Month: May 2019

Observers Note Problems in Malawi Elections

Posted on by SeeAF

Foreign observers of Malawi’s presidential, parliamentary and local elections issued a preliminary assessment Thursday, saying that although the process was peaceful, it lacked a level playing field. 

Incumbent leader Peter Mutharika held a small lead in the presidential election, partial results showed. About a quarter of the votes remained to be counted, leaving challenger Lazarus Chakwera some room for hope.

The European Union observer mission said the Malawi Electoral Commission organized the elections well, but the pre-election period was marked with tension. 

“What we see as a problem,” said Miroslav Poche, the EU mission’s chief observer, “is the abuse of state resources and also bias by state media.” 

The EU mission also bemoaned attacks on opposition politicians ahead of the voting.

The leader of the Commonwealth observer team, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, said the election was well-managed but that it was premature to declare it fair. 

“We are not making any judgments — that’s a matter that will arise later,” he said. “When everything has been done, then it will become possible for the observer team to say, ‘Now, given everything we have heard and seen, it is possible to say these elections were fair,’ and whatever.”  

Lack of confidence

 

However, some opposition politicians said they had lost confidence in the vote-counting process under way at the main tally center in Blantyre.

Eisenhower Mkaka, secretary-general of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, said the party would not accept the results if its candidate, Lazarus Chakwera, lost. Chakwera was about 5 percentage points behind Mutharika in the early vote count announced Thursday by the Electoral Commission.

 

“We have got a state-of-the-art tally center which is actually collecting results from across the country,” Mkaka said, “and from what we have collected, we are quite comfortable that as the Malawi Congress Party, we are winning and therefore any results that go against what we have will not be accepted.”  

However, the campaign director of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Ben Phiri, said it was premature for the party to say anything until the winner was announced. 

 

“We got prepared and we did what we could [to win the polls],” he said. “And we mobilized our people to go to vote. It’s just hours away from declaring who the winner is, and DPP, we are good to go.” 

 

The Malawi Electoral Commission is expected to announce the final results by May 29.
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Iran Tells German Envoy Its Patience Is Over, Fars Reports

Posted on by SeeEU

Iran told a German envoy seeking to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal that its patience was over and urged the treaty’s remaining signatories to fulfill their commitments after the United States pulled out, the Fars news agency reported on Thursday.

Jens Ploetner, a political director in the German Foreign Ministry, met Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. A German diplomatic source told Reuters that talks with other Iranian officials were also planned.

The semi-official Fars news agency said Araghchi had relayed Iran’s impatience during the talks.

Britain, France and Germany, which signed the 2015 deal along with the United States, China and Russia, are determined to show they can compensate for last year’s U.S. withdrawal from

the deal, protect trade and still dissuade Tehran from quitting an accord designed to prevent it developing a nuclear bomb. 

But Iran’s decision earlier this month to backtrack from some commitments in response to U.S. measures to cripple its economy threatens to unravel the deal, under which Tehran agreed

to curbs on its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the removal of most international sanctions.

“At the center of the political director’s visit is the preservation of the Vienna nuclear accord (JCPOA),” the German diplomatic source told Reuters. “After Iran’s announcement to partly suspend its commitments under the JCPOA, there is a window of opportunity for diplomacy to persuade Iran to continue to fully comply with the JCPOA.”

U.S., Iran tensions

Tensions have soared between Iran and the United States since Washington sent more military forces to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and Patriot missiles, in a show of force against what U.S. officials say are Iranian threats to its troops and interests in the region.

On Wednesday, U.S. officials said the Defense Department was considering a U.S. military request to send about 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East.

Despite such pressure, Keyvan Khosravi, a spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reiterated on Thursday that there would be no negotiations with Washington.

He said officials from several countries had visited Iran recently, “mostly representing the United States,” but that Tehran’s message to them was firm. 

“Without exception, the message of the power and resistance of the Iranian nation was conveyed to them,” he said. 

‘Clash of wills’

Fars earlier quoted a senior commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards as saying the U.S.-Iranian standoff was a “clash of wills” and any enemy “adventurism” would meet a

crushing response.

The German diplomatic source added: “The situation in the Persian Gulf and the region, and the situation around the Vienna nuclear accord is extremely serious. There is a real risk of escalation. … In this situation, dialogue is very important.”
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South African Vet Pioneering Medicine for Africa’s Endangered Pangolins

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Veterinarian Dr. Karin Lourens has become known as Africa’s “pangolin doctor” for leading medical efforts to help the scaly anteaters rescued from the illegal wildlife trade to recover. Her pioneering tube-feeding and blood testing is helping to improve her endangered patients’ survival rate. Marize de Klerk reports for VOA from Johannesburg.
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FAA Chief Has No Timetable for Boeing 737 MAX Approval

Posted on by SeeUS

The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday he does not have a specific timetable to approve Boeing Co’s 737 MAX for flight after two fatal crashes since October prompted the plane to be grounded worldwide.

The FAA is meeting with more than 30 international air regulators including China, the European Union, Brazil and Canada on Thursday to discuss a software fix and new pilot training that Boeing has been developing to ensure the jets are safe to fly.

“It’s a constant give and take until it is exactly right,” Deputy FAA Administrator Dan Elwell told reporters of the discussions with Boeing. “It’s taking as long as it takes to be right,” he said, adding: “I’m not tied to a timetable.”

The plane was grounded in March following a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash just months after a similar Lion Air disaster in Indonesia which together killed 346 people.

American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have both canceled flights into August because of the 737 MAX grounding, while United Airlines has canceled flights into July.

Asked if it is realistic that the 737 MAX could be flying again by August, Elwell declined to be specific.

“If you said October I wouldn’t even say that, only because we haven’t finished determining exactly what the training requirements will be,” Elwell said. “If it takes a year to find everything we need to give us the confidence to lift the (grounding) order so be it.”

Elwell said he plans to share the FAA’s “safety analysis that will form the basis for our return to service decision process” on Thursday. But he said the agency is still waiting for Boeing to formally submit the software upgrade for approval, and emphasized the FAA has not decided on the revised training requirements, including whether to require simulator training.

Global airlines that had rushed to buy the fuel-efficient, longer-range aircraft have since canceled flights and scrambled to cover routes that were previously flown by the MAX.

​Elwell rejected any idea that he was trying to win consensus with international regulators over the path to re-approving the MAX at the meeting. “We have to be the first to lift the order. We are the state of design,” he said.

He said he would explain the FAA’s thinking to international regulators but added: “I’m not going to try to persuade anybody.”

At the same time, he also denied there was friction. “We have peace with other regulators. We’re talking to them constantly. You want to make this like, ‘We at war with the other countries over this.’ We’re not,” Elwell said.

