Month: May 2019

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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UN Envoy: Islamic State Revival in Iraq Must Be Prevented

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.N. envoy for Iraq is calling for “wide-based international support” to prevent Islamic State extremists from regaining a foothold in the country.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert also told the Security Council on Tuesday that if the issue of thousands of returning Islamic State fighters and their families from Syria to Iraq isn’t managed properly, “we risk creating a new breeding ground for the next generation of terrorists.”

She stressed that this “is not just an Iraqi problem” because there are non-Iraqi fighters as well. She implicitly criticized some unnamed countries that are maintaining a “strategic distance” from their own nationals.

More broadly, Hennis-Plasschaert also criticized Iraqi political infighting that has blocked key ministerial appointments a year after national elections and corruption that she said is “pervasive at all levels in Iraq.”

 
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US: Syria May Be Using Chemical Weapons Again

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States says there are signs the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria may be using chemical weapons again and it is warning the Syrians to stop it.

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it believes Syrian forces were behind an alleged chlorine gas attack Sunday in northwestern Syria.

A spokeswoman says officials are still gathering information about the suspected attack but said, “if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond quickly and appropriately.”

She says the attack would be part of a violent campaign that violates a cease-fire protecting millions of civilians in the Idlib area, destroying health facilities, schools, homes, and refugee camps.

The United States says Syria and its Russian allies have a history of blaming chemical attacks against the rebels.

“The facts are clear: the Assad regime itself has conducted almost all verified chemical weapons attacks that have taken place in Syria … the Assad regime’s culpability in horrific chemical weapons attacks in undeniable.”

There has been no comment from Syria on the U.S. accusation.

The U.S. has bombed Syria twice in reaction to using poisonous gas on civilians.
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Malawi Counts Ballots in Poll for President, Parliament, Local Councilors

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Officials in Malawi are counting ballots in Tuesday’s poll for president, members of parliament, and local councilors. No major problems were reported as Malawians voted in one of the nation’s most unpredictable races for president. For VOA, Lameck Masina has this story from Thyolo district, where incumbent President Peter Mutharika cast his ballot.
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Classified Iran Briefings Fail to Unite US Lawmakers on Threats, Response

Posted on by SeeEA

VOA’s Carla Babb contributed to this report.

U.S. lawmakers expressed sharply diverging opinions on the threat level posed by Iran after classified briefings President Donald Trump’s national security team presented to all House and Senate members Tuesday.

“They explained to us how the Iranian threat streams were different than in the past … and that attacks against American interests and personnel were imminent,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford.

“There was an escalation by Iran and its proxies,” said the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul of Texas. “We’re obviously concerned about our military soldiers who are threatened by Iran, and a potential attack on them in Iraq, specifically.”

Democrats had a different take on the briefings, as well as the wisdom of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Iran’s government and its proxies in the Middle East.

“I heard nothing that wasn’t a regurgitation of past administration talking points on Iran. It was a long, lengthy history of their many transgressions … so far, not a single shred of evidence to justify the escalation of tensions in the region,” Virginia Democratic Rep. Jerry Connolly said. 

“This briefing was all about tactics, not about strategy. And that’s been our worry from the beginning — that this is blind escalation,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said.

Deployments, patrols

Shanahan disputed such characterizations in comments to reporters at the Capitol.

“I walked them [lawmakers] through what the Department of Defense has been doing since May 3, when we received credible intelligence about threats to our interests in the Middle East and to American forces, and how we acted on that credible intelligence,” the acting defense secretary said. “We have deterred attacks based on our reposturing of assets, deterred attacks against American forces.”

Earlier in the day, a Pentagon spokesman told VOA that U.S. intelligence points to Iran as “highly likely responsible” for recent attacks on four oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.

The Pentagon has deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, the USS Arlington landing platform dock ship, a Patriot missile battery and B-52 bombers to the region. 

The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet said it has increased maritime patrols and exercises in the Arabian Sea that highlight the “lethality and agility to respond to threat.”

Iran action

Iran, meanwhile, has announced a quadrupling of its uranium enrichment capacity, threatened to move closer to weapons-grade enrichment absent relief for its battered economy, and rejected, for now, any prospect of dialogue with Washington.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif decried what he termed “genocidal taunts” by the Trump administration, adding that “Iranians have stood tall for a millennia, while aggressors [have] all gone,” including Genghis Kahn and Alexander the Great.

“Try respect. It works,” Zarif tweeted.

Tehran’s responses to America’s pressure campaign should give the Trump administration pause, according to Murphy.

“The Iranians are nowhere near being ready to talk. They are not showing any signs of backing down from their provocative behavior. So, tell me how this [Trump administration] strategy is working if Iran won’t talk and they’re not deescalating militarily,” the Democratic senator said. “I don’t think they [administration officials] have any good answers. Their plan is to just continue to push and push and push, and hope that eventually the Iranians change their mind.”

Republicans argued that pressure on Iran is wise and warranted to protect Americans serving in the Middle East.

“We owe it to those in theater who are doing our bidding as a nation to make sure that nobody can attack them without thinking twice about it. And deterrence is best had by moving military assets forward to make it real to Iran,” Graham said. “This is a very measured response. We’ve been attacked for years by Iran. For 40 years, they have been killing people, including Americans. Now, we are at a point in time when we’re pushing back against the regime.”

Trump pulled out of the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran one year ago. He reimposed sanctions on Tehran and has threatened other penalties on countries that still do business with Iran. Washington’s actions have made the Iranian economy, already in tatters, even weaker.
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Malawians Vote for President, Lawmakers, Local Councilors

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Malawians voted for president, members of parliament, and local councilors Tuesday. About 7 million people were expected to cast ballots in 193 constituencies.

Hundreds of people lined up to vote at Goliati polling station in southern Malawi Tuesday morning.

It’s President Peter Mutharika’s home village, where he has many supporters. 

Alfred Lapukeni is one of them.

“What has forced me to vote is the change which I have seen in the country,” Lapukeni said. “Also, I see that our current leader Arthur Peter Mutharika is governing the country so well, there is development all over the country.”

But not everyone in Thyolo district feels Malawi is headed in the right direction.

Corruption and the economy are two major issues in this election.

Voter Charles Majanga suggests changes are needed, but he declines to say whom he voted for. 

Majanga has great expectation that he has made the right choice, that he has chosen a person he thinks will help change his life. Majanga said he has done this freely without anyone to force or intimidate him.

