Hopes by small aviation museum in southwestern Iowa that a stamp in its possession was rare enough to parlay into a fortune crashed Friday when experts told them it wasn’t real, and likely not even worth the paper it was glued upon.

The Iowa Aviation Museum in Greenfield, Iowa, has had what it thought was a 1918 “Inverted Jenny” stamp on public display for some 20 years, dating back to when it was donated to the museum, glued to a board along with several other stamps. A notation from the donor attached to the board speculated then that it was worth about $73,000.

Experts at the national stamp convention meeting in Omaha knew immediately the stamp wasn’t authentic, said Ken Martin with the American Philatelic Society that’s holding the show through Sunday.

Likely cut from a catalog

“It wasn’t the right size. It was too small,” Martin said. “This version was likely cut out of a postage stamp auction catalog.”

An examination under a microscope confirmed experts’ initial doubt. A 100-year-old stamp would have been printed from an artist’s engraving, so the image under a microscope would appear as a series of lines. A reproduction for printed material decades later would have been comprised of a series of tiny dots, which is what appeared under the scope, Martin said.

The news was disappointing for those at the museum, which also serves as the home of the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame and had hoped to auction the stamp for hundreds of thousands of dollars and build a new museum hangar.

“We really didn’t know what we had,” Larry Konz, a tour guide at the museum, said Friday. “When we were told that we might have the real deal, I thought, ‘My God, we might have something quite valuable here, and we’ve had it hanging on a wall all this time.”

Had it been real, it would be worth between $300,000 and $400,000 at auction, Martin said. There were only 100 of the stamps printed in 1918, with the image of a JN-4-H “Jenny” biplane accidentally displayed upside-down on a 24-cent stamp.

A slim chance

Norma Nielson, of Eugene, Oregon, was at the convention Friday to see for herself if the museum was in possession of one of the few rare and unaccounted stamps. Nielson is a stamp collector who grew up in the museum’s hometown of Greenfield, and had put museum officials in touch with the American Philatelic Society to check the stamp’s authenticity.

“I knew it was probably a slim chance of it being genuine, given how rare that stamp is,” she said. “But, boy, it sure would have been exciting if it had been.”
 

NAIROBI, KENYA — Many merchants in Nairobi’s bustling Toi market are busy selling secondhand clothes — a big business in Kenya, which

 The U.S. Navy has identified the pilot killed in the crash of a fighter jet in the California desert.

A Navy statement Friday says the pilot was 33-year-old Lt. Charles Z. Walker.  

The Navy released a photo of Walker but provided no additional information, such as his hometown.

Walker’s F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed July 31 in Death Valley National Park while flying through a canyon where military pilots routinely conduct low-level training missions.

Seven park visitors on a canyon overlook suffered minor injuries caused by debris from the crash.

The Super Hornet was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-151 based at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s Central Valley.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal on Friday to sell more American beef to Europe in what was a modest win for an administration that remains mired in a trade war with China.

Trump gathered European Union officials and cowboy-hatted American ranchers in the White House Roosevelt Room to announce the pact.

“The agreement that we sign today will lower trade barriers in Europe and expand access for American farmers and ranchers,” Trump said.

He spoke shortly before the agreement was signed by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s ambassador to the United States and EU representative Jani Raappana.

The European Commission has stressed that any beef deal will not increase overall beef imports and that all the beef coming in would be hormone-free, in line with EU food safety rules. An agreement would need to be approved by the European parliament.

After the agreement was signed, Trump joked at the podium that his administration was working with the EU “on a 25% tariff on all Mercedes-Benz and BMWs coming into our nation.” “So, we appreciate — I’m only kidding,” he said to laughter.

The beef deal could help alleviate some of the damage to the domestic agricultural industry due to tariffs Beijing has imposed on U.S products in retaliation for U.S. levies on China.

Trump said in the first year duty-free U.S. beef exports to the EU will increase by 46% and over seven years will rise another 90%. “In total the duty-free exports will rise from $150 million to $420 million, an increase of over 180%,” he said.

Without mentioning China by name, Lambrinidis said the United States and Europe could work together to stand against countries that did not compete fairly in the global market.

“The agreement shows us that as partners we can solve problems,” he said.

EU sources and diplomats in June said a deal had been reached to allow the United States a guaranteed share of a 45,000 ton European Union quota.

