti-hunger measure known as the Global Food Security Act. It supports USAID programs such as Feed the Future initiative. It partners with governments, NGOs, private enterprise and others “to strengthen agricultural markets and then entire food systems,” said Beth Dunford, who oversees the initiative.

Pending in Congress, meanwhile, is the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act, aimed at improving women’s access “to economic participation and opportunity.”

It calls for supporting women’s property and inheritance rights and ending gender-based violence. It also requires that USAID integrate efforts to empower women in all of its programs, and it broadens support for women-run small- and medium-size businesses.

The bill, which enjoys bipartisan backing, is being promoted by first daughter Ivanka Trump. She tweeted her thanks this week to four members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for advancing the bill.

“Women’s economic empowerment doesn’t always get a lot of attention in Congress, so this bill is something we’re quite excited about,” said Nicole Ellis, who manages policy communications for the international relief agency CARE.

Gayatri Patel, CARE’s senior policy advocate, said the agency is working closely with legislators, noting they want “practical recommendations and approaches.”

That might include endorsing approaches such as the Village Savings and Loan program that CARE started in Niger in 1991. “You get women in a community to save, they give each other loans,” Patel said. “It’s really an entry point for women for more formal economic endeavors … to start businesses or pay for their children’s education, to connect with the market and mentor or be mentored by others in the community.”

The goal, she said, is to encourage aid that has “a catalytic effect on women, their families and their communities.”
…

your ad here

From Internet Access to Digital Economy, World Bank Focuses on Africa’s Youth

Posted on by SeeAF

With a focus on Africa’s youth, World Bank staff and development specialists connected with young people in more than 30 countries to mark “End Poverty Day.” They discussed how to harness the potential of young people. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
…

your ad here

Trump Administration Seeks DACA Immigration Ruling Soon

Posted on by SeeUS

The Trump administration said it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene if a federal appeals court does not rule soon on the administration’s decision to end legal protections for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Justice wants the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, by Oct. 31, or it will ask the Supreme Court to take up the case, the Justice Department said Wednesday in a letter to the 9th Circuit.

A spokesman for the 9th Circuit, David Madden, said the letter would be sent to the three judges considering the case and it’s up to them to decide when to issue a ruling.

The case is likely to end up at the Supreme Court, but the Justice Department said in its letter it wants the high court to hear the case this term.

​About 700,000 in DACA

DACA has protected about 700,000 people brought to the U.S. illegally as children or who came with families that overstayed visas.

The Trump administration ended DACA in September 2017 and wants the 9th Circuit to overturn a district court judge’s ruling in January that required the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to continue the program for existing enrollees. That ruling came in several lawsuits, including one filed by the state of California.

“The district court’s injunction has now been in place for more than nine months and, unless either this court or the Supreme Court promptly intervenes, it could remain in force for at least another year, given the Supreme Court’s argument calendar,” DOJ attorney Mark Stern said in the letter to the clerk of the 9th Circuit, Molly Dwyer.

The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit heard arguments on the case in May.

Clashes with 9th Circuit

The administration has been critical of the 9th Circuit and previously tried to sidestep the appeals court and have DACA lawsuits heard directly by the Supreme Court.

The high court declined in February to do so.
…

your ad here

Man Who Fell Into Arizona Mine ‘Fortunate’ to Survive

Posted on by SeeUS

A man who fell to the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft in Arizona is lucky to be alive, the head of a volunteer rescue team said Thursday, one day after a team gingerly lifted the man 100 feet (30 meters) to safety in a metal gurney.

John Waddell, who owns the land in the town of Aguila where the shaft is located, was in good condition Thursday at Banner University Medical Center Phoenix, said hospital spokeswoman Alexis Kramer-Ainza. She said Waddell was undergoing surgery for two broken legs.

“He is a very fortunate individual,” said Operations Commander Roger Yensen of the Mountain Rescue Posse of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Fifteen members of the posse overseen by the office’s Search and Rescue Team rushed with specialized equipment to the property northwest of Phoenix after getting the call Wednesday afternoon.

