Nearly six years after his arrest, and two years after he was legally set free, Mauritanian lawyers and international rights groups are calling for authorities to release blogger Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mkhaitir.

Citizen journalist and blogger Mkhaitir was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to death for what the state called blasphemy after he wrote a blog post condemning the use of religion to justify racial discrimination. 

In 2017, a Mauritanian court commuted Mkhaitir’s sentence to two years — which he had already served, legally liberating him. However, he has remained detained in an undisclosed location.

“He is no longer officially, legally in prison,” Fatimata M’Baye, Mkhaitir’s lawyer, told VOA. “Today, since November 9th, 2017, he is detained in an undisclosed location — a location even we, his lawyers, don’t know.”

M’Baye said that multiple requests to see her client have been denied. Mkhaitir, 35 and a father of one child, has not had any communication with his family either.

“The only people who have spoken with him are the people who bring him his food,” M’Baye said.

Numerous human rights organizations have called on Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who is due to step down in coming months, to release him. But Arnaud Froger, head of the Africa desk at Reporters Without Borders, says the case is indicative of declining press freedom in the Sahara desert country.

“This case of Mohamed Mkhaitir is very symbolic of what’s happening in Mauritania as far as press freedom is going,” Froger told VOA. “The country’s ranked 94 in our press freedom index and registered a very huge drop in places in the last index, mainly because the outgoing president has refused to release Mohamed Mkhaitir.”

Mkhaitir’s first trial in 2013 sparked protests by Islamists in the capital calling for his death. The post for which he was arrested criticized the use of religion to defend a rigid caste system in Mauritania.

Mkhaitir is of the Haratin ethnicity, sometimes referred to as black Maurs. The Haratin face systematic discrimination as severe as modern slavery — a problem the Mauritanian government asserts no longer exists.

Protecting Mkhaitir?

Since the court commuted Mkhaitir’s sentence in 2017, the president has argued that Mkhaitir must be kept in detention for his own safety, and for the safety of the Mauritanian people.

“We’ve been told, no, it’s not just for his security, it’s for the security of the 3 million or 4 million people of Mauritania — that his release would be a threat to the stability of the country,” M’Baye said. “I say that … I don’t understand. I don’t understand.”

Her disbelief is shared by rights organizations.

“That you keep a blogger behind bars to ensure his own safety and the safety of Mauritanians is both outrageous and false. That the pressure put by Islamists on this case cannot justify to keep someone in detention no matter the court’s decision,” Froger said.

Reporters Without Borders is one of 11 organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, that signed a letter to Abdel Aziz last week calling for Mkhaitir’s release.

Incoming president Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has said nothing about the case.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday indicted two former influential figures in Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government on money laundering and corruption charges.

Minister of Electric Power Luis Motta Dominguez — whom Maduro replaced following nationwide blackouts in March — was charged along with Eustiquio Jose Lugo Gomez, a top official from the same ministry, according to a statement from Treasury.

“Rather than use their official positions to serve the Venezuelan people, Motta and Lugo illegally enriched themselves and contributed to the electricity crisis,” the statement read.

Both men are accused of taking bribes in exchange for awarding contracts for electrical infrastructure equipment, some of which was incompatible with the network, “rendering them useless and contributing to the ongoing deterioration of the electrical system.”

The two allegedly laundered their bribes through banks in south Florida.

The Treasury Department also slapped sanctions on Motta and Lugo, meaning all their U.S. property and interests in property have been blocked.

However, the sanctions “need not be permanent,” the statement said.

“Sanctions are intended to bring about a positive change of behavior,” the Treasury statement read, meaning they could be lifted if these officials turn on the Maduro regime and take “concrete and meaningful actions to restore democratic order.”

The United States opposes Maduro and recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president. 
 

World champion race walker Ines Henriques is aiming for gender equality by asking the Court of Arbitration for Sport to add the women’s 50-kilometer event to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

CAS said Thursday it will hear her appeal against the International Olympic Committee and the IAAF on July 29-30.

On the Olympic track and field program, the 50K walk is the only men’s medal event with no female equivalent. The IAAF has said the women’s 50K walk currently lacks the depth and quality to justify Olympic status.

When Henriques won the first world championship title in 2017, only seven athletes from four countries started the race. 

Only four finished as Henriques set a world record of 4 hours, 5 minutes, 56 seconds. Liu Hong of China has since lowered the record below four hours, pending official ratification.

