China hopes an upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will help build trust and deescalate the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.The two leaders are scheduled to meet later this week at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, their first face-to-face meeting since trade talks broke off in May. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Tuesday in Beijing the meeting will hopefully “promote mutual trust” and “resolve some of the outstanding issues we are facing now.”During a phone call Monday between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, they exchanged opinions on trade and and agreed to maintain communications, China’s Commerce ministry said. China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency said the phone call was requested by U.S. officials.A senior U.S. official said Monday the meeting will provide Trump the chance to get China’s position on the escalating trade war. The official added that Trump would be “comfortable with any outcome” of the meeting.Trump has said he is prepared to impose tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports. The move would extend tariffs to everything China transports to the U.S., since Trump had previously imposed 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports. China has retaliated with tariffs on U.S. goods.Eleven rounds of previous talks have failed to ease U.S. concerns over China’s massive trade surplus and China’s acquisition of U.S. technology.
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Month: June 2019
Midwifery Students Use Augmented Technology to Improve Clinical Skills
Midwifery students in London are learning to bring new life into the world in a radically new way with the help of augmented reality (AR) technology.Using AR headsets and lifelike models of full-term mothers, trainee midwives at Middlesex University can take part in fully simulated births, which the university’s clinical staff hope will both hone their clinical skills and leave them better prepared to face challenges rarely seen in day-to-day practice.AR technology offers users an interactive experience in which objects in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated information.Midwifery educator Sarah Chitongo said the AR system allowed students to understand better the birthing process by displaying an interactive representation of a patient’s anatomy.”It allows you to see a visual picture of the actual anatomy itself, which is raised out of the normal body, and you can step in, walk around and have an internal view,” Chitongo told Reuters.Chitongo cited high-risk problems such as shoulder dystocia – when a baby’s shoulders get stuck in the mother’s body – and breech births – when a baby is born bottom first – as particular rarities for midwives where AR could help prepare students to cope better and ultimately to save lives.Chitongo believes that younger trainees will embrace the technology positively as they are of a generation that has largely grown up with computers and interactive environments.However, her overarching aim is for midwives to become better prepared to reduce mortality rates, which are disproportionately high among ethnic minority pregnancies.”Currently, here in the U.K., it sits at 60% combined, compared to 9.8% in white women,” Chitongo said, adding that the issue had not been meaningfully addressed despite the trend having risen since 2011. “When you get it right, with a population where it’s actually on the worst side (of the statistics), it means you’ve got a better and safer maternity service across the U.K.”
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Conservationists: Venice Must be Put on UN Danger List, Ban Cruise Ships
Venice should be put on the United Nations’ list of endangered cities and cruise ships should be banned from its fragile lagoon to prevent an ecological disaster, Italy’s main conservation group said on Monday.The call came less than a month after a towering cruise ship collided with a dock and a tourist boat in Venice, injuring four people and rekindling a heated debate in Italy about how to protect the historic city, which draws some 30 million tourists a year.”Venice is unique and we cannot allow it to be destroyed even more than it has been already,” said Mariarita Signorini, national president of Italia Nostra [Our Italy], whose stated mission is to defend Italy’s cultural and natural heritage.”Venice is one of the most endangered cities in the world,” she told a news conference announcing the decision to ask the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to put the city on its List of World Heritage in Danger.Venice and its lagoon are already on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites but Italia Nostra says unbridled tourism, a steady exodus of longtime residents and environmental decay pose a huge threat to the city’s survival.According to UNESCO’s website, the danger list is meant to “encourage corrective action.”While being put on the danger list would have no immediate consequences, Italia Nostra argues that this would compel national authorities to enact more safeguards.It was not immediately clear what Venice’s prospects were for being included on the list, which currently has 54 sites worldwide, some of them but by no means all in conflict zones.’Not just buildings’ The June 2 collision between MSC Cruises’ massive 2,679-passenger Opera and the moored “River Countess,” which had 110 people on board, re-ignited calls for banning giant ships.The accident conjured up memories of the 2012 accident involving the Costa Concordia, which overturned after hitting rocks near the island of Giglio, killing 32 people.”If something like that happened in the lagoon, it would be the end of the ecosystem,” said Lidia Fersuoch, head of Italia Nostra in Venice. “Venice is not just buildings. The lagoon is a living thing.”Cruise ships enter the lagoon via one of the three “mouths” that connect it to the Adriatic Sea, pass near St. Marks Square and go through the Giudecca Canal to reach a passenger terminal.Italia Nostra says they cause waves that damage historic buildings. The group wants a port for big ships built at one of the mouths where the Adriatic meets the lagoon.
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Four Chinese Nationals Charged in Deadly Building Collapse in Cambodia
At least four Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with a building collapse in Cambodia that killed 28 construction workers last Saturday.The four nationals, including the building’s owner, have been charged in the Preah Sihanouk provincial court with involuntary homicide, involuntarily causing injuries and conspiracy related to those charges.The unfinished seven-story condominium project, located in the ocean resort town of Sihanoukville, doubled as temporary housing for at least 50 to 60 workers. At least 26 workers were injured in the disaster, while two men were pulled out alive Monday. In a statement released Monday, the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh said it “supports a thorough investigation of the accident and necessary measures by competent Cambodian authority in accordance with the law.” It also said it was mobilizing Chinese assistance for the rescue effort. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who visited the site late Sunday, announced on his Facebook page that he was establishing a special committee to exert control of Chinese building projects in the town. He also said in his Facebook message that he asked provincial Governor Yun Min to resign and he agreed to do so.Sihanoukville has seen a boom in Chinese funded construction in recent years, mostly casinos, residential buildings and hotels.
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Palestinians Boycott US Mideast Conference
Palestinians and their supporters have protested against a two-day conference in Bahrain, where the United States is presenting its peace plan for the Middle East. U.S. President Donald Trump has called the plan created under his son-in-law’s supervision the “deal of the century” for the Palestinians. It is not clear if the economic plan has any chance of success without a political solution in place. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the Palestinians have boycotted Washington ever since Trump’s administration recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017.
