Month: February 2017

Pope Francis told his followers Thursday that it was better to be an atheist than one of “many” Catholics who he said led hypocritical double lives.

“So many Catholics are like this,” he said during morning Mass at his residence at the Vatican. “There are those who say, ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this and that association,’ ” the head of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church said, according to a Vatican Radio transcript.

But, he suggested, those people should also say, ” ‘My life is not Christian, I don’t pay my employees proper salaries, I exploit people, I do dirty business, I launder money, [I lead] a double life.’ ”

He then quoted a sentiment he said he had heard often: “But to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist.”

Francis has surprised the church before with his stance toward atheists. Less than two months after his election in 2013, he said Christians should see atheists as good people if they do good.

He has also taken other unorthodox positions. He condemned sexual abuse of children by priests as being tantamount to a “Satanic Mass” and said Catholics in the Mafia excommunicate themselves. He also told his own cardinals to not act as if they were “princes.”
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The commander of U.S. forces in Africa has told VOA the only way to restore peace in Libya is to bring rival factions together, and that will require cooperative efforts by many parties, including Russia.

General Thomas Waldhauser, who heads the U.S. Africa Command, discussed the continuing political chaos in Libya while in Germany for the recent Munich Security Conference.

Libya is a checkerboard of separate, divided power centers: The internationally backed Government of National Accord controls only part of Tripoli, while rival power bases vie for control over the rest of the capital and other cities. Along the North African coast, the head of the Libyan National Army, General Khalifa Haftar, holds sway over much of eastern Libya through his House of Representatives.

Waldhauser says Haftar’s influence “is something to be dealt with,” and that eastern Libya “is where a political solution … has to take place,” in large part because the army chief controls most of Libya’s oilfields.

“This is where it all begins,” the American commander says, and also where Russia comes in.

Russia invests in Libya’s oil

Waldhauser noted it is apparent Russia wants to become actively involved in trying to resolve Libya’s political unrest — not least for its own economic interests — and said he welcomes that. 

Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft has offered billions of dollars in investments to Libya’s National Oil Company (NOC), and officials of the two companies announced Tuesday in London that they have a preliminary agreement to pursue a development program. Russia also committed itself to buying an undisclosed share of Libya’s future crude oil output.

The AFRICOM chief said the key to political progress in Libya, which would enable the country to get the greatest benefit from such international deals, is cooperation between the Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital and Haftar and the Libyan National Army in the east.

“The goal is to get those two together,” Waldhauser said. “The goal is to get those two to talk, and the goal is to make some accommodation in that regard.”

Kremlin’s broader influence

Russia has been trying to gain a larger grip on oil supplies in the Mediterranean and extend its influence in the Middle East and North Africa more broadly. Rosneft’s agreement with NOC, announced at an international oil conference in the British capital, was in addition to a separate deal for Russia to prefinance crude exports from Kurdistan, making Rosneft the first major oil company to take an active role in the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. Rosneft also recently acquired a stake in the Zohr gas field in Egypt.

The Libyan oil company estimates it needs $20 billion to reach its production goal of 2.1 million barrels per day within five years.

Turning again to Libya’s political situation and rivalries, Waldhauser said many parties are trying to assist.

“The Egyptians and Russians are also involved in trying to get this all together, because at the end of day a political solution is going to require” the participation of both General Haftar and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the GNA, the U.S. commander said.

U.S. supports Tripoli faction

U.S. forces also have been actively fighting against the Islamic State group in Libya — most notably last month, when American B-2 bombers flew a 9,400-kilometer mission from their base in the central U.S. to strike IS training camps in Libya — and Waldhauser says the extremists’ efforts to expand in the north African nation have taken a significant setback.

“It has been very complicated and it continues to remain very complicated. Perhaps, if it’s possible, even getting more complicated,” Waldhauer added. “Our official government position is to support the GNA. And at AFRICOM, we’ve had a very good and close relationship not only with our State Department personnel, but with Prime Minister Surraj as well.”

The AFRICOM chief, who oversees U.S. military operations throughout Africa, was speaking in Munich last week about American participation in Operation Flintlock, a joint military exercise hosted by seven African nations.

American forces in Africa are eager to build partnerships in the sub-Saharan region to tackle terrorists — particularly Islamic State extremists, but also other dangerous groups. Waldhauser said the U.S. works to strengthen its regional partnerships by helping African nations develop their infrastructure, with training and also with crisis response.

