Pakistan officials say the death toll from the twin suicide bombing of a paramilitary training center in the northwest has risen to 80.
Pakistan's Taliban says it carried out Friday's attack as revenge for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The militant group said the blasts were the "first revenge" for the killing of bin Laden.
Pakistan authorities say nearly all the people killed Friday at the Frontier Constabulary training center in the Shabaqadar area of Charsadda district were newly trained cadets. Dozens of people were also wounded.
Officials say the attack happened as the cadets were boarding vehicles to go home for a short break.
Bin Laden was killed last week in a U.S. military raid in the northern Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad.
The attack Friday on the training center came one day after officials said a U.S. drone strike killed at least seven suspected militants in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan near the Afghan border.
It was the third suspected U.S. drone strike since bin Laden's death.
Pakistani officials have called for an end to the drone strikes, which they say violate the country's sovereignty. U.S. officials have never publicly acknowledged the use of drones against militants inside Pakistan, but have privately confirmed their existence to various media outlets.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Representatives from the Libyan opposition are in Washington this week to meet senior U.S. officials in a bid to win more foreign assistance to help topple Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. But the United States remains hesitant in providing more aid.
When Libya's uprising began in March, there were calls for the United States to train the country's lightly-armed rebels and supply them with weapons. But U.S. officials insisted that type of support should come from another country.
Since then, NATO has taken over enforcing the no-fly zone and arms embargo against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, while some European countries have provided military advisers to the rebels.
And while the United States has pledged up to $25 million in so-called non-lethal assistance to Libya's opposition and spent an estimated $750 million in the air war there, Washington remains hesitant to provide the rebels with more assistance.
On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States still is cautious in understanding who makes up the opposition.
"We have seen reports that there are some extremists that are fighting for the opposition. We see information, and we hear from the opposition that they are trying to isolate those people and get them out of the movement," he said.
Gates was speaking to U.S. Marines at a military base in the eastern state of North Carolina.
In late March, media outlets reported that some Libyan rebels had admitted to fighting against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the time, a top NATO official said the alliance did not believe there was a significant connection between the Libyan opposition leadership and extremist groups.
Waheed Burshan represents the Libyan opposition. He is one of three representatives of Libya's Transitional National Council visiting the United States this week for talks with senior U.S. officials.
While he admits that extremists may possibly exist outside the opposition leadership, he insists that they will not have a say in Libya's future.
"Like any countries, we have people we don't know of. But one thing that you need to be sure of is that our willingness [is] to make sure that none of these people exist among us or they be part of any system that we have," he said.
Burshan says the opposition leadership has made clear that it solely wants, as he says, to "rebuild" Libya from four decades of Colonel Gadhafi's autocratic rule.
He says his movement plans to do what it can to limit what he called any "fringe elements." For instance, he says the opposition leadership plans to monitor closely the distribution of any weapons delivered from abroad in order to prevent instability within Libya, the region and elsewhere in the world.
Italy's foreign minister says he expects the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi by the end of May as the North African country's anti-government opposition received major political boosts from abroad.
Franco Frattini said Thursday that after the warrant is issued it would be impossible for Gadhafi to go into exile because the international community would then be obliged to pursue him.
On the diplomatic front, Britain invited the rebel Transitional National Council to open an office in the country, which has the largest Libyan community outside Libya. Prime Minister David Cameron made the announcement Thursday after talks with the visiting head of the council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.
British leaders also promised to provide the Libyan opposition with more communications equipment, bulletproof vests and uniforms. Unlike France and Italy, Britain has not recognized the national council as Libya's legitimate government.
In Washington, the White House said a visiting council delegation led by Mahmoud Jibril will meet Friday with U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, senior administration officials and members of Congress.
Earlier Thursday, NATO warplanes attacked Gadhafi's sprawling Bab al-Azaziya compound in Tripoli, hours after he made his first appearance on Libyan television since last month. Libyan officials said the strikes killed at least three people. There was no independent confirmation of the casualties.
Libyan rebels have been fighting since March to end Gadhafi's 42-year autocratic rule. The Libyan government says Gadhafi survived a NATO airstrike last month.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the air war in Libya has cost the United States about $750 million so far.
Meanwhile, the opposition says it is investigating the fatal shooting of a French man in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi after he and four other French nationals were stopped at a police checkpoint.
The World Food Program said Thursday fighting between rebels and pro-Gadhafi forces in Libya's western mountains is preventing food supplies from reaching trapped civilians. The U.N. agency appealed for a cease-fire to enable aid workers to deliver aid to the region from the Tunisian border.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Follow our Middle East reports on Twitter and discuss them on our Facebook page.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Syrian government forces expanded their crackdown on public opposition Thursday uprising, deploying tanks around the historic city of Hama, where the Syrian regime crushed a revolt almost 20 years ago. Opposition websites are calling for further anti-government protests Friday.
The Syrian government released a number of mostly young detainees arrested in recent days, in what appeared to be a calculated gesture to pull back from the brink of conflict. However, rights activists say there were more arrests in Banias and nearby villages.
Tanks and military personnel remained positioned to intervene further in the restive flashpoint cities of Homs, Hama, Banyas, and suburbs of Daraa, but no clashes were reported. A fresh opposition protest is expected Friday, but the government crackdown could limit turnout.
The city of Homs, shelled by army tanks Wednesday, was quiet, but most shops and businesses were closed and streets appeared deserted.
Security forces and government militiamen also reportedly arrested scores of people when they broke up a demonstration by several thousand students at Aleppo University late Wednesday.
