Thursday, May 31, 2018
Karen Return to War in Myanmar
In Myanmar's Karen state, more than 2,000 former displaced persons have been uprooted again after government troops violated a 2015 cease-fire agreement by entering territory controlled by the ethnic armed group to construct a military road. More than 60 years of civil war between the Karen National Union and the Myanmar army has left more than 100,000 Karen refugees in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. Steve Sandford talks to those in Karen state's conflict zone affected by renewed fighting.
At 92, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Gets Busy
A sense of pride and optimism has gripped Malaysia following the stunning defeat of a widely despised but powerful government implicated in one of the worlds' greatest corruption scandals. In an exclusive interview with VOA, new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was under no illusions about the amount of work to be done to restore the country's reputation and finances, but also distanced himself from any blame following his previous administration. David Boyle has this report from Kuala Lumpur.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Suspected Militants Attack Afghan Interior Ministry in Kabul
An Afghan policemen is dead after an attack Wednesday on the headquarters of the interior ministry in the capital of Kabul.
The attack began when a car bomb detonated at the security checkpoint outside the ministry's compound. A group of armed attackers then stormed through the gate and made their way onto the huge grounds of the compound, where they were met by security forces who repelled the attack.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said five people were wounded in the attack. No one has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack.
The Taliban has vowed to step up attacks on Kabul as part of its annual spring offensive against the U.S.-backed government.
US: Religious Freedom 'Under Assault' Across Globe
An annual U.S. government report finds religious freedom “under assault” around the world, notably in what the State Department calls countries of concern — Russia, Iran, North Korea and Myanmar. U.S. officials on Tuesday announced Washington will host in July its first-ever ministerial meeting with “like-minded” allies to advance religious freedom. VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching has the story.
Pakistan’s Transgenders Get Their First Old Home
For those born as transgenders in a conservative country like Pakistan, life starts getting tough very early. Seen as misfits in society, they are misunderstood, shirked, and forced to live away from families. While they get little help from the government, for the first time, one of their own has built a senior home for them. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem visited the house in Lahore and brings us this story.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
At 92-years Old, Mahathir Gets Busy
An overwhelming sense of pride and optimism has gripped Malaysia following the stunning defeat of a widely despised but powerful government implicated in one of the worlds’ greatest corruption scandals. In an exclusive interview with VOA, new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made it clear he was under no illusions about the amount of work to be done to restore the country’s reputation and finances. David Boyle has this report from Kuala Lumpur.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Pakistan Bans Ex-Spy Chief From Traveling Abroad
In an unprecedented move, Pakistan’s military has barred an ex-spy chief from leaving the country, after ordering a probe into a book he co-authored with a former counterpart from rival India.
An army statement said Monday the former head of Inter-Services Intelligence, Asad Durrani, was summoned to the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi for an explanation over the recently launched book attributed to him.
“A formal court of inquiry headed by a serving Lt. General has been ordered to probe the matter in detail,” the army announced, and added “competent authority” has been instructed to place Durrani’s name on an Exit Control List.
The list contains names of people facing legal proceedings and probes in Pakistan to prevent them from fleeing the country.
Durrani, who headed ISI from 1990 to 1992, authored the book along with Amarjit Singh Dulat, former head of India’s Research and Analysis Wing, and Indian journalist Aditya Sinha.
The book titled The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace was launched earlier this month in New Delhi where Durrani was also invited, but Indian authorities refused him a travel visa.
The Pakistan army maintained Durrani’s role in the book was being “taken as a violation of Military Code of Conduct applicable on all serving and retired military personnel.”
Durrani has been under fire at home, particularly from ex-military officials for teaming up with the former Indian spy chief to write the book at a time when relations between the two countries are at a low and deadly clashes in the disputed Kashmir region have raised regional military tensions.
The book in question is a series of debates between Durrani and Dulat, along with Sinha, on a wide range of issues, including the Kashmir territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. The authors maintained they have attempted to explore ways to bring the two nuclear-armed countries together to defuse regional tensions.
Pakistani army officials reportedly have objected to some of the comments in the book, dismissing them as baseless and contrary to facts, but they gave no further explanation for Monday’s actions against Durrani.
It is widely perceived in Pakistan that politicians and activists campaigning for a peaceful relationship with India are declared traitors and maligned allegedly at the behest of the military and ISI to discourage peace efforts, but retired as well as serving army officers are not held accountable for undertaking similar activities.
The controversial book discusses ISI's alleged links to Muslim rebels in Indian portion of Kashmir. Durrani has also suggested the Pakistani military leadership at the time covertly assisted the United States in conducting the famous 2011 raid in the city of Abbottabad that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
U.S. leaders maintain the raid was conducted without Pakistan's knowledge and they have found no evidence Pakistan officials were aware of bin Laden's presence in the country.
Bangladesh Kills 86, Arrests 7,000 in Anti-Drugs Campaign
Bangladesh police have killed at least 86 people and arrested about 7,000 since launching a crackdown on drug trafficking this month, officials said on Monday, raising fears from rights activists of a Philippines-style war on drugs.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved the anti-narcotics campaign in early May to tackle the spread of ya ba, as methamphetamine is widely known in Asia, and worth an estimated $3 billion annually, government officials say.
The drug is sourced from Myanmar's northeast and smuggled into neighboring Bangladesh.
"In recent times, drug dealing has increased and we feel that people should be alert and motivated to act against it," Devdas Bhattacharya, a senior police official, told reporters. "The process will continue until it's eradicated totally."
He said police arrested six people on Sunday, including a 12-year-old boy from Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim community, who had carried 3,350 ya ba tablets to the capital, Dhaka.
Bangladesh has said an influx last year of Rohingya fleeing Buddhist-majority Myanmar is partly to blame for soaring methamphetamine use. But many Rohingya say their young people are being pushed into crime because they cannot legally work or, in many cases, get access to aid.
The 86 deaths occurred when police defended themselves in confrontations with suspected drug traffickers, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, a director of the police Rapid Action Battalion.
"It's their legal right to save themselves from the attack," Mufti told Reuters.
Human rights activists are worried the Bangladesh campaign is taking a page from the Philippine drugs war, in which thousands of people have been killed in the past two years.
"The Sheikh Hasina government says it is a protector of human rights, so it should reform its domestic record, set an example, instead of wishing to be compared to an abusive regime," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
Ganguly said the government "should heed concerns and allegations by families and activists that several of these deaths could be extrajudicial killings."
Interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan rejected the rights group's allegations and denied that police had carried out any extra-judicial killings. He said dozens of police had been injured in anti-drug operations.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said the anti-drugs drive was part of a campaign to intimidate it but Khan also rejected that, saying ruling party members would not be spared if found guilty of drug crimes.
"We are determined to save our young generation from the curse of drugs," he said.
New Zealand Begins Mass Cull to Eradicate Cow Disease
New Zealand will slaughter more than 100,000 cows in an effort to eradicate a bacterial disease.
The government and agricultural leaders announced Monday that it will spend over $600 million over the next decade to rid the country of Mycoplasma bovis, which causes udder infections, pneumonia, arthritis and other illnesses. The bacteria is not a threat to humans, but can cause production delays on farms.
"This is a tough call," said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. "But the alternative is to risk the spread of the disease across our national herd."
Mycoplasma bovis has been detected on more than three dozen farms since it was first detected in New Zealand last year, leading to the slaughter of about 26,000 cattle. The country is the world's largest exporter of milk and dairy products.
Myanmar's Anti-Corruption Fight Gathers Steam
Myanmar's anti-corruption commission has in recent weeks sued a senior bureaucrat and begun investigating a disgraced minister, indicating a crackdown on corruption promised by the government is finally happening. Often criticized as weak and unambitious, the commission's stepped-up efforts suggest the Southeast Asian country is joining a regional trend.
