Despite its increasing detection in numerous countries, the World Health Organization says the outbreak of the new coronavirus has not yet reached the level of a pandemic.Dr. Sylvie Briand, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic diseases, told reporters in Geneva Tuesday the outbreak is at the phase “where it is an epidemic with multiple foci.”As of Tuesday, at least 425 people, the majority in mainland China, have died from the coronavirus since it was first detected in December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, with the total number of confirmed infections exceeding 20,000. There are about 150 confirmed cases in 23 other countries, including one death in the Philippines — the first outside of China.The epidemic has also been detected on the high seas. More than 3,000 passengers and crew aboard a cruise ship anchored off the Japanese port of Yokohama were quarantined after a passenger tested positive for the virus. Cruise operator Carnival Japan says the passenger was an 80-year-old man who disembarked from the Diamond Princess on January 25 after it docked in Hong Kong. The ship’s departure has been delayed as health workers conduct tests on all 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members.Meanwhile, medical workers in Hong Kong staged a second consecutive day of strikes Tuesday as the Chinese territory reported its first death from the coronavirus. Hong Kong shut down nearly all land and sea border crossings with the mainland at midnight local time after more than 2,000 medical workers walked off the job Monday demanding that all border crossings be closed completely. Hong Kong was hit hard by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-03.Protesters wearing masks hold placards reads” Close the border, say no to China” during a protest at a mall in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020.Hong Kong health authorities identified the victim as a 39-year-old male with a pre-existing illness who had recently visited Wuhan. Also Tuesday, the Chinese gambling territory of Macau said it will temporarily shut down all casino operations for two weeks to help curb the spread of the virus. A new study published Monday in the journal Nature said experts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which specializes in the study of viruses, say the new virus is 96% genetically identical to one found in bats in southern China’s Yunnan province.The study said the new coronavirus is 80% genetically similar to the SARS virus that killed more than 800 people in 2002 and 2003.Chinese officials do not know exactly how the virus could have been transmitted from animals to people, but believe open-air markets in China, where wild and domesticated animals are sold, may be a contributor.WHO said it expects the number of cases to grow as test results are returned on thousands of pending cases.A public service announcement that encouraging people to wear face masks plays on a subway train during the morning rush hour in Beijing, Feb. 3, 2020.Chinese authorities have tried to stop the spread by instituting bans on movement in certain regions, and extending holidays to keep people away from schools and other large gatherings.Beijing, however, is upset that a number of countries are restricting travelers from China from crossing their borders.Government spokeswoman Hua Chunying accused the United States of spreading fear and not offering any substantial assistance in response to the outbreak.She said Washington has “unceasingly manufactured and spread panic,” noting that the WHO has advised against travel restrictions.U.S. President Donald Trump has offered to send experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to China, but Beijing has yet to accept the offer of help.The United States began mandatory 14-day quarantines Sunday for U.S. citizens who had been in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital. But non-U.S. citizens who have been in China over the past two weeks are barred. Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said Monday the United States is already prepared to provide housing for up to 1,000 people who may need to be quarantined. He also said the United States is “always planning for eventualities and how we may be asked by civilian partners to assist.”
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Month: February 2020
2 Iranian Students Heading to Boston Colleges Challenge Removal From US
Two of at least 10 Iranian college students who have been denied entry since August to study in the United States have filed civil rights complaints with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), saying they were wrongfully deported and mistreated by federal officials at Boston’s Logan International Airport.Separate complaints were filed with requests for the agency to investigate the conduct of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials who the two said illegally denied them entry into the country.The plaintiffs are Shahab Dehghani, a student at Northeastern University, and Reihana Emami Arandi, who had been scheduled to start classes at Harvard University.Arandi, 35, said in her complaint filed on Jan. 30 that she was detained on Sept. 18 and questioned for nearly eight hours about her life and viewpoints, including recent events in the Middle East.Dehghani’s lawyers said their client was admitted to the United States three times in recent years to study in Boston. He was denied entry and deported in January.Both plaintiffs had valid U.S. visas upon their arrival and said they were thoroughly vetted by the State Department prior to receiving them.Federal officials also allegedly ignored an emergency court order temporarily staying Dehghani’s removal until the case could be heard in court.CBP subsequently said it was not aware a court had temporarily blocked the student’s removal.CBP was “unaware of the issuance of any court order barring the removal of the subject from the United States” when Dehghani boarded the deportation flight, the agency said in a statement.Civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Muslim Justice League say Iranians have been deliberately subject to extra screenings and interrogations at airports ever since President Donald Trump issued a ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries in 2017, including Iran.In January, civil rights groups and public officials in the state of Washington made inquiries over reports that dozens of Iranians and Iranian-Americans were held up and questioned for hours as they returned to the United States from Canada after the winter holidays.The Washington state branch of the nonprofit Council on American-Islamic Relations said more than 60 Iranians and Iranian-Americans of all ages were detained for up to 10 hours or more, questioned about their political views, and had their personal belongings confiscated like passports, car keys, and smartphones at Washington state’s border with Canada.
