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The World Health Organization projects that, for the first time, the number of men smoking around the world is dropping, indicating measures to end the global tobacco epidemic are paying off.
WHO officials called it a major shift in the fight against tobacco, which every year kills more than eight million people prematurely.
Data from 143 countries shows that tobacco use among men has stopped growing, following a steady rise in the use of this deadly product during the past two decades.
During this period, WHO reports 60 million of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion smokers have quit the habit. Most of those reductions were driven by women, as male use of tobacco over the same period rose by around 40 million.
“But now we are seeing for the first time a decline in use, with WHO projecting that there will be at least 2 million fewer males using tobacco in 2020 and 5 million less by 2025,” said Ruediger Krech, WHO’s director of health promotion. “Fewer males using tobacco products means fewer people will suffer the avoidable pain and death that they cause.”
Krech says the decline in tobacco use shows tobacco control measures work. He says steps such as taxation, banning advertising and marketing as well as smoking in public places, and plain packaging of tobacco products discourage people from smoking.
The report also found that approximately 43 million children aged 13 to 15 smoke, with boys using tobacco at twice the rate as girls. It said Southeast Asia has the highest rates of tobacco use, while sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest.
WHO said most gains in reducing tobacco use have been in low- and middle-income countries. While the Americas is the world’s best performing region in terms of reduction of tobacco consumption, Europe has the slowest pace of decline.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the U.S. impeachment process “far-fetched” Thursday, making a seemingly obvious prediction that Donald Trump will be acquitted in the Senate.
Putin said Thursday at his annual news conference in Moscow that the move is a continuation of the Democrats’ fight against Trump.
“The party that lost the (2016) election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve results by other means,” Putin said.
He likened Trump’s impeachment to the earlier U.S. probe into collusion with Russia, which Putin downplayed as being groundless.
Putin noted that the impeachment motion “is yet to pass the Senate where the Republicans have a majority.” He added that “they will be unlikely to remove a representative of their own party from office on what seems to me an absolutely far-fetched reason.”
Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The historic vote split along party lines Wednesday night in the U.S., much the way it has divided the nation, over a charge that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House then approved a second charge, that he obstructed Congress in its investigation. The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Dec. 19, 2019.
German extradition request
Turning to a spat with Germany over the killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin in August, which German prosecutors alleged had been ordered by Moscow or authorities in the Russian province of Chechnya, Putin described the victim as a “bloodthirsty killer.” He said the man, an ethnic Chechen who was accused of being responsible for the killing of 98 people in just one raid in Russia’s North Caucasus and masterminding bombings on the Moscow subway system.
Russian officials have denied that Moscow had any relation to the killing,
Putin said that Russian law enforcement agencies had spoken to their German counterparts to demand the man’s extradition, but were given the cold shoulder and never sent a formal extradition request. He likened the victim to Islamic State group militants in custody in Turkey, some of whom come from Germany, France and other European nations.
“If those people come your way, will you like it?” Putin said. “Will you let them freely roam the streets like that?”
He argued that law enforcement agencies in Russia and Europe need to cooperate more closely to fend off terror threats.
Wide ranging news conference
Putin spoke on a variety of issues during the marathon news conference that was dominated by local issues, such as Russia’s ailing health care system and federal subsidies for the regions.
He opened it by warning about new challenges posed by global climate change, saying that global warming could threaten Russian Arctic cities and towns built on permafrost.
The Russian leader added that climate changes could trigger fires, devastating floods and other negative consequences.
Putin emphasized that Russia has abided by the Paris agreement intended to slow down global warming. At the same time, he noted that factors behind global climate change have remained unknown and hard to predict.
Putin, who has been in power for two decades, also hailed the economic achievements of his rule. He emphasized that Russia has become the world’s largest grain exporter, surpassing the U.S. and Canada — a dramatic change compared to the Soviet Union that heavily depended on grain imports.
The Russian leader also pointed at industry modernization, saying that three quarters of industrial equipment is no older than 12 years.
He said that the country has built three new airports, 12 new railway stations and the number of major highways has doubled.
The Russian economy had suffered a double blow of a drop in global oil prices and Western sanctions that followed Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. It has seen a slow recovery since 2017 after a two-year stagnation.
French President Emmanuel Macron, center left, Russian President Vladimir Putin, center right, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, left, attend a working session at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Dec. 9, 2019.
Relations with West
Russia’s ties with the West have remained at post-Cold War lows, but Putin argued that Russia has recovered and become more resilient to shocks from Western penalties and fluctuations in global energy prices.
