Private security contractor and ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump Erik Prince violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, U.N. investigators have found in a report detailed by U.S. media on Friday.The confidential report to the Security Council, obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post, said that Prince deployed a force of foreign mercenaries and weapons to strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has fought to overthrow the U.N.-backed Libyan government, in 2019.The $80 million operation included plans to form a hit squad to track and kill Libyan commanders opposed to Haftar — including some who were also European Union citizens, The New York Times said.Prince, a former Navy SEAL and the brother of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, drew infamy as the head of the Blackwater private security firm, whose contractors were accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.Four who were convicted were pardoned by Trump last year.The accusation exposes Prince to possible U.N. sanctions, including a travel ban, the Times said.Prince did not cooperate with the U.N. inquiry and his lawyer declined to comment to The New York Times, it added.An AFP request for comment to the Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group, for which Prince is a board member and deputy chairman, went unanswered.Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil war since a NATO-backed uprising led to the toppling and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.The country has in recent years been split between a Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, and an eastern-based administration, backed by Haftar, who has faced charges of war crimes.Then-President Trump in 2019 praised the strongman for his role in “fighting terrorism” in Libya.A new interim executive for the country was chosen Feb. 5 by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Switzerland, comprising 75 participants selected by the U.N. to represent a broad cross-section of society.Haftar has pledged his support for the initiative.
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Month: February 2021
China’s Coal Supply Crisis Means High Prices, Blackouts
As the cost of coal spikes during China’s severely cold winter, what is an economic and uncomfortable hardship for many citizens could turn into a hot political problem for one man: President Xi Jinping.China’s coal prices rose just as temperatures dropped in December, when demand was already surging because of China’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Fossil fuels, mostly coal, provide nearly 70% of China’s power.But even those with money to burn couldn’t buy coal, according to local media reports, and in a nation where thermal coal fuels electrical power plants, winter’s darkness has taken on new depths. Thermal coal, also known as “steaming coal” or just “coal,” “differs from coking coal, which has a higher energy content and is chiefly used in metal making rather than electricity production,” FILE – In this Nov. 28, 2019, photo, a coal storage facility is seen in Hejin in central China’s Shanxi Province.Two months later, on Feb. 3, coal cost about $98.52, FILE – In this Nov. 28, 2019, photo, smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in central China’s Shanxi province.By February 2020, nine people were under investigation, including high-level local officials and coal industry executives, according to Chinese government-run media Xinhua.Local governments, resentful of interference from provincial and national higher-ups, set about frosting Xi’s image.Wang Chih-sheng, secretary general of China Asia-Pacific Elite Exchange Association, said the current cutback on electricity have made many people suspect Beijing is losing control over local governments who are “marking their territory and declaring autonomy.”That would give anti-Xi groups an opportunity to make Xi look bad during this year’s Two Sessions in March, the annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the two organizations responsible for making national-level political decisions.“The goal may not be to bring down Xi in one shot, but if they can take advantage of China’s energy or electricity crises, and then further weaken Xi’s political credibility, or cause some unrest to come down on Xi’s political groups, I think that’s probably what some people expect,” Wang said. “It is a blow to Xi’s own political prestige at a certain level.”Luo Cing-Sheng, CEO of Taiwan International Strategy Society, said that the anti-Xi groups may use this opportunity to express their dissatisfaction.“They would just resist for a bit to teach Xi a lesson,” he said. “Basically, it is a bargaining process.”
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Navalny Faces Decisive Rulings in Moscow Legal Marathon
The Kremlin’s most prominent opponent, Alexey Navalny, faces two court decisions Saturday that could seal a judge’s ruling to jail him for several years, after he returned to Russia following a poisoning attack.A Moscow court is due to rule on Navalny’s appeal of a decision this month to imprison him for nearly three years for violating the terms of a suspended sentence on embezzlement charges.But if Navalny wins his appeal Saturday, his victory could be short-lived.Prosecutors in a separate trial have called for him to be fined the equivalent of $13,000 for calling a World War II veteran a “traitor” on Twitter last year, with a verdict also expected Saturday.They have also asked Navalny, 44, to be jailed on the same fraud conviction, saying his tweet referencing the veteran was posted during the probation period for the suspended sentence.Backers see bid to silence himSupporters of the outspoken opposition figure say the rulings and several other cases against him are a pretext to silence his corruption exposes and quash his political ambitions.He was given the nearly three-year sentence on February 2 for breaching parole terms of an embezzlement conviction while in Germany recovering from the poisoning.That ruling stemmed from a suspended sentence he was given in 2014 for embezzlement, a ruling the European Court of Human Rights deemed arbitrary.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with government members via a videoconference at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Jan. 28, 2021.The 94-year-old veteran at the center of the defamation trial appeared in a video that was derided by Navalny for promoting constitutional reforms that passed last year and could allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036.A series of theatrical hearings in the case ended Tuesday with Navalny asking if the judge could recommend a recipe for pickles, since it is “pointless to talk about the law” with her.Putin came under pressure to release Navalny when he was detained upon arrival at a Moscow airport in January.The arrest sparked large protests across the county that saw more than 10,000 people detained, while the European Union threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia.Europe’s rights court ruled this week that Russia must immediately release Navalny, in a motion swiftly brushed off by the Kremlin.Navalny’s allies believe Russia’s noncompliance with the ruling could lead to its expulsion from the Council of Europe and exacerbate a crisis in Moscow’s ties with Europe that began with the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.Meeting with EU ministersEU member Lithuania’s foreign ministry said Friday that a group of EU foreign ministers would meet with two top Navalny aides in Brussels on Sunday.Navalny aides in talks with EU representatives this month urged the bloc to hit people close to Putin with sanctions.Another Moscow court this week rejected Navalny’s appeal of a fine of 3.3 million rubles (36,825 euros, $44,649) that he was ordered to pay a catering company in another defamation lawsuit.Those charges were levied at the opposition figure by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed “Putin’s chef” because his company Concord catered for the Kremlin.The 59-year-old businessman, who is under U.S. and European sanctions, has two pending cases against Navalny that will be considered in March.
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Google Fires 2nd AI Ethics Leader as Dispute Over Research, Diversity Grows
Alphabet Inc.’s Google fired staff scientist Margaret Mitchell on Friday, they both said, a move that fanned company divisions on academic freedom and diversity that were on display since its December dismissal of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru.Google said in a statement that Mitchell violated the company’s code of conduct and security policies by moving electronic files outside the company. Mitchell, who announced her firing on Twitter, did not respond to a request for comment.Google’s ethics in artificial intelligence work has been under scrutiny since the firing of Gebru, a scientist who gained prominence for exposing bias in facial analysis systems. The dismissal prompted thousands of Google workers to protest. She and Mitchell had called for greater diversity and inclusion among Google’s research staff and expressed concern that the company was starting to censor papers critical of its products.Gebru said Google fired her after she questioned an order not to publish a study saying AI that mimics language could hurt marginalized populations. Mitchell, a co-author of the paper, publicly criticized the company for firing Gebru and undermining the credibility of her work.The pair for about two years had co-led the ethical AI team, started by Mitchell.Google AI research director Zoubin Ghahramani and a company lawyer informed Mitchell’s team of her firing on Friday in a meeting called at short notice, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person said little explanation was given for the dismissal. Google declined to comment.The company said Mitchell’s firing followed disciplinary recommendations by investigators and a review committee. It said her violations “included the exfiltration of confidential business-sensitive documents and private data of other employees.” The investigation began Jan. 19.Google employee Alex Hanna said on Twitter the company was running a “smear campaign” against Mitchell and Gebru, with whom she worked closely. Google declined to comment on Hanna’s remarks.Google has recruited top scientists with promises of research freedom, but the limits are tested as researchers increasingly write about the negative effects of technology and offer unflattering perspectives on their employer’s products.Reuters reported exclusively in December that Google introduced a new “sensitive topics” review last year to ensure that papers on topics such as the oil industry and content recommendation systems would not get the company into legal or regulatory trouble. Mitchell publicly expressed concern that the policy could lead to censorship.Google reiterated to researchers in a memo and meeting on Friday that it was working to improve pre-publication review of papers. It also announced new policies on Friday to handle sensitive departures and evaluate executives based on team diversity and inclusion.
