Negotiations on a sweeping 16-nation free trade deal and a code of conduct for the hotly contested South China Sea are expected to take center stage at a summit of Asian leaders in Bangkok next month.The leaders of all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are due to attend the bloc’s regular year-end summit on Nov. 2-4, along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva are also expected.Meetings related to the summit begin Thursday.RCEP a big dealAs this year’s chair of ASEAN, Thailand is hoping to end its run with negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) all but done. In the works since 2012, the deal is seen by some as China’s retort to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiations for which excluded China and fell apart when the US pulled out.Taking in all 10 ASEAN countries and six others — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea — it would cover 45 percent of the world’s population and a third of global GDP.With India and China still at loggerheads over market access, “signing of the RCEP deal seems unlikely” at the summit, said Peter Mumford, head of Southeast Asia coverage for political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.”But ASEAN hopes to at least be able to announce that substantial progress has been made, to ensure momentum is sustained,” he added.Prapat Thepchatree, who heads the ASEAN Studies Center at Thammasat University, said Thailand was keen to show progress under its watch, especially in the face of the rising tide of protectionism, not least from the US-China trade war.Once in place, the RCEP will have “a big impact in terms of financial terms and also in terms of psychological terms. It will give a big push … for all regional countries in this part of the world to hope that we still have a chance to support a liberal economic order, ” he said.With specific tariff negotiations on 80 percent of goods and services complete, and on most others nearly so, the countries could come very close to wrapping up a deal this year, said Piti Srisangnam, director of academic affairs for the ASEAN Studies Center at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University.Order in the South China SeaAt its last leader’s summit in June, ASEAN said it also hoped to finish the year with the negotiating draft of a code of conduct for the South China Sea ready for a first reading. The code would set the rules for settling disputes in the busy sea lane, where China has competing claims with several bloc members to teeming fishing grounds and a seabed potentially rich in oil and gas.Piti said he was hopeful the bloc would announce that the draft was ready for a first reading during the summit, adding that China has raised few complaints with the document of late.”I am expecting…good news,” he said. “There are some good signals from both [sides].”Independence from both China and the USAt the last summit, the bloc also adopted the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, a policy plan that aims to give its members a lead role in tying the Indian and Pacific oceans together while resisting the pull of China and the US to fall wholly into either’s orbit.”I think this document will put big powers in a difficult position to reject it, and in practice … they will have to accept it as a regional principle, and that will [allow] ASEAN to play an important role,” Prapat said. “For the November summit, the task is for ASEAN to convince other big powers to agree to accept this document.”As part of the balancing act, he said ASEAN will use the summit to try to further link its infrastructure plans with China’s Belt and Road Initiative while urging the US, Japan and other powers as well to invest in more projects across the bloc. Thailand has used its latest term as bloc chair to push for connecting the region digitally as well, he added.Will President Trump attend?It remains to be seen whether they will get the chance to make their case to US President Donald Trump himself. Neither the US Embassy in Bangkok nor the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry, which is organizing the summit, would comment on whether he would attend.Should Trump choose to stay away, Prapat said it would further embolden China to assert its will over the region.While his absence has already been factored into expectations, Mumford said, it could still “reinforce the view of some countries in the region that this US administration is less engaged” in Southeast Asia.Piti said the US president may have a strong bearing on the summit either way — by spurring on those who do attend to see the RCEP through.”If they conclude the RCEP by this summit, they should thank Donald Trump … because of his trade war policy,” he said.
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Month: October 2019
Biden: Kushner has no ‘Credentials’ for White House Post
Joe Biden called it “improper” for President Donald Trump for having his daughter and son-in-law hold positions in the White House, suggesting in a CBS interview Sunday that Jared Kushner is not qualified to weigh in on the complex affairs assigned by his father-in-law.That assessment, which the Democratic presidential hopeful offered in a wide-ranging “60 Minutes” interview, ratchets up the rhetoric between Trump and Biden over each other’s adult children and family business affairs.Biden told CBS that he doesn’t like “going after” politicians’ children, but he said none of his children would hold White House posts, even as he continued to defend his son, Hunter, against Trump’s charges that the Biden’s are corrupt because of the younger Biden’s international business affairs while his father was vice president.“You should make it clear to the American public that everything you’re doing is for them,” Biden said, according to a CBS transcript, when he was asked about Ivanka Trump and Kushner, her husband, in White House posts with significant policy portfolios.“Their actions speak for themselves,” Biden said of the Trump family. “I can just tell you this, that if I’m president get elected president my children are not gonna have offices in the White House. My children are not gonna sit in on Cabinet meetings.”Trump: White House Chief of Staff to Decide Fate of Kushner Security Clearance
It will be up to the White House chief of staff to decide whether the U.S.
Asked specifically whether he thinks Kushner should be tasked with negotiating Middle East peace agreements, Biden laughed. “No, I don’t,” he said. “What credentials does he bring to that?”Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine and China remains an emphasis of Trump’s broadsides against Biden, a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. The younger Biden took a post on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm after his father became the Obama administration’s point man on U.S.-Ukraine relations.Trump’s focus on finding information about the Biden’s Ukraine connections is now at the heart of a House impeachment inquiry against the president. Ukrainian investigators have found no legal wrongdoing by either Biden.Noting that, the former vice president blasted social media giant Facebook for allowing the Trump campaign to distribute online ads framing the Bidens as corrupt.“You know, I’m glad they brought the Russians down,” Biden said, noting Facebook’s recent decision to shut down accounts that were distributing misinformation, including about Biden. But, the former vice president asked, “Why don’t you bring down the lies that Trump is telling and everybody knows are lies?”Hunter Biden in a recent interview said the only thing his father said to him at the time he took the post at Burisma was, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”The elder Biden told CBS he never got into any details over the firm, which had been the focus on Ukrainian corruption inquiries.“What I meant by that is I hope you’ve thought this through. I hope you know exactly what you’re doing here,” the elder Biden said. “That’s all I meant. Nothing more than that because I’ve never discussed my business or their business, my sons’ or daughter’s. And I’ve never discussed them because they know where I have to do my job and that’s it and they have to make their own judgments.”And turning the issue back on the president, Biden repeated a line he’s started using on the campaign trail, urging Trump to release his tax returns. “Mr. President … let’s see how straight you are, okay old buddy?” Biden said. “I put out 21 years of mine. You wanna deal with corruption? Start to act like it. Release your tax returns or shut up.”Trump’s attacks have not displaced Biden as a duel Democratic front-runner alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But it has nonetheless raised new questions about Biden’s argument that he’d be the best Democrat to take on the Republican president in a general election. And the Biden attack ads Trump and Republicans have financed in early nominating states, combined with Biden’s own lagging fundraising, have led some of his wealthy supporters to openly discuss the possibility of launching an independent political action committee.Biden’s CBS interview was taped before his recent decision to reverse his previous opposition to such a Super PAC, a move that Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders have indirectly criticized. Biden did address his campaign’s cash balance being dwarfed by Warren and Sanders, saying he’s “not worried” about raising enough money.As to just how he can withstand Sanders’ and Warren’s grassroots fundraising juggernauts, he replied, “I just flat beat them.”