Foreign regulators have signaled disagreements over measures to end the grounding, with Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau calling in April for pilots to receive simulator training for the MAX, rather than just computer courses. 

Canada and Europe said on Wednesday they would bring back the grounded aircraft on their own terms if their specific concerns are not addressed.

“From our point of view, if we all work together and we all reach the same aim, fine. If we don’t, we’ll choose our own time to decide when the planes are safe to fly again,” Canada’s Garneau told Reuters in an interview.

A spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency said on Wednesday that it would complete an additional independent design review of the plane once the FAA approves Boeing’s proposed changes and establishes “adequate training of Boeing MAX flight crews.”

Elwell told Congress last week the FAA is working closely with other civil aviation authorities “to address specific concerns related to the 737 MAX.” United Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said on Wednesday that FAA approval is only the first step, with public and employee confidence key to deciding when to fly its 14 MAX jets again.
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Study: Children of Opioid Users More Likely to Attempt Suicide

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The U.S. opioid crisis is taking a toll on children of users as a study published on Wednesday showed they were more likely to attempt suicide.

The study in JAMA Psychiatry published by the American Medical Association found children whose parents were prescribed opioids were twice as likely to attempt suicide as the offspring of people who did not use those drugs.

The latest study from researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh is the first research attempting to tie rising suicides among U.S. children to the opioid crisis.

“I think that it’s obvious in many ways; it’s just that we were able to put it together and prove it,” said Dr. David Brent, one of the authors of the study.

Brent, of the University of Pittsburgh, said he believes some opioid users might display less care, monitoring and affection for their children, which would explain the higher suicide rate in those kids.

Suicide increased across all ages in the United States between 1999 and 2016, spiking by over 30% in half the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year.

Another study found that among girls age 10 to 14 the suicide rate rose by 12.7% per year after 2007.

In the latest study, researchers used medical insurance data from 2010 to 2016 for more than 300,000 children ages 10 to 19, and broke that group down into those whose parents were prescribed opioid drugs and those whose parents were not.

Among the children of parents who used opioids, 0.37% attempted suicide, compared to 0.14 % of the children of non-users, according to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The parents were all legally prescribed opioids that they used for at least a year. The study did not identify which of those users may have been abusing painkillers, as opposed to using them in line with doctor recommendations.

Challenges for children of drug users

Children of opioid users still had a significantly higher risk of attempting suicide after researchers adjusted for factors such as depression and parental history of suicide.

Some researchers have suggested social media could harm children’s self esteem and increase their suicide risk.

But Brent and his co-authors noted social media is prevalent in countries that have not seen a rise in child suicide.

U.S. President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in October 2017 and has promised to hold drugmakers accountable for their part in the crisis.

Nearly 400,000 people died of overdoses between 1999 and 2017 in the United States, resulting in the lowering of overall life expectancy for the first in more than 60 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eric Rice, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s school of social work, said other research has found children of drug users face challenges.

“A doubling in the suicide rate is a pretty shocking manifestation of that, I’ve got to be honest,” Rice said. “But to hear that there are impacts on children which are negative is not a surprising thing,” said Rice, who was not involved with the study.
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‘The Power’ Loss: TV Show Protests Georgia Abortion Law by Leaving US State

Posted on by SeeUS

“The Power,” an upcoming TV series produced by online retail and entertainment giant Amazon, will no longer film in Georgia, following the state’s near ban on abortion that was signed into law earlier this month, director Reed Morano said.

Morano, who won an Emmy Award for her work directing “The Handmaid’s Tale” — a TV show set in a dystopian world where women’s bodies are under strict male control – is now directing a series in which women are the dominant gender.

“It felt wrong for us to go ahead and make our show and take money/tax credit from a state that is taking this stance on the abortion issue,” Morano wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.

“The Power,” an adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s science fiction novel, follows teenage girls who discover they can electrocute people with their hands and use their abilities to hurt aggressive men and shift power dynamics between genders. Amazon did not immediately comment on the move.

Other production companies, including David Simon’s Blown Deadline, creator of TV show “The Wire,” announced they also would no longer work in the state.

Georgia’s law bans abortion after a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks, before a woman may be aware she is pregnant.

Abortion foes say the bills are intended to draw legal challenges, in hopes that a case will land before the U.S. Supreme Court.

There, a majority of conservative judges could overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion.

“I realize that some may challenge it in the court of law, but our job is to do what is right, not what is easy,” Governor Brian Kemp said when he signed the bill into law. “We will not back down.”

The film industry in Georgia employs nearly 100,000 people and generated billions of dollars for the state in 2018, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
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Senator: Trump May Use Iran Threat to Sell Bombs to Saudis

Posted on by SeeEA

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration plans to use a loophole and rising tensions with Iran to sell bombs to Saudi Arabia, even though Congress blocked such sales for months over concerns about civilian deaths in the war in Yemen, Senator Chris Murphy said Wednesday.

Congressional aides said there are provisions of the Arms Control Act, which sets rules for international arms transactions, that would allow a president to approve a sale without congressional review in case of a national emergency.

In this case, they said the Republican president would cite rising tensions with Iran as a reason to provide more military equipment to Saudi Arabia, which he sees as an important U.S. partner in the region. Trump has touted arms sales to the Saudis as a way to generate U.S. jobs.

Trump previously declared an influx of immigrants a national emergency to bypass Congress and get $6 billion to build his wall along the Mexican border. Both Democrats and his fellow Republicans voted to block the move, forcing Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency.

​Resistance in Congress

It was not immediately clear what equipment would be sold to Saudi Arabia or when any sale might go ahead.

However, any such plan would run into resistance in Congress, from Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats like Murphy, even in the Senate, where Republicans have a slim majority.

A handful of Republicans recently voted with Democrats in a failed effort to override Trump’s veto of a resolution that would have ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen’s devastating civil war. 

Many lawmakers from both parties have also expressed anger over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest congressional allies, told CNN he would oppose the administration if it decided to go around Congress, citing Khashoggi’s killing.

“We are not going to have business as usual until that issue is dealt with,” Graham said.

The State Department declined comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Defensive weapons

The top Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees, who review major international weapons deals, have been approving sales of defensive military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

But they have been blocking the sale of offensive weapons like bombs, anti-tank missiles, small-diameter rockets and large mortars.

Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking Foreign Relations Democrat, has been blocking the sale of Raytheon Co’s precision-guided munitions (PGMs) to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for about a year over concerns about the war in Yemen.
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US Disappointed Ex-Mozambique Finance Chief Won’t Face US Trial

Posted on by SeeAF

The United States says it is greatly disappointed with South Africa’s decision to send a former Mozambican finance minister home instead of to the U.S. to stand trial on fraud charges.

