Month: January 2019

Europe Court Orders Italy to Pay Damages to Amanda Knox

Posted on by SeeEU

Europe’s human rights court on Thursday ordered Italy to pay Amanda Knox financial damages for police failure to provide legal assistance and a translator during a long night of questioning following the Nov. 1, 2007 murder of her British roommate. But the court said there was insufficient evidence to support claims of psychological and physical mistreatment at the hands of police.

The European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, France, said in its ruling that Italy hadn’t succeeded in proving that “the restriction of Ms. Knox’s access to a lawyer… had not irreparably undermined the fairness of the proceedings as a whole.” It ordered damages that Italy must pay Knox 18,400 euros ($20,000) in damages, costs and expenses.

 

“Ms. Knox had been particularly vulnerable, being a foreign young woman, 20 at the time, not having been in Italy for very long and not being fluent in Italian,” the court noted.

 

After more than seven years of legal battles and flip-flop decisions, Knox, now 31, was definitively acquitted of Meredith Kercher’s murder by Italy’s highest court in March 2015,  but a damaging conviction for falsely accusing a Congolese bar owner of the murder was confirmed, leaving a cloud over her acquittal.

 

It was during questioning in the wee hours of Nov. 6, 2007 that Knox accused Patrick Lumumba, the owner of a bar where she sometimes worked, of the murder. Knox’s defense had long claimed that the accusation was coerced.  The court noted she had quickly and repeatedly retracted the statement, citing a hand-written statement on the afternoon of Nov. 6, 2007, another for her lawyers three days later and in a wiretapped call to her mother on Nov. 10, 2007.

 

Knox’s defense attorney, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said the decision “is not a big surprise for me because the supreme court already said there were many mistakes. That is one of the reasons that invited us to tell Amanda to go to Strasbourg.”

 

“For me this is a certification of a mistake, probably the biggest legal mistake in the last years in Italy, also because the attention that this case has had,” Dalla Vedova said. He said he was considering whether to challenge the standing conviction for malicious false accusations.

 

“It is impossible to compensate Amanda for four years in prison for a mistake. There will be no amount. We are not looking for compensation of damages. We are doing this on principal,” he said.

 

The sensational murder of 21-year-old Kercher attracted global attention, especially after suspicion fell on Knox, and Knox’s then-Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Kercher was found nude under a blanket, with her throat slit. While Knox and her former boyfriend were initially convicted in Kercher’s slaying and handed hefty sentences, both were eventually acquitted.

 

An Ivorian immigrant is serving a 16-year sentence for the murder.

 

 
…

your ad here

Iranian TV Anchor Held as Witness Released from US Jail

Posted on by SeeEA

A prominent American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television who was held in the U.S. as a material witness was released from jail Wednesday evening. 

Marzieh Hashemi, 59, was released from jail in Washington after being detained for 10 days, according to Abed Ayoub, an attorney with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Hashemi, who works for the Press TV network’s English-language service, was detained by federal agents Jan. 13 in St. Louis, Missouri, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area, her son said. She was then transported to Washington and had remained behind bars since then.

No details on role as witness

Hashemi appeared at least twice before a U.S. District judge in Washington, and court papers said she would be released immediately after her testimony before a grand jury. Court documents did not include details on the criminal case in which she was named a witness.

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be detained if the government can prove that their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.

Obligation fulfilled

A person familiar with the matter said Hashemi had fulfilled her obligation as a material witness and was released. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Hashemi is a U.S. citizen and was born Melanie Franklin. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the United States about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the U.S., her son said.

Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hossein Hashemi said, “We don’t have any information along those lines.”

He didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment on Wednesday. 

Heightened tensions

Marzieh Hashemi’s detention comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal. Iran also faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties.

Earlier Wednesday, dozens of activists protested outside the federal courthouse in Washington, where Hashemi was scheduled to appear before the grand jury. They held signs and chanted, “Free, free, Marzieh!” and “Shame, shame, USA!”
…

your ad here

Iranian TV Anchor Held as Witness Released from US Jail

Posted on by SeeEA

A prominent American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television who was held in the U.S. as a material witness was released from jail Wednesday evening. 

Marzieh Hashemi, 59, was released from jail in Washington after being detained for 10 days, according to Abed Ayoub, an attorney with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Hashemi, who works for the Press TV network’s English-language service, was detained by federal agents Jan. 13 in St. Louis, Missouri, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area, her son said. She was then transported to Washington and had remained behind bars since then.

No details on role as witness

Hashemi appeared at least twice before a U.S. District judge in Washington, and court papers said she would be released immediately after her testimony before a grand jury. Court documents did not include details on the criminal case in which she was named a witness.

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be detained if the government can prove that their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.

Obligation fulfilled

A person familiar with the matter said Hashemi had fulfilled her obligation as a material witness and was released. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Hashemi is a U.S. citizen and was born Melanie Franklin. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the United States about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the U.S., her son said.

Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hossein Hashemi said, “We don’t have any information along those lines.”

He didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment on Wednesday. 

Heightened tensions

Marzieh Hashemi’s detention comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal. Iran also faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties.

