Author: Worldnews

A powerful earthquake hit off Japan’s northern coast on Thursday, but there were no reports of serious damage or injuries and no danger of a tsunami, officials said.

Japan’s meteorological agency said the quake measured a preliminary magnitude of 7 and was located far off the northeastern coast of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido. It was centered 60 kilometers (100 miles) below the ocean’s surface and east of Etorofu island, a Russian-held island that is also claimed by Japan.

NHK public television showed video monitors and shelves shaking at its office in Kushiro on the southeastern coast of Hokkaido.

Hokkaido prefectural police said they had received no reports of damage or injuries. Officials said the quake was unlikely to cause any because of its depth and distance from the coast.

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Pro-Trump groups raised more than $60 million in January and have more than $200 million on hand for this year’s general election, shattering fundraising records on the path toward a goal of raising $1 billion this cycle.

The Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s campaign have raised more than $525 million since the start of 2019 together with two joint-fundraising committees. The RNC and the Trump campaign provided the figures to The Associated Press. The January haul coincided with most of the Senate’s impeachment trial, which resulted in the Republican president’s acquittal earlier this month.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, “We already have 500,000 volunteers trained and activated, and this record-breaking support is helping us grow our grassroots army even more.”

Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Democrats’ “shameful impeachment hoax and dumpster fire primary process” have contributed to the “record-breaking financial support” for Trump’s reelection.

“With President Trump’s accomplishments, our massive data and ground operations and our strong fundraising numbers,” Parscale said, “this campaign is going to be unstoppable in 2020.”

The pro-Trump effort said it has gained more than 1 million new digital and direct mail donors since Democrats launched their push to impeach Trump in September 2019. The investigations proved to be a fundraising boon for Trump’s campaign, even as the president was personally frustrated by the scar it will leave on his legacy.

The Trump team’s haul and cash on hand were twice that of former President Barack Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee at the same point ahead of his 2012 reelection.
 

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 Japan’s health ministry says a woman infected with the new virus has died, becoming the country’s first confirmed fatality.

Health minister Katsunobu Kato announced Thursday that the victim is a woman in her 80s who had been treated at a hospital near Tokyo since early February after developing symptoms. Her infection was confirmed after her death.

Japan has confirmed 247 cases of the virus, including 218 from a cruise ship quarantined at the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo, amid growing fears of the spreading virus.

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75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we still see remnants of neo-Naziism in today’s society. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren marks the beginning of the end of the Holocaust with VOA reporter Auschwitz survivor Stanislav Zalewski; Gretchen Skidmore from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Oren Segal from the Anti Defamation League (ADL); and Christian Picciolini, a reformed neo-Nazi who was recruited at age 14. Air date: February 12, 2020.

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Shouting and crying, workers in an Indian denim factory struggled to claw their way up a ladder to a door, their only exit as a fire blazed through fabric and machinery, officials said. Seven people died in the weekend blaze, and families were still waiting Wednesday to recover their relatives’ bodies.

“Smoke kept billowing from the building as workers trapped inside screamed for help,” said a witness who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was worried he’d lose his job.

The factory where the fire occurred, Nandan Denim, has ties to major U.S. retailers, according to its website. Nandan says it supplies jeans, denim and other garments to more than 20 global brands including U.S. companies such as Target, Ann Taylor, Mango and Wrangler, and its sister company supplies Walmart and H&M.

Some of the U.S. and multinational companies listed on the website said they were not actually customers, and many issued statements that strongly condemned dangerous work sites. Nandan Denim is one of the largest denim suppliers in the world.

The fire broke out Saturday in its two-story factory on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, a fast-growing city of 8.6 million in western Gujarat state. The city’s industrial area, once covered with mountains of garbage, has slowly shifted into a hub for factories that make clothes sold to brands across the world.

Multiple violations

Rajesh Bhatt, a senior fire official at the scene, said the factory had just one door that could only be reached by climbing a steep ladder. The workers, Bhatt said, were resting after long shifts when the fire started.

“There were hardly any means of escape from the blaze,” he said.

Police investigators said the factory had violated multiple regulations and the owner, a manager and a fire safety officer have been arrested.

Local safety and health authorities asked the company to close until further notice. Its licenses have been suspended, and Nandan Denim has agreed to pay the families of those killed a reported $14,000 each.

Purvee, a factory spokeswoman who goes by only one name, did not explain how it started but called the fire “unfortunate.” Factory officials would not comment on whether they had undergone required audits and reviews.

Working conditions

Surviving workers, who are paid about 35 cents per hour, said conditions had been dangerous.

“We work almost 14 hours a day. But do we have an option?” said Vimalbhai, a textile worker who goes by one name. “Every once a while there is a fire in some factory or the other. Nobody cares and we keep on working.”

Some workers said they were given impossible assignments, stitching more than 400 pieces of garments a day. This forced many of them, mostly women, to work at a frantic pace, often forgoing meal breaks or using the toilet, survivors said.

One victim, Dayabhai Makwana, made it out alive, but went back in to rescue co-workers and perished.

“I wish he hadn’t gone back to save his colleagues,” said his grieving brother, Dhanabai Makwana. He said more than 30 workers were in the factory at the time of the blaze.

Sobbing families were still waiting Wednesday outside one of the city’s hospital mortuaries to identify bodies charred beyond recognition. They were told DNA confirmation would not come before Friday.

“We can’t even mourn our dead because we don’t know which one is ours,” said Mahesh Patel, whose nephew lost his life in the blaze.

Amar Barot of the Textile Labour Association said working conditions in the textile factories across the city are grim, with rare inspections and few safety norms.

“These incidents are irreversible and only strict monitoring by the government and its agencies can help prevent such disasters,” Barot said.

He also said labor unions across the region have been declining over the last few decades, making it difficult for the voices of workers to be heard.

Company ties

Some of the major brands contacted, including Ann Taylor, Target, Zara and Pull&Bear, said they are not customers and don’t have a relationship with Nandan Denim. Target said it is working to get its name off their website and out of their annual reports.

Because thread, fabric cutting, weaving and sewing can be done in different locations, apparel supply chains can be complicated and it becomes nearly impossible to track a specific item to a specific factory.

Joe Fresh, the fashion brand created for Canada’s Loblaw Companies Ltd., said Nandan is not a supplier and doesn’t make their goods. But company officials said they believe one of their approved suppliers has purchased bulk quantities of denim from Nandan, and they are further investigating. Target and others did not respond to queries about whether their authorized suppliers may have purchased denim from Nandan.

Zara’s parent company, Inditex, said Nandan Denim has produced 10,000 pairs of jeans for another of its brands, Lefties.

Nandan Denim’s sister company, Nandan Terry, supplies towels and linens to many U.S. stores including Walmart and H&M, according to ImportGenius shipping records. Those corporations said they would also look into the situation.

Kontoor Brands, maker of Wrangler jeans, said they last worked with the factory in 2014.

“Our thoughts are with the workers and their families impacted by the tragic situation,” Kontoor said in a statement.

Nandan Denim reported revenues of $218 million last year, and says it exports to more than 20 countries and has more than 4,500 employees. Shares of the company were tumbling after news of the fire.

Scott Nova, executive director of Washington-based Workers Rights Consortium, said, “It does not cost much to put fire exits in a textile factory.”

“Brands and retailers are well aware of the safety risks in the garment and textile industry in India, yet they choose to do business with unsafe suppliers,” he said. “The result is that workers are losing their lives in factory disasters that could easily have been prevented.”

Forty-three people died in a December fire at a factory which produced handbags, caps and other garments in New Delhi.
 

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Military activity and the humanitarian crisis both intensified Tuesday in the city of Idlib as Turkey and its allies clashed with Syrian forces, whose northward drive has rendered over a half-million Syrian civilians homeless since December.

Syrian government warplanes struck Idlib’s center Tuesday morning just hours after Turkish forces downed one of Syria’s Russian-made utility helicopters.

“I could not reach the helicopter crash location because the whole area is being bombed,” said Abd Albaset, a 32-year-old refugee from Ma’arat al-Nu’ man, who now works as a freelance war photographer in the embattled Syrian province. “The attacks on Idlib itself make it clear that nowhere in this area is safe.”

The opposition Syrian channel Orient TV claimed airstrikes killed 12 civilians and injured another 33 in the attack on downtown Idlib.

“Our teams documented the killing of 208 people in January, including 60 children and 28 women,” said Sayeed Mousa Zaidan, spokesman for the area’s civilian defense force commonly known as the “White Helmets.”

“In February, we retrieved the bodies of 127 people, 12 of them were today, after regime airstrikes on Idlib city. Northwestern Syria is witnessing the largest military campaign to date by [the Syrian] regime, Russian and Iranian forces,” Zaidan said.

