Author: CensorBiz

Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been questioned for his role in financing international Islamist groups, according to the country’s In December, al-Bashir “The structure that we have now is a product of a compromise. That tug of war and it is not a compromise between revolutionaries of different persuasions. It is a situation in which the revolution gave birth to counterrevolution simultaneously,” he said. “Some people consider difficulties like taking this kind of arbitrary decision as a sign of weakness. No, it is a sign of struggle. We will be free if we come to grips with the reality that on that day in April, we had a revolution and a counterrevolution.”  ‘Comprehensive peace’It is not yet clear when the 76-year-old former president will be sent to the International Criminal Court , and Hudson said that the Sudanese are “a few steps away” from seeing him at the Hague. He added that handing al-Bashir over to the ICC paves the way for the peace talks between the government and the armed movements and signals willingness to cooperate with the court.Hudson said that it is “part of a larger peace deal that the government is trying to secure with the remaining armed movements in the country. So it’s really dependent upon that kind of comprehensive peace.” ‘New Sudan’Nevertheless, the transitional government’s steps to mend international relationships, including outreach to the United States, the United Nations and Israel, are a historic break from past policies, Hudson added. “It is a completely new Sudan. It’s a Sudan that takes justice and accountability and the rule of law seriously for the first time in more than a generation. Obviously, we want to see justice delivered for the many, victims of atrocity crimes in Darfur. More than 2 million people continue to be displaced inside and outside the country. More than 300,000 people were murdered during that conflict in Darfur.”Still, the progress isn’t without resistance, as al-Bashir loyalists protested against handing him over to the ICC.  That, Hudson said, is “the last gasp of a fading regime.”This story originated in the Africa division with reporting contributions from English to Africa’sEsther Githui Ewart.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has announced pardons for several high-profile individuals convicted of fraud. He has also commuted the prison sentence of former Governor Rod Blagojevich. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the president’s acts of clemency on Tuesday sparked controversy.
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The Yazidi religious minority in Iraq is seeking to gain enough support in the Iraqi parliament for a draft law that provides support and rehabilitation for the community, particularly the female members who escaped Islamic State abduction.The Yazidi Female Survivors Law was referred to the Iraqi parliament by the Iraqi President Barham Salih in March 2019, and was seen by the Yazidi leaders as an important step toward a secure future for the survivors, and so they could move on and rebuild their homes, which were destroyed by IS fighting.Almost a year later, the Iraqi parliament is still debating the controversial draft law because critics say it focuses only on the Yazidis and not other Iraqi communities, which were also affected by IS.Affected communitiesSaib Khidr, a Yazidi lawmaker and a member of the legal committee that drafted the law, told VOA the Yazidi community agreed the law needed to be more inclusive of other IS victims, particularly other minority groups in Iraq. He said naming the law after Yazidi female victims, however, signifies the plight of the women who were taken as sex slaves by IS militants.“We want at least to name the law the ‘Yazidi Female Survivors Law’ as a moral support to Yazidi women who faced atrocities by IS,” Khidr told VOA.Khidr said the law aims to provide financial compensation for female survivors while also addressing other more sensitive issues, such as dealing with children who were the results of IS rape.“While the bill is debated inside the Iraqi parliament, we will be holding workshops with Yazidi survivors and activists to improve different articles of the law,” he said.If approved, the draft bill would provide Yazidis who survived the IS massacre with financial support, health care, work opportunities, education, rehabilitation, and reconstruction in their villages and towns. With the establishment of a special governmental department for Yazidi affairs, the bill would represent the first recognition in Iraqi history of the minority as a distinct group.Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority of about 550,000 people, mostly residing in Sinjar, in northern Iraq. IS in 2014 attacked their communities, killing thousands of men and taking thousands of women and children, in an atrocity the U.N. said amounted to genocide. IS reportedly used the women and girls as sex slaves and brainwashed the boys to become suicide bombers.JusticeFollowing the death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October 2019, Yazidi female survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad urged the world to hold IS extremists accountable for their crimes against different communities, specifically atrocities against Yazidis and Christians.Murad called for the creation of tribunals similar to the Nuremberg tribunals after World War II that brought Nazi war criminals to justice. However, Yazidi activists say no progress has been made in Iraq to establish such special tribunals to hold IS accountable. They say such an action faces obstacles such as legal implications for Iraq in dealing with the alleged war crimes committed by IS against Yazidis.