Earlier Wednesday, dozens of activists protested outside the federal courthouse in Washington, where Hashemi was scheduled to appear before the grand jury. They held signs and chanted, “Free, free, Marzieh!” and “Shame, shame, USA!”
…

your ad here

Fight for Gender Equality at U.N. Faces Resistance, Report Says

Posted on by SeeUS

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has inched up slightly in the eyes of women’s groups who said on Wednesday he has delivered on some promises to make the global organization a feminist institution but faces a major backlash and resistance.

The Feminist U.N. Campaign, a coalition of women’s rights groups, advocates and U.N. staff, gave him a grade of B-, up from the C+ it gave him a year ago.

The coalition launched its report card after the secretary-general said he would be a feminist leader when he took office two years ago.

Global movement

In that time, the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment and assault has become a global movement.

Guterres has promoted women’s rights and equality publicly, sought gender parity in leadership and rolled out efforts against sexual harassment and gender-based violence, the report said.

But an internal backlash and bureaucracy threaten his progress. His efforts to make structural changes have met “considerable resistance” from staff and member states that resist women’s rights, it said.

Lyric Thompson, an author of the report and a director at the Washington-based International Center for Research on Women, said she thinks Guterres has “a genuine intent and interest in being a champion” of women’s rights.

“The question is can he do everything in his power to be a feminist leader who enables that transformation and who makes it the new normal?” she said to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The U.N. is “years away” from being a feminist institution, and attitudes of immunity and privilege operate to scuttle equality efforts, she said.

Just last week, a U.N. survey showed one third of its staff and contractors experienced sexual harassment in the past two years.

More than 30,000 people answered the survey, complaining of offensive jokes, remarks and sexual stories and of being touched in ways that made them uncomfortable.

The U.N. has tried to increase transparency and strengthen how it deals with such accusations over the past few years after a string of sexual exploitation and abuse accusations against U.N. peacekeepers in Africa.

The head of the U.N. agency for HIV and AIDS is stepping down in June, six months before his term ends, after an independent panel said his “defective leadership” tolerated “a culture of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power.”

‘Considerable progress’

The secretary-general’s office said it was pleased that the women’s groups saw improvement in Guterres’ handling of gender issues and agreed that more needs to be dome.

“At the same time, we believe the secretary-general has achieved considerable progress within the complex U.N. system at achieving real reforms to make the U.N. a better workplace for women and men alike,” his office said.

Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal, was sworn in December 2016 after a campaign in which many countries urged selection of a woman. The U.N. has not been headed by a woman since its creation in 1945.
…

your ad here

N. Korea’s Kim Expresses ‘Satisfaction’ With Trump Letter 

Posted on by SeeUS

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has expressed “great satisfaction” after receiving a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of a second summit between the two leaders, Pyongyang’s state media reported Thursday. 

 

Kim is making “good technical preparations” for the meeting, the official KCNA news agency said, in the isolated nation’s first comments on the talks scheduled for next month. 

 

The letter was handed to Kim by one of his right-hand men, Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol, who met Trump at the White House last week as the two countries seek a denuclearization accord that could ease decades of hostility. 

‘Great interest’ in second meeting

 

“[Kim] spoke highly of President Trump for expressing his unusual determination and will for the settlement of the issue with a great interest in the second DPRK-U.S. summit,” KCNA said, referring to the North by its official initialism. 

 

The strongman said North Korea will “believe in the positive way of thinking of President Trump” as the countries advance “step by step” toward their goals, the agency added.  

 

On Saturday, Trump said a location for the summit has been decided, without giving more details. 

 

However, a Vietnamese government source told AFP “logistical preparations” were under way to host the encounter, most likely in the capital, Hanoi, or coastal city of Danang. 

 

The White House has confirmed the summit will go ahead in February.  

The pair first met in June in Singapore, where they signed a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” 

 

But progress stalled soon afterward as Pyongyang and Washington — which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea — disagree over what that means. 

 

The United States expects Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal, doggedly built by the Kim dynasty despite sanctions and nationwide famines. 

 

Regime survival

Kim, whose family has brutally ruled North Korea for three generations, is seeking guarantees of the regime’s survival as well as relief from biting U.N. sanctions. 

 

Analysts say that a second summit has to make tangible progress on the issue of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons if it is to avoid being dismissed as “reality TV.”
…

your ad here

Police: 5 Fatally Shot Inside Florida Bank, Suspect Arrested

Posted on by SeeUS

A gunman opened fire inside a Florida bank Wednesday afternoon, killing five people before surrendering to negotiators, police said.

Zephen Xaver, 21, was arrested after the shooting at a Sebring SunTrust Bank branch, Sebring police Chief Karl Hoglund said at a news conference.

“Today’s been a tragic day in our community,” Hogland said. “We’ve suffered significant loss at the hands of a senseless criminal doing a senseless crime.”

The victims were not immediately identified.

A man called police dispatch Wednesday afternoon to report that he had fired shots inside the bank, Hoglund said. Initial negotiations to get the barricaded man to leave the bank were unsuccessful, so the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team entered the bank to continue negotiations, and the man eventually surrendered. 

Police didn’t say what charges Xaver would face or indicate a motive.

Gov. Ron DeSantis was in the region for an infrastructure tour and traveled to Sebring after news of the shooting broke. He said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would assist Sebring police and the Highlands sheriff in any way possible.

“Obviously, this is an individual who needs to face very swift and exacting justice,” DeSantis said of the gunman.

