Author: Selleco

During Pope Francis’ recent visit to Japan, Harumi Suzuki stood where his motorcade passed by holding a sign that read: “I am a survivor.” Katsumi Takenaka stood at another spot, on another day, holding up his banner that read, “Catholic child sexual abuse in Japan, too.” The two are among a handful of people who have gone public as survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse in Japan, where values of conformity and harmony have resulted in a strong code of silence. But as in other parts of the world, from Pennsylvania to Chile, Takenaka and Suzuki are starting to feel less alone as other victims have come forward despite the ostracization they and their family members often face for speaking out. Their public denunciation is all the more remarkable, given Catholics make up less than 0.5% of Japan’s population. To date, the global abuse scandal has concentrated on heavily Catholic countries, such as Ireland, the U.S. and now, many countries in Latin America. All of which could explain why the Catholic hierarchy in Japan has been slow to respond to the scandal, which involves not only children being sexually abused but adults in spiritual direction — an increasingly common phenomenon being denounced in the #MeToo era. In a recent case, police were investigating allegations by a woman in Nagasaki, the region with the greatest concentration of Catholics in Japan, that a priest touched her inappropriately last year. Japanese media reports said the woman had been hospitalized for PTSD. Police confirmed …

The Trump administration and China are close to finalizing a modest trade agreement that would suspend tariffs that are set to kick in Sunday, de-escalating their 17-month trade war. “We’re close to a deal,” said Myron Brilliant, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s head of international affairs, who has been briefed by both sides. Brilliant said the administration has agreed to suspend Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on $160 billion in Chinese imports Sunday and to reduce existing tariffs, though it wasn’t clear by how much. In return, Beijing would buy more U.S. farm products, increase Americans companies’ access to the Chinese market and tighten protection for intellectual property rights. The deal awaits final approval from President Donald Trump. Trump took to Twitter early Thursday to declare: “Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we!” Earlier Thursday, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, Gao Feng, had told reporters that “the economic and trade teams of both sides have maintained close communication.” He offered no additional details to release. Beijing had threatened to retaliate if Trump proceeded with plans to raise tariffs on $160 billion of Chinese imports Sunday. The two sides are negotiating a so-called Phase 1 agreement as part of the effort to resolve their sprawling trade dispute. Still, the truce leaves unsettled the toughest and most complex issues that have divided the two sides. The administration accuses Beijing of cheating in its drive to achieve global supremacy in such advanced …

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee reconvenes Friday morning to vote on articles of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump. The committee recessed late Thursday after 14 hours of debate. The Democratic-controlled committee rebuffed Republican attempts Thursday to weaken or throw out the allegations and instead will vote on sending them to the full House of Representatives for a vote, likely to be held next week.   Democratic lawmakers, after hours of at-times rancorous partisan claims and counterclaims with Republicans, rejected the Republican effort to eliminate the impeachment allegation that Trump abused the presidency by pushing Ukraine to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic election rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden.   The committee is also expected to approve a second article of impeachment, that Trump obstructed Congress by refusing to turn over hundreds of documents to impeachment investigators and blocked key Trump administration officials from testifying. The unified Democratic majority has the votes to block Republican efforts aimed at slowing the push to impeach Trump.  Flawed case? Republicans contended that the case against Trump is flawed, that the committee was rushing to judgment without hearing more witnesses. They noted that Trump in September released the $391 million in military aid to Ukraine that Trump had temporarily blocked without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launching the politically tinged Biden investigation that the U.S. leader wanted.   Trump asked Zelenskiy in a late July phone call to “do us a favor” by opening the investigation of Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work …

President Donald Trump is now expected to become only the third U.S. president impeached by the House of Representatives. If the Democratic-controlled House votes next week to impeach Trump for allegedly abusing his power related to his dealings with Ukraine, the case would move to the Republican-controlled Senate for an impeachment trial where the political landscape is much more favorable to the president. While Democrats dominate the House, Republicans hold 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Democrats hold 45, and also count on the votes of two independents —  Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In order for Trump to be removed from office, the Senate, sitting as jurors, would need to convict him of one or more articles of impeachment by a two-thirds majority vote, or 67 of the 100 senators, according to the U.S. Constitution. Republican-Led Senate Looms as Trump’s Savior video player. Embed Copy Link A high bar Democrats would need to find a way to get 20 Senate Republicans to support conviction. Given polls that show Republican voters are still firmly behind the president, experts see Trump’s removal as highly unlikely. “I do not see how in the world you could ever get 20 Republican senators to vote to oust Donald Trump,” said University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato via Skype. “They might as well vote to oust and then announce their resignations, because they won’t be serving for very long once they cast that vote.” While House Republicans have stood …

