Day: August 22, 2019

Italy’s center-left Democratic Party and the country’s quirky anti-establishment Five Star Movement are exploring whether they can form a new government to spare Italians an election this year.  
 
The one thing the two parties have in common is fear of Matteo Salvini, leader of the populist Lega Party, who hopes to sweep into power at the head of a far-right alliance in the event of a snap election he’s engineering to happen. 
 
Brussels is becoming increasingly unsettled at the prospect of a Salvini government emerging from Italy’s political chaos, which was triggered this week when the unstable two-party coalition government formed just a year ago between the Lega and the Five Star Movement (M5S) formally collapsed amid acrimony and recriminations.  
 
Salvini yanked his party out of the coalition government earlier this month, hoping he could ride his rising popularity to capture the prime ministership and seize what he termed “full powers.”  

Outgoing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who resigned Tuesday in a rowdy parliamentary session, blamed Salvini for the unraveling of the short-lived, troubled government, accusing him of plotting to bring down the coalition, riding roughshod over his partners in government and showing disrespect for a “culture of rules.”  
 
He also criticized Salvini for mixing political slogans with religious symbolism, prompting the Lega leader to retort that he wasn’t ashamed of his religious faith or for having invoked the protection of the Immaculate Heart of the Madonna. 
 
Italian President Sergio Mattarella is now consulting with the various squabbling parliamentary parties to see if a working majority can be formed to avoid fresh elections and to bring some respite to the political drama.  
 
Italy’s president also has the option of appointing a government of technocrats, as was formed in 2011 in the wake of the Italian debt crisis. Mattarella has let it be known that he’d prefer to stave off an election until next year in order for parliament to agree on a budget, a process that normally takes three months.  

Focus on longer term
 
But the 78-year-old head of state has also made it clear he doesn’t want yet another short-lived government. The only real possibility for a new government lies with a tie-up between the Democrats (PD) and M5S.  
 
But many analysts are skeptical that the two parties can overcome their differences, and if so, for how long, despite their shared interest in halting the momentum of Salvini. The outgoing interior minister and the country’s most popular politician, Salvini has been building electorally thanks partly to his adeptness in dominating news cycles. 
 
M5S, founded by the popular comic and blogger Beppo Grillo, built much of its success at the expense of the PD and has focused especially on the traditional strongholds of the left in the country’s so-called Red Belt across central Italy and in the south. The party has gone out of its way to humiliate the PD, linking it tirelessly to corruption and cronyism and accusing it of being out of touch with the working class.  
 
A coalition between the two would be yet another oddball alliance paralyzed by internal disputes, warn analysts. While the PD is pro-European Union, M5S is skeptical and at one time wanted to ditch the euro currency. 
 

PD leader Nicola Zingaretti has voiced considerable skepticism about a tie-up, saying in a television interview Wednesday, “Discontinuity applies to personnel, as well as content.”  
 
But on Thursday, he left the door open, saying the archrivals could see eye to eye on issues of social justice and immigration. M5S has often been at odds with Salvini’s tough anti-migrant polices, which have helped boost the Lega’s electoral appeal. 
 
After meeting Mattarella on Thursday, Zingaretti said he was willing to explore forming a new coalition government but “not at any cost.” He told reporters it was a gamble.  
 
“We need a government that changes direction, an alternative to the right, with a new, solid program, a broad base in parliament which gives back hope to Italians.” If the gamble fails, “the natural way out of the crisis is new, early elections,” he added. 

Warning from Berlusconi
 
The proposal for a possible coalition government has been rejected by former Conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who also met with Mattarella. The center-right leader, whose political star has waned as Salvini’s has risen, warned against “an improvised majority that exists only in parliament and not in the country.”  
 
Italian publisher and commentator Alberto Castelvecchi believes Zingaretti and M5S leader Luigi Di Maio will cobble together some kind of government, saying the prospect of a snap election was receding. But Castelvecchi said this would just be a delay. 
 
“The question is not if we go to elections, but when and how,” he said. 
 
