After years of focus on oil and gas, Nigerian authorities are taking a new look at the mining industry as part of their drive to diversify the economy. But the country is still reeling from environmental damage caused by old mining operations, and the illegal mining that continues. Timothy Obiezu reports.
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Month: February 2024
US Inflation Slows as Price Pressures Ease Gradually
WASHINGTON — Annual inflation in the United States cooled last month yet remained elevated in the latest sign that the pandemic-fueled price surge is gradually and fitfully coming under control.
Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the consumer price index rose 0.3% from December to January, up from a 0.2% increase the previous month. Compared with a year ago, prices are up 3.1%.
That is less than the 3.4% figure in December and far below the 9.1% inflation peak in mid-2022.
The latest reading is well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target at a time when public frustration with inflation has become a pivotal issue in President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices climbed 0.4% last month, up from 0.3% in December and 3.9% over the past 12 months. Core inflation is watched especially closely because it typically provides a better read of where inflation is likely headed. The annual figure is the same as it was in December.
Biden administration officials note that inflation has plummeted since pandemic-related supply disruptions and significant government aid sent it soaring three years ago. And a raft of forward-looking data suggests that inflation will continue to cool.
Still, even as it nears the Fed’s target level, many Americans remain exasperated that average prices are still about 19% higher than they were when Biden took office.
The mixed data released Tuesday could reinforce the caution of Fed officials, who have said they’re pleased with the progress in sharply reducing inflation but want to see further evidence before feeling confident that it’s sustainably headed back to their 2% target. Most economists think the central bank will want to wait until May or June to begin cutting its benchmark rate from its 22-year-high of roughly 5.4.
The Fed raised its key rate 11 times from March 2022 to July of last year in a concerted drive to defeat high inflation. The result has been much higher borrowing rates for businesses and consumers, including for mortgages and auto loans. Rate cuts, whenever they happen, would eventually lead to lower borrowing costs for many categories of loans.
In the final three months of last year, the economy grew at an unexpectedly rapid 3.3% annual rate. There are signs that growth remains healthy so far in 2024. Businesses engaged in a burst of hiring last month. Surveys of manufacturing companies found that new orders rose in January. And services companies reported an uptick in sales.
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How COVID-19 Changed US Office Fashion
Hybrid work relaxed office fashion, but formal attire might be making a comeback
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Two Armenian Soldiers Killed by Azerbaijani Fire
TBILISI, Georgia — Armenia said on Tuesday that two of its soldiers had been killed by Azerbaijani fire along the heavily militarized border, the first fatal incident since the two sides last year began negotiating a deal to end more than 30 years of intermittent war.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app that two of its soldiers had been killed and several more wounded at a combat post near the southern Armenian village of Nerkin Hand.
Azerbaijan’s border service said in a statement that it staged a “a revenge operation” in retaliation for a “provocation” it said Armenian forces had committed the day before.
It said that further “provocations” would be met with “more serious and decisive measures from now on.”
“The military and political leadership of Armenia is fully responsible for the incident.”
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said that Armenian forces Monday evening fired at Baku’s positions along a northwestern section of the border, around 300 kilometers from Nerkin Hand. Armenia’s Defense Ministry denied that such an incident took place.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in conflict for over three decades over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan in September retook Karabakh in a lightning offensive, prompting a rapid exodus of almost all of the territory’s Armenian inhabitants, and a renewed push from both sides for a treaty to formally end the conflict.
Although fatal exchanges of fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been common for decades, the border had become more peaceful since the start of talks, with little serious fighting since the collapse of Karabakh in September 2023.
The peace talks have in recent months appeared to stagnate, with both sides accusing the other of sabotaging the diplomatic process.
your ad hereBiden, Jordanian King Express Concerns About Rafah Operation in Gaza
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the first Arab leader to visit the White House since October 7, met with President Joe Biden to discuss a hostage deal and the future of Gaza as Israel began operations Monday in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Jordan is pushing a cease-fire, while Biden over the weekend appeared to criticize Israel’s strategy. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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Central African Republic: 10K Children Still Fighting Alongside Armed Groups
BANGUI, Central African Republic — About 10,000 children are still fighting alongside armed groups in Central African Republic more than a decade after civil war broke out, the government said Monday.
