Myanmar troops deployed to flood-hit parts of the country Sunday to help with relief efforts after the death toll from a deadly landslide jumped to 48.Every year monsoon rains hammer Myanmar and other countries across Southeast Asia, submerging homes, displacing thousands and triggering landslides.But the disaster Friday in southeastern Mon state was the worst in recent memory, and hundreds of emergency response workers were still pulling bodies out of the muddy wreckage early Sunday.Paung, Myanmar”The total death toll reached 48. Search and rescue is still ongoing,” Paung township administrator Zaw Moe Aung told AFP.Heavy rains pounded Mon, Karen and Kachin states, flooding roads and destroying bridges.As the rainy season reaches its peak, the country’s armed forces are pitching in.”Our regional military commands are working to help with the search and rescue process in disaster areas,” Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told AFP. “Helicopters will be used to supply food.”The bulk of the effort is focused on hard-hit Mon state, which sits on the coast of the Andaman sea.Floodwaters have submerged more than 4,000 houses in the state and displaced more than 25,000 residents who have sought shelter in monasteries and pagodas, according to state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar.Rescue workers attempt to free a cow caught under a van after a landslide in Paung township, Mon state, Aug. 10, 2019.Vice President Henry Van Thio visited landslide survivors in a Paung township village Saturday and “spoke of his sorrow” while promising relief assistance, the paper reported.Around 89,000 people have been displaced by floods in recent weeks, although many have since been able to return home, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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Month: August 2019
Gunman Opens Fire in Norwegian Mosque, Injures One
A gunman armed with multiple weapons opened fire in a mosque near Oslo Saturday, injuring one person before being overpowered by an elderly worshipper and arrested, Norwegian police and witnesses said.Hours after the attack, the body of a young woman related to the suspect was found in a home in the suburb of Baerum where the shooting took place earlier in the day, police said Saturday evening.Investigators are treating her death as suspicious and have opened a murder probe.The head of the mosque described the assailant as a young white man dressed in black and said he was wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest.He said only three people had been inside the al-Noor Islamic center at the time of the attack.Police were alerted to the shooting shortly after 4 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).Rune Skjold, assistant chief of police, holds a news conference after a shooting in al-Noor Islamic center mosque, in the police headquarters in Oslo, Norway, Aug. 10, 2019.A lone gunmanOfficers first reported that a victim had been shot, but later clarified one person had sustained “minor injuries” and that it was unclear if they were gunshot wounds.Police said the suspect appeared to have acted on his own.“It is a Norwegian young man, with a Norwegian background. He lives in the vicinity,” Oslo police spokesman Rune Skjold had told a press conference earlier Saturday. Skjold added that the suspect had been known to police before the incident but could not be described as someone with a “criminal background.”The man, who is in his early 20s, was taken into custody, police said in a press release carried by Norwegian media.Norway was the scene of one of the worst-ever attacks by a right-wing extremist in July 2011, when 77 people were killed by Anders Behring Breivik. Mosque board member Irfan Mushtaq reacts after a shooting in al-Noor Islamic center mosque, near Oslo, Norway, Aug. 10, 2019.’Sitting on the perpetrator’“One of our members has been shot by a white man with a helmet and uniform,” Irfan Mushtaq, head of the mosque, told local media.Mushtaq said that the man had carried multiple weapons, but that he had been subdued by a member of the mosque.Mushtaq arrived at the scene shortly after being alerted about the gunman and had gone to the back of the building while waiting for police to arrive.“Then I see that there are cartridges scattered and blood on the carpets, and I see one of our members is sitting on the perpetrator, covered in blood,” Mushtaq told Norwegian newspaper VG. He said the man who apparently overpowered the shooter was 75 years old and had been reading the Koran after a prayer session.According to Mushtaq, the mosque had not received any threats ahead of the shooting.The attack took place on the eve of the Muslim celebration of Eid Al-Adha, marking the end of the Muslim pilgrimage Hajj. Police said Saturday they would be sending out more officers so that those celebrating would “be as safe as possible.”
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Georgetown Home Where Camelot Was Born
Jacqueline Kennedy, the former first lady of the United States would have turned 90 years old this summer. On the occasion of the anniversary, Maksim Moskalkov visited the house where she first met John F. Kennedy more than half a century ago.
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Financier Epstein’s Death Disappoints Victims, Launches Conspiracy Theories
The Associated Press contributed to this report.The apparent suicide in federal custody of well-connected U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General. Epstein, who had friendships with U.S. President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was facing the possibility of 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.Several of Epstein’s accusers said Saturday they’re disappointed that the financier won’t have to face them in court or serve a long prison sentence if convicted.The investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan will continue despite Epstein’s death, a source familiar with the matter said. The government is pursuing an “ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals” in connection with the case.Accusers disappointedOne Epstein accuser, who filed a since-settled lawsuit against Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, says she’s grateful he will never harm anyone again, but is angry there will be no chance he answers for his conduct.Virginia Giuffre told The New York Times that her husband woke her early in Australia to share the news that Epstein had died.“We’ve worked so hard to get here,” Giuffre said, “and he stole that from us, too.”Another accuser, Jennifer Araoz, who came forward after the new charges were filed, said she was angered by Epstein’s suicide. Araoz alleged that Epstein raped her in his New York mansion in the early 2000s when she was 15.“We have to live with the scars of his actions for the rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he committed, the pain and trauma he caused so many people,” she said.FILE – Attorney General William Barr speaks at a federal prison in Edgefield, S.C., July 8, 2019.Attorney General William Barr said announced the investigations into Epstein’s death.“Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said in a news release, adding he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death while in federal custody.According to media reports, Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after a suspected earlier attempt to kill himself but was removed from the watch at the end of July. He was being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.New round of conspiracy theoriesNews of Epstein’s apparent suicide Saturday morning quickly launched new conspiracy theories online in a saga that has provided fodder for them for years, fueled by Epstein’s ties to princes, politicians and other famous and powerful people.Hours after Epstein’s death Saturday, as the hashtag #EpsteinMurder was trending worldwide on Twitter, President Donald Trump joined Twitter speculation around Epstein’s death while under the federal government’s watch.Trump, who rose to conservative prominence by falsely claiming Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., retweeted unsubstantiated claims about Epstein’s death.Other politicians also took to social media to question the circumstances.Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the state where some of Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse crimes took place, called on corrections officials to explain what happened at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.“The Federal Bureau of Prisons must provide answers on what systemic failures of the MCC Manhattan or criminal acts allowed this coward to deny justice to his victims,” he tweeted.Epstein’s suicide was likely recorded by jail cameras, according to Preet Bharara, the former federal prosecutor in Manhattan.“One hopes it is complete, conclusive, and secured,” he tweeted.Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state prostitution charges, for which he served a 13-month term and most days was freed to work at his office in south Florida. He also was required to register as a sex offender and pay restitution to the underage girls he abused.President Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who had been the federal prosecutor handling the Epstein case in Florida at the time of that plea deal, resigned over his handling of the matter.
