Month: September 2019

Israelis are voting Tuesday in general elections as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a challenge from former military chief Benny Gantz.

Polls show Tuesday’s contest too close to call, with Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party tied with Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, with neither predicted to win a majority of seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Ten parties could win seats in the legislature.

That could possibly leave Avigdor Lieberman, a former defense minister and one-time Netanyahu ally but now a rival, as the kingmaker to form a coalition government. Lieberman, the head of the Israel Beitenu party, could double his seats in parliament from five to 10. His campaign slogan is to “make Israel normal again,” a motto aimed at combating what he says is the undue influence of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties on political life in the country.

Netanyahu made a last-day nationalist campaign pitch Monday saying if he wins re-election, he would annex all the Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the protests of Palestinian leaders.

He told Israeli Army Radio, “I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the (settlement) blocs,” including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage.”  

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is facing his toughest political fight to win a record fifth term to stay in power even as he is confronting possible corruption charges. Israel is staging its second national vote in less than six months, with Netanyahu unable to cobble together a parliamentary majority to form a government after the April vote.

Gantz has presented himself as an honorable alternative to Netanyahu.

“Blue and White under my leadership will change the direction of the ship of state of Israeli democracy,” he wrote in the Maariv newspaper. “No more instigating rifts in an attempt to divide and conquer, but rather quick action to form a unity government.”

In the run-up to the election, Netanyahu has tried to bolster his nationalist support, along with an assist from his long-time friend, U.S. President Donald Trump, who last weekend floated the possibility of a mutual defense pact between the decades-long allies.

Trump said such a treaty “would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries.”

The U.S. also has another link to the Israeli election, with the Trump administration expected to release its long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan soon after the vote. The U.S. in June unveiled a $50 billion plan to boost Palestinian economic fortunes, but neither the Palestinians nor Israelis attended the announcement in Bahrain.

Netanyahu has made several campaign pledges in an attempt to win over nationalist voters. He vowed to annex the Jordan Valley, an area Palestinians consider as key farmland in any future Palestinian state. In protest, the Palestinian Authority held a cabinet meeting in the Jordan Valley village of Fasayil on Monday, a day after Israel’s Cabinet met elsewhere in the valley.

“The Jordan Valley is part of Palestinian lands and any settlement or annexation is illegal,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said at the start of the meeting. “We will sue Israel in international courts for exploiting our land and we will continue our struggle against the occupation on the ground and in international forums.”

…

China and Russia clashed with the U.S. and other Security Council members Monday over China’s insistence on including a reference to Beijing’s $1 trillion “belt and road” global infrastructure program in a resolution on the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan.

The mission’s six-month mandate expires Tuesday and council members met behind closed doors for over 2 1/2 hours Monday, unable to agree on a text because of China’s demand.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, the current council president, told reporters afterward that diplomats were working on a new text and “we’re in the process of reaching a compromise.”

He said the council would meet again late Tuesday morning in hopes of reaching unanimous agreement.

This is the second time in six months that the resolution to keep the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan operating has become embroiled in controversy over “belt and road” language.

Resolutions extending the mandate of the Afghan mission for a year in 2016, 2017 and 2018 had language welcoming and urging further efforts to strengthen regional economic cooperation involving Afghanistan, including through the huge “belt and road” initiative to link China to other parts of Asia as well as Europe and Africa.

But in March, when the mandate renewal came up, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Cohen objected, saying Beijing was insisting on making the resolution “about Chinese national political priorities rather than the people of Afghanistan.”

He said the Trump administration opposed China’s demand “that the resolution highlight its belt and road initiative, despite its tenuous ties to Afghanistan and known problems with corruption, debt distress, environmental damage, and lack of transparency.”

China’s deputy ambassador, Wu Haitao, countered at the time that one council member — almost certainly referring to the U.S. — “poisoned the atmosphere.” He said the “belt and road” initiative was “conducive to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and economic development,” saying that since it was launched six years ago 123 countries and 29 international organizations had signed agreements with China on joint development programs.

The result of the standoff was that instead of a one-year mandate renewal for the Afghan mission, the mandate was renewed in March for just six months in a simple text, without any substance.

Ahead of this month’s mandate expiration, Germany and Indonesia drafted a substantive resolution that would extend the mandate for a year. It focused on U.N. support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled peace process, U.N. assistance in the Sept. 28 presidential election and strong backing for Afghan security forces “in their fight against terrorism.” It made no reference to China’s “belt and road” initiative.

So China and close ally Russia circulated a rival draft resolution that removes all the substantive language and simply extends the mission for a year.

Council diplomats said after Monday’s meeting that China and Russia would likely veto the German-Indonesian draft resolution, and the China-Russia draft would fail to get the required nine “yes” votes. So diplomats were meeting Monday night to draft a new resolution.

South Africa’s U.N. ambassador, Jerry Matjila, said, “I think there is a chance of a compromise.”

…

A minority group of opposition parties in Venezuela agreed Monday to enter negotiations with President Nicolas Maduro’s government without the participation of U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, eroding his efforts to hold together a coalition to confront the socialist administration.

The agreement was signed by representatives of several opposition parties alongside Maduro’s top aides in a nationally televised event attended by foreign diplomats. 

It marks the first significant split in the anti-Maduro camp since Guaido, as head of the opposition-controlled congress, declared himself interim president in January, citing what was seen as Maduro’s fraudulent re-election last year. Guaido quickly drew recognition from the U.S. and more than 50 nations.

“Everyone who wants to join and sign this agreement is welcome,” Maduro said later Monday. “The starting point is to accept our difference and seek peace.”

