The death toll from a fuel truck explosion in Tanzania at the weekend has climbed to 82 after seven more people died from their injuries, a hospital official said Wednesday.

A spokesman for the National Hospital in Dar es Salaam said 32 others were being treated, including 17 in intensive care, following one of the deadliest oil tanker blasts in Africa in recent years.

“We are continuing to fight as best we can to save those still alive,” the hospital spokesman, Aminiel Aligaesha, told reporters Wednesday.

The explosion took place Saturday morning near the town of Morogoro, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Dar es Salaam, the financial capital.

Flames engulfed a crowd trying to collect leaking petrol from a tanker that overturned as it swerved to avoid a motorcycle.

Officials said the explosion was triggered when a man tried to retrieve the truck’s battery, creating sparks that ignited the fuel.

An official inquiry was ordered Sunday into the accident, with a preliminary report expected later this week.

It was the latest in a string of such disasters in Africa and at least the third this year.

Last month, 45 people were killed and more than 100 injured in central Nigeria when a petrol tanker crashed and then exploded as people tried to take the fuel. In May, a similar incident in Niger killed nearly 80 people.

Russian scientists are raising the alarm about new Soviet-style restrictions on interactions with foreign colleagues.

The science newspaper Troitsky Variant on Tuesday published a copy of a recent Russian Education Ministry decree that introduces a broad range of restrictions on meetings and communication between employees of state-owned think tanks and institutes and foreign nationals.
 
Russian scientists are now obliged to inform officials about any visit by a foreign scientist five days in advance and report on the meeting afterward, the published decree said. The newspaper called on the ministry to scrap the order, saying the Soviet-style restrictions would hurt the standing of Russian science in the world.
 
“Such ridiculous decrees that are impossible to comply with will do nothing to bolster our country’s security but will only increase its isolation from developed nations and discredit authorities,” scientist Alexander Fradkov said.
 
Similar restrictions were widely used in the Soviet Union but were largely scrapped by the end of the 1980s.
 
The Education Ministry on Wednesday insisted that the decree was not an order but merely a recommendation and denied suggestions that it aims to control the scientists.
 
It also added that Russian scientists are increasingly facing “certain restrictions” while visiting organizations abroad.
 
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he thought that the restrictions were “too much.”
 
The reports of authorities trying to monitor scientists come amid an intensifying pressure on the scientific community.
 
Elderly rocket scientist Viktor Kudryavtsev has been in jail for over a year now, facing vague treason charges. His colleague was arrested last month on similar charges. Russian scientists have appealed to authorities to drop the charges against Kudryavtsev and his associate but to no avail.

  

 

Argentina’s peso closed weaker again on Tuesday following a second day of market turmoil triggered by opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez’s landslide victory in a primary election that dealt a severe blow to President Mauricio Macri’s re-election chances.

The peso closed 4.29% lower at 55.9 per U.S. dollar after touching 59 to the dollar earlier. The currency had hit an all-time low on Monday of 65 to the dollar, a drop of 30%, on fears that a Fernandez government could take Argentina back to interventionist economic policies.

The central bank has sold a total $255 million of its own reserves since Monday in an effort to help steady the currency.

“The market thinks Fernandez will likely default and impose capital controls and renegotiate with the IMF. In a nutshell, the market thinks Fernandez is the return of populism,” said Claudio Irigoyen of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML).

Fernandez, who has former President Cristina Fernandez as his running mate, pulled off a stunning upset in the primary with a wider-than-expected 15-point lead over Macri, a free market proponent.

Monday’s crash in the peso unnerved global equities investors, with markets already jittery over the Sino-U.S. trade war and protests in Hong Kong.

“Yes, Argentina is a small economy. However, the last thing global markets want to see is another market-friendly government fall to populism and/or geopolitics,” said Rabobank strategist Michael Every.

Blame Game

In an interview Monday, Fernandez said he was willing to collaborate with the current government after his primary triumph on Sunday sent the peso, stocks and bonds reeling.

The primary results showed Fernandez, a former cabinet chief, was well placed to win October’s general election in the first round. He blamed Macri for the market turmoil.

“The dialogue is open, but I don’t want to lie to Argentines. What can I do? I’m just a candidate, my pen doesn’t sign decrees,” Fernandez said in an interview with Argentine TV channel Net TV broadcast on Monday.

“Markets react badly when they realize they were scammed,” Fernandez said earlier on Monday, adding that Argentina lives in a “fictitious economy” and that Macri’s government is not providing answers.

“Accessibility of the market for foreign investors is the key factor here,” said Pavlo Taranenko, executive director of index research at MSCI.

As concerns rise about Argentina’s ability to meet its debt obligations, investors are looking closely at the government’s ability to roll over its short-term notes known as ‘Letes.”

“Markets will be sweating bullets each time one of these maturities come due,” Jeffries Fixed Income said in a note to investors.

The cost of insuring against an Argentine sovereign default jumped again on Tuesday, according to data from IHS Markit.

Markit’s calculations price the probability of a sovereign default within the next five years at more than 72%.

Analysts also predicted the peso’s fall would continue. BAML said it expects the exchange rate at 70.5 by end-2019 and 106.6 by end 2020.

