The United States is expelling migrants to Mexico far from where they are caught crossing the border, according to Reuters witnesses, in a move that circumvents the refusal of authorities in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas who stopped accepting the return of migrant families with younger children.The practice is a sign that President Joe Biden is toughening his approach to the growing humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border after his administration’s entreaties for Central American migrants to stay home have failed to stop thousands from heading north.Some families caught at the border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley said in interviews they were flown to El Paso, Texas, after being held in custody just a few days. From there, they were escorted by U.S. officials to the international bridge to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, around 1,300 kilometers away from where they were first picked up by U.S. border patrol agents.A Reuters photographer saw planes landing in El Paso this week that were loaded with dozens of migrant families with young children, including babies in diapers, and then saw the same families crossing the international bridge.Some passengers interviewed by Reuters once they crossed into Mexico said they had been awakened in their holding cells at night by border agents and not told where they were going as they were loaded on buses and taken to the airport.Landon Hutchens, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson, said that because of a lack of capacity in the Rio Grande Valley, migrants have been sent to El Paso for processing, as well as Laredo, Texas, and San Diego, California.Gloria Chavez, the U.S. Border Patrol chief for the El Paso Sector, said that El Paso had been receiving families from the Rio Grande Valley since March 8. Chavez said the priority was to expel them to Mexico, but that Mexico could only receive a limited number of families from the region per day. She said some families were still being released to shelters in the United States.The shuttling of migrants to El Paso was first reported by the Dallas Morning News.While the United States has been expelling thousands of people crossing the border illegally, Tamaulipas, which sits across the border from Texas, has not been accepting families returning with younger children, presenting a conundrum for the Biden administration.A migrant boy launches a paper airplane while playing with other migrant kids near the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge point of entry into the US, after being caught trying to sneak into the US and deported, March 18, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico.U.S. authorities have been releasing hundreds of families to shelters and giving them notices to appear in immigration court to reduce overcrowding at border facilities.Dylan Corbett, the director of the Hope Border Institute, an advocacy organization, said the majority of families expelled to Ciudad Juarez after crossing in south Texas have children younger than 7.”They have been returned to Juarez to a situation of extreme vulnerability,” facing dangers from human traffickers and organized criminal groups, Corbett said in an interview, adding that shelters in Mexico are full because of the pandemic.Edna Sorto, who came from Honduras with her two young sons, sat on the floor in a state government immigration office in Ciudad Juarez shortly after walking over the bridge from El Paso. Dozens of families milled around the office with some toddlers and babies sleeping on blankets on the floor.”They didn’t ask us anything about why we came or where we were going or who could receive us in the United States,” Sorto said through tears and over the cries of children in the background who said they were hungry. “We are just going to wait here and see what they tell us, see if we can find a place to stay.”The new practice of expelling families to a different part of Mexico comes as the Biden administration faces pressure by both critics and some supporters for its handling of the crisis on the border. Opposition Republicans blame the increase in illegal border crossings on Biden’s immigration policies and what they say is his mixed messaging to would-be migrants.The Rio Grande divides the cities of Brownsville, Texas, right, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on March 16, 2021.Biden administration officials’ warnings to migrants not to make the journey north appear to be ignored, as people smugglers point to some families being allowed in to persuade would-be migrants that the border is open.”We have been clear from all levels of government that the border is closed and the majority of individuals will be turned away or expelled under Title 42,” a White House spokesperson said, referring to a public health order instituted under former President Donald Trump amid the pandemic. The order allows migrants, including families, to be “expelled” to Mexico or their home countries.Gil Kerlikowske, who was CBP commissioner for three years under former President Barack Obama, said the Biden administration’s heavy reliance on messaging was “a huge mistake.””We have 25 plus years of messaging in Mexico and Central America, from placards on buses and bus shelters to radio spots and more, saying, ‘Don’t come, it’s dangerous,’ and for 25 years that message has been completely unheard.”Democrats and activists meanwhile say children are being kept in border patrol custody for too long and should be released more quickly to family members or other sponsors.More than 500 of the roughly 4,500 unaccompanied children being held in sparse border patrol facilities as of Thursday have been there for more than 10 days, above the legal three-day limit, according to U.S. government data shared with Reuters.
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Month: March 2021
Volcano Erupts Near Iceland’s Capital
A volcano erupted near Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, on Friday, shooting lava high into the night sky after thousands of small earthquakes in recent weeks.The eruption occurred near Fagradalsfjall, a mountain on the Reykjanes Peninsula, around 30 kilometers southwest of the capital.Some four hours after the initial eruption at 2045 GMT — the first on the peninsula since the 12th century — lava covered about 1 square kilometer or nearly 200 football fields.”I can see the glowing red sky from my window,” said Rannveig Gudmundsdottir, resident in the town of Grindavik, only 8 kilometers from the eruption.”Everyone here is getting into their cars to drive up there,” she said.More than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred on the peninsula in the past four weeks, a huge jump from the 1,000-3,000 earthquakes registered each year since 2014.The eruption posed no immediate danger to people in Grindavik or to critical infrastructure, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), which classified the eruption as small.In this still image captured from a handout video filmed by the Icelandic Coast Guard, lava flows from the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano some 50 kilometers west of the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, on March 19, 2021.A fissure 500 to 750 meters long opened at the eruption site, spewing lava fountains up to 100 meters high, Bjarki Friis of the meteorological office said.Residents in the town of Thorlakshofn, east of the eruption site, were told to stay indoors to avoid exposure to volcanic gases, Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said. The wind was blowing from the west.Unlike the eruption in 2010 of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which halted approximately 900,000 flights and forced hundreds of Icelanders from their homes, this eruption is not expected to spew much ash or smoke into the atmosphere.Located between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates, among the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hot spot as the two plates move in opposite directions.The source of the eruption is a large body of molten rock, known as magma, which has pushed its way to the surface over the past weeks, instigating the earthquakes.The number of quakes had slowed down in recent days, however, leading geologists to say that an eruption would be less likely.Reykjavik’s international Keflavik airport was not closed following the eruption, but each airline had to decide if it wanted to fly or not, IMO said.Arrivals and departures on the airport’s website showed no disruptions.