The sheriff’s office was contacted by one of Waddell’s friends, who had known he was going to attempt a descent into the shaft. When the friend hadn’t heard from Waddell for a few days, he ventured by the shaft and heard his cries for help, Yensen said. He had been in the shaft alone for two days since Monday, when he was slowly lowering himself toward the bottom with the rope and lost control of his descent, falling at least half the way to the rocky ground.

Talked via radio

When the posse got to the scene around 4 p.m. Wednesday, a two-way radio was dropped to Waddell to allow him to talk more easily to his rescuers.

One rescuer rappelled into the shaft and assessed Waddell’s injuries, determining that he had possible ankle and leg fractures as well as friction burns to his hands. He was alert but dehydrated and was given IV fluids.

Yensen said the team used a metal derrick that Waddell had constructed over the shaft to lower himself into shaft and explore below.

It took about three hours to lift Waddell to safety. He was then airlifted to the hospital in Phoenix, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) away.

Sheriff Paul Penzone said he had no doubt that the posse, working with his office’s Search and Rescue Team, saved Waddell’s life.

“Our men and women train year-round for this type of event,” he said, “and we are all grateful for this positive outcome.”
…

your ad here

Women-to-Women Business Fund Comes to Britain

Posted on by SeeEU

A women-to-women investment fund is coming to Britain next month to boost financing for female-owned businesses, its founder said Thursday, as efforts grow to close the gender investing gap.

SheEO has lent more than $2 million to 32 female social entrepreneurs in the United States, Canada and New Zealand to grow their businesses since 2015 in an attempt to address a global gender investment gap.

“Most of the people writing checks and investing are men,” founder Vicki Saunders told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “SheEO wants to fund female innovators with great ideas to create stronger communities and a better world.”

Support for female entrepreneurs

It is the latest venture to support female entrepreneurs around the world, who often face more obstacles than men, including a lack of access to finance, business networks, international markets and role models.

Three out of 10 U.S. businesses are owned by women but they only receive $1 in investment for every $23 that goes to male-led businesses, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee found in 2014.

A Goldman Sachs-World Bank Group partnership to provide capital to women entrepreneurs in emerging markets reached $1 billion in investments in May.

How it works

SheEO brings together 500 women each year who contribute $1,100 each, which they pool and lend, interest-free, to five women-led businesses of their choice.

The loans are paid back over five years and then loaned out again, creating a perpetual fund that SheEO hopes will grow to $1 billion, with 1 million investors supporting 10,000 women-led ventures.

More than 300 women in Britain wrote to SheEO asking it to launch there, Saunders said ahead of a visit to London where she hopes that 500 female investors will come on board.

Workplace gender equality is in the spotlight in Britain, where just 6 percent of the biggest publicly listed companies are headed by women and pay disparities were revealed at major institutions last year.

Twenty One Toys founder Ilana Ben-Ari, one of the first to get SheEO funding in 2015, said it changed her business, enabling her to push ahead with production and hire staff to help with a stressful workload. Her revenue has now doubled.

“It was easy to get my foot in the door and have a meeting but it was near impossible to have a serious conversation about my business,” she said, describing her efforts to get financing from venture capitalists. “Halfway through that meeting you find out — this isn’t a meeting, this is a date.”
…

your ad here

Rwandan President Names New Foreign, Defense Ministers

Posted on by SeeAF

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame appointed new ministers of defense and foreign affairs in a cabinet reshuffle announced late Thursday.

Albert Murasira, an army general, replaced long-serving James Kabarebe as defense minister, the president’s office said, without giving a reason for the decision.

Richard Sezibera, a former secretary general of the East African Community regional bloc, became foreign minister, replacing Louise Mushikiwabo, who was named head of the International Organization of La Francophonie last week.