Voting was largely peaceful Tuesday with few problems.

Joseph Timothy, the election monitor for the ruling DPP Party, said he appreciated the turnout.

Timothy said the turnout was good and that is what he expected.

One high-profile omission, however, has turned heads and sparked an investigation.  

Vice President Saulos Chilima’s name was not found at the polling station where he went to vote. Instead, Chilima was registered at another station hundreds of kilometers away. 

Chilima is among the top three contenders for president, along with Mutharika and opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera.

In the end, the vice president was allowed to vote, by virtue of being one of the candidates.

Mutharika won the 2014 election by about 450,000 votes, although he fell short of a majority. Official results from Tuesday’s vote are expected on May 29.  
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Portugal’s Economy Rebounds, Though Problems Persist

Posted on by SeeEU

The Portuguese economy is resisting the prevailing gloom in Europe.

Activity remained strong, with GDP rising by 0.5% in the first quarter, or 1.8% at an annual rate, compared with 1.2% in the euro zone, forecasts Brussels.

Following the trend of 2018, Portugal’s good economic health comes mainly from private consumption fueled by rising wages and employment dynamics. The preliminary data, says the national statistics institute, “reflect a significant acceleration in investment.”

The government deficit has fallen from 7.2% of GDP to 0.5% of GDP since 2014, and the unemployment rate from a peak of 17.9% in early 2013, to about 6% currently.

“The tourism sector has been the largest driver of the export recovery in Portugal,” Ben Westmore, the head of the Portugal desk in the Economics Department of the OECD, confirmed to VOA.

These numbers make Portugal the darling of international financial institutions. The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, praised Portugal’s economic recovery recently in Lisbon. “Portugal and the Portuguese people deserve huge credit for their efforts, for which they should be proud,” Lagarde said.

Low wages

Despite the spectacular recovery and the fall of unemployment, a sense of precariousness and low wages are everywhere in Portugal. The minimum wage is only $669 (€600) per month — a number that has not prompted the return of many young adults, who left during the crisis. Between 2008 and 2014, 120,000 people left Portugal per year. Twenty percent were highly skilled workers, according to professor Joao Miguel Trancoso Lopes.

This sociologist undertook a study and interviewed many of them to understand their motivations to stay abroad or come back in their country.

“They do not feel Portugal is full of opportunities. The low wages are a real hurdle for them. They look for better jobs, outside of the country. Unlike the previous generations, the young Portuguese leaving abroad do not dream of returning home,” he explained to VOA.

This professor used to be paid $3,345 (€3,000) per month before the crisis. Today, he earns $2,901.99 (€2,600) per month. The health care system is another sector that was heavily targeted for budget cuts during the crisis.

Bruno Maia is a neurologist in Lisbon. He acknowledges the current government took some measures to lift the burden, such as hiring of doctors and nurses.

“The damages made to our health care system are so pronounced that these new jobs do not compensate what was lost during the crisis. It is not enough. Problems are accumulating and we are struggling,” he underscores to VOA. For example, Maia says non-emergency procedures, like an MRI, could take up a year to be performed in Portugal.

Besides these issues, Antonio Costa, the Socialist prime minister who vowed in 2015 to overturn austerity, remains popular in Portugal. His party and its allies likely will win the coming European elections on May 26.

“Euroskepticism, which grew a lot during the crisis, it is not as important today. We do not expect a defeat as the Socialist Party is popular in Portugal,” Andre Freire, a political science professor at Lisbon University Institute, told VOA.

Portugal has 21 seats at the European Parliament.
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US Shoe Industry Protests Possible Tariffs on Chinese Imports

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More than 170 American shoe manufacturers and retailers, including such well-known athletic shoe brands as Nike, Under Armour and Adidas, urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to exempt footwear from any further tariffs he imposes on imported goods from China.

The lobby for the shoe industry, the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, told Trump in a letter that his proposed 25 percent tariff on shoes imported from China “would be catastrophic for our consumers, our companies and the American economy as a whole.” The industry imported $11.4 billion worth of shoes from China last year, although some manufacturers have been shifting production elsewhere, especially to Vietnam and Cambodia.

It said the proposed tariffs on shoes made in China could cost U.S. consumers more than $7 billion annually on top of existing levies.

“There should be no misunderstanding that U.S. consumers pay for tariffs on products that are imported,” the 173 companies said, rejecting Trump’s frequent erroneous statement that China pays the tariffs and that the money goes directly to the U.S. Treasury.

Trump has been engaged in a string of reciprocal tariff increases with China on imported goods arriving in each other’s ports as the world’s two biggest economies have tried for months — unsuccessfully so far — to negotiate a new trade pact.

After Trump imposed new 25 percent taxes on $200 billion worth of Chinese products earlier this month, he also set in motion plans to impose a new round of levies on virtually all Chinese imports, another $300 billion worth of goods, including shoe imports, clothing and electronics.

The U.S. leader said that if American companies did not like the tariffs on Chinese imports, they could move their production inside the United States or to another country whose manufactured products are not taxed when they are sent to the U.S. But the footwear lobby rejected Trump’s suggestion.

“Footwear is a very capital-intensive industry, with years of planning required to make sourcing decisions, and companies cannot simply move factories to adjust to these changes,” the industry told Trump.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office has published a list of products that would be covered by the expanded tariffs and set a hearing for June 17.
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US Military: Russian Bombers, Fighters Intercepted off Alaska

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US fighters intercepted six Russian military aircraft in international airspace west of Alaska, and shadowed them until they exited the area, the North American Air Defense Command said Tuesday.

The Russian aircraft included two Tu-95 strategic bombers, which were intercepted Monday by two F-22 fighters, the command said.

A second group of two Tu-95 bombers and two Su-35 fighters were also intercepted by a pair of F-22 fighters, it said.

An AWACS surveillance plane monitored the operations, NORAD said, adding that the Russian aircraft were in international airspace throughout.

They were picked up as they entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, a perimeter line that lies outside national airspace but within which air traffic is kept under constant surveillance to reduce response times in case of a hostile threat.

“Our ability to deter and defeat threats to our citizens and vital infrastructure starts with detecting, tracking, and positively identifying aircraft in our airspace,” NORAD’s commander, General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, said.

“We are on alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” he said.