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Latest US Sanctions Target Iran’s Supreme Leader
After pulling back from a strike on Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new round of sanctions targeting the country’s leadership. U.S. officials say the administration will negotiate with Iran with no preconditions to end the escalating tension. Meanwhile Tehran has hinted willingness to negotiate, if the U.S. would lift sanctions. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
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Analysts: Turkey Opposition Win Shows Country Still Capable of Competitive Polls
Mehmet Toroglu and Tan Cetin from VOA’s Turkish Service contributed to this storyTurkey’s opposition victory in the Istanbul mayoral election was officially ratified Monday, with analysts saying it shows the country is still capable of having competitive elections.The victory for opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu was a significant defeat for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Once thought as invincible in the polls, the defeat is both personal and political.Istanbul’s Besiktas district is an opposition stronghold, where 83% voted for Ekrem Imamoglu.The drop in support for his party was evident in Uskudar, a district on the Asian side of Istanbul where Erdogan has his personal residence, and a historical AKP stronghold. Erdogan’s rise to power was built on winning the city’s mayorship in 1994. Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, from the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), told VOA Turkish the elections “have proved a very important point about Turkey: Even if elections in Turkey are unfair and only partially free, they are still real and competitive, and the opposition in Turkey has a real chance of winning.”The election was a revote of a poll in March, which Erdogan got election authorities to annul on the technicality of ineligible election monitors.Imamoglu won decisively in the revote, taking more than 800,000 votes over the ruling party’s Binali Yildirim, a far wider margin than his narrow win of 13,000 votes in March.Yildirim was quick to congratulate Imamoglu on his victory.”Elections mean democracy, and these elections revealed one more time that it works perfectly in Turkey,” he said.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan casts his ballot at a polling station in Istanbul, June 23, 2019.Erdogan also congratulated Imamoglu in a tweet. “The national will has been manifested again,” wrote Erdogan.Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA Turkish that in canceling Imamoglu’s March 31 win in Istanbul, Erdogan effectively handed him the victory by branding him the politician who represents the people.Istanbul’s Uskudar district is a religiously conservative area and traditional stronghold of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”This is how Erdogan was able to come to power as a pious conservative working-class roots politician who represented Turkey’s mostly pious working-class masses. But of course in 20 years since, Erdogan has become the power, and by canceling Imamoglu’s victory, he has turned him into the new Erdogan. Imamoglu now stands for the dispossessed and marginalized,” Cagaptay said.Among supporters of Erdogan’s AK Party, there are mixed feelings about Sunday’s defeat.Istanbul resident Ali Kasimoglu told VOA he usually supports Erdogan’s ruling party, but said in this election, he was happy Imamoglu won. “In my opinion, Ekrem Imamoglu won the March 31 elections, and it should have stayed that way. There shouldn’t be a second election. It is just more expenses, more cost,” he said.Yucel, a retiree and AK Party supporter, said he is disappointed at the party’s loss in Istanbul. (D. Jones/VOA)”Personally, I am sad. I have been voting for Tayyip since his first mayoral election in Istanbul in 1994,” said retiree Yucel. “It would have been better if Erdogan’s man, Binali Yildirim won,” he added “For years, these men have been in power. They know it much better. This newcomer (Imamoglu), what does he know?”Erdogan put his political prestige on the line campaigning for his candidate, Banali Yildirim, in a campaign laced with hard-line nationalist rhetoric.Mustafa, an AK Party supporter, believes the Istanbul defeat is a sign Erdogan and the AKP has lost its way. (DJones/VOA)Observers say the president’s campaign will strengthen critics with his party, who accuse him and his AK Party of abandoning its once broad inclusive base.”When (the) AK Party was established, it was a really an inclusive party. It was not as nationalist as it is at the moment,” said sociology professor Mesut Yegen of Sehir University. “Before, its main body was conservatives. But there were liberals, there were Kurds. Whereas today, those who are running (the) AK Party do not represent the diversity of conservatives, the conservative and religious people, in Turkey. “Yegen claims Erdogan’s Sunday defeat can only give impetus to a growing movement within his party preparing to challenge the president.”Those who are about to build this new party will basically tell the Turkish people that ‘OK, we need a kind of more diverse or much more inclusive conservative liberal party,'” Yegen said. Observers say that resentment has been growing over Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style of leadership after a failed coup attempt in 2016, marked by mass purges and sweeping crackdowns against businessmen, journalists and human rights activists.