Putin voiced hope for further moves to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine following his talks in Paris on Dec. 9 with the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany.
He said that the 2015 peace agreement signed in Minsk and brokered by France and Germany must be observed, rejecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s push for revising it.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine that flared up in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea has killed more than 14,000 and ravaged Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
The Minsk deal envisaged that Ukraine can regain control over the border with Russia in the separatist-held regions only after they are granted broad self-rule and hold local elections. The agreement was a diplomatic coup for Russia, ensuring that the rebel regions get a broad authority and resources to survive on their own without cross-border support.
Zelenskiy pushed for tweaking the timeline laid out in the accord so that Ukraine gets control of its border first before local elections are held, but Putin firmly rejected that.
“There is nothing but the Minsk agreement,” Putin said. “If we start revising the Minsk agreement, it will lead to deadlock.”
He said that Russia still hopes to negotiate a new gas deal with Ukraine that will allow his country to maintain transit shipments of gas to Europe via Ukrainian territory. The Russian leader noted that Moscow would be ready to continue pumping gas via Ukraine even though the new prospective Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea is expected to come online next year.
Lenin
Putin, who once lamented the breakup of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, had some harsh words to say about Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin.
He lambasted Lenin’s policies on ethnic issues, saying that his idea to grant broad autonomy to ethnic-based Soviet republics, including their right to secede, paved way for the Soviet breakup once the Communist Party’s hold on power started to loosen.
At the same time, Putin rejected the push for taking Lenin’s embalmed body out of the Red Square tomb and burying it, saying that it would offend older people who still see the Soviet founder as a powerful symbol.
He noted that the Soviet demise spawned expectations of a “unipolar world” in which the U.S. dictates terms to others, adding that such “illusions” quickly collapsed. Putin said that China has come to challenge the U.S. as the global economic powerhouse and hailed increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing.
Putin, whose current term runs through 2024, remained coy about his political future. He wouldn’t answer if he could potentially extend his rule by shifting into a new governing position to become the head of a Russia-Belarus union.
He left the door open to amending the Russian Constitution, such as changing the powers of the president and the Cabinet, but noted that changes must be made carefully after a broad pubic discussion.
American folk singer and songwriter, Alice Peacock released her latest album, “Minnesota” earlier this year. The album’s title track is a love song to her home state, where her family spends their summers. Much has changed for Peacock since her last solo studio album, 2009’s “Love Remains.” She has had three kids, moved to Cincinnati and … gotten 10 years older.
Three small explosions went off in a southern Rakhine town in Myanmar Thursday just before civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi landed there in a rare visit to the conflict-ridden state, a local official said.
The blasts happened in the normally quiet town of Manaung on an island off Myanmar’s western coast where Suu Kyi was due to open a solar power plant.
“There were three explosions, but no casualties,” Win Myint, spokesperson for Rakhine’s regional government, told AFP.
He said it happened before Suu Kyi arrived, but since they were on the other side of town the event went ahead as planned and she had since left safely on a flight to Yangon.
“This has never happened in Manaung before.”
No group has yet claimed responsibility for planting the small bombs, which detonated at the side of a road, photos from local media showed.
The area has remained largely unscathed by unrest further north, where Myanmar’s military is locked in an increasingly vicious conflict with the Arakan Army (AA).
The rebel group claims to be fighting for more autonomy and rights for the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and garners sympathy from many local people who have long felt marginalized in the Bamar-majority country.
But tens of thousands have fled their homes over the past year and dozens of civilians have been caught in the crossfire.
There have been allegations of abuse against both sides.
Rights groups say Myanmar’s military has abducted civilians and tortured detainees, but the army points to targeted shootings, roadside bombings and kidnappings by insurgents.
One Indian construction worker died while being held hostage and an MP from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has now been held for over six weeks.
A number of hostages seized by the rebels in a raid on a ferry packed with scores of police and soldiers were killed in October, with each side blaming the other.
Rakhine state’s north was also the epicenter of a bloody military crackdown two years ago that forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee over the border into Bangladesh.
Thursday’s visit was only the third time Suu Kyi had traveled to Rakhine since the Rohingya crisis erupted in 2017.
Lawyers for Marry Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, have asked judges to free her on bail, four days after she was arrested for allegedly attempting to murder her husband.
Attorney Toana Nyamakura filed the bail application on behalf of Marry Chiwenga at the High Court on Wednesday.
