10-08-2018

INTERNATIONAL fRIdAY,
7
AUgUST 10, 2018
Tendai Biti is accused of unlawfully announcing that opposition leader
Nelson Chamisa won elections.
Photo : Internet
Zimbabwean opposition official
Biti deported from Zambia
Senior Zimbabwean opposition official
Tendai Biti has been deported from Zambia
in defiance of a court order after being
refused asylum, his Zambian lawyer said
Thursday, reports UNB.
Zambian border guards handed Biti to
Zimbabwean authorities on Thursday morning
despite the Zambian court order saying
he should not be deported until it could hear
his appeal, Gilbert Phiri told The Associated
Press. Biti was being driven to the capital,
Harare.
"Zambian authorities acted in defiance of
our courts, in defiance of regional and international
law," Phiri said.
Biti's plight has raised concerns about a
wave of repression against the opposition by
the government of Zimbabwean President
Emmerson Mnangagwa. It comes as Zimbabwe's
opposition prepares to launch a
legal challenge to last week's election results,
calling them fraudulent.
"This is a worrying development," said
David Coltart, a friend of Biti's who is also an
MDC member and a human rights lawyer.
"Tendai was arrested in 2008 on a similar
charge and while he was in custody he was
brutally tortured."
Biti, a former finance minister and newly
elected member of parliament for the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, is
wanted in Zimbabwe for allegedly inciting
violence after urging opposition supporters
to defend their votes in the disputed election.
A few Zimbabwean opposition supporters
were with Biti in Zambia, Phiri said. Biti's
lawyers in Harare were trying to find out if he
will be held in custody awaiting a court
appearance to be formally charged.
Congo’s president
won’t run again in
long-delayed election
Congo's president is not
running again in December's
long-delayed elections,
easing concerns by
the opposition and international
community that he
would try to stay in office
and positioning one of
Africa's most turbulent
nations for what could be its
first peaceful, democratic
transfer of power, reports
UNB.
President Joseph Kabila
will remain influential,
however. He chose former
interior minister
Emmanuel Ramazani
Shadary, the ruling party's
permanent secretary, as the
candidate for the newly
formed Common Front for
Congo coalition. Kabila is
considered its moral
US to impose
sanctions on
Russia over
nerve agent
attack
The United States
announced Wednesday it
will impose new sanctions
on Russia for illegally using a
chemical weapon in an
attempt to kill a former spy
and his daughter in Britain
earlier this year, reports
UNB.
The new sanctions, to be
imposed later this month,
come despite President
Donald Trump's efforts to
improve relations with Russia
and its leader, Vladimir
Putin, and his harsh criticism
of the investigation into
Russian interference in the
2016 election.
The State Department said
the U.S. this week made the
determination that Russia
had used the Novichok
nerve agent to poison Sergei
Skripal and his daughter,
Yulia, and that sanctions
would follow. It said Congress
is being notified of the
Aug. 6 determination and
that the sanctions would
take effect on or around Aug.
22, when the finding is to be
published in the Federal
Register. Those sanctions
will include the presumed
denial of export licenses for
Russia.
authority. Government
spokesman Lambert
Mende announced the decision
on Wednesday, just
hours before the deadline
for candidates to register.
The 57-year-old Shadary
is among nine Congolese
sanctioned by the European
Union last year for
obstructing the electoral
process and related human
rights violations.
After submitting his candidacy,
Shadary praised
Kabila, saying he kept his
word about not running for
another term and that the
submission was made
under his moral authority.
"The people need peace," he
said. Observers quickly
asked how much power
Kabila might assert behind
the scenes. "He's using the
strategy Putin-Medvedev,"
said another candidate,
Martin Fayulu, referring to
the years that the Russian
president shifted into the
prime minister's seat
because of term limits while
his longtime ally, Dmitry
Medvedev, was elected
president.
International pressure
had been growing on Kabila
and his government over
the election delay since late
2016, with the United
States in June taking the
unusual step of announcing
visa bans on several Congolese
senior officials but
not naming names. It cited
their involvement in "significant
corruption" related
to the electoral process.
Australian
man
arrested
in Bali on
cocaine
charges
An Australian man faces up
to 20 years in prison in
Indonesia after being arrested
for allegedly possessing
cocaine on the resort island
of Bali, reports UNB.
