Author: CensorBiz

Argentina has recorded Latin America’s first COVID-19-related death — a 64-year-old man who had a range of underlying conditions and was diagnosed with the virus after a trip to Europe. Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica have also reported confirmed cases, and are closely monitoring travelers and reinforcing preventive and testing measures. VOA’s Cristina Smit reports.
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Ing Chhorvy sits in a two-room condominium in Phnom Penh’s upscale Tuol Kork district. The 38-year-old mother of five is neither the owner of the condo nor does she live there, but the developer wants mortgage payments for the posh unit her cousin owns.Ing Chhorvy is worried about her children’s future after the arrest of her cousin, Ven Rachana, who went by Thai Srey Neang on Facebook and owns the condo.”The important thing is that she is the breadwinner of the family. When she is imprisoned, what else do we have?” said Ing Chhorvy, who lives in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sangke commune.Ven Rachana sold women’s clothes and cosmetics on a Facebook page called the Thai Srey Neang Online Shop. Every day, she posted pictures of her products or went live on Facebook to sell them.She is one of the many Cambodians who use Facebook, a platform synonymous with the internet in Cambodia, to sell items from food products to medications with almost everything under the sun in between.The sellers can be seen on Facebook working hard to find buyers. They model their products for viewers, answer viewer queries and then direct potential buyers to payment methods.However, on February 18, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a clampdown on female online sellers for dressing too “sexy” while selling their products. The prime minister was speaking at the National Council of Women when he ordered the police to raid the homes of female online retailers, purportedly because they were sullying Khmer culture.”As described in Khmer literature, the Khmer woman must remain virtuous to uphold the image of her family,” Online seller Thai Srey Neang was arrested by National Police of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Feb. 20, 2020. (Courtesy Photo)According to police reports, a day before Ven Rachana’s arrest, she had been summoned to a local police station and “educated” about her clothing choices. The police then had her sign an agreement to refrain from posting “sexy” pictures and videos. In a video posted to Facebook by the police, she apologizes for wearing clothing “which disgraces Khmer traditions” and “affects the honor of Cambodian women,” according to Amnesty International. But that night Ven Rachana resumed her allegedly provocative sales pitches on Facebook, leading to her arrest shortly after. Released hours later, police said Ven Rachna was re-arrested after posting a photo of herself in her underwear hours after being released.Authorities have charged her with pornography under Cambodia’s 1996 Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. They also charged Ven Rachna with exposure of a sex organ under Article 249 of the Criminal Code, according to Amnesty International. She was then sent to pretrial detention in Phnom Penh’s CC2 prison. The combined charges could result in up to 15 months’ imprisonment, according to Amnesty.Van Meta said the family requested leniency for their breadwinner.”We were trying hard to make this request, but they didn’t release her,” said Ven Meta, 42, whose two daughters live with Ven Rachana.Ven Meta said she was worried about mounting expenses, especially outstanding payments for the condominium, which now totaled around $2,000.The condo developers have started “to ask for money, saying that if there is nobody living there or is not paying the money, they will not let us to keep the home,” Ven Meta said, adding that before her arrest, Ven Rachana lived in the condo with the two nieces and two sales assistants.Hun Sen’s order has come under scrutiny from human rights groups. His assertion that “sexily” dressed women were aggravating the issue of sexual exploitation came under fire as a case of “victim-blaming.” Victim-blaming suggests that the victim rather than the perpetrator bears responsibility for an alleged crime. Amnesty International’s Regional Director Nicholas Bequelin said, “These transparently trumped-up charges are an affront to gender equality and make a mockery of the rule of law. The arbitrary nature of Ven Rachna’s arrest and the discriminatory abuse of her freedom of expression represent a troubling regression in the state of women’s rights in Cambodia.”A coalition of women’s rights advocates and groups released a statement February 19 questioning the legal basis to arrest or even educate women for their choice of clothing, and suggestions that women’s appearance in public affected Khmer culture.”Furthermore, there is no deep study to prove that the way of woman dressing clothes is the cause of creating the deficit of social morality,” the statement read.Seng Reasey, executive director of the local rights group, Silaka, questioned how a celebrity could post pictures in a bikini and not upend so-called social morality, but that someone lower on the socioeconomic ladder could be arrested for dressing “sexy” and affecting cultural and societal norms.”When they are celebrities, it seems to be no problem. Or is this done because action is being taken against someone of a different status,” said Seng Reasey, adding that neither the bikini-clad celebrity nor the online seller should face criminal action.Suong Nary, 25, just started her own online business on Facebook, selling products such as lotions. She said she was concerned by Ven Rachana’s arrest and imprisonment but was quick to add that she did not use “sexy” sales tactics on her Facebook page.A successful business “depends on our words and our products, which are the main requirements to make sales,” she said. “I don’t believe that we have to do Facebook Live.”Back in Tuol Kork, Ing Chhorvy is keen for Ven Rachana to be released and resume selling products on Facebook, her mounting economic desperation seemingly making it hard for her to consider that her cousin could go back to jail.  “We hope that there is someone coming to help, so she can be released soon,” she said. “If she comes, we will be able to continue our living because we have many children.”