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US Public Might Not Be Told About Foreign Efforts to Alter Next Election
Senior U.S. officials say they are already busy buttressing the nation’s defenses against foreign interference for the 2020 presidential election. Only they admit the public may be kept in the dark about attacks and intrusions.Intelligence and election security officials have warned repeatedly that Russia, among other state and nonstate actors, remains intent on disrupting the upcoming elections and that the Kremlin may even have gone easy on the U.S. during the 2016 midterm elections, seeing the ability to impact the 2020 presidential race as the bigger prize.At the same time, election and security officials have come under increased scrutiny for failing to reveal the size and scope of Russia’s efforts to hack into voter databases and other critical systems.In April, special counsel Robert Mueller released his report into Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as well as allegations of obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.Florida representativesIn May, two U.S. representatives from Florida, Republican Michael Waltz and Democrat Stephanie Murphy, wrote to the FBI and Justice Department, demanding a classified briefing on the extent of Russia’s exploits after the Mueller report indicated Moscow managed to infiltrate critical systems in at least one county during the 2016 presidential election.“Florida voters have the right to know the extent to which foreign actors may have breached our state’s election security systems, and what the federal government is doing to prevent it from happening again,” Murphy said in a statement.Senior Trump administration officials, however, cautioned Monday they may decide to keep information like that from the public.“There are hard choices to be made,” one official told reporters while briefing them on efforts to protect the 2020 election from foreign interference.“The ultimate question is going to be whether the federal or national interests in doing so — publicly disclosing it — outweigh any counter veiling consideration,” the official added.Intelligence and law enforcement officials said the ability to disclose information can often be limited by the need to protect the sources and methods that discovered the attacks or intrusions in the first place.Impact on victimsThere are also concerns about the impact on the victims.“Victims who work with the FBI do so because they trust that we’ll protect and handle their information appropriately,” a senior law enforcement official said. “For example, the majority of technical information that we were able to give election officials during the 2016 time frame was initiated from this type of trusted outreach.”In cases involving foreign influence campaigns, the decision to make them public can be even more difficult.“Disclosing a foreign influence operation might do more harm than good because it might draw more attention to an operation that would otherwise go unnoticed,” the senior administration official said.A senior intelligence official agreed that in some cases, the less said, the better.“It’s less about highlighting for the public that there might be a problem,” the official said. “We actually want to stop it from happening, whether we do that through cyber channels or diplomatic channels or other operations.”2020 campaignWith the 2020 presidential campaign getting under way, intelligence agencies, along with the Department of Homeland Security and FBI, have set about briefing the candidates and making them aware of the resources available should their campaign come under attack.There are also increased efforts to reach out to U.S. state and local officials to make sure they have the information they need to protect their voter databases and election systems from attacks.Officials said there have even been ongoing discussions with the private sector, both those that provide voting machines and other election infrastructure, as well as with social media companies.
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US Treasury Inspector to Look Into Delay of New Tubman $20 Bill
The U.S. Treasury inspector general says he will look into why the Trump administration decided to scrap plans to put escaped slave turned abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the move last month, saying the change is because of “counterfeiting issues.”But Democratic Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer said he is not satisfied with Mnuchin’s vague explanation, saying it lacked credibility.He asked the Treasury’s watchdog to investigate the circumstances “including any involvement by the White House.””There are no women, there are no people of color on our paper currency today even though they make up a significant majority of our population,” Schumer said.The redesigned bill was to have entered circulation next year, but Mnuchin said it will be put off until 2028. It is also unclear whether Tubman will still be on the new bill when it is finally rolled out.He said the “imagery feature” (who will appear on the bill) will not be a matter until long after he and U.S. President Donald Trump are out of office.The $20 bill currently features a picture of 19th century U.S. President Andrew Jackson. Jackson owned slaves and forced Native Americans out of their ancestral lands in the southeastern U.S. leading to the deaths of thousands of Indians. The move to replace Jackson, preferably with a historically-important woman, was announced during the Obama administration. Tubman was chosen from an online poll of Americans.President Trump is said to be an admirer of Andrew Jackson — not because of Jackson’s racism — but because Trump regards him as a populist and anti-establishment. Trump called replacing Jackson with Tubman “pure political correctness” and proposed putting Tubman on the $2 bill, which is rarely printed. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland as a young woman and returned to the southern U.S. to help other slaves escape and to work as a union government spy during the Civil War.She was thought to be in her early 90s when she died in 1913.
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Italian Mafia Don Escapes From Uruguayan Prison
A notorious Italian Mafia boss has escaped from a prison in Uruguay where he was awaiting extradition to Italy. Rocco Morabito and three other inmates got out of the National Institute of Rehabilitation in Montevideo “through the roof,” the Uruguayan interior ministry said Monday. The fugitives made their way to a nearby farm and robbed its owner, the ministry statement said. A member of the Ndrangheta or Calabrian cartel, Morabito has been one of Italy’s most-wanted fugitives since 1994. He was arrested in Uruguay in 2017 after more than 20 years on the run.He was sentenced to 30 years in prison by an Italian court, Prosecutors say Morabito was instrumental in drug trafficking operations between South America and Milan. “It’s disconcerting and serious that a criminal like Rocco Morabito, a boss of Ndrangheta, has managed to escape from an Uruguay prison while waiting to be extradited to Italy,” Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Twitter. “I’m making two pledges: shedding full light on the escape, asking for immediate explanations from the Montevideo government, and chasing Morabito, wherever he is, to throw him in prison as he deserves.”When he was arrested, Morabito had been living a life of luxury under a false Brazilian identity with fake Portuguese passports.
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Dikembe Mutombo Records Ebola Messages for US Officials
Unable to send disease fighters to help battle one of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history, U.S. health officials are turning to basketball hall of famer Dikembe Mutombo for help.
Mutombo, regarded as one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history and a well-known philanthropist in his native Congo, recorded radio and video spots designed to persuade people to take precautions and get care that might stop the disease’s spread.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began posting the spots Monday on its YouTube channel and on the agency’s website . Officials are trying to get radio and TV stations in the Democratic Republic of Congo to air them. More than 2,200 people have been reported ill — and about 1,500 have died — since an Ebola outbreak was declared in August in eastern Congo. It is the second deadliest outbreak of the lethal virus, which jumps from person to person quickly through close contact with bodily fluids.
Rebel attacks and community resistance have hurt Ebola response work in Congo. A World Health Organization doctor was killed in April, health centers have been attacked and armed groups have repeatedly threatened health workers. Because of safety concerns, the U.S. State Department last year ordered CDC disease specialists to stay out of the outbreak areas.
Mutombo, who moved to the U.S. in the 1980s intending to pursue a medical degree, told The Associated Press he understands where the distrust comes from.
“Someone who doesn’t look like you, who doesn’t think like you, who is not from your village, who is from other places, just walk to your village with a nice beautiful white truck and telling you … ‘inject this chemical into your body to protect you from this deadly virus.’ That’s where there’s a fight. This is where we’re having a conflict,” he said.
“How do you that build trust? That’s the big problem we’re having in the Congo,” he said. “I believe as a son of Congo, I think my voice can be heard. Because everyone in the country knows my commitment to the humanity and the health.”
The idea for the PSA was sparked in February when Mutombo, a member of the CDC Foundation’s governing board who lives in Atlanta, was talking with Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC’s director.