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Turkey’s Erdogan Quits European Treaty on Violence Against Women
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled Turkey out of an international accord designed to protect women, the country’s official gazette said Saturday, despite calls from advocates who see the pact as key to combating rising domestic violence.The Council of Europe accord, forged in Istanbul, pledged to prevent, prosecute and eliminate domestic violence and promote equality. Turkey, which signed the accord in 2011, saw a rise in femicides last year.No reason was provided for the withdrawal, but officials in Erdogan’s ruling AK Party had said last year the government was considering pulling out amid a disagreement over how to curb growing violence against women.”The guarantee of women’s rights are the current regulations in our bylaws, primarily our Constitution. Our judicial system is dynamic and strong enough to implement new regulations as needed,” Family, Labour and Social Policies Minister Zehra Zumrut said on Twitter, without providing a reason for the move.Many conservatives in Turkey say the pact undermines family structures, encouraging violence. They are also hostile to the principle of gender equality in the Istanbul Convention and see it as promoting homosexuality, given its principle of non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.Critics of the withdrawal from the pact have said it would put Turkey further out of step with the values of the European Union, which it remains a candidate to join. They argue the deal, and legislation approved in its wake, need to be implemented more stringently.Other countries have moved toward ditching the accord. Poland’s highest court scrutinized the pact after a cabinet member said Warsaw should quit the treaty, which the nationalist government considers too liberal.Erdogan has condemned violence against women, including saying this month that his government would work to eradicate violence against women. But critics say his government has not done enough to prevent femicides and domestic violence.Turkey does not keep official statistics on femicide. World Health Organization data has shown 38% of women in Turkey are subject to violence from a partner in their lifetime, compared with about 25% in the rest of Europe.Ankara has taken measures such as tagging individuals known to resort to violence and creating a smartphone app for women to alert police, which has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.Erdogan’s decision comes after he unveiled judicial reforms this month that he said would improve rights and freedoms and help meet EU standards. Turkey has been a candidate to join the bloc since 2005, but access talks have been halted over policy differences and Ankara’s record on human rights.
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Taliban Expect US to Withdraw, Vow to Restore Islamic Rule
The Taliban warned Washington Friday against defying a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan, promising a reaction, which could mean increased attacks by the insurgent group.The Taliban issued their warning at a press conference in Moscow, the day after meeting with senior Afghan government negotiators and international observers to try to jump-start a stalled peace process to end Afghanistan’s decades of war.President Joe Biden’s administration says it is reviewing an agreement the Taliban signed with the Trump administration. Biden told ABC in an interview Wednesday that the May 1 deadline “could happen, but it is tough,” adding that if the deadline is extended it won’t be by “a lot longer.””They should go,” Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban negotiation team, told reporters, warning that staying beyond May 1 would breach the deal. “After that, it will be a kind of violation of the agreement. That violation would not be from our side. … Their violation will have a reaction.”He did not elaborate on what form the reaction would take, but in keeping with the agreement they signed in February 2020, the Taliban have not attacked U.S. or NATO forces, even as unclaimed bombings and targeted killings have spiked in recent months.”We hope that this will not happen, that they withdraw and we focus on the settlement, peaceful settlement of the Afghan issue, in order to bring about a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire at the end of reaching a political roadmap (for) Afghanistan,” Shaheen said.Demand for Islamic governmentHe also reaffirmed that the Taliban were firm in their demand for an Islamic government. Shaheen didn’t elaborate on what an Islamic government would look like or whether it would mean a return to their repressive rules that denied girls education, barred women from working, and imposed harsh punishments.Shaheen did not say whether the Taliban would accept elections, but he emphasized that the government of President Ashraf Ghani would not fit their definition of an Islamic government.Limited role for womenIn previous statements, the Taliban have said their vision of an Islamic government would allow girls to attend school, and women to work or be in public life. But in every conversation, they emphasized the need to follow Islamic injunctions without specifying what that would mean.They have said they would not accept a woman as president, and while women could be judges they could not take the job of the chief justice.But even without the Taliban in government in Afghanistan, The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Afghanistan said Afghanistan was one of the worst places in the world to be a woman in 2020.Only one woman attended Thursday’s talks in Moscow, and in the two decades since the Taliban were ousted, successive governments in Kabul have been unable to ratify a law outlawing violence against women.Meanwhile, the Taliban refused to promise they would not launch a spring offensive despite calls from the United States, Russia and China.Washington has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly two decades, since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks masterminded by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden who was based in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The invasion toppled the Taliban regime, but the 20-year-war has made Afghanistan America’s longest conflict.Blinken offers warningThe Taliban, who during their rule imposed a harsh brand of Islam, now control about half of the country. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that the insurgents could make even more gains without U.S. and NATO troops on the ground.The Moscow conference was attended by U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, Abdullah Abdullah, head of Afghanistan’s National Reconciliation Council, and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who led a 10-member delegation. Representatives of Pakistan, Iran, India and China also participated.In a statement issued after the talks, Russia, the U.S., China and Pakistan called on the warring parties to reduce the level of violence in the country — and specifically urged the Taliban not to pursue a spring offensive.The joint statement emphasized that the four countries do not support the restoration of an Islamic emirate in Afghanistan similar to the Taliban’s past rule.
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US Concludes ‘Tough’ Talks With China in Alaska
Senior U.S. and Chinese officials concluded Friday what Washington called “tough and direct” talks in Alaska that laid bare the depth of tensions between the world’s two largest economies at the outset of the Biden administration.The run-up to the talks in Anchorage, which followed visits by U.S. officials to allies Japan and South Korea, was marked by a flurry of moves by Washington that showed it was taking a firm stance, as well as by blunt talk from Beijing warning the United States to discard illusions that it would compromise.”We expected to have tough and direct talks on a wide range of issues, and that’s exactly what we had,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters moments after the Chinese delegation left the hotel meeting room.’Defensive response’U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, standing beside Sullivan, said he was not surprised that the United States got a “defensive response” from China after it raised its concerns about Chinese human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as cyberattacks and pressure on Taiwan.But Blinken said the two sides also had intersecting interests on Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and climate change.”On economics, on trade, on technology, we told our counterparts that we are reviewing these issues with close consultation with Congress, with our allies and partners, and we will move forward on them in a way that totally protects and advances the interests of our workers and our businesses,” Blinken said.Members of China’s delegation left the hotel without speaking to reporters.After pointed opening remarks Thursday from Blinken about China’s challenge to a rules-based international order, China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, lashed out with a speech criticizing U.S. democracy and American foreign and trade policies.The United States accused China of grandstanding for its domestic audience, and each side suggested the other had broken diplomatic protocol.The rebukes played out in front of cameras, but a senior U.S. administration official told reporters that as soon as they had left the room, the two sides “immediately got down to business” and held substantive and direct talks.Shift in emphasisWhile much of President Joe Biden’s China policy is still being formulated, his administration has so far placed a stronger emphasis on democratic values and allegations of human rights abuses by China.”I am very proud of the secretary of state,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday morning when asked about the previous day’s meeting.In recent weeks, top Republicans have given a nod to efforts by Biden, a Democrat, to revitalize relations with U.S. allies in order to confront China, a shift from former President Donald Trump’s go-it-alone strategy.Biden has partially staked his approach on China to rebuilding American domestic competitiveness, and several top Republicans, whose cooperation will be crucial to the success of those plans, backed his administration in the face of the heated exchanges from the first day of talks.”I have many policy disagreements with the Biden administration, but every single American should unite against Beijing’s tyrants,” Republican Senator Ben Sasse said in a statement.FILE – Yang Jiechi, right, director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office for China, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrive for a meeting with U.S. counterparts in Anchorage, Alaska, March 18, 2021.While Biden’s two-month-old administration is still conducting China policy reviews, Yang and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, by contrast, are veteran diplomats with decades of experience handling U.S.-China relations at the highest levels of the Chinese government.China’s social media carried comments saying Chinese officials were doing a good job in Alaska, and that the U.S. side lacked sincerity.”My sense is that the administration is testing the question of whether it is possible to get real results from these dialogues,” Zack Cooper, who researches China at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said of the U.S. side.’I don’t need you’Dean Cheng at the conservative Heritage Foundation said China’s global influence had grown to the point where it felt it could openly deride the U.S. system.”That is a vision from the Chinese perspective of, ‘You need me, I don’t need you,’ ” Cheng said.China on Friday put a Canadian citizen on trial on spying charges, and potentially plans to hold the trial of another Canadian on Monday, cases embroiled in a wider diplomatic spat between Washington and Beijing.State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter, during a regular briefing in Washington, reiterated U.S. calls for China to release the two men, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, from “arbitrary and unacceptable” detention.The Chinese military also banned Tesla cars from entering its housing complexes, citing security concerns over the cameras installed on the vehicles, according to two people who saw notices of the directive.