The Los Angeles Opera said on Tuesday it will investigate accusations of sexual misconduct against Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, who described the claims as inaccurate.

The Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo is general director, was responding to accusations made by eight singers, a dancer and others in the classical music world in a report by the Associated Press.

The news agency reported allegations by the women of inappropriate behavior. The Associated Press said it also had spoken to almost three dozen other musicians, voice teachers and backstage staff who said they had witnessed what the report described as “sexually tinged” behavior by Domingo dating back three decades in various cities.

“LA Opera will engage outside counsel to investigate the concerning allegations about Placido Domingo,” the opera house said in a statement. The LA Opera is “committed to doing everything we can to foster a professional and collaborative environment where all our employees and artists feel equally comfortable, valued and respected.”

Domingo, in a statement distributed by his publicist Nancy Seltzer, called the accusations “deeply troubling, and as presented, inaccurate.”

“Still, it is painful to hear that I may have upset anyone or made them feel uncomfortable — no matter how long ago and despite my best intentions,” Domingo’s statement said. “I believed that all of my interactions and relationships were always welcomed and consensual.”

Future performances

The Philadelphia Orchestra Association said on Tuesday it had withdrawn an invitation to Domingo to appear as part of its opening night on Sept. 18.

The Metropolitan Opera in New York, where Domingo is due to perform in “Macbeth” next month and “Madama Butterfly” in November, said in a statement that it took accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of power seriously but would await the results of the LA Opera investigation “before making any final decisions about Mr Domingo’s future at the Met.”

Domingo, 78, is one of the most famous opera singers and directors in the world and the LA Opera described him on Tuesday as a “dynamic force” there for more than 30 years. He was one of the “Three Tenors,” along with Jose Carreras and the late Luciano Pavarotti, who brought opera to a wider audience with concerts around the world in the 1990s.

Changing standards

In the statement released by his publicist, Domingo added that while he would not intentionally harm, offend or embarrass anyone, “I recognize that the rules and standards by which we are — and should be — measured against today are very different than they were in the past.”

Hundreds of women have publicly accused powerful men in business, politics, the news media, sports and entertainment of sexual harassment and abuse since October 2017, fueled by the #MeToo social movement.

The French soldiers seeking out jihadists in central Mali’s savannahs were prepared for the sandstorms, the thunderstorms, the lack of anything resembling a road, and the need to tow vehicles whose wheels kept getting stuck in floodplains.

They knew getting information out of terrified villagers would be difficult.

But as the multi-week operation wore on in Gourma district, where 400 French troops and 100 allied Malians searched for 50-odd jihadists they estimated were hiding in the shadows, the obstacles kept piling up.

First, there were the storms, forcing them to abandon supper, pack up their mosquito nets and sleep contorted in their vehicles. Then up at 3 a.m. for a mission that couldn’t start because the weather had grounded their helicopters at base.

Then, flash floods turned sandy ground to sludge and burst the wadis so only their newly deployed tracked fighting vehicles could cross.

Then they reached the thatch-and-wood villages where they suspected jihadists were hiding. Men tended cows. Women pounded millet. Everyone smiled. And nobody told them anything.

“We’re not going to resolve this in a day,” said David, the commander of the French forward base near the town of Gossi.

French military rules permit publication only of his first name.

“This is going to take some time.”

Efforts led by France to stop a region on Europe’s doorstep becoming a launchpad for attacks at home are increasingly trapped in an endless cat-and-mouse game with well-armed jihadists, who know the terrain and hide easily among civilians.

On a rare reporting trip with the French troops into central Mali, Reuters journalists saw first-hand why a five-year-old mission — initially planned as a short-term stopgap to hand over to local forces — may have many more years left to run.

‘Dogged adversary’

The 4,500 French troops deployed in this patchwork of former French colonies for Operation Barkhane face huge logistical challenges in hostile terrain. Hardest of all, they rely on the cooperation of a civilian population spread thinly across vast and remote spaces, often either sympathetic to the Islamists or terrified of informing on them.

In Gossi, a haven for Islamic State fighters next to the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, the town’s local government councilor had fled after being threatened and was now sleeping in the Malian base, said David, the French base commander.

Operation Barkhane was launched in the wake of Operation Serval, a French offensive that pushed back Tuareg rebels and allied Islamists from northern Mali’s vast desert in 2013.

While Serval had brought moderate stability to northern Mali, unrest had spread to the country’s more populated center, with attacks also reaching neighboring Burkina Faso, Niger and even Ivory Coast.

With no end date announced at its launch, the follow-up operation would try to stabilize countries in the region by assisting their governments in a West African anti-terrorism force. Five years on, no end is in sight.

“We have a dogged adversary, who is tough, drawing from a breeding ground that is favorable to him because the population is isolated,” Colonel Nicolas James, Commander of Desert Tactical Croup Belleface, told Reuters at its base in Gao.

On the first day of one mission, in 40 degree Celsius (104 F), the French soldiers arrived in a hamlet 10 kilometers north of Ndaki town, next to a small wood where suspected jihadists had been seen fleeing earlier.

They separated the women and children outside a thatched dome where camels chewed cud. They searched the men, took their smartphones and copied them onto a computer. One contained incriminating jihadist propaganda.