On May 25, the Myanmar President’s Office confirmed the resignation of Planning and Finance Minister Kyaw Win, after the Anti-Corruption Commission revealed he was being investigated for bribery. The commission is also pursuing a criminal case against Food and Drug Administration Director-General Than Htut for allegedly demanding more than $11,000 in bribes from a construction company.
Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Aung Kyi told VOA that, at this stage in the probe against Kyaw Win, “I do not have any obligation to reveal what type of corruption he committed.” The commission has announced they delivered the investigation report to the President's Office on May 25, but its findings aren't yet public.
Last week, Myanmar’s upper house of parliament passed amendments to the Anti-Corruption Law that would grant the commission powers to investigate conspicuously wealthy office-holders on their own initiative. Currently, the commission, which was reconstituted in November, must wait for complaints to be submitted to it with “strong evidence.”
Political will
The commission had previously only pursued cases against low-ranking officials, and was noticeably absent in large scandals. One example was the multi-million-dollar misappropriation of development funds by the former chief minister of Magwe Region, who was merely ordered to return a portion of the money last year.
Ko Ye, national coordinator for the Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability, told VOA the recent moves seemed to signal genuine “political will,” which he considered the most important ingredient in any anti-corruption fight.
Marie Cauchois Pegie, advisor to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — which is helping Myanmar meet its commitments under the U.N. Convention against Corruption it ratified in 2012 — told VOA the amendment was clearly a step forward.
However, the inadequate protection of whistle-blowers remains a critical shortcoming. Complainants risk counter-suits in a court system that many see as beholden to powerful interests.
With the amendment, the commission sought a reduction in maximum prison sentences for complainants providing “false” information from five years to six months. However, the upper house only approved a reduction to three years.
The corruption law mandates that “necessary protection” be provided to those supplying evidence. But, as Pegie notes, “implementation is not really foreseen,” and the country lacks a witness protection program.
Going after tigers
At the start of his tenure as finance minister in 2016, Kyaw Win earned a reputation for dishonesty by listing a Ph.D. on his resume from a made-up university. He has since presided over a slowdown in the economy and growing frustration among businessmen and investors, making him a politically expedient target.
Myanmar’s new president Win Myint, at his inauguration in March, declared fighting corruption a top priority. His first public meeting was with the Anti-Corruption Commission, in which he commanded them to be bolder in the face of interference from powerful figures.
Ahead of the 2020 election, the National League for Democracy government is anxious to deflect widespread criticism over the slowing pace of reform.
Myanmar political analyst Yan Myo Thein told VOA pervasive corruption in everyday life could turn an anti-graft drive into a vote winner. Yet, he said this would require the government to keep “going after tigers, not just flies.”
However, Hunter Marston, analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told VOA it was possibly too late for such a drive to pay electoral dividends by 2020. Given Myanmar’s sluggish court system, this is plausible. He suggested a winning strategy might better focus on rural poverty-alleviation measures.
A regional mix
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the region’s mix of one-party states, multi-party democracies and military regimes make it hard to draw clear lines between the aims or approaches of governments conducting anti-graft drives.
In Vietnam, a crackdown since 2016 has seen ex members of the Communist Party Politburo and Central Committee sentenced, and dozens tried in single cases.
Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, told VOA this has addressed a genuine spiraling of graft over the previous ten years, mostly linked to giant state-owned enterprises and associated banks.
However, he said a desire by the Communist Party to reassert control of the state has been a key impetus, and he downplayed the role of public opinion. Any recent popular dividend, he said, may have been “cancelled out by a crackdown on free expression and Internet communication.”
Aung Tun, a Myanmar independent researcher on corruption, said this authoritarianism made Vietnam an inappropriate model. He suggested Indonesia, a multi-party democracy with a strongly empowered anti-corruption commission and robust civil society, could point the way ahead.
However, Indonesia’s commission has pursued high-level targets since 2003, while corruption remains endemic. Its example suggests that clean government requires a degree of societal change that could take a generation, or more.
Read More Myanmar's Anti-Corruption Fight Gathers Steam : https://ift.tt/2sfwdbvPakistan, Afghanistan Renew Resolve To Jointly Fight Terrorism
A high-level Afghan delegation visited neighboring Pakistan Sunday and discussed security as well as counterterrorism cooperation.
The national security adviser of Afghanistan, Haneef Atmar, led a team of top security officials, including the country’s interior minister and the intelligence agency chief, in meetings with Pakistani civilian and military leaders.
The visitors met with Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua before holding crucial talks with the country's military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
The Pakistan army's media wing in a statement issued after the meeting said the talks focused on the operationalization of the recently concluded Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Stability or APAPPS.
The two sides agreed to undertake measures that would assist Pakistan and Afghanistan in reducing violence at the hands of terrorists, it added.
“We must begin with the trust that neither covets an inch of the others territory nor is letting its land being used against the other. Suspicions will only fuel negativity and facilitate detractors,” the statement quoted General Bajwa as telling the Afghan delegation.
Mutual allegations of supporting militant attacks against each other have long dogged relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The army statement quoted the head of the Afghan delegation as saying that his country has "very positive expectations" from Pakistan and with mutual help, “we can allay each other’s concerns and apply our energies to bring about enduring peace and stability.”
Gen. Bajwa also accepted an invitation the Afghan delegation extended on behalf of President Ashraf Ghani to visit Kabul, the statement noted but mentioned no dates.
Frequent high-level interactions between the two countries in recent weeks, say officials in both the countries, have helped ease mutual tensions.
Afghan and American officials allege the Taliban insurgency uses sanctuaries on Pakistani soil for attacks against local and U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan.
Islamabad rejects the charges and in turn maintains anti-state militants and loyalists of Islamic State sheltering in "ungoverned spaces" on the Afghan side of the border plot terrorist attacks against Pakistan from there.
The nearly 2,600 kilometer border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is largely porous, though Pakistani officials say recently security has been beefed up and a robust fence is being constructed to deter terrorist infiltration in either direction.
Wife of Korean Air Chief Questioned Over Alleged Assaults
The wife of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho was summoned by South Korean police for questioning about allegations that she abused and assaulted employees.
Lee Myung-hee apologized to reporters "for causing trouble" as she entered a Seoul police office Monday.
Lee is accused of cursing and shoving construction workers in 2014 at a hotel owned by Hanjin Group, the parent company of Korean Air. She is also suspected of physically and verbally assaulting workers at her Seoul residence, and habitually abusing company employees, security guards and housekeepers.
The allegations include kicking, slapping and even throwing scissors at employees.
The Cho family has been under scrutiny ever since the infamous 2014 "nut rage" case involving eldest daughter Cho Hyun-ah, who threw a violent temper tantrum on a Korean Air jetliner over being served macadamia nuts in a bag rather than a bowl. The youngest daughter, Cho Hyun-min, has been accused of throwing a drink of water during a business meeting.
The family is also facing probes into allegations of smuggling, tax evasion and immigration law violations.
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Trump Holds Washington in Suspense Over North Korean Summit
Suspense is high in Washington as to whether a planned nuclear summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place next month. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Trump’s messaging has shifted day-to-day, from canceling the historic encounter to suggesting behind-the-scenes movement to get it back on track.
Top Afghan Security Officials Visit Pakistan for Crucial Talks
A high-level Afghan delegation began a daylong official visit to neighboring Pakistan Sunday to discuss bilateral matters, border management and regional security.
Afghan National Security Adviser Haneef Atmar is leading a team of top security officials, including the country’s interior minister and heads of the army and the intelligence agency.
The visitors went into discussions with Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua after landing in Islamabad.
Janjua’s office said in a brief statement both sides reiterated their resolve to work jointly on issues related to bilateral ties and security.