Thai opposition party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit called on supporters to mobilize in Bangkok on Saturday, days after the national election body called for the dissolution of his party. Thanathorn, 41, has emerged as the most prominent opponent of the government headed by former junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, 65, after his progressive Future Forward Party came a surprise third in an election in March. The opposition Pheu Thai Party, which was ousted in 2014, won the most seats in the 500-member House of Representatives lower house. Palang Pracharat, the pro-military party formed last year by members of the junta’s cabinet, came second. Although Pheu Thai is the biggest opposition party, Future Forward has taken a higher profile in challenging the government. In a Facebook video, Thanathorn called on people who were “fed up with a society like this” to take to the street on Saturday. It is the first time he has made such a call. “This is the time for the people to make a noise,” Thanathorn said. “If you agree with me that now is the time for people to stand up to fight, demand legitimacy, justice and equality, come out on Dec. 14.” His tweet calling for mobilization was retweeted more than 20,000 times in over two hours. But it is not clear whether authorities will allow the gathering to take place. Police in the Bangkok district to which Thanathorn has called his followers said they had not received a request for a gathering in line with a …

As Kenya marks the anniversary of the end of British colonial rule more than five decades ago (Dec 12, 1963), two communities in the Great Rift Valley want the United Nations to investigate a colonial-era land grab.  The Kipsigis and Talai communities accuse the British of collective punishment by forcefully evicting them off their land, which was turned into profitable tea farms. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Kericho, Kenya.   …

Nearly a year and a half after India scrapped controversial legislation criminalizing homosexuality, the Indian capital has hosted its first ever queer literature festival. Turning the focus on stories and experiences of the community, the two day meet explored common ground between different identities of society. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi. …

U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg Thursday, suggesting she has problems controlling anger. “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem,” Trump tweeted, and added she should “then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill.” Twitter screenshot Criticism of a minor by a sitting U.S. president is unusual, and it came one day after Thunberg was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. Trump was a candidate for the Person of the Year designation. Trump’s comments apparently did not go unnoticed by Thunberg. The 16-year-old responded to his tweet by changing her Twitter bio to say: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.” Screenshot of Greta Thunberg’s Twitter profile page. The backlash to Trump’s criticism of Thunberg was swift on social media, with many Twitter users accusing him of bullying. Others, however, came to Trump’s defense. Thunberg is the youngest person to win the prestigious Time magazine designation after quickly evolving into one of the world’s most prominent climate change activists. Editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal made the announcement Wednesday during an appearance on NBC’s Today show. “She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement,” Felsenthal said. Thunberg’s Friday protests alone outside the Swedish parliament building during school hours at age 15 helped trigger a global movement …

Human Rights Watch says tens of thousands of Burundian refugees face mounting pressure to involuntarily leave Tanzania amid efforts by authorities there to reduce the number of Burundians in the country. The rights group in a statement Thursday charged that the fear of violence, arrest and deportation from Tanzania is driving many of the 163,000 Burundians out of the country. Some of the refugees have since sought shelter in neighboring Uganda. Burundi fell into instability in 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would seek a disputed third term. The election was marked by violence and allegations of rigging. Nearly 350,000 of Burundi’s 11 million people fled. Tanzanian authorities have expressed frustration over what they say is the U.N.’s slow pace in repatriating refugees back to Burundi. More than 70,000 refugees have returned to Burundi since December 2017, and rights groups say it is hard to tell how many of those returned voluntarily.   …

Debris believed to be from a military transport plane carrying 38 people that vanished two days ago en route to the Antarctic has been discovered in the frigid, treacherous waters between the icy continent and South America, Chile’s Air Force said Wednesday. Air Force Gen. Eduardo Mosqueira said “sponge” material, possibly from the plane’s fuel tank, was found floating roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the place the C-130 Hercules last had radio contact. The debris will be analyzed to see if it corresponds to the missing plane, he said, adding that the process could take up to two days. The C-130 Hercules took off Monday afternoon from a base in far-southern Chile on a regular maintenance flight for an Antarctic base. Radio contact was lost 70 minutes later. The debris was spotted by a private plane assisting in the search, and officials said a Brazilian ship in the area equipped with instruments will next scan 3,200 meters (10,499 feet) underwater at the site. “We estimate that the debris may in fact be from the C-130 fuel tank,” Mosqueira said. The discovery came as Chilean officials had expanded the search for the missing military plane. Mosqueira said the search area covered an area of about 400 by 450 kilometers (250 by 280 miles) and he said improved visibility was helping the crews of searchers using planes, satellites and vessels from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and the U.S. as well as Chile. The search area extended over treacherous waters of Drake Passage …