Dozens of young people held a nighttime vigil in the coastal city of Latakia, according to a video on Facebook. Foreign journalists are not being allowed to enter Syria, so the vigil and other reported protests could not be independently confirmed.
Syrian government television repeated claims that terrorists and outside agitators have been attacking army troops. It says the government is trying to restore order.
Meanwhile, in Libya, NATO planes attacked targets in Tripoli including part of leader Moammar Gadhafi's military compound. The airstrike began just after Libyan television showed a meeting between Gadhafi and tribal leaders.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said a bomb dropped by a NATO jet killed two Libyan journalists filming a documentary, in an area used as a playground for children. He refused to allow journalists to visit what several claimed was a bunker under the playground.
Moussa denounced the NATO bombings and said the Libyan government has repeatedly accepted a truce and negotiations.
He says the Gadhafi government is the only side that has announced it accepted all peace initiatives, including plans proposed by the African Union and Turkey, and agreed to peace and dialogue. Moussa claims the rebels and NATO have refused all attempts at peace and dialogue because - in his words - they know that a peace process will turn them into losers, since the Libyan people will reject them.
NATO says the Libyan leader and his forces have been attacking their own people, and that their offensive must stop immediately.
Fighting continued in several other parts of Libya Thursday. Rebels claim they now control 85 percent of the city of Misrata - including the airport - and have ousted Gadhafi loyalists.
Follow our Middle East reports on Twitter and discuss them on our Facebook page.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Syrian activists say the government has arrested dozens of people and deployed tanks around cities in central Syria in a widening crackdown on opposition protesters.
The activists say Syrian security forces detained residents of the coastal city of Banias and nearby villages on Thursday.
Banias is one of several Syrian cities where opponents of President Bashar al-Assad had been rallying in recent weeks for democratic reforms and an end to his 11-year autocratic rule. The protests began in southern Syria in mid-March and spread nationwide.
Rights groups say Syrian authorities also arrested prominent rights campaigner Najati Tayara in Homs, a day after he reported that Syrian troops were firing on residential areas of Syria's third-largest city.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday accused the Syrian government of engaging in "unlawful detention, torture and denial of medical care" to wounded people. She said some people may see such behavior as a sign of strength, but Washington believes that treating one's own people in that way is a sign of remarkable weakness.
Speaking on a visit to Greenland, Clinton also criticized Syria's alliance with Iran, saying that "relying on Iran as your best friend and only strategic ally is not a viable way forward."
Syria has faced strong criticism from Western powers for its violent suppression of the opposition movement, but the reaction from other nations has been muted.
China's foreign ministry said Thursday the international community "should not interfere in Syria's internal affairs" and "avoid complicating the situation."
In other developments, rights groups say Syrian tanks deployed Thursday around the central city of Hama. The late President Hafez al-Assad, father of the current president, shelled the city in 1982 to suppress a Sunni uprising. Rights groups say at least 10,000 people were killed .
Syria's opposition is calling for more protests Friday, the traditional Muslim day of prayer. Syrian rights activists say the number of people killed across the country in the anti-government uprising ranges from 600 to 700.
There is no independent confirmation of casualty figures because Syria has banned most international journalists from the country.
In an apparent gesture to the opposition, Syria's state news agency said Thursday Prime Minister Adel Safar has introduced a new program to employ 10,000 university graduates annually at government institutions.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Follow our Middle East reports on Twitter and discuss them on our Facebook page.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
NATO bombs hit government buildings in the Libyan capital Tripoli Thursday the same day NATO's secretary general visited Washington. A Libyan resistance leader, also visiting the U.S. capital, says the opposition needs more bombs, more often, to win the war against Moammar Gadhafi.
The warplanes struck early morning, attacking Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli. Libyan authorities took international journalists on a tour of the damage. and on a tour to a hospital where authorities said victims were being treated. Meanwhile in Washington, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen explained the alliance's mission in Libya, and its changing role in the world. "While NATO's past and present speak for themselves, the alliance future is not yet written," he said.
In the Mideast, NATO faces seismic change. Its no-fly zone over Libya started in March. The compound struck on Thursday has been hit several times.
The explosions awakened a man who spoke to VOA via Skype. He describes himself as the leader of a peaceful civil disobedience group. He normally works in Britain, but has returned to his hometown of Tripoli. He says NATO airstrikes boost morale in the Libyan capital. VOA asked him what he would say to the NATO leader if given the chance.
"Why the hesitation? With each hesitation, Gadhafi forces are able to fire more rockets at civilian areas. With each extended decision making process, more civilians are hurt and injured and massacred," the man said.
And, so we asked Secretary General Rasmussen about NATO's strategy. "There is no hesitation whatsoever. Right from the outset, when we took command six weeks ago, we have kept a very high operational tempo. Six weeks and 6,000 sorties," he said.
A leader within the Libyan opposition is also in Washington and met Thursday with U.S. legislators. Waheed Burshan says NATO is not consistent enough in the airstrikes.
"NATO -- they tried to be very surgical about this, but I think they are losing certain momentum in this battlefield," Burshan said.
This week opposition forces overtook the Misrata airport, seizing government weapons after days of fighting. Rasmussen says NATO has no plans to take advantage of the victory. "I do not envision the use of airports on Libyan soil."
Rasmussen says NATO's 150,000 forces worldwide serve NATO's mission. He says the alliance is not only responding to change, it is also shaping change. Yet in Libya, some say that change is not coming fast enough.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Dozens were wounded Thursday as fresh clashes erupted between Yemeni security forces and protesters, a day after at least nine people were killed in anti-government unrest.