Manuel Chang is accused of a money laundering scheme that plunged Mozambique into its worst financial crisis in history.

South African authorities arrested him in December at the request of the U.S., which accuses him of cheating American investors.

“We urge the government of South Africa to send Mr. Chang to the United States to stand trial for these alleged crimes, which victimized U.S. citizens and robbed the government of Mozambique of over $700 million,” the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria said Wednesday.

There has been no comment from the South African government.

Chang is accused of taking out about $2 billion in loans on behalf of the government of Mozambique when he was finance minister between 2005 and 2015 and receiving millions in kickbacks.

The government knew about some of the loans, but not others. When the debt was revealed to the public, international donors cut off much of their aid to Mozambique and the country’s currency became almost worthless.

Chang has denied the charges.

Authorities in Mozambique have arrested several other officials allegedly involved in the scheme, but it is unclear whether Chang has been charged.
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IS Militants Target Kurdish Farmers in Disputed Iraqi Territories

Posted on by SeeEA

VOA’s Ahmed Zebari contributed to this report. 

WASHINGTON — In a bid to extort revenues from local farmers during the harvest season, Islamic State (IS) militants are threatening to set fire to thousands of acres of wheat fields in territories disputed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan region, according to local officials. 

The militants, hiding mostly in caves and mountains of a large territory between the Iraqi forces and Kurdish peshmerga, pour into small towns and villages at night and ask local residents to pay a religious tax known as zakat or find their crops destroyed the next day, peshmerga Maj. Gen. Ziryan Shex Wasani told VOA. 

“IS fighters have told farmers and workers to give them 15% of their harvest revenues or their wheat fields and hay will be set to fire,” said Wasani, adding that hundreds of acres of land have already been set ablaze in Makhmour town, 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Irbil governorate. 

Wasani said IS is taking advantage of the security gap created by the lack of cooperation between the Iraqi forces and Kurdish peshmerga in the disputed areas. 

Disputed territories

The vast disputed territories, consisting of Kirkuk and parts of Nineveh, Saladin and Diyala provinces, have been a point of contention between the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for decades as both sides claim ownership over them.

The Kurdish peshmerga held the area during IS emergence in 2014 but were forced out shortly after a Kurdish referendum for independence was held in September 2017. The two sides then stopped joint counter-IS operations.

Kurdish officials say they fear the continuation of the fires could ignite violent clashes between Kurdish and Arab residents of the area, especially as the Kurdish farmers say only their fields are targeted while Arab farmers’ fields are spared.

WATCH: Unknown Militants Target Kurdish Farmers

​According to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, about 500 hectares (1,185 acres) of farmland have been scorched in recent weeks across the disputed territories as well as al-Najaf and al-Diwaniyah governorates. 

Opposing statements 

The ministry has not disclosed any information about the mysterious fires in the disputed territories. In a statement, however, it said the scorches in al-Najaf and al-Diwaniyah governorates were prescribed burns performed to improve the quality of the land.

Authorities use terms such as “prescribed burns” or “controlled burns” to refer to intentional fires set to fields in order to manage weeds, reduce wildfire risks and restore nutrients.

“The ministry asserts that these agricultural practices are not within the framework of sabotage or damage to the national agricultural economy or food security, but practices based on scientific aspects, where the residue of the burned grass is used to add nutrients for the other crop, such as rice,” the ministry said in its statement Monday.

Shortly after the ministry’s statement, the Iraqi parliament’s agriculture committee denied the fires were controlled burns, adding they were “obvious sabotage and terrorism.”

“The local agricultural products have been subjected to fierce attacks recently, with the latest being arson against wheat and barley fields in six provinces in a systematic manner,” Salam al-Shamari, the head of the committee, said in a press conference Monday. 

Al-Shamari claimed the fires were directed in a “foreign conspiracy” against Iraq and urged the government to thoroughly investigate “the new terrorism against the Iraqi economy.” He added local farmers’ eggs, dairy products and fish were targeted several months ago.

​The numbers

Earlier in the spring, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture predicted its grain production would rebound significantly because of abundant rain and snowmelt in 2019, following a difficult and dry 2018. The ministry says it has so far purchased about 883,000 tons of wheat from local farmers in nine provinces. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates Iraq’s wheat production for this year will reach 4.97 million tons, an increase of 32% from last year. It also says that wheat consumption for 2019-20 will reach 6.9 million tons, an increase of 3.5% from the previous year.
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Pentagon Mulls Sending More Troops to Gulf, Officials Say

Posted on by SeeEA

VOA White House bureau chief Steve Herman and national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. 

The Pentagon is set to brief the White House on Thursday about possibly sending thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East, U.S. officials said.

The request for additional troops has come from U.S. Central Command, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because plans have not been formalized, according to media reports.

It is not clear if the White House will approve sending all or just some of the requested defensive forces, as well as additional Patriot missile batteries and more ships.

The Pentagon declined to comment on future plans. “As a matter of long-standing policy, we are not going to discuss or speculate on potential future plans and requests for forces,” Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

 

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have been escalating since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his decision to try to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and beef up the U.S. military presence in the Gulf in response to what he said were Iranian threats. 

 

But despite the rhetoric, last week Trump told his acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he did not want to go to war with Iran. 

Sending additional U.S. troops to the region would mark a shift in position for Trump, who has repeatedly said in the past he wanted to reduce the number of U.S. troops in the region. 

 

Last December, Trump announced the withdrawal of 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. In February, however, he decided to keep about 400 troops there. 
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Madagascar Court Upholds Jail Terms for Tortoise Traffickers

Posted on by SeeAF

An appeals court in Madagascar on Wednesday upheld a six-year prison term for three people trafficking in critically endangered radiated tortoises. 

 

Two men and a woman were also fined more than $26,000 when they were convicted last month. 

 

The suspects were arrested last year after neighbors complained of a dreadful smell in a house. Police found more than 10,000 of the reptiles covering the floor throughout the house. About 500 tortoises were dead. 

 

The Worldwide Fund for Nature — called the World Wildlife Fund in North America — said this was a record seizure of tortoises.  

 

The survivors were cleaned up and quarantined before being released back into their natural habitat. 

Radiated tortoises are extremely rare, and experts say they may be on the verge of extinction. They are named for the unusual markings on their shells that look like beams radiating from the sun. 

 

Their shells have blood vessels. Unlike other tortoises, they can feel their shells being touched. 
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Brexit Crisis: Minister Quits, Piling Pressure on Britain’s May

Posted on by SeeEU

Prominent Brexit supporter Andrea Leadsom resigned from Prime Minister Theresa May’s government on Wednesday, piling pressure on the British leader after a new Brexit gambit backfired and fueled calls for her to quit.

So far May has resisted, vowing to press on despite opposition from lawmakers and other ministers to her bid to get her Brexit deal through parliament by softening her stance on a second referendum and customs arrangements.