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Hong Kong Business People Set their Sights on America
Hong Kong’s reputation as a haven for freewheeling business has steadily eroded since the territory was handed over to China from Britain in 1997. As anti-government protestors step up demands for democracy, and with demonstrations becoming more violent, however, the business environment is getting worse.High-technology professionals, bankers and financiers head the list of those wanting to go to the United States, a desire that has taken on an added sense of urgency with the level of investment required for the EB-5 U.S. investment visa, known as the “golden visa,” leaping to $900,000 next month from $500,000, where it has been since 1993, as part of an effort to stem money laundering.The EB-5 visa grants a two-year conditional green card in return for investments in struggling parts of the United States, and applicants have until November 21 to apply under the current investment level.Protesters Again Take to Streets of Hong KongTeaser DescriptionThis week, Hong Kong’s governing body formally withdrew the bill that sparked the original protests earlier this year, but that has done little to appease protesters in this leaderless movement, who say they want the government to do more to stave off what they believe is encroaching control from Beijing John Hu, principal consultant of John Hu Migration Consulting, says inquiries have risen four-fold overall since the protests escalated five months ago. He says he is receiving thousands of callers a month, mainly from those interested in heading to the United States, Canada and Australia.”The protests is definitely a catalyst for people who are determined to go to the U.S.,” Hu says from his office in the Wanchai financial district, adding that the U.S. trade war with China is a further spur.”This is a very favorable destination, and also in November the investment amount is going to increase from $500,000 to $900,000, so people are rushing in,” he says, referring to the EB-5 visa.Hong Kong has witnessed a steady loss of its financial clout over the last two decades.Some business have opted for the Chinese financial capital of Shanghai, others for the West, moves which have been blamed on an erosion of freedoms and failure by Beijing to uphold the promises it made before the handover from Britain.
Protesters Again Take to Streets of Hong Kong video player.
Protesters Again Take to Streets of Hong KongAs a result protests have become common, but the recent hike in violent clashes between protesters, police and pro-Beijing gangs, in response to government-planned extradition laws bitterly opposed by business groups, has deeply unsettled the city.Despite the scrapping of those laws, protesters continue to agitate for universal suffrage, and most Sundays are dominated by police and hardcore demonstrators exchanging tear gas and Molotov cocktails. Train stations and businesses with known pro-China leanings are often trashed.On potential emigration to the United States, Hu notes, “First of all, there is the education, because you have the top-of-the-world Ivy League colleges, and we have lots of financial professionals in Hong Kong.” “For people who want to work in Wall Street and the financial world they would like to migrate to the U.S.,” he addedAn October survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found at least a third of the territory’s 7.4 million people would emigrate if they could. Taiwan, Britain, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan are also popular destinations.Huw Watkin, head of the risk, research and investigation company Drakon Associates, says a weak economy and comments by the pro-China lobby have not helped, as they have fueled increased migration, amid the current wave of protests.He cites comments by Junius Ho, ejected from the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s legislature, after suggesting pro-democracy politician Claudia Mo, whose husband is British, “eats foreign sausage.””Incomes have been static for years, the cost of living remains very high, and racist comments by the business elites and pro-China political lobby give the sense that Westerners are actually no longer welcome in Hong Kong,” Watkin adds.”Given that China is clearly more aggressively nationalistic, here as elsewhere, I am not surprised that people are leaving,” he says.At the corporate level, the more recent evidence is anecdotal, however.Goldman Sachs has estimated that between $3 billion and $4 billion in deposits flowed to Singapore, the territory’s main rival in international finance, in July and August.A flash survey led by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore found 80% of respondents believed Hong Kong protests had affected their decisions on whether to make future investments here.Twenty percent said they had “considered plans” to move capital out or relocate their business functions, particularly to Singapore, a trend described by the Hong Kong chamber as a “real concern.”Watkin said Hong Kong’s strong English-language credentials make it easier for business immigrants to meet U.S. entry standards and that the scramble to leave is unlikely to abate, unless the pro-China lobby backs off and Beijing adheres to its “one country two systems” policy.That includes the Basic Law, under which Beijing agreed to 50 years of self government and autonomy.”Hong Kong is this entrepot, this cosmopolitan place, and has been so since its inception,” Watkin saus. “There was a deal and I think it’s incumbent upon the Chinese administration to honor that deal, if not for their own self-interest in being a trusted partner in the world.””In Hong Kong it’s a very unique situation and frankly it’s very hard to predict how this will turn out.”
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Climb Ban Comes into Force at Australia’s Famous Desert Rock
The world famous climb to the top of Uluru, the sacred red rock in central Australia, has permanently closed. Indigenous people have long asked tourists not to walk on the ancient sandstone monolith because of its spiritual significance. But the closure of the climb is not universally popular.Thousands of visitors have poured into the Uluru national park in recent weeks for the chance to reach the summit of the namesake monolith one last time.Tourists climb Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory, Australia, Oct. 25, 2019.It closed Friday at the request of indigenous leaders, who believe the rock is of immense cultural importance. They believe it is sacred, and has a power and a spirituality like nowhere else.Donald Fraser, an Aboriginal elder, is relieved the climb is closing.”The burden will be lifted as of today, as I am speaking. I can feel it. Now is the time for the climb to have a good rest and heal up,” he said.Aboriginal groups have long asked visitors to the site in the central Australian desert not to scale Uluru for cultural reasons. The rock is 348 meters high, and is taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.But some of the last tourists to reach the summit were happy to disregard the wishes of the local indigenous community.”I understand it is a sensitive topic. My view is that Australia should be for all Australians. So I have got no problem at all with people climbing the rock and I think it is a natural human instinct to see something like that and want to climb it,” a climber said.In 1985, control of the rock was handed back to Aboriginal people by the Australian government.A new permanent closure sign is installed at Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock near Yulara, Australia, the day before a permanent ban on climbing the monolith takes effect, Oct. 25, 2019.Authorities believe that closing the climb will not damage the local tourism industry, which is vital to this remote part of the country.The number of people climbing the rock has fallen in recent years, according to Mike Misso, the manager of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.”Over many years, the number of people wanting to climb has actually declined. And before the climb closure was announced, it was less than 10% who actually climbed Uluru, so the numbers, say, 20 years ago there were probably about 30% who wanted to climb and climbed, whereas the numbers have been declining over the last few years anyway,” he said.It is not universally popular, but closing the climb will bring to an end years of distress for Aboriginal people.