The Afghan delegation is also scheduled to hold a meeting with Pakistan’s military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Islamabad and Kabul earlier this month operationalized a new bilateral engagement framework named Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) for “eliminating terrorism and achieving peace, stability, prosperity and development of the people of the two countries.”
Atamar tweeted Sunday that his delegation planned to hold detailed discussions on the implementation of APAPPS.
Mutual allegations of supporting militant attacks against each other have long dogged relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
However, the two sides have acknowledged that recent high-level contacts between their civilian and security officials are easing mutual tensions.
Suicide Bomber Strikes Afghanistan's Helmand Province
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near an army base in southern Afghanistan early Sunday, causing many casualties.
Afghan officials said the attack in Nad Ali district of Helmand province killed at least two Afghan soldiers and wounded several others. But a security official told VOA on condition of anonymity eight Afghan soldiers were killed and nearly a dozen more injured.
The Taliban took responsibility for carrying out the bombing. An insurgent spokesman claimed the powerful blast “killed and wounded” more than 100 Afghan security personnel, though Taliban casualty tolls are often inflated.
Helmand is a major poppy-producing region where most of the districts are controlled or contested by the Taliban.
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Drought Grips Two-Thirds of War-Hit Afghanistan
The United Nations says the ongoing drought has gripped two-thirds of conflict-hit Afghanistan’s 34 provinces has put more than 2 million people at risk of becoming severely food insecure.
Water points and fountains across the country have dried up, and the lack of rain and snow melt has caused rivers to run low or dry up completely, according to a weekly report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA.
The lack of water has prompted farmers to delay planting crops and reduce their field sizes in an effort to minimize losses. U.N. officials said in many cases there was nothing formers could do but watch the seeds dry out.
The humanitarian agency cautioned that the drought already has “negatively and irreversibly” affected the winter agricultural season of 2017/2018, and it also is expected to have a negative impact on the 2018 spring and summer agricultural season. It added that the last harvest must be considered completely lost.
The agency already has documented the first migration movements of more than 21,000 people since the beginning of May to urban centers due to drought and depleted food stocks of families.
"Some 1.5 million goats and sheep in the northeastern region are struggling to find food, and more than 600 out of nearly 1,000 villages in the province are suffering from the lack of water," OCHA said in a statement.
OCHA said humanitarian partners urgently need $115 million to respond to the needs of the 1.4 million most vulnerable people hit by the drought.
The agency said the intensified conflict across many parts of Afghanistan is exacerbating the effects of the drought and has limited the communities’ access to markets.
The Taliban insurgency, which controls or contests nearly, half of the Afghan territory, has intensified attacks across the country and overrun new districts.
Humanitarian workers cite security concerns due to active fighting in insurgent-controlled areas for a lack of access to communities in need in these areas.
A U.S. government oversight agency, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in its latest quarterly report has noted that more than 11 million Afghans are living in areas that are contested or under control of Taliban-led armed groups.
Bangladesh Detains 100 Suspects in Anti-Drug Crackdown
Security officials in Bangladesh said they raided an area in the capital on Saturday and detained at least 100 suspects as part of a nationwide anti-drug crackdown, amid accusations that extrajudicial killings have taken place during the drive.
Over 60 suspected drug peddlers have been killed and over 3,000 suspects detained across Bangladesh in the crackdown, according to tallies by officials and local media. The campaign was launched earlier this month on orders by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Officials and local media have said the deaths occurred in shootouts between security officials and suspects or during raids, but rights groups have called the killings extrajudicial. The country's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has said many of its leaders and activists have been the target of the security agencies in the name of curbing the illegal drug trade. Some families have told local media that plainclothes men picked up some suspects and that they did not return alive.
Authorities have denied the allegations, saying they're following a policy of zero tolerance in the fight against drugs. The government has said many of the suspects have criminal charges against them.
Mufti Mahmud Khan, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion, said security officials cordoned off part of Dhaka's Mohammedpur area on Saturday and detained at least 100 suspects. The area, which is locally called Geneva Camp, is a crammed slum and is known as one of the top spots for the selling of illegal drugs in Dhaka.
Bangladesh's leading English-language Daily Star newspaper reported Saturday that a total of 63 people had been killed since the anti-drug drive began on May 4. Other leading newspapers reported that some 3,000 people had been detained.
The crackdown is expected to continue for a few more weeks.
Domestic and global human rights groups have decried the campaign for the alleged extrajudicial killings.
Obaidul Quader, a close aide to Hasina and the ruling party's general secretary, said Saturday that the suspects have died in "shootouts," and that the killings should not be termed as extrajudicial.
New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized the authorities for the deaths. "The government has a duty to ensure law and order, but must order its forces to do so in a rights respecting manner," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for the group, said in an email Saturday.
"The authorities should order an impartial and time-bound inquiry into these killings during the crackdown on drug dealers and prosecute any police or (Rapid Action Battalion) member if they violated domestic and international laws," she said.
The anti-drug campaign began amid a concern in Bangladesh about the spread of "yaba" pills, especially among youths. Bangladesh does not produce the drug, which is made from caffeine and methamphetamine, and has blamed Myanmar for its production and the smuggling of it into the country through a porous border.
Australian Archbishop Guilty of Concealing Child Abuse
There are calls for the resignation of a Roman Catholic archbishop who was found guilty by an Australian court of covering up child sexual abuse. Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson is the most senior Catholic figure to be convicted of this type of offence anywhere in the world.
Wilson was accused of covering up abuse by a pedophile priest in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales in the 1970s.
The Archbishop, who held a junior position in the church at the time, faces up to two years in prison. He will be sentenced in June.
Wilson’s lawyers said he had no knowledge of offences committed against altar boys by a fellow member of the clergy, who was later convicted of sexual abuse and died in prison in 2006.
But a magistrate in the port city of Newcastle, north of Sydney, said the evidence against Archbishop Wilson was “truthful and reliable.” Witnesses told the court how they had reported the abuse to Wilson, who failed to act.
Magistrate Robert Stone said the archbishop knew that back in 1976 he was hearing a credible allegation of molestation but did nothing to protect the children but wanted only to protect the Roman Catholic Church and its reputation.
Archbishop Wilson has stepped aside from his official duties but has not resigned his position.
Father Frank Brennan, the head if Catholic Social Services Australia, believes Pope Francis expects him to quit.
“The Pope's attitude has clearly hardened, as it should have," Brennan said. And so I would think that the mind of Pope Francis at this stage would be, that if there be a conviction of a bishop in relation of a failure to disclose abuse in circumstances where the state thought that was criminal activity, then I would think the mind of the Pope would be that that does not measure up in church terms either and that therefore it would be impossible for someone to remain in the job as a bishop, as a leader of the flock.”
Child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church was part of the focus of a five-year Royal Commission into Australian institutions. The inquiry found that criminality by pedophile priests was widespread.
The church has come under criticism worldwide for failing to report or discipline priests accused of child abuse. Earlier this month all 34 bishops of Chile's episcopal conference, in Rome for a crisis meeting with Pope Francis on the clerical sex abuse scandal in their country, offered to resign en masse.
Catholicism is Australia’s dominant faith. About a quarter of Australians identify as Catholics, although that proportion is gradually falling.
South Korean President Met N. Korea's Kim Jong Un Saturday
South Korean President Moon Jae-in met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday to discuss Kim's possible upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, the South said, the second inter-Korean summit in as many months.
Moon and Kim met just north of the heavily militarized border in the afternoon to exchange views to pave way for a summit between North Korea and the United States, South Korea's presidential office said.
Moon will announce the outcome of his two-hour meeting with Kim on Sunday morning, officials aid.
India: Soldiers Kill 4 Militants Near Pakistan Border
At least four suspected militants were killed in a gunbattle with government troops Saturday after crossing into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the disputed territory, the Indian military said.
