Student medics, retired doctors, pharmacists and soldiers are being drafted into a European COVID-19 vaccination campaign of unprecedented scale, beginning just after Christmas. As coronavirus cases continue to rise in a pandemic that has killed nearly half a million Europeans, the EU announced on Thursday that a bloc-wide inoculation campaign would begin on Dec. 27, four days after European authorities are expected to give approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Beyond hospitals and care homes, sports halls and convention centers emptied by lockdown measures will become venues for mass inoculations. In Italy, temporary solar-powered healthcare pavilions will spring up in town squares around the country, designed to look like five-petalled primrose flowers, a symbol of spring. Vaccines begin deployment as COVID-19 cases surgeAs more countries approve a coronavirus vaccine, the urgent need for inoculation continues to grow with COVID-19 cases and deaths spiking to record highs in several countries. Plus, British and European Union leaders vow to go the “extra mile” to reach a deal. Plus, what does the Electoral College vote mean for President Trump?Faced with a shortage of health professionals able to give the shot, many countries are on a recruitment drive. German states are calling on retired medics and company doctors to join the push, in some cases offering up to 140 euros ($170) an hour. “This will probably be the biggest mass vaccination campaign in history, certainly of our century and our generation,” Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the COVID emergency, told reporters at a launch of national plans. A phased-in approach means frontline healthcare workers and elderly residents of care homes are being prioritized, with most national schemes not reaching the general public until the end of the first quarter of 2021 at the earliest. The goal of the 27-member European Union is nonetheless to reach coverage of 70% of its 450 million people. The European Commission, which struggled in the early months of the crisis to persuade national capitals to work together, is calling for the inoculation drive to be coordinated across borders. “This is a huge task. So let’s start rapidly with the vaccination together, as 27, on the same day,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this week. On Thursday she confirmed the start date for the whole bloc would be Dec. 27. In a sign of the impatience of some member states, Germany had already announced that date on Wednesday. Bottleneck concerns Britain, which quit the EU this year, was the first country to deploy the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine outside of clinical trials, giving it emergency approval two weeks ago. It said nearly 140,000 people received their first shots in the first week of roll-out. It is introducing a new national protocol allowing midwives, physiotherapists, pharmacists and others to give the shot. “This will help ensure we have the workforce needed to deliver a mass COVID-19 vaccination program, in addition to delivery of an upscaled influenza program, in the autumn,” a government consultation document said. National rules vary by country. In France the injection must take place in the presence of a doctor. In Germany it can be administered by someone else as long as the patient can consult a doctor first. There is a concern social distancing rules and paperwork could create bottlenecks at inoculation venues such as Berlin’s Velodrom sports hall or the Hamburg trade hall. Some countries face extra hurdles. Portugal is establishing separate cold storage units for its Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira; non-EU member Norway is buying doses from neighboring Sweden. Armies in countries including Switzerland and Italy are set to help secure vaccine supplies, while in Germany the Bundeswehr – already involved in contact-tracing – is on standby to help with injections if local regions need it. With surveys showing many Europeans remain wary of taking a vaccine developed in record time, authorities are accompanying the push with information campaigns. Stefano Boeri, the architect behind Italy’s primrose-themed pavilions, said the spring flower was picked to “convey a sign of serenity and regeneration.” “If the virus has locked us in hospitals and homes, the vaccine will finally bring us back into contact with social life and the nature that surrounds us.”
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Month: December 2020
Nigeria Pushes Cleaner, More Affordable Gasoline for Vehicles
Nigeria’s government has announced a natural gas expansion program to urge vehicle owners to convert their gasoline engines to run on the cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas. As Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja, the initiative also aims to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on oil.
Videographer: Emeka Gibson, Producer: Rod James
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Forceful Lyrics on Domestic Violence Strike Chord in China
Quarrel, rape, adultery. Tricky, greedy, sycophantic. Chinese singer Tan Weiwei chants each word methodically in a two-line string of vulgarities and insults.The 16 words in her new song share something in common: The character for woman, “nu,” is part of the Chinese character for each word.Tan’s forceful and shocking use of these words — often used to disparage women — is meant to draw attention to the issue of domestic violence and has struck a chord in China, where despite growing public awareness and anger, victims have a hard time getting justice.Across multiple social media platforms, many are praising Tan for speaking out and calling attention to something that many do not discuss publicly.Her song, “Xiao Juan,” refers to some recent high-profile cases that have sparked national discussion and calls for better legal protection.In September, a young Tibetan woman died after her ex-husband came after her with gasoline and set her on fire while she was broadcasting a livestream from her kitchen. In October, a video circulated of a man in Shanxi apparently beating his wife to death while bystanders stood by looking on.”With fists, with kerosene, with acid… Flushed down the sewer, from the marriage house to sinking in the riverbed,” Tan sings. “Imprisoned my body and cut my tongue, silently weaving tears into the silk and brocade.”Victims of domestic violence in the country frequently have little recourse to finding justice and reporting is low. China only passed a law specifically criminalizing domestic violence in 2015.The state-run All-China Women’s Federation estimates that about one in three married Chinese women will experience domestic violence. Yet in 2018, the federation only logged 39,371 official reports from the nation’s estimated 270 million families.In recent years more women have been willing to speak up. With the spread of the global #MeToo movements, dozens of young Chinese women brought public accusations of sexual harassment against high-profile men, with some even bringing the accusations to court. That boldness, however, has yet to transfer to cases of domestic violence.On Weibo, a widely used microblogging platform, a hashtag called “Tan Weiwei’s song lyrics are really brave” has been viewed more than 340 million times, far more than the 5.2 million views for the song’s music video. Many observed that her song could be linked to real cases of deaths reported in news media.Tan’s latest album 3811, tells different women’s stories through 11 songs, from a Tang-dynasty female poet to a 12-year old girl named Aguo who marries a tree in a ritual ceremony to transition to a woman. But it’s, “Xiao Juan,” the last song on the album, with its tribute to victims of domestic violence that’s garnered the most attention.Tan demands that these victims be remembered not as “Xiao Juan,” which is similar to Jane Doe, or other anonymous names that are often used in media or police reports.”Our names are not ‘Xiao Juan,'” she sings. “Know my name. Remember my name.”