But Leadsom’s resignation further deepens the Brexit crisis, sapping an already weak leader of her authority. Almost three years since Britain voted to leave the European Union, it is not clear when, how or even if Brexit will happen.

Leadsom, Leader of the House of Commons, said she could not announce the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which will implement Britain’s departure, in parliament on Thursday as she did not believe in it.

“I no longer believe that our approach will deliver on the referendum result,” Leadsom, once a challenger to May to become prime minister, said in a resignation letter. “It is therefore with great regret and with a heavy heart that I resign from the government.”

A Downing Street spokesman praised Leadsom and expressed disappointment at her decision, but added: “The prime minister remains focused on delivering the Brexit people voted for.”

May might still try to press on with her new Brexit plan, which includes a vote on whether to hold a second Brexit referendum — once her legislation passes the first stage — as well as closer trading arrangements with the EU.

But it has been met with a swift backlash, with several lawmakers who have supported her in previous Brexit votes saying they could not back the new plan, particularly over her U-turn regarding a possible second referendum.

“I have always maintained that a second referendum would be dangerously divisive, and I do not support the government willingly facilitating such a concession,” Leadsom said.

“No one has wanted you to succeed more than I have,” Leadsom wrote to May. “But I do now urge you to make the right decisions in the interests of the country, this government and our party.”

Labour lawmaker Ian Lavery, chair of the opposition party, said the resignation underlined that “the prime minister’s authority is shot and her time is up.”

“For the sake of the country, Theresa May needs to go, and we need an immediate general election,” he said.

Time to go

Labour’s call echoed those of many of May’s own Conservatives, who say that a fourth attempt to get her deal approved by parliament should be shelved and she should leave office to offer a new leader a chance to reset the dial.

“There is one last chance to get it right and leave in an orderly fashion. But it is now time for Prime Minister Theresa May to go — and without delay,” said Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chairman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

“She must announce her resignation after Thursday’s European (Parliament) elections,” he wrote in the Financial Times.

But while so much about Brexit is up in the air, what is clear is that May plans to stay for now, or at least for the next few days.

The chairman of the powerful Conservative 1922 Committee, which can make or break prime ministers, told lawmakers that she planned to campaign in the European poll on Thursday before meeting with the group on Friday to discuss her leadership.

May has so far fended off bids to oust her by promising to set out a departure timetable once parliament has had a chance to vote again on Brexit, but a new discussion on a possible date could now take place on Friday.

Earlier on Wednesday, May stood firm during more than two hours of questions in parliament, urging lawmakers to back the bill and then have a chance to make changes to it, so they can have more control over the final shape of Brexit.

Asked by euroskeptic lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg whether she really believed in the new deal she had proposed or whether she was simply going through the motions, May said, “I don’t think I would have been standing here at the despatch box and be in receipt of some of the comments I have been in receipt of from colleagues on my own side and across the house if I didn’t believe in what I was doing.”

Britain’s marathon crisis over Brexit has stunned allies and foes alike. With the deadlock in London, the world’s fifth-largest economy faces an array of options including an exit with a deal to smooth the transition, a no-deal exit, an election, a second referendum, or even revocation of the Article 50 notice to leave the EU.

The pound was on track for its longest-ever losing streak against the euro as some traders said they saw the rising chance of a no-deal Brexit. Those fears pushed investors into the relative safety of government bonds — particularly those that offer protection against a spike in inflation.

“The proposed second reading of the WAB is clearly doomed to failure so there really is no point wasting any more time on the prime minister’s forlorn hope of salvation,” Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative lawmaker, told Reuters. “She’s got to go.”
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Stoltenberg: NATO Summit Set for London on Dec. 3-4 

Posted on by SeeEU

The next NATO summit will be held in London in December, marking the alliance’s 70th anniversary, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday. 

 

“The next summit of Allied leaders will take place on 3-4 December 2019 in London. … I look forward to a successful summit,” he said. 

 

Stoltenberg said the had discussed preparations for the summit of heads of state and government with British Prime Minister Theresa May during a visit to London last week. 

 

The December summit will be a chance to “address current and emerging security challenges and how NATO continues to invest and adapt to ensure it will remain a pillar of stability in the years ahead,” Stoltenberg said in a statement. 

 

He added that London was a fitting venue to mark 70 years of transatlantic military cooperation because it was home to the alliance’s first headquarters after the United Kingdom become one of NATO’s 12 founding members in 1949. 

 

Nowadays there are 29 member states and the headquarters is in Brussels. 

 

“London was the home of our first headquarters, so it is a fitting venue for NATO heads of state and government to plan the Alliance’s future,” said Stoltenberg. 

 

Delicate time 

 

The 70th anniversary comes at a delicate time for NATO. 

 

Tensions with Russia are at a high not seen since the Cold War. There are also concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump’s commitment to the alliance and his willingness to honor its mutual defense pact.  

Trump has been unstinting in his criticism of NATO’s European members, accusing them of freeloading on the protection offered by the U.S. military while not spending enough on their own armed forces. 

 

Before taking office, Trump called NATO “obsolete.”

 

NATO summits normally conclude with a formal, binding statement of aims and actions agreed by all allies — such as the 2014 agreement to try to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense. 

 

It is yet to be confirmed whether a statement will be issued at December’s meeting. 

Brexit and NATO

 

Britain is due to leave the European Union in October, and the December summit will be seen as a signal of solidarity between NATO and the U.K., which is the continent’s leading military power, along with France. 

 

“Brexit will change the United Kingdom’s relationship to the European Union but it will not change the United Kingdom’s relationship to NATO,” Stoltenberg said in February. 

 

On Wednesday, he was back in London for talks with British Defense Secretary Penny Mordaunt. On Thursday, he will participate in a conference on cybersecurity in the British capital. 
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Swiss Propose House Arrest, Including for Teenagers, to Curb Extremism

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The Swiss government on Wednesday proposed new laws aimed at preventing extremist violence and forcing people including children deemed a threat to be registered with authorities, with house arrest a last resort in some cases.

The measures, due now to be considered by Switzerland’s parliament, are part of an evolving national action plan against violent extremism introduced in 2017.

Though Switzerland has, so far, been spared deadly Islamist militant attacks that hit Germany, France and Belgium in recent years, it is wary and has been tracking hundreds of suspected extremist threats under a national jihad monitoring program.

Federal Police Director Nicoletta della Valle told a news conference in Bern she expects “a few dozen people” could be affected by the expanded measures, should they be enacted.

Such individuals, according to the legislation, could be made to report their whereabouts to police stations. Their passports could be confiscated, to prevent travel abroad, and they could be slapped with no-contact orders.

