New Zealand, Australia, and surrounding Pacific Islands were among the first places to ring in 2018 with fireworks displays, parties, and other festivities. Nearly 1.5 million people gathered to watch a rainbow fireworks display above Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge and opera house.
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Concerns are being voiced in Pakistan about how a few radical groups with proven terror ties have been allowed to re-brand themselves as political parties.
Taj Haider, one of the prominent and founding members of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which has been in power five times since 1970, told VOA the country is again seeing the trend of extremist groups camouflaging themselves to enter into politics.
“Religion and politics cannot go hand in hand, but unfortunately this is our new reality. We have seen the recent by-elections in Lahore and Peshawar where militant-turned-political parties were able to mobilize people and gather votes,” Haider said. “And these so-called new political parties, with proven terror records, look determined to contest the upcoming elections in 2018.”
In a recent high-level party meeting presided by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of Pakistan’s slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the government was sharply criticized on its inability to forcefully implement the National Action Plan and bar proscribed groups from entering the political sphere.
The National Action Plan is a 20-point strategy devised to combat extremism in 2015 that clearly states no banned groups can operate in the country by changing their names or identity.
Analysts say many other political parties are also agitated and wary about the recent political dynamic that has allowed radicalized groups to enter the political arena.
“The government has repeatedly said it will not allow the hardliners to enter into politics, but the reality is different, these parties are going into masses,” Rasul Baksh Raees, a prominent analyst from Pakistan told VOA.
“As long as these proscribed groups stick to their extreme ideologies and violence, they will be a danger to the society and democracy itself.”
PPP's acute criticism came as Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), inaugurated the office of his newly launched political party Milli Muslim League (MML) in the eastern city of Lahore.
Pakistan’s Election Commission rejected MML’s party registration application in October, citing its link to Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a U.S. designated terror-sponsoring organization.
But MML looks determined to contest the upcoming state and provincial elections. The party has several offices, has launched a website, and has a social media team spreading its messages through Facebook and Twitter.
Pakistan's government has repeatedly emphasized it will not tolerate any political party with a proven record of promoting violence and terrorism to use democracy and political means to spread their extreme ideologies.
But critics still say the government is not doing enough to stop radical groups from entering politics.
“Look what happened in Lahore’s recent by-election and who can forget the power show by extremists on the roads of Islamabad. The government was totally helpless,” Raees said.
During the Lahore election in September, a MML backed independent candidate secured the fourth position in the race. The by-election was also contested by Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TeL), another extremist religious party created to carry-on Mumtaz Qadri's mission, the bodyguard who killed Punjab's Governor Salman Taseer in 2011 after he had demanded reforms in the controversial blasphemy law. Mumtaz Qadri was later sentenced to death.
In November, thousands of followers of the Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labaik blocked Islamabad roads for weeks and demanded the resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid, after accusing him of blasphemy. The government eventually surrendered to hardliners’ demands after Pakistan’s military played the role of mediator.
The experts say the emerging trend of politicizing militancy is a danger to democracy. They also point out the sectarian and hardline rationale will further complicate the situation in the country that has been trying to combat terrorism for more than a decade.
“Imagine when these hardliners, through political parties, will spread their extreme views on the grassroots level. What will be the future of this country?” Raees said.
But some politicians dismiss the blending of radicalized groups into politics. Haider believes the people of Pakistan can differentiate between politicians and extremists and will not allow militant-turned-politicians to thrive.
“If you look at the past, the religious parties including the Jamaat-i-Islami [an old religious party], despite having a huge following, were never able to clean sweep or get majority in the electoral process of the country,” said Haider.
“Even now, with all these efforts, I believe Milli Muslim League or Tehreek-e-Labaik will not be able to pull large numbers during the general elections. Religious or sectarian votes are scattered in the country and can't be unified and will not help these newly established political parties to win a prominent number of seats.”
Read More Emergence of Radical Political Groups Raises Concern in Pakistan : http://ift.tt/2lywBxB
New Zealand, Australia, and surrounding Pacific Islands were among the first places to ring in 2018 with fireworks displays, parties, and other festivities.
Nearly 1.5 million people gathered to watch a rainbow fireworks display above Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge and opera house as the country celebrated legalizing gay marriage.
Hours earlier, thousands lined the streets of Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, for the annual street party and fireworks show above the Sky Tower.
In preparation for celebrations, hundreds of thousands of law enforcement, military and security officials are being deployed in cities around the world to keep New Year's Eve revelers safe as they gather to welcome 2018.
In Australia, one of the first places to ring in the new year, officials said police officers will be out in force on the ground, the air and the sea as part of the largest security operation in the country.
Police in Melbourne last month arrested a man for planning to shoot revelers on New Year's Eve.
In the United States, New York City officials announced they will use two-step screening, snipers, street closures and specially trained dogs to secure Times Square as an estimated 2 million people gather to watch the annual ball drop at midnight.
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U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres warns the world is likely to face many complex and new dangers in 2018. In a year-end message, Guterres appeals for greater unity to overcome these threats and create a more peaceful world.
When Guterres assumed office one year ago, the world was in the midst of a hopeful moment. Negotiations to end more than four decades of division on the island of Cyprus appeared to be moving toward a successful resolution.
Guterres jumped into the fray and worked tirelessly to produce that outcome. Unfortunately, the Greek and Turkish Cypriots were unable to bury their differences and live as one nation together.
The UN chief acknowledges his hopes for a peaceful 2017 have not materialized. Unfortunately, he says the world in many ways has gone in reverse. Reflecting this darkened mood on the eve of the New Year, Guterres says he is issuing what he calls a red alert for our world.
“Conflicts have deepened and new dangers have emerged. Global anxieties about nuclear weapons are the highest since the Cold War and climate change is moving faster than we are. Inequalities are growing and we see horrific violations of human rights. Nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise and as we begin 2018, I call for unity,” he said.
During this past year, Guterres has had many catastrophic events landing on his desk begging for resolution. These include:
As the world’s leading diplomat, Guterres must retain his sense of optimism that things can get better. He says the world can be made safer and more secure; conflicts and hatred can be overcome. But, only, he adds if world leaders unite to bridge divides and bring people together around common goals.
Read More UN Chief Warns World Faces More Dangers in Year Ahead : http://ift.tt/2DF5isP
A suicide bomber targeted the funeral of former district chief in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, where Afghan forces have had frequent clashes with Islamic State militants in recent weeks.
Provincial government spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told VOA at least 15 people were killed and another 13 were wounded — most of them civilians.
Earlier reports said six people had been killed and 11 wounded.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The attack comes just days after an assault on a Shiite cultural center in Kabul that left at least 41 people dead and more than 80 wounded.
Read More 15 Killed in Blast at Afghan Funeral : http://ift.tt/2EiXka1
A seaplane crashed into a river in Sydney on Sunday, killing six people ahead of the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations at the harbor.
Police said they did not know the cause of the crash, nor the identities of the five passengers, but were speaking with several witnesses. The pilot was the sixth victim.
Several Australian media reported that four of the victims were British nationals, although that was not immediately confirmed by police. In London, the Foreign Office said its officials were in contact with local authorities in Sydney.
The plane, which belonged to Sydney Seaplanes, was on a “wine and dine” sightseeing flight when it crashed into the Hawkesbury River on Sunday afternoon. New South Wales police say divers recovered the bodies of all six victims a few hours later.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it would investigate the incident.
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The Palestinians have withdrawn their envoy to Pakistan after he appeared at a rally with a radical cleric linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Palestinian envoy Walid Abu Ali shared the stage with Hafiz Saeed, the head of the hard-line Jamaat-ud-Dawa movement, at Friday’s rally, which was held to protest U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The rally in Rawalpindi, attended by thousands, was organized by the Defense of Pakistan Council, an alliance of religious parties dominated by Saeed’s group. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is believed to be a front for Lashker-e-Taiba, a militant group that fights Indian troops in the disputed region of Kashmir, and which was blamed for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people.
Saeed, the founder of Lashker-e-Taiba, is wanted by the United States, which has offered a $10 million reward for his arrest, but Pakistan has refused extradition requests and allows him to operate relatively freely. He was recently placed under house arrest for 11 months but was released after a court ruled in his favor.
Saeed denies involvement in the 2008 attacks, and Pakistan says India has not provided enough evidence to charge him. U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of harboring extremists, allegations denied by Islamabad.
In a statement Saturday addressed to India, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the envoy’s participation “in the presence of individuals accused of supporting terrorism” was “an unintended mistake, but not justified.” It said the envoy has been recalled.
India had lodged a protest with the Palestinians earlier Saturday, calling the envoy’s association with Saeed “unacceptable.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry defended the envoy, saying it welcomed his “active participation in events organized to express solidarity with the people of Palestine.”