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John Conyers, Longest Serving Black Congressman, Dies at 90
Former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, one of the longest-serving members of Congress whose resolutely liberal stance on civil rights made him a political institution in Washington and back home in Detroit despite several scandals, has died. He was 90.Conyers, among the high-profile politicians topped by sex harassment allegations in 2017, died at his home on Sunday, said Detroit police spokesman Cpl. Dan Donakowski. The death “looks like natural causes,” Donakowski added.Known as the dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, which he helped found, Conyers became one of only six black House members when he was won his first election by just 108 votes in 1964. The race was the beginning of more than 50 years of election dominance: Conyers regularly won elections with more than 80 percent of the vote, even after his wife went to prison for taking a bribe.That voter loyalty helped Conyers freely speak his mind. He took at both Republicans and fellow Republicans: he said then-President George W. Bush “has been an absolute disaster for the African-American community” in 2004, and in 1979 called then-President Jimmy Carter “a hopeless, demented, honest, well-intentioned nerd who will never get past his first administration.”Throughout his career, Conyers used his influence to push civil rights. After a 15-year fight, he won passage of legislation declaring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday a national holiday, first celebrated in 1986. He regularly introduced a bill starting in 1989 to study the harm caused by slavery and the possibility of reparations for slaves’ descendants. That bill never got past a House subcommittee.His district office in Detroit employed civil rights legend Rosa Parks from 1965 until her retirement in 1988. In 2005, Conyers was among 11 people inducted to the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.But after a nearly 53-year career, he became the first Capitol Hill politician to lose his job in the torrent of sexual misconduct allegations sweeping through the nation’s workplaces. A former staffer alleged she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances, and others said they’d witnessed Conyers inappropriately touching female staffers or requesting sexual favors.He denied the allegations but eventually stepped down, citing health reasons.“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we’re going through now,” Conyers told a Detroit radio station from a hospital where he’d been taken after complaining of lightheadedness in December 2017. “This, too, shall pass. My legacy will continue through my children.”Conyers was born and grew up in Detroit, where his father, John Conyers Sr., was a union organizer in the automotive industry and an international representative with the United Auto Workers union. He insisted that his son, a jazz aficionado from an early age, not become a musician.The younger Conyers heeded the advice, but jazz remained, he said, one of his “great pleasures.” He sponsored legislation to forgive the $1.6 million tax debt of band leader Woody Herman’s estate and once kept a standup bass in his Washington office.Before heading to Washington, Conyers served in the National Guard and with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War supervising repairs of military aircraft. He earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from Wayne State University in the late 1950s.His political aspirations were honed while working as a legislative assistant from 1958 to 1961 to U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a fellow Michigan Democrat who, when he retired in 2014 at age 88, was Congress’ longest-serving member. That mantle then was passed onto Conyers.Soon after being elected to Congress, Conyers’ leadership at home — in the segregated streets of Detroit — would be tested. Parts of the city were burned during riots in July 1967 that were sparked by hostilities between black residents and Detroit’s mostly white police force, and by the cramped living conditions in black neighborhoods.Conyers climbed onto a flatbed truck and appealed to black residents to return to their homes, but he was shouted down. His district office was gutted by fire the next day. But the plight of the nation’s inner cities would remain his cause.“In Detroit you’ve got high unemployment, a poverty rate of at least 30 percent, schools not in great shape, high illiteracy, poor families not safe from crime, without health insurance, problems with housing,” he told The Associated Press in 2004. “You can’t fix one problem by itself — they’re all connected.”He was fiercely opposed to Detroit’s finances being taken over by a state-appointed emergency manager as the city declared bankruptcy in 2013. Conyers, whose district included much of Detroit, sought a federal investigation and congressional hearings, arguing it was “difficult to identify a single instance” where such an arrangement, where local officials are stripped of most of their power, succeeds.Conyers was the only House Judiciary Committee member to have sat in on two impeachment hearings: He supported a 1972 resolution recommending President Richard Nixon’s impeachment for his conduct of the Vietnam War, but when the House clashed in 1998 over articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, Conyers said: “Impeachment was designed to rid this nation of traitors and tyrants, not attempts to cover up an extramarital affair.”Conyers also had scandals of his own.In 2009, his wife Monica Conyers, a Detroit city councilwoman largely elected on the strength of her husband’s last name, pleaded guilty to bribery. The case was related to a sludge hauling contract voted on by the City Council, and she spent nearly two years in prison.Three years earlier, the House ethics committee closed a three-year investigation of allegations that Conyers’ staff worked on political campaigns and was ordered to baby-sit for his two children and run his personal errands. He admitted to a “lack of clarity” with staffers and promised changes.But he couldn’t survive the last scandal. An ethics committee launched a review after a former longtime staffer said Conyers’ office paid her more than $27,000 under a confidentiality agreement to settle a complaint in 2015. She alleged she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances, and other said they’d witnesses inappropriate behavior.Conyers initially said he looked forward vindicating himself and his family, but he announced his immediate retirement in December 2017 after fellow Democrats called for his resignation. The chorus included Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the House’s top Democrat.Conyers became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when Democrats regained the House majority in 2006. He oversaw 2007 hearings into the White House’s role in the firings of eight federal prosecutors and 2009 hearings on how the NFL dealt with head injuries to players.Conyers frequently swam against the prevailing political currents during his time in Congress. He backed, for example, anti-terrorism legislation that was far less sweeping than a plan pushed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.He was also an early supporter in 2007 of then-Sen. Barack Obama, who was expected by some in the Congressional Black Caucus to push public health insurance, sharp funding increases for urban development and other initiatives long blocked by Republicans.“We want him to stand strong,” Conyers said in 2009.Conyers enjoyed his greatest support back home in Detroit — except when he tried to venture into local politics. Conyers took on 16-year incumbent Mayor Coleman A. Young in 1989, launching his bid with the statement: “Look out, Big Daddy, I’m home.” But a poorly organized campaign helped him finish a mere third in the primary. He ran again for mayor when Young retired in 1993, and lost again.Along with his wife, Conyers is survived by two sons, John III and Carl.
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Wildfires Force State of Emergency in California
California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a statewide state of emergency because of wildfires and power cuts to millions to stop more fires from breaking out.”We are deploying every resource available…it is critical that people in evacuation zones heed the warnings from officials and first responders,” Newsom said in his declaration.Two-hundred thousand people have been forces to flee their homes in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. The country sheriff’s office calls it the largest such evacuation anyone can remember.The Kincade fire, named for a local road where the flames are believed to have started, has already burned more than 12,000 hectares and destroyed a number of buildings, including historic structures in the area, whose vineyards make it popular with tourists. Officials said as of Sunday, only 10% of the Kincade fire was contained. Hot dry desert winds blowing at record-breaking speed are making it almost impossible for firefighters to bring the flames under control.In Southern California, a wildfire in Santa Clarita near Los Angeles is said to be about 65% contained, but not before it destroyed more than a dozen buildings.The California utility company Pacific Gas & Electric shut off power to nearly 1 million homes and businesses across Northern California, some with little notice.Businesses are angry that the power cuts have cost them tens of thousands of dollars and residents bitterly complain about the inconvenience of going all weekend without lights.But PG&E says it doesn’t want electricity surging through power lines that are blown down or knocked over by fallen trees sparking even more fires.California authorities blame PG&E lines for setting last year’s wildfires that killed 85 people and destroyed entire towns. The utility, facing billions of dollars in lawsuits, was forced to declare bankruptcy earlier this year.Governor Newsom says the state will spend $75 million to help residents and businesses deal with the power cuts.
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Protesters Again Take to Streets of Hong Kong
Clashes in the streets as thousands of people took to the streets for another weekend of protests in Hong Kong. This week, the city’s governing body formally withdrew the bill that sparked the original protests earlier this year, but that has done little to appease protesters in this leaderless movement, who say they want the government to do more to stave off what they believe is encroaching control from Beijing. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Hong Kong
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US Military Acted Quickly on Intel to Capture or Kill Baghdadi
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Vice President Mike Pence said late-breaking intelligence gave special forces the opening they needed to carry out the attack on Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after President Trump approved the raid earlier this past week.Vice President Mike Pence told CBS News that by Thursday afternoon, the U.S. had a “high probability” that Baghdadi would be in the compound in Idlib, Syria. He added that the U.S. received “actionable intelligence” on Saturday morning that allowed the mission to move forward that night.A U.S. official told VOA the operation was staged from a base in Iraq. President Trump said eight helicopters flew slightly over an hour to reach the compound.