The announcement coincides with Trump ratcheting up Washington’s trade dispute with China. On Thursday, he said he would impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from Sept. 1 and threatened to raise tariffs further if Chinese President Xi Jinping failed to move faster on striking a trade deal.

The dispute between the world’s two top economies has hurt world growth, including in Europe, as it enters its second year.

U.S. and European officials have sought to lay the groundwork for talks on their own trade agreement but have been stymied over an impasse on agriculture. European officials last month said trade talks had produced mixed results.

The agreement on beef could, however, ease tensions between the two sides, which are each other’s largest trading partners.

The Trump administration has been pursuing a host of new trade deals with Europe, China and others as part of the Republican president’s “America First” agenda as he seeks a second term in office, but difficulties in securing final pacts have roiled financial markets.

European stocks on Friday were battered by Trump’s latest salvo against China and Wall Street also took a hit.

Lingering issues remain in other areas of U.S.-EU trade, including import duties on industrial goods that Europe wants removed, and the threat of tariffs on European cars imported to the United States. EU governments cleared the agreement on July 15, but it still needs European Parliament approval.

CHICAGO — An Illinois state senator has been indicted on federal charges that he took more than $250,000 in salary and benefits over a three-year period from the Teamsters while doing little or no work, prosecutors said Friday. 
 
In a news release, the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago said Thomas E. Cullerton of Villa Park was indicted by a federal grand jury on 39 counts of embezzlement from a labor union, one count of conspiracy to embezzle from a labor union and employee benefit plans, and one count of making false statements in a health care matter.  
  
According to the release, Cullerton, 49, a member of the Teamsters before he took office, was hired as a “purported union organizer” for Teamsters Joint Council 25 in March 2013. Prosecutors said that over the next three years he was paid nearly $190,000 in salary, bonuses, and vehicle and cellphone allowances, and another $64,000 in health and pension contributions, despite the fact that he “did little or no work as a union organizer.” According to the release, when the Joint Council did ask him to perform his job duties, “Cullerton routinely ignored them.” 
 
Cullerton also was reimbursed for almost $22,000 in medical claims from a union local’s Health and Welfare Fund after falsely providing information that he was a “route salesman,” according to the indictment, a claim that concealed the fact that he wasn’t eligible to participate in the fund.  
  
The indictment of Cullerton, a cousin of Senate President John Cullerton, came just days after former Teamsters Joint Council 25 President John T. Coli Sr. pleaded guilty of shaking down a Chicago film studio and agreed to cooperate with investigators.  
  
And even before Coli’s plea agreement was announced, it became clear that federal officials were investigating ties between the two men when it was reported earlier this year that they had subpoenaed records related to Cullerton in their probe of the powerful former union leader.  
  
But in a written statement, Cullerton’s attorney, John Theis, said Cullerton was innocent and suggested he was being framed by Coli.  
  
“The action by the U.S. Department of Justice has nothing to do with Mr. Cullerton’s work in the Illinois State Senate but is the result of false claims by disgraced Teamsters boss John Coli in an apparent attempt to avoid penalties for his wrongdoing,” he said.  
  
The U.S. attorney’s office said an arraignment in federal court had not yet been scheduled. 

Indonesian authorities lifted a tsunami alert issued after a strong earthquake that hit off the coast of Java island Friday, swaying buildings as far away as the capital and rattling nerves in coastal areas but not causing widespread damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the magnitude 6.8 quake was centered 151 kilometers (94 miles) from Banten province off the island’s southwest coast. It said it hit at a depth of 42.8 kilometers (26.5 miles).

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami warning, watch or advisory after the quake. Indonesian authorities, however, issued their own before lifting it two hours later when no wave materialized.

Authorities had called on people living in coastal areas to move to higher ground but not to panic.

Buildings in Jakarta swayed for nearly a minute during the evening quake. Television footage showed workers and residents running out of high-rise buildings.

Radio and television reports said people felt a strong quake in Banten province and in Lampung province along the southern part of Sumatra island. The temblor caused a panic among residents in several cities and villages.

The quake brought back bad memories in Banten’s Pandeglang region, which encompasses Unjung Kulon National Park and popular beaches, and is where a deadly tsunami struck in the dark without warning last December.