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US House Backs Measure Condemning Myanmar Coup
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation Friday condemning the military coup in Myanmar, as lawmakers decried increasingly harsh tactics used to suppress demonstrations since the February 1 ouster of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.The measure passed 398-14, with one lawmaker voting “present.” All of the “no” and “present” votes came from Republicans.The resolution condemned the coup and the detention of Myanmar’s civilian leaders, called for the release of all those detained and for those elected to serve in parliament to resume their duties.The House had passed another Burma-related measure Thursday by voice vote. That bill, which must be passed by the Senate before becoming law, would require President Joe Biden’s administration to provide a report to Congress on events in Myanmar and its response to them.”We must, we must make it clear that the United States is watching and that we support the restoration of democracy,” said Representative Gregory Meeks, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urging support for the measures.Security forces killed at least nine opponents of Mynamar’s military junta Friday, as Southeast Asian countries urged an end to the violence and Western ambassadors condemned what they called the army’s “immoral, indefensible” actions.
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UNICEF Points to Continuing Crisis for Children in Tigray Region
As conflict escalates in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, UNICEF is underscoring the need for continual aid for affected children amid a worsening situation.“Five months since the start of the conflict, a clearer picture is emerging of killings and sexual violence against women and children in Tigray. The reported murder of at least 20 children at Maryam Dengelat Church last November will continue to haunt families and communities,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in a statement released Friday.The U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund reports schools and health centers have been looted, vandalized and occupied by armed groups. In addition, deliberate attacks have been ordered on health facilities, limiting health services available to help those in need.“According to assessments conducted at the end of February 2021, violence and looting have left nearly 60% of health care facilities not operational. Some 57% of boreholes (providing water) in 13 towns surveyed are not functional and a quarter of the region’s schools have sustained damage from the conflict,” said Fore.UNICEF is continuing to work with its partners to ensure humanitarian aid gets to those in need, as well as increasing its presence in the region.Despite this, UNICEF warns that humanitarian aid alone is not enough, citing the need for protection, reporting and monitoring.“Parties to the conflict must ensure that children are protected from harm at all times. Basic service outlets, such as health centers and schools, must be protected and the safety and security of everyone working in and accessing those services guaranteed,” said Fore.Aid groups have been struggling to gain access to the region since the beginning of the Tigray conflict, when Nobel Prize-winning Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered his forces to respond to an alleged raid on an army camp in the region. The region’s main party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, responded by taking control of parts of the army’s northern command post.The conflict, combined with a media blackout and government-imposed restrictions, has left humanitarian organizations unable to provide adequate aid, and they have had difficulty accurately gauging the need.
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Media Freedom in Slovenia Under EU Scrutiny
Members of the European Parliament have warned of a “chilling” environment for Slovenia’s media, with verbal assaults from senior officials and attempts to cut funding for the state-owned news agency.The session on media freedom came amid heightened concerns by the European Parliament that declining conditions in Slovenia, Hungary and Poland represent a threat to democracy and could lead to authoritarianism. Slovenia is due to take over the six-month European Union presidency in July.An increase in pressure on Slovenia’s media, including its public broadcasters, has been reported since the center-right government of Prime Minister Janez Jansa took power last year.The prime minister and his supporters FILE – Franc Bogovic of the Slovenian People’s Party takes part in a televised debate ahead of elections in Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 26, 2014.“It is clear that about 80% of internal policy editorial offices of the Slovenian media, including the public RTV [radio and television channel], favors center-left political parties,” said Franc Bogovic, a Slovenian politician and EPP member.Ahead of the debate, the Slovenian state-run news agency STA published what it said were extracts from an internal document prepared by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.STA reported that the document included a table of attacks on media from Jansa and other government officials, and highlighted apparent political influence in Slovenia through media ownership and financing by Hungarian companies affiliated with Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz Party.When asked for comment on the debate, Slovenia’s Ministry of Culture referred VOA to an earlier statement in which it said the country’s media “are predominantly left wing and fiercely anti-government.”In the same statement, the ministry said Hungarian investments accounted for less than 1 percent of the Slovenian media landscape.The ministry added that an earlier European Parliament hearing included “factually inaccurate information,” which it responded to in its statement.Media biasThe state-funded STA and RTV have found themselves at the center of allegations of government interference and left-wing bias since Jansa returned to power.STA, which gets about half of its income from the government, was established when Slovenia declared independence. It is bound by legislation to be “independent and unbiased” and to produce accurate and objective news.The government alleges that the STA supports leftist political views, a claim the agency has denied.The government stopped financing the STA earlier this year, saying the news agency had failed to supply documents required for its government contract. And Jansa called on its director, Bojan Veselinovic, to resign, calling him “a political tool of the far left” and saying the STA often “sells lies for the truth.”Veselinovic refused, saying there was no basis for the accusations. He has said the government wants to financially drain the independent agency.RTV Slovenia and STA can sometimes appear biased, Siol journalist Jancic said, citing coverage of anti-government protests this month that, he said, appeared to tone down threats.The pressure on the STA led 15 academics from Ljubljana University’s Faculty of Social Sciences to issue a public letter in support of the news outlet.The letter said the “the hostile destruction of such an important” organization “borders on insanity.”The government also attempted to replace Igor Kadunc, head of RTV, in October.Jancic said that when a left-wing government coalition was in power in 2018, it also tried unsuccessfully to oust the head of RTV.