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Challenges Are Steep as Biden Reengages With Iran
President Joe Biden has announced steps to reengage with Tehran and return to the Iran nuclear deal that the Trump administration withdrew from in 2018. The move has been criticized by Israel, which says it will pave Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report on the challenges ahead for Biden’s policy on Iran.
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Africa’s Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 100,000
The coronavirus death toll on the African continent surpassed 100,000 on Friday, as African countries struggled to obtain vaccines to counteract the pandemic.South Africa alone accounts for nearly half of the confirmed deaths in Africa with 48,859, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The country, which is facing its own variant of the virus, also accounts for nearly half the confirmed cases in the region, with more than 1.5 million. Total cases across the African continent are more than 3.8 million.The 54-nation continent of about 1.3 billion people reached the milestone of 100,000 deaths shortly after marking one year since the first coronavirus case was confirmed on the continent, in Egypt on Feb. 14, 2020.The actual death toll from the virus in Africa is believed to be higher than the official count as some who died were likely never included in confirmed tallies.Countries across the continent are only beginning to see the arrival of coronavirus vaccines, months after some wealthier countries are well under way in the process of vaccinating their most vulnerable populations.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the global manufacturing capacity of coronavirus vaccines needs to double to meet global demand.In a virtual address to this year’s Munich Security Conference, he called for a global vaccination plan to ensure an equitable vaccine distribution and said the biggest world powers must work together.Backdropped by a national flag, a doctor waits to receive a dose of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V at the Ana Francisca Perez de Leon II public hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 19, 2021.Without naming the United States and China, he said, “Our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe into two opposing areas in a Great Fracture.”U.S. President Joe Biden announced Friday the U.S. would soon begin releasing $4 billion it pledged to a global campaign to bolster the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries. The funds were approved by Congress in December, but former President Donald Trump had declined to participate in the program.At his first meeting as president with world leaders at the Munich Security Conference, Biden announced the financial support for COVAX, a coalition tasked with distributing vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.“Even as we fight to get out of the teeth of this pandemic, a resurgence of Ebola in Africa is a stark reminder that we must simultaneously work to finally finance health security, strengthen global health systems, and create early warning systems to prevent, detect and respond to future biological threats, because they will keep coming,” Biden said at the virtual meeting.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the pandemic will not end until the world is vaccinated. In remarks after the video conference of leaders of the G-7 group of large, developed economies, she said Germany and other wealthy countries may need to give some of their own stock of vaccines to developing nations.French President Emmanuel Macron told the conference that Europe and the United States must quickly send enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to Africa to inoculate the continent’s health care workers or risk losing influence to Russia and China.”If we announce billions today to supply doses in six months, eight months, a year, our friends in Africa will, under justified pressure from their people, buy doses from the Chinese and the Russians,” Macron told the conference.A man and child wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk past lanterns at a public park in Beijing on Feb. 19, 2021.Also Friday, Brazil reported 1,308 additional COVID-19 deaths and 51,050 new confirmed cases of the virus on Friday, according to data released by the Health Ministry.The South American nation has now recorded more than 243,000 deaths and more than 100 million cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins.In Russia, officials reported Friday 13,433 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24-hour period and 470 deaths.Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases said a new COVID-19 variant has emerged at a Tokyo immigration facility.A day after the Australian state of Victoria lifted its COVID-19 five-day lockdown, three family members tested positive for the coronavirus. Two of the three had quarantined at the Holiday Inn at the Melbourne airport.Health officials in Spain say they have given a full two-shot course of the coronavirus vaccines to almost all the country’s elderly nursing home residents.Officials in the United States extended land border closures with Canada and Mexico for another 30 days. The extension is the first announced since President Biden took office in January.White House officials said Friday that the distribution of the vaccine has been held up in all 50 states by winter storms and power outages. They say the country has a backlog of 6 million vaccine doses, but that the federal government expects to be caught up by next week.In another development Friday, pharmaceutical partners Pfizer and BioNTech said a new study they conducted indicates their COVID-19 vaccine can remain effective when stored in standard freezers for up to two weeks.If the finding is approved, it would be a significant development since one of the initial drawbacks of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was that it was required to be stored in ultra-low-temperature freezers not commonly found in standard clinics and pharmacies.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that data collected in the first month of vaccinations in the United States have found no concerning new issues with either the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or the Moderna vaccine.It said data collected from the administration of 13.8 million doses of vaccine between Dec. 14, 2020, and Jan. 13, 2021, showed 6,994 reports of adverse events after vaccination, with 90.8% of them classified as nonserious and 9.2% as serious.There are more than 110 million global cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins. The United States tops the list with nearly 28 million infections. India is second with nearly 11 million cases, followed by Brazil with more than 10 million.
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Algeria Frees First Democracy Activists after Presidential Pardons
Algeria released more than 30 pro-democracy activists from jail on Friday, including a prominent journalist, in the first batch freed under presidential pardons issued ahead of the second anniversary of a popular uprising.President Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared in a speech Thursday dozens of pardons in a gesture of appeasement as the Hirak protest movement, which swept former strongman Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power in 2019, gathers momentum once again.”So far 33 people have been released. Procedures are under way for the rest,” the justice ministry said in a statement.Tebboune’s initiative comes ahead of the Hirak’s second anniversary on February 22, with calls on social media for demonstrations on Monday to mark the day.Algeria is facing political and economic crises, with the coronavirus pandemic adding to the woes of an oil-dependent economy.Journalist releasedAmong those pardoned was prominent journalist Khalid Drareni, 40, who walked out of the Kolea prison on Friday, his lawyer Abdelghani Badi said, adding however, that his release was provisional.A huge crowd of well-wishers greeted Drareni, a correspondent for French-language TV5 Monde and press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).He was sentenced in August to three years in jail for his coverage of the Hirak protest movement. In September, his sentenced was reduced by a year, though his supporters remained outraged it hadn’t been scrapped entirely.”I thank all those who supported me and prisoners of conscience. Your support is an essential proof of our innocence,” Drareni said in a video posted on Twitter after his release.Ahmed Benchemsi, Human Rights Watch regional communications director, said Drareni “shouldn’t have spent one minute in prison. He was only doing his job,” in a Twitter post.RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire called it a step “in the right direction” after “11 months of injustice.”‘People must be sovereign’Relatives of prisoners and journalists had gathered outside the Kolea prison, west of the capital Algiers, from the early hours of the morning.Pictures and videos posted online showed former detainees reuniting with friends and family in several parts of Algeria.According to the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD) around 70 people are in prison over their links with the Hirak or other peaceful opposition political activity.Tebboune said that around 55 to 60 Hirak members would benefit from the amnesty.Drareni is still waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on his appeal on February 25, according to lawyer and rights activists Mostefa Bouchachi.Also released on Friday was opposition figure and businessman Rachid Nekkaz, 47, who had been detained since December 2019 and accused of incitement, according to the CNLD.Nekkaz was held at the El Bayadh prison, in the country’s southwest, where earlier on Friday he started a hunger strike to protest his detention, relatives and friends said.Hirak activist Dalila Touat, who had been on hunger strike in prison since January 3, was also released Friday.”We hope that the amnesty will be a first step towards a real political transition in which the people will be sovereign,” Badi told AFP, as he waited outside Kolea prison for the release of his client, Drareni.’Far from enough’The unprecedented Hirak protest movement, demanding a sweeping overhaul of the ruling system in place since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, only suspended its rallies in March last year amid coronavirus restrictions.On Tuesday, thousands of Algerians rallied in the northern town of Kherrata, where the first major protest erupted in 2019 against Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth presidential term.On Friday, usually the day of Hirak marches, police deployed in large numbers in central Algiers.”Algerians will continue to demonstrate peacefully to put pressure on the system so that it really changes,” Bouchachi said.Tebboune on Thursday also announced early elections, calling for the dissolution of parliament and declaring a government reshuffle within 48 hours.Legislative elections had been scheduled to be held in 2022, but Tebboune wants early polls to take place before year’s end.But activists and other Algerians said elections alone were not enough.”Democracy is not limited to elections but to the exercise of democratic freedoms,” said Said Salhi, from the Algerian League for Human Rights.”The Hirak calls for a change of the system through an authentic and open democratic process.”Taxi driver Mussa Abdelli agreed: “The people are not satisfied by the government’s decisions. We want to build an independent and free nation and the pardon is far from enough.”