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Putin Denies Government Involvement in Navalny Poisoning
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday dismissed a media investigation that identified those responsible for poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny as state security assassins. Speaking during his annual news conference, Putin called the report a “trick” and said Navalny was not important enough to be the target of such an attack. Putin added an accusation that Navalny received support from U.S. intelligence agencies. Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Trailed for Years Before Poisoning, Report Says An elite Russian intelligence chemical weapons unit tracked opposition figure Alexei Navalny for the past three years, according to investigative website BellingcatNavalny fell ill during a flight in Russia in August and was later flown to Germany for treatment. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden said he was poisoned with Novichok, the same class of Soviet-era agent that Britain said was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018. Putin spoke about a range of topics during his appearance Thursday, including the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden. Putin said he hopes the change in president in January will help resolve some difficult issues in U.S.-Russian relations. In 2017, the U.S. intelligence community assessed Putin ordered an influence campaign targeting the 2016 U.S. presidential election with a goal of helping President Donald Trump’s chances of winning. A later investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller detailed “sweeping and systemic” Russian government interference. Putin on Thursday reiterated Russia’s denial of the U.S. accusations.
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French President Macron Tests Positive For The Coronavirus
The French government says President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.”The president tested positive for COVID-19 today,” a statement from the presidency said Thursday. It said Macron had been tested after the “onset of the first symptoms.”The government said Macron will self-isolate for seven days, in accordance with national regulations, and will continue to work and carry out his activities remotely.The French president adds to the list of heads of state and government around the world who have contracted COVID-19, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Donald Trump.The World Health Organization announced Wednesday it was sending a team of researchers to China in the first week of January to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus that led to the global pandemic that has so far killed more than 1.6 million people out of a total of 74.2 million total cases.The 10-member team will examine medical data and test samples to determine how the virus that causes COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans, and where it originated. Most researchers believe the virus, which was first detected in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, originated in bats.People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus use a pedestrian crosswalk at the Ginza shopping street Dec. 17, 2020, in Tokyo.Trump has accused the Chinese government of covering up information about the pandemic.Meanwhile, the formal approval process for a second COVID-19 vaccine in the United States begins Thursday.The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee will review data on a vaccine developed jointly by Massachusetts-based drugmaker Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. FDA regulators earlier this week confirmed Moderna’s claims of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.If the advisory panel approves the Moderna vaccine, the FDA could grant emergency use authorization as early as Friday, meaning nearly 6 million doses could be distributed across the U.S. beginning next week. The Moderna-NIH vaccine will add to the 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipped out this week that began the inoculation effort in the U.S., starting with frontline health care workers and nursing home residents.The White House announced Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence will receive the vaccine on Friday. President-elect Joe Biden will be vaccinated sometime next week, according to the transition team. The 78-year-old Biden is at high risk of contracting the virus due to his age.The FDA said Wednesday that pharmacists could draw extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine if there is any extra solution leftover in the vials. The vials are supposed to hold enough of the vaccine for five doses, but pharmacists have found there was enough for an additional sixth or even seventh dose. A spokesperson said in a statement the FDA was working with Pfizer to determine “the best path forward.”At least one health care worker in the Northwest Pacific state of Alaska suffered an allergic reaction just minutes after being inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday, the first such case of an adverse reaction in the United States. The New York Times is reporting that a second health care worker at the same hospital in Alaska also suffered an allergic reaction within minutes of being inoculated. Two health care workers in Britain also suffered allergic reactions after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.Vaccines normally produce various side effects, such as fever, fatigue, headache or pain at the injection site, but officials say such effects are common and disappear within a day or two. The report on the Moderna-NIH vaccine submitted to the FDA revealed that four volunteers in the late-stage clinical trial developed Bell’s palsy, a condition that involves temporary paralysis or weakness in the facial muscles. Three of those participants had received the two-dose vaccine, while the other one was given a placebo.The Inter-American Development Bank pledged $1 billion Wednesday to help Central American and Caribbean nations fight the coronavirus pandemic.The IDB will devote the money to purchasing vaccines, strengthening national institutions distributing the shots, and building immunization capacity.The pledge is in addition to $1.2 billion the bank already mobilized in the region to pay for testing and treatment.Wednesday’s announcement comes as Latin America reports surges in COVID-19 cases and deaths. According to the Reuters news agency, roughly 33% of the world’s COVID-19 deaths were recorded in Latin America, though the region only accounts for 9% of the global population.
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Court of Arbitration for Sport to Rule on Russia Doping Ban
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is set to rule Thursday whether to uphold a ban on Russian athletes competing in international events in connection with accusations of a state-sponsored doping program.The World Anti-Doping Agency issued its four-year ban last year, barring Russia from competing at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, the 2022 World Cup football tournament and other events.Russia dismissed the ban, calling the action politically motivated.The Court of Arbitration for Sport is the highest court in sports, and it said Wednesday that its arbitrators met with the two sides for four days last month.At the center of the case is a WADA demand that Russia turn over data from a Moscow laboratory as part of conditions the agency set for the country to be reinstated. But WADA said Russia deleted and altered the data, prompting the agency to issue its ban.
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China Indicts Hong Kong 12 For ‘Illegal Border Crossing’
Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have indicted 12 Hong Kong protesters detained as they fled to Taiwan on charges relating to “illegally crossing a border,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.In a notice posted to its official account on the social media platform WeChat, the Yantian District People’s Procuratorate in Guangdong’s Shenzhen city announced the indictment of Quinn Moon and Tang Kai-yin, for “organizing an illegal border crossing,” which carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.A further eight suspects including Li Tsz-yin, Andy Li, Wong Wai-yin, and Kok Tsz-lun, have been indicted for “illegally crossing a border,” the statement said.”A public prosecution has been filed at the Yantian District People’s Court in Shenzhen,” it said, adding that two detainees under the age of 18 at the time of their detention would have their cases heard behind closed doors.The charge of “illegally crossing a border” carries a maximum jail term of one year, and recent unconfirmed media reports have suggested that at least some of the detainees may be sent home after receiving sentences equal to time already served, ahead of Lunar New Year.The detainees were aged 16 to 33 when they were intercepted by the China Coast Guard as they tried to flee to Taiwan by speedboat.However, if they are returned to Hong Kong soon, they still face charges linked to months of mass popular protest that rocked the city last year, either under public order legislation or the draconian national security law imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party on Hong Kong from July 1.Lawyers warned not to helpThe move toward a trial comes after the Shenzhen authorities issued a ban on lawyers appointed by the families of the 12 activists detained by the China Coast Guard on Aug. 23, and repeatedly prevented them from meeting with defense attorneys appointed by their families.Five law firms said they had received verbal orders from the Yantian district bureau of judicial affairs to stop acting for the families of the 12 detainees, with officials saying that the orders came from the ministry of justice in Beijing.Any lawyer hired to act on behalf of the 12 activists has been ordered to stop doing so, often by repeated phone calls from judicial bureau officials to their personal number, according to multiple sources.Hong Kong’s government has declined to press the Shenzhen authorities for the 12 detainees’ release, on the grounds that they are already fugitives.Flight data also showed government aircraft in the area during their detention, contradicting the Hong Kong authorities’ claim to have had no involvement in the operation, prompting protests by pro-democracy activists and relatives of the 12 detainees in October.Data obtained from the flight tracking website FlightAware showed that two Hong Kong government aircraft, the fixed-wing plane B-LVB and the H175 Cheetah helicopter B-LVH, flew around, and to and from the area where the activists were arrested on the morning of Aug. 23.But the city’s Government Flying Service rejected calls to make its operational data public, government broadcaster RTHK reported, saying it wasn’t “usual practice” to do so.
