Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accusing Libyan militia leader General Khalifa Haftar of violating a cease-fire agreement. Despite deploying Turkish forces to back the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), though, Erdogan seems to be increasingly looking to diplomacy rather than force. “He [Haftar] says he agreed to a cease-fire, but two days subsequent, he bombed the [Tripoli] airport. So how can we trust him?” Erdogan said Friday in Istanbul with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Haftar’s forces control most of Libya in their war against the U.N.-recognized GNA. Merkel on Sunday hosted an international summit in Berlin aimed at resolving the Libyan civil war. A 55-article road map to end the conflict was drawn up at the meeting, which Erdogan attended. Erdogan challenged Merkel at the news conference, however, to confirm whether Haftar had signed the Berlin agreement. A visibly uncomfortable Merkel confirmed he only orally agreed to it, noting that officials were still waiting for his signature. FILE – Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj leaves after an international conference on Libya at the Elysee Palace in Paris, May 29, 2018.Support for SarrajDespite the Berlin agreement’s reaffirmation of the Libyan international arms embargo, the Turkish president said he would continue supporting the GNA’s prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj. “We sent them a [military] delegation and continue to do so. We won’t abandon Sarraj. We will give the support we can,” Erdogan said. “Our soldiers are there to assist in the training [of GNA forces]. We have a history of 500 years, and we have an invitation [from the GNA] that gives us our right,” he added. But Erdogan, several times during the news conference, said the forces were purely for training. Earlier this week, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Aktar also stressed the training purpose of the Libyan deployment. The Turkish force reportedly still only numbers in the dozens. The downplaying of the military deployment contrasts with Erdogan’s recent sharp rhetoric. Last week, the Turkish president, while announcing to Parliament soldiers’ deployment, said Ankara would not hesitate about “teaching a lesson” to Haftar if his forces continued attacking. Fears of wider warSuch language reportedly has set off alarm bells in the region over fears that Turkish forces in Libya could end up triggering a wider regional conflict with Haftar’s military backers, including Egypt. Given that Libya is 2,000 kilometers from Turkey, though, a military expert questioned whether Ankara was capable of sustaining a hot conflict. “The logistic challenge is enormous, and these challenges, as they look now, are insurmountable. It’s far away. It’s not like Syria is just across the border,” said former Turkish General Haldun Solmazturk, a veteran of cross-border military operations. “If fighting gets tough, casualties would be inevitable. Returning dead persons and wounded would also be a major challenge. Apart from the fuel, the ammunition, spare parts, there are thousands of items needed to be provided in such an environment,” added Solmazturk, who heads the 21st Century Turkey Institute, an Ankara-based research organization. FILE – Khalifa Haftar, the military commander who dominates eastern Libya, arrives at an international conference on Libya at the Elysee Palace in Paris, May 29, 2018.Turkish forces are already stretched, being deployed in Iraq and Syria, while analysts point out Haftar is in a strong military position. “At the moment the situation seems to be working on the side of Haftar. He has better weapons. He has jet fighters. He has superiority of the air and in the field,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. Further complicating Ankara’s situation is its international isolation over Libya’s military deployment. Erdogan’s shuttle diplomacy this month drew a blank, failing to win backing from Libya’s neighbors, Algeria and Tunisia. Erdogan also reportedly failed at the Berlin summit to secure backing for an international peacekeeping force, including the Turkish military, to be deployed to enforce a cease-fire in Libya. Military challenges for TurkeyAnalysts suggest Ankara’s isolation only compounds the military challenges it faces in Libya. “The Mediterranean, in terms of naval transportation, is controlled by not too friendly forces. And neighboring countries Tunisia, Algeria and Italy are less than willing to help or to provide any logistic bases or any other logistic support. They seem determined to stay out of this,” said Solmazturk. FILE – Turkish lawmakers vote on a bill that allows troop deployment to Libya, at the Parliament in Ankara, Jan. 2, 2020.”Libya threatens to be another Syria, where countless lives and many treasures will be wasted to defend a very ill-defined ‘national objective,’ ” warned analyst Atilla Yesilada of GlobalSource Partners, an economic and security research group based in New York. Erdogan appears increasingly to be looking to diplomacy in a bid to isolate Haftar. In a speech Thursday in the presence of Merkel, the Turkish president called for “pressure” to put on Haftar. Erdogan challenged the international community over its courting of Haftar, despite the general’s failure so far to sign on to a cease-fire. “It doesn’t make sense such support is continued,” he said at Friday’s news conference with Merkel, “if such a person is constantly so spoiled.” Migrant issueThe Turkish president also is seeking to play the migrant card against Europe, warning of “chaos” if Haftar remains unchecked. Some analysts are warning, however, that Ankara needs to face the reality that the region has little appetite for a Turkish role in Libya. “The region wants neither Turkey nor Russia seeking to extend its hegemony to Libya and the wider region. This is the reality,” said Bagci. But for now, Ankara is likely figuring on having a limited military presence in Libya while continuing to push for international deliberations on a resolution to Libya’s civil war and its future.
…
Month: January 2020
Amid Impeachment Drama, Balkan Dispute Gets High-Level US Attention
While Washington obsesses about tensions with Iran and the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, a pair of high-ranking administration officials has been crisscrossing Europe and the Western Balkans in pursuit of a solution to a dispute that most Americans have barely noticed. The high-level focus on the quarrel between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo has left some analysts struggling to explain how the issue fits into a Trump administration foreign policy driven by crises in North Korea and Iran and defined by the slogan “America First.”Trump himself has demonstrated a personal interest in the issue, tweeting approvingly on the eve of the impeachment trial’s opening about the establishment of direct flights between the two countries:Everyone said it couldn’t be done. But for the first time in a generation, there will be direct flights between Serbia and Kosovo. Another win. Thanks to FILE – U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell is pictured in Berlin, Germany, May 8, 2018.“The tariffs must be dropped. That is unacceptable, and I also bring the same request here, which is the de-recognition campaign must stop,” he said in Belgrade, after a meeting Friday with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. “What we’ll do is continue moving in this direction of concentrating on the economy, concentrating on growing jobs.” Neither the White House nor State Department responded to requests for comment on the thinking behind the high-level engagement. Ripe for resolutionAnalysts contacted by VOA see little strategic value for the United States in throwing so much diplomatic muscle at the issue. But they suggest the problem is ripe for a resolution and could provide the administration with an easy foreign policy success. “So far as I can tell, the administration is beating the bushes for a success somewhere in the world. There is no real strategic interest,” said Daniel Serwer of Johns Hopkins University in an email exchange with VOA’s Albanian service. Damon Wilson, a vice president at the Atlantic Council, a global affairs research group in Washington, offered VOA’s Serbian service a similar analysis, noting the frustrating lack of progress on some of the administration’s biggest foreign policy concerns, including Iran and North Korea. “You don’t get easy wins in the Western Balkans, either, and yet in the Western Balkans we are dealing with democratic states that want to be part of the strategic West, that have a shared vision of the future of the region as a prosperous part of Europe,” he said. “This gives us something to work with, and while it might look hard, it actually looks relatively easy when you compare it to Iran, North Korea, Venezuela.” FILE – People protest after Kosovo’s decision to raise tariffs on Serbian and Bosnian goods, in the village of Rudare near Mitrovica, Kosovo, Nov. 23, 2018.Wilson added that the issue gives the United States a chance to show that “we are going to be engaged, we are not leaving a vacuum in the Western Balkans, we’ve got a role to play, we want to play that role and we are going to do it.” James Hooper, a former U.S. diplomat and executive director of the Washington-based Balkan Action Council, said a breakthrough on the issue would allow Trump to show he is not distracted by the impeachment drama and give him an achievement to highlight as he seeks re-election in November. But Wilson warned against attaching too much significance to the initiative as an election boon, saying, “It’s not exactly a vote-getter out there in Iowa,” where Republicans and Democrats will cast the first votes to select their presidential candidates early next month. Chance for progressRegardless of the motive, Hooper sees an opportunity to make real progress on a dispute that has held back progress in both countries. “This is a real opportunity because Washington is paying attention and Grenell is a serious person and he has a lot of influence in the White House,” he said. Alon Ben-Meir, a professor at New York University, said both Kosovo and Serbia would be wise to take advantage of that opportunity. “They are neighbors. They have to deal with one another. There is interdispersement of population. Many Serbs live in Kosovo. It is time for them to recognize certain facts on the ground that they cannot change,” he said. So far, however, there is little indication they will do so. Serbia immediately rejected Grenell’s proposals while Pristina has yet to deliver a clear response. “I don’t accept to draw an equality mark between the tariffs and the revoking of the campaign against recognition,” said Vucic, the Serbian president. “America and Pristina … want Kosovo’s independence recognized. We do not. So it is logical that we have differing positions.” Ivana Konstantinovic from VOA’s Serbian service contributed to this report.