Meanwhile, Salvini and his lieutenants are laying the groundwork for a national poll, one they intend to fight on an uncompromising “Italy First” agenda that will challenge the EU’s financial rules the Lega leader says are too restrictive.  
 
Midweek, one of Salvini’s advisers, Claudio Borghi, raised the prospect of a Lega-led government dumping the euro, calling it “the wrong currency for Italy.”  
 
He added, “It has impeded Italy’s growth, puts us at a competitive disadvantage and deprives the country of the freedom to choose our own fiscal policies.” 

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Renan Toussaint and Florence Lisene contributed to this report

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – Kore Lavi, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) food program for malnourished Haitians, ended in August amid a worsening of Haiti’s food insecurity crisis. 

It is estimated that 2.6 million people, roughly a quarter of Haiti’s population, faces food insecurity in 2019. Experts say natural disasters, high inflation and the country’s socio-political and economic problems are to blame.

“Kore Lavi has served as a strong model in the ongoing development of Haiti’s National Social Protection Policy,” Alexis Barnes, acting senior development, outreach and communications officer for USAID in Port-au-Prince, told VOA via email.

“This activity was designed to be a partnership with the government of Haiti that would model through a limited sample of households a predictable, social transfer focused on consumption of nutritious foods among the most vulnerable in 21 communes,” Barnes said.  

New way to address hunger

The multimillion-dollar program began in 2013. It provided nutritious meals to 18,000 households in the southeast, northwest, central plateau and Artibonite regions, as well as the Isle of La Gonave.

Originally scheduled to end in September 2017, USAID extended the program for two more years after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which devastated homes and food crops in many regions of the Caribbean country.

Four NGOs — the World Food Program (WFP), World Vision, Action Against Hunger and CARE — administered the program with MAST, Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works and Social Affairs (Ministere des Affaires Sociales et du Travail Haitien).

Program coordinator Laurore Antoine said organizers used innovative ways to address hunger.

“We wanted to divorce ourselves from the traditional approach,” Antoine, a Haitian official with CARE, a Geneva-based international humanitarian and international development agency, told VOA.”We wanted to kill two birds with one stone, so we boosted local production, as well.”

That new approach included “fresh products” such as meat, fish and vegetables sold by program-approved vendors.  

“That way the beneficiary was able to consume a nutritionally balanced meal and learn the components of that. But what’s more important is that we achieved this with a network of local vendors whom we found living in the community – in many cases they were women – in fact 86 percent of our local vendors were women,” he said.

Kore Lavi participants received a monthly allotment of food stamps that could be used to buy perishable provisions for the week. Vendors then turned in the vouchers for cash.

Government solutions

Haitian opposition lawmaker Youri Latortue, who owns a poultry farm, said boosting national food production is key. He fears Haiti’s food insecurity will soon worsen if that doesn’t happen.

“When you have 3 million people who don’t have access to food on a daily basis, you are heading towards famine,” he told VOA’s Creole Service. “It’s not normal to depend on international aid agencies to feed the people. Of course it’s true that it is a humanitarian situation (crisis) that they can temporarily assist us with, but it’s not a permanent solution. The (Haitian) government needs to step in to do its part.”

Latortue said the government solution for the current crisis must include all sectors of the food production industry, both livestock and agriculture.

“That’s the only way out of this crisis,” he said.  

As Kore Lavi shutters its operations, Barnes is satisfied with the program’s accomplishments.

“Achievements include the development of the SIMAST vulnerability mapping system, which has now expanded and is supported by other donors such as the European Union, and international NGOs working on activities serving the most vulnerable,” she said.  

Barnes expressed optimism that the Haitian government will keep the progress going.

“The program succeeded in demonstrating that the government of Haiti can manage a predictable social transfer activity to the most vulnerable in this country in a well-targeted and transparent manner,” she said. “Haiti’s commitment to developing the policy framework for engagement of a durable and manageable social protection system is essential to this task, and we have been proud to support our government counterparts as they vision and structure their system.”

Looking forward

Does that mean the beneficiaries will maintain the level of nutrition they achieved over six years?