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Suspected Russian Hack Fuels New US Action on Cybersecurity
Jolted by a sweeping hack that may have revealed government and corporate secrets to Russia, U.S. officials are scrambling to reinforce the nation’s cyber defenses and recognizing that an agency created two years ago to protect America’s networks and infrastructure lacks the money, tools and authority to counter such sophisticated threats.The breach, which hijacked widely used software from Texas-based SolarWinds Inc., has exposed the profound vulnerability of civilian government networks and the limitations of efforts to detect threats.It’s also likely to unleash a wave of spending on technology modernization and cybersecurity.”It’s really highlighted the investments we need to make in cybersecurity to have the visibility to block these attacks in the future,” Anne Neuberger, the newly appointed deputy national security adviser for cyber and emergency technology, said Wednesday at a White House briefing. ‘Likely Russian’ hackersThe reaction reflects the severity of a hack that was disclosed only in December. The hackers, as yet unidentified but described by officials as “likely Russian,” had unfettered access to the data and email of at least nine U.S. government agencies and about 100 private companies, with the full extent of the compromise still unknown. And while this incident appeared to be aimed at stealing information, it heightened fears that future hackers could damage critical infrastructure, like electrical grids or water systems.President Joe Biden plans to release an executive order soon that Neuberger said would include about eight measures intended to address security gaps exposed by the hack. The administration has also proposed expanding by 30% the budget of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, or CISA, a little-known entity now under intense scrutiny because of the SolarWinds breach.President Joe Biden participates in a virtual event with the Munich Security Conference in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 19, 2021.Biden, making his first major international speech Friday to the Munich Security Conference, said that dealing with “Russian recklessness and hacking into computer networks in the United States and the world has become critical to protecting our collective security.”Republicans and Democrats in Congress have called for expanding the size and role of the agency, a component of the Department of Homeland Security. It was created in November 2018 amid a sense that U.S. adversaries were increasingly targeting civilian government and corporate networks as well as the critical infrastructure, such as the energy grid that is increasingly vulnerable in a wired world.Call for resourcesSpeaking at a recent hearing on cybersecurity, Representative John Katko, a Republican from New York, urged his colleagues to quickly “find a legislative vehicle to give CISA the resources it needs to fully respond and protect us.”Biden’s COVID-19 relief package called for $690 million more for CISA, as well as providing the agency with $9 billion to modernize IT across the government in partnership with the General Services Administration.That has been pulled from the latest version of the bill because some members didn’t see a connection to the pandemic. But Representative Jim Langevin, co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, said additional funding for CISA was likely to reemerge with bipartisan support in upcoming legislation, perhaps an infrastructure bill.FILE – Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., prepares the dais after he was chosen as speaker pro tempore for the opening day of the 116th Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 3, 2019.”Our cyber infrastructure is every bit as important as our roads and bridges,” Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in an interview. “It’s important to our economy. It’s important to protecting human life, and we need to make sure we have a modern and resilient cyber infrastructure.”CISA operates a threat-detection system known as Einstein that was unable to detect the SolarWinds breach. Brandon Wales, CISA’s acting director, said that was because the breach was hidden in a legitimate software update from SolarWinds to its customers. After it was able to identify the malicious activity, the system was able to scan federal networks and identify some government victims.”It was designed to work in concert with other security programs inside the agencies,” he said.The former head of CISA, Christopher Krebs, told the House Homeland Security Committee this month that the U.S. should increase support to the agency, in part so it can issue grants to state and local governments to improve their cybersecurity and accelerate IT modernization across the federal government, which is part of the Biden proposal.FILE – Then-U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs speaks to reporters at CISA’s Election Day Operation Center in Arlington, Va., March 3, 2020.”Are we going to stop every attack? No. But we can take care of the most common risks and make the bad guys work that much harder and limit their success,” said Krebs, who was ousted by then-President Donald Trump after the election and now co-owns a consulting company whose clients include SolarWinds.The breach was discovered in early December by the private security firm FireEye, a cause of concern for some officials.”It was pretty alarming that we found out about it through a private company as opposed to our being able to detect it ourselves to begin with,” Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, said at her January confirmation hearing.Right after the hack was announced, the Treasury Department bypassed its normal competitive contracting process to hire the private security firm CrowdStrike, U.S. contract records show. The department declined to comment. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has said that dozens of email accounts of top officials at the agency were hacked.’Backdoor code’The Social Security Administration hired FireEye to do an independent forensic analysis of its network logs. The agency had a “backdoor code” installed like other SolarWinds customers, but “there were no indicators suggesting we were targeted or that a future attack occurred beyond the initial software installation,” spokesperson Mark Hinkle said.Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the hack has highlighted several failures at the federal level but not necessarily a lack of expertise by public sector employees. Still, “I doubt we will ever have all the capacity we’d need in-house,” he said.There have been some new cybersecurity measures taken in recent months. In the defense policy bill that passed in January, lawmakers created a national director of cybersecurity, replacing a position at the White House that had been cut under Trump, and granted CISA the power to issue administrative subpoenas as part of its efforts to identify vulnerable systems and notify operators.The legislation also granted CISA increased authority to hunt for threats across the networks of civilian government agencies, something Langevin said they were only previously able to do when invited.”In practical terms, what that meant is they weren’t invited in because no department or agency wants to look bad,” he said. “So you know what was happening? Everyone was sticking their heads in the sand and hoping that cyberthreats were going to go away.”