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Citing Trump, North Korea Defends Ballistic Missile Tests
U.S. President Donald Trump has said for weeks he has “no problem” with North Korea testing short-range missiles, insisting they are not a threat to the United States. It seems Pyongyang got the message.North Korean state media on Sunday cited Trump’s comments, hours after rolling out what appears to be yet another new short-range missile system that threatens U.S. allies in the region.In an article from the official Korean Central News Agency, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson blasted South Korea for criticizing its recent launches.“Even the U.S. president made a remark which in effect recognized the self-defensive rights of a sovereign state, saying that it is a small missile test that a lot of countries do,” the spokesperson said.North Korea test fires a new weapon, in this undated photo released Aug. 11, 2019, by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency.Multiple missile testsNorth Korea on Saturday conducted its fifth ballistic missile launch in just more than two weeks, and seventh in the past two months. In total, North Korea has unveiled three new short-range missile systems during that period, all of which appear to be designed to evade or overwhelm U.S.-South Korean missile defenses.On Saturday, Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently offered a “small apology” for the tests and vowed to stop the launches as soon as the current round of U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises end.Trump says Kim sent the apology in a personal letter that blasted the U.S.-South Korean military drills.“It was a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises,” Trump said in the tweet. “It was also a small apology for testing the short range missiles, and that this testing would stop when the exercises end.”FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they meet at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.The tests violate United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from any ballistic missile activity. But Trump, who wants to continue talks with North Korea, has shrugged off the tests.“Kim knows that he can continue to launch these short-range missiles without consequences. He can continue to provoke, so long as he keeps emitting signals of hope to President Trump directly,” said Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst who now works at the U.S.-based Rand Corp.“Kim’s plodding along faithfully according to plan. He’s dialing up the optempo (operational tempo) of his engagement with President Trump — remaining on our radar through these launches and friendly missives — to put the U.S. in a tighter bind,” she adds.U.S. Army soldiers are seen during a military exercise in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Feb. 27, 2019.Military drillsThe U.S. and South Korea began their latest round of military exercises Monday. They are scheduled to last until Aug. 20.The drills have been scaled back to help pave the way for talks with North Korea, which views the exercises as preparation to invade. But that has satisfied neither Trump nor Kim, who have found common ground in their dislike of the drills.“I’ve never been a fan” of the drills, Trump said Friday. “You know why? I don’t like paying for it. We should be reimbursed for it.” Trump added that he only approved the latest exercise because it helped prepare for “a turnover of various areas to South Korea.”“I like that because it should happen,” Trump added.The latest U.S.-South Korean drills are aimed in part at testing South Korea’s ability to retake operational control from the U.S. during wartime. The U.S. has about 28,500 troops in South Korea.Trump has for decades complained that U.S. allies such as South Korea, Japan and others are not paying enough for U.S. military protection. North Korea appears to be exploiting those complaints in an attempt to split the alliance between Washington and Seoul.“Breaking the alliance is exactly what Pyongyang wants, which is why it makes all this noise and tries to blame U.S.-South Korea drills for its lack of cooperation,” says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.“Pyongyang looks to exploit Trump’s preoccupation with alliance cost-sharing as well as South Korea’s deteriorating relations with Japan. Kim appeals to Trump directly about the exercises, trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul,” Easley said.President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in shakes hands at the start of a bilateral meeting at the Blue House in Seoul, Sunday, June 30, 2019.Cost-sharing disputeTrump earlier this week announced in a tweet that South Korea had agreed to pay “substantially” more for the U.S. troop presence. South Korea refuted that allegation, saying cost-sharing negotiations with the United States have not yet begun.The administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has responded cautiously to Trump’s comments and shrugged off North Korea’s latest provocations. Moon has made talks with North Korea a top priority.But Moon now finds himself in an increasingly awkward position, with both Trump and Kim openly playing off each other in order to bash Seoul.Meanwhile, Trump has given few signs that he will loosen the pressure on South Korea.At a fundraiser in New York Friday, Trump made fun of Moon’s accent “while describing how he caved in to Trump’s tough negotiations,” according to a report in the New York Post.“So why are we paying for their defense,” Trump said, according to the report. “They’ve got to pay.”
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Press Groups: Regulations, Violence Constrain Indonesia’s Journalists
Leonard Triyono contributed to this report, which originated on FILE – Former Indonesian dictator Suharto sits in his home in Jakarta, Oct. 24. 2006.Threat of violenceIn addition to the threats posed by the regulations, members of the Indonesian press are under constant threat of physical violence. AJI notes that between 2006 and 2014 there were an average of 50 cases of violence against journalists each year. Government officials and community groups perpetrated most of the attacks.“What we have witnessed recently is that the pressure exerted by the mobs has also increased,” Manan said. “This is something that during the New Order era was almost nonexistent. That started to take place a lot after 1999.”The New Order refers to the three-decade authoritarian rule of Suharto that ended in 1998. Although the government lifted restrictions on the press in May 1998, within the year, journalists were reporting to the international monitors at the Committee to Protect Journalists that they feared reprisals if they reported the details of ethnic killings in Pontianak, West Kalimantan province. Media freedom improvesThat said, media freedom in Indonesia has improved significantly since the end of the Suharto era. Indonesia now has hundreds of television stations (including cable), more than 2,000 radio stations and 1,000 newspapers, as well as web-based media outlets, according to Human Rights Watch.Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranks press freedom in 180 countries, notes that Indonesia’s position has gradually improved, from number 130 in 2016 to number 124 in 2017 and 2018. In Asia, Indonesia’s position is better than those of Myanmar, Cambodia and Singapore. However, Indonesia still ranked lower than Timor Leste, Hong Kong and Japan.But the recent increase in attacks by community groups is an expression of their frustration, said Ade Wahyudin, director of LBH Pers (Legal Aid Center for the Press), because they know of no other mechanism for objecting to coverage. The formal process for registering complaints with the Press Council costs more than most people can afford, because complaints can be filed only in Jakarta.“The public could not find proper ways to file complaints about what they consider slanderous news. As a result, they took the laws into their own hands,” he said.Attacks by authoritiesHowever, Ade said acts of violence by government authorities must end because they should know the Press Law guarantees freedom of the press.“If you say the police do not understand it, then we are somewhat doubtful because the police have the laws and they can read. If it were the general public, it would still be reasonable, but if it is the police, if it is an act of violence committed by the police, whether it is directed to journalists or to anyone, then that is not allowed. You know that journalists are protected by laws. They do their job — they should be protected,” he asserted.Since the Press Law was enacted 20 years ago, AJI reports, there has been overall progress. There is much less government intervention over content it deems objectionable, Manan said.“Government’s direct interference has been almost nonexistent, because there is now no authority that can revoke SIUPP [License for Press Publication],” Manan said. “And the government no longer interferes in the affairs of the Press Council. It is because the Press Council has become independent. It is no longer controlled by the government like in the past.”