‘People will come and kill her’

“Is this your telephone?” a soldier asked the suspect, and he nodded. They fingerprinted him, but with just circumstantial evidence, they let him go.

“I’m sure he’s a jihadist,” a French soldier guarding him later whispered. “He’s making fun of us.”

An elderly man in the flowing robes common to the Fulani people spread across the region brought out some fresh milk as a gesture of hospitality. Only two tried it, before they moved on to the next village.

That night it rained hard, so the next afternoon a logistics team spent all day towing vehicles out of mud. The mission set off before noon. When the troops returned nearly nine hours later, they’d covered just 5 kilometers.

At one stage, they heard reports of an armed group heading toward them. War planes were called in to scare the fighters off. One unit wanted to check a forest where weapons had been abandoned, but the troops were still stuck towing vehicles.

The next morning, a joint Malian-French mission visited a Fulani village next to woodland where they had spotted some men fleeing. The village chief, a bearded man with a green scarf and sky-blue robe, denied seeing any armed men.

“They want to talk to us but they are afraid,” Malian military police unit Captain Balassine later told Reuters. 

“The other day we were talking to a young girl,” he continued. “First she lied. Then she said she was scared of talking because, after we leave, people will come and kill her.”

CBS and Viacom have reached a deal to reunite media mogul Sumner Redstone’s U.S. entertainment empire after 13 years apart.

The new company will be named ViacomCBS Inc despite the fact that CBS shareholders will own 61% and Viacom shareholders will own 39%.

Viacom shareholders will receive 0.59625 CBS shares for each share they own, representing a slight premium to Viacom’s closing price Monday.

The merger creates a company with roughly $30 billion market value, which is still small compared to rivals including Netflix, at $136 billion; ABC network owner Walt Disney Co., at about $245 billion; and NBC owner Comcast at $193 billion.

It will combine the CBS television network, CBS News, Showtime cable networks with MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and the Paramount movie studios. Together, they will own more than 140,000 TV episodes and more than 3,600 film titles.

Annually, it is estimated to generate about $28 billion in revenue.

The two companies are controlled by National Amusements, the holding company owned by billionaire Sumner Redstone and his daughter, Shari.

“My father once said ‘content is king,’ and never has that been more true than today,” Shari Redstone said in a prepared statement.

The deal represents a victory for Shari Redstone, president of National Amusement, after three attempts since 2016. Previous merger talks had failed because of clashes between executives over divvying up top jobs and the companies’ relative valuation.

Growing competition

The recombination comes amid an increasingly competitive media landscape dominated by Disney and Netflix, prompting Redstone to pursue a merger.

Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish will be the President and CEO of the combined company. Joe Ianniello, interim CEO of CBS, will be named Chairman and CEO of CBS, which will exclude the Showtime cable network and book publisher Simon & Schuster.

The companies said they expected about $500 million in annual synergies, or cost savings.

The new board of directors will consist of 13 members. Six will come from independent members from CBS, four independent members from Viacom, Bakish, and two National Amusements members. Shari Redstone will be appointed the chairman.

Shares of Viacom rose 2% to $29.11 and shares of CBS rose 1.8% to $48.91 after the merger was announced.

The death of a six-year-old YouTube star from a malaria epidemic in Burundi has spotlighted the growing challenge of combating malaria in a warmer world, health experts said on Tuesday.

Darcy Irakoze – known as Kacaman – who was popular for his comedy performances on YouTube and in local theaters, died on Thursday after contracting the mosquito-borne disease in his home city of Gitega, east of the commercial capital Bujumbura.

Neighbors in the tiny central African nation told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the primary school student had been suffering from fever for a few days and his mother had taken him to a local clinic, but he had died the following day.

“The death of Kacaman is very tragic,” said Marshal Mukuvare of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

“We are losing many children to malaria – not just in Burundi, but across sub-Saharan Africa,” he said, adding that Burundi was struggling to stop mosquitoes breeding around homes and to provide bed nets to protect people while sleeping.

The young comic’s death has prompted a wave of tributes and sparked debate about malaria in Burundi, where the United Nations says it has reached “epidemic” proportions with almost 6 million cases and 1,800 deaths reported this year.

The Burundian government says the figures are lower – with 4.3 million recorded cases and 1,400 deaths this year.

Mukuvare, who is the IFRC’s East Africa disaster management delegate, said many families increased risk of death by delaying seeking medical treatment as they did not have money and instead attempting to treat the disease with painkillers.

Malaria, spread when female mosquitoes bite humans, kills almost half a million people each year, with 90% of deaths in Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Irakoze, who played an outspoken, opinionated character in his sketches, had performed with popular Burundian comics and tributes on social media mourned his loss.

“Another precious life lost,” tweeted James Elder, a regional spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF. “Malaria robbed his future; as it does to a child every two minutes.”

Although WHO has declared 38 countries malaria-free since 1955, its campaign has stalled as mosquitoes have become resistant to drugs and bed net insecticides and global warming is enabling the malaria parasite to survive in new areas.