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US Alleges Stanford Researcher Concealed Connection to Chinese Army
A federal grand jury has indicted a Stanford University medical researcher for allegedly concealing and lying about her membership in the Chinese military.In an indictment expanding on charges filed in January, the Justice Department accused Chen Song, a Stanford researcher who it said had described herself as a neurologist investigating brain disease, with visa fraud, obstruction of justice, destruction of documents, and making false statements as part of a scheme to conceal her membership in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).”We allege that while Chen Song worked as a researcher at Stanford University, she was secretly a member of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army,” said David L. Anderson, the chief federal prosecutor based in San Francisco, on Friday.Defense lawyers representing Song could not immediately be reached for comment.The new indictment alleged that Song, a 39-year-old Chinese citizen, entered the United States in December 2018, using a non-immigrant visa authorizing her to participate in work- and study-based exchange visitor programs as a Stanford researcher.In her visa application, Song said she served in the Chinese military between Sept. 1, 2000, and June 30, 2011, and that she was a student at a hospital in Beijing.Prosecutors said these Song claims were lies and that she was a member of the PLA when she arrived and remained in the United States. The Justice Department also alleged that the Beijing hospital Song listed as her employer on her visa application “was a cover for her true employer, the PLA Air Force General Hospital in Beijing.”Prosecutors said that Song lied to FBI agents about her membership in the PLA and that after learning of the FBI’s interest in her, she began deleting materials from the internet related to her military service.
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US Concerned China’s New Coast Guard Law Could Escalate Maritime Disputes
The United States is concerned that China’s recently enacted coast guard law could escalate maritime disputes and be invoked to assert unlawful claims, the U.S. State Department said Friday. China, which has maritime sovereignty disputes with Japan in the East China Sea and with several Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea, passed a law last month that for the first time explicitly allows its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels. FILE – U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price holds a news briefing at the State Department, Feb. 17, 2021.State Department spokesman Ned Price told a regular briefing that Washington was “concerned by language in the law that expressly ties the potential use of force, including armed force, by the China coast guard to the enforcement of China’s claims, and ongoing territorial and maritime disputes in the East and South China seas.” He said language “strongly implies this law could be used to intimidate [China’s] maritime neighbors.” “We are further concerned that China may invoke this new law to assert its unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, which were thoroughly repudiated by the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling,” he said, referring to an international ruling that found in favor of the Philippines in a dispute with China. Price said the United States reaffirmed a statement last July in which then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s disputed claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea as “completely unlawful.” FILE – A Philippine fishing boat is seen anchored near China coast guard vessels patrolling at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, April 5, 2017.He added that the United States “stands firm” in its alliance commitments to both Japan and the Philippines. The United States has mutual defense treaties with both countries and has sailed regular naval patrols in the region to challenge China’s extensive maritime claims. The Philippines said last month it had filed a diplomatic protest over China’s new law, describing it as a “threat of war.”
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Clandestine Training of Somali Forces in Eritrea Stirs Families’ Concern
Somalia’s government sent thousands of recruits to Eritrea for military training in a clandestine operation, as the country faces al-Shabab threats, the recent withdrawal of U.S. military personnel and the projected drawdown of African Union peacekeeping forces.Somali forces previously have trained abroad, in Turkey, Uganda and Djibouti. The Eritrea operation differs because it was run by Somalia’s National Intelligence Agency (NISA), not the Ministry of Defense, and has been kept secret from the public.Several sources with direct knowledge of the program – three Somali officials and a foreign diplomat – confirmed to VOA that Somali troops have been training in neighboring Eritrea since 2019. The sources all spoke on condition of anonymity, with the officials noting they were not authorized to speak to news media. The sources differed on the number of Somali troops who have been in Eritrea; the range was 3,000 to 7,000 recruits.The training program in Eritrea came to light in January after unverified social media reports suggested that Somali troops had been killed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The reports indicated those soldiers were allied with Eritrean and Ethiopian federal forces confronting Tigray fighters in the regional conflict.FILE – People stand at the doors of houses that were damaged by shelling in the town of Mehoni, in southern Tigray, Ethiopia, Dec. 11, 2020.Somalia’s information minister, Osman Abukar Dubbe, said in January that some Somali soldiers were training in Eritrea. But, he told state media, “the rumors and fictitious, politicized reports about Somali troops being trained abroad participating in [the] Tigray war [are] unfounded.”Likewise, an Ethiopian official who spoke on condition of anonymity denied the reports of Somali cadets being in Tigray. Eritrea’s information minister, Yemane Meskel, declined to be interviewed.Regional significanceThe Somali soldiers’ training in Eritrea comes amid closer regional cooperation among the leaders of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.Officials who spoke to VOA said the recruits were sent to Eritrea after the presidents of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, and Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, reached an agreement during Afwerki’s first visit to Mogadishu on December 13, 2018, soon after Eritrea made peace with Ethiopia. Farmajo initially had raised the issue the previous September during a visit to Eritrea.”The Eritrean president said he wants to help Somalia,” said a high-ranking Somali official, who added that Afwerki wanted to reciprocate for Somalia’s past support for the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) during its long struggle against Ethiopia’s Derg regime in the 1970s and ’80s.Somalia, EritreaThe first group of cadets was flown from Mogadishu to Eritrea on August 19, 2019, an official said. A second group was taken there on October 20, 2019. The operation continued until March 16, 2020, when Somalia suspended all international and domestic flights because of the COVID-19 pandemic.Early last June, Somalia’s Ministry of Security requested that health officials provide 3,500 COVID-19 rapid tests for the recruits, a VOA source said. Within days, recruits’ flights to Eritrea resumed.Last October, Farmajo visited the Eritrea training camps, two of the officials confirmed.Somali political analyst Abdimalik Abdullahi predicted the regional training “will have a regional significance more so in the post-2021 Somalia and Ethiopia elections and going forward.” He added, “Afwerki’s intent is not so clear but the soldiers are purported to be trained for Somalia’s security interest, and it’s only safe to be cautious and watch out for any signs that suggest otherwise.”The secrecy surrounding the Eritrea operation perplexes some military experts. Colonel Ahmed Abdullahi Sheikh, former commander of Somalia’s elite Danab Brigade of commandos, said the defense ministry should have been leading or coordinating the training, not the intelligence agency.Sheikh said he’d had no previous experience with “troops taken for training who have not been told about where they are going, who cannot be contacted. A soldier has a family and parents. It’s imperative they can communicate.”The foreign diplomat reached a similar conclusion. He said the Eritrea training did not concern him but the operation’s lack of transparency did. He said the government shouldn’t hide that training from the public.Family concernsMilitary service is not mandatory in Somalia, but lack of jobs and opportunities drive many young men to enlist for the promised secure monthly paychecks. In the army, the troops are generally tasked with protecting the fragile Somali federal government and fighting militant group al-Shabab.VOA Somali was not able to find any evidence that Somali soldiers had been deployed to Tigray. Some soldiers’ relatives said they had spoken in recent weeks with sons who said neither they nor any other Somali troops they knew of were sent to the northern Ethioipan region, where hostilities erupted in November.FILE – Somali soldiers are on patrol at the Sanguuni military base, about 450 km south of Mogadishu, Somalia, on June 13, 2018.Abdirashid Abbas of Las Anod town said his son, Ahmed-Dahir, with whom he spoke in January, “told me they have concluded the training and have not been taken to the fighting” in Tigray. The son said he was in Eritrea at the time of the call, Abbas said.But other families have grown frustrated by months without communication from loved ones in the training program. Abdinasir Nur Guled, whose son, Mohamed, has been gone 15 months, said Somali officials’ limited comment on the troops and their whereabouts has left a vacuum in which families’ fears grew.“We want the government to convince us that they’re [in Eritrea] in training, that they will be coming [home] and the specific date,” said Guled.Ahmed Hassan Ali said he, too, worried about his son, Abdiaziz, who was taken to Eritrea.Ali was among a small group of parents who gathered last month in Mogadishu to protest what they said was the government’s mismanagement of the issue. Ali said if the unverified reports about Somali forces in Tigray had no substance, the government should have told the families and reassured them.Political claims color concernsSomali political analyst Abdimalik Abdullahi said the controversy over Somali troops in Eritrea arose from relatives’ genuine concerns about their soldiers.”However, later on, there was some politicking around it, with many politicians speaking out and even making unsubstantiated claims, including the soldiers being deployed to the Tigray region,” Abdullahi told VOA.Abdullahi said Somalia’s elections – currently on hold because of political disputes – could be stirring up controversy over the troops being in Eritrea at all.“With election seasons, the political objectives include efforts to appeal to the public, brand the incumbent as one who is involved in shoddy deals, and counter the Horn alliance, which seems to favor Farmajo both politically and militarywise, hence boosting prospects for his re-election,” said Abdullahi.