Esper said soldiers had intended on capturing Baghdadi but were prepared to kill him, if necessary. The team called out to Baghdadi to try to get him to surrender.”He refused. He went down to a subterranean area, and in the process of trying to get him out, he detonated a suicide vest, we believe, and killed himself,” Esper told CNN.According to Pence, the president looked at options presented to him by military leaders on Friday morning.“He reviewed them, asked some great questions, chose the option that we thought gave us the highest probability of success and confirmation that the head of ISIS would be there and either captured or killed,” Esper added.Esper said there were two “minor” injuries to U.S. soldiers in the operation, who have since returned to duty. Trump also indicated a U.S. K-9 was injured.Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces who partnered with the U.S. to defeat Islamic State in Syria, thanked the president on Twitter Sunday and said there had been monitoring and “joint intel cooperation on the ground” with the U.S. for five months.He called the death of Baghdadi a “joint operation,” and hinted at “other effective operations” between the U.S. and SDF in the future. He later said an operation in the region targeted and killed Islamic State spokesman Hassan al-Muhajir. U.S. officials would not comment on Abdi’s Tweets.During the announcement, Trump thanked the SDF, Iraq, Russia, Turkey and Syria, in addition to U.S. military forces who were “so brave and so good.”
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Reaction to Death of Islamic State Leader
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi marks a “turning point” in the fight against terrorism.On Twitter, Erdogan said Turkey would “continue to support anti-terror efforts.. as it has done in the past”.Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement Sunday that Baghdadi was dead, Bahrain’s foreign minister called the death a “fatal blow” to the terrorist organization.مقتل المجرم أبو بكر البغدادي يشكل ضربة قاصمة لتنظيم داعش الارهابي . نحيي الأشقاء و الحلفاء على جهدهم و نجاحهم في العثور عليه و التخلص منه #البغدادي— خالد بن أحمد (@khalidalkhalifa) October 27, 2019Many U.S. lawmakers welcomed the news of the terrorist leader’s death after the president’s announcement, but some underscored the challenges that remain in the fight against terrorism.”The death of al-Baghdadi is significant, but the death of this ISIS leader does not mean the death of ISIS,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Scores of ISIS fighters remain under uncertain conditions in Syrian prisons, and countless others in the region and around the world remain intent on spreading their influence and committing acts of terror. “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the event “a significant step for the campaign against ISIS”.”The world’s most wanted man has been brought to justice. The world is a safer place today,” he said in a statement. “This victory for the U.S. and our many counterterrorism partners is a significant step for the campaign against ISIS, for the future of the Middle East, and for the safety of the American people and free people around the world.”
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Tens of Thousands March in Barcelona Urging Spanish Unity
Tens of thousands of people are marching in Barcelona to protest the separatist movement in the northeastern Catalonia region that has produced Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.Barcelona’s police say 80,000 people have rallied Sunday on one of the city’s main streets, with many carrying Spanish and Catalan flags.One poster read in English: “We are Catalonians too, stop this madness!!”The rally in favor of Spanish unity comes after several days of protests – some of which have spiraled into violent clashes with police – by Catalan separatists. They are angered by a Supreme Court ruling that sentenced nine of separatist leaders to prison for a failed 2017 secession attempt.Polls say the 7.5 million residents of the wealthy Catalonia region are roughly evenly divided on the secession question.
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Afghan officials: US Envoy Visit Over Restarting Peace Talk
An Afghan politician confirms that U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is in Afghanistan’s capital for his first visit since talks between the U.S. and Taliban collapsed last month.
Sayed Hamid Gailani, leader of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, posted on his Twitter account late Saturday that he met with Khalilzad and his team in Kabul to discuss the country’s recent presidential elections and peace efforts.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Afghan official also confirmed Sunday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had met with Khalilzad.
He said that the meeting took place at the presidential palace on Saturday.
Khalilzad’s visit to Kabul follows a meeting in Moscow he held with representatives of China, Russia and Pakistan, over restarting peace talks to end Afghanistan’s 18-year-old war.
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UK Opposition Parties Suggest Dec. 9 Vote in Brexit Gambit
Two British opposition parties want to hold elections even earlier than Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed as they try to ensure the country doesn’t leave the European Union without an agreement.The Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats say they will push for a Dec. 9 election, three days earlier than Johnson has proposed and years earlier than the next scheduled vote in 2022.They also plan to ask EU leaders to extend the Brexit deadline to at least Jan. 31 to provide more time to debate Johnson’s withdrawal agreement.Johnson says if lawmakers approve a Dec. 12 election he will attempt to push his Brexit deal through Parliament quickly. He is seeking to delay Britain’s Oct. 31 Brexit deadline by only a few weeks to keep pressure on lawmakers.
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Hong Kong Protesters Criticize Police Conduct, Draw Tear Gas
Hong Kong police fired tear gas Sunday to disperse a rally called over concerns about police conduct in monthslong pro-democracy demonstrations, with protesters cursing the officers and calling them “gangster cops.” Organizers called the demonstration at a waterfront park but police said the rally was unauthorized and engaged in a standoff with the protesters after ordering them to leave.The protesters taunted the officers, calling them names, and the situation appeared tense. Police fired rounds of tear gas and moved forward to chase away the crowds.Police have faced criticism for heavy-headed tactics including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and a water cannon to subdue protesters who have hurled bricks and firebombs.A light installation — “Free HK” — is seen as people take part in a rally of health care professionals, part of larger pro-democracy demonstrations in which police and hard-line protesters have fought increasingly violent battles, Oct. 26, 2019March to show unityProtesters said they will also march in support of the former British colony’s ethnic and religious minorities, in a show of unity after police used a water cannon to spray a mosque and bystanders the previous weekend. Protesters have taken to the streets for more than four months. The movement was initially sparked by an unpopular extradition bill that many residents worried would put them at risk of being sent into China’s Communist Party-controlled judicial system. The government formally withdrew the bill last week, but the movement has snowballed to include demands for political reform and police accountability.Medical workers protestAt a rally Saturday night organized by medical workers to oppose what they called “violent repression” by police in response to protesters, some protesters jeered and cursed several officers observing from a footbridge.Earlier Saturday, the Hong Kong government won a temporary court order banning anyone from posting personal details or photos of police officers online. The order prohibits unlawfully “publishing, communicating or disclosing” officers’ details including their Facebook and Instagram account IDs or photos of officers or their family members.This month, an 18-year-old was charged with intentional wounding in a slashing attack on a riot officer.Despite repeated government appeals for people not to side with mobs involved in vandalism, throwing gasoline bombs and other violence, the protest movement is still rousing determined support from more moderate demonstrators. They’re broadly worried about the future and freedoms of the city that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, with promises from Beijing that it would largely be its own boss, its way of life unchanged.
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US Police Consider Swapping Tasers for Spider-Man-Like Device
More than 40 people died in 2018 after being shocked by Tasers in the United States. As an alternative, some police departments are trying BolaWrap said to be a new, non-lethal device. Genia Dulot has the story.
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Turning Relics of War Into Calls for Peace
People in Laos have been converted into everyday items materials from hundreds of millions of bombs dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War. That idea has inspired a New York woman to make jewelry from the fragments of bombs and use some of the profits to help Laos clear millions of explosives that never went off. Valdya Baraputri reports.