The president also named new ministers for local government, trade and industry, information and communications technology and innovation, gender and family promotion, and sports and culture, as well as a new police chief and an external security head.
…

your ad here

US Halts Polish Pork Imports Over African Swine Fever

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States suspended imports of pork from Poland Thursday because of an outbreak of the highly contagious hog disease African swine fever in that country.

African swine fever has spread rapidly in Eastern Europe and China, the world’s largest pork producer, where new cases are appearing and the disease is traveling far distances.

The United States is free of the disease and eager to keep it that way because infections in U.S. herds would likely kill hogs and limit pork exports.

Humans are not susceptible to African swine fever, according to the USDA.

The agency said it was reviewing Poland’s export protocols after finding one facility there shipped pork to the United States without following requirements designed to prevent the spread of serious livestock diseases. A second Polish facility is also being reviewed, according to a USDA notice.

The USDA is also working with Customs and Border Protection staff to enhance screening of passenger bags coming from Poland, the notice said. The checks aim to ensure restricted products are not brought into the country.
…

your ad here

Thousands Evacuated in California Near Underground Gas Fire

Posted on by SeeUS

A fire that ignited in an underground natural gas storage area in the San Francisco Bay Area prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents, as Chevron emergency crews worked Thursday to purge gas from a pipeline and prevent an explosion, officials said.

The evacuation order was issued late Wednesday for about 1,400 homes near the pipeline in Bay Point after the fire started. About 4,000 people were affected and were still not allowed to return home by midday Thursday.

Workers spent the night purging natural gas from the pipeline and were injecting nitrogen “which will extinguish the fire” burning in the underground vault, Chevron spokesman Cary Wages told reporters.

The underground fire began inside a Chevron natural gas pipeline vault, where workers access pipeline valves, about an hour after a fire crew had been called to the area and extinguished a nearby grass fire, said Terence Carey, an assistant fire chief for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

It was not clear if the grass fire caused the fire inside the pipeline vault. Chevron officials did not respond to repeated questions sent by email asking for details on gas disruptions to the area and how many people would be affected.

Carey said officials realized very quickly Wednesday night “that there was a high probability of danger” and issued an evacuation order for homes within a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) of the pipeline. Officials went door-to-door to tell people to leave their homes in the suburban area about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of San Francisco.

KTVU-TV reported that many people slept in their parked cars at a light rail station while others parked and slept in outdoor parking lots. Evacuation centers were opened Thursday.

Officials said they would not lift the evacuation order until the underground fire was extinguished and it was safe for fire officials to examine the area.

In 2010, a Pacific Gas & Electric Co, natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes. The utility was subsequently convicted by a federal court for violating pipeline safety regulations and fined $1.6 billion. 
…

your ad here

US Skeptical of Russia’s Newest IS Claims

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States is pushing back against claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Islamic State terror group is starting to execute hundreds of hostages in Syria, including U.S. and European nationals.

Putin made the claims Thursday during the Valdai forum in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, saying IS had taken 700 people from a displaced persons camp near Deir el-Zour in an area controlled by U.S.-backed forces.

“They have issued ultimatums, specific demands, and warned that if these ultimatums are not met, they will execute 10 people every day,” Putin said without elaborating on the demands. “The day before yesterday, they executed 10 people.”

US officials are ‘skeptical’

U.S. officials said Thursday that while there was an attack on the camp, the rest of the Russian president’s claims, which echoed reporting by Russia’s TASS news agency, were unsubstantiated.

“We are skeptical of its accuracy,” Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Sean Robertson said in a statement to VOA.  

“We have no information supporting the large number of hostages alleged by President Putin,” Robertson added. “We are also unaware of any U.S. nationals located in that camp.”

The Pentagon also rejected Russian allegations that the U.S. and its coalition allies had failed to stem the threat from IS.

“The coalition has liberated more than 99 percent of the territory previously held by ISIS,” Robertson said, using another acronym for the terror group.

“Russia, on the other hand, has focused its efforts exclusively on aiding the Syrian regime with limited steps to address the threat posed by ISIS and without regard for the laws of armed conflict, civilian casualties or regime use of chemical weapons,” he said.