People slated for deportation who are deemed threats would be incarcerated, while Swiss police would get new powers to covertly track suspected threats via electronic media.

“House arrest is seen as a last resort and would require permission from the Swiss Federal Police as well as approval from the courts,” a cabinet statement said.

Such measures could last six months and be renewed. Children as young as 12 could be required to register with authorities, placed under surveillance or have passports confiscated. Those as young as 15 could get house arrest, according to the legislation.

The 28-page legislative proposal stops short of allowing so-called “secure housing” for suspected extremists — something Swiss law enforcement agencies had wanted — “because it was determined to have violated the European Convention on Human Rights,” the cabinet said.

Switzerland has prosecuted several extremism-related cases in recent years, including three Iraq men jailed in 2016 for between 42 and 56 months for belonging to or supporting a terrorist organization.

In July, a trial is slated for a 48-year-old Kosovo native accused of breaking Swiss laws forbidding Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

Of 92 Swiss “jihad travelers” identified as having journeyed to the Middle East to participate in violent conflicts since 2001, 31 are dead. Another 16 have returned to Switzerland, the government has said.

“All this shows that while Switzerland is a safe country, there’s still a threat,” Interior Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said with respect to why the new measures are needed.
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Libya’s Haftar Reportedly Rules Out Cease-fire in Talks with France’s Macron

Posted on by SeeEA

Libyan eastern commander Khalifa Haftar told French President Emmanuel Macron that conditions for a cease-fire were not in place, although he would be ready to talk if those conditions were met, a French presidency official said.

Macron and French officials have for several weeks called for an unconditional cease-fire in the battle for Tripoli after Haftar last month launched an offensive on the Libyan capital.

“The distrust we see between the Libyan actors is stronger than ever today,” said a French presidential official after the meeting between Macron and Haftar in Paris.

“When the question of the cease-fire was put on the table, Haftar’s reaction to this was to ask, ‘Negotiate with whom for a cease-fire today?'” the official said.

“He considers that the GNA [U.N.-backed Government of National Unity led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj] is completely infested by militias and it is not for him to negotiate with representatives of these militias.”

The official said Macron had asked Haftar to make a public step toward a cease-fire and Haftar responded by saying that an inclusive political dialogue was necessary and he would be ready for it if the conditions for a cease-fire were in place.

Macron met Serraj earlier this month, but a day after meeting him, Serraj’s administration asked 40 foreign firms including French oil major Total to renew their licences or have their operations suspended.

Tripoli is home to the internationally-recognized administration, but some European countries such as France have also supported eastern military commander Haftar as a way to fight militants in a country in chaos since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Haftar also said neither him nor his army were benefiting from oil sales in the east of the country, the official said.
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Deadly Strike Hits Syria Market as Damascus Battles Jihadists

Posted on by SeeEA

Syrian government air strikes killed 18 civilians, including a dozen people at a busy market, as fierce fighting raged for the jihadist-held northwest, a war monitor said on Wednesday.

Regime forces battled to repel a jihadist counteroffensive around the town of Kafr Nabuda that has left 70 combatants dead in 24 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, led by Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate, controls a large part of Idlib province as well as adjacent slivers of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.

The jihadist-dominated region is nominally protected by a buffer zone deal, but the government and its ally Russia have escalated their bombardment in recent weeks, seizing several towns on its southern flank.

At least 12 people were killed and another 18 wounded when regime warplanes hit the jihadist-held Idlib province town of Maarat al-Numan around midnight (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, the Observatory said.

The market was crowded with people out and about after breaking the daytime fast observed by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.

The bombardment blew in the facades of surrounding buildings, and ripped through the flimsy frames and canvas of stalls in the market square, an AFP photographer reported.

The bodies of market-goers were torn apart.

“Residents are still scared,” stallholder Khaled Ahmad told AFP.

Three more civilians were killed on Wednesday by air strikes in the nearby town of Saraqib, the Observatory said.

Two others were killed in strikes on the town of Maaret Hermeh, it added.

Another civilian was killed in air raids on the town of Jisr al-Shughur, the monitor said.

The Britain-based Observatory relies on a network of sources inside Syria and says it determines whose planes carried out strikes according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions.

‘Worst fears’

The strikes came as heavy clashes raged in neighboring Hama province after the jihadists launched a counterattack on Tuesday.

Fresh fighting on Wednesday took the death toll to 70 — 36 regime forces and militia and 34 jihadists, the Observatory said.

It said the jihadists had recaptured most of Kafr Nabuda from government forces, who had taken control of the town on May 8.

State news agency SANA on Wednesday however said the army repelled a jihadist attack in the area, killing dozens of insurgents.

Russia and rebel ally Turkey inked the buffer zone deal in September to avert a government offensive on the region and protect its three million residents.

But President Bashar al-Assad’s government upped its bombardment of the region after HTS took control in January.

Russia too has stepped up its air strikes in recent weeks.

The Observatory says nearly 200 civilians have been killed in the flare-up since April 30.

The United Nations said Wednesday that Idlib’s civilian population once again faced the threat of an all-out offensive.

“A full military incursion threatens to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe for over 3 million civilians caught in the crossfire, as well as overwhelm our ability to respond,” said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian office.

Swanson said more than 200,000 people have been displaced by the upsurge of violence since April 28.

A total of 20 health facilities have been hit by the escalation — 19 of which remain out of service, Swanson said.

Collectively they served at least 200,000 people, he added.

‘Break the status quo’

The September deal was never fully implemented as jihadists refused to withdraw from a planned buffer zone around the Idlib region.

But it ushered in a relative drop in violence until earlier this year, with Turkish troops deploying to observation points around the region.

The Syrian government has accused Turkey of failing to secure implementation of the truce deal by the jihadists.

But Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar accused the Syrian regime late Tuesday of threatening the ceasefire deal.

“The regime is doing all that it can to break the status quo including using barrel bombs, land and air offensives,” Akar told reporters.

“Turkish armed forces will not take a step back from wherever they may be,” he however added.

Earlier, the US State Department said it was assessing indications that the government had used chemical weapons on Sunday during its offensive in Idlib.

HTS accused government forces of launching a chlorine gas attack on its fighters in the northern mountains of Latakia. But the Observatory said Wednesday it had “no proof at all of the attack.”
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Iranian Lawmaker Says His Country Doesn’t Want War With US

Posted on by SeeEA

Iran will “under no circumstances” enter a war either directly or indirectly with the United States, a prominent reformist Iranian lawmaker said Wednesday, as both Washington and Tehran try to ease heightened tensions in the region.

The reported comments by Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh come after the White House earlier this month sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the region over a still-unexplained threat it perceived from Iran. 