“We are seeing increased rainfall across parts of East Africa and more agricultural development, which is increasing the number of mosquito breeding sites,” said Melanie Renshaw, the African Leaders Malaria Alliance’s chief technical advisor. “We are also witnessing higher temperatures and heavier rainfall in mountainous countries such as Rwanda and Burundi which may be driving malaria into areas in the highlands where it didn’t exist before.”

 

If all goes as planned, Thai citizens suffering from cancer and a handful of other diseases and disorders could start taking the country’s first legal doses of medical cannabis within days.

The Government Pharmaceutical Organization delivered its premier batch of cannabis oil to the Ministry of Public Health last week, eight months after Thailand became the first country to legalize the drug for medical use in Southeast Asia, a region known more for its harsh anti-drug laws.

The 5-milliliter bottles are being rolled out to 12 hospitals across the country that will in turn dole out doses to the first 4,000 registered patients. Somsak Akkslip, director general of the Health Ministry’s Medical Services Department, told VOA that those hospitals could start prescribing the medicine as soon as the end of this week.

Thailand’s then-military junta amended the country’s tough narcotics laws in December in a bid to cash in on a flowering global medical cannabis industry projected to be worth $5.8 billion by 2024 in Asia alone, according to Prohibition Partners, a UK-based research group.

The cause received a major boost in March, when the Bhumjaithai party made a strong showing in the general election on a platform to fully legalize marijuana, the psychotropic variety of cannabis. The party splashed pictures of the plant’s pointy leaves across its posters while its president, Anutin Charnvirakul, preached the profit potential of giving each household the right to grow up to six pot plants each.

Anutin parlayed his success at the polls into a spot on Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s new cabinet as minister of health, the perfect vantage from which to push his plans. He made a spectacle of the cannabis oil’s arrival last week, even reportedly dancing before the cameras, drawing bemused speculation that he may have sampled the supply, which he later denied.

Medicinal use only

But hopes that Thailand will go the way of Canada and the few other countries that have legalized cannabis for recreational use any time soon are premature, say officials and industry watchers.

Despite the recent rollout of medical cannabis oil, Anutin has been backpedaling on his campaign talk “badly” since taking office, said Chokwan Kitty Chopaka of the Highland Network, a local advocacy group in favor or legalizing recreational use.

Even his push for pot plants in every home has morphed into plans to let a select group of public health volunteers nurse a few pots of hemp. The cannabis variety is low in tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that gives the plant its psychotropic power, but high in its cousin cannabidiol (CBD), also valued for its medical applications.

“So I don’t see recreational being [legalized] anywhere in the near future,” Chokwan said.

Somsak agreed that there was little apatite for legalizing recreational use among the senor officials of the new government, dominated by ex-generals and the pro-military Palang Pracharath party. The typically conservative Democrat party, another key player in the ruling coalition, has come out staunchly against it.

Even convincing them to let households grow their own marijuana plants for sale to the medical market could prove tricky, he added, and would happen only if the pilot with health volunteers and hemp proves successful.

“If we can do this with high quality, and [the] Thai population has very high discipline, then we can grow it, I mean the people can grow it in their house,” Somsak said. “But that is a long time [away].”

Even so, the health services director was bullish on the Thai medical cannabis industry’s future.

“Cannabis can be grown in Thailand very easy, and I think our climate is very … good for cannabis to be cultivated, so I think it’s very high potential,” he said.

“The first few years we have to [work] out the technology, how to cultivate with high quality to get the high CBD and without … other toxic agents,” he added.

Chokwan and Somsak both said it would likely be at least three years before Thailand was ready in terms of both quantity and quality to export its product.

Prohibition Partners, in a report on Asia’s cannabis market published in May, predicted that Thailand’s medical cannabis business could be worth $237 million within five years.

But with Australia and China also on the verge of becoming major CBD producers, and other countries in the region showing interest as well, Chokwan said Thailand could yet miss out if it moves too slow.

She also worried that average Thai farmers will see little of any local windfall, as they would need to effectively run their cannabis farms under the government’s auspices.

“For small guys it’s kind of really difficult to try and partner up with the government if you don’t have the funding to put in the infrastructure of grow. And a lot of grow and licensing that’s going on now, or the ones that are trying to get licensed, are usually backed by bigger companies,” she said.

Chokwan warned too that much of the added profits will end up in the black market if the burgeoning medical cannabis business stimulates demand and raises prices — as she expects it to — and the government can’t keep up.

Bryan Arkaporn has his doubts the government can.

The 21-year-old business major found out he had epilepsy five yeas ago, after blacking out during his first seizure on a train ride in Japan. He has been taking pills every day since to keep the seizures at bay, but also grows his own pot for added help and occasionally buys cannabis oil from a friend who makes it himself.

He hopes the cannabis oil the government comes up with will be cheaper than the pills he takes for $6 a day and better for his liver in the long run. But videos the government has posted online of its greenhouses and lab work have left him uninspired.

“If I know someone that makes better medicine, maybe I will just go for the black market,” he said.

One of the unintended consequences of Venezuela’s economic collapse is that many women aren’t able to afford basic health services – and even things like sanitary napkins are now increasingly out of reach for many economically strapped women. From Caracas, Adriana Nuñez has this report narrated by Cristina Caicedo Smit. 

