Author: Ohart

Russian President Vladimir Putin played it differently this time.

Instead of openly declaring plans to extend his rule like he did in 2011, Putin proposed constitutional amendments to appear to give more power to Russia’s parliament.

Instead of announcing the move as a fait accompli, he said the people should vote and decide.

And then he executed a swift, unexpected reshuffle of Russia’s leadership, putting a low-profile official with no political aims in charge of the government.

Putin announced what many see as a strategy for staying in power well past the end of his term in 2024. And the proposed constitutional reforms that might allow him to remain in charge as prime minister or as head of the State Council didn’t elicit much public outrage.

Neither did the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, whom Putin quickly replaced with the little-known tax chief, Mikhail Mishustin.

There was a smattering of calls for protest: One opposition supporter urged people to join his one-man picket in front of the Presidential Administration on Saturday, while another called for protesters to turn out against the “constitutional coup” at a Sunday rally in honor of two slain activists.

It was very different from what happened in 2011-2012, when efforts to engineer Putin’s return to the presidency crushed Russian hopes for liberalization and sparked massive protests in Moscow.

In his speech Wednesday, Putin presented his plan to amend the constitution as a way to improve democracy. By suggesting that lawmakers could name prime ministers and Cabinet members, he also curtailed the authority of the president, who currently holds that power.

Putin also said the constitution could specify a greater role for the State Council, an obscure consultative body of regional governors and federal officials, indicating that he might take a leading position there.

He also sought to prioritize the primacy of Russian laws, so that the European Court of Human Rights would no longer have the authority to issue rulings that Moscow opposed.

All this would “strengthen the role of civil society, political parties and regions in making key decisions about the development of our state,” Putin said Thursday in discussing the amendments with lawmakers.

New Prime Minister Mishustin was praised by government officials and commentators as an “effective manager” with expertise in finance who would be able to drive Russia’s stagnating economy out of a slump.

Many Russians might see that as a positive change rather than a sophisticated political plot. According to a survey released Friday by Russia’s state-funded pollster VTsIOM, 45% of the respondents saw the shakeup as Putin’s genuine desire to change the existing power structure.

But opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny said the changes are not the kind that people are looking for. Putin is looking to “remain a lifelong, ultimate leader” and run Russia as “property” divided between himself and his backers, Navalny tweeted.

And the announced changes do nothing to address what Russians really want, said Navalny ally Lyubov Sobol.

“People demand to end corruption, people demand to improve their living conditions. They demand a reform of the health care system, they’re worried about pension reform. All these demands, they are not going anywhere,” Sobol told The Associated Press.

Vladimir Milov, an opposition politician, echoed that sentiment. Russians are willing to put up with worsened living conditions if they see potential for growth in the future — but Putin’s address shows he’s not interested in that, he said.

“This is the main conflict between Putin and society right now,” Milov said. “Society can’t wait for economic growth to start again, and Putin doesn’t care, he’s occupied with other things. At some point, this will backfire.”

Still, the announced constitutional reforms are unlikely to trigger a new wave of protests.

“All recent protests happened when discontent that has been building up for a while spilled out, triggered by something. Amending the constitution is unlikely to be a trigger,” Milov said.

Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the independent Levada polling center, said the government shakeup is so vague it is unlikely to spur public anger.

“What is happening is not clear. Is this about a presidency? About some other governing body? It is unclear what people should express their unhappiness about,” Volkov said. “It is hard to protest against something that’s unclear.”

In addition, Volkov noted, back in 2011-2012 Putin’s approval ratings were much lower — more than half of the country wanted him out. “Right now there is no urge to replace the country’s leader,” he said.

And the question remains whether the opposition will be able to galvanize people to protest. The Kremlin last year turned up the pressure on activists and politicians, sandbagging them with high-figure fines and exhausting them with arrests and trials.

There are several criminal cases open against Sobol and other Navalny allies. Sobol said she owes the government more than $400,000 in fines, and expects more fines to be imposed on opposition figures.

“There is a high probability that political pressure on us will continue this year,” she said.

Still, Sobol vowed the opposition will continue the fight — by protesting, contesting the government’s actions in court and exposing corrupt officials.

On Thursday, Navalny said in a post online that Mishustin’s wife earned some $12 million over the past nine years, according to her tax returns, even though she never owned nor ran a business. He demanded answers from Mishustin, who headed Russia’s tax service until he was named prime minister this week, and alleged there was corruption involved.

Dmitry Gudkov, a former lawmaker turned opposition politician, believes an early parliamentary election is likely, since he says the Kremlin would want the vote to be this year instead of next.

“They’re in a rush and want to (pass the proposed constitutional amendments) with the sitting parliament, which they fully control,” Gudkov. “Clearly that changes our strategy.”

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Six Somali government soldiers and 19 militants were killed when Islamist group al-Shabab attacked two bases before dawn Friday, according to officials and residents.

Local security officials and residents told VOA Somali that the attackers targeted a Somali government military base in Haji Ali village, near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Addale, in Middle Shabelle region.

Somali government forces at the base responded to the attack, sparking a deadly gun battle.

Local sources said five government soldiers were killed, including a military commander. The Somali National Army Headquarters, in a statement, put the death toll at four soldiers, with two others injured.

The statement said 15 al-Shabab militants were killed and 26 were injured.

Al-Shabab said its fighters overran the base and seized weapons and vehicles.

Separately, one government soldier and four militants were killed in another al-Shabab attack Friday in the town of Hosingow, Lower Juba region.

Residents told VOA that the militants briefly entered a Somali military camp near the town. Troops launched a counterattack and retook the base, killing four militants and a soldier, residents say.

U.S. airstrike

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has confirmed killing two al-Shabab militants in an airstrike near the town of Kunyo Barrow in Lower Shabelle region on Thursday. It is the second U.S. airstrike in Somalia in 2020.

Last year, U.S. Africa Command conducted a record 63 strikes in Somalia.

Al-Shabab has conducted several high-profile attacks in recent weeks, including one on a Kenyan military base housing U.S. forces. The militants killed three Americans in the Jan. 5 attack.
 

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At least 700,000 people die every year due to drug-resistant diseases, including 230,000 from multidrug resistant tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization.  

Last year, a U.N. report predicted growing antimicrobial resistance could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and trigger a financial crisis.

The WHO said the health threat affects everyone, but those most at risk include people whose immune system is compromised, the elderly, and patients undergoing chemotherapy, surgery and organ transplants.

Fifty antibiotics are in the pipeline, said WHO’s Senior Adviser on Antimicrobial Resistance, Peter Beyer, but the majority only have limited benefits when compared to existing antibiotics.

“We are actually running out of antibiotics that are effective against these resistant bacteria,” he said. “It takes maybe 10 years to develop a new antibiotic, so if you go back to phase one, we know exactly what, at best, what we can get in the next 10 years. And we really see that it is insufficient to counter the current threat.” 