Marthe Kirima, the minister for family and gender, said in a statement that children are still being recruited as fighters, spies, messengers, cooks and even used as sex slaves. While 15,000 children have escaped from rebel forces, she said, many are traumatized and find it difficult to return to normal life.
The mineral-rich but impoverished nation has had conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back, also targeting civilians.
The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping mission in the country, estimates the fighting has killed thousands and displaced over a million people, or one-fifth of the population. In 2019, a peace deal was reached between the government and 14 armed groups, but fighting continues.
The U.N. is trying to prevent children from joining armed groups and make it easier for those released to reintegrate into society. It has created training programs for them to become mechanics, masons, carpenters or take up other professions.
Some former child soldiers told The Associated Press that their harrowing experiences had pushed them to become peace ambassadors.
“I took up arms because Seleka killed by mother and father,” said Arsene, who insisted on only his first name due to the sensitivity of the situation. He said a Christian rebel group recruited him when he was 14. After three years of fighting, he now tells young people not to join rebel groups.
Ousmane, another former child soldier, said that joining the rebels ruined his life and that of those around him. “What we did is indescribable,” he said.
The Dany Ngarasso Foundation, a local civil society group, called on the government to accelerate the peace process to protect child soldiers.
“They may have fought yesterday, but they can still campaign for peace today,” foundation head Ngarasso said.
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Trump Comments on NATO Send Shock Waves Throughout Europe
Shock waves across European capitals and a rare rebuke from NATO followed the latest comments by former President Donald Trump about the U.S. commitment to the alliance. Trump said that if he returned to the White House, he would invite Russia to attack allies that he termed “delinquent.” VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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Biden Forms Task Force to Address Mishandling of Classified Documents During Presidential Transitions
washington — President Joe Biden on Monday launched a task force aimed at addressing the “systemic” problem of mishandling classified information during presidential transitions, days after a Justice Department special counsel’s sharply critical report said he had done just that.
The Presidential Records Transition Task Force will study past transitions to determine best practices for safeguarding classified information from an outgoing administration, the White House said. It will also assess the need for changes to existing policies and procedures to prevent the removal of sensitive information that by law should be kept with the National Archives and Records Administration.
The report from special counsel Robert Hur listed dozens of sensitive documents found at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former Washington office. The papers were marked as classified or later assessed to contain classified information.
The majority of the documents, Hur’s report stated, appeared to have been mistakenly removed from government offices, though he also detailed some items that Biden appeared to knowingly retain. He concluded that criminal charges were not warranted in the matter.
“I take responsibility for not having seen exactly what my staff was doing,” Biden said last week after Hur’s report was released. He added that “things that appeared in my garage, things that came out of my home, things that were moved were moved not by me but my staff.”
First findings
Biden aides first discovered some of the documents as they cleared out the offices of the Penn-Biden Center in Washington in 2022, and more were discovered during subsequent searches by Biden’s lawyers and the FBI.
Biden promptly reported the discoveries to federal authorities, which prompted the special counsel probe. By contrast, former President Donald Trump is accused of resisting efforts to return classified government records that he moved to his Florida residence before leaving office in 2021 and of obstructing the investigation into them in a separate special counsel investigation.
In even the best of circumstances, presidential transitions can be chaotic as records of the outgoing administration are transferred to the National Archives and thousands of political appointees leave their jobs to make way for the incoming administration.
Officials of multiple administrations have said there is a systemic problem with mishandling of classified information by senior government officials, particularly around transitions, magnified by rampant overclassification across the government.
Former Vice President Mike Pence turned over some classified documents discovered at his home last year. And several times a year, former officials from all levels of government discover they possess classified material and turn it over to the authorities.
“Previous presidential transitions, across administrations stretching back decades, have fallen short in ensuring that classified presidential records are properly archived at NARA,” the White House said. “In light of the many instances that have come to light in recent years revealing the extent of this systemic issue, President Biden is taking action to strengthen how administrations safeguard classified documents during presidential transitions and to help address this long-standing problem going forward.”