“The Iraqi law is not fully equipped with all the legal tools to deal with crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide,” Hussam Abdullah, executive manager of the Yazidi Organization for Documentation, told VOA.Abdullah’s organization is collecting evidence of IS crimes, and works with legislative, executive and judicial authorities in Iraq to find a way to properly address the IS attacks against Yazidis and other minorities. In order to overcome the shortcomings in Iraq law, he said the best approach forward was to create an international mechanism to protect the dignity of the victims and their families.“We document survivors’ testimonies to ensure justice in the future and to support the Iraqi government’s work, while protecting this file from being torn apart between political disagreements,” Abdullah said.Finding the missingIS’s physical caliphate was defeated in March 2019 after the terror group lost its last stronghold in eastern Syria. The defeat was seen as a hope by the community that they will finally be able to reunite with their missing relatives and loved ones. However, rights organizations say about 3,000 of the kidnapped Yazidis remain missing.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyFor most Yazidis, the issue of tracking the missing is a top priority they hope the Iraqi draft bill can address. The religious community hopes the Iraqi government can bring home the missing people if they are still alive. If the missing are dead, for the government to retrieve their bodies and give them a proper burial.Nesrin Murad, a female survivor currently living in Shariya camp in Duhok province in Iraqi Kurdistan, is one of the Yazidis still waiting to know about the whereabouts of her missing brother.“My brother has been missing for five years. I still don’t know what happened to him. I want to know his fate,” Murad told VOA.Murad was kidnapped during the IS attack on Sinjar in 2014. She was held captive by members of the terror group for almost four years.She said many of the survivors want to know the fate of their relatives. She requested officials in Iraq also help rebuild the homes of thousands of survivors who are still living in the harsh conditions of refugee camps.Empowering YazidisYazidi activists say the draft law, if approved in the Iraqi parliament, would be a significant step to empower the displaced Yazidis in refugee camps. The activists said it is crucial to spread awareness among Yazidis in the camps and those who have returned home of their rights in post-IS Iraq.Saeed Allo, executive director of the Springs of Hope Foundation, said it was important for Yazidi activists to closely work with their community to educate its members as the draft law enters the next stage at the Iraqi parliament. He said increased awareness among them on how to work as individuals and as a community will help enforce the minority group’s rights.“We can work on raising awareness among Yazidis; we can help female survivors get legal and social educations on their rights. Yazidis must understand the law and their rights so they can demand them,” Allo said. 
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A group of more than 1,100 U.S. military veterans from all five branches have signed a statement lashing out at President Donald Trump for firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council.Vindman testified before a House committee during the Trump impeachment hearings in November. He expressed his concerns about Trump’s drive to push Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.The Military Times newspaper published the statement, whose signatories invited other veterans to add their names.The statement said the president’s “actions and insults” toward Vindman “appear to be motivated by nothing more than political retribution, and deprives the White House of expertise necessary to defend our collective national security.”Long-standing U.S. military code of conduct requires servicemen and women to report wrongdoing and illegal acts through the proper military channels. But U.S. law forbids them from speaking out in public.The veterans say Trump knows this and believes he can verbally attack Vindman with “impunity.””We consider President Trump’s sustained attacks on an active duty Army officer … to be an affront to the constitution that we have all sworn to uphold. We are speaking out precisely because neither LTC Vindman nor his fellow active-duty service members can,” the statement said.The veterans’ statement also criticizes what they say is Trump’s association with those they call war criminals, his public threat of war crimes, and minimizing the traumatic brain injuries some troops suffered in January’s Iranian missile attack on a military base in Iraq.The White House has not yet responded to the statement.The Ukrainian-born Vindman was the NSC’s Director for European Affairs until he was reassigned three weeks ago.The White House said Vindman was not fired and gave the official reason for his reassignment as downsizing within the NSC.However, Trump has publicly accused Vindman of being a poor worker who did “a lot of bad things,” including allegations of leaking classified information — charges Vindman’s supporters deny.
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Many wealthy nations are letting the world’s younger generations down by failing to curb planet-warming emissions, a U.N.-backed report said Wednesday, warning climate change posed an urgent threat to the health and future of every child and adolescent.A new global index showed children in Norway, South Korea and the Netherlands had the best chance at survival and well-being thanks to good health care, education and nutrition.