Lawmaker Timoteo Zambrano, an opposition lawmaker who signed the agreement, was critical of the efforts led by the larger anti-Maduro parties. He didn’t directly mention Guaido. 

Zambrano said he and the others seek to recover time lost due to the “ambition of some and the mistakes of us all.” He urged support from the international community. 

“We ask the governments of the region and the world to listen, value and support this path,” Zambrano said.

The talks will focus on reforming Venezuela’s electoral board as well as finding a solution to the impasse caused by the creation of a pro-government constitutional assembly to rival the opposition-controlled congress.

At least four opposition leaders appeared on state TV to sign the agreement launching the negotiations, though they represent less than one-tenth of seats in the National Assembly. They wield far less power than parties like Guaido’s Popular Will, experts said.

Guaido appeared at a separate event Monday, saying he considered the announcement of sideline negotiations with the minority opposition parties a “maneuver” that Maduro’s government has employed before to split the opposition.

“We already know what the conclusion was,” Guaido told The Associated Press, noting that those attempts failed to reach solutions. 

Guaido a day earlier said that negotiations with the government brokered by Norway had been exhausted, saying Maduro and his allies “have blocked a political solution” to the crisis by “refusing to discuss and agree on a sensible proposal.” Until recently, the talks held on the Caribbean island of Barbados had been seen as the best chance at resolving Venezuela’s crisis. Leaders in Oslo, however, said they left open the possibility of talks. 

Despite Guaido’s brave face, some in the opposition acknowledged that by absorbing the attention the new dialogue attempt would muddle efforts both inside and outside Venezuela to secure Maduro’s removal.

Geoff Ramsey, a researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, said this division will complicate negotiations such as those in Barbados. Maduro will be able to claim he’s made meaningful concessions, while doing the bare minimum, Ramsey said. 

“The opposition formally announcing the end of talks provided the regime with an opening,” Ramsey said. “There are plenty of opportunists among the fringes of the opposition that are happy to steal the limelight.”

The international community will never endorse agreements from the new negotiations, he said, because democracies around the world have been denouncing Maduro’s government as illegitimate for the past eight months, and any deal that doesn’t lead to new presidential elections is going to be a “non-starter.”

Many of the same issues, such as reforming the electoral board, had also been raised by Guaido’s envoys in the Barbados talks. So the government can legitimately claim that it is at least partially addressing longstanding opposition demands.

Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said that agreements have already been reached on some issues. Both sides are working on an agenda to continue negotiations on further agreements, he said.

“We have not closed, nor will we close, any doors to any initiative that will allow Venezuelans to resolve our troubles,” Rodriguez said, urging other countries not to interfere. “These issues only concern us as Venezuelans.”

Rodriguez also said members of the ruling socialist party would soon return to the opposition-controlled National Assembly, having abandoned the body in 2016 and then forming their own legislative body. 

Even with the defections by a few lawmakers representing the opposition parties who signed Monday’s accord, forces aligned with Guaido would still hold a solid congressional majority despite the arrest and exile of several lawmakers. Guaido is counting on a majority to thwart any attempts to have him removed as head of congress when his one-year term expires in January. 

It remained to be seen how Guaido’s international backers would react. But there was no indication the U.S. — the first of some now 50 countries to recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader — would ease pressure on Maduro.

…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to annex “all the settlements” in the West Bank, including an enclave deep in the heart of the largest Palestinian city, in a last-ditch move that appeared aimed at shoring up nationalist support the day before a do-over election.

Locked in a razor tight race and with legal woes hanging over him, Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival. In the final weeks of his campaign he has been doling out hard-line promises meant to draw more voters to his Likud party and re-elect him in Tuesday’s unprecedented repeat vote.

“I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the [settlement] blocs,” including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, part of an eleventh-hour media blitz.

Asked if that included the hundreds of Jews who live under heavy military guard amid tens of thousands of Palestinians in the volatile city of Hebron, Netanyahu responded “of course.”

Israelis head to the polls Tuesday in the second election this year, after Netanyahu failed to cobble together a coalition following April’s vote, sparking the dissolution of parliament.

Netanyahu has made a series of ambitious pledges in a bid to whip up support, including a promise to annex the Jordan Valley, an area even moderate Israelis view as strategic but which the Palestinians consider the breadbasket of any future state.

To protest that announcement, the Palestinian Authority held a Cabinet meeting in the Jordan Valley village of Fasayil on Monday, a day after Israel’s Cabinet met elsewhere in the valley.

“The Jordan Valley is part of Palestinian lands and any settlement or annexation is illegal,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said at the start of the meeting. “We will sue Israel in international courts for exploiting our land and we will continue our struggle against the occupation on the ground and in international forums.”

Critics contend that Netanyahu’s pledges, if carried out, would enflame the Middle East and eliminate any remaining Palestinian hope of establishing a separate state. His political rivals have dismissed his talk of annexation as an election ploy noting that he has refrained from annexing any territory during his more than a decade in power.   

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war.

Over 2.5 million Palestinians now live in occupied territories, in addition to nearly 700,000 Jewish settlers. Israel already has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not internationally recognized. The international community, along with the Palestinians, overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem illegal.

Tuesday’s vote will largely be a referendum on Netanyahu, who this year surpassed Israel’s founding prime minister as the country’s longest-serving leader.
 
He has cast himself as the only candidate capable of facing Israel’s myriad challenges. But his opponents say his legal troubles — including a recommendation by the attorney general to indict him on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges loom too large for him to carry on.

…

Jin Gyeong-sun was in his early 20s when he fled Pyongyang during the Korean War, heading to South Korea and leaving behind two sisters and a brother in the North.

Seven decades later, Jin still hasn’t met or even spoken with his separated family.