Hur’s report said many of the documents recovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, in parts of Biden’s Delaware home and in his Senate papers at the University of Delaware were retained by “mistake.”
Subjects of documents
Biden could not have been prosecuted as a sitting president, but Hur’s report states that he would not recommend charges against Biden regardless. Investigators did find evidence of willful retention of a subset of records found in Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, house, including in a garage, office and basement den, but not enough to suggest charges. The files pertain to a troop surge in Afghanistan during the Obama administration that Biden had vigorously opposed. He kept records that documented his position, including a classified letter to Obama during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday.
Biden also retained his personal notebooks after leaving the vice presidency, some of which investigators found contained classified information, though other officials have kept similar documents as their personal property.
“President Biden takes classified information seriously – he returned the documents that were found, he fully cooperated with the investigation, and it concluded that there was no case,” said Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office. “Now he is taking action to help strengthen future transitions to better prevent classified documents from being accidentally packed up and removed from the government, like we have seen with officials from every administration for decades.”
The task force will be led by Katy Kale, deputy administrator of the General Services Administration, who was assistant to the president for management and administration during the Obama administration, the post that oversees the human resources and document retention functions at the White House.
The panel will include representatives from the White House, General Services Administration, NARA, the National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The task force is to produce its recommendations ahead of the next presidential transition. It is set to operate independently from the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which is chaired by the White House chief of staff and required by law to be stood up six months before any presidential election.
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Analysts See Limits to China, Iran, Russia Collaboration With Taliban
washington — Since the Taliban seized control in August 2021, China, Iran and Russia have been steadily courting Afghanistan’s de facto government for influence. The three countries have kept their embassies open in Kabul and were among the first to hand over Afghan embassies to the Taliban at home.
Last month, Moscow, Beijing and Tehran were the most high-profile participants at the Taliban’s first conference on regional cooperation in Kabul.
But what are the real prospects of China, Russia, Iran and the Taliban cooperating in the region?
Analysts tell VOA that while Beijing, Moscow and Tehran may be united in a common goal to oppose the U.S. in the region, that is perhaps the only area where their interests align, analysts say.
“Anti-Americanism is the one idea” that brings China, Iran and Russia together, said Alex Vatanka, founding director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
He told VOA that Tehran, Moscow and Beijing “want to push the United States out of Eurasia and Central Asia … [but] how much can they on the operational level cooperate? That’s a big question.”
He added that “anti-Americanism” alone cannot keep the partnership together as there “is nothing ideological to bring them together.”
According to a newly released U.S. State Department’s strategy document, China, Iran and Russia seek “strategic and economic advantage, or at a minimum, to put the U.S. at a disadvantage.”
“China, Iran and Russia have cultivated very close ties with the Taliban,” said Nilofar Sakhi, a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, adding that they are trying to “have political and economic influence in the region.”
Despite close ties, none of the three countries has formally recognized the Taliban’s government and their interests in the region all differ.
Pragmatic approach
Late last month, China was the first country to formally accept the credentials of the Taliban’s ambassador.
Some former diplomats and analysts say the move was akin to formal recognition. Sun Yun, the director of the China Program at the Stimson Center in Washington does not agree.
China still has to “formally extended political recognition to the Taliban’s government,” Sun told VOA. Even so, compared to Western countries, China has established “very close” relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“China adopts a pragmatic approach in Afghanistan,” said Sun, adding that early on Beijing realized that the U.S.-backed former Afghan government did not have “the popular support to continue” governing Afghanistan.
Beijing had been cultivating ties with the Taliban for years before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.
Sun said that “what has happened in the past two and a half years substantiated that assessment that the Taliban regime is not going anywhere.”
She added that security, economic and political factors are “all part of a broader consideration that comes to the foundation of China’s policy toward Afghanistan.”
For China, one key concern is about any breach of militancy from Afghanistan into its western region of Xinjiang.