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Romanians Mark Anniversary of Protest Crackdown
Written by Eugen Tomiuc with reporting by RFE/RL’s Romanian Service, Hotnews.ro, G4media.ro, and Digi24.ro. Romanians rallied in Bucharest and other cities across the country Saturday to mark the first anniversary of a massive anti-corruption protest that the government violently quelled. The demonstrations came amid public outrage over the authorities’ response to the kidnapping and killing last month of a 15-year-old girl, a case that revealed deep flaws in the police system of the European Union and NATO member state.
About 20,000 people turned up for a rally outside government headquarters in central Bucharest, filling much of Victoria Square into the evening, according to G4media.ro.
Protests had also been urged over social media for Brasov, Cluj, Constanta, Iasi and other large cities, under slogans such as, “We don’t forget what you did last summer,” “We’re watching you” and “Reset Romania.” FILE – A tear gas canister explodes as riot police charge using canon to clear the square during protests outside the government headquarters in Bucharest, Romania, Aug.10, 2018.2018 crackdown
Last year, about 100,000 Romanians, many of them expatriates, gathered on Aug. 10 in front of the same government building to protest the leftist government’s moves to reverse anti-graft reforms and weaken the judiciary in one of the EU’s most corrupt countries.
Riot police then used water cannons and tear gas in a display of violence unseen since the early 1990s.
Television footage of protesters and bystanders with hands up being chased and beaten with batons sparked fury across the country and prompted condemnation from the EU and the United States. More than 450 people needed medical assistance and one person reportedly died after the crackdown.
Some observers cited the Aug. 10, 2018, violence, as well as the “failure of so-called judicial reforms,” as the reason for the Social Democratic Party (PSD)-led coalition’s losses in European Parliament elections May 26.
A day after the August 2018 crackdown, PSD leader and lower-house speaker Liviu Dragnea was imprisoned following the rejection of his appeal of a conviction in an abuse-of-office case. Teen’s death
However, public anger has recently grown over what many see as an increasingly corrupt and dysfunctional public administration after the gruesome slaying of a 15-year-old girl from Caracal, in southern Romania, whose calls for help were mishandled by police in July.
Alexandra Macesanu phoned the European emergency number three times to say she had been kidnapped, beaten and raped. It took the authorities 19 hours to locate and enter the premises where she had been taken, as they initially made light of her calls and then struggled to trace them.
Authorities later found burned bone fragments on site, which they identified with DNA tests earlier this month as being Macesanu’s. A 65-year-old car mechanic has confessed to killing Alexandra and Luiza Melencu, 18, in April 2019.
The authorities’ handling of the case has triggered street protests across the country and stark condemnation from opposition-backed center-right President Klaus Iohannis.
Iohannis, who is up for re-election in November, said the PSD-led coalition was “the moral author of the tragedy” because of its measures against the judiciary.
The interior minister resigned, while the chief of Romanian police, the education minister and several other officials were fired. Allegations of crime, trafficking
However, media allegations of organized crime and human-trafficking networks’ ties to senior politicians and local police continue to surface, adding to what many Romanians already see as growing social insecurity.
According to U.N. estimates, at least 3.4 million people have left Romania since 2007, when it joined the EU — a number second only to the refugee total from war-torn Syria. The World Bank said roughly 3 million to 5 million Romanians are working and living abroad, in jobs ranging from day laborers to doctors.
Furthermore, the latest Romanian statistics show that almost 220,000 people emigrated in 2017 after the PSD-led coalition took over in December 2016 and initiated a series of measures to weaken the judiciary and the rule of law.
Many Romanian expatriates had planned to attend Saturday’s protests.
“We were defeated last year,” a woman from the northeastern city of Iasi told reporters on her way to Bucharest. ‘We failed to push for change after August 10. We did not continue the fight to reform the system. As a result of our complacency, two girls are now dead.”
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What Exactly Happened at Russian Missile Test Site?
There are reports of panic buying of iodine drops in Severodvinsk. Emergency officials reported a spike in background radiation. The White Sea bay where both the shipbuilding port and the regional capital, Arkhangelsk, are located has been ordered closed for swimming and fishing because of the presence of toxic rocket fuel.A month after a fire aboard a secretive military submarine killed 14 people and prompted criticism of the Russian Defense Ministry, a new fatal incident involving military forces in Russia’s far north has raised new criticism of how authorities handle deadly, and potentially embarrassing, information.The explosion, reported Thursday, occurred in Nyonoksa, a Dvina Bay port not far from the shipbuilding town of Severodvinsk, at a naval site that has been used for decades to test missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).Deaths, injuriesIn its initial statement on the incident, the Defense Ministry said two people were killed and six injured in the blast and the fire that resulted. The ministry said that liquid rocket fuel was the cause of the blast, but that “no harmful chemicals were released into the atmosphere.”(That death toll was updated to five Saturday, according to a statement issued by Rosatom. That the update was released by the state-run atomic power agency, not the Defense Ministry, added to mounting evidence of some sort of nuclear-related accident at the site.)In the hours that followed, however, city emergency officials in Severodvinsk reported a spike in radiation levels.The levels were 20 times higher than normal, according to Greenpeace, which prompted the environmental group to call on federal authorities to identify what kind of radiation had been released and whether it was any danger to nearby residents.Nyonoksa, RussiaEmergency officials, meanwhile, said that radiation levels posed no risk to people nearby, and did not exceed annual norms for humans.That hasn’t assuaged the concerns of residents of Severodvinsk. The Arkhangelsk regional news site 29.ru said that nearly all the pharmacies in the city have been emptied of iodine drops, which are used to protect the thyroid gland from certain types of radiation.Contacted by telephone by RFE/RL, one pharmacy in Severodvinsk reported being sold out of iodine as of Thursday. A second said most of its supplies had been bought up. The employees contacted would not give their names.Ban on swimming, fishingCiting unnamed officials at the Arkhangelsk airport, 29.ru also reported that three of those injured in the explosion had been sent in an emergency flight to Moscow for treatment, and those accompanying them were wearing hazardous-material protective suits.On Friday, meanwhile, the newspaper Kommersant reported that military officials had ordered a monthlong ban on swimming and fishing in the entire Dvina Bay, which flows into the White Sea, after detecting the presence of a highly toxic rocket fuel known as heptyl. The fuel has been used in Russian rockets for years; Kazakh environmentalists have long complained about heptyl-fueled rockets being launched from the Baikonur facility poisoning the Kazakh steppe.Norway’s official nuclear safety agency reported Friday that its sensors had not reported any increase in radiation levels since the previous day, and it had received no official notification from Russia about any potential incident.Severodvinsk, which has nearly 180,000 inhabitants, itself is the site of two major naval shipyards that build and repair nuclear-powered submarines and other ships. Environmental groups have for years warned of increased radiation levels in nearby waters.If the incident was caused by a rocket explosion or crash, the most important question, said Andrei Zolotkov, a Murmansk-based researcher with the environmental monitoring group Bellona, is where it occurred: on land or in the water. That will determine how much contamination is released and where, he said.”It’s a bad thing either way,” Zolotkov told RFE/RL.Russian news agencies said that three of the injured were in critical condition. What was potentially more concerning, Zolotkov said, were the reports about emergency workers wearing radiation suits as they accompanied some of the injured being transported to Moscow hospitals.That would be an indication of radioactive contamination, something that the Nyonoksa test site isn’t known for, he said — from possibly a low-level nuclear device or even a nuclear-powered rocket engine.