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Burdened by Sanctions, North Korea Sees Coronavirus Threaten Economic Lifelines
North Korea’s already tenuous economic lifelines to the outside world are now nearly severed as it seals its borders with China and Russia to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Already one of the most closed-off countries in the world, North Korea has stopped airline flights and train service with its neighbors, established weeks-long mandatory quarantines for recently arrived foreigners, suspended international tourism, and imposed a near-complete lockdown on cross-border travel.The shutdowns could hurt leader Kim Jong Un’s efforts to make good on his promise to jumpstart North Korea’s economy.Those efforts have been undermined by a lack of progress in denuclearisation talks with the United States, which has led the way in imposing international sanctions on North Korea.”They’re keeping the cargo out and they’re keeping the Chinese out; nobody can go in or out,” said one source with firsthand knowledge of the situation at the China-North Korea border.Kang Mi-jin, a North Korean defector in Seoul who reports for the Daily NK website, also confirmed that the border appears to have been almost entirely shut down since at least Jan. 30.”The Ministry of People’s Armed Forces ordered all guard posts to bar smuggling as well,” she said. “People, freight, nothing can come in or go out.”Pyongyang has reportedly asked Beijing not to repatriate North Korean defectors detained in China, according to one South Korean pastor who works with refugees.According to the source with knowledge of the situation at the border, North Koreans who work in restaurants and elsewhere in China, violating United Nations sanctions, are in “virtual captivity” in their homes under instructions from authorities back in North Korea.North Korea is typically adept at implementing public health interventions and acted “swiftly and decisively” to try to stop the disease from entering the country, but sanctions restrictions could make it difficult for them to get medical supplies, said Harvard Medical School’s Kee Park, who has worked on health care projects in North Korea.”Their actions, very costly in terms of revenue from tourists and trade as well as administratively for quarantining people, reflect their concerns regarding their health system’s capacity to handle an outbreak,” Park said.China lifeline
The efforts — which appear to have been successful in preventing any cases in North Korea so far — mean North Korea has severed or drastically restricted the economic ties it relies on.”There could be a huge impact not just on the North’s market economy, but also on the entire economy of the country,” Kang said. “North Korea promotes localization, but even for products — candies, crackers, or clothing — manufactured in the country, the raw materials come from China.”Upcoming North Korean political holidays, which usually include gifts of sweets and crackers for children, may be more less festive than usual if the country’s supplies of sugar, flour, and other ingredients are scarce, she said.There are already signs that prevention measures could lead to the cancellation of military parades and other mass celebrations at least through February, which includes a commemoration of the North Korean army and former leader Kim Jong Il’s birthday.The extent of the economic risk to North Korea largely depends on the duration of the lockdown and how sweeping the restrictions are, said Artyom Lukin, a professor at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.”If the lockdown continues for several months and longer, this will certainly have a considerable negative impact on North Korea,” he said.There are no official numbers on the size of North Korea’s economy, but South Korea’s Bank of Korea estimated that in 2018 the country’s economy shrank for a second straight year, while its international trade fell 48.4 per cent in value.Since then, China and Russia have more publicly called for sanctions to be lifted, border trade picked up, and there were signs that North Korea’s economy may have been on a relative rebound.A recent report by a South Korean trade association found China’s proportion of the North’s overall external trade rose to 91.8 percent last year, compared with 17.3 percent in 2001.Thousands of Chinese tourists provided an additional economic lifeline.The crisis could weaken North Korea’s position in its standoff with the United States over denuclearisation talks, and could lead Pyongyang to try to offset its greater economic vulnerability by making provocative moves such as resuming long-range missile launches or nuclear tests, Lukin said.”If the coronavirus situation is not resolved quickly, it is going to make life much more difficult for North Korea in 2020,” Lukin said.
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In Blessing annexation, Trump Erodes an International Norm
Annexation, at its heart, is a byproduct of conflict. Almost never is it an act of peace, though it has been cast that way at times throughout human history.Certainly not under international law, which describes it as the forcible acquisition of territory by one state at the expense of another. It often formalizes military occupation. The United Nations made it illegal after World War II.
Israel is poised to annex a vast swath of the occupied West Bank with the blessing of President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hawkish supporters have hailed as a historic achievement. The initiative has infuriated the Palestinians, who see their aspirations for a viable independent state in danger of being bitterly extinguished.
The plan would allow Israel to keep all its Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where over 460,000 Israelis reside, as well as the strategic Jordan Valley. As for the rest of the West Bank, “the Israeli military will continue to control the entire territory,” Netanyahu proudly announced at the White House when the plan was unveiled last month.
The Palestinians view the settlements in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem — territories seized by Israel in the 1967 war — as a major obstacle to peace. That position is held by much of the international community, which views the settlements as illegal.
The Trump plan seems to brush aside international law, effectively saying Israel is a special case.
It adopts the Israeli position that the territories were seized in a “defensive war” in 1967 and that Israel has “valid legal and historical claims” to them, which is widely disputed.
Israeli law allows the government to extend sovereignty over any part of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate, which included what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and where the British had promised to establish a home for the Jewish people, without specifying its boundaries.
In the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, Egyptian forces took control of the Gaza Strip and Jordan took over the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel captured the territories when it launched a surprise attack in 1967 at a time of soaring tensions with its Arab neighbors. Today most of the international community views the West Bank and east Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel’s claim that it has the right to territory in the West Bank because of the Palestine Mandate is “simply a way to try to avoid a confrontation with the international community,” said Amichai Cohen, a legal expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think tank.
“Annexation has a negative aura to it because it’s illegal,” he said.
It wouldn’t be the first time Israel has annexed territory over international objections. It annexed east Jerusalem shortly after seizing it, claiming the entire city as its unified capital. In 1981 it annexed the Golan Heights, which it had captured from Syria in the 1967 war. The Syrian leadership has vowed for more than 50 years that it will recapture the Golan, but is not in any position to do so militarily. The Trump administration has endorsed both annexations, breaking with decades of U.S. policy.
The Trump plan gives Israel permission to immediately annex territory, but Israel’s race to act on it faces legal and political obstacles, including an apparent push for restraint from the White House.
Globally, opprobrium may rain down on Israel in varying degrees for defying accepted international laws if it proceeds with annexation. The International Criminal Court was already preparing to launch a war crimes probe of Israel’s settlement policies.
Here’s a look at some of the most striking cases of annexation and how they have lasted or been reversed.Russia’s annexation of Crimea
Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in March 2014 marked the climax of President Vladimir Putin’s quest to restore Moscow’s influence over its neighbors and reverse decades of perceived humiliation at the hands of the West. The move bolstered Putin’s approval ratings but triggered U.S. and European sanctions.
It came in response to the overthrow of a pro-Russian leader in popular protests, which Putin said were fomented by hostile Western nations. Pro-Russian activists staged rallies in Crimea’s capital, Simferopol, and Russian special forces swept in to take control of strategic locations across the Black Sea peninsula. A referendum on joining Russia later passed with 97% support.
Two days later, Putin signed a document ratifying it, extolling Crimea’s role in Russian history and its importance as the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait
The Iraqi leader’s army rolled into his tiny Gulf neighbor in August 1990, deposed the Kuwaiti royal family, who fled to Saudi Arabia, and declared the country Iraq’s 19th province. Saddam argued Kuwait had always been part of Iraq and had only been separated due to the vagaries of British imperialism. But he was really after Kuwait’s vast oil reserves.
Kuwait had been pressuring Saddam to pay back loans taken out during Iraq’s ruinous eight-year war with Iran, which he said was fought in part to protect his wealthy Gulf neighbors. He urged his countrymen to ransack the small kingdom, with family members leading much of the pillaging.
President George Bush launched Desert Storm in 1991, driving the Iraqis out of Kuwait and crushing Saddam’s army while leaving him in power. Shiite and Kurdish uprisings were left unsupported after initial encouragement from Washington and ruthlessly put down by the dictator. The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 overthrew Saddam, who was tried and executed three years later. Western appeasement of Nazi Germany
|In 1938, a year before the outbreak of the Second World War, Nazi Germany annexed large swaths of territory in central Europe with Western acquiescence — the now widely derided policy of appeasement. The Nazis annexed Austria in what was known as the Anschluss, or joining, and held a referendum that passed with 100% approval. They then annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in the now-infamous Munich agreement negotiated with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Adolf Hitler had justified annexation — which was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I — by saying he was only interested in gathering German-speaking peoples into a single nation-state. That lie was soon exposed by his invasion of Poland the following year, which sparked World War II.
