The U.S. military says 11 service members are in hospitals after displaying concussion symptoms, following Iran’s attack last week on Iraqi bases where U.S. troops were stationed.

Iran’s ballistic missile attack on two Iraqi bases was launched in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central command, said in a statement Thursday, “While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed.”

The service members are in hospitals in Germany and Kuwait.

“When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq,” Urban said.

U.S. President Donald Trump had said after Iran’s attack in Iraq that no U.S. forces were injured. 

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On the day his Senate impeachment trial formally began, U.S. President Donald Trump scored a bipartisan victory Thursday as the Senate passed a North American trade pact, known as USMCA. The international accord replaces the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and governs trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari looks at what this pact is expected to deliver both for the U.S. economy and for the president’s re-election campaign.

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Japan has confirmed its first case of a strain of a coronavirus that has killed one man and sickened 41 others in China since last month.

The Health Ministry says a man in his 30s who lives in Kanagawa prefecture was hospitalized last week suffering from a persistent cough and a fever, which developed  after visiting the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. The ministry says the man has since recovered and been released.

This is the second reported case of the virus outside of China, after a Chinese woman traveling in Thailand was diagnosed with the virus.  Neither person had visited the seafood market in Wuhan that has been identified as the center of the outbreak and that had sparked fears that the virus could spread through human-to-human transmission.

The virus is a new strain of the same family of viruses that caused the outbreak of several acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, that killed over 600 people in China and Hong Kong between 2002 and 2003.  The detection of this outbreak comes ahead of the Lunar New Year, when hundreds of millions of Chinese normally travel. 

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Pakistan announced Thursday the Taliban is ready to reduce violence in Afghanistan, calling it a major breakthrough toward reaching a long-awaited peace deal the insurgent group has been negotiating with the United States.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi revealed in a video message that Islamabad has been helping in the peace process to bring stability to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the region.

“Today a major development has taken place in this effort. The Taliban has accepted the demand for a reduction in violence. I believe it is a major step toward the (U.S.-Taliban) peace agreement,” Qureshi said. He did not share further details.

“The good thing for Pakistan is that the responsibility it took for promoting the (Afghan) reconciliation has effectively been discharged,” the foreign minister noted. Pakistan hoped the effort would lead to peace so it would benefit the people in both neighboring countries, Qureshi added.  

The foreign minister, who is currently visiting Washington, made the revelation ahead of his meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor Robert O’ Brien.

The announcement comes amid media reports Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhund has approved a week-long cease-fire with U.S.-led foreign forces to end the deadlock in signing a foreign troop withdrawal agreement U.S. and Taliban interlocutors have negotiated in their yearlong talks, held mostly in Qatar.

Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid when asked for a confirmation on whether his leadership has agreed to a cease-fire, told VOA: “I am in the process of collecting the information and will share the details as soon as I get them.”

U.S. chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad has been demanding the Taliban agree to a brief cessation in hostilities before the two adversaries in the 18-year-old Afghan war could sign the deal.

Insurgent negotiators in Doha, reports said, were expected to share their cease-fire decision with Khalilzad on Wednesday. The U.S. envoy is said to be staying in the Qatari capital to hear from the insurgents whether they were ready to accept his demand, though U.S. officials have not commented on his presence in the Gulf nation.

Khalilzad paused the dialogue process last month after insurgents staged a major attack on the largest U.S. military base of Bagram in Afghanistan that killed several Afghan civilians and injured scores of others.

The proposed agreement, if signed, would require the Taliban to immediately enter into negotiations with Afghan stakeholders to discuss a nationwide cease-fire and a power-sharing understanding to bring an end to decades of deadly hostilities in the country.

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Kenya has endured a grim start to the new year as extremist group al-Shabab launched attacks against targets including a school, a police post and a military base shared by U.S. forces.

Observers are debating whether the surge of violence signals renewed strength by the terror group or is a seasonal phenomenon. A new report found the group has killed more than 4,000 civilians over the past 10 years.

Al-Shabab Attacks Killed 4,000 in Past Decade, Says Data-Gathering Group

Majority of deaths occurred in Somalia, according to records compiled by the independent group Armed Conflict, Location and Event Data Project, or ACLED

On Monday, three teachers were killed and one abducted in Kamuthe, a town in Garissa county, bordering Somalia. The three killed were all non-Muslims while the one kidnapped was a Muslim. Another teacher was wounded, according to the Associated Press. Attackers also hit a police post and destroyed a telecommunications tower.