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Villagers: US Drone Strike in Somalia Kills Frankincense Collectors
BOSASO, Somalia / WASHINGTON / PENTAGON — A U.S. drone strike intended to hit an Islamic State (IS) hideout in Somalia’s northeastern region of Puntland mistakenly killed two frankincense collectors, according to local elders and a survivor who spoke Saturday with VOA.The Friday afternoon attack also injured another person after the drone strike hit the men, who were in the process of collecting frankincense near the remote Ameyra village in the Golis Mountain region of Somalia’s Northeastern Bari province, multiple local elders told VOA.Sa’id Abshir Mohamud, a local elder at Timishe village near the target of the strikes, told VOA Somalia about the reported civilian casualties.“Men sent to the location of the strike brought back the dead bodies of two locally known villagers who went there to collect frankincense,” the elder said.He identified the victims as Salad Mohamud Barre and Ayanle Ibrahim Mohamud.“One of the bodies was mutilated,” the elder said.US AFRICOM denialU.S. Africa Command said it conducted the airstrike and targeted IS terrorists in region. Despite the local elders’ claims, a statement from U.S. AFRICOM said Friday it killed three terrorists and no civilian were harmed. “At this time, it is assessed the airstrike killed three (3) terrorists. Currently, we assess no civilians were injured or killed as a result of this airstrike,” the statement said.To boost their ranks and mislead the locals, terrorists in Somalia routinely spread propaganda saying U.S. military drones target civilians. Additionally, the terrorist groups are known to use civilians as human shields.The prevalence of the militants’ anti-Western smear campaign makes it difficult to immediately prove the complicity or innocence of those targeted by such drone attacks in remote villages.In an exclusive interview Friday with VOA, Africa Command Director of Public Affairs Col. Chris Karns also stressed the importance of the U.S. strikes in Somalia.“Oftentimes people will see the airstrikes, which are important because they help the disrupt al-Shabab. They create organizational confusion, they essentially, the airstrikes prevent them [the terrorists] from maneuvering. So they set the conditions for development. They set the conditions for governance, and they’re foundational to the progress that’s being made,” Karns said.Survivor’s descriptionMohamed Mohamud Barre, a man claiming to be a survivor of the strike, described to VOA what he said he witnessed.“The three of us went there to collect frankincense days ago. A missile surprisingly targeted where we were, killing the two other men. I ran through a dark smoke and the debris of the mountain rocks and crawled under a nearby mountain cave, then another missile was targeted at my location but the cave and Allah saved me. In the cave, I found out that I had sustained shrapnel injuries and remained there until midnight Friday. I am bleeding and I feel kidney pain,” Barre told VOA on the phone.VOA could not fully verify Barre’s claim but Isse Jama Mohamed, a revered local traditional elder, who later contacted VOA, confirmed the man’s claim and called for the Somali federal government to investigate the incident so the victims’ families could pursue their rights for compensation.“One of the dead men left eight orphans and the other, five. I think they were mistakenly targeted. I call for the federal government and the government of Puntland Regional State to look into the incident,” Mohamed said.He said one of the dead men left Bosaso, the port and the commercial hub of Puntland, three days ago to collect frankincense to pay medical bills for his pregnant wife.“He took his pregnant wife to Bosaso for medical care but he could not afford to pay the bills. He decided to go the mountains and collect frankincense to sell and then pay the surgery bills for his wife, who is carrying twin babies, one of them dead,” the elder said.Targeted areaThe area where the latest U.S. strike occurred is a known hideout for IS militants in Somalia. It is a hot and dry rocky land, where locals historically have harvested gold and frankincense, which is used in traditional Sufi religious ceremonies.One attack in the area in April killed the deputy leader of Somalia’s IS group, Abdulhakim Dhuqub, who was responsible for the extremist group’s daily operations, attack planning and resource procurement.Another airstrike in May killed 13 of the group’s fighters.There have been incidents in which the U.S. military has been accidentally responsible for the deaths of civilians and subsequently admitted so after an investigation.Earlier this year, a civilian casualty report issued by human rights group Amnesty International concluded there was credible evidence that five U.S. airstrikes were responsible for the death of 14 civilians killed between 2017 and 2018.The U.S. military initially denied Amnesty International’s reporting but later admitted that a woman and child were killed in one incident in April 2018, near the town of Elbur, in the central Somali region of Galgudud.Officials said they missed the incident because it was not reported to them.The acknowledgement marked the first time the U.S. admitted to causing civilian casualties during its air campaign in Somalia, which began in 2011 under the direction of President Barack Obama.Since the election of President Donald Trump, the number of strikes in the region has risen sharply.U.S. AFRICOM has said repeatedly the precision airstrikes it carries out in Somalia are to support Somali government security forces and create safe space for increased governance in the nation.“In support of the federal government of Somalia, U.S. forces will use all effective and appropriate methods to assist in the protection of the Somali people, including partnered military counterterrorism operations with the Federal Government of Somalia, AMISOM [the African Union Mission in Somalia], and Somali National Army forces,” the latest U.S. AFRICOM statement said.Fadumo Yasiin Jama contributed to this story from Bosaso, Somalia; VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb
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IS Leader Targeted by US Forces Believed Dead; Trump Plans Statement
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, is believed dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria.A U.S. official told The Associated Press late Saturday that al-Baghdadi was targeted in Syria’s Idlib province. The official said confirmation that the IS chief was killed in an explosion is pending. No other details were available.Reports #ISIS leader Abu Bakr al #Baghdadi may have been killed in #Idlib#Syria shouldn’t come as a complete surprise-at least the locationIn July, a @UN report warned senior ISIS leaders “are among those who have made their way to the #Idlib area…”https://t.co/4ixEKW0xT2pic.twitter.com/xEFrnTjy8h— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) October 27, 2019President Donald Trump teased a major announcement, tweeting Saturday night that “Something very big has just happened!” A White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, would say only that the president would be making a “major statement” at 9 a.m. EDT Sunday.From @ABC: https://t.co/RaE2cRAPov#ISIS— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) October 27, 2019The strike came amid concerns that a recent American pullback from northeastern Syria could infuse new strength into the militant group, which had lost vast stretches of territory it had once controlled.U.S. officials feared IS would seek to capitalize on the upheaval in Syria. But they also saw a potential opportunity: that Islamic State leaders might break from more secretive routines to communicate with operatives, potentially creating a chance for the United States and its allies to detect them.Rise and fall of caliphateAl-Baghdadi led IS for the last five years, presiding over its ascendancy as it cultivated a reputation for beheadings and attracted hundreds of thousands of followers to a sprawling and self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria. He remained among the few IS commanders still at large despite multiple claims in recent years about his death and even as his so-called caliphate dramatically shrank, with many supporters who joined the cause either imprisoned or jailed. He had long been thought to be hiding somewhere along the Iraq-Syria border.His exhortations were instrumental in inspiring terrorist attacks in the heart of Europe and in the United States. Shifting away from the airline hijackings and other mass-casualty attacks that came to define al-Qaida, al-Baghdadi and other IS leaders supported smaller-scale acts of violence that would be harder for law enforcement to prepare for and prevent.They encouraged jihadists who could not travel to the caliphate to kill where they were, with whatever weapon they had at their disposal. In the U.S., multiple extremists have pledged their allegiance to al-Baghdadi on social media, including a woman who along with her husband committed a 2015 massacre at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California.$25 million bountyWith a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, al-Baghdadi had been far less visible in recent years, releasing only sporadic audio recordings, including one just last month in which he called on members of the extremist group to do all they could to free IS detainees and women held in jails and camps.The purported audio was his first public statement since last April, when he appeared in a video for the first time in five years.#ISIS supporters urging patience as unconfirmed reports come in that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi may have died in a US-led raid in #Syria… https://t.co/hjJmysXpG2— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) October 27, 2019Per @JihadoScope, #ISIS supporters on social media warning other followers to be wary of Western news reports…but that if the reports are true, #Baghdadi fulfilled his duty for martyrdomhttps://t.co/FDXoU9nOl5— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) October 27, 2019In 2014, he was a black-robed figure delivering a sermon from the pulpit of Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri, his only known public appearance. He urged Muslims around the world to swear allegiance to the caliphate and obey him as its leader.“It is a burden to accept this responsibility to be in charge of you,” he said in the video. “I am not better than you or more virtuous than you. If you see me on the right path, help me. If you see me on the wrong path, advise me and halt me. And obey me as far as I obey God.”Reuters contributed to this report.