After the Nazis’ defeat in 1945, the U.S., the Soviet Union, Britain and France occupied Austria until 1955. Czechoslovakia fell under Soviet domination as part of the eastern bloc until 1989.Imperial Japan and Korea
Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910 and subjected it to brutal occupation until its defeat in World War II, a period Koreans still remember with deep acrimony. Japan subjugated the population and exploited the country as a colony. During World War II, the Japanese military forced tens of thousands of Korean women into sexual slavery in front-line brothels. The treatment of the euphemistically named “comfort women” remains a major source of tension between South Korea and Japan. Under a 2015 settlement, Japan apologized and agreed to pay some $8 million in compensation, but victims and their families have criticized the agreement.Texas and Hawaii
The United States was in part brought into existence by the often violent conquest of lands that belonged to Native Americans, but it also formally annexed certain territories. The Republic of Texas was voluntarily annexed in 1845, nine years after it had seceded from Mexico. The U.S. annexed Hawaii in an 1898 treaty advanced by President William McKinley despite local opposition and mass protests. The Pacific archipelago was a U.S. territory until 1959, when Hawaii became the 50th state.
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Meeting of Sudanese Leader, Netanyahu Stirs Debate in Sudan
A surprise meeting between Sudan’s leader and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stirred controversy in Sudan on Tuesday, with the government saying it wasn’t notified ahead of time and critics lambasting the talks on social media.Others said the meeting would improve Sudan’s standing with the United States and help Khartoum shed its pariah image. For Israel, it was a major diplomatic breakthrough with an Arab African state, two days after the Arab League rejected President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan.The Uganda meeting between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional government, and Netanyahu was kept secret but grabbed headlines late Monday when the Israeli leader announced the two had began talks on normalizing relations between their countries.Sudan is desperate to lift sanctions linked to its listing by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror – a key step toward ending its isolation and rebuilding the economy after the popular uprising last year that toppled the country’s autocrat Omar al-Bashir and installed the joint civilian-military sovereign council, headed by Burhan.But Khartoum is also a longtime member of the Arab League and joined other members in rejecting Trump’s plan at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday. The U.S. plan, heavily in favor of Israel, would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep nearly all of east Jerusalem.From Uganda, Netanyahu tweeted: “History!” while his office said the meeting with Burhan came at the invitation of Uganda. The statement said Netanyahu believes that Sudan is moving in a new and positive direction" - an apparent reference to a possible removal from the terror list."We agreed to begin cooperation that will lead to normalization of relations between the two countries,'' Netanyahu said.Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (R) and Uganda's First Lady Janet Museveni (2nd R) pose for photo with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and his wife Sara Netanyahu (2nd L), at the State House in Entebbe, Uganda on February 3, 2020.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed the Burhan-Netanyahu talks in Uganda, and "thanked the Sudanese leader for his leadership in normalizing ties with Israel,'' according to a statement from State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.In a phone call a day earlier, Pompeo had invited Burhan to visit the U.S. Ortagus said Burhan's visit to Washington would take place later in the year, without providing details.The State Department said Pompeo and Burhan "underscored their shared desire to improve Sudan's active participation in the region and international communities and their commitment to work towards a stronger, healthier U.S.-Sudan bilateral relationship.''On social media, critics in Sudan denounced the meeting, accusing Burhan of trying to get on the Trump administration's good side through Israel. Others applauded the meeting, arguing it was good for Sudan's future."Our interest is above everything and Sudan first," tweeted Mubarak Ardol, former spokesman of a rebel faction of Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North that was part of the pro-democracy movement that led to al-Bashir's ouster.Prominent activist Amjed Farid said Burhan had no mandate from the people of Sudan to offer Netanyahu apromise of that“ which is not his to give.Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Saleh, who also serves as the government spokesman, said the Cabinet learned of the meeting through the media and was not consulted beforehand. “We will wait for clarifications after” Burhan returns home from Uganda, Saleh said.A senior Sudanese military official said the meeting was orchestrated by the United Arab Emirates and aimed at helping remove Sudan’s terror listing, which dates back to the 1990s, when Sudan briefly hosted Osama bin Laden and other wanted militants.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Burhan agreed to meet Netanyahu because officials thought it would help “accelerate” the process of being removed from the terror list. He said only a “small circle” of top officials in Sudan, as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, knew about the meeting.Sudan hosted the Arab League summit after the 1967 war that became famous for establishing the “three no’s”: No to peace with Israel, no to recognition of Israel and no to negotiations with Israel.That consensus broke down when Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and has further eroded in recent years as Israel has improved ties with Gulf Arab nations that share its concerns about Iran. Only two Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, have made peace with Israel.
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Nigerian Women Break Taboos to Learn Self-Defense
Nigerian women have been among the most victimized in the world. They are subject to sexual abuse, trafficking, abduction, forced marriage and rape. As they go to school and work, Nigerian woman are vulnerable to attacks and neither the government nor their male relatives do enough to protect them. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, an organization is Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, now offers self-defense classes for women, breaking deep-rooted tribal taboos.
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Hong Kong Medical Workers Still On Strike as Territory Confirms 1st Coronavirus Death
Medical workers in Hong Kong are staging a second consecutive day of strikes Tuesday as the Chinese territory reports its first death from a coronavirus that has killed 425 people in mainland China.Hong Kong shut down nearly all land and sea border crossings with the mainland at midnight local time after more than 2,000 medical workers walked off the job Monday demanding that all border crossings be closed completely. Hong Kong was hit hard by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-03.Hong Kong health authorities have identified the victim as a 39-year-old male with a pre-existing illness who had recently visited Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Meanwhile, the Chinese gambling territory of Macau announced Tuesday that it will temporarily shut down all casino operations for two weeks to help curb the spread of the virus. The total number of confirmed cases of people sickened by the new coronavirus in China has soared above 20,000. There are about 150 confirmed cases in 23 other countries. On Sunday, the Philippines reported the first coronavirus death outside of China.A new study published Monday in the journal Nature said experts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which specializes in the study of viruses, say the new virus is 96% genetically identical to a virus found in bats in southern China’s Yunnan province.The study said the new coronavirus is 80% genetically similar to the SARS virus that killed more than 800 people in 2002 and 2003.Passengers on the tram wear face masks in hopes to prevent contracting the spreading coronavirus in Hong Kong, Feb, 3, 2020.Chinese official do not know exactly how the virus could have been transmitted from animals to people, but believe open-air markets in China, where wild and domesticated animals are sold, may be a contributor.The World Health Organization said it expects the number of cases to grow as test results are returned on thousands of pending cases.Chinese authorities have tried to stop the spread by instituting bans on movement in certain regions, and extending holidays to keep people away from schools and other large gatherings.But China is upset that a number of countries are restricting travelers from China from crossing their borders.Government spokeswoman Hua Chunying accused the United States of spreading fear and not offering any substantial assistance in response to the outbreak.She said Washington has “unceasingly manufactured and spread panic,” noting that the WHO has advised against travel restrictions.President Donald Trump has offered to send experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to China, but Beijing has yet to accept the offer of help.The United States began mandatory 14-day quarantines Sunday for U.S. citizens who had been in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital. But non-U.S. citizens who have been in China over the past two weeks are barred. Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said Monday the United States is already prepared to provide housing for up to 1,000 people who may need to be quarantined. He also said the United States is “always planning for eventualities and how we may be asked by civilian partners to assist.”