SunTrust Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers released a statement saying the bank is deeply saddened by the tragic shooting.

“We are working with officials and dedicating ourselves to fully addressing the needs of all the individuals and families involved,” Rogers said. “Our entire team mourns this terrible loss.”
…

your ad here

Far-right Lawmakers Walk out of Holocaust Tribute in Bavaria

Posted on by SeeEA

More than a dozen lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany have walked out of the Bavarian state parliament during a tribute to Holocaust victims after a prominent Jewish leader accused their party of playing down the crimes of the Nazis.

The state lawmakers stood up and walked out Wednesday after Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and former head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, called them out by name, saying “this so-called Alternative for Germany bases its politics on hate and marginalization.”

Knobloch called them a party that “has downplayed the crimes of the Nazis and has close connections to the extreme right.”

Lawmakers from other parties rose and gave her a standing ovation.

The AfD, which first entered the Bavarian parliament last year, had no immediate comment.
…

your ad here

Far-right Lawmakers Walk out of Holocaust Tribute in Bavaria

Posted on by SeeEA

More than a dozen lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany have walked out of the Bavarian state parliament during a tribute to Holocaust victims after a prominent Jewish leader accused their party of playing down the crimes of the Nazis.

The state lawmakers stood up and walked out Wednesday after Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and former head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, called them out by name, saying “this so-called Alternative for Germany bases its politics on hate and marginalization.”

Knobloch called them a party that “has downplayed the crimes of the Nazis and has close connections to the extreme right.”

Lawmakers from other parties rose and gave her a standing ovation.

The AfD, which first entered the Bavarian parliament last year, had no immediate comment.
…

your ad here

Italy Accuses France of ‘Impoverishing Africa’ As Migration Tensions Erupt

Posted on by SeeEU

A diplomatic spat between Italy and France over migration to Europe is a likely forerunner of coming political battles in the run-up to European Parliament elections, according to analysts.

Paris summoned the Italian ambassador this week after Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio accused France of “impoverishing African countries.”

“If today we still have people leaving Africa, it is due to several European countries, first of all France, that didn’t finish colonizing Africa,” Di Maio told reporters Sunday.

“The European Union should sanction all those countries, like France, that are impoverishing African countries and obliging those people to leave. The place for African people is Africa and not at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea,” he added. “If we want to stem the departures (of migrants), let’s start addressing this issue, let’s start coping with it also within the United Nations, not only at the European Union level. Italy has to make itself heard.” 

Di Maio said France was manipulating the economies of 14 African countries that use the CFA franc, a currency underwritten by the French Treasury and pegged to the Euro.

​Analyst Luigi Scazzieri of the Center For European Reform says while there is opposition to the CFA franc in some African countries, Di Maio’s accusations are misleading.

“Now there’s two reasons for that. One of them being that at the moment the latest data suggests they (migrants) are not from countries using the CFA franc. And the second point is that in any case, if countries remain poor, migration is actually lower,” Scazzieri told VOA.

The latest EU figures show that many African migrants to Europe come from former Italian colonies, such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The Franco-Italian dispute follows the drowning of hundreds of migrants off Libya in recent days. The deaths have renewed the focus on Italy’s decision to end search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean – and on the European Union’s failure to agree a system to share quotas of refugees, analyst Scazzieri said.

“Italy (is) wanting France to take migrants who arrive on its shores, or at least part of them. And also disagreements over how to handle Libya, with Italy and France backing different sides in the Libyan civil war,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has not responded directly to the Italian accusations. He has sought to renew EU political momentum with a new Franco-German treaty, signed Tuesday in the border town of Aachen.

“The eurosceptics, nationalists, benefit from the fear in Europe’s people, and they say: ‘The answer on your fears is nationalism,’ and we don’t believe this,” Macron said in a speech to mark the signing of the treaty.

The dispute is a taste of what’s to come as populist forces like Italy’s 5-Star Movement and the League join battle with pro-Europeans.

“This contraposition has been created whereby Italy is the populists and Macron is the Europeanists. And it suits both sides in a sense to have each other as the bogeyman. Of course this is especially important in light of the upcoming European Parliament elections,” Scazzieri said.

The battle lines are being drawn for what is set to be a bitter election campaign – with migration at the heart of the debate over Europe’s future.
…

your ad here

Supervisor of Navy SEAL Charged in War Crime Case

Posted on by SeeUS

The Navy officer who supervised a SEAL accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017 was charged Tuesday with various offenses tied to the case, including allegations he conducted the SEAL’s re-enlistment ceremony next to the corpse and encouraged enlisted personnel to pose for photos with the body. 

The court martial for Lt. Jacob Portier began with the arraignment Tuesday at the Navy base in San Diego. Portier also is accused of failing to report a war crime, destroying evidence and impeding the investigation of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher.

Portier’s attorney, Jay Sullivan, said Portier will plead not guilty to all the charges at a later date, which is allowed under military court rules. Both sides agreed to meet again next week to discuss restrictions on information, photos and video from the investigation and whether anything should be classified or kept from the public during the rare trial of an elite special warfare operator. 

Sullivan said he plans to object to a protective order in place because it has limited his ability to review the investigation’s documents and interview witnesses about statements that have been made, though he believes there may be things that should be kept from the public and discussed in closed session during the trial.