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Merkel Says She Would Take AstraZeneca Vaccine
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she was ready to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s coronavirus jab if she is offered it, in a bid to shore up confidence in the jab.”Yes I would take the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Merkel told a news conference, adding she “would like to wait until it’s my turn but I would in any case”.Merkel’s firm endorsement of the vaccine came after its use was suspended for several days this week by major European countries, including Germany, over fears it may cause blood clots.Europe’s medicines regulator EMA on Thursday cleared it for use after a review of the clotting cases, saying the vaccine was “safe and effective”.But questions surrounding the jab jointly developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford were revived when France on Friday recommended it should be given only to people aged 55 and over because of the clotting risks.Germany on Friday resumed use of the Anglo-Swedish company’s jabs and politicians were at pains to assure the population of the vaccine’s safety.Winfried Kretschmann, state premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg, had an AstraZeneca jab live on television.”Have trust, get vaccinated,” he said in an appeal to the population.AstraZeneca has faced a series of setbacks since it was approved for use in the European Union.Besides delivery delays that angered the bloc, Germany had in the initial weeks of its use limited it to people under 65-years-old because of insufficient efficacy data for older people.Critics had complained that the decision to halt use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine over the recent days only served to fuel more mistrust over vaccination and further delay Germany’s already sluggish inoculation programme.’Clearly exponential’Germany is battling to ramp up its vaccination campaign as health authorities of the EU’s biggest country warn that coronavirus virus numbers are rising at a “very clearly exponential rate”.”It is very possible that we will have a similar situation over Easter to the one we had before Christmas, with very high case numbers, many severe cases and deaths, and hospitals that are overwhelmed,” Lars Schaade, vice president of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, told reporters.The institute on Friday reported 17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and 226 deaths in Germany, with the seven-day incidence rate soaring to 96 per 100,000 people despite a months-long shutdown of large swaths of public life.Ahead of talks on Monday with the country’s 16 state leaders to set new shutdown rules based on the latest pandemic developments, Merkel said there would be no further easing of ongoing restrictions.”We will have to also use this emergency brake,” she said, referring to an agreement to roll back easing in regions where infections were fastest growing.Second city Hamburg said it would pull the “emergency brake” from Saturday after exceeding the 100-mark three days in a row. Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin, also crossed the benchmark on Friday.Schools began reopening in Germany at the end of February, followed by some shops in March. But indoor dining remains banned for now, and cultural and leisure facilities remain shut.
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8 Killed in Suspected South Sudan Revenge Attack
Leaders in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state say at least eight people were killed in a suspected revenge attack Thursday.Kajokeji County Commissioner Kenyi Erasto said preliminary findings indicate a group of cattle keepers from Jonglei state attacked residents in Sokare village in retaliation for attack earlier this week.“There was information which came that two cattle keepers went missing, then their colleagues tried to follow them after two days, then they also fell into an ambush whereby three were [also] injured,” Erasto told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.He said it was possible that “this culture of revenge has happened.”Erasto identified seven of the dead as five local residents of Kajokeji and two Ugandans. He said the eighth victim was not identified. The bodies were still lying on the ground in Sokare on Friday, according to Erasto.Wilson Lodiong, a member of parliament who represents Kajokeji County, said he received reports indicating Thursday’s attack occurred a few days after cattle keepers clashed with National Salvation Front rebel forces (NAS).“Most of them got killed and they could not kill any of the NAS, so on their withdrawal, they went and [carried out] revenge on the civilians,” Lodiong told South Sudan in Focus.NAS spokesperson Suba Samuel disputed that account.“These are allegations. What could have caused the fighting between us and the cattle keepers and the killing of the civilians? This is not true,” Samuel told South Sudan in Focus.Lodiong said most of the victims of Thursday’s attack lived in his home village of Limi. “These people were fish mongers. They were attacked for no reason,” Lodiong told VOA.Thursday’s attack and others like it threaten efforts to restore peace in Kajokeji and across the country, said Lodiong.Anyik Chaplain, chairperson of the Kajokeji Youth Association, told South Sudan in Focus the situation was calm on Friday.But Chaplain also said the attack raises security concerns and hinders the return of internally displaced persons and refugees from neighboring countries.“When these messages go back to the refugees in the camp, they feel insecure because where the incident happened, it is where we get our fish,” said Chaplain. “It happens along the river, so it is something that is not wanted at this time when people are returning back to Kajokeji.”Chaplain and Emmanuel Murye, bishop of the Diocese of Kajo-Keji of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, urged authorities to intervene.Bishop Muyre said authorities should enforce President Salva Kiir’s order issued in 2017 directing cattle keepers in Central Equatoria to return to their original areas.
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Local Church Condemns Atlanta Spa Shootings Suspect
The suspect in the shooting deaths of six Asian American women and two others at state of Georgia massage parlors has been strongly condemned by the church he and his family had attended for years.Robert Aaron Long is the sole suspect charged in all eight deaths at three locations in the Atlanta area.“We want to be clear that this extreme and wicked act is nothing less than rebellion against our Holy God and His Word. Aaron’s actions are antithetical to everything that we believe and teach as a church,” Crabapple First Baptist Church said Friday in a statement.“In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the actions of Aaron Long as well as his stated reasons for carrying out this wicked plan,” said the church, located in the city of Milton.Authorities in the southern U.S. state of Georgia say suspect Long claimed Tuesday’s shootings were not racially motivated but were instead a result of “sex addiction” issues.Julie Tran holds her phone during a candlelight vigil in Garden Grove, California, on March 17, 2021 to unite against the recent spate of violence targeting Asians and to express grief and outrage after an Atlanta shooting left eight people dead.Cherokee County Sheriff’s Captain Jay Baker told reporters that Long “apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places. And it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.”Officials said Long may have been on his way to Florida to commit more shootings when he was arrested.Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it was too early to classify the shootings as hate crimes.Baker was replaced as spokesman of the sheriff’s department after being criticized on social media Wednesday for telling reporters that Long had “a really bad day” and for earlier Facebook posts that disparaged people of Asian descent. Without explaining why Baker had been replaced, Cherokee County Communication Director Erika Neldner said in a statement Thursday she would assume the duties of interacting with the media about matters involving the Cherokee County Sheriff’s investigation into the killings.In Facebook posts last March and April, Baker encouraged followers to buy an anti-Asian T-shirt that said the coronavirus was an “imported virus from Chy-na,” repeating language similar to what then-President Donald Trump began to use after the outbreak began. “Place your order while they last,” Baker said in one of the Facebook posts that he has not commented on. President Joe Biden said he was withholding judgment about the motivation behind the shootings until there is more information.”I am making no connection at this moment of the motivation of the killer. I am waiting for an answer from — as the investigation proceeds — from the FBI and from the Justice Department,” he said before hosting a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Ireland. “I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed.”Biden has ordered flags flown at half-staff through March 22 to honor the victims. He and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to travel to Atlanta Friday to meet with Asian American leaders.Killings of 6 Asian Americans in Atlanta Spurs Debate Over Hate CrimesActing as ‘penalty enhancers,’ most state hate crime laws call for an increase in sentencing when an underlying crime is motivated by hateThe shootings come amid a rising number of attacks against people of Asian descent in the United States.Hate crimes against Asian Americans jumped by 149% in 16 major U.S. cities from 2019 to 2020, according to a study released this month by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Overall hate crimes fell 7% during the same period.The Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) said in a statement Thursday it “strongly condemns the increasing violence and rising hate incidents targeting Asian Americans in recent months” and called for a multifaceted approach to address the disturbing trend.The AACE urged governments at all levels commit sufficient law enforcement resources to protect Asian Americans, begin investigations to identify causes of such attacks, and launch collaborative campaigns to improve education to discourage violence. The organization also called on politicians to “dissociate the pandemic with any ethnic groups because Asian Americans did not cause the COVID-19 pandemic.”The attack was the sixth mass killing this year in the United States, and the deadliest since the August 2019 Dayton, Ohio, shooting that left nine people dead, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
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Indonesian Hardline Islamic Cleric Charged With Violating COVID Restrictions
Indonesian prosecutors accused hardline Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab of incitement and widespread coronavirus restriction violations in his first virtual court appearance on Friday.Shihab’s legal team says the charge is politically motivated, with the cleric saying in court that he was being “forced and denigrated” and that it was his right to appear in a regular courtroom. He previously refused to take part in online court proceedings.Prosecutors in the case outlined how Shihab’s return from exile in Saudi Arabia in November was celebrated with a massive rally and how his hosting his daughter’s wedding breached large-scale social restrictions.Both events collectively drew more than 10,000 people, with 33 guests at the wedding testing positive, as well as Shihab.Shihab left Indonesia in 2017 to complete a pilgrimage to Mecca shortly after being charged in a pornography case and for insulting the official state ideology. The charges were subsequently dropped.