Beijing also has economic interests in Afghanistan, including extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative, to Afghanistan and investing in minerals in Afghanistan.
China has also been vocal in criticizing the U.S. and NATO for freezing Afghanistan’s assets and “leaving the Afghan people in a serious humanitarian crisis” in the country.
Complicated past
Though Iran has not formally recognized the Taliban, it handed over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban in February 2023.
The Middle East Institute’s Vatanka said that the Iranian regime has not recognized the Taliban because of some bilateral issues, including border security and water distribution.
Last year, tensions between Iran and the Taliban over the Helmand River’s flow of water escalated to a deadly clash, which killed two Iranian security guards and one Taliban border guard.
Iran and the Taliban have had complicated relations in the past.
During the civil war in Afghanistan in the 1990s, Iran was supporting the forces fighting against the Taliban, particularly after the Taliban killed nine Iranian diplomats in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif in 1998.
“It is still too early for the Iranians to forget what the Taliban was” when it was in power in the 1990s, said Vatanka.
Full of contradiction
Like Iran, Russia was another country that supported forces fighting the Taliban during the civil war in the 1990s.
Ghaus Janbaz, a former Afghan diplomat to Moscow, told VOA that Moscow’s policy toward Afghanistan has been “full of contradictions” in recent years.
Janbaz added that Russia is politically supporting the Taliban, but at the same time, its “military and security officials criticize the Taliban and cite an uptick in terrorist activities in Afghanistan.”
He said that before the Taliban’s takeover, Moscow had diplomatic relations with the former Afghan government, but it also supported “the Taliban at all the levels.”
“It is similar now. Russia has ties with the Taliban, but an anti-Taliban leader was invited to Moscow,” Janbaz said. “They say it was not an invitation by the government, but nothing happens without the approval of the government in Russia.”
An Afghan anti-Taliban leader, Ahmad Masoud, participated in a conference on Afghanistan in Russia in November 2023.
Janbaz says that despite Moscow’s close ties with the Taliban, “I do not think that in the near future, Moscow will extend recognition to the Taliban’s regime.”
He said that similar to China and Iran, Russia’s policy toward the Taliban is driven by regional geopolitics.
“Tactically they might have an alliance against the West, but there are strategic differences” between these countries, Janbaz said.
This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
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UN Security Council Concerned About ‘Escalating Violence’ in Eastern DRC
united nations — The U.N. Security Council said Monday that it was concerned by “escalating violence” in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, condemning in a statement the offensive launched this month by M23 rebels near Goma.
Clashes have intensified recently between the M23 — among the strongest of dozens of armed groups roaming the country’s troubled east — and the Congolese army.
The DRC, the U.N. and Western countries say Rwanda is supporting the rebels in a bid to control vast mineral resources, an allegation Kigali denies.
Council members, who met Monday to discuss the issue, “reiterated their condemnation of all armed groups operating in the country. They expressed concern about the escalation of violence and a sustained tension in the region,” according to a statement read by Guyana Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.
Council members also specifically “condemned the M23 offensive,” launched February 7, Rodrigues-Birkett said. “They reiterated their full support to the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the DRC.”
The M23 has seized vast swaths of North Kivu province since emerging from dormancy in late 2021, in an area wracked by violence for decades following regional wars in the 1990s.
The most recent flare-up has pushed thousands of civilians to flee the town of Sake, on the route toward Goma, capital of North Kivu province.
According to a U.N. document seen by AFP earlier Monday, the Rwandan army is using sophisticated weapons such as surface-to-air missiles to support M23.
A “suspected Rwandan Defense Force mobile surface-to-air missile” was fired at a U.N. observation drone last Wednesday without hitting it, the confidential report said.
U.N. forces have been in Congo for nearly 25 years, but stand accused of failing to protect civilians from armed groups.
The U.N. Security Council voted in December to accede to Kinshasa’s demand for a pullout despite the volatile situation.
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Oscar Nominees From Films ‘Oppenheimer,’ ‘Barbie’ Gather for Luncheon
LOS ANGELES — The casts of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” gathered Monday for the annual Academy Award nominees’ luncheon along with other Oscar hopefuls coming together for photos, hugs and congratulations.