Turkey is increasingly intent on blunting the offensive, which it claims is a complete violation of the 2018 de-escalation agreement it brokered with Moscow purporting to provide “safe zones” for Syria’s civilians.

On Monday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said that its forces, together with the allied opposition Syrian National Army, hit 115 Syrian government targets “neutralizing more than 100 of their personnel.”

“The recent deployment of Turkish military has significantly increased in the last two weeks both in terms of equipment and ground troops,” said Ammar Kahf, executive director of the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, a Syrian affairs research organization in Istanbul.

Kahf estimates that Ankara has committed over 5,000 ground troops along with heavy artillery and long-range missiles in the area, and that is not including the increase in weaponry for its allied Syrian National Army.

“This is the biggest build-up of force by Turkey so far, but it still seems within the defensive mode in terms of preventing the further advance of the regime into Idlib,” Kahf said. “They are trying to keep this zone out of [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad’s hands until after the implementation of a political process for Syria.”

But as the fighting escalates, social services in the area are grinding to a halt, despite renewed cross-border aid shipments.

“We count up the assault on civilian infrastructure, and it’s unprecedented,” said Isam Khatib, director of Kesh Malek, a local mutual aid organization. “In the past month alone, 11 medical facilities, 28 schools, seven refugee camps and nine groceries were bombed or shelled in northwest Syria. The regime also targeted five civil defense White Helmet centers, four bakeries, 19 mosques, three water stations, and two power plants.”

“As a result, our group made the tough decision to cease its education and anti-extremism programs after our staff fled for safety,” Khatib said.

The U.N. is warning that its means to cope are running thin.

“Since the beginning of December, some 689,000 women, children, and men have been displaced from their homes in northwest Syria. That’s more than 100,000 people in just over a week,” said David Swanson, U.N. regional spokesperson in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“This latest displacement compounds an already dire humanitarian situation in Idlib. Over 400,000 people were made homeless between the end of April and the end of August, many of them multiple times,” Swanson added.

The U.N. has released a new Humanitarian Readiness and Response Plan for northwest Syria, calling for an additional $336 million for the next six months to deal with the new wave of refugees.

“We need to provide more tents, plastic sheeting, stoves, warm clothes and fuel,” Swanson said.

Nighttime temperatures in Idlib are dipping below freezing, and the U.N. said the pressing need is for shelter to protect against the harsh winter conditions.

“A baby died today from the cold in my camp,” said Faisal Alhamoud, another refugee from Ma’arat al-Nu’ man, a town 40 kilometers south of Idlib that fell to government forces last month.

Alhamoud said about 35 refugees, including 15 children, have been killed by shelling at the makeshift camp, just 17 kilometers from the Turkish border.

“Many children are vulnerable to death as a result of the weather and the bombing, unless we provide them with help,” said Alhamoud, 35, a child welfare worker and father of six. “God will ask us about them on Judgment Day.”

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The polls are starting to close in New Hampshire in the nation’s first Democratic presidential primary of 2020, where the results could solidify Senator Bernie Sanders as the front-runner or further damage former vice president Joe Biden’s fading campaign.

But surprises have been a tradition in early primaries and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who had a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses, led after several of the smaller New Hampshire towns and villages began reporting results.

Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg emerged from Iowa tied for front-runner status.

But Sanders is the self-declared democratic socialist senator from neighboring Vermont and pre-election polls showed him leading Buttigieg in New Hampshire.

Senator Elizabeth Warren also hails from a neighboring state, Massachusetts, and shares many of Sanders’ progressive ideas. Some analysts are also forecasting a number of write-in votes for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg was not on the ballot in New Hampshire, preferring to concentrate on other states that will be up for grabs in the coming month. But Bloomberg has become a recent target of President Donald Trump’s criticism — a sign that he is starting to draw attention in a crowded field.

Trump Targeting Democratic Candidate Bloomberg

Even though Michael Bloomberg does not appear on the ballot in early states, President Donald Trump has him in sight as a formidable rival

Biden has already departed New Hampshire to campaign in South Carolina and seek support from black voters.

Biden finished a poor fourth in Iowa last week after being touted as the front-runner even before he declared his candidacy.

This is Biden’s third try for the White House. Despite his long experience as a senator and vice president under President Barack Obama, he has failed to stand out in a field that includes women, a democratic-socialist, billionaire entrepreneurs, a young Asian American — Andrew Yang — and the first openly gay candidate of a major party, Buttigieg.

Small, mostly white New Hampshire is hardly reflective of the racial and ethnic diversity of the United States as a whole, but its importance every four years at the start of the presidential election campaign is recognized by both Democrats and Republicans.  

The New Hampshire winner could gain an edge in the next two Democratic contests, in Nevada and South Carolina, which are scheduled for the last two Saturdays in February, ahead of 14 states voting on “Super Tuesday” March 3.

Taking on Trump

Meanwhile, Trump staged a Monday night rally for his supporters in snow-covered New Hampshire, where he criticized the Democratic field.

“They’re all fighting each other. They’re all going after each other,” Trump said. “They don’t know what they’re doing.”

U.S. Democrats say their chief aim in the long slog of state contests to pick a nominee to oppose Trump is to find the most likely choice who can defeat him. All of the Democratic challengers defeat Trump in hypothetical national matchups, but the margins have edged closer in recent surveys, with Trump taking credit for a strong U.S. economy and winning acquittal last week in the Senate on impeachment charges brought against him by Democrats in the House of Representatives.

New Hampshire Primary Voting

New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation U.S. presidential primary election is taking place, Feb. 11, 2020

All the Democrats are claiming they are best equipped to take on Trump.

“Let me start by asking you to form in your mind an image that I always ask voters to picture, because I picture it every day,” Buttigieg told his supporters at a Monday rally. “And it’s the image of what it’s going to be like the first time that the sun comes up over the mountains and lakes of New Hampshire and Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States.”

Sanders made his pitch at an early Monday rally, saying, “We are the strongest campaign to defeat Trump because of the nature of our campaign,” funded from a large network of small-dollar donors, which he contended was a sharp contrast with his rivals who have accepted contributions from wealthy donors.

“Unlike some of my opponents, I don’t have contributions from the CEOs of the pharmaceutical industry or Wall Street tycoons,” Sanders said in a clear attack on Buttigieg, who has accepted such donations and says he needs them to build a national political operation.

Warren retooled her campaign message after a third-place finish in Iowa and urged her supporters to not “look backwards.”

“Our democracy hangs in the balance. So it comes to you, New Hampshire, to decide,” she said. “When there’s this much fear, when there’s this much on the line, do we crouch down?  Do we cower? Do we back up? Or do we fight back? Me — I’m fighting back.”

Biden argued in a Monday speech that Trump inherited a robust economy from his former boss, President Obama.

“Trump’s going to tell us over and over again the economy is on the ballot this year,” Biden said. “It sure is. And I’m going to make sure he understands it’s on the ballot because working class and middle class people are getting clobbered. But something else is on the ballot. Character is on the ballot. The character of this country is on the ballot.”

In Iowa, state Democratic officials said Buttigieg took 14 of the 41 delegates up for grabs to the party’s July national nominating convention in Milwaukee, followed by Sanders with 12, Warren with eight, Biden six and Klobuchar one.
 

…

Leaders in Afghanistan say the United States has made “notable progress” in ongoing peace talks with representatives of the Taliban that are taking pace in the Gulf state of Qatar.  

President Ashraf Ghani tweeted late Tuesday he had received a call from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, sharing with him the latest developments in the turbulent U.S.-Taliban peace process aimed at ending the 18-year-old Afghan war.

“The Secretary informed me about the Taliban’s proposal with regards to bringing a significant and enduring reduction in violence,” said President Ghani, without elaborating.

The nearly 18-months of U.S.-Taliban peace talks lately have bogged down over Washington’s demands for the insurgent group to significantly cut Afghan violence in return for an American troop drawdown in the country.  

The Taliban’s refusal, however, to go beyond its proposed weeklong scaling back of insurgent operations until an agreement is signed with the U.S. has in recent days halted progress in the dialogue process.

Last week, Pompeo demanded “demonstrable evidence” the Taliban would reduce violence before signing a deal.

Ghani’s statement after his conversation with Pompeo on Tuesday suggested the insurgents had reviewed their traditional stance to break the impasse in the peace process.

There was no immediate reaction from the Taliban.

Separately, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said Secretary Pompeo also called him and discussed the progress made in talks with the Taliban talks.   

Abdullah noted in a statement that Pompeo “expressed optimism that a reduction in violence and progress with current talks could lead to an agreement that would pave the way for intra-Afghan talks leading to durable peace.”

Analysts were quick to underline the importance of Tuesday’s calls between Afghan leaders and Secretary Pompeo.