“We are deeply appreciative of his interest to try to get accurate information to the community,” Redfield said.
Mutombo, who turns 53 on Tuesday, previously did public service announcements focused on polio and yellow fever. A dozen years ago, his foundation established a 300-bed hospital on the outskirts of his hometown of Kinshasa.
The new spots were recorded in Kiswahili, French and Lingala. They talk about recognizing the early signs of Ebola, early treatment and prevention measures.
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Sudan’s Military Sidesteps Proposal for Civilian Rule
Sudan’s military rulers refused to agree on Monday to the Ethiopian proposal for a power-sharing agreement with the country’s pro-democracy movement, a top general said, in comments that could worsen a volatile standoff with the protesters.Ethiopia has led diplomatic efforts to bring the military and protest leaders back to the negotiating table, after a deadly crackdown by security forces killed at least 128 people across the country earlier this month, according to protest organizers. Sudanese authorities offered a lower toll of 61 deaths.Protest leaders, represented by the coalition Forces for Declaration of Freedom and Change, had accepted the Ethiopian initiative the day before. It centered on forming a transitional government — a so-called “sovereign council” — with a civilian majority to rule Sudan, over two months after the protesters forced the military to remove the autocrat Omar al-Bashir from power.But on Monday, the powerful deputy head of the military council, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, said the mission of the Ethiopian envoy, Mahmoud Dirir, was to pave the way for resuming talks with the FDFC, “not to offer proposals for solutions.””The mission of the Ethiopian mediator was limited to prepare the parties for negotiations. We did not agree on shares in the sovereign council. We do not accept prescriptions,” he said.Dagalo, better known as Hemedti , said the ruling military council did not oppose civilian participation in the future sovereign council — or that the FDFC might form the government. He added that the transitional legislative body “should be (formed) through elections.”He also said the military council decided to release all detained rebels, to pave the way for peace talks with rebel groups in the provinces.Dagalo is the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias. The RSF led a violent campaign against insurgents in Darfur — and now stands accused of involvement in protester deaths in Sudan’s main cities.In a press conference on Sunday, the military council had said the previous deals with the protest leaders were invalid, given the changes on the ground in Sudan since talks collapsed in May.A spokesman for the council, Gen. Shams Eddin Kabashi, said: “The circumstances in which we reached such understandings … are not the same.”Previously, both sides had agreed on an interim legislative body and Cabinet formed by the protesters. They had still not reached agreement on the extent of the military’s role in the planned sovereign council, which would guide the nation throughout the three-year transition period, when security forces launched the deadly clampdown on June 3.The movement has since tried different tactics — including a short-lived nationwide strike, and nighttime marches to keep up pressure on the military.Ismail al-Tag, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals’ Association which is a member of the FDFC, called on Monday for marches next week demanding the handover of power to civilians. The demonstrations are planned to mark the 30th anniversary of the Islamist-backed coup that brought al-Bashir’s to power in 1989 — and toppled Sudan’s last elected government.Meanwhile on Monday, police forces used tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters in the capital, Khartoum.The clashes broke out in the district of Buri — a stronghold of the protest movement. Demonstrators hurled stones at police before fleeing inside the National Ribat University campus. An Associated Press photographer saw officers arresting a number of people, before taking them blindfolded into police trucks.The FDFC had called on Sunday for trust-building measures from the military before resuming talks. These included a demand for an independent investigation into the violence on June 3. It had also demanded that the military-backed authorities restore the country’s severed internet services.On Monday, the United Nations’ human rights chief said the military council had not responded to a request for cooperation with its office for investigating alleged human rights crimes, including the rape and sexual abuse of both women and men, in the deaths of protesters.The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also urged authorities to “immediately” restore internet connections.Amany el-Taweel, head of the African program at al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt, said the military canceling previous deals with the protest leaders boded badly for the situation in Sudan.”We are back to square one,” she said.She said the military had been exploiting time, as the number of the street protests has fallen.
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Georgia Ruling Party Announces Reforms Amid Continued Protests
Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Georgia’s capital for the fifth consecutive day Monday, calling for government reform, a snap election and the resignation of the nation’s interior minister.On Monday, the leader of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party announced “large-scale political reform.”“We will have a parliament where all the existing political actors will be respected,” Georgian Dream Party Chief Bidzina Ivanishvili said.Ivanishvili announced that next year’s parliamentary elections would be organized in a proportional representation system.But, Ivanishvili’s announcement fell short of satisfying protesters’ demands.Protests began Thursday, in response to a visit by a Russian legislator to Georgia’s parliament.Sergey Gavrilov, a member of Russia’s parliament, was visiting Georgia to participate in the 26th General Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, as a member of the Russian envoy.Demonstrators attempted to storm the building and police responded by firing rubber bullets and water cannons. In the melee, 240 people were injured and more than 300 protesters were arrested.Russian-Georgian relations have been tense, following a brief but bloody war in 2008.Following the police response, protesters mobilized again, calling for the release of detained demonstrators and the resignation of Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia, whom many see as responsible for the clashes between protesters and police.Over the course of the demonstrations, the protests expanded into a larger movement against what many perceive as oligarchic control over Georgian politics.The protests have led to the resignation of parliament speaker Irakli Kobakhidze, although protesters seek larger reforms.Protests are expected to continue as Ivanishvili asserts that violence is being led by opposition parties, an allegation denied by the opposition.
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American Sentenced to 12 Years in Vietnamese Prison
A U.S. citizen has been sentenced to 12 years in a Vietnamese prison for “attempting to overthrow the state.”Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, 55, pleaded guilty to wanting to incite protests in Vietnam but denied encouraging people to attack government offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City He will be deported to the U.S. after he finishes his sentence, his lawyer said. Nguyen Van Mieng, told Reuters news service that Nguyen “admitted guilt at the trial and asked the jury to reduce his sentence so that he could soon reunite with his family.”The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi said in a statement to Reuters that it is “disappointed” by the verdict. “We will continue to raise our concerns regarding Mr. Nguyen’s case, and his welfare, at all appropriate levels,” an embassy spokeswoman said. Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam but has lived in the U.S. since he was child, was arrested last year during a visit to his birthplace. Two Vietnamese men who were arrested along with Nguyen were sentenced to eight and 10 years in prison for related charges.