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Rights groups are urging Zimbabwe’s government to investigate the case of an activist who went missing five years ago. Itai Dzamara was a fierce critic of the late president Robert Mugabe and his former deputy, now president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. As Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, the family is still looking for answers.
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In the Democratic presidential race, another round of primaries on Tuesday looms as a crucial test in what has become a two-man nomination race between former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.  A total of six states hold nominating contests on Tuesday, and VOA National correspondent Jim Malone in Washington has more on what is at stake.
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In the past week, one Kenyan died and 12 others were wounded in when two rival military factions from Somalia fought in Kenyan territory. Locals say the Jubbaland militia had crossed into Kenya a month earlier, pursued by the Somali military. Analysts warn that continued tensions between the two countries are threatening broader security in the region. About two months ago, 47-year-old Noor Ahmed found a stray camel in Mandera, a town in northeastern Kenya. He assumed it came from a nearby Somali village, but he dared not return it.Noor Ahmed says Kenyan security forces closely monitor the border, making it difficult for villagers on both sides to cross.It is for that reason that Ahmed wonders how Jubbaland forces, a militia allied to a fugitive regional Somali security minister, were able to cross into Kenya, leading to a gun battle between them and the Somali army on Kenyan soil.“This is a risk exposed to us by our government. We are supposed to have been protected, our lives and property by the republic of Kenya,” Ahmed said. “What is happening is that there is no protection on the border line. I am living 500 meters from the border to Somalia, there is no school, there is no commercial activity, there is not even communication.”In the aftermath of the clash, Kenya’s president accused Somalia of a “flagrant breach” of Kenya’s territorial integrity. Kenya sent a delegation to Mogadishu to meet with the Somali president Sunday.The two countries have also been feuding over a piece of the Indian Ocean covering 100,000 square kilometers.  In addition, Somali militant group al-Shabab carries out frequent attacks on both sides of the border.Security analyst George Musamali says these disputes have revealed a fraught relationship that may have a negative impact on security in Somalia, the region and beyond.“Of recent, ever since we had Mohammed Farmajo becoming the president of Somalia, we have seen strained relationship between Kenya and Somalia especially the Mogadishu government and Nairobi,” Musamali said. “The suspicion by Mogadishu has been, Kenya in supporting Juba land was somehow sabotaging security and peace in Somalia. This has been the bone of contention and then the maritime issue came up.”The clash between Somali forces in Kenya signals a fluid security situation that terror groups can take advantage of, according to analyst Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad.“If foreign troops inside Kenya are crisscrossing under the watch of the government, what will be of the lives of the people at the border? Al-Shabaab are celebrating right now, because once they have seen the relationship between Kenya and Somalia is worsening by the day, they can get their weapons and easily lay havoc in Kenya and Somalia because there is no security collaboration between Kenya and Somalia because of the tensions,” said Abdisamad.Kenya has for decades been an ally of Somalia, hosting thousands of Somali refugees during and after the Somali civil war.In 2011, Kenya sent troops into Somalia to fight al-Shabab.
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Two American soldiers were killed by “enemy forces” in Iraq Monday, a statement by the military said.The service members were killed “while advising and accompanying Iraqi Security Forces during a mission to eliminate an ISIS terrorist stronghold in a mountainous area of north central Iraq,” said a statement by Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF- OIR) —  the headquarters responsible for overseeing U.S. and coalition efforts against Islamic State.The military has not yet released the names of the victims pending notification of next of kin.The United States maintains more than 5,000 troops in Iraq to train and support Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State. 