The 39-year-old Portuguese walker won the 2018 European Championship title in a 19-athlete race.

In an interview published on the IAAF website last year, Henriques said her dream was to compete in Tokyo with more than 30 women.

“I hope that the IOC and the IAAF allow me to realize this dream,” she said last year.
 

Facebook will seek nominations for a 40-person content oversight board “soon,” according to a blog post by the social media site Thursday.

The review board would hear appeals to Facebook’s decisions to remove certain kinds of material from the platform and adjudicate cases independent of both Facebook management and governments, according Brent Harris, Facebook’s director of Governance and Global Affairs. 

In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook should develop a “Supreme Court” for content moderation, where users could appeal decisions to a body unaffiliated with the company.

“You can imagine some sort of structure … that is made up of independent folks who don’t work for Facebook, who ultimately make the final judgment call on what should be acceptable speech in a community that reflects the social norms and values of people all around the world,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein. 

“I’ve increasingly come to believe that Facebook should not make so many important decisions about free expression and safety on our own,” Zuckerberg wrote in a November post. 

Facebook discussed the issues with more than 2,000 people from dozens of countries.

“First and foremost, people want a board that exercises independent judgment,” wrote Harris. He also said people “want a board that’s as diverse as the many people on Facebook and Instagram.” 

Increased scrutiny 

The plans to create an oversight board come as the social media entity and other tech companies receive increased scrutiny and criticism regarding content moderation and bias.   

Some Republican lawmakers have accused the company of bias in its content moderation systems, while others on the Democratic side have called for antitrust action against the company. 

In an interview with Fox Business, U.S. President Donald Trump advocated legal action against Facebook and the popular search engine, Google. 

“Look, we should be suing Google and Facebook and all that, which perhaps we will, OK?” Trump said. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared unsteady and was seen shaking for the second time in just over a week at a ceremony in Berlin on Thursday.

Merkel, 64, folded her arms across her chest while her body trembled for around two minutes as she stood alongside President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at an indoor event where Germany’s new justice minister was being formally appointed.
 
The chancellor was handed a glass of water but rejected it. She appeared fine when she arrived in parliament half an hour later.
 
Merkel set off to Japan a few hours later for the annual summit of the Group of 20 global powers.
 
Her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told news agency dpa that “everything is going ahead as planned. The chancellor is fine.”
 
Merkel’s office wouldn’t comment on the cause or otherwise elaborate. It is not publicly known if Merkel has any health problems. German privacy laws are very strict on that type of information.
 
On Tuesday last week, Merkel’s whole body shook as she stood outside in hot weather alongside Ukraine’s president. Merkel said afterward that she was fine after drinking three glasses of water, which she “apparently needed.”
 
Hot weather in Germany has continued this week, though outdoor temperatures in Berlin dropped significantly overnight after peaking at around 37 degrees Celsius (99 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
 
Merkel has been German leader since 2005.
 
Last week, dpa reported that Merkel had previously been seen shaking under similar circumstances in the hot sun. It did not give a date for that incident, but said it was also ascribed to Merkel not drinking enough water.
 
The chancellor has a reputation for stamina garnered in years of late-night domestic and European negotiating marathons.
 
On Wednesday, she was on her feet in public for around two hours _ first answering lawmakers’ questions in parliament, then giving a speech across town. There was no sign then of any health issues.
 
Merkel has rarely had to cut back her work schedule significantly – though she did so for a few weeks in 2014 when she cracked her pelvis while cross-country skiing in Switzerland during a winter vacation.
 
Merkel said last year that she won’t seek a fifth term as chancellor and won’t seek any other political job after her current term ends in 2021.
 
She gave up the leadership of her center-right party after a pair of poor state election performances that followed a rocky start to her fourth-term government. She has shown no sign since of wanting to give up the chancellorship before her term is up.

The first group of 10 Democratic candidates running for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination gathered on stage in Miami, Florida for a two hour debate Wednesday.  As is typical in many debates of this kind, each candidate hoped to break through the crowded filed with a memorable phrase or lengthy quote that would resonate with both voters and political commentators.  VOA’s Richard Green has some key quotes on a variety of issues from each of the candidates.

At least sixteen people were facing the death penalty in a trial that started Thursday over the gruesome death of a young Bangladeshi woman that sparked protests and government promises of tough action.

Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, was set on fire in April after allegedly refusing to withdraw claims of sexual harassment against the head teacher of the Islamic seminary she attended.

She was lured onto the seminary rooftop in the southeastern town of Sonagazi, doused in kerosene and set alight, prosecutors say. She died five days later, triggering countrywide outrage.

The 16 people indicted — including the teacher — could face the death penalty if convicted. All defendants pleaded not guilty, while eight of the accused told the court that police forced them to sign written statements confessing involvement in the murder.

A special tribunal opened the trial Thursday at a crowded courtroom in the southeastern Feni district, with the first testimony by Rafi’s elder brother Mahmudul Hasan Noman who filed the case.

Noman — one of 92 people due to testify — described the killing in the court, saying the murder could have been avoided if police had acted upon Rafi’s harassment complaint.

The trial is expected to finish in six months, but Noman has urged the court to fast-track the hearings.

“Several defendants have alleged they were tortured and given electric shocks to sign confessional statements,” defence lawyer Giasuddin Ahmed told AFP, adding the case has become “politically motivated”.

Rafi had gone to police in March to report the alleged harassment. A leaked video shows the then district police chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as “not a big deal”.

The police official was later dismissed and arrested early this month for failing to properly investigate her allegations.

Police said at least five people — including three of Rafi’s classmates — tied her up with a scarf before setting her on fire. The plan was to stage the incident as a suicide case.

Rafi suffered burns to 80 percent of her body and died on April 10. But she recorded a video before her death, repeating her allegations against the head teacher.

Rights groups are closely monitoring the case as it came amid a spike in the number of rape and sexual assaults reported in Bangladesh.

They have said “a culture of impunity” is partly to blame for rise in sexual violence in the country.

According to Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, a women’s rights group, only three percent of rape cases end in convictions.

It said about 950 women were raped in Bangladesh last year.

Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognized government claim they have seized a key town south of Tripoli from forces from a rival eastern-based government.

Officials with Prime Minister’s Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord said Wednesday that they took over Gharyan in a surprise attack from forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar’s army had set up offices in the town, which also is home to field hospitals and a helicopter base. 

Haftar’s forces said there was fighting in Gharyan but did not concede defeat.

Fighting between the two armies has been centered in the suburbs south of Tripoli for several months, with neither side making much progress. But the clashes have driven thousands of civilians from their homes or to government-run shelters.

Libya has been in constant chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and killed in 2011. 

Al-Sarraj has been struggling to assert authority while Haftar looks to take power. The turmoil has given extremist groups, such as Islamic State, the opportunity to entrench themselves in Libya.

NATO is considering beefing up European air and missile defenses and ramping up its war games plans should Russia fail to respect a Cold War-era nuclear missile treaty by August, alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Wednesday.

The United States gave notice in February of its intention to withdraw from the landmark 1987 pact unless Russia destroyed its new SSC-8 missile. NATO allies believe the system contravenes the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, which is considered to be a cornerstone of European nuclear security.

Speaking after a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels, Stoltenberg said Russia showed no sign of returning to compliance before the U.S. deadline and “NATO is preparing for a world without the INF treaty.”

The ministers discussed “potential measures such as our exercises program, as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. We will also look further at our air and missile defenses and conventional capabilities,” he said.

Stoltenberg declined to give details, but underlined that NATO had “no intention to deploy new land-based nuclear missiles in Europe.” 

Asked earlier Wednesday if the military alliance might use its nascent missile defense shield to counter the new Russian missiles, Stoltenberg said he wouldn’t divulge “exactly what we will do because we are still focused on how we can get Russia back into compliance.”

NATO allies decided in 2010 to develop a ballistic missile defense system to protect Europeans from an attack launched from outside Europe and North America. At the time, it was meant to counter any threat from North Korea or Iran. Despite Moscow’s vehement objections to the system, the alliance always insisted that it could never be turned against Russia.

Alleged violations

The INF treaty bans production, testing and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers (310-3,400 miles). 
 
The Pentagon has shared information with NATO allies asserting that Russia’s ground-fired cruise missile could give Moscow the ability to launch a nuclear strike in Europe with little or no notice. Moscow insists the missile has a range of less than 500 kilometers and counters that the U.S., itself, has been breaching the INF treaty. 
 
“These missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. They can reach European cities within minutes. They are hard to detect,” Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters.