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Biden to Nominate Former Sen. Nelson as NASA Chief
U.S. President Joe Biden announced Friday he plans to nominate former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to lead the U.S. space agency, NASA.In a statement, the White House says as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a three-term senator from Florida, Nelson, a Democrat, chaired committees on space, science and transportation. They also note he co-authored the landmark 2010 NASA bill which set the current path of private-sector partnership. In the statement, the White House notes Nelson, as a congressman in 1986, even flew on a six-day space shuttle mission. He currently serves on the NASA advisory council.Nelson, if approved by the Senate, would take over the agency as commercial space projects are already shuttling supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station.NASA is also preparing to return astronauts to the moon in the next four years.Nelson’s nomination has already received the endorsement of Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican.“I cannot think of anyone better to lead NASA than Bill Nelson,” Rubio tweeted on Thursday.
If approved, Nelson would be NASA’s 14th administrator, and would take over from the Trump administration’s appointee, former Oklahoma congressman Jim Bridenstine.
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Australian Surgeon Treats South Sudanese Women, Girls Suffering from Fistula
A 14-year-old South Sudanese girl who could not control her urine or bowel movements for two years is lying on a bed at the Lutheran Medical Center in Juba, recovering from an operation to repair a fistula – a medical condition in which a hole develops in the birth canal that is caused by prolonged obstructed labor.The girl, who VOA is not identifying for privacy reasons, said a doctor friend called her last month from Juba when she was in Rumbek to inform her about a two-week camp being run by the Barbara May Foundation, an Australian organization that helps women suffering from fistula in the South Sudanese capital.The girl told South Sudan in Focus that in 2019 an old man found her by the roadside, kidnapped her, and forced her into marriage. She said she later became pregnant and developed fistula while delivering her first-born child as a child herself.”I delivered a baby at home in the village. It’s not a town where I could be taken to the hospital. I delivered alone. There was a woman who was helping me so that the baby could come in her hands, but she put her hands in and it cut the urinary tube and urine started flowing by itself. The relatives of my husband said they don’t want me, that I am smelling, so I went to my father’s home,” said the girl.Australian surgeon Dr. Andrew Browning, who started the foundation and conducted the operations, said he and his team have operated on more than 100 women and girls in three different camps in South Sudan.“About 30 ladies per camp and [in] this camp, we have 34 ladies to operate on so it’s now about 120 ladies we have treated in South Sudan but that’s just a small part of the problem; there are many thousands of women in South Sudan with this problem, so we need to train more doctors how to do this operation,” Browning told South Sudan in Focus.The obstetrician and gynecologist became involved with helping women suffering from fistula 17 years ago after visiting his aunt Valerie Browning in rural Ethiopia, who assisted women with terrible childbirth injuries.Dr. Browning trained a few South Sudanese surgeons in Ethiopia. He said those surgeons could now be working in Juba, Wau and Aweil, but far more doctors are needed to perform fistula operations.“There are some people doing it but not enough, and the patients that come here are usually patients who have been operated on in other places and they failed,” Browning said. “We pray they succeeded this time,” he added.People believe all kinds of misconceptions about fistula, says Browning.“Some people say it’s a bad spirit, or a curse or maybe the woman was unfaithful in her marriage, but that’s not true. It’s just that the baby was too big for the mother to deliver and that’s how she got stuck, so she was stuck in labor for five days, it’s not her fault, it’s an awful condition to live with, she is leaking all the time, she is very ashamed,” Browning said.Dr. John Sebit, medical director at the Lutheran Medical Center, where the operations have been conducted, said the center started the project to support mothers who are often rejected by their loved ones due to their condition.“This camp we started in 2018 after realizing there are so many mothers outside living with fistula or obstetric fistula and again the specialists who do these surgeries are not so common, there are so few,” Sebit told South Sudan in Focus.The Lutheran Medical Center helps identify women and girls suffering from fistula and transports them “to where they can be operated on,” he said.Obstetric fistula “will continue in South Sudan until mothers start delivering from hospitals” so that if a baby becomes stuck, doctors can carry out a caesarean section, said Browning.
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Turkey Asks Brotherhood TV Channels to Dim Criticism of Egypt
Turkish authorities have asked three Istanbul-based Egyptian opposition TV channels to soften their critical political coverage of Egypt’s government, as Turkey seeks to repair frayed ties with Cairo, officials at one of the channels said Friday.Ayman Nour, an exiled Egyptian opposition figure and head of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked al-Sharq television station, confirmed in televised comments that Turkish officials demanded that the channels tone down their rhetoric. He said they were not ordered to shut down or to stop airing programs.”A dialogue has started between us and Turks in the framework of changing the rhetoric (of these channels),” Nour said.An editor at al-Sharq told The Associated Press that Turkish officials made the request during a meeting in Istanbul on Thursday with managers from al-Sharq and two other channels, Mekamleen and Watan. The officials told the broadcast managers they could continue to make programs about Egypt but not against the Egyptian government, citing Turkey’s negotiations with Egypt, according to the editor.The TV channels immediately stopped broadcasting some political programs, the editor said. He asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.There was no immediate comment from the Muslim Brotherhood group.Egypt’s state minister for information, Ossama Heikal, welcomed the move, calling it in a statement a “good initiative from the Turkish side that establishes a favorable atmosphere to discuss issues of dispute between the two nations.”Egypt and Turkey have been at loggerheads since the Egyptian military’s 2013 ouster of an Islamist president who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood group and enjoyed the support of Turkey.Recently, top Turkish officials signaled a warming of ties with Egypt, a shift from their previous, sharply critical approach to the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.Egyptian officials, however, said Turkey needed to take substantial steps toward “genuine” talks to mend ties. The steps include the departure of hundreds of Turkish forces and thousands of Syrian mercenaries brought to Libya by Turkey, as well as the handover of Islamists wanted by Egypt on terror-related charges, they have said.The two nations backed opposing side in the conflict in Libya. Cairo, as well as Greece and some other European countries, were angered by Turkey’s maritime deal with an administration Libya in 2019, an agreement aimed at boosting Turkish maritime rights and influence in the eastern Mediterranean.Egypt and Greece responded by signing a separate deal to delineate their maritime boundaries, a deal rejected by Ankara.