“This worries me more than anything else,” he said.Second mishapThe explosion is the second mishap to occur at the Nyonoksa test site in recent years. In 2015, a test of a cruise missile went awry, sending the weapons flying into an apartment building. No casualties were reported, nor was there any reported radiation or other contamination.Last month, another incident involving Russia’s Northern Fleet also drew criticism from Russians upset by a lack of information from authorities. And earlier this week, a series of massive explosions destroyed an arms cache in Siberia, sending blast waves and plumes of black smoke into the atmosphere, and devastating nearby settlements.A secretive surveillance submarine known informally as the Losharik suffered a catastrophic accident on July 2 while conducting tests in the Barents Sea. In all, 14 crew members were killed. Officials have released scant details about the sub, which is based at the Kola Peninsula port of Severomorsk, and what exactly occurred during the fire.During funerals for the personnel who died, one Russian naval officer made comments that suggested the incident posed a far greater danger than the Defense Ministry had indicated, saying that the crew of the vessel — which authorities eventually revealed had a nuclear reactor on board — had “averted a planetary-scale catastrophe.”Zolotkov said that the reports of people panic-buying iodine in Severodvinsk was symptomatic of the distrust that Russian civilians have for the authorities and for public statements after incidents like this.The regional emergency service statement about the spike in background radiation had been published on Thursday on the official website of the Severodvinsk city administration. By Friday, however, the statement was no longer available on the site. Asked by the news site 29.ru about the missing statement, a city civil defense official cited an unspecified technical problem; another city official said they were working on the issue.He pointed to the Kursk disaster in August 2000, when the Kremlin and military officials concealed the details of a sunken sub, some of whose crew survived the explosions that crippled the vessel.He also pointed to the news concerning a mysterious radioactive cloud that drifted over Europe in 2017. European researchers recently concluded that a notorious nuclear processing facility in the southern Ural Mountains, known as Mayak, was the likely source of the release.The repeated Russian denials, which continued even after the release of the peer-reviewed publication, further undermine trust in Russian official statements, Zolotkov said.“The populace does not trust government agencies when they say, ‘Don’t worry, everything is OK,’ ” he said. “And then we’ll have another incident, and we’ll get the same misinformation from the authorities again. That just shows the population doesn’t believe what the officials are saying.”
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New AMC Drama Follows Japanese American Internment Horror
The second season of an AMC-TV drama series follows the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and a number of bizarre deaths haunting a community.“The Terror: Infamy” is set to premiere Monday and stars Derek Mio and original “Star Trek” cast member George Takei as they navigate the forced internment and supernatural spirits that surround them.It’s the first television series depicting the internment of Japanese Americans on such a massive scale and camps were recreated with detail to illustrate the conditions and racism internees faced.The show’s new season is part of the Ridley Scott-produced anthology series.Mio, who is fourth-generation Japanese American and plays Chester Nakayama, said he liked the idea of adding a supernatural element to a historical event such as Japanese American internment. He says he had relatives who lived on Terminal Island outside of Los Angeles and were taken to camps.Residents there were some of the first forced into internment camps after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.“If you add the supernatural element, it’s a little more accessible and now it’s like a mainstream subject and it can open up more discussion about what really happened and what’s going on right now,” Mio said.It was a role personal to him as well. “It’s not just another kind of acting job for me,” Mio said. “I really do feel a responsibility to tell this story that my ancestors actually went through.”From 1942 to 1945, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were ordered to camps in California, Colorado, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and other sites.Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, forced Japanese Americans, regardless of loyalty or citizenship, to leave the West Coast and other areas for the camps surrounded by barbed wire and military police. Half of those detainees were children.Takei, who was interned in a camp as a child, said he was impressed with the show’s research into recreating the camp.“The barracks reminded me again – mentally, I was able to go back to my childhood. That’s exactly the way it was,” Takei said. “So for me, it was both fulfilling to raise the awareness to this extent of the terror. But also to make the storytelling that much more compelling.”The series also involves others who are connected to historic World War II events. Josef Kubota Wladyka, one of the show’s directors, had a grandfather who was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb dropped and managed to survive.Max Borenstein, one of the show’s executive producers who lost relatives at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, said the show’s horror genre still doesn’t compare to the horror of the internment camp.“It was important to do the research, the lived reality that people faced,” Borenstein said. “The fact of taking people who are citizens of the country and (putting them in camps) is a great stain of our country.”Co-creator Alexander Woo, who is Chinese American, said he believes the series is especially relevant now given the debate over immigration in the U.S. and Europe.“The struggle that immigrants go through of embracing a country that doesn’t embrace you back is a story, unfortunately, that keeps repeating,” Woo said. “There’s going to be some people who likely didn’t know of the internment. There will be some people who had relatives in camps. We have a responsibility to be accurate.”
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Cease-fire Agreement Reached in Libyan Capital as Islamic Holiday Nears
A cease-fire agreement has been reached to end fighting in the Libyan capital of Tripoli during the upcoming Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.Libyan National Army (LNA) chief Khalifa Haftar agreed to the United Nation’s-proposed cease-fire Saturday, his spokesman, Ahmad al-Mesmari, said at a news conference in Benghazi.Libya’s U.N.-supported government said earlier Saturday it had accepted the proposed cease-fire for the holiday, which begins Sunday.Militias allied with the government have been fighting since April against an LNA campaign to seize the capital. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the World Health Organization. More than 120,000 others have been displaced.