Scientifically, Beyer said, it is very difficult to come up with truly new innovative antibiotics. In addition, there is little financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop a new drug because it is risky, it takes a lot of time and money, and the monetary returns are likely to be poor, he said.

Prevention

However, he added, he hopes the industry changes its position and develops new antibiotics because drug companies also need these new medications.

“For example, if they want to sell products for chemotherapy, they really need effective antibiotics because otherwise you cannot do effective chemotherapy, in particular in countries like India or Bangladesh where infection prevention control is not that good,” Beyer said. “So, I do think that the industry, at one point in time, they will turn around. That is our hope. And, we, of course, try to convince governments to invest as well.”  

In the meantime, Beyer said, one of the most cost-effective, life-saving measures is better prevention control in hospitals. Instead of inventing new drugs to treat people who get infected in hospitals, he said, it makes more sense to protect them from getting infected in the first place.  
 

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VOA Connect Episode 105 – A formerly homeless man turned-pizza- mogul discusses the importance of giving back, a body-positive yoga instructor shows that yoga isn’t just for the slim, and a group of US military veterans reflect on service and war.

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Ukrainian authorities say they have opened an investigation into whether Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, was illegally spied on before U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly recalled her from her post last year. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the State Department have not replied to repeated requests for comment on the alleged surveillance and potential physical threats to the 33-year career diplomat. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.

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The Pentagon is rejecting accusations that military leadership “incentivized lying” to portray a more optimistic picture of U.S. efforts in the nearly two-decade-long war in Afghanistan.

“The idea that there was some … effort to hide the truth or the reality on the ground just doesn’t hold water,” chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters Thursday.

“This idea that there were somehow misstatements or lies, I don’t think that really gels,” he added.

Hoffman’s response took aim at comments by U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko, who testified Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“We have incentivized lying to Congress,” Sopko told lawmakers. “The whole incentive is to show success and to ignore the failure. And when there’s too much failure, classify it or don’t report it.”

Lawmakers created the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, in 2008 and it has been producing quarterly reports on U.S. reconstruction efforts ever since.

Many of the reports have been critical of U.S. efforts, criticism that gained momentum following the release late last year of the Afghanistan Papers — a collection of previously undisclosed SIGAR interviews and notes obtained by The Washington Post.

Hoffman said Thursday that much of the material Sopko cited had been shared willingly, with the understanding it would be shared with Congress.

He also made no apology for how defense officials shared information with the public outside the SIGAR process.

“We have people who are working incredibly hard on incredibly difficult projects, and when they’re asked to take on a difficult task, they look for ways to make it happen,” he said. “If our people are being too forward leaning and trying to be optimistic about what we think we can accomplish, and to be honest and open with the Congress, we’ll continue to do that.”

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Greece will block any European Union peace deal for Libya, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday, unless a maritime deal between Turkey and Libya is scrapped.

“Greece at the level of a summit meeting will never accept any political solution on Libya that does not include as a precondition the annulment of this agreement,” Mitsotakis told Greek television on Thursday. 

“To put it simply, we will use our veto.”

Greece says the deal setting border and energy exploration areas in the Mediterranean between Libya and Turkey is “unacceptable and illegal” because Greek claims in the Mediterranean are ignored.

Mitsotakis is also upset Greece is excluded from a peace summit on Libya to be held Sunday in Berlin. He says it is wrong not to invite Greece and plans to complain about it to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Greece expelled the Libyan ambassador from Athens because of the deal signed with Turkey. It has also taken steps to boost ties with General Khalifa Haftar, head of a rival Libyan government whose forces have been fighting with those of the U.N.-backed administration in Tripoli.

Haftar is in Athens where he plans to meet with Mitsotakis on Friday.

Before flying to Greece, Haftar met in Benghazi with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who tweeted that Haftar is willing to come to the Berlin conference and is committed to the cease-fire that took effect in Libya this week.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would also attend the Berlin conference on Libya. The official said Pompeo would push for three things — the cease-fire, a withdrawal of all foreign forces from Libya and a return to the political process.

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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday that he was declaring a state of emergency over threats of “armed militia groups storming our Capitol” ahead of a gun-rights rally next week.

Northam’s emergency order will ban weapons of all kinds, including firearms, from the Capitol grounds starting Friday and continuing through Tuesday. He said the order was necessary to protect public safety because of potential violence from out-of-state groups at a gun-rights rally scheduled for Monday.

“Let me be clear. These are considered credible, serious threats by our law enforcement agencies,” Northam said at a Capitol news conference.

He added that some of the rhetoric used by groups planning to attend Monday’s rally is similar to what  was said in the lead-up to a deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. “We will not allow that mayhem and violence to happen here.”

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and is known as “Lobby day” in Virginia politics as advocates for a number of causes use the holiday to try and buttonhole lawmakers. It’s also traditionally when pro-gun and gun-control advocates hold rallies. This year, law enforcement officials are expecting thousands of gun-rights advocates to attend a rally organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

The group said its lawyers are reviewing the governor’s emergency declaration but did not have immediate additional comment.

Republicans were mixed in their response. House Minority Leader Del. Todd Gilbert lamented that “there are legitimate concerns of a few bad actors hijacking the rally.” But Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Jack Wilson condemned Northam’s declaration.

“Northam and the rest of the Virginia Democrats have made their session goal crystal clear: a disarmed, vulnerable, and subservient citizenry,” Wilson said in a statement.

The emergency declaration will mean road closures around the Capitol and limited access to the grounds, including a security checkpoint with metal detectors.

Law enforcement leaders from the Capitol Police, Virginia State Police and Richmond Police said public safety was their top priority and they would not tolerate any acts of violence.

Virginia law enforcement officials have been criticized for their planning and response to the Charlottesville rally that involved heavily armed protesters. One woman was killed and several more were injured when a car plowed into a group of counter protesters.

Northam’s declaration will also ban items like helmets and shields, items that some white nationalists carried in Charlottesville.

Gun laws have become a dominant issue this legislative session and there’s been a heavy police presence at the Capitol.

Northam’s planned announcement comes days after Democratic leaders used a special rules committee to ban guns inside the Capitol and a legislative office building. That ban did not include Capitol grounds, which are under the governor’s control.

Democrats have full control of the statehouse for the first time in a generation and are set to pass a number of gun-control restrictions, including limiting handgun purchases to once a month and universal background checks on gun purchases.

Republicans and gun-rights groups have pledged stiff resistance. Gun owners are descending on local government offices to demand they establish sanctuaries for gun rights. More than 100 counties, cities and towns have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries and vowed to oppose any new “unconstitutional restrictions” on guns.

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Students in Iran have protested against their Islamist rulers for a fifth day, with dozens staging a sit-in at a central university as police surrounded other universities in Tehran to block more rallies at those sites.