…
Top Indonesian Official: US Reporter Should Be ‘Deported Immediately’
Indonesia’s top security official said Friday that detained U.S. journalist Philip Jacobson should be deported immediately. Jacobson, 30, a reporter for the California-headquartered environmental news outlet Mongabay, was detained December 17 in Borneo for an alleged visa violation. The reporter was held without formal due process after attending a regional parliamentary hearing involving the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, Indonesia’s largest indigenous rights advocacy group. This week, Jacobson was formally arrested and told he faced up to five years in prison for visiting Indonesia with the wrong visa, a claim his employer and U.S. officials have disputed. Official: Reporter’s work, arrest not linkedSpeaking with VOA on Friday, Indonesia’s Chief Security Minister Mohammad Mahfud MD reiterated claims made by Borneo officials that Jacobson’s arrest was not linked to his reporting on sensitive stories about Indonesia’s myriad environmental and corruption woes. But then he said Jacobson should be released. “He came to Indonesia on a visit visa and then turned out he did journalism activities to write the news,” said Mahfud. “There was already evidence and then he was detained. Yes, that’s the fact, Indonesian law is like that, but he should just be deported immediately.” Mahfud’s comments preceded by hours a report published by Mangobay that said Jacobson had been “moved from prison to ‘city detention’ in Palangkaraya.” “We are grateful that authorities have made this accommodation and remain hopeful that Phil’s case can be treated as an administrative matter rather than a criminal one,” said Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler. “We thank everyone for their continued support.” Employer surprised by responseAccording to Mongabay, Jacobson traveled to the country on a multiple-entry business visa. The news outlet expressed surprise that Indonesian immigration officials took such stringent actions against its reporter for the perceived administrative violation. According to various news reports, Jacobson repeatedly had entered and left Indonesia on a non-journalist visa. The Jakarta-based Legal Aid Center for the Press told VOA the hearings Jacobson attended and his activities were “in accordance with applicable legal norms.” Summoned Friday by the Indonesia Security Ministry, U.S. Ambassador Joseph R. Donovan said: “It is important for us to deal with issues like this through the proper channels.” This story originated in VOA’s Indonesian service. Some information is from AFP.
…
Tens of Thousands Turn Out in Baghdad for Anti-US Protest
Tens of thousands of people poured into a central Baghdad square Friday for what had been billed as a “million-man” march, carrying Iraqi flags and signs and shouting “No, No America.” Many wore white fabric, symbolizing their determination to see the U.S. military either leave Iraq, or be expelled. “Many protesters wear white fabric, symbolizing their determination to expel the U.S. from Iraq on Jan. 24, 2020 in Baghdad. (Halan Akoy/VOA)We want the invaders out,” said Ra’ad, a protester and father who does piecemeal work to feed his five children. “If the politicians don’t make them leave the military will.” Prominent Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for a “million-man” march to demand the expulsion of American forces after the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful general, in a Jan. 3 airstrike at the Baghdad airport. Six others died in the airstrike, including Iraqi Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of a Shi’ite militia groups known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Iran retaliated with airstrikes on U.S. bases in Iraq, and both sides have threatened grave consequences if they are struck again.Shi’ite politicians subsequently used their majority in parliament to push through a resolution calling for the U.S. military to be expelled from Iraq, while Sunni and Kurdish politicians, representing the country’s two largest minorities, boycotted the vote. Iraq’s president, a Kurd, declared that “the vote is not good for Iraq.”Despite the vote, the United States has said it has no plans to leave the country and the Iraqi government has given no indication that it can or will try to force the U.S. troops out.This protesters sign says “I am an Iraqi against the presence of America on Jan. 24, 2020 in Baghdad. (H.Murdock/VOA)At the rally, some men expressed their anger by burning a paper American flag, while others carried signs saying, “I am an Iraqi against the presence of America.” Some signs said more directly, “Death to America” or “Death to Israel.” Anti-government protesters in Iraq have rallied every day since early October to demand government action on basic human needs like jobs, security and health care. At least 600 people have died in these demonstrations, but protesters say they are not giving up. Friday’s protest was not related to those protests and was held in a different part of Baghdad.Ambulances line up outside the protest during morning hours on Jan. 24, 2020 in Baghdad. (H.Murdock/VOA)Ambulances were lined up outside the rally, but by 2:30 p.m. the day remained peaceful. Gunshots rang out late the night before in the area, but no deaths or injuries were reported. “It’s not good for our economy to have the U.S. here,” said Ra’ad, the protester. “They come here and they take our resources out.”
…
Nigerian Journalist Found Hacked to Death
A Nigerian reporter has died after being discovered bound, gagged and near death in a farmer’s field in Adamawa state.In a development first reported by regional news outlets, Maxwell Nashan, a newscaster with government-owned Federal Radio Corporation (FRCN), appears to have been abducted from his home before being bound, gagged and hacked to death.Women who discovered Nashan in the early hours of Jan. 15 contacted Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, who rushed to the scene but were unable to save Nashan, who died shortly after arriving at a hospital.Police officials have confirmed the killing but have yet to determine whether it was tied to Nashan’s work as a journalist.Donald Didan, Adamawa state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, urged police to bring the assailants to justice, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday called on Nigerian officials to conduct a thorough investigation.Colleagues of Nashan, who covered the Adamawa state house of assembly and was preparing for his wedding in the days leading up to the attack, told CPJ they were not aware of any threats made against the journalist. Local police, however, said they found a message Nashan had sent from his cellphone saying his life was in danger.Nashan’s relatives described evidence of a break-in at his home in the Lainde community, where nothing but his computer was missing.”Maxwell Nashan must not become just another crime statistic, and investigators must consider whether his journalism was the motive for his killing,” Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, said in a prepared statement. “Authorities in Nigeria must work to ensure the safety of reporters, which includes investigating acts of violence against members of the press.”CPJ said police had arrested eight suspects in connection with the case.At least five journalists have been killed in relation to their work in Nigeria since 2010, according to CPJ, which ranks Nigeria 12th on its 2019 impunity index.