“Looks like U.S.-Taliban deal is imminent. That will be the biggest milestone by far in 10 years of off-and-on efforts to launch an Afghan peace process,” tweeted Laurel Miller, a former U.S. State Department envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Taliban and U.S. negotiators are due to meet Wednesday in the Qatari capital of Doha. The meeting, insurgent sources say, could lead to the announcement of a deal to de-escalate battlefield violence between Taliban and U.S.-led foreign troops as a first step toward the signing of a final peace deal.  

Under the proposed peace agreement negotiated by Taliban and American officials, the insurgents would be bound to engage in intra-Afghan negotiations on a nationwide cease-fire and post-war power-sharing in Afghanistan.

“The next stage — the negotiations among Afghans that are supposed to come next — will be much more complex and could well take longer. A U.S.-Taliban agreement is an important prelude but will only have enduring significance if intra-Afghan talks produce a real peace deal,” said Miller, currently the director of Asia program at the International Crisis Group.

The conflict in Afghanistan started in 2001 when a U.S.-led military coalition invaded the country and ousted from power the Taliban rulers at the time for sheltering al-Qaida leaders. The Taliban has since waged a deadly insurgency, and it currently controls or contests nearly half of Afghan territory.  

Afghan civilians, however, bear the brunt of the war, which has killed or injured more than 100,000 civilians in the last 10 years alone, according to the United Nations.  

…

Voters in the northeastern U.S. state of New Hampshire are casting ballots Tuesday in the Democratic primary as candidates look to build early momentum in the race to oppose President Donald Trump in the November national election.

Just after midnight, voters in Dixville Notch made the first selections in the state, with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg getting two votes in the Democratic primary, followed by one vote each for Sen. Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

In a curious twist, Bloomberg, who in his political career has been a Democrat, Republican and independent, also got a write-in vote as a Republican.  Thus far, the billionaire has focused his campaigning on states later in the voting calendar and with a huge emphasis on television advertising.

Polls in most areas open later in the morning, and results are likely Tuesday evening.

The contest in New Hampshire has taken on added consequence in the aftermath of a split vote in last week’s Iowa caucuses that were remembered mostly for the agonizingly slow release of the final outcome that was linked to a wrongly coded app used in collecting vote totals from throughout the farm state.

In the end, Buttigieg edged Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, in Iowa.

Pre-election polls showed Sanders ahead of Buttigieg in New Hampshire. Three other contenders are also hoping for a good showing in Tuesday’s vote: former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, all of whom trailed the leaders in Iowa.

Small, mostly white New Hampshire is hardly reflective of the racial and ethnic diversity of the United States as a whole, but its importance every four years at the start of the presidential election campaign is recognized by both Democrats and Republicans.  

The New Hampshire winner could gain an edge in the next two Democratic contests, in Nevada and South Carolina, which are scheduled for the last two Saturdays in February, ahead of 14 states voting on March 3.

Meanwhile, Trump staged a Monday night rally for his supporters in the snow-covered state where he criticized the Democratic field.

“They’re all fighting each other.  They’re all going after each other,” Trump said.  “They don’t know what they’re doing.”

U.S. Democrats say their chief aim in the long slog of state contests to pick a nominee to oppose Trump is to find the most likely choice who can defeat him. All of the Democratic challengers defeat Trump in hypothetical national matchups, but the margins have edged closer in recent surveys, with Trump taking credit for a strong U.S. economy and winning acquittal last week in the Senate on impeachment charges brought against him by Democrats in the House of Representatives.

All the Democrats are claiming they are best equipped to take on Trump.

“Let me start by asking you to form in your mind an image that I always ask voters to picture, because I picture it every day,” Buttigieg told his supporters at a Monday rally.  “And it’s the image of what it’s going to be like the first time that the sun comes up over the mountains and lakes of New Hampshire and Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States.”

Sanders made his pitch at an early Monday rally, saying, “We are the strongest campaign to defeat Trump because of the nature of our campaign,” funded from a large network of small-dollar donors, which he contended was a sharp contrast with his rivals who have accepted contributions from wealthy donors.

“Unlike some of my opponents, I don’t have contributions from the CEOs of the pharmaceutical industry or Wall Street tycoons,” Sanders said in a clear attack on Buttigieg, who has accepted such donations and says he needs them to build a national political operation.

Warren retooled her campaign message after a third-place finish in Iowa and urged her supporters to not “look backwards.”

“Our democracy hangs in the balance.  So it comes to you, New Hampshire, to decide,” she said.  “When there’s this much fear, when there’s this much on the line, do we crouch down?  Do we cower?  Do we back up?  Or do we fight back?  Me — I’m fighting back.”

At a speech Monday night, Biden, making his third run for the Democratic presidential nomination, argued that Trump inherited a robust economy from former President Barack Obama, when Biden was his vice president.

“Trump’s going to tell us over and over again the economy is on the ballot this year,” Biden will say. “It sure is. And I’m going to make sure he understands it’s on the ballot because working class and middle class people are getting clobbered.  But something else is on the ballot.  Character is on the ballot.  The character of this country is on the ballot.”

Klobuchar, who finished fifth in Iowa and won praise for her performance at a Friday night candidates debate, said she is seeing a “surge of support” in New Hampshire. Two polls had her moving ahead of Biden and Warren into third behind Sanders and Buttigieg.

“A lot of people did not think that I was going to make it through the summer or make it to that debate stage, but I more than made it to the debate stage.  And since that debate, our campaign has been surging,” she said Monday.

In Iowa, state Democratic officials said Buttigieg took 14 of the 41 delegates up for grabs to the party’s July national nominating convention in Milwaukee, followed by Sanders with 12, Warren with eight, Biden six and Klobuchar one.

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Journalists in disputed territorially Kashmir urged the Indian government on Monday to allow them to report freely and expressed concern about alleged police harassment since the region’s semi-autonomy was rescinded in August amid an unprecedented lockdown.

The Kashmir Press Club, an elected body of journalists in the region, said security agencies were using physical attacks, threats and summons to intimidate journalists. The group said the government should “ensure freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed in the constitution instead of muzzling the press.”

On Saturday, police summoned two journalists for questioning in Srinagar for reporting about a strike call issued by the pro-independence Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front. The Kashmir Press Club denounced the police action.

“The harassment and questioning of journalists in Kashmir on flimsy grounds” by the police is “a damning verdict on the appalling condition in which media is operating,” the group said in a statement.

It also criticized restrictions on the internet and surveillance by police, calling them “tools designed and aimed to ensure only the government-promoted version is heard.”

India’s decision to strip the region of its special status in August brought journalism to a near halt in Kashmir. A communications shutdown affected media operations, and most newspapers published in Srinagar, the region’s main city, have been unable to issue online editions.

Foreign journalists have been denied permission to visit the Himalayan region.

India is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, a global media watchdog.

The conflict over Kashmir began in the late 1940s, when India and Pakistan won independence from the British Empire and began fighting over their rival claims to the region.

Since 1989, a full-blown armed rebellion has raged in the Indian-controlled portion seeking a united Kashmir — either under Pakistani rule or independent of both countries. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.

About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and an Indian military crackdown.

…

Nicaragua’s best-known daily newspaper La Prensa is aiming to expand its page count and possibly re-hire some laid-off newsroom staff after an 18 month government-enforced blockade of newsprint supplies.

Nicaraguan customs officials on Thursday agreed to release an impounded shipment of ink and paper after a communications channel between the government and the country’s only remaining national newspaper was reopened.

According to news wires, the government’s decision came just days after the Vatican’s top diplomat in Managua intervened on La Prensa’s behalf.

The breakthrough came just days after a La Prensa editorial warned that the newspaper’s days may be numbered.

“Nicaragua would be the only country in the world that would not have a printed newspaper,” said the storied publication’s editorial board, which has long been an irritant of President Daniel Ortega.

2018 seizure

La Presna’s imported newsprint shipments were seized in August 2018, shortly after the paper repeatedly called Ortega a dictator following deadly police crackdowns on a wave of anti-government protests over cuts to social security and calls for his resignation.

Ortega’s government labeled the uprising a U.S.-financed coup attempt, and its violent response claimed more than 320 lives.

“We have not offered anything in return to the government [for the surprise release of print materials],” said La Prensa Director Jaime Chamorro, whose family bought the publication in 1932, just six years after it was founded.

La Presna editor Eduardo Enrique said the seizure forced rationing of newsprint, cutting its standard 36-page daily edition down to eight pages, sacrificing ad revenue and forcing newsroom-wide layoffs.

Over the weekend, La Prensa executives said they plan conduct a market study to determine how many pages they can print in light of their economic losses. Enrique, who now leads of newsroom of 25 journalists that produce multiple publications, also said they’re planning to rehire newsroom personnel lost during the blockade, although he did not give a specific number.