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Former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi Has Died
Daniel arap Moi, a former schoolteacher who became Kenya’s longest-serving president and presided over years of repression and economic turmoil fueled by runaway corruption, has died. He was 95.Moi’s death was announced by President Uhuru Kenya in a statement on the state broadcaster on Tuesday.Moi, who ruled Kenya for 24 years, had been in hospital for over a month.Despite being called a dictator by critics, Moi enjoyed strong support from many Kenyans and was seen as a uniting figure when he took power after founding President Jomo Kenyatta died in office in 1978. Some allies of the ailing Kenyatta, however, tried to change the constitution to prevent Moi, then the vice president, from automatically taking power upon Kenyatta’s death.So wary was Moi of any threat during that uncertain period that he fled his Rift Valley home when he heard of Kenyatta’s death, returning only after receiving assurances of his safety.In 1982 Moi’s government pushed through parliament a constitutional amendment that made Kenya effectively a one-party state. Later that year the army quelled a coup attempt plotted by opposition members and some air force officers. At least 159 people were killed.Moi’s government then became more repressive in dealing with dissent, according to a report by the government’s Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission that assessed his rule.Political activists and others who dared oppose Moi’s rule were routinely detained and tortured, the report said, noting unlawful detentions and assassinations, including the killing of a foreign affairs minister, Robert Ouko.”The judiciary became an accomplice in the perpetuation of violations, while parliament was transformed into a puppet controlled by the heavy hand of the executive,” the report said.Corruption, especially the illegal allocation of land, became institutionalized, the report said, while economic power was centralized in the hands of a few.In 1991, Moi yielded to demands for a multi-party state due to internal pressure, including a demonstration in 1991 during which police killed more than 20 people, and external pressure from the West.Multi-party elections in 1992 and 1997 were marred by political and ethnic violence that critics asserted were caused by the state.By the time Moi left power in 2002, corruption had left Kenya’s economy, the most developed in East Africa, with negative growth.Moi often blamed the West for bad publicity and the economic hardships many Kenyans had to endure during his rule.As with his predecessor, Kenyatta, many government projects, buildings and currency notes and coins were named after Moi.Fed up, Kenyans voted for a new constitution that was implemented in 2010 and made provisions to bar personality cults.
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Former Kenyan President Moi Dies, Leaving Mixed Legacy
Former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi has died at the age of 95. Moi led Kenya for 24 years, the nation’s longest-serving president, crushing dissent and arresting and torturing those who opposed his rule. But Moi is also credited with a peaceful leadership transition after his party was voted out of power in 2002. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi.
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Malawi Court Nullifies May Presidential Elections
A constitutional court in Malawi on Monday nullified the election President Peter Mutharika won last May, citing massive irregularities during the process. The verdict resulted from a court challenge filed by Saulos Chilima, leader of the opposition United Transformation Movement Party, and Lazarus Chakwera, leader of the Malawi Congress Party. The court called for fresh elections within 150 days and also reinstated former Vice President Saulos Chilima. Judge Healey Potani’s announcement of the verdict spurred instant celebrations from opposition supporters who attended the court session. Since the announcement of the May elections, opposition supporters have staged protests about the election of President Peter Mutharika. (Lameck Masina/VOA)In the 500-page judgment, the court cited various irregularities and anomalies petitioners had brought before the court against the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC). These irregularities included the use of correction fluid, uses of duplicate forms and lack of signatures on some result sheets. The court also found that MEC had breached constitutional provisions demanding transparent elections. The lead lawyer for Chilima, Chikosa Silungwe, said he was happy with the verdict. “We are contented with the judgment,” he said. “Right from the start, we based our case on three pillars. The first one was the qualitative argument. The second one was [the] irregularity argument. And the third one was [the] fraud argument. When the court asked us to answer the three constitutional questions, the court has actually agreed with our argument.” The judgment can be appealed to the Supreme Court, but MEC’s lawyer, Kalekeni Kaphale, said the commission had yet to decide. “I will have to take instructions and then do what clients tell me,” Kaphale said. “We will have to examine those findings with the client and come up with the decision.” Challenge to electoral systemThe MEC declared Mutharika the narrow winner of the May election with 38% of the vote, followed by Lazarus Chakwera with 35% and Saulos Chilima with 20%. The judges also challenged the electoral system, noting that the Constitution says the winner must receive a majority of votes cast. It called for a new law to guide fresh elections. For Lilongwe resident Rose Dunga, the verdict portrayed the country’s maturity in democracy. “It’s a welcome development to me to have fresh elections, because [it] shows that Malawi has matured in democracy,” she said. “Because if there were no fresh elections, there could have been some misconceptions and speculations about our democracy.”
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UN: Millions of Malians In Need as Armed Groups Wreak Havoc
U.N. agencies say humanitarian conditions for millions of people in Mali are deteriorating, as armed groups and extremists wreak havoc and destroy the livelihoods of civilians.The United Nations reports around 4.3 million Malians need humanitarian aid this year, including more than one million who are suffering serious food shortages.Uta Kollies, the head of the U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Mali, calls their situation very disconcerting. She said people are unprotected. They live in a state of chronic insecurity and abuse, which paralyzes their ability to provide the most basic necessities for themselves and their families.“People are unable to go to their fields because of the insecurity,” Kollies said. “Malnutrition is obviously coupled with the food insecurity and remains of high concern. We have a national prevalence of global acute malnutrition at about 9.4%, which is a serious situation according to WHO.” Mali has experienced chronic instability since jihadist groups briefly seized control of the north in 2012. The groups and criminal networks remain active in Mali and neighboring countries despite the presence of French and African counter-terrorism forces.Kollies said the international community spends far more money on beefing up military intervention in Mali than on helping people suffering from hunger, lack of food, water, health, education and other basic relief. She said last year the U.N. received only half of its $324 million appeal. At the same time, she says the U.N. blue helmets, different national forces and the Malian army received a total of $3 billion. Although these forces are in Mali to protect the population, she tells VOA they have done little to bolster security in the country.“I personally think that asymmetric terrorist attacks in the past historically have very seldom been won with a military intervention only,” Kollies said. “You have to have political solutions and you have to follow up at that level.” Kollies said she cannot recall any country where hundreds of thousands of soldiers being deployed has met with success in engaging in a war on terror.What is needed, she said is a political solution and more financing for humanitarians who can help lift people up out of their despair.