Sullivan said Portier — who was the officer in charge of Gallagher’s platoon during the deployment — is innocent. Sullivan believes it will come out that the Islamic State fighter was killed in combat operations and Portier was not there. 

He also said the re-enlistment ceremony was done legally in a war zone where there may have been other casualties nearby.

“I can tell you he certainly never ordered anybody to appear in any photos with a dead ISIS fighter,” Sullivan said after the arraignment. “I can tell you that a re-enlistment ceremony was done on the battlefield and for a Navy SEAL nothing could be more proud and honorable than re-enlisting to serve your country on the battlefield.”

Gallagher pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges of premeditated murder and other offenses, including opening fire on crowds of Iraqi civilians, and shooting a female and a male in separate incidents. 

Navy prosecutors have painted a picture of a decorated SEAL going off the rails on his eighth deployment, indiscriminately shooting at Iraqi civilians and stabbing to death a captured Islamic State fighter estimated to be 15 years old. They say he also posed with the corpse, including at his re-enlistment ceremony.

His lawyers have said the allegations were made by disgruntled SEALs out to get Gallagher because he was a demanding platoon leader.

Portier’s lawyer said the Naval SEALs have had “extraordinary success” in Iraq. He is concerned the Navy’s prosecution of the case in a public court martial could undermine that, hurt morale and reveal information about the secretive force. He wants the State Department to intervene on behalf of national security. He believes it’s important to determine whether parts of the case, such as operations’ details, tactics, etc., should be only discussed in closed sessions.

“I believe the investigation should be classified,” Sullivan said after the arraignment. “The operations that we do over there is protecting our national security, and parading these warfighters on the stage, I think it puts them at risk and our mission over there at risk.”

Gallagher, who has been jailed since his arrest Sept. 11, will stand trial Feb. 19.
…

your ad here

3 From Michigan Charged with Planning to Aid Islamic State

Posted on by SeeUS

Federal prosecutors say three Michigan residents have been charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group.

They say FBI agents arrested Muse Abdikadir Muse, Mohamud Abdikadir Muse and Mohamed Salat Haji on Monday, and prosecutors charged the Lansing residents in a complaint filed Tuesday.

Prosecutors say all three defendants are naturalized U.S. citizens who were born in Kenya. It wasn’t immediately clear if Muse Abdikadir Muse and Mohamud Abdikadir Muse are related.

An affidavit says Muse Muse purchased airline tickets earlier this month to travel from Grand Rapids to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and that Haji and Mohamud Muse aided in the purchase of the tickets and drove Muse Muse to Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.

Online court records do not list attorneys for the defendants.
…

your ad here

Elizabeth Warren Pledges Help During Visit to Puerto Rico

Posted on by SeeUS

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren promised to help rebuild Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria and support laws to give the U.S. territory equal treatment and debt relief as she condemned President Donald Trump during a visit Tuesday to the island, which has become an obligatory stop for potential and presidential candidates.

Warren demanded the resignation of Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And she criticized Trump for denying the hurricane’s death toll and for considering the use of disaster recovery funds to build what she called a “dumb” border wall, provoking laughter and applause from a crowd of a couple hundred people gathered in a small theater.

“Puerto Rico has not been treated with respect,” she said. “It is insulting. It is disrespectful. This ugliness has gone far enough. Puerto Rico has suffered enough. We will not allow anyone to sabotage your recovery, not even the president of the United States.”

Democrats are using official trips to Puerto Rico as an opportunity to criticize the Trump administration for how it responded to the hurricane and its aftermath. Last week, former housing secretary Julian Castro, who has declared himself a candidate, visited the island and toured communities still struggling more than a year after the storm.

The visits have perplexed some and annoyed others in Puerto Rico, whose people are U.S. citizens who can vote in primaries but are barred from voting in presidential elections.

Janina Cabret, a 28-year-old San Juan resident who attended Warren’s event, said she hopes whoever wins isn’t delivering empty promises about helping the island.

“Even though they use it for marketing, at least it puts Puerto Rico on the map,” she said.

Warren’s comments

Warren said too many homes still lack a proper roof and too many insurance claims have gone unpaid, among other problems that persist more than a year after Hurricane Maria. She also said many people who fled Puerto Rico after the storm have not been able to find a job, housing or health care.

Warren reminded the crowd that she voted against a 2016 financial aid package that created a federal control board to oversee the debt-burdened island government’s finances, a body that some complain has imposed an excessive amount of austerity. She also referred to White House comments on Puerto Rico, including a recent one opposing $600 million in nutritional assistance as “excessive and unnecessary,” which angered Gov. Ricardo Rossello’s administration.

The senator also talked about the island’s political status, long a key issue for many Puerto Ricans, though five referendums over the years have shown no clear consensus for statehood, the current territorial status or independence.

“Puerto Rico deserves self-determination on this question, and I will support the decision of the people of Puerto Rico,” she said.

Warren also called for auditing Puerto Rico’s huge public debt, strengthening unions, protecting the island from climate change, and supporting full child tax credits, Medicaid funding and nutritional assistance for islanders, all things that many Puerto Ricans have long demanded.