While Nyamakura refused to speak to reporters, Kenny Mubaiwa, the father of the former model, maintained his earlier line and only said:
According to state prosecutors, when Vice President Chiwenga was flown to South Africa for medical care in June, Marry Chiwenga forced her husband to stay at a hotel overnight, denying him treatment for about 24 hours. When security agents finally took the vice president to a hospital, his wife allegedly entered his room and removed an IV and a catheter, resulting in profuse bleeding.
Marry Chiwenga was also charged with corruption for allegedly using $1 million in foreign currency – of which there is a shortage in Zimbabwe – to buy houses and luxury vehicles abroad.
Alexander Rusero, a senior journalism lecturer at Harare Polytechnic College, says the attempted murder charge might well be true.
“When you have a whole vice president accusing his wife of murder, I think there is an element of truth to it. No husband in his entire pride would want to bring, or wash dirty linen unless there is something important, and in this case, a life-threatening issue,” he said.
At the same time, Rusero said he thinks the vice president is using his office to get back at his wife, from whom he recently filed for divorce.
“It is an exercise of power, an exercise of office, because the truth is that these are really domestic issues which have nothing to do with the national psyche, which actually have nothing to do with the current efforts that the government might otherwise try to nip the issue of corruption in the bud. They fall away, they are just a matter of flexing muscle by the vice president,” Rusero said.
Mrs. Chiwenga is facing another charge of trying to obtain an official marriage certificate without the vice president’s consent. The Chiwengas have been married for eight years under Zimbabwe’s customary law, a lesser status than the country’s official civil marriage. The state says Marry Chiwenga was attempting to position herself financially and politically in case the vice president died.
State prosecutors are opposed to granting bail, saying Marry Chiwenga has properties outside Zimbabwe and could flee the country to avoid significant jail time.
Immigrants convicted of illegally reentering the U.S., driving drunk or committing domestic violence will be barred from claiming asylum under a proposed regulation announced Wednesday by the Trump administration.
The proposal, which must go through a public comment period before it is finalized, lists seven criminal areas, including some low-level crimes, that would bar migrants from claiming asylum in addition to federal restrictions already in place. It also would remove a requirement for immigration judges to reconsider some asylum denials.
It’s another push to restrict asylum by President Donald Trump’s administration, which claims migrants are gaming the system so they can spend years in the U.S. despite their ineligibility, in part because of a lower bar for initial screenings. Most of the people who claim asylum are fleeing violence, poverty and corruption in their home countries.
Immigrant advocates and humanitarian groups have criticized Trump’s hard-line policies as inhumane and have said the U.S. is abdicating its role as a safe haven for refugees.
But an immigration court backlog has reached more than 1 million cases, and border agencies were overwhelmed this year by hundreds of thousands of Central American families that require more care-giving and are not easily returned over the U.S.-Mexico border.
In an effort to stop the flow of migrants, the Department of Homeland Security, which manages immigration, has sent more than 50,000 migrants back over the border to wait out asylum claims. The migrants often are victimized in violent parts of Mexico and sickened by unsanitary conditions in what have become large refugee camps. Homeland Security officials also have signed agreements with Guatemala and other Central American nations to send asylum seekers there. The first families have already been sent to Guatemala.
The Justice Department also has taken aim at so-called sanctuary cities, like New York and Chicago, which do not assist Homeland Security agents with immigration-related requests. New York officials, for example, say they do not believe immigrants should be deported for minor offenses and won’t notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they have an immigrant in their custody. Attorney General William Barr and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf complained about such policies.
“I think what we are doing is playing politics with public safety,” Wolf said recently in a Fox News Channel interview on New York laws. “That is really concerning from protecting the homeland perspective, making sure that DHS law enforcement officers have the data and the tools that they need to protect their communities.”
The proposed new rules would make asylum seekers ineligible if they were convicted of a felony or if they were arrested repeatedly on domestic violence charges. Other crimes include: low-level convictions for false identification or unlawful receipt of public benefits. Plus: smuggling or harboring immigrants, illegal reentry, a federal crime involving street gang activity or driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.
These crimes are in addition to other bars already in place through federal asylum laws.
The changes were made so that the departments “will be able to devote more resources to the adjudication of asylum cases filed by non-criminal aliens,” according to a joint release Wednesday by the Justice Department and Homeland Security.
For the budget year 2018, there were about 105,500 asylum applications by those who came to the U.S. and were not in deportation proceedings first. The figure decreased by 25% from the previous budget year.
During the same period, the number of asylum applications by migrants who were already in court for deportation proceedings increased about 12%, to 159,473, mostly from Central America and Mexico.
According to Homeland Security data, the total number of people granted asylum increased 46%, to 38,687, in 2018. The top countries were China, Venezuela and El Salvador.