 

Since that development, Iran has announced it will back away from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, an accord that President Donald Trump pulled America out of a year ago. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, alleged that four oil tankers were sabotaged off its coast, and Iranian-allied rebels in Yemen have launched drone attacks into Saudi Arabia. 

Falahatpisheh’s comments, reported by the semi-official ILNA news agency, carry additional heft as he serves as the chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission. 

 

“Under no circumstance will we enter a war,” Falahatpisheh said, according to ILNA. “No group can announce that it has entered a proxy war from Iran’s side.”

Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, Tehran has worked to leverage relationships with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and others to counter what it perceives as the threat from America’s vast military presence across the Mideast. Analysts believe that if attacked, Iran could rely on those militant groups to target American troops, Israel and other U.S. allies in the region. 

 

Uranium stockpile 

On Monday, Iran announced it had quadrupled its production capacity of low-enriched uranium. Iranian officials made a point to stress that the uranium would be enriched only to the 3.67% limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, making it usable for a power plant but far below what’s needed for an atomic weapon.

But by increasing production, Iran soon will exceed the stockpile limitations set by the nuclear accord. Tehran has set a July 7 deadline for Europe to set new terms for the deal, or it will enrich closer to weapons-grade levels in a Mideast already on edge.

The U.S. Air Force announced Wednesday that a B-52 bomber deployed to America’s vast Al-Udeid Air Base over the tensions took part in a formation flight with Qatari fighter jets. That comes as Qatar has grown closer to Iran after facing a nearly two-year boycott by four Arab nations also allied with the U.S. 

 

“This flight was conducted to continue building military-to-military relationships” with Qatar, the Air Force said.
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Deposed Istanbul Mayor Blasts ‘Lies’ Used to Annul Election

Posted on by SeeEU

Istanbul’s deposed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said Wednesday that no one believed the “lies” used to overturn his recent election and called on voters to “correct this great shame” in next month’s re-run.

“Nobody believes their claims,” Imamoglu said at a meeting in Istanbul to launch his re-election campaign.

He accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party of peddling “lies” and “excuses” to overturn his narrow victory in the mayoral election in March.

“When I look at their facial expressions, I see that they themselves do not believe them either,” Imamoglu said.

The election board earlier this month accepted the ruling party’s allegations of “irregularities” and called a re-run of the vote for June 23.

Imamoglu’s victory for the opposition of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) was the first time Erdogan’s Islamic-conservative party and its predecessors had lost control of the metropolis in 25 years.

Analysts say the government is reluctant to cede control of Turkey’s biggest city, which provides its mayor with significant resources for patronage as well as a high-profile platform.

“We will show the whole of Turkey on June 23 that there is no way out other than democracy and the ballot box,” Imamoglu said.

“Come and let’s correct this great shame and unfairness all together.”

Imamoglu said his campaign would focus on reversing extravagant spending in the city’s finances which he said he discovered during his brief 18-day stint as mayor.

“The resources of Istanbul municipality are being plundered… Istanbul municipality is not the property of a handful of people,” he said.

The opposition candidate also accused the ruling party of copying his proposals, including reduced water bills and discounted student transport, saying it was like a schoolboy copying his homework.

But he sought to maintain a positive message, in line with his efforts to bring unity to Turkey’s fiercely partisan politics.

“We will embrace everyone. … Everyone is a patriot. … You will see at the end of this process we will love each other more.”

The election board was due to release later on Wednesday its full explanation for cancelling the results of the first election.

It did not annul the votes for the city council that were cast at the same time, and where the majority of seats went to Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party.
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Major Texas Border Station Closed for Flu Outbreak After Teen Death

Posted on by SeeUS

A major Texas border station has been temporarily closed due to a fever outbreak, officials said, one day after a Guatemalan teenager diagnosed with flu at the facility died in immigration custody.

Medical staff imposed the quarantine at the McAllen processing center after a “large number” of detainees were found to have high fevers and symptoms of a flu-related illness.

“To avoid the spread of illness, the Rio Grande Valley Sector has temporarily suspended intake operations at the CPC,” Customs and Border Protection said in a statement late Tuesday, referring to the Central Processing Center.

“Medical staff are currently working to provide all subjects with proper medical treatment.”

People detained in Rio Grande Valley will be held in other stations until the situation is resolved, it said.

A 16-year-old boy died Monday in immigration custody in Texas, becoming the fifth child from Guatemala to die since December after being apprehended by U.S. border patrol agents.

The boy, identified as Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, had been detained on May 13 after crossing the border, and was processed at the McAllen center, according to U.S. media reports.

He was seen by a nurse who determined he had the flu and moved to a nearby facility at Weslaco to avoid other detainees getting sick.

He was found unresponsive Monday during a welfare check, an hour after agents had last checked on him.

The Border Patrol agency has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over its treatment of children apprehended at the border.

Border enforcement officials earlier this year said the country’s immigration system had reached a “breaking point” of illegal border crossings that have overwhelmed the system, especially in the Rio Grande Valley.

Almost half a million people have been stopped at the southern U.S. border since October. Most who cross without authorization surrender to authorities and file for asylum.

Overcrowding at emergency shelters has forced authorities to release some migrants from detention as they await a review of their asylum applications.

The McAllen center is one of the busiest along the U.S.-Mexican border.
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Manchester Marks Anniversary of Concert Bombing

Posted on by SeeEU

Like last year on May 22 bells will toll across the northern English city of Manchester to mark the anniversary — this time the second— of the suicide bombing of the Manchester Arena that left 23 concert-goers dead, including the attacker, and 139 wounded, more than half of them children.

Many of the survivors and relatives of the dead say they remain unable two shake off the terrors of the blast and loss of loved ones. Many of the physically wounded still struggle to overcome injuries and disabilities. 

Several hundred of the concert-goers at the arena, there to listen to American singer Ariana Grande, are still grappling with the effects of psychological trauma of the deadliest terrorist attack, and the first suicide bombing in Britain since the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

The parents of eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, the youngest of those killed, say they remain stuck in 2017 when radical Islamist Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old local man of Libyan descent, detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb that shred bodies and lives. He is thought to have trained for the attack in Libya.

“Saffie had got hold of my hand, and she was pulling me, jumping about,” Lisa Roussos told the BBC on the eve of the anniversary. 

“And the next minute I just hit the floor with a thud,” she added. She couldn’t move, but she could blink and willed herself to keep her eyes open. Lisa Roussos was gravely injured and had to relearn to walk. She was in a coma for six weeks and only learned about her daughter’s death after she woke up.

Two years on Saffie’s parents say the bombing remains raw. The time makes no difference, the parents said. “I feel like we’re stuck in 2017,” said little girl’s father, Andrew Roussos. 

In a statement marking the anniversary, Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, said the city “will never forget the terrible events of May 22, 2017, nor the remarkable display of unity and love which followed. Those who were killed and their loved ones, as well as all those left physically or mentally injured, have a place in our hearts.”