Photos obtained by VOA appeared to show at least 100 students staging Wednesday’s sit-in next to a campus restaurant at Isfahan University of Technology in the central city of Isfahan. The protest seemed to be a silent one, with many of those gathered wearing surgical white masks over their faces with black “X” marks to symbolize their voices being silenced.

Signs held up by the demonstrators indicated that their grievances were directed toward the Iranian government, which has faced daily protests since its Saturday admission that Iranian forces shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane mistaken for an enemy threat as it departed Tehran for Kyiv Jan. 8.

Several students at the Isfahan sit-in held a sign saying “1,500 + 176”, referencing the number of people the U.S. government has accused Iran of killing in a crackdown on nationwide protests last November, plus the number of people killed in the crash of the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 jet.

The crash killed 82 Iranians and 57 Canadians, many of them students with dual Iranian citizenship who were flying to Kyiv en route to Canada to resume university studies after the winter break.

Iran has rejected allegations that it killed hundreds of people in the November crackdown as exaggerated without providing its own official death toll.

Another sign held by one of the protesters at the Isfahan sit-in read, “We are not seditionists.”

There was no word on whether Iranian security forces responded to the apparent silent protest.

VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of the sit-in photos because of Iran’s tight restrictions on reporting in the country.

It was a different scene in Tehran, where video clips obtained by VOA appeared to show unusually high police deployments at entrances to Amirkabir University and Tehran University on Wednesday.

VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of the Tehran images, either.

Hundreds of students had staged noisy anti-government protests at several university campuses in the Iranian capital in the prior four days and had planned to do so again Wednesday, according to a widely shared social media posting seen by VOA.

But a video clip filmed by a citizen journalist showed about 20 police motorcycles and several officers stationed at the eastern entrance to Amirkabir University after nightfall, with the narrator saying the officers had blocked the entrance.

In a message to VOA, an alumnus of the university who asked to remain anonymous said he went to the campus Wednesday and saw Iranian police blocking all of its entrances and exits. 

“They were all over the campus in plain clothes or in riot gear,” he said. “Basiji militiamen helped them to kick everyone out of the campus by 5:30 p.m. to prevent any demonstration from forming.”

A nighttime video clip by another citizen journalist appeared to show security agents standing at an entrance of Tehran University. The narrator said they had shut down the entire campus.

A report by VOA sister network Radio Farda said pro-government students were able to hold gatherings and freely express their views at several Iranian universities Wednesday. It said some social media users criticized the gatherings as attempts to overshadow the anti-government student protests of the previous four days.

Iran’s judiciary has said police detained 30 people at those earlier protests in Tehran and several other cities and acted leniently in breaking up the demonstrations.

But in a report released Wednesday, London-based rights group Amnesty International said verified video footage, photographs and testimonies from victims and eyewitnesses showed that Iranian security forces used “unlawful force” against peaceful demonstrators in the first two days of the protests.

Amnesty said the evidence indicated that the security forces fired pointed pellets from airguns usually used for hunting at peaceful protesters, causing bleeding and painful injuries. It said those forces also used rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters, as well as kicking and punching them, beating them with batons and making arbitrary arrests.

“The use of unlawful force in the latest demonstrations is part of a long-standing pattern by Iranian security forces,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s Middle East research director.

Amnesty has said it verified the killings of at least 300 protesters, mostly by gunfire, in Iran’s crackdown on the November 2019 protests.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Mehdi Jedinia of VOA’s Extremism Watch Desk contributed.

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Lebanese security forces arrested 59 people, the police said Wednesday, following clashes overnight outside the central bank as angry protesters vented their fury against the country’s ruling elite and the worsening financial crisis.
    
The hours-long clashes that erupted on Tuesday evening also left 47 policemen injured, the security forces said, as some protesters smashed windows on private banks in Beirut’s key commercial district.
    
Earlier on Tuesday, protesters rallied outside the central bank in the bustling Hamra neighborhood, denouncing the bank governor and policies they say have only deepened the country’s financial woes.
    
The rally turned violent as protesters tried to push their way through the security forces deployed outside the bank. In over five hours of pitched street battles, security forces lobbed volleys of tear gas at the protesters, who responded with rocks and firecrackers.
    
Some protesters, using metal bars and sticks, smashed windows on commercial banks and foreign exchange bureaus nearby. The clashes marked an end to a lull in the three-months-long protests.
    
Lebanon is facing its worst economic troubles in decades. One of the most highly indebted countries in the world, it imports almost all basic goods but foreign currency sources have dried up. The local currency has lost over 60% of its value, dropping for the first time in nearly three decades from a fixed rate of 1,507 pounds to the dollar to 2,400 in just the past few weeks.
    
Meanwhile, banks have imposed informal capital controls, limiting withdrawal of dollars and foreign transfers in the country.
   
 In three months of protests, this was the first time the commercial center of Beirut had become the scene of clashes. The area, which is also home to theaters and restaurants, was left deserted except for protesters, police and smoke from the tear gas.
    
Traffic resumed Wednesday and shops and banks reopened as pavements were cleared of smashes glass.
    
Outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned shortly after the protests first began in mid-October, said the violence in Hamra was “unacceptable” and an aggression on the heart of the capital. He urged for an investigation. A new prime minister designate was named in December but has still been unable to form a new government.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has used his annual state-of-the-nation address to parliament to focus on domestic affairs, including measures to counter Russia’s declining population.

In his January 15 speech to Russia’s two-chamber parliament — the Federal Assembly — Putin said that authorities need to do more to raise the country’s birthrate and support young families.

Putin said low incomes remain an obstacle to increase the population, now at about 147 million as the country faces the consequences of the post-Soviet economic collapse that led to a steep drop in the birthrate.

To bolster population growth, Putin promised the government would offer additional subsidies to families that have children.

The speech comes with the country still under Western sanctions for its actions in Ukraine and Syria, as well as its election meddling in the United States.

The sanctions have hampered the country’s economic growth, leading to rising poverty rates and growing discontent highlighted by mass protests last summer in Moscow and other cities.

A poll by a Russian state pollster in May 2019 found public trust in Putin had fallen to its lowest level in 13 years.

Putin, 67, has dominated politics in Russia for two decades, serving as president or prime minister since 1999. In 2018, Putin was reelected to another six-year term.

The address at Moscow’s Manezh exhibition hall is one of three regularly scheduled national appearances the president makes each year — the others being a lavish question-and-answer session with the public and a stage-managed annual press conference.

It is the 16th time Putin has delivered the address before an audience that also includes government ministers, judges from the constitutional and supreme courts, leading regional officials, and other members of Russia’s political elite.

In his address last year, Putin used his 90-minute speech to issue fresh threats against the United States if Washington were to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Europe.

In 2018, Putin focused mainly on claims about breakthroughs in the nation’s military arsenal and unveiled six nuclear-capable weapons that he said were unparalleled in the world.