“I cannot even express my sadness in words,” says Jin, now 89 years old and living in Seoul. “Especially around Chuseok,” the Korean autumn harvest holiday celebrated last week, “I miss my family as much as ever.”

For first-generation separated Koreans like Jin, time is quickly running out to see their relatives on the other side of the border.

Making matters worse, official relations between North and South Korea have soured yet again, delaying plans for a resumption of government-sponsored family reunions. 

Too late for some

For many, it’s already too late. Sixty percent of South Koreans who have registered for family reunions since 1988 have already died as of August, according to data from South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

Among the approximately 54,000 survivors, 23 percent are 90 or older and 41 percent are in their eighties, Seoul’s numbers show.

At 74, Lee Sang-won is among the younger North Koreans who fled during the war. But for Lee, who came to South Korea during the United Nations-led Hungnam Evacuation in 1950 when he was five years old, memories of family have faded.

“It’s just been too long,” says Lee.

Resumption of reunions – a priority?

Since 1985, a total of 21 rounds of inter-Korean family reunions have reconnected a total of 4,355 individuals and 1,757 families. But there have been fewer reunions in recent years, even as the number of first-generation separated Koreans dwindles.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whose parents also left North Korea during the Hungnam Evacuation, has highlighted the urgency of resuming family reunions.

In a statement for last week’s Chuseok holiday, Moon said the resumption of family reunions is “highest priority” for the two Koreas.

“It’s wrong that governments in both the South and the North have not given them even a chance for such a long time,” Moon said.

The latest round of reunions occurred in August 2018 at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort, with 83 North Koreans and 89 South Koreans participating. One hundred families from each side had been invited, but some dropped out after discovering their family members across the border had already died.

A few months later, Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to formalize the reunions, including restoring a permanent meeting place, allowing for the exchange of letters, and resuming video reunions.

South Korea made preparations to resume video reunions, refurbishing 13 video conferencing rooms nationwide that had been last used in the 2000s. South Korea also purchased video equipment to be sent to North Korea, after the U.N. last year granted a sanctions waiver.

But as with other aspects of the Moon-Kim agreements, the reunion issue has become stalled amid the breakdown in nuclear talks with Pyongyang. North Korea has since blasted Seoul, saying it has no intention of resuming dialogue with the South.

Last week, North Korea said it would accept the recommendation of the U.N. Human Rights  Council to work with South Korea on the issue of helping separated families. But so far there appears to be no visible progress toward that end.

It’s a discouraging pattern for Jin, who says he has applied 21 times for reunion events, but has been rejected each time.

“There is little time for me, and people like me,” he laments. Jin says he would love to one day visit Pyongyang, his old hometown, adding: “Or at least send a letter.”

…

Two candidates who claim they will win through to Tunisia’s presidential runoff — a conservative law expert and an imprisoned media mogul —
could hardly be more different, but both bill themselves as political outsiders.

Nabil Karoui, behind bars since August 23 on charges of money laundering, is a populist showman whose political colors changed with the times, culminating in the launch of his Qalb Tounes (Heart of Tunisia) party just months ago.

Maverick Kais Saied, meanwhile, is an academic committed to social conservatism who has ploughed his own furrow.  

Nicknamed “Robocop” due to his abrupt, staccato speech and rigid posture, the impeccably dressed Saied shunned political parties, avoided mass rallies and campaigned door-to-door.

Hours after polling booths closed in the country’s second free presidential polls since the 2011 Arab Spring, he declared he was in pole position.

“I am first in the first round and if I am elected president I will apply my program,” he told AFP in a spartan apartment in central Tunis.

On the campaign trail, he advocated a rigorous overhaul of the constitution and voting system, to decentralize power “so that the will of the people penetrates into central government and puts an end to corruption”.

With a quarter votes counted Monday, Tunisia’s electoral commission (ISIE) put Saied in the lead with 19 percent of the vote.

Often surrounded by young acolytes, he has pushed social conservatism, defending the death penalty, criminalisation of homosexuality and a sexual assault law that punishes unmarried couples who engage in public displays of affection.

Tunisia’s ‘would-be Berlusconi’

While Saied came from the sidelines with his unique approach to courting Tunisia’s voters — and did so with barely any money behind him — media magnate Nabil Karoui’s story is more flamboyant.

He has long maintained a high profile, using his Nessma TV channel to launch high-profile charity campaigns, often appearing in designer suits even while meeting some of the country’s poorest citizens in marginalized regions.

These charitable endeavors, including doling out food aid, “helped me to get closer to people and realize the huge social problems facing the country,” he once told AFP. “I have been touched by it.”

Unlike Saied, he previously threw his lot in with an established political party, officially joining Beji Caid Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes in 2016, after actively supporting the late president in his successful campaign two years earlier.

He formally stepped down from Nessma’s management after being criticized by international observers for his channel’s partisan conduct in 2014.

But he subsequently made no secret of continuing to pull the strings at the channel, while honing his political profile.    

His supporters claim his arrest was politically motivated, but detractors cast him as a would-be Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian premier who they allege partly owns his channel.

The arrest of the controversial Tunisian businessman in August followed his indictment the previous month in an investigation that dates back to 2017 and the submission by anti-corruption watchdog I-Watch of a dossier accusing him of tax fraud.

The 56-year-old was still given the green light to run and hit the campaign trail by proxy, deploying his wife and activists from his Heart of Tunisia party to woo voters.

“Nabil Karoui is in the second round,” an official from the mogul’s party told AFP late Sunday, as the businessman sat in prison outside the capital Tunis.

Partial results from ISIE on Monday put him in the second spot.

Observers say that if Karoui does make it to the second round, it will be hard for authorities to justify keeping him behind bars without a trial.