…
Plague of Locusts Attacking Crops in Horn of Africa
The United Nations says urgent action must be taken to halt an invasion of locusts that is threatening food crops and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa.A locust invasion is swarming across parts of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, destroying crops and pastureland in its wake. The United Nations says this is the worst outbreak of its kind in 25 years for Ethiopia and Somalia, and the worst Kenya has seen in 70 years.U.N. agencies warn the locusts are likely to spread even farther across East Africa unless immediate action is taken to rid the region of the pests. Jens Laerke, spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told VOA the U.N. has released $10 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to counter the outbreak.Desert locusts sit on a tree branch in Katitika village, Kitui county, Kenya, Jan. 24, 2020.”It is an early intervention to try to nip this in the bud,” he said. “But it is clear that also the countries affected are very much alert on this and doing their best to prevent it from spreading any further.” Laerke said a lot more money than the initial U.N. contribution will be required to tackle the locust plague, which already is devastating the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people. “This desert locust is among the most dangerous migratory pests in the world,” he said. “A single locust can travel 150 kilometers and eat its own weight in food — about two grams — each day. A small swarm can consume the equivalent of food for 35,000 people in one day.” Aerial pesticide spraying is considered the best way to get rid of the locust swarms. U.N. officials say a large-scale spraying operation must begin now, before the rains start in March and the locust-breeding season begins. The U.N. warns that locusts reproduce rapidly and, if left unchecked, their current numbers could grow 500 times by June, when the main cropping season gets under way.
…
Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake Hits Turkey
Turkey’s emergency management agency says an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has shaken the country’s east.The earthquake struck Friday at 1755 GMT, 8:55 p.m. local time, near the town of Sivrice in eastern Elazig province, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said there were no reports deaths in Sivrice or other affected areas. However, 4-5 buildings collapsed in Sivrice, where two people were hurt, he said. Soylu was at a meeting on earthquake preparedness when the quake struck.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters that there were no reports of any casualties in Sivrice but said the quake may have caused casualties in rural areas outside the town. He said troops were on standby to help is they are needed.
The Kandilli seismology center in Istanbul said the quake measured 6.5.
The U.S. Geological Survey gave the preliminary magnitude as 6.7, with the quake affecting not only Turkey but also Syria, Georgia and Armenia.
Turkish media said the earthquake sent people running outdoors for safety.
…
Police: 2 Dead After Warehouse Explosion Shakes Houston
A massive explosion Friday leveled a warehouse in Houston, leaving two people dead, damaging nearby buildings and homes and rousing frightened residents from their sleep miles away, authorities said.
The explosion happened about 4:30 a.m. inside a building at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, which makes valves and provides thermal-spray coatings for equipment in various industries, authorities said. The building was reduced to burning rubble and debris, and some of the surrounding buildings suffered heavy damage to parts of their walls and roofs.
Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed the deaths Friday. He said authorities don’t believe the explosion was intentional though a criminal investigation is underway.
“Do a search around your own home and your own neighborhood, even if you’re a mile away from this location,” Acevedo said. “Look for any debris, any body parts, anything that may be related. If you find anything in your immediate home, in your yard, don’t touch it. Just call the Houston Police Department so we can respond.”
Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said hazardous materials crews have secured the valve on a 2,000-gallon (7,571-liter) tank of propylene that had been leaking. Propylene is a colorless gas used to produce chemicals in plastics, synthetic rubber and gasoline. It is highly flammable and can explode in a fire. People exposed to propylene can become dizzy and light-headed, and the gas can also cause liver damage.
Nearby homes sustained significant damage. Some were knocked off their foundations.
Danny Wilson, 63, who lives less than a mile from the site, said he was sleeping when his wife woke him up.
“She heard a big noise and the (grand kids) were running out of their rooms,” Wilson said. She said it was some kind of explosion or somebody was trying to get in.''Everybody seems to be OK now. That’s the main thing,” Wilson said.
Wilson said he first checked inside his home to make sure nobody had broken in and then he went outside and talked to neighbors to find out what was going on and to check for any damage.
“I didn't notice any broken glass and I looked at the back window and it was shattered big time,” Wilson said.
He said the blast also broke glass on part of his front windows.
Miguel Ramirez, 65, tried to get out of his bedroom to see what had happened, but his bedroom door would not open.
Ramirez said he had his son hand him a small screwdriver through an opening underneath the door and he used that to remove the pins from the door’s hinges so he could get out.
Once he got out, Ramirez said he found that a large portion of the ceiling in his living room had collapsed onto the floor and sofa. Chunks of insulation were on the carpeted living room and on the couch. The wooden beams on the ceiling were exposed.
The explosion also shattered the sliding door in his kitchen that leads to his backyard. Bits of glass were strewn all over the kitchen floor and a dining room table that still had plates from when the family ate Thursday night. The blast also knocked off from the ceiling in the kitchen.
“The good thing is nobody got hurt,” said Ramirez, who lives about 500 feet (150 meters) away from the company where the explosion occurred. He lives in the home with his wife, son and daughter.
The blast shook other buildings, with reports on Twitter of a boom felt across the city. Pena said there were no reports of hazardous air quality, based on monitoring done by a hazardous materials team.
A phone number for Watson Grinding was out of service when called by a reporter with The Associated Press on Friday morning. The family-owned business manufactures valves and provides thermal-spray coatings for equipment used in the chemical, mining, petroleum and aerospace industries, among others, according to its website.
About 90,000 people live within 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) of the company, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Houston police tweeted that officers were blocking off streets, but no evacuation was ordered. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said first responders checked on residents of nearby homes.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter said there was no hazard in the air “from all indications,” but that authorities continued to monitor.
This part of Texas is home to the highest concentration of oil refineries in the nation and has experienced a series of explosions in recent years. Last July, an explosion at an ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, east of Houston, left more than dozen people with minor injuries and put nearby residents under a shelter-in-place advisory for three hours.
In December, two blasts in the coastal city of Port Neches shattered windows and ripped the doors from nearby homes.
…
Dems Pick Whitmer, Escobar for Trump State of Union Response
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 4. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas will deliver the Spanish-language response.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made the announcement Friday.They praised Whitmer for her efforts to ensure clean drinking water is available in communities across Michigan, which was scarred by the 2014 water crisis in Flint. About 25,000 people have sued over the crisis, in which a change in the source of the city’s water resulted in lead contamination.Whitmer, a former prosecutor who was sworn in as governor last year, defeated Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Trump ally. She had previously served as Democratic Leader in the Michigan state Senate and was the first woman to lead the Senate caucus.Escobar, of El Paso, attended a protest rally in August ahead of Trump’s visit to the city after a mass shooting at a Walmart killed 22 people. Police said the gunman specifically targeted Mexicans. Escobar spent two decades in local government before coming to Washington. She’s the first Latina to represent her district.Trump has said he intends to deliver the State of the Union as scheduled despite his ongoing Senate impeachment trial.