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Twitter Asks Users to Weigh in on Rules for World Leaders
Twitter on Friday began a survey of global users about platform rules for world leaders while consulting human rights and academic specialists on its next policy steps.The announcement comes after Twitter joined other social networks banning then-president Donald Trump for his comments seen as inciting the violent attack on the US Capitol in January.The ban was criticized by Trump supporters while others had argued Twitter should have taken action earlier despite its policy of allowing leeway for world leaders and newsworthy posts.”Politicians and government officials are constantly evolving how they use our service, and we want our policies to remain relevant to the ever-changing nature of political discourse on Twitter and protect the health of the public conversation,” the Twitter safety team said in a blog post.”That’s why we’re reviewing our approach to world leaders and seeking your input.”Twitter will be asking users their views in a survey in 14 languages, from Friday until April 12.”Generally, we want to hear from the public on whether or not they believe world leaders should be subject to the same rules as others on Twitter. And, should a world leader violate a rule, what type of enforcement action is appropriate,” the statement said.”We’re also in the process of consulting with a range of human rights experts, civil society organizations, and academics worldwide whose feedback will be reflected in forthcoming revisions to the policy framework.”
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IRS Tax Filing Delay Masks Deep Troubles at Vital US Agency
Millions of Americans no doubt breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday when the Internal Revenue Service announced that the deadline for filing personal income tax forms for tax year 2020 would be extended by a month, from April 15 to May 17.But while taxpayers may see an extra month to gather paperwork as a gift, the delay is a function of deep problems at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the agency responsible for a growing number of programs essential to the nation’s recovery from the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.The IRS plays a particularly important role in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the recovery package championed by President Joe Biden, a major part of which involves distributing tax credits in the form of monthly payments to families with children.The job is unlike any the agency has ever undertaken, and is being stacked on top of a pile of responsibilities that has grown dramatically over the past decade, even as the agency’s staff has dwindled and its funding has been slashed.Beyond its role in the recovery, the IRS is essential to the functioning of the U.S. government. The agency will take in nearly $4 trillion in revenue this year, money that funds a government overseeing an economy that could top $22 trillion in gross domestic product — the largest in the world.FILE – Forms printed from the Internal Revenue Service website that are used for 2018 U.S. federal tax returns are seen in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, Feb. 13, 2019.Decade of neglect“The IRS has always been asked to do a lot. The tax code is huge, and the number of people who are experts on it is small,” said Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington.When the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting down the U.S. economy in 2020, the IRS was already reeling from a decade of major budget reductions. In 2010, the agency’s overall budget was $14.9 billion, adjusted for inflation. But by 2019, the year before the pandemic, that number had been slashed by Congress to $11.3 billion, a 24% reduction.“It’s fair to say it’s not a popular agency,” said Holtzblatt, who previously held senior positions at the Tax Analysis Division of the Congressional Budget Office and the Individual Taxation Division in the U.S. Treasury Office of Tax Analysis.“I can’t say how much of it is disdain for the IRS,” she said, but noted that the agency’s funding is part of the discretionary spending element of the federal budget, and the IRS “hasn’t been able to compete” with other priorities when lawmakers dole out limited dollars.It is also notable that much of the reduction in IRS funding came after a 2013 scandal in which Republican members of Congress charged that the agency had singled out conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny. No charges were ever filed, but the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Investigations attempted to impeach the IRS commissioner, and years of ensuing investigations made the agency a frequent punching bag for Republican legislators.Steep personnel cutsThe IRS also was forced to observe a hiring freeze through much of the decade, which helped shrink its core of 95,000 full-time employees in 2010 to 74,000 in 2018.Because it takes years to fully train IRS personnel, particularly agents and collections officers, the failure to bring new personnel into the system created a serious staffing gap. As experienced officials progressed toward retirement age, the pipeline of younger workers training to replace them began to run dry.In 2019, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig warned Congress that the agency had “essentially lost an entire generation of IRS employees” due to the hiring freeze. The agency has estimated that at some point this year, 46.4% of its workforce will be eligible to retire.FILE – Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig testifies at a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing, in Washington, Oct. 7, 2020.Growing burdenOver the past decade, multiple pieces of new legislation affecting tax laws have required more and more from the IRS, even as its budget and workforce declined.The Affordable Care Act, and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, both signed into law in March of 2010, relied on the IRS for enforcement. The ACA required the IRS to ascertain the health insurance status of all taxpayers and their families, and to create a system for assessing penalties on the uninsured. FATCA required the IRS to create a system to track the foreign financial assets of anyone subject to U.S. tax laws.In 2015, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act forced the agency to accelerate the processing of forms reporting workers’ wages — something that was normally done only after tax filing season — so that claims for tax refunds could be verified in advance, rather than in post-hoc audits.In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act required the agency to undertake a major revision to the tax code and the myriad forms the agency produces for taxpayers to use in their filings.Pandemic relief billsIn the 12 months between March 2020 and March 2021, Congress passed three major pieces of legislation aimed at providing economic relief to Americans struggling under the changes forced on the country by the pandemic.The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed in March 2020, required the IRS to deliver “Economic Impact Payments” to millions of Americans, in the form of a preemptive credit against 2020 federal income taxes. The second stimulus package, passed in December 2020, included another round of stimulus payments that the IRS was directed to oversee. The American Rescue Plan, which includes another round of stimulus checks, places a new and unusual burden on the agency. The bill establishes a system under which American families are entitled to between $3,000 and $3,600 in refundable tax credits for every child in a household. The law requires the agency to deliver those payments “periodically,” which is generally understood to mean “monthly,” beginning in July.This creates a doubly difficult problem for the agency. In addition to setting up a first-ever system to provide monthly payments to millions of Americans, it will also have to create a mechanism for people who may not qualify for the credit because of their income to decline the payment in advance, so they will not be required to pay it back later.Holtzblatt said she is confident the IRS will be able to get the stimulus checks out in a timely fashion. However, with the tax filing deadline now extended, and reports of a backlog of returns numbering more than 20 million, taxpayers might have to brace for more struggles as the agency tries to fulfill its new responsibilities.“I’m less certain about their ability to get the advance payment or the child tax credit up and running by July 1,” Holtzblatt said. “I will never say never when it comes to the IRS. They have outperformed expectations so many times. But I think there will be things that will fall through. You will see delays.”