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Afghanistan’s president-elect Ashraf Ghani and his election rival, runner-up Abdullah Abdullah, took part in parallel swearing-in ceremonies Monday, fueling political tensions and posing a fresh challenge to U.S.-led peace efforts.Both ceremonies were initially delayed, apparently to allow for hectic U.S. diplomacy to resolve the crisis.  However, after several hours the inaugurations began.Ghani was the first to take the oath, in a ceremony shown live, where among other foreign guests were U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. commander of international forces Scott Miller.Abdullah also was sworn in in a ceremony in his office, with both cermonies broadcast live by all afghan televeisoin stations, some showing the two on split screens. The Afghan election commission late last month declared incumbent Ghani the winner of the bitterly contested September 28 presidential election. But Abdullah, the incumbent chief executive, rejected the outcome as fraudulent, claiming that he and his team had won the vote and threatened to form his own government.Monday Abdullah tweeted his determination to move forward:  “No one should have underestimated our commitment to genuine democracy & our resolve to uphold rule of law. Our track record of self-denial & compromise should not have given cause to anyone to take us for granted. Invalidation of all fraudulent votes is the way out!”Ghani and Abdullah both have come under sharp criticism from Afghan politicians and public who have taken to social media to express their outrage. “This mockery of a dignified and brutalized nation by a handful is weakening Afghanistan,” tweeted Hekmat Khalil Karzai, former Afghan deputy foreign minister.“Their actions are an insult to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation. Afghanistan needs to be shielded from those responsible for this tragic comedy,” lamented Karzai, currently chairman of the Center for Conflict and Peace Studies (CAPS) in Kabul.  The political turmoil poses a serious challenge to a landmark deal the United States signed with the Taliban insurgency a week ago to help bring stability to Afghanistan.  The agreement signed February 29 in Qatar requires the Taliban to open negotiations with an inclusive Afghan delegation of political forces and civil society, and negotiate a permanent cease-fire. The intra-Afghan talks are to begin Tuesday, but the inauguration crisis, analysts say, is likely to hamper efforts aimed at forming a united Afghan delegation to engage in talks with the Taliban. Both Ghani and his traditional rival Abdullah also had claimed victories in the 2014 fraud-marred presidential election, leading to months of political chaos in the country.  Washington’s intervention at the time had settled the dispute under a deal that allowed Ghani to become the president and Abdullah to head a newly formed office of the chief executive of the outgoing so-called national unity government of Afghanistan that was plagued by deep political rivalries and controversies throughout its tenure.
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Sudan’s prime minister survived an assassination attempt Monday after an explosion went off near his convoy in the capital of Khartoum, Sudan’s state media said.Abdalla Hamdok’s office and his family confirmed he was safe following the explosion. Sudanese state TV said Hamdok, a longtime economist, was heading to the Cabinet’s offices when the attack took place, and that he was taken to a “safe place.”FILE – Sudan’s new Prime Minister in the transitional government, Abdalla Hamdok, speaks during a Reuters interview in Khartoum, Aug. 24, 2019.The attack highlighted the fragility of Sudan’s transition to civilian rule, almost a year after pro-democracy protesters forced the military to remove autocratic President Omar al-Bashir from power and replace him with a joint military-civilian government.
However, military generals remain the de facto rulers of the country and have shown little willingness to hand over power to civilians.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and it was unclear what type of device caused the explosion.
Footage posted online showed two white, Japanese-made SUVs vehicles used by Sudan’s top officials parked on a street, damaged with widows broken. Another vehicle was badly damaged in the blast. Several dozen people were seen in the site of the attack, chanting: “With our blood and soul, we redeem you, Hamdok.”
The protest movement that led the uprising against al-Bashir called the blast a “terrorist attack.” The statement by the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change called on people to take to the streets to “show our unity and cohesion … and protect the transitional authority.”
After months of negotiations, the military and the pro-democracy movement reached a power-sharing deal in August, at which point Hamdok took office. The deal established a joint military-civilian, 11-member sovereign council to govern Sudan for the next three years.
Prominent activist Khalid Omar, secretary-general of the Sudanese Congress Party, said the attempt on Hamdouk’s life was a “new chapter in the conspiracy against the Sudanese revolution.”
Monday’s blast came less than two months after an armed revolt from within Sudan’s security forces shut down the capital’s airport and left at least two people dead. The tense stand-off between the armed forces and rogue intelligence officers paralyzed street life in several parts of Khartoum, along with another western city.