The chief of Denpasar district
police, Hadi Purnomo,
said Thursday the 43-yearold
man, whom he identified
only as Brandon, was arrested
with his Indonesian girlfriend
at a rented room last
Saturday in the tourist
hotspot of Kuta.
He said police found 11.6
grams of cocaine packed
into 13 plastic bags.
Purnomo told reporters
that the man, identified by
Indonesian news site
Kumparan as Brandon
Johnson, had been living in
Bali for four years and was a
designer or architect.
He faces between five and
20 years in prison if found
guilty.
Indonesia has very strict
drug laws and convicted
traffickers can be executed
by firing squad.
Yemen tribal
leaders say
airstrikes in
Yemen’s
north kill 20
Yemeni tribal leaders say
airstrikes in northern
Yemen have targeted a busy
market and a bus, killing at
least 20 people, including
children, and wounding as
many as 35, reports UNB.
The elders blame the Saudi-led
coalition waging war
against Yemen's Shiite
rebels for the attack, which
took place on Thursday at a
market in Dahyan in Saada
province, a stronghold of the
rebels known as Houthis.
There was no immediate
comment from the coalition.
The leaders spoke on condition
of anonymity for fear
of reprisals.
The International Committee
of the Red Cross said on
Twitter that an ICRC supported
hospital received dozens of
dead and wounded.
In the Yemeni capital,
Sanaa, rebel-run Al Masirah
TV gave a different toll, saying
the attack killed 39 people
and wounded 51, mainly
children.
More than 2,000 evacuated
to remove WWII-era bomb
in Poland
Polish police say they are evacuating more than 2,000 people after the discovery of an unexploded
World War II-era bomb weighing some 250 kilograms (550 pounds) , reports UNB.
The bomb was discovered in the Oder River in the town of Glogow, an area of southwestern
Poland that was part of Germany during the war.
Lukasz Szulikowski, an official with the Glogow police, told the PAP news agency that
authorities are evacuating some 2,000 to 3,000 people in the area by bus to a nearby school
ahead of the removal of the bomb.
He said the bomb was discovered during the cleaning of the river bottom.
The private broadcaster TVN24 reported that it is the fourth World War II-era bomb found
in the region over the past year.
Police stand guard outside the Parliament building in Warsaw July 18,
2018. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)
Israel faces crocodile conundrum
with stranded reptiles
An Israeli businessman appears to
have bitten off more than he can
chew with plans for a crocodile farm
in a West Bank settlement, reports
UNB.
Hundreds of crocodiles have been
stranded at the farm in a remote spot
in the Jordan Valley - left behind by a
pair of failed business ventures.
The crocodiles were brought to the
settlement of Petzael in the mid-
1990s as a tourist attraction. Ensuing
Israeli-Palestinian violence kept visitors
away, prompting the crocodiles'
purchase by entrepreneur Gadi
Biton, who hoped to sell them for
their skin. But his venture flopped
after Israel passed a law in 2012
defining the crocodile as a protected
animal, and banning raising the animals
for sale as meat or merchandise.
Mahathir calls for more
mutual understanding to
avoid wars
Multiple attempts to sell them
abroad have failed. "We found ourselves
with hundreds of crocodiles in
this farm that no one knows what to
do with," said David Elhayani, head
of the Jordan Valley Regional Council.
A lone worker feeds the animals
dead chickens once every eight days.
Dozens of the crocodiles lazed
recently on the sun-baked shores of a
lagoon on the property, their jaws
ajar, revealing menacing teeth.
The animals have become a pain
for the owner, the region and Israel.
Dozens of crocodiles have escaped on
two occasions, including once when
70 flew the coop only to be found
after a three-day croc-hunt. The reptiles,
which can live well into their
70s, are also reproducing. Their
numbers are expected to grow to the
Malaysia's leader called Thursday for
more international exchange among
young people as a way to prevent war
and terrorism, as he received an honorary
degree from a like-minded university
in Japan, reports UNB.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
said that eradicating terrorism requires
more than a good defense.
"I believe that merely fighting against
terrorism will not put an end to terrorism,"
he said at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific
University in southern Japan. "We
must know the reason why these people
resort to terrorism, and if we know
the reason, and we deal with the reason,
then there is a chance that we can
stop the acts of terror."
More broadly, he said that greater
mutual understanding would provide
opportunities to resolve conflict
through means other than violence.
To that end, he praised Ritsumeikan
Asia Pacific University for its multinational
student body, saying that should
be the trend at all universities. The
school was founded in 2000 as a place
for future global leaders to study
together and develop an understanding
of each other's cultures and ways of life.