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NKorea Fires 2 Missiles Into Sea in Likely Protest of Drills
North Korea on Saturday extended a recent streak of weapons displays by firing what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to South Korea’s military.The fifth round of launches in less than three weeks was likely another protest at the slow pace of nuclear negotiations with the United States and the continuance of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises that the North says are aimed at a northward invasion.The South’s military alerted reporters to the launches hours after President Donald Trump said he received a “beautiful” three-page letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and predicted that they will have more talks to try resolving the nuclear standoff. Trump reiterated that he was not bothered by the flurry of short-range weapons Kim has launched despite the growing threat they pose to U.S. allies in the region, saying Pyongyang has never broken its pledge to pause nuclear tests.Hours after the latest launches, Trump tweeted that Kim spent much of his letter complaining about “the ridiculous and expensive” U.S.-South Korea military exercises. He said that Kim offered him “a small apology” for the flurry of missile tests, and that he assured him they would stop when the exercises end.Trump said that Kim wants to meet once again to “start negotiations” after the drills conclude, and that he’s looking “forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!”South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the presumed ballistic missiles were fired from the North’s east coast and flew about 400 kilometers (248 miles) on an apogee of 48 kilometers (30 miles), before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.Seoul’s presidential Blue House said the tests were likely aimed at verifying the reliability of the North’s newly developed weapons and also demonstrating displeasure over the military drills.Hours after Saturday’s launches, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency released a statement denouncing South Korea’s recent acquisition of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets and other plans to expand its military capabilities, saying that the moves deteriorate trust between the Koreas and increase risk of war on the peninsula. The agency said the South will gain “nothing but destruction if it treats (a nation of the same race) with hostility and pursues a contest of strength.”North Korea has unleashed a series of test firings of short-range weapons in recent weeks while saying that the joint military drills between the allies compel it to “develop, test and deploy the powerful physical means essential for national defense.”The North did not immediately comment on the launches. South Korea has said the weapons tests don’t help efforts to stabilize peace and called for Pyongyang to uphold an inter-Korean agreement reached last year to form a joint military committee to discuss reducing military tensions.The missile tests come amid stalled talks on the North’s nuclear program. So far, North Korea has stuck by its unilateral suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests, which came during a diplomatic outreach to Washington last year.Experts say Trump’s downplaying of the North’s launches allowed the country more room to intensify its testing activity while it seeks to build leverage ahead of negotiations, which could possibly resume sometime after the end of the U.S.-South Korea drills later this month.Leif-Eric Easley, an expert at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, said North Korea is also looking to exploit Trump’s preoccupation with getting South Korea to pay more for U.S. troop deployment in the country as well as Seoul’s worsening relations with Tokyo over an escalating trade war that’s spilling over to security issues. South Korea has threatened to end a military intelligence sharing agreement with Japan in what’s seen as an attempt to pressure the United States into mediating the dispute.“Kim appeals to Trump directly about the exercises, trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul,” Easley said. “Meanwhile, North Korean propaganda supports rising anti-Japan sentiment in South Korea, calculating that a diplomatically isolated Seoul will be more subject to Pyongyang’s coercion.”The North described recent test-firings as a new rocket artillery system and short-range ballistic missile launches. The North’s state media said that Kim, while supervising a live-fire demonstration of newly developed, short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday, said the launches were intended to send a warning to Washington and Seoul over their military drills.The allies have scaled down their major military exercises since the first summit between Kim and Trump in June 2018 in Singapore created space for diplomacy. But the North insists even the downsized drills violate agreements between Kim and Trump.The North’s recent tests have dampened the optimism that followed the third and latest meeting between Trump and Kim on June 30 at the inter-Korean border. The leaders agreed to resume working-level nuclear talks, but there have been no known meetings between the two sides since then.
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Tens of Thousands Demand Fair Elections at Moscow Rally
Updated Aug. 10, 2019, 12:15p.m.Tens of thousands of people converged on central Moscow Saturday to protest the exclusion of several opposition candidates from the upcoming city council election.The Moscow protest, one of Russia’s largest since President Vladimir Putin was re-elected in 2012, was among several in the country.The White Counter, a non-governmental organization that tracks protest participants, said nearly 50,000 were participating in the Moscow rally, much higher than the Moscow police figure of 20,000.The protest monitoring group OVD-Info reported scores of arrests in Moscow and at other opposition demonstrations in St. Petersburg and Roston-on-Don.Lyubov Sobol, who is one of the opposition candidates, was detained at her Moscow office as she was updating supporters on social media before the sanctioned Moscow protest began.A video on Sobol’s Twitter feed shows police in riot gear breaking into her office and demanding that journalists who were present to stand against the wall and put away their cell phones.Russian opposition candidate and lawyer at the Foundation for Fighting Corruption Lyubov Sobol, center, and others stand in front of a police line during a protest in Moscow, Russia, July 14, 2019.Sobol, an ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, chronicled the event as it unfolded. “Look, they are breaking the door right now,” she said. “They will enter right now. I am not afraid. I will not give up. I am asking to get my lawyer and will continue my political activities.”Her arrest came as a protest was about to begin for the third consecutive weekend on the issue. Thousands of people were arrested in the two previous protests that occasionally turned violent.Some opposition activists have called for an unauthorized march in central Moscow after Saturday’s authorized rally, prompting a warning from Moscow police and the powerful Investigative Committee that unsanctioned protests would be “immediately halted.”The protesters are calling for free and fair elections in the Moscow city council race next month.Since being founded in 2011, Navalny’s FBK corruption monitoring organization has published reports detailing the lavish lifestyles of figures close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Moscow first deputy mayor Natalia Sergunina.
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Source: Jeffrey Epstein has Died by Suicide in Jail
Updated Aug. 10, 2019, 10:15a.m.Financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York, a former law enforcement official said Saturday.He was found in his cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center Saturday morning, according to the officials, who was briefed on the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly. The medical examiner’s office in Manhattan confirmed Epstein’s death.Epstein’s arrest last month launched separate investigations into how authorities handled his case initially when similar charges were first brought against him in Florida more than a decade ago. U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last month after coming under fire for overseeing that deal when he was U.S. attorney in Miami.The 66-year-old had pleaded not guilty and was facing up to 45 years in prison if convicted.A little over two weeks, Epstein was found on the floor of his jail cell with bruises on his neck early, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. At the time, it was not clear whether the injuries were self-inflicted or from an assault.Epstein’s arrest drew national attention, particularly focusing on a deal that allowed Epstein to plead guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida and avoid more serious federal charges.Federal prosecutors in New York reopened the probe after investigative reporting by The Miami Herald stirred outrage over that plea bargain.But his lawyers maintained that the new charges brought by federal prosecutors in New York were covered by the deal and were improper.They said he hasn’t had any illicit contact with underage girls since serving his 13-month sentence in Florida.Before his legal troubles, Epstein led a life of extraordinary luxury that drew powerful people into his orbit.He socialized with princes and presidents and lived on a 100-acre private island in the Caribbean and one of the biggest mansions in New York. A college dropout, he became a sought-after benefactor of professors and scientists, donating millions of dollars in donations to Harvard University and other causes.Still, it was never entirely clear how the middle-class Brooklyn math whiz became a Wall Street master of high finance.
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CAR Musician Lends His Voice to Highlight Struggles Faced by His Country
Ozaguin, considered the most popular singer-songwriter in the Central African Republic, recently came to the U.N.’s European headquarters in Geneva to awaken the world to the struggles faced by his country, which has been mired in civil war since 2012. Ozaguin sings about the difficulties confronting his people. He sings about the constant search for food in a country where insecurity prevents people from farming and harvesting their crops. He sings about people fleeing into the bush to escape the violence of armed groups. He sings about the same armed groups manipulating vulnerable people into doing their bidding so they can feed their families.Violence in C.A.R. Sends Thousands FleeingA recent flare-up in violence in northwest Central African Republic has sent thousands fleeing for their lives. The U.N. refugee agency reports more than 5,000 refugees from CAR have arrived in southern Chad since December 27.