Despite the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group, the danger of radical Islamist terrorism remains far from over, say counter-terror experts. More than 500 incarcerated Islamist militants are due to be freed in Europe over the next two years, according to Olivier Guitta, head of the geopolitical risk company GlobalStrat. 

Guitta, who contributed to a report released Wednesday by GlobSec, a think tank, on the criminal ties of many of Europe’s Islamist militants, says European governments need to consider lengthening jail terms for those convicted of terror offenses and not granting early release for good behavior.

While the security services are doing a “good job at honing down on the potential terrorists, he says in a conclusion to the report, “the sheer number of people, up to 30,000, recorded on Britain’s main terror watchlist including 3,000 branded as dangerous, make it impossible for security services to monitor even a fraction of that, knowing that about 30 officers are needed per individual.”

He adds: “Due to early releases from prisons and generally short sentences, the situation is even more problematic and will allow 500 dangerous jihadists to be freed in the next two years in Europe.”

According to the report, most of the Islamist militants who’ve carried out attacks in Britain in the past six years were already on terror watch lists, and more than half of British militants arrested for terrorist offenses were under surveillance prior to their detention.

Like most of jihadists who carried out attacks on European soil, Manchester bomber Abedi was “on the radar of security services and was at one point actually monitored until the investigation was dropped off because nothing happened,” says Guitta.

Many of the relatives of the dead attending services in Manchester Wednesday say the government needs to mandate tougher security checks at large public events.

Earlier this week, Britain’s interior minister Sajid Javid announced plans to update the country’s treason laws to cover terrorists. British-born jihadis returning from the battlefields of the Middle East would be open to prosecution under the planned updated law, say officials.

Calls for an updated treason law increased have increased after officials said they were abandoning efforts to prosecute two alleged members of the Islamic State so-called “Beatles” cell, a quartet of Britons responsible for torturing and beheading Western hostages in Syria, including American journalist James Foley. 

A paper drawn up by the Policy Exchange think-tank last year suggested defining treason as “aiding a hostile state of organization.”The paper set out a series of actions that could be deemed treason, including helping prepare or commit an attack in Britain, aiding the military or intelligence operations of a state or organization intending to attack Britain or “prejudicing the security and defense of the UK”.
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Bulgaria, Greece Start Work on Gas Pipeline from Azerbaijan

Posted on by SeeEU

Bulgaria and Greece are launching the construction of a pipeline to transport Azeri gas to Bulgaria to ease its almost total dependence on Russian gas supplies.

At a ceremony near the border on Wednesday, the two prime ministers, Boyko Borissov and Alexis Tsipras, oversaw the formal start to construction of the 182-kilometer (114 miles) link between the two countries’ gas transmission systems.

The pipeline is scheduled to become operational at the end of 2020, when Bulgaria is due to receive deliveries of Azeri gas from the Shah Deniz 2 development.

The link is estimated to cost 220 million euros ($245 million) and its projected capacity will be between 3 and 5 billion cubic meters (105-175 billion cubic feet) per year.
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North Korea Slams Biden as ‘Fool of Low IQ’

Posted on by SeeUS

SEOUL- Juhyun Lee contributed to this report.

North Korean state media slammed Joe Biden as an “imbecile” and a “fool of low IQ” Wednesday, Pyongyang’s first substantial comments on the 2020 U.S. presidential election. 

The commentary in the state-run Korean Central News Agency criticized Biden for recently referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a thug and a tyrant. 

“[Biden] reeled off rhetoric slandering the supreme leadership of the DPRK,” KCNA said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name. “What he uttered is just sophism of an imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being, let alone a politician.”

The statement does not represent a formal endorsement of Trump; North Korean media often lash out at world leaders who criticize members of the ruling Kim family. 

“What is interesting this time is that the North Koreans may be attacking who they figure is Trump’s main domestic rival to curry favor with the president,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

Polls indicate Biden leading his Democratic rivals, as well as Trump, in the 2020 race. 

The former vice president often criticizes Trump’s diplomatic outreach to authoritarian leaders. He recently slammed Kim as a thug.

“He’s the same guy (who had) his uncle’s brains blown out sitting across a desk,” Biden said earlier this month, referring to Kim’s 2013 execution of his uncle and mentor, Jang Song-thaek. 

The un-bylined KCNA editorial did not mention Trump. But it did appear to give a nod to Trump’s newly rolled out nickname for Biden: “Sleepy Joe.” 

​”In April 2011 when the then President [Barack] Obama was in the middle of making a speech, [Biden] was fast asleep in the auditorium,” the commentary said, adding Biden became a “laughing-stock of the media.”

Trump, who is 72 years old, has attempted to portray Biden, who is 76, as not having enough energy to become president. 

KCNA also hit at Biden’s reputation for making verbal gaffes. 

“Yet, he is self-praising himself as being the most popular presidential candidate,” the editorial said. “This is enough to make a cat laugh.”

It isn’t the first time North Korean media have weighed in during a Trump presidential run. In 2016, an editorial in the DPRK Today, a China-based North Korean mouthpiece, called Trump “wise” and “far-sighted,” while slamming his opponent Hillary Clinton as “dull.” 

Even though North Korea has recently taken a more aggressive stance toward the United States, state media have been careful not to criticize Trump. One North Korean official said Kim’s relationship with Trump remains “mysteriously wonderful,” even though nuclear talks have broken down. 

Instead, North Korean state media have slammed other U.S. officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton.

“Whether the person is Democrat or Republican, North Korean media will always react against someone who insults their leader,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies. “And unless Trump calls Kim a dictator or says something harsh, North Korea will not directly criticize the president.”

Soo Kim, a North Korea watcher and former CIA analyst, agrees that Pyongyang doesn’t typically endorse U.S. presidential candidates. But Pyongyang clearly wants Trump to remain in office so that negotiations can continue, she said. 

Nuclear talks broke down following a Trump-Kim summit in February in Hanoi, Vietnam. The two leaders were unable to agree on how to match the pace of sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.

Kim has said he will give the United States until the end of the year to change its approach, and has begun testing ballistic missiles for the first time in a year and a half. 

Trump has shrugged off Kim’s deadline and the missile launches, saying he is in no hurry for a deal.
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US Aside, China Fears Mostly Japan’s Influence in Disputed Sea

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Japan is shaping up as China’s chief rival in the disputed South China Sea because it has a sustained, multi-pronged approach and a unique set of reasons to test Beijing’s growing influence, analysts say.

The country has emerged since 2017 as a force in the sea. It works with the United States on joint naval exercises including one from May 2-8 that also involved warships from India and the Philippines. Japan has separately sent its Izumo-class helicopter carrier to the sea at least four times since 2017. That year it took a three-month tour.