The United States has four Air Defense Identification Zones. The Alaska zone extends about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the state’s coast.
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Kenya’s High Court to Rule Friday on Legality of Gay Sex

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This Friday, Kenya’s High Court is set to rule on a case challenging colonial-era laws that criminalize homosexuality. The petitioners want the court to declare those laws unconstitutional in hopes that will make life easier for the country’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Stanely Muasa, a gay man living in Kenya, said going to parties or events alone is always a risky affair. It is safer if he is in a group of two or three people, he said.

 

In the past, he has been attacked by strangers — an experience shared by many gays and lesbians in Kenya, he said.

He is hoping that on Friday, Kenya’s High Court will overturn the law that he said has fueled homophobia for decades.

The laws he refers to are the sections of the penal code that make gay sex a crime.

“There is no way someone is going to traumatize you, yet you have a right to go to any police station or any facility that gives justice. So it will change, everything will change, even police officers how they carry [treat] key populations, it will have to change,” said Muasa.

In 2016, three Kenyan gay rights organizations filed petitions with the High Court asking it to declare sections 162 (a) and (c) and section 165 of the Penal Code unconstitutional. The organizations argue the laws violate the right to privacy, the right to freedom of expression, the right to health, the right to human dignity and the right to freedom from discrimination.

Court hearings began in February 2018.

Otsieno Namwaya is a researcher at Human Rights Watch. He said the laws, which date from 1930, infringe on LGBT rights and deny them access to medical services or police protection.

“Even Kenya’s own constitution outlaws discrimination of any kind, so it is illegal to allow discrimination on the basis of religion, on the basis of tribe, on the basis of sexual orientation. So it is a contradiction for the constitution to say on one hand that any form of discrimination is illegal but on the other hand retain laws that discriminate against one section of the people,” said Namwaya.

Irungu Kangata is a Kenyan senator and vocal opponent of gay rights who is also participating in the case.

He said if the court strikes down the laws, he and his supporters will seek other avenues to stop what he calls the “LGBT agenda.”

“We either appeal but I foresee little chance of success in our judiciary because I strongly believe that our judiciary has been captured by NGOs. The best-case scenario would be to push for a referendum to amend certain articles of the constitution so its very clear that such behavior is not allowed in Kenya,” he said.

If the petitioners win, Kenya would be the first country in East Africa to decriminalize homosexuality.
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Trump Returns to ‘Spygate’ to Rally Supporters

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Gearing up towards re-election in 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies are amplifying claims that President Obama ordered the FBI to spy on his 2016 campaign. Last month, Trump renewed calls to “investigate the investigators”, and last week his attorney general launched a review of the decision by the nation’s intelligence agencies to investigate alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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UN Warns Libya is on Verge of Full-Scale Civil War

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The top United Nations diplomat for Libya warned Tuesday that the country is on the verge of descending into a full-scale civil war, as a warlord general from the east continues to try to capture the capital from the internationally-recognized government.

 

“Libya is on the verge of descending into a civil war, which could lead to the permanent division of the country,” U.N. envoy Ghassan Salame told the U.N. Security Council. “The damage already done will take years to mend, and that’s only if the war is ended now.”

 

The latest round of fighting began on April 4, when General Khalifa Haftar, who holds sway in the country’s east, moved his fighters on Tripoli, to the west, in a bid to take control of the capital from U.N.-backed chairman of the Presidential Council and Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj. A U.N. call for a Ramadan truce has failed to materialize.

 

Salame said the fighting has killed more than 460 people, 29 of them civilians. More than 2,400 people have been injured, most of them civilians. Another 75,000 Tripoli residents have been forcibly displaced. He said humanitarian actors estimate that more than 100,000 civilians remain trapped in frontline areas, with about 400,000 more in areas directly impacted by the clashes. 

He accused both sides of violating an international arms embargo imposed on Libya.

 

“Many countries are providing weapons to all parties in the conflict without exception,” he said. “The amount and sophistication of these weapons are already causing greater numbers of casualties.” He urged robust enforcement of the arms embargo.

 

Salame said Libyans are resigning themselves to a conflict that could last months or years; but, he said the slide into full civil war or even the partition of Libya is not inevitable.

 

“A better future is still possible, but we all must be seized with the fierce urgency of now, while the front lines remain on the outskirts of Tripoli and before the battle moves, God forbid, to the capital’s more densely populated neighborhoods.”

 

Salame said that would require concerted and immediate action by the international community. He appealed to the Security Council to call for a cease-fire and for the warring parties to re-engage with his team to end the fighting and return to the U.N.-led political process.

 

He painted a bleak picture for what lies ahead if that fails to happen.

 

“The violence on the outskirts of Tripoli is just the start of a long and bloody war on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, imperiling the security of Libya’s immediate neighbors and the wider Mediterranean region,” the envoy predicted.

He also warned it would create an even bigger opening for terrorists and others who have exploited the instability and lack of a unified government in Libya for the past eight years since dictator Moammar Ghadhafi was ousted.

 

“The security vacuum created by the withdrawal of many of General Haftar’s troops from the south, coupled with the focus of the western forces on the defense of the capital, is already being exploited by Da’esh and al-Qaida,” he said. By Da’esh, he was referring to the so-called Islamic State group by its Arabic acronym. 

 

He warned that in the country’s south, Islamic State’s black flags are starting to appear and since Haftar’s offensive for Tripoli began on April 4, there have been four IS attacks in that area, killing 17 people. There has also been a spate of kidnappings.

 

The latest cycle of fighting began on the eve of a national dialogue conference that was meant to bring the country’s diverse groups together to build on progress toward new elections. The dialogue has been indefinitely postponed.
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Trump Officials to Brief Congress on Iranian Threat

Posted on by SeeEA

WASHINGTON- Michael Bowman on Capitol Hill contributed to this report.

Senior Trump administration officials are due to brief members of Congress in closed-door sessions Tuesday about the military threat the White House says Iran poses in the Middle East.

Among those going to Capitol Hill are Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford.

They are planning to talk with lawmakers after days of suspicions expressed by U.S. officials that Iran was responsible for attacks last week on two Saudi oil-pumping stations and an earlier sabotage of four oil tankers.

Trump said Monday that Iran has been “very hostile,” and that the United States will have no choice but to respond to Iranian aggression “with great force.”