U.S. can help in crises

“Many times we think of [crisis response] as a military operation,” the American commander said. “But crisis response is something we would be very, very involved in if there was a humanitarian disaster — famine in Somalia, for example; the Ebola breakout is another example. We do pay close attention to that.”

Nigeria is a key regional partner, and the United States is providing intelligence support and other assistance in the country’s fight against the Islamic State-affiliated terror group Boko Haram. A Nigerian representative to the Munich Security Conference, Major-General Babagana Monguno, said the increasing expansion of terror groups across national borders means international cooperation is vital.

“The uprising in Libya and the eventual capitulation of the Gadhafi government resulted in a southward flow of arms and human beings,” Monguno said. “The most natural place in sub-Saharan Africa for this flow was Nigeria.”

Importance of ‘battlefield ethics’

In the course of their efforts to suppress Boko Haram, Nigerian military forces have been accused of human-rights abuses by Amnesty International and others. Waldhauser said the United States takes such allegations against its partners seriously.

“We understand the requirement for battlefield ethics,” he told VOA. “We make it part of our training, and we try to continue to emphasize that … in the legal system [of the partner nations] and in our discussions with key leaders, as well.”

Operation Flintlock 2017, which is just getting underway, will bring together 2,000 service personnel from more than 20 African, European and North African nations.
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The leader of Macedonia’s Social Democrats said on Thursday he expected to be able to form a new government in March, ending a two-year political crisis in the wake of a wiretapping scandal that brought down the previous administration.

Zoran Zaev said he had secured the support of ethnic Albanian parties and expected to complete talks on forming a government in early March.

The conservative VMRO-DPMNE party at the center of the scandal had tried but failed to form a coalition after winning a December election but falling short of a majority in the 120-seat parliament.

“Now we have to agree on the distribution of ministries and the future government reform platform,” Zaev told reporters while on a trip to Sarajevo. “I am very optimistic that in the first half of March Macedonia will have a government led by Social Democrats.”

The Balkan nation’s two-year political crisis was triggered by a surveillance scandal that forced veteran VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski to resign a year ago.

The crisis was the worst since Western diplomacy helped drag the country of 2.1 million people back from the brink of civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001, promising it a path to membership of the European Union and of NATO.

VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats to the Social Democrats’ 49 in December’s poll.

Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian parties had made their support for any potential coalition conditional on the passage of a law backing broader use of their language in the country.

The Democratic Union of Integration, the biggest ethnic Albanian party in parliament, said on Wednesday it had agreed with the Social Democrats on such a law but did not give details and suggested agreements were needed in other policy areas.

Albanian is currently an official language only in municipalities where Albanians account for more than 20 percent of the population.

“It’s true that yesterday we overcame an important hurdle.

But there are still other issues that have to be agreed if we are to decide to govern together in the next period,” DUI spokesman Bujar Osmani told reporters. “We have to align our party platforms for the entire mandate.”

The other two ethnic Albanian parties, Besa and Alliance for Albanians, which together have eight seats in the parliament, have already said they will support Zaev to form a government.
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Widespread media coverage last month helped shine a light on the conditions for refugees inside Belgrade’s crumbling barracks. But with an official camp recently opened specifically to accommodate them, some have chosen to remain in the bleak shelter. John Owens reports on why from Belgrade.
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The Brit Awards recognized big international stars, including Drake and Beyonce, and a cross section of homegrown talent Wednesday, but the ceremony was overshadowed by the much-missed David Bowie and George Michael.

 

Bowie, who died in January 2016 at age 69, was crowned British male artist of the year and won British album of the year for “Blackstar,” released days before his death.

 

Bowie’s son, filmmaker Duncan Jones, accepted the best album award on behalf of his father. 

“This award is for all the kooks, and all the people who make the kooks,” Jones said. “Kooks” is the song Bowie wrote for his son when he was born.

 

As well as rewarding Bowie, the show paid tribute to one of the music industry’s many losses of 2016: George Michael, who died Christmas Day at age 53.

 

His Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley said that with Michael’s death, “a supernova in a firmament of shining stars has been extinguished.”

 

Coldplay singer Chris Martin performed a moving rendition of Michael’s “A Different Corner” — dueting with a recording of Michael himself and backed by a group of violins.