Japan, unlike the United States, is helping Southeast Asian claimants to the South China Sea develop infrastructure and maritime firepower. Japanese officials don’t claim the sea, but a separate territorial dispute with China motivates them to keep a watch on Chinese influence. Japanese citizens tend to support foreign policy targeting China, analysts say.

“Under (Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe, Tokyo has enhanced defense and security engagements in Southeast Asia, not least with the South China Sea in mind,” said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “I believe Beijing will…be concerned about Japan using the South China Sea.”

US ally

At least six other countries with no claims in the South China Sea sovereignty dispute have sent ships into the waterway over the past three years. They are Australia, France, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. All but Washington send ships too sporadically to cause major alarm in China, despite protests from Beijing’s foreign ministry, scholars have said. 

The United States operates the world’s strongest armed forces, and the U.S. Navy has sailed in the sea 11 times under President Donald Trump alone. China worries most about the United States, followed by Japan, Asia scholars say. That’s partly because Japan is a U.S. treaty ally of nearly 60 years.

“Japan is more northeast focused, but it does venture down to the South China Sea,” said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “You can’t push Japan around without thinking about what the U.S. would do.”

Public sentiment

Also setting Japan apart, its government has sparred with China since 1996 over sovereignty in parts of the East China Sea. Most Japanese fret over China’s rise, giving their government a stronger mandate to check Chinese expansion through alliances with other countries, said Jeffrey Kingston, history instructor at Temple University’s Japan campus.

“I think there’s a lot of concern about rising China and about North Korea, so in this environment I think the government, which in a way helps to stoke those anxieties, is seizing the opportunity to build these coalitions (and) partnerships,” Kingston said.

Persistence, economic aid

The frequency and duration of Japan’s Izumo tours of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea stand out from other outside parties except for the United States, analysts say. After the May 2-8 exercises, the Izumo joined Australian, French and U.S. ships west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra for another round of South China Sea exercises.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the sea, which stretches from Hong Kong to Borneo. Their exclusive economic zones all overlap the 90 percent that China calls its own. Militarily weaker than Beijing, the Southeast Asian claimants resent China’s use of reclaimed land to build up tiny islets for aircraft hangars, radar systems and support for oil exploration. 

Claimant countries prize the sea as well for its marine shipping lanes and undersea reserves of gas and oil. Japan relies on it for raw materials and shipping routes for its exports. 

Unlike other outsiders to the dispute, Japan has offered direct military support to countries that contest Chinese maritime claims. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces agreed last year to join the United States in joint exercises with the Philippines. This month the Japanese Defense Minister met his Vietnamese counterpart to tighten their maritime security ties.

Japanese officials are lending money to both Southeast Asian countries for infrastructure projects.

Chinese reaction

China cites documents going back to dynastic years to show historic use of the sea, bolstering its claim. The Chinese foreign ministry protests when U.S. ships or U.S.-allied ships sail there, calling the moves outside intervention in a regional dispute.

Japan’s activity is unlikely to stop China from operating in the sea’s Paracel Islands, a chain it has controlled since the 1970s, or militarizing three major islets in the Spratly archipelago, scholars have said. But they say the activity may help deter China from taking more islets claimed by other countries.

“China will reverse the argument to say ‘you all are militarizing the South China Sea, not me, and I think they will just play that game and not do anything further,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
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US Jury: Former Somali Colonel Responsible for Torture

Posted on by SeeAF

A former colonel who served decades ago in the Somali National Army was convicted Tuesday in a U.S. court of being responsible for the torture of a teenager in 1987.

Yusuf Abdi Ali, who now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, served under Dictator Siad Barre. A civil jury in the Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., found him responsible for the torture of Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa, and ordered him to pay Warfaa $500,000.

The verdict was reached after more than three days of deliberations in a lawsuit that was filed 15 years ago by the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) on behalf of Warfaa, who lives in a village in northwest Somalia.

In the lawsuit, Warfaa, who was 17 at the time, says he was tortured, shot and left for dead by Ali during a 1988 interrogation, but he survived only by bribing the men who were supposed to bury him.

Ali denied torturing Warfaa.

​Jury decision

Tuesday’s verdict found that Ali was responsible for the torture, but jurors could not establish enough evidence involving the shooting to charge him with attempted murder of Warfaa.

After the decision, CJA lawyer Kathy Roberts told VOA that they were happy with Tuesday’s verdict.

“We are delighted with this verdict. It has been a long time coming and at last this man will be held responsible for at least one of the crimes that he is responsible for. The defendant has to pay $400,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages,” Roberts said.

Wearing a traditional Somali hat and turban, Warfaa came out of the courthouse smiling.

“I am from Horn of Africa and I found my justice here in (the) United States. I am happy and satisfied with the verdict and thank to all who helped me get this justice,” he told VOA Somali.

The lawsuit has been delayed for nearly 15 years, mostly by legal debate over whether a foreign national could bring a lawsuit in the U.S. over alleged torture that happened in another country.

Ben Klein with CJA and one of the attorneys representing Warfaa see it as delayed justice.

“This is a story of justice delayed. Our client has been carrying those scars physical, emotional and psychological for over 31 years, but this story is not ending with justice denied. This is the day of justice delivered to Farhan to this case,” he said.

The defending lawyer

Since the lawsuit was filed against him, Ali has been avoiding the media, especially after CNN reported recently that he was working as an Uber driver.

His lawyer, Joseph Peter Drennan, said the lawsuit was merely based on “clan vengeance” and that the jury’s verdict was reached without concrete evidence.

“There was not clear, convincing evidence adduced at this a trial that my client tortured anybody or directed the torture of anybody. Instead there was this theory of command responsibility that merely because an individual claiming to have been tortured by members of the Somali National Army, that my client being a colonel in the Army during that period is somehow ‘quote, unquote’ civilly responsible,” Drennan said.

He argued that testimonies and witnesses in this case are biased.

“Each and every fact witness who testified for the other side in this case professed allegiance to (the) Isaq clan. It is quite clear that this litigation is being pursued to advance the cause of recognition for the unrecognized state of Somaliland,” Drennan told VOA.

Drennan said his client as a foreign official deserved individual immunity, but this lawsuit was orchestrated against him because he came from Somalia and was too vulnerable in the U.S., under the federal Torture Victims Protection Act.

“Our soldiers (U.S. soldiers) serving or living abroad are protected by having a powerful government. My client was essentially left defenseless because he came from a collapsed state,” Drennan said.

Drennan says they will probably appeal the verdict.

“We are very unhappy with the verdict. He was held liable essentially because he was associated with the regime of Siyad Barre. We are going to review the record and we quietly likely will appeal.”
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