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Iran’s top diplomat acknowledged Wednesday that Iranians “were lied to” for days following the Islamic Republic accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner, killing 176 people, as the country’s president warned that European soldiers in the Mideast “could be in danger” after three nations challenged Tehran over breaking limits of its nuclear deal.

The comments by Mohammad Javad Zarif in New Delhi represent the first time an Iranian official referred to the earlier story that a technical malfunction downed the Ukraine International Airlines flight as a lie.

Meanwhile, President Hassan Rouhani’s remarks in a televised Cabinet meeting represent the first direct threat he’s made to Europe as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington over President Donald Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the deal in May 2018.

The shootdown has sparked days of angry protests in the country.
 
“In the last few nights, we’ve had people in the streets of Tehran demonstrating against the fact that they were lied to for a couple of days,” Zarif said.

Zarif went onto praise Iran’s military for being “brave enough to claim responsibility early on.”

However, he said that he and President Hassan Rouhani only learned that a missile had down the flight on Friday, raising new questions over how much power Iran’s civilian government has in its Shi’ite theocracy. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which shot down the aircraft, knew immediately afterward its missile downed the airline.

The Guard is answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is expected to preside over Friday prayers in Iran for the first time in years over anger about the crash.

In Tehran, Rouhani issued his threat in a wide-ranging speech that criticize Britain, France and Germany for starting the so-called “dispute process” of the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Today, the American soldier is in danger, tomorrow the European soldier could be in danger,” Rouhani said. He did not elaborate.

On Tuesday, the European nations reluctantly triggered the accord’s dispute mechanism to force Iran into discussions, starting the clock on a process that could result in the “snapback” of U.N. and EU sanctions on Iran.
 
The Europeans felt compelled to act, despite objections from Russia and China, because every violation of the deal reduces the so-called “breakout time” Iran needs to produce a nuclear bomb, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told parliament.
 
Zarif, speaking in New Delhi at the Raisina Dialogue, blamed U.S. “ignorance” and “arrogance” for “fueling mayhem” in the Middle East .

Zarif also said that the the death of Iran’s most powerful commander, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad was being celebrated only by President Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Islamic State group.

Iran launched ballistic missiles on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq to avenge Soleimani’s killing. Within hours, Iranian forces accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane in Tehran.

“When they assassinated a revered general in Iraq, violating Iraqi sovereignty, they thought, as Secretary Pompeo tweeted, that people would be dancing in the streets of Tehran and Baghdad,” Zarif said.  

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A surge of terrorist violence in Africa’s Sahel region is forcing West African nations to reconsider their strategy and unify military forces. Leaders invited by French President Emmanuel Macron to a G5 summit in the southern French city of Pau on Monday agreed to pursue their engagements with France – and put aside their differences with the former colonial power – to fight against jihadism. For VOA, Daniel Gillet reports from Pau. 
 

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The fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi called last month’s death sentences for five unnamed assailants a mockery of justice in her first ever English-language interview.

“It’s like a joke to me. It’s unacceptable, really, because we don’t know any details about this investigation,” Hatice Cengiz told Oslo-based Skavlan in a television interview on Sunday.

“They told us of only five men without names,” she said. “And why they are five? More than 10 people came to Turkey!

“We want real punishment, even for [those who gave the] orders,” she told host Fredrik Skavlan. 

A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death and three others to prison in connection with the October 2018 killing of Khashoggi at Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

Fiancée of Murdered Journalist Khashoggi Denounces Lack of Progress

Hatice Cengiz says she is heartbroken Italian soccer game will go ahead in Riyadh

The brutal murder and dismemberment of the Saudi dissident writer with a bone saw occurred as Cengiz awaited his return outside the consulate walls.

The December 23 Saudi ruling, the outcome of largely secret murder trial proceedings, has been widely dismissed for punishing those who carried out the attack while protecting those who ordered it.

“Bottom line: the hit-men are guilty, sentenced to death, and the masterminds not only walk free, they have barely been touched by the investigation and the trial,” said Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions for the United Nations human rights office.

“That is the antithesis of Justice. It is a mockery,” Callamard said

UN: Killing of Saudi Journalist Khashoggi Is International Crime

Inquiry finds credible evidence warranting further investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including that of Saudi Crown Prince

Riyadh’s public prosecutor defended the ruling, explaining that death sentences targeted those who committed and directly participated in the murder, while imprisoning others “for their role in covering up this crime.”

Callamard’s June 2019 U.N. probe concluded that 15 Saudi agents “acted under cover of their official status and used state means to execute Mr. Khashoggi.”

The U.N. report also found “credible evidence” linking Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the killing, and a U.S. CIA assessment said the crown prince ordered the killing.

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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House of Representatives will vote Wednesday to send official impeachment charges to the Senate, bringing the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s historical impeachment trial one step closer to reality.

Pelosi made the announcement in a statement that was released shortly after discussing the impeachment proceedings at a private meeting with House Democrats nearly a month after the Democrat-led House voted to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.“

The American people will fully understand the Senate’s move to begin the trial without witnesses and documents as a pure political cover-up,” the statement said. ‘(Senate Majority) Leader (Mitch) McConnell and the President are afraid of more facts coming to light. The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial.”

Pelosi said the House would also vote Wednesday to name the impeachment managers.

The impeachment allegations contend Trump abused the office of the presidency by pressing Ukraine to launch an investigation into one of his main 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, and obstructing congressional efforts to investigate his Ukraine-related actions.

Choosing managers

Democrats at Tuesday’s closed-door meeting said Pelosi is expected to name House managers for the impeachment case on Wednesday.

Pelosi had delayed sending the articles to the Senate in a futile effort to get Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to agree to hear testimony from key Trump aides who were directly involved with the president as he temporarily withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine while urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open the Biden investigation.

A Wednesday vote would enable the Senate to start the trial as soon as this week. But opening arguments probably won’t be heard until next week at the earliest, as the Senate will likely take several days to complete formalities such as swearing in Chief Justice John Roberts and approving a set of rules.

Trump, only the fourth U.S. president to be targeted with a serious impeachment effort in the country’s 244-year history, has denied any wrongdoing. He has also ridiculed the Democrats’ impeachment effort.

Two other U.S. presidents, Andrew Johnson in the 19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago, were also impeached by the House but acquitted in Senate trials, while a third U.S. leader, Richard Nixon, resigned in 1974 while facing a certain impeachment in a political corruption scandal.

Acquittal likely

The Republican-controlled Senate is widely expected to acquit Trump, particularly since no Republicans have expressed support for removing him from office.

A two-thirds vote in the 100-member Senate would be needed to convict Trump to remove him from office. At least 20 Republicans would need to turn against Trump for a conviction, if all 47 Democrats voted against the president. A handful of Republicans have criticized Trump’s Ukraine actions, but none has called for his conviction and removal from office.