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Chinese Ambassador Allays Africa Coronavirus Fears
One of China’s top Africa diplomats — the ambassador to South Africa — says there is no need for Africans to panic over the coronavirus.No confirmed cases of the pneumonia-like virus have yet surfaced on the continent. Ambassador Lin Songtian says China is monitoring all visitors to South Africa, and that in China, officials are treating the thousands of African nationals who may be at risk. The best thing Africans can do about the spread of coronavirus, says the ambassador, is to remain calm and stay put.The respiratory virus has now affected more than 14,500 people across 23 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Most cases — and most of the more than 300 deaths — occurred in China, where the virus originated last year.As fears spread globally, the ambassador sought to soothe frayed nerves in South Africa’s capital.”We have no choice but to work together to win the battle against this virus and bring them under our control,” Lin said Monday. “And that is our suggestion, we hope. American friends, European union, all the developed countries — you can feel ensured and relaxed. China is safe. We have shown, the capacity and the resources are strong enough to bring this disease, the coronavirus, under control as soon as possible.”More than 3,000 South African nationals reside in China, and he advised them — and others — to remain in place. Several countries, including Australia, Britain, Japan and the United States, have repatriated their citizens, which Chinese officials say may only spread the infection.Health officials say the virus can be spread from close contact with infected people.”All the foreigners, including the American people who are in China, they are the friend of China, they are the guest of China, they are our people, our friend,” he said. “So I would like to advise them: Trust China. Give the hand to us. Give us confidence and strength and solidarity. Stay well, in the community, in the village, at home, at the university, you are safe. In case something happens, the system is working.”Lin also noted that all newly arrived visitors from China are being monitored and screened by Chinese authorities, though he did not say how many people that involved. He noted that the embassy is advising all travelers from China to remain home for their first week, and to monitor their health and keep in contact with the embassy.Additionally, South Africa’s government has implemented temperature testing and health screening at the continent’s busiest airport. The nation’s health minister has assured the population that the government has contingency plans in place, including designated treatment facilities and a 24-hour hotline.
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Kenyan Builds Powered Wheelchairs to Handle Tough Terrain
An inventor in Kenya is changing lives. He builds battery-powered wheelchairs designed to roll through rough terrain, and he does it with recycled parts. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us for a ride.
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13 Students Killed in Stampede at Kenyan Primary School
Police in Kenya say 13 children died at a stampede at a primary school in the town of Kakamega.They say more than 20 others were injured in the stampede after students at the Kakamega Primary School were let out Monday to go home.It is not clear why the stampede began. The town’s Police Chief David Kabena said, “We have launched an investigation to establish what exactly happened.”Kabena said the injured students have been taken to a local hospital.Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reported that the stampede took place on the staircase of the three-story building as the children were leaving the school.Red Cross staff in Kenya said they were responding to the incident.
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Pompeo Defends Dropping Reporter From Trip as ‘Perfect Message’ on Press Freedom
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday faced more questions about his treatment of journalists after dropping a National Public Radio reporter from a weekend trip though Eastern Europe and Central Asia.During stops in Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Pompeo called for loosening press restrictions amid criticism over his decision to remove NPR reporter Michele Kelemen from his traveling press pool after a recent dust-up with one of her colleagues.Pompeo abruptly ended a Jan. 24 interview at the State Department with NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly when she changed the topic from Iran to Ukraine and challenged his claim that he supported former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.Pompeo then allegedly unleashed an expletive-filled tirade about being questioned on Ukraine before challenging Kelly to find Ukraine on a map.On Sunday, Aigerim Toleukhanova of Radio Azattyq, Radio Free Europe’s Kazakh Service, asked the top U.S. diplomat “what kind of message” such “confrontational” behavior sends to “countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, whose governments routinely suppress press freedom?””Yeah, I didn’t have a confrontational interview with an NPR reporter any more than I have confrontational interviews all the time,” he said. “In America, that’s the greatness of our nation. Reporters like yourself get to ask me any questions. All questions; we take hundreds and hundreds of questions. We talk openly, we express our view. They ask their questions. That’s how we proceed in America.”And with respect to who travels with me,” he continued, “I always bring a big press contingent, but we ask for certain sets of behaviors, and that’s simply telling the truth and being honest. And when they’ll do that, they get to participate, and if they don’t, it’s just not appropriate – frankly, it’s not fair to the rest of the journalists who are participating alongside of them.””But what kind of message will it send to our…” Toleukhanova began asking before Pompeo continued to speaking over her.”It’s a perfect message, the perfect message about press freedoms,” he said, adding that an NPR reporter had been at his Saturday press conference and that he hopes the rest of the world will follow America’s “wide open” press freedoms.However, Shaun Tandon, president of the State Department Correspondents’ Association, notes that State Department press corps have been significantly reduced under the current administration.”Two print reporters, a three-person television crew and one photographer are traveling to pool Secretary Pompeo’s current trip; there would have been a seventh journalist until the radio pool reporter from NPR was removed,” Tandon said in statement to VOA. “A press contingent of 13 journalists routinely covered secretaries of state of previous administrations from both Republican and Democratic administrations.”Tandon also said that although the organization agrees with Pompeo’s statement journalists should be free to ask him “any question and all questions,” NPR reporter Michele Kelemen should not have been removed from the press pool.” … We do not think that removing a longtime member of the traveling press corps after he criticized another journalist from her organization sends a ‘perfect message,'” he said. “The State Department Correspondents’ Association is united in our belief that the radio pool reporter from NPR should have been on the plane.”Al Tompkins, who teaches journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute, a press freedom advocacy organization, told VOA he is concerned the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict and control the press at home give authoritarian governments more latitude to censor the media and imprison journalists with impunity.”There is a certain viral effect that happens when the president of the United States, when the secretary of state, act this way. It encourages those in other places that have even less press freedoms to do it even more,” he said.President Donald Trump last Tuesday praised Pompeo for his handling of Kelly, who Pompeo allegedly shouted at, cursed and denounced as a liar. John Lansing, NPR’s President and CEO has vigorously defended Kelly, saying she is “one of the most respected, truthful, factual professional and ethical journalists in the United States.Lansing is the former CEO and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the U.S. government agency that oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.Voice of America reporters are also part of the diplomatic press pool that regularly travels with the secretary of state.