That tsunami followed an eruption and a possible landslide on Anaka Krakatau, one of the world’s most famous volcanic islands, about 112 kilometers (69.5 miles) southwest of Jakarta. The waves killed at least 222 people as they smashed into houses, hotels and other beachside buildings along the Sunda Strait.

Irna Narulita, the Pandeglang district chief, said at least 22 houses collapsed in the region after Friday’s quake, and most people remained outside due to fear of aftershocks.  She said villagers in Sumur, the village hardest hit by the tsunami in December, chose to stay on a hill even after the tsunami alert was lifted.

She said no serious injuries were reported so far.

The National Disaster Agency spokesman, Agus Wibowo, said they were still gathering information of the damage and injuries. Local television footage and online video showed several houses and buildings in Banten, including a sport stadium and hospitals, suffered minor damage.

After the quake hospitals in West Java’s cities of Bogor, Ciamis and Cianjur evacuated patients, some attached to intravenous drips, to the hospital grounds, television footage showed.

R&B singer R. Kelly pleaded guilty Friday in New York to federal charges he sexually abused women and girls.

The 52-year-old Kelly was denied bail in a Brooklyn courtroom packed with his supporters.

He appeared sullen as prosecutors told Magistrate Judge Steven Tiscione he posed a flight risk and a danger to public safety.

Kelly’s defense attorneys requested his release so he could better fight charges they have dismissed as “groupie remorse.”

Kelly, whose full name is Robert Kelly, is accused of using his fame to recruit young women and girls into having illegal sexual activity. Prosecutors say he isolated them from friends and family and demanded they call him “Daddy.”

Friday’s hearing followed Kelly’s arrest last month in a separate Chicago case accusing him of engaging in child pornography.

Kelly is charged in New York with exploiting five victims, identified only as “Jane Does.” According to court papers, they include one he met at one of his concerts and another at a radio station where she was an intern.

Prosecutors allege Kelly arranged for some victims to meet him on the road for illegal sex. He had one victim travel in 2017 to a show on Long Island, New York, where he had unprotected sex with her without telling her “he had contracted an infectious venereal disease” in violation of New York law, they say.

Kelly’s attorneys said in court filings the alleged victims sought out Kelly’s attention, came to his shows and “pined to be with him.”

Kelly “would spend his time and even become friends with and care about these groupies and fans who were dying to be with him,” they added.

A Ugandan academic who once called the president “a pair of buttocks” has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of cyber harassment.

Stella Nyanzi on Friday flashed her bare breasts in protest while appearing in court via video link from prison. Amnesty International has called her conviction “outrageous.”

Nyanzi had attracted the attention of authorities with bold, often profane descriptions of alleged shortcomings of the government of longtime President Yoweri Museveni.

Some of her Facebook posts criticized Museveni for not providing sanitary napkins for schoolgirls.

Nyanzi was found guilty on Thursday of cyber harassment but acquitted of offensive communication. She is expected to serve nine months in prison after already spending nine months behind bars.

A television documentary has made allegations linking Australia’s gambling giant, Crown Casino, to organized crime, money laundering and human trafficking. The company has taken out newspaper ads denying the allegations. 

The investigation into Crown Casino was carried out by Australia’s Channel Nine television network and two newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The story was based on tens of thousands of documents apparently leaked from the company that owns casinos in the cities of Melbourne and Perth, and is planning another in Sydney.

The documentary alleged links between Crown and organized crime and claims the company turned a “blind eye” to money laundering and exploited weaknesses in Australia’s immigration processes to fly wealthy Chinese gamblers into the country without proper checks. There are also claims it had business links with an Australian brothel that has been investigated over human trafficking.

MP seeks investigation

Independent Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie told the Australian parliament that Crown has operated above the law in the state of Victoria.

“I now know of three police officers — two currently serving — who have openly said to my staff that in Victoria, Crown is regarded as the Vatican, an independent sovereign state all to its own where the laws of Victoria, the laws of the Commonwealth (of Australia) do not apply.”

Wilkie has failed in his bid to have the claims investigated by the Australian parliament. But federal Attorney-General Christian Porter has referred the allegations to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity. It can only investigate the behavior of federal law enforcement officials, and not Crown employees.

The state of Victoria has ordered the state’s gambling office to examine the claims against Crown Casino “as a matter of priority.”