“Puerto Rico’s experience in recent years reflects the worst of what Washington has become, a government that works great for the rich and powerful, and not for anyone else,” she said as she mentioned drug companies, student loan outfits, fossil fuel companies and Wall Street bankers. “We need to take back our federal government from the wealthy and well-connected and return it to the people.”

Crowd’s reaction

Warren said she would demand that anyone running for federal office post their tax returns online as she has and touted her anti-corruption legislation, which in part calls for ending lobbying and stopping federal lobbyists from giving money to elected officials.

She also charged that Trump’s administration has used its power to inflict cruelty on immigrants and people of color. “With Trump, cruelty is not an accident, it is part of the plan,” she said.

The audience gave Warren a standing ovation at the end of her speech, many of them tourists thrilled that their visit coincided with hers.

Vandy Young, a tourist from Maryland, said she is hopeful about a presidential bid by Warren.

“I’ve been waiting for her to run,” she said. “She’s one of the few candidates who can stand up to Trump. She’s not afraid of him.”
…

your ad here

Talk About Highway Speed Limit Divides Germans

Posted on by SeeEU

A leaked proposal to impose universal speed limits on the Autobahn is causing outrage among car-loving Germans.

The country’s transport minister, Andreas Scheuer, has said the idea “goes against all common sense.” But prominent Green Party lawmaker Cem Ozdemir defended the proposal Tuesday, calling it an “act of reason.”

Germany is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t impose speed limits on its beloved Autobahn highways.

The idea — still very much just a notion — would limit speeds on the country’s highways to 130 kph (80 mph). Proponents say this would reduce air pollution, help fight climate change and reduce the number of car accidents.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert sought to smooth the waves created by the leaked report, saying Monday that a government-appointed committee examining various proposal isn’t finished yet. 
…

your ad here

Russian Lawyer: Suspected US Spy Had Classified Material on Him

Posted on by SeeEU

The lawyer for an American man being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying said on Tuesday that his client was given a flash drive containing Russian “state secrets” before he was arrested, but did not know he had them and had not looked at them.

His family insisted that he was entrapped and denied that he is guilty of espionage.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was detained in Moscow at the end of December. The arrest raised speculation that he could be swapped for one of the Russians held in the U.S., such as gun rights activist Maria Butina, who has pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent in the U.S.

Whelan made his first public appearance in court on Tuesday to hear the appeal of his arrest. The judge upheld the previous ruling that ordered him to be kept behind bars at least until the end of February.

Whelan was kept in a glass cage and did not speak to reporters.

Spying charges carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years in Russia.

Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said Tuesday that when his client was detained at a Moscow hotel at the end of December he had something with him that contained “state secrets.”

The lawyer said that Whelan was a frequent visitor to Russia and that he asked an unnamed person to email him something about travel around the country. Whelan reportedly was not able to download it and then asked that person to put it on a flash-drive.

“He was expecting to see on the flash drive some personal information like pictures or videos, something like that, about that person’s previous trips around Russia,” Zherebenkov told reporters. “We don’t know how the materials that contain state secrets ended up there.”

The lawyer said the American was detained before he could open the files. He added that it was not clear what has happened to the person who reportedly gave the flash drive to Whelan.

Zherebenkov said the investigators have not yet disclosed which country he is accused of spying for.

Family disappointed

Paul Whelan’s twin brother, David, said in a statement that the family was disappointed but hardly surprised by the denial of bail.

“While we still lack any details from the Russian government about why Paul is thought to be a spy, and who provided him with the alleged state secrets, we are certain that he was entrapped and is not guilty of espionage,” he said in a statement. “We have not had any information about a USB drive, what was on it, or how it might have materialized in Paul’s possession.”

“Unfortunately, today’s ruling merely confirms that Paul will remain wrongfully detained for many more months,” Whelan’s brother said, adding that “Paul was able to let us know that he is worried about some health conditions and his ability to communicate with prison medical staff.”

He added that his brother is “also concerned about translator support and his ability to present his defense in English.”

Additional concerns

David Whelan noted that the Russian authorities’ refusal to allow British diplomats to visit his brother in prison and the cancellation of a U.S. consular visit last week raised additional concerns, but said that Canadian diplomats were scheduled to visit Thursday.

Whelan holds U.S., Canadian, British and Irish citizenships.

Whelan, 48, was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct. He works as the global security director for a U.S. automobile parts manufacturer and lives in Michigan. His family has said he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.
…

your ad here

US: Upcoming Mideast Conference Not Aimed at Demonizing Iran

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States said Tuesday an international conference next month to promote peace and stability in the Middle East is not aimed at demonizing Iran.

U.S. deputy ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the Security Council that the conference in Warsaw on Feb. 13-14 sponsored by the United States and Poland is also not aimed at discussing the merits of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA, which U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.

Cohen’s comments followed a tweet by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who denounced the upcoming conference as America’s anti-Iran “circus.” Poland’s foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz said in remarks published Monday that Iran wasn’t invited and Russia would not attend.

Cohen called the ministerial meeting a brainstorming session to “develop the outline of a stronger security architecture” in the Mideast with sessions on the humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen, missile development, extremism and cybersecurity.

“It’s also important to state clearly what this ministerial is not: It is not a forum to re-litigate the merits of the JCPOA. While we’ve made our concerns with the JCPOA clear, we respect other states’ decisions to support it,” he said. “It is also not a venue to demonize or attack Iran.”