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Iran to Stop Coordinating With Ukraine After Air Traffic Recordings Leaked
Tehran said Monday that it would stop sharing information with Kyiv about the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner last month, after a Ukrainian TV channel released leaked recordings from Iranian air traffic control.The recordings, which aired on Ukraine’s 1+1 Sunday evening, are of a conversation between two air traffic controllers speaking in Farsi about “the light of a missile” on the plane’s route.Iran denied for days after the plane crash that the jetliner was brought down by one of its missiles.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the recording “proves that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane was hit by a missile.” Iranian authorities presumably would have had access to these records directly following the crash.On Monday, the head of Iran’s investigation team, Hassan Rezaeifar, said that Tehran would stop coordinating with Ukraine on the investigation.”The technical investigation team of the Ukrainian airline crash, in a strange move, published the secret audio file of the communications of a pilot of a plane that was flying at the same time as the Ukrainian plane,” Rezaifar said, according to semiofficial news agency Mehr.”This action by the Ukrainians led to us not sharing any more evidence with them,” he added.Rezaeifar did not deny that the leaked recordings were authentic.Iran admitted on January 11 to shooting down the Ukraine International Airlines jet shortly after it took off from Tehran three days earlier, saying its forces mistook the plane for an enemy threat hours after they fired missiles at an Iraqi base that houses U.S. troops. The crash of the Boeing 737 killed all 176 people on board, most of them Iranians and Iranian-Canadians who were flying to Kyiv en route to Canada, where many had been studying. In the three days following the crash, Iranian state media reported that officials blamed it on mechanical problems with the plane. They also cited government denials of Western news reports that said Western intelligence agencies had evidence of Iranian forces downing the jet.
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Brexit: More Europe, or Less?
Brexit Day, with its mixed emotions, exposed how wide the rift with the European Union remains and how difficult it will be to bridge the gap now that Britain has left the trading bloc.Much of the media focus has been on the likely commercial and political repercussions for Britain. The economic shock could be severe, depending on how quickly Britain can strike free trade deals with the United States and China.But the now 27-member EU will also be wounded.With Britain gone, EU federalists will have less restraining them in their push for a deeper political union among the remaining member states. That, in turn, could reignite euroskepticism and trigger another populist backlash, especially in central European states, which are the most skeptical of federalism and the most determined to preserve nation-state rights, analysts say.On the economic front, much rests with how trade negotiations unfold in the next few months between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brussels.”The problem is objectively that there will be some losses and damages, no doubt, on both sides,” said Donald Tusk, former European Council president.Speaking to the BBC Sunday, Tusk said there was no wish to punish Britain for exiting, and he does not expect either side will want to intentionally harm the other.”This is a process of only damage control,” he said.But few doubt there will be damage. There seems to be no love lost between London and Brussels. The rhetorical exchanges across the English Channel in recent days have been toxic in content and tone.FILE – Brexit supporters wave Union flags during Brexit celebrations in central London, Jan. 31, 2020.Johnson and his ministers unleashed a series of combative statements, triggering equally bellicose responses from European leaders who appeared to be encouraging Scotland to break away from Britain. As a way of emphasizing Britain’s new status as an “independent state,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab ordered British diplomats to spurn their erstwhile EU colleagues at international conferences and not sit next to them at gatherings.Former British senior diplomat John Kerr predicted Sunday that the negotiations on Britain’s future relationship with the EU, which will formally start on March 3, will quickly become “nasty and (objectionable) rebarbative.” Johnson wants to agree to the terms of Britain’s future relationship with the bloc, modeled on the EU’s free trade agreement with Canada, by the time a transitional period ends in December.Johnson said if negotiations don’t go Britain’s way, he would be happy with a looser and distant relationship with the EU, and trade with the continent solely on World Trade Organization terms.That would mean the imposition of high trade barriers, costly tariffs and time-consuming customs checks on goods traded between the EU and Britain. On Monday, Johnson outlined his “red lines,” saying he isn’t prepared to align with the EU’s regulatory rules, while at the same time, he said he wants tariff-free trade.”There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policies, subsidies, social protection, the environment or anything similar any more than the EU should be obliged to accept UK rules,” Johnson said.But European officials say that would give Britain better terms than it enjoyed as an EU member state and give British manufacturers and farmers a competitive edge over their continental rivals by lowering production costs and making their goods cheaper.If Britain departs from EU rules just on industrial emissions and pollution, it could save British industry about $5 billion dollars a year, reducing the price of its goods. FILE – People celebrate Britain leaving the EU on Brexit Day at Parliament Square in London, Jan. 31, 2020.Johnson also rejected calls by European leaders for EU trawlers to continue to have access to British fishing waters in exchange for a deal allowing Britain’s financial institutions unfettered access to the continent. And he is threatening a tariff war with the EU, warning that if no satisfactory trade deal is struck by year’s end, Britain will impose high tariffs on goods from the continent, such as cars, cheese and wine.In an open letter published in The Times newspaper on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that Johnson’s demands won’t be accepted.”Ease of access to the European market will depend on the degree to which the European Union’s rules are accepted,” he wrote.Few observers believe anything but a bare-bones trade agreement will be negotiated by year’s end, leaving both Britain and the EU with economic damage.Britain would be worse off, and the gloomiest forecasts have as much as 8% of its GDP lost as a result of a no-trade Brexit deal. A Canada-style deal could shrink the British economy by nearly 5% by 2035, according to the British government’s own analysis.But the impact is also going to be painful for the EU.A study last year by the University of Leuven in the Netherlands suggested close to 2 million jobs could be lost on the continent because of tariffs and trade barriers, if there is just a bare-bones deal. The EU risks a 1.5 percent fall in its collective GDP.For Europe, the economic pain would be spread across member states, although four countries would suffer the most.FILE – A projection appears on a wall in Ramsgate, southern England, on Brexit Day, Jan. 31, 2020.Nearly 14% of Ireland’s exports, mainly dairy and meat, go directly to Britain. Germany exports a wide variety of industrial products to Britain, including pharmaceuticals, chemical and petroleum products, and almost 800,000 cars a year. The Netherlands also enjoys significant trade with Britain. Meanwhile, France could see around 140,000 jobs lost with the country’s fishing industry hit hard, if French trawlers are blocked from British waters.An economic hit would be most unwelcome on the continent, where economic growth has already slowed almost to zero. The prospect of further economic disruption isn’t going to help in forthcoming haggling over the EU’s institutional budget. Brexit means the EU has to make up an estimated $12 billion shortfall in lost British contributions, and some cash-strapped governments are unhappy with the money they already have to contribute and want curbs on EU spending.Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, nicknamed the Frugal Four, are all pressing for a reduced EU budget. Berlin is determined to see that German taxpayers aren’t forced to take on the financial burden created by Brexit’s impact on the EU budget.And there’s growing alarm among member states that Britain’s departure will embolden EU federalists, who want to accelerate the bloc’s political integration. Britain had long been an opponent of a deeper political union.With Britain gone, Macron has already served notice of his plans for greater federalism, saying the EU “must understand the reasons” for Brexit “and learn lessons from it.”“It is a historic alarm signal which must resound in each of our countries, be heard by all of Europe and make us think,” Macron said.The lesson he draws is that “Europe needs new momentum.” His recipe is “more Europe, not less.”Macron is also championing a defense union separate from NATO.Later this year, the EU will hold a “Future of Europe” conference where divisions, as much as unity, could be on display, with central European states and Italy, which are already clashing with Brussels on migration policy and rule of law issues, resisting the “more Europe” formula.”Many EU member governments are wary of anything that might weaken NATO,” said Giles Merritt of the Friends of Europe research group, and author of “Slippery Slope: Brexit and Europe’s Troubled Future.”“Poland and the three other “Visegrad” countries of central Europe, along with the three Baltic republics, have ineradicable memories of their treatment at the hands of the Kremlin during the Cold War,” he said.Besides Poland, Visegrad countries include the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania comprise the Baltics.