The Trump administration has announced a new policy that would impede immigrants already in the United States from obtaining permanent residency or citizenship if they use public benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance. Activists are protesting the rule, unveiled Monday – saying it unfairly targets poor immigrants. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.

Singer Taylor Swift has urged her millions of fans to get behind the U.S. women’s soccer team’s fight for equal pay, saying the world champions had taken a “historic stand” for equality.

Gender discrimination on pay was “happening everywhere,” the American singer-songwriter said as she accepted the inaugural Icon Award at this year’s Teen Choice Awards from Alex Morgan, co-captain of the women’s team, on Sunday.

“While they were winning the World Cup, they were also taking a historic stand in terms of gender equality, gender pay gap,” said Swift, 29. “Please, please, please support her and her teammates because this isn’t over yet. It’s not resolved. Get online and talk about it.”

The squad’s 2-0 victory in the World Cup final in July capped a campaign that attracted vast television audiences.

In March they sued the U.S. Soccer Federation, arguing that their pay and working conditions amounted to gender discrimination.

The players, who include stars Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan, said they had been consistently paid less than their male counterparts despite performing better.

The prize money for the women’s World Cup doubled to $30 million this year but this compared to the 400 million euros ($448 million) available for the men’s tournament last year.

“Let people know how you feel about it because what happened to them is unfair. It’s happening everywhere and they are heroes and icons for standing up,” Swift said.

It is not the first time the “Shake It Off” singer, who has more than 120 million Instagram followers, has taken a political stance to push for gender equality, including for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) community.

In June, Swift released a star-studded music video for her single “You Need to Calm Down” and urged fans to sign a petition demanding U.S. legal protections for LGBT+ people.

($1 = 0.8937 euros)

Enraged Hong Kong protesters blocked roads and defied police orders to disperse early Monday after riot officers fired tear gas and non-lethal ammunition at fleeing crowds.   

Dozens of injuries were reported in several districts that became smokey battlegrounds, where the repeated “pop, pop” of exploding ammunition and screams echoed into the night. A medical volunteer was hit by ammunition in one eye. Journalists reported being beaten on their heads and limbs. Once again, thugs lashed protesters on a street, a repeat of an incident weeks back in Yuen Long, in the territory’s northern region, when men in white t-shirts whipped rail customers with rattan sticks.  

The government counted 54 people injured, including two who were hospitalized in serious condition Monday and 28 who were listed as stable, according to the Hospital Authority. 

Authorities in Beijing Monday termed the protests ‘terrorism.’

Confrontation

Police said protesters defied an unprecedented ban on street marches, and then pelted officers with bricks and gasoline bombs.  Demonstrators and residents said police seemed to display a new brazenness and determination to clear the streets. Officers discharged tear gas inside an enclosed rail station, with one officer firing a few meters away from a mass of protesters racing down a steep subway escalator. 

In another district, police disguised in black clothes and face masks, in the style of the anti-government strikers, suddenly pinned down protesters and carried out arrests. That action, more than any other, convinced some protesters that their ranks have been infiltrated.   

Much of the violence was broadcast and streamed live by news companies.

Unprecedented Violence

The night “was the most chaotic, most police brutality that residents and protesters faced before,” said one protester who asked to be identified as Hei L for fear of being prosecuted. “It’s time for the protesters and citizens to become more vigilant.”

It is the tenth week of protests in this Chinese territory, which began as a quest to stop a bill that would have allowed Hong Kong to send criminal suspects elsewhere, including mainland China. The force police used to quell the crowds, and violence against government picketers carried out by gangs that resulted in few arrests, broadened the fight. Protesters now demand a democratic, accountable government where residents may vote for their next leader and control the police.   

In the weeks since the first mass marches in June, protesters have staged more fleet actions — such as blocking a major tunnel through Victoria Harbor — designed to tire police and avoid mass arrests that have bruised morale. Police seemed overwhelmed on Aug. 5, when a citywide labor and transit strike mushroomed into multiple blockages and confrontations throughout the city.   

Authorities canceled flights Monday at Hong Kong’s international airport after protesters staged a demonstration there.

On Friday, police turned down several requests for peaceful marches through several neighborhoods, citing the change of violence. It was a highly unusual step in a city  where the rights to gather and speak are enshrined in the constitution. Government opponents marched anyway. “We are angry the government did not listen to us,” said Joy Luk, a blind solicitor who walked, white stick in hand, toward the front line in Kowloon before she was convinced to turn back because of the tear gas. “We have the right to have peaceful assemblies.” 

Both Sides Defiant

The government issued a statement after midnight that condemned protesters. 

Police were ready on Sunday. Live video showed a special tactical unit hit people with batons who ran along a popular shopping area in Tsim Sha Tsui. On Hong Kong Island, another unit chased protesters into a subway station as gas fumes billowed. Live news reports also showed a group of men clad in white using poles and rods to thrash people in Tsuen Wan. The incident was an eery echo of one weeks back in Yuen Long, when about 100 men wearing white beat passersby and railway customers. Only about a dozen of them have been charged.  

“So many citizens feel disappointed in the police,” said Avery, a masked 20-year-old undergraduate who with a small bullhorn directed a crowd in Kowloon to retreat. He acknowledged that the protesters were helped when officers were aggressive — “we want to show the public how violent the police are,” and that protesters’ methods would never equal the power of the police. “There are so many people, see? They are not afraid.”