Saied, meanwhile, has not been immune from discomforting scrutiny.

Confronted late last week in a broadcast debate with a photo showing him meeting an ex-member of a banned Salafi group, he asked: “Do I have to ask permission to meet someone?”

But in a sign of voters’ antipathy towards the overall field, the ISIE put turnout at 45 percent, down substantially from the 64 percent recorded for the country’s first democratic polls in 2014.

The date of a second and final round between the top two candidates has not been announced, but it must be held by October 23 at the latest and may even take place on the same day as legislative polls set for October 6.

…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker held their first face-to-face talks Monday, without any visible signs of a breakthrough on an elusive Brexit deal.

The two men talked over a two-hour lunch of snails and salmon in Juncker’s native Luxembourg, amid claims from the U.K. — though not the EU — that a deal is in sight.
 
The European Commission said after the meeting that Britain had yet to offer any “legally operational” solutions to the issue of the Irish border, the main roadblock to a deal.
 
“President Juncker underlined the Commission’s continued willingness and openness to examine whether such proposals meet the objectives of the backstop”— a border provision rejected by Britain.
 
 “Such proposals have not yet been made,” the European Commission said in a statement, adding that officials “will remain available to work 24/7.”
 
Johnson says the U.K. will leave the EU on the scheduled Oct. 31 date, with or without a withdrawal agreement. But he insists he can strike a revised divorce deal with the bloc in time for an orderly departure. The agreement made by his predecessor, Theresa May, was rejected three times by Britain’s Parliament.
 
Johnson said in a Daily Telegraph column Monday that he believes “passionately” that a deal can be agreed and approved at a summit of EU leaders on Oct. 17-18.
 
While the EU says it is still waiting for firm proposals from the U.K., Johnson spokesman James Slack said Britain had “put forward workable solutions in a number of areas.”
 
He declined to provide details, saying it was unhelpful to negotiate in public.
 
The key sticking point is the “backstop,” an insurance policy in May’s agreement intended to guarantee an open border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. That is vital both to the local economy and to Northern Ireland’s peace process.
 
British Brexit supporters oppose the backstop because it keeps the U.K. bound to EU trade rules, limiting its ability to forge new free trade agreements around the world after Brexit.
 
Britain has suggested the backstop could be replaced by “alternative arrangements,” but the EU says it has yet to hear any workable suggestions.
 
Neither side expects a breakthrough Monday, but much still rests on Johnson’s encounter with Juncker, who like other EU officials is tired of the long-running Brexit drama, and wary of Johnson’s populist rhetoric.
 
The British leader has vowed to leave the bloc “do or die” and compared himself to angry green superhero the Incredible Hulk, telling the Mail on Sunday newspaper: “The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets, and he always escapes … and that is the case for this country.”
 
European Parliament Brexit chief Guy Verhofstadt branded the comparison “infantile,” and it also earned a rebuke from “Hulk” star Mark Ruffalo.
 
Ruffalo tweeted: “Boris Johnson forgets that the Hulk only fights for the good of the whole. Mad and strong can also be dense and destructive.”
 
Monday’s meeting marks the start a tumultuous week, with the Brexit deadline just 45 days away.
 
On Tuesday, Britain’s Supreme Court will consider whether Johnson’s decision to prorogue — or suspend — the British Parliament for five weeks was lawful, after conflicting judgments in lower courts.
 
Johnson sent lawmakers home until Oct. 14, a drastic move that gives him a respite from rebellious lawmakers determined to thwart his Brexit plan.
 
Last week, Scotland’s highest civil court ruled the prorogation illegal because it had the intention of stymieing Parliament. The High Court in London, however, said it was not a matter for the courts.
 
If the Supreme Court overturns the suspension, lawmakers could be called back to Parliament as early as next week.
 
Many lawmakers fear a no-deal Brexit would be economically devastating, and are determined to stop the U.K. from crashing out of the bloc on Oct. 31.
 
Just before the suspension, Parliament passed a law that orders the government to seek a three-month delay to Brexit if no agreement has been reached by late October.
 
Johnson insists he will not seek a delay under any circumstances, though it’s not clear how he can avoid it.
 
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Monday that the government would obey the law, but suggested it would try to find loopholes.
 
  “I think the precise implications of the legislation need to be looked at very carefully,” he told the BBC. “We are doing that.”
    

…

The first Chinese-born woman to sit in the lower house of Australia’s federal parliament is under a sustained attack for failing to disclose her membership in organizations linked to China’s Communist Party. 

There are claims Gladys Liu had connections with senior figures in Beijing’s covert political propaganda apparatus, which have raised questions about her eligibility to sit in the Australian parliament.  

The lawmaker has admitted being a member of the China Overseas Exchange Association between 2003 and 2015, which at the time was part of China’s powerful State Council, the Chinese government’s central political and administrative body.  The Hong Kong-born politician says her membership was entirely innocent, and has denied any conflict of interest.  She said she is “a proud Australian.”

Australia’s center-right Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Liu is the victim of a “smear” campaign with a “grubby undertone”.

The political assault is led by the opposition Labor Party.  It has demanded to know if the government had received warnings about her from Australia’s intelligence agencies.  Ministers have declined to comment.

Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese denies the scrutiny of Liu is based on race and says he wants to get to the truth.

“What the motivation is here is to ensure that there is accountability for people’s actions.  It has nothing to do with race and the only person who has raised race in these issues are, of course, prime minister Morrison,” he said.

Gladys Liu is a former speech pathologist who became an Australian citizen in 1992.  Her parliamentary career has collided with growing anxiety in Australia over allegations of Chinese meddling in its domestic politics, and cyber espionage.  A taskforce is to investigate foreign interference in Australian universities because of fears over China’s growing influence on campuses.