The luncheon is a warm, feel-good, egalitarian affair where little-known first-time nominees in categories like best animated short get to rub shoulders and share tables with acting nominees like Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, whose snubs for best director and best actress, respectively, for “Barbie” caused a major stir, were both present for the nominations they did get and were all smiles before lunch.
Gerwig, nominated for adapted screenplay, was surrounded by selfie-seekers as soon as she entered the ballroom.
Robbie, up for best picture as a “Barbie” producer, beamed nearby as she hugged and chatted with a woman who got one of the best actress spots, Sandra Hüller of “Anatomy of a Fall.”
The centerpiece of the event in Beverly Hills, California, is a class photo of the entire group of nominees. Nearly all of them usually attend, both as part of the Oscars experience and as part of their unspoken campaigns for votes.
Before the luncheon began, nominees including Cillian Murphy, a favorite for best actor for “Oppenheimer,” and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, a favorite for best supporting actress for “The Holdovers,” made the rounds of media outlets whose reporters are set up in cabanas around the Beverly Hilton pool.
Steven Spielberg, nominated for best picture as a producer of “Maestro,” chatted with a small group on the patio.
Less famous nominees packed into the ballroom and posed for group pictures.
They’ll later be seated for a vegetarian menu of king oyster mushrooms and wild mushroom risotto.
The event is also a chance for the leadership of the Academy, including President Janet Yang to give speeches and address their prominent members in person.
She used last year’s luncheon to address what she called the Academy’s “inadequate” response to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the previous year’s ceremony.
Yang’s remarks this year had a much lighter tone, and dealt with more banal matters, like the timing of the Oscars ceremony.
“In case any of you have been in a nominations haze, we are starting an hour earlier this year,” she said.
When she saw surprise around the room she said, “Ooh, some people didn’t know! I’m glad I reminded you!”
She drew groans when she added that the Oscars come on the first day of daylight-saving time.
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Biden Campaign Joins TikTok, Despite Security Concerns
washington — President Joe Biden ’s reelection campaign Monday defended its new TikTok account as a vital way to boost its appeal with young voters, even as his administration continued to raise security concerns about whether the popular social media app might be sharing user data with China’s communist government.
The campaign’s inaugural post featured the president being quizzed on Sunday’s Super Bowl — and included a reference to the latest political conspiracy theory centering on pop superstar Taylor Swift.
“The president’s TikTok debut last night — with more than 5 million views and counting — is proof positive of both our commitment and success in finding new, innovative ways to reach voters in an evolving, fragmented and increasingly personalized media environment,” Biden reelection deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in a statement.
At the White House, though, national security communications adviser John Kirby said that “there are still national security concerns about the use of TikTok on government devices, and there’s been no change to our policy not to allow that.”
Kirby referred most questions about TikTok to the Biden campaign and ducked a more general query about whether it was wise to use the app at all. He said the potential security issues “have to do with concerns about the preservation of data and potential misuse of that data and privacy information by foreign actors.”
Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with that country’s authoritarian government. Biden in 2022 signed legislation banning the use of TikTok by the federal government’s nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies, with limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security research purposes.
Separately, the secretive and powerful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has been reviewing the app for years while trying unsuccessfully to force TikTok ownership to divest from its parent company. The White House said Monday the review was continuing.
With 150 million U.S. users, TikTok is best known for quick snippets of viral dance routines. But Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, posted on X that Biden’s campaign is “bragging about using a Chinese spy app even though Biden signed a law banning it on all federal devices.”
The Biden campaign said it had been mulling establishing a TikTok account for months and had ultimately done so at the urging of youth activists and organizations, who argued that the app was key to reaching young voters.
The campaign said it was using a separate cellphone to engage on TikTok to isolate the app from other work streams and communications, including emails. The campaign said it was taking additional steps but declined to name them, citing security concerns.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she wasn’t in contact with the campaign and had no advance warning that its TikTok account was going live.