A storied history

“La Prensa used to have a big newsroom with more than 70 journalists,” said Emiliano Chamorro, who was laid off after a 25-year career covering political and religious affairs for La Presna.

“It’s the most important newspaper in the country,” he said. “With more than 94 years of history, the newspaper has survived three dictatorships—two of Somoza, and the first one of Daniel Ortega in the 80s.”

Nicaraguan government officials did not respond to requests to explain why they retained the materials or what prompted them to free it.

Part of broader press clampdown

The violent unrest of 2018 was followed by a severe clampdown on independent media, in which Ortega’s security forces raided news outlets and imprisoned journalists.

Since that time, more than 100 journalists have fled the country in the wake of threats, beatings and arbitrary detentions, according to a July 2019 statement by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

Ortega, whose own family presides over a vast media empire, has repeatedly offered assurances that all Nicaraguans enjoy unrestricted freedom of personal expression.

“In Nicaragua there is an absolute freedom of religion and expression,” the president said during a recent presidential speech.

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of independent newsweekly and TV channel Confidencial, told Voice of America he hopes the released paper and ink will be followed by a return of confiscated news facilities, including his 100% Noticias television newsroom.

La Prensa executives say they anticipate printing a full edition in coming weeks, but that they must first assess the quality of the recently released paper, newsprint reel, and plate cylinders.

Washington-imposed sanctions on Nicaragua for human rights violations followed the 2018 unrest, which aimed to pressure Managua into easing restrictions on various organizations.

According to Reuters, Michael Kozak, the Acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said on Twitter that “the long-overdue decision to release @laprensa’s paper & ink from Nicaraguan customs is a step in the right direction.”

Managua-based El Nuevo Diario shut down in September after government officials impounded their newsprint supplies. Leaders of both El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa have accused Ortega’s government of de facto censorship and “economic asphyxiation” for editorials critical of his administration’s response to the 2018 protests.

A report by the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation recorded some 420 press violations between April and October 2018. 

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranks Nicaragua 114 out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, a 24-point drop from its 2018 ranking.

“The persecution of independent media outlets has become much more intense since the political crisis intensified in April 2018,” the report states. “…Although the environment is now extremely violent, non-aligned media outlets cannot afford the bulletproof vests and other protective equipment that their reporters need when covering demonstrations.”

This story originated in VOA’s Latin American Division (( https://www.voanoticias.com )). Some information is from Reuters.

…

Syrian government forces killed five Turkish soldiers and wounded five more on Monday in an attack on a Turkish military post in the Taftanaz area of northwest Syria, broadcaster NTV cited the Turkish Defense Ministry as saying.

Turkey has sent major reinforcements to Syria’s Idlib region where the attack occurred, as Ankara tries to stem rapid advances by Syrian government forces. Turkish officials told Reuters Turkish forces were retaliating after the latest strike.

The Syrian government offensive in Idlib, the last major enclave of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, has driven more than half a million people from their homes towards the closed Turkish border, threatening a new humanitarian crisis.

A rebel source said Syrian government forces had shelled the military base at Taftanaz, and witnesses said Turkish helicopters flew into northwest Syria to evacuate the wounded.

A rebel commander said the insurgents launched a military operation on Monday against the Syrian army near Saraqeb with the help of Turkish artillery, with witnesses also reporting Turkish shelling of Syrian military positions in the region.

Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, says it cannot absorb any more and has demanded Damascus pull back in Idlib by the end of the month or face Turkish action.

…

KANO, NIGERIA — Jihadists killed at least 30 people and abducted women and children in a raid in northeast Nigeria’s restive Borno state, a regional government spokesman said on Monday.

The attack Sunday evening targeted the village of Auno on a key highway linking to regional capital Maiduguri.

The jihadists stormed in on trucks mounted with heavy weapons, killing, burning and looting before kidnapping women and children, state government spokesman Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi said.

They aimed at travelers who had stopped for the night and torched vehicles.

The attackers “killed not less than 30 people who are mostly motorists and destroyed 18 vehicles,” Bundi said in a statement after visiting the scene.

The attack, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Maiduguri, occurred in an area where fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been active, mounting roadblocks to target security forces and civilians.

Witnesses said jihadists set alight 30 vehicles in the raid, including trucks that had stopped overnight on their way to Maiduguri.

“Many of the drivers and their assistants who were sleeping the vehicles were burnt alive,” civilian militia fighter, Babakura Kolo told AFP.

The jihadists combed through the village, looting and burning shops and property before withdrawing, he said.

Auno lies on the 120-kilometre highway linking Maiduguri to Damaturu, a major regional city in neighboring Yobe state.

The highway has been increasingly targeted by ISWAP militants in recent months.

The surge has followed the creation of so-called “super camps” by the Nigerian military in the northeast — a strategy under which small army camps have withdrawn from several areas and combined into fewer, larger bases.

Last month, four Nigerian soldiers were killed and seven injured when the jihadists attacked troops positioned in Auno.

The decade-long Islamist insurgency has killed 36,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes in northeast Nigeria.

The violence has spread to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the insurgents.

…

A Russian delegation returned to Turkey on Monday for further talks over rising tensions in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, after an initial round last week failed to yield results, Turkey’s foreign minister said. An airstrike in a nearby rebel-held region, meanwhile, killed nine people including children, opposition activists said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air cover, have been advancing into the last rebel-held areas of Idlib and nearby Aleppo countryside, seizing dozens of towns and sparking a large-scale humanitarian crisis with some 600,000 people fleeing from their homes toward safer areas near the border with Turkey.

Most of the displaced are living in open-air shelters and temporary homes in freezing winter conditions close to the border. Half of the displaced are believed to be children.

The fighting led to the collapse of a fragile cease-fire that was brokered by Turkey and Russia in 2018. The two countries back opposing sides in the Syrian war: Turkey supports the Syrian rebels, while Russia has heavily backed the Syrian government’s offensive.

Turkey sent hundreds of military vehicles and troops into Idlib province in the past week. The buildup and the continued government advances sparked a rare clash on Feb. 3 between Turkish and Syrian soldiers that killed eight Turkish military personnel and 13 Syrian troops. Turkey has warned Syria to retreat to the cease-fire lines that were agreed in 2018.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish and Russian delegations exchanged proposals over the situation in Idlib during a first meeting in Ankara on Saturday. On Monday, the Russian team returned to Ankara from a visit to Jordan, for further discussions, he said.

“If a compromise had been reached there would have been no need for today’s meeting,” Cavusoglu told reporters. He said the Turkish and Russian leaders could step in if no compromise is reached.

Syria’s military has vowed to keep up its campaign.

The early morning airstrike on the village of Ibbin in Aleppo province killed nine people, including six children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the Step news agency, an activist collective. At least 10 people were also wounded in the airstrike.

The Syrian government’s campaign appears to be aimed at securing a strategic highway in rebel-controlled territory for now, rather than seizing the entire province and its the densely populated capital, Idlib.

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media released a map of the area of fighting showing that Syrian troops only have 15 kilometers (9 miles) left from seizing full control of the strategic highway, know as M5. The highway links the national capital of Damascus with the country’s north, which has for years been divided between government and opposition forces.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded Monday in a Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least four people and wounding 15 others, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The attack was the latest in a series of explosions in Turkish-controlled regions that have killed and wounded scores of people. Turkey has blamed the attacks on on the Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Protection Units.

The bomb went off on a main street in the town of Afrin, which Turkey took control of following a military incursion in 2018, Anadolu reported. It said some of the wounded were in serious condition, adding that the death toll was likely to rise.

The Turkish offensive has aimed at pushing Kurdish fighters away from the border. Those Kurdish fighters had been key U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.

…

Democratic presidential contenders jabbed at each Sunday two days ahead of the crucial New Hampshire party primary, attempting to undercut each others’ credentials to take on Republican President Donald Trump in the November national election.

Both former Vice President Joe Biden, now in a fight for his political life, and ex-South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg both claimed on ABC News’ “This Week” show that the race against Trump will be more difficult to win if Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of the leading Democratic contenders, is the Democratic nominee because he is a self-declared democratic socialist.

New day-to-day tracking polling in the rural northeastern state showed Sanders leading Buttigieg in a top pairing, with Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in a clear second tier standing and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota trailing further in fifth.

Tuesday’s vote comes a week after Buttigieg edged Sanders in the farm state of Iowa at Democratic caucuses in the race for eventual delegates to the party’s July national presidential nominating convention, with the other three candidates trailing well behind.

Buttigieg claimed that “it’ll be a lot harder” for Democrats to oust Trump from the White House after a single term with Sanders heading the ticket if they are forced to democratic socialism to voters.

Still, Buttigieg said, “I’d be the most progressive president we’ve had in a half century.”

Biden said that a Sanders-led ticket would be “a bigger uphill climb” to defeat Trump.