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Laos Snubs Wife of Missing Rural Expert in ‘Unconvincing’ Stance on Disappearance
The wife of missing Lao development expert Sombath Somphone on Tuesday marked eight years since his disappearance with no information on the case from the communist government in Vientiane whose agents are believed to have taken him away.“December 15 is the eighth anniversary of my husband Sombath’s disappearance, and throughout these eight years I have still missed him and want him to return to his family,” Sombath’s wife Ng Shui Meng said, speaking to Radio Free Asia’s Lao Service on Dec. 9.“So far, I have received no updates from Lao officials on their investigation into Sombath’s disappearance, and I still don’t know where he is,” she said.Sombath Somphone disappeared on the evening of Dec. 15, 2012, after his jeep was stopped outside a police checkpoint outside the capital, Vientiane, with video footage showing him later being forced into a white truck and taken away.Though police promised at first to investigate, Lao authorities soon backtracked, saying they could not confirm the identity of a man shown in the video driving off in Sombath’s jeep, and refusing offers of outside help to analyze the footage.Before his abduction, Sombath had challenged massive land deals negotiated by the government that had left thousands of rural Lao villagers homeless with little paid in compensation. The deals had sparked rare popular protests in Laos, where political speech is tightly controlled.Sombath’s decades of work on behalf of farmers and sustainable agricultural practices helped win him the U.N.’s Human Resource Development Award for empowering the rural poor in Laos, and later the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.“To date, Lao officials have given me no updates or answers about Sombath. They don’t meet with me, and they just say that they don’t have any information,” Ng Shui Meng, who lives in Vientiane, told Radio Free Asia. “And we have continued to suffer through all these years.”Philip Alston, Former U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, told RFA last week that the Lao government’s “persistent refusal to undertake any meaningful investigation is a disgrace.”He said “overwhelming” evidence of direct government responsibility for the disappearance of Sombath makes official denials “entirely unconvincing and disingenuous.”Laos “has used the strategy of disappearing its opponents in order to instill deep fear and to deter any criticism,” said Alston.Rights groups press for answersRights groups continue to press the Lao government for answers and information in the case.“We will never forget Sombath even after eight years, and we’ll keep fighting and asking the Lao government [to explain] what happened to him,” Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said on Dec. 14.“We have never received an answer to this question, so we continue to raise this matter with the governments of other countries and with the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. No one should forget what the Lao government did to Sombath,” Robertson said.“I’m calling on the Lao government to do the right thing—to search for answers about Sombath Somphone for the sake of his family,” added Siriporn Saipetr, a member of the Sombath Somphone & Beyond Project, based in Thailand. “From the closed-circuit TV footage, the government must know what happened to him.”Vanida Thepsouvanh, president of the Paris-based Lao Movement for Human Rights, said that for the last eight years, the Lao government “has never told the truth about Sombath Somphone.”“Furthermore, the Lao [People’s Democratic Republic] doesn’t seem to have any intention of ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance,” she said.“I think the Lao government is not willing to reveal the truth about Sombath Somphone’s disappearance,” added Bounthone Chantalavong-Wiese, president of the Germany-based Alliance for Democracy in Laos. “They just say they don’t know anything and haven’t seen anything, and that’s concerning.”“The Lao government should tell his family the truth,” he said.On Dec. 13, relatives of Sombath Somphone conducted a Buddhist ceremony at the Nakhoun Noi Forest Temple outside Vientiane to mark the anniversary of his disappearance, one family member told RFA.
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US Says Recent Hacking Campaign Hit Government Networks
The U.S. government confirmed on Wednesday that a recent hacking campaign affected its networks and said the attack was “significant and ongoing.”Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, Reuters reported earlier this week, citing people who said they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg.”This is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government,” said a joint statement issued by the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).Technology company SolarWinds Corp., which was the key stepping-stone used by the hackers, said up to 18,000 of its customers had downloaded a compromised software update that allowed hackers to spy unnoticed on businesses and agencies for almost nine months.”Over the course of the past several days, the FBI, CISA, and ODNI have become aware of a significant and ongoing cybersecurity campaign,” the joint statement said.”The FBI is investigating and gathering intelligence in order to attribute, pursue, and disrupt the responsible threat actors,” the statement said.The FBI, CISA and ODNI have formed a Cyber Unified Coordination Group to coordinate the U.S. government’s response, it said.White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien cut short a European trip on Tuesday and returned to Washington to deal with the attack.