Experts have also demanded Australia’s anti-money laundering regulator AUSTRAC examine claims that criminals have passed money through Crown Casino.

Company denies accusations

The company has strongly denied the allegations. 

In a series of newspaper advertisements, the company said it wanted to set the “record straight in the face of a deceitful campaign against Crown.” Crown Casino accused the TV documentary of unfairly attempting to damage its reputation. It also said it takes its regulatory obligations very seriously.

Life can have its obstacles, but facing those obstacles with a disability is even more challenging. Saba Shah Khan introduces us to a lawyer in Parkland, Florida, who is defying the stereotypes associated with autism.

VOA’s Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

The United States on Friday pulled out of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty to develop its own new warheads after the Russians refused to destroy their new missiles NATO says violate the pact.

“Russia failed to return to full and verified compliance through the destruction of its noncompliant missile system, the SSC-8 or 9M729 ground-launched, intermediate-range cruise missile,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise.”

Pompeo, in a statement, added the United States “will not remain party to a treaty that is deliberately violated by Russia. Russia’s noncompliance under the treaty jeopardizes U.S. supreme interests as Russia’s development and fielding of a treaty-violating missile system represents a direct threat to the United States and our allies and partners.”

New agreement?

U.S. President Donald Trump he is hopeful a new agreement can be made to replace the historic Cold War pact.

“Russia would like to do something on a nuclear treaty and that’s OK with me. They would like to do something and so would I,” Trump said in response to a question from VOA Thursday afternoon.

But the president, speaking on the White House South Lawn before boarding the Marine One helicopter, said “we didn’t discuss the INF” when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin the previous day.

In his statement, Pompeo called on Russia and China “to join us in this opportunity to deliver real security results to our nations and the entire world.”

A ‘brake on nuclear war’

With the expiration of the treaty, the world loses “an invaluable brake on nuclear war,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Thursday. “This will likely heighten, not reduce, the threat posed by ballistic missiles,”

U.S. officials for months have complained that Russia turned a deaf ear to pleas from officials here and in Europe to halt its violations of the treaty.

Russian officials claim they have strictly observed the treaty’s provision and have not allowed violations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin a month ago signed legislation suspending his country’s participation in the treaty, five months after the Trump administration made a similar move.  

Pillar of European security

The historic Cold War-era pact has been a pillar of European security for more than 30 years. It bans the development and deployment of ground-launched nuclear missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. European leaders, fearing a renewed arms race if the treaty is jettisoned, called on both Washington and Moscow to remain constructively engaged to try to preserve it.

There is also concern about the ramifications beyond Europe.

“The prospect of new ground-based INF systems being introduced in Asia could conceivably spark similar political turmoil among Asian allies,” says Laura Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan and former U.S. permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

“Even if the U.S. planned only to field such future systems on U.S.-territory such as Guam, such a move could be seen as threatening by China, which could respond by introducing a new wave of systems as a counter,” Kennedy, an adviser to Foreign Policy for America, told VOA. 

“We are literally years away before we would be at a point where we would talk about basing of any particular capability,” says a senior administration official, downplaying such immediate concerns.

The 1987 INF agreement was signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It eliminated the medium-range missiles arsenals of the two countries and went into effect in June of the following year.

A nascent immigration deal between the United States and Guatemala continued to take shape Thursday, as the U.S. Homeland Security acting secretary visited the impoverished Central American nation.

According to reports, Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan officials outlined details of the safe third country agreement signed between the United States and Guatemala five days ago.

Under the new deal, the Trump administration is planning to send asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador back to Guatemala to process their requests for help outside the U.S. Their claims would not initially go through the U.S. immigration courts.

Phased in approach

McAleenan said the plan is expected to start slowly, with single adults and not children.

“We’re working on the details … and ensuring that the Guatemalans understand that we’re talking about a phased and measured approach to implementation that will not overwhelm Guatemalan resources and will be supported by U.S.-funded international organization capacity,” he said in an interview reported in The Washington Post.

Those who claim fear of return to their home country would still be eligible for a lesser form of protection, “withholding of removal,” which requires a much higher burden of proof and doesn’t lead to legal permanent residency.

Homeland Security officials did not respond to VOA requests for comment.

After meetings with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and other officials, McAleenan told reporters the agreement is part of an effort to address human trafficking and strengthen checkpoint controls.