Near-daily rallies have been held in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital earlier this month, a move seen as siding with the Jewish state against the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
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A group of Polish mountaineers set off for northern Pakistan on Sunday to attempt to be the first to scale K2, the world’s second highest peak, in wintertime.
K2, in the Karakorum mountains along the border between China and Pakistan, is notorious for high winds, steep and icy slopes — and high fatality rates for climbers. In winter months, scant snowfall means the summit approach can turn into bare ice.
More than 70 people have died climbing the peak, many of them at the Bottleneck, where a wrong step can send a climber hurtling off the South Face, where bodies are unlikely to be recovered.
Team member Adam Bielecki, 34, told Reuters that the chance to make history is a “strong motivation” for the Polish group.
Polish climbers have written a “beautiful chapter” of exploring peaks of more than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet), and scaling K2 in winter would “the last chapter of this book.”
The Polish team includes 13 mountaineers led by Krzysztof Wielicki, 67, who in 2003 headed a winter expedition of K2 that was unable to clear the 8,000 meter threshold.
K2, slightly shorter than Mount Everest, is 8,611 meters (28,251 feet) high.
Wielicki told Reuters that his team would begin their ascent on Jan. 8 or 9 and, if successful, expect to return to base camp by mid-March.
Pakistan is a hot destination for climbers. It rivals Nepal for the number of peaks higher 7,000 meters (22,966 feet) and it has five of the world’s 14 summits higher than 8,000 meters.
Bielecki said the group expects to be away from home for around three months.
“If you ask me what’s the hardest part of the expedition or what I fear the most, it’s actually the separation from my family,” he said.
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South Korean authorities have seized a Panama-flagged vessel suspected of transferring oil products to North Korea in violation of international sanctions, a customs official said Sunday.
The ship can carry 5,100 tons of oil and has a crew mostly from China and Myanmar, Yonhap News Agency reported, adding that South Korea’s intelligence and customs officials are conducting a joint probe into the vessel.
The official did not say when authorities moved in, but the seizure was the second to be revealed within just a few days. The KOTI is being held in the western port of Pyeongtaek-Dangjin, Gyeonggi Province, Yonhap reported.
South Korea said Friday that in late November it had seized the Hong Kong-flagged Lighthouse Winmore, which is suspected of transferring as much as 600 tons of oil to the North Korea-flagged Sam Jong 2.
The U.N. Security Council last month unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea for a recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil.
The United States has also proposed that the United Nations Security Council blacklist 10 ships for transporting banned items from North Korea, according to documents seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The Lighthouse Winmore is one of the 10 ships proposed for the blacklist. The KOTI does not seem to be included on the list.
China on Friday denied reports it had been illicitly selling oil products to North Korea in defiance of U.N. sanctions, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was unhappy that China had allowed oil to reach the isolated nation.
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A court order to kill several dozen gamecocks found at an illegal fighting ring is causing an uproar on Cambodian social media after a judge ruled the birds should be put down but delayed punishment for the human organizers.
A video clip posted to Facebook showed police officers, following a raid on the operation, apparently beheading the fighting roosters; the birds’ blood was poured into three bowls.
Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International of Cambodia (TIC), posted on Facebook Thursday, saying, “Another historical ruling of the Cambodia’s justice system for this 2017, was the execution of 92 cocks. So far, the people, who were involved with or colluded in the operation of cockfighting game, were not tried yet. ... But it’s a pity for the cocks that were sentenced to death.”
He also asked, “Where will their corpses go after execution by beheading?” An official told AFP that the authorities had later eaten them.
Banned fights
Cockfighting dates back at least to the 12th century in Cambodia and is depicted in the Bayon, which was built a century after Angkor Wat. Two years after the last U.S. state, Louisiana, outlawed the practice in 2007, Cambodia banned the fights, but they continue underground.
The illegal gambling ring in Kandal province was allegedly run by a relative of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thai Phanny. This may be why many online commentators are seeing the cockfighting incident in political terms.
Opposition party members have been under pressure since the government-engineered dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on November 16, which rendered Cambodia a de facto one-party state months ahead of the July 29 national election.
The United States last month said it would suspend its funding of the National Election Committee (NEC) and also imposed visa restrictions on officials over the dissolution of the CNRP and the arrest of its leader, Kem Sokha, who has been charged with treason.
The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge officer who has been in power for more than three decades, dominates government administration, the military and the judiciary.
Court decision
The decision by Hok Vann Thina, president of the Kandal Provincial Court and an investigation judge, is drawing attention to the cockfighting incident. Neither he nor Iv Chamroeun, the Kandal provincial police chief, would comment on the case.
However, Chamroeun’s deputy, Roeun Nara, told the AFP news agency that officials ate the gamecocks after they were killed Wednesday.
Soeng Senkaruna, a spokesman for local human rights group Adhoc, said the death of the cockerels had struck a nerve with Cambodians as it represented a “culture of impunity,” following the news that the operators of the gambling ring had been freed from jail.
He told VOA Khmer that people are “speechless as they were not satisfied by the ruling.”
It is the “impunity, meaning that the perpetrators are out of prison while the cocks were executed,” that is upsetting, he added.
Reporters from the Phnom Penh Post uncovered a trove of documents left by police in the wake of the raid that appeared to show a wide-ranging local network of bribery involving payoffs to local officials and the media.
Along with Phanny, the authorities detained 150 others involved in the cockfighting ring, and dozens of those detained were later arrested when it was discovered they were construction workers.
Hun Sen took a tough stand on the gambling ring, ordering police to shoot Phanny if he resisted arrest.
Phanny was given a caution and handed a court “monitoring” order, while 64 patrons of the gambling operation were given one-month suspended sentences, according to the Fresh News website.
This report originated with VOA Khmer.
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Germany should be able to deport unaccompanied minor refugees who commit crimes if their families can be identified, the head of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) said in remarks released ahead of publication Sunday.
FDP leader Christian Lindner spoke amid growing debate about unaccompanied refugees after the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old German girl on Wednesday by a suspect later identified by police as her former boyfriend, a 15-year-old Afghan refugee who had entered Germany in early 2016.
Lindner told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that authorities should be able to deport unaccompanied minors who resisted “educational measures” and caused problems, if their families could be identified in their home countries.
The girl who was killed had filed charges days earlier accusing the Afghan teenager of harassing and threatening her after she broke up with him, police officials said.
Migrant numbers down
The number of unaccompanied minors among migrants entering Germany fell sharply in the first 10 months of 2017 to 8,107 from nearly 35,939 in 2016 and 22,255 a year earlier, according to the German Federal Office of Migrant and Refugees (BAMF).
Although seen as a domestic dispute, the stabbing case has touched a nerve as German cities tighten security for New Year’s Eve celebrations amid continued concern about possible Islamist attacks and after the mass groping of women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015.
Many far-right commentators have seized on the stabbing and the 2015 Cologne incident to justify their anti-migrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
In Berlin, police erected a special safety zone for women at the milelong street that runs from the Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column in the capital’s Tiergarten park.
Criticism of Merkel
In the interview, Lindner also renewed his criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open the doors to more than a million migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Afghanistan, without adequate controls.
“We need a new immigrant policy in Europe that ensures that the problems are addressed,” Lindner said, noting that securing borders could help prevent right-wing populists from spreading xenophobic sentiment.
“Our country will only stay tolerant and open to the world if people can rely on our legal system at any time and any place,” he said.
The FDP last month withdrew from talks with Merkel’s conservatives and the environmental Greens on forming a new government after the September election. But migration will also be a key topic in upcoming coalition talks between Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Conservatives want to limit the number of refugees admitted each year to 200,000 or less; the SPD rejects any such cap.
Read More German Party Leader: Deport Young Refugees Involved in Crime : http://ift.tt/2lvovpK
Hundreds of thousands of law enforcement, military and security officials will be deployed in cities around the world to keep New Year's Eve revelers safe as they gather to welcome 2018.
In the United States, New York City officials announced they would use two-step screening, snipers, street closures and specially trained dogs to secure Times Square, where an estimated 2 million people will gather to watch the annual ball drop at midnight.
In Las Vegas, 300 National Guard troops will join more than 1,500 police officers to keep safe the city's famed Strip, home to a number of casinos, resorts and hotels. The security precautions to protect the expected crowd of more than 300,000 will include snipers positioned on rooftops and double the number of emergency response teams from previous years.
In South America, Rio de Janeiro police plan a security force of 12,000, nearly 20 percent more officers than last year, for New Year's events. Military police say they are suspending vacations for security personnel to ensure there are enough police officers on duty.
Patrols in London
In London, a record number of armed officers and canine units will patrol celebrations and the city's Underground subway system, although Metropolitan Police said they had received no specific threat. Steel and concrete barricades will ring main events that will be attended by an estimated 500,000 people, police said.