News organizations quoting witnesses and medics say government forces opened fire with machine guns on demonstrators in Taiz, Yemen's main industrial city. The city has been under siege for several days.
On Wednesday, security forces fired on tens of thousands of protesters demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded in the incidents which took place during rallies in at least three cities.
Earlier this week, representatives of six Gulf nations urged Yemen's government and opposition leaders to sign an agreement that calls for President Saleh's resignation. The Gulf Cooperation Council made the call Tuesday as it wrapped up a summit.
In a joint statement, council members said their agreement represented Yemen's "best way" out of its political crisis and would "spare the country further political division and deterioration of security."
The plan calls for Saleh to hand over power to a deputy and step down within 30 days of signing the accord. It also calls for the establishment of a unity government that includes the opposition.
Saleh has refused to sign the agreement in his capacity as president. He says he will only sign it as leader of the ruling General People's Congress party.
Follow our Middle East reports on Twitter and discuss them on our Facebook page.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
U.S. officials say Osama bin Laden's handwritten journal shows the al-Qaida leader urging his followers to focus on targeting the United States in a large-scale attack.
Media reports quote the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They say the notebook details al-Qaida's doctrine, potential targets and how to carry out attacks against them. It describes plots against the U.S. rail system and the importance of attacking the U.S.
In one journal passage, officials say bin Laden wondered how many Americans would have to die in U.S. cities to force the U.S. government to withdraw from the Arab world. Officials say the al-Qaida leader concluded that only an attack on the scale of September 11, 2001, would shift U.S. policy.
Sifting through contents
Bin Laden is believed to have personally written the journal, which U.S. Navy SEALs seized from his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad during the May 2 operation that killed him.
U.S. intelligence officials are still in the process of sifting through the contents of dozens of flash drives, computers, and paper documents seized during the raid.
Officials say so far they have seen no evidence of specific, imminent plots against the U.S. or other Western targets.
On Thursday, a top U.S. senator said harsh interrogation techniques were not used while gathering intelligence about bin Laden's whereabouts.
In a speech to the U.S. Senate, Senator John McCain, a Republican from the state of Arizona and former U.S. presidential candidate, rejected claims by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and others who said the waterboarding of senior al-Qaida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided information that led to bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.
Pakistani outrage
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani warned of "serious consequences" from such unilateral actions. He has ordered a military probe into how bin Laden was able to hide out in Pakistan for several years.
On Thursday, about 300 supporters of Pakistan's main opposition leader, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, rallied in Abbottabad to protest the U.S. military operation and the Pakistani intelligence agency's failure to detect the raid.In Pakistan, the public and politicians continued to protest the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden. Earlier this week,
Sharif has called for an independent probe led by the judiciary into how bin Laden came to live in Abbottabad and the U.S. operation that killed the al-Qaida leader. The former prime minister has called the raid a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.
Demonstrators on Thursday shouted slogans against the United States and the Pakistani government.
Strained relations
The U.S. raid has further strained ties between the United States and Pakistan.
U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter held talks with officials at Pakistan's foreign ministry on Thursday. No details have been released.
In Washington, some U.S. lawmakers said they saw photos of bin Laden's body after he was shot and killed. Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from the state of Oklahoma, told reporters the photos were "pretty gruesome."
U.S. forces buried bin Laden at sea.
The White House says it will not publicly release photos of bin Laden's body, for fear the images will incite violence or be used as a propaganda tool.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Amnesty International says in its latest annual report that recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa show that freedom of expression lies at the heart of human rights.
2010 ended with a public uprising in Tunisia that forced that country's longtime leader from power. Then in the new year, similar public demonstrations prompted Egypt's autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak, to step down.
The rights group says in its annual report that freedom of expression is a powerful tool for change.
Amnesty Middle East expert Philip Luther says the events in Egypt and Tunisia show the power of the people, whatever their background.
"The people who have been taking to the streets have been a wide variety of people from across different divides. They have included some of the most marginalized in society. They have included women and they have included people of very different and varied political persuasions," Luthar said.
More uprisings followed the events in Egypt and Tunisia, but not with the same outcomes.
In Libya, Moammar Gadhafi still rules, despite open rebellion in parts of the country and NATO air strikes against his forces.
In China, authorities cracked down hard against possible unrest inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East.
Amnesty International's Tawanda Hondora says it is the same story in a number of sub-Saharan African countries.
"We see for example the situation in Uganda where the opposition is trying to demonstrate and orchestrate uprisings that are similar to what is happening in North Africa. We also see similar situations happening in countries like Swaziland where there have been demonstrations, as well as Zimbabwe where there were demonstrations, but those were brutally suppressed as they were in Uganda," Hondora said.
Hondora says civil and political rights are under threat.
In Ivory Coast, violence after that country's disputed presidential election in November left hundreds dead and displaced an estimate one-million people. The violence stemmed from former President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to cede power to election winner Alassane Ouattara.
Elsewhere in Africa, a Nigerian civil rights group says at least 500 people died in election violence last month between Muslims and Christians.
Hondora says politicians are not doing enough to rein in their supporters. "The major problem in sub-Saharan Africa is that many governments are brutally suppressing protests that are being undertaken by the citizens and this is a violation of the constitution, it is also in violation of the African charter on Human and People's Rights, where people have a right to demonstrate, where they have a right to express their views," Hondora said.
Amnesty says 2010 was not all bad news.
The group says authorities in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya halted forced evictions after a public outcry. And in Europe, Amnesty cites progress in bringing to justice those responsible for crimes in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Amnesty also notes the release of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. The Nobel Peace Prize winner spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. But Amnesty says thousands of other political prisoners are still held there.