Obstacles in Guatemala

Under the accord, the U.S. would also invest $40 million in Guatemala to increase its asylum system capacity for people who need protection, as well as create more work visas, reports said.

But there are still obstacles facing the agreement. The plan needs to be approved by the Guatemalan Congress. The Guatemalan presidential runoff election is scheduled for Aug. 11, and both candidates, Sandra Torres and Alejandro Giammattei, have shared criticism about the way in which the Trump administration pressured the current Guatemalan president to agree with the terms.

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would institute tariffs, fees and travel restrictions that could have sent the Central American country into ruin if Guatemala did not sign an agreement with the United States.

President Donald Trump says he is considering a blockade or quarantine of Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro continues to hold power.

Trump gave no details about such plans when answering a reporter’s question Thursday about Chinese and Iranian backing for Maduro.

Russia and Cuba have also sent forces to Venezuela in support of Maduro.

Trump has always said a military option is on the table for Venezuela, but so far has relied on sanctions and support from other nations to try to drive out Maduro.

The United States was the first to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela after he used his constitutional power as National Assembly leader to declare Maduro’s presidency illegitimate.

Guaido claimed Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent. Guaido led a popular uprising against Maduro earlier this year, which appears to have fizzled.

The collapse in world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have wrecked oil-rich Venezuela’s economy and millions have fled the country and its severe shortages of fuel, quality medical care and many food staples.
 

U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, an ex-CIA undercover officer and the lone African-American Republican in the House, says he won’t seek a third House term in next year’s elections.

The El Paso Republican’s announcement came in a Thursday statement posted on his House web page. He’s the third Texas Republican to announce that he won’t seek re-election to the House, joining Michael Conaway of Midland and Pete Olson of Sugar Land.

Hurd says he wants to work in the private sector toward solutions to “problems at the nexus between technology and national security.”

Hurd has served the sprawling 23rd Congressional District, which extends from San Antonio to El Paso. He was one of only four House Republicans to vote to condemn President Donald Trump’s racist tweets taunting four Democratic congresswomen.

The United States on Friday will pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty to develop its own new warheads after the Russians refused to destroy their new missiles, which NATO says violate the pact. 

U.S. President Donald Trump is expressing optimism a new agreement can be made to replace the historic Cold War pact. 

“Russia would like to do something on a nuclear treaty and that’s OK with me. They would like to do something and so would I,” Trump said in response to a question from VOA on Thursday afternoon. 

But the president, speaking on the White House South Lawn before boarding the Marine One helicopter, said, “We didn’t discuss the INF” when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin the previous day.

“When it expires tomorrow, the world will lose an invaluable brake on nuclear war. This will likely heighten, not reduce, the threat posed by ballistic missiles,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Thursday. “Regardless of what transpires, the parties should avoid destabilizing developments and urgently seek agreement on a new common path for international arms control.”

U.S. officials for months have complained that Russia turned a deaf ear to pleas from officials here and in Europe to halt its violations of the treaty, especially development and fielding of the SSC-8 ground-launched cruise missiles. 

Russian officials claim they have strictly observed the treaty’s provision and have not allowed violations.

Putin signed legislation a month ago suspending his country’s participation in the treaty, five months after the Trump administration made a similar move.   

The historic Cold War-era pact has been a pillar of European security for more than 30 years. It bans the development and deployment of ground-launched nuclear missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles).

Concerns for Europe, beyond

European leaders, fearing a renewed arms race if the treaty is jettisoned, called on Washington and Moscow to remain constructively engaged to try to preserve it.

There is also concern about the ramifications beyond Europe. 

“The prospect of new ground-based INF systems being introduced in Asia could conceivably spark similar political turmoil among Asian allies,” said Laura Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan and former U.S. permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. 

“Even if the U.S. planned only to field such future systems on U.S.-territory such as Guam, such a move could be seen as threatening by China, which could respond by introducing a new wave of systems as a counter,” Kennedy, an adviser to Foreign Policy for America, told VOA. 

The 1987 INF agreement was signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It eliminated the medium-range missile arsenals of the two countries and went into effect in June of the following year. 

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced Thursday that he is setting up an internal inquiry into attacks in a de-escalation zone in northwest Syria, where numerous hospitals have been targeted in recent months.