“The people still have problems,” Antoine acknowledged. He said things will indeed change. MAST needs access to financial resources so they can continue funding the program, he said.

Antoine hopes a micro-loan system CARE put in place to support the food program will motivate former participants to unite and borrow money to launch small businesses that can pick up where Kore Lavi left off.

“Recently, we did a resilience study using a methodology called SenseMaker, where we asked the beneficiaries to tell us how they are living, how the program changed their lives. We can tell you that (the program) required a huge effort, a lot of sacrifices, but in the end, we delivered (what we promised). So today, as we participate in the official closing ceremony, we stand proud of our work with the most vulnerable populations,” Antoine said.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured Canada on Thursday that the United States was working to get China to release two Canadians it detained last year on espionage charges in cases linked to a U.S. criminal charge against a Chinese technology executive. 
 
On a visit to Ottawa, Pompeo told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “Please do know our team is focused on helping those two Canadians be released. We’re working on it diligently. It’s wrong that they are being held.” 
 
Pompeo said that “China needs to honor the commitments it’s made to the world, and it’s our expectation they’ll do so.” 
 
Ahead of their talks, Trudeau said he appreciated U.S. efforts and would be talking with Pompeo about “how we move forward on that.” Trudeau said last month that U.S. President Donald Trump had raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping at one of their meetings. 
 
China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor in December 2018 in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer at Huawei, the giant Chinese telecommunications company. 
 

Meng was arrested Dec. 1 in Vancouver at the request of U.S. authorities, who want her extradited to stand trial on fraud charges in the U.S. Since her arrest, she has been staying at her multimillion-dollar mansion there awaiting extradition proceedings. 
 
China’s relations with Canada have been icy since the arrest of Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei. 
 
After Trudeau spoke about the detention of the two Canadians Thursday, China’s embassy in Ottawa condemned the continued house detention of Meng.  
 
“China adheres to the principle of equality between all countries, no matter big or small. … China-Canada relations now suffer gross difficulties, and the Canadian side knows very well the root cause,” the embassy said. “Canada should release Ms. Meng Wanzhou immediately and ensure her safe return to China, and bring bilateral relations back onto the right track.” 

Some imports halted
 
Since the Meng arrest, China has stopped importing some Canadian products such as canola seed and meat. It also resentenced a convicted Canadian drug smuggler to death. 
 
Kovrig and Spavor, the two detained Canadians, have been accused of conspiring to steal state secrets, but no evidence has been disclosed. They have not been allowed access to family members or lawyers while China has them in custody. 
 
Meng is accused of lying to banks about the company’s dealings with Iran in violation of U.S. trade sanctions. 
 
Resolution of the cases has been complicated by the ongoing tit-for-tat tariff war between the U.S. and China and their lack of success, at least so far, in reaching a new trade agreement. The U.S., however, says the trade talks are separate from the criminal case against Meng. 

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The United States and the Afghan Taliban have resumed peace talks in Qatar to try to conclude an agreement that would bring an end to the longest U.S. overseas military intervention.

The crucial ninth round of talks in the yearlong dialogue process got under way Thursday in the Qatari capital of Doha amid expectations it will lead to the much-awaited peace agreement between the two adversaries. 

The talks come a day after clashes with Taliban insurgents in northern Afghanistan killed two American soldiers, bringing the number of U.S military fatalities in the country this year to 14, exceeding the 2018 total. 

Zalmay Khalilzad, the special reconciliation envoy for Afghanistan, is leading the American side while Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai is heading insurgent negotiators, said a Taliban spokesman.

“Head of occupation forces Scott Miller was also present in these negotiations,” Zabihullah Mujahid said, referring to the American commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad will travel to Kabul for meetings with the Afghan leadership after concluding the meeting in Doha. 

The Afghan-born chief U.S. negotiator tweeted before leaving Washington on Tuesday that “we will try and close on remaining issues. We’re ready. Let’s see if the Taliban are as well.”