Luther says freedom of expression is the key to solving injustice. "There has been no clearer signal of the importance of freedom of expression than in the Middle East and North Africa where people have been rising up at the end of 2010 and then very much into 2011 to demand the right to freedom of expression, which is such a cornerstone right and which allows people to access all other rights because it allows them to demand them," Luther said.
When free speech is respected, says Luther, people can bring about social and economic change as well as political revolution.
Amnesty's annual report says there are unlawful restrictions on freedom of expression in 89 countries around the world.
It says torture and other ill-treatment were used in 98 countries in 2010 and the organization investigated unfair trials in 54 countries.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been sworn in for a fourth term in office, which will extend his rule of the country to 30 years. Once viewed as a liberator and reformer, Museveni is now facing increasing criticism over his consolidation of power and his commitment to human rights.
Security was tight in Kampala as police and military alike guarded what is likely the most internationally-watched presidential inauguration in Uganda's history. But on a day to celebrate the country's 15 years of multi-party politics, armed soldiers and closed streets in the city center underlined a rising concern for Uganda's fledgling democracy.
At the center of the security is Museveni, a one-time rebel soldier who is now among Africa's longest serving leaders. Museveni first came to power through armed struggle against two of Africa's most notorious leaders: Idi Amin and Milton Obote. Museveni served in the rebel army that deposed Amin in 1980. Less than two years later, he led the National Resistance Movement in a struggle to depose Obote, Amin's corrupt successor, who was responsible for an estimated 300,000 civilian deaths during six years of rule.
Godfrey Odongo, a researcher for the London-based Amnesty International, explains how Museveni moved to quickly reverse the destruction of his predecessors.
"When Museveni first came to power in 1986 he had a 10-point plan. One of the key pillars of that plan was observance and respect of human rights. In the first part of Museveni's rule, there were considerable advancements and developments in human rights as standards, particularly relating to the opening up of space, and quite a significant degree of respect for the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of speech," said Odongo.
Uganda has flourished during Museveni's 25-year rule, in both economic and human terms. According to the United Nations, from 1985 to 2010, the country saw a 53 percent increase in "human development," a statistic that combines life expectancy, access to education and income to measure the quality of life in a country. During that same period, neighboring Kenya saw a rise of only 13 percent.
Museveni also has led one of the most successful HIV/AIDS campaigns in Africa. According to the World Health Organization, from 1990 to 2009, the percentage of 15 to 49-year-old Ugandans with HIV or AIDS dropped from 10.2 percent to 6.5 percent.
But all is not well in Uganda. Since the February elections, Museveni has faced increasingly harsh criticism over his heavy-handed suppression of opposition and his consolidation of power. In April, opposition groups - led by three-time presidential candidate Kizza Besigye - began the "Walk to Work" demonstrations to protest the rising cost of food and fuel. The walks were met with the full force of the Ugandan police, with hundreds of demonstrators arrested or injured, and 10 killed.
Odongo said the response has been the culmination of five years of increasingly repressive rule.
"There have been quite a number of developments relating to restriction and diminishing of political civil space. Museveni's swearing in today comes on the backdrop of Amnesty International's concern that the last five to six years have seen the government notch up attempts to introduce legislation that significantly restricts the space within which political choice can be exercised," said Odongo.
<!--IMAGE-->
The response to the "Walk to Work" movement has been roundly criticized by rights groups and international observers alike. Opposition leader Besigye was repeatedly arrested and even injured by police, requiring one week in a Kenyan hospital to treat badly damaged eyes and a broken hand. Rights groups have expressed concern over interpretations of the constitution used by police to justify the crackdowns. The international community has called on the Ugandan government to respect the freedom of peaceful assembly of its citizens.
Museveni sees the protests, though, in a different light. He repeatedly has accused Besigye of provoking police and firmly defends his duty to maintain order.
"I vote for democracy, but my democracy is a democracy of discipline," he said.
Statistics, however, tell a story similar to that of the opposition. Though the National Resistance Movement lists corruption reduction as one of Museveni's major achievements, opponents point to Uganda's bloated cabinet, with more than 70 members as evidence to the contrary. Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked Uganda 105 in its 2006 Corruption Perception Index, with a score of 2.7 out of 10. In 2010, Uganda's score had fallen to 2.5, with a global ranking of 127.
The group's 2010 East Africa Bribery Index found Uganda the region's second most corrupt country behind Burundi, and ahead of the notoriously corrupt Kenya. The index also found Uganda's Revenue Authority and Police among the 10 most corrupt institutions in east Africa.
Paris-based Reporter's Without Borders has similarly criticized Uganda in its protection of free speech. The group ranked Uganda 96th in its 2010 Press Freedom Index, down from 52nd in 2002.
Museveni's inauguration Thursday was attended by leaders from across Africa, but just down the road, thousands of Ugandans gathered at or near Entebbe International Airport to welcome Kizza Besigye home from Nairobi.
With at least five years left in his rule, the world likely will be watching to see if Museveni extends a hand to the popular Besigye or closes his fist.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
As flood waters invade fields and homes along the Mississippi River in the states of Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, officials farther south, in the state of Louisiana are preparing for the worst. Louisiana's governor is urging citizens to take action now.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still studying a proposal to open floodgates at the Morganza spillway in an effort to protect the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans farther downstream. But opening the floodgates would inundate farm fields, forest lands and some residences in the area.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is asking people in the potential flood zone to start preparing now instead of waiting for a final decision by the Corps of Engineers.