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US Moves Hundreds of Children from Suspect Detention Facility
Several hundred children, held in a U.S. border detention facility in Texas after entering the country without authorization, will be sheltered elsewhere, following a media report last week that described unsanitary living conditions and inadequate food and medical treatment at the facility.The Associated Press reported Monday that authorities moved “more than 300 children” out of a Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, following a June 20 story by the news agency.Lawyers who visited the remote station said that older children were caring for other children, sanitation conditions were substandard, and children were sick, living in soiled clothes and being given rotten food, according to the AP.VOA requested comment from the two government agencies involved in housing children who cross the border without authorization, or without a guardian — U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, within the Department of Health and Human Services. Neither office responded as of Monday afternoon.A June report by the Office of the Inspector General, the internal watchdog at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, found cleanliness and sanitation problems during an inspection of four detention facilities.Asked about the allegations of poor standards for detained children, U.S. President Donald Trump did not address the AP report in a TV interview aired on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show. Instead, he laid responsibility — erroneously — on his predecessor, President Barack Obama, for the creation of what became known under Trump as the “family separation” policy.As researchers from the Bipartisan Policy Center explained in a 2018 report, previous administrations relied more heavily on family detention facilities or alternatives to detention, like the use of monitoring devices.Parents and children were separated under Obama in limited circumstances, such as cases where child trafficking was suspected.FILE – Attorney General Jeff Sessions is shown during a news conference in San Diego near the border with Tijuana, Mexico, May 7, 2018.It was under the Trump administration, however, that then-Attorney General Jeff Session announced a blanket zero tolerance policy to detain all migrants who crossed the border without authorization.That policy, though short-lived, led to thousands of adults and children being held in separate facilities. The public backlash and lawsuits led the administration to rescind the policy. In a separate interview Sunday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged that the conditions in the facilities as reported by AP were unacceptable, he shifted the blame to Democrats in Congress.Meanwhile, authorities said Monday that three children and one adult found dead in South Texas near the border with Mexico probably died of dehydration and heat exposure after crossing the Rio Grande into this country, AP reported.An increase in the detention of families with young children and children traveling without guardians has left U.S.officials scrambling to meet the shelter demands on the border.At one point in recent months, CBP solicited bids to purchase thousands of baby bottles and diapers for detainees at the border.From Oct. 1, 2018 – the start of the fiscal year – through May 31, CBP has detained 332,981 families and 56,278 unaccompanied children at the border, according to agency data.The agency is under scrutiny over several deaths of children in its custody since late last year.
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Journalists Face Death Threats, Prison in Myanmar’s Conflict-Torn Rakhine State
First came a death threat, then an arrest warrant. Now, Aung Marm Oo is in hiding, having narrowly escaped capture by slipping away from his brother’s apartment just hours before it was raided by officers from Special Branch, Myanmar’s feared police intelligence unit. Hazards like this are all too common for journalists who step out of line in Rakhine state, a region already ravaged by a recent alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority, and where ethnic Rakhine rebels are now fighting the military for more autonomy.Aung Marm Oo is the founder and executive director of Development Media Group (DMG), a news outlet based in the state capital Sittwe that has reported on human rights abuses during recent clashes between the rebel Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military.Journalists still under repressive lawsHe is one of 52 journalists to face prosecution under various repressive laws since Myanmar’s first democratically elected civilian government in decades came to power in 2016.His case is a reminder that little has changed for the country’s journalists despite the release in an amnesty last month of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters reporters who were jailed after exposing a massacre of 10 Rohingya muslims.It has also fueled criticism of the country’s leader, former human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to repeal laws that are routinely used to stifle independent journalism.Speaking with VOA via email, Aung Marm Oo said that he is “hiding now in a safe and undisclosed location,” and has no intention of handing himself in any time soon. “I dare not even think about my personal security at the hands of Special Branch and the army,” he said.He has evaded police since early May, when authorities charged him under a widely criticized law that criminalizes contact with groups deemed illegal by the government. The AA is one such group, but in order to do their jobs properly reporters often have little choice but to contact its members for information and comment.The police have not disclosed exactly how Aung Marm Oo is alleged to have breached section 17/2 of the Unlawful Associations Act, which carries up to five years in prison. VOA was unable to reach police spokesperson Myo Thu Soe for comment.Nickey Diamond, a Myanmar human rights specialist with advocacy group Fortify Rights, said Aung Marm Oo is being targeted because his publication’s coverage of the conflict in Rakhine “has made the military scared.”“Targeting Aung Marm Oo is a warning to all independent media reporting on the Rakhine situation,” he added.Shortly after filing the charges, officers summoned two senior reporters from DMG and questioned them about an article published in January to mark the first anniversary of a crackdown against a demonstration in Rakhine in which police killed seven protesters.Myint Kyaw, secretary of the Myanmar Journalists Network, said there was no sign that DMG’s reporters had made contact with the AA while working on the report. “I don’t see any evidence that they breached the Unlawful Associations Act,” he told VOA.Maung Sangkha, executive director of Athan, a group supporting freedom of expression in Myanmar, said, “The military can sue any media agency under that law for communicating with any ethnic armed organization… MPs should try to abolish it as soon as possible.”Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, has a supermajority in parliament that means lawmakers could get rid of the act without any meaningful opposition.But Aung San Suu Kyi refuses to do so because she agrees with the military that the law gives the authorities an “upper hand” over rebel groups, according to Myint Kyaw.She has also failed to overturn other repressive legislation, including anti-defamation laws that carry prison sentences, because she sees them as valuable tools to use against her party’s own critics, activists believe.Death threatsIt is not just harsh laws that pose a risk to reporters, especially in Rakhine state and other conflict-hit areas.In 2017 a journalist who had covered Rakhine for a formerly exiled media outlet survived being stabbed by unidentified attackers in Sittwe. And in 2016 a small bomb exploded outside the office of Root Investigative Agency, another media outlet based in Sittwe, though no one was injured.About a month before authorities filed charges against Aung Marm Oo, DMG received an email from an address that contained both the Myanmar word for patriot and the word Tatmadaw, the local name for Myanmar’s military.The email warned DMG “to stand by the one and only army, the Tatmadaw. Otherwise we will not guarantee the lives of your journalists.”“They will face a situation similar to U Ko Ni,” it added, referring to a constitutional lawyer and close aide to Aung San Suu Kyi who was assassinated in 2017.If previous cases are anything to go by, whoever sent the threat will likely go unpunished while those they threatened will continue to live in fear of arrest.