Cohen said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “has outlined a clear strategy to reach a new comprehensive deal with Iran built on the shared global understanding that Iran must cease its destabilizing activities.”

But the U.S. envoy said the conference will acknowledge the need for action against Iran’s missile program, Iranian proxy Hezbollah’s tunnels from Lebanon into Israel, and the “unacceptably provocative act by the Iranian and Syrian regimes” in launching a rocket from Syria at Israel over the weekend.

Cohen said these activities, among others, are “drivers of instability in the Middle East, but the scope of the discussion will be much broader than any one country or set of issues.”

“As a testament to this, countries from around the world have been invited to participate,” he said.

Cohen said there will be “a dynamic discussion and collaborative thinking with the goal of contributing to a more peaceful, stable and prosperous Middle East,” adding that this would be “a more productive approach” than the Security Council’s monthly Mideast meetings focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
…

your ad here

US: Upcoming Mideast Conference Not Aimed at Demonizing Iran

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States said Tuesday an international conference next month to promote peace and stability in the Middle East is not aimed at demonizing Iran.

U.S. deputy ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the Security Council that the conference in Warsaw on Feb. 13-14 sponsored by the United States and Poland is also not aimed at discussing the merits of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA, which U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.

Cohen’s comments followed a tweet by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who denounced the upcoming conference as America’s anti-Iran “circus.” Poland’s foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz said in remarks published Monday that Iran wasn’t invited and Russia would not attend.

Cohen called the ministerial meeting a brainstorming session to “develop the outline of a stronger security architecture” in the Mideast with sessions on the humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen, missile development, extremism and cybersecurity.

“It’s also important to state clearly what this ministerial is not: It is not a forum to re-litigate the merits of the JCPOA. While we’ve made our concerns with the JCPOA clear, we respect other states’ decisions to support it,” he said. “It is also not a venue to demonize or attack Iran.”

Cohen said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “has outlined a clear strategy to reach a new comprehensive deal with Iran built on the shared global understanding that Iran must cease its destabilizing activities.”

But the U.S. envoy said the conference will acknowledge the need for action against Iran’s missile program, Iranian proxy Hezbollah’s tunnels from Lebanon into Israel, and the “unacceptably provocative act by the Iranian and Syrian regimes” in launching a rocket from Syria at Israel over the weekend.

Cohen said these activities, among others, are “drivers of instability in the Middle East, but the scope of the discussion will be much broader than any one country or set of issues.”

“As a testament to this, countries from around the world have been invited to participate,” he said.

Cohen said there will be “a dynamic discussion and collaborative thinking with the goal of contributing to a more peaceful, stable and prosperous Middle East,” adding that this would be “a more productive approach” than the Security Council’s monthly Mideast meetings focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
…

your ad here

Iran Summons Swiss Envoy Over Detention of US-Born TV Anchor

Posted on by SeeEA

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swiss envoy in Tehran over the “illegal” detention of an American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television.

The Tuesday report by the official IRNA news agency quotes Bahram Ghasemi, ministry spokesman, as saying Tehran lodged a “strong protest” over the detention of Marzieh Hashemi in a meeting with the Swiss ambassador. The Embassy of Switzerland looks after Washington’s interests in Tehran.

Ghasemi said Iran also demanded Hashemi’s “unconditional” release.

Hashemi has been detained as a material witness, though it’s unclear for which case, and has appeared twice before a U.S. District Court judge.

Hashemi has been in custody since last week. Officials said she was expected to be released immediately after her testimony is completed, but it’s not clear when that would be.
…

your ad here

Iran Summons Swiss Envoy Over Detention of US-Born TV Anchor

Posted on by SeeEA

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swiss envoy in Tehran over the “illegal” detention of an American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television.

The Tuesday report by the official IRNA news agency quotes Bahram Ghasemi, ministry spokesman, as saying Tehran lodged a “strong protest” over the detention of Marzieh Hashemi in a meeting with the Swiss ambassador. The Embassy of Switzerland looks after Washington’s interests in Tehran.

Ghasemi said Iran also demanded Hashemi’s “unconditional” release.

Hashemi has been detained as a material witness, though it’s unclear for which case, and has appeared twice before a U.S. District Court judge.

Hashemi has been in custody since last week. Officials said she was expected to be released immediately after her testimony is completed, but it’s not clear when that would be.
…

your ad here

Erdogan Visits Moscow with Looming Turkish Military Op in Syria

Posted on by SeeEA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday. The visit comes as Turkish forces are poised to launch a major military operation against the Syrian YPG Kurdish militia.

“We will not seek advice on how to deal with a terrorist group from anyone whose activities have been directed against our citizens for more than 30 years, or ask for permission to fight terrorism,” Erdogan wrote last week in the Russian daily Kommersant.

Ankara deems the YPG and its political affiliate the PYD terrorist organizations linked to an insurgency inside Turkey.

Ankara and Moscow back rival sides in the Syrian civil war, differences that resulted in Turkish jets downing a Russian bomber in 2015. Since then, the two presidents are increasingly cooperating in efforts to end the conflict.

Erdogan and Putin held seven one-on-one meetings in 2018 and 18 phone calls to discuss bilateral ties, especially Syria.