"Act as if the Corps is going to open the spillway. The best thing to do is to be prepared as if that decision is coming. I do not want people waiting; I do not want them to hesitate about whether they need to make evacuation plans or move their valuables or build these levees," he said.
The Morganza spillway is about 75 kilometers upriver from the Louisiana capital of Baton Rouge. Last week, the U.S. Corps of Engineers blew up a section of a levee in Missouri to protect river towns in Kentucky and Illinois, but flooding 52,000 hectares of farmland as a result.
Monday, the Corps opened the Bonne Carre spillway near New Orleans for the first time since 2008. But the level of the Mississippi River is setting records upriver in places like Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi, where low-lying residential areas are being flooded.
But experts say the situation would have been far worse if it had not been for the levees, spillways and other controls that have been built along the river since the devastating flood of 1927 that killed more than 1,000 people and flooded large areas of the south, especially in Louisiana.
The other concern for officials monitoring the river crest is the presence of 11 oil refineries along the lower Mississippi that process about two and a half million barrels a day and supply about 13 percent of the gasoline used by motorists in the United States.
At least two of those refineries could be shut down temporarily by flooding. Experts say if the shutdowns are short, a week or two, the effect will be moderate, but if they are shut down for many weeks there could be a prolonged rise in fuel prices. U.S. motorists are already complaining about gasoline prices, now at the highest level since the oil price spike of 2008.
The flooding along the Mississippi and its tributaries is considered the worst in 80 years. The cause of the flooding is snow melt and heavy rains in the northern part of the United States. Meantime, southern plains states like Texas and Oklahoma are experiencing severe drought and high winds that have caused raging wildfires. There has also been a record number of tornadoes along a path from Texas to Georgia that have killed more than 200 people in six states this year.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
While a recent U.S. report has staggering statistics about ongoing mass rapes and domestic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights activists say the problem exists across Africa. Our correspondent caught up with African lawyers who are in the United States getting advice on how to confront the situation.
At a meeting in the Washington offices of the U.S. National Network to End Domestic Violence, Rene Renick shared with her African guests some of the common challenges women face in fighting for their rights.
"That is something we have been through too just so you know," said Renick. "We have been told we are breaking up marriages, we have been called lesbians and baby killers."
A report released this week in the American Journal of Public Health, based on new statistics, indicated that between 2006 and 2007, 400,000 women had been raped in the Congo - a rate 26 times higher than what the United Nations has been reporting. The study said these rapes were taking place in conflict areas as well as in the homes of the victims.
Gladys Fri Mbuya from Cameroon said that while many Americans hear only about rape and domestic violence from Africa in the conflict-ridden Congo, she said the problem is rampant across the continent.
"It cannot be just Congo," said Mbuya. "Domestic violence I think is everywhere. And it is more rampant in Africa because of our culture. Basically it is encouraged by some households. You grow up, you see your parents fighting and you grow up thinking that fighting is a normal thing for families. They give the impression that your husband is like your father, he has the right to correct you, he has the right to beat you."
Mbuya takes on many legal cases to protect women, and also hosts a weekly radio show for women's issues on her own time, but she says there is only so much she can do on her own. A new family legislative code has been years in the making in Cameroon, but so far it has yet to be completed.
Mbuya says young women and teenagers are often sold into marriages, which quickly become abusive, and that there is not a single shelter in all of Cameroon, a country of nearly 20 million people.
"You realize that they remain in those relationships because they do not have a way to hide," she said. "They do not know where to run to. They go to their parents, but their parents send them back because of the cultural mindset, they think it is right for your husband to beat you, they keep pushing them back. Some of them have actually expressed that if we knew where to go and hide we would leave this relationship."
Like Mbuya, fellow lawyer and women's rights activist Selamawit Tesfaye is also completing a fellowship at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Tesfaye says in her home country, Ethiopia, which also does not have laws to cover domestic violence, marital rape is a huge, if largely unmentioned, problem.
She says laws which were recently passed in Ethiopia severely restricted outside funding for non-governmental organizations, making it all the more difficult to address the situation.
"Most of the organizations that were working in that area have been rendered ineffective, literally, because most of our funding was coming from there. I am not saying the government is not focusing on those areas but the non-governmental organization expertise has not been replaced so there is a gap at the moment," said Tesfaye.
She said in addition to more funding to help address the problem, more women's representation in governments across Africa could also help.
Paulette Sullivan Moore, vice president of public policy for the U.S. National Network to End Domestic Violence, was one of those giving advice at the Washington meeting.
She compared the plight of women in Africa to the situation several decades ago in the United States when there few laws protecting women, and police were unresponsive to complaints of domestic violence.
"I am not surprised about the current level of struggle," said Moore. "They did not say things that we weren't hearing in this country 25, 30 years ago. So I hope that gives them hope and that they will one day be at a place that they will be helping another country move forward."
Some of the advice at the meeting ranged from compiling precise statistics and starting help websites and hotlines, to striking up partnerships with insurance companies to give loan assistance to at-risk women.
The African lawyers said they were hoping to return to Washington next year when the second world conference of women's shelters will be held from February 27 to March 1, bringing together advocates working to end violence against women from all over the world.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Despite few concrete results from this week's high-level U.S.-China talks in Washington, Chinese officials indicate their government firmly supports increasing dialogue with their American counterparts.
The just-concluded U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue highlighted strong differences the two countries have on a wide range of issues, including currency reform, trade and human rights.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu emphasized that communication is an important part of resolving differences.
Jiang said only through dialogue can China and the United States enhance mutual understanding and "properly handle differences, problems or disputes that stand between them."