Fighting began early Saturday when soldiers intercepted heavily armed insurgents along the highly militarized de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, said Col. Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesman.
Kalia said the operations were still ongoing in the area. He said soldiers suffered no casualties.
There was no independent confirmation of the gunbattle, which occurred in the remote, mountainous and forested northwestern Tangdhar sector.
No rebel group fighting against Indian rule since 1989 has immediately issued any statement about the incident.
Rebel groups demand that Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, which Pakistan denies.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the region, and most people support the rebels’ cause against Indian rule while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.
Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Senior Taliban Commander Killed in Eastern Afghanistan
A senior Afghan Taliban commander — who served as a shadow governor for more than a dozen districts in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province — has been killed by Afghan security forces, provincial officials told VOA.
Attaullah Khogyanai, provincial spokesperson for eastern Nangarhar province, told VOA that Gul Mohammad Sangari, was killed Thursday in Nangarhar's Surkhrod district during a night raid by the Afghan security forces.
Khogyanai said Sangari was in the Surkhrod district to plan terror attacks in the area. He was with two other militants and wanted to escape when Afghan forces engaged him.
The other two militants have been taken into custody and are under investigation.
Taliban have not yet reacted to the killing of Sangari.
Surkhrod is located close to Nangarhar's capital city, Jalalabad. The district is considered strategic because of its proximity to the capital city. The security situation of the district has deteriorated in recent months.
The capital city has witnessed a spike in terror attacks in recent weeks.
Last week, a series of explosions in and around a cricket stadium inside the city killed at least eight civilians and wounded more than 40 others.
The Taliban denied responsibility for the attack.
Trump Balks at North Korea's Rhetoric, but It Has Used Worse
When North Korea slammed U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser John Bolton, its language was very blunt and impolite. But it was milder than its typical crude and inflammatory insults unleashed on other top U.S. and South Korean officials.
The North likely had just tried to strengthen its position in negotiations on the amount of concessions it could wrest from the United States in return for giving up its nuclear program.
But its calling Pence a "political dummy" was still strong enough for President Donald Trump to cite North Korea's hostility in scrapping his planned June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a time when the president faced mounting pessimism at home about Kim's commitment to disarming.
Apparently startled at Trump's abrupt move, a senior North Korean official who touched off his country's recent rhetorical attacks on Washington issued an unusually conciliatory statement Friday saying the North still wants to engage with the United States.
A look at how North Korea's statements have evolved over the past nine days, from harsh criticism of U.S. officials and threats to cancel the summit to a near apology:
Bolton criticism
After canceling a high-level dialogue with South Korea, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan on May 16 issued a statement threatening to do the same with the Kim-Trump talks if the United States continues to "drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment."
Kim Kye Gwan categorically took issue with the remarks by Bolton that North Korea should follow the "Libyan model," which many experts say meant the North must take complete nuclear disarmament steps before getting major sanctions relief or other outside benefits.
"We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance toward him," Kim Kye Gwan was quoted as saying in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
Kim Kye Gwan's wording was weaker than a previous salvo North Korea fired off about the hawkish U.S. official.
In 2003, North Korea's state media called Bolton "human scum" after he described then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un, as a "tyrannical dictator." In 2007, when Bolton raised strong skepticism about North Korea's previous disarmament pledges, state media said he "talked trash" and that he is "ill-famed for speaking ill of the countries standing for progress and peace."
Pence criticism
This directly prompted Trump to say that it is "inappropriate" to go ahead with the summit because of the "tremendous anger and open hostility" displayed in the North's "most recent statement."
In remarks carried by state media on Thursday, Choe Son Hui, another North Korean vice foreign minister, called Pence a "political dummy" over his comments during a Fox News interview that again compared North Korea with Libya.
"As a person involved in the U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice president," Choe said. "In case the U.S. offends against our goodwill and clings to unlawful and outrageous acts, I will put forward a suggestion to our supreme leadership for reconsidering the [North]-U.S. summit."
Choe's "political dummy" comment was certain to anger the United States. But again, in the past, North Korea attacked others including Trump using worse language.
At the height of nuclear tensions between the countries last year, Kim Jong Un personally called Trump "the mentally deranged U.S. dotard" after Trump portrayed him as "the Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission." His propaganda machine called Trump a "war maniac" and "mad man."
North Korea's state media called former President Barack Obama a "monkey," and his secretary of state, John Kerry, a wolf with a "hideous lantern jaw." They called South Korea's former conservative presidents Park Geun-hye a "prostitute" and Lee Myung-bak a "rat."
Letter of apology
About eight hours after Trump publicly called off the summit, Kim Kye Gwan issued a lengthy statement saying North Korea is still willing to sit down with the United States "at any time, in any format."
"The first meeting would not solve all, but solving even one at a time in a phased way would make the relations get better rather than making them get worse. The U.S. should ponder over it," Kim Kye Gwan said.
Kim Kye Gwan called Trump's decision "very regrettable" but his statement still apparently focused on stressing that Trump misunderstood the North's true intentions. Experts say it was obvious the North had no plans to walk away from the U.S. summit from the beginning.
It was also highly unusual for the North to make such a quick response to any major policy announcements by Washington and Seoul, and especially one that is so conciliatory in tone.
"What appears to be close to an apology letter was contained in Kim Kye Gwan's statement," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University.
Choi Kang, vice president of Seoul's Asan Institute for Policy Studies. said he believes Trump used the Pence criticism as a way to pull out of the summit because his government wasn't sure if North Korea would disarm in a manner that he wants.
Read More Trump Balks at North Korea's Rhetoric, but It Has Used Worse : https://ift.tt/2INcgiJTrump Optimistic About N. Korea's Response to Canceled Meeting
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday morning North Korea's response to his calling off a June summit with leader Kim Jong Un is “warm” and “productive.”
“Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea,” Trump said in a Twitter post Friday morning. “We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time [and talent] will tell!”
North Korea said Friday it is still willing to sit for talks with the United States “at any time, [in] any format.”
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, a longtime nuclear negotiator and senior diplomat, said in a statement carried by state media that the North is “willing to give the U.S. time and opportunities” to reconsider talks.
What prompted cancellation
Trump canceled the planned summit with Kim on Thursday morning, blaming recent threatening statements by Pyongyang to pull out of the summit over what it saw as confrontational remarks by U.S. officials.
The North Korean diplomat said Pyongyang's recent criticisms had been a reaction to unbridled American rhetoric, and that the current antagonism showed "the urgent necessity" for the summit.
"We have inwardly highly appreciated President Trump for having made the bold decision, which any other U.S. presidents dared not, and made efforts for such a crucial event as the summit," Kim Kye Gwan statement said.
"We even inwardly hoped that what is called 'Trump formula' would help clear both sides of their worries and comply with the requirements of our side and would be a wise way of substantial effect for settling the issue,” he said, without elaborating.
In a letter released by the White House on Thursday, Trump said “I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate at this time to have this long-planned meeting."
The White House said Trump dictated the letter himself.
According to a senior administration officials other factors also led the president to cancel the summit, including poor communication, broken promises and the North Korean's failure to show up for a preparatory meeting in Singapore.
“We simply couldn’t get them to pick up the phone,” a White House senior official told reporters on Thursday.
The last straw, according to the White House, was an insult of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence earlier Thursday in a statement by North Korea’s vice foreign minister, Choe Son Hui. She called Pence a “political dummy” and warned — in rhetoric typical of that uttered by Pyongyang — of a nuclear confrontation. In his letter, Trump responded in kind, referencing U.S. nuclear capabilities “so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”
Pentagon ready
The Pentagon said it is poised for any "provocative actions" by Pyongyang.