 
But a ranking of countries by per-capita carbon emissions put those and other rich nations, including the United States and Australia, close to the bottom on that measure, as major contributors to global health threats driven by climate change.”Countries need to overhaul their approach to child and adolescent health, to ensure that we not only look after our children today but protect the world they will inherit in the future,” said former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, co-chair of the international commission that produced the report.Child flourishing, sustainability and equityIt said dramatic progress had been made in improving children’s lives in the past five decades but economic inequalities meant the benefits were not shared by all.And the heating up of the planet and damage to the environment, among other stresses, meant every child faced an uncertain future, it added.”Climate disruption is creating extreme risks from rising sea levels, extreme weather events, water and food insecurity, heat stress, emerging infectious diseases, and large-scale population migration,” said the report by more than 40 experts.Commission member Sunita Narain, director general of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said that in her region of South Asia the main environmental threats came from water shortages and contamination, as well as air pollution.Children’s health today “is at grave risk because of environmental degradation,” she added.They are victims of a problem they did not cause — a situation that is particularly acute for the poor, she noted.”The biggest inequity that we need to confront today is the inequity (of) climate change,” Narain told journalists.The “sustainability” part of the index ranks countries on how their per-person emissions compare with a 2030 target giving a two-thirds chance of keeping global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.Of the top 25 countries with the best score on emissions, all but two were African.That contrasts starkly with the “flourishing” part of the index, where many African nations did badly on children’s health, education, nutritious food and protection from violence.Not one country performed well on all three measures of child flourishing, sustainability and equity, concluded the commission convened by the World Heath Organization, The Lancet medical journal and U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.Protect and respondAnother key threat identified was exploitative marketing practices that push fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco at children, increasingly through social media channels.Report author Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainability at University College London, said children’s data was being harvested via online games and sold to big technology firms which then target youth with advertising.”This is totally unregulated,” he said. “We think that there needs to be much greater attention to the protection of children around the world.”They should also be placed at the center of efforts to achieve the global development goals agreed in 2015, he added.Few countries have recorded much progress toward achieving those goals, which include ending poverty and hunger by 2030 and tackling climate change, the report noted.Children should be given a bigger voice in policy decisions that affect their futures, it said — something they are already demanding through social movements like the school climate strikes that have mobilized students worldwide since mid-2018.Jennifer Requejo, a UNICEF adviser on statistics and monitoring, said children could be involved through measures such as setting up local youth committees, informing them about their rights and having them participate in data collection.Costello said young people’s calls for a cleaner, safer world must be heeded by politicians.”They are simply not responding at the moment in a way that is mature and evidence-based,” he added.
 
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A week after Attorney General William Barr overturned the Justice Department’s recommendation for a stiff prison sentence for U.S. President Donald Trump’s friend Roger Stone, the public uproar over political meddling in the U.S. system of justice rages.A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Stone will be sentenced Thursday while she decides whether to grant the presidential friend’s request for a new trial. Stone’s motion for a retrial came after Trump accused the jury forewoman in the case of “significant bias.”He was convicted last November of seven counts, including lying to Congress about his role in Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and tampering with a witness.Whether or not Stone is given a new trial, the decision to sentence him rests with Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Trump has railed at Jackson for subjecting another former associate to solitary confinement. The likelihood that she will send Stone to prison has heightened speculation that Trump could respond with a pardon for a friend he thinks has been unjustly prosecuted.FILE – This courtroom sketch shows Roger Stone talking from the witness stand as Judge Amy Berman Jackson listens during a court hearing at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, Feb. 21, 2019.Trump has not ruled out pardoning Stone. While he has the power to pardon anyone convicted of a federal crime for any reason other than impeachment, shielding a friend convicted of serious crimes from prison could raise new questions about the independence of the system of justice under his administration.If Trump were to pardon Stone, it would “turn this into a very, very big political event,” said David Axelrod, a former Justice Department prosecutor.”It would further undermine faith in law enforcement in this country and show normal people that if you’re a friend of the president or those in power, you may not be treated the same as average Americans,” Axelrod said.Pardoning powerHans von Spakovsky, another Justice Department official now with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the president’s pardon power is near absolute and that it would not be out of the ordinary for a president to pardon a convicted friend.”He’s got the ability to do that and it can’t be questioned,” von Spakovsky said. “Neither Congress nor anyone else can overrule or somehow prevent a pardon issued by the president.”In 2001, just hours before leaving office, then-President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive trader Marc Rich in one of the most controversial presidential pardons. Rich’s wife had pledged large sums of money to Clinton’s presidential library.FILE – Denise Rich, left, ex-wife of Marc Rich, presents U.S. President Bill Clinton with a saxophone as first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton applauds at the G&P Foundation gala in New York City, Nov. 30, 2000.”It was very clearly done for political reasons and not because this individual Marc Rich had somehow acknowledged wrongdoing or anything else,” von Spakovsky said.Trump and Stone have been friends for decades. In the 1980s, Stone, a self-described “political trickster” who has an image of the disgraced former President Richard Nixon tattooed on his back, encouraged Trump, then an up-and-coming New York real estate developer, to run for president.Last November, a jury found Stone guilty of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress about his efforts during the 2016 presidential election to obtain stolen emails of Hillary Clinton from the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.The controversy over Stone’s sentencing erupted last week when Barr and other top Justice Department officials overturned four career prosecutors’ recommendation that Stone receive seven to nine years in prison, in line with federal sentencing guidelines.Barr’s decision came shortly after Trump tweeted that the recommended sentence was “a miscarriage of justice” that could not be allowed to move forward, fueling concerns that Barr was carrying out the president’s wishes. The four prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest.Although both Trump and Barr later said they had never discussed the Stone case, the fury did not subside amid new reports that Barr had brought in outside prosecutors to oversee politically sensitive investigations and review a number of criminal cases, including the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.In an open letter issued Sunday, more than 2,000 former Justice Department officials called on Barr to resign. A national association of federal judges called an emergency meeting to address the controversy.”It is really a wake-up call to the country to make sure that we’re paying attention to the importance of having an independent Justice Department,” said Derek Cohen, a former senior Justice Department official who signed the letter.Trump’s pardonsWhether Trump will pardon Stone remains uncertain. But Trump has the authority to pardon him. The U.S. Constitution empowers the president “to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” A presidential pardon restores a convict’s civil rights, such as the right to vote.Since taking office, Trump has pardoned 18 convicted felons, including several well-connected figures in conservative circles. In 2017, he pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio a month after Arpaio was convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s order to stop arresting immigrants on suspicion that they were undocumented.FILE – Financier Michael Milken leads a discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., April 30, 2018.On Tuesday, Trump issued full pardons to several prominent individuals, including Michael Milken, a former Wall Street financier, and Bernard Kerik, a former New York City Commissioner and business partner of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.Trump has previously expressed openness to pardoning his former associates, saying it was unfair that former campaign manager Paul Manafort got a stiff sentence while former FBI Director James Comey walked free. More recently, however, Trump batted away questions about an immediate pardon. Last week, he told radio talk show host Geraldo Rivera that he didn’t “want to talk about pardons right now.”The implications of pardoning Stone “are not good for our country and the independence of our judiciary moving forward,” said Cohen, the former Justice official. “In past administrations and past history, if presidents were to go out of their way and abuse or appear to abuse the pardon system to benefit their friends, that would be the sort of thing that one would expect either the voters or the Congress would have a problem with.”