She commented on a media report this week that quotes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as calling China's human rights record deplorable and saying that the country will fail in its attempts to "stop history" by clamping down harshly on dissent.
Jiang was unperturbed in her response.
She suggested that the reporter who asked the question has only a partial understanding of Secretary Clinton's remarks. She then emphasized the spirit of cooperation between China and the United States, and said most of the reports she has seen assessing the talks are generally positive.
The Chinese spokeswoman pointed to energy cooperation as one area where the two countries can work together. In 2008, the United States and China signed a 10-year agreement on energy and environment cooperation.
Jiang said one result of the first-ever strategic security component of the talks is the decision to launch a consultation on Asia Pacific affairs.
She said she thinks the Asia Pacific region is where China and the United States have, "the most converging interests."
In recent years, China has stepped up its territorial claims to disputed islands in the South and East China seas. These conflicts have prompted a regional backlash and, as a result, many of the rival claimants have drawn closer to the United States, which is the region's dominant naval power.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
European Union interior ministers meet in Brussels Thursday to discuss how to handle a wave of migrants flooding into their countries following the Arab uprisings in North Africa.
Fading hopes
Near a highway on the edge of Paris, dozens of mostly Tunisian immigrants are camped out in a dusty park, living on sandwiches handed out by volunteers - and hope for a better life in Europe that is quickly fading.
Hamed Ben Garden, 25, is from the Tunisian island of Djerba. He left Tunisia in February, heading to the Italian island of Lampedusa by boat - and then by train across Italy's border with France.
Ben Garden says he thought France would give him food and shelter, until he could find a job. But he cannot get legal papers. And without papers, he cannot find a job.
European Union countries are now discussing how they should deal with Ben Garden and roughly 25,000 other North Africans who have flooded into the region since the Arab protests earlier this year.
Tougher stance
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has proposed toughening the 26-year-old Schengen agreement that allows for passport-free travel among 22 member nations, plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway.
In a speech before the European Parliament Tuesday, commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the influx of African migrants highlighted weaknesses in Schengen. The commission has proposed introducing temporary border controls but Barroso says dismantling Schengen would be a disaster.
<!--IMAGE-->
"I firmly believe that to do so would catastrophically undermine not just what Europe has constructed over the last 61 years, but sabotage the viability of our efforts to build a prosperous and integrated Europe for the future," Barroso said.
Influx of migrants
A joint letter by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi prompted the Schengen discussions. The two leaders want the Schengen treaty to be modified. Italy has been the main country hit by the influx of North and sub-Saharan African migrants whose numbers surged following this year's Arab Spring.
Pierre Henry, head of the French immigration support group, France Terre d'Asile, says about half of the African migrants who arrived in Italy this year made their way to France.
<!--IMAGE-->
Henry compares their plight to the thousands fleeing across the borders of war-torn Libya into Tunisia in recent weeks. He says Tunisia welcomed and sheltered these people. By contrast, he says France and Europe have offered a police solution to Tunisian and other migrants arriving on their shores that he says is undignified.
Anneliese Baldaccini, European immigration expert for rights group Amnesty International, agrees that Europe should be welcoming and not shunning these migrants.
"We would like to see the European Union making a commitment towards governing the situation in a way that is consonant with the values that it stands for - taking its fair share in welcoming people, in receiving them and providing basic humanitarian needs," Baldaccini said.
Political bind
Hugo Brady, a Brussels-based analyst for the think-tank Center for European Reform, says French and Italian leaders who urged toughening Schengen are in a political bind - in part because of the rise of far-right, anti-immigration parties.
But Brady doubts border-free travel in Europe will be scrapped.
"The practicalities of the everyday won't allow for it," noted Brady. "People value the convenience of being able to travel around Europe without a passeport. It's a significant achievement that I think very few people will want to roll back. "
Among the Tunisians in the Paris park, Europe's tough welcome has been hard to endure.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
NATO says a combined Afghan and coalition force has killed a young girl and an Afghan policeman during an operation against a Taliban leader in eastern Afghanistan.
The incident took place Wednesday in the Surkh Rod district of Nangarhar province.
NATO issued a statement Thursday saying a man at the Taliban leader's suspected compound threatened security forces with a gun, and was killed. An investigation later found he was employed by the Afghan National Police.
The coalition said that after the combined force secured the building, a person later identified as an unarmed Afghan girl was shot as she ran from the back of the compound, after forces mistakenly thought she had a gun.
Local residents say the girl was 12 years old.
A NATO official apologized, and said the coalition is working with Afghan security officials to understand what happened and take steps to prevent future incidents.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly criticized NATO for civilian casualties caused by coalition forces. In March, he told the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, U.S. General David Petraeus, that civilian casualties are "no longer acceptable."
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh are at odds this week after investigating judges said they have completed their work on their third case - reportedly against two senior former military commanders. In Phnom Penh, critics accuse the government of interfering in the high-profile prosecutions.
The war crimes tribunal has long been split over how many former Khmer Rouge cases it should prosecute.
The international prosecutor Andrew Cayley said last year that he expected to see no more than 10 people stand trial for their alleged roles in the deaths of around two million people during the movement's rule of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
But his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, has opposed prosecuting more than five people. The first of those was the former security chief Comrade Duch, whom the court last year convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. His sentence is under appeal.
The other four, who make up Case Two, are the movement's last surviving senior leaders. Their trial is expected to start later this year.
But while those cases are moving forward, the Cambodian government has long opposed prosecuting Cases Three and Four - involving the five remaining suspects.
The prosecution is tasked with assessing the court's investigation and determining whether or not there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.