Trump released the military aid to Ukraine in September without Zelenskiy opening the investigation of Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to undermine Trump’s campaign. Republicans say releasing the aid is proof Trump did not engage in a reciprocal quid pro quo deal with Ukraine — the military aid for the Biden investigations.

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The Trump administration is no longer designating China a currency manipulator as it gets ready to sign the first phase of a trade agreement with Beijing.

“China has made enforceable commitments to refrain from competitive devaluation and not target its exchange rate for competitive purposes,” a Treasury Department report to Congress said Monday.

But China will remain on the Treasury’s watch list of countries whose currency practices will be monitored. Others on the list include Germany, Japan, and Vietnam.

Monday’s decision comes five months after the U.S. formally branded China a currency manipulator — the first time any country was given that designation since U.S. President Bill Clinton’s administration designated China as such in 1994.

Currency manipulation occurs when a country artificially lowers the value of its money to make its goods and services cheaper on the world market, giving it an unfair advantage over its competitors.

China has always denied the practice.

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The streets of Tehran turned bloody Monday, as police in riot gear confronted hundreds of protesters denouncing the government’s admission of shooting down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 people on board, most of them Iranian citizens.

The protests entered a third day in several cities across the country, as anger shifted from the United States for the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani  on Jan. 3,  to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which admitted its role in the downed airliner after days of denial.  

Video taken by several citizen journalists across Iran showed peaceful demonstrations, as well as a bloody escalation of violence.

A citizen journalist captures two women wounded by pellet shots in Tehran. One confirms her injury, while the other is carried to a car by protesters.

On Azadi Street, cars and protesters clogged the major artery.

Protesters on Azadi Street in Tehran chant, “You are tyrants. Don’t call us seditioners.”

Drivers honk their horns on Azadi Street in support of protesters.

Protesters on Azadi Street chant, “Security forces, support us.”

Protesters on Azadi Street sing an Iranian resistance anthem, “Yar-e-Dabestani man (My Grade-School Friend).”

At Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, students demand answers. “We want clarity,” they said. “This country is suffering from a lack of transparency. They lied to us for all these years.  … They treat us as donkeys.”

West of Tehran in Kurdish Sanandaj city, police in riot gear used batons to disperse protesters.

In Amol city north of Tehran, police arrest three or four people in Qaem Square.

VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of these videos.

…

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders calls a report that he told fellow Democrat Elizabeth Warren that a woman cannot be elected president “ludicrous.”

CNN reported Monday that Sanders allegedly made the remark during a meeting with Warren in 2018 when they were talking about their plans to run for president.

According to CNN, Warren told Sanders she will “make a robust argument about the economy and earn broad support from female voters.”

Sanders allegedly replied that he did not think a woman could be elected.

“It is sad that three weeks before the Iowa Caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren’t in the room are lying about what happened,” Sanders responded in a statement to CNN.

“Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course. After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016,” Sanders said.

CNN said its sources for the report were two people who talked with Warren right after the meeting with Sanders and two others CNN said “were familiar with the meeting.”

Warren herself has not commented on the story.

The latest poll in Iowa by CNN and The Des Moines Register newspaper puts Sanders in the lead among likely caucus participants with 20%, followed by Warren with 19%. Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden trail.

Sanders and Warren did share common ground Monday — both thanked Democratic Senator Cory Booker for running a campaign both said was based on love, justice, and equality.

Booker announced Monday he was dropping out of the 2020 presidential race.

…

Iranian Americans are closely watching the unfolding situation in their home country as protests continue in Tehran over  the Iran military’s admission on Saturday that it mistakenly shot down a civilian Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 on board.

Many Iranian Americans have taken to the streets to express their support for the Iranian people and their demands in the ongoing protests in Iran.

On Sunday, dozens of Iranian-American activists gathered in Washington D.C, to honor the victims of the Ukrainian plane crash and to show support for their fellow countrymen who reportedly have been facing a violent government crackdown on recent protests.

“I’m here to support the Iranian people [and] be their voice,” said Monir, an Iranian-American, who only gave her first name. 

“If you go in the streets  [in Iran], you might be jailed, you might be killed in the streets, and these people are so brave,” she said as she was standing with a crowd in downtown Washington.

خطاب به رهبران ايران: معترضان خود را نكشيد. هزاران تن تاكنون به دست شما كشته يا زنداني شده اند، و جهان نظاره گر است. مهمتر از ان، ايالات متحده نظاره گر است. اينترنت را دوباره وصل كنيد و به خبرنگاران اجازه دهيد ازادانه حركت كنند! كشتار مردم بزرگ ايران را متوقف كنيد! https://t.co/rzpx3Nfn03

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020

Framarz Zafi, another Iranian American who attended the Washington gathering, said while he appreciated U.S. support for protesters in Iran, he didn’t want a military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.

“It’s nice that President Trump [is] tweeting in Farsi, but we want to tell him that we don’t want war,” Zafi told VOA.

“People of Iran don’t want war. They have suffered enough,” he said.  

More activities are expected to be held by the Iranian-American community in other U.S. cities.  

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s  2018 survey, there are over 450,000 people of Iranian background living in the U.S.    

Activists in the Iranian-American community said they have been increasingly watching developments after  the recent tensions between the U.S. and Iran, following the killing of  top Iranian general  Qassem Soleimani  in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad.

“I’m constantly checking the news and I’m in touch with various people both in Iran as well as in the Iranian diaspora community,” said Cklara Moradian, an Iranian-American activist based in Los Angeles.

“One of the biggest points of contention has been this idea of wanting to support the Iranian protest movement against the Islamic regime in Iran while the same time not beating the drums of war,” she told VOA in a phone interview.

Demands  evolved

Some activists said demands of Iranian protesters have evolved over the years from basic reforms to regime change.

“If you listen to people on the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, it is clear that people are fed up with this regime,” said Ahmad Batebi, a human rights activist based in Washington, who was imprisoned in Iran for his role in a student protest movement in 1999.

“In today’s Iran, there are two governments,” he told VOA. “One that is just a façade, which is represented by people like [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani and [Foreign Minister Javad] Zarif.”

The other is the government that works in the shadow and holds real power is represented by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Batebi said.

In April 2019, the U.S. government designated the IRGC a terrorist organization.  

Lobbying lawmakers  

Sadegh Amiri, another Iranian-American activist who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, said that his objective is to raise more awareness among the American public about what has actually been happening in Iran.“

“We reach out to local lawmakers [in Maryland] and ordinary people to tell them Iran is not what they see on television,” he said. 

“We would like people in America to understand (that) Iranian people wish to live in freedom, and that this current regime in Tehran doesn’t represent them,” he told VOA.

Ali Afshari of the Iranians for Secularism and Democracy, an advocacy group based in the U.S., says Iranian Americans could be effective in two ways in response to the latest events in Iran.  