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Serbia’s Defense Chief Crows About Russian Military Allies
Live-ammunition drills the Serbian military is holding with Russian and Belarusian troops show Belgrade has allies in any future war in the Balkans, Serbia’s defense minister said Monday.Aleksandar Vulin said the joint Slavic Brotherhood military maneuvers Serbia is hosting this month demonstrate “we are no longer alone.””We have friends,” Vulin said in a statement. “That horrible moment in our history when we were all alone will never repeat again.”Vulin was referring to the 1999 U.S.-led NATO bombing of Serbia. The bombing stopped a bloody Serb crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists and civilians, while Russia remained largely on the sidelines.Serbia is seeking European Union membership, but has also been sliding toward Russian influence. Moscow supplies arms and warplanes for the Serbian armed forces, triggering worry among Serbia’s neighbors, which are either NATO allies or are seeking to become members of the Western military alliance.Belarus, Russia and Serbia have conducted the Slavic Brotherhood drills for several years. The ones underway in Serbia started earlier this month. Taking part are more than 200 troops from Russian elite Airborne Forces, about 300 from Serbia and 60 from Belarus, as well as some 50 combat vehicles, according the Russian Defense Ministry.”The Serbian army is being armed and trained, that’s why the drills such as the Slavic Brotherhood are so important to us,” said Vulin, who is known for his staunchly pro-Russia stands.”These drills are not only about the military practice. This is a meeting of brotherly nations, those who understand each other, those who love each other,” he said.Tensions recently have increased in the Balkans, with Serbia and Kosovo accusing each other of undermining efforts at reconciliation.Kosovo declared independence in 2008. The former Serbian province is recognized by the U.S. and most other Western states, but not by Serbia, Russia or China.While claiming military neutrality, Serbia has been an active member of NATO’s Membership For Peace outreach program.
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Alleged Mastermind of Ethiopia State Coup Shot and Killed
The alleged leader of Saturday’s coup attempt in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara state has been shot and killed.A reporter in the state capital, Bahir Dar, told VOA’s Horn of Africa service that General Asamnew Tsige was killed in the capital Monday while trying to escape from security forces.Meanwhile, an official wounded during Saturday’s coup attempt, regional prosecutor Migbaru Kebede, has passed away from his injuries, according to a state media report.Gunmen broke into a meeting in Bahir Dar on Saturday, killing regional president Ambachew Mekonnen and one of his senior advisors. State media named General Asamnew, Amhara state’s head of security, as the leader of the coup attempt.Hours later, Ethiopia’s army chief of staff was killed by his bodyguard at his home in Addis Ababa. Officials have said the two attacks are linked.The ultimate motive for the attacks remains unclear. Analysts said Asamnew was an Amhara nationalist who was likely facing the loss of his job because of efforts to form a militia.He was released from prison just last year, after receiving an amnesty from a 2009 coup attempt.The U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa expressed shock and sadness over the attacks. “The attacks on these men were also an attack on the institutions and nation they served. The United States remains steadfast in its support for Ethiopia, as it pursues political and economic reforms that represent the surest path to Ethiopia’s prosperity, political inclusiveness, and stability,” said a statement issued Sunday.
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Britain Sharpens Tone Towards Iran
Britain appears to be moving closer to U.S. President Donald Trump’s position on Iran and hardening its attitude towards Tehran — the result, diplomats say, partly of talks during the American leader’s recent visit to London, but also because of aggressive Iranian actions.U.S. officials say they’ve been cheered by the stiffening of Britain’s public rhetoric in support of Trump in the precarious standoff with Tehran.They contrast that with British criticism of Trump’s decision last year to pull out of a 2015 deal, co-signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement, citing concerns that Tehran had done nothing to curb expansionist behavior in the region and was still determined to eventually build nuclear weapons.British officials had also bristled at Trump’s reimposition of sanctions on Iran and had been searching with other European powers ways to circumvent the U.S. sanctions so they wouldn’t impact European businesses.Britain is still calling for a “de-escalation” in the Persian Gulf, but has been more forthright than France or Germany in condemning Iran for aggression in the Strait of Hormuz, including mining tankers and downing a U.S. drone — as well as for Tehran’s threats to step up nuclear activities and to breach the cap on uranium stockpile limits set by the 2015 accord.Britain’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said Monday he was worried an accidental war could be triggered, adding, “we are doing everything we can to ratchet things down.”Hunt said Britain is closely in touch with the United States over the “very dangerous situation in the Gulf” and is “doing everything we can to de-escalate.”But he did not rule out the possibility Britain would consider a request for military support from its “strongest ally,” and would consider backing the U.S. in the Gulf “on a case-by-case basis.” That might include greater British support in protecting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.FILE – An oil tanker is seen burning in the sea of Oman, June 13, 2019. Two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz were recently attacked, with the U.S. blaming Iran.Britain blames Iran for strainsAnd Hunt put the onus on Iran for the dramatic rise in tension.“We do strongly believe that the solution is for Iran to stop its destabilizing activity throughout the Middle East and we are very concerned about the sabotaging of tankers that has happened recently, which is almost certainly Iran,” he said.Concern about a potential armed confrontation between the U.S. and Iran has mounted since Washington blamed Tehran for mine attacks on a pair of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic sea passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.Tehran denies it mined any ships.Last week, Trump said he had canceled a retaliatory airstrike against several Iranian targets, including anti-aircraft missile batteries, for the downing of a U.S. drone, on the grounds that it would have been disproportionate because of the loss of life it would entail.But according to U.S. news accounts, Trump approved cyber-warfare disruption of Iranian intelligence computer systems used to control missile and rocket launches.The U.S. president has been criticized in Washington by some in his own party as well as Democratic Party foes for ordering a retaliatory airstrike and then calling it off. Hawks in his own party fear the about-turn makes him look like a “paper tiger;” Democrats says it demonstrates confusion and “strategic incoherence.”But Trump’s restraint appears to have calmed British fears of the president being reckless, with some officials saying it demonstrates his determination to calibrate his responses. Trump has said he wants to force the Iranians to return to negotiations in order to hammer out a better and more sustainable nuclear deal, in which the Iranians agree to curtail expansionist activity in the region.