In 1989, al-Bashir came to power in an Islamist-backed military coup and imposed a strict interpretation of religion on its citizens, limiting personal freedoms. The country was an international pariah for its support of extreme Islamists.FILE – Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir stands guarded inside a cage at the courthouse where he is facing corruption charges, in Khartoum, Sudan, Aug. 19, 2019.Sudan’s transitional authorities announced in February that they agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court along with other former officials wanted by the ICC.
Hamdok has confirmed the government will cooperate with the court’s efforts to prosecute those wanted for war crimes and genocide in connection with the Darfur conflict in Sudan in the 2000s.
Sudan’s transitional government has also been under pressure to end wars with rebel groups as it seeks to rehabilitate the country’s battered economy, attract much-needed foreign aid and deliver the democracy it promises.
Nearly a year after al-Bashir’s ouster, the country faces a dire economic crisis. Inflation stands at a staggering 60% and the unemployment rate was 22.1% in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund. The government has said that 30% of Sudan’s young people, who make up more than half of the over 42 million population, are without jobs.  
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Garang Majouk left southern Sudan during the country’s second civil war, forded the Nile River during his escape, washed dishes in Lebanon, and came to Iowa 19 year ago as a refugee.So “good governing” is important to him, he says, explaining why he organizes new immigrants from the South Sudanese community in Iowa to exercise their right to vote.Majouk is one of several immigrant organizers who work to ensure newly naturalized voters participate in the American political process. He arranges cultural and language accommodations for those who might have been refugees or come from countries that did not offer the democratic right to vote.  That was true for Majouk, whose country was embroiled in civil war.“It is one of your privileges as an American to cast your vote, and see progress on an issue you are passionate about,” he said.The moment they become citizens, immigrants are legally allowed to vote. But first, they must register. Registering new voters who are born in the U.S. — like those who turn 18 — is a challenge, according to youth-vote organizers. Even more difficult is registering new citizens who might find the U.S. election process confusing. “There is a particular need for voter registration campaigns targeted toward newly naturalized citizens,” said Diego Iñiguez-López, the policy and campaigns manager at the National Partnership of New Americans, an advocacy group that partners with 37 regional refugee- and immigrant-rights organizations in 31 states.Immigrant voters — 23 million of them, according to the Pew Research Center — will make up 10% of the eligible voters in the 2020 election for U.S. president. Organizers from different immigrant groups across the United States are working diligently to bring their communities out to the polls.”The rising number of new American voters represent voting blocks that can have the power to sway the outcome of the upcoming presidential election, midterm elections, and elections for governorships and state legislatures,” Iñiguez-López said. “These voting blocks will be especially critical in swing states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan, where some of the largest groups of newly naturalized citizens reside,” he said.Despite the number of eligible immigrant voters, their voter turnout rates have lagged behind native-born voters. In 2016, 62% of native-born eligible voters turned out to the polls, compared with 54% of foreign-born voters, according to Pew.  Bhim Magar, a member of Iowa’s Bhutanese community, attributed lower turnout to a lack of information. “Most people in our community got citizenship in the past few years, but they were uninformed of both their right to vote and of the process behind voting,” he said. “They found caucusing even more difficult.”Many immigrants, despite living in the United States for years, had never been contacted by a presidential campaign prior to 2020, Harka Thapa, one of Magar’s fellow organizers, said. “In 2016, very few members of our community voted,” Thapa said. “For many this caucus was their first time.”The Democratic Party has updated some of their primaries to make them more inclusive to eligible immigrant voters.In Iowa, the state’s Democratic Party worked with the state’s different immigrant communities to establish 11 satellite caucus locations that provided language and cultural accommodations for voters whose English may have been limited.At Hoover Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, most