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Internet Gateway Will Further Curb Free Speech in Cambodia, Rights Groups Say
Cambodia’s plan to create a gateway to control all online traffic in the country will give authorities expansive powers to curtail rights to free expression, rights groups say. The Cambodian government issued a subdecree Tuesday to establish a National Internet Gateway (NIG) that would give it control over the flow of information on the internet and the ability to block content and websites. The government says the directive will boost Cambodian information technology infrastructure and control content that could harm “national security and social order.” FILE – A Cambodian man looks at a page of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s app on a computer in Phnom Penh, Jan. 12, 2016.The subdecree is similar to a draft obtained in September by VOA Khmer. Under it, the government would license operators to manage the gateway. The subdecree did not provide details on who would be eligible to act as an operator. The gateway operator’s duties would include protecting national security, ensuring social order, and protecting “culture and national tradition” — terms often used in other vaguely defined legislation. Loosely defined laws such as these are open to abuse, rights groups have found. The operator would also have power to act, including ordering internet companies to block or disconnect connections deemed to affect “safety, national revenue, social order, dignity, culture, traditions and customs.” An appeals system is included for individuals who want to dispute an order, and gateway operators deemed to have shirked their responsibilities will face penalties. Chak Sopheap, executive director of Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said the directive would give the government power to block access to social media platforms, where Cambodians routinely post opinions and access news articles. “Several governments have cared about [social media] and think it impedes their power rather than understanding that the people’s participation is an impetus for good governance and social accountability,” Sopheap told VOA Khmer. Cambodia was home to more than 8.8 million Facebook accounts in 2019, according to FILE – Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks during a press conference at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, April 7, 2020.Prime Minister Hun Sen has previously moved to restrict or control the internet. Ahead of the 2018 general election, Hun Sen said his government would install infrastructure to track the location of people who criticized his administration on Facebook. In May 2018, the Telecommunication, Information and Interior ministries formed a working group to monitor the accuracy of news on online media platforms and social media. Ministries and provincial officials have also been asked to monitor the content posted by citizens, including in private messaging groups. Private phone conversations and messages were used as evidence in trials of former Cambodia National Rescue Party officials and supporters. Cambodia dissolved the opposition party in 2017 after local elections. Human Rights Watch called the gateway “the missing tool in the government’s toolbox for online repression.” It added that the subdecree failed to provide for independent oversight, noting that appeals would be heard via the court system, which Human Rights Watch said lacks independence. “Foreign governments, tech companies, e-commerce businesses and other private actors should urgently call on the government to reverse the adoption of this harmful subdecree,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement Thursday.Rights groups have also warned that the internet gateway could cause a significant reduction in internet speeds, a factor that discouraged other governments from creating a similar firewall. Civil society and businesses objected to a similar initiative in Thailand, which was scrapped in 2015 before implementation. “If private companies are compelled to leave, it will be consumers who ultimately pay the price,” the civil society groups said. Sok Channda, the CEO of internet service provider MekongNet, said her team and representatives from other internet service providers (ISPs) had met with the Ministry of Telecommunication last year about the subdecree. She said the ISPs raised concerns about the plans, including the logistics of connecting their systems to the internet gateway and the potential for internet outages because there was one single gateway. “We raised our concerns, but the ministry has not solved concerns raised by me and other ISPs,” she said. “I am concerned that if the state-run link fails, it will disconnect all ISPs.” Channda didn’t comment on concerns raised by rights groups about censorship and data privacy, adding that MekongNet follows Cambodian laws.
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With Power Largely Restored, Texans Now Face Lack of Safe Water
Millions of Texans have had their power restored days after demand during a severe winter storm overwhelmed the electrical grid, but now they face a new challenge: a lack of safe drinking water.Late Thursday, The Associated Press reported that 1,000 of the state’s water systems and 177 of the state’s 254 counties reported disruptions caused by the brutal cold. More than 14 million people were affected, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday that he would sign the federal disaster assistance request from Texas’ governor as soon as it reached his desk. He also said he would travel to the state if his visit would not hamper those working there to handle the crisis.Boil orderTexas officials advised nearly a quarter of the state’s population to boil tap water before drinking it. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said residents of the state’s largest city would have to boil water until at least Sunday or Monday.Two large hospitals in the city reported no running water, leading to the cancellation of nonemergency procedures through at least Friday.Water is loaded into the trunk of a car at a City of Houston water distribution site, Feb. 19, 2021, in Houston.Water pressure was spotty around the state because of damaged pipes and other water infrastructure. The water system was taxed because millions of people left their faucets dripping to prevent pipes from freezing and possibly bursting.Texas Governor Greg Abbott urged Texans to shut off their water.Federal emergency agencies reportedly had sent power generators to bolster water treatment plants, hospitals and nursing homes.Kimberly Malloy was sheltering in San Antonio, Texas, with her boyfriend and two sons in a house that has not had water for several days.Using snow“We’ve resorted to gathering snow and melting it down for drinking, bathing and flushing the toilet,” she said. “Who knows when we’ll get plumbing back?”While much of the state has seen its power restored, AP reported that 190,000 homes and businesses were still without power in the state Friday morning. That was down from 3 million two days ago.The White House said in a statement Thursday that Biden had spoken with Abbott.The statement said the president told Abbott “that the federal government will continue to work hand in hand with state and local authorities in Texas to bring relief and address the critical needs of the families affected.”A shopper at an H-E-B Plus! supermarket faces empty shelves in the Flour Bluff neighborhood of Corpus Christi, Texas, Feb. 18, 2021.“The president also expressed that his administration was at the ready should the state of Texas or any other impacted region need additional federal disaster support or assistance as severe storms move across the US,” the statement read.Biden also tweeted about the storm’s impact.”Jill and I are keeping Texas, Oklahoma and other impacted states in our prayers. I’ve declared states of emergency, authorized FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] to provide generators and supplies, and am ready to fulfill additional requests,” Biden tweeted. “Please heed the instructions of local officials and stay safe.”More than 71% of the contiguous United States is covered in snow, as Texas and neighboring Louisiana are being hit by some of the coldest temperatures they have experienced in 30 years.Below-normal temperaturesThe average February temperature in Texas is about 13 degrees Celsius. The current cold front formed last weekend is bringing in temperatures far below normal and wreaking havoc on the state’s ill-prepared infrastructure.At least 58 deaths across the southern United States this week were directly and indirectly related to the weather, and many more people have been fighting for their lives.While Texas is the hardest-hit state, more than 330,000 people from Virginia to Louisiana were without power.Utilities from Minnesota to Texas had to impose rolling electrical blackouts to provide relief to strained power grids.The AP reported that 260,000 homes and businesses around Memphis, Tennessee, were advised to boil water before drinking as severe cold caused water mains to rupture.In Jackson, Mississippi, 161,000 people were without water Thursday, AP reported.