…
EU Seeks More Time in Effort to Resolve Iran Nuclear Dispute
The European Union’s top diplomat said Friday that more time is required to unravel a dispute between countries involved in the Iran nuclear agreement, as the Europeans struggle to keep alive a deal hampered by U.S. sanctions.On Jan. 15, Britain, France and Germany reluctantly triggered the accord’s dispute resolution mechanism to force Iran into discussions on possible violations of the deal. That started a process that could result in the resumption of U.N. and EU sanctions on Iran if no solution is found.But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is coordinating the effort to resolve the standoff, said the three European powers involved in the 2015 deal limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for economic incentives agree “that more time is needed due to the complexity of the issues involved.”“The timeline is therefore extended,” Borrell said in a statement. The dispute mechanism provides for a period of about one month, which can be prolonged if all parties agree, to resolve any disagreement. But Borrell has declined to confirm that the one-month clock has actually started ticking.Borrell also underlined that during his consultations in recent days all parties that continue to adhere to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, “reconfirmed their determination to preserve the agreement which is in the interest of all.”The accord, which Iran signed with the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia, has been unraveling since President Donald Trump pulled Washington out in 2018 and reinstated sanctions designed to cripple the Islamic Republic under what the U.S. called a “maximum pressure” campaign.Borrell said the so-called joint commission on the deal will meet again in February , without providing a precise date. He noted that beyond the dispute over Iran’s alleged violations, participants are also trying to address “the wider impacts of the withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA and its re-imposition of sanctions.”Iran announced early this month what it said was its fifth and final step in violating the deal, saying it would no longer abide by any limitation to its enrichment activities following the U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.But the International Atomic Energy Agency, which officially monitors whether Tehran is respecting the deal, has not signaled any new violations since then.
…
Outgoing US Diplomat Asks Uganda to Ensure Peaceful Electoral Process
Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac has called on Uganda’s security agencies to ensure freedom of expression and association as the country gears up for a tense election period.In order for Uganda to maintain its place as a stable democracy in Africa, Uganda needs a free and fair 2021 election, she said. However, she added, police are using the country’s Public Order Management Act selectively to clamp down and arrest members of the opposition.Opposition members are trying to hold public consultation meetings and delegate conferences ahead of the campaign period which begins in August.FILE – Then-U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Deborah Malac speaks to a journalist at the Roberts international airport outside Monrovia, Oct. 9, 2014.”We hope that there will be some effort exerted to work with the security forces to help the police understand the proper interpretation and implementation of the Public Order Management Act,” Malac said. “We know that that is work in progress. And it will continue to be used as a very blunt weapon against real, imagined or perceived opponents of the status quo.”Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo, speaking to VOA, dismissed Malac’s statement as useless, saying it is only the courts that can interpret the law.”I think in the application of the law and the enforcement of the rule of law and order, the police in Uganda [are] right to act firmly within their jurisdiction,” Opondo said. “But assuming there was misinterpretation or misapplication, what does POMA itself say? You seek redress in the courts of law or administratively go and challenge the arbitrariness of the police officer or police officers in courts of law.”The Public Order Management Act states that organizers of a meeting shall notify the police at least three days before the meeting takes place.Charity Ahimbisibwe, the national coordinator of the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda, says security forces ought to respect a 2016 supreme court ruling that states there was no level playing ground, especially for presidential candidates, in the run-up to the 2016 elections.”The Supreme Court judges did rule at the time that to make the field leveled, the police should be seen to protect all citizens equally,” Ahimbisibwe said. “We have not seen that happening. We are seeing what we saw in 2016. So how do we then believe that anything can change.”President Yoweri Museveni, who has led Uganda since 1986, is expected to run again in the February 2021 election. His potential opponents include Robert Kyagulanyi, the legislator and musician better known as Bobi Wine. Wine has been arrested several times, most recently on Jan. 6, when he tried to hold a public meeting at a church in Kampala.
…
Cameroon Separatists Ignore Calls For Peaceful Elections
Separatists in Cameroon have ignored calls to allow voters in the northwest and southwest regions to vote in next month’s elections. Fighters have attacked staff of the elections body ELECAM and destroyed voting materials ahead of the official launch of campaigning Saturday.Francois Louceny Fall, representative of the U.N. secretary-general in central Africa, says Cameroonians should support their government and make the Feb. 9 elections a success.Francois Louceny Fall, representative of the United Nations secretary-general in central Africa, speaks in Yaounde, Jan. 22, 2020. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)”We are here to make an appeal to all the stakeholders in Cameroon to maintain peace and unity in this country,” Fall said. “It is very, very important that the citizens of this country vote and choose those people who will represent them.”Fall was accompanied this week to Cameroon by the secretary-general of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC), Chadian born Ahmed Allam-mi. Allam-mi said failure to hold elections may jeopardize efforts to bring peace to the northwest and southwest regions, where separatists have waged a war for independence since 2016.Ahmed Allam-mi, Secretary-General of the Economic Community of Central African States, talks to the media in Yaounde, Jan. 22, 2020. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)The U.N. and CEMAC envoys arrived in Cameroon as separatist fighters in the northwest and southwest mounted roadblocks and reportedly attacked civilians seen with voter cards and election materials.Electoral body ELECAM said its offices in the northwestern towns of Ndu, Kumbo and Ndop have been torched and some of its workers kidnapped.Patrick Esso fled from the northwestern town of Santa, where he says clashes intensified Thursday. He says he was abducted and kept in a separatist camp for five hours because he was found with a voter card.According to Esso, it will be impossible for the elections to take place.”The president of the republic should call for an immediate cease-fire,” he said. “I do not think that somebody will go and stand and say he wants to campaign while the country is in flames.”The military has clashed with separatists several times this week, and says it killed at least 17 insurgents. The separatists represent English-speakers who want to secede from the rest of Cameroon and its French-speaking majority. They have vowed on social media that no election will take place in the English-speaking regions they call Ambazonia.Enow Abrams Egbe, board chair of Cameroons Elections Management Body ELECAM, vows Cameroonian elections will take place, in Bamenda, Jan. 21, 2020. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)In spite of the threats and attacks, ELECAM chairman Enow Abrams Egbe says the elections will take place and promised voting will be secure.”The different headquarters of political parties must be known by the security in view to protect them,” Egbe said. “Security corridors will be put in place for the electors to move from one area to the other… . Polling centers will be well protected, and also all the meetings of political party leaders will be well protected.”Political parties say more than 60 people have been abducted in recent days. The separatists promised on social media to free the abductees after the polls.
…
More Airports Screening Passengers Amid China Virus Outbreak
More airports are beginning to screen passengers arriving from China amid growing concerns Friday over the outbreak of a new virus there that has already killed more than two dozen people and sickened hundreds.
The energy-rich Gulf Arab nation of Qatar, home to long-haul carrier Qatar Airways, said it had installed thermal scanners at its main hub, Hamad International Airport.