“Russia still has an opportunity to save the INF treaty,” he said, and warned that, if not, “we need to respond.”

NATO is keen for Moscow’s envoy to take part in talks on the standoff late next week but it was still awaiting confirmation that Russia would take part.
 

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved bipartisan legislation to address the humanitarian crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border with more than $4 billion in supplemental funds and new requirements for the care of detained migrants, especially children.

The 84-8 vote came amid renewed scrutiny of the Trump administration’s treatment of minors in its custody and amid widespread revulsion over the deaths of a father and daughter from El Salvador who perished trying to cross the Rio Grande River into the United States.

“There is no longer any question that the situation along our southern border is a full-blown humanitarian and security crisis,” Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said, adding that there was “no excuse” for delay in addressing the situation.

“Inaction is simply not an option for those who care about alleviating the suffering of desperate children and families seeking refuge in the United States,” Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said.

The Republican-led Senate approved the bill after voting down a House version that also boosted funds for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies stretched to the breaking point by border arrivals totaling more than 100,000 a month, the highest numbers recorded in more than a decade.

Although broadly similar, the Senate version is less extensive in regulating the care of detained children. Unlike the House version, it provides $145 million for the Pentagon to assist in border operations.

To reach President Donald Trump’s desk, the Senate bill would need to pass the House, where majority-Democrats could demand changes or vote on it as-is. Time for wrangling between the chambers is growing short, as Congress will be in recess next week for America’s Independence Day holiday.

Speaking with reporters before departing the White House, Trump hailed legislative movement on border funding.

“I believe the House is going to be getting together with the Senate. Hopefully, they can get something done,” Trump said.

Earlier in the day, the president once again blamed Democrats for the border crisis, tweeting: “The Democrats should change the Loopholes and Asylum Laws so lives will be saved at our Southern Border. They said it was not a crisis at the Border, that it was all just manufactured.’ Now they admit that I was right – But they must do something about it. Fix the Laws NOW!”

On the Senate floor, Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fired back.

“We can do something about this [crisis] if the president would stop playing the political game of blame, blame, blame,” Schumer said. “Mr. President, you are the president of the United States. You are head of the executive branch. You control what’s happening at the border.”

Schumer spoke alongside a blown-up photo, widely distributed by news organizations, of the drowned Salvadoran father and daughter, as reaction poured in across Capitol Hill and beyond.

“I don’t want to see another picture like that on the U.S. border,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said. “I hope that picture alone will catalyze this Congress, this Senate … to do something.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has faced renewed criticism on Capitol Hill after news reports emerged earlier this week of squalid living conditions at a CBP facility in Texas that houses detained migrant children.

A Senate panel on Wednesday pressed administration officials on the subject.

“What are you doing to actually make sure that children are getting the care and the sanitary conditions and the food that they need?” New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan asked.

The Border Patrol’s chief of law enforcement operations, Brian Hastings, responded that detention facilities are being upgraded with shower facilities and increased medical care. He added that more funds are being devoted to basic supplies, such as diapers and baby formula.

Russian officials are hailing the decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to ratify credentials of the country’s delegation, restoring Russia’s participation five years after the country was stripped of voting rights. 
 
But seven countries including Ukraine said Wednesday that they were recalling their delegations from the assembly’s session in protest. 
 
Russia lost its vote in the assembly of Europe’s oldest human rights organization because of its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. 
 
Prominent Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said restoration was “a first significant step toward the countries of the Council of Europe recognizing Crimea as Russian.” 
 
Ukrainian delegate Leonid Yemets published on Facebook a statement by the Estonian, Georgian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovakian and Ukrainian delegations saying “CoE is losing the trust of the people it stands to protect.” 

A leading Sudanese opposition figure says the African Union and Ethiopia have joined forces in renewed efforts to mediate the crisis in Sudan and bring the ruling generals and protest leaders back to the negotiating table.
 
Sadek al-Mahdi, who heads the Umma party, told reporters on Wednesday that Ethiopia and the AU plan a joint proposal on how to break the impasse.
 
Earlier, Ethiopia and the AU tried to mediate separately in Sudan’s crisis, which erupted after the military’s ouster of longtime President Omar al-Bashir.
 
The Umma party is part of an alliance representing Sudanese protesters who demand the military hand over power to civilian rule.
 