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Russian Bill Targets Assets of People Who Spread ‘Fake News’ About Military
A new bill allowing authorities to confiscate the property of Russians convicted of deliberately spreading what is deemed as fake news about Russia’s armed forces could soon become law. If signed into law, it would also allow the state to seize the property of Russian emigres who criticize the war in Ukraine. Kateryna Besedina has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: David Gogokhia.
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As Alcohol Abuse Rises in Zambia, Authorities Pledge to Enforce Regulation
The World Health Organization says that in Zambia over 70% of men and over 30% of women are drinking too much, too often. Some nonprofit organizations are intervening to help those on the path to recovery from alcohol addiction. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka, Zambia. Video editor: Elias Chulu
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Kenya Mourns Loss of Marathon World Record Holder Kelvin Kiptum
Nairobi, Kenya — Condolences are pouring in after Kenyan marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum died in a car crash in western Kenya late Sunday night.
“Kelvin Kiptum was a star,” said a social media post Monday from Kenyan President William Ruto.
Ruto noted that Kiptum was only 24 yet had triumphed in several major competitions.
“His mental strength and discipline were unmatched. Kiptum was our future,” Ruto’s post said.
That feeling is shared by many in Kenya, including Jackson Tuwei, president of sports body Athletics Kenya, who spoke to VOA on Monday.
“He was a very humble person, a young family of a wife and two children. Tuwei said. “He had just started his young career and we were hoping he would go pretty far in his career. When I talked to him last time, he was telling me that he was looking forward to bringing the marathon record lower than two hours.”
Kiptum was the first man to run a marathon in under 2 hours, 1 minute when he set the world record of 2 hours and 35 seconds in Chicago last October, beating the previous record holder, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge.
The car crash Sunday happened on a road between the towns of Eldoret and Kaptagat in western Kenya, Tuwei said.
“The report we received so far from the police was that Kelvin Kiptum was traveling in his own car… but he lost control about 11 o’clock last night and veered off the road into a ditch … and hit a very big tree somewhere there,” he said. “Unfortunately, both Kelvin and his coach [Gervais Hakizimana] lost their lives on the spot and the girl who was in the car had serious injuries and was taken to the hospital.”
Former Kenyan prime minister and opposition leader Raila Odinga described Kiptum as a remarkable individual and said the nation grieves the profound loss of a true hero.
At a presser on Monday, Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy, and Sports, Ababu Namwamba, described the day as a very dark day for the athletics community both in Kenya and across the world.
He told reporters the passing of Kiptum was a loss of a special gem and has caused deep distress and pain for the country. Namwamba was to meet with Kiptum’s family on Monday.
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US Seizes Boeing 747 Iran Illegally Sold to Venezuelan Firm
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has seized a Boeing 747 cargo plane that officials say was previously sold by a sanctioned Iranian airline to a state-owned Venezuelan firm in violation of American export control laws.
The Justice Department said Monday that the American-built plane had arrived in Florida and would be disposed of.
The plane had earlier been transferred from Iranian airline Mahan Air — which officials have alleged provides support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force — to Emtrasur, a Venezuelan cargo airline and subsidiary of a state-owned firm that had previously been sanctioned by the United States. Officials said the sale, done without U.S. government authorization, violated export control laws and improperly benefited Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Mahan Air has for years been subject to U.S. government restrictions on its business.
“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that the full force of U.S. laws deny hostile state actors the means to engage in malign activities that threaten our national security,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the head of the department’s national security division, said in a statement.
The plane was detained in June 2022 by Argentine law enforcement, and U.S. officials moved several weeks later to take possession of it. Argentina officially transferred custody of the plane to the U.S. on Sunday, officials said.
The Justice Department said the plane would now be “prepared for disposition,” though it did not elaborate.
The Justice Department has identified the registered captain of the plane as an ex-commander for the Revolutionary Guard. Officials also cited a flight log they say was recovered that shows additional flights after the transfer to Emtrasur to locations including Moscow, Caracas and Tehran — all without U.S. government approval.
Mahan Air has denied any ties to the aircraft, and Venezuela has demanded that Argentine authorities release the plane.