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Declining Fish Stocks Threaten Cambodian Way of Life
For centuries, Cambodians have looked to the Tonle Sap for a protein-rich river fish dinner. But supply has been a challenge. Malis Tum reports from a riverbank fish market in Phnom Phen.
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Police, Catalan Separatists Clash as Day of Protest Ends in Violence
Clashes between police and militant elements in a thousands-strong crowd of demonstrators transformed part of central Barcelona into a battleground late on Saturday as another day of pro-independence protests turned violent. Projectiles were fired, at least six people were hospitalized with injuries, and barricades were set alight after officers charged ranks of demonstrators — many young and masking their faces — who had amassed outside Spanish police headquarters. The violent standoff in the city’s tourist heartland offered stark evidence of the fault lines developing between hardline and conciliatory elements within the region’s independence movement. It lasted several hours before protesters dispersed through the city’s streets. Barcelona has witnessed daily pro-secession protests since Oct. 14. That was when Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine politicians and activists to up to 13 years in jail for their role in a failed independence bid in 2017, prompting widespread anger in the region and sending shockwaves through Spain’s political landscape. Catalan pro-independence demonstrators attend a protest to call for the release of jailed separatist leaders in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 26, 2019. Banners read “Freedom.”Saturday’s protest was not the first marred by violence, with unrest notably on Oct. 18 having been more widespread. But it contrasted starkly with events earlier in the day, when 350,000 Catalans had marched peacefully through the city in support of calls from civil rights groups for the jailed separatist leaders to be freed.
Bottles, balls, bulletsThe later protest was organized by CDR, a pro-independence pressure group that favors direct action and has cut off rail tracks and roads, as well as trying to storm the regional parliament. It began around 7:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) and as the crowd grew to around 10,000, according to police estimates, demonstrators threw a hail of bottles, balls and rubber bullets at officers, TV footage showed. Police carrying shields and weapons and backed by some 20 riot vans then charged the demonstrators in an attempt to disperse them, splitting the crowd in two along Via Laietana near the police headquarters. Reuters TV footage showed police armed with batons forcing their way through the crowd while demonstrators threw stones and flares. News channel 24h showed police grappling one-on-one with demonstrators, who fell back before reforming their lines. Some projectiles were fired, with a Reuters photographer among those hospitalized after being hit in the stomach by a rubber or foam bullet. Catalan emergency services said that, in all, six people were hospitalized. The organizers of the earlier protest, grass-roots groups Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC) and Omnium Cultural, had hoped that, with pro-secessionist parties split over what strategy to adopt, it would refocus attention in the secessionist camp by
drawing the largest crowd since the court verdicts were passed. “From the street we will keep defending all the [people’s] rights, but from the institutions we need political answers,” ANC leader Elisenda Paluzie told the gathering, pledging to organize more protests. Local police said around 350,000 attended, compared with a daily peak of 500,000 at the Oct. 18 protest and 600,000 at a march that took place on Catalonia’s national day last month. All those figures, however, represent only a small percentage of the region’s 7.5 million population, and its electorate is almost evenly split over the issue of independence. A Catalan pro-independence demonstrator throws a fence into a fire during a protest against police action in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 26, 2019.Mainstream Spanish parties, including the minority Socialist government, have consistently rejected moves toward Catalan independence and all except for the left-wing Podemos are opposed to any form of referendum. They are now gearing up for a national election on Nov. 10.
‘Prison is not the answer’Both ANC and Omnium Cultural eschew violence and their then-leaders were among the nine jailed on Oct 14. Many who joined their march carried Catalan pro-independence flags and banners bearing slogans that included: “Prison is not the answer,” “Sit and talk” and “Freedom for political prisoners.” In the front row was regional government head Quim Torra, who earlier presided over a ceremony at which hundreds of Catalan mayors endorsed a document demanding self-determination. “We have to be capable of creating a republic of free men and women … and overcoming the confrontational dynamic with a constructive one,” he told them. While not currently affiliated with any party, Torra belongs to the separatist political movement Junts per Catalunya. It has been in favor of maintaining confrontation with authorities in Madrid, while its leftist coalition partner Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya favors dialogue. One marcher, Maria Llopart, 63, criticized the lack of unity between the two parties. “Everything looks very bad. We are not advancing,” she said. Francesc Dot, 65, said the nine leaders had been jailed in defense of “Spain’s unity.” His wife, Maria Dolors Rustarazo, 63, said she should also be in prison because she voted in the 2017 referendum, which Spanish courts outlawed. “If [all separatist votes] … have to go to jail, we will go, but I don’t think we would all fit,” she said. She condemned the violence but had understanding for young protesters being “angry at the lack of democracy.” On Saturday they included Manel, a 20-year-old student with his face obscured by a cloth, who said he was among those who lit barricades during last week’s unrest. “We need a consistent protest — more streets and less parliamentary talk, because that doesn’t seem to work,” he said before the CDR protest turned violent. “If we halt the economy, the Spanish government would be obliged to talk.”
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Trump-Kim Relationship Can’t Fix Everything, North Korea Warns
There has been no substantial progress in U.S.-North Korea ties, a senior North Korean official warned Sunday, stressing that continued “belligerent” relations could lead to an exchange of fire “at any moment.”
The statement from Kim Yong Chol, the country’s former spymaster, appeared designed to further escalate pressure on the U.S. ahead of North Korea’s self-imposed, end-of-year deadline to advance stalled nuclear talks.
North Korean officials have for months praised U.S. President Donald Trump and noted he continues to enjoy a close relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even while slamming the rest of the U.S. administration.
U.S.-North Korea relations could have “derailed and fallen apart several times,” but have been maintained because of the “close personal relations” between Trump and Kim Jong Un, Kim Yong Chol said in a statement published by the Korean Central News Agency. FILE – In this image made from video, Kim Yong Chol, in white, a former military intelligence chief who is now Kim Jong Un’s top official on inter-Korean relations, walks upon arrival at Beijing airport in Beijing, May 29, 2018.”But there is a limit to everything,” he continued. “The close personal relations … are never a guarantee for preventing the DPRK-U.S. relations from getting aggravated.”