“First we, in the diaspora, need to amplify the voices of protesters on the ground,” he told VOA, adding that, “we need to empower people so that can sustain their demands against the Iranian regime.”

“Second we need to be more active in terms of reaching out to lawmakers and policymakers in Washington. Iranian Americans have a historic responsibility to convey accurate information and facts from inside Iran to people in the United States,” Afshari added.  

Divisions

Analysts say there are many differences among Iranian Americans that reflect their political, ethnic and cultural diversity.  

Shahed Alavi, an Iranian political analyst based in Washington, says when it comes to attitude towards the Iranian government, there are three types of people within the Iranian American community.

“There are those who fully support a regime change in Tehran and hope this ongoing protest movement will turn into something bigger,” he said.  “There are others who believe that Iranian people have the right to protest, but they don’t think the U.S. should interfere in Iranian affairs.”

However, he added, “the silent majority among the Iranian community in America refuses to get involved or even have an opinion about that’s happening in Iran, because they visit Iran and still have relatives there. So they simply fear retribution from the Iranian regime.”

VOA’s Persian Service, Cindy Saine  and  Saqib  Ul  Islam contributed to this story from Washington.  

…

Leila Ben Gacem guides a visitor through the Tunis Medina, ducking the cars and carts rattling down narrow, cobblestoned streets, and the occasional smear of dog poop.

“Historically, the Medina was the heart of trade, craft and art, and it’s structured with many souks — each dedicated to a specific craft,” she says.

She points down the maze of roads towards markets dedicated to coppersmiths, and those making Tunisia’s famous, flat-topped chechia hat, which exports to Libya and parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

A municipal councillor in a village outside the capital, Ben Gacem is also a social entrepreneur on a mission; helping not only to preserve the Medina’s ancient buildings and community, but also to revitalize trades that once powered this historic quarter, some of which risk going extinct.

“If investments are inclusive and pay attention to shared economy,” she says, “then maybe the whole community will grow together.”

It’s a lesson that might inform Tunisia’s next government, still under construction nearly three months after elections. The Arab Spring’s only democracy to date, the North African country is challenged to turn around its sluggish economy and deepening poverty that has fed emigration and unrest.  While up to one-third of Tunisia’s youth are jobless, some old Medina trades are struggling for manpower.

A fading tradition

At his cramped shop, Mohammed Ben Sassi reverently opens an old Quran he is working on, its pages decorated in blue and gold. Behind him are piles of half-finished tombs. At 64, Ben Sassi is the Medina’s only surviving bookbinder.

“There’s demand, but young people are no longer interested,” Ben Sassi says.

He isn’t the only craftsman facing challenges. While central Medina still houses more than 500 artisan workshops, that number is about half what it was fifty years ago, according to Ben Gacem’s research. The decline, she believes, translates to a broader loss for the country’s very identity.

‘’Throughout history, Tunisians have worked  with their hands,” she says. “I can’t imagine a Tunisian family that doesn’t have an artisan.”

The reasons for the decline are multiple, Ben Gacem says. The country’s sinking economy and currency have made some quality raw materials unaffordable, driving artisans to abandon trades handed down through generations. Others have switched to inexpensive substitutes –making the final product less attractive to buyers.

But revitalizing these trades might also suggest a broader rethink of one key economic driver. Tourism has largely turned around Tunisia’s beachfronts and deserts, and less on its artistic heritage — including the centuries-old Medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“We’re not promoting Tunisia with all it’s wealth, especially in the tourism industry,” Ben Gacem says. “We haven’t communicated the best story. We have communicated the easiest story.”

Revitalizing the Medina

Founded in the 7th century, the Tunis Medina was restored under hardline president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, but suffered under the 2011 revolution that ousted him, and subsequent instability. Building codes were sidelined, traditional residents fled to safer places, and squatters occupied historic mansions. Tunisians from the south moved in, further fraying a once close-knit community.

“But the revolution also had a positive impact,” says architect Soulef Aouididi of the Medina Conservation Association. From the association’s headquarters in a sumptuous, 19th-century palace, she describes new civic groups springing up, including those offering school tours of the Medina, helping the next generation better appreciate its history.

Aouididi’s association also organizes events bringing together the quarter’s disparate population, to help restitch relations.

“Our strategy is to safeguard the buildings, but also the social heritage,” she says.

Several blocks away, a pair of elegant guesthouses offer another experiment in community development. Ben Gacem has converted two dilapidated Medina mansions into boutique tourist hotels, tapping local residents to run them, and sourcing her supplies from area businesses.

She also networks with local artisans like Ben Sassi, organizing workshops so hotel guests can learn about their craft, as one way to bring in business—while offering tourists an “authentic experience” of Tunisia.

“It’s part of creating a new economic dynamic to preserve the artistry and culture around historical urban spaces,” Ben Gacem says.

The last hat maker?

Whether such initiatives can help to preserve old trades however is uncertain.

“Young Tunisians aren’t interested in working,” says Mohamed Troudi, a chaouachine, or chechia hat maker, as he points to his own calloused hands. “They want office, Facebook and a coffee at 10 am.”

Troudi himself started his career as a computer technician. He soon made a U-turn back to the family trade.  Like Ben Sassi, he is part of Ben Gacem’s network of artisans. He has no lack of business—in no small part because the numbers of chaouachine are dwindling.

At 28, he is the Medina’s youngest traditional hat maker. One day, he fears, he may be its last.

“See that old man,” Troudi says, pointing to a colleague across from his workshop. “His son doesn’t want to work in the trade, so his store will shut. It’s a big problem.”

…

Contempt for regulators, airlines and their own colleagues coupled with a casual approach to safety: a series of emails by Boeing employees paint an unflattering portrait of a company culture of “arrogance” imbued with a fixation on cost-cutting.

The emails underscore the task awaiting incoming CEO David Calhoun when he takes the company’s reins on Monday, under intense pressure to restore public confidence — and that of aviation regulators worldwide — after two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX aircraft.

The emails were contained in some 100 pages of documents dated between 2013 and 2018 and transmitted to U.S. lawmakers by the Seattle-based aviation giant. The messages were seen by AFP after their release Thursday.

Often cutting, dismissive, mocking or cavalier, the messages show that Boeing’s current difficulties reach far beyond the 737 MAX, shining a light on a level of dysfunction that seems almost unimaginable for a company that helped democratize air travel — and which builds the US president’s iconic Air Force One airplane.

The emails show that Boeing tried to play down the role of its MCAS flight-control system in order both to avoid the costs involved in having to train pilots on the system in flight simulators and to speed the federal green-lighting of the MAX plane.

Investigators singled out the role of the MCAS (the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) in the fatal crashes of MAX planes flown by Indonesia’s Lion Air (Oct. 29, 2018) and Ethiopian Airlines (March 10, 2019).