"We are in a boxer stance, we are ready to respond," Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the U.S. military's Joint Staff, told reporters on Thursday.
Trump emphasized in his on-camera remarks that sanctions and “the maximum pressure campaign will continue” to be applied on North Korea while expressing hope Pyongyang’s leadership would decide to join the community of nations.
Trump’s letter caught allies by surprise. The president did not call South Korean President Moon Jae-in or Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to inform them of it, White House officials confirmed.
Moon hastily convened a middle-of-the-night meeting of his top security officials before expressing “deep regret” over the summit’s cancelation, urging direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang and adding that denuclearization of the Korean peninsula should not be delayed.
North Korea had threatened to pull out of the unprecedented summit after U.S. officials advocated a so-called Libya model approach, which involved that African country’s total nuclear dismantlement before any concessions were granted.
Read More Trump Optimistic About N. Korea's Response to Canceled Meeting : https://ift.tt/2IKbTFsTaiwan Scrambles Jets as Chinese Bombers Buzz Island
Taiwan’s air force scrambled aircraft Friday as Chinese bombers flew around the self-ruled island, just a few hours after Taiwan vowed not to be cowed having lost another diplomatic ally amid growing Chinese pressure.
Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue and a potential dangerous military flashpoint. China claims the island as its sacred territory and has vowed not to allow any attempts at what it views as Taiwan separatism.
Tension between democratic Taiwan and its big neighbor has increased in recent months, with China suspicious the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen wants to push for the island’s formal independence.
Tsai, who took offer in 2016, says she wants to maintain the status quo, but will protect Taiwan’s security and not be bullied by Beijing.
Latest flight
In the latest flight by Chinese aircraft around Taiwan, two H-6 bombers passed through the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines in the early hours of Friday and then rounded Taiwan via Japan’s Miyako Strait, to Taiwan’s northeast, the island’s defense ministry said.
Taiwan aircraft accompanied and monitored the Chinese bombers throughout, the ministry said, describing the Chinese aircraft as being on a long-range training mission.
The people of Taiwan should not be alarmed as the air force was well able to monitor the Chinese aircraft as they approach and during their missions and can ensure Taiwan’s security, the ministry added.
There was no immediate word from China. It has said these missions, which have become increasingly frequent, are to send a warning to Taiwan not to engage in separatist activity.
Lost diplomatic ally
On Thursday, Taiwan lost its second diplomatic ally in less than a month when Burkina Faso said it had cut ties with the island, following intense Chinese pressure on African countries to break with what it regards as a wayward province.
Tsai said Taiwan would not engage in “dollar diplomacy” and denounced Beijing’s methods, saying Taiwan and its partners in the international community would not cower to China’s pressure.
Taiwan has only one diplomatic ally left in Africa, the tiny kingdom of Swaziland, and formal relations with 18 countries worldwide, many of them poor countries in Central America and the Pacific like Belize and Nauru.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Investigators: Missile That Downed Flight MH17 Belonged to Russian Brigade
International investigators looking into the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 have identified the Russian military brigade they believe owned the missile that was used to bring down the airliner. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
Trump Calls Off June 12 Summit With North Korea
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President Donald Trump has canceled his planned June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump sent a letter to Kim informing him of his decision. Read More Trump Calls Off June 12 Summit With North Korea : https://ift.tt/2kqg12JPakistani Mob Destroys Ahmadi Mosque
Sunni extremists have demolished a mosque belonging to Pakistan’s minority Ahmadi sect in the eastern city of Sialkot, the latest mob attack on minorities in the country.
No one was inside the Ahmadiya Mosque and there were no casualties in the pre-dawn assault Thursday. The mosque had been shut years ago by authorities to avoid violence.
A video of the attack surfaced on social media, showing a mob demolishing the mosque, which is said to have been visited by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the Ahmadi faith in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century. His followers believe he was a prophet.
Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974.
Ahmadis make a tiny minority of the Muslim-majority Pakistan and are often targeted by Sunni militants who consider them heretics.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Officials: New Top US Commander for Afghanistan Being Considered
Lieutenant General Scott Miller is the expected nominee to command U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, a U.S. official with knowledge of the process told VOA.
U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan are currently being commanded by U.S. General John Nicholson. He has served as commander since March 2016.
Miller's consideration must be finalized by a White House nomination, followed by confirmation by the Senate.
The general currently leads the military's secretive Joint Special Operations Command.
If nominated and confirmed, Miller will be the ninth American general in 17 years to oversee the Afghanistan war. The Pentagon declined to confirm Miller's selection.
"We have nothing to announce at this time," Pentagon spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway told VOA.
Miller, a decorated special operations soldier, earned a Bronze Star for his service in Somalia and has also served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Miller's selection as the expected nominee.
VOA's Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
Trump: We'll Know Fate of N. Korea Summit by Next Week
President Donald Trump says the U.S. will know by next week whether his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be held on June 12 in Singapore as scheduled.
"It could very well be June 12th," Trump said Wednesday. "If we go, it'll be a great thing for North Korea."
North Korea has indicated it might call off the meeting due to disagreements on conditions by the United States for unilateral denuclearization.
Trump on Tuesday, during a meeting with visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said the summit might not be held next month.
"If it doesn't happen, maybe it will happen later," Trump said.
The president said, "There are certain conditions that we want. I think we will get those conditions."
Asked about the conditions, Trump replied, "I'd rather not say." But he stated that the denuclearization of North Korea "must take place."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has twice met with Kim in Pyongyang in preparation for the Singapore summit, said Wednesday, "Our posture will not change until we see credible steps taken toward the complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."
Report: Women Tea Workers in India Live in 'Appalling' Conditions
Women working on tea plantations in northeast India earn a "pitiful" $2 a day and live in "appalling" conditions with almost no toilets, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The investigation by the British charity Traidcraft Exchange found workers in the tea-growing state of Assam were paid 137 rupees ($2) a day, far below the minimum wage of 250 rupees. More than half are women.
Assam is the largest producer of tea in India and its estates supply top brands including Britain's Twinings and Tetley. Both are working to improve conditions for workers, the report said.
"The women who pick the tea we drink live in appalling conditions and are paid pitifully low wages by tea estates in Assam," said Fiona Gooch, a policy adviser for Traidcraft Exchange.
Workers live in decrepit houses with leaky roofs. They have little or no access to sanitation facilities and most have to defecate in the bushes outside, the report said. A spokeswoman said Twinings was "fully committed to ethical
sourcing."
"Our Sourced with Care program directly addresses the needs and improve the lives of communities on the ground, from access to sanitation to children's rights," she said in a statement.
A spokesman for Tata Global Beverages, which owns Tetley, said it was committed to sustainable sourcing of all the tea that it sells globally by 2020, and that it was working to improve the lives of tea-producing communities across Assam.
Stephen Ekka of PAJHRA, an Assam-based charity fighting for tea workers' rights, urged global brands to be more transparent about how they source their tea.
"In the global supply chain of tea business, the condition of workers is not taken into consideration," Ekka told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Assam's tea industry has faced accusations in the past of exploitative work conditions, leading to labor disputes that have forced some plantations to shut.
Estate owners often cite the benefits they are legally required to provide, which include housing, toilets, health facilities and subsidized food, to justify low wages.
But workers said repeated requests for repairs and better food supplies - often insufficient, stale or contaminated — were largely ignored.
"We register complaints to the management, they note it down, but that remains in the register, they give no importance," the report quotes an unnamed woman worker as saying.
Others complained the lack of medicines and medical staff within plantations forced them to opt for expensive hospitals outside.
Nick Kightley of the British-based Ethical Trading Initiative said authorities must urgently meet the workers' basic needs.
"Without that, workers may be forced into excessive overtime or bonded labor ... This is simply unacceptable," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Assam's labor and employment minister agreed with the report's findings, promising to increase wages and improve living conditions to "some level of respectability."