“We certainly don’t want to give the Iranians any encouragement or make them think that their threats or aggression will drive a wedge between us and Washington,” a senior British diplomat told VOA.“Tehran is calculating that it can use brinkmanship to isolate Trump and to get the Europeans en masse on side against Washington, hoping to weaken the American sanctions regime. We need to set them straight. One can dispute whether the U.S. should have withdrawn from the nuclear treaty in the first place, but we are where are,” he added.The change in Britain’s tone appears to have been noted in Tehran. On Sunday, officials there said they were disappointed in the talks they held with a junior British foreign minister, Andrew Murrison, describing the discussions as “disappointing and repetitive.”Speaking in the Iranian capital, Murrison said Iran “almost certainly bears responsibility for” the mining, but added, “I was clear that the UK will continue to play its full part alongside international partners to find diplomatic solutions to reduce the current tensions.”Britain also signed on to a joint statement Monday with the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates expressing “their concern over escalating tensions in the region and the dangers posed by Iranian destabilizing activity to peace and security both in Yemen and the broader region.”
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Trump Says He Sent North Korean Leader ‘Very Friendly Letter’
U.S. President Donald Trump says the letter he sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a “very friendly” response to a letter he received from Kim earlier this month wishing him a happy birthday.Trump told reporters at the White House Monday that Kim “actually sent me birthday wishes and it was a friendly letter.” Trump turned 73 on June 14.The comments come a day after North Korean state media quoted Kim as saying he had received a letter of “excellent content” from Trump.White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement overnight that “correspondence between the two leaders has been ongoing.”The exchange of letters comes as talks between the United States and North Korea remain stalled over North Korea’s nuclear program. The two countries ended their second summit in February without an agreement on what the North would be willing to give up in exchange for sanctions relief.Despite the stalemate, Trump has continued to maintain that he has a good relationship with Kim.Trump leaves on Wednesday for a trip to Asia that will include a stop in South Korea.
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New US Sanctions Target Iran’s Supreme Leader
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed what he described as “hard-hitting” new financial sanctions on Iran on Monday, specifically targeting the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Trump signed an executive order he said would curb access that Khamenei and the country have to world financial markets. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the action would “literally” lock up “tens and tens of billions of dollars” of Iranian assets.The U.S. leader called his order a “strong and proportionate” American response to Tehran’s shoot-down last week of an unmanned U.S. drone, which Washington says occurred in international airspace near the Strait of Hormuz and Iran claims occurred over its airspace.Drone incident
Trump at the last minute last Thursday rejected a military response to the downing of the drone upon learning that about 150 Iranians would be killed in a U.S. attack. In announcing the new sanctions, he said “I think a lot of restraint has been shown by us, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to show it in the future. But we’ll give it a chance.”Trump said he imposed the sanctions because of a series of “belligerent acts” carried out by Iran, which U.S. officials say include Iran’s targeting of Norwegian and Japanese ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz with mine explosions days before the attack on the drone.The executive order is aimed at pushing Tehran back to one-on-one talks with the U.S. over its nuclear weapons program after Trump last year withdrew from the 2015 international pact restraining Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump called the international deal negotiated by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, “a disaster.””We’d love to be able to negotiate a deal,” Trump said.But he declared, “Never can Iran have a nuclear weapon,” adding, “They sponsor terrorism like no one’s seen before.”He said, “I look forward to the day when sanctions can be lifted and Iran can be a peace-loving nation. The people of Iran are great people.”‘Highly effective’
Mnuchin said earlier sanctions imposed when Trump pulled out of the international agreement have been “highly effective in locking up the Iranian economy. We follow the money and it’s highly effective.””Locking up the money worked last time and they’ll work this time,” Mnuchin said. The Treasury chief said the U.S. could target Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, one of Tehran’s best known figures on the world stage, with sanctions in the coming days.He said some of the sanctions Trump imposed Monday had been “in the works” before the drone was shot down, and some were being imposed because of the attack on the drone.The Treasury Department headed by Mnuchin said that in addition to Khamenei, the U.S. sanctions also targeted eight senior commanders in the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. It said that any foreign financial institution that engages in a “significant financial transaction” with the Iranians targeted by the sanctions could be cut off from U.S. financial deals.Coalition to counter Iran
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the new sanctions as “significant” as he left Washington on Sunday for a trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to continue the Trump administration’s effort to build a coalition of allies to counter Iran. Pompeo met Monday with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”The world should know,” Pompeo said, “that we will continue to make sure it’s understood that this effort that we’ve engaged in to deny Iran the resources to foment terror, to build out their nuclear weapon system, to build out their missile program, we are going to deny them the resources they need to do that thereby keeping American interests and American people safe all around the world.”Iran has defended its missile work as legal and necessary for its defense. Tehran has sought support from the remaining signatories to the 2015 agreement to provide the economic relief it wants, especially with its key oil exports as the U.S. has tightened sanctions in an attempt to cut off Iranian oil shipments.Trump said in a series of tweets Saturday about the sanctions that he looks forward to the day when “sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous national again — The sooner the better!”Iran cannot have Nuclear Weapons! Under the terrible Obama plan, they would have been on their way to Nuclear in a short number of years, and existing verification is not acceptable. We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday. I look forward to the day that…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2019….Sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again – The sooner the better!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2019He also said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that he is “not looking for war” with Iran and is willing to negotiate with its leaders without preconditions.