The latest round of talks between the Taliban and the United States on a deal to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has ended and now both sides will consult with their leadership on the next steps, a Taliban spokesman said Monday.

The eighth round of talks in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar concluded after midnight and was “long and useful,” Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. 

He made no statements on the outcome of the talks.

Last week, another Taliban spokesman had said a deal was expected to follow this round as both sides seek an end to the nearly 18-year war, America’s longest conflict.    

An agreement – if reached – is expected to include Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan would not be a base for other extremist groups in the future. However, both the Islamic State group’s affiliate and al-Qaida remain active in the country. The Taliban stage near-daily attacks across Afghanistan, mainly targeting Afghan forces and government officials but also killing many civilians.

The deal also could include a cease-fire and stipulate that the Taliban would negotiate with Afghan representatives, though the insurgent group has so far refused to negotiate with Kabul representatives, dismissing the Afghan government as a U.S. puppet.

There was no immediate comment on Monday from U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who on Sunday tweeted that “I hope this is the last Eid where (hash)Afghanistan is at war.” 

Sunday was the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha, which unfolded without any major violence reported in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad later added that “Many scholars believe that the deeper meaning of Eid al-Adha is to sacrifice one’s ego. Leaders on all sides of the war in Afghanistan must take this to heart as we strive for peace.”

Some in Afghanistan saw it as a response to President Ashraf Ghani, who on Sunday declared that “Our future cannot be decided outside, whether in the capital cities of our friends, nemeses or neighbors. The fate of Afghanistan will be decided here in this homeland. … We don’t want anyone to intervene in our affairs.”

While Ghani insists that the upcoming Sept. 28 presidential election is crucial for giving Afghanistan’s leader a powerful mandate to decide the country’s future after years of war, Khalilzad is seeking a peace deal by Sept. 1, weeks before the vote.

The Taliban control roughly half of Afghanistan and are at their strongest since the U.S.-led invasion toppled their five-year government in 2001 after the group had harbored al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. More than 2,400 U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan since then.

The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014. The some 20,000 American and allied troops that remain are carrying out airstrikes on the Taliban and IS militants, and are working to train and build the Afghan military.

Financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York, officials said Saturday. His death angered some accusers who had hoped to confront him in court and see him serve a long prison sentence.

It also raises questions about how he was able to harm himself while in federal custody.

Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then sexually abusing them at various locations, including homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York from 2002 through 2005. He had pleaded not guilty.

Here’s a look at Epstein’s case and what comes next:

Who was Jeffrey Epstein?

Epstein, 66, was a hedge fund manager who hobnobbed with the rich, famous and influential, including presidents and a prince.

Epstein owned a private island in the Caribbean, homes in Paris and New York City, a New Mexico ranch, and a fleet of high-price cars. 

His friends had once included Britain’s Prince Andrew, former President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump. Clinton and Trump both said they hadn’t seen Epstein in years and knew nothing of his alleged misconduct when new charges were brought against him last month.

Under a 2008 non-prosecution agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor and another similar prostitution charge. That allowed him to avoid federal prosecution and a possible life sentence, instead serving 13 months in a work-release program. He was required to make payments to victims and register as a sex offender.

How did he die?

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center early Saturday.

Staff tried to revive him, and he was transported to a local hospital for treatment. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Epstein had been held in the jail’s Special Housing Unit, a heavily secured part of the facility that separates high-profile inmates from the general population, but his death is likely to raise questions about how the Bureau of Prisons ensures the welfare of high-profile inmates.

Attorney General William Barr said he was “appalled” by the news.

Before he took his own life, Epstein has been taken off suicide watch, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Epstein had previously been injured with bruises to the neck while in custody, though it was not clear if those were self-inflicted or the result of an assault.

The FBI and the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Justice will investigate his death.

What was the new case against him?

Federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein with sex trafficking and conspiracy after investigative reporting by The Miami Herald stirred outrage over the 2008 plea bargain. They accused him of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls,

A conviction could have put him in prison for 45 years.

At the time of Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors said they found a trove of pictures of nude and seminude young women and girls at his $77 million Manhattan mansion. They also say additional victims have come forward since the arrest.

But his attorneys insisted that Epstein hadn’t had any illicit contact with underage girls since serving his sentence in Florida. They argued that the new charges were improper because they covered largely the same ground as the non-prosecution agreement.

What happens now for his accusers?

Several of Epstein’s accusers said Saturday that they’re disappointed that the financier won’t have to face them in court or serve a long prison sentence if convicted. They called on federal authorities to investigate associates of Epstein for any role in his activities.

Sigrid McCawley, an attorney representing one accuser, said in a statement that “the reckoning of accountability begun by the voices of brave and truthful victims should not end” with Epstein’s death.

Another accuser, Jennifer Araoz, who came forward after the new charges were filed, said she was angered by Epstein’s suicide. Araoz alleged that Epstein raped her in his New York mansion in the early 2000s when she was 15.

“We have to live with the scars of his actions for the rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he committed the pain and trauma he caused so many people,” she said.

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday said his country does not need Germany’s money after Berlin said it planned to cut $40 million in aid to preserve the dwindling Amazon rainforest.