With the Democrats continuing their fight among themselves for the right to take on Trump, the president on Sunday basked again in his acquittal last week on two impeachment charges, retweeting praise from supporters and criticizing Democrats.

“The Dems are crazed, they will do anything. Honesty & truth don’t matter to them. They are badly wounded. Iowa vote count was a disaster for them!,” Trump said.

Biden, Sanders and Warren all attacked Buttigieg, who a year ago was an unknown political figure throughout the country. Until recently he was the mayor of  a city of 100,000 people, the fourth largest in the Midwest state of Indiana. With his Iowa win, he will be the first openly gay presidential candidate to win delegates for the national party nomination.

Biden, citing his long experience in Washington as his calling card to take on Trump, belittled Buttigieg’s South Bend mayoral experience and said he “hasn’t been able to unify the black community” in the city. In the U.S., African-Americans overwhelmingly vote for Democratic presidential candidates, but in 2016 a lower than expected black turnout hurt Hillary Clinton’s chances against Trump.

Buttigieg said that on his first day in the White House if he is elected, he would initiate “a systemic plan” to curb racism in the country.

Buttigieg has collected campaign funds from billionaires, saying he needed the donations in order to build a national political operation, but both Warren and Sanders, who have relied on smaller donations, attacked Buttigieg for the practice.“

The coalition of billionaires is not exactly what’s going to carry us over the top,” Warren said on ABC. “The way I see it now right now is that we have a government that works great for a thinner and thinner slice at the top. That’s been true for decades and it’s gotten worse and worse and worse.”

She said that the national government is run by billionaires “that make big campaign contributions or reach in their own pockets like Michael Bloomberg does. If it’s going taking sucking up to billionaires or being a billionaire to get the Democratic nomination to run for president, then all I can say is, ‘Buckle up America,’ because our government is going to work even better for billionaires and even worse for everyone else.”

Her reference to Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York, comes as he has spent a reported $250 million of his own money to campaign first for the Democratic nomination in the 14 states that are voting in party contests on March 3, while skipping the four Democratic elections in February, including New Hampshire.

Sanders assailed Buttigieg’s fundraising on the “Fox News Sunday” show, saying, “Here’s the problem, everybody knows this, whether you’re a conservative or progressive: It is the billionaires and the  big money interests that control what goes on what goes on politically, what goes on legislatively in this country.”

“And if you do as Mayor Buttigieg does, take huge amounts of contributions from the CEOs of the pharmaceutical industry, from financiers in fossil fuel industry, from the insurance companies, from Wall Street, does anybody seriously believe you’re going to stand up to the powerful interests and represent working people?” Sanders said.

He said he is “enormously proud of the fact that my campaign today, as of today, has received more campaign contributions from more people, averaging all of $18.50 than any candidate in the history of the United States of America. We are a campaign of the working class, by the working class, and for the working class.”

Sanders asked rhetorically, “Do you think when the CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies contribute to your campaign that you are really going to take them on? I think common sense suggests that when you take money and you are dependent on billionaires, you’re not going to stand up to them and you’re not going to effectively represent working families.”

…

A man carrying a knife was arrested outside the White House after he told a U.S. Secret Service officer that he was there to kill the president, police said.

Roger Hedgpeth, 25, was arrested Saturday afternoon on a charge of making threats to do bodily harm, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

Hedgpeth approached a Secret Service officer who was patrolling outside the White House and said he was there to “assassinate” President Donald Trump and “I have a knife to do it with,” according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press.

Police found a 3 1/2-inch knife in a sheath on his left hip, and Hedgpeth also had an empty pistol holster on his right hip, authorities said.

Hedgpeth was taken into custody and brought to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, police said. Officers also impounded his vehicle.

A telephone number listed for Hedgpeth in public records rang unanswered on Sunday. It wasn’t immediately clear where he lives or whether he had an lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

…

Local and parliamentary elections have begun successfully in French-speaking areas of Cameroon but things are slow going in the English-speaking zones of the central African country where separatists fighters warned residents not to vote. Several election staff have been attacked. Cameroon president Paul Biya has encouraged and congratulated those who voted.

Hundreds of voters line up at the polling station at Government Bilingual Primary School Bastos in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, to vote in the central African nation’s local and parliamentary elections. Among those who voted in the early hours of the morning was Cameroon President Paul Biya. He says Cameroonians should come out massively and vote and should not listen to people he describes as detractors of his country’s democracy.

He says he is very delighted and satisfied to have performed his civic responsibility and that he is calling on all citizens to ignore calls from some political parties to boycott the polls. He says as far as he is concerned, the elections indicate that democracy is progressing and is now inevitable in Cameroon.

Biya was reacting to some political parties like the Cameroon People’s Party that had been calling for the cancellation of the elections in favor of a transition which will put an end to his regime. The Cameroon Renaissance Movement Party was also leading protests for the elections to be canceled.

Separatist fighters have vowed that the elections will not take place in the two English-speaking regions of the country and imposed a travel ban in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest.

Emmanuel Acha, a 54-year-old English teacher who escaped from his northwestern village of Bafut, says he voted because he believes the Cameroon parliament needs committed people who can solve the separatist crisis in the English-speaking regions.

“I am particularly pleased to have accomplished my civic duty. This is the greatest weapon for peace and development. The greatest weapon to bring back normalcy,” he said.

As many rushed to vote in the French-speaking regions, the turn out in the English- speaking Northwest and Southwest regions was very poor as many people were either scared of separatist threats or heeded calls on them not to vote.

Deben Tchoffo, governor of the English-speaking regions pleaded with voters to conquer fear and assured the population of their safety.

“I am appealing to all the citizens of the Northwest region to go to the polling stations to vote for our municipal counselors, for our parliamentarians. Those are the key persons that are going to implement the special status agreed upon after the major national dialogue,” he said. “I am also asking everybody, mainly the youths of the north west region to come out massively to vote.”

The special status governor Deben Tchoffo was referring to creates assemblies of chiefs, regional assemblies and regional councils for the two English-speaking regions, with each of them having elected presidents.

Many civilians have escaped from the English-speaking regions where there were battles between the military and rebels. The civilians said they did not believe the government will be able to protect them.

Early Sunday the government said suspected separatists torched a public building that hosted polling stations in the English-speaking northwestern town of Bafut. No one was wounded.

A military convoy transporting elections material to the English-speaking towns of Jakiri and Kumbo came under heavy attack from separatists in the village of Sabga on the night of the election.

…

Three months ago, Wuhan resident Zhang Yi was sitting next to two local Hubei province reporters at a restaurant. He overheard them talking about the Provincial Party Committee secretary, who was upset about a news story. The official told the reporters negative stories would no longer be published. 

A month later, a mysterious virus started spreading though Wuhan’s residents, causing pneumonia-like symptoms. 

In early January, Chinese officials called this new virus “preventable and controllable.” They said they had seen “no evidence of person-to-person transmission.” Throughout the week of January 11, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission published the same number of confirmed cases: 41. 

Those official statements failed to convince Zhang. In his mind, he kept hearing what he’d overheard the reporters talking about in the restaurant. 

Zhang talked to VOA right after authorities locked down Wuhan on January 23. That’s when the official number of confirmed cases and deaths was 571 in 25 provinces and 17 in Hubei province where Wuhan is the capital. Media reports on Saturday said the toll had topped 800. 

“When the epidemic first started, I knew the published statistics were not real,” he said. 

Zhang could see just how much the lockdown had upset people he knew. “They are relatively furious now. I was warned [by police] … but right now I must speak out. I must speak even if they are going to lock me up. If I don’t do it now, I may never get another chance.” 

On February 3, another Wuhan resident emailed VOA. He identified himself as Ming. Many people in China prefer to use pseudonyms online so they can speak without fear of being identified by authorities. 

Ming had just spent five days by his father’s bedside in a hospital in Wuhan. That was their last time together. 

According to Ming, his father was infected by the new coronavirus in mid-January after he checked in at Wuhan Union Hospital for a routine annual examination scheduled to take several days. 

The hospital is one of two dozen designated for coronavirus treatment. After a day or two Wuhan Union, Ming’s father began showing coronavirus symptoms and tested positive. 

Medical authorities transferred Ming’s father to the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital, where he died on January 29. 

“It’s so miserable that my dad just lost his life like that. It’s so tragic,” said Ming in a video he posted on YouTube and shared with VOA. 

Even though he wasn’t supposed to be in the virus ward, Ming was holding his father’s hand when he died. What happened next still worries Ming. Employees of the official crematorium whisked the body away. 

Ming was told to come and pick up the ashes 15 days later. Ming told VOA he’s worried the ashes won’t be his father’s remains because the crematorium is overwhelmed by the quickly escalating death toll. 