Beyond the tributes

The flashy show at London’s O2 Arena opened with girl group Little Mix giving a thunderous performance of “Shout Out to My Ex,” backed by silver-painted dancers. The song went on to be named British single of the year.

 There were also performances by Bruno Mars, The 1975, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams and grime musician Skepta on a night where Britain’s music industry celebrated U.K. talent and a smattering of international stars.

 

Soulful chanteuse Emeli Sande was named female British artist of the year, while Manchester indie pop group The 1975 won the trophy for best British band.

 

Singer Matt Healy noted that the band, whose album “I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It” has been a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, has had the same lineup since the members were 13.

 

Politics (mostly) stay home

Few of the winners and performers took up the invitation. The closest thing to edginess at the show was provided by a pinstripe-clad Katy Perry. 

 

She performed “Chained to the Rhythm,” with its references to zombified people “living in a bubble,” accompanied by Skip Marley and a pair of giant skeletons dressed as U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

 

The international awards went to global stars, none of whom came to accept them. Drake was named international male solo artist, while Beyonce took the international female prize. A Tribe Called Quest took the trophy for international group.

 

Adele, who took four Grammys last week, was not up for many Brits because her album “25” was eligible last year, and won four Brits. She won this year’s Global Success award, which recognizes international sales.

 

Robbie Williams, former member of boy band Take That turned adult pop hitmaker, was given the Brits Icon award.

 

The award for British breakthrough artist went to big-voiced soul singer Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, whose song “Human” has had heavy play around the world,

 

“Oh my days,” said the singer, whose real name is Rory Graham. “I’m nearly speechless.”

 

Rag ‘n’ Bone Man beat nominees including the favored grime musician Skepta. Grime artists Stormzy and Kano were also award contenders, reflecting the growing artistic and commercial clout of the distinctly British rap genre.

More diverse lineup

The awards have been accused of failing to represent the industry’s ethnic diversity. All last year’s British nominees were white, and protesters rallied under the hashtag britssowhite.

 

Organizers responded by expanding the diversity of the voter base of 1,000 music-industry figures.

 

This year’s list was more diverse, with Sande, soul singer Michael Kiwanuka and singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas among non-white British contenders, along with the three grime performers. 

La Havas, who lost to Sande for best British female artist, said on the red carpet she was glad the London-centric sound of grime was being recognized.

 

“For me personally, when I hear grime, because I’m from London it sounds like London to me,” she said. “It does in hindsight feel a bit unusual that it was something that wasn’t promoted as much.

 

“But I also think now we’ve got some real stars happening in that genre, it makes a lot of sense now.”

 

Keith Harris, who was appointed to head a diversity task force for the British music industry, said “people feel there might actually be a breakthrough.”

 

“The question is whether this is going to be long-term or short-term,” he said. “That’s my concern.”

 

Most Brits winners are chosen by music-industry members, with several selected by public vote, including a best video category decided by social-media ballot during the broadcast. It was won, for the fourth year in a row, by One Direction.
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U.N. sponsored talks on reunifying Cyprus have suffered a blow after Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci backed out of Thursday’s meeting.

The Turkish Cypriots are angered over a bill passed by the Greek Cypriot parliament ordering schools to celebrate a 1950 referendum calling Cyprus part of Greece. The vote had no legal standing at that time.

Akinci says the bill must be rescinded if the talks are to continue.

Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades says he regrets Thursday’s session has been canceled and said on Twitter he is ready to resume talks at any time.

He says it was a mistake for lawmakers to pass the bill at such a sensitive time, but also said it is a shame the peace talks have been put in jeopardy over what he calls a minor issue.

Cyprus has been split between a Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the island after a military coup intended to unify the island with Greece.

Only Turkey recognizes a separate Turkish Cypriot governor. The international community recognizes the Republic of Cyprus and the entire island, while divided, enjoys European Union membership. 

The most recent talks to reunify the island have been under way for more than two years. The issue of whether Turkish forces can remain on Cyprus after the island is whole again has been the major hold-up of a final settlement.
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Russia’s Supreme Court on Wednesday canceled the conviction of prominent anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin and ordered his release from jail, Interfax news agency reported.

Dadin, 34, was sentenced to three years in prison – reduced to two and a half on appeal – in December 2015 for a series of peaceful one-man protests against the Kremlin.