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has total confidence in U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who last week said in an interview that Trump’s tweeting habit had made it impossible for him to do his job.”I do make his job harder … I do agree with that,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One. “The Attorney General is a man with great integrity.”Last week senior Justice Department officials withdrew an earlier sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump friend Roger Stone, who was found guilty in November of seven counts of lying to Congress, prompting upheaval within the department.More than 1,000 former department officials have now called for Barr to resign.Trump has used Twitter to attack the four prosecutors who had argued the case as well as the judge presiding over it.Barr said in an ABC Interview last Thursday that he cannot do his job “with a constant background commentary” and that it is “time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases.”While Trump offered words of support for Barr, he also spoke enthusiastically about tweeting. “Social media for me has been very important because it gives me a voice,” he said.
 
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President Donald Trump has gone on a clemency blitz, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoning former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, among a long list of others.Trump also told reporters that he has pardoned financier Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty for violating U.S. securities laws and served two years in prison in the early 1990s. Trump also pardoned Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal who built one of the most successful NFL teams in the game’s history.Blagojevich, who appeared on Trump’s reality TV show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” was convicted of political corruption, including seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. But Trump said he had been subjected to a “ridiculous sentence” that didn’t fit his crimes.Kerik served just over three years for tax fraud and lying to the White House while being interviewed to be Homeland Security secretary.“We have Bernie Kerik, we have Mike Milken, who’s gone around and done an incredible job,” Trump said, adding that Milken had “paid a big price.”Earlier, the White House announced that Trump had pardoned DeBartolo Jr., who was involved in one of the biggest owners’ scandals in the sport’s history. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony when he paid $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gambling license.He also pardoned Ariel Friedler, a technology entrepreneur, who pleaded guilty to accessing a computer without authorization; Paul Pogue a construction company owner who underpaid his taxes; David Safavian, who was convicted of obstructing an investigation into a trip he took while he was a senior government official; and Angela Stanton, an author who served a six-month home sentence for her role in a stolen vehicle ring.Blagojevich, a Democrat who hails from a state with a long history of pay-to-play schemes, exhausted his last appellate option in 2018 and had seemed destined to remain behind bars until his projected 2024 release date. His wife, Patti, went on a media blitz in 2018 to encourage Trump to step in, praising the president and likening the investigation of her husband to special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — a probe Trump long characterized as a “witchhunt.”Blagojevich’s conviction was notable, even in a state where four of the last 10 governors have gone to prison for corruption. Judge James Zagel — who in 2011 sentenced Blagojevich to the longest prison term yet for an Illinois politician — said when a governor “goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured.”Blagojevich became the brunt of jokes for foul-mouthed rants on wiretaps released after his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest while still governor. On the most notorious recording, he gushes about profiting by naming someone to the seat Obama vacated to become president: “I’ve got this thing and it’s f—— golden. And I’m just not giving it up for f—— nothing.”When Trump publicly broached the idea in May 2018 of intervening to free Blagojevich, he downplayed the former governor’s crimes. He said Blagojevich was convicted for “being stupid, saying things that every other politician, you know, that many other politicians say.” He said Blagojevich’s sentence was too harsh.Prosecutors have balked at the notion long fostered by Blagojevich that he engaged in common political horse-trading and was a victim of an overzealous U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald said after Blagojevich’s arrest that the governor had gone on “a political corruption crime spree” that would make Abraham Lincoln turn over in his grave.Mueller — a subject of Trump’s derision — was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich. Fitzgerald is now a private attorney for another former FBI director, James Comey, whom Trump dismissed from the agency in May 2017.Trump also expressed some sympathy for Blagojevich when he appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 before his first corruption trial started. As Trump “fired” Blagojevich as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him: “You have a hell of a lot of guts.”He later poll-tested the matter, asking for a show of hands of those who supported clemency at an October, 2019 fundraiser at his Chicago hotel. Most of the 200 to 300 attendees raised their hands, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing several people at the event.Blagojevich testified at his 2011 retrial, describing himself as a flawed dreamer grounded in his parents’ working-class values. He sought to humanize himself to counteract the blunt, profane, seemingly greedy Blagojevich heard on wiretap recordings played in court by prosecutors over several weeks. He said the hours of FBI recordings were the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud.But jurors accepted evidence that Blagojevich demanded a $50,000 donation from the head of a children’s hospital in return for increased state support, and extorted $100,000 in donations from two horse racing tracks and a racing executive in exchange for quick approval of legislation the tracks wanted.He originally convicted on 18 counts, including lying to the FBI, wire fraud for trying to trade an appointment to the Obama seat for contributions, and for the attempted extortion of a children’s hospital executive. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2015 tossed five of 18 convictions, including ones in which he offered to appoint someone to a high-paying job in the Senate.The appeals court ordered the trial judge to resentence Blagojevich, but suggested it would be appropriate to hand him the same sentence, given the gravity of the crimes. Blagojevich appeared via live video from prison during the 2016 resentencing and asked for leniency. The judge gave him the same 14-year term, saying it was below federal guidelines when he imposed it the first time.Blagojevich had once aspired to run for president himself but entered the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in suburban Denver in 2012, disgraced and broke. Court documents filed by his lawyers in 2016 portrayed Blagojevich — known as brash in his days as governor — as humble and self-effacing, as well as an insightful life coach and lecturer on everything from the Civil War to Richard Nixon. Blagojevich, an Elvis Presley fan, also formed a prison band called “The Jailhouse Rockers.”
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A suicide attack targeting a military academy in the Afghan capital killed at least five people early Tuesday, the first major assault in the city in months.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the dawn attack, which came after nearly three months of relative calm in Kabul.The ministry of defense said five people were killed and at least six injured.The interior ministry, however, said six people died — two civilians and four military personnel — after the suicide bomber detonated the device at around 7:00 am (0230 GMT).Twelve others were wounded, ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said in a statement.The blast happened near the Marshal Fahim Military Academy, where the country’s security officers are trained.”It was a big explosion that rocked our house. We also heard gunfire afterwards. Ambulances rushed to the area quickly,” Samiullah, a resident who like many Afghans goes by one name, told AFP.A security source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told AFP that the attacker was on foot when he targeted a vehicle near a checkpoint as it was entering the academy.President Ashraf Ghani called the bombing “a crime against humanity” while repeating his call for a nationwide cease-fire.”The great nation of Afghanistan wants an end to violence, a cease-fire and a lasting peace,” he said in a statement.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he was unaware of any claim for the bombing, adding that the insurgents were “investigating” the incident.The Islamic State group are also active in Kabul.Taliban talksIn recent weeks the Islamist extremist Taliban have refrained from attacking major urban centers in an effort to keep talks with the United States on track, but violence in the provinces has continued.The last major attack in Kabul was in November, when at least 12 people were killed after a minivan packed with explosives rammed into a vehicle carrying foreigners during morning rush hour.Four foreign nationals were among those wounded.The military academy has been the scene of several attacks in the past, including one claimed by the Islamic State group last May.Tuesday’s blast came as Washington and the Taliban wrangle over a possible deal that would see U.S. troops begin to leave Afghanistan in return for security guarantees.There appeared to have been little progress in reaching a deal in recent weeks, however, prompting the insurgents to blame the White House and what they said were a growing list of demands.Late Tuesday, Ghani said on Twitter that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had called to inform him “of the notable progress made in the ongoing peace talks with the Taliban. The Secretary informed me about the Taliban’s proposal with regards to bringing a significant and enduring reduction in violence.””This is a welcoming development,” Ghani saidThe United States and Taliban had been negotiating for a year and were on the brink of an announcement in September 2019 when President Donald Trump abruptly declared the process “dead,” citing ongoing unrest.Talks were restarted in December in Qatar, but paused again following an attack near the U.S.-run Bagram military base in Afghanistan.In his annual State of the Union address on Feb. 4, Trump renewed his vow to negotiate a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.”We are working to finally end America’s longest war and bring our troops back home,” he said, offering his blessing for the negotiations with the Taliban. 
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Washington has accused two Russian satellites of tailing a US spy satellite in what it called “disturbing behavior”, prompting a guarded response from Moscow on Tuesday.Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed that he had received a message from Washington regarding the satellites, adding that “Moscow will respond after studying it.””Regarding the manoeuvres of these objects in space, these are practices carried out by many countries,” he added, quoted by Russian press agencies.In an interview with Time magazine published on Monday, General John Raymond, head of the US military’s new Space Force, said the Russian craft began manoeuvring towards the American satellite shortly after they launched into orbit in November, closing to within 100 miles (160 kilometres) of it.”We view this behavior as unusual and disturbing,” Raymond told Time. “It has the potential to create a dangerous situation in space.”He earlier issued a statement to US media saying the Russian satellites were “behaving similar to another set of satellites that Russia deployed in 2017, and which the Russian government characterized as ‘inspector satellites’.”The US Space Force, which came into being in December, is the sixth formal force of the US military, after the army, air force, navy, Marines and coastguard.”There’s going to be a lot of things happening in space, because space is the world’s newest war-fighting domain,” President Donald Trump said at the time.