Earlier in the day, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to what he called “genocidal taunts” by reminding Trump that “Iranians have stood tall for a millennia while aggressors all gone,” including Genghis Kahn and Alexander the Great. “Try respect. It works,” Zarif tweeted.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Monday that after a briefing from national security adviser John Bolton, “It is clear that over the last several weeks Iran has attacked pipelines and ships of other nations and created threat streams against American interests in Iraq.”

Graham tweeted, “The fault lies with the Iranians, not the United States or any other nation. If the Iranian threats against American personnel and interests are activated, we must deliver an overwhelming military response. Stand firm Mr. President.”

​Monday in the Senate chamber, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said, “It would be absolute lunacy for the United States to get involved in another war right now in the Middle East. I think it would be devastating to be in a war with Iran and, in my view unconstitutional to be in a war with Iran at a president’s say-so … It’s Congress that declares war, not the president. It’s not for a president to say it and start it. It’s not for a president to, by a series of provocations, blunder us down the path where war becomes inevitable.”

Later, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy tweeted: “No one should defend the actions Iran has taken – they’ve been out of control for years – but dumb wars start when each party mistakenly believes that the other party’s defensive or reactive actions are actually offensive and proactive.”

The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet said it has increased maritime patrols and exercises in the Arabian Sea that highlight the “lethality and agility to respond to threat.” The Pentagon has already sent bombers to the region.

Iranian leaders say they do not want war, but have shown no interest so far in talks with the United States. 

As the war of words between the two countries showed little sign of cooling off, Iran said Monday it has quadrupled its uranium enrichment capacity.

Iranian officials say the uranium will be enriched for civilian energy uses, far below weapons grade as spelled out in the 2015 nuclear agreement. Enriching uranium means concentrating the element’s radioactive component. Natural uranium has less than one percent U-235, while uranium for electric power production is around four percent pure and weapons-grade material is refined to contain about 90 percent of this active ingredient.

Iran could soon exceed the amount of material it is allowed to stockpile under the deal. 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced two weeks ago he is pulling out of some parts of the six-nation nuclear deal, including the condition that Iran sell excess amounts of uranium to other nations.

Rouhani has threatened to move Iran closer to weapons-grade enrichment unless it sees promised economic relief from the deal by early July.

Trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement deal one year ago. He re-imposed sanctions on Tehran and has threatened other sanctions on countries that still do business with Iran. Trump’s decision has made the Iranian economy, already in tatters, even weaker.

Trump’s moves have helped set the stage for the current increased tensions between the United States and Iran.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said Monday it intercepted two missiles it says were fired by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. One missile was stopped over the city of Taif and the other over Jiddah.

The Houthis deny involvement. 

The Saudis have said they do not want war, but will fight and fight hard to protect their interests. 

The Saudis also blame the Houthis for a drone attack on two Saudi oil-pumping stations last week and the United States says it suspects Iran was behind the sabotage that damaged four tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last week. Two of the tankers were Saudi.

Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition helping the Yemeni government fight the Houthi rebels. Iran has not denied supporting the Houthi cause, but has said it does not supply weapons to them.

 
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What Is Behind Protests Against US-Backed Forces in Eastern Syria?

Posted on by SeeEA

VOA’s Saleh Damiger contributed to this story.

WASHINGTON — For three consecutive weeks, residents in parts of the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour have been protesting against U.S.-backed forces that recently defeated Islamic State in its last stronghold there. 

With help from the U.S., Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military alliance, has controlled large parts of eastern Syria after removing IS militants from the region.

But rising food prices, lack of services and arbitrary arrests of IS suspects have forced many frustrated locals to take to the streets in protest of the new administration, local news reported.

“In addition to those factors, there is a growing discontent among local Arabs against Kurdish rule in Deir el-Zour,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor that has researchers across the country. 

He told VOA that such protests were expected, given the demographic and political composition in the Syrian province. 

Ethnic tensions 

Deir el-Zour is an Arab-majority province where Kurdish forces now are mostly in charge of security and other services. But parts of the oil-rich province are controlled by Syrian troops and allied militias.    

Analysts warn that continued tensions in Deir el-Zour could risk military gains recently made against IS.

“Any ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs could create a vacuum in the area, which would lead to the reemergence of IS or other groups,” said Omar Hossino, a Syria policy expert based in Washington. 

“There have been ethnic tensions in many areas controlled by the SDF for some time now, as many Arabs have been excluded from power-sharing. And the economic situation is making it worse,” Hossino told VOA. 

He added, “It’s not only Arabs. Many other Kurdish political and civil society groups have also been excluded from power-sharing from the SDF.”

SDF officials said they have been working to defuse the situation by holding talks with influential tribal leaders. 

“Some people indeed would like to turn this into a Kurdish-Arab conflict, but it isn’t,” said Sinam Mohamad, an SDF political representative in Washington.

“We have reached out to Arab tribal leaders and told them that our administration is not exclusive to ethnic Kurds. We’re not trying to understate these protests. In fact, we are trying to resolve it soon,” she told VOA.

‘Winning the hearts of locals’

Some experts suggest that the SDF could assert its rule in the post-IS period by supporting the local Arab population with sustainable economic projects. 

“If the SDF wants to present itself as a better alternative in eastern Syria, then it should be genuine about winning the hearts of locals in these Arab areas,” said Radwan Badini, a politics and journalism professor at Salahaddin University in Irbil, Iraq. 

“The SDF needs to be more effective in terms of providing services and addressing economic grievances of the local residents in these areas that have been devastated after years of IS rule,” he said. 

SDF said IS still poses a threat to many parts of Deir el-Zour, where their security operations continue to target remnants of IS.   

“Twenty (IS) terrorists and a large quantity of armament were captured, and two tunnels were found in the security operation by our forces in (the) village of as-Shuhail (in Deir el-Zour),” Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, said in a tweet on Wednesday. 

Despite being defeated militarily, IS still has sleeper cells across eastern Syria, SDF officials charge. 

“We believe some of the recent demonstrations were instigated by those elements of IS, the Syrian regime and other regional powers,” said Mohamad, the SDF political representative in Washington. 

This week, Syria called on the U.N. Security Council to stop what it called “attacks and treasonous actions of the SDF militias, which are backed by the U.S. and some Western states” in Deir el-Zour. 