“I believe that this inquiry can produce an important result,” Guterres told reporters. “I can guarantee that everything will be done to make sure that this board of inquiry acts with full objectivity, not to prove anything, but to simply say what the truth is.”

Since the end of April, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with support from Russian aircraft, has stepped up bombing and shelling in the de-escalation zone in Idlib governorate. 

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said earlier this week that satellite imagery shows 17 villages have been severely damaged and emptied since the military escalation began. He said at least 450 civilians have been killed, including more than 100 in the last two weeks alone, and about 440,000 people have been displaced.

There has also been a surge in the numbers of hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure that have been targeted in airstrikes in Idlib. 

The nongovernmental group Physicians for Human Rights told the U.N. that it has so far confirmed 16 of 46 reports of attacks on health care facilities since April 29. 

Russia has called the accusations “a lie,” while Damascus said the allegations are false because it considers several of the facilities it has struck to have been taken over by terrorist groups and no longer functioning medical facilities. 

On Thursday, Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said Moscow was “amazed” at the secretary-general’s decision to investigate the allegations. 

“We doubt very much that this is for the sake of investigation; this is for the sake of blaming Syria and Russia for the things we do not do,” Polyanskiy said in response to reporters’ questions. 

Ten of the 15 countries on the U.N. Security Council asked Guterres to investigate the attacks, including Britain. Ambassador Karen Pierce, who welcomed the creation of the board of inquiry, saying it is “a good first step.”

“I fully respect the right of the Russian Federation to disagree with me, as I also respect the position of 10 other members of the Security Council that had the opposite opinion,” Guterres said when asked about Moscow’s criticism. 

The board will investigate the incidents that have taken place in the Idlib de-escalation zone since it was established under an agreement between Russia and Turkey in September 2018, and report back to the secretary-general. 

“The inquiry should determine whether Russia and Syria have used coordinates provided by the U.N. to target hospitals,” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. “To be effective, the investigators should attribute responsibility for any war crimes and make their report public.”

The board’s investigation will cover “destruction of or damage to facilities on the deconfliction list and U.N.-supported facilities in the area,” the U.N. said. The board members’ names have not been announced.

The secretary-general urged all parties to cooperate with the investigation. 

Zimbabwe’s opposition parties, human rights groups and churches marked the one-year anniversary Thursday of the day when the army killed about a dozen people protesting the delayed release of election results.

Members of the crowd say they will continue asking for divine intervention in this southern African nation, where the political landscape has been long tainted by violence. 

Loveday Munesi could not attend Thursday’s event. He was shot in the melee on Aug. 1, 2018, and a bullet lodged in his right buttock. Since then, he has been unable to work or walk comfortably.

“I can no longer go to work because of difficulties in walking,” he said. “With what has happened to me and where we are now, I just believe that there is a lot of abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe. Because up to now, I haven’t received any medical help pertaining to my injuries from the government.”

Doctors say the 30-year-old needs at least $15,000 to go to South Africa or India for an operation to remove the bullet, something that can’t be done in Zimbabwe without damaging Munesi’s nerves.

At Thursday’s event marking the army killings, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said Harare must compensate the injured, like Munesi, as well as the families of those who were killed. 

Daniel Molokhele, the spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, says this lack of compensation shows that the government is not taking the issue of human rights seriously.

“Obviously, the [victims’] families, they need compensation, they need to be recognized in public,” he said. “We need that social damage to be addressed, their welfare and so on. But most importantly, a public commitment by the government to make sure that we earned this situation, this cycle where state securities, state police, state army are heavily involved in the political discourse of this country.”

Rights group Amnesty International says it wants the soldiers who killed the protesters to be held accountable, as per recommendations of a government-appointed commission.

Ziyambi Ziyambi, Zimbabwe’s justice minister, said Thursday that financial issues are slowing the implementation of many government commitments, including paying the medical bills for people like Munesi.

Meanwhile, the U.S. secretary of state has banned a former Zimbabwean military officer from entering the U.S. because he led the army response to the protests. 

Anselem Sanyatwe, who led the Zimbabwe National Army’s Presidential Guard Brigade, is now heading to Tanzania to be Zimbabwe’s ambassador in the east African nation. 

Puerto Rico’s governing party was in full-blown crisis Thursday as the nominee to succeed departing Gov. Ricardo Rossello headed to a disputed and uncertain confirmation vote in the U.S. territory’s legislature.