Fears mounted Wednesday that a deadly shooting at a Jewish market in Jersey City was an anti-Semitic attack as authorities recounted how a man and woman deliberately pulled up to the place in a rental van with at least one rifle and got out firing. A day after the gun battle and standoff that left six people dead — the two killers, a police officer and three people who had been inside the store — state and federal law enforcement officials warned they have not established the motive for the attack. “The why and the ideology and the motivation — that’s what we’re investigating,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said, adding that authorities are also trying to determine if anyone else was involved. But Mayor Steve Fulop said surveillance video of the attackers made it clear they targeted the kosher market, and he pronounced the bloodshed a hate crime against Jews, as did New York’s mayor and governor. Also, investigators believe the two dead attackers — who were believed to be a couple — identified themselves in the past as Black Hebrew Israelites, a movement whose members have been known to rail against whites and Jews, according to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. In addition, authorities have found social media postings from at least one of the killers that were anti-police and anti-Jewish, the official said. The FBI on …

George Laurer, who invented the universal product code, has died at his home in North Carolina. He was 94.  The UPC or bar code is the unique marking — made up of black stripes of varying thicknesses and a 12-digit number — allotted to products sold worldwide. It allows retailers to identify each product and its price by using a scanner.  Laurer, who died Dec. 5, was working as an electrical engineer at IBM when he was assigned to the project, an idea pioneered by colleague Norman Woodland, who died in 2012. Laurer brought Woodland’s idea to fruition in the 1970s with the help of lasers and computers.  Laurer said retailers spent millions in time and labor putting price tags on every item. The bar code allowed them to reduce pricing errors and keep an accurate count of inventory.  The first product scanned, in June 1974, was a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum. It is now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington.    …

More than 70% of the African forest elephant species has been wiped out, primarily by poachers slaughtering them for their ivory.  Park rangers are on the front lines defending them. But in the Central African country of Gabon these park rangers, also known as eco-guards, aren’t going it alone. Now the U.S military is joining the fight by helping to train the rangers who protect the elephants. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb gives us an exclusive look at the counter-poaching effort in central Gabon. …

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday that interprets members of the Jewish religion as part of a distinct nationality. The measure is aimed at helping combat growing anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses.  Some major Jewish organizations hailed the action because it means universities could lose federal funding if they do not stop discrimination against Jews on their campuses. Others said they were uncomfortable with government action to create an ethnic categorization, and they also worried about the measure’s potential to suppress free speech at schools.  “This is a very powerful document that we’re signing today,” Trump said as he announced the order at a Hanukkah ceremony in the White House East Room packed with Jewish supporters, including a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor. “This is a very critically important move made by the president of the United States that will set an environment wherein Jewish students who were targeted with anti-Semitism on university campuses in America will actually have some semblance of protection and recourse,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a major Jewish human rights organization.   A participant wears a Trump “Make America Great Again” yarmulke at a White House Hanukkah reception in Washington, Dec. 11, 2019. “This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue,” Cooper, who attended the White House event, told VOA, noting that Trump’s order “is essentially an executive version of the legislation that went through the U.S. Senate twice” and has had strong bipartisan support for years but always ran into a roadblock halting its passage.  “This year there’s no roadblock because I’m …

Leading House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, accusing him of abusing his office for personal political gain and obstructing the congressional impeachment inquiry. It was only the fourth time in the 243-year history of the United States that impeachment charges have been brought against an American leader, although Trump’s removal from office remains unlikely. House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, head of the panel that will first consider the impeachment articles, contended that Trump “sees himself as above the law.” Nadler alleged that Trump threatened U.S. national security by withholding key military aid to Ukraine. He said the president threatened the integrity of the 2020 election, in which he is seeking a second term in office, and sought to block congressional review of his actions. “He consistently puts himself above the country,” Nadler said. Democrats unveil articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, Dec. 10, 2019. Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who led the weeks-long impeachment inquiry against Trump, called the allegations against the U.S. leader “overwhelming and uncontested.” But Trump has said he did nothing wrong and none of his Republican supporters in Congress has called for his impeachment and removal from office. “Today the House Democrats announce these two flimsy, pathetic, ridiculous articles of impeachment,” Trump told supporters at a Tuesday night rally. “They want to win an election and that’s the only way they can do it.” The essence of the case against Trump stems from his months-long effort …