The statement reiterated North Korea’s end-of-year deadline, which U.S. officials have dismissed as arbitrary and unimportant.
The U.S. is “seriously mistaken,” Kim Yong Chol said, if it shrugs off the deadline and exploits the Trump-Kim Jong Un relationship as a “delaying tactic.”
Pressure tactic
Mintaro Oba, a former U.S. diplomat focused on the Koreas, said in some ways the statement was a “garden-variety North Korean pressure tactic.”
“They want to put as much personal pressure on President Trump and time pressure on Washington, generally, as they can, while shaping a public narrative where the burden of proving good faith is on the United States,” Oba said.
While the North Korean statement warned of an “exchange of fire,” it still was much less aggressive than the language routinely used by North Korean officials as recently as 2017, during a period of heightened tensions.
FILE – Military guard posts of North Korea, top, and South Korea, center, in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Oct. 15, 2019.”It certainly raises tensions above where they are now, but should be understood in the context of a history of habitually raising tensions for tactical gain and threatening, among many other things, to turn Seoul into a sea of fire,” Oba said.
Trump-Kim still ‘close’
The latest statement also still refrained from directly criticizing Trump, noted Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst and current North Korea expert at the Rand Corporation.
“But this time they’ve stepped it up on him, too,” she said. By warning that the Trump-Kim relationship wouldn’t necessarily prevent ties from deteriorating, North Korea appeared to be sending a subtle threat.
“[It’s] subtle, but in case Trump doesn’t take these threats seriously, they’re sending him another reminder,” Soo Kim said.
A North Korean foreign ministry official said earlier this week that Trump and Kim Jong Un continued to have a “close” and “special” relationship and maintained trust with each other. 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, June 30, 2019.The U.S. and North Korean leaders have met three times since last June and exchange personal letters. Earlier this month, Trump also suggested he talks with Kim Jong Un on the phone.
But the two men’s relationship has failed to transform broader U.S.-North Korea relations or secure progress on eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang has appeared reluctant to talk with anyone other than Trump, leading some analysts to say the Trump-Kim relationship may actually be preventing more substantial, lower-level negotiations.
Talks stalled
Talks broke down in February when Trump walked away from a summit with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, over disagreements on how to begin implementing denuclearization.
Following several months of little interaction, North Korea agreed to hold working-level talks in Stockholm, Sweden, apparently encouraged by Trump’s suggestion of the need for a “new method” to the discussions.
But North Korea walked away after just one day of meetings. The North later said it had no intention of engaging in “sickening negotiations” until the U.S. took unspecified steps to withdraw its “hostile policy.”
At their first meeting, held in Singapore last June, the two leaders agreed to improve U.S.-North Korea relations and to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But the two sides have been unable to agree on what denuclearization means or how to begin implementing it.
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Cameroon Military Frees Hostages, Kills Captors
Camerooon’s military freed a group of people this week who had been taken hostage by rebels from the Central African Republic. The rebels took 22 locals hostage two weeks ago and held them for ransom. But the military’s raid Thursday night on Garoua Boulai freed 13 Central Africans and Cameroonians. Residents in the Cameroon villages of Mbaimbum, Tchabal and Bigao were still discussing the raid days later. Cattle rancher Muhamady Issa was one of those abducted. He said the kidnappers had killed some of the hostages.
Issa said that while in captivity in the mountains on the border with CAR, he decided to escape to the surrounding bushes and hills instead of being slaughtered, as had happened to seven fellow captives within 10 days.
Issa fled and was found in the hills by the Cameroon military. At least two of the people kidnapped were still missing. Five kidnappers killed
Cameroonian army Colonel Dominique Njonkan, commander of the troops who carried out the raid, said his men killed five of the abductors. He said that with the public’s help, the army was trying to determine which armed gang the men belonged to.
“The results are satisfactory and the population is collaborating more and more,” Njonkan said. “They must have confidence, make sure that they go ahead with their activities without fear, to make sure that economic activities are revamped to the maximum.”
Cameroon shares a boundary of over 1,000 kilometers with CAR. Since conflicts in the neighboring state erupted in 2013, many armed gangs have established bases in eastern Cameroon. Members of the Cameroon military display weapons seized from hostage-takers, in Mbaimbum, Cameroon, Oct. 25, 2019. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)Cameroon deployed its elite corps, the Rapid Intervention Batallion, to fight the rebels.
George Kombo, spokesman for youths of Kadei district on the border, said that despite the heavy presence of troops, armed gangs continued to attack them regularly.
He said hardly a week goes by in the Kadei district without armed groups crossing over from CAR to steal, kill or capture people for ransom. He said the last incident occurred Thursday when an armed gang killed six people in the border village of Bombe, which is also home to hundreds of CAR refugees.
The government and local authorities have not confirmed the attacks, but they say the military presence has been increased in villages in the Kadei district. 1 million-plus displaced
Violence erupted in CAR in 2013 after longtime leader Francois Bozize was overthrown by a predominantly Muslim rebel alliance called the Seleka. The conflict has displaced more than 1 million people, according to the U.N.
This week, close to 400 CAR refugees in Cameroon agreed to voluntarily repatriate. But the vast majority of the 274,000 refugees are reluctant to go home because of continuing violence.
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California Faces ‘Potentially Historic’ Winds, Huge Power Shutoffs
California is bracing for “extreme” and “potentially historic” winds, the National Weather Service warned Saturday. State officials in the wine region ordered evacuation of at least 50,000 more people as a nearby wildfire continued to burn.
In addition, millions more California residents will face power outages as utility company Pacific Gas & Electric decided Saturday afternoon to begin mass power shutoffs. The shutoffs will affect nearly 1 million customers, affecting nearly 3 million people, and will include San Francisco, California’s wine country and the Sierra foothills.
In the past month, PG&E has shut down power to thousands of consumers to try to contain the spread of the fires. PG&E is in bankruptcy because of liability from recent major wildfires, including one last year that killed 85 people in the northern California town of Paradise.
Forecasters said hot, dry winds, some as strong as 112 kph (70 mph), were expected to start late Saturday and last into Monday in the San Francisco Bay Area. The National Weather Service warned the winds, often called Santa Ana or Diablo winds, might be a record event. A firefighter hoses a hot spot while battling the Kincade Fire in Geyserville, Calif., Oct. 24, 2019.Lengthy period
“This is definitely an event that we’re calling historic and extreme,” David King, meteorologist for the U.S. National Weather Service, told the Los Angeles Times. “What’s making this event really substantial … is the amount of time that these winds are going to remain.”
“The weather event could be the most powerful in California in decades,” PG&E said Saturday, adding, “PG&E will need to turn off power for safety several hours before the potentially damaging winds arrive.”
“Winds of this magnitude pose a higher risk of damage and sparks on the electric system and rapid wildfire spread,” the utility said.
Cal Fire Division Chief Jonathan Cox warned the high winds could also lead to the grounding of water-dropping aircraft, as well as the driving of hot embers far ahead of the flames, setting new blazes, the Associated Press reported.
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in both Sonoma and Los Angeles counties Friday. No injuries have been reported from either fire. 2 towns in evacuation order
On Saturday, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office issued the latest evacuation order, which they said would be the largest in the county in more than 25 years and include the entire towns of Healdsburg and Windsor.