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6 South Sudanese Refugee Children Killed by Suspected Explosive Device in Uganda
Police in the northwestern Ugandan district of Adjumani are investigating the deaths of six children, killed by a metal device that exploded in a refugee settlement where many South Sudanese have sheltered due to fighting in their own country.Josephine Angucia, a police spokesperson for Uganda’s West Nile region, said preliminary reports indicate about 10 children from the camp were playing in the bush Tuesday when they found an explosive device and tried to open it with a knife.“These children hailing from Maaji Two refugee settlement went out on a playing spree. In the process they came across a metallic object so they picked [up] this item, then decided to cut it using a panga [knife]. That was when the object exploded killing three instantly,” Angucia told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.She said three other children later died from their injuries at a local hospital. The deceased children ranged in age from nine to 14.Angucia said a team of police officers who investigated the scene surmised the object was unexploded ordnance that was discarded during past fighting between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) or other rebels.“This could have been an old grenade or bomb which was left behind by the former rebels who invaded the areas. These are rebels who were under LRA, commanded by Joseph Kony and those of the UNLF (Uganda National Liberation Front), who were harboring in the areas from the 1980s to early 1990s,” Angucia told VOA.Police discovered a panga knife and other metallic remnants at the scene.Angucia urged people sheltering in the Ugandan camps to report any suspicious looking objects to the nearest authorities.Authorities are trying to comfort families residing in the camp following the tragedy.“Police have teamed up with other stakeholders to try to calm down the communities, try to sensitize them more about such and advising the children not to go and pick [up] metallic items or these old suspicious-looking metals in the bushes,” said Angucia.
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At Biden’s G-7 Debut, Leaders Look Beyond COVID-19 to Trade and China
Group of Seven leaders, who control a little under half of the world’s economy, on Friday sought to look beyond the COVID-19 pandemic toward rebuilding their battered economies with free trade and to countering China’s “non-market oriented” policies.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi debuted at the G-7 virtual leaders’ meeting, which was chaired by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The leaders called for stronger defenses against a future pandemic, including exploring a global health treaty, but the focus was on a green recovery — on the same day that the United States rejoined the Paris climate agreement.
“Jobs and growth is what we’re going to need after this pandemic,” Johnson told the opening of the meeting.
An official communique said the G-7 would champion open economies, “data free flow with trust” and work on “a modernized, freer and fairer rules-based multilateral trading system.”
After Facebook cut news feeds in Australia, French President Emmanuel Macron raised the role social media platforms should have in preserving freedom of speech and how to regulate them, a French official said Friday.
G-7 leaders also supported the commitment of Japan to hold the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 this summer.
In a clear reference to China, they said they “will consult with each other on collective approaches to address non-market-oriented policies and practices.”
But the tone of the G-7 was distinctly cooperative and collective — as Biden tried to project a message of re-engagement with the world and with global institutions after four years of Donald Trump’s “America First” policies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 2.4 million people, tipped the global economy into its worst peacetime slump since the Great Depression and upended normal life for billions.Britian’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosts a virtual meeting of G-7 world leaders, at Downing Street in London, Feb. 19, 2021. ‘Mute Angela’
Even at the virtual top table of world politics, the “mute curse,” which has stilted video calls for millions of businesses and families over the past months of COVID-19 lockdown, struck.
As Johnson began the meeting, a German voice suddenly interrupted him.
“Can you hear us Angela,” Johnson quipped to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, chuckling. “I think you need to mute.”
Johnson also claimed that Biden had “nicked” — British slang for stolen — his slogan “build back better,” though Johnson said that he himself had probably stolen it from somewhere else.
Once the mute problems were over, leaders pledged billions of dollars to COVAX, a coronavirus vaccination program for poorer countries.
“COVID-19 shows that the world needs stronger defenses against future risks to global health security,” the G-7 said. “We will continue to support our economies to protect jobs and support a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive recovery.”
Though Biden has cast China as the “most serious competitor” of the United States, China was mentioned only once in the communiques.
Johnson said the G-7— as “like-minded liberal free-trading democracies” — stood together on issues such as condemnation of the coup in Myanmar and the detention of Alexei Navalny in Russia.
The G-7 of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada has a combined gross domestic product of about $40 trillion — a bit less than half of the global economy.
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Taiwan Economy Gets Boost From Those Returning Home to Shelter From COVID
Kuo Chih-wen moved to Taiwan in December. The former denizen of the San Francisco Bay Area had been working from home since March 2020, like people all across the United States trying to dodge COVID-19. Her parents thought it would be a good chance to return to a safer, un-locked down Taiwan, where Kuo was born.
The 27-year-old had planned to return to the United States this month, but now intends to stay through May. She can go out in Taiwan thanks to a low coronavirus rate over the past year. She works overnight hours at the same trading company that employed her in California, while enjoying movies, museums, restaurants and domestic travel.
“We’re very lucky to be able to come back to Taiwan at this time and live a normal life, since we’ve been locked for over 10 months,” Kuo said. “It almost feels like there’s no COVID in Taiwan. Life hasn’t really changed.”
Taiwan got a lid on COVID-19 about a year ago through early checks on inbound flights, a strict quarantine system and relentless contact tracing. The island of 24 million people has reported just 941 cases as of this week.
Kuo is just one of likely thousands of Taiwan-born foreign nationals who have moved back, often with family, to avoid COVID-19 and the lockdowns in countries where they normally live. Now Taiwan is getting a boost from the money returning Taiwanese spend traveling, eating and making longer-term investments. Some bring unique talents and hire local collaborators.
“You look at the big restaurants, the high-class restaurants over this past Lunar New Year holiday, and their business was extremely good,” said Liang Kuo-yuan, president of the Polaris Research Institute, a policy group in Taipei.
He believes wealthy returning Taiwanese made up much of the crowd during a holiday that already sets Taiwan abuzz with family dinners. The 2021 new year break ended this week.
Government offices in Taipei do not keep tabs on exact number of returnees, though one department says it noticed a surge in overseas Taiwanese who came in January 2020 for Lunar New Year and because of COVID-19 decided to stay on the island.
Liang cited estimates that up to one million among Taiwan’s total 24 million population live overseas, and he said they are coming back in high numbers. Many returnees are over 50 years old now and had left the island to escape political and economic uncertainty in Taiwan. They kept Taiwanese citizenship to smooth any returns.FILE – People wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus shop for the Lunar New Year holiday, in Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 9, 2021. Taiwanese returning home to shelter from the pandemic have provided an unexpected boost for the island’s economy.Taiwan’s service sector, 60% of the $635 billion economy, gets a boost from people such as Kuo who go out and spend. They are buying up property, too, and Taiwanese financial institutions are making money on cross-border banking fees, Liang said.
Taiwan home prices grew 6.5% year on year in the fourth quarter last year and 6.1% in the previous quarter — the fastest rate since a 6% contraction in early 2016, according to figures compiled by the research firm CEIC Data. COVID-19 being “brought under control” explains part of the spike in late 2020, the Taipei Times news website says.
Younger professionals who are back after living most of their lives abroad bring capital, talent and the search for business partners. Many are staying on visas that are reserved for foreign citizens with economic promise.
A particularly well-known Taiwanese returnee, 43-year-old YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, said in April he was studying ways to boost the island’s start-up scene by establishing a “collaborative bridge” that would help other people like himself relocate to Taiwan from other parts of the world.