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Rebels have killed 12 civilians and a soldier in the latest overnight attack on a village in eastern Congo, a local official said Tuesday.”They surprised the people in their homes,” the administrator of Beni territory, Donat Kasereka Kibwana, told The Associated Press.
The attack by Allied Democratic Forces rebels on Alungupa village, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) outside the often-targeted city of Beni, occurred while the president of the National Assembly was visiting the city and meeting with survivors of past massacres.
Jeanine Mabunda during her visit vowed that the assembly would create laws to augment the Congolese military presence in the Beni region. Residents have long accused the government in faraway Kinshasa of neglect.
Dozens of armed groups are active in mineral-rich eastern Congo. Attacks have caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and complicated health workers’ efforts to contain an Ebola virus outbreak in the region.
A local civil society group known as CEPADHO says ADF rebels have killed more than 300 people in the Beni region since October alone.
Kibwana said Alungupa village is now under military control. The administrator appealed for calm and collaboration with authorities.  
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Australia is preparing to evacuate more than 200 of its citizens from the coronavirus-hit cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, in Yokohama, Japan.  They will face two weeks in isolation on their return home.   Also, the first group of Australian coronavirus evacuees from the Chinese city, Wuhan, has been released from quarantine. The Diamond Princess has been in quarantine since February 3. Onboard the cruise liner have been about 3,700 passengers and crew, including dozens of Australian tourists.The ship has more than 450 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus, including several Australians. It is the largest cluster of infections outside China, where the virus was first reported.Australian passengers must decide Tuesday if they will take up their government’s offer of an evacuation flight out of Japan.  Authorities in Canberra are planning to fly them home on Wednesday.  They will all go into isolation for 14 days, in addition to the time they have already spent confined on the Diamond Princess.  In a recorded message to passengers, Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, said such precautions were essential.“There is evidence of ongoing further infections in the ship, in the crew and in some passengers.  Even though we think some of you probably have been well quarantined there is uncertainty about whether some of you may be incubating the virus, and if you came back into the Australian community you may expose your family or other members of the community to this infection,” Murphy said.Two planes carrying hundreds of U.S. citizens from the cruise ship in Japan have arrived back home, and will face 14 days in isolation. However, some American travelers have refused to be evacuated, preferring to wait until the ship’s official quarantine comes to an end on February 19.The first group of Australian coronavirus evacuees from the coronavirus epicenter at Wuhan, China, has been released from quarantine Monday from Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.  More than 200 Australians were flown home, while other evacuees remain in isolation at a former miners’ camp near the city of Darwin.  There are currently 15 cases of the disease in Australia.  Health officials say eight patients are reported to have recovered, while the other seven are in a stable condition.
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A national association of federal judges will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday after Justice Department officials intervened in the case involving a close confident of U.S. President Donald Trump.The head of the independent Federal Judges Association, District Judge Cynthia Rufe, tells VOA the judges are “concerned about the attacks on individual judges” and it will be the main issue to be discussed.Rufe declined to give any more details, but said the jurists “could not wait” until their spring meeting.The Justice Department stunned the political and legal community last week when it overruled its own prosecutors and recommended a lighter prison sentence for Roger Stone — a longtime friend and confident of Trump who was convicted on lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice stemming from the Russian election meddling probe.Prosecutors in the case had recommended seven to nine years prison time for Stone — a recommendation based on sentencing guidelines for such crimes.But the Justice Department recommended a lighter sentence after Trump complained in a tweet that the seven to nine years would be “horrible” and “unfair.”Three prosecutors in the Stone case withdrew and a fourth quit the agency altogether.Stone is to be sentenced Thursday and it is up to Judge Amy Berman Jackson to decide how long he is to be locked up.This courtroom sketch shows former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, Roger Stone talking from the witness stand as Judge Amy Berman Jackson listens during a court hearing at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, Feb. 21, 2019.Jackson has scheduled a Tuesday conference call with attorneys in the Roger Stone case, two days before the former Trump associate is set to be sentenced.Former President Barack Obama appointed Judge Jackson and Trump has been notoriously critical of many decisions and policies made by his predecessor. Trump complained last week about Jackson’s decision to jail former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in solitary confinement and not to try to prosecute former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Judge Rufe says the Federal Judges’ Association has no interest in getting involved in the Stone case, but does support Jackson.”We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required,” she said.The Roger Stone case has raised questions in Congress about political interference in what is historically suppose to be an independent judiciary.Trump congratulated Attorney General William Barr last week for “taking charge” of the Stone case. But both deny that Trump asked Barr to intervene.Barr is scheduled to appear before Congress next month.More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials have called on Barr to resign, saying his handling of the Stone case “openly and repeatedly flouted” the independence of the judicial branch.Barr told ABC News last week that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for him to do his job,” saying he will not be “bullied or influenced by anybody, whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president.”   