of the first-time voters caucused in at least nine languages.In Nevada, caucus-goers had access to materials in three different languages, English, Spanish and Tagalog, the most commonly spoken language of the Philippines. Those who spoke other languages, however, had to seek their campaign information elsewhere.The Bernie Sanders campaign has seized on this voter market.Bernie 2020 has a volunteer language justice team. Many major graphics (such as victory graphics and core issues like ending endless wars) are translated to over a dozen languages. pic.twitter.com/isgL58wkZ1— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) February 17, 2020According to his campaign, the 78-year-old Vermont senator has more than 250 translators across the country who translate tweets and graphics into multiple languages. During the debates, many of these translators live-tweeted Sanders’ responses in different languages, including Punjabi and Urdu.برنی:میرا یہ خواب ہے کہ اقوامِ عالم، موسمیاتی تبدیلی کے بڑے خطرے سے نبٹنےکے لیے اکھٹے ہوں اور قتل و غارت کے لیے ہتھیاروں پر کھربوں خرچنے کےبجائے ہمارے مشترکہ دشمن (موسمیاتی تبدیلی) کا مل کر مقابلہ کریں۔#BernieLanguageJusticeTeam#Urdu#DemDebate— Sibtay H. Haider سبط حسن حیدر (@Sibtayhhaider) February 8, 2020ਬਰਨੀ: ਮੈਂ ਮਹੱਤਵਪੂਰਨ ਵਾਤਾਵਰਣ ਅਤੇ ਮਜਦੂਰਾਂ ਦੀ ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਵਪਾਰਕ ਸੌਦੇ ਲਈ ਵੋਟ ਨਹੀਂ ਦੇਵਾਂਗਾ |#Punjabi#bernielanguagejusticeteam#DemDebates— Supreet Kaur🌹 (@oopsie__desi) February 8, 2020Aung Win Maw works as an organizer of immigrants and refugees from Myanmar. After working the Iowa caucuses, he headed to Minnesota to help organize the Burmese Karen immigrant community around Super Tuesday.””For each immigrant group, we tried to set up a specific satellite caucus location based on geographic location, provided them with translation, and also with transportation to the location,” he said.Most Burmese immigrants and refugees have never heard from a campaign before, he said.“We tried to make the political process much easier for the Burmese community to access,” he said.Magar and Thapa were stateless, and living in refugee camps in Nepal, when they moved to the U.S. in 2011. Magar gained citizenship in 2017, and Thapa in 2019. Both are adamant that with better outreach, their community will show up to vote enthusiastically.“I think once they get citizenship for this beautiful country, everyone would want to vote. To use that right,” Thapa said.
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The number of COVID-19 infections is soaring in Italy while it seems to be abating in China where it has originated. Italian authorities have quarantined some 16,000 people in the northern provinces in an effort to contain the spread of the new strain of coronavirus that causes respiratory problems. A number of countries have reported their first cases in the past few days. But Chinese officials said Sunday the number of its new cases has decreased. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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North Korea fired three unknown projectiles Monday, according to South Korea’s military, the second apparent North Korean missile test of the year.The projectiles were fired toward the sea off North Korea’s east coast from the eastern town of Sondok in South Hamgyong Province, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. No other details about the launch were immediately available.North Korea, which is trying to fight off a potentially disastrous coronavirus outbreak, has sent mixed messages over the past week.Medical staff in protective gear take a break at a facility of a ‘drive-thru’ testing center for the novel coronavirus disease of COVID-19 in Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu, South Korea, March 3, 2020.Last Monday, North Korea test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles. On Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, slammed South Korea’s presidential office as “idiotic.” On Thursday, Kim Jong Un sent a warm letter expressing what Seoul said was his “unwavering friendship and trust” toward South Korean President Moon Jae-in — the two leaders’ first contact in months.The moves — erratic even by Pyongyang’s standards — create uncertainty about North Korea’s intentions for 2020.In a New Year’s speech, Kim said he no longer felt bound by his self-imposed suspension on long-range missile and nuclear tests. He also warned the world would soon witness a “new strategic weapon.”But since then, North Korea, along with the rest of the world, has been trying to fight off the coronavirus. Though North Korea has reported no infections, there are concerns Pyongyang is hiding an outbreak. A coronavirus epidemic would likely be a humanitarian nightmare in North Korea, which is poor and lacks basic healthcare infrastructure and supplies.