“There are many people like me in Wuhan. The virus killed many. I saw people die every day. Many families have fallen apart,” a devastated Ming said in the video. “My dad worked hard and contributed to the country for his whole life. Now he is dead, we didn’t see his body, we can’t hold a memorial service, nobody came for a farewell.” 

Online comments expressed sympathy for Ming and anger at government officials for their response to the outbreak. 

On February 4, Xu Zhangrun, a former law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, published a long article about the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. The article, “Furious People No Longer Fear,” went viral online before censors removed it. 

In the article, Xu said the coronavirus epidemic was causing a nationwide panic. He criticized the authorities’ confusion and the time they lost in responding, which caused ordinary people to suffer and China to become “an isolated island in the world.” 

Xu said the Chinese people’s anger “has erupted like volcanos. Furious people are not scared.” 

This was not Xu’s first harsh condemnation of China’s leadership. In July 2018, he criticized President Xi Jinping’s strongman rule in an article published on the website of the Unirule Institute of Economics, a liberal think tank in Beijing. Tsinghua University suspended Xu in March 2019 and the government closed Unirule in September. 

As expected, censors pulled Xu’s article on the outbreak. Unexpectedly, screenshots of the article disappeared when shared. Even using WeChat, China’s most popular messaging app, the screenshots were not displayed on the receivers’ phones. 

Outside China, beyond The Great Firewall, many readers hailed the article. 

Others spoke of Xu’s courage. Some, however, wondered if Xu overestimated “the anger of Chinese people.” Or as one reader posted: “As long as it doesn’t hurt them directly, most Chinese people just repeat, ‘Wuhan, stay strong. China, stay strong,’ and go about their lives.” 

Chu Wu contributed to this report, which originated in VOA’s Mandarin service. 

…

Libya’s warring parties will continue talks this month to try to reach a lasting cease-fire in a war for control of the capital, Tripoli, the United Nations said Saturday, after a first round in Geneva recently failed to yield an agreement. 

The U.N. hosted indirect talks between five officers from the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar, which has been trying to take Tripoli since April, and the same number from forces of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli. 

Fighting has calmed down since last month, although skirmishes with artillery have continued in southern Tripoli, which the LNA has been unable to breach in its campaign. 

Both sides had agreed to continue the dialogue, with the U.N. proposing a follow-up meeting on February 18 in Geneva, the U.N. mission to Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement. 

It said the two sides wanted people displaced by the war to return but had been unable to agree on how to achieve this, without elaborating. 

There was no immediate comment from either side in the conflict. 

Blockade

UNSMIL gave no update on efforts to end a blockade of major oil ports and oilfields by forces and tribesmen loyal to the LNA. 

On Thursday, U.N. Libya envoy Ghassan Salame said he had talked to tribesmen behind the blockade and was awaiting their demands. 

He also said the blockade would be at the top of the agenda at a meeting in Cairo on Sunday between representatives from eastern, western and southern Libya seeking to overcome economic divisions in a country with two governments. 

Diplomats said the Cairo meeting would be mainly attended by technical experts to prepare a wider dialogue to be followed in coming months. 

In a sign that a reopening of ports might not be imminent, tribes and communities in oil-rich areas in eastern Libya held by the LNA said in a statement that they opposed resuming oil exports unless Tripoli was freed of militias, a demand of the LNA. 

Withdrawal of Syrians 

They also demanded the withdrawal of Syrian fighters sent by Turkey to help defend Tripoli against the LNA, which enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Russian mercenaries. 

Furthermore, they called for what they described as a fair distribution of oil revenues, another demand of the LNA and people in the east, where many complain of neglect going back to Moammar Gadhafi, toppled in a 2011 uprising that plunged Libya into chaos. 

State oil firm NOC, which is based in Tripoli and serves the whole country, sends oil revenues to the central bank, which mainly works with the Tripoli government although it also pays some civil servants in the east. 

…

Israel has begun to draw up maps of land in the occupied West Bank that will be annexed in accordance with U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday. 

“We are already at the height of the process of mapping the area that, according to the Trump plan, will become part of the state of Israel. It won’t take too long,” Netanyahu said at an election campaign rally in the Maale Adumim settlement. 

Netanyahu said the area would include all Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley — territory that Israel has kept under military occupation since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war but that Palestinians want in a future state. 

“The only map that can be accepted as the map of Palestine is the map of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital,” said Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. 

Prospects for annexations, which have already been widely condemned, are unclear. 

Election in March

Israel will hold a national election on March 2 and Netanyahu, who is facing criminal corruption charges, is hoping to win a fifth term in office. He presently heads a caretaker government, whose legal authority to annex territory is still undecided by judicial authorities. 

Settlers make up part of Netanyahu’s right-wing voter base and many members of his coalition cabinet view the West Bank as the biblical heartland of the Jewish people. 

Most countries consider Israeli settlements on land captured in war to be a violation of international law. Trump has changed U.S. policy to withdraw such objections. 

Palestinians say the settlements make a future state nonviable. Israel cites security needs as well as biblical and historical ties to the land on which they are built. 

Two-state plan, with conditions

Trump’s plan envisages a two-state solution with Israel and a future Palestinian state living alongside each other, but it includes strict conditions that Palestinians reject. 

The blueprint gives Israel much of what it has long sought, including U.S. recognition of settlements and Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. 

A redrawn, demilitarized Palestinian state would be subject to Israeli control over its security and would receive tracts of desert in return for arable land settled by Israelis. 

Right after Trump presented the plan on January 28, Netanyahu said his government would begin extending Israeli sovereignty to the settlements and the Jordan Valley within days. 

But Washington then appeared to put the brakes on that and Netanyahu has since faced pressure from settler leaders to annex territory despite any U.S. objections. 

…

Three days before the critical New Hampshire primary, seven Democratic presidential candidates debated, with many of them fighting to survive in the race to challenge President Donald Trump.

Here are some key takeaways.

Mayor Pete makes his case

Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend., Ind., was the candidate of the moment Friday. All eyes were on him Friday night to see if he could make his case.

And he did — with one significant stumble.

Attacked for his thin resume, Buttigieg shot back, “If you’re looking for the person with the most years of Washington, D.C., experience under their belt, that candidate is not me.” He promoted his youth compared with the lawmakers onstage talking their achievements from decades ago.

“We cannot solve the problems before us by looking back,” Buttigieg said. “We have to be ready to turn the page.”

A former military intelligence officer, Buttigieg seemed comfortable discussing foreign affairs, such as the Trump administration’s killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. 

“There is no evidence that that made our country safer,” he said, adding later, “This is not an episode of ‘24.’”

But Buttigieg’s trouble spot has long been race. Asked about a spike in arrests of black people for marijuana possession in his city after he became mayor, Buttigieg began to decry systemic racism but seemed to acknowledge he couldn’t escape it in the city that he ran.

Sanders under attack

It didn’t take long for the candidates to make clear whom they saw as the front-runner. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was piled on by competitors fighting to become the moderate alternative to the self-declared democratic socialist.

There were two lines of attack: Sanders’ uncompromising liberal positions and, specifically, his proposal to immediately have the federal government take over the entire health care system.

The most notable punch was thrown by Buttigieg, who said Democrats will have a problem working to “unite this country at a moment when we need unification when our nominee is dividing people.” Asked if he meant Sanders, he said yes.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar scoffed at Sanders’ health care proposal. Former Vice President Joe Biden noted that Sanders says he has no idea how much his proposal could cost, though experts have put it at least $30 trillion.

But he showed a characteristic durability. In the deeply divided field, Sanders is now leading in many polls by virtue of that following.

Biden bounced back?

After his disappointing showing in Iowa, Biden was fighting to survive. Sometimes it didn’t seem like it, but Biden also displayed flashes of the fire and emotion that have traditionally endeared him to Democratic voters.

Offered a chance early to swing at his two main rivals — Sanders and Buttigieg — Biden opened by basically admitting he was going to lose New Hampshire.

“Bernie won by 20 points last time,” Biden said softly. His criticisms of Sanders and Buttigieg weren’t nearly as sharp as those offered by other candidates. Biden’s had difficulty talking about the GOP investigation into his own son that triggered Trump’s impeachment and that has coincided with the former vice president’s slide in the polls.

The former vice president was left asking the crowd to give a standing ovation to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was led out of the White House hours earlier. Vindman had testified in December before Democrats investigating Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

Biden, 77, was more energized in the later hours of the debate. He was visibly enraged at Trump’s dismissive comments on U.S. casualties during the Iranian retaliation for the U.S. killing of an Iranian general. He sharply attacked Sanders over the Vermont senator’s earlier support for gun rights, defended his long record on the Supreme Court and promoted his historic support from African-Americans.

But it’s not clear whether his performance will quell worries.