Taiwanese American actor-producer Welly Yang, 48, is working with the Taipei entertainment sector to put together international Broadway concerts in April and May. The leading figure in productions such as Aladdin and Miss Saigon arrived in August from Los Angeles. He lives now with his wife and two children.
Yang’s heritage sealed one professional relationship in a special, only-in-Taiwan way.
“The biggest promoter here, he wants to present my concerts and then it turns out my grandma was his music teacher, like that’s just crazy,” Yang said.
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Staggering Level of Violence in South Sudan Threatens to Spiral Out of Control, UN Warns
U.N. investigators warn that unprecedented levels of ethnically based violence in South Sudan threaten to spiral out of control because of lack of justice and accountability. The report issued Friday will be submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which begins a four-week meeting next week.
The report by the three-member U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan finds hostilities at the national level have diminished since the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement in 2018.
But it says at the local level has escalated to heights never before seen.
The commission says more than 75% of South Sudan currently is engulfed in murderous violence at the local level. Its 47-page report documents what is described as some of the most brutal attacks carried out over the past seven years, mainly in the states of Central Equatoria, Warrap, Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.
Commission Chair Yasmin Sooka says levels of violence in these areas have surpassed those documented in December 2013, when civil war broke out in South Sudan.
“In Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Area, homes have been systematically and deliberately torched, murders and forced displacements have been perpetrated; women and girls have been abducted, they have been raped and gang-raped, sexually enslaved, and in some instances forcibly married off to their captors. Abducted boys have been forced to fight,” she said.
Sooka said the motivation for these localized clashes include competition for power and territory as well as for access to South Sudan’s oil and other rich resources.
“South Sudan is also, in fact, has lots of gold and timber and lots of other really kind of valuable minerals…And the fight for political power and territory goes hand-in-hand with a scramble for resources because access to government gives you access to being able to control all of that,” Sooka said.
The commissioners say gross violations of human rights continue because people know they can get away with their crimes.
They welcome the recent decision by the South Sudanese government to start the process of setting up a domestic-international hybrid court, meant to deliver justice to victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the country’s civil war.
But they say more must be done to end the impunity that allows lawlessness in the country to flourish.
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Zimbabwe Refugees Lose Fight to Remain in Botswana
This week, scores of Zimbabwean refugees living in Botswana lost their bid to remain in the country and now face deportation if they do not voluntarily leave.The nearly 300 refugees fled Zimbabwe during the violent 2008 presidential election and fear persecution if they return. But officials from the U.N. refugee agency in Botswana and Zimbabwe say they are no longer at risk. The refugees have until February 28 to register for voluntary repatriation. But some, like Watson Chibi, say they do not want to return home. Chibi was among opposition MDC supporters who fled Zimbabwe for Botswana following violent clashes with members of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party in 2008. “All refugees’ hopes are down. We are waiting for anything to happen. UNHCR has rejected us. The only option we have is going back home to Zimbabwe,” he said. “We are so skeptical, are we really going to get even a passport or a travel document? Things are bad. They are saying it is time up, we should go. We should go because we do not deserve international protection as things are (now) OK in Zimbabwe.” Chibi says the refugees want to take the matter to court, but do not have funds. “We are trying to go to court. But will we have money to pay a lawyer to represent us? No, we don’t have money. Why? Because since 2010 refugees were not allowed to work,” he said. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Botswana, Henry Mukonoweshuro, has assured refugees it is safe to return. “What I can assure you is that his excellency (Zimbabwe President Emmerson) Mnangagwa welcomes you back to Zimbabwe. It is the government’s desire to have Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe,” Mukonoweshuro said. The UNHCR protection officer at the Dukwi Refugee Camp, Olivia Mugambi, recently told refugees the situation in Zimbabwe has improved. “We have done a lot of research in the country of destination and we believe that the situation has significantly changed, and the situation is now conducive for return,” Mugambi said. The U.N. refugee agency says returning refugees will be assisted with a cash grant, a food package and hygiene items. Officials say the Botswana government will provide transport, while the reception of the returnees and their documentation and reintegration will be the responsibility of Zimbabwean authorities.
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It’s Final: Harry and Meghan Won’t Return as Working Royals
Buckingham Palace confirmed Friday that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will not be returning to royal duties, and Harry will give up his honorary military titles — a decision that makes formal, and final, the couple’s split from the royal family.When Harry and Meghan stepped away from full-time royal life in early 2020, it was agreed the situation would be reviewed after a year.Now it has, and the palace said in a statement that the couple, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have verified “they will not be returning as working members of The Royal Family. “It said Queen Elizabeth II had spoken to Harry and confirmed “that in stepping away from the work of the Royal Family, it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service.”The palace said Harry’s appointment as captain general of the Royal Marines and titles with other military groups would revert to the queen before being distributed to other members of the family.Harry, who served in the British army for a decade and has a close bond with the military, founded the Invictus Games competition for wounded troops.”While all are saddened by their decision, the Duke and Duchess remain much loved members of the family,” the palace statement said.American actress Meghan Markle, a former star of the TV legal drama “Suits,” married Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son, Archie, was born a year later.In early 2020, Meghan and Harry announced they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. They live in Santa Barbara, California and are expecting their second child.They recently announced that they will speak to Oprah Winfrey in a TV special to be broadcast next month.A spokesperson for the couple hit back at suggestions that Meghan and Harry were not devoted to duty.”As evidenced by their work over the past year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain committed to their duty and service to the U.K. and around the world, and have offered their continued support to the organizations they have represented regardless of official role,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.”
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Biden to Debut at G-7 With Vaccines, Economy and China in Focus
U.S. President Joe Biden will attend his first meeting with Group of Seven leaders on Friday to discuss plans to defeat the coronavirus, reopen the battered world economy and counter challenges posed by China.The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 2.4 million people, tipped the global economy into its worst peacetime slump since the Great Depression and upended normal life for billions.Biden “will focus on the global response to the pandemic, including vaccine production, distribution of supplies” and efforts to fight emerging infections, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Thursday.He “will also discuss the global economic recovery, including the importance of all industrial countries maintaining economic support for the recovery” and “the importance of updating global roles to tackle economic challenges such as those posed by China,” Psaki said.The call with G7 leaders at 1400 GMT is a chance for Biden, a Democrat who took over as president from Republican Donald Trump on Jan. 20, to project a message of re-engagement with the world and with global institutions after four years of his predecessor’s “America First” policies.Besides Biden, Italy’s new prime minister, Mario Draghi, will be a new face at the leaders’ virtual table, though he is famous for “doing whatever it takes” at the European Central Bank to save the euro during the European debt crisis.Vaccine driveBritain, which holds the rotating chair of the G7 and is trying to recast itself as a steward of the rules-based international system following Brexit, will ask members to help speed up the development of future vaccines to 100 days.Prime Minister Boris Johnson is keen to build ties with Biden, who did not support Brexit and who, as a presidential candidate, last year publicly warned Britain against endangering peace in Ireland.Johnson has said he is interested in the idea of a global treaty on pandemics to ensure proper transparency after the COVID-19 outbreak which originated in China.The Biden administration will pledge $4 billion to a coronavirus vaccination program for poorer countries in hopes of prying loose bigger donations from other governments, U.S. officials said on Thursday.Britain, which has pledged 548 million pounds ($766 million) to the COVAX program co-led by the World Health Organization, will ask other G7 partners to give more.ChinaChina will also be on the agenda.In his first major foreign policy speech as president, Biden cast China as the “most serious competitor” of the United States.”We’ll confront China’s economic abuses; counter its aggressive, coercive action; to push back on China’s attack on human rights, intellectual property, and global governance,” Biden said on Feb. 4.The United States will keep tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the Trump administration in place for now, but will evaluate how to proceed after a thorough review, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.The G7 of the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada has a combined gross domestic product of about $40 trillion – a little less than half of the global economy.