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Chinese Diplomats’ Aggressive Twitter Strategy on Display in Australia Dispute
China and Australia have seen tensions rise over the past year, after Canberra demanded an independent investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic and China responded by escalating tariffs on Australian imports.China has imposed tariffs on Australian barley, beef, wine, coal and other products, calling them a response to illegal Australian trade policies. Critics say Beijing’s actions are part of a broader diplomatic offensive against an important U.S. ally in the region, which is seen as a key member of an emerging security alliance including India and Japan.FILE – A staffer and visitor speak near a display of Australian wines at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Nov. 5, 2020. China raised import taxes on Australian wine, stepping up pressure on Australia over several disputes.The dispute with Canberra has also highlighted how Beijing now wages diplomatic offensives on social media, especially Twitter.Twitter has been blocked in China since 2009, but the government has embraced it as part of its foreign propaganda strategy, using the platform to amplify messages for foreign audiences.A doctored tweetLast month, a four-year Australian government probe recommended 19 former and current Australian soldiers face criminal investigations for killing 39 Afghans in 23 separate incidents during the course of the war.On November 29, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian posted on Twitter a doctored photo depicting a grinning Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child.FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8, 2020.The graphic post brought condemnation from Australian lawmakers and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who demanded China delete the image and formally apologize.That demand was ignored and may have emboldened Chinese officials to do more. A new report by the Washington-based German Marshall Fund (GMF) shows that between November 27 and December 3, Australia was the third most mentioned country by Chinese government and state media Twitter accounts.By way of comparison, Australia was only the 10th most referred to country over the previous two months. “China’s propaganda apparatus has focused intensely on Australia over the past couple of days,” the report said.Zhao’s controversial tweet, with nearly 73,000 likes and 20,000 retweets, appears to have expanded his account following by 10%. Analysts say it also appears to have promoted more nationalist sentiment inside China, where state media have covered the dispute from Beijing’s perspective.“This disinformation push in the Australia example has caused real blowback from international audiences,” said GMF China analyst Bryce Barros, co-author of the report. “I think this is a social media strategy that Chinese diplomats and state media journalists will continue to push to promote nationalism at home and abroad.”By lashing out on Twitter and other platforms banned within China, Barros added, diplomats like Zhao are seeking to send the message to the international community, specifically the West, that China will not be pushed around.An illusion of popular backingWhile Zhao’s tweet seemed to find a huge audience, a deeper dive by researchers revealed that not all of those accounts retweeting the diplomat are active followers.According to Tim Graham, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian National University, 8% of the accounts that retweeted Zhao’s post were created on November 30, a day after Zhao’s controversial post.Here’s a chart of accounts created in 2020 – 8% of these were literally born yesterday (n=212 accounts) pic.twitter.com/S60M5DSulI
— Tim Graham (@Timothyjgraham) December 1, 2020Albert Zhang, a research intern at Australian Strategic Policy Institute, noted that by the institute’s calculation, 35% of the accounts that liked Zhao’s post had zero followers.Looking at our sample of accounts liking the tweet, over 35% of accounts had zero followers pic.twitter.com/aVZsyNC6JM
— AlbertYZhang (@AlbertYZhang) FILE – Tourists stand near a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, regarded as the founding father of modern China, in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2020. Negative perceptions of China have risen in many of the world’s advanced economies, the Pew Research Center found.Yet most Western experts disagree. A new 14-country Pew Research Center survey shows that public views of China have grown more negative in recent years across many advanced economies, and unfavorable opinion has soared over the past year. Negative views of China increased most in Australia, where 81% now say they view the country unfavorably.“The very aggressive Chinese ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy in recent months was very badly received, and there is the increasing perception of China as a strategic rival,” Niclas Frederic Poitiers, a research fellow at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told VOA.Last week, European Union Ambassador to China Nicolas Chapuis said the bloc would seek common ground with the United States to stand up to Beijing’s online bullying and intimidation, adding that China’s image in Europe was worsening and Beijing must do its part to change the “extremely worrying erosion of goodwill that had taken place over the past year.”
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Despite Somalia Severing Ties, Kenya Says It Won’t Expel Somalis
In the wake of Somalia’s announcement this week that it is severing diplomatic ties with Kenya, the Nairobi government says it will not expel Somali diplomats and instead will seek talks with its neighbor. FILE – Muse Bihi Abdi of Somaliland speaks during a news conference in his office in Hargeysa, in northern Somalia’s semi-autonomous Somaliland region, Oct. 10, 2018.Somalia’s decision was announced late Monday by Information Minister Osman Dubbe, who told VOA it came in response to what he called Kenya’s constant, blatant interference with Somali sovereignty. In his nationally televised address, Dubbe said the government ordered all Somali diplomats in Kenya to return home and gave Kenyan diplomats in Somalia seven days to leave the country. Kenyan government spokesman Cyrus Oguna on Tuesday told reporters that Nairobi would not expel Somalia diplomats or citizens in response to Mogadishu’s decision to sever ties. “We all know that Kenya and Somalia have a lot in common and many issues that bring us together. We have a history that unites us. We have economic and even social cohesion,” Oguna told reporters at a news conference. “You also know that we have our (Kenyan Defense Forces) guarding the security of Somalia. … There is also the issue of diplomacy and international relations that require sincere cooperation. Do good to me, and I will do good to you.” FILE – Kenya Army Colonel Cyrus Oguna speaks during a press conference in Nairobi’s military headquarters, Nov. 26, 2011.A few hours after Somalia announced its diplomatic break with Kenya, the Somalia National Army (SNA) was deployed to the common border, according to Kenyan media. In Mandera County, residents reported seeing SNA troops taking strategic positions along the border. Bihi said Somaliland would not enforce Mogadishu’s order for Kenyans to leave. An estimated 219,000 Somali civil war refugees have been living in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee complex, one of the world’s largest refugee camps, since 1991, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. It said another 130,000 Somalia refugees poured into Kenya’s Hagadera refugee camp in 2011 to flee drought and famine. ‘Nothing to do with us’ In an interview Tuesday with VOA’s Somali Service, Bihi insisted that his visit with Kenyatta played no role in the Kenya-Somalia split. “The relationship between Somalia and Kenya is up to them, and it has nothing to do with us,” he said. “But if Somalia cuts off the diplomatic relationship of any country that establishes a relationship with Somaliland, which has been away from Somalia for the last 30 years, we will see to whom Somalia will have a relationship.” Somaliland seceded from Somalia in 1991 and declared its independence, though that has not been recognized by the United Nations, the African Union or any other country. The Somali government insists that Somaliland is part of the country. In 2019, Mogadishu cut off relations with Guinea after the West African country established a new relationship with Somaliland. Bihi blamed Somalia’s central government for delaying planned talks with Somaliland. Representatives of both governments met in Djibouti on June 14, agreeing to appoint a technical committee to continue the talks and to avoid politicizing any international development assistance and investment. But the committee has never met. Building Kenyan-Somaliland cooperation On Tuesday, Kenyatta and Bihi issued a joint statement reaffirming “their unwavering commitment to deepen the cordial bilateral relations” of their respective lands. The document outlined measures to strengthen Kenya’s and Somaliland’s diplomatic and economic ties. It said that by the end of March, Kenya would open a consulate in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa and also would authorize Kenyan airlines to begin direct flights there from Nairobi. The statement identified other areas of cooperation, including expanding trade and continued efforts to combat terrorism in the region, most notably by al-Shabab militants. Oguna said he hoped for intervention in the diplomatic crisis. He cited the Djibouti-based Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-country trade bloc in the Horn of Africa, and the Zambia-based Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, a free-trade area of 21 member states reaching from Tunisia to Eswatini. Sahra Nur of VOA’s Somali Service contributed to this report, as did Kennes Bwire and Hubbah Abdi of VOA’s Swahili Service. Abdi reported from Nairobi, Kenya.