In a visit to the communities affected by the Kincade Fire on Friday, Newsom expressed frustration with PG&E, saying the company “simply did not do their job.”
The company has said its electrical equipment may have caused the Kincade Fire, despite pre-emptive power outages to try to avoid a fire.
PG&E sent an “electric safety incident” report Thursday to the California Public Utilities Commission, saying that one of its power lines malfunctioned at about the time and location as the origin of the Kincade Fire.
The company said that while it shut off power to much of the region, it did not de-energize the transmission line that malfunctioned.
Firefighters are battling wildfires in Northern and Southern California, from Sonoma County to Los Angeles. Severe damage
The California Department of Forestry and Protection said about 2,000 firefighters were battling the Kincade Fire, located near Geyserville, about 120 kilometers (77 miles) north of San Francisco. The fire was only 10 percent contained by Saturday. Officials said the fire had destroyed 49 buildings, including 21 homes, and scorched nearly 104 square kilometers (25,700 acres) of the state’s wine-growing region. Debris from a hilltop home smolders after being burned by the Tick Fire, Oct. 25, 2019, in Santa Clarita, Calif. An estimated 50,000 people were under evacuation orders in the Santa Clarita area north of Los Angeles.In Southern California, the Tick Fire threatened Santa Clarita, just north of Los Angeles. Residents who had been ordered to evacuate were allowed back to their homes on Saturday. The fire scorched about 16 square kilometers (40 acres) and forced the closure of schools and a major freeway on Friday.
No injuries were reported caused by the Tick Fire.
Across the border, in Mexico’s Baja California state, officials said wildfires killed three people and destroyed 150 homes.
Antonio Rosquillas, the state’s director of civil protection, told the French news agency AFP on Saturday that Tecate, on the U.S.-Mexico border, was hardest hit by the wildfires.
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Pope’s Amazon Synod Proposes Married Priests, Female Deacons
Catholic bishops from across the Amazon called Saturday for the ordination of married men as priests to address the clergy shortage in the region, an historic proposal that would upend centuries of Roman Catholic tradition.
The majority of 180 bishops from nine Amazonian countries also called for the Vatican to reopen a debate on ordaining women as deacons, saying “it is urgent for the church in the Amazon to promote and confer ministries for men and women in an equitable manner.”
The proposals were contained in a final document approved Saturday at the end of a three-week synod on the Amazon, which Pope Francis called in 2017 to focus attention on saving the rainforest and better ministering to its indigenous people.
The Catholic Church, which contains nearly two dozen different rites, already allows married priests in Eastern Rite churches and in cases where married Anglican priests have converted. But if Francis accepts the proposal, it would mark a first for the Latin Rite church in a millennium. Tradition since 11th century
The celibate priesthood has been a tradition of the Latin Rite Catholic Church since the 11th century, imposed in part for financial reasons to ensure that priests’ assets pass to the church, not to heirs.
Francis told the bishops at the end of the voting that he would indeed reopen the work of a 2016 commission that studied the issue of women deacons. And he said he planned to take the bishops’ overall recommendations and prepare a document of his own before the end of the year.
Some conservatives and traditionalists have warned that any papal opening to married priests or women deacons would lead the church to ruin. They accused the synod organizers and even the pope himself of heresy for even considering flexibility on mandatory priestly celibacy.
They vented their outrage most visibly this week when thieves stole three indigenous statues featuring a naked pregnant woman from a Vatican-area church and tossed them to into the Tiber River.
The statues, which conservatives said were pagan idols, were recovered unscathed by Italy’s Carabinieri police. They were on display Saturday as the synod bishops voted on the final document, which was approved with each paragraph receiving the required two-thirds majority.
The most controversial proposals at the synod concerned whether to allow married men to be ordained priests, to address a priest shortage that has meant some of the most isolated Amazonian communities go months without a proper Mass. The paragraph containing the proposal was the most contested in the voting, but received the required majority 128-41. ‘Suitable and esteemed men’
The proposal calls for the establishment of criteria “to ordain priests suitable and esteemed men of the community, who have had a fruitful permanent diaconate and receive an adequate formation for the priesthood, having a legitimately constituted and stable family, to sustain the life of the Christian community through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon region.”
The paragraph ended by noting that some participants wanted a more “universal approach” to the proposal — suggesting support for married priests elsewhere in the world.
Francis has long said he appreciates the discipline and the gift of celibacy, but that it can change, given that it is discipline and tradition, not doctrine.
History’s first Latin American pope has been particularly attentive to the argument in favor of ordaining “viri probati” — or married men of proven virtue — in the Amazon, where Protestant and evangelical churches are wooing away Catholic souls in the absence of vibrant Catholic communities where the Eucharist can be regularly celebrated.
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Former Refugee Recalls Danger of Being Smuggled in Truck
Ahmad Al-Rashid knows what the suffering was like for the 39 people who were found dead in the back of a truck in southeastern England this week. The 29-year-old Syrian refugee found himself gasping for breath inside a refrigerated shipping container with a group of migrants and a load of frozen chicken when a planned trip across the English Channel turned into hours of terror in 2015. The truck hadn’t even left the French port of Calais when someone heard the cries of the desperate migrants and opened the doors.
I was in their shoes. I knew the desperation of their last moments,'' he said of the people who died this week.In my case, someone came to help me. [For them], all their screams were in vain.”
Authorities are calling Wednesday’s truck container discovery in a town near London one of Britain’s worst human smuggling cases. Rashid said it brought his journey to the U.K., and its terrors, back in stark relief. ‘One hell to another’
Rashid fled Aleppo in 2013, thinking he would return to his wife and two children in a few weeks. He first went to northern Iraq, where he taught English to other refugees. But the shooting and bombs followed him from one hell to another,'' so he finally decided to pay smugglers to help him get to Europe. The Jungle,” a notorious camp outside Calais where migrants gathered in hopes of hitching rides to the U.K. until it was closed in 2016.
The journey took Rashid from Iraq to Turkey and Greece, where Rashid said the smugglers opened a suitcase full of passports and gave him one from Bulgaria. From Greece, he traveled to Marseille in southern France, then on to
Even after he almost suffocated in the back of the shipping container, Rashid recalled trying to get across the channel until he finally succeeded, hiding in the back of a truck — but just a regular one that wasn’t airtight.
He was eventually granted asylum, allowing him to start a new life and bring his wife and children to Britain.
In contrast to his own arrival, Rashid met his family at Heathrow Airport and drove them back to his apartment in the central English city of Derby.
They could fly, you know, safely, with dignity,'' Rashid said.And this was the whole point for me making this journey, because it was for the sake of my family.” FILE – Signs and candles on a wall were placed at a vigil for the 39 smuggling victims found dead in a truck in an industrial park in England, outside the Home Office in London, Oct. 24, 2019.Now Rashid works with other refugees and migrants, helping them get on their feet in a new land. And he has a message for anyone thinking of traveling to Europe: Don’t trust the people smugglers.
They don't see you as a human being. They see you as a commodity, as money, as an object,'' he said.Never, ever, trust them. I mean, I had to put my faith inthem and I regretted it.”
Rashid told his story to The Associated Press to try to make people understand that migrants and refugees gamble their lives in sealed trucks and leaky rafts because safer routes have been closed to them. They take risks because they feel like they have no other choice, he said.
No one puts their life in danger for no reason,'' Rashid said.People do this out of desperation.”
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