In Germany, all major cities, including Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne, announced there would be enhanced police presence at all celebrations. They declined to reveal details.
In Africa, after at least nine people were killed Friday outside a church in suburban Cairo by a gunman on a motorcycle, Egyptian authorities have beefed up security for New Year's Eve and Orthodox Christmas.
In an attempt to prevent further terrorist attacks, the Interior Ministry has raised the security alert to the maximum level throughout the country. The ministry has ordered heightened security near vital institutions such as churches and embassies.
More security patrols will be deployed to streets, squares and other areas where celebrations will be held.
In Istanbul, police have arrested 120 people with suspected links to Islamic State militants ahead of the New Year's celebrations. The city also plans to more than double the number of police officers on the streets to prevent a repeat of last year, when a man armed with an assault rifle killed 39 Turks and foreigners at a nightclub. Police have also canceled some public celebrations in key districts of Turkey's largest city.
Preparations in India
In India, more than 30,000 security personnel will guard the popular gathering sites across Mumbai. In the southern tech hub of Bengaluru, officials plan to deploy more than 15,000 officers, as well as use drones, security cameras and canine units. A 500-member, all-female police squad will also be deployed to ensure there is no repeat of last year, when several women were harassed and molested in the streets by male revelers.
In Australia, one of the first places to ring in the new year, security officials are guarding against any kind of terror attack on New Year's Eve. Officials said police officers would be out in force on the ground, in the air and on the sea as part of the largest security operation in the country.
More than 1 million people are expected to gather in the center of Sydney and at least half that number in Melbourne to watch fireworks displays. Police said Melbourne's city center would be on lockdown and remain closed until 6 a.m. New Year's Day to protect the crowd.
Police in Melbourne last month arrested a man for allegedly planning to shoot revelers on New Year's Eve.
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At least 81 reporters were killed doing their jobs this year, while violence and harassment against media staff has skyrocketed, the world's biggest journalists' organization says.
In its annual “Kill Report,” seen by The Associated Press, the International Federation of Journalists said the reporters lost their lives in targeted killings, car bomb attacks and crossfire incidents around the world.
More than 250 journalists were in prison in 2017.
The number of deaths as of December 29 was the lowest in a decade, down from 93 in 2016. The largest number were killed in Mexico, but many also died in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
The IFJ suspected but could not officially confirm that at least one other journalist was killed Thursday in an attack by an Islamic State suicide bomber on a Shiite cultural center in Kabul, in which at least 41 people died.
IFJ President Philippe Leruth said that while the drop in deaths “represents a downward trend, the levels of violence in journalism remain unacceptably high.”
He said the IFJ finds it “most disturbing that this decrease cannot be linked to any measure by governments to tackle the impunity for these crimes.”
Eight women journalists were killed, two in European democracies - Kim Wall in Denmark, who died on the submarine of an inventor she was writing about, and Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was blown up by a bomb placed in her car.
Beyond the deaths, the IFJ warned that “unprecedented numbers of journalists were jailed, forced to flee, that self-censorship was widespread and that impunity for the killings, harassment, attacks and threats against independent journalism was running at epidemic levels.”
Turkey, where official pressure on the media has been ramped up since a failed coup attempt in July 2016, is becoming notorious for putting reporters behind bars. Some 160 journalists are jailed in Turkey - two-thirds of the global total - the report said.
The organization also expressed concern about India, the world's largest democracy, where it said that attacks on journalists are being motivated by violent populism.
Countries with the highest numbers of media killings:
Mexico: 13
Afghanistan: 11
Iraq: 11
Syria: 10
India: 6
Philippines: 4
Pakistan: 4
Nigeria: 3
Somalia: 3
Honduras: 3
Read More Media Group: 81 Reporters Died, Threats Soared in 2017 : http://ift.tt/2C0bX0v
Pakistan says that almost 92 percent of its 2,611-kilometer largely porous frontier with Afghanistan will be fenced by end of 2018, hoping the massive unilateral undertaking will effectively address mutual complaints of militant incursions.
The military-led construction effort went into action earlier this year. It has already fenced off about a 150-kilometer portion of the border identified as “highly prone” to terrorist infiltration.
The pair of nine-foot wire fences, with a six-foot gap, and topped with barbed wire, runs along rugged terrain and snow-capped mountains as high as 12,000 feet. Officials estimate the project will cost about $550 million.
“Our target is to complete it [the fence] by end of 2018,” Major-General Asif Ghafoor tells VOA. He explained the plan intends to cover up to 2,400 kilometers of the entire Afghan border because the rest cannot possibly be fenced.
Additional outposts and small forts are also being built and being equipped with high-tech surveillance systems to enable soldiers to monitor and detect intrusions around the clock.
“And on the average, every 1.5 to 2 kilometers will have physical presence [of our soldiers],” Ghafoor said, adding the army has also recruited tens of thousands of new troops for the deployment.
Afghanistan takes issue
Afghanistan opposes the fencing project because it historically disputed the colonial-era demarcation drawn up by the British in 1893. Kabul insists the barrier would add to problems of divided families on both sides.
Islamabad rejects Afghan objections and is pressing ahead with the border fencing, insisting the project is critical for national security and for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Afghans have long accused Pakistani security institutions for sheltering Taliban insurgents and the Haqqani Network of terrorists staging deadly attacks in Afghanistan to allegedly prevent rival India from increasing its influence in the war-torn country.
For their part, Pakistani officials say anti-state militants after fleeing security operations, have taken refuge in Afghan border areas and plot terrorist attacks against the country from those sanctuaries.
Steps toward mending ties
Relations have deteriorated between Afghanistan and Pakistan over terrorism allegations against each other. Ghafoor said that military-to-military coordination has improved since the Pakistani army chief visited Kabul in October and held detailed talks with President Ashraf Ghani.
“We have shared through [our] Foreign Office a comprehensive action plan document with Afghanistan and subsequent action on this plan will lead to further improvement,” Ghafoor added.
Islamabad shared with Kabul last month what it called an “Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Solidarity" (APAPS) for a “constructive and meaningful” engagement between the two countries. The proposed plan would create working groups in politics, economics, the military, intelligence sharing, and issues related to Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Ghafoor said no anti-Afghanistan sanctuaries are present in Pakistan following major counterterrorism operations in the past three years. But he complained that a large number of Afghan refugees in the country are blocking efforts to completely eliminate the threat.
“I can assure you the day these 2.7-million Afghan refugees go back to their country, our liberty of action will expand to trace the left-over facilitators and abettors,” Ghafoor said while responding to U.S. criticism of Islamabad’s “inaction” against insurgents using Pakistani soil for attacks inside Afghanistan.
The army spokesman said investigations in connection with recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan have led officials to conclude that planners were located on the Afghan side of the border. Many of the would-be suicide bombers authorities have recently arrested in Pakistan are Afghans, he added, without giving any figures.
Read More Planned Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Fence Moves Ahead Despite Objections : http://ift.tt/2BWP8L4
There’s new hope for ailing parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef - assisted reproductive technology.
Researchers have been capturing coral spawn and rearing millions of larvae in large tanks.
The reef is arguably Australia's greatest natural treasure. It stretches more than 2,300 kilometers down north-eastern Australia, and faces many threats, including climate change and pollution.
Professor Peter Harrison from Southern Cross University has been collecting the coral spawn off Heron Island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It is then placed into tanks, where it matures.
Millions of coral larvae are then placed back onto damaged areas of the reef that may not otherwise regenerate naturally. The larvae are put into large enclosures where their growth can be monitored. Early results are encouraging. It is estimated that 100 juvenile coral have survived, and are settling into their new home.
The mesh enclosures cover a hundred square meters of damaged coral, and the next challenge will be covering several kilometers of reef.
It is the first time the assisted breeding method has been used in Australia, and it follows a successful trial in the Philippines that rejuvenated reefs damaged by fishing.
Harrison says the trial on the Great Barrier Reef is going well.
“What we are doing is capturing some of that coral spawn, growing millions of larvae, and then putting those larvae back into areas of the reef that do not have many living corals on them at the moment to rapidly increase the rate at which coral recovery can occur. These are the first experiments using this larval restoration technique on the Great Barrier Reef. The work is still experimental at the moment but the results from these last experiments will help us understand how we can scale up to hectare-scale reef patches in future,” Harrison said.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is about the size of Japan and is so big it can be seen from outer space. It is home to more than 3,000 types of mollusks and 1,600 species of fish.
It is not only an environmental treasure, but an economic one as well, generating billions of dollars in revenue and sustaining tens of thousands of jobs, mostly in the Australian tourism industry.
In the past two years, two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has been devastated by severe coral bleaching caused by warmer ocean temperatures, according to Australian scientists.
The Australian government is contributing more than $310,000 to help advance Harrison's reproductive research.