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China State Media Reports Lunar Probe Landed Back on Earth
Chinese state media says a lunar probe containing the first samples of moon rocks and soil since the moon missions of the 1970s has returned to Earth.Quoting China’s space agency, Xinhua news agency on Thursday said the capsule carrying the samples collected by the Chang’e-5 space probe landed in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region.With this mission, China became only the third country to have retrieved samples from the moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.China Space Agency: Lunar Probe Successfully Lands on MoonProbe is expected to gather lunar soil and rock samples and return them to EarthTwo of the four modules that made up the Chang’e-5 probe, named after a mythical Chinese moon goddess, landed on the moon Dec. 1. They collected about 2 kilograms of samples, by scooping and drilling about 2 meters into the moon’s crust. The space agency said it also planted a Chinese flag at the landing site.The probe loaded the samples into a capsule on the ascent module that, two days later, blasted off from the moon’s surface and linked up with the orbiter module that brought it back to Earth.The samples are the first gathered for study on Earth since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the moon’s origins, formation and volcanic surface activity.
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Suspected Al-Shabab Operative Brought to US to Face Terror Charges
An al-Shabab terror group operative accused of conspiring to carry out a 9/11-style attack in the United States has been brought to New York to face terrorism charges, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.
Kenyan national Cholo Abdi Abdullah was transferred on Tuesday from the Philippines where he had been in local custody since his arrest in July 2019. The Philippines handed him over to U.S. authorities on Tuesday.
Abdullah is accused of conspiring to hijack a commercial airliner and crash it into a building in the United States. As part of the plot directed by senior al-Shabab leaders, Abdullah allegedly obtained pilot training in the Philippines.
He was charged in a six-count indictment unsealed on Wednesday and expected to be presented to a federal magistrate judge in New York. The charges against him include providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens and conspiracy to hijack and destroy an aircraft
“This case, which involved a plot to use an aircraft to kill innocent victims, reminds us of the deadly threat that radical Islamic terrorists continue to pose to our nation,” assistant attorney general John Demers said in a statement. “No matter where terrorists who plan to target Americans may be located, we will seek to identify them and bring them to justice.”
Prosecutors said the alleged plot was part of a larger campaign by Somalia-based al-Shabab, al-Qaida’s principal affiliate in east Africa, to target Americans following the U.S. decision in 2018 to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
In January 2019, the group launched a suicide attack at a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, killing about 21 people, including one American.
More recently, it has claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. military facilities in both Kenya and Somalia.
According to the indictment, Abdullah traveled to the Philippines for pilot training at the direction of the al-Shabab commander responsible for the Nairobi hotel attack.
While attending an unidentified flight school, Abdullah conducted research on “the means and methods to hijack a commercial airline to conduct an attack,” according to the indictment. He allegedly researched online information about the tallest building in a major U.S. city, aircraft hijackings, and how to obtain a U.S. visa, the indictment said.
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Czech Republic Launches Nationwide Testing Program
The Czech Republic Wednesday launched nationwide COVID-19 testing in hopes of slowing the spread of virus in the country, which, like much of Europe, has seen a surge of infections in recent weeks.The Czech Health Ministry is offering the free antigen tests at about 170 testing sites around the country. The antigen tests are cheaper and faster but somewhat less accurate than standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratory tests with results taking about 15 minutes. If someone tests positive, the ministry will administer a PCR test.The Health Ministry hopes to conduct 60,000 tests per day. The ministry’s web site says people can get tested repeatedly, every five days. Thousands registered for the first day of tests Wednesday.The Czech Republic experienced Europe’s biggest per-capita spikes in cases in October and November, and nearly 10,000 deaths in the country of 10.7 million. Criticized for its slow response to the pandemic, the government recently implemented COVID-19 restrictions, closing bars, restaurants and hotels, and imposing an overnight curfew.The country reported 5,315 new cases a day on average in the past week using the standard PCR tests, while the number of hospitalized patients grew to 4,632 from 4,475 a week ago.
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In a First, Air Pollution Listed as Among Causes of Death of British Girl
Air pollution has been listed as a contributing factor in the death of a nine-year-old British girl in 2013.After a two-week inquest, coroner Philip Barlow determined that Ella Kissi-Debrah of South London died of acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and exposure to air pollution.It is the first time that air pollution has been listed as a contributing cause of death in Britain, the BBC reported.Kissi-Debrah had been very sick for a long time and was more susceptible to air pollution.According to the BBC, Stephen Holgate, professor of immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton, told Southwark Coroner’s Court that Kissi-Debrah had an “exceptionally rare” heath problem that put her at “exquisite” risk. Barlow said traffic emissions, particularly nitrogen dioxide from diesel engines, contributed to her death. According to Reuters, Britain has failed to meet EU target levels of nitrogen dioxide.Holgate also told the inquest that there had been a spike in nitrogen dioxide caused by diesel engines.Testifying at the inquest, Dr. Bill Parish, deputy director of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said there had been an “uptick” in diesel vehicles, which were considered a way to combat carbon dioxide emissions.“I understand that it was trying to decrease carbon dioxide emissions … but the effect was to increase nitrogen dioxide emissions,” he said, according to the Daily Mail. “That is what the data starts to tell us when the diesel fleet starts increasing.”In 2001, the Labor government advocated switching to diesel cars to combat climate change.“In 2001, then-Chancellor Gordon Brown introduced a new system of car tax aimed at protecting the environment. In actual reality, it fostered a popular move towards highly polluting diesel cars — a trend, which according to some experts, has been associated with thousands of premature deaths a year,” the BBC reported in 2017.According to the BBC, the number of diesel vehicles in Britain grew from 3 million in 2000 to 12 million in 2017.“There was a recognized failure to reduce the levels of nitrogen dioxide, which possibly contributed to (Kissi-Debrah’s) death, Barlow testified at the inquest, according to the BBC. “There was also a lack of information given to Ella’s mother that possibly contributed to her death.”Barlow said if Kissi-Debrah’s mother, Rosamund, had known about the levels of pollution, she might have been able to take steps to help her daughter.”Today was a landmark case, a 7-year fight has resulted in air pollution being recognized on Ella’s death certificate. Hopefully this will mean many more children’s lives being saved,” Rosamund wrote on Twitter.This was the second inquest into the child’s death. A 2014 case did not consider air pollution as a possible cause, Reuters reported.Activists were happy with the decision, calling it historic and cause for the British government to crack down on air pollution.”The coroner’s unambiguous finding is a legal first and will certainly send a signal to the U.K. government,” said Katie Nield, a lawyer at environmental law charity ClientEarth, which helped Kissi-Debrah’s legal team, Reuters reported.Britain has pledged to ban the sale of gas and diesel cars and vans by 2030.