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The U.N humanitarian coordinator for Libya said Monday the impact of the country’s nine-year war on civilians “is incalculable,” pointing to its intensity escalating “exponentially” since a rebel commander launched an offensive last April, casualties rising and almost 900,000 people now needing assistance.Yacoub El Hillo said a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya which was agreed to by 12 key leaders at a conference in Berlin on Jan. 19, endorsed last week by the U.N. Security Council, and reaffirmed at a meeting in Munich on Sunday has seen “serious violations” in the last 10 days, with new strikes in and around the capital Tripoli.El Hillo, who is also the U.N. deputy representative for the oil-rich North African country, said in a briefing to journalists by video from Tripoli that the protracted conflict is “severely impacting civilians in all parts of the country on a scale never seen before.’’The Berlin peace plan backed a cease-fire, called for compliance with a U.N. arms embargo, and said all countries must refrain from interfering in the conflict between the U.N.-recognized government and the rebel forces of self-styled Gen. Khalifa Hifter, and the country’s internal affairs.On a potentially positive note, a Joint Military Commission comprising representatives of the warring parties is scheduled to begin a second round of talks Tuesday in Geneva under U.N. auspices, with the aim of agreeing to a lasting cease-fire.The first meeting of a Libyan Political Forum aimed at forming a new government has also been scheduled for Feb. 26 in Geneva.Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. In the chaos that followed the country was divided.A weak U.N.-recognized administration that holds the capital of Tripoli and parts of the country’s west is backed by Turkey, which recently sent thousands of soldiers and military equipment to Libya, and to a lesser degree Qatar and Italy as well as local militias.On the other side is a rival government in the east that supports self-styled Gen. Khalifa Hifter, whose forces launched an offensive to capture the capital last April 4 and are backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as well as France and Russia.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has decried violations of the U.N. embargo since the Berlin conference by supporters of the warring sides.El Hillo said “the increasing use of explosive weapons has resulted in unnecessary loss of life.” pointing to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, particularly health facilities, that have doubled since 2019, resulting in at least 650 civilians killed or injured.He cited a U.N. mine expert in Libya who said last week that the country has the world’s largest uncontrolled ammunition stockpile, with an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 tons of uncontrolled munitions across the country.Libya “is also the largest theater for drone technology,” El Hillo said, stressing that “everyone has something flying in the Libyan sky, it seems.’’Turkey’s recent move into Libya in “a very heavy way militarily speaking” was to support the government “and create a balance of power so that the capital does not fall,” he said.On the other side, El Hillo cited reports of the UAE financing Chinese-made drones and the Jordanian government selling six drones to Hifter’s forces.”Unless we speak so bluntly and openly, … unless we start naming and shaming, we will have the resolutions but the reality on the ground will remain appalling, especially for civilians, and particularly for children and for women,” El Hillo said.At the end of 2019, he said, more than 345,000 people had fled their homes and become displaced, including 150,000 in and around Tripoli since Hifter’s offensive began last April.More than half the nearly 900,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance are women and children, he said, and more than 30 percent are migrants and refugees.El Hillo said the lengthy conflict has degraded services including health care, education an, garbage collection – and he warned that if electricity fails there will soon be “a water crisis” because the water plants require electricity.Libya is also facing a severe cash shortage, El Hillo said.With oil exports reduced from 1.2 million barrels per day three weeks ago to almost nothing today, he said, the situation is worsening with two commercial banks on the verge of collapse and people having great difficulty accessing their deposits in the bank. Humanitarian organizations are also facing financial difficulties, he said.