Those crashes claimed 346 lives and led to the plane’s worldwide grounding last March.

“I want to stress the importance of holding firm that there will not be any type of simulator training required,” one Boeing employee messaged a colleague on March 28, 2017, a few months before the MAX received federal certification.

The message went on: “Boeing will not allow that to happen. We’ll go face-to-face with any regulator who tries to make that a requirement.”

A few months later, the same employee — a test pilot — bragged about having “save(d) this company a sick amount of $$$$.”

The names of most of the employees who sent the messages were blacked out.

‘I wouldn’t’

In 2018, several employees working on the MAX simulators complained of encountering numerous technical difficulties.

“Would you put your family on a MAX simulator-trained aircraft? I wouldn’t,” said a message sent in February 2018, eight months before the first crash.

“No,” a colleague agreed.

Two other employees said they were concerned about the impact on Boeing’s image at a time, they said, when the company’s leaders seemed obsessed with the idea of gaining ground on Airbus’s narrow-body A320neo.

“All the messages are about meeting schedule, not delivering quality,” one employee said.

A colleague replied: “We put ourselves in this position by picking the lowest-cost supplier and signing up to impossible schedules.

“Why did the lowest-ranking and most unproven supplier receive the contract? Solely because of the bottom dollar.”

Robert Clifford, a US lawyer representing victims’ families from the Ethiopian Airlines crash, said the Boeing culture led to “unnecessary and preventable deaths.”

“Excuses will not be heard,” he said in a statement on his law firm’s website.

‘Ridiculous’

The documents also show Boeing employees questioning the competence of the company’s engineers.

“This is a joke,” an employee wrote in September 2016, in a reference to the MAX. “This airplane is ridiculous.”

“Piss poor design,” said another, in April 2017.

And yet for decades Boeing was seen as representing the very best in aerospace engineering and design. It developed the 747, nicknamed the “queen of the skies,” and contributed to the Apollo program that sent man to the moon.

The aerospace company and its huge network of suppliers are goliaths of the U.S. economy.

In June 2018, one employee messaged his own analysis of the problem: “It’s systemic. It’s culture. It’s the fact that we have a senior leadership team that understands very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives” while not “being accountable.”

Michel Merluzeau, an analyst with Air Insight Research, said, “Boeing needs to re-examine an operational culture from another era.”

Greg Smith, Boeing’s interim chief executive officer, insisted that “these documents do not represent the best of Boeing.”

In a message to staff sent Friday and seen by AFP, he added, “The tone and language of the messages are inappropriate, particularly when used in discussion of such important matters.”

Some emails are dismissive of federal regulators, starting with those from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who approved the MAX.

“There is no confidence that the FAA is understanding what they are accepting,” an employee wrote in February 2016.

Nor were airlines spared.

“Now friggin’ Lion Air might need a sim(ulator) to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity,” an employee wrote in June 2017, more than a year before a 737 MAX crashed near Jakarta. “Idiots!”

Yet another employee, this one more somberly, wrote in February 2018: “Our arrogance is (our) pure demise.”

…

Libya’s rival governments committed to an internationally brokered truce that took effect Sunday, though immediate reports of violations by both sides raised concerns it might not stick.

The truce, which was proposed by Russia and Turkey, could be the first break in fighting in months, and the first brokered by international players. It comes as Libya is on the brink of a major escalation, with foreign backers of the rival Libyan governments stepping up their involvement in the oil-rich nation’s conflict.

It also comes amid a broader diplomatic push for a political solution to Libya’s war, which has crippled the country for more than seven years. The war has displaced hundreds of thousands and left more than a million in need of humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations and European powers, along with Libya’s allies in the region, have been calling for a peace summit to happen in Berlin early this year that would bring together the leaders of the rival governments, and possibly move the country closer to nationwide elections.

But it’s proven difficult to stop fighting on the ground.

The country’s U.N.-supported government said that it had recorded “violations” of the ceasefire minutes after it was supposed to take effect in the early hours of Sunday. The government did not specify what kind of violations in its written statement.

Meanwhile, a general for the opposing east-based forces said that his lines had also been targeted by several missiles. Brig. Gen. Khaled al-Mahjoub, who is in charge of mobilizing the east-based forces, said that some battalions had been the subject of “random” incoming shells. He said that the attacks were not large enough to warrant a response.

The Associated Press could not verify either of the sides’ claims, and as of midday Sunday that ceasefire appeared to be holding, if uneasily.

The last time both sides paused the fighting was for a very brief period in August during a Muslim feast day. But this time, both sides declared they’d observe the truce, with the east-backed forces led by ex-general Khalifa Hifter joining the agreement shortly before midnight on Saturday.

Libya is governed by dueling authorities, one based in the east and one in Tripoli in the west. Each rely on different militias for support. Both sides have different stipulations in order for the fighting to stop.

Fayez Sarraj, who is prime minister of the U.N.-supported government in Tripoli, has previously demanded that Hifter’s forces retreat from the capital’s outskirts and halt their offensive against it. Hifter and his allies, meanwhile, have called for the dissolution of militias fighting for Sarraj inside Tripoli. The conditions of neither are likely to be met.

Al-Mahjoub, who is in charge of mobilizing Hifter’s forces, ruled out any retreat from areas recently captured by their troops.

“Withdrawal is not on the table,” Mahjoub told The Associated Press. He said that group’s fighters will remain on guard in their positions, and will respond to any significant breaches.

Hifter’s east-based forces, the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, launched a fresh offensive to take the capital of Tripoli in April. The fighting sparked international efforts to try to contain the crisis in the North African nation.

In the last month, Hifter’s forces have made significant advances. Earlier this week, they captured the strategic coastal city of Sirte, the hometown of Libya’s longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin released a joint statement after a meeting in Istanbul calling for a Jan. 12 truce. They did not specify what the conditions would be. Both Russia and Turkey have been accused of exacerbating the conflict in Libya by giving military aid to its warring parties.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission welcomed the prospect of an end to the fighting. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya said in a statement that it hoped all parties would demonstrate “complete adherence” to its terms and stop the violence.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry issued a statement on Sunday saying the situation in Libya was “calm except for one or two isolated incidents.”

The east-based government, backed by Hifter’s forces, is supported by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia. The western, Tripoli-based government receives aid from Turkey, Qatar and Italy.

The fighting has threatened to plunge Libya into violent chaos rivaling the 2011 conflict that ousted and killed Gadhafi.

…

World leaders traveled Sunday to Oman to meet the country’s new sultan, named just a day earlier after the death of the nation’s longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles were among those who arrived in Muscat to meet Oman’s new ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said.

Other leaders included Kuwait’s ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, as well as Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the president of Yemen’s internationally recognized government, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, also visited.

Sultan Haitham was Oman’s culture minister before being named as the successor to Sultan Qaboos, the Middle East’s longest-ruling monarch whose death was announced Saturday. He died at the age of 79 after years of an undisclosed illness.