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China Crackdown on Illegal Construction Hits Wealthy Homeowners in Beijing Suburb
Last week in Xiangtang Village, a suburb of Beijing, hundreds of men dressed in black arrived, accompanied by a fleet of excavators. They handed residents notices, informing them the government concluded that their properties were illegally built, and that they had seven days to pack their belongings and move out as their homes would be demolished. Eyewitnesses said many tried to protest but were subdued by the guards. Yang Yusheng, a law professor at China University of Political Science and a resident at the village, started a hunger strike and wrote online about his anger and frustration with the government’s decision. Soon, his electricity and water were cut off, apparently in retaliation, as temperatures outside dipped below freezing. The episode marked the latest faceoff between China’s central government authorities and an informal housing financing system called the Small Property Rights Housing (SPRH). Small Property Rights Housing The Small Property Rights Housing system has been an important, but informal, part of China’s growth for years. “There are a lot of SPRH in China for the last 30 years because development took place at such a rapid rate that the law and approval of the land couldn’t keep pace with development,” said Lynette Ong, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. “So SPRH is a way to bypass that bottleneck.” FILE – Chinese police and officials stand by as illegally-built houses are demolished in Changchun, northeast China’s Jilin province, July 5, 2008.As commercial properties developed on rural land owned by collectives, owners were able to bypass the legally required state approval process by allowing local governments to sell small property rights directly to buyers at a discounted rate. The system has proven successful in the past, but it carries risks for buyers. “Those people who bought SPRH should know that the property rights are not totally secure,” Ong told VOA. Although officially deemed illegal by the government, SPRH has been widely popular in China’s big cities where formal housing prices are constantly rising and increasingly unaffordable. For the past two decades, when turbocharging China’s economy was a top government priority, many of these construction projects were blessed by local governments. Now, as Chinese President Xi Jinping stresses the importance of green space and environment, that policy has ended and demolitions are on the rise. New victims: The middle class While past demolitions often targeted low-income residents, the latest campaign has hit the comparatively well-to-do: people able to afford single-family homes in the bucolic countryside outside Beijing’s congested urban area. Xiangtang Village is a perfect example. According to its official website, the bucolic sceneries attracted “famous figures from news media, entertainment industry and art industry” to reside in Xiangtang. The village was named one of “the most beautiful villages in Beijing” in 2007. In 2008, it was named one of “the best Olympic Tourism Villages” in the city. Now, more than 500 out of roughly 3,800 homes there are designated as illegal construction projects and will be demolished before the Chinese Lunar New Year. VOA reached out to the village committee on Monday and was told that they could not answer any questions regarding the demolition notices. Professor Yang Yusheng told VOA that the government’s action is not in line with its own interest to maintain social stability. “There’s also no legal channel to appeal or present your case. People are angry,” he said, adding these forced evictions and demolitions usually come with no compensation to the owners. Hong Sheng, an economist who has done extensive studies on small property rights housing in China, told VOA that these forced evictions violate the people’s right of residence. He added that despite its ambiguous legal status, the existence of SPRH supplements the short supply of affordable housing provided by local governments. “It takes decades to build a community, but it only takes a second to demolish it,” he said. Professor Ong argued that the move was to generate fiscal revenue for the local government and cautioned that such blunt government actions would lead to sowing resentment and distrust of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule. “These people have quite a bit of wealth; they would not keep quiet and let the government do the job,” she said.
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Traders, Truckers Protest Cameroon-Chad Border Closing Over COVID
Traders and truck drivers in Cameroon and Chad held a nine-minute protest Wednesday on the N’Gueli bridge that crosses the border, with each minute symbolizing one month since cross-border traffic was restricted in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The group that organized the protest, the Association of Truck Drivers in Chad and Cameroon, called for an immediate reopening of the border. Forty-seven-year-old Chadian truck driver Mal Goni says the lack of trade has devastated his income. Chadian drivers should be allowed to transport goods from Cameroon to their capital, N’Djamena, he says, and Cameroonian drivers should be allowed to transport goods coming from Chad. Cameroon authorities say before March 5, when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, at least 1,200 people crossed the bridge each day. Since traffic was restricted, they say, the daily number crossing the bridge is less than 200. Fifty-one-year-old Cameroonian Chantale Nzali transports palm oil, fruits and vegetables from the Cameroon border town of Kousseri to sell in N’Djamena. But she says her Cameroon suppliers stopped selling her enough goods, as prices have shot up with the pandemic. Nzali says three kilograms of plantains that sold for $2 now sell at $6. She is protesting for the border to be reopened, she says, so she can at least make enough money to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. Cameroon imports food staples such as sorghum, onions and groundnuts from Chad during lean seasons. Chadian groundnuts trader Abdul Aziz says his business has nosedived since March. He says since movement was restricted across the border, his daily sales dropped from over $2,000 to just $200. He says his family is barely surviving. Cameroon and Chad sealed their shared border in March to stop the spread of COVID-19, after both countries recorded cases. Landlocked Chad, which relies on Cameroon for 80 percent of its imports, agreed to allow goods from its neighbor, but only if they were trucked from the seaside town of Douala direct to N’Djamena and if the drivers tested negative. But after COVID-19 spread further in May, both countries resealed the border. Etoundi Mballa, head of disease control at Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health, says at some moment in Cameroon, COVID-19 gave a false impression that it had been conquered. He says if the government is not alert and safety measures are not fully respected, a second wave of infections could be worse than the first. Cameroon and Chad hope to soon reach an agreement to reopen the border under COVID-19 prevention measures, according to Mballa. Cameroon’s Ministry of Health has confirmed more than 25,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 400 deaths. More than 2,000 of the infections came as part of a surge within the past three weeks. The World Health Organization says Chad confirmed nearly 1,800 cases and over 100 deaths.