"End of May, we are having a high level meeting to formulate new laws for the welfare of the tea workers," Pallab Lochan Das told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Reports: Russian FM Lavrov Plans to Visit North Korea
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov plans to visit North Korea, Russian news agencies quoted a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman as saying on Wednesday.
Dates for the trip have yet to be agreed, she said. Earlier, the RBC news portal wrote that Lavrov would travel to North Korea on May 31.
That would mean him visiting before a proposed summit in Singapore between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On Tuesday, Trump cast doubt on plans for that meeting, which has been scheduled for June 12.
Russia is considered an ally of North Korea, but has supported United Nations sanctions against it over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Lavrov accepted an invitation to visit North Korea last month.
Hindu Hardliners Criticize Archbishop for Talking Politics
India's governing Hindu nationalists on Wednesday criticized the archbishop of New Delhi for saying that a turbulent political atmosphere is posing a threat to the country's democratic principles.
The president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah, accused the archbishop of trying to divide people on the basis of religion.
"I personally believe that no one should say things like this, for a religious person to make such comments cannot be accepted and appreciated," Shah said.
A top party lawmaker, Subramanian Swamy, demanded the scrapping of diplomatic ties with the Vatican because of the archbishop's remarks.
Archbishop Anil Couto, in a May 8 letter sent to New Delhi's Catholic churches, urged members to pray for democracy and for marginalized people ahead of national elections next year.
He included a prayer to be read during Masses that asked "May the ethos of true democracy envelope our elections with dignity."
The prayer also called for marginalized people to be "brought into the mainstream of nation-building."
Minorities have complained of rising attacks by Hindu hardliners against them since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
Christians make up just 2 percent of India's population, which is overwhelmingly Hindu but has a sizable Muslim minority. Church leaders normally avoid getting too deeply involved in politics.
The archbishop's letter angered Hindu nationalists as it came at a time when Modi and his party are preparing for next year's national polls.
K.J. Alphons, India's tourism minister and a BJP leader, said the archbishop's comments were unfair and that "godmen" should stay away from politics.
The archbishop was, however, supported by opposition politicians.
Mamta Banerjee, the top elected official in West Bengal state and a member of the All India Trinamool Congress party, said, "I think whatever he has said was correct. It is a fact."
Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), defended the archbishop, saying the only protection for minorities is the constitution's promise of equality.
Tensions Soar Between India, Pakistan Along Kashmir Frontier
Tensions soared Wednesday along the volatile frontier between India and Pakistan in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, as rival soldiers shelled dozens of villages and border posts for a sixth straight day.
A total of six civilians and a soldier were killed on the two sides, officials said, in escalating violence in the disputed region that both countries blame the other for initiating.
Indian police said Pakistani soldiers continued targeting dozens of Indian border posts and villages with mortars and automatic gunfire in the Jammu region. At least five civilians were killed and 30 others injured on the Indian side, said a top police officer, S.D. Singh.
In Pakistan, two security officials said Pakistani and Indian troops exchanged fire near Sialkot city in eastern Punjab province. They said the two sides had traded fire over the past 48 hours, killing a civilian and a soldier.
The officials said several people were also wounded, including three border guards. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
As in the past, each country accused the other of initiating the latest border skirmishes and violating a 2003 cease-fire agreement.
Wednesday's fighting follows days of confrontations that left four civilians on each side and two Indian soldiers dead.
The fighting has sent tens of thousands of villagers fleeing from their homes in dozens of affected villages along the border to government buildings converted into temporary shelters or to the houses of friends and relatives living in safer places.
Dozens of schools in villages along the frontier have been closed and authorities advised residents to stay indoors as shells and bullets rained down. Some damage to houses was also reported on the Indian side.
Pakistan says Indian forces have carried out more than 1,050 cease-fire violations this year, resulting in the deaths of 28 civilians and injuries to 117 others.
India says 25 civilians and 18 government troops have been killed this year in over 800 cease-fire violations initiated by Pakistan. They say dozens have been injured and scores of cattle have perished.
This year, soldiers from the two nations have engaged in fierce border skirmishes along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, as well as a lower-altitude 200-kilometer (125-mile) boundary separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab, where the latest fighting occurred.
India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, which both claim. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the region.
The fighting has become a predictable cycle of violence as the region convulses with decades-old animosities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, where rebel groups demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training anti-India rebels and also helping them by providing gunfire as cover for incursions into the Indian side.
Pakistan denies this, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.
Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.
Philippines Rejects Australian Nun's Appeal, Orders Her to Leave
The Philippine immigration bureau has turned down an Australian nun's appeal for the reversal of an order revoking her missionary visa after the president complained about her joining opposition rallies and ordered her to leave the country.
Immigration chief Jaime Morente said Wednesday that his bureau has sent a letter to Sister Patricia Fox's lawyer that advised her of steps needed for her to comply with the order to leave the Philippines in 30 days. There was no immediate response from Fox.
"This order is final and executory. We will not entertain any further motion for reconsideration," Morente said in a statement.
President Rodrigo Duterte has lashed out at his critics, especially those who have raised questions about his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs. His administration barred a critical Italian politician, Giacomo Filibeck, from entering the country last month.
The 71-year-old Fox is a coordinator of a Roman Catholic order for nuns called Notre Dame de Sion and has been working for the Filipino poor for almost 30 years. She has joined rallies against Duterte and his government, which has been criticized for waging a brutal war on illegal drugs that left thousands of mostly urban poor suspects dead and for stifling dissent.
Fox's visa was officially revoked because she worked outside a village in suburban Quezon city in metropolitan Manila where she had said she would confine her work. Her actions violated the terms of her missionary visa, Immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval said.
Fox is facing a separate complaint for engaging in political activities, Sandoval said, adding that if she is found guilty, she could face deportation and be included in a blacklist that would prohibit her from entering the Philippines even as a tourist.
Fox said last month she did not regret getting involved in social issues and was grateful for people who gave her support.
"This isn't just my fight. It's like an attack ... on the whole church, the role of the church, the role of foreign missionaries, the role of human rights workers," Fox told reporters.
US Issues Alert in China 'Abnormal Sensations of Sound'
The U.S. State Department issued a health alert Wednesday for its citizens in China in response to what it said was a recent report of a U.S. government employee in Guangzhou experiencing "subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure."
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said the employee was sent back to the United States for evaluation and diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury.
Wednesday's alert said the U.S. government does not know the cause of the reported symptoms and has not received similar reports in other parts of China, but that it is taking the report seriously.
It advised anyone who experiences "unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena accompanied by unusual sounds or piercing noises" to not seek out the source, but instead to move to a location where they are not present.
Last year in Cuba, the United States reported that some of its personnel and family members experience a range of symptoms, often after hearing an unusual sound, but the cause is still unknown.
Abortion Bans Around the World
The focus this week of a referendum in Ireland and a supreme court challenge in South Korea, abortion is still banned in some 20 countries worldwide, while others have highly restrictive laws in place.
On Thursday in South Korea the supreme court will consider repealing a law where abortion is illegal except for instances of rape, incest and when the mother's health is at risk.
And in Ireland on Friday voters will decide in a referendum on whether to repeal their own law, which outlaws abortion unless there is a real and substantial risk to the mother's life.
Here is a snapshot of the global situation on abortion in countries where the laws are the most restrictive.
- Total ban -
Predominantly Catholic Malta is the only European Union country to totally ban abortion, imposing jail terms of between 18 months and three years if the law is broken.
Abortion is also banned in Andorra, the Vatican and San Marino, which are in Europe but not the EU.
Globally there are total bans in Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Laos, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Philippines, Palau, Senegal and Suriname.