No Warren plan for breaking through

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren invested deeply in neighboring New Hampshire as a key part of her 2020 run, but she struggled to find a standout moment as she begins to make her final case to the state’s voters.

Warren skipped a chance to differentiate herself more from Sanders, a fellow progressive whom she calls a longtime friend. Given the chance to create some distance, Warren said, “We have a lot of things in common, we have a lot of things that we differ on.”

She quickly shifted to making a party unity plea and echoing her stump speech lines about big money in politics and corruption.

“We bring our party together, it’s an issue we can all agree on and fight to end the corruption,” Warren said. “We’re the Democrats. We should be the party on the side of hardworking people and we can bring in independents and Republicans on that. They hate the corruption as well.”

Warren also did little to explicitly come to Sanders defense as her Vermont rival was attacked by the more moderate candidates over his prized Medicare for All policy goal, an idea Warren supports.

Klobuchar made a mark

Klobuchar was quick with the quips as she tried to gain an edge in the primary’s moderate lane. She repeatedly made a virtue of her ability to compromise and work with Republicans. There was an urgency to her presentation, with good reason: She needs an upset in New Hampshire.

She hit familiar notes of criticizing Medicare for All as she touted her Midwestern appeal and legislative success in the Senate. Klobuchar’s plea boiled down to making a case for Democratic sensibility as a break from the smash-mouth nature of Trump’s presidency.

“I didn’t come from money,” Klobuchar said, insisting voters “want to have someone that they can understand” in the White House.

Steyer’s fiery play … for South Carolina

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer does not have much of a chance in New Hampshire. So he used the debate to make a strong appeal to African American voters in South Carolina, where his campaign has invested heavily and black voters make up two-thirds of the primary electorate.

The billionaire noted that well into the debate, “we have not said one word tonight about race.”

“Are you kidding me?” he asked as a discussion of race ensued.

He added later, “I am for reparations to African Americans in this country and anyone who thinks that racism is a thing of the past and not an ongoing problem is not dealing with reality.”

Yang not burdened

Businessman Andrew Yang was not burdened by low expectations. He was at ease and having fun on the debate stage Friday night, even though his chances to win New Hampshire, let alone the Democratic nomination, are minuscule.

He bounced onto the stage without a tie, in stark contrast to his more buttoned-up male rivals.

But Yang was largely left out of the heated exchanges that simmered through the debate, focusing instead on stepping back and looking at the larger picture.

“Donald Trump is not the cause of all of our problems,” Yang said. “And we are making a mistake when we act like he is. He is a symptom of a disease that has been building up in our communities for years and decades.”

The elephant in the room

Two words were spoken Friday night that have rarely come up on the trail or in earlier debates: Mike Bloomberg.

The former New York mayor and multibillionaire is skipping the early nominating states and instead spending hundreds of millions on Super Tuesday states with far more delegates at stake.

A viewer-submitted question asked why the candidates were better than Bloomberg.

“I don’t think anyone ought to be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be president of the United States,” Warren said.

“I just simply don’t think people look at the guy in the White House and say, ‘Can we get someone richer?”’ Klobuchar said.

“There are millions of people who can desire to run for office but I guess if you’re worth $60 billion and you can spend several hundred millions of dollars on advertising you have a slight advantage,” Sanders said.

The responses were clear signals that they take Bloomberg seriously.
 

…

Suicides in the active-duty Air Force surged last year to the highest total in at least three decades, even as the other military services saw their numbers stabilize or decline, according to officials and unpublished preliminary data.

The reasons for the Air Force increase are not fully understood, coming after years of effort by all of the military services to counter a problem that seems to defy solution and that parallels increases in suicide in the U.S. civilian population.

84 Air Force suicides

According to preliminary figures, the Air Force had 84 suicides among active-duty members last year, up from 60 the year before. The jump followed five years of relative stability, with the service’s yearly totals fluctuating between 60 and 64. Official figures won’t be published until later this year and could vary slightly from preliminary data.

Air Force officials, who confirmed the 2019 total, said they knew of no higher number in recent years. Data and studies previously published by the Pentagon and Air Force show that 64 suicides in 2015 had been the highest total for the Air Force in this century. A 2009 Air Force study said suicides between 1990 and 2004 averaged 42 a year and never exceeded 62.

“Suicide is a difficult national problem without easily identifiable solutions that has the full attention of leadership,” Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, said in a statement. He said the Air Force is focused on immediate, midterm and long-range solutions to a problem faced throughout the military.

Suicide risk factors are often thought to include stress related to deployment to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013 concluded, based on an assessment of current and former military personnel over a seven-year period, that combat experience and other deployment-related factors were not associated with increased risk of suicide. Instead the study’s results pointed to numerous other factors, including being male, engaging in heavy or binge drinking, and bipolar disorder.

Suicides across the services

Although only the Air Force saw a major increase last year, all the services have struggled with higher suicides since about 2005-2006, which coincided with a cycle of exceptionally stressful deployments to Iraq for the Army and Marine Corps. The Pentagon encourages service members and veterans in need of help to contact the Military Crisis Line.

The Navy last year saw its active-duty suicides rise by four, to 72, and the Marine Corps total dropped by 10, to 47. All the 2019 numbers include confirmed and suspected suicides and are subject to revision based on further medical review. It is not uncommon for a service’s total to get adjusted up or down after further review, but any changes are slight.

The Army declined to reveal its 2019 preliminary total, but The Associated Press determined it was little changed from the previous year’s 139. The Army’s figure is typically the highest in the military because it is by far the biggest service, with about 480,000 soldiers on active duty this year, compared with about 332,000 in the Air Force.

The Air Force in the mid-1990s pioneered a suicide prevention program that was seen as effective, and at various times since the U.S. became entangled in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan the other services have seen troubling increases in their suicide numbers. The Marine Corps, for example, saw its numbers jump from 37 to 57 between 2016 and 2018.

Progress sought

Maj. Craig W. Thomas, a Marine Corps spokesman, said the Marines want further progress after recording 10 fewer active-duty suicides last year. He said unit leaders are encouraged to speak openly with their Marines about stress, mental wellness and suicide.

“When leaders and mental health programs and resources acknowledge that ‘everybody struggles with life, trauma, shame, guilt and uncertainty,’ it helps make asking for assistance more acceptable,” Thomas said.

Last year, the Air Force went public with its concerns as it saw its suicide numbers rising. Last summer, Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, ordered a “resilience tactical pause” across the force to foster open discussion within the service about suicide prevention. In a July 31 letter, he wrote: “Hopeful to hopeless. What is going on? It is our job to find out.”

Answers are elusive, but the Air Force says the Goldfein “pause” jump-started an effort to promote “connectedness” among airmen.

The military, whose population is generally younger and more fit than America as a whole, is quick to note that suicide is a problem throughout society. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 1999 through 2017, the nation’s suicide rates increased for both men and women, with bigger percentage increases occurring after 2006.

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A U.S. citizen in Wuhan, China, has died from the new coronavirus, officials at the American Embassy in Beijing said Saturday.

The embassy said that the 60-year old American died Feb. 6 in Wuhan. A Japanese citizen is also reported to have died in Wuhan of viral pneumonia, likely caused by the coronavirus, although that has not been confirmed.

The United States says it offering up to $100 million to China and other countries affected by the deadly coronavirus to combat its spread, as the death toll rises in China to 722.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the announcement Friday.

“This commitment – along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector – demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak,” he said.

Trump praises Xi

Earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to combat the coronavirus as Xi faced mounting domestic criticism following the virus-related death of a physician who issued an early warning about the outbreak.

After a Friday telephone conversation with Xi, Trump praised China’s response and said Xi was leading “what will be a very successful operation.” Trump then continued to applaud Xi on Twitter, describing him as “strong, sharp and powerfully focused.”

“Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!” Trump added. 

Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2020

China’s official account of Friday’s conversation did not include references to Chinese complaints of the Trump administration’s reaction to the outbreak that included being the first country to close its diplomatic office in Wuhan and order diplomats to leave the country.

Anger at doctor’s death

The death of a Chinese doctor who was censored by Communist Party authorities after warning of a new, then-unidentified virus in December has triggered an outpouring of online anger at party authorities for its tight control on information about the crisis.

Police had accused Dr. Li Wenliang, who died Friday morning local time at Wuhan Central Hospital, of “spreading rumors online” and “severely disrupting social order.”

However, Li was widely praised by many, including by China Center for Disease Control chief scientist Zeng Guang.

“A hero who released information about Wuhan’s epidemic in the early stage, Dr. Li Wenliang is immortal,” Zeng wrote on the Sina Weibo microblog page.  

The ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily wrote on Twitter, “We deeply mourn the death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang … After all-effort rescue, Li passed away.”