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Ethiopian Diplomat Urges Peace Talks in Tigray War
An Ethiopian diplomat who quit his post in the United States over concerns about atrocities in Tigray is calling for peace talks between the government and the embattled region’s fugitive leaders.Berhane Kidanemariam served as the deputy chief of mission at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington until early March. In an interview with The Associated Press late Thursday, he warned that a protracted war in Tigray is devastating the region’s 6 million people.”We have to prioritize peaceful settlement and negotiation,” he said. “Without peaceful settlement and negotiation, peace couldn’t prevail. The only solution is peace talks.”Between 60,000 and 70,000 people are now believed to have died in the war since November, he said, citing information gleaned from sources inside Ethiopia. Most of the victims are “civilians, especially the youngsters,” he said.Ethiopian authorities have not given a death toll in the Tigray war.Kidanemariam said that Tigrayan fighters “are getting better” in their defenses, increasing the likelihood of a long war in which reported abuses already include massacres, rapes, forced displacement, and the vandalism of priceless cultural sites.”Anything which the human beings can use” has been destroyed in some way, he said, describing the looting of everything from banks to churches and mosques. “It’s horrible even to explain it.”Kidanemariam hails from the Tigray region, the base of a party that dominated national politics for decades before the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. But he said his background had not influenced his decision to call it “a genocidal war.””I don’t need to be Tigrayan,” Kidanemariam said, referring to his March 10 resignation. “Seeing this kind of horrible, catastrophic war, I couldn’t tolerate it.”The conflict began in November, when Abiy sent government troops into Tigray after an attack there on federal military facilities. Fighting persists even as Ethiopian authorities insist the situation there is returning to normal.The Ethiopian prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to make peace with Eritrea, now faces pressure to end the war as well as to institute an international investigation into alleged war crimes, ideally led by the United Nations. The government’s critics say an ongoing federal probe simply isn’t enough because the government can’t effectively investigate itself.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier in March that some atrocities in Tigray amount to “ethnic cleansing.”Eritrean troops as well as fighters from Amhara, an Ethiopian region bordering Tigray, “need to come out” of Tigray, Blinken said, adding that the region needs “a force that will not abuse the human rights of the people of Tigray or commit acts of ethnic cleansing, which we’ve seen in western Tigray. That has to stop.”Ethiopia’s government, which strongly denies civilians are deliberately targeted, called Blinken’s assertion unfounded.Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said in a statement Thursday that President Joe Biden is dispatching Sen. Chris Coons to Ethiopia to express the administration’s “grave concerns” about the growing humanitarian crisis and human rights abuses in Tigray, and the risk of broader instability in the Horn of Africa.The statement said Coons will also discuss the situation with African Union leaders but gave no details about Coons’ travel.The humanitarian situation in Tigray remains “extremely concerning, with conflict continuing to drive displacements of people and reports of some villages completely emptied,” according to the latest U.N. humanitarian assessment.Humanitarian officials have warned that a growing number of people might be starving to death in Tigray. The fighting erupted on the brink of harvest in the largely agricultural region and sent an untold number of people fleeing their homes. Witnesses have described widespread looting by Eritrean soldiers as well as the burning of crops.
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Cambodian American Doctor Dies of COVID During First Vaccine Rollout
Escaping the Cambodian genocide to a refugee camp in Thailand, 17-year-old Linath Lim wanted to become a medical doctor after meeting an American dentist. Her journey, in the medical field began in 1982, but ended as COVID-19 hit its peak in America. VOA’s Chetra Chap reports.
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German Health Officials: Virus Spreading ‘Exponentially’
German health officials Friday said coronavirus cases in the country are rising at “an exponential rate,” forcing the government to reconsider lifting COVID-19 restrictions. At a news conference in Berlin, Robert Koch Institute ((RKI)) for infectious Diseases Vice President Lars Schaade told reporters highly contagious virus variants were getting the upper hand in the nation, wiping out progress seen last month in containing the pandemic.Shaade, appearing with German Health Minister Jens Spahn, reported 17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and 226 deaths in Germany, with the seven-day incidence rate soaring to about 96 per 100,000 people, despite a months-long lockdown in much of the country.Shaade said increased infections were notably among younger people. “The incidence increases are clearly in the groups under 60 years old, especially in the group 15 to 49 years old.”Spahn told reporters the numbers mean plans to re-open the country will need to be put on hold. “On the contrary, we may even have to take steps backwards.”Earlier this month, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to gradually lift COVID-19 restrictions, she said she and regional leaders agreed to impose new restrictions in areas where the seven-day incidence rate surpassed 100. At least two regions have already reached that threshold.Meanwhile, Spahn said he has been negotiating with Russia regarding its Sputnik V vaccine, and indicated he is very close to completing a deal. He said the government had been in close contact with the Russians, “and I can also well imagine that we [will] conclude contracts — and conclude them quickly.”He said, however, Germany needs more details on how many doses could be delivered and when. The vaccine has yet to be approved by German or European Union regulators.Germany resumed administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Thursday after the EU regulator Europe Medincines Agency ((EMA)) concluded once again that it was safe and effective. The agency had conducted a study of the vaccine and cases of blood clots reported in several patients after receiving the vaccine.
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Myanmar Junta Security Forces Kill at Least 2 Protesters, Injure 8 in Town of Aungban
Security forces in Myanmar fired live rounds and tear gas on anti-coup protesters Friday, killing at least two people and injuring at least eight others in the central town of Aungban in the eastern Shan state.Several demonstrators were arrested in Aungban, as protesters again took to the streets there end elsewhere, including the cities of Yangon and Mandalay, and towns of Myingyan and Katha, and Myawaddy, according to witnesses and media reports.The Associated Press is reporting that authorities have arrested a spokesperson for National League for Democracy, the party of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.There are also media reports and witness accounts that people are fleeing the country, as the crackdown has intensified, during which more than 230 people have been killed and about 2,000 arrested since the coup on February 1.The junta imposed martial law on six townships in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial hub, effectively putting about 2 million people under direct control of the military.The United States and other Western countries have condemned the coup and called for an end to the violence. They have also called for the release of Suu Kyi and other leaders arrested.
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N.Korea to Sever Ties with Malaysia Over Extradition of Citizen to US
North Korea said on Friday it would sever diplomatic relations with Malaysia after the Southeast Asian nation extradited a North Korean man to the United States to face money-laundering charges this week.Malaysia denounced North Korea’s move as unwarranted and disruptive to regional peace, adding that the extradition had been carried out according to law.North Korea did not name its citizen in a statement carried by state media KCNA, but Malaysia said Mun Chol Myong, who was arrested in 2019, was extradited on Wednesday after he had already exhausted several legal appeals.”Malaysia denounces (North Korea’s) decision as unfriendly and unconstructive, disrespecting the spirit of mutual respect and good neighborly relations among members of the international community,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.It said Malaysia would close its embassy in Pyongyang in response and order all diplomatic staff at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur to leave the country within 48 hours.North Korea’s foreign affairs ministry also warned Washington would “pay a price” in the statement, according to KCNA.Mun’s arrest in 2019 came after the United States accused him of laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to North Korea. He had denied the allegations, saying they were politically motivated.The North Korean foreign ministry had called the extradition a “nefarious act and unpardonably heavy crime” by Malaysian authorities, who had “offered our citizen as a sacrifice of the U.S. hostile move in defiance of the acknowledged international laws.”Kuala Lumpur’s once-close ties with North Korea were severely downgraded after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged brother, Kim Jong Nam, was killed at a Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017 when two women smeared his face with VX nerve agent, which the United Nations lists as a weapon of mass destruction.Malaysia suspended operation of its embassy in 2017 after it secured the safe return of nine citizens held in Pyongyang in exchange for the release of Kim Jong Nam’s body.Despite a promise by Malaysia’s then-premier Mahathir Mohamad during an apparent thaw in diplomatic relations in 2018, the embassy never resumed operations.North Korea had used Malaysia as a hub for its arms export operation, and to set up business entities for funneling money to North Korea’s leadership.”We warn in advance that the U.S. – the backstage manipulator and main culprit of this incident – that it will also be made to pay a due price,” KCNA reported.On Thursday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the administration of President Joe Biden would complete a review of its North Korea policy in the next few weeks in close consultation with allies.