Al-Mahdi has criticized the protesters over calls for mass demonstrations on Sunday, the anniversary of a 1989 coup that brought al-Bashir to power.

Facebook is agreeing to help French police identify hate speech suspects, in what the French government is celebrating as a global first.
 
France’s digital affairs minister, Cedric O, said that Facebook will provide authorities “IP addresses to help identify authors of hateful content.” Speaking on broadcaster France-Info, he expressed hope that the cooperation could be expanded to other countries.
 
Facebook said in a statement that it will help provide “basic information in criminal hate speech cases” to French authorities but will “push back if (the request) is overbroad, inconsistent with human rights, or legally defective.”
 
Like many countries, France has been battling violent and racist content online, and has been hit by deadly extremist attacks in recent years.
 
The move came after Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg came to Paris last month and met with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Britain’s Prince William says it would be “absolutely fine” if one of his children came out as gay though he’d worry about how the public response.

William made the comment on Wednesday while visiting a London nonprofit group that works with young LGBT people who are homeless or living in hostile environments.

A participant in a group discussion at the Albert Kennedy Trust asked him, “If your child one day in the future said, ‘Oh I’m gay, oh I’m lesbian’ whatever, how would you react?”

William replied that would be “obviously absolutely fine by me.”

The father of three said: “It worries me not because of them being gay. It worries me as to how everyone else will react and perceive it, and then the pressure is then on them.”

As the United States and China tussle over tit-for-tat tariffs, another trade spat between West and East is quietly playing out, one pitting Malaysian palm oil against European fighter jets.

When the European Union announced in March that it would phase out the use of palm oil as a transport biofuel by 2030 over environmental concerns, the world’s two largest palm oil exporters — Indonesia and Malaysia — were quick to react, threatening to lodge complaints with the World Trade Organization.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told Reuters that the EU risked starting a trade war over “grossly unfair” policies that smacked of protectionism, then named the first potential casualty. He said that if the EU went through with the phase-out, Malaysia would turn away from European defense contractors and look to China to fill its order for new fighter jets, a deal likely worth upwards of $1 billion.

It remains to be seen how Malaysia’s brinkmanship will play out.

The Malaysia Palm Oil Council warns that the new EU rules could deliver a “significant” blow to the industry, which it says contributed 6% to the country’s GDP in 2017. Upwards of 12% of the palm oil it exports goes to the EU, its second largest market after India. China comes in a close third.

The EU rules mean member states will not be able to count biofuels derived from palm oil toward their renewable energy targets because of the deforestation the crop is driving. Malaysia says the forest-loss reports are overblown.

Either way, Malaysia’s gambit was not likely to change EU policy, said Peter Mumford, head of Southeast Asia coverage for the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.

“First, European countries will not want to be seen to be arguing against a policy which, in Europe at least, is seen as positive in terms of promoting environmental sustainability,” he said.

“Second, even if one or two of the countries which might wish to sell jets to Malaysia decided to argue for a change in EU policy, it is not clear how much impact they could have as the issue is being promoted by the European Commission and European Parliament.”

And barring some exceptions, Mumford said, Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s threats to shun EU products — fighter jets and otherwise — will carry only modest weight with the many bloc members who sell relatively little to the Asian neighbors.

Fight for palm oil

Shankaran Nambiar, a senior research fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, said Mahathir might still want to play hardball as a matter of principle.

He said Malaysia’s palm oil exports to the European Union “are not trifling figures. But I think beyond the quanta that is at stake, it is the perception that the EU is biased against palm oil.”

Nambiar said Malaysia could also count on China, Russia and others to pick up some of the slack from the EU and that they were more likely to agree to offsets — to barter their products for Malaysia’s.

Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamad Sabu has told reporters that China, Russia and others might be willing to trade defense equipment for Malaysia’s palm oil. A faltering economy and heavy public debt make a swap all the more attractive for Malaysia.

With that in mind, Nambiar said, “the prime minister probably thinks that a tit-for-tat strategy is not out of place.”

“If the EU won’t buy Malaysian palm oil, then Malaysia will not buy European jets unless they are financed by palm oil offsets. This implies payment through palm oil. The logic runs as follows — If the EU wants to do business with Malaysia, it will, one way or the other, have to buy palm oil from Malaysia. If the EU won’t, it doesn’t matter because there are other countries that will.”