The deal, if reached, would require Washington to announce a timeline for withdrawing U.S.-led foreign troops from the country. In return, the Taliban will give guarantees they will not allow transnational terrorists to use Afghan soil for attacks against other countries.  

The agreement would pave the way for talks among the Taliban and Afghan stakeholders, including representatives of the government in Kabul. Those talks will focus on a permanent cease-fire and issues related to future governance in Afghanistan.

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The one thing Federal Reserve officials were in broad agreement about at their last meeting was this: not tipping their hands about what happens next.

Minutes released Wednesday showed a fractious meeting on many fronts last month when a divided Fed cut interest rates for the first time in a decade. But the consensus to not reveal their intentions was clear, and may show that the steady browbeating by President Donald Trump has begun to influence how the Fed communicates.

Undercommit, and it may throw markets off course and draw more fire from Trump, who has been relentless in demanding not one but a slew of rate cuts and even a return to crisis-era bond buying to supercharge a softening but still-growing economy.

Overcommit, and it looks like capitulation to the White House, a possible blow to the Fed’s perceived status as an independent, technical agency that does not consider politics in its policy decisions.

Trump adamant on rate cuts

Yet Trump has been adamant, particularly as market data has indicated some doubt about the future of the record-setting U.S. expansion, that the Fed should act to bolster an economy that seems on many fronts to be doing fine.

Safer in that situation to “be guided by incoming information and its implications for the economic outlook” and avoid “any appearance of following a preset course” of further rate cuts — in other words to stay mum.

There were serious policy disagreements at the last meeting when the Fed voted to cut the target policy rate 25 basis points, minutes of the meeting released Wednesday show.

Some wanted no cut at all, and two voting members dissented.

Some wanted a half-point cut, and in the last set of policymakers’ economic projections, a near majority said rates should fall again by year’s end.

But since then, in public, even those who wanted deeper cuts have dialed back their language a notch.

In a Financial Times column Wednesday, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari framed his call for the Fed to use more “forward guidance” in terms of a promise not to raise rates, not a promise to cut them.

In his first comments after the July meeting, St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said the Fed would not move again in response to changes in trade policy: It had bought its “insurance” against the administration’s trade war by cutting rates once and would now look at how the economic data responds.

All ears on Powell

But a return to “data dependence” at this point poses a dilemma for Fed chairman Jerome Powell, scheduled to speak here Friday in what will be a closely watched appearance at the central bank’s annual policy retreat in the Wyoming mountains.

With bond markets again sending a warning signal about the near-term economic future as short-term rates move above long-term ones, Powell may need to say more about what the Fed plans, or at least what is influencing its thinking.

“(W)hat Powell has to say on Friday is going to be much, much more important than these minutes,” said Mary Ann Hurley, vice president in fixed-income trading at D.A. Davidson in Seattle.

Is it inflation that is too weak, or job gains that may be too strong to sustain? If overseas data matters, would a German recession trigger lower U.S. rates?

“His main message is going to be some combination of trying to arrest the panic in fixed income markets without being seen as pandering to Trump,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

When they cut rates in July, contrary to the usual sense of a strong consensus narrative about the reason why, different policymakers seemed motivated by a hodgepodge of reasons.

Demands from the White House were not among them. Fed officials insist they are not hostages to Trump. But he may be holding their tongue.

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As a top North Korean military official concluded a visit to China this week in an effort to boost military ties with Beijing, experts said Washington’s big-deal approach could push Pyongyang to deepen its military relations with Beijing, a consequence that could create a rift between Seoul and Washington.

“If we are not going to play a sophisticated strategy … then I guess we’re going to just drive North Korea into the arms of China,” said Ken Gause, director for Adversary Analytics Program at CNA. “It puts China in a greater position to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea if North Korea is leaning toward China.”

Kim Su Gil, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), returned to Pyongyang Tuesday after visiting Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart.

During the meeting Saturday with Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, Kim said Pyongyang was ready to “strengthen friendly exchanges between the two armed forces” and bring the “two armed forces to a higher level.”

Closer ties with China

The pledge to bolster military ties between Beijing and Pyongyang followed an agreement that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping made during their fifth summit held in June in Pyongyang. The two leaders agreed to “maintain the tradition of high-level exchanges.”