Hillary Mutyambai, inspector general of the Kenya Police Service visited a police camp in neighboring Lamu county on Tuesday to thank officers for their efforts but advised them to reach out to community members for help foiling future attacks.

Mutyambai “urged the officers to change their tact in the fight against the enemy,” the Kenya Police Service’s official account tweeted about the visit. He also “urged the officers to embrace community policing so as to have [a] flow of information from members of [the] public on suspected criminals.”

@IG_NPS and , The Deputy Inspector General @APSKenya Mr Noor Gabow, today visited Nyagoro AP Camp-Lamu County. He thanked the officers for their resilience in the fight against Al Shabaab. He informed them that the current sporadic attacks by Al Shabaab are a sign of cowardness. pic.twitter.com/QllQoL6Bvl

— National Police Service-Kenya (@NPSOfficial_KE) January 14, 2020

Tres Thomas, a security analyst focusing on Somalia, said the latest attacks show that the terror group is attempting to sow divisions among the population by sparing Muslims and killing Christians. He also said that January is typically a time when al-Shabaab launches some of its deadliest attacks including a 2017 attack in Kulbiyow, where dozens of Kenya Defense Force soldiers were killed, and DusitD2 hotel attack in 2019 that killed more than 20 people.

Thomas said the spate of violence shows the group is able to exploit points of weakness along the Kenyan border.

“You still see al-Shabaab has free mobility to cross the border from Somalia into Kenya. And that’s because a lot of the areas don’t have adequately manned checkpoints,” he told VOA. “And one of the areas on the southeastern border in the Boni Forest is very rugged terrain that’s hard for security forces to navigate and offers a safe haven to Shabaab.”

Thomas added that the lack of capacity is exacerbated by a lack of cooperation between local and national law enforcement agencies. 

“You still have security forces that are not integrated,” he said. “You have tensions between the central government and regional administrations that prevent them from banding together to defeat al-Shabaab.”

He said a January 5 attack against Camp Simba that left three Americans dead exemplifies the group’s continued ability to identify and exploit weak spots.

“I think Shabab was able to identify this as a vulnerable spot that didn’t have adequate force protection from U.S. and Kenyan forces,” he said. “And so only with maybe 15 or so attackers actually on the base they were able to destroy approximately $20 million in equipment, including spy aircraft used to collect intelligence on al-Shabab and to target mid-level and senior-level officials. So I think from that perspective, al-Shabab was able to achieve its objectives.”

Future strategies, he added, should focus on securing the border and preventing the group from recruiting young Kenyans, particularly those of Somali origin. 

“And I think that what needs to be identified are ways to actually stop al-Shabaab from crossing the border, recruiting inside Kenya. And that’s something that Kenya hasn’t been able to accomplish, even though it’s been deployed in Somalia for the last nine years,” Thomas said.

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A judge in bankruptcy court has ruled in favor of a law school graduate who asked to have more than $220,000 in student debt erased.

The case is notable because student debt is commonly thought to be unforgivable in bankruptcy cases, a lament of many students who leave college saying they are too financially burdened to advance the milestones of adulthood, like buying property or having children.

Students Drowning in ‘Insane’ Debt Delay Life Goals

Mentioning the words “student debt” to millennials and younger people is like dropping a match on a trail of gasoline.”Our total debt for credit cards and student loans combined is almost $150,000,” said Matt Porter, 31, who lives in Lowell, Massachusetts, with his fiancee.

But borrower Kevin J. Rosenberg, 46, of Beacon, N.Y., asked the court to forgive his student debt because repaying the loans was impossible and created an undue hardship, the legal test of whether a debtor should be forgiven.

Rosenberg’s student debt journey started in 1993, when he enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, according to court documents. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in history, he served in the U.S. Navy on active duty for five years. 

He then attended Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York from 2001 to 2004. His degrees were financed by student loans. 

When he graduated from law school in April 2005, he consolidated his debts with a nonprofit corporation called Educational Credit Management Corp., (ECMC), owing $116,464 in principle on the loan amount before interest. But by November 19, 2019, the 3.38% interest rate expanded that loan debt to $221,385.