Offsets have been part of Malaysia’s trade playbook for decades, but no so much with the European Union.

Jon Grevatt, an Asia-Pacific defense industry analyst at Jane’s, said Malaysia may find it hard to get its hands of European fighter jets if it insists on swapping palm oil but added that the country has proven willing to barter with a wide variety of products and commodities in the past.

Trade with other countries

China and Russia have also proved willing to barter, and their jets would come far cheaper than Europe’s. But Grevatt said there was little talk of buying from China in March at the latest Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition, one of the premier events of its kind in the region. And he said the catch with Russia was the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), a U.S. law that imposes penalties on countries that make major defense purchases from Russia.

But Grevatt said Malaysia was probably five to 10 years away from actually buying the light fighter aircraft it was looking for, about the same time the EU’s phase-out of palm oil will truly start to bite. And if Malaysia still insisted on trading with palm oil, he added, there would likely be ways around the new EU rules.

Palm oil is used in a broad range of products, from instant noodles to soap. And the EU rules do not bar its import per se, only its use in biofuel to meet renewable energy targets, and even then with caveats.

“If you were to go to countries like Sweden — and also SAAB, which is obviously from Sweden — as I have done, and ask SAAB, ‘So obviously, that would rule you out, then, wouldn’t it, SAAB? You cannot trade with Malaysia on palm oil.’ They will tell you that they will find a way. They will tell you that there are ways and means of … agreeing to requirements in terms of palm oil without it stopping major defense deals,” he said.

“There is so many ways of getting these things done that no one is going to die in a ditch over palm oil if it means that Malaysia could go ahead and buy a major defense system such as a light fighter aircraft from Europe. There will be ways around it, there is no doubt about that.”

Authorities in Pakistan say three suicide bombers assaulted a regional police headquarters in a southwestern district Wednesday, triggering a firefight that killed a security officer and the assailants.

Two policemen were also wounded in the attack in Loralai, a remote town in Baluchistan province. 

The early morning militant raid began with a suicide bomber detonating his explosives at the entry gate, enabling his partners to storm the high-security building, a local police official told VOA requesting anonymity. 

Police guards inside the compound swiftly engaged the attackers and the ensuing shootout killed one bomber while the other blew himself up, the official explained. 

The outlawed Pakistani Taliban militant group in a message to reporters claimed credit for plotting the attack but gave no other details.

Security forces and civilian targets routinely come under attack in Baluchistan, a natural resource-rich region. The province has been the scene of a low-level insurgency being waged by ethnic Baluch separatist groups.

Militants linked to a local affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group also operate in the province and routinely carry out of attacks against security targets as well as the minority Shi’ite Hazara community which is mostly based in the provincial capital of Quetta. 

Baluchistan is home to several Chinese-funded multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects and Pakistani authorities have deployed specially trained forces in the region to protect them as well as Chinese nationals working on them. 

Last month, several heavily-armed suicide bombers stormed a luxury hotel in the Chinese-run strategic port of Gwadar in the province. That attack killed four hotel employees and a member of the Pakistani navy. Baluch insurgents took responsibility for the violence, saying it is aimed at China’s economic cooperation projects with Pakistan.

China and a group of Southeast Asian countries, long at odds over control of the sea between them, aim to finish phase one of a maritime code of conduct within months after 17 years of trying to resolve Asia’s widest-reaching sovereignty dispute.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have probably talked enough to eliminate any sticky points in the code – issues touching on who owns which islands, for example – to approach a first reading by their major annual meeting in November, scholars in Asia say.

A code would help guide ships away from mishaps and resolve any accidents in the vast, crowded South China Sea without giving any government express priority. A June 9 collision between Philippine and Chinese vessels, backed by growing regional pressure on China, gave new impetus to signing a code.

“If you’re looking at the code of conduct since 2002, that’s about 17 years, so that would be a very big milestone if that would pass,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school.

“There should be momentum when the leaders meet again in November,” he said. “That will probably be on the agenda again now that ASEAN leaders have put that at the top of their agenda.”

Stated intent

At an ASEAN summit in Bangkok on Sunday, the bloc’s chairman issued a statement pointing to stronger “cooperation” and possible completion of the code’s first take this year.

“We warmly welcomed the continued improving cooperation between ASEAN and China and were encouraged by the progress of the substantive negotiations towards the early conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea within a mutually-agreed timeline,” the statement says. 