Read More Assisted Breeding Program Helps Australia's Ailing Great Barrier Reef : http://ift.tt/2EeONVz
A powerful Afghanistan governor returned to his office Saturday and chaired an official meeting in violation of a presidential decree that ousted him from his post earlier this month.
The escalating political uncertainty comes as the United States and its allies step up military efforts in support of Afghan forces as they try to counter the Taliban insurgency and the Islamic State group plots fresh deadly suicide bombings in the war-torn country.
Atta Muhammad Noor, who governed northern Balkh province for 13 years, has from the outset rejected his dismissal as illegal, questioning whether President Ashraf Ghani had the power to do so unilaterally.
Ghani’s office announced two weeks ago that the president had accepted Noor’s resignation and named a replacement. But the ousted governor swiftly rejected the move, saying he had submitted his resignation months back and linked it to acceptance of a list of demands.
While chairing Saturday’s meeting of government officials at the governor’s office in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital, the powerful politician from the ethnic Tajik minority community again defended his position.
Noor insisted that nominating his successor and appointment to certain provincial posts in Balkh were among his demands. He went on to assert he would not quit until his Jamiat-i-Islami party and its allies negotiate a resolution with the Ghani camp in the coalition government.
“And if an agreement is not reached I will remain as governor of Balkh for as long as the National Unity Government is in power,” Noor told the meeting. His political party has also urged the president to review his decision and vowed to use “all options” in support of Noor.
The ousted governor claimed he has transferred “some authority” to his deputy to ensure smooth functioning of the provincial government but vowed “I will come every day” to the office.
The United States brokered a political deal between Ghani and his election rival Abdullah Abdullah after the 2014 presidential election ended in a deadlock that had brought Afghanistan to the brink of ethnic-driven chaos.
The deal made ethnic Pashtun Ghani president and created a new post, similar to prime minister, for Abdullah, a central leader of Noor’s party, which represents mostly Afghan Tajiks.
But the political standoff has apparently refueled the ethnic-based divisions, worrying Afghanistan’s Western partners.
Most secure Afghan province
Balkh has been the most secure of all 34 Afghan provinces under his leadership, claimed Noor, while defending his long tenure. Using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, he tried to give credence to allegations officials in Ghani’s camp have links to the terrorist group.
“They want to bring Daesh here. I will never allow Daesh to come here, I have suppressed Daesh and will continue to suppress them,” Noor said in a speech Afghan television stations broadcast live.
The presidential office has repeatedly and vehemently denied the allegations as politically motivated.
The Afghan parliament has also been divided over the governor’s dismissal, with some fearing the deepening political strife is helping insurgents and IS terrorists to further their extremist agendas in Afghanistan.
In a recent speech, Noor also accused Abdullah of plotting his removal and condemned him as a “snake up our own sleeve”, charges the Afghan chief executive has rejected.
Analysts see the deepening crisis, stemming from traditional tensions between Tajiks and majority Pashtuns, as detrimental to political and security gains Afghanistan has achieved with the support of international community over the past 16 years.
The political standoff is also undermining efforts to organize parliamentary elections, officially scheduled for next year, and the 2019 presidential poll, amid criticism the Afghan government has not taken enough steps to introduce key electoral reforms to ensure there is no repeat of the crisis of the 2014 presidential election.
Noor supported Abdullah during the presidential election campaign but has since criticized him for not pressing Ghani to deliver on his commitments under the U.S.-brokered deal and give Jamiat-i-Islami its due share in the coalition government. Other party officials have also made similar complaints against Abdullah.
On Thursday, an IS suicide bomber struck a big gathering of members of the Afghan Shi’ite Muslim community in Kabul, killing more than 41 people and wounding around 100 more.
This was the seventh suicide attack IS carried out in the city in just over two months, underscoring growing strength of the terrorist group in the Afghan capital.
Read More Ousted Afghan Governor Returns to Office in Defiance of Presidential Orders : http://ift.tt/2BZgG2F
The Associated Press reported early Saturday that in the first month of U.S. President Donald Trump's term in office, he sent "an American scholar" to meet with North Korean officials and to relay a message.
The message was that the new administration was appreciative of a nearly four-month freeze of the North's nuclear and ballistic missile tests - and thought it "might just offer a ray of hope," the news agency said in its account.
However, the AP reported North Korean officials said the lack of testing wasn't a sign of conciliation and insisted Kim Jong Un would order tests whenever he wanted. Two days later, the North launched a new medium-range missile, ushering in a year of escalating tensions.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported late Friday that "Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea." Reuters attributed the information to two senior Western European security sources.
Russia is a member of the United Nations Security Council. The sale of oil and oil products to North Korea would be a breach of U.N. sanctions
One security source told Reuters "Russian vessels have made ship-to-ship transfers of petrochemicals to North Korean vessels on several occasions this year in breach of sanctions."
Another security source told the news agency, "There is no evidence that this is backed by the Russian state, but these Russian vessels are giving a lifeline to the North Koreans."
Reuters said both sources "cited naval intelligence and satellite imagery of the vessels operating out of Russian Far Eastern ports on the Pacific."
Denials from China
The new reports come as China has denied facilitating oil shipments to North Korea in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions, one day after Trump accused Beijing of doing so.
"China has been completely and strictly implementing Security Council resolutions and fulfilling our international obligations,'' foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Friday at a media briefing. "We will never allow Chinese citizens and enterprises to engage in activities that violate Security Council resolutions."
Despite China's insistence the sanctions are being enforced, doubts persist in the U.S., South Korea and Japan that loopholes continue to exist. And China's repeated denials did not preclude Trump from tweeting Thursday he was "very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea."
The U.N. Security Council last week imposed new sanctions designed to limit North Korea access to oil in response to the country's recent long-range missile test. In November, it test-launched its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, which many U.S. experts have warned would be capable of striking anywhere on U.S. soil. The sanctions seek to bar 90-percent of refined oil exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and limit crude oil exports at 4 million barrels annually.
Ship seized
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said earlier Friday the country had seized a Hong Kong-flagged ship that transferred oil to a North Korean vessel in international waters despite the sanctions.
Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported South Korean officials said the Lighthouse Winmore vessel transferred "600 tons of refined petroleum" to a North Korean ship on October 19 and that the ship was seized on November 24 after it sailed into South Korea's Yeosu Port.
Yonhap reported the vessel was chartered by the Billions Bunker Group, a Taiwanese company. The ship's "claimed destination" was reportedly Taiwan, but the ship instead "transferred oil to a North Korean ship, Sam Jong 2, and three other non-North Korean vessels in international waters in the East China Sea."
Yonhap said South Korea informed the U.S. about its "detection of the illegal transaction" involving the Lighthouse Winmore, which is reportedly on the list of ships the U.S. has proposed blacklisting for prohibited trade with North Korea.
Hua, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said authorities investigated a report that an unnamed Chinese ship transferred oil to a North Korean vessel at sea on October 19 and determined it was erroneous. Hua also said she did not have any information about the Hong Kong-flagged vessel.
Satellite images
In November, the U.S. Treasury Department disclosed satellite images that displayed what it said was a North Korean ship receiving oil from an unidentified vessel on October 19. It was not immediately clear if the Lighthouse Winmore was involved in the transaction.
The photos received broader public scrutiny this week when the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reprinted them along with the report that suspected Chinese ships transferred oil to North Korean vessels about 30 times since October.
In an interview with the New York Times Thursday, Trump linked his trade policy with China to its cooperation in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.
"If they're helping North Korea, I can look at trade a little bit differently, at least for a period of time. And that's what I've been doing. But when oil is going in, I'm not happy about that."
During a briefing Friday with reporters at the Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was asked if the U.S. Navy could begin seizing ships suspected of providing oil to North Korea.
Mattis declined to speculate but said, "Obviously if a government finds that there is a ship in their port conducting trade that was forbidden under the U.N. Security Council resolution, then they have an obligation and so far we have seen nations take that obligation seriously."
Mattis also predicted the global community will increase pressure on Pyongyang and said physical approaches are among the options under consideration.
"What form that pressure takes in terms of physical operations is something that will be determined by the cognizant governments," he said.
China is North Korea's primary trading partner, energy supplier and main diplomatic protector. But Beijing has expressed increasing frustration with North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. And while China supports the latest sanctions against Pyongyang, it has argued against actions that may be harmful to North Korean citizens or destabilize its government.
Read More AP: Trump's Initial Outreach to North Korea Backfired : http://ift.tt/2DyJIX2
In her dreams, Setara walks hand in hand with her Muslim husband through the streets of the seaside Myanmar town they grew up in. They visit old friends, share a meal with family, dip their toes into the warm surf of the Bay of Bengal.
But in the hate-filled reality of the world they live in, Setara can only do these things alone — when she takes off her Islamic veil and crosses through a pair of checkpoints into the predominantly Buddhist state capital, where her government will not allow the love of her life to set foot.