“Dadin is to be released from custody,” Interfax cited the ruling as saying.

The motion came after the Constitutional Court on Feb 10 ordered a review of Dadin’s conviction, arguing that a law that criminalized certain types of protests had to be applied more proportionately.

Dadin was the first person to be jailed under a 2014 law, adopted after big anti-Kremlin protests, that criminalized the violation of protest rules more than twice in 180 days.

Last November, Dadin said he was tortured in jail in northwest Russia. Jail officials dismissed the allegations, but the activist was subsequently moved to another prison.
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The human rights group Amnesty International says political leaders around the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump, are creating a more divided and dangerous world with “toxic rhetoric.” In the London-based organization’s annual report on human rights worldwide, politicians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere are accused of creating an “us versus them” environment that weakens the defense of human rights. VOA’S Greg Flakus has more from Washington.
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New York City’s medical examiners have failed to determine what caused the sudden death this week of Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin. 

The medical examiners concluded that further study, which usually includes toxicology tests and other screenings, would be needed before they could say why Churkin died unexpectedly Monday at age 64. The additional tests could take weeks to complete.

Churkin had been Russia’s envoy at the U.N. since 2006. He was the longest-serving ambassador on the Security Council, the U.N.’s most powerful body.

Diplomatic colleagues from around the world continued to mourn Churkin on Tuesday. They said he was deeply knowledgeable about diplomacy and dedicated to his country, while also being a personable and witty colleague.

‘Brilliant, gracious and funny’

“He could spot even the narrowest opportunities to find a compromise,” U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said, describing Churkin as “brilliant, wise, gracious and funny.”

In Washington, President Donald Trump said he was saddened by the news. While acknowledging that Churkin and his U.S. counterparts sometimes disagreed, Trump said Churkin “played a crucial role in working with the United States on a number of key issues to advance global security.”

Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin was born in Moscow on Feb. 21, 1952. As a young boy, he appeared in at least three films; two were about Vladimir Lenin, the hero of the communist revolution that produced the Soviet Union a century ago.

Churkin studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and earned a doctorate in history from the USSR Diplomatic Academy. He joined the Soviet Foreign Ministry in 1974 and had a distinguished career as a diplomat. He was Moscow’s special representative to international talks on the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, and later served as ambassador to Belgium (1994-1998) and Canada (1998-2003).

Posted to UN in 2006

In 2006, Churkin took up his post as U.N. ambassador, presenting his credentials to then-Secretary General Kofi Annan. During more than a decade at U.N. headquarters in New York, diplomats said the Russian ambassador was widely respected by colleagues, even those whose governments had adversarial relationships with Moscow.

His job grew more difficult during the past six years, as Moscow became more isolated due to its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and the Kremlin drew criticism from many quarters for its strong support of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Churkin often clashed in the Security Council chamber with former U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power. At a heated meeting in December on the situation in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, Power called out Moscow for denying and obfuscating facts and aiding and abetting attacks on civilians. Churkin retorted that she sounded like “Mother Teresa” for scolding Moscow, and urged her to “remember your country’s track record.”

Power tweeted that she was “devastated” by Churkin’s passing, calling him a “deeply caring man” and a “diplomatic maestro.”

VOA correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report from the United Nations.
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Protesters chant, “We want the death penalty|,” as 40 soldiers are led into an Ankara court. The soldiers are accused of trying to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup in July, in which more than 250 people were killed.

 

Erdogan, touring the country to rally support for an April referendum to extend his presidential powers, promised to bring back the death penalty. “If parliament passes the law to bring it back, I will sign it, and pay my debt to the martyrs of our country,” Erdogan said to thousands of supporters in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras Friday.

The death penalty was abolished by Erdogan when he was prime minister in 2004 as part of the country’s bid to join the European Union; but its return would be popular among many nationalists and conservative voters who support him.

 

With anger still felt toward those behind the coup attempt and a resurgence in terror attacks by Kurdish insurgents, analysts predict returning the death penalty is a vote winner. “There is a great yearning by the people to hang ‘the bastards;’ I really think people feel that way,” says political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source partners; but Yesilada says Turkey will pay a high price. “If it is ever introduced, the EU has no choice but to cut the umbilical link to Turkey.”