US oil sanctions

Since late last year, the U.S. Treasury Department has imposed a number of sanctions against entities and individuals involved in oil dealings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

What is happening in Deir al-Zour “is a product mainly of the oil sanctions which the Trump administration put into effect on Syria in the last few months, including the sanctions on SDF entities trading in oil with the regime last year, and the sanctions on the Assad regime’s oil imports which really went into effect on Jan. 3,” Hossino said. 

“The economy in these areas is very much integrated with the regime areas, which is having a major impact,” he added. 

SDF officials said they are seeking to normalize the local economy in eastern Syria after more than four years of economic chaos under IS. 

“When IS was in control of these areas, big families and tribes were producing oil primitively and selling it on their own,” Mohamad said. “But because we now want to organize oil dealings, some people find that threatening their interests.”

Hossino said one option to improve economic conditions in areas recently liberated from IS is for the U.S. to use its leverage to make the SDF less dependent on the Syrian government. 

“The U.S. needs to continue to work to peel away the SDF economically from the regime economy,” he said. “If that is the case, the SDF is going to have nowhere else to economically integrate, other than with other Syrian opposition areas, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Turkey.” 
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AP Explains: US Sanctions on Huawei Bite, But Who Gets Hurt?

Posted on by SeeUS

Trump administration sanctions against Huawei have begun to bite even though their dimensions remain unclear. U.S. companies that supply the Chinese tech powerhouse with computer chips saw their stock prices slump Monday, and Huawei faces decimated smartphone sales with the anticipated loss of Google’s popular software and services. 

The U.S. move escalates trade-war tensions with Beijing, but also risks making China more self-sufficient over time.

Here’s a look at what’s behind the dispute and what it means.

What’s this about?

Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department said it would place Huawei on the so-called Entity List, effectively barring U.S. firms from selling it technology without government approval. 

Google said it would continue to support existing Huawei smartphones but future devices will not have its flagship apps and services, including maps, Gmail and search. Only basic services would be available, making Huawei phones less desirable. Separately, Huawei is the world’s leading provider of networking equipment, but it relies on U.S. components including computer chips. About a third of Huawei’s suppliers are American. 

Why punish Huawei?

The U.S. defense and intelligence communities have long accused Huawei of being an untrustworthy agent of Beijing’s repressive rulers — though without providing evidence. The U.S. government’s sanctions are widely seen as a means of pressuring reluctant allies in Europe to exclude Huawei equipment from their next-generation wireless networks. Washington says it’s a question of national security and punishment of Huawei for skirting sanctions against Iran, but the backdrop is a struggle for economic and technological dominance. 

The politics of President Donald Trump’s escalating tit-for-tat trade war have co-opted a longstanding policy goal of stemming state-backed Chinese cyber theft of trade and military secrets. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said last week that the sanctions on Huawei have nothing to do with the trade war and could be revoked if Huawei’s behavior were to change.

​The sanctions’ bite

Analysts predict consumers will abandon Huawei for other smartphone makers if Huawei can only use a stripped-down version of Android. Huawei, now the No. 2 smartphone supplier, could fall behind Apple to third place. Google could seek exemptions, but would not comment on whether it planned to do so.

Who uses Huawei anyway?

While most consumers in the U.S. don’t even know how to pronounce Huawei (it’s “HWA-way”), its brand is well known in most of the rest of the world, where people have been buying its smartphones in droves.

Huawei stealthily became an industry star by plowing into new markets, developing a lineup of phones that offer affordable options for low-income households and luxury models that are siphoning upper-crust sales from Apple and Samsung in China and Europe. About 13 percent of its phones are now sold in Europe, estimates Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann.

That formula helped Huawei establish itself as the world’s second-largest seller of smartphones during the first three months of this year, according to the research firm IDC. Huawei shipped 59 million smartphones in the January-March period, nearly 23 million more than Apple.

Ripple effects

The U.S. ban could have unwelcome ripple effects in the U.S., given how much technology Huawei buys from U.S. companies, especially from makers of the microprocessors that go into smartphones, computers, internet networking gear and other gadgetry.

The list of chip companies expected to be hit hardest includes Micron Technologies, Qualcomm, Qorvo and Skyworks Solutions, which all have listed Huawei as a major customer in their annual reports. Others likely to suffer are Xilinx, Broadcom and Texas Instruments, according to industry analysts.

Being cut off from Huawei will also compound the pain the chip sector is already experiencing from the Trump administration’s rising China tariffs.

The Commerce Department on Monday announced an expected grace period of 90 days or more, easing the immediate hit on U.S. suppliers. It can extend that stay, and also has the option of issuing exemptions for especially hard-hit companies.

Much could depend on whether countries including France, Germany, the U.K. and the Netherlands continue to refuse to completely exclude Huawei equipment from their wireless networks.

The grace period allows U.S. providers to alert Huawei to security vulnerabilities and engage the Chinese company in research on standards for next-generation 5G wireless networks.

It also gives operators of U.S. rural broadband networks that use Huawei routers time to switch them out.

​Could this backfire?

Huawei is already the biggest global supplier of networking equipment, and is now likely to move toward making all components domestically. China already has a policy seeking technological independence by 2025.

U.S. tech companies, facing a drop in sales, could respond with layoffs. More than 52,000 technology jobs in the U.S. are directly tied to China exports, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association, a trade group also known as CompTIA.

What about harm to Google?

Google may lose some licensing fees and opportunities to show ads on Huawei phones, but it still will probably be a financial hiccup for Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., which is expected to generate $160 billion in revenue this year. 

The Apple effect

In theory, Huawei’s losses could translate into gains for both Samsung and Apple at a time both of those companies are trying to reverse a sharp decline in smartphone sales.

But Apple also stands to be hurt if China decides to target it in retaliation. Apple is particularly vulnerable because most iPhones are assembled in China. The Chinese government, for example could block crucial shipments to the factories assembling iPhones or take other measures that disrupt the supply chain.

Any retaliatory move from China could come on top of a looming increase on tariffs by the U.S. that would hit the iPhone, forcing Apple to raise prices or reduce profits.

What’s more, the escalating trade war may trigger a backlash among Chinese consumers against U.S. products, including the iPhone. 

“Beijing could stoke nationalist sentiment over the treatment of Huawei, which could result in protests against major U.S.technology brands,” CompTIA warned. 
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Chicago’s First Black Female Mayor Takes Office

Posted on by SeeUS

History was made Monday in Chicago when Lori Lightfoot was sworn in as the first black woman mayor of the country’s third-largest city.