That’s because Setara’s husband is an ethnic Rohingya Muslim, a group the United Nations has called one of the most persecuted on the planet. Setara, meanwhile, was born a Buddhist and part of the ethnic Rakhine, who despise the Rohingya and see them as foreign invaders from Bangladesh.
Rare, risky marriage
Marriage between the two communities is extraordinarily rare. It’s also risky in a nation where security forces have driven more than 730,000 Rohingya into exile since 2016, carried out large-scale massacres and burned hundreds of villages in a campaign the U.N. and human rights groups have described as “ethnic cleansing.”
In Sittwe, Setara tells no one she is married to a Rohingya. Because “if they knew, they would kill me right away. So I’m always careful.”
The 24-year-old’s fears are not exaggerated. Even Rohingya who have ventured into Sittwe on rare trips escorted by police in recent months have been attacked by mobs and killed. Hard-line Buddhists regularly march through the city’s crumbling streets, past ruined mosques that have been closed since June 2012, when the Rakhine burned most Rohingya homes and drove more than 120,000 into camps for the displaced.
Setara, then a widow, met her husband, Mohammad, about eight months later at a market on the edge of a Rohingya village where she had come to sell vegetables. Rakhine traders, who can travel freely, regularly sell goods to Rohingya at marked-up prices.
Family rejected groom
They exchanged phone numbers and she began visiting him at a pharmacy he ran nearby. Mohammad, 32, bought her small gifts, teased her to make her laugh and took her for rides on his motorbike. He was amazed to meet a Rakhine woman who didn’t treat a Rohingya any differently than her own. He told her he loved her.
Setara felt the same way. She thought he was the kindest man she had ever known.
But when she told her family — after much reluctance — that she was dating a Rohingya man, they became enraged. Her brother beat her severely. They told her she could not go back. Then, her family kicked her out.
The move pushed her closer to Mohammad. In late 2013, she converted to Islam and they married in a small Islamic ceremony held before local religious leaders. No one from Setara’s family attended.
In the years since, Setara has reconciled with her three sisters. But she has never been able to return home. Her parents passed away when she was young, and the brother who helped raise them all still refuses to speak to her. Residents of her old neighborhood have also made clear she is no longer welcome; they call her a “Kalar’s wife.” Kalar is a derogatory word for Muslims that is frequently used in Myanmar.
Mohammad characterizes their relationship in much the same way his wife does.
“She sees me as a human being and I see her as a human being, and it’s that simple,” he said, when asked how they had overcome the huge societal obstacles to marry.
Welcomed by Rohingya
Mohammad is a quiet man with a calm manner; Setara is more outspoken. They are a couple clearly in love, glancing at each other and smiling as they talk. The AP is identifying them by their first names only for their protection.
They live in a Rohingya village adjacent to a network of Muslim displaced camps, with Setara’s 2-year-old niece and her 9-year-old daughter from her first marriage. Setara says the Rohingya have welcomed her warmly, as one of their own. But she misses her old friends and her old life.
While Mohammad, like all Rohingya, is not permitted by the government to travel, Setara makes regular trips to Sittwe, about half an hour away, to buy supplies for the small pharmacy and shop they run beside their home.
Before going, though, she smears a pale cosmetic paste on her cheeks called “thanaka,” which is commonly used by Buddhists in Myanmar. She takes off her veil and puts on a blouse. And she never forgets to bring her national identification card, which includes a critical line indicating she is Buddhist. Without it, she could never cross the checkpoints — one manned by police, the other by soldiers — to town.
The contrast between the two worlds is startling. The Rohingya side is dry and dusty, devoid of trees and filled with despair, with little to do. The Buddhist side is lush, with schools and a university, paved roads, a karaoke bar and restaurants that serve wine by the sea.
In Sittwe’s main market, Setara visits friends and sometimes her sisters. But she also overhears Rakhine gossiping about the latest news, and cursing the Rohingya.
Sometimes she goes to the beach, where teens hang out at seaside cafes on plastic chairs, and watches the sun go down. But when she thinks about her husband — the fact that he cannot be there — her thoughts turn dark, and she wonders “if our lives will just end like this.”
“I always wish I could go out with my husband and go to the fun places in town ... especially when I see other couples going around,” Setara said. “I just want to cry sometimes.”
Mohammad imagines the same, impossible trips. But he also worries each time she goes.
“I worry something might happen, that someone might find out she’s a Muslim, that she’s married to me,” he said.
Both said they want children of their own because they love each other. But they know it would not be easy for a child, who would be half Rohingya and not recognized as a Burmese citizen.
The marriage has given Setara a profound insight into life in the camps for the Rohingya displaced.
“It’s just like hell,” she said. “They have no hope. They have no medical treatment. People are more and more scared.”
Since Rohingya insurgents staged dozens of attacks in the northern half of Rakhine state that triggered a major backlash by security forces in late August, life in the south, where Setara and her husband live, has stayed calm but only gotten harder.
International aid for displaced camps has been held up by authorities, and humanitarian workers have been forced to scale back visits. Hussein said the government has also stopped Rohingya from fishing, a critical source of income, until they accept “national verification cards” which identify them as “Bengalis.” Many have resisted because they insist on being identified as Rohingya, a term the government does not recognize.
In her despair, Setara sometimes tells her husband she is going to leave. When he begs her to “stop saying that,” she tells him she doesn’t mean it.
“It doesn’t mean that I don’t love him. I just don’t like the way we have to live here,” she said. “I keep telling myself every day that I need to be strong ... but sometimes I just want to fly away.”
Still, she says, that is something she will never do.
“The future for the Rohingya is bad,” she said. “But I will never leave ... it is my destiny to be here, to be with my husband.”
Read More Rare Couple Finds Love in a Time of Hate in Myanmar : http://ift.tt/2CqZAvg
In the first month of Donald Trump’s presidency, an American scholar quietly met with North Korean officials and relayed a message: The new administration in Washington appreciated an extended halt in the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests. It might just offer a ray of hope.
North Korean officials responded defiantly. The nearly four-month period of quiet wasn’t a sign of conciliation, they retorted, insisting supreme leader Kim Jong Un would order tests whenever he wanted. As if to ram the point home, North Korea only two days later launched a new type of medium-range missile that ended Trump’s brief honeymoon.
The February launch heralded a year of escalating tensions that have left the U.S. and North Korea closer to hostilities than at any time since the Korean War ended in 1953. The North is now at the brink of realizing its decades-old goal of being able to strike anywhere in America with a nuclear weapon. And two leaders untested in the delicate diplomacy of deterrence have exchanged personal insults and warned of the other nation’s annihilation.
Vicious cycle
“Pyongyang and Washington are caught in a vicious cycle of action and reaction,” Korea expert Duyeon Kim wrote in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. “If nothing happens to break the cycle, it will continue until one side either stands down, which is very unlikely, or, far worse, takes military action.”
The exchanges at the unofficial U.S.-North Korean talks 10 months ago hadn’t been reported before. They were recounted to The Associated Press by a participant who requested anonymity to describe them. No U.S. government officials took part.
Although North Korea at that time signaled interest in talks with Washington, its uncompromising position made plain the challenges Trump faced as he entered the White House, promising to sort out the North Korean “mess” he inherited. It also underscored how much difficulty the U.S. has experienced gauging the North’s thinking.
Muddled strategy
Before his inauguration, Trump blithely tweeted about the prospect of Kim having a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike America: “It won’t happen!” Almost a year later, and after an onslaught of new economic sanctions and U.S. military threats, the nuclear menace from Pyongyang is far worse.
And U.S. strategy is muddled. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently offered unconditional talks with North Korea only to be quickly shot down by the White House, where not only Trump has talked up the possibility of military confrontation. National security adviser H.R. McMaster also has warned the potential for war is “increasing every day.”
Shortly before Christmas, the administration unveiled a new security strategy that offered few answers. It vaguely spoke of “improving options” to get the inscrutable North to abandon its nuclear weapons.
By the administration’s own admission, its official North Korea policy of “maximum pressure and engagement” hasn’t to date included significant engagement.
“The White House and the secretary of state seem unable to coordinate on even the most basic elements of a common strategy,” wrote Stephan Haggard, a North Korea expert at the University of California, San Diego.
The U.S. has scored successes in its international pressure on North Korea. It has won cooperation from the North’s traditional backers such as China and Russia on restrictions that have put new strains on an economy Kim has promised to modernize in his half-decade as leader. The U.S. also says more than 20 countries have curtailed diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.
But Trump this past week strongly criticized China for still allowing oil supplies to North Korea, highlighting the likely limits on Beijing’s willingness to put the squeeze on its unpredictable neighbor. So far, pressure hasn’t accomplished the stated goal: forcing the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program or, at least, to enter negotiations over such a possibility. Kim has remained focused on developing a nuclear arsenal he views as guaranteeing regime survival. And his program advanced leaps and bounds during 2017.