In El Salvador the internationally criticized criminalization of those found to have terminated pregnancies has led to women being jailed, some serving terms of up to 30 years.
- Restricted -
Many countries allow abortions in cases where the mother's life is deemed to be in danger.
A partial list includes: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Myanmar, Oman, Paraguay, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Uganda, Venezuela, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen.
Last September Chile ended its strict ban, which had been in force for decades, when then president Michelle Bachelet signed into law legislation to decriminalize abortion in certain cases, including on health issues.
In Brazil a bill is under consideration in congress that would ban access to all abortions, even in cases of rape and for women whose lives are in danger.
Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, abortion is also illegal in the province of Northern Ireland except when the mother's life is in danger. The British government said in June 2017 it will fund abortions in England for women arriving from Northern Ireland.
Other countries also allow abortions only in cases of rape or threat to the mother's or baby's health.
In EU member Poland, which has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the bloc, a new bill, which could pass in parliament where conservatives have a majority, would outlaw abortion except in cases where the mother has been raped or is a victim of incest.
In the United States abortion was legalized nationwide in 1973, but has been under pressure since Donald Trump became president, with some Republicans seeking restrictions.
The U.S. state of Iowa in early May signed into law a ban on abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which occurs as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The Midwestern state now has the strictest legislation on abortion in the US.
(Sources: Guttmacher Institute, World Health Organization, Center for Reproductive Rights, AFP)
Read More Abortion Bans Around the World : https://ift.tt/2II5v5BAustralian Archbishop Steps Aside After Conviction
Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson is stepping away from his post after becoming the world's highest-ranking Catholic cleric to be convicted of covering up child sexual abuse committed by a fellow priest.
The 67-year-old Wilson was convicted Tuesday in a court in Newcastle of failing to report the sexual abuse of two altar boys by James Fletcher in the 1970s, after being told about it by one of the victims while he was an assistant parish priest. Fletcher was convicted in 2004 of nine counts of child sexual abuse, and died in prison two years later.
Wilson issued a statement saying he was stepping aside from his duties while he conferred with his lawyers about the verdict. He said "if it becomes necessary or appropriate for me to take more formal steps," including resigning, then he would do so.
Wilson, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, will be sentenced next month. He faces up two years in prison.
Wilson's conviction comes as Australian Cardinal George Pell is facing two separate trials on charges of historical sexual offenses.
Pell, who serves as finance minister for the Vatican, will be the highest-ranked Catholic official to be tried on such charges during the church's decades-long sexual abuse scandal involving clergy.
Details of the charges have not been made public.
China Says Hopes U.S.-N.Korea Summit can Proceed Smoothly
China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday China has played a positive role on the Korean peninsula and hopes the planned U.S.-North Korea summit can proceed smoothly.
Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comments at a regular news briefing. U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated on Tuesday his suggestion that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's recent meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping had influenced Kim to harden his stance ahead of the summit.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Japan, Russia, Turkey Bring Potential US Tariff Retaliation to $3.5 bln
Japan, Russia and Turkey have warned the United States about potential retaliation for its tariffs on steel and aluminium, the World Trade Organization said on Tuesday, bringing the total U.S. tariff bill to around $3.5 billion annually.
The three countries detailed their compensation claims in notifications to the world trade body, following similar moves by the European Union, India and China. Each showed how much the disputed U.S. tariffs would add to the cost of steel and aluminium exports to the United States, based on 2017 trade.
Russia said the U.S. tariffs, which President Donald Trump imposed in March, would add duties of $538 million to its annual steel and aluminium exports. Japan put the sum at $440 million. Turkey added a further $267 million.
China, the 28-nation EU and India have put their claims at $612 million, $1.6 billion and $165 million respectively.
They all reject the U.S. view that the import tariffs – 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium -- are justified by U.S. national security concerns and are therefore exempt from the WTO rules.
They say the U.S. tariffs have all the hallmarks of "safeguards", a trade restriction that can be legitimately used to protect a struggling industry from an unforeseen surge in imports.
A country using safeguards must compensate other WTO members who stand to lose out from the restriction on their trade, normally by rebalancing their trading relationship with a net increase in imports of other goods.
But the United States denies its tariffs are safeguards and has offered no compensation, prompting the retaliatory action.
The compensation would normally take years, but because the U.S. steel and aluminium sectors were not facing an absolute increase in imports, the WTO rules permitted retaliation in just 30 days' time, they said.
Japan said it was free to impose at least $264 million of its retaliation after 30 days, suggesting that the rest might be delayed, since some of the U.S. products covered by the tariffs were subject to an absolute increase in imports from Japan.
Neither Russia nor Japan specified how they might retaliate against U.S. exports, but Turkey listed 22 U.S. goods that it was planning to target, ranging from nuts, rice and tobacco to cars and steel products.
As Summit Looms, North Korean Media Return to Angry Tone
North Korean media stepped up their rhetorical attacks on South Korea and joint military exercises with the United States, warning Tuesday that a budding detente could be in danger.
State media unleashed three strongly worded commentaries slamming Seoul and Washington for the maneuvers and demanding Seoul take action against defectors it claimed were sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border.
The official media had until recently taken a relatively subdued tone amid the North's diplomatic overtures to its neighbors, including a summit with South Korea's president last month and plans for leader Kim Jong Un to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12.
That first changed last week, when it lashed out against the maneuvers, cut high-level contacts with Seoul and threatened to “reconsider” the Trump summit.
One of the reports on Tuesday, which came as North Korea allowed an airplane full of foreign journalists into the country to cover the dismantling of its nuclear test site this week, accused Seoul of teaming up with Washington for military drills intended as a show of force and as a “war drill” against it.
It's not unusual for North Korea's official media to turn to hyperbole to make a point and the rhetorical barrage coincides with a visit to Washington by South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Strongly worded messages don't necessarily mean it is backing away from diplomatic negotiations.
But the North's abrupt sharpening of its words has raised concerns the Trump summit may prove to be a bumpy one — or that it could even be in jeopardy. Trump has suggested he is willing to walk away if Kim isn't willing to have a fruitful meeting and it appears both sides have agendas that remain far apart from each other.
Mixing ‘dialogue and saber-rattling’
There has been no indication that North Korea will cancel plans to dismantle the test site, an important gesture of goodwill. The North has also not suggested it will go back on its promise to halt underground testing and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
But it did ban South Korean journalists from the trip to the nuclear site. And the language Tuesday offered a veiled threat that talks could be harmed.
“Dialogue and saber-rattling can never go together,” said the commentary published in Minju Joson, one of the country's four main daily newspapers.
“There are some arguments describing the improvement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula as `result of hardline diplomacy' of the U.S. and `result of sustained pressure,’” said another, by the official KCNA news agency. “It seriously chills the atmosphere of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue and is of no help to the development of the situation.”
DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
Yet another article lashed out at South Korean authorities for allowing defectors to send anti-North Korea leaflets across their border.
It noted that the two leaders agreed at their summit in the Demilitarized Zone last month not to conduct hostile acts against each other and said the authorities have an obligation under that agreement to block such actions, even by private citizens.
“If the North-South relations face a grave difficulty again owing to the provocation of human scum, the blame for it will be entirely on the South Korean authorities,” the report said. “They must know what price they will be made to pay.”
Anti-Corruption Commission Questions Former Malaysian Leader
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak faced questions Tuesday from an anti-graft commission as part of a new probe into a multibillion-dollar scandal involving the country's development fund, 1MDB.
Anti-Corruption Commission chief Mohamad Shukri Abdull said at a news conference that he had summoned Najib for questioning, but that he would not be arrested Tuesday.
Investigators want to know about a $10 million bank transfer from a unit of 1MDB to Najib's bank account. The transaction is a small part of what the U.S. Justice Department alleges is $4.5 billion Najib helped steal from the fund.