EU warning

The European Union has warned Ankara its bid to join would be automatically frozen, but, with that bid making little progress because of opposition from some members, there is growing resentment among many Turks toward the European Union.

Erdogan said he is not going to listen to Europeans, referring to them as “Hans and George.” At the Kahramanmaras rally, Erdogan told his supporters, “I listen to the Ayses and Ahmets of our country,” referring to traditional Turkish Muslim names, while adding, “I listen to the words of God.”

Analysts say such rhetoric plays well with large sections of the electorate, underscoring his message of the need for a strong president with strong powers. Many, however, are predicting the death penalty issue will be quietly forgotten after the April referendum.

“I always believed that the death penalty rhetoric was more to consolidate the alliance with the nationalists, but eventually it would be dropped,” said analyst Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar of the Carnegie Europe policy group, “because of the very high cost of introducing the death penalty in Turkey, the very high political and economical cost this would entail.”

Risks involved

Notably, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey’s main nationalist party, the MHP, has not, so far, echoed the president’s latest call. Analysts point out the return of the death penalty would inevitability exacerbate the country’s already deep political and ethnic divisions, if members of the Kurdish rebel group the PKK were executed. Any break with the EU would also threaten to further destabilize the country’s vulnerable economy.

“We have seen how severely the markets reacted the day the European parliament voted to suspend the accession process which was only a non-binding resolution,” notes consultant Yesilada, recalling November’s vote. “I would imagine how severe the markets would react if the EU was to freeze accession talks. It’s really a bad scenario.”

Analysts also point out that despite Erdogan’s tough referendum campaign rhetoric of not only calling for the death penalty, but also regular EU attacks, behind the scenes, there is another story. “What we are seeing now is a realistic assessment by both the EU and Ankara,” Ulgen said, adding, “that despite the difficulties, this relationship remains of critical importance for both sides.”

Pragmatism is being widely predicted to prevail over the death penalty, in the face of calls from Erdogan’s grassroots, and many nationalists; but, given the country is set to face a crucial general and presidential election within two years, few are predicting with any certainty the death penalty controversy will end soon.
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Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that the U.S. is committed to working with European allies, despite occasional disagreements.

“At the end of the day, no one should misinterpret occasional policy differences and debates as a signal of anything less than total commitment to our alliances in Europe. That commitment is strong,” she said, speaking to the U.N. Security Council.

Haley also called NATO the “strongest alliance in history,” and said the U.S. is working to make the organization “even more effective.”

Her comments echo those made by Vice President Mike Pence on Monday, when he told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg the U.S. is committed to its NATO allies, but other countries also need to share the fiscal burden of defense more evenly.

“We intend to increase our defense spending. America will do our part,” Pence declared of the new U.S. administration under President Donald Trump.  But he added, “It is time for action, not words” by the 23 countries that have not met the minimum 2 percent threshold.

Stoltenberg said he agreed with Pence that other countries need to pay their fair share.

“The good news is we are moving in that direction,” he said,

Trump has, in the past, suggested the United States might not defend NATO allies who did not spend their share on defense.

Haley said she believes the U.S. can have a better relationship with Russia, but greater cooperation with Russia “can’t come at the expense of our European friends and allies.”

“That is why we continue to urge Russia to show a commitment to peace by fully implementing the commitments under the Minsk agreements and ending its occupation of Crimea,” she said. “The United States and the EU remain united in this approach, keeping sanctions in place until Moscow fully honors its Minsk commitments.”

Under the 2015 Minsk agreement, Ukraine, Russia and Russia-backed separatists agreed to end the crisis in Ukraine, beginning with the withdrawal of heavy weapons.
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Tourism to Paris is showing signs of a revival after a yearlong slump attributed to deadly extremist attacks, violent labor protests, strikes and floods.

The biggest drop came in demand for Paris hotels from Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Italian tourists, according to 2016 figures released Tuesday by the Paris regional tourism committee.

 

The Louvre Museum, Musee d’Orsay and Disneyland Paris saw visits drop between 9 and 13 percent last year and overall tourism-related revenue in the region fell more than 1 billion euros, or about 6 percent, according to the committee’s estimates.

 

Many potential Paris visitors were scared off by November 2015 attacks on cafes, a rock concert and the national stadium that killed 130 people.

 

However by the end of 2016, hotel reservations started rising again, the report said.
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