This week international prosecutor Andrew Cayley said it is clear that much more work is needed on Case Three.
"If you're asking me how much more investigation needs to be done, I would simply use the words 'a significant amount' of investigation is still left to be done in that case," Cayley said.
Cambodia remains an authoritarian country and the government's opposition to Cases Three and Four has had a chilling effect on the tribunal's Cambodian staff, most of whom have refused to work on the cases.
This week the investigating judges in Case Three closed their investigation and handed the case file back to the prosecution.
"I don't consider that the investigation is concluded and I've asked for a number of steps to be taken including the interviewing of the suspects who are named in the introductory submission," Andrew Cayley said as he explained what work is still needed, "and a number of other steps including investigation of crime sites also originally named by the prosecution in the introductory submission, which haven't been investigated at all."
Cayley's comments appear to confirm widespread rumors that the investigating judges did very little work on Case Three.
But Cayley's Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, later released a press statement recommending that Case Three be closed.
Chea Leang said she had examined the case file, and decided that the unnamed suspects were not senior leaders and were not among those most responsible for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge - the two categories that define those whom the court can prosecute.
With the Cambodian prosecutor, the government and the investigating judges all pushing to close Case Three, outside observers doubt that the prosecution will go forward.
International prosecutor Andrew Cayley's last option for Case Three is to appeal its closure to a bench of five judges. Three of the judges are Cambodian and trial observers believe the bench would likely vote to dismiss the case.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Quranic schools in Senegal gained much unwanted attention last year with a damning report by Human Rights Watch that said many schools were enslaving their students to beg for money. One Quranic school that is putting its students first.
Mohammed Niasse opened his Quranic school in 1981 with just six students. Thirty years later, this daara, located in Medina Gounass, one of the poorest suburbs of Dakar, has more than 250 kids.
Niasse is the only marabout, or spiritual leader, who teaches here. He divides his time between three open-air rooms that sit in the sand-filled courtyard of the community mosque.
The classrooms overflow with talibés, young boys and girls between the ages of three and 17, who are there to study Islam, French and Arabic. They sit squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder on small wooden benches. Niasse calls on them individually to recite verses of the Quran that are scribbled across their small wooden boards.
Exploitation, abuse by marabouts
Last April's report by Human Rights Watch revealed widespread exploitation and abuse by marabouts. It was a wake-up call to local aid groups, religious leaders and the Senegalese government that the living conditions of talibés - including a lack of food, shelter, hygiene and access to health care - have become deplorable.
Niasse admitted he was surprised when the report came out, but said it was a good surprise. He said he has been fighting against these 'so-called' marabouts for a long time. Niasse said the Quran itself is perfect. It is transparent like water, so you cannot put something dirty into it.
In Senegal, most people still live on less than one dollar a day and nearly half the population of 12 million is under the age of 21. The extreme poverty and high number of young people have made it increasingly difficult for families to meet their basic needs, including education.
Pervasive poverty
Niasse said it is poverty that brought religion and begging together. Islam does not recommend it, but he said when you are so poor, it becomes a necessity.
Ten years ago a group of women from Medina-Gounass decided they would help Niasse by becoming godmothers to the talibés. They call themselves the Ndeye Daaras.
Aissatou Dieye and Sokna Sall are founding members, and both have their own children to care for, yet still find time to volunteer.
Sall said that every morning she comes here to visit the kids. If they are dirty, she washes their clothes. She gives them soap and bleach to wash their hands. If they are sick, she brings them to the hospital.
Caring Ndeye Daaras
Many of the talibés at Niasse's daara have been sent away from home - some from as far off as neighboring Mali and Guinea Bissau. The young talibés who arrive alone often are the ones most dependent on the Ndeye Daaras, who now number more than 30 members.
Dieye said her work is very satisfying because every mother must educate a child who does not have the means. She said that you may know who brought this child into the world, but you might not know what good this child can bring to others. Dieye said that even if a talibé who she did not know came to her house, she would feed him.
Babacar Lo is a 16-year old talibé who attends Niasse's daara. He is one of the fortunate few who still lives with his family. Some of his friends are not so lucky.
Lo said he has some friends who beg in the street. They do it because it is what they know and what their marabout forces them to do. Lo said he has tried to tell them it is not good, but they do not listen.
Committing to progress
After the Human Rights Watch report, the Senegalese government reinforced a 2005 law banning public begging. They also jailed seven marabouts for six months and imposed $200 fines on each for exploiting their talibés. It was seen as a step forward.
Mamadou Ndiaye, president of the Dakar aid group Sweat for Survival, said the group has tried again and again to organize a national platform for this problem, but it was only when the international report came out that people started getting on board.
Just months after the ban on begging was reinstated, enforcement started to wane. It is difficult to implement a no-begging policy in a country where poverty is endemic and people are hungry.
The Senegalese government said it is committed to creating 100 "modern" daaras by next year to provide better learning conditions. Ndiaye said it is a problem that is bigger than just charlatan marabouts.
Ndiaye believes the real marabouts know, among themselves, who the "fake" ones are, so it is up to them to denounce them. But, he said there also is a need to educate Senegalese about population control. Ndiaye said it is sad. They need to organize themselves in terms of birthrates and to bring into the world only who they can take care of. He said Islam does not ask to bring a child into the world just to turn around and put him back into the street.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians ate most of their beef cows as the system of reproduction broke down. Now American ranchers are working to rebuild Russia's herd.
Darrell Stevenson, an American cowboy and cattle rancher, is not riding the black earth country of Russia to film a western movie.