“We welcomed efforts to complete the first reading of the single draft negotiating text by this year,” it says.

The premier in China, which was once feared to be opposing the code, had estimated last year completion of a code by 2021, but in March Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said via state media the date should be moved up.

“Earlier the premier mentioned three years and now the foreign minister, Wang Yi, mentioned it can be done in faster than three years, which is true, I think,” said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, fellow with the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Boat collision

The June 9 collision between boats from China and the Philippines left 22 Filipino sailors in the water and sparked a joint investigation about what went wrong.

A navy spokesman said China might have rammed the Filipino boat intentionally. Vietnam and China rammed each other’s boats in 2014 over a Chinese oil rig. A spokesperson for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a coordinator for ASEAN’s dialogue with China, said Monday the code of conduct process had been moving too slowly.

Earlier this year, hundreds of Chinese boats set off further alarm by passing near Pag Asa, a  disputed South China Sea islet controlled by the Philippines.

ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam claim all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. China and Taiwan claim nearly all of it. Rival claimants value the waterway for its fisheries, shipping lanes and fossil fuel reserves. 

China has alarmed the others since 2010 by building artificial islands for military installations. 

“It’s been the Philippines (and) China that have had the irritants since last year – – a lot of Chinese  boats around Pag Asa Island followed by this alleged deliberate boat ramming, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

China on board

China had said before 2016 it was in no hurry to sign a code and accused other claimants of violating a declaration that opened the negotiation process. But after losing a 2016 world arbitral court ruling over the legal basis to its South China Sea claims and facing increased pressure from the United States since 2017, it has worked more closely with Southeast Asia.

Washington stepped up naval patrols of the sea in 2017 to monitor Chinese activity and said this month it would work more closely with other countries in Asia on defense.

China should “take advantage” of U.S. preoccupation with other matters now and draw on ASEAN’s “goodwill,” Araral said. China needs stronger relations in Southeast Asia, he added. 

The ultimate code will probably sidestep controversial issues, Thayer said. It would leave vague, for example, the scope of the sea in question, and discourage involvement of states outside Asia, he said.

It might instead outline dispute resolution steps, Thayer said. Crew members from any ships in a mishap or near mishap might be directed by the code how to compare coordinates, videos and logs, he said. They might also be able to use hotlines to report findings.

It took last-minute changes and a full-court press by top Democratic leaders, but the House passed with relative ease Tuesday a $4.5 billion emergency border aid package to care for thousands of migrant families and unaccompanied children detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
 
The bill passed along party lines after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quelled a mini-revolt by progressives and Hispanic lawmakers who sought significant changes to the legislation. New provisions added to the bill Tuesday were more modest than what those lawmakers had sought, but the urgent need for the funding — to prevent the humanitarian emergency on the border from turning into a debacle — appeared to outweigh any lingering concerns.
 
The 230-195 vote sets up a showdown with the Republican-led Senate, which may try instead to force Democrats to send Trump a different, and broadly bipartisan, companion measure in coming days as the chambers race to wrap up the must-do legislation by the end of the week.
 
 “The Senate has a good bill. Our bill is much better,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told her Democratic colleagues in a meeting Tuesday morning, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private session.
 
“We are ensuring that children have food, clothing, sanitary items, shelter and medical care. We are providing access to legal assistance. And we are protecting families because families belong together,” Pelosi said in a subsequent floor speech.
 
The bill contains more than $1 billion to shelter and feed migrants detained by the border patrol and almost $3 billion to care for unaccompanied migrant children who are turned over the Department of Health and Human Services. It seeks to mandate improved standards of care at HHS “influx shelters” that house children waiting to be placed with sponsors such as family members in the U.S.
 
Both House and Senate bills ensure funding could not be shifted to Trump’s border wall and would block information on sponsors of immigrant children from being used to deport them. Trump would be denied additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds.
 
“The President’s cruel immigration policies that tear apart families and terrorize communities demand the stringent safeguards in this bill to ensure these funds are used for humanitarian needs only — not for immigration raids, not detention beds, not a border wall,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
 
Three moderates were the only House Republicans to back the measure. The only four Democratic “no” votes came from some of the party’s best-known freshmen: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ihan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
 
The White House has threatened to veto the House bill, saying it would hamstring the administration’s border security efforts, and the Senate’s top Republican suggested Tuesday that the House should simply accept the Senate measure — which received only a single “nay” vote during a committee vote last week.
 