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Samia Suluhu Hassan Becomes Tanzania’s First Woman President
Samia Suluhu Hassan, 61, made history Friday when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president at State House, the government offices in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city.Wearing a hijab and holding up a Quran with her right hand, Hassan took the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice Ibrahim Jumavowing, in which she vowed to uphold the East African country’s constitution.The inauguration was witnessed by Cabinet members and Tanzania’s former presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Jakaya Kikwete and Abeid Karume. The former heads of state were among the few people in the room wearing facemasks to protect against COVID-19.Hassan’s inauguration comes two days after she announced the death of President John Magufuli, after he had not been seen in public for more than two weeks. Magufuli had denied that COVID-19 was a problem in Tanzania, saying that national prayer had eradicated the disease from the country. But weeks before his death, Magufuli acknowledged that the virus was a danger.A major test of Hassan’s new presidency will be how she deals with COVID-19. Under Magufuli, Tanzania, one of Africa’s most populous countries with 60 million people, made no efforts to obtain vaccines or promote the use of masks and social distancing to combat the virus. This policy of ignoring the disease endangers neighboring countries, warn Africa health officials.Although Hassan announced that Magufuli died of heart failure, exiled opposition leader Tundu Lissu says the president died of COVID-19.“The immediate job, the immediate decision she has to make, and she doesn’t have much time for it, is what is she going to do about COVID-19?” Lissu told The Associated Press at his place of exile in Belgium.“President Magufuli defied the world, defied science, defied common sense in his approach to COVID-19 and it finally brought him down,” said Lissu.”President Samia Saluhu Hassan has to decide very soon whether she is changing course or continuing with the same disastrous approach to COVID-19 that her predecessor took,“ said Lissu.Hassan must also decide how she will address Magufuli’s legacy, said Lissu. He said she must decide to continue with Magufuli’s policies which took Tanzania from a relatively tolerant democracy to a repressive state. He questioned if she will be able to restore the country’s political freedoms and democracy.Speaking at her inauguration, Hassan gave little indication that she intended to change course from Magufuli.“It’s not a good day for me to talk to you because I have a wound in my heart,” said Hassan, speaking in Swahili. “Today I have taken an oath different from the rest that I have taken in my career. Those were taken in happiness. Today I took the highest oath of office in mourning,” she said.She said that Magufuli “who always liked teaching” had prepared her for the task ahead. “Nothing shall go wrong,” she assured, urging the nation’s people to be united.“This is the time to stand together and get connected. It’s time to bury our differences, show love to one another and look forward with confidence,” she said. “It is not the time to point fingers at each other but to hold hands and move forward to build the new Tanzania that President Magufuli aspired to.”Hassan will complete Magufuli’s second term in office which had just started after he won elections in October.Hassan has had a meteoric rise in politics in a male-dominated field. Both Tanzania and the surrounding East African region are slowly emerging from patriarchy.After Magufuli selected her as his running mate in 2015, Hassan became Tanzania’s first female vice president. She was the second woman to become vice president in the region since Uganda’s Specioza Naigaga Wandira who was in office from 1994 to 2003.Born in Zanzibar, Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago in 1960, Hassan went to primary school and secondary school at a time when very few girls in Tanzania were getting educations as parents thought a woman’s place was that of wife and homemaker.After graduating from secondary school in 1977, Hassan studied statistics and started working for the government, in the Ministry of Planning and Development. She worked for a World Food Program project in Tanzania in 1992 and then attended the University of Manchester in London to earn a postgraduate diploma in economics. In 2005, she got a Master’s degree in community economic development through a joint program between the Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University in the U.S.Hassan went into politics in 2000 when she became a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives. In 2010 she won the Makunduchi parliamentary seat with more than 80% percent of the vote. In 2014 she was appointed a Cabinet minister and became Vice-Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution for Tanzania where she won respect for deftly handling several challenges.As president, Hassan’s first task will be to unite the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, behind her, said Ed Hobey-Hamsher, Senior Africa Analyst with Verisk Maplecroft risk analysts. The party has been in power since Tanzania’s independence.As a Muslim woman from Zanzibar, Hassan may find it difficult to win the support of the party’s mainland Christians, he said, warning that some entrenched leaders may develop “obstructionist strategies” against her. He said it’s likely that Hassan will start her rule by maintaining the status quo and not embarking on a significant Cabinet reshuffle.Hassan is the second woman in East Africa to serve as the head of government. Burundi’s Sylvia Kiningi served as president of that tiny landlocked country for nearly four months until Feb. 1994.
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Ugandan President Sues Newspaper Over Vaccination Report
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is suing a local media group for reporting a claim that he and his inner circle were vaccinated against COVID-19 weeks before the first doses arrived in the country. Lawyers representing President Yoweri Museveni said they filed a case against the Daily Monitor after the independent newspaper carried a story first published by The Wall Street Journal with the title: “Members of President Yoweri Museveni’s inner circle were offered vaccines from China state-owned drug maker Sinopharm.”According to the Wall Street Journal investigation, the offer by the Chinese government was meant to promote their vaccines. Similar offers were also reported in Peru and the Philippines.The newspaper said in Peru, nearly 500 politically connected people, including then-President Martin Vizcarra, were secretly given the vaccine, which was undergoing clinical trial.The lawsuit alleges the article published by the Monitor was intentionally reckless, malicious and published without due care. Museveni’s lawyers said the story presented him as having engaged in the dishonest activities of influence peddling, nepotism, scheming and conspiracy. They added that the article also portrayed Museveni as having abdicated his duties and obligations to frontline workers fighting COVID-19, and other groups vulnerable to the pandemic. “That presents him in a very bad light,” said Oscar Kihika, Museveni’s head of legal affairs. “So, he’s praying for damages for defamation.” Museveni’s lawyers also attached a copy of Twitter messages in response to the article in which different social media users commented on the allegation. One Twitter user Identified as Hotim 3mmy tweeted, “What if I told you the jab also cure corruption and ensure immortality on its recipients.” Mugema Stephen responded, “Few Ugandans would take it then if it cured corruption.” Museveni attacked the Daily Monitor twice recently, saying it is one of Uganda’s problems. He described the newspaper as evil, irresponsible and needing self-discipline. Museveni denied the claims in the article and instead warned he would drive the Daily Monitor bankrupt. “That was before we imported the vaccine,” Museveni said. “Now, Monitor must apologize. In front page. To say that I got vaccinated secretly when my people were still in danger. I only care about myself. Monitor must apologize. Big, big letters. If they don’t, I go for you. And I have already told the lawyers, get massive money from those crooks.” Daily Monitor managing director Tony Glencross said it is an independent newspaper, free to publish what it believes its audience needs to know, and the paper is preparing a defense. “In these kind of cases, the court will order that mediation must take place,” he said. “If the mediation is not successful, then we will battle it out in court.” In their letter acknowledging receipt of the suit, the newspaper’s lawyers said that the words quoted in the suit, even if untrue, cannot pass the test of defamatory publication. They said that any immunization against a pandemic should be sought by any right-thinking member of society and cannot therefore lower the reputation of anybody. They added that the president takes precedence over all persons and if he and those close to him are immunized first against a pandemic for the president’s own safety, there cannot be any interference of loss of reputation. The newspaper has 15 days to file a response.
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