Putin gave the green light to two previous Turkish military operations against the YPG, resulting in a wide area of Syria coming under Ankara’s control.

However, a senior Turkish delegation visiting Moscow in December reportedly failed to get backing for the latest planned operation targeting the YPG in northeast Syria.

International relations professor Mevlut Cavusoglu of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University Analysts suggested Erdogan will be seeking to change Putin’s mind.

“Russia is the key player in Syria,” he said. “Turkey, together with Russia, is trying to be present in Syria.”

Cavusoglu added, “the problem for Ankara is the Kurds will also be supported by the Russians. The Russians will ultimately put their money on the Kurds and the Syrians, not on Turkey, because Turkey once betrayed the Russians by shooting down their fighter, and the Russians have not forgotten this.”

Former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen suggested Putin is also using Turkish military threats against the YPG as a means of forcing the militia into making a deal with Damascus.

“Mr. Putin will wait, as opposed to what happened in previous Turkish military operations in Syria,” Selcen said. “If PYD reaches a deal with Damascus on the grounds of the Russian offer, and in return, Moscow can guarantee that deal, then Russia will have an interest to discourage Ankara from moving on with a unilateral [military] action.”

Moscow’s leverage over the YPG and PYD is enhanced with U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision last month to withdraw from Syria and end American military support of the militia in the war against Islamic State.

Washington had repeatedly called on the Syrian Kurdish forces to resist calls to make a deal with Damascus and Moscow. Observers point out that with the United States pulling out of Syria, the YPG and PYD have few options other than Damascus, with Turkish forces massed across the border.

Putin is also aware that Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria denies him a key card in his efforts to drag Erdogan away from his traditional NATO ally. Washington’s support of the YPG, considered terrorists by Ankara, had poisoned bilateral relations.

On Sunday, Trump and Erdogan spoke for the second time this month.

“The two leaders agreed to continue to pursue a negotiated solution for northeast Syria that achieves our respective security concerns,” the White House said.

Selcen claims a reset in relations is in the offing.

“We’ve had this schizophrenic Turkish foreign policy — being in NATO, working with NATO against Russia in the near abroad. But in the Middle East, we are working with Russia against the U.S. Now, we are getting over this schizophrenic policy, and we are going back to the EU and the United States, NATO and de facto away from Russia.”

But Erdogan still needs to work closely with Putin in Syria. The future of the Syrian Idlib province is also expected to be discussed by the two presidents on Wednesday.

 In September, a deal struck by Ankara and Moscow thwarted a Syrian regime offensive to retake the province, which is the rebels’ last main holdout. The agreement saw the creation of a demilitarized zone policed by Turkish forces.

With about 3 million people trapped in Idlib, the deal averted a major humanitarian disaster and refugee exodus into neighboring Turkey.

Moscow is now warning that the agreement is in jeopardy, with radical groups seeking control of Idlib.

“Jabhat al-Nusra dominates and violates the demilitarized zone,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “About 70 percent of this territory is already occupied by terrorists. They are trying to attack the Syrian army’s positions, settlements, and they are trying to threaten our military air base in Hmeymim.”

 
…

your ad here

A New Generation Takes up the Hunt for Dead Sea Scrolls

Posted on by SeeEA

In the cliffs high above the Dead Sea archaeologists chip away with pick axes, hoping to repeat one of the most sensational discoveries of the last hundred years – the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The scrolls, a collection of manuscripts, some more than 2,000 years old, were first found in 1947 by local Bedouin in the area of Qumran, about 20 km east of Jerusalem.

They gave insight into Jewish society and religion before and after the time of Jesus, and spurred a decade of exploration, before the search fizzled.

Recent finds have stirred fresh excitement however, and archaeologists are probing higher and deeper than before. Hundreds of caves remain unexcavated and the experts are racing against antiquities robbers.

“In the last few years we noticed new pieces of scrolls and parchments arrive on the black market,” said Oren Gutfeld, an archaeologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“It drove us to return to the caves,” he said, sitting at the entrance of a cliffside grotto known to his team as “52B”.

In 2017 his team discovered remains of storage jugs in a previously-unexcavated cave at Qumran, though any scrolls they may have held were missing.

At about 200 meters (656 ft) above the level of the Dead Sea, 52B is higher than where the scrolls were found in the 1950s, which may or may not have made it an ideal hiding place.

Towards the back of the cave is a narrow burrow, packed with debris from centuries of wind and flash floods, that when cleared could extend about 10 meters. Volunteers sift through buckets of dirt.

“People thought there was nothing left to find … there just wasn’t incentive to do this,” said Randall Price, a professor at Liberty University, a Christian campus in the United States, who helped fund the dig.

But 52B did not appear on previous surveys and could yield precious secrets, Price said.

LOST TREASURES

In the narrow streets of the open-air shuk (market) of Jerusalem’s Old City, Eitan Klein of the Israel Antiquities Authority stops by dealers to make sure their goods appear in an official registry and are not being traded on the black market.

Klein is deputy director of the authority’s robbery prevention unit, which in late 2016 recovered a fragment of text on a piece of papyrus mentioning the word ‘Jerusalem’ from the 7th century B.C. that had been plundered from a cave by antiquities robbers.