An editor of a Serbian website that investigates organized crime was denied entry to Abu Dhabi, where he was due to address a U.N. conference on corruption, after being told he had been blacklisted by an unidentified country, the journalist said.
Stevan Dojcinovic flew in to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Tuesday and was turned back to Belgrade early on Wednesday morning after spending 12 hours at the airport.
“I was told that I had been blacklisted by another country,” Dojcinovic said. “Given close ties between United Arab Emirates and Belgrade, I would not exclude that Serbia had something to do with it.”
There was no immediate response from the UAE’s National Media Council to a Reuters request for comment. Approached by Reuters, the Serbian foreign ministry said it had no one available to comment.
The Association of Independent Journalists in Serbia protested against Dojcinovic’s deportation.
Dojcinovic’s Krik portal mainly writes about alleged links between Serbian politicians and organized crime. It has also written about UAE projects in Serbia.
In 2015 Dojcinovic was banned from entering Russia.
“I am not sure what the reason for either ban was but I am sure it has to do with my job as a journalist,” Dojcinovic told Reuters.
Serbia ranks 90th on a list of 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by the Reporters Without Borders advocacy group. The UAE ranks 133.
Reporters Without Borders warned earlier this year “the number of attacks on media (in Serbia) is on the rise, including death threats, and inflammatory rhetoric targeting journalists is increasingly coming from the governing officials.”
Sonya Yee, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told Reuters in emailed comments that “The UN Office on Drugs and Crime are aware that … Dojcinovic, was unable to enter the country to attend the 8th Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (COSP).”
“We do not know the reasons .. and we have made inquiries to the [UAE] authorities about this specific situation.”
African governments and refugee activists hope a ground-breaking refugee forum will deliver much-needed funding and voice to a region whose challenges are often eclipsed by more headline-grabbing crises.
Two decades ago, John Bolinga fled his hometown of Goma, in Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive northeast.
“Rebels came and attacked our home so my father was shot dead. So I had to run to Uganda,” Bolinga said.
He started out destitute, but eventually launched his own NGO in Kampala, which today helps women and children who like himself, were uprooted by violence.
He is sharing his story in Geneva, where countries are meeting for a first-ever global refugee forum. Here and elsewhere, Bolinga says, giving refugees a voice and active role in decisions that affect their lives is critical.
“The challenge is if refugees feel they’re not welcomed,” Bolinaa said, “and also the root causes which is making refugees to flee their countries is not tackled, there is going to be a crisis.”
Africa is a leading exporter of refugees. They count among the millions making perilous journeys across the Sahara and Mediterranean for a better life in Europe … which often isn’t realized. But Africa also shelters more than one-quarter of the world’s displaced people.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech during the UNHCR – Global Refugee Forum at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 17, 2019.
Critics note that some African countries severely restrict refugees’ opportunities. Still these nations are opening doors that others slam shut.
“African governments continue to carry the extra responsibility on behalf of all of us, in hosting refugees in keeping borders open,” Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey said.
The official is Horn of Africa special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which is hosting this forum.
“While we appreciate more spotlight and attention to other refugee cases like Syria and Yemen, Affey said. “… the ones in the Horn of Africa particularly, the ones who have been with us for 30 years, risk being forgotten.”
Those demands join broader calls here for wealthy nations and the private sector to do more for poorer countries that together host more than 80% of the world’s refugees.
It’s coming from countries like Ethiopia, which hosts roughly one million refugees from 26 nations. Fisseha Meseret Kindie is director of humanitarian assistance and development at Ethiopia’s Agency for Refugees and Returnees.
“We are in shortage of finance, we cannot help them. And shortage of money,” Kindie said. “And we need the support from the international community at large.”
Some feel the page may be turning here in Geneva. Cameroon representative Tirlamo Norbert Wirnkar from Cameroon, which hosts more than 400,000 refugees, is optimistic this meeting will make a difference.
“We are really hopeful that pledges are going to be made on both sides — by the international community and host countries,” Wirnkar said.
The number of journalists killed globally in 2019 is the lowest in over a decade as some war zones became less deadly, say two of the world’s leading free-press advocacy groups.
New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Paris-headquartered Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which is known by its French initials, released separate reports that identified the same trend on Tuesday.
Each of the annual reports, however, based findings on distinct research methodologies, resulting in some hard data discrepancies.
CPJ says at least 25 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2019, the lowest figure since 2002 when 21 journalists lost their lives in the field. RSF reported 49 killed, the lowest number since 36 were killed in 2003.
FILE – A Turkish police officer walks past a picture of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi prior to a ceremony, near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, marking the one-year anniversary of his death, Oct. 2, 2019.