The number of journalists imprisoned globally remains near a record high, according to an annual survey released Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which identifies China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as the world’s largest jailers of reporters. “For the fourth consecutive year, hundreds of journalists are imprisoned globally as authoritarians like Xi Jinping, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mohammad bin Salman, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi show no signs of letting up on the critical media,” says CPJ’s 2019 Prison Census. Although the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide slipped from 253 to 245 in 2019, the New York-based press freedom watchdog also says that journalists charged with reporting “false” or “fake news” continues to climb. “The number charged with ‘false news’ rose to 30, compared with 28 last year,” says the report, explaining that the charge, most prolifically levied in Egypt, “has climbed steeply since 2012, when CPJ found only one journalist worldwide facing the allegation.” “In the past year, repressive countries, including Russia and Singapore, have enacted laws criminalizing the publication of ‘fake news.’” This year’s census marks the first time since 2015 that Turkey did not rank as the world’s largest jailer, in part because Ankara, “having stamped out virtually all independent reporting, released journalists awaiting trial or appeal.” China — second only to Turkey as one of the world’s most repressive media environments for years — has 47 journalists in prison, the same number as it did in 2018, which largely resulted from reporters attempting to document …

The Afghan government, claiming progress in the ongoing war against militants, is downplaying The Washington Post’s recent report that said U.S. officials made overly optimistic statements about the war that they knew to be false. The Washington Post this week published a trove of government documents, revealing that U.S. officials made false statements and hid evidence about the years long conflict. Fawad Aman, a spokesperson for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, downplayed the Post report, telling VOA Tuesday that the Afghan forces have made tremendous progress in fighting the militants. “If we have a comparative glance at the war in Afghanistan, we have had tremendous progress in the past two years,” Aman told VOA. “For instance, we destroyed IS-K (Islamic State-Khurasan) in eastern Afghanistan. In addition, due to our military operations, Taliban suffered many casualties this year. Taliban’s offensive capabilities have been taken away from them. We are progressing well and Afghan security forces are making progress and we are optimistic about the future,” he added. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has denied intentionally misleading the public about the war in Afghanistan. “There has been no intent by DoD (Department of Defense) to mislead Congress or the public,” Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell wrote to VOA on Monday. “The information contained in the interviews was provided to SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) for the express purpose of inclusion in SIGAR’s public reports.” Implications of the revelation Analysts have had mixed reactions, however, about whether the recent report reveals anything …

Venite Bernard’s feet are bloodied and torn because, she said, she had no time to grab her sandals when she fled her shack with her youngest children as gangsters roamed the Haitian capital’s most notorious slum, shooting people in their homes. Now the 47-year-old Bernard and her family are camped in the courtyard of the town hall of Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince, along with more than 200 others, fleeing an outbreak of violence that is part of what civic leaders say is the country’s worst lawlessness in more than a decade. “Bandits entered the homes of some people and beat them, and they were shooting,” Bernard said through her tears, lying on a rug in the shade of a tree. “Everyone was running so I left as quickly as I could with the children.” United Nations peacekeeping troops withdrew from Haiti in 2017 after 15 years, saying they had helped to re-establish law and order in the poorest country in the Americas, where nearly 60 percent of the population survives on less than $2.40 a day. But that left a security vacuum that has been exacerbated over the past year by police forces being diverted to deal with protests against President Jovenel Moise. “With limited resources, they have been unable to contain the activity of gangs as they might have wished,” said Serge Therriault, U.N. police commissioner in Haiti in an interview. Demonstrators loot a burning truck after the wake of demonstrators killed during the protests to demand the resignation …