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Liberal US Lawmakers Push Bill to Cancel Student Debt
Days before the first Democratic presidential debates, Sen. Bernie Sanders and House progressives came out with legislation to cancel all student debt, going farther than a signature proposal by Sen. Elizabeth Warren as the two jockey for support from the party’s liberal base .By canceling all student loans, Sanders says the proposal would address an economic burden for 45 million Americans. The key difference is that Warren’s plan considers the income of the borrowers, canceling $50,000 in debt for those earning less than $100,000 per year and affecting an estimated 42 million people in the U.S.Questions face both candidates about how to pay for all of that plus their proposals for free tuition at public colleges and universities. But the battling ideas highlight the rivalry between senators who have made fighting economic inequality the cornerstones of their 2020 presidential campaigns.Sanders vowed at a Monday news conference that his plan “completely eliminates student debt in this country and the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation, the millennial generation, to a lifetime of debt for the crime of doing the right thing. And that is going out and getting a higher education.” He appeared alongside the proposal’s House sponsors, Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also in attendance.His bill and Warren’s plan are part of their broader appeal to liberal voters on issues such as health care, technology and education.That appeal is likely to be fleshed out this week during the first Democratic debates . Twenty candidates are set for the showdown, with Warren part of the lineup on Wednesday and Sanders appearing a day later. The events come as Warren appears to be cutting into Sanders’ support from the left.Sanders’ effort at one-upmanship on student loans, named the College For All Act, would cancel $1.6 trillion of debt and save the average borrower about $3,000 a year, according to materials obtained by The Associated Press. The result would be a stimulus that allows millennials in particular to invest in homes and cars that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. It would cost $2.2 billion and be paid for — and then some — by a series of taxes on such things as stock trades, bonds and derivatives, according to the proposal.The universal debt relief is designed partly around the idea that it would mostly benefit Americans who can’t afford college tuition without loans, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the legislation wasn’t yet public.Warren’s plan, which she has suggested in published reports will be introduced as legislation, would be paid for by imposing a 2% fee on fortunes greater than $50 million. Warren projects the levy would raise $2.75 trillion over 10 years, enough to pay for a universal child-care plan, free tuition at public colleges and universities, and student loan debt forgiveness for an estimated 42 million Americans — with revenue left over. Critics say top earners would find ways around such penalties.
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European Court Asks Italy for Information on Vessel Filled with Rescued Migrants
The European Court of Human Rights has asked Italy to provide information on the case of Sea Watch 3, a ship off the island of Lampedusa carrying rescued migrants who Italy has refused to allow to disembark. Italy’s interior minister has said he will hold the Netherlands and the European Union “responsible” for the fate of the 36 migrants on board.Italy has refused to allow the Sea Watch 3 into its territorial waters and the port of the southern island of Lampedusa. Only a small group of migrants on board the ship, including two pregnant women, were allowed to disembark.The Dutch-flagged vessel, representing an German organization that rescues migrants at sea, picked up the migrants from an inflatable raft in the Mediterranean 12 days ago. The crew has refused to return them to Libya, saying Tripoli is not a safe port.Deteriorating situationThe spokeswoman of Sea Watch Italy, Giorgia Linardi said the situation on board the Sea Watch 3 is deteriorating every day and described the Italian authorities’ treatment of these migrants as “inhumane and degrading.”“The partial disembarkation of ten people, now almost a week ago, destabilized even further the situation on board. The remaining people are asking why they do not have a right to disembark,” said Linardi.The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has now requested the Italian government and Sea Watch provide it with information about the ship, in order to allow the migrants to disembark in Italy.Linardi said single individuals on board asked the European Court to intervene with so that urgent provisional measures are adopted to guarantee their rights.Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been operating a “closed ports” policy in Italy. He said he will hold the Netherlands and the European Union responsible for the fate of the migrants, adding that he has written to his counterpart in the Netherlands.Salvini said vessels that are illegal will not come to Italy. He said reception is guaranteed for those truly fleeing war, adding that his figures indicate only small percentage of recent arrivals were fleeing conflict. Migrant arrivals in Italy have dropped significantly since Salvini took office last year, down more than 80 percent in 2018, and because of this the interior minister’s popularity has soared.The Italian government has imposed a policy that effectively stops NGO ships with rescued migrants from entering Italian waters.Vessels that fail to respect the ban face fines of up to $56,000.
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Death Toll in Cambodia Building Collapse at 26
At least 26 construction workers are confirmed dead after a building under construction in the Cambodian coastal city of Sihanoukville collapsed. Another 24 were injured.Rescue workers continued on Monday to search the rubble of the collapsed building for survivors.The workers were sleeping on the second floor of the seven-story building early Saturday morning. Survivors said at least 50 to 60 workers used the building as their housing.The project was to be a condominium and was owned by a Chinese investor. Police have detained four people for questioning about the collapse, all said to be Chinese.Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who visited the site late Sunday, announced on his Facebook that he was establishing a special committee to exert control of Chinese building projects in the town.He also said in his Facebook message that he asked provincial Governor Yun Min to resign and he agreed to do so.The Chinese embassy in Cambodia expressed its condolences and said it was mobilizing Chinese assistance for the rescue effort. Sihanoukville has seen a boom in Chinese funded construction in recent years, mostly casinos, residential buildings and hotels.
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