Kuwait announced similar measures late the night before at Kuwait International Airport, joining the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which on Thursday announced screenings for all passengers arriving on direct flights from China, including at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest.
Kuwait’s state-run news agency said isolation rooms had also been opened at Kuwait International Airport for passengers suspected to have the virus.
Elsewhere in the region, Bahrain said it was taking unspecified steps over the virus.
China has shut down Wuhan and other cities in the Hubei province, which is the center of the outbreak of the newly identified coronavirus.
A scattered number of cases have been confirmed in other countries, but their are fears that during the travel and festivities accompanying Lunar New Year starting this weekend the virus could spread more widely.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday pulled all non-emergency American personnel and their family out of the province, and issued a travel warning urging people not to visit Hubei.
In Pakistan the Civil Aviation Authority said Friday all passengers coming from neighboring China will be screened for the virus, and any suspected of being infected will be kept in isolation at designated hospitals.
Officials say the number of Chinese nationals travelling between Pakistan and China have seen a considerable increase in recent years because of Beijing’s billions of dollars investment in infrastructure development projects.
As many as 41 flights from China land at Pakistani airports every week.
In Afghanistan, which shares a border with both Pakistan and China, Health Ministry spokesman Nezamuddin Jalil said authorities are concerned about the virus but so far had no reports of any suspected cases and had not instituted any additional airport screening measures.
Africa’s busiest hub, Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, has also started screening passengers from China, according to health officials.
In addition, two hospitals in the capital are being prepared for any emergency cases. Ethiopia is home to Africa’s largest airline, Ethiopian Airlines, which transports hundreds of passengers every day between China and the East African nation.
In Cairo, airport authorities launched a program to train airport staff and airline crews on handling passengers arriving from China who might be affected by the new virus. Lectures have been held and pamphlets with details about the symptoms are being handed out, added airport officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.
…
Death Toll from Storm in Spain Reaches 12, More Missing
Authorities in Spain say the death toll from a storm that devastated the eastern part of the country this week has risen to at least 12 with rescuers searching for several missing persons.
Emergencies services for the northeastern Catalonia region said late Thursday that a fourth death caused by storm Gloria in the region had been confirmed. That took the national count to at least 12.
Rescuers were still searching Friday for three missing people in the Balearic Islands and for a fishing boat with six on board that has gone missing off Spain’s southern coast.
A British man and a Spaniard are feared to have been swept away by high waves on the island of Ibiza, authorities said. Another Spaniard is missing on the nearby island of Mallorca.
Government official Lucrecio Fernandez said an overnight search by Spanish rescuers for the missing fishing boat is continuing with the assistance of a Moroccan frigate.
The storm has lasted for six days, accompanied by heavy winds, snow and hail. Weather authorities said the worst of it had passed on Wednesday, although some areas of southern Spain are under a weather warning for rain and winds.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is meeting with his Cabinet on Friday to discuss aid for the hardest-hit regions.
…
Why didn’t Accusers Abandon Weinstein? Expert to Weigh In
It’s the defense’s go-to question at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial: If the once-revered Hollywood mogul is a revolting sexual predator, as prosecutors and scores of women allege, why did some of his accusers keep interacting with him for years after their alleged assaults?
Prosecutors hope to give jurors some answers and neutralize that line of questioning before too long with the help of Dr. Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist who testified about the same issues at the 2018 retrial that ended in Bill Cosby’s conviction on charges he drugged and molested a woman years earlier.
In her opening statement earlier this week, prosecutor Meghan Hast told jurors the expert witness set to testify Friday will dispel “myths” about how victims behave during and after rapes and sexual assaults.
In evaluating hundreds of victims, Ziv has found most victims “are assaulted by someone they know, don’t physically resist or try to fight off their attacker, don’t immediately report the assault and reach back out to their attacker,” Hast said.
But Weinstein lawyer Damon Cheronis cautioned jurors in his opening that Ziv hasn’t actually examined any of Weinstein’s accusers. Cheronis zeroed in on a message from one telling Weinstein that she loved him and wanted him to meet her mother.
“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s not how you talk to your predator,” Cheronis said.
Ziv is expected to be the prosecution’s third witness at the New York City trial of the once-powerful mogul whose downfall catalyzed the (hash)MeToo movement.
Weinstein, 67, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his New York apartment in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in a New York hotel room in 2013.
The producer behind such Oscar-winning movies as “Pulp Fiction” and Shakespeare in Love'' has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual.Copland,” considering their history.
Thursday's court session was consumed by actress Annabella Sciorra's testimony that Weinstein overpowered and raped her when he showed up at the door of her Manhattan apartment in 1993 or 1994.
Keeping with strategy, Weinstein's lawyers seized on her actions after the alleged assault. On cross-examination, for example, defense attorney Donna Rotunno questioned Sciorra's decision to make the 1997 Weinstein-produced film
Sciorra, now 59, claimed she wasn’t aware of Weinstein’s involvement until she agreed to appear in the film, in part because neither his name nor that of his movie studio appeared on the script she used to audition.
Rotunno, known as a #MeToo skeptic, also challenged Sciorra’s testimony that she was dismayed to find out she was booked in a hotel room right next to Weinstein’s on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival to promote “Copland.”
Sciorra told the jury of seven men and five women that she got another jolt when she opened her hotel room door early one morning to find Weinstein standing there in his underwear holding a bottle of oil in one hand and a video in the other.
“You already know Harvey Weinstein is in the room next door to you, correct?” said an incredulous Rotunno. “You already know that the last time you heard a knock at the door and answered it without seeing who was on the other end didn’t go well, correct?”
Sciorra’s allegations are outside the statute of limitations for criminal charges on their own, but her testimony could be a factor as prosecutors look to show that Weinstein has engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior.
Prosecutors plan to call three other accusers as witnesses for the same purpose during the monthlong trial.
With Sciorra’s testimony fresh in their memories, jurors could soon hear from actress Rosie Perez, one of two friends she said she told about the alleged rape long before she went public with the allegations in an October 2017 article in The New Yorker.
Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon previewed Perez’s testimony in court after the jury went home for the day, aiming to persuade Judge James Burke to allow her to take the witness stand as what’s known as a “prompt outcry” witness.
Such witnesses are allowed to corroborate an accuser’s claim that they reported a sex crime to someone else soon after it happened. Weinstein’s lawyers are objecting, saying her testimony won’t meet that standard. Burke has yet to rule.
According to Illuzzi, Perez would tell jurors that she spoke to Sciorra one night after the alleged rape and that Sciorra told her, in effect: “I think something bad happened to me. I believe I was raped.”
Iluzzi said Perez will testify she heard more about the assault from other people while Sciorra was out of the country for a film obligation and that they then had another conversation. Sciorra testified Thursday that, at the time, she was having run-ins with Weinstein banging on her hotel room door. Illuzzi said Perez will testify that Sciorra told her, in effect: “I don’t want him to get me again”
Through these conversations, Perez surmised that Weinstein was the person Sciorra was talking about, Illuzzi said, and in effect said: “Oh my God, Harvey Weinstein was the person who raped you, isn’t that right?”