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Saudi Foreign Minister Doesn’t Want US Troops to Leave Iraq
Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat says his country does not want U.S. troops to leave Iraq, even as Washington bolsters its military presence in the Saudi kingdom. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud warned that any pullout of American forces from neighboring Iraq could make the region less safe.
The United States has roughly 5,000 troops stationed in Iraq which support and advise Iraqi forces in the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants, also known as IS, mainly in the country’s north.FILE – U.S. Soldiers stand near the site of Iranian bombing at Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar, Iraq, Jan. 13, 2020.Iraq resumed joint military operations last week with the U.S.-led coalition to fight Islamic State after a nearly three-week pause that followed heightened tensions with Baghdad over Washington’s targeted killing of a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, on Iraqi soil in January. The Iraqi military, however, also hinted that Baghdad’s relationship with Washington would change after Iraq’s parliament voted recently to expel the U.S. military.
Washington says it does not intend to pull troops out of Iraq.
Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud says the United States acted in its “own legitimate self-defense,” when it targeted Soleimani. “The U.S. has proven time and again to be a reliable ally of the [Saudi] Kingdom, and this is also the case with the Trump administration,” he said recently in an interview with CNN.Gulf analyst Cinzia Bianco of the European Council on Foreign Relations says Saudi Arabia’s position is consistent with its views following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“From the Saudi point of view, the U.S. is at the center of managing these waves of instability that in part originated from their own invasion of Iraq,” she said. “When the region suffers strong waves of instability, the U.S. should be there to deal with them.”FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper talks with U.S. troops in front of an F-22 fighter jet deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, Oct. 22, 2019.Bianco and other analysts say U.S. troops are also viewed as a deterrent to Iran’s growing footprint in the region and the instability it has caused. Washington has strengthened America’s military presence in the Gulf, especially with more troops added to Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base amid rising tensions with Iran.”Especially at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran, if the U.S. would have to withdraw its troops from Iraq, then on the target list of Iran are U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia or other targets in the kingdom itself,” said Bianco.Analysts say Saudi Arabia wants to avoid a direct confrontation with Iran, its powerful regional rival; however, the Trump administration did not step in militarily to defend Saudi interests after what is believed to have been Iran’s drone and missile attack on Saudi oil sites last September. Since then, the U.S. has placed four Patriot batteries in Saudi Arabia, and recently set up Patriot batteries to protect against missiles fired by Iran and Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq.
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YouTube: No ‘Birther’ Conspiracy Videos for 2020 Election
YouTube is making clear there will be no “birtherism” on its platform during this year’s U.S. presidential election.Also banned: Election-related “deepfake” videos and anything that aims to mislead viewers about voting procedures and how to participate in the 2020 census.The Google-owned video service clarified its rules ahead of the Iowa caucuses Monday. The company is mostly reiterating content guidelines that is has been putting in place since the last presidential election in 2016.Google said that it will remove any videos that advance false claims about whether political candidates and elected officials are eligible to serve in office.The company’s announcement comes about nine years after celebrity businessman Donald Trump began to get notice for claiming that Barack Obama, the nation’s first African American president, was not born in the United States.Trump repeatedly voiced citizenship doubts even after Obama produced his long-form birth certificate. Trump only fully backed off from the idea in the final stages of his 2016 presidential campaign.YouTube said it will also crack down on any attempts to artificially increase the number of views, likes and comments on videos. It changed its systems for recommending what videos users watch last year in a push to curb harmful misinformation.
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Hong Kong Economy Shrinks in 2019
Hong Kong confirmed Monday the country plunged into a recession in 2019, suffering its first annual contraction in a decade, after falling under the twin pressures of the US-China trade war and months of pro-democracy protests. China’s coronavirus outbreak is now adding to the economic pressure.Government data released Monday showed Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product in 2019 contracted by 1.2% on-year.FILE – A salesman waits for customers at a cosmetic shop in a shopping district in Hong Kong, Oct. 30, 2019.In the three months ending in December, the economy shrank 2.9% on-year, the third straight quarter of declines. The government said earlier Hong Kong fell into recession after activity contracted by 2.8% in the three months ending in September.2019 was the worst for Hong Kong’s growth since 2009. The trade war between Beijing and Washington hit the export-heavy economy hard and protests that began in June over a proposed extradition law took a heavy toll on consumption and tourism.Though the protests have been less intense so far this year, economists say the coronavirus outbreak is now emerging as a new economic threat. China’s coronavirus outbreak is prompting the territory and other governments to impose travel curbs that have disrupted business.“FILE – Elderly men sit at a park wearing face masks in Hong Kong, Jan. 30, 2020.The coronavirus outbreak will probably keep the city in recession for a while longer,” Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients after the GDP figures were released.The Hong Kong government said in a statement, “The outlook for the Hong Kong economy in 2020 is subject to high uncertainties.”