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US Lawmakers Nearing COVID-19 Aid Deal Ahead of Holiday Break
U.S. lawmakers are nearing agreement on an almost $750 billion aid deal addressing the economic impact of the coronavirus.“We made major headway toward hammering out a targeted pandemic relief package that would be able to pass both chambers with bipartisan majorities,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday.The aid package is based on a $908 billion proposal unveiled by a bipartisan group of senators Monday and will likely set aside the two major points of contention between the parties: business liability protections and state and local aid.FILE – A restaurant closed for indoor dining to curb the spread of COVID-19 is seen in New York City, Dec. 15, 2020.McConnell has suggested that to pass more funding for coronavirus relief, lawmakers set aside what he said are those two key points of disagreement — Republicans’ request for liability protections for businesses to reopen without fear of lawsuits related to the pandemic, and Democrats’ request for more state and local funding, in part to address shortfalls in payments to front-line emergency workers. “We all know the new administration is going to be asking for another package. We can live to fight another day on what we disagree on. But we ought to agree to go forward on what we can agree on,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday. Congressional Democrats previously rejected the proposal, saying it would leave behind emergency workers and slow down the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not mention state and local aid in the list of Democratic priorities Wednesday.FILE – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 1, 2020.“We Democrats would have liked to go considerably further. But this won’t be the last time Congress speaks on COVID relief,” Schumer said on the Senate floor, referencing the disease caused by the coronavirus.After an encouraging meeting late Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Schumer and McConnell are set to meet again Wednesday afternoon.Without a deal, several key programs are set to expire at the end of month, including unemployment aid that reaches 12 million out-of-work Americans and a rental eviction moratorium that is keeping an estimated 40 million Americans sheltered during the cold winter months. Funding for the U.S. government also is set to run out on Friday when a short-term extension expires. Only a few days remain in Congress’s scheduled sessions, but leaders in both parties say they are focused on reaching a deal and could work right up until the Christmas holiday next week. FILE – A volunteer loads food into cars outside Catholic Community Services of Utah, Nov. 20, 2020, in Ogden, Utah. As coronavirus concerns continue, the need for assistance has increased.President-elect Joe Biden has said that even if lawmakers reach agreement on aid this month, a subsequent round almost certainly will need to be negotiated when the new Congress is sworn in early next year. The White House said Tuesday President Donald Trump would wait to see the specifics of the deal before signing off on it. Many Americans received up to $1,200 in payments earlier this year to address the impact of business closures meant to control the spread of the pandemic. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed approval for another round of smaller stimulus checks. A deal on a second round of aid has proven elusive for lawmakers since the $3 trillion CARES Act, the largest aid package in U.S. history, passed in late March with bipartisan agreement.
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Pompeo Quarantines, but Tests Negative for Coronavirus
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is quarantining after an encounter with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, the State Department said Wednesday. Pompeo tested negative. The top U.S. diplomat “is being closely monitored by the department’s medical team,” a spokesperson said. The agency said that “for reasons of privacy,” it would not identify the infected person who came in contact with Pompeo. “The secretary has been tested and is negative,” the spokesperson said, but in accordance with the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “he will be in quarantine.” It was not known how Pompeo encountered someone infected with the virus. On Tuesday, he hosted an indoor State Department holiday party, although The Washington Post reported that only a few dozen of the 900 invited guests — family members of diplomats posted abroad — attended amid health warnings that it could become a superspreader event. Pompeo canceled his planned speech at the gathering. Last week, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey called for Pompeo to cancel the party to avoid “reckless health risk” to department employees and event staff. Even as the first coronavirus vaccinations have started in the United States, the number of new infections continues to surge by tens of thousands a day. More than 16.7 million infections and 304,000 deaths have been recorded in the U.S., more than in any other country, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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US Blacklists Chinese, UAE-based Companies Over Sale of Iranian Petrochemicals
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on companies based in China and the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of supporting the sale of Iranian petrochemicals as Washington increases pressure on Tehran in the closing days of President Donald Trump’s term.The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement it had blacklisted the four entities for facilitating the export of Iranian petrochemical products by Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd., which was hit with sanctions by Washington earlier this year.Also targeted in Wednesday’s move, which comes amid a slew of sanctions announced by Washington, was Vietnam Gas and Chemicals Transportation Corporation over its connection with significant transactions for the transport of petroleum products from Iran, the Treasury said.The action comes as the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on a near daily basis over the past several weeks, many targeted at Iran. Analysts have said the sanctions pressuring Tehran seem designed to complicate President-elect Joe Biden’s path to renegotiating a nuclear deal with Iran.”Iran’s petrochemical and petroleum sectors are primary sources of funding for the Iranian regime, which it uses to support its malign domestic and foreign agenda,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.”The United States will act against persons who support illicit actors engaged in the movement of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales,” he added.The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets of the companies and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. Foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate transactions for those blacklisted also run the risk of being hit with sanctions, the Treasury said.The move placed sanctions on China-based Donghai International Ship Management Limited, China-based Petrochem South East Limited, UAE-based Alpha Tech Trading FZE and UAE-based Petroliance Trading FZE.
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Indonesian Police Move Top Terror Suspect for Investigation
Indonesian authorities transferred 23 suspected militants arrested in recent weeks to the capital on Wednesday, including a man suspected of helping make the bombs for the deadly 2002 attacks on the island of Bali. Among those transferred was Aris Sumarsono, better known as Zulkarnaen, who is accused of involvement in making a number of bombs, including those for the Bali attack, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and a 2003 attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12. The suspects were flown under the tight guard of Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism squad from Lampung province on Sumatra island to a police detention center in the Jakarta for further questioning. Television footage showed the suspects wearing orange uniforms and full face masks and their feet and hands cuffed as they were led off the plane. Zulkarnaen was arrested Thursday by counterterrorism police in a raid at a house in East Lampung district on Sumatra island after a hunt of more than 18 years. Police have accused him of being the military leader of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network.Police say Zulkarnaen was among the first Indonesian militants to go to Afghanistan in the 1980s for training, led a militant training camp in the southern Philippines and masterminded a number of attacks in Indonesia. Since May 2005, Zulkarnaen has been listed on an al-Qaida sanctions list by the U.N. Security Council for being associated with Osama bin Laden or the Taliban. The council said that Zulkarnaen, who became an expert in sabotage, was one of al-Qaida’s representatives in Southeast Asia and one of the few people in Indonesia who had had direct contact with bin Laden’s network. The United States’ “Rewards for Justice” program had offered a bounty of up to $5 million for his capture. He was the only Indonesian on the list. Police officers escort suspected militant Upik Lawanga, center, upon arrival at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia, Dec. 16, 2020.Also transferred to Jakarta on Wednesday was Upik Lawanga, who is accused of being a bomb maker for the Jemaah Islamiyah network. He was arrested by counterterrorism police in Lampung late last month. Lawanga had eluded capture since 2005 after being named as a suspect in an attack that killed more than 20 people at a market in Poso. National Police spokesman Aswin Siregar told reporters at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport shortly after the arrival of the suspects on Wednesday that police will investigate how the two men eluded capture for years. “Zulkarnaen was known as a very, very dangerous person globally and in Indonesia,” Siregar said. “We will continue to crack down on all related to his network.”