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Oil prices are plunging as a dispute among producers could lead a global economy weakened by COVID-19 to be awash in an oversupply of crude.Brent crude, the international standard, lost $9.50, or 20.1%, to $35.77 per barrel, as of 7:58 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday after earlier touching its lowest price since 2016. Benchmark U.S. crude fell $8.64 to $32.64.The dramatic losses follow a 10.1% drop for U.S. oil on Friday, which was its biggest loss in more than five years. Prices are falling as Saudi Arabia, Russia and other oil-producing countries argue how much to cut production in order to prop up prices.Demand for energy is falling as people cut back on travel around the world. The worry is that the new coronavirus will slow economies sharply, meaning even less demand.Stephen Innes, chief markets strategist at AxiCorp, called reports that Saudi Arabia could increase its oil production in order to gain market share a “shock-and-awe” strategy.The oil market has seen arguments like this before. In 2014, OPEC held off production cuts in order to hold onto market share in the face of a resurgent U.S. oil industry. That led to oil to tumble from over $100 a barrel to below $40 by 2015.This most recent plummet for oil adds another punch to what’s already been a brutal and dizzying couple weeks for financial markets worldwide. The U.S. stock market is down 12.2% since setting its record last month on worries about how much corporate profits will fall because of COVID-19. It’s set on Monday to mark the 11th anniversary of hitting bottom after the 2008 financial crisis.Treasury yields have plummeted to record lows as investors pile into anything that looks safe, almost regardless of how little it pays. The 10-year Treasury yield pierced below 1% for the first time on Tuesday, only to breach 0.70% Friday.The virus usually leaves people with only mild to moderate symptoms, but because it’s new, experts can’t say for sure how far it will ultimately spread and how much damage it will do, both to health and to the economy. The number of cases has reached 109,000 globally, and Italy on Sunday tried to quarantine a region holding more than a quarter of its population in hopes of corralling it.If the number of new infections slows in other parts of the world as it has in China, if the U.S. jobs market remains as solid as it’s been and if all the unease in markets ends up creating just a short-term dip in confidence among shoppers, all this may recede quickly. But those are a lot of potential pain points.“There are more if’s than at any other time in this 11-year bull market,” say strategists at BTIG.
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Voters in six states will cast ballots Tuesday for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, with just two of the leading candidates still in the race, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden.  Mike O’Sullivan reports that Sanders faces an uphill challenge after Biden won 10 contests last week 
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Afghanistan’s president-elect Ashraf Ghani and his election rival, runner-up Abdullah Abdullah, are preparing for parallel swearing-in ceremonies Monday, fueling political tensions and posing a fresh challenge to U.S.-led peace efforts.The Afghan election commission late last month declared incumbent Ghani the winner of the bitterly contested September 28 presidential election.But Abdullah, the incumbent chief executive, rejected the outcome as fraudulent, claiming that he and his team had won the vote and threatened to form his own government.On Sunday, the deputy presidential spokesperson, Durrani Waziri, told VOA that arrangements have been put in place for incumbent Ghani to take the oath of office to begin his second term.She said the Afghan Foreign Ministry has invited representatives of all the diplomatic missions in Kabul to Monday morning’s event at the presidential palace. Waziri noted that Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai are among a large number guests invited to Ghani’s swearing-in.   A spokesman for Abdullah told VOA they have also made their own arrangements in the office of the chief executive, adjacent to the presidential palace, where Abdullah will be sworn in as the president of Afghanistan around the same time Ghani’s inauguration will take place. “All necessary preparations have been taken. Foreign guests, and national political as well as jihadi personalities have been formally invited to the inauguration. We have also invited Ashraf Ghani to the event,” said Faridoon Khwazoon. He added all Kabul-based local and international media have also been invited to cover the ceremony.Khwazoon told the Afghan Tolo TV that U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, was holding back and forth meetings with both sides in a bid to resolve the crisis. But there were no immediate signs of a breakthrough. “We have presented our plan to Mr. Khalilzad to give it to the other side (Ghani’s office). Their plan has been received by us through Mr. Khalilzad. So far, we have not reached a tangible result,” the station quoted Abdullah’s spokesman as saying.The political turmoil poses a serious challenge to a landmark deal the United States signed with the Taliban insurgency a week ago to help bring stability to Afghanistan.  The agreement signed February 29 in Qatar requires the Taliban to open negotiations with an inclusive Afghan delegation of political forces and civil society, and negotiate a permanent cease-fire.The intra-Afghan talks are to begin Tuesday, but the inauguration crisis, analysts say, is likely to hamper efforts aimed at forming a united Afghan delegation to engage in talks with the Taliban.Both Ghani and his traditional rival Abdullah also had claimed victories in the 2014 fraud-marred presidential election, leading to months of political chaos in the country.  Washington’s intervention at the time had settled the dispute under a deal that allowed Ghani to become the president and Abdullah to head a newly formed office of the chief executive of the outgoing so-called national unity government of Afghanistan that was plagued by deep political rivalries and controversies throughout its tenure.