Sense of alarm
After a rash of failed missile tests last year, North Korea has conducted more than 20 missile launches since Trump came to office. It also tested what it described as a hydrogen bomb — an underground blast so big it registered as a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Then in late November, it test-fired a new intercontinental missile in the clearest demonstration yet that all of America was within its striking range.
Trump has compounded the world’s sense of alarm. While he has presented his own threats as proof of an America that won’t be intimidated, critics at home and abroad have argued that he has elevated the risk of nuclear conflict through his personal insults to Kim.
Trump has called Kim “short and fat” and “a sick puppy.” At the U.N. in September, he lampooned Kim as “Rocket Man ... on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.” Kim replied by calling Trump “mentally deranged” and a “dotard.” North Korea’s foreign minister then warned of a possible atmospheric nuclear test — done by no nation since 1980.
Back channels open
Diplomacy isn’t dead, however. The Trump administration was quick to restore a back channel for talks between the State Department and North Korea that disappeared in President Barack Obama’s final months. The U.S. envoy on North Korea, Joseph Yun, secretly met North Korean officials in Oslo in May to press for the release of Americans imprisoned in Pyongyang.
Various officials have said that meeting could have augured more substantive U.S.-North Korean talks.
But the only release was college student Otto Warmbier, who had suffered brain damage in detention and died days after his return. Warmbier’s shocking condition ended any hopes of a thaw. Trump tweeted angrily and Pyongyang promptly stepped up its weapons tests.
As 2018 beckons, the question now is whether the North will conduct more tests until it can confidently deploy its new long-range missile, and whether it will detonate a nuclear weapon over the Pacific to demonstrate once and for all its capabilities. That would dramatically increase the chances of war.
The Trump administration sees the time for diplomacy shrinking. Tillerson said in December he hopes sanctions get North Korea to negotiate.
“Otherwise, we wouldn’t need to do this,” Tillerson said of all the pressure. “We’d just go straight to the military option.”
Read More US Diplomatic Hopes for North Korea: Hope to Talk of War : http://ift.tt/2CcTemv
At the hands of Mother Nature, 2017 was a deadly, devastating year. Wildfires in the US, volcanos in Indonesia, and mudslides and hurricanes across the world. Natural disasters took homes, power, water and lives. Arash Arabasadi looks back at some of the stories that made headlines.
Kim Jong Un wants to turn the art of kimchi-making into a science. And the North Korean leader is putting his money where his mouth is.
On the outskirts of Pyongyang, surrounded by snow-covered farms and greenhouses, stands one of Kim’s latest pet projects, the Ryugyong Kimchi Factory, which produces 4,200 tons of the iconic Korean pickled vegetable dish a year. The shiny new facility replaces an older factory and opened in June last year after getting Kim’s final seal of approval, according to manager Paek Mi Hye.
The factory is intended to showcase Kim’s efforts to boost North Korea’s domestic economy and produce more, and better, consumer products. His strategy, known as “byungjin,” aims to simultaneously develop the national economy and North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
North Korea’s repeated underground nuclear tests and launches of long-range missiles that could conceivably reach the U.S. mainland have brought more sanctions down on the North than ever before. But outside experts believe the country, while still struggling in many areas, is showing signs of modest economic growth and improved agricultural production. It could be just a year or two away from having an operational, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.
Transforming Pyongyang
Applied science, according to the North’s policymakers, is absolutely essential on all fronts.
Kim has transformed the Pyongyang skyline with high-rise apartments to house his prized rocket scientists and nuclear engineers, and Paek repeatedly stressed while giving a tour of the facility to The Associated Press how even an ancient delicacy like kimchi can benefit from scientific innovation.
Paek, who accompanied Kim on his “on-the-spot guidance” visits, said the factory has 150 workers but is for the most part automated.
She said the primary objective of the factory is to operate in a “scientific manner at every stage.” In kimchi-making, that means inspections all along the production line to ensure quality and hygiene. The factory boasts of a one-of-a-kind “kimchi analyzer” to maintain the proper levels of saltiness and lactic acid — its signature ingredient.
Age-old tradition
Koreans North and South have been making kimchi for generations, often passing family recipes down from mother to daughter or mother-in-law to daughter-in-law.
In 2015, UNESCO added kimchi to its “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” list, noting that the traditional sharing of know-how and materials to prepare large quantities of kimchi for the winter months “boosts cooperation among families, villages and communities, contributing to social cohesion.”
Paek acknowledged that some people might resist giving up the cherished tradition of communal kimchi-making. “But they also recognize the quality and reliability of our factory-made product,” she said.
The factory produces eight kimchi products, from the very spicy staple “tong kimchi,” which has a red tint and is made of whole cabbages, to a milder variety designed for children. Its kimchi products are distributed to restaurants and grocery stores around Pyongyang.
“This is the model,” Paek said. “Other factories like ours are being planned in every province.”
Read More Kimchi and Missiles: Kim’s Efforts to Grow North Korea Economy : http://ift.tt/2pZKhau
Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea at least three times in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, according to two senior Western European security sources, providing an economic lifeline to the secretive communist state.
The sales of oil or oil products from Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter and a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, breach U.N. sanctions, the security sources said.
The transfers in October and November indicate that smuggling from Russia to North Korea has evolved to loading cargoes at sea since Reuters reported in September that North Korean ships were sailing directly from Russia to their homeland.
"Russian vessels have made ship-to-ship transfers of petrochemicals to North Korean vessels on several occasions this year in breach of sanctions," the first security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
A second source, who independently confirmed the existence of the Russian ship-to-ship fuel trade with North Korea, said there was no evidence of Russian state involvement in the latest transfers.
"There is no evidence that this is backed by the Russian state, but these Russian vessels are giving a lifeline to the North Koreans," the second European security source said.
The two security sources cited naval intelligence and satellite imagery of the vessels operating out of Russian Far Eastern ports on the Pacific but declined to disclose further details to Reuters, saying it was classified.
Russia's Foreign Ministry and the Russian Customs Service both declined to comment when asked Wednesday whether Russian ships had supplied fuel to North Korean vessels. The owner of one ship accused of smuggling oil to North Korea denied any such activity.
The latest report came as China, responding Friday to criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, denied it had illicitly shipped oil products to North Korea.
North Korea relies on imported fuel to keep its struggling economy functioning. It also requires oil for its intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear program that the United States says threatens the peace in Asia.
"The vessels are smuggling Russian fuel from Russian Far Eastern ports to North Korea," said the first security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Satellite positioning data
Reuters was unable to independently verify that the vessels had transferred fuel to North Korean vessels, whether the Russian state knew about the sales or how many Russian vessels were involved in the transfers. It was also unclear how much fuel may have been smuggled.
Ship satellite positioning data consulted by Reuters and available on Reuters Eikon shows unusual movements by some of the Russian vessels named by the security sources, including switching off the transponders, which give a precise location.
The security sources said the Russian-flagged tanker Vityaz was one vessel that had transferred fuel to North Korean vessels.
The Vityaz left the port of Slavyanka near Vladivostok in Russia on October 15 with 1,600 tons of oil, according to Russian port control documents.
Documents submitted by the vessel's agent to the Russian State Port Control authority showed its destination as a fishing fleet in the Japan Sea. Shipping data showed the vessel switched off its transponder for a few days as it sailed into open waters.
According to the European security sources, the Vityaz conducted a ship-to-ship transfer with the North Korean-flagged Sam Ma 2 tanker in open seas during October.
Reuters could not independently verify the transfer as ship tracking data showed that the Sam Ma 2 had turned off its transponder from the start of August.
The owner of the Russian vessel denied any contact with North Korean vessels but also said it was unaware that the vessel was fueling fishing boats.
Yaroslav Guk, deputy director of the tanker's owner, Vladivostok-based Alisa Ltd., said the vessel had no contacts with North Korean vessels.
"Absolutely no, this is very dangerous," Guk told Reuters by telephone. "It would be complete madness."
When contacted a second time, Guk said the vessel did not have any contacts with North Korean ships and that he would not answer further questions.
An official at East Coast Ltd., the vessel's transport agent, declined to comment.
Two other Russian-flagged tankers made similar journeys between the middle of October and November, leaving from the ports of Slavyanka and Nakhodka into open seas, where they switched off their transponders, shipping data showed.
In September, Reuters reported that at least eight North Korean ships that left Russia loaded with fuel this year headed for their homeland despite declaring other destinations, a ploy that U.S. officials say is often used to undermine sanctions.
A Russian shipping source with knowledge of Far Eastern marine practices said North Korean vessels had stopped loading fuel in Russia's Far Eastern ports but that fuel is delivered at sea by tankers using ship-to-ship transfers, or even by fishing vessels.