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US Labels Switzerland and Vietnam as Currency Manipulators
The United States has designated Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators for allegedly meddling in foreign exchange markets, sparking disputes with two trading partners.The countries were labeled as such Wednesday in a U.S. Treasury Department annual report aimed at stopping countries from manipulating their currencies to achieve unfair trade advantages.It is the first time the U.S. has branded another country as a currency manipulator since August 2019, when China was given the label while engaged in tense trade talks with the U.S.Washington dropped the designation in January after the two countries reached trade agreements, but Beijing’s yuan has remained on the Treasury Department’s list of currencies it is watching.China’s Yuan Drops to New Lows After Trump’s Tariff ThreatThe yuan’s drop will surely fuel tension with Washington and signal the possibility of a currency war with the USThe report said Switzerland and Vietnam were the only countries that met all three criteria for being labeled a currency manipulator, a move that leads to negotiations over the next year. If agreements are not reached, the U.S. can impose economic sanctions on the two countries.Other countries on the watchlist are India, Italy, Korea, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.The report is the last one the Trump administration will produce, leaving it to President-elect Joe Biden’s treasury secretary to decide whether to maintain the designations.But a senior Treasury official said that Biden’s nominee, Janet Yellen, had not yet been informed of the designations and that the decisions rest with the Trump administration, according to The New York Times.The report, which covers market activity from July 2019 to June 2020, was released during a coronavirus pandemic that has weakened the global economy this year and triggered volatility in foreign exchange markets.
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Australia to File Formal Complaint at WTO over China’s High Tariffs on Australian Barley
Australia is launching a formal challenge to the World Trade Organization over heavy tariffs imposed by China on its barley exports.Trade Minister Simon Birmingham acknowledged that appeals to the WTO “are not perfect and they take longer than would be ideal” in announcing the move Wednesday in Canberra. But he said that ultimately “it is the right avenue for Australia to take at this point.”FILE – Australia’s Minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham speaks during a signing ceremony with Indonesia’s Trade Minister in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 4, 2019.Beijing imposed an 80.5% anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duty on Australian barley back in May after claiming that barley farming was heavily subsidized by the government.The tariffs are expected to cost Australian farmers over $300 million annually.Birmingham said the reasons for China’s heavy tariffs “lack basis” and “are not underpinned by facts and evidence.”Australia’s decision to seek redress with the WTO comes a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned it would report China over information from state-run media that Chinese power plants have been given official approval to import coal from other nations without restrictions, except for Australia.The disputes over Australia’s barley and coal exports to China are the latest chapters in Beijing’s increasingly bitter trade and diplomatic dispute with Canberra, which first turned sour when Canberra banned Chinese-based tech giant Huawei from building its new 5G broadband network, and further deteriorated over Australia’s push for an independent probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected more than a year ago in central China.In addition to the heavy barley tariffs, China has also suspended Australian beef imports and opened two probes into Australia’s lucrative wine import sector, with over $790 million in sales last year. Beijing has also advised its citizens and students to reconsider Australia as a destination for travel and education, citing racial discrimination.China is Australia’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade worth $170 billion last year.
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European Parliament Awards Sakharov Prize to Belarus Opposition
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and other leaders of the country’s democratic opposition were awarded the European Parliament’s 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in a ceremony on December 16 in Brussels. Tsikhanouskaya received the prize from European Parliament President David Sassoli on behalf of the Coordination Council, a body set up by Belarus’s political opposition to facilitate a transfer of power in the country following a presidential election in August that the opposition says was rigged and the West has refused to accept. “An invisible wall of fear had been built around us,” Tsikhanouskaya told European lawmakers in her acceptance speech. “But this year, united, we believe that this wall of fear could be taken down, brick by brick. The dream of a better Belarus keeps us going. “Without a free Belarus, Europe is not truly free,” the opposition leader said. “Long live Europe, long live Belarus!” “Your fight is our fight,” Sassoli told the Belarusian opposition members during his introduction. Tsikhanouskaya has been in Brussels this week for talks with European Union leaders ahead of the ceremony to present the prestigious prize. European Parliament President David Sassoli and others applaud and congratulate Belarus’ opposition figures Veronika Tsepkalo (L) and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya during the Sakharov Prize ceremony, at the EU Parliament in Brussels, Dec. 16, 2020.
Sassoli has said the representatives of the Belarusian opposition were being recognized for the courage, resilience, and determination that they have shown in defense of the freedom of thought and expression. The $59,180 annual human rights prize is named after the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov and was established in 1988 to honor individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms. The award goes to several members of the Coordination Council, including Tsikhanouskaya, Maryya Kalesnikava, Veranika Tsapkala, Volha Kavalkova, and Syarhey Dyleuski; Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich; Tsikhanouskaya’s imprisoned husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski; the founder of the Telegram channel NEXTA, Stsyapan Putsila; Ales Byalyatski from the human rights organization Vyasna; and political prisoner Mikalay Statkevich, who was a presidential candidate in the 2010 election. Protests against longtime ruler Alexander Lukashenko have been ongoing since the disputed presidential election on August 9. FILE – Belarusian opposition supporters attend a rally to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 22, 2020.Lukashenko, in office since 1994, was officially declared the winner with more than 80 percent of the vote — a vote which the opposition, and many Belarusians, said was rigged and which they believe Tsikhanouskaya actually won. Police have violently cracked down on the protests, with more than 27,000 detentions, according to the United Nations. There have also been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment, and several people have died.
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