“For years, they’ve said Chicago ain’t ready for reform. Well get ready because reform is here,” Lightfoot said shortly after taking the oath of office.

Chicago is trying to overcome its reputation as a violent city with an overwhelmed police force and corrupt officials.

“No official, no official in the city of Chicago, elected or appointed, should ever profit from his office. Never, ever,” Lightfoot said shortly before signing an executive order curtailing some powers of ward bosses called aldermen.

Lightfoot also promised police reform in a city that saw 769 murders in 2016 with only a fraction of those crimes ever getting solved.

Lightfoot also faces a $250 million budget deficit next year and must negotiate new contracts with police, firefighters and public schoolteachers.

The 56-year-old Lightfoot is a Democrat and a former U.S. federal prosecutor. She is also Chicago’s first openly gay mayor.
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Austrian Government Collapses Over Ibiza Video Scandal

Posted on by SeeEU

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called time Monday on his coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party after its leader was shown on video appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor.

Kurz said he was seeking the removal of the country’s interior minister, Freedom Party politician Herbert Kickl, to ensure an unbiased probe into the video.

“I’m firmly convinced that what’s necessary now is total transparency and a completely and unbiased investigation,” Kurz told reporters in Vienna.

The Freedom Party reacted by withdrawing its ministers from the government.

“We won’t leave anyone out in the rain,” said the party’s interim leader, Norbert Hofer.

Kickl’s removal, which must still be approved by Austria’s president, follows the resignation on Saturday of Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who was also Austria’s vice chancellor. 

That came a day after two German newspapers published a video showing Strache pandering to a woman claiming to be a Russian tycoon’s niece at a boozy gathering in Ibiza two years ago, shortly before national elections. Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus are heard telling the woman that she can expect lucrative construction contracts if she buys an Austrian newspaper and supports the Freedom Party. They also discuss ways of secretly funneling money to the party.

Gudenus, who was instrumental in arranging the meeting, has quit as leader of the party’s parliamentary group and is leaving the party.

The Hamburg-based weekly Der Spiegel and Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the meeting in Ibiza was likely a trap that Strache and Gudenus had fallen for. The papers refused to reveal the source of the video.

Kurz noted that at the time the video was shot, Kickl was general-secretary of the Freedom Party and therefore responsible for its financial conduct. The chancellor added that in his conversations with Kickl and other Freedom Party officials following the video’s release, he “didn’t really have the feeling (they had) an awareness of the dimension of the whole issue.”

String of scandals

The ouster of the Freedom Party from the government was a setback for populist and nationalist forces as Europe heads into the final days of campaigning for the European Parliament elections, which run Thursday through Sunday.

Kurz has endorsed a hard line on migration and public finances, and he chose to ally with the Freedom Party after winning the 2017 election. 

The chancellor, who is personally popular, had said Saturday that “enough is enough” — a reference to a string of smaller scandals involving the Freedom Party that had plagued his government. In recent months, those have included a poem in a party newsletter comparing migrants to rats and questions over links to extreme-right groups.

Kickl, a longtime campaign mastermind of the Freedom Party, had already drawn criticism over matters including a raid last year on Austria’s BVT spy agency, which opposition parties claimed was an attempt by the new government to purge domestic political enemies.

Kickl’s party said he had done nothing wrong and sought to portray itself as the victim of a plot. 

Response from Russia

The Russian government, meanwhile, said it couldn’t comment on the video “because it has nothing to do with the Russian Federation, its president or the government.”

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said of the woman in the Strache video that set off the crisis: “We don’t know who that woman is and whether she’s Russian or not.” 

Pledging to ensure stability in Austria over the coming months, Kurz said vacancies in the government left by the Freedom Party’s departure would be filled with civil servants and technocrats.

His government, meanwhile, may find it difficult to continue as planned until Austria holds early elections, likely in September. Opposition parties plan to call for a vote of no confidence in Kurz’s government in the coming days. 
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French Drug Smuggler Sentenced to Death in Indonesia

Posted on by SeeEU

Indonesia on Monday sentenced a French drug smuggler to death by firing squad, in a shock verdict after prosecutors had asked for a long prison term.

The three-judge panel in Lombok handed a capital sentence to Felix Dorfin, 35, who was arrested in September at the airport on the holiday island next to Bali, where foreigners are routinely charged with drugs offenses.

Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws — including death for some traffickers.

It has executed foreigners in the past, including the masterminds of Australia’s Bali Nine heroin gang.

While Dorfin was eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors instead asked for a 20-year jail term plus another year unless he paid a huge fine equivalent to about $700,000.

But Indonesian courts have been known to issue harsher-than-demanded punishments.

Dorfin was carrying a suitcase filled with about three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of drugs including ecstasy and amphetamines when he was arrested.

“After finding Felix Dorfin legally and convincingly guilty of importing narcotics … (he) is sentenced to the death penalty,” presiding judge Isnurul Syamsul Arif told the court.

The judge cited Dorfin’s involvement in an international drug syndicate and the amount of drugs in his possession as aggravating factors.

“The defendant’s actions could potentially do damage to the younger generation,” Arif added.

The Frenchman made headlines in January when he escaped from a police detention center and spent nearly two weeks on the run before he was captured.

A female police officer was arrested for allegedly helping Dorfin escape from jail in exchange for money.

It was not clear if the jailbreak played any role in Monday’s stiffer-than-expected sentence.

Wearing a red prison vest, Dorfin, who is from Bethune in northern France, sat impassively through much of the hearing, as a translator scribbled notes beside him.

After the sentencing, he said little as he walked past reporters to a holding cell.

“Dorfin was shocked,” the Frenchman’s lawyer Deny Nur Indra told AFP.

“He didn’t expect this at all because prosecutors only asked for 20 years.”

The lawyer said he would appeal against the sentence, describing his client as a “victim” who did not know the exact contents of what he was carrying in the suitcase.

“If he had known, he wouldn’t have brought it here,” Indra added.

In Paris, the French foreign ministry said it was “concerned” by the sentence and reiterated France’s opposition to the death penalty.

“We will remain attentive to his situation,” the statement said, adding that seven French people faced the death penalty worldwide.

In 2015, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran — the accused ringleaders of the Bali Nine  — were executed by firing squad in Indonesia.

The Bali Nine gang’s only female member was released from jail last year, while some others remain in prison.

The highly publicized case sparked diplomatic outrage and a call to abolish the death penalty.