“Sciorra was very upset,” Illuzzi said, summarizing the conversation. “She says: ‘My God, I don’t even remember telling you, but yes, he was the one and he did this to me.”
…
London Police to Use Face Scan Tech, Stoking Privacy Fears
London police say they will start using live facial recognition cameras in operational deployments, in a major advance for the controversial technology.The Metropolitan Police Service said Friday it will use the cameras to automatically scan the faces of people passing through small targeted areas where intelligence suggests serious offenders will be found.Real-time crowd surveillance by police in the British capital is among the more aggressive uses of facial recognition in modern democracies and raises questions about how the technology will enter people’s daily lives. Rights groups said the London police deployment threatens civil liberties such as the right to privacy and represents an expansion of surveillance.London police said the facial recognition system, which runs on technology from Japan’s NEC, looks for faces in crowds to see if they match any on “watchlists” of people wanted for serious and violent offences, including gun and knife crimes and child sexual exploitation.
…
Trump, a Late Convert to Cause, to Attend Abortion Rally
It was just four years ago that a political committee supporting one of Donald Trump’s Republican rivals unveiled an ad slamming his views on abortion, complete with footage from a 1999 interview in which he declared, “I am pro-choice in every respect.”
Now, as he heads into the 2020 election, Trump will become the first sitting president to address the March for Life, taking the stage Friday at the annual anti-abortion gathering that is one of the movement’s highest profile and most symbolic events.
It’s Trump’s latest nod to the white evangelical voters who have proven to be among his most loyal backers. And it makes clear that, as he tries to stitch together a winning coalition for reelection, Trump is counting on the support of his base of conservative activists to help bring him across the finish line.
“I think it’s a brilliant move,” said Ralph Reed, chair of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and one of Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters. Reed said the president’s appearance would “energize and remind pro-life voters what a great friend this president and administration has been.”
It also shows how much times have changed.
Past presidents who opposed abortion, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, steered clear of personally attending the march to avoid being too closely associated with demonstrators eager to outlaw the procedure. They sent remarks for others to deliver, spoke via telephone hookup or invited organizers to visit the White House.
Over the last 10 years, however, the Republican Party has undergone a “revolution,” displaying a new willingness to “embrace the issue as not only being morally right but politically smart,” said Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List and Women Speak Out PAC. The group is planning to spend $52 million this cycle to help elect candidates opposed to abortion rights. Its president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, will serve as national co-chair of a new campaign coalition, “Pro-life Voices for Trump.”
Indeed, among both Republicans and Democrats, there is a greater appetite for hard-line positions for and against abortion rights.
“There used to be a middle in this country and candidates would not want to alienate the middle,” said Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary under President George W. Bush. “And it just seems that that is over and that both parties play to their bases to get maximum turnout from their base.”
In addition, Flesicher said, Trump is far less tethered to tradition than past presidents and “happy to go where his predecessors haven’t.”
During his first three years in office, Trump has embraced socially conservative policies, particularly on the issue of abortion. He’s appointing judges who oppose abortion, cutting taxpayer funding for abortion services and painting Democrats who support abortion rights as extreme in their views.
“President Trump has done more for the pro-life community than any other president, so it is fitting that he would be the first president in history to attend the March for Life on the National Mall,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere.
This is not the first time Trump gave serious consideration to an appearance. Last year, he wanted to go and came close to attending, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. But the trip never came together because of concerns about security so Trump joined the event via video satellite from the White House Rose Garden instead.
Trump’s thinking on the matter was simple: If he supported the cause, “why wouldn’t he show up to their big event?” said Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union and a close ally of the White House. He said the appearance would be deeply significant for those in participants.
“I’ve had people be moved to tears over the fact that he’s going,” said Schlapp. “It’s a big deal.”
While Schlapp said he didn’t think Trump’s decision to attend was driven by election-year politics, he said it was nonetheless a “smart move politically” as well as “the right move morally.”
“It will cement even tighter the relationship that he has with conservative activists across the country”‘ Schlapp said.
During his video address last year, Trump sent a clear message to the thousands of people braving the cold on the National Mall. “As president, I will always defend the first right in our Declaration of Independence, the right to life,” he said.
The rhetoric underscored Trump’s dramatic evolution on the issue from his days as a freewheeling New York deal-maker, when he described himself as “very pro-choic”‘ in a 1999 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
During his 2016 campaign for the Republican nomination, Trump said his views had changed and that he was now opposed to abortion, but for three exceptions: In the case of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.
Yet Trump’s unfamiliarity with the language of abortion activism was clear, including when he offered a bungled response during a televised town hall and was forced to clarify his position on abortion three times in a single day.
Asked, hypothetically, what would happen if abortion were outlawed, Trump said there would have to “be some form of punishment” for women who have them, prompting a backlash that managed to unite abortion rights activists and opponents, including organizers of the March for Life.
Asked to clarify his position, Trump’s campaign initially issued a statement saying he believed the issue should rest with state governments. He later issued a second statement that said doctors, not women, should be punished for illegal abortions.
Since that time, however, Trump has – to the shock of many – become a darling of the anti-abortion movement.
“These voters who are pro-life love Donald Trump and they will crawl across broken glass to get him re-elected,” said Reed, who expressed amazement at the transformation. “Whatever you think of this president, there is no question that both at a policy level and politically, he has masterfully capitalized on his pro-life position in a way I think no one could have envisioned four years ago.”
Critics, for their part, accuse Trump of using the march to try to distract from his impeachment trial in the Senate.
Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called it “an act of desperation, plain and simple,” and accused Trump of taking “refuge in his ability to whip up a radical anti-choice base, spewing falsehoods when he feels threatened.”
Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, accused the president of carrying out “a full-out assault on our health and our rights.”
“While Trump stands with the small number of Americans who want politicians to interfere with their personal health decisions, we’ll be standing with the nearly 80 percent of Americans who support abortion access,” she said.
…
China Building a Hospital to Treat Virus, Expands Lockdowns
China is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities during the country’s most important holiday.
On the eve of the Lunar New Year, transportation was shut down Friday in at least 10 cities with a total of about 33 million people. The cities are Wuhan, where the illness has been concentrated, and nine of its neighbors in central China’s Hubei province.
“To address the insufficiency of existing medical resources,” Wuhan authorities said in a Friday notice, the city is constructing a hospital modeled after the Xiaotangshan SARS hospital in Beijing. The facility will be a prefabricated structure on a 25,000- square-meter (270,000-square-foot) lot, slated for completion Feb. 3.
The SARS hospital was built from scratch in 2003 in just six days to treat an outbreak of a similar respiratory virus that had spread from China to more than a dozen countries and killed about 800 people. The hospital featured individual isolation units that looked like rows of tiny cabins.
Normally bustling streets, malls and other public spaces were eerily quiet in Wuhan on the second day of its lockdown. Masks were mandatory in public, and images from the city showed empty shelves as people stocked up for what could be an extended isolation. Train stations, the airport and subways were closed; police checked incoming vehicles but did not entirely close off roads.
Hospitals in Wuhan were grappling with a flood of patients and a lack of supplies. Videos circulating online showed throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for checks. Some users on Weibo said their family members had sought diagnoses but were turned away at hospitals that were at capacity.