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Pier 1 Imports Inc. — the once-trendy supplier of home goods like papasan chairs and throw pillows — filed for bankruptcy protection Monday after years of sliding sales.The Fort Worth, Texas-based company has been struggling with increased competition from budget-friendly online retailers like Wayfair and Amazon and discount stores like Home Goods. In a 2018 presentation to investors, the company acknowledged that shoppers thought its merchandise was outdated and expensive. It was also burdened by high sourcing and supply chain costs.Pier 1 said it will pursue a sale, with a March 23 deadline to submit bids. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.In the meantime, Pier 1 said lenders have committed approximately $256 million in debtor-in-possession financing so it can continue its operations during the Chapter 11 proceedings.”Today’s actions are intended to provide Pier 1 with additional time and financial flexibility as we now work to unlock additional value for our stakeholders through a sale of the company,” Pier 1 CEO and Chief Financial Officer Robert Riesbeck said in a statement. Riesbeck, an executive with previous corporate turnarounds, joined Pier 1 last summer.Ted Gavin, a retail bankruptcy expert and managing partner of the consulting firm Gavin/Solmonese, said he hasn’t shopped at Pier 1 in more than a decade.”People have been talking about Pier 1 heading for bankruptcy for a few years now. They’ve closed stores, they’ve struggled to find a steady customer base, they’ve struggled with falling sales,” Gavin said.FILE – A customer buys pillows from a Pier 1 Imports store in Dallas, Texas, June 19, 2008.Pier 1 was founded in 1962 in California, where it made its name selling incense, beanbag chairs and love beads. The company moved to Texas in 1966 and went public in 1970.But in recent years, it struggled to draw customers to its often cramped and cluttered stores. The company has been trying to streamline its merchandise, improve online sales and draw in younger customers, but it was an uphill climb. On Monday, Pier 1 was selling a tufted velvet armchair for a sale price of $399 on its website. Target was offering a similar one for $214.In its most recent fiscal year, which ended in February 2019, Pier 1 reported sales of $1.55 billion. That was down 18% from 2015. Pier 1’s sales tumbled 13% to $358 million in its most recent quarter, which ended Nov. 30.Last month, Pier 1 announced it would close 450 stores, including all of its stores in Canada. The company is also closing two distribution centers. Pier 1 wouldn’t say how many jobs will be affected.Pier 1’s shares have fallen 45% since the start of the year. They closed at $3.58 per share on Friday.
 
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Kellye Nakahara Wallett, a film and television actress best known for playing Lt. Nurse Kellye Yamato on “M-A-S-H,” has died at age 72.Son William Wallett told The Associated Press that Wallett died Sunday after a brief battle with cancer. She was at her home in Pasadena, California, surrounded by family and friends.A native of O’ahu, Hawaii, who was listed as Kellye Nakahara while in “M-A-S-H,” Wallett also appeared in the film “Clue” and in John Hughes’ “She’s Having a Baby.” More recently, she worked as a watercolor artist and was involved in the local arts community. She is survived by her husband, David Wallett; two children and four grandchildren.”M-A-S-H,” the acclaimed sitcom set during the Korean War, ran from 1972-83. Nurse Kellye carries a secret crush on the show’s major character, the womanizing surgeon Hawkeye Pierce, played by Alan Alda. In a memorable scene, Kellye reveals her feelings, scolding Hawkeye for having his “eyes … on every nurse” except her.”For your information,” she tells him, “I happen to have a fantastic sense of humor, a bubbly personality and I am warm and sensitive like you wouldn’t believe. I also sing and play the guitar and I’m learning to tap dance. And on top of all that, I happen to be cute as hell.”
 
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Extreme hot spells made increasingly likely by climate change could overload urban power grids and cause roving blackouts as an ever-greater share of humanity opt to live in cities, scientists said Monday.In a series of studies and comment pieces in a special edition of the journal Nature Energy, researchers examined how cities can better use renewable power sources and plan for more frequent and potent temperature swings.With more than half of mankind expected to live in cities by 2050, existing infrastructure relying on power from fossil fuels is likely to prove insufficient to meet growing demand, as well as the exploding use of air conditioning as urban heat skyrockets in summer.While climate change is a long-term phenomenon, an international team of researchers wanted to see what effect short-term weather extremes would have on urban power grids.They used a host of climate models to simulate how electricity demand was likely to rise and fall in 30 Swedish cities during so-called “high impact” weather events.They found “significant” performance gaps and a high risk of blackouts.”Extreme weather events could reduce reliability of power supply by 16 percent, which can easily lead to blackouts resulting in huge economic losses,” lead study author Dasun Perera told AFP.Carbon footprintThe team also found that increasing hot and cold spells could effect the integration of renewable supplies within existing power grids.This, in turn, could have a significant impact on urban air quality and poses a further challenge to governments and cities seeking to shrink their carbon footprint.”Extreme climate events and their impact on the energy systems are not considered during energy planning at present,” said Perera, from the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory at the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.”This can easily lead to a mismatch between demand and generation during extreme climate events resulting blackouts.”A study published last week warned that the number of extremely hot days and nights — which pose a significant health risk as the human body doesn’t get a chance to cool off — in the Northern Hemisphere could quadruple by 2100.Even with global air conditioning access set to mushroom as the century progresses, there are still likely to be hundreds of millions of people worldwide put in harm’s way by extreme heatwaves.’New thinking, new tools’This figure currently stands at around 1.1 billion people, those who are vulnerable to hot spells but lack the power or funds for cooling equipment.”Accounting for and formalizing the impact of extremes is significant not just because it is the extremes that will break us but because the extremes affect the most vulnerable first and most devastatingly,” said a linked editorial.In a comment piece, U.S. and European researchers said traditional climate modeling often failed to account for extreme weather events.They said the governments should consider the short-term risk of hot and cold spells when updating or building energy infrastructure.”Going beyond today’s status quo to explore the ‘out of the ordinary’ requires new thinking, new experiments, and, quite possibly, new combinations of tools, including off-model analyses,” said the authors.”This is a tall order to be sure, but there is no risk in trying.”
 
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