Rossello is leaving Friday in the face of massive public protest and has nominated veteran politician and attorney Pedro Pierluisi to succeed him. Pierluisi is a former representative to the U.S. Congress seen by most ordinary Puerto Ricans as a conciliatory, relatively uncontroversial figure, unlikely to be met by continued street demonstrations over poor governance and corruption.

Pierluisi would succeed Rossello if he’s confirmed by the territorial House and Senate as secretary of state, the next in line to become governor under the Puerto Rican constitution. The post is currently vacant and Rossello’s New Progressive Party holds majorities in both chambers of the legislature, meaning a united party could easily name the next governor.  

Pierluisi’s main obstacle appeared to be Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz, who has said he won’t vote for Rossello’s nominee and wants to be governor himself. Rivera Schatz is a powerful figure deeply associated with Puerto Rico’s political and business elite, and his elevation to governorship could re-ignite popular outrage.

House and Senate sessions on Pierluisi hadn’t started as planned at 11 a.m. Thursday even as ruling party lawmakers met in closed door sessions to seek a solution.

Many Puerto Rican legislators were predicting that Pierluisi did not have the votes to be confirmed.

Sen. Luis Vega Ramos, of the opposition Popular Democratic Party, said he was upset that lawmakers from Rossello’s party were meeting behind closed doors.

He called it “a political party squabble over who is going to lead the New Progressive Party and become the gubernatorial candidate for 2020.”

It wasn’t even clear if a vote would be taken on Thursday.

Rep. Gabriel Rodriguez Aguilo of the NPP said he supports holding public hearings before voting on Pierluisi, adding that an overwhelming number of constituents had called to ask for his confirmation.

”We ran out of paper,” he said in reference to secretaries taking notes on the calls.

Several lawmakers have already proposed Rivera Schatz, a declared candidate for the 2020 governor’s election, as their choice to replace Rossello.

After jubilation at the success of their uprising against Rossello, Puerto Rican protesters have been frustrated at the political infighting and paralysis that’s followed.

If a secretary of state is not named by Friday, Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez would be next in line. She has said she doesn’t want the job and those further down the line of succession are either too young for the job or are barely known bureaucrats seen as unqualified for the position.

Some lawmakers complained about Pierluisi’s work for a law firm that represents the federal control board that was created to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances before the territory, saddled with more than $70 billion in public debt, declared a sort of bankruptcy. Pierluisi’s brother-in-law also heads the board, which has clashed repeatedly with Rossello and other elected officials over demands for austerity measures.

”That’s a serious conflict of interest,” Rep. Jose Enrique Melendez told The Associated Press.

House of Representatives President Johnny Mendez, a member of the governing party, has said Pierluisi does not have the votes needed in the house.

”The situation could not be more complicated,” said Sen. Jose Antonio Vargas Vidot, who ran for Senate as an independent. “This is absurd, what we’re going through. We never thought something like this could happen. In an extraordinary crisis, we have to take extraordinary measures.”

Sen. Eduardo Bhatia of the opposition Popular Democratic Party, accused Rivera Schatz of trying to maneuver himself into the top job.

”This attitude of [Rivera Schatz] taking the island hostage is very dangerous,” Bhatia tweeted. “`It’s him or no one’ is in keeping with what has been a life silencing and destroying democracy.”

Puerto Rico’s 3 million people are U.S. citizens who can’t vote for president and don’t have a voting representative in Congress. While politicians are members of the Democratic or Republican parties, the island’s main political dividing line is between the NPP, which favors statehood, and the PDP, which favors a looser association with the federal government. Those parties’ memberships both contain a mix of Democrats and Republicans.

Rossello is leaving after two weeks of massive street protests by Puerto Ricans outraged at corruption, mismanagement and an obscenity-laced chat that was leaked in which Rossello and 11 other men made fun of women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria.

More than a dozen officials have resigned in the wake of the chat, including former Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin. Rivera Schatz, whose spokeswoman said he was not granting interviews, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that all problems have solutions and that Puerto Rico should be focused on finding them.

”We should promote unity, not discord,” he wrote.

Pierluisi, who took a leave of absence from the law firm, said in a statement Wednesday that much work remains to be done to recover the trust of federal authorities, U.S. Congress and the people of Puerto Rico as it also struggles to recover from Hurricane Maria.