Accusations against China
China on Friday denied reports it had been illicitly selling oil products to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, after Trump said he was unhappy that China had allowed oil to reach the isolated nation.
China's denial came a day after it blocked a U.S. effort at the United Nations to blacklist six ships Washington believes had engaged in illicit trade with North Korea, a U.N. Security Council diplomat said.
According to documents seen by Reuters this month, the United States had proposed that the U.N. Security Council blacklist 10 ships for illicit trade with North Korea.
It accused the vessels of "conducting illegal ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels or illegally transporting North Korean coal to other countries for exports."
Three North Korean ships among the 10 were blacklisted, along with a Panama-registered vessel.
Read More Russian Tankers Fueled North Korea Via Transfers at Sea, Sources Say : http://ift.tt/2liEeJu
For only the second time since 9/11, America’s defense secretary didn’t visit U.S. troops in a war zone during December, breaking a long-standing tradition of personally and publicly thanking service members in combat who are separated from their families during the holiday season.
Pentagon boss Jim Mattis, who spent more than four decades in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, made a five-day trip through the Middle East in early December. He stopped in Kuwait and Pakistan — countries adjacent to Iraq and Afghanistan — but didn’t cross the borders to see troops at war in either country. Last week, he visited troops in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at military bases in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, wishing them holiday cheer.
Streak ends at 15 years
It has been 15 years since a U.S. defense chief didn’t travel to a war zone during the festive season. And the only time a holiday visit was skipped since Americans began fighting in Afghanistan was in December 2002. That year, then-Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went to a command post in Qatar that would be used a few months later to coordinate the launch of the Iraq war.
Asked recently why he wasn’t going to Iraq or Afghanistan, Mattis said he didn’t want to discuss his travel. “I carry out my duties to the best of my ability,” said Mattis, who visited Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this year.
Dana White, his chief spokeswoman, said the secretary “wanted the troops to enjoy their holiday uninterrupted. He is keenly aware of the logistical challenges of a senior leader visit, especially in a war zone.”
Boost for morale
Defense secretary trips historically have been aimed at boosting troop morale, letting service members know that senior leaders and the U.S. public recognize their sacrifice. And generals who have chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff have routinely done their own December trips to war zones, taking celebrities on their flights as part of a USO entertainment tour.
It is less of a tradition for U.S. presidents to make December visits to conflict zones. Such trips require much greater logistical and security planning.
President George W. Bush visited Afghanistan twice and Iraq four times, including a secret Thanksgiving voyage to Baghdad in 2003 and a trip to both nations’ capitals in December 2008. President Barack Obama flew to Iraq once as commander in chief and four times to Afghanistan. Only a December 2010 trip came during the holidays.
Pence visits Afghanistan
President Donald Trump hasn’t yet gone to the war front, but Vice President Mike Pence flew to Afghanistan last week.
Less than three months after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan, Rumsfeld flew into Bagram Air Base under extraordinarily high security, telling service members the World Trade Center “is still burning as we sit here, they're still bringing bodies out.”
He said he made the trip to talk face-to-face with “real people who are doing real things that are part of our plan.”
In two subsequent years, Rumsfeld went to Afghanistan and Iraq on Christmas Eve, mingling with troops and donning an apron to serve them holiday dinner. He fielded questions or complaints, too. In one such December troop talk, when a soldier asked Rumsfeld why troops went into battle in Iraq badly equipped, the secretary gave a now-famous response: “You go to the war with the Army you have ... not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
Gates made 5 holiday trips
Rumsfeld’s successor, Robert Gates, maintained the tradition, traveling to the war zone around the holidays during each of his five years in office. His first trip was on Dec. 20, 2006, two days after taking the job.
Like his predecessor, Gates ended his troop talks with the traditional lineup for handshakes, photos and the much-desired commemorative coin. The coins — different for each secretary or military commander and emblazoned with their names or unit designs — are ceremonial gifts that young service members embrace. Many collect them or use them to get free drinks in bars. One game stipulates the service member with the highest-ranking coin wins.
Secretaries Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel and Ash Carter followed suit, trailed by a military aide carrying the coins that they often handed out to hundreds after each event.
“Christmastime's coming up and from our family to your families, thank you,” Carter, Obama's final Pentagon boss, told troops in Afghanistan during a December 2015 visit. “You're not with them, you’re here. We don’t take that for granted.”
Mattis rarely gives public troop talks, in any season. Usually he meets privately with small groups of service members. And he has declined to hand out coins.
Thanks for the lift
While the December visits often have been promoted as a way to thank troops, they have sometimes brought a special Christmas gift.
In 2010, Gates gave four soldiers a ride home from Afghanistan on his military plane. Beyond the faster, more comfortable flight, they got a one-night layover in the luxurious Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi, where Gates stopped to meet local leaders.
“The next time you’re in touch with your families, I hope you’d let them know, whether it’s email or a phone call or whatever, just pass along to them my personal thanks to them for their support to you and their patience with all of us,” he told troops at Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad, Afghanistan, that December.
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The launch of Angelina's Jolie's Khmer language feature "First They Killed My Father" promised to deliver a much needed shot of exposure and enthusiasm into the arm of Cambodia's emergent film industry.
Instead of using the spotlight to springboard their productions though, leading Cambodian filmmakers are fearing a proposed tax enforcement drive could kill the industry entirely.
Cambodia's Ministry of Culture called filmmakers to a meeting in October to discuss the planned imposition of taxes on filmmakers.
The clampdown echoes a broader push by the country's General Department of Taxation to transition from an opaque and dysfunctional system of negotiated tax to a more sustainable government revenue base.
But the idea an industry struggling to stay afloat can shoulder the implementation of full tax compliance is unrealistic, said Motion Picture Association of Cambodia president Chhay Bora.
"If the taxes are to be implemented [now],risk in the film industry will occur," he said. "I think not less than 80 percent of production houses will close down because it is a heavy burden to them.
"All the artists will lose their job," he added. 'The technical team will no longer be in the film industry. Perhaps it will be the same as what happened in the 2000s."
Cambodia's film industry experienced a brief resurgence in the early 2000s fuelled by surging nationalist tensions with Thailand but with little support or direction interest soon fell away.
About seven years into a second boom, filmmakers have now been informed of just under a dozen taxes they are obligated to pay from pre-production to screening that cover monthly production incomes, cast and crew salaries.
They are also in the firing line for taxes on equipment rental, studio rental, full time staff, revenue from screening, annual VAT and withholding tax.
Bora, the director of feature films 3.50, which delved into the deplorable world of the virginity trade, and Lost Loves, the story of a mother fighting for her family's survival under the Khmer Rouge, believes good cinema has a critical role to play in Cambodian society .
"It has influence in promoting culture, literature, and sending other educational messages," he said, adding the art-form also brings national prestige.
In recent years Cambodian films have garnered some notable attention on the world stage with features such as Davy Chou's Diamond Island and Rithy Panh's The Missing Picture gracing Cannes and the Oscars.
Their success has helped inspire a new generation of filmmakers and slowly the quality of productions is lifting.
International distribution remains extremely rare though, confining most Cambodian filmmakers to a handful of theaters across the country that screen films on average just 26 times — or for about two weeks.
Filmmakers and distributors have told VOA cinemas commonly take a cut of 55 percent from these limited ticket sales.
Rampant copyright violation has made web based sales effectively pointless with most filmmakers outright refusing to do it or exhausting every other possible alternative first before risking illegal downloads.
As a result the production of serious feature films is far from a lucrative enterprise with local Cambodian attempts rarely managing to break even. Instead the filmmakers work largely for exposure.
Salaries are low and work scarce forcing freelance crew members to rely on a few jobs a year while supplementing their incomes through menial jobs, such as driving Tuk Tuks.
Huy Yaleng, 38, rode the wave of the first cinema resurgence in the early nineties at the start of his career and felt the pain of having to turn to TV execs as cinemas shut their doors, reopening as pubs and restaurants.
"The industry has just recovered in the past few years, as we all can see that we are not strong enough to make profit yet," he said.
Huy said his latest thriller "Psychotic" had once again failed to turn a profit and vowed to throw in the towel if his upcoming feature "The Witch" brought no return again.
"I am worried. I have put my love into film for my entire life, and now it has problems," Huy said. "I haven't made any profit yet, but in my mind I told myself to continue because I love it and vow to serve this industry till the end. We will try until the end."
The proposal to apply 10 percent salary tax to crew members along with taxes on other subcontractors such as those providing transportation or catering is particularly onerous, Chhay said, because their inability to pay left the burden with the production house.
Worse, such taxes would be backdated to the time each production house registered itself — leaving filmmakers struggling to break even with huge retrospective tax bills.
So he is leading the push for a 10-year tax holiday for the entire industry.