“Brazilian government policies in the Amazon raise doubts about the continued sustained declines in the rate of deforestation,” German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze told German television on Saturday.

Brazil’s own National Institute for Space Research reported last week that more than 2,200 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest were cleared in July for mining, farming and cattle grazing — 278% higher than in July 2018.

Bolsonaro’s administration calls the data unreliable.

The ultra-conservative Bolsonaro has been accused of favoring the country’s mining and agricultural interests over the environmental impact of deforestation. 

He has said the Amazon and its resources belong to Brazil and it should be up to Brazilians to administer it.

But environmentalists have called the Amazon “the lungs of the Earth” because of its ability to help cleanse the air of greenhouse gases.

They say destroying the Amazon and other rainforests will make global warming worse and cause irreversible damage to the planet.

As America’s opioid crisis spiraled into a fentanyl epidemic, prosecutors say one young Utah man made himself a drug kingpin by creating counterfeit prescription painkillers laced with the deadly drug and mailing them to homes across the United States. 

Former Eagle Scout Aaron Shamo, 29, will stand trial beginning Monday on allegations that he and a small group of fellow millennials ran a multimillion-dollar empire from the basement of his suburban Salt Lake City home by trafficking hundreds of thousands of pills containing fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid that has exacerbated the country’s overdose epidemic in recent years. 

The federal government’s case is expected to offer a glimpse at how the drug, which has killed tens of thousands of Americans, can be imported from China, pressed into fake pills and sold through online black markets to people in every state.

Prosecutors have alleged that dozens of the ring’s customers died in overdoses, though the defense disputes that and Shamo is charged only in connection to one: a 21-year-old identified as R.K., who died in June 2016 after snorting fentanyl allegedly passed off as prescription oxycodone.

Shamo’s family, though, said he’s been singled out even as deeply involved friends are offered more lenient plea deals. His father, Mike Shamo, said his son was a chess whiz as a kid who experimented with marijuana in his teen years, but later earned his Eagle Scout badge crocheting blankets for a hospital. 

Aaron Shamo became an internet-savvy aspiring entrepreneur and health-conscious workout buff who loved self-improvement books like “The Secret” and had dreams of starting his own tech-support business, Mike Shamo told The Associated Press. 

“He was brought in and saw the opportunity for making money, and he didn’t truly understand the danger behind what he was doing, how dangerous the drugs were,” he said. “I think he was able to separate what he was doing because he never saw the customer. To him, it was just numbers on a screen.”

At the time of Aaron Shamo’s 2016 arrest, authorities said the bust ranked among the largest in the country. 

The drug operation

In a raid on his home in the upscale suburb of Cottonwood Heights, agents found a still-running pill press in the basement, thousands of pills and more than $1 million in cash stuffed in garbage bags, according to court documents. 

The group had started two years before, and grew to include more than a dozen people, some of whom Aaron Shamo met working at an eBay call center, court documents allege. Prosecutors say it started with a partnership between Aaron Shamo and Drew Crandall, a shy friend he had bonded with over skateboarding and tips for talking to girls. The pair eventually began importing and reselling steroids to gym buddies, and the operation grew from there, according to court documents. 

Another man, Jonathan “Luke” Paz, has also pleaded guilty to helping develop the recipe and press the fentanyl-laced pills after Crandall left on an extended international trip. 

Attorneys for Crandall and Paz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Aaron Shamo ordered the fentanyl from China and paid a number of people to receive it at their homes and turn it over to him, according to authorities. He and Paz allegedly cut the powder, added other fillers and pressed it into pills, using dyes and stamps to mimic the appearance of legitimate pharmaceuticals, prosecutors said. 

Public health experts warn that such mom-and-pop drug trafficking networks can be especially dangerous: They cut and mix fentanyl — a few flakes of which can be deadly — without sophisticated equipment, meaning in a single batch, one counterfeit pill might contain little fentanyl and another enough to kill instantly. 

They were shipping “disguised poison,” prosecutor Michael Gadd said at one hearing. “If you think for a moment about what type of people abuse prescription oxycodone, it’s your neighbor, it’s my neighbor. It’s people who had a knee surgery and got hooked.”

The pills were sold online, through a dark-web marketplace store called Pharma-Master. The dark web is a second layer of the internet reached by a special browser and often used for illegal activity, but it still has sites with user-friendly interfaces and customer reviews, similar to platforms like Amazon and eBay. 

Pharma-Master allegedly grew to become one of the most prominent darknet dealers, sometimes processing 20 to 50 orders a day, according to court documents. 

When orders came in, packagers counted pills, sealed them with a vacuum sealer and slipped them into envelopes or boxes addressed to homes across the U.S., prosecutors said. They put pills into Mylar bags to mask the contents, wrote fake return addresses like “Jamaica Green Coffee,” and even included phony invoices. The packages were dropped in mailboxes all over the Salt Lake area to hide from police, authorities said. 

Some were small orders from people buying for themselves, but in other cases, the group shipped thousands of pills in bulk to gang members and drug dealers who then resold them on the street, prosecutors allege. 

Each pill cost less than a penny to make, and could be sold on the street as a legitimate pharmaceutical for $20 or more, prosecutors said. 