The new year is off to a bad start for thousands of people forced to flee clashes involving armed groups in the northwestern CAR town of Paoua. The U.N. refugee agency reports an estimated 5,600 refugees have fled to Chad. The musician and activist recounts the difficulties he, himself, has faced in life. He says he was forced to quit school in the fourth grade to earn money as he was the sole support of his mother and four younger sisters. He tells VOA there were no jobs in the C.A.R., so he went to Brazzaville in search of work.“Et moi, il m’en refuse…Ozaguin says no one would hire him because he was too young and too small. He says he had no choice, but to live on the streets. He says he spent four years as a homeless street child, scrounging for food, dodging the police, fighting off the mosquitos. What saved him, he says, was his music.He says this experience also sensitized him to the plight of street children and prompted him to eventually create a foundation to help homeless youngsters.“A ce moment, il y’a…The musician notes money raised through his concerts helps to support 32 homeless children, including 10 Muslim children who live in a separate district in Bangui. He explains Muslims and Christians live in segregated areas in the capital. He says he is working to end this separation and to bring the two communities together.The United Nations calls the Central African Republic a forgotten crisis. War has displaced more than one million of the country’s five million population, nearly half that number are refugees in neighboring countries.The World Food Program reports currently, more than 1.8 million people are suffering from serious food shortages. WFP spokesman, Herve Verhoosel, says these people do not know from where their next meal will come.“Le programme alimentaire…He says WFP distributes food rations to 600,000 people a month. He says the agency would like to increase that number to 800,000. But to make that possible, he says WFP urgently needs $35.5 million until the end of the year.In the meantime, Ozaguin says he will continue to raise his voice in song on behalf of the 4.8 million Central Africans, half of whom continue to live in a state of physical and food insecurity.
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NGO Ship to Malta: Take All Migrants Onboard, Not Some
Malta says it is willing to take in 39 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea early Saturday by a Spanish NGO’s ship.Malta said, however, it would not take the 121 people who were already on the vessel who were plucked from the sea last week.Malta said its military had already mounted an effort to rescue the 39. Proactive Open Arms, the migrant rescue group, recovered the 39 instead and has refused to disembark the group if Malta does not take the group of 121 migrants.Malta said in a statement that the larger group was rescued in “an area where Malta is neither responsible nor the competent coordinating authority. Malta can only shoulder its own responsibility since other solutions are not forthcoming.”Oscar Camps, the founder of Proactive Open Arms, said Malta’s decision not to take the 121 migrants has “caused a serious security problem” on the ship. “The anxiety of these people is unbearable.”Actor Richard Gere who brought food and water to the ship Friday, said, “The most important thing for these people here is to be able to get to a free port, to be able to get off the boat, to start a new life for themselves.”
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Landslide in Southeast Myanmar Kills at Least 10 People
A landslide buried more than a dozen village houses in southeastern Myanmar, killing at least 10 people and injuring nearly 30, media reported Saturday.Rescuers were using backhoes and bulldozers to clear the mud and debris from the village in Paung township. The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that some residents were still missing.The top official in Mon state, Aye Zan, visited the site and villagers who were evacuated to a relief camp to escape floods following torrential rains.The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that monsoon flooding had displaced more than 7,000 people this week in Mon state. Apart from the landslide in Paung, houses and a school in other townships were washed away, roads were blocked and villages were submerged.Nearly 12,000 people have been displaced in Myanmar this week alone, bringing the total number of those in evacuation centers to more than 38,000, the U.N. said.
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Islamic State Working to Make US Military’s Fears Come True
In the 4½ months since U.S.-backed forces declared victory over the Islamic State terror group’s last shred of territory in Syria, there has been a steady drumbeat of doubt.One by one, military leaders, diplomats and experts began raising concerns, aiming to convince policymakers that for all of the success in rolling back IS’s self-declared caliphate, the group was far from dead.“This is not the end of the fight,” U.S. Special Representative for Syria Ambassador James Jeffrey warned, just days after the victory celebrations in Syria in late March.“That will go on,” he said. “It is a different type of fight.”FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey, and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, at Esenboga Airport in Ankara, Oct. 17, 2018.A series of new reports, citing intelligence from United Nations member states, the U.S. military and other sources, now indicate it is a fight that IS is increasingly well-positioned to win.“As long as it can gain revenue, it will remain a danger,” the Rand Corp. declared Thursday in “Return and Expand?” a report on the terror group’s finances and prospects following the collapse of its caliphate.IS assetsThe Rand report estimates IS had perhaps in excess of $400 million in assets by early 2019.Intelligence from U.N. member states, included in another recent report, indicates even after the fall of the caliphate, IS may still have up to $300 million at its disposal.But even if the actual figure is lower, there are no indications that efforts to defeat IS has left the terror group wanting.“It still has certainly more than enough money to survive for quite a while,” Rand senior economist Howard Shatz, one of the authors of the Rand report, told VOA.“It’s a cash organization. Its expenses had to match its revenues,” he said. “We haven’t seen evidence of drawing from reserves or expenses outstripping revenues.”And despite repeated strikes targeting senior IS leaders in Syria and Iraq, the group’s infrastructure and financial leadership has remained solid.“It is possible to lower their level of effort, to lower their competency,” Shatz said. “But if there’s any let up, they do have people who are in the organization, come up through the organization, and take over.”“Some of those people will be better. Some of those people will be worse. But the people are there,” he said.Estimated number of fightersThe best U.S. estimates indicate an IS pool of anywhere from 14,000 to 18,000 so-called members across Syria and Iraq, many of whom are thought to be fighters.While many of those fighters have gone underground, others remain active, targeting key community leaders in Syria and Iraq for assassinations, and burning crops to create turmoil.Officials with Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led military operation to counter IS, also warn the terror group has solidified in capabilities, enhancing its command and control and logistics infrastructure in Iraq.Military and diplomatic officials say IS also has retained support in rural parts of Iraq, especially in areas extending south of Mosul all the way to Baghdad, the capital.In Syria, where military officials describe IS as “resurgent,” the group is using large displaced persons camps, like the one at al-Hol, to its advantage.Despite efforts by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to provide security for al-Hol, coalition officials warned the U.S. Defense Department inspector general that thousands of IS supporters have been able to spread the group’s ideology “uncontested.”“We have been clear that there is work left to do,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said.“ISIS has prepared its resources to operate underground,” he said, adding that in the face of the terror groups’ resurgence, “we continue to work with allies and partners to enable stabilization efforts.”FILE – The chief of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, purportedly appears for the first time in five years in a propaganda video in an undisclosed location, in this undated TV grab taken from video released April 29 by Al-Furqan media.In some ways, this is what U.S. military officials have been worried about since last year, when the Pentagon warned that despite mounting territorial losses, In the past few months, IS has also ramped up its video messaging, showing fighters from Africa, East Asia, the Caucuses and elsewhere renewing their pledge of allegiance to al-Baghdadi.“The so-called ISIS caliphate has been destroyed,” State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Nathan Sales said while briefing reporters earlier this month. “But the ISIS brand lives on around the world.”Researchers, though, fear IS has one more card to play as the group seeks to reassert itself — its detailed record-keeping for the areas it once ruled.“We know during the time of the caliphate, the Islamic State was recording financial details about individuals living in its territory,” said Shatz, the Rand economist.“I don’t think that information goes away,” he said, adding when the time is right, the group knows whom to squeeze. “There are a lot of people now who are known to the Islamic State who the Islamic State could come to and try to get money from.”