At least eight hospitals in Wuhan issued public calls for donations of masks, googles, gowns and other protective medical gear, according to notices online. Administrators at Wuhan University People’s Hospital set up a group chat on the popular WeChat messaging app to coordinate donations.
The “Fever Control Command Center” of the city of Huanggang also put out a call for donations publicized by the state-run People’s Daily, asking for medical supplies, medicine and disinfection equipment. The notice added that at the moment they wouldn’t accept supplies from foreign countries.
Authorities were taking precautions around the country. In the capital, Beijing, major public events were canceled, including traditional temple fairs that are a staple of Lunar New Year celebrations. Beijing’s Forbidden City, Shanghai Disneyland and a slew of other tourist attractions have been closed indefinitely.
The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus has risen to 830, the National Health Commission said. Twenty-six people have died, including the first two deaths outside Hubei and the youngest recorded victim.At least 17 people have died from a new coronavirus in China following an outbreak in the central city of Wuhan, and some 577 cases have been reported globally, most of them in China where the infection has spread faster in recent days.The health commission in Hebei, a northern province bordering Beijing, said an 80-year-old man died there after returning from a two-month stay in Wuhan to see relatives. Heilongjiang province in the northeast confirmed a death there but did not give details.
While the majority of deaths have been older patients, a 36-year-old man in Hubei was admitted to the hospital earlier this month after suffering from fever for three days. He died following a sudden cardiac arrest on Jan. 23.
Initial symptoms of the virus can mirror those of the cold and flu, including cough, fever, chest tightening and shortness of breath, but can worsen to pneumonia. The coronavirus family includes the common cold as well as viruses that cause more serious illnesses, such as SARS and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which is thought to have originated from camels. The Wuhan outbreak is suspected to have begun from wild animals sold at a food market in the city. The market is closed for investigation.
The vast majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan, but people who visited or had personal connections to infected people were among the scattered cases counted beyond the mainland. South Korea and Japan both confirmed their second cases Friday and Singapore confirmed its third. Cases have been detected in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Thailand and Vietnam.
Many countries are screening travelers from China and isolating anyone with symptoms.
The World Health Organization decided against declaring the outbreak a global emergency for now. The declaration can increase resources to fight a threat but its potential to cause economic damage makes the decision politically fraught.
Chinese officials have not said how long the shutdowns of the cities will last. While sweeping measures are typical of China’s Communist Party-led government, large-scale quarantines are rare around the world, even in deadly epidemics, because of concerns about infringing on people’s liberties.Passengers wear face masks as they wait for a train at a subway station in Beijing, Jan. 24, 2020.Recalling the government’s initial cover-up of SARS, many Chinese are suspicious of the case numbers reported by officials. Authorities in turn have been keen to pledge transparency. China’s cabinet, the State Council, announced Friday that it will be collecting information on government departments that have failed in their response to the new outbreak, including “delays, concealment and under-reporting of the epidemic.”
Across China, a slew of cancellations and closures dampened the usual liveliness of Lunar New Year.
One Beijing subway station near a transport hub conducted temperature checks at its security checkpoint Friday. Some security personnel were clad in full-body hazardous material suits.
Schools prolonged their winter break and were ordered by the Ministry of Education to not hold any mass gatherings or exams. Transport departments will also be waiving fees and providing refunds for ticket cancellations.
…
Australia Works to Recover Bodies of 3 from Air Tanker Crash
The American tanker plane that crashed while fighting Australian wildfires had just dropped a load of retardant on a fire before it went down in New South Wales state, investigators said Friday.The crash of the C-130 Hercules tanker Thursday killed Capt. Ian H. McBeth, 44, of Great Falls, Montana;First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, of Buckeye, Arizona; and Flight Engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr., 43, of Navarre, Florida, their employer, Canada-based Coulson Aviation, said in a statement.
The crash occurred during an unprecedented wildfire season that has left a large swath of destruction in Australia’s southeast.Specialist investigators were sent to the crash site in the state’s Snowy Monaro region and a team was working to recover the victims’ bodies, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Greg Hood told reporters in the nearby town of Numeralla.He described a difficult process of securing evidence of the crash and the victims’ remains, since the wildfire is still burning and potential hazards such as aviation fuel are present.Upward of 500 firefighting aircraft from several countries are fighting Australia’s wildfires, Hood said, adding “So, if there are lessons to be learned from this particular accident it’s really important that not only Australia learns these, but the world learns them.”He and other Australian officials extended condolences on the deaths of the three Americans.
Coulson Aviation said McBeth “was a highly qualified and respected C-130 pilot with many years fighting fire, both in the military and with Coulson Aviation.”McBeth, who is survived by his wife and three children, also served with the Montana and Wyoming National Guard, the company said.Hudson “graduated from the Naval Academy in 1999 and spent the next twenty years serving in the United States Marine Corp in a number of positions including C-130 pilot,” Coulson said. He is survived by his wife.DeMorgan served in the U.S. Air Force with 18 years as a flight engineer on the C-130, the company said. He had had more than 4,000 hours as a flight engineer with nearly 2,000 hours in combat.
“Rick’s passion was always flying and his children,” Coulson said. He is survived by two children, his parents and his sister.New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said a memorial service would be held in Sydney on Feb. 23 for the American firefighters and three Australian volunteer firefighters who have died during this wildfire season.“We will pay tribute to the brave firefighters who lost their own lives protecting the lives and properties of others,” she said.“I know that many members of the public, the RFS (Rural Fire Service), and emergency services personnel will want to come together as families and communities work their way through this unbelievable loss.”The three deaths brings Australia’s toll from the blazes to at least 31 since September. The fires have also destroyed more than 2,600 homes and razed more than 10.4 million hectares (25.7 million acres), an area bigger than the U.S. state of Indiana.Coulson grounded other firefighting aircraft as a precaution pending investigation, reducing planes available to firefighters in New South Wales and neighboring Victoria state. The four-propeller Hercules drops more than 15,000 liters (4,000 gallons) of fire retardant in a single pass.Berejiklian said more than 1,700 volunteers and personnel were in the field, and five fires were being described at an “emergency warning” level _ the most dangerous on a three-tier scale _ across the state and on the fringes of the national capital Canberra.