On Sunday, members of a Venezuelan-led, left-leaning alliance condemned Argentina for its role in the plane being seized by the U.S., characterizing the actions as “theft.” The Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America — Peoples’ Trade Treaty argued that the actions violate international law.
“This aggression is another consequence of the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the government of the United States that threaten the sovereignty of Venezuela and violate the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and International Law,” the group, commonly known as the Alba Alliance, said in a statement.
The alliance was created in 2004 by Venezuela and Cuba in a bid to counter U.S. influence in the region. Nicaragua, Bolivia and some Caribbean nations are among its current members.
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Congo Protesters Burn US and Belgian Flags, Target Western Embassies
KINSHASA — Police in Democratic Republic of Congo fired tear gas Monday to disperse protesters who burned tires and U.S. and Belgian flags near Western embassies and U.N. offices in the capital Kinshasa, angry about insecurity in eastern Congo.
The protesters, seizing on a new tactic by targeting embassies, say the West supports neighboring Rwanda, which is accused of backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebellion whose advance is threatening the strategic city of Goma in the east.
Rwanda has denied the accusations. Congo, Western governments including the United States and Belgium, and a United Nations expert group say the rebel group benefits from Rwandan support.
Despite security being stepped up after U.N. staff and vehicles were attacked on Saturday, groups of protesters gathered at the U.S. and French embassies and the offices of the United Nations mission in Congo known as MONUSCO.
Some threw stones, attempting to break the surveillance cameras at one of the United States embassy offices, while others chanted “Leave our country, we don’t want your hypocrisy.”
“The Westerners are behind the looting of our country, Rwanda doesn’t work alone, so they must leave our country,” said Pepin Mbindu, who joined the protest.
Onlookers cheered as one demonstrator removed the EU flag from the entrance of a large hotel in central Kinshasa, according to videos shared on X. Reuters has not authenticated the video.
“The international community remains silent while Congolese are being killed; they finance Rwanda,” said Fabrice Malumba, a motorcycle driver participating in the demonstration in front of the United States embassy.
Police fired tear gas and chased protesters.
Congo’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Christophe Lutundula met ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions in Kinshasa on Sunday. He said security measures would be taken to protect their representations.
“As you can see, we are ensuring the security of the partner embassies of the Democratic Republic of Congo in accordance with the Vienna Convention,” General Blaise Mbula Kilimba Limba, Kinshasa police chief, told Reuters.
Decades of conflicts in eastern Congo between myriad rival armed groups over land and resources and brutal attacks on civilians have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than 7 million.
Congo is the world’s top supplier of cobalt and Africa’s top copper producer.
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Trump Arrives in Federal Court in Florida for Closed Hearing in Classified Documents Case
Fort Pierce, Florida — Former President Donald Trump arrived Monday morning at a federal courthouse in Florida for a closed hearing in his criminal case charging him with mishandling classified documents.
The hearing was scheduled to discuss the procedures for the handling of classified evidence in the case, which is currently set for trial on May 20. Trump faces dozens of felony counts accusing him of hoarding highly classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon expects to hear arguments in the morning from defense lawyers and in the afternoon from prosecutors, each outside of the other’s presence.
“Defense counsel shall be prepared to discuss their defense theories of the case, in detail, and how any classified information might be relevant or helpful to the defense,” Cannon wrote in scheduling the hearing.
Trump’s motorcade arrived at the courthouse in Fort Pierce shortly after 9 a.m. local time.
The hearing is one of several voluntary court appearances that Trump has made in recent weeks — he was present, for instance, at appeals court arguments last month in Washington — as he looks to demonstrate to supporters that he intends to fight the four criminal prosecutions he faces while also seeking to reclaim the White House this November.
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Malawian Innovator Electrifies Homes Amid Skepticism From Experts
A secondary school dropout from rural Malawi has brought electricity to his community using what he says is a groundbreaking air-powered generator, bypassing use of fuel, oil or batteries. Experts have questions about how the system works, but Malawi’s government is pledging support. Lameck Masina reports from Dowa District.
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