Pyongyang and Beijing renewed relations when Kim and Xi met for their first summit in March 2018. Relations had been rocky since Kim took power in 2011 and carried out nuclear and missile tests despite Beijing’s opposition. The alliance between Beijing and Pyongyang dates to the Korean War in 1950 when the Chinese army fought on the side of North Korea against South Korea and the U.S.

Experts said while the latest military meeting was largely seen as Beijing’s effort to restore its relations with Pyongyang, including military ties, Washington’s so-called “big-deal approach” could prompt North Korea to pivot toward China, which has been more lax about enforcing sanctions.

“We can go and continue with maximum pressure like we are now,” said CNA’s Gause, referring to a key focus of U.S. policy. “And if we do, it’s going to just push China and North Korea closer together.” 

VOA Interview: John Bolton’s Take on World’s Hotspots video player.

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What is ‘big-deal approach’?

White House national security adviser John Bolton reiterated U.S. President Donald Trump’s “big-deal approach” toward resolving nuclear issues with Pyongyang in his interview with VOA last week.

“What President Trump called the big deal, when he met with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, is to make that strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons, and then implement it, and then all kinds of things are possible after that,” Bolton said.

Washington’s approach involves demanding that Pyongyang give up its entire nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief while maintaining pressure through sanctions. At the Hanoi summit in February, the “big-deal approach” fell apart when Kim offered only a partial denuclearization.

Earlier this year, Pyongyang said it would give Washington until the end of this year to change its approach.

Missiles fly, talks do not

Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled since the Hanoi summit in February, but when Trump and Kim held an impromptu summit at the inter-Korean border in June, the two agreed to resume diplomatic efforts.

However, North Korea has launched six missile tests since late July. The series of missile launches suggests that North Korea has advanced its missile technology to the extent that it is capable of evading South Korea’s missile defense system. 

While demonstrating the new weapons, Pyongyang claimed South Korea’s military drills with the U.S. posed a threat to its national security, prompting North Korea to take “self-defense countermeasures” in response. The joint exercises concluded Tuesday.

Amid the missile launches, Kim sent a letter to Trump stating talks would resume once the exercises concluded. At the same time, Pyongyang said it could seek a “new road” in response to military drills. 

Pyongyang has yet to follow through on its promises to hold talks even as U.S. Special Representative to North Korea Steve Biegun is in Seoul, ready to talk with Pyongyang. Biegun arrived in Seoul on Tuesday and is expected to be there until Thursday. Although there has been some speculation that Biegun will continue on to Beijing, he’s expected to return to Washington.

Limited military support

Even if Pyongyang does not want its military, the Korean People’s Army (KPA), to be under Chinese influence because of a reluctance to give Beijing “more control over them,” North Korea could seek Beijing’s limited military support, according to Gause.

Evans Revere, acting assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said North Korea “is reluctant to allow Beijing to dictate or dominate [the] KPA.”

However, he continued, “it is reasonable to assume that the North Koreans will press the Chinese for logistical and technical support, and perhaps even ask for more advanced weaponry.”

Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korean studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, “The KPA may also benefit from better relations with China.”

China may also seek tighter military cooperation with North Korea if the U.S. decides to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Asia. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said earlier this month that he favored placing the missiles in Asia, which angered China.

“If we are destined for increased U.S.-[China] strategic rivalry, then it would make sense for Beijing to ensure that North Korea remain within its orbit, even while making every effort to wean [South Korea] away from the U.S. alliance structure,” Revere said.

The U.S. consideration for the missile deployment came after it formally withdrew from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty Aug. 2. Washington said the move was a response to repeated treaty violations by Russia.

The U.S. and former Soviet Union agreed upon the Cold War arms control treaty in 1987. It banned them from deploying their nuclear and conventional land-based missiles with ranges between 480 to 5,500 kilometers anywhere in the world.

Bolton said earlier this month that the U.S. willingness to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Asia is in part an effort to protect South Korea.