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Reports: Fuel Tanker Blast Kills Dozens in Tanzania
A fuel tanker exploded in Tanzania on Saturday, killing 57 people and injuring 65, many of whom were siphoning petrol from the vehicle, which had crashed, state broadcaster TBC Taifa said.The explosion occurred around 200 km (120 miles) west of the capital Dar es Salaam.“We have been saddened by reports of an accident involving a fuel truck in Morogoro, which caught fire and burnt several people,” government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said on Twitter.
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Typhoon Causes Eastern China Landslide, Deaths
Eighteen people were killed and 14 were missing in eastern China Saturday in a landslide triggered by a major typhoon, which caused widespread transportation disruptions and the evacuation of more than 1 million people, state broadcaster CCTV reported.Typhoon Lekima made landfall early Saturday in the eastern province of Zhejiang with maximum winds of 187 km (116 miles) per hour, although it had weakened from its earlier designation as a “super” typhoon, the official Xinhua news agency reported.Thousands of flights were canceled in eastern China, according to the country’s aviation regulator, with most flights into and out of Shanghai’s two major airports canceled Saturday afternoon, their websites showed.China’s weather bureau Saturday issued an orange alert, its second highest, after posting a red alert Friday, when the storm forced flight cancellations in Taiwan and shut markets and businesses on the island.The deadly landslide occurred about 130 km north of the coastal city of Wenzhou, when a natural dam collapsed in an area deluged with 160 millimeters (6.3 inches) of rain in three hours, CCTV reported.The storm was moving northward at 15 kph and was gradually weakening, Xinhua reported, citing the weather bureau.People walk in the rainstorm as Typhoon Lekima approaches Shanghai, China, Aug. 10, 2019.High winds and heavy rains battered the financial hub of Shanghai Saturday afternoon, and Shanghai Disneyland was shut for the day.Nearly 200 trains through the city of Jinan in Shandong province had been suspended until Monday, Xinhua reported.More than 250,000 residents in Shanghai and 800,000 in Zhejiang province had been evacuated because of the typhoon, and 2.72 million households in Zhejiang had power blackouts as strong wind and rain downed electricity transmission lines, state media reported.About 200 houses in six cities in Zhejiang had collapsed, and 66,300 hectares (163,830 acres) of farmland had been destroyed, CCTV said.The storm was predicted to reach Jiangsu province by the early hours of Sunday and veer over the Yellow Sea before continuing north and making landfall again in Shandong province, CCTV said.Coastal businesses in Zhejiang were shut, and the Ministry of Emergency Management warned of potential risk of fire, explosions and toxic gas leaks at chemical parks and oil refineries.
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Families Participate in Hong Kong Protests
Pro-democracy demonstrations are continuing in Hong Kong for a 10th straight weekend, despite the government’s refusal to issue permits for all but one of the marches.The weekend rallies got an early start when activists decided to stage a three-day demonstration at the airport, beginning Friday.There are citywide protests Saturday.Families, many of them with strollers, joined the “Guard The Children” march Saturday. It was the only planned demonstration to have received a permit. A children’s alphabet leaflet was distributed, with A for “angry,” D for “demonstration” and P for “protest.”“We have to tell children about the current situation in Hong Kong, and educate them about what the right kind of society is,” Faye Lai told the French news agency AFP. Lai attended the demonstration with her 3-year-old niece.China has claimed the protests in Hong Kong are funded by the West, but has failed to produce evidence other than supportive statements about the demonstrations from some Western politicians.“Hong Kong poses a serious problem for the Chinese government,” Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, told the Associated Press. “It can’t allow the protesters to challenge its authority or deface symbols of its authority unpunished, but it also does not want to attempt a military crackdown.”The unrest was initially triggered in June by a planned bill that would have allowed suspects to be extradited to China to face trial.The protests have since evolved into a movement for democratic reforms.
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Trump: Will ‘Reciprocate’ if Countries Issue Travel Warnings on US
For many years, the United States has been issuing advisories, warning potential travelers about countries plagued by terrorism or armed conflict. But now, Amnesty International, Japan, Uruguay and other countries are warning about the danger of travel to the U.S., citing gun violence. This sparked a response from President Donald Trump, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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VOA Exclusive: Navalny Deputy Calls Assets Freeze a Predictable, ‘Psychological Projection’
This story originated in FILE – Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, right, argues with a man in a military uniform, left, as opposition activist Leonid Volkov, center, listens during a rally in Novosibirsk, Siberia’s biggest city, Russia, June 7, 2015.Russian ‘projection’Shortly after Thursday’s court ruling was announced, Navalny’s web site posted security camera footage of Russian Investigative Committee officials, Moscow’s equivalent of the FBI, entering FBK headquarters accompanied by masked guards in tactical gear. Other investigators raided the homes of FBK attorneys Vyacheslav Gimadi, Alexander Pomazuyev, Evgeny Zamyatin and Vladlen Los.Agents also searched the homes of FBK video-producer Vitaly Kolesnikov and regional manager Anastasia Kadetova, and called in other FBK representatives for questioning.“Everything is done according to this logic,” Volkov told VOA, explaining that just as a pro-Kremlin legislator who stands accused of murder would call for murder charges against an opposition figure, it was members of the State Duma’s financial crimes committee who filed the motion to bring money laundering charges against Navalny’s group.“Allegations we’ve ‘laundered a billion rubles’ are being levied by the very officials whose homes we’ve proven are worth literally millions of dollars,” he said. “Thieves make accusations of theft; murderers make accusations of murder; rapists make accusations of violence and rape. In psychology, I believe this is what’s called ‘projection.’”Corruption watchdogSince being founded in 2011, Navalny’s FBK corruption watchdog has published reports detailing the lavish lifestyles of figures close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Moscow first deputy mayor Natalia Sergunina.A court spokesperson said the order would freeze assets estimated at a billion rubles ($15.3 million). Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, however, said the Moscow district court ordered a freeze of 75 million rubles ($1.1 million) held in accounts of the FBK and those of several staff members.Russian investigators say the FBK knowingly used a large amount of money that was gained by third parties through criminal enterprises. Yarmysh says the foundation solicits donations on its website.Four FBK employees are currently incarcerated, and several others are under an ongoing investigation. FBK lawyer Lyubov Sobol, who called for protests after she was barred from running for a seat on the Moscow City Duma, has been on hunger strike for almost a month.“What we are seeing now is the most aggressive attempt so far to silence us,” Navalny recently wrote in his blog, vowing not to give in.“The strategic aim of this raid and all the made-up legal affairs is to create fear. … Do not be afraid to go and demonstrate,” he added.The opposition is planning another large protest in Moscow on Saturday, although hundreds were detained at the last gathering Aug. 3.