Rosenberg is among a small percentage of student debtors – 2% — who owe most of the nation’s $1.7 trillion student debt. This group borrowed money to pay for expensive graduate school programs, like law and medicine.

Third of Student Debt Owned by Only 6% of Borrowers

In a look at the $1.5 trillion of debt owed by students, those at for-profit universities continue to carry most debt, according to Brookings Institution report

The average loan debt for law school graduates in 2012 was between $84,600 and $122,158, according to the American Bar Association. Almost 70% of law school graduates in 2016 left with student debt, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

ECMC — a nonprofit organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota — argued that Rosenberg did not meet the undue hardship standard. They cited his age (45), health, lack of dependents, two degrees, and law licenses in New York and New Jersey in their legal brief.“

Shortly after starting his first job as an associate attorney at a law firm, [Rosenberg] decided that practicing law was not for him, because he disliked working in an office and did not find the work interesting,” New Jersey attorney Kenneth Baum, who represented ECMC, wrote in his court brief. 

“Thus, after leaving that job after only 2½ months, [Rosenberg], with the exception of a brief period of working as a part-time contract attorney on a project basis – which [he] likened to working as a paralegal – has not sought any employment in the legal profession and has no intention of ever doing so, despite the fact that opportunities abound for Plaintiff to make a very respectable living in the legal profession,” Baum wrote.

Rosenberg did not return calls or email to VOA, but was quoted in Yahoo Finance on January 12, saying, “First of all, I realized the whole job is sitting in the office by yourself. You can’t be creative at all, but also that you either help people out or you make a good living — you can’t do both. And I kind of had a problem with that.” 

Judge Cecelia G. Morris, chief U.S. Bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York, agreed with Rosenberg. She used the student-debt test case, Brunner v N.Y. State Higher Education Services Corp., from 1987 differently than other decisions. “

Brunner has received a lot of criticism for creating too high of a burden for most bankruptcy petitioners to meet,” Morris wrote. For Brunner, who filed for bankruptcy within a year of graduation, “the test is difficult to meet,” she wrote. “

However, for a multitude of petitioners like Mr. Rosenberg, who have been out of school and struggling with student loan debt for many years, the test itself is fairly straightforward and simple,” she said.

Rosenberg was relieved of his debt.

Student-loan experts say that most students are under the impression that student debt cannot be relieved in bankruptcy court. Some get bad advice from attorneys who also believe student debt cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy court. “

You can’t discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy: That was the prevailing wisdom,” said Jason Iuliano, an expert in student debt and assistant professor of law at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia.

But Iuliano, whose own student debt was hundreds of thousands of dollars after receiving degrees from Harvard University and Princeton University, dove into the caseload and found that wasn’t true. “

What I found when I actually went in and collected the cases was a lot of folks actually do meet the [undue hardship] test,” he said. “About 40% of the student loan debtors in bankruptcy … are successful in getting a discharge of some sort. And that struck me as really important.”

Iuliano said about 250,000 student debtors file for bankruptcy each year. But only about 500 of them take a necessary additional legal action to address college-loan specific debt. Only 1% end up going in front of a judge. 

“A lot more people should be filing and trying to prove undue hardship, because they would be successful if they actually came before a judge,” Iuliano advised.

Ashley Harrington, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, celebrated the decision, but said student debt that impacts low-income and minority borrowers more than any others should be addressed long before debtors end up with interest-bloated loans. 

“My initial thought was, ‘This is great, good for him.’ We’ve always supported student-loan disposal of both state and federal loans,” Harrington said. “But, there still is a need for Congress to do something about it.”

Among students in the Class of 2016, 70% borrowed an average of $30,000, Harrington said.

“People are really struggling under this debt for a very long time. Your payment return is 20 to 25 years, and that’s as long as some people’s mortgages,” she said.

“Part of the conversation is changing in judicial chambers because everyone is realizing what a crisis this is, seeing how it effects students’ lives,” Harrington added. “How much help have you given them?”

Rosenberg’s case and Judge Morris’ decision have ramped up that conversation, Iuliano said. 

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A legal adviser at the European Union’s highest court said Wednesday that the bloc’s data protection rules should prevent member states from indiscriminately holding personal data seized from Internet and phone companies, even when intelligence agencies claim that national security is at stake.