“Such a move would increase likelihood of expanded strategic military cooperation among China, North Korea and the Russians,” said Revere, adding, “The ‘great game’ in East Asia is about to get more interesting and dangerous.”

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Mexican musician Celso Pina, famed as “the rebel of the accordion” for mixing eclectic styles with traditional Colombian cumbia, died Wednesday of a heart attack in his hometown of Monterrey, his record label La Tuna Records said.

He was 66 years old, according to local media.

With an interest in genres ranging from ska to hip-hop, Pina collaborated with a number of major Mexican rock artists including Cafe Tacvba, Lila Downs and Julieta Venegas. In 2002 his solo album “Barrio Bravo” was nominated for a Latin Grammy.

The composer and singer began playing music with his brothers growing up in Monterrey near the northern border, according to his official website. He picked up the accordion in his late 20s, and, still in Monterrey, learned Colombia’s celebrated vallenato style, central to the bouncy cumbia genre.

“Nobody can resist cumbia,” Pina wrote in his last tweet before his death, ahead of concerts planned in the United States, one of about 30 countries he had toured, according to his profile on the Spotify music streaming platform.

“The rebel of the accordion has left us. His music united Latin American cultures and captivated Americans,” the U.S. Embassy in Mexico wrote on Twitter.

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VOA correspondent Ayaz Gul contributed to this report from Islamabad. 

The death toll from a suicide bomb attack at a wedding in the Afghan capital, Kabul, last week has risen to 80, officials said. 

The initial death toll from Saturday’s blast was 63 but jumped to 80 after 17 civilians died from their wounds in recent days, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said Wednesday. 

“Seventeen others have succumbed to their injuries in hospital and over 160 are still being treated either in hospitals or at home,” Rahimi said.

The blast, Kabul’s deadliest attack since January 2018, was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. 

Survivors said hundreds of guests were inside the hall when the blast occurred near the stage where the musicians were. “All the youths, children and all the people who were there were killed,” witness Gul Mohammad said. One of the wounded, Mohammad Toofan, said that “a lot of guests were martyred.”

The bride’s father told TOLO television station that 14 members of his family were killed in the bombing and three were still missing. 

“I know that this will not be the last suffering for Afghans. This suffering will continue. This will not be the last incident to happen against innocent people,” the groom, identified as Mirwais, told the private Afghan news station.

The Taliban, who are set to resume peace talks with the U.S., condemned the attack as “barbaric.” 

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WASHINGTON – A researcher at the University of Kansas was indicted on federal fraud charges Wednesday for allegedly concealing ties to a Chinese university while doing research funded by the U.S. government, the U.S. Justice Department said. 

Feng “Franklin” Tao, 47, an associate professor at a University of Kansas center that conducts sustainable technology research, was charged with one count of wire fraud and three counts of program fraud. 

The indictment came amid increased concern by U.S. officials about the risk from China to U.S. universities, part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to confront Beijing over what Washington sees as the use of 
sometimes illicit methods for acquiring rapid technological advancement. 

Intelligence officials have issued dire warnings about the threat of intellectual property theft or even espionage, amid an ongoing trade war with China. 

China denies such activities. 

U.S. authorities said Tao hid the fact that he was working full time for Fuzhou University in China while conducting research at the University of Kansas funded through U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation contracts. 

Five-year pact

The indictment alleges that Tao signed a five-year contract in May 2018 with Fuzhou that required him to be a full-time employee of the Chinese school. Kansas required Tao to file an annual conflict-of-interest report, but Tao “falsely claimed” he had no conflicts of interest in those reports, the Justice Department said. 

The indictment says Tao fraudulently received more than $37,000 in salary from the Energy Department and National Science Foundation. 

A Justice Department spokesman said Tao had not entered a plea. 

Department of Justice officials in Kansas did not immediately respond to questions about whether Tao is a U.S. citizen or whether he was working with classified materials. 

If convicted, Tao faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the wire fraud count, and up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on each of the three program fraud counts. 

The University of Kansas cooperated and assisted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of Tao. 

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