In response to the uproar in China over the government’s treatment of Li, the Communist Party announced Friday it would send a team to Wuhan — the epicenter of the outbreak — to “fully investigate relevant issues raised by the public.”

WATCH: Efforts Intensify to Halt Coronavirus’ Spread

Rising death toll

Officials in China said the death toll by the end of Friday was 722 while new cases jumped to 31,774. The death toll has now surpassed the number of deaths from the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak in China and Hong Kong.

Chinese President Xi has declared a “people’s war” on the coronavirus outbreak, as the death toll grows by the day.

“The whole country has responded with all its strength to respond with the most thorough and strict prevention and control measures, starting a people’s war for epidemic prevention and control,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quotes Xi as saying.

China’s Xi Declares ‘People’s War’ on Coronavirus

Death toll has surpassed 600, with more than 30,000 others affected

The World Health Organization says it is too early to confirm one Chinese official’s belief that the outbreak is about to peak.

There are about 150 confirmed cases in at least 23 other countries, including one death in the Philippines — the first outside of China — and one death in Hong Kong.

Cruise ships

Forty-one new cases were confirmed by Japan aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, moored off Japan, raising the total to 61. The 3,700 passengers, who are confined aboard this ship, face a 14-day quarantine. Fourteen days is the virus’ incubation period.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said foreign passengers on another ship carrying about 2,000 people will not be allowed to enter Japan. Abe said virus-infected passengers may be on board, while the operator of Holland America’s Westerdam denied anyone was infected. The ship is currently near Ishigaki, an island of Okinawa.

About 3,600 passengers are stuck aboard another ship remains off the Hong Kong coast, with three cases on board.

Hong Kong has shut down nearly all land and sea border crossings with the Chinese mainland after more than 2,000 medical workers walked off the job earlier this week. The city announced it would quarantine arrivals from mainland China beginning Saturday. 

Taiwan announced Thursday it was banning all international cruise ships from docking at the island.  

A U.S. State Department-charted plane carrying Americans who evacuated from Wuhan landed Friday morning at a military base in Southern California. A second chartered plane with Americans on board was scheduled to arrive at a military base in Northern California later Friday. The returning Americans are being quarantined for 14 days and watched for signs of the illness.

The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency and is appealing for $675 million to fight the virus.

WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday the world is experiencing a “chronic shortage of personal protective equipment, such as masks and gowns.” Ghebreyesus said he was searching for potential solutions.

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In just one day, the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in China grew by almost 4,000 and the death toll climbed by nearly 75.  As the virus continued to spread Thursday, the World Health Organization said it’s still too early to tell if the virus outbreak has peaked, even though on Wednesday the overall number of new cases dropped for the first time.  VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo has more

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French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday advocated a more coordinated European Union defense strategy in which France, the bloc’s only post-Brexit nuclear power, and its arsenal would hold a central role.
    
Addressing military officers graduating in Paris, Macron set out his country’s nuclear strategy in a bid to show leadership one week after nuclear-armed Britain officially exited the EU.
    
Macron highlighted how France sees its nuclear weapons as a deterrent against attacks from belligerent foes, though he conceded France’s nuclear might is diminished after its military scaled down its arsenal to under 300 nuclear weapons.
    
But the speech aimed to project strength, as Macron refused to sign any treaty at this stage to further reduce the French arsenal, announced an increase in military spending and positioned himself as the driving force for a united EU, using France’s military clout to make his point. Macron also touted the French military’s role in spots such as Africa’s Sahel, where he has just pledged an additional 600 troops to fight extremists.
    
The central idea in the keynote speech, however, was that of a boosted Europe-wide role for the French nuclear arsenal in a more coordinated European defense policy.
    
Macron said it the strategy would prevent Europe “confining itself to a spectator role” in an environment dominated by Russia, the United States and China.
    
“Europeans must collectively realize that, in the absence of a legal framework, they could quickly find themselves exposed to the resumption of a conventional, even nuclear, arms race on their soil,” Macron warned.
    
His remarks come at a time when NATO allies, who would ordinarily look to the United States for help  in a nuclear standoff, worry about Washington’s retreat from the multilateral stage. This could create new tensions within NATO, where Macron ruffled feathers last year by saying the lack of U.S. leadership is causing the “brain death” of the military alliance.
    
Last year, Russia and the US pulled out of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, dating  from the era of the Soviet Union, and each blamed the other for its failure. Evoking the tearing-up of the INF treaty, Macron said he wanted the Europeans to propose their own “international arms control agenda together.”
    
Friday’s speech was  part of Macron’s long-running push for a stronger European defense, as U.S. President Donald Trump has pulled away from European allies and admonished them to pay more for their own protection.
    
Macron explained his vision as “an offer of dialogue” and “service” to Europeans to assert their autonomy “in defense and arms control.”

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The death of a doctor who was reprimanded for warning about China’s new virus triggered an outpouring Friday of praise for him and fury that communist authorities put politics above public safety.
   
In death, Dr. Li Wenliang became the face of simmering anger at the ruling Communist Party’s controls over information and complaints that officials lie about or hide disease outbreaks, chemical spills, dangerous consumer products or financial frauds.
   
The 34-year-old ophthalmologist died overnight at Wuhan Central Hospital, where he worked and likely contracted the virus while treating patients in the early days of the outbreak.
   
“A hero who released information about Wuhan’s epidemic in the early stage, Dr. Li Wenliang is immortal,” the China Center for Disease Control’s chief scientist, Zeng Guang, wrote on the Sina Weibo microblog service.
   
Police in December had reprimanded eight doctors including Li for warning friends on social media about the emerging threat. China’s supreme court later criticized the police, but the ruling party also has tightened its grip on information about the outbreak.
   
Weibo users have left hundreds of thousands of messages below Li’s last post.
   
A post by one of Li’s coworkers, an emergency room nurse, said the freezing Wuhan weather was “as gloomy as my mood.”
   
“To you, we are angels and so strong. But how strong a heart can watch the people around me fall one by one without being shocked?” wrote Li Mengping on her verified account.
   
Others placed blame for the deaths on Chinese officials, not an animal species from where the virus might have spread, and said those who made trouble for the doctor should face consequences. The most pointed online comments were quickly deleted by censors.
   
The ruling party has faced similar accusations of bungling or thuggish behavior following previous disasters. They include the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a 2005 chemical spill that disrupted water supplies to millions of people in China’s northeast, sales of tainted milk that sickened thousands of children and the failure of private finance companies after the global economic crisis.
   
In each case, officials were accused of trying to conceal or delay release of information members of the public said they needed to protect themselves.
   
The party often responds by allowing the public to vent temporarily, then uses its control of media and the internet to stifle criticism. Critics who persist can be jailed on vague charges of spreading rumors or making trouble.
   
On the streets of Beijing, the capital, residents expressed sadness and said that China should learn from Li.
   
“He is such a nice person, but still didn’t pull through,” said Ning Yanqing. “Those left do not dare to speak out. Alas, I don’t know what to say.”
   
Some online comments Friday hinted at broader dissatisfaction with the party and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has tightened controls on society since taking power in 2012.
   
The most powerful Chinese leader since at least the 1980s, Xi gave himself the option of remaining president for life by changing the Chinese constitution in 2018 to remove a two-term limit.
   
Referring to one of Xi’s propaganda initiatives, a message that circulated on social media said, “My `Chinese Dream’ is broken.”
   

In Wuhan, local leaders were accused of telling doctors in December not to publicize the spreading virus in order to avoid casting a shadow over the annual meeting of a local legislative body.
   
As the virus spread, doctors were ordered to delete posts on social media that appealed for donations of medical supplies. That prompted complaints authorities were more worried about image than public safety.
   
Li was detained by police after warning about the virus on a social media group for his former classmates.
   
The latest episode is unusually awkward for the ruling party because Li was a physician, part of a group who are regarded as overworked, underpaid heroes who are China’s line of defense against a frightening new disease.
   
“He showed a responsible attitude toward the society,” said Cai Lin, a Beijing resident.
“He is honest and faithful. So I think the whole society should reflect on this.”
   
The World Health Organization, which has complimented China’s response to the outbreak, said in a tweet that “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did on” the virus.
   
The official propaganda apparatus tried Friday to mollify the public.
   
“Some of Li Wenliang’s experiences during his life reflect shortcomings and deficiencies in epidemic prevention and control”’ said state television on its website.
   
The Chinese ambassador to Washington, Cui Tiankai, said in Twitter, a service the ruling party’s internet censorship blocks the public from seeing, “Really saddened by the death of Dr. Li Wenliang. He was a very devoted doctor. We are so grateful to him for what he has done in our joint efforts fighting against (hash)2019nCoV.”
   
The government announced a team from Beijing would be sent to Wuhan to investigate “issues reported by the masses involving Dr. Li Wenliang.”

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