In a non-binding opinion on how the European Court of Justice, or ECJ, should rule on issues relating to access by security and intelligence agencies to communications data retained by telecommunications providers, advocate general Campos Sanchez-Bordona said “the means and methods of combating terrorism must be compatible with the requirements of the rule of law.”

Commenting on a series of cases from France, the U.K. and Belgium — three countries that have been hit by extremist attacks in recent years and have reinforced surveillance — Sanchez-Bordona said that the ECJ’s case law should be upheld. He cited a case in which the court ruled that general and indiscriminate retention of communications “is disproportionate” and inconsistent with EU privacy directives.

The advocate general recommended limited access to the data, and only when it is essential “for the effective prevention and control of crime and the safeguarding of national security.”

The initial case was brought by Privacy International, a charity promoting the right to privacy. Referring to the ECJ’s case law, it said that the acquisition, use, retention, disclosure, storage and deletion of bulk personal data sets and bulk communications data by the U.K. security and intelligence agencies were unlawful under EU law.

The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal referred the case to the ECJ, which held a joint hearing with two similar cases from France and another one from Belgium.

“We welcome today’s opinion from the advocate general and hope it will be persuasive to the Court,” said Caroline Wilson Palow, the Legal Director of Privacy International. “The opinion is a win for privacy. We all benefit when robust rights schemes, like the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, are applied and followed.”

The ECJ’s legal opinions aren’t legally binding, but are often followed by the court. The ECJ press service said a ruling is expected within two months.

“Should the court decide to follow the opinion of the advocate general, ‘metadata’ such as traffic and location data will remain subject to a high level of protection in the European Union, even when they are accessed for national security purposes,” said Luca Tosoni, a researcher at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law. “This would require several member states — including Belgium, France, the U.K. and others — to amend their domestic legislation.”
 

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Armed security forces and civilian motorcycle groups loyal to Venezuela’s president forcefully blocked opposition lawmakers from entering the National Assembly building to hold a session on Wednesday.

It’s the second time this month that lawmakers have been barred from from the building that houses the only branch of government out of control of President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government.

Attempting to reach the legislative chamber, t he caravan of cars carrying the deputies dodged through downtown streets, but ultimately failed.

Gunshots could heard near the cars, but no injuries were reported. Two SUV’s carrying the lawmakers came under attack by people on the street dressed in civilian clothes. They struck the rear window of one, shattering it.

“The dictatorship is intent on militarily kidnapping the Federal Legislative Palace and using repressive instruments and paramilitary groups,” Guaidó said on Twitter, accusing Maduro’s government of following a “clumsy and erroneous path.”

He said that the lawmakers had decided to hold the session at another location in the Caracas suburb of El Hatillo.

The incident was part of a struggle for control of the opposition-controlled National Assembly and Venezuela as a whole, a nation suffering economic and social collapse that’s led estimated 4.5 million to emigrate.

A once oil-wealthy nation, Venezuela has been locked in a political, economic and social collapse for the last five years. Basic medicines, food and gasoline are scarce, despite the fact Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves.

The 36-year-old Guaidó leaped onto Venezuela’s political stage a year ago when he declared himself acting president under the constitution and vowed to to end Maduro’s rule. The United States and more than 50 other nations quickly backed him, saying Maduro’s reelection in 2018 was illegitimate.

Guaidó was also blocked from the the National Assembly building early this month in a failed government attempt to prevent him from being reelected as the body’s leader.

It’s unclear where Guaidó was during the attempted entry to the National Assembly building on Wednesday.

Opposition lawmaker Delsa Solórzano said she was riding in a car with at least three other lawmakers that came under attack near the legislative building with rocks and sticks. She also reported hearing gunfire.

“Evidently tried to kill us,” Solórzano said. “Today, our parliament is practically kidnapped.”

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Days of angry protests in Iran over the military’s accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner appear to signal a deeper discontent with the government.  The demonstrations began after the Iranian government acknowledged it shot down the aircraft killing all 176 passengers on board, most of them Iranian. The incident appears to have redirected public anger away from America’s targeted killing of a top Iranian general and more toward Iran’s leadership — and their political repression as the country’s economy struggles under U.S. sanctions. VOA’s Brian Padden has more on whether the protests signal the beginning of a popular revolt.
 