In June 2016, though, U.S. customs agents seized a package of fentanyl addressed to someone receiving it for Aaron Shamo, and things unraveled from there, according to court documents. 

Five months later, investigators had found an incoming shipment from a Chinese company known as “Express,” which is also under investigation. They also scooped up outgoing shipments: A single day’s worth included 35,000 fentanyl-laced pills in 52 packages addressed to homes in 26 states, prosecutors said. One box alone had a wholesale value estimated at more than $400,000, according to court documents. 

Aaron Shamo’s house was also raided in late 2016, and the following spring Crandall was arrested in Hawaii when he returned from the globe-trotting trip through Australia, New Zealand and southeast Asia to marry his girlfriend.

In the years since his arrest, Aaron Shamo has become something of an advocate for other jail inmates, starting a letter-writing campaign calling on local churches to write to people behind bars to give them hope for life after incarceration, said his father, Mike Shamo. He’s also written to the governor, calling for more rehabilitation programs for jail inmates. 

Meanwhile, Paz and Crandall have already agreed to plea deals and could testify against their onetime friend, along with a potential parade of other alleged co-conspirators.

His family will be watching the trial, too. 

“We just want equity. We want equality for everyone in this, so those that were equally guilty are held accountable for their actions,” Mike Shamo said.

The apparent suicide while in federal custody of well-connected U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.

Epstein, who had friendships with U.S. President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was facing the possibility of 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

Media reports said Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after a suspected earlier attempt to kill himself, but was removed from the watch at the end of July.   The New York Times reported that Epstein was supposed to have been checked on every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not being followed the night before he was found dead.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death while in federal custody. “Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said.

Epstein was being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.  

Epstein to plead guilty in 2008 to Florida state prostitution charges, for which he served a 13-month term and most days was freed to work at his office in south Florida. He also was required to register as a sex offender and pay restitution to the underage girls he abused.

President Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who had been the federal prosecutor handling the Epstein case in Florida at the time of that plea deal, has resigned over his handling of the matter.

 

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The apparent suicide in federal custody of well-connected U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General. 

Epstein, who had friendships with U.S. President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was facing the possibility of 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

Several of Epstein’s accusers said Saturday they’re disappointed that the financier won’t have to face them in court or serve a long prison sentence if convicted.

The investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan will continue despite Epstein’s death, a source familiar with the matter said. The government is pursuing an “ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals” in connection with the case.

Accusers disappointed

One Epstein accuser, who filed a since-settled lawsuit against Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, says she’s grateful he will never harm anyone again, but is angry there will be no chance he answers for his conduct.

Virginia Giuffre told The New York Times that her husband woke her early in Australia to share the news that Epstein had died.

“We’ve worked so hard to get here,” Giuffre said, “and he stole that from us, too.”

Another accuser, Jennifer Araoz, who came forward after the new charges were filed, said she was angered by Epstein’s suicide. Araoz alleged that Epstein raped her in his New York mansion in the early 2000s when she was 15.

“We have to live with the scars of his actions for the rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he committed, the pain and trauma he caused so many people,” she said.

Attorney General William Barr said announced the investigations into Epstein’s death.

“Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said in a news release, adding he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death while in federal custody.

According to media reports, Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after a suspected earlier attempt to kill himself but was removed from the watch at the end of July. He was being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

New round of conspiracy theories

News of Epstein’s apparent suicide Saturday morning quickly launched new conspiracy theories online in a saga that has provided fodder for them for years, fueled by Epstein’s ties to princes, politicians and other famous and powerful people.

Hours after Epstein’s death Saturday, as the hashtag #EpsteinMurder was trending worldwide on Twitter, President Donald Trump joined Twitter speculation around Epstein’s death while under the federal government’s watch.

Trump, who rose to conservative prominence by falsely claiming Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., retweeted unsubstantiated claims about Epstein’s death.

Other politicians also took to social media to question the circumstances.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the state where some of Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse crimes took place, called on corrections officials to explain what happened at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

“The Federal Bureau of Prisons must provide answers on what systemic failures of the MCC Manhattan or criminal acts allowed this coward to deny justice to his victims,” he tweeted.

Epstein’s suicide was likely recorded by jail cameras, according to Preet Bharara, the former federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

“One hopes it is complete, conclusive, and secured,” he tweeted.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state prostitution charges, for which he served a 13-month term and most days was freed to work at his office in south Florida. He also was required to register as a sex offender and pay restitution to the underage girls he abused.

President Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who had been the federal prosecutor handling the Epstein case in Florida at the time of that plea deal, resigned over his handling of the matter.

For many years, the United States has been issuing advisories, warning potential travelers about countries plagued by terrorism or armed conflict.  But now, Amnesty International, Japan, Uruguay and other countries are warning about the danger of travel to the U.S., citing gun violence. This sparked a response from President Donald Trump, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
 

More than a year has passed since protests against changes to Nicaraguas pension program turned into a full scale socio-political crisis. The government crackdown by President Daniel Ortega has resulted in more than 200 deaths, and forced more than 65,000 people to leave the country. Among them journalists who say they’ve been targeted. But even though they’re not there, many of these journalists are still sending the news back home. VOA reporter Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story.