US ‘did not finish their job’

During his appearance in Sochi, Putin told the audience that U.S.-backed forces fighting against IS “did not finish their job.”

“There are ISIS members remaining in several places,” Putin said. “And they have started to broaden their presence recently.”

U.S. military officials have been warning for months that IS remains a potent threat, despite the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

IS fighters still cling to a small slip of land in Syria’s Middle Euphrates River Valley, near the towns of Hajin and Abu Kamal.

Progress slowed

U.S. and coalition-backed forces have been battling to oust IS from the area for over a month. But U.S. officials say progress has been slowed by the terror group’s extensive use of booby traps, improvised explosive devices and a network of tunnels.

The most recent U.S. intelligence puts the total number of IS fighters at 28,000 to 32,000, roughly split between Iraq and Syria. Of those, up to about 9,000 are believed to be in areas controlled by Russia, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran.
…

your ad here

Kenya’s Kip Keino Hands Himself Over to Police in Corruption Case

Posted on by SeeAF

Running great Kip Keino handed himself over to police in Kenya on Thursday and is under arrest, set to face charges of corruption and abuse of office that threaten the reputation of one of track and field’s most revered figures.

The 78-year-old Keino, former Kenyan sports minister Hassan Wario and two other former sports ministry officials surrendered to police to meet a 6 a.m. deadline. They are due in court Friday to plead to the charges relating to the misuse of more than half a million dollars meant to fund Kenya’s team at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Keino was president of the Kenyan Olympic committee at the time.

Keino is a two-time Olympic champion, an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee and was one of the first athletes to be inducted into track and field’s half of fame in 2012.

He was the forerunner for generations of Kenyan distance-running champions, winning gold in the 1,500 meters at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

He is accused of playing a role in the misappropriation of more than $545,000 of government money set aside for Kenyan athletes at the Rio Games two years ago. Keino and six other current and former Olympic and government officials were accused by prosecutors of the embezzlement of more than $200,000 and misuse of more than $300,000.

Relating to the misuse, prosecutors allege the seven wasted more than $150,000 on unused air tickets to Rio, overpaid allowances amounting to nearly $150,000, and incurred tens of thousands of dollars of other expenditure on “unauthorized persons” — people who were not Olympic officials or athletes.

The Daily Nation newspaper in Kenya reported that Keino will be charged with giving his son nearly $25,000 of Team Kenya’s money for an air ticket to Brazil and spending money in Rio.

At the opening ceremony in Rio, the IOC awarded Keino the first Olympic Laurel to honor “an outstanding individual for their achievements in education, culture, development and peace through sport.”

On Thursday at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, IOC president Thomas Bach was asked if Keino’s prize would be withdrawn.

“We have heard these reports and we need now further information before we can make any move there regarding his medal,” Bach said.

The exact charges against Keino and others who reported to police Thursday morning will be published when they appear in court.

Three other officials, current Olympic committee secretary general Francis Kinyili Paul, Rio team manager Stephen Arap Soi and former sports ministry official Richard Ekai, appeared in court Monday. They were charged with multiple counts of corruption and abuse of office. They pleaded not guilty and were granted bail, with a judge saying the trial of all seven would start November 16.

Keino, possibly Kenya’s most respected sportsman, handed himself over to police at about 5.30 a.m., the Daily Nation reported, to beat the deadline.

Wario is a former member of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cabinet and now the ambassador to Austria, meaning the corruption case reaches upper levels of the government. Ekai, his former sports ministry colleague, was recently appointed Kenyan ambassador to Russia.

Details of a chaotic Kenyan Olympic trip emerged in 2016, with allegations of joy riders being given thousands of dollars in allowances and hundreds of thousands of dollars and equipment meant for Kenyan athletes disappearing.

Despite that, Kenya finished second in the track medals table and had its most successful Olympics.

 
…

your ad here