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed alarm Tuesday at the “staggering number” of social activists killed in Colombia despite a peace accord aimed at improving conditions in poor, rural areas.

According to the U.N., 107 human rights defenders were killed in 2019, a worrying number that could grow to 120 as investigations are completed. At least 10 activists have been reported killed in the first two weeks of 2020.

“This vicious and endemic cycle of violence and impunity must stop,” said Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the high commissioner.

The vast majority of the deaths happened in rural areas with higher-than-average rates of poverty and where illegal armed groups operate. Some of these areas were previously controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the rebel group that signed an historic peace accord in 2016.

The U.N. pointed to challenges in implementing the accord, the presence of illegal armed groups in territory once controlled by the leftist rebels and the government’s military-focused response as all being partly to blame.

The landmark agreement ending over five decades of conflict includes lengthy chapters outlining ways for the government to establish a presence in remote regions where the illicit drug trade flourishes. While some advances including the building of new roads and efforts at crop substitution have taken place, those parts of the accord are proving to be the most difficult and long-term to bring into action.

“We acknowledge some positive steps,” Hurtado said, pointing to a recent security meeting. “However, the number of killings clearly shows much more needs to be done.”

The numbers

More than half the killings took place in four provinces — Antioquia, Arauca, Cauca and Caqueta — and people advocating on behalf of specific community, ethnic, indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups were the most targeted.

The killings of female activists increased by almost 50 percent between 2018 and 2019. The U.N. did not provide a specific number.

The total number killed in 2019 is about the same or possibly a bit higher than the previous year, when 115 were killed.

The U.N. is calling on the government of President Ivan Duque to redouble efforts to ensure a secure environment for civic engagement, increase the presence of state authorities and expand access to health and education.

Duque won the presidency in 2018 on a platform that was critical of the peace deal, though he has not managed to reform any key components.

The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, which is charged with monitoring implementation of the accord, published a study last April finding that work had begun on more than two-thirds of the agreement’s commitments.

The study found progress at the two-year mark comparable to other peace processes around the world that the institute has studied.

‘Profoundly worrying’ developments 

Special Representative Carlos Ruiz, who heads the U.N. Verification Mission in Colombia, told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that “significant strides” have been made but noted that continuing violence in conflict-affected regions remains a threat to peace.

He pointed to “profoundly worrying” developments in recent weeks including territorial disputes between illegal armed groups that risk spreading into more widespread violence in areas like the province of Choco.

Ruiz also highlighted the recent death of Lucy Villarreal, an activist killed just after completing a children’s workshop in the port city of Tumaco, where violence involving dissident rebels has flared in the peace deal’s aftermath.

He said full implementation of the peace agreement holds the best hope for Colombia’s future.

“Peace will not be fully achieved if the brave voices of social leaders continue to be silenced through violence and if former combatants who laid down their weapons and are committed to their reintegration continue to be killed,” he said.
 

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Authorities in Ivory Coast say they rescued 137 children who were the victims of traffickers and groomed to work on cocoa plantations or in prostitution.

Police rescued the children after surrounding the eastern town of Aboisso and carried out a two-day search of cars, farms, and nearby villages.

Officials say the children ranged from age six to 17 and were brought into Ivory Coast from Benin, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. The victims are in care of a charity in Aboisso while authorities search for their parents.

Senior police officials say they plan to increase operations aimed at stopping child trafficking.

“Ivory Coast’s image is tarnished by child trafficking. We are appealing to all parents: a child’s place is at school and not on plantations,” Aboisso’s deputy police chief Kouadio Yeboue Marcellin says.

Ivory Coast is dependent on the cocoa and cashew crops and poor farmers depend on child labor to pick the beans and nuts.

Western chocolate companies, including some of the biggest such as Nestle and Hershey, have pledged to stop buying beans produced by child workers. Critics say such efforts have been only modestly successful. 

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Iranian police have denied using live ammunition against protesters in Tehran, who have been demonstrating since Saturday against the government’s attempt to cover up its downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.  Protesters in Tehran and other Iranian cities are demanding accountability for the deaths of 82 Iranian citizens who were among 176 people killed in the plane crash. The Trump administration has called on the Iranian authorities to refrain from using force against the protesters. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

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