These are sensitive issues, given Australia’s reliance on China for its recent prosperity.  China is Australia’s biggest trading partner.

…

An angry mob in southern Pakistan has vandalized several Hindu temples and property over allegations a local school principal belonging to the minority community had committed blasphemy.

Police said Sunday the riots in Ghotki in the province of Sindh broke out the previous day and quickly spread across the entire city, with an estimated 40% Hindu population, and surrounding towns.

Residents and the community leaders confirmed protesters had stormed three temples, vandalizing statues and other sacred material inside the places of worship.

They also assaulted and destroyed multiple houses belonging Hindus, including the school being run by the alleged blasphemer, prompting the district administration to call in paramilitary forces to assist in bringing the situation under control. Ghotki was completely closed Sunday amid tensions and fears of more protests.

Area police confirmed Sunday they have arrested the school principal and an investigation was underway into the accusations he made derogatory remarks regarding the Prophet Muhammad.

Videos shared via social media showed stick-wielding angry mobs roaming the streets and destroying infrastructure.

The non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also shared a video of the violent protests , denouncing them and demanding authorities quickly take action to ensure safety of the Hindu community.

“The video circulated earlier is chilling: mob violence against a member of a religious minority is barbaric, unacceptable,” the commission said.

A prominent Hindu rights activist in Pakistan, Kapil Dev, said Hindus living in Ghotki are under siege and posed the question “Aren’t We Pakistani.”

Aren’t we Pakistani?

We #Pakistani#Hindus are only 2% of the total population. I just want to know what danger do we pose to 98% population. Just visit my timeline & see how we observed Muhrram a few days ago, but yet we suffer incidents like #Ghotki.

— Kapil Dev (@KDSindhi) September 15, 2019

Insulting Islam and the prophet is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan where mere allegations of blasphemy have led to mob lynching of suspects.

The country’s laws carry a compulsory death sentence for anyone found guilty of blasphemy, though critics say the laws are often used to settle personal feuds and persecute Pakistani religious minorities.

…

Tunisians voted Sunday to select their next president among some two dozen candidates. More than seven million people were eligible to cast their ballot in what is only the North African country’s second free presidential election, eight years after its so-called Jasmine Revolution.

A steady stream of people filed into this primary school in the working class Tunis suburb of Ariana, lining up under posters offering instructions on how to vote. Nineteen-year-old college student Yomna El-Benna is excited to be voting for the first time.

“I’m going to vote for Mourou… for many reasons…. when I was deciding, I eliminated the persons who I’m not convinced with… they cannot lead Tunisia,” said El-Benna.

That’s Abdelfattah Mourou from the moderate Islamist Ennahdha party, running to replace 92-year-old president Beji Caid Essebsi who died in July. Mourou’s part of a dizzying lineup of presidential hopefuls, including two women. Among them: government ministers, far left politicians and jailed media tycoon Nabil Karoui. A runoff vote is expected, following next month’s legislative elections.

Zohra Goummid voted for Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. “He’s got experience, he’s young,’ she says. ‘We Tunisians know him well. The other candidates are just upstarts,” she said.

But with Tunisia’s economy sputtering and unemployment high, others are looking for new faces, outside the political establishment.

Retired professor Mohammed Sami Neffati voted for a friend of his: 61-year-old law expert Kais Saied, who opted for door-to-door campaigning instead of large rallies. He isn’t eloquent, Neffati says, but he’s got a chance, because he’s honest.

But other Tunisians stayed home, disappointed about the state of their country — and skeptical that any of the candidates can turn things around.

…

The al-Shabab militant group launched a series of attacks since Saturday that led to the death of at least 17 people in Somalia.

Lower Shabelle region officials told VOA Somali that the militants attacked the town of Qoryoley late Saturday using rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, killing nine people.

The town’s Mayor Sayid Ali Ibrajim told VOA that an RPG fired by the militants caused most of the casualties.

Somali government forces with support from African Union forces, who are based outside the town, repelled the attack, according to officials.

Some of the residents in Qoryoley alleged that heavy weapons fired by AU troops caused some of the civilians casualties.

The Governor of the region Ibrahim Adan Najah told VOA Somali that they are investigating the allegations. AMISOM forces did not immediately respond to the allegations.

Also in Lower Shabelle region on Saturday, two civilians were killed after al-Shabab militants fired mortars on the ancient port town of Marka during a visit by the Prime Minister of Somalia Hassan Ai Khaire.

Al-Shabab claimed they were targeting the prime minister but the Governor Najah told VOA Somali that the incident took place outside the town. Residents and security sources said one of the mortars landed in a residential area killing two women. The prime minister was unharmed and has returned to Mogadishu safely.

Governor Najah himself was attacked on Sunday after his convoy was targeted with a remote-controlled explosion while travelling in an agricultural area near the town of Shalanbod, about 20 kilometers south of Qoryoley town. According to security sources, two bodyguards were killed and four others were injured including two junior regional officials.

In the neighboring Middle Shabelle region, al-Shabab carried out a roadside explosion that killed four regional officials and injured six others on Saturday. Among the dead was Abdullahi Shitawe, deputy governor for finances, Sabrie Osman a former regional deputy minister for business, and businessman Hassan Baldos. A fourth person said to be a bodyguard was also killed. They were travelling on a road in the north of the agricultural town of Bal’ad, about 40 kilometers north of Mogadishu.

…

US President Donald Trump mounted an angry defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday as the controversial judge faced calls for an investigation over fresh allegations of sexual misconduct.

Trump blasted the media and “Radical Left Democrats” after a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh alleged that the jurist — one of the most senior judges in the land  — exposed himself at a freshman year party before other students pushed his genitals into the hand of a female student.