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Armed Man at Walmart Testing His Right to Bear Arms
Prosecutors on Friday filed a terrorist threat charge against a 20-year-old man who said he walked into a Missouri store wearing body armor and carrying a loaded rifle and handgun to test whether Walmart would honor his constitutional right to bear arms.The incident, just days after 22 people were killed during an attack at another Walmart in El Paso, Texas, caused a panic at the Springfield, Missouri, store. Dmitriy Andreychenko walked through filming himself with his cell phone Thursday afternoon.No shots were fired and Andreychenko was arrested after he was stopped by an armed off-duty firefighter at the store.“Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens,’’ Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said in a statement announcing the charge. Patterson compared the man’s actions to “falsely shouting fire in a theater causing a panic.”Dmitriy Andreychenko, 20, panicked shoppers fled a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri, after Andreychenko, carrying a rifle and wearing body armor walked around the store.If convicted, the felony charge of making a terrorist threat in the second degree is punishable by up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the prosecutor’s office. The charge means he showed reckless disregard for the risk of causing an evacuation or knowingly caused fear that lives were in danger.“I wanted to know if Walmart honored the Second Amendment,” a probable cause statement released Friday with the charges quoted Andreychenko as saying.Recorded his deedAndreychenko started to record himself with his phone while he was still in the car parked at Walmart. He got the body armor from the trunk of his car and put it on before grabbing a shopping cart and walking into the store, according to the statement.Andreychenko said his intention was to buy grocery bags. The rifle had a loaded magazine inserted, but a round was not chambered. A handgun on his right hip was loaded with one round in the chamber.He said he bought the rifle and body armor because of three recent shootings and a stabbing, and said he wanted to protect himself.Wife, sister warned himHis wife, Angelice Andreychenko, told investigators that she warned him it was not a good idea, adding that he was an immature boy.His sister, Anastasia Andreychenko, said he had asked her if she would videotape him going into Walmart with a gun and she also told him it was a bad idea, according to the probable cause statement.The statement does not allege that he pointed the weapons at anyone, although patrons in the surveillance video could be seen in the background running away.Walmart bans himWalmart issued a statement Friday that praised authorities for stopping the incident from escalating. It said Andreychenko is no longer welcome in its stores.“This was a reckless act designed to scare people, disrupt our business and it put our associates and customers at risk,” said spokeswoman LeMia Jenkins. “We applaud the quick actions of our associates to evacuate customers from our store, and we’re thankful no one was injured.”Since January 2017, Missouri has not required a permit to openly or conceal carry a firearm for those 19 years or older. Roughly 30 states allow the open carrying of handguns and rifles and shotguns in public without a permit.San Francisco-based Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said six states generally prohibit the open carrying of rifles and shotguns — California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Jersey — along with the District of Columbia, the law center said.California, Florida and Illinois also generally ban the open carry of handguns, as do New York and South Carolina.Springfield is about 165 miles (266 kilometers) south of Kansas City, Missouri.
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US-Based Experts Suspect Russia Blast Involved Nuclear-Powered Missile
U.S.-based nuclear experts said Friday they suspected an accidental blast and radiation release in northern Russia this week occurred during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile vaunted by President Vladimir Putin last year.The Russian Ministry of Defense, quoted by state-run news outlets, said that two people died and six were injured Thursday in an explosion of what it called a liquid propellant rocket engine. No dangerous substances were released, it said.Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom said early Saturday that five of its staff members died.A spokeswoman for Severodvinsk, a city of 185,000 near the test site in the Arkhangelsk region, was quoted in a statement on the municipal website as saying that a “short-term” spike in background radiation was recorded at noon Thursday.The statement was not on the site Friday.The Russian Embassy did not immediately respond for comment.A view shows an entrance checkpoint of a military garrison near the village of Nyonoksa in Arkhangelsk Region, Russia, Oct. 7, 2018.Liquid fuel engines don’t give off radiationTwo experts said in separate interviews with Reuters that a liquid rocket propellant explosion would not release radiation.They said that they suspected the explosion and the radiation release resulted from a mishap during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile at a facility outside the village of Nyonoksa.“Liquid fuel missile engines exploding do not give off radiation, and we know that the Russians are working on some kind of nuclear propulsion for a cruise missile,” said Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow with the Federation of American Scientists.Russia calls the missile the 9M730 Buresvestnik. The NATO alliance has designated it the SSC-X-9 Skyfall.Kremlin prioritiesA senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he would not confirm or deny that a mishap involving a nuclear-powered cruise missile occurred. But he expressed deep skepticism over Moscow’s explanation.“We continue to monitor the events in the Russian far north but Moscow’s assurances that ‘everything is normal’ ring hollow to us,” the official said.“This reminds us of a string of incidents dating back to Chernobyl that call into question whether the Kremlin prioritizes the welfare of the Russian people above maintaining its own grip on power and its control over weak corruption streams.”The official was referring to the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, which released radioactive airborne contamination for about nine days. Moscow delayed revealing the extent of what is regarded as the worst nuclear accident in history.Putin boasted about the nuclear-powered cruise missile in a March 2018 speech to the Russian parliament in which he hailed the development of a raft of fearsome new strategic weapons.The missile, he said, was successfully tested in late 2017, had “unlimited range” and was “invincible against all existing and prospective missile defense and counter-air defense systems.”‘Not there by accident’Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Non-Proliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said he believed that a mishap occurred during the testing of the nuclear-powered cruise missile based on commercial satellite pictures and other data.Using satellite photos, he and his team determined that the Russians last year appeared to have disassembled a facility for test-launching the missile at a site in Novaya Zemlya and moved it to the base near Nyonoksa.The photos showed that a blue environmental shelter, under which the missiles are stored before launching at Nyonoksa and rails on which the structure is rolled back appear to be the same as those removed from Novaya Zemlya.Lewis and his team also examined Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals from ships off the coast on the same day as the explosion. They identified one ship as the Serebryanka, a nuclear fuel carrier that they had tracked last year off Novaya Zemlya.“You don’t need this ship for conventional missile tests,” Lewis said. “You need it when you recover a nuclear propulsion unit from the sea floor.”He noted that the AIS signals showed that the Serebryanka was inside an “exclusion zone” established off the coast a month before the test, to keep unauthorized ships from entering.“What’s important is that the Serebryanka is inside that exclusion zone. It’s there. It’s inside the ocean perimeter that they set up. It’s not there by accident,” he said. “I think they were probably there to pick up a propulsion unit off the ocean floor.”Lewis said he didn’t know what kind of radiation hazard the Russian system poses because he did was unaware of the technical details, such as the size of the nuclear reactor.But he noted that the United States sought to develop a nuclear-powered missile engine in the 1950s that spewed radiation.“It represented a health hazard to anyone underneath it,” he said.
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