He is bringing American-bred beef cattle, American ranching technology, and American cowboy knowhow to Russia.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, beef production in Russia also collapsed. People just ate the herds as the system of sustaining the cattle broke down. Today, Russia, the world's largest nation, imports most of its beef.
Right now, Russia's beef herd is less than one percent the size of the American herd, despite - as Stevenson points out - the country's abundant land and water.
"[There is a] tremendous opportunity in this country in terms of the vast resources," noted Stevenson. "[There exists a] tremendous amount of available ground, whether it is tilled or not."
Last year, Stevenson imported by ship and by air cargo jet 1,400 black Angus cows from Montana, in America's west.
A few months ago, they had their first calves, born in the black earth country of Russia.
Stevenson, along with two Russian businessmen, has set up a ranch with the goal of establishing a commercial beef herd in southern Russia.
Stevenson says Russia's long term goal is to achieve self sufficiency in meat production - pork, chicken and beef.
"We are helping establish a local beef herd, a regional beef herd, and eventually a national beef herd," added Stevenson. "With that comes the sideline of educating a labor force."
Viktor Korovkin grew up near here and saw a string of outsiders come and strip assets from the village's old collective farm. When the American-Russian joint venture started here, he was hired as a guard. Now, he is the head ranch hand.
He says the American ranching technology is more modern than the Russian technology he is familiar with.
Ekaterina Zimina grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city. Trained as a veterinarian, she worked last year on Darrell Stevenson's Montana ranch to learn American artificial insemination and calving techniques.
She says Russians are used to working with dairy cattle confined in barns, not beef cattle on the open range.
"It is really hard to find good enough people who can work with beef cattle," said Zimina. "Russia is world-known as dairy country. We have lots of dairy herds, dairy cows, but managing dairy and beef cows is a totally different thing."
With Russia determined to become self-sufficient in food, more and more investors are making the drive south of Moscow to see this new American-run ranch.
With plenty of cheap land and a longer growing season than much of American cattle country, Ekaterina believes many more Russians will soon be riding the range.
"We can show these people that this is not something from the movie: cowboys really exist and it's a really hard job, and it is possible to do this in Russia," added Zimina.
As Russia works to regain its food independence, Russians soon will be eating steaks from Black Angus raised here on the black earth of southern Russia.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The head of Nigeria's panel investigating last month's electoral violence says uncovering the causes of that killing will help prevent future unrest.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan appointed the 22-member panel to determine what led to last month's killing and how to prevent such violence in the future.
Panel chairman Sheikh Ahmed Lemu says the group has no illusions as to the enormity of their task and their responsibility to the nation.
"Our findings and recommendations in the course of this assignment, diligently applied, will go a long way in eradicating these seemingly-intractable acts of self-inflicted violence, Inshallah," he said.
A Nigerian civil rights group says at least 500 people were killed in fighting between Muslims and Christians when supporters of opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim, rioted after Jonathan, a Christian, was declared the winner.
President Jonathan has sought to strike a religious balance in an investigation that he says will be carried out by Nigerians of unquestionable integrity, patriotism and commitment to justice. While Islamic scholar Lemu is the head, his vice chairman is the former supreme court justice Samson Uwaifo, a Christian.
Lemu says the panel starts its work at a time of great national distress.
"We are quite appreciative of the great responsibility the current circumstances impose on the federal government, particularly in terms of taking adequate steps to determine and inform the citizenry as well as our international development partners of how these events came about and where those whose culpability is proven therein to stand vis-a-vis our laws," he said.
Lemu says it is particularly troubling that this violence occurred around a general election that was widely acclaimed by both local and international monitors to have been the most transparent in Nigerian history.
"Once again," he said, "the Nigerian nation is confronted with a series of tragic and traumatic events occasioning great distress to many families in different parts of the country. These acts of violence, wonton carnage, and mindless destruction of property are all the more disheartening because they were acts inflicted upon the nation by none other than Nigerians."
Buhari has distanced himself from the violence carried out by his supporters. But his party is challenging President Jonathan's election in court, alleging that the outcome was rigged by electoral commission computers that both increased Jonathan's vote totals in southern states and decreased Buhari's vote totals in northern states.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
U.S. officials say Osama bin Laden's journal contains information about future terror plots, and shows the al-Qaida leader was communicating with other terrorists.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday the notebook details the terror network's doctrine, potential targets and how to carry out attacks against them. It describes plots against the U.S. rail system and the importance of attacking the United States.
Bin Laden is believed to have personally written the journal, which U.S. Navy SEALs seized from his compound in northern Pakistan during the May 2 operation that killed him.
Warning
Meanwhile, the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has warned the United States of more attacks in retaliation for the raid.
In a statement posted on the Internet Wednesday, Yemen-based Nasser al-Wahishi said Americans should not think the "matter will be over" with bin Laden's death. He said "what is coming is greater and worse."
The warning came as U.S. Senator John Kerry announced he will travel to Pakistan next week in a bid to reset bilateral relations. The raid on bin Laden's compound in the garrison city of Abbottabad has further strained relations between the U.S. and Pakistan.
Who knew?
Another U.S. lawmaker, U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, said Wednesday there may have been "elements" in Pakistan who knew bin Laden was hiding in the country. But he said so far there are no indications that senior Pakistani officials knew about bin Laden's presence and provided safe haven.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has rejected criticism of Pakistan's military and spy agency for not detecting bin Laden was in the country, and dismissed allegations that authorities were aligned with al-Qaida.
He has also criticized the U.S. raid, warning of "serious consequences" from such unilateral actions.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
No comments:
Post a Comment