The latest allegation in The New York Times came after Kavanaugh denied sexual misconduct accusations leveled against him by two women during his confirmation to the Supreme Court last October.

“Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment,” Trump tweeted.

“He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!”

Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment. He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2019

The new allegations came from Max Stier, who runs a non-profit in Washington. His concerns were reported to the FBI during Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation process but not investigated, according to the Times.

Stier said he saw his former classmate “with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student.”

Stier has not spoken publicly about the incident but his story was corroborated by two officials, the Times said.

It is the latest in a string of accusations of unwanted sexual contact or assault against Kavanaugh since Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court.

‘Shame’

Christine Blasey Ford testified before Congress that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, while Deborah Ramirez told The New Yorker Kavanaugh had waved his penis in front of her face at a 1980s dormitory party.

The latest allegation surfaced during a 10-month investigation by Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, and features in their upcoming book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation.”

Trump called on Kavanaugh to take legal action over the claims, suggesting also that the Department of Justice should intervene on the judge’s behalf and “come to his rescue.”

But Democrats seeking to be Trump’s opponent in the 2020 election called for the judge to be investigated.

“Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation is a shame to the Supreme Court. This latest allegation of assault must be investigated,” former housing secretary and Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro tweeted.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobouchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who was involved in a heated exchange with Kavanaugh during his confirmation, described the process as a “sham.”

“I strongly opposed him based on his views on executive power, which will continue to haunt our country, as well as how he behaved, including the allegations that we are hearing more about today,” she told ABC’s “This Week.”

Republican Senator Ted Cruz dismissed the new allegation, however, as “the obsession with the far left with trying to smear Justice Kavanaugh by going 30 years back with anonymous sources.”

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A young Zimbabwean doctor who led a recent doctors’ strike over poor government salaries disappeared Saturday, in a move his colleagues say is an overt warning to all public-sector doctors in the country.

The events could exacerbate an impasse between the doctors and the government over their demands for a salary increase, as doctors say their government salary is a pittance that doesn’t allow them to cover even the most basic needs.

Here is the chilling message that Dr. Peter Magombeyi, head of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, received before he suddenly went missing.

“Do not say I did not warn you,” read his colleague, Dr. Learnmore Shoti. “Keep on doing what you are doing, you will be taken by a whirlwind. We are getting close now. Which is a threat you will disappear. This was a screenshot from him a few days before this incident. So we are very much worried about what really happened to him.”

So what was Dr. Magombeyi doing that was so dangerous? VOA spoke to him a few days earlier. 

“The Zimbabwean doctors, they are not on strike, but they simply do not have the means to keep on continuing to report for duty,” said the 26-year-old junior doctor. “The will exists, but the means do not. So the doctors are incapacitated and they are not on strike.”

As a result of the nation’s shattered economy, junior doctors earn less than $100 a month. They have since gone on strike twice in the past year to try to address that. The nation’s triple-digit inflation means that most Zimbabweans are struggling to afford basic necessities.

As if to underscore that point, Dr. Magombeyi ran out of fuel on his way to meet with VOA. We helped him push his dead car into a parking space.

Dr. Tapiwa Mungofa, chairperson of the Harare Central Doctors Association, said his colleagues received a worrying message from Dr. Magombeyi around 10 p.m. Saturday, saying he was being taken away by three men.

And that, he said, means something sinister in Zimbabwe, where abductions of government critics are not uncommon, and rarely end well. Perhaps the most famous case is the 2015 disappearance of prominent journalist Itai Dzamara, one of the most outspoken critics of former president Robert Mugabe.

“Abductions in this country did not start yesterday,” he said. “They have been ongoing. We saw other people being badly beaten, others, they did not even come back. I am sure you know the issue about Itai Dzamara. No one knows his whereabouts. So, at this point in time, we are grossly saddened and we are very much worried about the whereabouts of our leader.”

VOA contacted the police, who could not immediately provide any information on the incident on Sunday.

Mungofa said public-sector doctors should take Dr. Magombeyi’s disappearance as a warning.

“We are currently advising our members to stay put somewhere safe,” he said. “Because we are now considering the workplace, and even our homes, unsafe for doctors. We don’t know who is going to be taken next.” 

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It’s been a rocky week in Afghanistan peace talks, and NATO’s operational commander said allies “anticipate increased violence” on the ground as Afghan presidential elections inch closer.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), told a small group of reporters that Afghan elections “probably won’t be perfect,” but the 29-member North Atlantic alliance will “plan and execute to the ends of the Earth” to try to make the September 28 vote as safe as possible.

“There has been a lot of drama associated with Afghanistan, and at this very moment the signal we send to our NATO partners is the U.S. is committed, NATO is committed, and the mission still remains,” Wolters said on the sidelines of the latest NATO Military Committee in Chiefs of Defense Session.

British Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, chairman of NATO’s military chiefs, added Saturday that there was “no division” on that commitment.

“We went into Afghanistan together, and any changes we will make together,” Peach said.

Peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban collapsed late last week. President Donald Trump had planned talks with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban leaders at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, but then said that he decided to cancel them.

US-Taliban talks

U.S. and Taliban negotiators had recently appeared to be close to a deal to end America’s longest war and start talks between the insurgent group and the Afghan government. However, Trump declared U.S.-Afghan peace talks “dead” after a car bombing in Kabul killed dozens, including an American soldier.

The decision to end talks has increased concerns about escalating violence. Since then, the Taliban has threatened to disrupt the upcoming election, vowing that American troops “will suffer more than anyone else.”