Pok Bora, Acting Director of the Film and Cultural Diffusion Department, said that request had been forwarded to higher authorities in the government but no decision had been made.
"The immediate solution by the Ministry of Economy [and Finance], is to offer a tax break until the end of 2018 for the Withholding Tax on cinema screening," he said.
The government had also created a National Arts Support and Development Fund in June 2016 — only available to registered productions that fulfilled tax obligations.
"Therefore, there is a need to emphasize on tax reforms to make sure that the funds go to the right production," he said.
Chea Sopheap, executive director of the Bophana Audio Visual Resource Center, said solutions to the industry's financial woes hinged on research and clear understanding.
"So the best way is to have a good discussion, good study in order to find a balance between cinemas, film productions and the government," he said.
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Beijing may have turned a corner in its battle against the city's notorious smog, according to Reuters calculations, and environmental consultants say the Chinese government deserves much of the credit for introducing tough anti-pollution measures.
The Chinese capital is set to record its biggest improvement in air quality in at least nine years, with a nearly 20 percent change for the better this year, based on average concentration levels of hazardous breathable particles known as PM2.5.
The dramatic change, which has occurred across North China, is partly because of favorable weather conditions in the past three months but it also shows that the government's strong-arm tactics have had an impact.
The Reuters' estimates show that average levels of the pollutants in the capital have fallen by about 35 percent from 2012 numbers, with nearly half the improvement this year.
"The improvement in air quality is due both to long-term efforts by the government and short-term efforts this winter," said Anders Hove, a Beijing-based energy consultant. "After 2013, the air in summers got much cleaner, but winter had not shown much improvement. This year is the first winter improvement we've seen during this war on pollution."
Government officials this week signaled they were confident they were starting to get on top of the problem.
"The autumn and winter period is the most challenging part of the air pollution campaign. However, with the intensive efforts all departments have made, we believe the challenge is being successfully overcome," Liu Youbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, told reporters Thursday.
Still a long way to go
But environmental experts say that while they are optimistic, it may be too early to celebrate.
"The turning point is here but we cannot rule out the possibility we can turn back," said Ranping Song, developing country climate action manager for the World Resources Institute. "We need to be cautious about challenges and not relax now that there have been improvements. There are lots of issues to be solved."
And while China has scored an initial victory over smog, it still has to reverse public opinion outside China on its air quality.
New York-based travel guidebook publisher Fodor's advised tourists in mid-November in its "No List" for 2018 to shun Beijing until the city's anti-pollution campaign had reduced the "overwhelming smog." Fodor's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Beijing there is certainly plenty of room for further progress as average air quality is still significantly worse than the World Health Organization's recommendations.
And the region still sees bouts of heavy smog. On Friday afternoon, the U.S. embassy's website said Beijing's air was "very unhealthy" and the city issued a pollution alert Thursday.
Embassy monitoring
The Reuters calculations showing the improvement were based on average hourly readings of PM2.5 concentrations at the United States Embassy in Beijing from April 8, 2008 to Dec. 28, 2017.
The data was compiled from figures from the U.S. embassy's air monitoring website, as well as data provided by AirVisual, a Beijing company that analyses air quality data.
The data from the embassy, though not fully verified or validated, is the only set available for PM2.5 levels in the capital over that time period. AirVisual provided the hour-by-hour air pollution data from the embassy for recent months.
PM2.5 levels are the most closely monitored because they account for the majority of air pollutants in China and can be harmful to the body when breathed.
Beijing's air was actually worse in the first nine months of this year than in the same period last year, but PM2.5 concentrations from October to Dec. 28 this year were nearly 60 percent lower than last year, the Reuters figures show.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Huang Wei said that less than half of the improvement is due to favorable weather — particularly stronger northerly winds and low humidity — with the government's policies behind most of the change.
The Chinese government launched a winter smog "battleplan" in October for 28 northern cities that called for strict rules on emissions during the winter heating months when pollution typically worsens.
The authorities also sought to make sure that Beijing wasn't too polluted during October's Communist Party congress, which is only held once every five years, at which Xi Jinping consolidated his power as the nation's leader. Some of the more-polluting businesses in and around the capital were told to shut down for a period before and during the gathering.
The plan for the winter months included switching millions of households and some industrial users to natural gas from coal for their heating and some other needs. There were also mandated cuts in steel production by up to 50 percent in some of the areas surrounding the city.
Contrast with India
Beijing's improving air quality stands in stark contrast to India's capital New Delhi, where pollution has steadily become worse over the past few years, and is now well above Beijing's.
China's improvement, and deterioration in some other countries, means China is now not among the 10 worst countries for pollution in the world anymore, according to at least one measure.
"At the national level, India tops the index rankings, followed by Bangladesh and Thailand," said Richard Hewston, global head of environment and climate change at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, which measures 198 countries for air quality.
Beijing's clean-air campaign hasn't been without its challenges.
The government this year botched the switch from coal to natural gas, leading to recent widespread shortages of gas, soaring liquefied natural gas prices, leaving some residents freezing in their homes and some factories shuttered.
There is also a wider economic cost. Growth in industrial output, especially in northern China, has slowed because of the pollution crackdown, economists say, and the prices of some key commodities, from LNG to copper, have risen.
Some of those who had been benefiting from the poor air quality by selling air filtration products have been taking a hit.
"Overall demand in China is down. ... Some companies have 100 million yuan [$15.35 million] in unsold inventory this year as a result of the improved air quality," said Liam Bates, CEO of Beijing-based Kaiterra, which makes air filters and air quality monitoring products.
"We haven't seen huge impact because we're expanding heavily overseas. While the air in China is getting better, the air in India is much, much worse and we just opened our India office," he said.
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When the 55-year-old woman stood up to speak at a meeting of shoemakers in south India earlier this month, she was seeing her employers for the first time.
She told them about the decades she had spent hunched up in her home, repeatedly pulling a needle through tough leather as she sewed shoe uppers, the meager income she earned, her failing eyesight and the wounds on her hands.
For manufacturers and brands, her story was a revelation.
The meeting brought women workers, manufacturers, charities and brands face-to-face for the first time in a bid to map the role of homeworkers - an "invisible workforce" in a global supply chain making high-end shoes - and improve conditions.
"It was a historical meeting in that sense," said Annie Delaney of the Australian RMIT School of Management, who has documented the condition of homeworkers and attended the meeting a fortnight ago in Vellore in Tamil Nadu.
"Homeworkers described their reality. It was a powerful experience for not just the women but also for the manufacturers and brands who were meeting them for the first time."
There are hundreds of thousands of women from poor, marginalized families who work for cash — stitching, embroidering and weaving at home to put the finishing touches to products that are sold globally, campaigners said.
Most of them are not recognized as formal workers so have no access to social security or fair wages.
Vellore district in Tamil Nadu is the hub of a growing industry in India producing leather footwear for export. In 2016, India exported 236 million pairs of shoes — up from 206 million in 2015, according to the World Footwear Yearbook.
It also has one of the highest concentrations of homeworkers in India - largely women hand-stitching uppers of leather shoes.
Identifying homeworkers
While factories in the area employ people at higher salaries to assemble the shoes, manufacturers find it cheaper to outsource the labor-intensive process of stitching uppers to women who work from home, using middlemen, campaigners said.
The meeting saw Britain-based Pentland Brands - the first company to map homeworkers in its supply chain - share their interventions with other participating brands including UK-based Clarks and the Switzerland-based AstorMueller Group, according to a stakeholder who attended the closed-door meeting.
None of the companies were immediately available to comment.
Pentland, with annual sales of USD $3 billion across 190 countries, owns sports, outdoor and fashion brands including Berghaus and Speedo, and holds a majority stake of JD Sports.
Since 2016, Pentland has worked with nonprofit groups Cividep in India and Homeworkers Worldwide to identify homeworkers making shoes for them and is at present mapping their pay and hours worked to ensure better wages.
No one from Pentland was immediately available to comment on the initiative, which according to their website aims to provide direct employment to homeworkers, better training and to work with suppliers for sustainable improvement of labor conditions.
Cheap labor
Campaigners say homeworkers are paid by the piece and the exact number of hours they work are not tracked.
The women are paid less than $0.14 per pair of shoes, which are sold in Britain for between $60 and $140, according to a 2016 report by Cividep India and British nongovernment organizations Homeworkers Worldwide and Labor Behind the Label.
The report highlighted how the industry relies on homeworkers who earn less than the minimum wage, lack legal rights, and suffer from chronic headaches and body pain.
"Homeworkers have been under the radar for a long time," Delaney said. "A start was made in Vellore to collaborate and ensure they get their dues."
Read More Brands Map 'Invisible' Shoemakers in South India : http://ift.tt/2lgmpKWIt is the first major art museum in New York to close within recent memory. The museum had financial challenges and has faced accusations o...