”My goal is now to transform the energy shown by our people in constructive actions that help Puerto Rico go forward,” he said. “Puerto Rico is facing times never before seen and we all have to be part of the path to progress.”

Pierluisi represented Puerto Rico in Congress from 2009-2017 and then ran against Rossello in the 2016 primaries and lost. He also previously served as justice secretary under Rossello’s father, Pedro Rossello, when he was governor.

The United States on Thursday placed on its sanctions list a former Zimbabwean army general who commanded troops accused of killing six civilians after a disputed election a year ago.

The listing of Anselem Sanyatwe signals U.S. frustration over the lack of accountability in the Aug. 1, 2018 killings in the capital, Harare. There was no immediate response by Zimbabwe’s government to the U.S. announcement, which was likely to bring fresh anger from an administration that has pressed for the lifting of U.S. sanctions over past rights abuses.

Sanyatwe is the first to be sanctioned over the crackdown and the first Zimbabwean official listed since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe in November 2017. Sanyatwe and his wife are now barred from traveling to the U.S.

Soldiers were deployed to suppress a protest against delays in announcing results of Zimbabwe’s first election without Mugabe on the ballot. The U.S. statement says it has “credible information” that Sanyatwe was involved.

The election had been peaceful, giving many people hope that the southern African nation was on the brink of change. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe’s forced resignation and was declared the election winner, had promised sweeping post-Mugabe reforms and re-engagement with the West.

Sanyatwe later defended the soldiers’ deployment while appearing before a commission of inquiry into the killings, but denied the army shot the protesters and instead accused the opposition.

He later retired from the army and was appointed ambassador to Tanzania.

Zimbabwe’s military has been sent into the streets since the killings. The U.S. sanctions statement also noted that “there has been no accountability for the excessive use of force by Zimbabwean security forces on civilians in January and February this year, which reportedly resulted in at least 13 deaths, 600 victims of violence, torture or rape, and more than 1,000 arrests.”

That crackdown came after protests in Harare over the country’s collapsing economy.

The U.S. and the European Union, which imposed sanctions almost two decades ago over alleged rights abuses, have in recent months issued several statements warning against continued violations.

Mnangagwa’s government has made the lifting of sanctions a top priority and has held several meetings with senior officials from the U.S. and EU to lobby for that and Zimbabwe’s readmission to the Commonwealth.

The killings “demonstrated to the whole world the crisis of governance that has defined the character and the nature of the problem in Zimbabwe,” opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, who placed second in last year’s election and lost a court challenge to the results, told a prayer meeting on Thursday to remember the killings. “After the departure of Mr. Mugabe, nothing has changed. The old cannot renew.”

 

Thousands of Sudanese people took to the streets of the capital, Khartoum, on Thursday to demand justice for the killing of at least six people — including four students — by security forces earlier this week during student protests in a central province.

Videos posted on social media by Sudanese pro-democracy activists showed protesters raising pictures of slain protesters, waving Sudanese flags and holding banners reading: “Our government is civilian and shall be protected by our revolution.” The marches were called by the Sudanese Professional Association, a group that has spearheaded the protests that drove longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir from power in April.

The demonstrations come as the country’s ruling military council was set to resume talks later in the day with protest leaders to finalize a power-sharing agreement, protesters said. The two sides had been set to hold talks Tuesday to on the agreement, but those were postponed after the deaths in North Kordofan province.

The protest leaders had agreed with the military on the outline of a power-sharing deal last month but remain divided on a number of key issues, including whether military commanders should be immune from prosecution for violence against protesters.

Earlier Thursday, state-run SUNA news agency reported that the military council arrested seven members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces who had fired live ammunition during Monday’s student protest. The military statement said the troops had responded in “an isolated manner” by shooting at the students.

An SPA statement called the marches a “safety valve” and “our way to bring culprits to justice, avenge martyrs and to ensure the transfer of power to an interim civilian government.” The group stressed the peaceful nature of the rallies, but warned that armed infiltrators might slip in among the crowd to instigate violence.

”We cannot reach any agreement while ignoring the blood of martyrs,” said Madani Abbas Madani, a leader of the protest coalition that’s negotiating with the military. Speaking to reporters ahead of Thursday’s demonstrations, he said both marches and negotiations remain part of the protesters’ toolkit to achieve their goals.