Afghan President Ghani, who is running for re-election this month, appears emboldened by Trump’s cancellation of talks with the Taliban and has hardened his stance for engaging in future peace talks with them.

Ghani said this week that negotiations will be “impossible” until the Taliban declares a cease-fire.
 

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A senior Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) intelligence officer arrested this week for allegedly stealing sensitive documents oversaw an investigation into the laundering of stolen Russian funds, Canadian media reported Saturday.

The Globe and Mail said Cameron Ortis’ arrest was linked to a major corruption case that was first revealed by Sergei Magnitsky, who went public with details of a $230 million fraud scheme allegedly run by senior Russian interior ministry and tax officials.

Ortis was as recently as August said to be overseeing an inquiry into whether some of the money was funneled through Canada, the newspaper reported.

“Ortis, director-general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre, was planning to meet for a second time with the legal team pursuing the matter alleging more than $14 million in Russian fraud proceeds were tied to Canada,” The Globe and Mail said, citing an unnamed source.

Ortis’ involvement in the case came after William Browder, a British financier and former investor in Russia whom Magnitsky worked for, filed a complaint with the RCMP in 2016.

Magnitsky died in detention after spending 11 months in prisons in 2009.

Canada’s federal police agency hasn’t opened a formal investigation into the allegation, despite a 2017 meeting between Ortis and Browder, the newspaper said.

Ortis, who was arrested in the capital Ottawa on Thursday, was a top adviser to former RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson and had control over counter-intelligence operations, Canada’s Global News reported.

He faces five charges under the country’s criminal code and its Security of Information Act and will appear for a court hearing next Friday.

“The allegations are that he obtained, stored, processed sensitive information, we believe with the intent to communicate it to people that he shouldn’t be communicating it to,” prosecutor John MacFarlane told journalists after Ortis appeared in court last Friday.

The RCMP fears Ortis stole “large quantities of information, which could compromise an untold number of investigations,” according to Global News, which first reported the arrest.

Canada is a member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance with Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the United States.
 

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson likened himself to the unruly comic book character The Incredible Hulk late Saturday in a newspaper interview in which he stressed his determination to take Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31. 

The Mail on Sunday reported that Johnson said he would find a way to circumvent a recent Parliament vote ordering him to delay Brexit rather than take Britain out of the EU without a transition deal to ease the economic shock. 

“The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets,” Johnson was quoted as saying. “Hulk always escaped, no matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be — and that is the case for this country. We will come out on October 31.” 

Britain’s Parliament has repeatedly rejected the exit deal Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, negotiated with the EU, and this month rejected leaving without a deal — angering many Britons who voted to leave the bloc more than three years ago.  

No ‘backstop’

Johnson has said he wants to negotiate a new deal that does not involve a “backstop,” which would potentially tie Britain against its will to EU rules after it leaves in order to avoid checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

The EU has so far insisted on the backstop, and Britain has not presented any detailed alternative. 

Nonetheless, Johnson said he was “very confident” ahead of a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday. 

“There’s a very, very good conversation going on about how to address the issues of the Northern Irish border. A huge amount of progress is being made,” Johnson told The Mail on Sunday, without giving details. 

Johnson drew parallels between Britain’s situation in Brexit talks and the frustrations felt by fictional scientist Bruce Banner, who when enraged turned into The Incredible Hulk, frequently leaving behind a trail of destruction.  

“Banner might be bound in manacles, but when provoked he would explode out of them,” he said. 

Earlier on Saturday, former Conservative minister Sam Gyimah said he was switching to the pro-EU Liberal Democrat party in protest at Johnson’s Brexit policies and political style. 

Opinion polls late Saturday painted a conflicting picture of the Conservative Party’s political fortunes under Johnson, who wants to hold an early election to regain a working majority in Parliament. 

A poll conducted by Opinium for The Observer newspaper showed Conservative support rose to 37% from 35% over the past week, while Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour held at 25% and Liberal Democrat support dropped to 16% from 17%. Support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party remained at 13%. 

However, a separate poll by ComRes for The Sunday Express put Conservative support at just 28%, down from 30% and only a shade ahead of Labour at 27%. 

ComRes said just 12% of the more than 2,000 people it surveyed thought Parliament could be trusted to do the right thing for the country. 

…

RIYADH/DUBAI/LONDON – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it attacked two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry on Saturday, knocking out more than half the kingdom’s output, in a move expected to send oil prices soaring and increase tension in the Middle East. 

The attacks will cut the kingdom’s output by 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a statement from state-run oil company Saudi Aramco, or more than 5% of global oil supply. 

The pre-dawn strikes followed earlier cross-border attacks on Saudi oil installations and on oil tankers in Persian Gulf waters, but these were the most brazen yet, temporarily crippling much of the nation’s production capacity. Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest exporter, shipping more than 7 million barrels of oil to global destinations every day, and for years has served as the supplier of last resort to markets. 

While the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put the blame squarely on Iran, writing on Twitter that there was “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.” 

“Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo said. 

Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told U.S. President Donald Trump by telephone that Riyadh had the will and capability “to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression,” according to Saudi state news agency SPA. 

The United States condemned the attacks and Trump told the crown prince that Washington was ready to work with the kingdom to guarantee its security, according to the White House. The U.S. Department of Energy also said it was ready to release oil from its strategic petroleum reserve if necessary. Energy Secretary Rick Perry also said his department would work with the International Energy Agency, which coordinates energy policies of industrialized nations, if global action is needed. 

Saudi Arabia, leading a Sunni Muslim coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis, has blamed regional rival Shiite Iran for previous attacks, which Tehran denies. Riyadh accuses Iran of arming the Houthis, a charge denied by the group and Tehran. 

Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said an investigation had been launched into who planned and executed the strikes. He said the Western-backed alliance would counter threats to global energy security and economic stability. 

Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said there were no casualties from the attacks. 

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Aramco would have more information within 48 hours, and it would draw down oil in storage to compensate for the loss. Aramco is in the process of planning what is expected to be the world’s largest initial public offering. 

Heart of oil market

“Abqaiq is perhaps the most critical facility in the world for oil supply,” said Jason Bordoff, who runs the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and served on the U.S. National Security Council during Barack Obama’s presidency. “The risk of tit-for-tat regional escalation that pushes oil prices even higher has just gone up significantly.” 

Abqaiq is 60 km (37 miles) southwest of Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters. The oil processing plant handles crude from the world’s largest conventional oilfield, the supergiant Ghawar, and for export to terminals Ras Tanura — the world’s biggest offshore oil loading facility — and Juaymah. It also pumps westward across the kingdom to Red Sea export terminals. 

Two of the sources said Ghawar was flaring gas after the strikes disrupted gas processing facilities. Khurais, 190 km (118 miles) farther southwest, contains the country’s second-largest oilfield. 

“These attacks against critical infrastructure endanger civilians, are unacceptable, and sooner or later will result in innocent lives being lost,” the U.S. Embassy quoted Ambassador John Abizaid as saying in a Twitter post. 

Andrew Murrison, a British foreign affairs minister, called on the Houthis to stop threatening civilian areas and Saudi commercial infrastructure. 

It was the latest in a series of Houthi missile and drone strikes on Saudi cities that have largely been intercepted but have recently hit targets, including the Shaybah oilfield last month and oil pumping stations in May. Both those attacks caused fires but did not disrupt production. 

“This is a relatively new situation for the Saudis. For the longest time they have never had any real fears that their oil facilities would be struck from the air,” Kamran Bokhari, founding director of the Washington-based Center for Global Policy, told Reuters. 

Aramco’s CEO said in a statement that the situation had been brought under control. A Reuters witness said the fire in Abqaiq appeared to have been extinguished by early evening. 
 
Escalating tension

Regional tension has escalated after Washington quit an international nuclear deal and extended sanctions on Iran. 

The violence is complicating U.N.-led peace efforts to end the Yemen war, which has killed tens of thousands and pushed millions to the brink of famine. The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

The coalition intervened in Yemen after the internationally recognized government was ousted from power in Sanaa by the Houthis, who say they are fighting a corrupt system. 

The coalition launched airstrikes on Yemen’s northern Saada province, a Houthi stronghold, on Saturday, a Reuters witness said. Houthi-run al Masirah TV said a military camp was struck. 

The Houthis’ military spokesman, without providing evidence, said drones hit refineries at both Saudi sites, which are more than 1,000 km (621 miles) from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and pledged a widening of assaults against Saudi Arabia. 

…

The Afghan government will consider making a “legitimate” peace with insurgents only after national elections are held this month, an official told reporters Saturday, despite the atmosphere of political uncertainty following the sudden halt in U.S.-Taliban peace talks. 
 
President Donald Trump abruptly called off talks to end American’s longest war last week. The Afghan government was largely shut out of the negotiations and was concerned that any finalized U.S.-Taliban deal would delay the elections while a national unity government was formed, forcing the exit of President Ashraf Ghani. 
 
“Nothing will impede the presidential election from happening,” said the Afghan presidential spokesman, Sediq Seddiqi. 
 
He said that a peace deal with the Taliban could come only after holding the presidential election scheduled for Sept. 28. “Legitimacy of peace cannot be achieved without elections,” he said. 

Security concerns
 
Sediqqi also suggested that there will be a “big change” toward improving security across the country ahead of the voting. The Taliban, who consider the Afghan government a U.S. puppet, have warned Afghans not to vote and have said polling stations will be targets. 
 
Sediqqi pointed to a Taliban delegation’s visit to Russia, just days after Trump called off talks, to say the insurgents are faced with a “political failure” of their own. He added that the Taliban should hold talks directly with the Afghan government — which they have refused to do — rather than foreign powers. 
 
On Friday, a Taliban negotiating team visited Russia, where they held consultations with Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan. 
  
The Interfax news agency cited an unidentified Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the meeting underlined the necessity of renewing talks between the U.S. and the Taliban, and that the Taliban confirmed their readiness to continue dialogue with Washington. 
  
It was the Taliban’s first international visit following the collapse of talks with Washington. The team was led by Mullah Sher Mohammad Stanikzai. 
  
Trump tweeted Saturday that the Taliban was being hit hard militarily in the wake of the U.S. pulling out of negotiations following the death of a U.S. soldier. 
  
“The Taliban has never been hit harder than it is being hit right now,” he said. “Killing 12 people, including one great American soldier, was not a good idea. There are much better ways to set up a negotiation. The Taliban knows they made a big mistake, and they have no idea how to recover!” 
 
Moscow has twice this year hosted meetings between the Taliban and prominent Afghan personalities. 
  
Sediqqi said that the Afghan government has suspended its own peace efforts for now. After the elections, the “progress of the peace process” will be a priority, he said. 

Bomb in Kapisa province
 
Separately in eastern Kapisa province, a bomb killed at least three civilians who had gathered to watch a volleyball game, said Nasrat Rahimi, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. 
 
Rahimi added that two other civilians were wounded when Friday’s blast occurred in the Tagab district. No group immediately claimed responsibility. 
 
Also in southern Kandahar province, in an insider attack, two policemen turned on their colleagues and shot dead at least nine police officers at a checkpoint, according to a provincial official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. 
 
The attack happened in the Shah Wali Kot district late on Friday night and both attackers fled the area, the official said. 
 
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack. 

…