Following the papyrus’ discovery and other intelligence operations, Klein said “the assumption is that there are still artifacts inside the caves waiting to be found. The question is, who will discover them?”

New discoveries could also help solve the debate over who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Expanding the search to further possibilities is the Copper Scroll, found in Qumran in 1952. Unlike its companions that were written on parchment or papyrus, this was a list of 64 hiding places for gold and valuables, etched on copper.

Hebrew University’s Gutfeld said the treasure referred to may be from the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In 2006 he finished excavating two manmade tunnels not far from Qumran that he believes matched a description in the Copper Scroll of the so-called Valley of Shadow.

One of the tunnels, a two-meter high, shoulder-width corridor, extended 125 meters underground. No treasure was found, but Gutfeld promised to continue searching in new spots.

“I’m not a treasure hunter. I’m an archaeologist,” Gutfeld said. But he added: “We hope to find any hint or relationship to what we know from the text of the Copper Scroll.”

 
…

your ad here

Tensions Between Israel and Iran Rise Over Syria

Posted on by SeeEA

Twenty-one people were killed by Israeli airstrikes Monday in Syria. The dead reportedly including 12 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The latest round of attacks between Israel and Iran began with a series of Israeli airstrikes Sunday on Iranian targets in Syria, attacks that have become almost routine. But this time the missile strikes took place during the day and Israeli officials openly took responsibility for them. Israel usually neither confirms nor denies these strikes.

Iran’s retaliation came a few hours later with a surface to surface missile fired at the Golan Heights, which includes Israel’s only ski resort.

That missile was intercepted and shot down by the Iron Dome system. There were no casualties but Israeli army officials said if it had landed it could have killed dozens of people.

Israel responded to the Iranian missile launch with a widespread attack in Syria that killed 21 people.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not allow Iran to establish a foothold in Syria.

“Israel will continue to block Iran’s efforts to use Syria Lebanon and Gaza as forward bases for attacking Israel for the express purpose which they openly declare — destroying Israel,” Netanyahu said.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 12 of the dead in Israel’s retaliatory strike were members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which could increase tensions between Israel and Iran even further.

In the past Russia and the United States have acted to calm tensions between Israel and Iran. But now neither side appears willing to intervene, especially after President Donald Trump announced he is pulling all American troops out of Syria.

A senior Iranian official said his country will continue to be involved in Syria as long as the Syrian government asks for its help.

Meanwhile, Israel says it has carried out a successful test of its Arrow 3 Missile Defense System, developed in cooperation with the United States.

A pioneer of the Arrow system, Uzi Rubin, says the Arrow 3 will increase Israel’s defense significantly.

“This is meant to work against Iranian missiles than can fly for thousands of miles,” said Rubin. “It is the first defense these missiles will meet.”

Despite the current tensions, Israeli analysts say they do not believe Israel or Iran wants a war.

 

 
…

your ad here

Jon Bon Jovi’s Restaurant Feeds Furloughed Workers

Posted on by SeeUS

A restaurant owned by musician and New Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi served 71 free meals to furloughed federal employees and their families.

JBJ Soul Kitchen in Red Bank served up soups and entrees Monday.

 

The meals are a result of a partnership with Gov. Phil Murphy’s organization the Phil and Tammy Murphy Family Foundation. The governor and his wife visited the workers.

 

Bon Jovi’s wife, Dorothea Bongiovi, told The Star-Ledger of Newark she hopes the families will use the restaurant as a resource. Her Toms River restaurant will provide lunch to federal employees Wednesday.

 

Kristy Benson, whose husband is in the Coast Guard, said the food was amazing.

 

JBJ Soul Kitchen opened in 2011, and the restaurant allows customers to pay a donation or volunteer to pay for their meals.

 

 
…

your ad here

Facebook Live Video Appears to Show Dance Floor Sex Assault

Posted on by SeeUS

Atlanta police are investigating the apparent sexual assault of woman that was livestreamed on Facebook.

It happened on the crowded dance floor of the Opera Atlanta nightclub, where the woman livestreamed herself dancing Saturday night. Later, she can be seen shouting for help in a slurred voice, repeatedly screaming “somebody help me” and “stop” with tears rolling down her face as she continued to record and post the video in real time.

 

A police statement says the Special Victims Unit is investigating. The woman posted Monday that the suspect has been identified.

 

An Opera Atlanta statement says it has provided police with “everything requested” and will support the investigation any way it can.

 

Some entertainers, including EDM star Zedd, announced they’re canceling or moving their upcoming shows.

 

 
…

your ad here

Al Jazeera: Sudan Withdraws Journalists’ Work Permits

Posted on by SeeAF

Qatari satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera says that its correspondents in Sudan have had their work permits withdrawn by security officials.

In a statement late Monday on the Arabic language Facebook page of its Sudanese channel, the channel said its Khartoum office was told the decision was made after a review of the work of Osama Said Ahmed and Ahmad al-Ruheid, as well as cameraman Badawi Bashir.

 

The channel says that the men had previously had their permits approved for 2019 by the government Press Council.

 

A month of protests in Sudan, which began over the failing economy but led to calls for President Omar al-Bashir’s removal, has faced a media blackout by authorities, who control the press. Al Jazeera has been reporting on the unrest and sometimes broadcasts protests live.

 

 
…

your ad here