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Iran: What You Need to Know
What has happened?The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden indicated Thursday it is ready to begin talks about the U.S. rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.What is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action?The JCPOA is an agreement that was designed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The pact was negotiated in 2015 between Iran and the world’s major powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.Why did the U.S. leave the JCPOA?In 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump removed the U.S. from the JCPOA, which had been a major diplomatic achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Trump called the agreement “a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”What has Iran been doing?In 2019, after the U.S. began reimposing sanctions on Iran, Tehran began breaking its adherence to the accord, insisting its accelerated nuclear program was only for peaceful energy purposes.How has Iran responded to the news that the U.S. is open to reentry talks?Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in a Twitter post, urged the U.S. to stop “putting onus on Iran,” and instead bring “an end to Trump’s legacy of #EconomicTerrorism against Iran.” Iran wants the U.S. to remove Trump’s sanctions next week. If not, the Middle Eastern country has threatened to ban short-notice inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
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Algerian President Calls for New Elections after Dissolving Lower House of Parliament
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced Thursday he is dissolving the lower house of parliament, whose members have little more than a year left on their five-year terms.Tebboune said he will call for elections to build a new institution through elections that are free from money, whether corrupt or not.The president also said he will reshuffle the government within the next two days.Tebboune, a former prime minister under ousted President Adelaziz Bouteflika, was elected amid protests demanding the departure of the ruling elite.The leader of the North African nation also ordered the release of 60 members of a protest movement involved in forcing Bouteflika from office in 2019.Tebboune said the decision to disband the lower house, whose majority backed the former president, was part of reforms included in amendments to the constitution last November aimed at giving parliament more powers.Tebboune’s move also addresses his promise to voters to make reforms after succeeding Bouteflika.
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Myanmar Coup Puts French, US Oil Majors Back in Spotlight
Since Myanmar’s military toppled the country’s democratically elected government Feb. 1, a chorus of activists at home and abroad have called on foreign firms to cut ties with the generals’ sprawling business empire, and a few firms have taken heed.One pressure group is going a step further and taking aim at Myanmar’s murky state-owned enterprises, now that the state is firmly back in the military’s clutch. Justice for Myanmar is urging foreign firms that have invested in the country’s lucrative gas fields to pull out of their partnerships with the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, including international oil majors Chevron and Total.“If it’s business as usual, foreign investors in Myanmar’s gas will be funding an illegitimate and brutal military regime as they did before 2011, when the country was under full military rule,” it said in a statement last week.The military started easing its vise grip on the state in 2011 after nearly 50 years in charge, first with a quasi-civilian government, and since 2015 by sharing some power with the National League for Democracy, the political party of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The generals took back full control Feb. 1, after claiming, without evidence, the NLD’s landslide win in last year’s general election was riddled with fraud.Investor relationsSince the coup the military has arrested hundreds of activists and politicians, lifted legal checks on police powers and deployed soldiers against some of the hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country demanding that the junta retreat.“The military coup has left international oil and gas companies with no option but to end their relationship with MOGE and the military government that controls it,” Justice for Myanmar said.France’s Total and U.S.-based Chevron both own substantial shares in one of Myanmar’s four largest offshore gas fields, Yadana. Total, the operator, owns 31% of the project and Chevron holds 28%. MOGE owns a stake as well, in addition to its role regulating the entire industry.South Korea’s POSCO, Malaysia’s Petronas and Thailand’s PTTEP also own significant shares in the fields in partnerships with MOGE.State-owned enterprises are major earners for Myanmar, bringing in roughly half the government’s annual revenue. MOGE is easily the largest, earning about $1.32 billion at today’s exchange rate in 2016-17 fiscal year according to the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a U.S. research group.Some of that money goes to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, but more than half is funneled into opaque, off-budget “other accounts” with little trace of where it goes from there, NRGI says. A 2019 government directive to abolish those accounts should see all revenues start flowing through the regular budget process, though the fate of the billions of dollars that have already gone their way remains shrouded in mystery, according to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global campaign to account for resource revenues.Asked to comment on Justice for Myanmar’s claim that MOGE’s foreign partners will be helping prop up the new junta and its call that they pull out, POSCO insisted the state-owned enterprise had no military ties.“MOGE has no relationship with Myanmar military and revenue is transferred directly to Ministry of Economy and Finance of Myanmar,” a spokesperson told VOA.Chevron, like POSCO, gave no hint of pulling out.“Chevron is a long-term partner in Myanmar and we conduct our business in a responsible manner, respecting the law and universal human rights to benefit the communities where we work. We support the people of Myanmar on their journey to a modern, peaceful, and prosperous nation. We are monitoring the situation closely and hope for a peaceful resolution through dialogue,” a spokesperson said.The other firms did not reply to VOA’s requests for comment.In the minoritySome of the energy firms have been here before.In the final years of the military’s last run-in charge, activists were calling on Chevron and Total to either leave Myanmar or convince the junta to stop its deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. As now, rights groups accused them of helping the military hold on to power.At the time, Chevron said its presence in Myanmar and other pariah countries was doing them more good than harm by employing locals and helping pay for health and education programs.For all the mystery accounts, the gas fields still earn handsomely for the state budget, helping cover not only a share of the military’s cost but pay for a host of social services. Shutting any of those fields down would dent that budget.But minority shareholders like Chevron and Total are unlikely to make that happen by pulling out, said one economist who has advised the NLD government and studied the country’s state enterprises. Even if enough shareholders do agree to shut down production, he said the government could nationalize the fields and sell them off to other buyers with no qualms doing business with dictators.“The two customers for offshore gas are China and Thailand. Both in China and Thailand those are state-owned enterprises that purchase gas; they will continue to purchase gas. Foreign companies currently are minority shareholders … and there are other companies that would be happy to buy those shares. So what impact would [pulling out] have on fiscal revenue in Myanmar? None,” said the economist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.Pipelines connected to the gas fields have also been marred by long-running accusations of forced labor, land grabs and other abuses by the military. Fortify Rights, a rights group that trains much of its focus on Myanmar, says there’s a risk those abuses could pick up if Western companies pull out and the wrong ones take their place.“There’s an argument to be made that if the junta were to nationalize these projects the situation for residents in the areas of these pipelines could worsen, and the small … amount of transparency that does exist around the natural gas revenues related to these projects would certainly stop. And I don’t think that would necessarily be a good thing,” said Matthew Smith, the group’s chief executive officer.’No easy answers’Activists and rights groups hoping to get Myanmar’s derailed democracy back on track are mostly focusing for now on bringing sanctions down on the generals and their personal business interests, or getting foreign firms doing business with them directly to break away.They worry that anything but the sharpest cuts to the military’s purse strings will also hurt the everyday people they’re meant to help by reining the generals in.“Justice for Myanmar is rightly concerned with massive flows of unaccounted revenues going to the military junta; I think everybody needs to be concerned about that. The nuts and bolts of how to deal with this situation given all the various actors and given all the complications to it is something that needs to be worked out, but I think the core of the concern is absolutely spot on,” said Smith.“There’s no easy answers to these things,” he said. “But it is important that excessive revenues do not flow to this military junta, particularly now.”
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