Both organizations emphasized that although journalist war zone fatalities have declined, the number of journalists killed in countries at peace remains consistent with years prior, and that the decrease is no cause for complacency.
CPJ: Syria, Mexico are deadliest
CPJ logs killings only in direct reprisal for reporting combat-related crossfire, “or while carrying out a dangerous assignment such as covering a protest that turns violent.” Syria and Mexico are the deadliest for journalists in 2019, its report said.
“Deaths in Syria, where at least 134 journalists have been killed in the war, have declined since a high of 31 in 2012,” the CPJ report states.
“Even more striking, the subset of journalists singled out for murder, at least 10, is the smallest in CPJ’s annual records, which date to 1992,” the organization says, adding that half of those “singled out” for murder were killed in Mexico.
CPJ also reports that the decline comes amid “unprecedented global attention on the issue of impunity in journalist murders,” highlighting the October 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the October 2017 murder of Maltese investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia.
FILE – People hold pictures of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was slain in October 2017, as they protest in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.
“One place where efforts to combat impunity seemingly have had no effect is Mexico,” the report said.
“The decline in the number of journalists killed is welcome after years of escalating violence, and reinforces our determination to fight impunity and do all we can to keep journalists safe,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director.
The report also says the Oct. 11 death of Turkish Kurdish journalist Vedat Erdemci, who died in a Turkish airstrike on the northeastern Syrian city of Ras al-Ain, represents the only foreign journalist killed in the line of duty this year.
CPJ’s report, which says military officials were the “most frequently suspected killers of journalists this year,” reflects the number of journalists killed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 13, 2019.
Like CPJ, RSF says journalism remains a “dangerous profession,” with 49 journalists killed this year, 389 currently imprisoned and 57 others being held hostage.
RSF’s data indicate that although most journalists were killed covering conflicts in Syria (10), Afghanistan (5), and Yemen (2) — compared with 34 last year — targeted assassinations in “at peace” nations such as Mexico (5) were alarmingly high.
“Latin America, with a total of 14 reporters killed across the continent, has become as deadly as the Middle East,” the report says.
“More and more journalists are being assassinated for their work in democratic countries, which is a real challenge to democracy,” said RSF director Christophe Deloire.
While fewer journalists are dying, more are ending up behind bars, RSF said. The 389 detained in 2019 represent a 12% increase since last year.
Nearly half of reporters imprisoned in state custody are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, which alone “holds a third of the journalists locked up in the world,” the report says.
Turkey currently has 25 journalists in prison.
Meanwhile, 57 journalists are being held hostage across the globe, mostly in Syria (30), Yemen (15), Iraq (11), and Ukraine (1).
RSF’s report reflects the number of journalists killed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2019.
Turkish military operations which began in October in northern Syria have left over 200,000 thousand Syrians displaced in northern Iraq. The refugees left all their belongings behind so people around the world have stepped up to help. VOA’s Hateen Mahmood reports on a group of Kurdish volunteers in Nashville, Tennessee doing what they can.
The U.S. this week deported a German man convicted in the high-profile killings of his girlfriend’s parents 35 years ago, in a crime that stunned a Virginia community and prompted decades of media obsession.
FILE – Elizabeth Haysom is seen in an undated photo provided by the Virginia Department of Corrections.
He served two life sentences for the first-degree murders in 1985 of Nancy and Derek Haysom, whose daughter Elizabeth attended the University of Virginia with Soering at the time. Both were found nearly decapitated in their Virginia home.
The young couple led police on an international chase after the killings and were arrested in London in 1986. Soering fought extradition on the grounds that the U.S. allowed for the death penalty in certain cases, but in 1990, capitulated to authorities.
Virginia authorities released him last month, on the condition that he be taken into immigration custody immediately.
Soering, the son of a German diplomat, told a reporter in 2011 that Elizabeth Haysom committed the double murder; but he “decided to lie and to cover (…) up” the crime by taking the blame, thinking that if he were returned to Germany, he would only spend a decade in prison at the most.
“I loved Elizabeth and I believed that the only way I could save her life from the electric chair was for me to take the blame, and that I personally really faced no more than a few years in a German prison,” Soering testified at the time.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1990.
Elizabeth Haysom pleaded guilty to being an accessory in her parents’ stabbing deaths. She remains in prison in Virginia and must be released by 2032, if she is not paroled before.
Motives given at varying times during the trial and in the years since included disapproval of the young couple’s relationship by the Haysom family, and allegations of abuse against Elizabeth.