Sultan Haitham, 66, has pledged to follow Sultan Qaboos’ example of promoting peace and dialogue in the Mideast. Oman has served as an interlocutor between Iran and the U.S., which are facing a level of unprecedented tensions. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to Muscat on Sunday as well to meet Sultan Haitham.

Oman sits on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.

…

A first-term lawmaker whose father was Malta’s president has been chosen to be the country’s prime minister. The count on Sunday showed Robert Abela received nearly 58% of votes cast by members of the governing Labour Party eligible to choose the new leader.

Abela, 42, will replace Joseph Muscat, who is stepping down midway through his second term as prime minister amid demands for accountability over the 2017 murder of an anti-corruption journalist.

The date of the premier-designate’s swearing-in hasn’t been announced. He is scheduled to address the party Sunday afternoon.

A close aide to Muscat was questioned in connection with journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, denied wrongdoing and was released while still under investigation. A Maltese hotelier, who denies involvement, has been accused of complicity in the killing. Three other men, accused of triggering the car bomb, are under arrest.
Before being chosen as Labour leader, Abela said he would work to restore Malta’s reputation for rule of law.

European Union lawmakers had criticized the member nation’s judiciary and police.

Muscat had beaten Abela’s father in the race for the party leadership in 2008. George Abela was later appointed president, serving from 2009 until 2014.

…

Oman’s venerable ruler, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, who ruled his strategic Gulf emirate — adjacent to Iran — for nearly 50 years, has died after a long illness. The country’s royal family chose the late Sultan’s cousin, Haitham Bin Tariq, to succeed him, in accordance with his last testament.

Oman’s royal family met Saturday, following the death overnight of the late Sultan Qaboos, and appointed his cousin, Haitham Bin Tariq, to succeed him. The appointment was made after top family members and military officials read aloud the last testament of Sultan Qaboos.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Who Modernized Oman, Dies; Successor Named

By walking a line between Middle East rivals, Qaboos gave Oman influence beyond its size by; a cousin succeeds him

A military honor guard fired a ceremonial cannon to honor the late Sultan as his successor presided over the official transition.

Many of the hundreds of Omanis who lined the route of Sultan Qaboos’ funeral cortege broke into tears and sobbed as his body was taken to a royal cemetery for burial. Qaboos, who succeeded his father in a bloodless coup in 1970, was the only ruler most Omanis had ever known.

Qaboos, who studied at Britain’s famous Sandhurst Military Academy, fought a leftist insurgency when he first came to power, and he then presided over one of the more stable nations in the turbulent region. The late Sultan had no children.

Oman’s new sultan, Haitham Bin Tariq, told those gathered to hear his inaugural speech he would follow the path of his predecessor in foreign policy, which he said included “peaceful coexistence between peoples and nations, good neighborly relations, non-interference in the internal affairs of others, respecting the sovereignty of all nations, and cooperation with everyone.”

State Media: Oman’s Sultan Qaboos Dies

Qaboos had no children and had not publicly appointed a successor

Sultan Qaboos, whose family has governed Oman since 1741, made a point of keeping good relations with both Iran and all of his Gulf neighbors. He refused to take sides during Iran’s 8-year conflict with Iraq during the 1980s, and he maintained a neutral stance in the more recent conflict between Qatar and Gulf Cooperation Council neighbors Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Oman played a key role in mediation between the U.S. and Iran during negotiations on the 2015 nuclear accord (JCPOA) between the G-5 countries, plus Germany.

Washington-based Gulf analyst Theodore Karasik tells VOA the “passing of Qaboos is a major moment in the region … because of the influence the sultan projected, most of the time very quietly.” Karasik adds that he expects to see “the same pragmatism” under the new Sultan Haitham.

…

Authorities in Louisiana said Saturday said at least three people have died in connection with a severe storm that is sweeping across parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast.

The Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page that the bodies of an elderly couple were found near their demolished trailer by firefighters. A search for more possible victims was underway.

The Sheriff’s Office also said the roof of Benton Middle School was damaged and “that water damage from the sprinkler system has flooded many rooms.”

In Arkansas and Missouri, tornadoes destroyed homes and also caused damage in Oklahoma.

The national Storm Prediction Center said Friday more than 18 million people in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma were at an enhanced risk of storms Friday, including from strong tornadoes, flooding rains and wind gusts that could exceed 80 mph (129 kph), the speed of a Category 1 hurricane. The area included several major Texas cities including Dallas, Houston and Austin.

The storms also unleashed downpours that caused widespread flash flooding. Dallas police said one person died when a car flipped into Five Mile Creek west of downtown Dallas about 7 p.m.

Earlier in the afternoon, a tornado destroyed two homes near Fair Play, Missouri, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Springfield. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said no injuries were reported.

Shortly before 3 p.m., a tornado stripped the shingles from the roof of a home near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Tulsa. No injuries were reported there either.

What the NWS described as “a confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado” roared through parts of Logan County, Arkansas, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Fort Smith on Friday night.

At least three homes were destroyed by the Arkansas tornado, said Logan County Emergency Management Coordinator Tobi Miller, but no injuries were reported. Downed trees and power lines were widespread, she said.

Miller said the tornado skirted her home in Subiaco, Arkansas. She said she heard but couldn’t see the rain-wrapped twister in the dark.

Ahead of the storms, Dallas’ Office of Emergency Management asked residents to bring in pets, outdoor furniture, grills, “and anything else that could be caught up in high winds to reduce the risk of flying debris.”

Such strong winds are a key concern in an area at greatest risk: A zone that includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, the Storm Prediction Center warned. Weather service meteorologists in northern Louisiana said that such a dire forecast for the area is only issued two to four times each year, on average.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said boats, helicopters, medical and rescue teams had been placed on standby in case they are needed.

“I ask that all Texans keep those in the storm’s path and all of Texas’ first responders in their prayers as they deal with the effects of this storm,” Abbott said in a statement.

Wicked weather also will pose a threat to Alabama and Georgia as the system moves eastward on Saturday, forecasters said.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Friday the state was making necessary preparations ahead of the potential weather.

“At the state level, we continue to closely monitor this storm system, while making all necessary preparations,” Ivey said in a statement. “I encourage all Alabamians to do the same, stay weather aware and heed all local warnings.”

On Alabama’s Gulf Coast, Baldwin County canceled school activities including sporting events for Saturday. The weather service warned of flooding and the potential for 10-foot-high (3-meter-high) waves on beaches, where northern visitors escaping the cold are a common sight during the winter.

Heavy rains also could cause flooding across the South and part of the Midwest.

Many streams already are at or near flood levels because of earlier storms, and heavy rains could lead to flash flooding across the region, forecasters said. Parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were under flash flood warnings or watches on Saturday.

…