Najib has denied any wrongdoing.
The scandal played a role in the defeat of his long-ruling coalition in national elections earlier this month that returned former leader Mahathir Mohamad to power. Mahathir pledged to open a new probe into the 1MDB scandal.
Shukri also said Tuesday that in 2015, during an earlier investigation into the same allegations, he faced "frightening" harassment and that witnesses were abducted.
The Justice Department said in a statement it looks forward to working with Malaysian authorities and is committed to ensuring the U.S. financial system is not threatened by corrupt people who want to hide ill-gotten wealth.
Several Dozen Afghan Security Forces Killed in Ghazni
Several dozen Afghan security personnel have died in several days of heavy fighting with the Taliban in some districts of Ghazni province in Eastern Afghanistan.
A Ghazni provincial council official said Tuesday the Taliban have managed to take control of two districts, Jaghatū and Dehak, after fierce fighting last night. Latifa Akbar, a provincial council member, said 20 police personnel, including the district police chief and the police reserve force commander of Dehak died in the fighting. Afghan government only confirmed 12 deaths.
Taliban insurgents killed another 20 security forces personnel during fighting in a third district, Ajristan, where the insurgents managed to surround the governor’s compound Sunday.
They were pushed back by the Special Forces deployed to provide reinforcements to the security forces on the ground. A spokesman for the unit involved in the fighting said all government installations were under their control. He also claimed the security forces had killed 10 Taliban in the fighting.
Rejecting reports of Taliban takeover of two districts, Arif Noor, a spokesman for the Ghazni provincial governor, said the security forces were still fighting the Taliban even though the police was forced to retreat from its headquarters in both districts.
The fighting in Ghazni, a province with a strong Taliban presence, followed days of fighting in Farah province in Western Afghanistan. The top United States military commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, visited Farah on Saturday and tried to reassure the population that Farah “will never fall” to the Taliban. Ministers of interior and defense, and the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency accompanied Nicholson on this trip.
Afghan security forces have suffered heavy losses since the Taliban launched their "al-Khandaq" spring offensive last month. In a briefing to the parliament earlier this month, the Afghan defense and interior ministers and the intelligence chief said hundreds had been killed or wounded in Taliban attacks.
However, they told the parliamentarians that Afghan forces had inflicted much heavier casualties on the insurgents and foiled 70 percent of their plans.
Last year, Afghan forces suffered unprecedented casualties, reported to be about 10,000 men.
Karachi School Opens Classrooms for Illiterate Women of All Ages
In parts of Pakistan, women are traditionally raised to become homemakers: be a good wife, cook, raise a healthy family. It's a big responsibility but one that often holds them back from getting an education. In the city of Karachi, some housewives who were struggling to help their children with their homework decided to do something about it. VOA's Shayan Saleem spoke with some of them and filed this report. Bezhan Hamdard narrates.
Monday, May 21, 2018
Japanese and Macedonian Climbers Die on Mount Everest
Two foreign climbers attempting to scale Mount Everest have died on the world's highest peak, a Nepal mountaineering official said Monday.
Members of their expedition teams reported a Japanese climber died Monday and a Macedonian died on Sunday, said Gyanendra Shrestha, who is stationed at Everest's base camp during the climbing season and received the reports of the deaths.
The Japanese climber was identified as 35-year-old Nobukazu Kuriki and the Macedonian as 63-year-old Gjeorgi Petkov.
Kuriki was a known mountaineer who climbed many mountains and made several attempts on Everest. He lost most of his fingers due to frostbite during an unsuccessful attempt in 2012.
The bodies were retrieved from the mountain on Monday and were flown by helicopters to Kathmandu, where they were expected to have autopsies.
It was still unclear how they died but the Macedonian is believed to have suffered from cardiac arrest, Shrestha said.
Some 340 foreign climbers and their Sherpa guides are attempting to scale Everest this month and many succeeded in the past week during good weather. Teams have to end their attempts by the end of this month as weather conditions deteriorate.
Medical Teams Sent to South India Amid Deadly Virus Outbreak
A deadly virus has killed at least three people in southern India, officials said Monday, with medical teams dispatched to the area amid reports that up to six other people could have died from the virus and others are ill.
The three fatalities from the Nipah virus were all from the same family, said Kerala state health minister K.K. Shailaja.
There is no vaccine for Nipah, which can cause raging fevers, convulsions and vomiting. The only treatment is supportive care to control complications and keep patients comfortable. It has a mortality rate of up to 75 percent.
Media reports say five more people have died from high fevers in recent days, as well as a nurse who had treated people infected with the virus. But medical workers have not yet confirmed what killed those people. At least eight others sick with Nipah symptoms are being monitored.
People who had been in contact with Nipah victims have been put into isolation, Shailaja said.
Nipah, which was first identified during a late 1990s outbreak in Malaysia, can be spread by fruit bats, pigs and through human-to-human contact.
A team from India's National Center for Disease Control has been sent to the coastal region of Kerala, where the outbreak occurred.
“We are closely monitoring the situation,” India's health minister, J.P. Nadda, said in a statement.
Trump Claims New Accord with China on Trade Negotiations
President Donald Trump says a breakthrough has been achieved with China on trade issues.
The president tweeted early Monday that China "has agreed to buy massive amounts of ADDITIONAL Farm/Agricultural Products -- would be one of the best things to happen to our farmers in many years!"
President Trump's tweets come a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the two nations have agreed to back away from imposing tough new tariffs on each other's exports, after reaching a deal Saturday for Beijing to buy more American goods to "substantially reduce" the huge trade deficit with the United States.
Mnuchin told Fox News the world's two biggest economic powers "made very meaningful progress and we agreed on a framework" to resolve trade issues. "So right now we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework," he said.
China's state-run news agency Xinhua quoted Vice Premier Liu He, who led Chinese negotiators in trade talks in Washington this past week, as saying, "The two sides reached a consensus, will not fight a trade war, and will stop increasing tariffs on each other."
Explainer: What is a Trade War?
Liu said the agreement was a "necessity;" but, he added, "At the same time, it must be realized that unfreezing the ice cannot be done in a day; solving the structural problems of the economic and trade relations between the two countries will take time."
Trump had threatened to impose new tariffs on $150 billion worth of Chinese imports and Beijing had responded that it would do the same on American goods.
Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross would soon go to Beijing to negotiate on how China might buy more American goods to reduce the huge U.S. trade deficit with Beijing, which last year totaled $375 billion.
Philip Levy, senior fellow on the global economy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, tells VOA that while the U.S. and China have for now avoided a tariff war, the outcome of the trade talks remains unclear.
"I think the Trump administration will crow about the fact that they arranged for some additional sales. That really wasn't the issue. It may have been in their minds, but in terms of what is in the national interest, it wasn't," he said.
Levy says the result is a managed trade solution that still does not answer the fundamental question of how a state-dominated economy the size of giant China fits into the global system.
But Kudlow said there has been a lot of progress.
"You can see where we're going next. As tariffs come down, the barriers come down, there will be more American exports," he told ABC television, saying any agreement reached will be "good for American exports and good for Chinese growth."
One contentious point of conflict between the U.S. and China is the fate of ZTE, the giant technology Chinese company that has bought American-made components to build its consumer electronic devices.
The U.S. fined ZTE $1.2 billion last year for violating American bans on trade with Iran and North Korea. ZTE, however, said recently it was shutting down its manufacturing operations because it could no longer buy the American parts after the U.S. imposed a seven-year ban on the sale of the components.
Trump, at the behest of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a week ago "instructed" Commerce Secretary Ross to intervene to save the company and prevent the loss of Chinese jobs.
Even so, Kudlow said, "Do not expect ZTE to get off scot free. Ain't going to happen."
Ira Mellman and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this article.
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