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Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erodgan said Sunday that he will meet with European Union officials in Brussels on Monday to discuss an influx of migrants in Turkey.As migrants from Syria continue to cross into Turkey, Erdogan has said Ankara can no longer abide by the 2016 law that prevents migrants in Turkey from traveling into the European Union.FILE – President of Turkey and leader of Justice and Development (AK) Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the party’s group meeting at Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara, Feb. 12, 2020.”I will have a meeting with European Union officials tomorrow  in Belgium,” Erdogan said during a speech in Istanbul on Sunday.According to the 2016 deal, the EU was supposed to provide Turkey with some $6.8 billion to finance housing and education of migrants. But Ankara says it has not received the money.”I hope I will return from Belgium with different outcomes,” Erdogan said Sunday, amid calls from his government urging Greece to open its borders.On Saturday, Ankara offered one positive gesture, as officials announced they would no longer allow migrants to reach Greece through the Aegean Sea because of safety concerns. But it has put no similar restrictions on its land borders with Bulgaria and Greece, where days of clashes between migrants and Greek border guards are exacerbating tensions.   In back-to-back emergency meetings of European interior and foreign ministers this week, along with visits to the Greek border by senior EU officials, member states pushed back, saying they would not be blackmailed by Ankara. Turkey must fully honor the migrant agreement, they said, before they will consider further assistance.   Adding to the pressure of hosting roughly 3.7 million refugees is another wave of refugees pressing to enter Turkey following fighting in Idlib, Syria.   Last week, Greek authorities used tear gas and a water cannon to prevent migrants from crossing the border into their country from Turkey, while Turkish authorities fired volleys of tear gas into the Greek territory.Thousands of refugees have reached Turkey’s eastern border from land and sea, and have been camping out since last week in hopes of making their way to Greece and eventually to other Western European countries.
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Vanquished opponents of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden are continuing to line up behind his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination as he heads to six more state primary elections on Tuesday against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.California Senator Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the contest in December, endorsed Biden on Sunday, saying that she felt that he was best prepared to “steer America through these turbulent times.”Harris, often mentioned by U.S. political analysts as one of several possible vice-presidential running mates with Biden, said the U.S. needs a president “who reflects the decency and dignity of the American people, a president who speaks the truth; and a president who fights for those whose voices are too often overlooked or ignored.”She is the sixth former rival to endorse Biden, a list that also includes former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, both of whom dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination just ahead of last week’s Super Tuesday voting, when Biden won 10 of the 14 state party nominating elections over Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist. After losing all 14 states to Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after spending more than $500 million of his own money on his campaign, also endorsed him.Biden praised Harris as a political figure who has “spent your whole career fighting for folks who’ve been written off and left behind.”On Tuesday, Biden and Sanders face voters in Michigan, the auto-manufacturing hub in the U.S. and the state with the most delegates at stake this week to July’s national Democratic presidential nominating convention. The fivethirtyeight.com political forecasting site is predicting that Biden will win 69 of the state’s 125 pledged delegates to 56 for Sanders.The fivethirtyeight site gives Sanders a slight edge in the western state of Washington, where 89 delegates are at stake, with Biden ahead in the Midwestern state of Missouri and the Southern state of Mississippi. Forecasters say the two candidates are virtually even in two smaller states, Idaho and North Dakota.Just a week ago, before the Super Tuesday voting, the fivethirtyeight site was predicting that no Democratic candidate would be able to win the party nomination with a majority of delegates on the first convention ballot to face Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election.Now, however, it predicts that Biden will cruise to victory on the first ballot, although neither Biden nor Sanders is close yet to a majority of delegates.Sanders predicted on the “Fox News Sunday” show that he would win the Michigan vote.”Joe Biden is a friend of mine,” Sanders said. “Joe Biden is a decent guy.”But Sanders said the contest with Biden comes down to “which candidate is stronger in defeating Trump.” He said he expects to win the key Michigan vote Tuesday and “certainly would not consider dropping out” if he loses.”We won California, the biggest state in the country,” Sanders said of last Tuesday’s vote.Sanders attacked Biden’s vote as a senator for the American war in Iraq and trade deals with Canada and Mexico and another with Pacific Rim countries that Trump abandoned when he became president.Biden and Sanders are scheduled to debate each other March 15.         
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It’s been 100 years since the 19th Amendment was passed giving women the right to vote in the United States. To commemorate the centennial, the New York Historical Society has launched a special exhibit called Women March. It explores women’s collective action before and after the suffrage victory all the way into the 21st century. VOA’s Penelope Poulou visited the exhibit and spoke with the curators.
 
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