“The death penalty verdict marks another setback for human rights in Indonesia,” Human Rights Watch campaigner Andreas Harsono said Monday.

“The Indonesian government’s many pledges about moving toward abolishing the death penalty clearly meant nothing in Lombok”.

There are scores of foreigners on death row in Indonesia, including cocaine-smuggling British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford and Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman who has been on death row since 2007.

Last year, eight Taiwanese drug smugglers were sentenced to death by an Indonesian court after being caught with around a tonne of crystal methamphetamine.
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Sudanese American Graduates With 5 Siblings in Attendance

Posted on by SeeUS

Five siblings gathered in Storm Lake this weekend to watch their youngest brother graduate from high school, decades after their parents emigrated from war-torn Sudan to the United States.

Cham Deng received his diploma Sunday from Storm Lake High School with a 3.4-grade point average, ranking him 28th in his class of 190 students, the Sioux City Journal reported. Storm Lake is a city in Buena Vista County with a population of roughly 10,600.

Deng also played basketball, averaging 17 points and nine rebounds per game during his senior season.

He intends to further his basketball career next season at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge. Deng plans to major in accounting.

Stacey Cole, superintendent of the Storm Lake Community School District, added that Deng is community-minded and has been a positive inspiration at the school.

“Cham is a student that can always be counted on to represent our schools and our community with poise and confidence,” Cole said. “He is community-minded and will make every community that he lives in a better place to be.”

Deng and his older siblings, whose ages range from 20 to 33, are the first generation of their Sudanese family born in the U.S. In the 1990s, their parents fled civil war in Sudan on the African continent.

Two of Deng’s siblings live in California. Two others reside in Maryland and one is in Virginia. The oldest, Chuol, works for search engine behemoth Google.

Nyjuok recently finished law school at Howard University. Pel is an enterpriser at online retail giant Amazon. Yach is a computer specialist, and Kuony is a linebacker for the University of California-Berkley football team.

Before Cham’s graduation, Yach receiving a high school degree from Storm Lake in 2014 was the last time all six siblings were in the city together. A graduation party was scheduled for Friday followed by a Saturday church service at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Storm Lake.

“My mom wanted to do a church service, because it has been a while since everybody was here,” Cham Deng said. “I am definitely proud. It is something you wouldn’t think, from a family of immigrants, to have that much success.”
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California Man Arrested for Illegal Arms Deal to Nigeria  

Posted on by SeeAF

A California man has been arrested for illegally brokering the sale of military-grade weapons to the Nigerian government. 

Ara Dolarian, 58, was arrested last week in the central California city of Fresno. 

The U.S. attorney’s office said Monday Dolarian had accepted more than $8 million for brokering a deal to sell bombs, rockets and guns from Eastern Europe and South Africa to Abuja. 

Prosecutors said Dolarian’s Fresno-based arms brokering company was not authorized to make international deals. The Fresno Bee newspaper reports his business neighbors thought he was importing and exporting tea.

Dolarian is also accused of money laundering and could face 20 years in prison if he is convicted. 

Dolarian, who now lives in Bulgaria, was arrested at the Fresno home of his mother. 
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Battle Breaks out for WikiLeaks Founder Assange’s Computers

Posted on by SeeEU

With Julian Assange locked away in a London jail, a new battle has broken out over what may contain some of the WikiLeaks founder’s biggest secrets: his computers.

On Monday, judicial authorities from Ecuador carried out an inventory of all the belongings and digital devices left behind at the London embassy following his expulsion last month from the diplomatic compound that had been his home the past seven years.  

It came as Sweden announced it was seeking Assange’s arrest on suspicion of rape, setting up a possible future tug-of-war with the United States over any extradition of Assange from Britain.

It’s not known what devices authorities removed from the embassy or what information they contained. But authorities said they were acting on a request by the U.S. prosecutors, leading Assange’s defenders to claim that Ecuador has undermined the most basic principles of asylum while denying the secret-spiller’s right to prepare his defense.  

“It’s disgraceful,” WikiLeaks’ editor in chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Ecuador granted him asylum because of the threat of extradition to the U.S. and now the same country, under new leadership, is actively collaborating with a criminal investigation against him.”

Assange, 47, was arrested on April 11 after being handed over to British authorities by Ecuador. He is serving a 50-week sentence in a London prison for skipping bail while the U.S. seeks his extradition for conspiring to hack into military computers and spill secrets about U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hrafnsson, who has visited the Australian activist in jail, said Assange saw his eviction coming for weeks as relations with President Lenin Moreno’s government deteriorated, so he took great care to scrub computers and hard drives of any compromising material, including future planned leaks or internal communications with WikiLeaks collaborators.

Still, Hrafnsson said he fully expects Moreno or the Americans to claim revelations that don’t exist. He called Monday’s proceedings a “horse show” because no legal authority can guarantee Assange’s devices haven’t been tampered with, or the chain of custody unbroken, in the six weeks since his arrest.

“If anything surfaces, I can assure you it would’ve been planted,” he said. “Julian isn’t a novice when it comes to security and securing his information. We expected this to happen and protections have been in place for a very long time.”

A group of Assange’s supporters gathered outside Ecuador’s Embassy in London to protest the judicial proceeding. Demonstrators put banners on the railings with images of Assange, his mouth covered by an American flag, and chanted “Thieves! Thieves! Thieves! Shame on you!”

Ecuadorian authorities said they will hand over any belongings not given to U.S. or Ecuadorian investigators to Assange’s lawyers, who weren’t invited to Monday’s inventory-taking. Hrafnsson said he didn’t have a full inventory of Assange’s devices.

Moreno decided to evict Assange from the embassy after accusing him of working with political opponents to hack into his phone and release damaging personal documents and photos, including several that showed him eating lobster in bed and the numbers of bank accounts allegedly used to hide proceeds from corruption.

Moreno’s actions immediately were celebrated by the Trump administration, which was key in helping Ecuador secure a $4.2 billion credit line from the International Monetary Fund and has provided the tiny South American country with new trade and military deals in recent weeks.

“The Americans are the ones pulling the strings, and Moreno their puppet dancing to the tune of money,” said Hrafnsson.

Separately on Monday, Swedish authorities issued a request for a detention order against Assange.

On May 13, Swedish prosecutors reopened a preliminary investigation against Assange, who visited Sweden in 2010, because two Swedish women said they were the victims of sex crimes committed by Assange.