…
Angolan Journalist Feels Vindicated After Years of Exposing Corruption
In 1999, Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais wrote an article titled “The Lipstick of Dictatorship” in which he denounced then-President José Eduardo dos Santos as corrupt. For his writing, he was arrested, held in solitary confinement, denied food and charged with defamation.“I was jailed for that, went on trial for that, and went through hell for exposing corruption at the presidential level,” he told VOA.Today, as members of the dos Santos family have more than $1 billion in assets frozen and face charges of financial crimes, he feels vindicated. He says his fight to expose corruption was worth it.“It’s a long-overdue measure by the judicial authorities because Isabel dos Santos and the dos Santos family are at the top of the pyramid of those who have plundered the country,” he said.A light on dos Santos familyMarques has spent more than two decades chronicling corruption in his home country, with a particular emphasis on the diamond industry. He has received numerous awards for his work including a Hellman/Hammett grant by Human Rights Watch in 2011. His initiative Maka Angola supports and publishes crusading, investigative journalism in the country.Marques said throughout his career he has tried to shine a light on the systematic looting of Angola’s wealth by members of the dos Santos family. In December, a court accused the former president’s daughter, Isabel dos Santos, and her husband of causing the state to incur more than $1 billion in losses through a scheme that involved two state-owned companies transferring foreign currency abroad and never being repaid. Isabel dos Santos has been referred to as Africa’s richest woman, with ownership interest in a mobile phone company, banks, cable television and a supermarket chain. In 2018, her brother, José Filomeno dos Santos, was arrested and accused of trying to steal $500 million. He is facing a trial before the Supreme Court.Marques said that for years former President Dos Santos published decrees announcing the transfer of state assets to his own family and friends. “The evidence was always there,” he said. “There was in Angola what I called in my thesis ‘the transparency of looting.’ So it was right in the people’s face. It was evident there was not much effort in trying to hide the way President dos Santos was dolling out state resources, state funds, public state bank loans to his own children.”Will she return to face charges?Isabel dos Santos and her husband live abroad. Although Angola’s attorney general has demanded that they return to the country to face charges, it is unclear if they will. Marques says he hopes they have their day in court.“When her father was in power as a dictator, I had seven people coming to arrest me at my house, pointing seven guns at me, and the whole neighborhood was besieged,” he said. “I didn’t run away. I didn’t leave the country. I stood up to her father, a dictator, who had the mighty power, and that was in this country. I never fled. Why hasn’t she come back to defend herself?”
…
Libyan Militant Sentenced to 19 Years for Role in Benghazi Attacks
A federal judge Thursday sentenced a Libyan militant to more than 19 years in prison for his role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.A jury convicted Mustafa al-Imam last year of conspiring to support the extremist militia that launched the fiery assaults on the U.S. compounds but deadlocked on 15 other counts.The attacks, aimed at killing American personnel, prompted a political fracas in which Republicans accused the Obama administration of a bungled response.Al-Imam was sentenced to a total of 236 months behind bars. He is the second militant convicted in the attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, communications specialist Sean Smith and security officers Tyrone Snowden Woods and Glen Anthony Doherty.’Strong message’Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement late Thursday that al-Imam’s sentencing “sends a strong message to those who would attempt to commit such a heinous crime.”The head of the Islamist militia who directed the siege, Ahmed Abu Khattala, was convicted in 2017 on terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 22 years in prison.Khattala was accused of driving to the diplomatic mission on Sept. 11, 2012, and breaching the main gate with militants who attacked with assault rifles, grenades and other weapons.The initial attack killed Stevens and Smith and set the mission ablaze. Woods and Doherty were later killed at a CIA annex.On Thursday, federal prosecutors in Washington asked U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to send a message to others contemplating attacks on Americans overseas, saying al-Imam deserved the maximum 35-year sentence.“In the current geopolitical environment, terrorists must understand that there are harsh consequences for attacking diplomatic posts and harming U.S. personnel — particularly a U.S. ambassador,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cummings wrote in a court filing.’Tremendous mistake’Defense attorneys said al-Imam made a “tremendous mistake” by damaging and looting U.S. property after the attacks. But they insisted there was no evidence he intended to harm any Americans, noting jurors could not reach a verdict on the murder charges al-Imam faced.“Mustafa al-Imam is a frail, uneducated and simple man,” they wrote in a court filing. “He is not a fighter, an ideologue or a terrorist. He is a former convenience store clerk whose main loves in life are soccer and family.”Al-Imam was tried in a civilian court despite the Trump administration’s earlier contention that such suspects are better sent to Guantanamo Bay. His arrest, five years after the attack, was the first publicly known operation since President Donald Trump took office targeting those accused of involvement in Benghazi.Prosecutors acknowledged there was no evidence that al-Imam “directly caused” the killings at the U.S. compounds. But they said he aligned himself with Khattala and acted as his “eyes and ears” at the height of the attacks.During a four-week trial in Washington, prosecutors pointed to phone records that showed al-Imam was in the vicinity of the mission and placed an 18-minute call to Khattala during a “pivotal moment” of the attacks.Al-Imam also entered the U.S. compound, prosecutors said, and took sensitive material that identified the location of the CIA annex about a mile away from the mission as the evacuation point for Department of State personnel.In interviews with law enforcement following his 2017 capture in Misrata, Libya, he admitted stealing a phone and map from the U.S. mission.
…
Storm Gloria Causes Death, Destruction in Spain
The Spanish government is holding an emergency meeting Friday after an unusual winter storm caused death and destruction on its Mediterranean coast. The death toll in Spain rose to 11 on Thursday, the fifth day of the storm, which has also caused floods in southern France. VOA Zlatica Hoke reports.
…
Democrats Make Case Trump Abused Power of the Presidency
U.S. House Democrats told senators Thursday President Donald Trump “frequently, flagrantly” abused the powers of the presidency, actions they said clearly meet the constitutional standard of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” necessary to remove him from office. In the second of three days of opening arguments, House impeachment managers said Trump’s holdup of U.S. military aid to Ukraine to benefit his own personal political interests was the gravest offense a president could commit. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill in this report voiced by Michael Brown.
…
At Least 8 Chinese Cities on Lockdown to Contain Coronavirus; 830 Confirmed Cases Across Country
The Chinese National Health Commission said Friday that there are 830 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus country-wide, while at least 25 people have died.The Chinese government isolated more cities Friday, an unprecedented move to contain the coronavirus, which has spread to several other countries.At least eight cities, and a total of at least 25 million people, have been put on lockdown — Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang, Chibi, Qianjiang, Zhijiang, Jingmen and Xiantao — all in central China’s Hubei province, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, when millions of Chinese traditionally travel.The municipality authorities of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated, said Friday that the city is building a 1,000-bed hospital, expected to be completed by Feb. 3.On Thursday authorities first banned planes and trains from leaving the city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated. Toll roads were closed, and ferry, subway and bus services were suspended.A passenger wearing a protective facemask to help stop the spread of a deadly SARS-like virus that originated in the central city of Wuhan waits at Beijing railway station in Beijing, Jan. 24, 2020.Wuhan authorities have demanded that all residents wear masks in public and urged government and private sector employees to wear them in the workplace, according to the Xinhua news agency, which cited a government official.Similar measures were taken hours later in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou.The government also canceled holiday events in Beijing that usually attract large crowds.Fifteen medical workers are among those who have been infected by the virus, which has spread from Wuhan to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province, as well as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the United States.WATCH: WHO Warns Coronavirus Is ‘High Risk,’ Stops Short of Declaring EmergencySorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Director-general of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2020.WHO considers an international emergency an “extraordinary event” that puts other countries at risk and one that requires a coordinated global response.The U.S. announced its first case Tuesday in the northwestern state of Washington. Health officials there said a man who returned to Seattle from Wuhan last week is hospitalized in good condition with pneumonia.U.S. President Donald Trump assured reporters during a press conference in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday that U.S. officials “have a plan” to deal with the new outbreak, praising experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “terrific, very great professionals, and we’re in great shape.”Airports around the world have begun screening travelers from Wuhan for any signs of the virus.A coronavirus is one of a large family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to the deadly SARS.
…