A look at the history, facts and timeline of the war in Afghanistan. …

American billionaire and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg says that the next U.S. president should halt fossil fuel subsidies altogether. Bloomberg, who launched his campaign less than three weeks ago, is attending a United Nations global climate conference in Madrid that is kicking into high gear. Ministers from nearly 200 countries are arriving on Tuesday to tackle some of the tough issues that negotiations couldn’t resolve over the past week, including finalizing the rules for international carbon markets that economists say could help drive down emissions and help poor countries to cope with the effects of rising temperatures.      Opening an event on sustainable finances organized by the summit host, Spain, Bloomberg said that “the next president of the United States should end all subsidies for fossil fuel companies and fossil fuel extraction, and that includes tax breaks and other special treatment.” “He or she should reinvest that funding into clean energy, which will also create a lot of new jobs,” he added. The 77-year-old businessman and former New York mayor is expected to share the results of his private push to organize thousands of U.S. cities and businesses to abide by the terms of a global climate treaty that the Trump administration is working to abandon.  “Americans are willing to continue to work even with a climate change denier in the White House,” Bloomberg told a room packed of journalists and officials.  “The White House matters, but sometimes not too much,” he added. The Democrat has vowed to rejoin …

Finland’s parliament chose Sanna Marin as the country’s new prime minister Tuesday, making the 34-year-old the world’s youngest sitting head of government. Marin is heading a five-party, center-left coalition. The four other parties in the coalition are headed by women _ three of whom are in their early 30s. The Nordic country’s Parliament, the 200-seat Eduskunta approved Marin in a 99-70 vote. The government has a comfortable majority of 117 seats. President Sauli Niinisto will formally hand Marin her mandate later Tuesday, after which she will officially become prime minister. The appointment of Marin and her new government on Tuesday allows Marin to represent Finland at the European Union summit in Brussels later this week . Finland currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency until the end of the year.             …

Thick reindeer fur boots and a fur hat covering most of his face shielded Niila Inga from freezing winds as he raced his snowmobile up to a mountain top overlooking his reindeer in the Swedish arctic.                     His community herds about 8,000 reindeer year-round, moving them between traditional grazing grounds in the high mountains bordering Norway in the summer and the forests farther east in the winter, just as his forebears in the Sami indigenous community have for generations.                     But Inga is troubled: His reindeer are hungry, and he can do little about it.  Climate change is altering weather patterns here and affecting the herd’s food supply.                     “If we don’t find better areas for them where they can graze and find food, then the reindeers will starve to death,” he said.                     Already pressured by the mining and forestry industry, and other development that encroach on grazing land, Sami herding communities fear climate change could mean the end of their traditional lifestyle.                     Slipping his hand from a massive reindeer skin mitten, Inga illustrated the problem, plunging his hand into the crusted snow and pulling out a hard piece of ice close to the soil.                     Unusually early snowfall in autumn was followed by rain that froze, trapping food under a thick layer of ice. Unable to eat, the hungry animals have scattered from their traditional migration routes in search of new grazing grounds.                     Half the herd carried on east …

The former mayor of Moscow and one of the founders of Russia’s ruling United Russia party, Yuri Luzhkov, has died at the age of 83.                     Russia’s Ren TV channel reported Tuesday that Luzhkov died in Munich, where he was undergoing heart surgery.                   Luzhkov, a political heavyweight of the Boris Yeltsin era, was the mayor of Moscow for 18 years and was one of the founders of the United Russia party, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s longtime political platform.                   In 2010, Luzhkov was dismissed from his post in the Moscow City Hall by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev despite his close ties to Putin. He moved to London, but remained very vocal about Russian domestic affairs. …

Two former prime ministers of Algeria were convicted and sentenced to prison Tuesday for corruption-related charges in a landmark trial, unleashing cheers of joy from pro-democracy activists who want an overhaul of the gas-rich country’s political system.                     The verdict came amid high political tensions just two days before a controversial presidential election to replace President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, pushed out of office in April after 20 years in power.                     Protesters gathered outside and inside the courthouse in Algiers Tuesday to hear the verdict against Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, some shouting “Gang of gangsters!” and many waving or wearing Algerian flags. Police surrounded the courthouse.                     Ouyahia was sentenced to 15 years in prison and $16,000 in fines. Sellal was sentenced to 12 years in prison and $8,000 in fines. The men, who deny wrongdoing, have 10 days to appeal.                     Both served under Bouteflika. Protesters rose up against Bouteflika earlier this year in part because of anger at corruption.                     Four other former government ministers and businessmen were also convicted in the case, which focused on a car manufacturing corruption scandal, allegedly involving huge bribes, inflated invoices and dodgy loans. Bouteflika’s former campaign manager was acquitted.                     Unusually, the trial was televised, as authorities sought to show the public that they are taking protesters’ concerns about corruption, transparency and accountability seriously.                     Thursday’s presidential election loomed over the trial. Algerian authorities are hoping the trial will help convince the public that …