While a case of alleged sexual misconduct against Assange in Sweden was dropped in 2017 when the statute of limitations expired, a rape allegation remains. Swedish authorities have had to shelve it because Assange was living at the embassy at the time and there was no prospect of bringing him to Sweden.

The statute of limitations in the rape case expires in August next year. Assange has denied wrongdoing, asserting that the allegations were politically motivated and that the sex was consensual.

According to the request for a detention order obtained by The Associated Press, Assange is wanted for “intentionally having carried out an intercourse” with an unnamed woman “by unduly exploiting that she was in a helpless state because of sleep.”
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Water Supply to Libyan Capital in Jeopardy After Attack    

Posted on by SeeEA

The United Nations is expressing concern over the reported cut-off of water to the Libyan capital, Tripoli. 

“Yesterday, an armed group stormed Tripoli’s main water distribution station and has reportedly closed the water valves supplying Tripoli and other cities in the northwest of the country, including Gharyan and Al Zawayih, potentially affecting some two million people and their access to water,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Monday.

He said some of Tripoli’s districts are already experiencing low water pressure and the full impact of the cutoff is expected to be felt in the next two days unless the valves are re-opened.

Since April 4, areas in and around Libya’s capital have been turned into battlefields as General Khalifa Haftar, who holds sway in the country’s east, moved west on Tripoli in a bid to take control of it from the U.N.-backed Presidential Council and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. A U.N. call for a Ramadan truce has failed to materialize. 

The U.N. says more than 78,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

The water supply to Tripoli was already precarious, as maintenance staff at the Great Man-Made River Project facility had been evacuated because of the ongoing fighting.

Humanitarians are trying to meet needs in affected areas, trucking water in and assisting with water purification.
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Rapid Urbanization Presents New Problems for Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

Africa has become the world’s most rapidly urbanizing continent.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the urban population has doubled since the mid-1990s, and reached 400 million people in 2016. According to experts, 40 percent of the region’s total population resides in cities, compared to 31 percent in 2000. 

During the next 15 years, the United Nations predicts the world’s 10 fastest-growing cities will be in Africa.

However, the development of infrastructure and industries has not kept pace with the growth in urban population. 

Sixty percent of city dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa live in slums, and only 25 percent have access to safe drinking water. 

Poor sewage systems and weak flood control present another challenge.

Kouman Kossia Tamia, a traditional queen from Ivory Coast, fears the floods that come with each rainy season. When the rainy season comes, she said, she cannot do anything because everything is blocked.

Amadou Diarra, mayor of North Pikine, a suburb of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, sees human waste management as a growing problem.

Waste is buried, he said, because there are not plants to deal with it. Instead, there is only one site that receives all the household waste in the Dakar region. The challenge in moving toward sustainability, he said, is to transform waste next to where it is produced, rather than bury it underground.

Most of Africa’s urban growth is in small and mid-sized cities, with slightly more than half of African urban dwellers living in cities with populations of less than 250,000. 

Maggie Chazal, founder of the NGO Urbanists Without Borders, said these intermediate cities are important to Africa’s future because they help connect large cities and rural areas. Without them, she added, rural areas have neither equipment nor jobs, which would lead to an intensifying rural exodus by young people. She says large cities only concentrate economic and social problems, such as slums.

But Africa already has many large cities, and those cities are getting larger. Lagos, in Nigeria, is projected to become the largest city in the world, with an estimated population of 88.3 million people by the year 2100, according to the World Economic Forum.
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Zarif Suggests Trump ‘Try Respect’ Instead of Threats

Posted on by SeeEA

Nike Ching at the State Department and Carla Babb at the Pentagon contributed to this report.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump “try respect” instead of issuing threats.

He was responding to a Twitter post Sunday in which Trump said: “If Iran wants to fight, that will the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!”

Zarif said Trump, under pressure from a group that includes his National Security Adviser John Bolton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is hoping to achieve what “other aggressors failed to do.'”

“Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone,” Zarif wrote. “Economic terrorism and genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran.'”

Last week, Trump appeared to be backing away from his apparently hawkish stance against Iran, saying he would be open to talks.

When asked by a reporter at the White House on Thursday if the United States was going to war with Iran, Trump replied, “I hope not.”

But there has been no apparent let up in the tensions between the United States, its regional allies and Iran.

The State Department says a “low-grade rocket” fell inside the green zone in Baghdad, less than a kilometer from the U.S. embassy Sunday. No injuries or damage were reported.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said the Pentagon was aware of an explosion outside the embassy, adding, “There were no U.S. or coalition casualties, and Iraqi Security Forces are investigating the incident.”

A State Department spokesman says the U.S. will not tolerate such attacks and that it will hold Iran responsible “if any such attacks are conducted by its proxy militia forces.”

Saudi Arabia is blaming Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen for a drone attack on two Saudi oil-pumping stations last week.

The U.S. also suspects Iran was behind the sabotage of four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last week. Two of the damaged tankers were Saudi.

The Saudis also say they will not tolerate Iranian aggression.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not want war in the region and does not strive for that,” foreign affairs minister Adel al-Jubeir said Sunday. “But at the same time, if the other side chooses war, the kingdom will fight this will all force and determination and it will defend itself, its citizens and its interests.”

Saudi King Salman has called for emergency summits with Gulf and Arab leaders on May 30 to discuss what the kingdom’s official news agency describes as “aggressions and their consequences.”

An Iranian news agency quotes Iran’s Revolutionary Guard head Hossein Salami as saying the country does not want war, but is “not afraid” of it.

A statement from the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet Sunday spoke of increased maritime patrols and exercises in the Arabian Sea that highlight the “lethality and agility to respond to threat”

The Pentagon has already sent bombers to the region.

The increased tensions with Iran began brewing a year ago when Trump pulled the United States out of the six-nation nuclear deal with Iran.

Under the agreement, Iran limited its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the end of sanctions and economic relief.

The limitations were meant to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, something Iran denied it had been doing.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News recorded last week and broadcast Sunday, said he does not “want to fight” but that when it comes to Iran, “you can’t let them have nuclear weapons.”

The reimposed U.S. sanctions have left the Iranian economy in tatters and Iran complains it has yet to see the promised economic benefit from the countries that are still part of the nuclear deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced two weeks ago he was pulling out of part of the nuclear deal and would restart some uranium enrichment if there were no economic benefits by early July.
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