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In Myanmar, Betel Quid Chewing Remains Popular Despite Risks
Wai Htet Aung, age 27, waits for his turn at a crowded betel quid stand in downtown Yangon. Customers have lined up by the table to place their orders. “It’s tasty,” he says. “I have bad breath and I want my mouth to smell better.”The signs of this popular habit are easy to spot from the roadside stands across the country to the red stains on teeth as well as on streets and sidewalks that stem from betel quid spit. “After I chew betel quids my mouth feels better,” says Ko Zaw Naing. “My mind feels relaxed.”Figures from the World Health Organization show that more than 60% of men in Myanmar chew betel quids and almost 25% of the women do. Aung Thura is 30-years-old and has been chewing betel quids for eight years. “It keeps me awake and keeps me from getting bored when I’m working,” he says.Betel quids are made from areca nuts that are placed in a betel leaf with slaked lime. In Myanmar it’s usually mixed with tobacco. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)’Addictive chemicals’
Betel quids are made from areca nuts that are placed in a betel leaf with slaked lime. In Myanmar it’s usually mixed with tobacco. Health advocates say the nicotine in the tobacco and the arecoline in the areca nuts are a bad combination.”They are addictive chemicals so by having these two things together people like to chew it more and more,” says Dr. Than Sein, head of the People’s Health Foundation, a health advocacy group in Myanmar that’s trying to educate the public about the risks.The group’s campaigns have included TV spots with betel quid chewers who are terminally ill. “Betel chewing the first major cause is mouth cancer, oral cancer, then larynx cancer, then lung cancer and also stomach cancer,” says Dr. Than Sein.Betel quid stands are easy to find across Myanmar. Surveys show that more than 60% of men in Myanmar chew betel quids and almost 25% of the women do. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)Widespread skepticism of dangersAccording to the World Health Organization, someone who regularly chews betel quids mixed with tobacco for a long-period of time is more than seven-times more likely to get oral cancer than someone who doesn’t chew it. But many people in Myanmar dismiss the risks.”Chewing betel quid doesn’t lead to mouth cancer,” says Aung Thura. “The mouth cancer happens if you leave the betel quid in your mouth and sleep all night.” His rejection of the risks was echoed by other people interviewed for this story as well.Ni Ni Wah, age 54, runs a betel quid stand and is a chewer too. “It’s not like I’m worried about getting mouth cancer,” she says. “The mouth cancer happens to people who keep betel quids in their mouth all night while they sleep.”Ni Ni Wah puts a betel quid in her mouth. She dismisses the risks of cancer saying “mouth cancer happens to people who keep betel quids in their mouth all night while they sleep.” (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)But Doctor Than Sein says the risks are clearly there for all betel quid chewers especially anyone who chews it regularly for more than a decade. And he adds that all too often they find out they have cancer when it’s too late to cure.”Cancer is caused slowly and people do not know it and once they know it they are almost dying,” he saysBut in Myanmar, all signs point to betel quid chewing remaining one of the country’s most popular habits.
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Israel’s Netanyahu in Uganda to Strengthen African Ties
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Uganda on Monday, saying his country is “returning to Africa in a big way.”
Before departing Israel, Netanyahu spoke of “very important diplomatic, economic and security ties that will yet be told about.” He said that at the end of his visit to the East African nation he hopes to “have very good news” for Israel.
The Israeli leader was welcomed by Uganda’s prime minister at the international airport in Entebbe, where Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan was fatally struck by a bullet as he led Israeli commandos in a daring mission to rescue hijacked Israeli passengers in 1976. Israel’s success in the raid humiliated then-Ugandan President Idi Amin.
Netanyahu was set to meet with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and other officials. Ugandan authorities did not immediately give details.
Israel has long courted African support. In exchange for its expertise in security and other fields, Israel wants African states to side with it at the U.N. General Assembly, which overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012.
Reports in Israel in recent years have suggested it might normalize diplomatic relations with several Muslim countries in Africa. Israel renewed diplomatic relations with Guinea in 2016. After Netanyahu visited Chad for a renewal of ties in 2019, it was reported that Israel was working to formalize ties with Sudan.
Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s longtime leader, has repeatedly said his government supports a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue. During Netanyahu’s trip to Uganda in 2016, Museveni urged both sides to live “side by side in two states in peace and with recognized borders.”
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Cameroon Urges Women to Vote Next Week Despite Threats
Civic groups, political parties and the government are pleading for the women of Cameroon to vote in next week’s local and parliamentary elections, despite threats by separatist groups who have vowed to disrupt the polls.Female candidates, and women who campaigned on behalf of others fear their efforts may amount to nothing if women do not come out to vote.Representatives of NGOs and government ministries are joining political parties at rallies in Cameroon’s capital in what they call a special campaign for women to perform their civic duties next Sunday.Female candidate Alvine Yinda says she is impressed with the initiative because the absence of women at polling stations on election day would give men an unfair advantage.She says female candidates of her Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, CPDM, have decided to encourage all women who registered to make sure they come out en masse to vote on Feb. 9, 2020. She says they are working with all contesting political parties to make sure women take part in the decision-making process.Mumah Bih Yvonne, national coordinator of the NGO Cameroon Women’s Peace Movement, says their campaign is for women to support lists that have a majority of female candidates. She says these are the only ones they are sure can represent the views of women.”We need to be there so that we impact the decisions that affect us like women. If we need a health center or women need to attend antenatal in a certain area, a woman is well placed to understand the plight of women. Women have a different way of looking at governance but if we are not there to influence policies, how do we get that level playing ground that we (women) are looking for.”FILE – A woman searches for her name at a polling station during elections, in Yaounde, Cameroon, Oct. 7, 2018.Women historically underrepresentedThe elections were called by Cameroonian President Paul Biya last November. Before then, delegations of women led by the NGO More Women in Politics visited towns and villages encouraging females to run for political officePolitical parties agreed with the NGO and increased to 42 percent the number of female candidates in the race.But traditionally, many women do not vote because they are restricted by their husbands and communities, who believe they should carry out only domestic chores or go to the farms. Some women fail to participate due to illiteracy.This year, it is feared the number of female voters will further decrease because of the separatist conflict that has killed at least 3,000 people in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions. There, armed groups fighting to separate the English-speaking regions from the French-speaking majority country have vowed the elections will not take place.Most voters in the North- and Southwest have relocated to safer areas where the election commission says it has taken special measures to enable them to vote.Within the past three days, the SDF and CPDM political parties said the separatists attacked four campaign teams in the towns of Mengwi, Batibo and Bafut and abducted at least 20 people, including 13 women whose whereabouts are still unknown.Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment and the family, Marie Theres Abena Ondoua, says such acts of intimidation should not discourage women.”It is important for them to go and decide, chose the best candidates and take into consideration the lists that have valuable women, women who can bring a plus to the development of this country,” she said.Ondoua said the government would protect all voters.More than 40 percent of Cameroon’s nearly nine million voters are female, and women in the central African country constitute about 52 percent of the population. But just six percent of Cameroon’s 380 mayors, 31 percent of the 180 lawmakers at the National Assembly and 21 percent of the senators are women.
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Spain: Separatist Lawmakers Blast ‘Anachronistic’ Monarchy
Nearly 50 lawmakers who advocate for their regions to become independent from Spain boycotted Monday’s ceremonial opening of the nation’s legislative season over the presence of the royal family.
The representatives of five parties from the Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia regions, all in northern Spain, say that the figure of the king is “anachronistic” and that it should be rooted out of Spanish politics.
Their symbolic gesture of not attending the first session of the national parliament since a new left-wing government was sworn in last month exposes the difficulties that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces in the coming months.
His coalition with the far-left United We Can (Podemos) party will need votes from the separatist parties to pass the nation’s 2020 spending plan and any significant legislation. Sanchez’s Socialists have been supportive of King Felipe VI and the former monarch, King Emerit Juan Carlos I.
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