“The idea here is to get a (presidential) signature, so I think once we can get that out of the Senate, hopefully on a vote similar to the one in the Appropriations Committee, I’m hoping that the House will conclude that’s the best way to get the problem solved, which can only happen with a signature,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
 
A handful of GOP conservatives went to the White House to try to persuade Trump to reject the Senate bill and demand additional funding for immigration enforcement such as overtime for border agents and detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a top GOP lawmaker who demanded anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Trump was expected to reject the advice.
 
House Democrats seeking the changes met late Monday with Pelosi, and lawmakers emerging from the Tuesday morning caucus meeting were generally supportive of the legislation.
 
Congress plans to leave Washington in a few days for a weeklong July 4 recess, and pressure is intense to wrap up the legislation before then. Agencies are about to run out of money and failure to act could bring a swift political rebuke and accusations of ignoring the plight of innocent immigrant children.
 
Longtime GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said Democrats were simply “pushing partisan bills to score political points and avoiding doing the hard work of actually making law,” warning them that “passing a partisan bill through this chamber won’t solve the problem.”
 
Lawmakers’ sense of urgency to provide humanitarian aid was amplified by recent reports of gruesome conditions in a windowless Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, where more than 300 infants and children were being housed. Many were kept there for weeks and were caring for each other in conditions that included inadequate food, water and sanitation.
 
By Tuesday, most had been sent elsewhere. The incident was only an extreme example of the dire conditions reported at numerous locations where detainees have been held, and several children have died in U.S. custody.
 
The Border Patrol reported apprehending nearly 133,000 people last month — including many Central American families — as monthly totals have begun topping 100,000 for the first time since 2007. Federal agencies involved in immigration have reported being overwhelmed, depleting their budgets and housing large numbers of detainees in structures meant for handfuls of people.
 
Changes unveiled Tuesday would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish new standards for care of unaccompanied immigrant children and a plan for ensuring adequate translators to assist migrants in their dealings with law enforcement. The government would have to replace contractors who provide inadequate care.
 
Many children detained entering the U.S. from Mexico have been held under harsh conditions, and Customs and Border Protection Chief Operating Officer John Sanders told The Associated Press last week that children have died after being in the agency’s care. He said Border Patrol stations are holding 15,000 people — more than triple their maximum capacity of 4,000.
 
Sanders announced Tuesday that he’s stepping down next month amid outrage over his agency’s treatment of detained migrant children.
 
In a letter Monday threatening the veto, White House officials told lawmakers they objected that the House package lacked money for beds the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency needs to let it detain more migrants. Officials also complained in the letter that the bill had no money to toughen border security, including funds for building Trump’s proposed border wall.

Steve Dunleavy, a reporter and columnist for the New York Post who helped define the tabloid’s modern style, died. He was 81.

The Post reported that Dunleavy died at his home on Long Island on Monday night.

Steve Dunleavy was one of the greatest reporters of all time,” Post owner Rupert Murdoch said. “His passing is the end of a great era.”

Dunleavy was born in Sydney, Australia, and began his journalism career at The Sun, where his father worked as a photographer.

He did stints at a variety of newspapers, including the Daily Mirror and The South China Morning Post, before arriving in New York City in 1966 where he eventually joined the New York Post in 1977 shortly after Murdoch bought the tabloid.

Dunleavy also helped create the television newsmagazine program “A Current Affair” and was the model for actor Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.”

The epitome of a hard-charging, hard-drinking tabloid reporter, Dunleavy earned one of his better-known scoops by sneaking into a hospital dressed in clothes that looked like hospital scrubs to interview the family of one of “Son of Sam” serial killer David Berkowitz’s victims.

Dunleavy, who retired in 2008, was known as a staunch defender of the city’s police officers including the officers who were convicted in the 1997 sexual assault of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. He also wrote several columns championing Wayne Dumond, a decorated Vietnam-era veteran who had been convicted in Arkansas of raping a third cousin of then-Gov. Bill Clinton. Dumond was paroled and later convicted of murder.

Dunleavy spent so much time at a bar across the street from the Post’s offices that the tavern, Langan’s Bar & Restaurant, installed a shrine with a frosted-glass portrait of Dunleavy. The owner gave the portrait to the Post when the bar closed last year.