It has many students from elsewhere in
Asia, as well as other parts of the world.
thousands in the coming years.
"I don't want to think of what will
happen if a crocodile manages to
escape and reaches the Jordan River,
and then we'll have an international
incident," Elhayani said. "Maybe
then someone will wake up and find a
quick solution to this problem."
Biton, who declined to speak to The
Associated Press, has attempted to
resettle the crocodiles in Cyprus, but
numerous attempts to do so have
failed because of opposition by residents
there.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body
that administers civilian affairs in the
West Bank, said it is working to find
a "practical solution" to the crocodile
conundrum. It accused the farm
owner of a "lack of cooperation,"
without elaborating.
"If we are going to have good relations
between different countries, we
must know each other," said Mahathir,
an honorary member of the school's
advisory committee.
Mahathir is wrapping up a four-day
visit to Kyushu, the southernmost of
Japan's four main islands. He earlier
gave the keynote address at a seminar
for future Japanese leaders and visited
a training center at JR Kyushu, a railway
company that operates the highspeed
bullet train.
It is his second visit to Japan since
becoming prime minister in May for
the second time.
Malaysia's leader called Thursday for more international exchange among young people as a way to
prevent war and terrorism, as he received an honorary degree from a like-minded university in
Japan.
Photo : AP
Man who
supported
Islamic State
online to be
deported
A North Carolina man who
declared support for Islamic
State online will spend two
years in prison and be
deported, reports UNB.
A federal judge on
Wednesday sentenced
Houcine Ghoul to 24
months in prison for immigration
fraud and false statements
on his tax returns.
After his sentence, the
Tunisian national will be
deported.
Ghoul entered the country
on a visa in 2001 and married
a U.S. citizen to obtain
permanent legal resident
status. He later was
divorced.
Prosecutors said Ghoul
first attracted attention from
federal authorities in 2014
after posting a photo online
expressing support for the
Islamic State.
When Ghoul applied for
citizenship, he made false
claims to about his past to
immigration authorities in
2017. Ghoul also underreported
his income by
$90,000 on his 2015 and
2016 tax returns.
Palestinian-American
candidate is source of
West Bank pride
The Michigan primary victory of Rashida
Tlaib, a Palestinian-American who is
expected to become the first Muslim
woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, triggered
an outpouring of joy in her ancestral
village on Wednesday, reports UNB.
Relatives in Beit Our al-Foqa, where
Tlaib's mother was born, greeted the news
with a mixture of pride and hope that she
will take on a U.S. administration widely
seen as hostile to the Palestinian cause.
"It's a great honor for this small town.
It's a great honor for the Palestinian people
to have Rashida in the Congress," said
Mohammed Tlaib, the village's former
mayor and a distant relative. "For sure she
will serve Palestine, for sure she will serve
the interests of her nation. She is deeply
rooted here."
Rashida Tlaib, a former state lawmaker,
defeated five other candidates to win the
Democratic nomination in her Michigan
district in Tuesday's primary. She will run
unopposed, setting her up to take the spot
held since 1965 by John Conyers, who
stepped down in December citing health
reasons amid charges of sexual harassment.
While celebrating her win, Tlaib was
embraced early Wednesday morning by
her mother, Fatima, who briefly wrapped
a Palestinian flag around Tlaib's shoulders.
"My mom is really, genuinely excited,"
Tlaib said of her victory.
The eldest of 14 children born to Palestinian
immigrants in Detroit, the 42-yearold
Tlaib advocates progressive positions
associated with the Bernie Sanders wing of
the Democratic Party, such as universal
health care, a higher minimum wage,
environmental protection and affordable
university tuition.
As a state lawmaker, she sought to
defend Detroit's poor, taking on refineries
and a billionaire trucking magnate who
she accused of polluting city neighborhoods.
On the campaign trail, she criticized
the influence of "big money" on politics
and took aim at President Donald
Trump, whom she famously heckled in
2016 while he was delivering a speech in
Detroit.
While noting her Palestinian heritage,
her website makes no mention of her
views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a 2016 op-ed explaining why she disrupted
then-presidential candidate
Trump, she described herself as an "American,
parent, Muslim, Arab-American, and
woman." In an interview on Wednesday,
Tlaib said her grandfather emigrated from
Palestine to Brazil during the U.S. depression
and eventually moved to Detroit to
find better opportunities.